cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Phosphorus uptake by bean nodules

Phosphate (P) uptake experiments were conducted to determine the routes of P entry into nitrogen-fixing common bean root nodules and the availability of this P to the bacteroids within the nodules. Nodulated common bean plants were cultured for 30 days in a hydroponic system that contained either a complete nutrient solution (+P) or a nutrient solution where P was not added (−P). The plant roots were then exposed to [32P]-phosphate-labeled +P nutrient solution and P accumulation in bacteroids and nodules was measured. For labeling, plants were suspended in the nutrient solution so that the root system was either fully or partially submerged. Because bean nodules are heavily clustered in the root crown, most of the nodules in the partial submergence treatments were not in contact with the nutrient solution and we could study nodules that had not been directly exposed to 32P. Regardless of P treatment of the host plant, P accumulation in bacteroids was significantly greater and more rapid when the nodule surface was in contact with the labeled nutrient solution, suggesting that nodules can import P from the solution. P entry through the nodule surface was verified in experiments where 32P-labeled nutrient solution was applied to the nodule surface only. In full submergence treatments, 32P accumulation in bacteroids of −P plants was significantly greater than in bacteroids of +P plants. As measured by total leaf label, uptake and translocation of P to the shoot was greater in −P plants and still greater in partial submergence treatments where most of the nodules were not in contact with the labeled nutrient solution. Results of these experiments suggest that, in addition to P acquisition via the vascular system, P flow to symbiotic tissues and bacteroids can originate from the soil solution immediately surrounding the nodule. This was particularly evident in nodules of plants that had been limited for P.
Risk and protective factors affecting sexual behavior among young Asian and Pacific Islander men who have sex with men: implications for HIV prevention.

We explored issues underlying sexual risk among young (ages 18-25) Asian and Pacific Islander (API) men who have sex with men (MSM). We conducted in-depth interviews with 40 young API MSM in San Diego and Seattle in 1997-98. Study participants were administered a 2-hour, semi-structured, open-ended interview. Detailed summaries of the taped interviews were transcribed and coded for themes. We identified 8 factors related to risky sexual behaviors: negative feelings about oneself, being “closeted,” trusting a partner in a relationship, wishing to please a partner, passion that overwhelms judgment, being high on alcohol or drugs, sexual attitudes in the gay and Asian communities, and the lack of support in Asian families. Seven major themes emerged as motivations for engaging in protective behavior: having a positive self-image, having conservative sexual values, living with one's parents, sexual attitudes in the gay and Asian communities, family values, overt urging by the family, and wishing to avoid hurt...
A Summary of Current Understanding Regarding Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

This article provides a consensus perspective based on the authors' expertise and the limited available literature regarding our understanding of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). The challenges in the accurate identification of an ASD in children who are D/HH, including red flags for a potential ASD and screening and assessment for ASD, are described in this article. Additionally, strategies to guide professionals in their communication about a possible ASD with families and to frame the need for expanding aspects of communication important for this group of children are suggested.
Medical Evaluation and Management of Calcium Nephrolithiasis

Stone disease is a common medical problem, frequently recurs, and is associated with significant morbidity. Because appropriate medical therapy significantly decreases stone recurrence, this disorder must not be ignored by nonurologists. Even the single stone-former should be offered a metabolic evaluation.
Energy balance and efficiency of the pulsed plasma thruster

The overall, thruster, and accelerator efficiencies of the pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) are defined in terms of the product of power processing unit, transfer, sheath, heat loss and frozen flow efficiencies. The exhaust kinetic energy of the PPT is evaluated by the introduction of a Maxwellian distribution for the flow velocity, corresponding to available specific impulse, velocity and ionization data from the LES-6 thruster. The Maxwellian is proposed as appropriate for a PPT exhaust in which a Saha-type ionization process is driven by an electron temperature small compared to the ionization potentials, and where the bulk of the low velocity particles is weakly accelerated to very small velocities compared to the average. The transfer, sheath, heat loss and frozen flow efficiencies are estimated using available data for the LES6 PPT, permitting energy estimates for each stage in the acceleration process. One of the predictions is that the ions, constituting 10% of the mass, carry nearly 50% of the kinetic energy and about 25% of the impulse bit. An estimate is made of the maximum possible efficiency for rectangular and coaxial PPT's.
Effect of Arginine Vasotocin on Luteinizing Hormone and Prolactin Concentrations in Serum of Cattle

AbstractArginine vasotocin (AVT) was given to cattle to determine its effects on concentrations of luteinizing hormone (LH) and prolactin (PRL) in serum. Doses of AVT ranging from 0.3 to 300 u/kg BW, when given as single injection, did not alter the magnitude of frequency of normal pulsatile secretion of LH or concentrations of PRL in steers. Furthermore, AVT (0.7 mg/injection) given every 2 hr from −2 to 20 hr after 1 mg estradiol did not block the LH surge in ovariectomized cows. However, the 54% increase in concentrations of PRL which occurred 11 to 20 hr after injecting estradiol was blocked by repetitive injections of AVT. We conclude that AVT may alter PRL secretion in cattle. However, there is no indication that AVT affected LH release.
Regression Modeling for Accommodating Unscheduled Flows in Electric Grids

Accommodation of unscheduled flows (USFs) using regression model building and robust regression is presented as an alternative to analytic ridge regression (RR) for numerically ill-conditioned incidence matrices.
Efficacy and Cost of Cultivators, Steam, or an Organic Herbicide for Weed Control in Organic Vineyards in the San Joaquin Valley of California

Weed management is an important problem faced by organic grape (Vitis vinifera) growers as there are few effective and economic options available. However, new organically acceptable weed control products have become available in recent years. Several studies were conducted to compare the efficacy of two mechanical weed control methods (French plow and Bezzerides tree and vine cultivator) with steam, and an organic herbicide (d-limonene) in organic raisin and wine grape vineyards. The experiments were designed as split plots with the aforementioned treatments as main plots with additional weed control treatments (handhoeing and no handhoeing in the raisin grape vineyards; hoeing, no hoeing, steam, and d-limonene in the wine grape vineyard) one month after the main plot treatment as subplots. The plow provided the greatest level of weed control among the treatments followed by the cultivator. The time required to hoe mechanically cultivated plots was also generally lower than the other treatments. Steam and herbicide only suppressed weeds for 2–3 weeks, and the time needed to hoe plots in these treatments was generally similar to the untreated control at all sampling dates. The mechanical treatments also were two to four times more cost-effective than steam or herbicide. Therefore, mechanical treatments were the most effective and economical weed control methods, though none of the treatments affected vine growth, midday stem water potential, petiole nitrate concentration at bloom, grape yield, or quality.
Handbook of Microbiological Media for the Examination of Food (2nd ed.)

In the United States, food safety has become an important topic in recent times. There are two major reasons for this: first, foodborne illnesses cause significant mortality and morbidity in human populations and incur large economic costs; and second, there is an increased risk in recent years that terrorists might attempt to contaminate our food and water supply. Most of the known unintentional foodborne outbreaks have been caused by improper food handling and preparation, food spoilage, and contamination of human food with sewage or animal manure.
Genetics, natural history, surveillance, management, and gene mapping in the Lynch syndrome.

Le cancer rectocolique hereditaire non polyposique (HNPCC), egalement appele syndrome de Lynch, peut representer jusqu'a 10-15% de l'ensemble des maladies rectocoliques. Le syndrome de Lynch de type 1 se caracterise par un cancer rectocolique (CRC) specifique du site dont la survenue est precoce (âge ±45 ans), et qui presente une predilection pour le colon proximal (±70% des cas) et une sensibilite marquee au CRC asynchrone (45% des cas suivant une hemocolectomie ou une resection segmentaire). Le syndrome de Lynch de type II presente les memes caracteristiques au niveau du colon, mais s'en differencie par un exces de CRC extra-coliques, notamment le carcinome de l'endometre, de l'ovaire, de l'intestin grele, de l'estomac, du pancreas et un carcinome de type transitionnel de l'uretere et du bassinet renal. Ces observations forment la base de nos recommandations concernant la surveillance: colonoscopie complete des l'âge de 25 ans et repetee chaque annee, et, dans le syndrome de Lynch du type II, une biopsie endometriale par aspiration, deux fois par an. Le depistage des types de cancer restants depend de la disponibilite des moyens de depistage et du motif d'expression du cancer dans une famille donnee. L'exces de CRC asynchrones justifie une colectomie subtotale dans tous les cas de CRC. L'absence de stigmates physiques premonitoires a force les cliniciens a diagnostiquer le HNPCC en se fondant sur les antecedents familiaux, ainsi que sur les elements de l'histoire naturelle du phenotype cancereux dans le pedigree. Les problemes inherents a cette approche sont la variabilite de la penetrance du gene, le fait que les cancereux peuvent etre porteurs du gene ou non, le deces des porteurs du gene avant l'apparition du cancer, et la difficulte de la verification pathologique du site et du type de la tumeur. La resolution partielle de ces problemes est possible maintenant que l'HNPCC a ete lie au chromosome 2p et 3p et que le gene de sensibilite du chromosome 2p a ete clone. Le gene du chromosome 2p est l'homologue humain du gene implique dans la reparation d'un mesappariemment de bases dans l'ADN des bacteries et des levures et a ete designe hMSH2. Il semble medier un nouveau mecanisme de carcinogenese, et conduit a un phenotype mutateur dans les cellules tumorales qui pourrait constituer le declencheur d'une evolution rapide en cancer. Ces alterations microsatellitaires (sequences di- et tri-nucleotidiques repetees) sont apparues principalement dans les carcinomes endometriaux et gastriques de HNPCC
Genomic Outlier Detection in High-Throughput Data Analysis

In the analysis of high-throughput data, a very common goal is the detection of genes or of differential expression between two groups or classes. A recent finding from the scientific literature in prostate cancer demonstrates that by searching for a different pattern of differential expression, new candidate oncogenes might be found. In this chapter, we discuss the statistical problem, termed oncogene outlier detection, and discuss a variety of proposals to this problem. A statistical model in the multiclass situation is described; links with multiple testing concepts are established. Some new nonparametric procedures are described and compared to existing methods using simulation studies.
A statistical definition for reproducibility and replicability

Everyone agrees that reproducibility and replicability are fundamental characteristics of scientific studies. These topics are attracting increasing attention, scrutiny, and debate both in the popular press and the scientific literature. But there are no formal statistical definitions for these concepts, which leads to confusion since the same words are used for different concepts by different people in different fields. We provide formal and informal definitions of scientific studies, reproducibility, and replicability that can be used to clarify discussions around these concepts in the scientific and popular press.
A Distinct Gene Module for Dysfunction Uncoupled from Activation in Tumor-Infiltrating T Cells

Summary Reversing the dysfunctional T cell state that arises in cancer and chronic viral infections is the focus of therapeutic interventions; however, current therapies are effective in only some patients and some tumor types. To gain a deeper molecular understanding of the dysfunctional T cell state, we analyzed population and single-cell RNA profiles of CD8 + tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and used genetic perturbations to identify a distinct gene module for T cell dysfunction that can be uncoupled from T cell activation. This distinct dysfunction module is downstream of intracellular metallothioneins that regulate zinc metabolism and can be identified at single-cell resolution. We further identify Gata-3, a zinc-finger transcription factor in the dysfunctional module, as a regulator of dysfunction, and we use CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to show that it drives a dysfunctional phenotype in CD8 + TILs. Our results open novel avenues for targeting dysfunctional T cell states while leaving activation programs intact.
High-Fat-Diet-Induced Deficits in Dopamine Terminal Function Are Reversed by Restoring Insulin Signaling.

Systemically released insulin crosses the blood-brain barrier and binds to insulin receptors on several neural cell types, including dopaminergic neurons. Insulin has been shown to decrease dopamine neuron firing in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), but potentiate release and reuptake at dopamine terminals in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Here we show that prolonged consumption of a high fat diet blocks insulin’s effects in the NAc, but insulin’s effects are restored by inhibiting protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B, which supports insulin receptor signaling. Mice fed a high fat diet (60% kcals from fat) displayed significantly higher fasting blood glucose 160 mg/dL, compared to 101 mg/dL for control-diet-fed mice, and high-fat-diet-fed mice showed reduced blood glucose clearance after an intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test. Using fast scan cyclic voltammetry to measure electrically evoked dopamine in brain slices containing the NAc core, high-fat-diet-fed mice exhibited slower dopamine reuptake compared to...
Hydraulic conductivity of active layer soils in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: Geological legacy controls modern hillslope connectivity

Abstract Spatial variability in the hydraulic and physical properties of active layer soils influences shallow groundwater flow through cold-desert hydrological systems. This study measures the saturated hydraulic conductivity and grain-size distribution of 90 soil samples from the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV), Antarctica—primarily from Taylor Valley—to determine what processes affect the spatial distribution of saturated hydraulic conductivity in a simple, mineral-soil-dominated natural hillslope laboratory. We find that the saturated hydraulic conductivity and the grain-size distribution of soils are organized longitudinally within Taylor Valley. Soils sampled down-valley near the coast have a higher percentage of fine-sized sediments (fine sand, silt, clay) and lower saturated hydraulic conductivities than soils collected up-valley near Taylor Glacier (1.3 × 10 − 2 vs. 1.2 × 10 − 1 cm/s). Soils collected mid-valley have intermediate amounts of fines and saturated hydraulic conductivity values consistent with a hydrogeologic gradient spanning the valley from high inland to low near the coast. These results suggest the organization of modern soil properties within Taylor Valley is a relict signature from past glaciations that have deposited soils of decreasing age toward the mouth of the valley, modified by fluvial activity acting along temporal and microclimate gradients.
Liability for Negligent Loan Modifications

Consideration of the factors used to determine whether a loan servicer may be held liable for negligence in modifying a mortgage loan.
“To each his own”: Discussions of vaccine decision-making in top parenting blogs

Although social media provides a way for people to congregate with like-minded others, it can also play a role in spreading misinformation about public health interventions. Previous research demon...
A generalized query framework for geospatial reasoning

The ability to reason over geospatial entities using publicly available information is greatly enhanced by the abundance of data sources on the Internet. Traditional data sources such as satellite imagery, maps, gazetteers and vector data have long been used in geographic information systems (GIS). However, incorporating non-traditional sources such as phone books and property tax sites brings to light integration issues not previously considered. The ability to answer different types of queries about geospatial entities further complicates the problem. For example, assume we are provided with an image and consider the query “What is the name of this street?”. There exist many different ways of answering this query depending on the types of data sources and operations available to a system. Three possible plans which answer this query are shown in Figures 1, 2, and 3 . For each plan, we are provided with the latitude and longitude of the center of the image and a point identifying which street we are interested in. The first plan would query a vector data source1 which provides a street name(s). The second plan queries a gazetteer2 which returns a set of named points. These points could be used to query an online phone book data source for a street name(s). Finally, the third plan retrieves an image from an image data source, overlays this image on the map, and extracts the characters corresponding to a street name(s). These plans show there exist components that can: produce and pass new data to subsequent components in the plan, produce an incomplete set of data, or produce no data at all. Therefore, when constructing an execution plan, a system needs to consider not only the operations available to it but also the data produced during execution. There is no guarantee that a valid execution plan will produce a valid query answer. The notions of contingency planning or dynamic plan refinement need to be incorporated into the planning system.
Cell of Origin and Mouse Models for Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer has few options for early detection or treatment. The inability to detect pancreatic cancer at early stages in people precludes obtaining patient data to identify the biomarkers that would enable early detection and treatment in future patients. Identification of these early biomarkers and treatment modalities requires the development of nonhuman models. Genetically engineered mice are particularly powerful models to identify the specific cells, genes, and pathways that regulate initiation and progression of pancreatic cancer. Mouse models have confirmed the role of suspected oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in pancreatic cancer initiation and progression and have led to the identification of genes not previously known to regulate the development of pancreatic cancer. Increasingly sophisticated techniques allow mutations to be introduced into specific cells to limit tumor development to the most relevant cellular source of pancreatic cancer development, the so-called cell of origin. These models can now be used to identify biomarkers for early detection and to screen for effective pharmaceutical intervention of different stages of pancreatic cancer.
Reframing communication about Zika and mosquitoes to increase disease prevention behavior

Emergence of invasive vector species and the diseases they carry present a clear danger to the public as well as a challenge for scientists and experts to control effectively. Given the urgent need...
Evidence-based versus experience-based decision making in clinical dentistry.

Abstract Evidence-based dentistry has become a frequent topic of conversation because good practice must be based on good evidence. This article explores some of the characteristics of "best" evidence. It is concluded that a blending of sound science and practice experience is needed and it is proposed that such evidence can be generated in clinical study groups and the recently funded Centers of Discovery.
JHU Kaldi system for Arabic MGB-3 ASR challenge using diarization, audio-transcript alignment and transfer learning

This paper describes the JHU team's Kaldi system submission to the Arabic MGB-3: The Arabic speech recognition in the Wild Challenge for ASRU-2017. We use a weights transfer approach to adapt a neural network trained on the out-of-domain MGB-2 multi-dialect Arabic TV broadcast corpus to the MGB-3 Egyptian YouTube video corpus. The neural network has a TDNN-LSTM architecture and is trained using lattice-free maximum mutual information (LF-MMI) objective followed by sMBR discriminative training. For supervision, we fuse transcripts from 4 independent transcribers into confusion network training graphs. We also describe our own approach for speaker diarization and audio-transcript alignment. We use this to prepare lightly supervised transcriptions for training the seed system used for adaptation to MGB-3. Our primary submission to the challenge gives a multi-reference WER of 32.78% on the MGB-3 test set.
Computing framework in biological cells via stochastic methods

In this paper, we propose using stochastic framework for computations by biological cells. The key observation is that the input molecules activate receptors of a biological cell independently with probability p that is dependent on the molecule's concentration. Hence, the (active/inactive) states of the receptors can be viewed as a stochastic number representing the input concentration or probability p. We construct the addition operation via a cell having two different types of receptors. We also develop the multiplication by using a receptor that is active (with some probability) when both types of input molecules present. We analyze the computing accuracy of a cell w.r.t. parameters such as number of receptors and the input sensitivity of the cell.
Thermally Induced Structural Evolution of Silicon- and Oxygen-Containing Hydrogenated Amorphous Carbon: A Combined Spectroscopic and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Investigation

Silicon- and oxygen-containing hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H:Si:O) coatings are amorphous thin-film materials composed of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H), doped with silicon and oxygen. Compared to a-C:H, a-C:H:Si:O exhibits much lower susceptibility to oxidative degradation and higher thermal stability, making a-C:H:Si:O attractive for many applications. However, the physical mechanisms for this improved behavior are not understood. Here, the thermally induced structural evolution of a-C:H:Si:O was investigated in situ by X-ray photoelectron and absorption spectroscopy, as well as molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The spectroscopy results indicate that upon high vacuum annealing, two thermally activated processes with a Gaussian distribution of activation energies with mean value E and standard deviation σ take place in a-C:H:Si:O: (a) ordering and clustering of sp2 carbon (E ± σ = 0.22 ± 0.08 eV) and (b) conversion of sp3- to sp2-bonded carbon (E ± σ = 3.0 ± 1.1 eV). The experimental res...
Dynamics and Correlates of Microscopic Changes in Affect

How are momentary microscopic assessments of behavioral dynamics related to traditional macroscopic, static measures? The present study used the computerized “mouse paradigm” to assess near-instantaneous changes in affect over a short time. Dynamic indices were computed from approximately 1400 measurements from the last 2.5 minutes of a 3-minute assessment. Subjects monitored and reported emotional states by moving a cursor along a dimension from “Sadder” to “Happier.” They also completed self-report measures: Scales 2 (Depression) and 9 (Mania) of the MMPI-2, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale, and the Wisconsin scales of Physical Anhedonia and Hypomanic traits. The instantaneous data yielded a summary measure of mean affect, as well as indices of variability. Complexity indices were derived and examined. Mean affect ratings correlated in expected directions with the paper and pencil measures. There was evidence for low-dimensional chaos in short-term affect dynamics. As hypothesized, greater complexity was associated with Pleasant Affect and Hypomania but was negatively correlated with Anhedonia.
Interaction of ergovaline with serotonin receptor 5-HT2A in bovine ruminal and mesenteric vasculature.

Ergot alkaloids from endophyte-infected (Epichloe coenophiala) tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum) induce vasoconstriction. Previous work has shown that serotonin receptor subtype, 5HT2A, is present in bovine ruminal (R) and mesenteric (M) vasculature, plays a role in vasoconstriction, and could be influenced by ergot alkaloids. To determine the influence of ergot alkaloids on 5HT2A, the vasoactivity of an agonist selective for 5HT2A, (4-bromo-3,6-dimethoxybenzocyclobuten-1-yl) methylamine HCl (TCB-2), was evaluated using bovine ruminal and mesenteric arteries and veins (RA, RV, MA, MV) that were exposed to ergovaline (ERV) prior to or during the TCB-2 additions. Ruminal and mesenteric blood vessel segments were collected, cleaned, and cut into 2- to 3-mm cross-sections. Vessel segments were incubated in Krebs-Henseleit buffer containing 0, 0.01 or 1 µM ERV for 2 h prior to TCB-2 dose response or exposed to ERV concentrations simultaneously during TCB-2 dose response. For the dose response portion of the study, vessels were suspended in a multimyograph containing 5 mL of continuously oxygenated Krebs-Henseleit buffer and equilibrated to 1 g tension for 90 min. Vessels were exposed to increasing concentrations of TCB-2 every 15 min and contractile response data were normalized as a percentage of the maximum contractile response induced by 120 mM KCl reference. Analysis of variance was evaluated separately for each vessel and each ERV exposure experiment using the mixed models procedure of SAS for effects of TCB-2 and ERV concentrations. All blood vessels with previous ERV exposure had significantly lower contractile responses to TCB-2 (P 0.05), but decreased contractility of RA (P < 0.01). These results indicate that ergopeptine alkaloid exposure influences contractility of bovine ruminal and mesenteric blood vessels through serotonin receptor subtype 5HT2A by acting as both an agonist and antagonist. Additional work is needed to determine if ergot alkaloids like ERV simply occupy receptor binding sites competitively, or influence receptor internalization to cause the observed divergent responses.
How Second-Grade English Learners Experienced Dyad Reading with Fiction and Nonfiction Texts

Dyad reading is a modified version of the Neurological Impress Method in which a lead reader and an assisted reader sit side by side and read aloud a shared text in unison. This cooperative peer-assisted reading strategy has been shown to be effective in helping English-proficient and English-learning children. What is unclear is how dyad reading is applied and experienced by children and if and how it varies with different genres. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experiences of two second-grade English Learners (ELs) as they participated in dyad reading with English-proficient partners using both fiction and nonfiction texts. Adaptations made during the study that improved the experience included holding daily class discussions about dyad reading, implementing book logs to increase student accountability, refreshing the classroom library often, and encouraging more discussion between partners about texts. Results indicated that participant attitudes and relationships improved and their self-perceptions were positive. ELs evidenced confidence as readers and a sense of satisfaction and success. The participants, who had limited exposure to nonfiction texts prior to the study, indicated a clear understanding of and appreciation for both fiction and nonfiction. Of these two major genres, nonfiction provided more opportunities for partners to interact and have discussions during dyad reading.
Reconstitution of eukaryotic chromosomes and manipulation of DNA N6-methyladenine alters chromatin and gene expression

DNA N6-adenine methylation (6mA) has recently been reported in diverse eukaryotes, spanning unicellular organisms to metazoans. Yet the functional significance of 6mA remains elusive due to its low abundance, difficulty of manipulation within native DNA, and lack of understanding of eukaryotic 6mA writers. Here, we report a novel DNA 6mA methyltransferase in ciliates, termed MTA1. The enzyme contains an MT-A70 domain but is phylogenetically distinct from all known RNA and DNA methyltransferases. Disruption of MTA1 in vivo leads to the genome-wide loss of 6mA in asexually growing cells and abolishment of the consensus ApT dimethylated motif. Genes exhibit subtle changes in chromatin organization or RNA expression upon loss of 6mA, depending on their starting methylation level. Mutants fail to complete the sexual cycle, which normally coincides with a peak of MTA1 expression. Thus, MTA1 functions in a developmental stage-specific manner. We determine the impact of 6mA on chromatin organization in vitro by reconstructing complete, full-length ciliate chromosomes harboring 6mA in native or ectopic positions. Using these synthetic chromosomes, we show that 6mA directly disfavors nucleosomes in vitro in a local, quantitative manner, independent of DNA sequence. Furthermore, the chromatin remodeler ACF can overcome this effect. Our study identifies a novel MT-A70 protein necessary for eukaryotic 6mA methylation and defines the impact of 6mA on chromatin organization using epigenetically defined synthetic chromosomes.
The deposit feeder Capitella teleta has a unique and relatively complex microbiome likely supporting its ability to degrade pollutants.

Abstract Capitella teleta is a sediment-dwelling marine polychaete that is often found in high densities in association with organic matter and pollutants. While C. teleta has been reported to transform a variety of aromatic hydrocarbons, the mechanisms by which degradation occurs are unknown. Moreover, there is continuing debate on the role of host and microbiota in degradation activity. The aims of this study were to characterize the gut microbiome of C. teleta and to identify microbiota that could potentially play a role in degradation of organic matter and aromatic hydrocarbons. Sequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA genes from the intestinal tracts of adult worms revealed a unique microbiome that was distinct from that of the worm's sediment food source and fecal pellets. About 66% of the 775 identified OTUs from the C. teleta gut microbiome were found to be unique to the worm and displayed high inter-individual variability. The gut microbiome was dominated by members of the genera Arcobacter, Pseudoalteromonas, Methylobacterium, and Propionibacterium. Functional analyses of microbiota revealed that hydrocarbon treatment led to a proliferation of gene classes involved in chemoheterotrophy and aromatic compound degradation. Of the 18 most abundant taxa identified, 50% were members of genera containing hydrocarbon (PAH)-degrading members, including Acinetobacter, Thalassotalea, and Achromobacter. Data obtained in this study will be useful to understand the biology of this marine polychaete and to elucidate the role that gut bacteria play in worm catabolism and the transformation of sediment organic pollutants.
Mixed Reality Lab at Mississippi State University Libraries

Virtual and Augmented Realities are advancing technologies that are becoming more popular in gaming and programming communities. However, virtual reality has been in development for decades. As lib...
Predictors of Poor Outcomes in Patients with Heart Failure and Sepsis

Background Sepsis management in patients with heart failure (HF) is complex and challenging. Currently, there is limited data about the predictors of poor outcomes in patient with HF that are hospitalized with sepsis. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study of patients with a diagnosis of heart failure and sepsis that were hospitalized between January 2015 to December 2018. The primary outcome was overall and in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes predictors of poor outcomes in patients with sepsis and ADHF. Results This cohort of 1110 patients included 443/1110 (56%) men with a mean age of 75±14 (see Table I for baseline characteristics). A total of 320/1110 patients with heart failure and sepsis experienced death during the initial hospitalization. Markers of clinically relevant outcomes are listed in Table I. A logistic regression was performed for all relevant variables and demonstrated that acute kidney injury, lactic acidosis, elevated BUN, and low systolic blood pressure were strong indicators of poor outcomes in patients with heart failure and sepsis (p-value Conclusions Predictors of poor outcome among patients with sepsis and HF are crucial. Our model showed that the presence of acute kidney injury during hospitalization, low blood pressure, elevated BUN and the need for vasopressors are predicting mortality in this special population. Further studies are recommended to test this hypothesis.
Yezidis in ancient India, or Indians in ancient Mesopotamia?: Re-imagining Ancient Yezidi Origins

Members and leaders of the Kurdish speaking Yezidi diaspora in Phoenix, Arizona—and transnationally—are in dialogue with members of the Indian diaspora about their common historical connections. “Are Yezidis from ancient India, or are Indians from ancient Mesopotamia?” Both of these claims and hypotheses situate Yezidis on the outside of a historical Muslim world, and have material effects. They add validity to non-Muslim traditions, by imagining a historical cultural root structure between India and Mesopotamia. They also help both Hindu nationalists and Yezidis to displace historical Muslim culture and dominance to somewhere else while reinforcing tropes of Islam synonymous with the “war on terror.” By de-historicising Islam and its presence in the Middle East and in India, Hindu and Yezidi community leaders co-imagine a pan-polytheism with roots in ancient Persian (Kurdish) Yezidi culture and language. The symbols that can be recognized today that span both traditions— the peacock, the peacock statue (sanjak), and the use of fire in places of worship—give testament to that imagined past. The contradictions of that historical narrative point to the limits of this historical work in the two communities, and find limits in modern identity articulations of Yezidi identity and Hindu identity alike. Material effects of the historical narrative include Indian imagery on the wall of Lalish, online circulating images and articles equating Yezidis to Hindus, and common activism, fundraising, and humanitarianism between Yezidi and Hindu communities in Phoenix, India, and in the Middle East.
Postgrowth Imaginaries: New Ecologies and Counterhegemonic Culture in Post-2008 Spain - Conclusion

This chapter summarizes the main findings of the book, providing a reflection on the best and worst cultural strategies for challenging the dominant imaginary and creating counterhegemonic practices and narratives. It closes with a call for greater experimentation with cultural practices that move beyond the growth paradigm, as well as a plea to cultural critics to embrace environmental humanities frameworks in order to envision the massive implications of an emerging postgrowth economic culture. Postgrowth Imaginaries suggests that the only desirable way to overcome the existential crisis brought on by subscribing to the growth paradigm is to conceive of a socially just and ecologically viable postgrowth imaginary and create the conditions necessary for such a society to emerge. Postgrowth Imaginaries shows that such a transition is currently well under way in the Iberian Peninsula and is also a part of an emerging global trend that is crossing all borders.
Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: A Clinical Exercise

The growth of new clinical knowledge continues to challenge how surgery is practiced, and several types of literature reviews attempt to consolidate this expansion of information. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis are common methodologies that integrate findings on the same subject collected from different studies. Unlike a systematic review, a meta-analysis arrives at a conclusion backed by quantitative analysis. This chapter provides an overview of the principles, application, and limitations of these methods, which is fundamental to interpreting and critiquing their results.
Symbioses among ants and microbes

Ants have been shown to engage in symbiosis across the tree of life, although our knowledge is far from complete. These interactions range from mutualistic to parasitic with several instances of manipulation of host behavior. Nutrient contributions in these symbioses include both farming for food and nitrogen recycling by gut-associated microbes. Interestingly, the ants that are mostly likely to host diverse and likely functional gut microbial communities are those that feed on extreme diets. Although we do see many instances of symbiosis between ants and microbes, there are also examples of species without a functional gut microbiome. Symbiosis among microbes and eukaryotic hosts is common and often considered a hallmark of multicellular evolution [ 1 ]. This is true among many of the over 13 000 species of ants, although symbiosis between ants and microbes are not ubiquitous. These microbial-ant symbiotic interactions span the tree of life and include microbial eukaryotes, fungi, viruses, and bacteria. These interactions range from pathogenic to mutualistic, with many relationships still not well understood. Although our knowledge of the diversity of these microbes in ants is growing rapidly, and in some cases we know the function and interaction with the host, we still have much to learn about — the little things that run the little things that run the world!
Hysteresis in poly‐2′‐deoxycytidine i‐motif folding is impacted by the method of analysis as well as loop and stem lengths

In DNA, i-motif (iM) folds occur under slightly acidic conditions when sequences rich in 2'-deoxycytidine (dC) nucleotides adopt consecutive dC self base pairs. The pH stability of an iM is defined by the midpoint in the pH transition (pHT ) between the folded and unfolded states. Two different experiments to determine pHT values via circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy were performed on poly-dC iMs of length 15, 19, or 23 nucleotides. These experiments demonstrate two points: (1) pHT values were dependent on the titration experiment performed, and (2) pH-induced denaturing or annealing processes produced isothermal hysteresis in the pHT values. These results in tandem with model iMs with judicious mutations of dC to thymidine to favor particular folds found the hysteresis was maximal for the shorter poly-dC iMs and those with an even number of base pairs, while the hysteresis was minimal for longer poly-dC iMs and those with an odd number of base pairs. Experiments to follow the iM folding via thermal changes identified thermal hysteresis between the denaturing and annealing cycles. Similar trends were found to those observed in the CD experiments. The results demonstrate that the method of iM analysis can impact the pHT parameter measured, and hysteresis was observed in the pHT and Tm values.
Biosignal Oversampling Using Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Network

Oversampling plays a vital role in improving the minority-class classification accuracy for imbalanced biomedical datasets. In this work, we propose a single-channel biosignal data generation method by exploiting the advancements in well-established image-based Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). We have implemented a Wasserstein GAN (WGAN) to generate synthetic electrocardiogram (ECG) signal, due to their stability in training as well as correlation of the loss function with the generated image quality. We first trained the WGAN with fixed-dimensional images of the signal and generated synthetic data with similar characteristics. Two evaluation methods were then used for evaluating the efficiency of the proposed technique in generating synthetic ECG data. We used Frechet Inception Distance score for measuring synthetic image quality. We then performed a binary classification of normal and abnormal (Anterior Myocardial Infarction) ECG using Support Vector Machine to verify the performance of the proposed method as an oversampling technique.
Technological Solutions to Overtourism: Potential and Limits

Overtourism is a pressing issue for tourism destinations, including those whose attractiveness and experiential offerings are based on natural resources. The relationship between overtourism and technology is complicated, but technological solutions are generally seen as critical for overcoming or at least mitigating overtourism and its negative consequences for destinations. This chapter discusses a variety of smart technologies and illustrates how they can support smart tourism initiatives aimed at avoiding or solving overtourism issues and increasing overall sustainability at the destination. In addition to highlighting various solution potentials, this chapter also discusses the possible drawbacks of smart technology use in light of the specific characteristics of nature-based destinations. It concludes that comprehensive and holistic strategies based on a combination of technological and governance-related solutions are needed to combat the potentially detrimental effects of overtourism in nature-based destinations.
Evaluating the effect of ionic strength on PNA:DNA duplex formation kinetics.

Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is a unique synthetic nucleic acid analog that has been adopted for use in many biological applications. These applications rely upon the robust Franklin–Watson–Crick base pairing provided by PNA, particularly at lower ionic strengths. However, our understanding of the relationship between the kinetics of PNA:DNA hybridization and ionic strength is incomplete. Here we measured the kinetics of association and dissociation of PNA with DNA across a range of ionic strengths and temperatures at single-molecule resolution using total internal reflection fluorescence imaging. Unlike DNA:DNA duplexes, PNA:DNA duplexes are more stable at lower ionic strength, and we demonstrate that this is due to a higher association rate. While the dissociation rate of PNA:DNA duplexes is largely insensitive to ionic strength, it is significantly lower than that of DNA:DNA duplexes having the same number and sequence of base pairing interactions. The temperature dependence of PNA:DNA kinetic rate constants indicate a significant enthalpy barrier to duplex dissociation, and to a lesser extent, duplex formation. This investigation into the kinetics of PNA:DNA hybridization provides a framework towards better understanding and design of PNA sequences for future applications.
Learning Stable Classifiers by Transferring Unstable Features.

We study transfer learning in the presence of spurious correlations. We experimentally demonstrate that directly transferring the stable feature extractor learned on the source task may not eliminate these biases for the target task. However, we hypothesize that the unstable features in the source task and those in the target task are directly related. By explicitly informing the target classifier of the source task's unstable features, we can regularize the biases in the target task. Specifically, we derive a representation that encodes the unstable features by contrasting different data environments in the source task. On the target task, we cluster data from this representation, and achieve robustness by minimizing the worst-case risk across all clusters. We evaluate our method on both text and image classifications. Empirical results demonstrate that our algorithm is able to maintain robustness on the target task, outperforming the best baseline by 22.9% in absolute accuracy across 12 transfer settings. Our code is available at this https URL.
An exact quantum theory for photoemission from dielectric coated metal surfaces under a dc bias

Photoelectron emission is important for many applications, such as free electron lasers (FELs), ultrashort X-ray sources, time-resolved electron microscopes, ultrafast electron diffraction, and novel nano-electronics [1] - [4] . For stable operation of cathodes, surface coatings are fabricated to protect them from degradation by ions and electrons bombardment and oxidization. There are also native oxides and adsorbates formed on the emitter surface under poor vacuum conditions. These coatings have a strong impact on electron emission. In this study, we construct an analytical quantum theory for photoemission from metal surfaces coated with an ultrathin dielectric under a dc bias, by exactly solving the one-dimensional (1D) time-dependent Schrodinger equation subject to a double-triangular potential barrier. The theory includes the effects of metal properties (i.e. work function and Fermi level), dielectric properties (i.e. thickness, relative permittivity, and electron affinity), laser field (i.e. strength and wavelength), and dc field. Our results show that the introduction of dielectric coating can induce resonance behavior, which is ascribed to the electron wave interference inside the dielectric. Our model is compared with the effective single-barrier quantum model [3] , [5] and modified Fowler-Nordheim equation [6] , for both 1D flat cathodes and pyramid-shaped plasmonic resonant nanoemitters. The latter with coating can emit photoemission current orders of magnitude higher than those without coating [6] . For the special case of zero laser field, an empirical relation between the threshold dielectric thickness and threshold dielectric relative permittivity is given for the condition under which the dc field emission current can be enhanced by adding a surface coating [4] . This work provides insights for designing cathodes of higher efficiency and better stability.
The Standards-Based Administrative Internship: Putting the ISLLC Standards into Practice

1 Planning an Effective Internship Experience 2 A Vision for Success 3 A Culture for Learning and Growth 4 Managing Change 5 Developing Collaborative Partnerships 6 Demonstrating Ethical Leadership 7 Leading Schools in Context 8 Concluding and Assessing the Internship Experience
Density-Functional Studies of the Atom-Surface Interaction and the Ionization Probability of Sputtered Atoms

A brief description of studies of the atom-surface interaction using density-functional methods is given. The ionization probability of atoms sputtered from metal surfaces is then discussed using results of these studies in conjunction with a resonant tunnelling approach. Good agreement of this theory with experimental data of Yu on the sputtering of adsorbed alkali atoms is obtained.