cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Direct Interfacial Electron Transfer from High-Potential Porphyrins into Semiconductor Surfaces: A Comparison of Linkers and Anchoring Groups

This study probes a series of linkers and anchoring groups for direct interfacial electron transfer (IET) from high-potential porphyrins into semiconductor surfaces. Eight different linker–anchor combinations of CF3-substituted, high-potential porphyrins were designed, synthesized, and characterized. Specifically, a series of four anchors was examined (carboxylate, hydroxamate, phosphonate, and silatrane), along with two different linkers (phenylene and benzanilidylene), which differ in terms of their electronic conjugation and overall length. The electrochemical and photophysical properties of the porphyrins were evaluated by steady-state and transient spectroscopies in solution and on mesoporous SnO2 substrates for use as dye photosensitizers in aqueous photoelectrochemical cells. IET dynamics were measured using time-resolved terahertz (TRTS) and transient absorption spectroscopies. From TRTS measurements, injection yields were determined relative to a commonly used phosphonated ruthenium(II) polypyrid...
Taste phenotype associates with cardiovascular disease risk factors via diet quality in multivariate modeling.

Abstract Sensations from foods and beverages drive dietary choices, which in turn, affect risk of diet-related diseases. Perception of these sensation varies with environmental and genetic influences. This observational study aimed to examine associations between chemosensory phenotype, diet and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Reportedly healthy women (n = 110, average age 45 ± 9 years) participated in laboratory-based measures of chemosensory phenotype (taste and smell function, propylthiouracil (PROP) bitterness) and CVD risk factors (waist circumference, blood pressure, serum lipids). Diet variables included preference and intake of sweet/high-fat foods, dietary restraint, and diet quality based on reported preference (Healthy Eating Preference Index—HEPI) and intake (Healthy Eating Index—HEI). We found that females who reported high preference yet low consumption of sweet/high-fat foods had the highest dietary restraint and depressed quinine taste function. PROP nontasters were more likely to report lower diet quality; PROP supertasters more likely to consume but not like a healthy diet. Multivariate structural models were fitted to identify predictors of CVD risk factors. Reliable latent taste (quinine taste function, PROP tasting) and smell (odor intensity) variables were identified, with taste explaining more variance in the CVD risk factors. Lower bitter taste perception was associated with elevated risk. In multivariate models, the HEPI completely mediated the taste-adiposity and taste-HDL associations and partially mediated the taste-triglyceride or taste-systolic blood pressure associations. The taste-LDL pathway was significant and direct. The HEI could not replace HEPI in adequate models. However, using a latent diet quality variable with HEPI and HEI, increased the strength of association between diet quality and adiposity or CVD risk factors. In conclusion, bitter taste phenotype was associated with CVD risk factors via diet quality, particularly when assessed by level of food liking/disliking.
Interstitial microdeletion of the 1p34.3p34.2 region

Background Interstitial microdeletions of chromosome 1p34.3p34.2 are rare, but are continuing to be identified by the use of chromosome microarray. There have been fewer than 10 individuals identified who have deletions of the 1p34.3p34.2 region; all of these previously described individuals have deletions of the AGO1, AGO3, GRIK3, SLC2A1, or RIMS3 genes. Haploinsufficiency of these genes has been associated with neurodevelopmental delays. Methods Chromosome microarray, quantitative PCR, and fluorescence in situ hybridization were performed with DNA extracted from peripheral blood. Results Chromosome microarray identified a 2.3 Mb 1p34.3p34.2 one copy deletion in our patient with global developmental delay, mild intellectual disability, delayed bone age, bilateral vesicoureteral reflux, vocal cord paralysis, right aberrant subclavian artery, kyphoscoliosis, bilateral metatarsus adductus, and valgus knee deformity. This deletion was confirmed by quantitative PCR and does not include the AGO1, AGO3, GRIK3, SLC2A1, or RIMS3 genes. Subsequent FISH testing of the parents was negative. Conclusion Haploinsufficiency of the 1p34.3p34.2 region, including the SNIP1 gene and excluding the five genes listed above, is responsible for the neurocognitive delays and other symptoms as identified in our patient.
Phosphorylation of XIAP at threonine 180 controls its activity in Wnt signaling.

X-linked Inhibitor of Apoptosis (XIAP) plays an important role in preventing apoptotic cell death. XIAP has been shown to participate in signaling pathways, including Wnt signaling. XIAP regulates Wnt signaling by promoting the monoubiquitination of the co-repressor Groucho/TLE, decreasing its affinity for TCF/Lef and allowing assembly of transcriptionally active β-catenin-TCF/Lef complexes. We now demonstrate that XIAP is phosphorylated by GSK3 at threonine 180 and that an alanine mutant (XIAP T180A ) exhibits decreased Wnt activity compared to wild-type XIAP in cultured human cells and in Xenopus embryos. Although XIAP T180A ubiquitinates TLE3 at wild-type levels in vitro , it exhibits reduced capacity to ubiquitinate and bind TLE3 in human cells. XIAP T180A binds Smac and inhibits Fas-induced apoptosis to a similar degree as wild-type XIAP. Our studies uncover a new mechanism by which XIAP is specifically directed towards a Wnt signaling function versus its anti-apoptotic function. These findings have implications for development of anti-XIAP therapeutics for human cancers.
B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Levels and Mortality in Patients With and Without Heart Failure

Abstract Background Circulating B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) concentrations strongly predict mortality in patients with heart failure (HF). Both cardiac and extracardiac stimuli influence BNP levels, suggesting that BNP might have similar prognostic value in patients without HF. Objectives The aim of this study was to compare the prognostic value of BNP between patients with and those without HF. Methods Using the Vanderbilt University Medical Center electronic health record, 30,487 patients (median age 63 years, 50% men, 17% black, 38% with HF) who had a first plasma BNP measurement between 2002 and 2013, with follow-up through 2015, were studied. The risk for death according to BNP level was quantified using multivariate Cox proportional hazards models. Results BNP levels were lower in patients without HF (median 89 pg/ml; interquartile range: 34 to 238 pg/ml) compared with those with HF (median 388 pg/ml; interquartile range: 150 to 940 pg/ml) (p Conclusions Among patients without HF, plasma BNP level is a stronger predictor of death than traditional risk factors. The risk for death associated with any given BNP level is similar between patients with and those without HF, particularly in the acute care setting.
The EU's Development Policy: Empirical Evidence of 'Normative Power Europe'?

In one of his most recent publications, Ian Manners boldly states: ‘The EU has been, is and always will be a normative power in world politics’ (2008b: 45). Acknowledging the critical theoretical precept that ‘theory is always for someone and for some purpose’ (Cox 1981: 128), Manners enjoins scholars to pursue normative approaches to the study of the European Union (EU) in world politics. Interestingly, in this piece examining the normative ethics of the EU, Manners has arguably come the closest yet to positioning Normative Power Europe (NPE) as a theoretically grounded, empirical framework of analysis, and in the spirit of critical and reflective scholarship, it serves as a useful reminder that normative and empirical approaches are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, it is important to recall that his seminal article of 2002 presented an extensive empirical case study to substantiate his claims about the normative power of the EU – namely, the diffusion of norms opposing the death penalty and its resultant abolition in the EU and candidate countries such as Turkey. Nonetheless, much of the commentary and discussion of NPE has centred on its further conceptual and theoretical articulation as well as critiques and contestation of it rather than its empirical validation. Now, with Manners’ proposal of a tripartite method for assessing the EU’s principles, actions and impact, it is arguably the case that NPE is evolving towards a more rigorous analytical framework and perhaps one of the most innovative and holistic research programmes in EU studies. The objective of this chapter is to demonstrate as much by drawing from Manners (2002, 2006c, 2006e, 2008b), Manners and Whitman (2003) and Whitman (2006a) and then deploying these cumulative analytical insights to empirically investigate the concept of NPE as it applies to a relatively understudied area of the EU’s external relations: development policy.
Transgenerational effects of chemotherapy: Both male and female children born to women exposed to chemotherapy have fewer children

Abstract Background There is little known about the transgenerational effect of chemotherapy. For example, chemotherapy is known to decrease fecundity in women. But if women are able to have offspring after chemotherapy exposure, do these children also have decreased fecundity? Methods This study is a retrospective cohort study utilizing the Utah Population Database (UPDB), a comprehensive resource that links birth, medical, death and cancer records for individuals in the state of Utah. The male and female children (F1 generation) of chemotherapy-exposed women (F0 generation) were identified. The number of live births (F2 generation) to this F1 generation was compared to two sets of chemotherapy-unexposed, matched controls using conditional Poisson regression models (regression coefficient, 95% confidence interval, P-value). The first unexposed was established using the general population and the second unexposed was established using first cousins to the F1 generation. Results The exposed F1 individuals had 77.2% fewer children (−1.48; −2.51 to −0.70; p = 0.001) relative to the unexposed general population. F1 males had 86.9% fewer children (−2.03; −4.91 to −0.51; p = 0.005) and F1 females had 70.5% fewer children (−1.22; −2.40 to −0.36; p = 0.016). When comparing to their unexposed cousins, the F1 generation (both sexes combined) had 74.3% (−1.36; −2.82 to −0.29; p = 0.029) fewer children. Conclusion The sons and daughters (F1 generation) of chemotherapy-exposed women have fewer live births when compared to both matched, unexposed general population and cousin controls. Chemotherapy may have a transgenerational effect in exposed women which needs further investigation.
Bicarbonate reduction with semiconductor photocatalysts: study of effect of positive hole scavengers

Two semiconductors (Cu2O and TiO2) were chosen for the photocatalytic reduction of bicarbonate to formate in order to perform a systematic study on the effect of six different hole (h+) scavengers. The six h+ scavengers selected forthe study include glycerol, ethylene glycol, 2-propanol, sodium sulfite, triethanolamine, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Glycerol proved to be the most efficient h+ scavenger, and TiO2 in glycerol showed the highest quantum efficiency of 5.04 ± 0.3%. This finding bodes well as a sustainable one because glycerol is environmentally benign, a low-cost material, and is derived from plants, as opposed to petroleum sources like 2-propanol or ethylene glycol.
Out With the Old, In With the New? How Changes in Close Relationships Change the Self

Two studies investigated how the development and maintenance of old and new relationships predict spontaneous and reactive self-concept change. For Study 1 (n = 143), freshmen in their first 8 weeks of college completed a Twenty Statements Test (TST), and indicated how close they felt in their established and new relationships. Eight weeks later, they indicated which aspects on the TST had changed. The results showed that closeness to old relationships at Time 1 predicted fewer deletions to their Time 2 TST, whereas closeness to new relationships at Time 1 predicted more additions to their Time 2 TST. For Study 2 (n = 195), participants completed a Big Five personality measure and closeness measure at two time points. The results showed that decreased closeness in old relationships at Time 2 predicted overall change to personality profiles. Implications for the link between relationships and self-concept change are discussed.
Chemogenetic inactivation of the dorsal hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex, individually and concurrently, impairs object recognition and spatial memory consolidation in female mice

The dorsal hippocampus (DH) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are brain regions essential for processing and storing episodic memory. In rodents, the DH has a well-established role in supporting the consolidation of episodic-like memory in tasks such as object recognition and object placement. However, the role of the mPFC in the consolidation of episodic-like memory tasks remains controversial. Therefore, the present study examined involvement of the DH and mPFC, alone and in combination, in object and spatial recognition memory consolidation in ovariectomized female mice. To this end, we utilized two types of inhibitory Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs) to inactivate the DH alone, the mPFC alone, or both brain regions concurrently immediately after object training to assess the role of each region in the consolidation of object recognition and spatial memories. Our results using single and multiplexed DREADDS suggest that excitatory activity in the DH and mPFC, alone or in combination, is required for the successful consolidation of object recognition and spatial memories. Together, these studies provide critical insight into how the DH and mPFC work in concert to facilitate memory consolidation in female mice.
Chapter 4 – Einstein Metrics in Dimension Four

This chapter presents selected results concerning Einstein metrics on four-manifolds and focuses on dimension four, which is the main area of interest for Einstein metrics, both in differential geometry and mathematical physics. Two main areas are addressed concerning four-dimensional Einstein metrics: (1) the global properties of compact Einstein four-manifolds, which are Riemannian in the sense that their metrics are positive definite, and (2) the local properties of Einstein metrics on four-dimensional manifolds in Riemannian as well as Lorentzian and neutral cases; the italicized terms refer to the sign patterns – + + + and – – + +, of which the former characterizes spacetime metrics in general relativity. The Einstein condition discussed in the chapter is a fairly complicated system of nonlinear second-order partial differential equations imposed on the local component functions of the metric g . A simple method of constructing Einstein four-manifolds is through the conformal changes of products of surface metrics.
Socioecological influences on concussion reporting by NCAA Division 1 athletes in high-risk sports

Concussion among athletes is an issue of growing concern, with efforts underway to improve detection, diagnosis, and treatment. Success depends on communication by athletes, as brain-related symptoms are often not outwardly visible. Education programs to increase reporting behavior have not been successful to date. In accordance with the socioecological approach to health, we argue that multiple levels of influence on student athletes must be addressed, and report a multi-dimensional, mixed-methods research project conducted to identify possible points of intervention into changing the culture of concussion-injury reporting among collegiate athletes. Using quantitative, qualitative and interpretive methods, we examine the individual-level vested interests athletes have in reporting or not reporting concussion symptoms, and how these interests interact with community-level team culture and interpersonal relationships, and social-level cultural narratives to influence concussion-reporting behavior. Our findings confirm the viability of this approach, identifying immediacy, separation of responsibility and pain-enduring story systems as particularly salient elements. We conclude that competing performance versus safety value structures, reflected in cultural narratives and team culture, create mixed-messages for athletes, which are resolved in favor of performance because athletes perceive concussion injuries to be of low immediacy.
Stereochemical aspects of the antigenic determinants of bacterial polysaccharides: the Rhodococcus equi capsular polysaccharides

Abstract The antigenic specificity of bacterial capsular polysaccharides has been extensively investigated. The origin of this specificity arises from the diversity of the oligosaccharide epitopes of the polysaccharide. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy provides a very powerful tool for probing the structure of the oligosaccharide epitopes. Using this technique in conjunction with chemical methods, the structures of the serotype-specific capsular polysaccharide antigens of Rhodococcus equi have been investigated. These studies have led to the identification of several structural features which can be related to serologic type specificity. This review will focus on some stereochemical aspects of the antigen determinants. Nuclear magnetic resonance based methods for determination of bacterial polysaccharide primary structure and for stereochemical analysis of chiral acidic substituents are presented.
“Deal Me In”: Neoliberal Workers and the Poker Mindset

Manno examines the pressures on blue-collar and white-collar neoliberal workers as they are required to take on more risk in the face of an increasingly contingent and temporary employment landscape. Focusing on the pressure employees face to become self-sufficient career managers who create personal brands, Manno explores how such workers struggle to be “dealt in” to the workforce in meaningful ways. The chapter uses examples of the problems that truckers and white-collar Amazon employees face and the unequal way that issues of social class impact how employees have access to resources in order to manage work instability. The chapter concludes with twenty-first-century examples of the Poker Mindset as seen in the careers of Daily Fantasy sports gamblers, e-sports participants, and online gaming streamers.
Addressing Diversity in PTSD Treatment: Disparities in Treatment Engagement and Outcome Among Patients of Color

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent mental disorder characterized by difficulty recovering from exposure to a traumatic event. The prevalence of PTSD varies by race/ethnicity, with studies in US samples indicating higher prevalence and lower treatment use among some racial and ethnic minority groups compared with Whites. Clarifying the extent to which race and ethnicity influence PTSD treatment outcomes is crucial to delivering treatments that are equitably effective and culturally relevant. There are few rigorous studies of racial/ethnic differences in PTSD treatment-related outcomes, making it difficult to draw conclusions. Evidence suggests that, compared with Whites, there may be lower treatment initiation and retention among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino/a individuals. The bulk of evidence does not support racial/ethnic differences in treatment-related symptom reduction, though findings are contradictory. Cultural adaptations of evidence-based treatments for PTSD warrant further research. There is a critical need for research that is designed to answer questions about racial/ethnic differences and the experiences of People of Color in PTSD treatment. In clinical settings, widely implementing culturally relevant assessment and treatment, enhancing cultural competence of clinicians, and increasing representation of clinicians of Color are crucial steps toward improving PTSD treatment for People of Color.
A space-time parallel algorithm with adaptive mesh refinement for computational fluid dynamics

This paper describes a space-time parallel algorithm with space-time adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). AMR with subcycling is added to multigrid reduction-in-time (MGRIT) in order to provide solution efficient adaptive grids with a reduction in work performed on coarser grids. This algorithm is achieved by integrating two software libraries: XBraid (Parallel time integration with multigrid. https://computation.llnl.gov/projects/parallel-timeintegration-multigrid ) and Chombo (Chombo software package for AMR applications—design document, 2014). The former is a parallel time integration library using multigrid and the latter is a massively parallel structured AMR library. Employing this adaptive space-time parallel algorithm is Chord (Comput Fluids 123:202–217, 2015), a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) application code for solving compressible fluid dynamics problems. For the same solution accuracy, speedups are demonstrated from the use of space-time parallelization over the time-sequential integration on Couette flow and Stokes’ second problem. On a transient Couette flow case, at least a $$1.5\times $$ speedup is achieved, and with a time periodic problem, a speedup of up to $$13.7\times $$ over the time-sequential case is obtained. In both cases, the speedup is achieved by adding processors and exploring additional parallelization in time. The numerical experiments show the algorithm is promising for CFD applications that can take advantage of the time parallelism. Future work will focus on improving the parallel performance and providing more tests with complex fluid dynamics to demonstrate the full potential of the algorithm.
Methamphetamine exposure and its cessation alter gut microbiota and induce depressive-like behavioral effects on rats

Methamphetamine is a highly abused psychostimulant drug and its use remains a major public health concern worldwide with limited effective treatment options. Accumulative evidence reveals the influence of gut microbiota on the brain, behavior, and health as a part of the gut-brain axis but its involvement in modulating this substance use disorder remains poorly understood. We sought to determine whether methamphetamine exposure and cessation or withdrawal alter the intestinal gut microbiota as well as characterize cessation-induced behavioral changes. Male, Sprague-Dawley rats were administered methamphetamine (2 mg/kg; s.c.) or vehicle (n = 8 per group) twice per day for 14 consecutive days. On various days before, during, and after administration, fecal samples were collected and tests of anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors were conducted. Methamphetamine administration and cessation did not alter the relative abundance of bacteria but significantly changed the composition of gut bacteria through 16S rRNA sequencing. These changes were normalized after 7 days of methamphetamine cessation. Moreover, acute methamphetamine cessation induced depressive-like behavior, with an increase in immobility in the forced swim test but did not alter anxiety-like behaviors in tests of open field test or elevated plus maze. These findings provide direct evidence that methamphetamine and its cessation cause gut dysbiosis and that the latter associates with depressive-like behavior in rodents. Our observation will contribute to a better understanding of the function of gut microbiota in the process of substance use disorders and guide the choice of target therapeutics.
Screening in Liquid Water

We argue that screening is responsible for the presence of an unattainable critical temperature T c ≃ −46C in liquid water at which characteristic times have a power-law divergence.1 It is generally agreed that to understand the origin of T c , one must look into the organization of the complicated network of hydrogen bonds in liquid water. Here, one apparent ‘paradox’ is that although the hydrogen binding energy is an order of magnitude larger than kT at temperatures about 0°C, the network of hydrogen bonds are reorganizing within a time scale of picoseconds. It is however in this problem the mechanism for the anomalous behavior of liquid water is found. Recent studies2 suggest that the reorganization of the hydrogen-bond network is mediated by the presence of ‘excess’ molecules in the first coordination shell. In this case ‘bifurcated’ bonds may form—instead of one ‘good’ hydrogen bond with binding energy E, two or more bonds are formed sharing this energy.
Policing the Second Amendment: guns, law enforcement, and the politics of race: by Jennifer Carlson, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 2020, ix-280pp., $29.95 (hardback), ISBN: 9780691183855

Dr Carlson explores the complicated, and often contradictory, relationship between legitimate violence, gun politics, and the politics of the police and how they intersect with race. To begin the p...
Physical Properties of Weak Mg II Absorbers at z~2

We present the results of photoionization modeling of nine weak Mg II (Wr < 0.3 A) quasar absorption-line systems with redshifts 1.4 < z < 2.4 obtained with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope. These systems have been chosen because they provide access to a regime of redshift space that previous weak Mg II studies have not looked at. The densities, metallicities, Doppler parameters, and column densities of these systems are compared to those of other weak Mg II systems at lower redshift. There is no significant statistical variation in the properties of the absorbers over the redshift range 0.4 < z < 2.4. The number density per unit redshift is known to decrease for weak Mg II absorbers between z ~ 1 and 2 by a greater amount than predicted from cosmological effects and changes in the extragalactic ionizing background alone. We suggest that, because the physical properties of the absorber population are not seen to change significantly across this range, the evolution in dN/dz is due to a decrease in the activity that gives rise to weak Mg II absorption, and not due to a change in the processes that form weak Mg II absorbers. The presence of separate, but aligned (in velocity) low- and high-density clouds in all single-cloud weak Mg II absorbers provides an important diagnostic of their geometry. We discuss possible origins in dwarf galaxies and in extragalactic analogs to high-velocity clouds.
Nursing facilities, food manufacturing plants and COVID-19 cases and deaths

News outlets pointed to meatpacking plants and nursing homes as viral hotspots during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. In contrast to news reports, we find that retirement communities and assisted living facilities were associated with fewer cases and deaths and that skilled nursing facilities were associated with fewer cases. We find that meatpacking plants were associated with more cases and deaths as were bakeries. In contrast dairy plants were associated with fewer cases and deaths. Proactive implementation of policy measures in nursing homes and retirement facilities were beneficial. Analogous guidance was lacking for food manufacturing establishments, potentially exacerbating the spread of the virus.
The influence of shark behavior and environmental conditions on baited remote underwater video survey results

Abstract Baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVS) have become an important and frequently used tool by resource managers to monitor relative abundances for a variety of marine species. As with any abundance survey method, fundamental assumptions of the technique are that counts derived from videos accurately reflect true changes to abundances, while being robust to changes in density-independent factors. We tested these assumptions using a newly developed spatially-explicit individual-based simulation model for two of the most commonly used video survey metrics of relative abundance; MaxN and MeanCount. Simulating a 1-km2 area over a 60-min BRUV deployment targeting elasmobranch species, we evaluated how resulting estimates of each metric were influenced by swimming speed, relative directness of movement patterns, relative attraction strength to bait, bait plume size, and camera visibility range while shark density was held constant. By simulating both standard (120°) and full-spherical (FS; 360°) fields of view (FOV), we were also able to explore if newly developed FS cameras could help reduce the impact of these density-independent factors. Results from both generalized linear models and visual inspection of simulations indicated that density as well as non-density-related factors were highly significant in predicting camera counts, regardless of the camera's FOV or count metric used. Collectively, these findings illustrate that video survey metrics are sensitive to factors unrelated to changes in density, and researchers should carefully consider their potential influence on survey results as well as potential management decisions based on these data.
Optimization and Validation of CAR Transduction into Human Primary NK Cells Using CRISPR and AAV

Human peripheral blood natural killer (NK) cells have intense antitumor activity and have been used successfully in several clinical trials. Modifying NK cells with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) can improve their targeting and increase specificity, but genetic modification of primary human NK cells has been problematic compared to the ease in which primary human T cells are transduced. Despite some progress made in using lentiviral and retroviral vectors, the efficiency of viral transduction in NK cells remains relatively low. Additionally, using these viral vectors results in random integration events which can potentially affect the safety or efficacy of transduced immune cells. Recently, we described an efficient method for gene targeting in primary human NK cells using Cas9/ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes. Here we combined that approach with Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated gene delivery for gene insertion into a safe-harbor locus, and optimized transduction efficiency using various AAV pseudotypes, single-stranded (ss) or self-complementary (sc) with a wide variety of homology arms, and homology repair (HR) andor non-homologous directed CRISPR-assisted insertion tagging (CRISPaint) approaches. For initial optimization we generated mCherry-expressing primary NK cells and determined that sc vectors with 300bp homology arms for HR resulted in optimal transduction efficiency. To validate the process for generating large numbers of CAR-NK cells needed for clinical application, we generated CD33-targeting CAR NK cells with differing transmembrane and signaling domains (CD4/4-1BB+CD3ζ and NKG2D/2B4+CD3ζ) and expanded them on CSTX002 feeder cells. Expansion kinetics were unaltered by the transgene, and the NK cells maintained high CAR expression (mean 68% CAR+) during expansion. The expanded CD33-CAR-NK cells showed enhanced activation and antileukemic activity with improved killing kinetics against CD33-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Using targeted sequencing we demonstrated the accuracy of CAR gene insertion in human primary NK cells genome and low off-target insertion. Site-directed insertion using RNP and scAAV6 is an efficient method for stable genetic transfer into primary NK cells that has broad potential for fundamental discovery and therapeutic applications.
Hemostatic and thrombotic disorders in the pediatric patient.

ABSTRACT This review focuses on significant advances in the field of pediatric hemostasis and thrombosis, with a focus on published studies within the past decade. The evaluation and management of patients with excessive bleeding remain a cornerstone of consultative hematology. We will describe the development of validated bleeding assessment tools relevant to pediatric practice, laboratory advances in the evaluation of von Willebrand Disease, and a shift in clinical practice regarding the interpretation of normal coagulation studies in patients with significant bleeding phenotypes. There have also been critical advances in the management of hemostatic disorders. This review highlights new treatment paradigms in hemophilia and the rise of multidisciplinary medical homes for women living with bleeding disorders. Given the continued increase in the incidence of thrombosis, particularly in the hospital setting, a full call to arms against pediatric venous thromboembolism is now essential. This review will describe recently completed clinical trials of direct oral anticoagulants in children and adolescents and ongoing work to elucidate the appropriate duration of therapy for children with provoked thrombosis. Recent work regarding the prevention of pediatric venous thromboembolism is highlighted, including studies of thromboprophylaxis and the development of risk-prediction models for hospital-acquired thrombosis. Finally, we review advances in our understanding of post-thrombotic sequelae and the need for continued refinement of our evaluation tools. Despite the significant advances in pediatric hemostasis and thrombosis over the past decade, many unanswered questions remain for the next generation of investigators.
Alpha and theta oscillations are inversely related to progressive levels of meditation depth.

Meditation training is proposed to enhance mental well-being by modulating neural activity, particularly alpha and theta brain oscillations, and autonomic activity. Although such enhancement also depends on the quality of meditation, little is known about how these neural and physiological changes relate to meditation quality. One model characterizes meditation quality as five increasing levels of 'depth': hindrances, relaxation, concentration, transpersonal qualities and nonduality. We investigated the neural oscillatory (theta, alpha, beta and gamma) and physiological (respiration rate, heart rate and heart rate variability) correlates of the self-reported meditation depth in long-term meditators (LTMs) and meditation-naive controls (CTLs). To determine the neural and physiological correlates of meditation depth, we modelled the change in the slope of the relationship between self-reported experiential degree at each of the five depth levels and the multiple neural and physiological measures. CTLs reported experiencing more 'hindrances' than LTMs, while LTMs reported more 'transpersonal qualities' and 'nonduality' compared to CTLs, confirming the experiential manipulation of meditation depth. We found that in both groups, theta (4-6 Hz) and alpha (7-13 Hz) oscillations were related to meditation depth in a precisely opposite manner. The theta amplitude positively correlated with 'hindrances' and increasingly negatively correlated with increasing meditation depth levels. Alpha amplitude negatively correlated with 'hindrances' and increasingly positively with increasing depth levels. The increase in the inverse association between theta and meditation depth occurred over different scalp locations in the two groups-frontal midline in LTMs and frontal lateral in CTLs-possibly reflecting the downregulation of two different aspects of executive processing-monitoring and attention regulation, respectively-during deep meditation. These results suggest a functional dissociation of the two classical neural signatures of meditation training, namely, alpha and theta oscillations. Moreover, while essential for overcoming 'hindrances', executive neural processing appears to be downregulated during deeper meditation experiences.
Trumpeter Swan Productivity in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

This is a report of some of my activities carried out during the summers of 1974 through 1976 in Grand Teton National Park, which were associated with field work in the gathering of materials for a book on the ecology and behavior of sandhill cranes and trumpeter swans in the park. Only one month (May 22 to June 22) was spent in the park during 1976, and thus no data on swan productivity were obtained in that year. Data on the park's swan production for the years prior to 1974 were obtained from the card files of the National Park Service and have been organized in such a way as to make them comparable to similar data by J. Halladay from Yellowstone National Park (Proceedings of the Third Trumpeter Swan Society Conference, 1973), and published data from Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (North American Fauna No. 63, 1960) and from Alaska (Wildlife Monographs (No. 26, 1971), and R. Page's unpublished data from Red Rock Lakes (Ph. D. dissertation, University of Montana, 1974).
Image processing in the context of imaging science

The rate of discovery in the natural sciences has been accelerated by powerful computer-based imaging methods, which enable scientists to map certain object properties into an 'image space'. These methods also support the goals of medicine, education, art, commerce, and the media. Every digital imaging method involves a sequence of interdependent steps: namely, image-data acquisition, reconstruction and processing, recording and distribution, display/visualization, observation and analysis, and a criterion for image evaluation. When viewed within the context of imaging science, 'optimal' image processing must take account of how the image-data are acquired and the intervening steps leading to how the images are to be evaluated, based on a well-defined goal and criterion.
β-Glucan Activates Microglia without Inducing Cytokine Production in Dectin-1-Dependent Manner

Microglia are the resident mononuclear phagocytic cells that are critical for innate and adaptive responses within the CNS. Like other immune cells, microglia recognize and are activated by various pathogen-associated molecular patterns. beta-glucans are pathogen-associated molecular patterns present within fungal cell walls that are known to trigger protective responses in a number of immune cells. In an effort to better understand microglial responses to beta-glucans and the underlying response pathways, we sought to determine whether Dectin-1, a major beta-glucan receptor recently identified in leukocytes, plays a similar role in beta-glucan-induced activation in microglia. In this study, we report that Dectin-1 is indeed expressed on the surface of murine primary microglia, and engagement of the receptor with particulate beta-glucan resulted in an increase in tyrosine phosphorylation of spleen tyrosine kinase, a hallmark feature of the Dectin-1 signaling pathway. Moreover, phagocytosis of beta-glucan particles and subsequent intracellular production of reactive oxygen species were also mediated by Dectin-1. However, unlike in macrophages and dendritic cells, beta-glucan-mediated microglial activation did not result in significant production of cytokines or chemokines; thus, the interaction of microglial Dectin-1 with glucan elicits a unique response. Our results suggest that the Dectin-1 pathway may play an important role in antifungal immunity in the CNS.
Optimization for cogeneration systems in buildings based on life cycle assessment

SUMMARY: This paper presents a model that is developed to optimize the selection and operation of energy systems in commercial buildings based on their environmental performance. The model can be used for decision support regarding infrastructure in both design and operation of building energy systems. The approach is composed of energy simulation to generate building’s energy demand, life cycle assessment (LCA) to model different energy systems, and optimization model to optimize the selection and operation of these energy systems. The energy systems that are discussed in this paper are cogeneration systems, average electric grid, gas boilers, and absorption and electric chillers. The performance criteria presented in this paper are primary energy consumption (PEC) and tropospheric ozone precursor potential (TOPP).
Fallen freedom : Kant on radical evil and moral regeneration

Preface Introduction Part I. Radical Evil: 1. Ivan and Kant 2. Kant's definition of moral evil 3. 'This evil is radical ...' Part II. Moral Regeneration: 4. A 'change of heart' 5. Moral regeneration, human autonomy and divine aid 6. Autonomy and atonement 7. Autonomy and transcendence Notes Select bibliography Index.
A fuzzy supervisor for flexible manipulator control

A two-level hierarchical control strategy to achieve accurate end-point position of a planar two-link flexible manipulator is proposed. The upper level consists of a feedforward rule-based supervisory controller that incorporates fuzzy logic, whereas the lower level consists of conventional controllers that combine shaft position-endpoint acceleration feedback for disturbance rejection properties and shaping of the (joint) actuator inputs to minimize the energy transferred to the flexible modes during commanded movements. The effectiveness of this hierarchical control strategy is verified by experimental results for various movements of the links, in various configurations. >
De novo assembly and transcriptome analysis of Plasmodium gallinaceum identifies the Rh5 interacting protein ( ripr ), and reveals a lack of EBL and RH gene family diversification

Malaria parasites that infect birds can have narrow or broad host-tropisms. These differences in host specificity make avian malaria a useful model for studying the evolution and transmission of parasite assemblages across geographic ranges. The molecular mechanisms involved in host-specificity and the biology of avian malaria parasites in general are important aspects of malaria pathogenesis that warrant further examination. Here, the transcriptome of the malaria parasite Plasmodium gallinaceum was characterized to investigate the biology and the conservation of genes across various malaria parasite species. The P. gallinaceum transcriptome was annotated and KEGG pathway mapping was performed. The ripr gene and orthologous genes that play critical roles in the purine salvage pathway were identified and characterized using bioinformatics and phylogenetic methods. Analysis of the transcriptome sequence database identified essential genes of the purine salvage pathway in P. gallinaceum that shared high sequence similarity to Plasmodium falciparum when compared to other mammalian Plasmodium spp. However, based on the current sequence data, there was a lack of orthologous genes that belonged to the erythrocyte-binding-like (EBL) and reticulocyte-binding-like homologue (RH) family in P. gallinaceum. In addition, an orthologue of the Rh5 interacting protein (ripr) was identified. These findings suggest that the pathways involved in parasite red blood cell invasion are significantly different in avian Plasmodium parasites, but critical metabolic pathways are conserved throughout divergent Plasmodium taxa.
Pencils of quadratic forms over finite fields

A formula for the number of common zeros of a non-degenerate pencil of quadratic forms spanned by gap forms is given. This is applied to pencils which count binary strings with an even number of 1's prescribed distances apart.
Minimization of reactive power under nonsinusoidal conditions

The author extends his earlier paper `Considerations on reactive power in nonsinusoidal situations' (see ibid., vol.IM-34, no.3, p.399-404, 1985) to compensation issues. IT is shown that the shunt LC compensator can minimize the reactive power of an RL load only if one of its parameters, L or C is fixed. A method of capacitance calculation is presented and it is shown that the inductance choice affects the harmonic suppression. The complexity of a compensator for the total compensation of reactive power is calculated and a method of synthesizing such a compensator is presented.
Endoscopic training in gastroenterology fellowship: adherence to core curriculum guidelines

The Gastroenterology Core Curriculum and American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy provide guidelines for endoscopic training. Program adherence to these recommendations is unclear. This study aims to assess endoscopic training experience during fellowship. Design: Questionnaire study. Setting: The questionnaire was circulated to US fellowship programs, with the assistance of the American Gastroenterological Association. Participants: Graduating third-year fellows. Seventy-three fellows returned the questionnaire. Nearly all fellows met the required numbers for esophagoduodenoscopy (98 %) and colonoscopy (100 %), with fewer meeting requirements for PEG (73 %) and non-variceal hemorrhage (75 %). The majority of fellows did not meet minimum numbers for variceal banding (40 %), esophageal dilation (43 %), capsule endoscopy (42 %). Fellows rated training in cognitive aspects of endoscopy as 3.86 [1 (inadequate), 5 (excellent)] and reported greatest emphasis on interpreting endoscopic findings and least on virtual colonography. Quality indicators of endoscopy received little emphasis (rating of 3.04; p = 0.00001), with adenoma detection rate being least emphasized. Fifty-six percent of fellows reported having routine endoscopy conferences. Half of the programs have endoscopic simulators, with 15 % of fellows being required to use simulation. Following direct hands-on experience, fellows rated external endoscopy courses (64 %) as the next most useful experience. Many fellows do not meet required numbers for several endoscopic procedures, and quality indicators receive little emphasis during training. Most programs do not provide simulation training or hold regular endoscopy conferences. Fellowship programs should perform internal audits and make feasible adjustments. Furthermore, it may be time for professional societies to revisit training guidelines.
Radiographic findings in Waldenström's macroglobulinemia resembling fibrogenesis imperfecta ossium (FIO): a case report.

A case of Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia with radiographic features of fibrogenesis imperfecta ossium is presented. The case raises the possibility that these radiographic findings might be more common in Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia than previously appreciated, and illustrates the need for bone biopsy to establish a definitive diagnosis of fibrogenesis imperfecta ossium.
Formulating and implementing environmental strategies: A comparison of U.S. and German printing firms

© 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/tqem.20141 Despite advances in knowledge and practice within the area of strategic environmental management, we have very limited knowledge about the adoption of environmental strategies in the printing industry. As has been found in other industries, it is likely that printing companies can gain competitive advantage through formulating and implementing proactive environmental strategies. The benefits can include cost reduction, improved product quality, and enhanced relationships with external stakeholders (such as customers, regulating agencies, and local communities). In fact, there is evidence that some printers have been able to significantly reduce environmental impacts, production costs, and compliance liability by adopting proactive eco-strategies.1 The existing literature on environmental management in the printing industry, however, mainly focuses on regulatory compliance and technological solutions. It is likely that many printing firms have not yet fully discovered the benefits of taking a strategic approach to environmental issues.