cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of s-ABA on the Physiology and Marketability of Various Container-Grown Taxa During Short-Term Desiccation

Abstract Reduced post harvest care of woody plant material in mass retail settings can decrease the number of days plants remain marketable. If plants are sold on consignment for growers, reduced sales can lead to poor profitability. This study investigated the effect of spray applications of s-abscisic acid (s-ABA) (ConTego™ Pro SL, Valent Biosciences Corp.) to increase the number of days of marketability for various woody taxa in a simulated retail setting. In the first stage of the study, various well-watered container-grown taxa were treated with a spray application of either 0, 1000 or 2000 mg·liter−1 of s-ABA and water was withheld. Daily, desiccation symptoms were recorded to determine if plants had reached the critical wilting point (CWP) and thus became unmarketable. Marketability was increased approximately 1–7 days for plants treated with 2000 mg·liter−1 of s-ABA compared to nontreated plants. In the second stage, marketability and physiology of Ligustrum japonicum ‘Recurvifolium’ (wavy leaf pr...
Health-related material needs and substance use among emergency department patients.

Background: Emergency department (ED) visits related to substance use are common. ED patients also have high levels of health-related material needs (HRMNs), such as homelessness and food insecurit...
miR-431 Promotes Metastasis of Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors by Targeting DAB2 Interacting Protein, a Ras GTPase Activating Protein Tumor Suppressor.

The incidence of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (PNET) is increasing, and it presents with various clinical manifestations and an unfavorable survival rate. A better understanding of the drivers of PNET tumorigenesis is urgently needed. Distinct miRNA signatures have been identified for different stages of tumorigenesis in both human and mouse PNETs. The functions of these miRNAs are poorly understood. miR-431 is the most up-regulated miRNA in the metastatic signature. However, it is unknown whether miR-431 contributes to metastasis of PNETs. Herein, we show that miR-431 overexpression activates Ras/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) signaling and promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition, migration/invasion in vitro, and metastasis in both xenograft and spontaneous mouse models of PNET. Treatment of PNET cells with Erk inhibitor or locked nucleic acids sequestering miR-431 inhibits invasion. Four target prediction modules and dual-luciferase reporter assays were used to identify potential mRNA targets of miR-431. A Ras GTPase activating protein tumor suppressor (RasGAP), DAB2 interacting protein (DAB2IP), was discovered as an miR-431 target. Overexpression of DAB2IP's rat homolog, but not its mutant defective in Ras GTPase activating protein activity, reverses miR-431's effect on promoting invasion, Erk phosphorylation, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of PNETs. Taken together, miR-431 silences DAB2IP to active Ras/Erk and promote metastasis of PNETs. miR-431 may be targeted to manage metastatic PNETs.
Comparison of measurement protocols to estimate preferred walking speed between sites.

Abstract Background Walking speed influences a variety of typical outcome measures in gait analysis. Many researchers use a participant’s preferred walking speed (PWS) during gait analysis with a goal of trying to capture how a participant would typically walk. However, the best practices for estimating PWS and the impact of laboratory size and walk distance are still unclear. Research question Is measured PWS consistent across different distances and between two laboratory sites? Methods Participants walked overground at a “comfortable speed” for six different conditions with either dynamic (4, 6, 10, and 400 m) or static (4 and 10 m) starts and stops at two different data collection sites. Repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni corrections were used to test for differences between conditions and sites. Results Participants walked significantly faster in the 4, 6, and 10 m dynamic conditions than in the 400 m condition. On average, participants walked slower in the static trials than the dynamic trials of the same distance. There was a significant interaction of lab and condition and so results were examined within each lab. Across both labs, we found that the 4 and 10 m dynamic conditions were not different than the 6 m dynamic condition at both sites, while other tests did not provide consistent results at both sites. Significance We recommend researchers use a 6 m distance with acceleration and deceleration zones to reliably test for PWS across different laboratories. Given some of the differences found between conditions that varied by site, we also emphasize the need to report the test environment and methods used to estimate PWS in all future studies so that the methods can be replicated between studies.
Risk factors and associated complications with unplanned intubation in patients with craniotomy for brain tumor.

Abstract Patients undergoing surgical resection of a brain tumor have the potential risk for beingintubated post-operatively, which may be associated with significant morbidity and/or mortality after surgery. This study was analyzed various preoperative patient characteristics, postoperative outcomes, and complications to identify risk factors for unplanned intubation (UI) in adult patients undergoing craniotomy for a brain tumor and created a risk score framework for that cohort. Patients undergoing surgery for a brain tumor were identified according to primary Current Procedural Terminology codes, and information found in The American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (NSQIP) database from 2012 to 2015 was reviewed. A total of 18,642 adult brain tumor patients were included in the ACS-NSQIP. The rate of unplanned intubation in this cohort was 2.30% (4 2 8). The mortality rate of patients who underwent UI after surgical resection of brain tumor was 24.78% compared to an overall mortality of 2.46%. During the first 30 days after surgery, 33% of patients who underwent UI had an unplanned reoperation, compared to 4.76% of patients who did not undergo unplanned intubation. Bivariate and multivariate analyses identified several predictors and computed a risk score for UI. A risk score based on patient factors for those undergoing a craniotomy for a brain tumor predicts the postoperative UI rate. This could aid in surgical decision-making by identify patients at a higher risk of UI, while modifying perioperative management may help prevent UI.
Metastructures consisting of cascaded high-contrast subwavelength gratings

Transmissive and reflective all-dielectric metastructures will be presented that offer tailored polarization con- versions and spectral responses. The metastructures consist of stacked deeply subwavelength, high contrast gratings of different fill factors and rotations. Broadband metastructures that perform a given polarization conversion over a wide continuous bandwidth will be shown, as well as multiband metastructures that perform a common polarization conversion over different bands. Multifunctional metastructures that realize different polarization conversions over different bands will also be reported at the conference. Unlike earlier stacked grating geometries, the transmissive metastructures do not require antireflection layers since impedance matching is incorporated into their design. The subwavelength gratings are modeled as homogeneous anisotropic layers, allowing an overall metastructure to be treated as a stratified dielectric medium. Quasi-static analysis is used to homogenize the subwavelength gratings and represent them with effective dielectric constants. Plane-wave transfer matrix techniques are employed to model the interactions between gratings, allowing for rapid design and optimization. In the metastructures, higher-order Floquet harmonics are bound to the gratings due to their subwavelength periodicities. As a result, only zeroth-order coupling between the gratings needs to be considered. The multifunctional performance and compactness (wavelength-sized thickness) of the proposed devices will find use at millimeter-wave wavelengths and beyond. Two example designs are described in this paper. Measured performance of prototypes will also be reported at the conference and various fabrication approaches reviewed. This work demonstrates the flexibility with which cascaded subwavelength gratings can realize unprecedented polarization control with varied spectral responses.
Factors affecting variability in fossil-fueled transit bus emission rates

Abstract Globally, there are over 10 million transit buses. Exhaust emissions from transit buses include carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), total hydrocarbons (THC), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM). Key factors affecting bus emission rates have been evaluated separately or in limited combinations in prior studies, including bus size, fuel and powertrain, passenger load, driving cycle, and model year. However, bus emission rates are jointly affected by all of these factors. To systematically evaluate these factors, a transit bus emissions model (TBEM) was developed. TBEM is calibrated based on generic compressed natural gas (CNG) and diesel bus types represented in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator and empirical cycle average emission rates from the Integrated Bus Information System. The importance of the factors varies depending on the pollutant. For emission rates per vehicle-kilometer, model year is an important factor for NOx and PM, fuel and powertrain is an important factor for CO and THC, and driving cycle and bus size are important factors for CO2. For emission rates per passenger-kilometer, passenger load is generally an important factor for each pollutant. For a given fuel and powertrain and pollutant, smaller buses have lower emission rates per vehicle-kilometer than larger buses. However, a full large bus has lower emission rates per passenger-kilometer than a full small bus. There are tradeoffs among bus types regarding emission rates, especially for THC and PM. The comparison of bus emission rates is dependent on interactions between these key factors. For example, the effect of bus size and passenger load on emission rates is larger for lower speed driving cycles. For 2010 and newer model year buses and for moderate to high speed driving cycles, diesel buses have the lowest NOx emission rates whereas for low speed cycles, CNG buses have the lowest NOx emission rates. However, for 2007 to 2009 model year buses, CNG buses have the lowest NOx emission rates regardless of driving cycle. The study will be useful in helping transit planners and policy makers to develop strategies to reduce transit bus fleet emissions and in providing accurate emission factors for use in bus life cycle inventories and emission inventories.
Stress-Induced Mouse Model of the Cardiac Manifestations of Friedreich's Ataxia Corrected by AAV-mediated Gene Therapy.

Friedreich's ataxia (FA), an autosomal recessive disorder caused by a deficiency in the expression of frataxin (FXN), is characterized by progressive ataxia and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Althoug...
African American Patients Have Improved Functional Gains and Comparable Clinical Outcomes to Caucasian Patients After Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty

Abstract Background With the increasing popularity of alternative payment models, minorities who use more postacute care resources may face difficulties with access to quality total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) care. The purpose of this study is to compare differences in perioperative complications and functional outcomes between African American and Caucasian patients undergoing THA and TKA. Methods We reviewed a consecutive series of all primary THA and TKA patients at our institution from 2015 to 2018. Demographics, comorbidities, 90-day complications, readmissions, Veterans Rand 12-Item Health Survey (VR-12), Hip disability Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS), and Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Scores (KOOS) were compared between African American and Caucasian patients. A multivariate analysis was performed to control for confounding variables. Results Of the 5284 patients included in the study, 1041 were African American (24.5%). Although African American patients had lower preoperative HOOS/KOOS (33.5 vs 45.1, P Conclusion Although African American patients had lower preoperative functional scores, they made improved postoperative gains when compared with Caucasian patients. Although there was no difference in postoperative complications, further studies should assess social causes for the increase in rehabilitation utilization rates in minority patients.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors in oncology: a primer for molecular imaging Cancer Care

1213 Objectives: n 2011, the first immune checkpoint inhibitor monoclonal antibody was approved by FDA for treatment of advanced melanoma. Since then several new agents have been approved by FDA and increasingly been used as the first or second-line treatment for various neoplasms including melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, urothelial carcinoma, and renal cell carcinoma. A subset of patients treated with these drugs demonstrates an atypical response pattern of initial progression followed by an eventual partial or complete response which was called pseudoprogression. These drugs can also cause a distinct set of severe or life-threatening immune-related adverse reactions. Given the central role of molecular imaging in cancer care, we will review the 1) molecular mechanisms and clinical applications of immune check point inhibitors, 2) current strategy to distinguish pseudoprogression from progression, 3) imaging appearances of common immune-related adverse reactions, 4) interactive cases with questions and answers, in order to ensure understanding of the presented material.
Update on the Health Effects of Bisphenol A: Overwhelming Evidence of Harm

In 1997, the first in vivo bisphenol A (BPA) study by endocrinologists reported that feeding BPA to pregnant mice induced adverse reproductive effects in male offspring at the low dose of 2 µg/kg/day. Since then, thousands of studies have reported adverse effects in animals administered low doses of BPA. Despite more than 100 epidemiological studies suggesting associations between BPA and disease/dysfunction also reported in animal studies, regulatory agencies continue to assert that BPA exposures are safe. To address this disagreement, the CLARITY-BPA study was designed to evaluate traditional endpoints of toxicity and modern hypothesis-driven, disease-relevant outcomes in the same set of animals. A wide range of adverse effects was reported in both the toxicity and the mechanistic endpoints at the lowest dose tested (2.5 µg/kg/day), leading independent experts to call for the lowest observed adverse effect level (LOAEL) to be dropped 20 000-fold from the current outdated LOAEL of 50 000 µg/kg/day. Despite criticism by members of the Endocrine Society that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s assumptions violate basic principles of endocrinology, the FDA rejected all low-dose data as not biologically plausible. Their decisions rely on 4 incorrect assumptions: dose responses must be monotonic, there exists a threshold below which there are no effects, both sexes must respond similarly, and only toxicological guideline studies are valid. This review details more than 20 years of BPA studies and addresses the divide that exists between regulatory approaches and endocrine science. Ultimately, CLARITY-BPA has shed light on why traditional methods of evaluating toxicity are insufficient to evaluate endocrine disrupting chemicals.
Challenging Violence: Toward a Twenty-First Century, Science-Based “Constructive Programme”

Violence in the U.S. is on the rise (e.g., Associated Press, Associated Press News, 2019; National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. Annex of statistical information: Country reports on Terrorism 2017, 2018). Interpersonal, collective, and structural violence are maintained by powerful contingencies that are not easily challenged. Violence of all types is strongly connected to other social issues including economic and human rights injustices, and violence of one type begets other types, contributing to what may be described as an ecology of violence. In this chapter, we suggest that responses to violence may benefit from an ecological perspective, by using behavioral systems science to construct ecologies of justice. Perhaps the first attempt at this lofty goal was the work of Gandhi, who rightly considered himself a scientist practicing the science of nonviolent action (Dear, Mohandas Gandhi essential writings, Orbis Books, New York, NY, 2002). Gandhi’s Constructive Programme outlines actionable steps toward nonviolence based on his lifelong experiences using nonviolent action to combat social injustices. Gandhi’s work has become a template for other nonviolent movements, and research has shown that when compared to violent actions, nonviolence has been substantially more effective to combat social injustice (Chenoweth and Stephan, Why civil resistance works: The strategic logic of nonviolent conflict, Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 2011; Schell, The unconquerable world: Power, nonviolence, and the will of the people, Macmillan, New York, NY, 2004). Building on the work on Gandhi, we offer examples of strategies that have shown or might show promise in addressing the wicked problems that face current societies in the hopes of inspiring more behavior scientists to take on this daunting but important task.
Gun Violence in Court

Litigation cannot solve a public health crisis. But litigation can be an effective complementary tool to regulation by increasing the salience of a public health issue, eliciting closely guarded information to move public opinion, and prompting legislative action. From tobacco to opioids, litigants have successfully turned to courts for monetary relief, to initiate systemic change, and to hold industry accountableFor years, litigators have been trying to push firearm suits into their own litigation moment. But litigation against the gun industry poses special challenges. Not only has the regulatory regime failed to prevent a public safety hazard, Congress has consistently underfunded and understaffed the relevant regulatory actors. And in 2005 it legislatively immunized the gun industry from suit with the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).This paper surveys the field of litigation in response to gun violence, tracking the limited successes of victims and stakeholders suing the gun industry. We find that victories remain confined to individual actors and unlike high-impact public litigations in other areas, aggregate class actions and major public litigation led by state attorneys general are noticeably absent in the firearm context.
Exploring Informal Caregiver Workload using a Macroergonomics Lens on Multiple Resources

Persons with dementia (PwD) are an increasing population that are becoming more dependent on informal caregivers. Thus, caregiver workload is becoming a national concern due to the amount of patien...
Pain catastrophising in the oro-facial pain population.

BACKGROUND Pain catastrophising is a maladaptive cognitive response characterised by an exaggerated negative interpretation of pain experiences. It has been associated with greater disability and poorer outcomes in chronic pain, to include several specific oro-facial pain conditions. The goal of this study was to examine pain catastrophising at a military oro-facial pain specialty clinic. METHODS This retrospective chart review (RCR) examined information collected at initial examination from 699 new patients seen between September 2016 and August 2019 at the Orofacial Pain Center at the Naval Postgraduate Dental School (Bethesda, MD). Pain catastrophising, pain characteristics, psychosocial factors and sleep were assessed using standardised scales. Linear regression was used to evaluate associations of patient characteristics and pain intensity with pain catastrophising. Mediation analyses were done to characterise the extent to which the relationship between pain intensity and pain catastrophising may be explained by anxiety, depression and insomnia. RESULTS Higher pain intensity, depression, anxiety, insomnia and younger age were each associated with higher pain catastrophising (all p < .05). A primary diagnosis of neuropathic pain was the strongest independent predictor of higher pain catastrophising. The relationship between pain intensity and pain catastrophising was partially mediated by anxiety, depression and insomnia. CONCLUSIONS In this RCR of a population of oro-facial pain patients, those diagnosed with neuropathic pain were most likely to display high levels of pain catastrophising, a characteristic which is associated with poor long-term pain outcomes. This is the first study to show that, independent of other patient characteristics, those suffering from neuropathic pains displayed the highest levels of pain catastrophising. This highlights the importance of also addressing psychosocial factors in the treatment of neuropathic pain conditions, which are commonly treated using a predominantly biomedical approach. Additionally, anxiety, depression and insomnia each partially explains the relationship between pain intensity and pain catastrophising.
The Tragedy of Names

The naming of pathogens and their associated syndromes is a thorny process which unfolds in a complex geopolitical environment. This brief piece offers perspective on the multitude of forces that shape the name of a pathogen and summarizes the story of Sin Nombre Virus, with some reference to the ongoing saga of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A monopoly on names and circulating monikers rarely exists, and certain communities become disproportionately impacted by misunderstandings or stigmatization. By acknowledging these processes, we can better serve as allies to affected communities dealing with both pandemic and prejudice.
Cloud-Cluster Architecture for Detection in Intermittently Connected Sensor Networks.

We consider a centralized detection problem where sensors experience noisy measurements and intermittent connectivity to a centralized fusion center. The sensors may collaborate locally within predefined sensor clusters and fuse their noisy sensor data to reach a common local estimate of the detected event in each cluster. The connectivity of each sensor cluster is intermittent and depends on the available communication opportunities of the sensors to the fusion center. Upon receiving the estimates from all the connected sensor clusters the fusion center fuses the received estimates to make a final determination regarding the occurrence of the event across the deployment area. We refer to this hybrid communication scheme as a cloud-cluster architecture. We propose a method for optimizing the decision rule for each cluster and analyzing the expected detection performance resulting from our hybrid scheme. Our method is tractable and addresses the high computational complexity caused by heterogeneous sensors' and clusters' detection quality, heterogeneity in their communication opportunities, and non-convexity of the loss function. Our analysis shows that clustering the sensors provides resilience to noise in the case of low sensor communication probability with the cloud. For larger clusters, a steep improvement in detection performance is possible even for a low communication probability by using our cloud-cluster architecture.
A Three-Dimensional System for the Measurement of Temperament

A fundamental problem in the field of personality is the absence of a conceptual framework to help identify a few dimensions that provide a reasonably comprehensive description of personality. There is of course no difficulty in identifying traits that are useful in studying individual differences (e.g., anxiety, neuroticism, dependency, hostility, achievement), and a well-developed experimental methodology is available for the construction of measures once traits of interest are identified. However, even factor analysis fails to be of assistance when basic dimensions of personality are sought. It is recognized that factor analysis can be used to reduce a large number of superficial measures into a smaller set of underlying dimensions. But, the resulting smaller set of dimensions is of necessity confined by content to the superficial measures (items) that are explored.
Driver behavior modeling near intersections using support vector machines based on statistical feature extraction

The capability to estimate driver's intention leads to the development of advanced driver assistance systems that can assist the drivers in complex situations. Developing precise driver behavior models near intersections can considerably reduce the number of accidents at road intersections. In this study, the problem of driver behavior modeling near a road intersection is investigated using support vector machines (SVMs) based on the hybrid-state system (HSS) framework. In the HSS framework, the decisions of the driver are represented as a discrete-state system and the vehicle dynamics are represented as a continuous-state system. The proposed modeling technique utilizes the continuous observations from the vehicle and estimates the driver's intention at each time step using a multi-class SVM approach. Statistical methods are used to extract features from continuous observations. This allows for the use of history in estimating the current state. The developed algorithm is trained and tested successfully using naturalistic driving data collected from a sensor-equipped vehicle operated in the streets of Columbus, OH and provided by the Ohio State University. The proposed framework shows a promising accuracy of above 97% in estimating the driver's intention when approaching an intersection.
An unsupervised learning approach to assembly validation

The alignment of reads generated by next-generation sequencers is an important problem in many biomedical applications. Although many methods have been proposed, we introduce a new randomized algorithm with the distinction of having high performance across a wide range of read lengths and base error rates. We utilize two FM indices to facilitate efficient bidirectional searching. Randomization allows us to estimate effectively key parameters, which ultimately account for the consistency in performance of the method. Our method by and large outperformed some of the recent and popular methods over a wide range of read lengths and base error rates.
The role of telomeres in the ageing of human skin

Skin is a self-renewing tissue that is required to go through extensive proliferation throughout the lifespan of an organism. Telomere shortening acts as a mitotic clock that prevents aberrant proliferation such as cancer. A consequence of this protection is cellular senescence and ageing. The telomerase enzyme complex maintains telomere length in germline cells and in cancer cells. Telomerase is also active in certain somatic cells such as those in the epidermis but is almost undetectable in the dermis. Increasing evidence indicates that telomerase plays a significant role in maintenance of skin function and proliferation. Mutations in telomerase component genes in the disease dyskeratosis congenita result in numerous epidermal abnormalities. Studies also indicate that telomerase activity in epidermal stem cells might have roles that go beyond telomere elongation. Telomeres in skin cells may be particularly susceptible to accelerated shortening because of both proliferation and DNA-damaging agents such as reactive oxygen species. Skin might present an accessible tissue for manipulation of telomerase activity and telomere length with the potential of ameliorating skin diseases associated with ageing.
Time to Leave the Trees: From Syntactic to Conceptual Querying of XML

Current XML query languages operate on XML instances only but ignore valuable conceptual level information that is "buried" inside complex XML Schema documents. For example, XPath queries are evaluated against XML documents based on element names (tags) and their syntactic nesting structure, ignoring the element types and other conceptual level information that is declared in separate XML schemas. We propose an extension to XML query languages for conceptual querying of XML, based on an underlying abstract model of XML Schema (MXS). We show that this approach offers the user new and often more adequate high-level query capabilities beyond the traditional purely syntactic approach of querying XML trees.
Two flux weakening schemes for surface-mounted permanent-magnet synchronous drives. Design and transient response considerations

Two recently published flux weakening schemes for surface-mounted permanent-magnet synchronous (SMPMS) motor drives have offered estimable advantages over previous solutions. The first scheme uses values of the voltage reference to generate an adequate flux weakening component of the stator current, whereas the second method detects an increase of the tracking error in torque-producing current component and uses the error signal for the flux weakening control. The viability of the algorithms has been demonstrated and the schemes have been compared and analyzed in steady-state operation. The transient behavior is very important for electric vehicles and other high-performance applications. Here, the authors analyze the transient response characteristics of both schemes when a sudden change in the torque reference is received. The paper also describes an approach to practical regulator design and parameter selection for the flux weakening control section.
A knowledge-based design for a computerized compact clinic for a family physician

Biomedical equipment can be designed in many ways. By using advanced programming techniques, it is possible to design a new piece of medical equipment and to integrate it with other equipment designed in a similar fashion. Family physician practices require many individual pieces of basic equipment such as EKG recorders, and pain-relieving nerve stimulators for their day-to-day applications. Each is purchased and subsequently maintained separately. At the same time, most physician's offices have ready access to a personal computer, that is primarily used for scheduling appointments, accounting, and storage of patient records. In this paper a design is presented for combining that PC, along with advanced programming techniques, and basic medical equipment requirements to create a simplified, integrated piece of biomedical equipment. The proposed computerized compact clinic will have software and associated hardware components that can be used in both outpatient and inpatient applications in a small clinic. Knowledge-based techniques will enhance the accuracy of the measured parameters and reduce the manual setup time. The ultimate goal is to create an integrated system that can measure and monitor a patient's condition, and/or be used in therapeutic applications.
Constitutive activity of the androgen receptor

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in the United States. The androgen receptor (AR) signaling axis is central to all stages of PCa pathophysiology and serves as the main target for endocrine-based therapy. The most advanced stage of the disease, castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), is presently incurable and accounts for most PCa mortality. In this chapter, we highlight the mechanisms by which the AR signaling axis can bypass endocrine-targeted therapies and drive progression of CRPC. These mechanisms include alterations in growth factor, cytokine, and inflammatory signaling pathways, altered expression or activity of transcriptional coregulators, AR point mutations, and AR gene amplification leading to AR protein overexpression. Additionally, we will discuss the mechanisms underlying the synthesis of constitutively active AR splice variants (AR-Vs) lacking the COOH-terminal ligand-binding domain, as well as the role and regulation of AR-Vs in supporting therapeutic resistance in CRPC. Finally, we summarize the ongoing development of inhibitors targeting discrete AR functional domains as well as the status of new biomarkers for monitoring the AR signaling axis in patients.
The impact of health literacy in the care of surgical patients: a qualitative systematic review

Inadequate health literacy affects more than 90 million Americans and it has been associated with adverse outcomes in the medicine field including increased hospitalization rates and greater mortality. Since surgical patients are often required to make complex decisions and adhere to complex instructions, health literacy may have a profound impact in the surgical practice. The main objective of the current study was to systematically evaluate the role of health literacy in surgical patients. A systematic search was performed to identify studies that evaluated the role of health literacy in the perioperative setting following the PRISMA guidelines. Only studies that examined health literacy using a validated instrument in the perioperative setting were included. Ten studies including data on 1147 patients were included. The median (IQR) number of patients in the included studies was 101 (30 to 152). The majority of studies used the Short Test of Functional Literacy in adults (STOFHLA) to evaluate patients’ health literacy. Five studies evaluated the patients preoperatively, four studies evaluated patients in the postoperative period and in one study the time of evaluation in relation to the surgical procedure was not defined. The lowest prevalence of inadequate health literacy was detected in kidney transplant patients, 6 out of 124 (5 %), while the highest prevalence of inadequate health literacy was detected in orthopedic patients having total joint replacement, 86 out of 126 (60 %). Inadequate health literacy in the preoperative period was associated with poor medical information comprehension and it may adversely affect adherence to preoperative medications and even modulate surgical disparities. Inadequate health literacy in the postoperative period was associated with poor comprehension of discharge instructions and worse kidney function in transplant recipients. Health literacy seems to have a very significant impact in the care of surgical patients. More studies to establish the impact of poor health literacy on perioperative outcomes are needed.
Laser Ablation with Vacuum Capture for MALDI Mass Spectrometry of Tissue

We have developed a laser ablation sampling technique for matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analyses of in-situ digested tissue proteins. Infrared laser ablation was used to remove biomolecules from tissue sections for collection by vacuum capture and analysis by MALDI. Ablation and transfer of compounds from tissue removes biomolecules from the tissue and allows further analysis of the collected material to facilitate their identification. Laser ablated material was captured in a vacuum aspirated pipette-tip packed with C18 stationary phase and the captured material was dissolved, eluted, and analyzed by MALDI. Rat brain and lung tissue sections 10 μm thick were processed by in-situ trypsin digestion after lipid and salt removal. The tryptic peptides were ablated with a focused mid-infrared laser, vacuum captured, and eluted with an acetonitrile/water mixture. Eluted components were deposited on a MALDI target and mixed with matrix for mass spectrometry analysis. Initial experiments were conducted with peptide and protein standards for evaluation of transfer efficiency: a transfer efficiency of 16% was obtained using seven different standards. Laser ablation vacuum capture was applied to freshly digested tissue sections and compared with sections processed with conventional MALDI imaging. A greater signal intensity and lower background was observed in comparison with the conventional MALDI analysis. Tandem time-of-flight MALDI mass spectrometry was used for compound identification in the tissue.
Ferroelectricity in the Ilmenite Structure.

The ferroelectricity of the ilmenite structure minerals lithium tantalate and lithium niobate is studied theoretically, using the method recently introduced by Slater for barium titanate. The metal ions are assumed to move in a potential which has small quartic terms as well as the usual quadratic terms, all satisfying the appropriate crystal symmetry requirements. This results in a slight dependence of the ionic-displacement polarizability of each metal ion on both the temperature and the polarization of the crystal. The local electric field strength is computed exactly for each ion by Ewald's method, and the internal field constants are given for a number of positions in a rhombohedral unit cell of axial angle $\ensuremath{\alpha}={56}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$. The polarizabilities can be estimated from other crystal polarization data, leading to a spontaneous polarization below the upper Curie temperature ${T}_{0}$ of $2{({T}_{0}\ensuremath{-}T)}^{\frac{1}{2}}$ microcoulombs ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ (without electromechanical correction). Whereas in barium titanate all dipole moments are in the direction of the resultant polarization, it is found here that the lower crystal symmetry results in sizeable components of the oxygen dipole moments perpendicular to the total polarization, but these last components produce a large field in the direction of the polarization at other ionic positions.
Translational control of endogenous and recoded nuclear genes in yeast mitochondria: regulation and membrane targeting

Mitochondrial gene expression in yeast,Saccharomyces cerevisiae, depends on translational activation of individual mRNAs by distinct proteins encoded in the nucleus. These nuclearly coded mRNA-specific translational activators are bound to the inner membrane and function to mediate the interaction between mRNAs and mitochondrial ribosomes. This complex system, found to date only in organelles, appears to be an adaptation for targeting the synthesis of mitochondrially coded integral membrane proteins to the membrane. In addition, mRNA-specific translational activation is a rate-limiting step used to modulate expression of at least one mitochondrial gene in response to environmental conditions. Direct study of mitochondrial gene regulation and the targeting of mitochondrially coded proteins in vivo will now be possible using synthetic genes inserted into mtDNA that encode soluble reporter/passenger proteins.
A Phase I clinical trial of the combination of imatinib and paclitaxel in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors refractory to standard therapy

Purpose Pre-clinical data suggest that combining imatinib with traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy may improve imatinib efficacy. We conducted a Phase I study of imatinib in combination with paclitaxel in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors.
Myasthenogenicity of the main immunogenic region and endogenous muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptors

In myasthenia gravis (MG) and experimental autoimmune MG (EAMG), many pathologically significant autoantibodies are directed at the main immunogenic region (MIR), a conformation-dependent region at the extracellular tip of α1 subunits of muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs). Human muscle AChR α1 MIR sequences were integrated into Aplysia ACh-binding protein (AChBP). The chimera was potent in inducing both acute and chronic EAMG, though less potent than Torpedo electric organ AChR. Wild-type AChBP also induced EAMG but was less potent, and weakness developed slowly without an acute phase. AChBP is more closely related in sequence to neuronal α7 AChRs that are also homomeric; however, autoimmune responses were induced to muscle AChR, but not to neuronal AChR subtypes. The greater accessibility of muscle AChRs to antibodies, compared to neuronal AChRs, may allow muscle AChRs to induce self-sustaining autoimmune responses. The human α1 subunit MIR is a potent immunogen for producing pathologically...
Simultaneous Q-switching and mode-locking in the CW Nd: YAG laser

The theory of transient mode-locking for an active modulator in a laser with a homogeneously broadened line is presented. The theory is applied to simultaneously Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG lasers and good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained. The main conclusion is that under usual Q-switched operating conditions the mode-locking process does not have sufficient time to build up to steady-state conditions. We also present a method to overcome this problem by allowing the laser to prelase before the Q-switch is opened. Mode-locked pulses whose width approaches the steady-state value are obtained. The transient mode-locking theory presented here also applies to actively mode-locking TEA CO2 lasers and to other types of simultaneously pulsed and mode-locked lasers.
Unequal crossing-over between yeast transposable elements

I have detected crossing-over between transposable elements at different sites on homologous yeast chromosomes. The recombination events described here involve a Ty element, called Ty917, near the HIS4 locus and a Ty element, known as Ty1-17, near the LEU2 gene. Ty917 and Ty1-17 lie in the same orientation on chromosome III and they are separated by approximately 21 kilobase pairs of DNA. Reciprocal recombination between the Ty917 element on one chromosome and the Ty1-17 element on the homologous chromosome in a diploid yeast cell results in the production of two aberrant chromosomes. One of these carries a deletion of the region between HIS4 and LEU2 and the other carries a duplication of this segment of DNA. The unequal crossover events have been demonstrated by genetic analysis of strains carrying the recombinant chromosomes and by cloning and restriction mapping of the novel junction fragments generated by recombination between Ty elements. Unequal crossing-over between Ty917 and Ty1-17 occurs in more than 1% of diploid yeast cells undergoing meiosis. Recombination between Ty917 and Ty1-17 occurs in less than 10-7 haploid cells dividing mitotically.
CYTOCHEMICAL STUDIES ON PROCHLOROPHYTES: LOCALIZATION OF DNA AND RIBULOSE 1,5-BISPHOSPHATE CARBOXYLASE-OXYGENASE1

We studied the distribution of the DNA-containing region and the ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase (RuBisCo) content of polyhedral bodies in three different prochlorophyte cell types in a search for broad evolutionary affinities of these chlorophyll b-containing prokaryotes. DNA was localized by DAPI staining and electron microscopy utilizing monoclonal anti-DNA antibody 2C-10 plus a secondary antibody labeled with colloidal gold. Antibodies against the large RuBisCo subunit from a higher plant raised in rabbits were used to localize RuBisCo in polyhedral bodies. We studied Prochloron Lewin cells from two different didemnid ascidian hosts (Lissoclinum patella and Didemnum molle) collected in Palau, West Caroline Islands, and cells of Prochlorothrix hollandica Burger-Wiersma, Stal, and Mur grown in laboratory culture. Cells of the blue-green alga Anabaena 7120 were studied for comparison. The DNA distribution was markedly different in the two Prochloron cell types. The thylakoids in cells from L. patella were concentrically arranged around a large central vacuole; the DNA-containing stromal areas appeared in thin sections as a concentric arcs between the thylakoid stacks. The central vacuole was lacking in cells from D. molle, and the thylakoid stacks and strands of DNA-containing stroma showed a more haphazard arrangement. In the filamentous Prochlorothrix the DNA-containing stroma was largely limited to a central nucleoid structure running the length of the cell. Although the DNA arrangements in Prochloron might be considered “chloroplast-like” since DNA-containing stroma is distributed, as in chloroplasts, in scattered sites among photosynthetic membranes, this is not so in Prochlorothrix, where there is an axial nucleoid, as in many filamentous cyanobacteria. Our anti-RuBisCo antibodies were selectively bound to the polyhedral bodies of all three cell types, indicating that Prochloron and Prochlorothrix, like many other autotrophic prokaryotes, possess typical carboxysomes.
Local Justice and Victim Support for Battered Women in Tajikistan1

Based upon four years of action‐oriented ethnographic field research on wife abuse in Tajikistan, this article reveals the barriers that battered women face in accessing justice and victim support services in a developing, post‐socialist, sovereign Central Asian state. In doing so, this article considers the cultural context in which wife abuse occurs, the local political context in which wife abuse emerged as a social problem worthy of discourse, and efforts underway locally to conceptualize wife abuse as issues of violence against women and human rights. This article makes a significant contribution to the limited body of research and literature on wife abuse in Tajikistan and Central Asia.
Selection of Reactive Mixtures for Use in Permeable Reactive Walls for Treatment of Mine Drainage

Porous, permeable, geochemically reactive walls, installed in situ in the path of migrating groundwater, present a promising passive treatment alternative for remediating metal-contaminated groundw...
Breakdown of hydrologic patterns upon model coarsening at hillslope scales and implications for experimental design

Summary Spatial sensitivity studies that assess the reliability of simulated patterns are important aspects of the modeling process. To date, limited knowledge exists on the impacts of model coarsening at the hillslope scale or on the threshold resolution below which the fidelity of simulated patterns are no longer reliable. In this study, we utilize the Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)-based Real-time Integrated Basin Simulator (tRIBS) to investigate how model aggregation leads to the breakdown of spatial hydrologic patterns in a ponderosa pine hillslope parameterized at fine-resolution (∼0.3 m). Results indicate that spatial patterns in soil moisture are controlled by small-scale curvature features at fine resolutions and by larger-scale vegetation patches at coarser resolutions. Model aggregation quickly eradicates curvature features and its spatial control on hydrologic patterns, while the level of coarsening possible in the hillslope still preserves vegetation patchiness. A threshold resolution of ∼10% of the original topographic field is identified through analyses of homogeneity indices, correlation coefficients and spatial errors. Below this resolution, model aggregation leads to unrealistic patterns in soil moisture and a transition from curvature-controlled lateral fluxes to vegetation-mediated vertical fluxes. Based on spatial error analyses, we evaluate the use of the distributed hydrologic model to identify sampling sites that represent the hillslope behavior and minimize the sensitivity to model resolution. Our findings demonstrate that spatial sensitivity occurs within hillslope domains depending on the characteristics of the spatial features that control the hydrologic response.