cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Battle scars: SAP and CRP

Forty-five percent of deaths in the United States are linked to fibrosis—the formation of scars on internal organs. Two proteins found in the blood, serum amyloid protein (SAP) and C-reactive protein (CRP), have opposite effects on fibrosis, despite extremely similar amino acid sequences and propensities to bind the same Fcγ receptors. Cox et al. reasoned that sugar groups added to SAP but not CRP after translation of the gene into protein might contribute to determining their divergent effects. The team used in vitro culture of mouse and human macrophages to demonstrate that, contrary to long-held beliefs, binding to Fcγ receptors was required for the proinflammatory behavior of CRP, but not for the anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic behavior of SAP. Enzymatic removal of the posttranslational sugar groups abrogated these behaviors of SAP, whereas adding the sugar groups using genetic modifications made CRP behave like SAP. Because the immune cell surface receptor DC-SIGN has been shown to bind other glycosylated proteins, the team set out to determine whether this receptor was involved in immune cell distinction between SAP and CRP. SAP and glycosylated CRP, but not native CRP, were able to bind to DC-SIGN, and immune cells from mice lacking DC-SIGN did not experience the antifibrotic effects of SAP. Last, systemic administration of a synthetic compound that mimics the actions of SAP by binding to DC-SIGN ameliorated drug-induced lung inflammation and fibrosis in mice. This effect required the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Interestingly, the cells that were responsible for expression of DC-SIGN and IL10 in the mice were epithelial cells, not immune cells, indicating that the quest to discover SAP’s mechanism of action does not end here. Although the role of the immune system in mediating the anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic effects of SAP remains unclear, this study exemplified the steps to take in developing new compounds to treat specific diseases. N. Cox et al ., DC-SIGN activation mediates the differential effects of SAP and CRP on the innate immune system and inhibits fibrosis in mice. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 10.1073/pnas.1500956112 (2015). [[Abstract]][1] [1]: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/06/23/1500956112.short
MONITORING OF EFFICACY IN DISPOSAL OF MEDICAL INSTITUTION SEWAGE IN WENZHOU

Objective To know the condition of disposal and discharge of medical institution sewage in Wenzhou in order to provide basis for strengthening administration.Methods On-the-spot investigation and monitoring were used to survey the condition in hospitals at municipal level and over and private hospitals.Results The primary treatment of sewage was used mostly in medical institutions of Wenzhou.Chlorine dioxide was used in 61.54% of the sewage disposal ponds for disinfection of sewage.The average rate of dis-monitoring of the equipment failure was 19.08%.212 samples were examined from 2004 through 2008,the eligible rate of total chlorine was 40.09%,that of chemical oxygen demand(COD) was 14.46%,that of suspended solids(SS) was 24.66%,the rate of fecal coli group exceeding allowable limit was 18.87%,Salmonella and Shigella were not detected.Conclusions The eligible rates of test items of medical institution sewage in Wenzhou were low.It is necessary to strengthen administration and supervision and increase secondary treatment of sewage.
Effectively Propositional Interpolants

We present a novel interpolation algorithm for effectively propositional logic (epr), a decidable fragment of first-order logic that enjoys a small-model property. epr is a powerful fragment of quantified formulas that has been used to model and verify a range of programs, including heap-manipulating programs and distributed protocols. Our interpolation technique samples finite models from two sides of the interpolation problem and generalizes them to learn a quantified interpolant. Our results demonstrate our technique’s ability to compute universally-quantified, existentially-quantified, as well as alternation-free interpolants and inductive invariants, thus improving the state of the art.
Potential sea salt aerosol sources from frost flowers in the pan-Arctic region

In order to better represent observed wintertime aerosol mass and number concentrations in the pan-Arctic (60°N-90°N) region, we implemented an observationally-based parameterization for estimating sea salt production from frost flowers in the Community Earth System Model (CESM, version 1.2.1). In this work, we evaluate the potential influence of this sea salt source on the pan-Arctic climate. Results show that frost flower salt emissions increase the modeled surface sea salt aerosol mass concentration by roughly 200% at Barrow and 100% at Alert and accumulation-mode number concentration by about a factor of 2 at Barrow and more than a factor of 10 at Alert in the winter months when new sea ice and frost flowers are present. The magnitude of sea salt aerosol mass and number concentrations at the surface in Barrow during winter simulated by the model configuration that includes this parameterization agrees better with observations by 48% and 12%, respectively, than the standard CESM simulation without a frost-flower salt particle source. At Alert, the simulation with this parameterization overestimates observed sea salt aerosol mass concentration by 150% during winter in contrast to the underestimation of 63% in the simulation without this frost flower source, while it produces particle number concentration about 14% closer to observation than the standard CESM simulation. However, because the CESM version used here underestimates transported sulfate in winter, the reference accumulation-mode number concentrations at Alert are also underestimated. Adding these frost flower salt particle emissions increases sea salt aerosol optical depth by 10% in the pan-Arctic region and results in a small cooling at the surface. The increase in salt aerosol mass concentrations of a factor of 8 provides nearly two times the cloud condensation nuclei concentration at supersaturation of 0.1%, as well as 10% increases in cloud droplet number and 40% increases in liquid water content near coastal regions adjacent to continents. These cloud changes reduce longwave cloud forcing at the top of the atmosphere by 3% and cause a small surface warming, increasing the downward longwave flux at the surface by 1.8 W m-2 in the pan-Arctic under the present-day climate. This regional average longwave warming due to the presence of clouds attributed to frost flower sea salts is roughly half of previous observed surface longwave fluxes and cloud-forcing estimates reported in Alaska, implying that the longwave enhancement due to frost flower salts may be comparable to those estimated for anthropogenic aerosol emissions. Since the potential frost flower area is parameterized as the maximum possible region on which frost flowers grow for the modeled atmospheric temperature and sea ice conditions and the model underestimates the number of accumulation-mode particles from mid-latitude anthropogenic sources transported in winter, the calculated aerosol indirect effect of frost flower sea salts in this work can be regarded as an upper bound.
‘You Had to Cover Nadia Comaneci’: ‘Points of Change’ in Coverage of Women’s Sport

AbstractIn the 1970s, women’s sport underwent significant change in the United States resulting in an increase of participation opportunities and funding at the interscholastic, intercollegiate, professional and international levels. Yet, media outlets continued to ignore women and, at best, portray them in gender stereotypical ways. Considering the lack of progress for women in sports media coverage, this study employs sport historian Jaime Schultz’s ‘points of change’ framework in order to identify those moments that constituted an ideological shift in the process of covering women’s sport. Drawing upon oral history interviews with journalists who wrote about women’s sport in the 1970s and 1980s, this research provides a deeper look into how journalists experienced and addressed the shifting gender ideologies of the time period. Journalists’ memories, accompanied by their articles, reveal how media practitioners negotiated meanings about femininity and athleticism in response to events that challenged d...
Toward National Estimates of Effectiveness of Treatment for Substance Use.

OBJECTIVE To estimate how results would have varied if a substance abuse clinical trial had been conducted with nationally representative adults with substance use and with representative adults receiving substance use treatment. METHODS Results were analyzed from a multisite clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of the Therapeutic Education System to treatment as usual for outpatient addiction treatment (n = 507). Patients were recruited between June 2010 and August 2011. Abstinence was the primary outcome. The general population sample and general population-treated samples were derived from Wave 1 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) (n = 43,093). Propensity scores provided a standardized measure of the difference between clinical trial participants and the 2 NESARC samples. The clinical trial was reanalyzed by reweighting the sample with propensity scores derived from the 2 samples to obtain generalizable estimates of treatment effects. RESULTS Before the clinical trial sample was reweighted, the odds ratio (OR) of response to Therapeutic Education System versus treatment as usual in the trial was 1.62 (95% CI, 1.12-2.35). After the sample was reweighted to be representative of the 2 NESARC groups, ORs were 1.33 (95% CI, 0.34-5.26) for the representative sample with any substance use and 1.64 (95% CI, 0.82-3.27) for the representative treated sample. CONCLUSIONS Applying propensity score weighting to clinical trial results provides a method for estimating the population generalizability of clinical trial findings that relies on effect moderators observed in the study sample and population. Broader confidence intervals in the reweighted samples do not necessarily indicate lack of efficacy of the Therapeutic Education System but rather greater uncertainty concerning effectiveness in general population samples.
A Phase II Study of Oral Interferon-Alpha (IFN-a) for Patients with Essential Thrombocythemia or Polycythemia Vera.

Recombinant human IFN-α has been the mainstay of therapy for patients with Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative disorders for many years. However, the response rates of IFN-α therapy have been frequently challenged by high dropout rates due to side effects and inconvenient subcutaneous dosing schedules. Accordingly, we design a phase II study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of natural human IFN-α administered by the oral mucosal route in patients (pts) with essential thrombocythemia (ET) or polycythemia vera (PV). Pts were eligible if they had failed (inability to normalize platelet count in ET, or to reduce the frequency of phlebotomy or splenomegaly by 50% in PV, after 6 months of therapy with hydroxyurea (HU) and anagrelide (AG)), were intolerant to HU and AG, or refused to receive standard cytoreductive therapy. HU or AG therapy had to be stopped at least 3 weeks prior to start of oral IFN-α. Prior exposure to IFN-α was not allowed. Oral IFN-α was administered at 150 IU three times daily as a lozenge. A total of 14 pts (8 PV, 6 ET) have been treated. Median age was 57 (range, 32 to 79), time from diagnosis to oral IFN-α therapy 2 months (range, 0 to 32), Hb 14.2 gm/dL (range, 11.2 to 15.4), WBC 9.75 ×10 9 /L, (range, 5.6 to 17.3), platelets 812 ×10 9 /L (range, 360 to 1389). Five patients were previously treated with HU, four with AG, and 3 with imatinib mesylate. Six pts with PV had received phlebotomies and 2 presented with marked splenomegaly. The JAK2 V617F mutation was detected in 10 of 11 evaluated pts and 2 of 14 pts (14%) had abnormal cytogenetics. All 14 pts are evaluable for response and toxicity. No responses have been observed among any of the 14 pts treated. Ten (71%) pts discontinued oral IFN-α therapy due to lack of response (n=9) or disease progression (n=1, elevation of platelets), and 4 are currently on therapy. Duration of therapy varied: 2.5 months = 2 pts, 3 months = 6 pts, 4 months = 4 pts, 6 months = 2 pts. Therapy with oral IFN-α was very well tolerated: grade 1 headache was noted in 2 pts, and grade 1 paresthesia in 1 pt. We conclude that oral IFN-α is very well tolerated but has no activity in the treatment of pts with ET or PV at the dose and schedule employed in this study.
Analysis of 2019 Patients Undergoing Revision Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction From a Community-Based Registry.

Background:Knowledge of patient characteristics, surgical fixation, graft choice, outcomes, and concurrent injuries of revision anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) is limited.Purpose:T...
Antiglomerular Basement Membrane Disease in a Pediatric Patient: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Goodpasture’s syndrome (GPS) remains a very rare disease entity in the pediatric population characterized by the presence of pulmonary hemorrhage and rapidly evolving glomerulonephritis. We hereby describe the case of a 2-year-old girl who presented with renal failure and was diagnosed with GPS. A brief review of the literature in regard to data on demographics, pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis for renal recovery is also provided.
Intercultural communication as a situated, culturally complex, interactional achievement

The field of intercultural communication includes a variety of productive theoretical approaches as well as different methodological commitments. Some studies are built on the basis of self-report measures, aggregate tendencies, and/or resulting scores within and across national populations. This article focuses on a different kind of empirical study that is based upon careful observations of actual intercultural interactions and interpretations which honor the participants’ views of those interactions. The article first diagrams the process of intercultural communication as a situated, cultural accomplishment. Next, distinct and complementary modes of analyses for phases of such study are presented. Finally, specific goals and eventual insights are discussed.
Working for the Weekend: A Response to Kessler & Pozen

In Working Themselves Impure: A Life Cycle Theory of Legal Theories, Professors Jeremy Kessler and David Pozen argue that prescriptive legal theories tend to cannibalize themselves over time. Drawing on four case studies (originalism, textualism, popular constitutionalism, and cost-benefit analysis), the authors show how these theories tend to gain popularity and momentum only at the cost of abandoning the theoretical and normative motivations that originally inspired them. This brief Response does not take issue - at least not directly - with the authors’ characterizations of the theories they examine. It instead focuses on the last few pages of their article, where the authors discuss what they take to be their study’s methodological implications. I focus on these methodological suggestions because they deal most directly with a question their study as a whole naturally invites: Is the life-cycle theory likely to be helpful to the lawyer, judge, or legal scholar interested in assessing these theories? I offer some reasons for skepticism on this score.
Evaluation of dose and outcomes for pediatric vilazodone ingestions

AbstractBackground: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) exposures among children younger than 6 years of age are generally well tolerated. Vilazodone is an SSRI with partial agonism at the 5-HT1A receptor with demonstrated clinical efficacy for depression whose off-label usage is likely to increase. Recent evidence suggests that unintentional ingestion of vilazodone in children under 6 years old is associated with more severe clinical effects than other SSRIs. We chose to evaluate dose and outcomes for pediatric vilazodone ingestions.Methods: A retrospective analysis of single-substance exposures associated with vilazodone among children younger than 6 years of age from 2011 through 2016 was conducted using data from the National Poison Data System.Results: During 2011–2016, 753 vilazodone ingestions among children <6 years old were reported to US poison control centers. A near majority (49.0%, n = 369) experienced one or more clinical effects. The dose ingested was reported for 596 children (79...
Julienne: A Framework for Parallel Graph Algorithms using Work-efficient Bucketing

Existing graph-processing frameworks let users develop efficient implementations for many graph problems, but none of them support efficiently bucketing vertices, which is needed for bucketing-based graph algorithms such as \Delta-stepping and approximate set-cover. Motivated by the lack of simple, scalable, and efficient implementations of bucketing-based algorithms, we develop the Julienne framework, which extends a recent shared-memory graph processing framework called Ligra with an interface for maintaining a collection of buckets under vertex insertions and bucket deletions. We provide a theoretically efficient parallel implementation of our bucketing interface and study several bucketing-based algorithms that make use of it (either bucketing by remaining degree or by distance) to improve performance: the peeling algorithm for k-core (coreness), \Delta-stepping, weighted breadth-first search, and approximate set cover. The implementations are all simple and concise (under 100 lines of code). Using our interface, we develop the first work-efficient parallel algorithm for k-core in the literature with nontrivial parallelism. We experimentally show that our bucketing implementation scales well and achieves high throughput on both synthetic and real-world workloads. Furthermore, the bucketing-based algorithms written in Julienne achieve up to 43x speedup on 72 cores with hyper-threading over well-tuned sequential baselines, significantly outperform existing work-inefficient implementations in Ligra, and either outperform or are competitive with existing special-purpose parallel codes for the same problem. We experimentally study our implementations on the largest publicly available graphs and show that they scale well in practice, processing real-world graphs with billions of edges in seconds, and hundreds of billions of edges in a few minutes. As far as we know, this is the first time that graphs at this scale have been analyzed in the main memory of a single multicore machine.
Psychopathic traits linked to alterations in neural activity during personality judgments of self and others.

Abstract Psychopathic individuals are notorious for their grandiose sense of self-worth and disregard for the welfare of others. One potential psychological mechanism underlying these traits is the relative consideration of “self” versus “others”. Here we used task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify neural responses during personality trait judgments about oneself and a familiar other in a sample of adult male incarcerated offenders (n = 57). Neural activity was regressed on two clusters of psychopathic traits: Factor 1 (e.g., egocentricity and lack of empathy) and Factor 2 (e.g., impulsivity and irresponsibility). Contrary to our hypotheses, Factor 1 scores were not significantly related to neural activity during self- or other-judgments. However, Factor 2 traits were associated with diminished activation to self-judgments, in relation to other-judgments, in bilateral posterior cingulate cortex and right temporoparietal junction. These findings highlight cortical regions associated with a dimension of social-affective cognition that may underlie psychopathic individuals' impulsive traits.
Interactions Among the Nervous, Endocrine and Immune Systems (Nim)

Almost every known endocrine substance directly affects both the nervous and immune systems. This is true also of many neurally-active polypeptides and other neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Thus, there is a constant interaction between the nervous and immune systems in all vertebrates, and probably in all invertebrates, although many immunologists would deny the existence of an “immune” system in invertebrates. In fact, all animals have a host-defense system and even unicellular animals exhibit reflex reactions and other complex behaviors, although they do not have multi-cellular nervous systems.
Hobbes’s Entanglement with the Excluded Middle in his Theory of Man and Politics

Characteristically Hobbes defines a topic and then negates it by its opposite, and in doing so creates contradictories, not just contraries. The invariable result is that he cannot cope with the development of the topic without raising problems of interpretation both for himself and for his critical readers. My primary intent here is to point to a number of these contradictories and to show that in coming to terms with the problems of politics he is constrained to transform contradictories into contraries. Secondly, I wish to show how Hobbes’s style of dealing with these matters lends itself to a variety of incompatible scholarly interpretations, which, though textually grounded, produce endless controversy. Prior to discussing the question of the use of the excluded middle in his philosophy, I shall note something of the range of interpretations scholars have made of his theory of man and politics. I conclude by showing the one-sidedness of commentators’ interpretations that fail to acknowledge the distinction between contraries and contradictories as they appear in his basic philosophy.
Guidelines for Implementing ArcGIS API for Flex Developers

The ArcGIS Flex API from the Environmental Science Research Institute (ESRI) can produce rich, high-performing, engaging web mapping applications. It is usable out-of-the-box, with no programming needed. At the same time, there are significant programming resources available for those interested in customizing their maps. This discrepancy can be puzzling to those considering the option of using Flex because it is unclear how much programming is actually needed.
Intergenerational Mobility in the United States: What We Have Learned from the PSID:

This article reviews the contributions of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to the study of intergenerational mobility. The PSID enables researchers to track individuals as they form new households and covers many dimensions of socioeconomic status over large portions of the life cycle, making the data ideal for studying intergenerational mobility. Studies have used PSID data to show that the United States is among the least economically mobile countries among advanced economies. The PSID has been instrumental to understanding various dimensions of intergenerational mobility, including occupation; wealth; education; consumption; health; and group differences by gender, race, and region. Studies using the PSID have also cast light on the mechanisms behind intergenerational persistence.
Parietal Activation Associated With Target-Directed Right Hand Movement Is Lateralized by Mirror Feedback to the Ipsilateral Hemisphere

Current research shows promise in restoring impaired hand function after stroke with the help of Mirror Visual Feedback (MVF), putatively by facilitating activation of sensorimotor areas of the brain ipsilateral to the moving limb. However, the MVF related clinical effects show variability across studies. MVF tasks that have been used place varying amounts of visuomotor demand on one’s ability to complete the task. Therefore, we ask here whether varying visuomotor demand during MVF may translate to differences in brain activation patterns. If so, we argue that this may provide a mechanistic explanation for variable clinical effects. To address this, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the interaction of target directed movement and MVF on the activation of, and functional connectivity between, regions within the visuomotor network. In an event-related fMRI design, twenty healthy subjects performed finger flexion movements using their dominant right hand, with feedback presented in a virtual reality (VR) environment. Visual feedback was presented in real time VR as either veridical feedback with and without a target (VT+ and VT-, respectively), or MVF with and without a target (MT+ and MT-, respectively). fMRI contrasts revealed predominantly activation in the ipsilateral intraparietal sulcus for the main effect of MVF and bilateral superior parietal activation for the main effect of target. Importantly, we noted significant and robust activation lateralized to the ipsilateral parietal cortex alone in the MT+ contrast with respect to the other conditions. This suggests that combining MVF with targeted movements performed using the right hand may redirect enhanced bilateral parietal activation due to target presentation to the ipsilateral cortex. Moreover, functional connectivity analysis revealed that the interaction between the ipsilateral parietal lobe and the motor cortex was significantly greater during target-directed movements with mirror feedback compared to veridical feedback. These findings provide a normative basis to investigate the integrity of these networks in patient populations. Identification of the brain regions involved in target directed movement with MVF in stroke may have important implications for optimal delivery of MVF based therapy.
Adaptive kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of surface segregation in PdAu nanoparticles.

Surface segregation in bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) is critically important for their catalytic activity because the activity is largely determined by the surface composition. Little, however, is known about the atomic scale mechanisms and kinetics of surface segregation. One reason is that it is hard to resolve atomic rearrangements experimentally. It is also difficult to model surface segregation at the atomic scale because the atomic rearrangements can take place on time scales of seconds or minutes – much longer than can be modeled with molecular dynamics. Here we use the adaptive kinetic Monte Carlo (AKMC) method to model the segregation dynamics in PdAu NPs over experimentally relevant time scales, and reveal the origin of kinetic stability of the core@shell and random alloy NPs at the atomic level. Our focus on PdAu NPs is motivated by experimental work showing that both core@shell and random alloy PdAu NPs with diameters of less than 2 nm are stable, indicating that one of these structures must be metastable and kinetically trapped. Our simulations show that both the Au@Pd and the PdAu random alloy NPs are metastable and kinetically trapped below 400 K over time scales of hours. These AKMC simulations provide insight into the energy landscape of the two NP structures, and the diffusion mechanisms that lead to segregation. In the core–shell NP, surface segregation occurs primarily on the (100) facet through both a vacancy-mediated and a concerted mechanism. The system becomes kinetically trapped when all corner sites in the core of the NP are occupied by Pd atoms. Higher energy barriers are required for further segregation, so that the metastable NP has a partially alloyed shell. In contrast, surface segregation in the random alloy PdAu NP is suppressed because the random alloy NP has reduced strain as compared to the Au@Pd NP, and the segregation mechanisms in the alloy require more elastic energy for exchange of Pd and Au and between the surface and subsurface.
Lewis Acid-Catalyzed Additions of (Benzotriazol-1-yl)diethoxymethane to Enol Ethers and Enamides. New Syntheses of beta-Alkoxyalkanal and beta-Aminoalkanal Acetals.

Addition of (benzotriazol-1-yl)diethoxymethane 11 to various acyclic and cyclic enol ethers and enamides produces the corresponding adducts, which were reacted with either NaAlH4 or Grignard reagents to afford acyclic acetal-ethers (18a−f), cyclic α-(substituted)-β-acetals (19a−c), amino-acetals (24a,b), and 1,3-amino-ethers (25), all known but previously difficult-to-access classes of compounds.
Non-Contact Characterization of Antenna Parameters via One-Port Open-Fixture Network Calibration

We present a new technique to simultaneously determine the pattern, impedance, and gain of an antenna using a one-port vector network analyzer. The test antenna is treated as part of an open fixture and a self-defined calibration procedure is used to determine antenna parameters. As such, the test antenna does not require a direct connection to the network analyzer port. This non-contact technique is particularly useful for high-frequency antenna characterization, as the test antenna is simply terminated with known loads such as offset-shorts, and thus the potential intrusion of feed-lines and measurement equipment is avoided. As an example, a diagonal horn antenna operating over 360–500 GHz is characterized with the proposed technique. Measured E- and H- plane patterns, input impedance and gain show good agreement with the simulated results.
Modeling and Machine-Checking Bump-in-the-Wire Security for Industrial Control Systems

This chapter describes the formal modeling and machine-checking of a bump-in-the-wire device that secures field device communications in industrial control networks. Field devices serve as the connection points between computer-based control systems and the physical processes being controlled. Industrial control network traffic is routinely checked for transmission errors, but limited mechanisms are available for combating attacks that exploit industrial control protocols to target critical infrastructure assets.
About velocity and dealing with "fake" scientific news

When I embarked on the CCR adventure 15 years ago I did not expect it to be so exciting, fruitful, and life changing. I am describing here our motivation and approach, our successes and failures, with I hope a perceptible sense of humor.
Exploratory Laparotomy for Complications of Peptic Ulcer Disease

This chapter describes surgical techniques for complications of peptic ulcer disease by open technique. The text includes an introduction that outlines the indications, risks, alternatives, essential steps, needed equipment, and variations in technique for the procedure in question. This is followed by a template operative dictation, which provides the reader with an operative report, such as is found in a patient chart or electronic medical record. A description is provided of the following critical concepts for this procedure: identification of bleeding or perforation, surgical repair or resection, and possible acid-reducing techniques.
Percutaneous transcatheter occlusion of left atrioventricular valve in a patient with single ventricle and severe atrioventricular valve regurgitation.

Many patients with single ventricle physiology suffer from atrioventricular valve (AVV) regurgitation which may worsen their cardiac function and cause symptoms. It has been postulated that elimination of the nondominant hypoplastic AVV regurgitation, might improve the clinical status in patients post-Fontan surgery. We describe a case of hypoplastic left heart variant, post Fontan surgery who had severe left AVV regurgitation and underwent percutaneous transcatheter occlusion of the hypoplastic left AVV, using a VSD occluder device. At 3 months post procedure, the patient is improved. Transcatheter closure of a regurgitant hypoplastic AVV in a patient with single ventricle helps to improve the patient's cardiac function and clinical status.
SESTRINs: Emerging Dynamic Stress-Sensors in Metabolic and Environmental Health

Proper timely management of various external and internal stresses is critical for metabolic and redox homeostasis in mammals. In particular, dysregulation of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex (mTORC) triggered from metabolic stress and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated from environmental and genotoxic stress are well-known culprits leading to chronic metabolic disease conditions in humans. Sestrins are one of the metabolic and environmental stress-responsive groups of proteins, which solely have the ability to regulate both mTORC activity and ROS levels in cells, tissues and organs. While Sestrins are originally reported as one of several p53 target genes, recent studies have further delineated the roles of this group of stress-sensing proteins in the regulation of insulin sensitivity, glucose and fat metabolism, and redox-function in metabolic disease and aging. In this review, we discuss recent studies that investigated and manipulated Sestrins-mediated stress signaling pathways in metabolic and environmental health. Sestrins as an emerging dynamic group of stress-sensor proteins are drawing a spotlight as a preventive or therapeutic mechanism in both metabolic stress-associated pathologies and aging processes at the same time.
Testing the Savanna Hypothesis: Effect of Desert Landscape on Physiological Stress Recovery

Background: Evidence suggests that green environments are protective of health and wellbeing. Many of these studies evoke prospect-refuge theory that poses that savanna-like landscapes offer opport...
Polarization of arbitrary charge distributions: The classical electrodynamics perspective

Abstract The conventional definition of electric polarization as the “dipole moment per unit volume” is valid only for the special case of well-separated dipoles. An alternative general approach is to view polarization as a characteristic not of a single charge distribution but rather of an adiabatic transition between two nearby states. Polarization can then be rigorously defined as the integral of the current density over that transition. In contrast with the “Modern Theory of Polarization,” which is fully quantum-mechanical, in this paper polarization is considered from the classical perspective. Such treatment is less fundamental but simpler, has pedagogical advantages and, importantly, is subject to fewer constraints. Polarization can be rigorously and unambiguously defined for periodic or nonperiodic charge distributions, finite or infinite, microscale or macroscale, electrically neutral or non-neutral, continuous or discrete, at any temperature; polarization can be spontaneous or induced. A previous classical (non-quantum) analysis by Russakoff (Am J Phys 1970) was (i) limited to the Clausius–Mossotti/Lorenz–Lorentz model of molecular dipoles, and (ii) involves multipole expansions, which the analysis of this paper shows to be redundant. The traditional dipole model of polarization is a straightforward special case of the proposed definition. A number of illustrative examples are presented.
Changes in the Prevalence of Symptoms of Depression, Loneliness, and Insomnia in U.S. Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Look AHEAD Study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate changes in the prevalence of depressive symptoms, loneliness, and insomnia among older adults with type 2 diabetes from 2016 to 2020 and to assess risk factors for these conditions including demographics, multimorbidity, BMI, treatment group, and pre-coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) measure scores. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This was a prospective, observational study of participants from the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) cohort study. Data were from two assessments before COVID-19 (visit 1: April 2016-June 2018 and visit 2: February 2018-February 2020) and one assessment during COVID-19 (visit 3: July-December 2020). Surveys were administered to assess depressive symptoms, loneliness, and insomnia. RESULTS: The study included 2829 adults (63.2% female, 60.6% White, mean [SD] age 75.6 [6.0] years). The prevalence of mild or greater depressive symptoms did not change significantly between the two prepandemic visits (P = 0.88) but increased significantly from pre- to during COVID-19 (19.3% at V2 to 30.4% at V3; P < 0.001). Higher odds of mild or greater depressive symptoms at V3 were associated with being female (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.4 [95% CI 1.1-1.7]), identifying as non-Hispanic White (OR 1.4 [95% CI 1.1-1.7]), having obesity (OR 1.3 [95% CI 1.0-1.5]), and reporting mild or greater depressive symptoms at V1 (OR 4.0 [95% CI 2.9-5.4]), V2 (OR 4.4 [95% CI 3.2-5.9]), or both visits (OR 13.4 [95% CI 9.7-18.4]). The prevalence of loneliness increased from 12.3% at V1 to 22.1% at V3 (P < 0.001), while the prevalence of insomnia remained stable across visits at 31.5-33.3%. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of mild or greater depressive symptoms in older adults with diabetes was more than 1.6 times higher during COVID-19 than before the pandemic.
Online Arbitration Protocols

Arbitration has been moving online for some time, especially with the growth of Online Dispute Resolution (“ODR”), which includes using technology to assist online negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and variations thereof. Online Arbitration (“OArb”) is nonetheless a unique subset of ODR because it usually culminates in a final and binding award by a neutral third party that is enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) and other arbitration laws. Indeed, I have written about OArb on prior occasions, due to its unique status. However, OArb was relatively limited until the COVID-19 pandemic sparked its acceleration. It became the norm while in-person gatherings halted and courts closed, or severely limited the cases they could hear. Furthermore, most opine that OArb is here to stay due to its convenience and cost savings. The following is a chart that Mizzou Law student, Claire Mendes, and I put together noting main takeaways from a number of institutional OArb protocols. Although I identified most of the documents to be reviewed, Claire did the heavy lifting in putting the information into this chart. Thank you to Claire!
Basic Studies on Flame Stabilization

This is a report of initial studies to determine the mechanism of anchoring flame in high-velocity air-fuel streams. Simple bluff shapes were used as flame stabilizers in a constant area 1X 3-in. rectangular duct carrying homogeneous mixtures of air and gaseous fuel. The limiting gas velocity above which flames blew off the stabilizers were studied as it was affected by : (1) The approach gas stream variables, (a) Fuel-air ratio (over the whole range of inflammability), (b) Turbulence (intensities from 0.3 to 8 per cent of the approach stream velocity). (c) Fuel type (commercial propane and city gas), (2) Stabilizer variables, (a) Size (Characteristic dimension from 0.02 to 0.5 in.) (b) Shape (simple, faired, and shortened rods, flat plates, gutters, spheres). (c) Addition or extraction of heat from stabilizer. On the basis of experimental evidence, the following conclusions were reached: (1) Flame stabilization behind bluff obstacles depends on the presence of a recirculating eddy region tha t is filled with hot combustion products and furnishes continuous ignition to the approaching unburned gases. (2) Over the range of stabilizer sizes studied, the blowout velocity under steady flow conditions was found to be affected primarily by the properties of the approach gas stream and the stabilizer thickness. (a) For span-thickness ratios greater than 2, the blowout velocity at a given air-fuel ratio in the absence of approach stream turbulence was independent of the stabilizer shape and proportional to the thickness to the 0.45 power. (b) For span-thickness ratios less than 2, the corresponding blowout velocity was roughly proportional to the first power of the thickness. (c) The stability limits for a stabilizer of given characteristic dimension are unaffected by variation (simulated) of ratio of chamber width to stabilizer thickness over the range 10 to 80. (3) Increasing turbulence in the approach gas stream decreased both the velocity and air-fuel ratio ranges over which flame could be maintained. The effect of imposing turbulence of a given scale and intensity diminishes with increasing ratio of stabilizer thickness to turbulence scale. (4) Heating the stabilizer other than by the flame markedly increases the stability limits, and externally cooling the stabilizer markedly decreases the stability limits. (5) The maximum blowout velocities occur with slightly leaner than stoichiometric mixtures of city gas (26 per cent H2) and richer than stoichiometric for propane. This is attributed to the different ratios of molecular diffusivity to tha t of air for the two fuels. (6) Flame blowoff usually proceeds stepwise, flame propagation throughout the main stream ceasing before the eddy zone behind the stabilizer is quenched.
Chemotactic factor enhancement of superoxide release from fluoride and phorbol myristate acetate stimulated neutrophils.

Human neutrophils exposed to chemotactic concentrations of zymosan- activated serum (ZAS) and a formylated chemotactic peptide (FMLP, 10(- 7)--10(-9) M) were markedly enhanced in their ability to generate superoxide (O2-) upon stimulation with either sodium fluoride or phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). For both fluoride and PMA, enhancement was characterized by a decrease in the lag from stimulation to initiation of superoxide release and by an increase in the rate of superoxide generation--representing faster activation and increased activity of O2- generating enzyme, respectively. Chemotactic concentrations of casein, normal serum, and casein-treated serum enhanced the activity, but not the rate of activation, of the fluoride- stimulated superoxide generating system. This effect on activity was not so impressive as that obtained with FMLP or ZAS. The mechanisms by which FMLP enhanced responsiveness to fluoride and PMA were found to be different. Optimal enhancement for fluoride-stimulated responses required extracellular Ca++. Extracellular glucose, but not extracellular Ca++, was required for enhancement of FMLP of PMA- stimulated responses. A similar glucose requirement could not be demonstrated for chemotactic peptide enhancement of the superoxide- generating system stimulated by fluoride. Fluoride and PMA apparently activate the neutrophil O2- generating enzyme by pathways that are not identical. However, responsiveness of the enzyme to both agents is susceptible to modulation by cellular responses to chemotactic peptides.
Abstract 771: Preclinical characterization of the selective FGFR inhibitor INCB054828

Aberrant signaling through Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptors (FGFR) has been reported in multiple types of human cancers. Genomic analyses of squamous cell lung, gastric and urothelial tumors have revealed recurrent genetic alterations in FGFR1, FGFR2 and FGFR3 genes, respectively. FGFR proteins contribute to the development of malignancies by promoting tumor cell proliferation, survival, and migration and supporting angiogenesis. Therefore targeting FGFR kinases may provide therapeutic benefit to patients with cancers that have genetic alterations in genes encoding components of the FGF-FGFR axis. INCB054828 is a potent inhibitor of FGFR1, FGFR2, and FGFR3 that has selective pharmacological activity against cancer cells with FGFR alterations. In vitro, INCB054828 potently inhibited the kinase activity of recombinant FGFR1, FGFR2 and FGFR3 enzymes and was highly selective against a panel of kinases including VEGFR2. In cellular assays, INCB054828 inhibited the autophosphorylation of FGFR proteins with low nanomolar IC 50 values and blocked signal transduction by FGFR to downstream markers of pathway activation. Cancer cell lines that have genetic alterations in FGFR1, FGFR2 and FGFR3 were uniquely sensitive to growth inhibition by INCB054828, with IC 50 values generally in the range of 3-50 nM, compared with cancer cell lines or normal cells without FGFR dependence (IC 50 > 1500 nM). In vivo, once-daily oral administration of INCB054828 inhibited the growth of tumors that are dependent upon FGFR1, FGFR2 and FGFR3 activity at tolerated doses. Suppression of tumor growth was dose-dependent and correlated with pharmacodynamic inhibition of FGFR. Collectively, these preclinical studies demonstrate that INCB054828 potently and selectively inhibits models of FGFR-dependent cancers in vitro and in vivo, supporting the compound9s clinical evaluation in patients harboring oncogenic FGFR activation. Citation Format: Phillip CC Liu, Liangxing Wu, Holly Koblish, Kevin Bowman, Yue Zhang, Ronald Klabe, Lynn Leffet, Darlise DiMatteo, Mark Rupar, Karen Gallagher, Michael Hansbury, Colin Zhang, Chunhong He, Paul Collier, Maryanne Covington, Richard Wynn, Swamy Yeleswaram, Kris Vaddi, Timothy Burn, Wenqing Yao, Reid Huber, Peggy Scherle, Gregory Hollis. Preclinical characterization of the selective FGFR inhibitor INCB054828. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 771. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-771
Clinical and Organizational Factors Related to the Reduction of Mechanical Restraint Application in an Acute Ward: An 8-Year Retrospective Analysis

Background: The purpose of this study was to describe the frequency of mechanical restraint use in an acute psychiatric ward and to analyze which variables may have significantly influenced the use of this procedure. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in the Servizio Psichiatrico di Diagnosi e Cura (SPDC) of Modena Centro. The following variables of our sample, represented by all restrained patients admitted from 1-1-2005 to 31-12-2012, were ana- lyzed: age, gender, nationality, psychiatric diagnoses, organic comorbidity, state and duration of admission, motivation and duration of restraints, nursing shift and hospitalization day of restraint, number of patients admitted at the time of re- straint and institutional changes during the observation period. The above variables were statistically compared with those of all other non-restrained patients admitted to our ward in the same period. Results: Mechanical restraints were primarily used as a safety procedure to manage aggressive behavior of male patients, during the first days of hospitalization and night shifts. Neurocognitive disorders, organic comorbidity, compulsory state and long duration of admission were statis- tically significantly related to the increase of restraint use (p<.001, multivariate logistic regression). Institutional changes, especially more restricted guidelines concerning restraint application, were statistically significantly related to restraint use reduction (p<.001, chi2 test, multivariate logistic regression). Conclusion: The data obtained highlight that mechanical restraint use was influenced not only by clinical factors, but mainly by staff and policy factors, which have permitted a gradual but significant reduction in the use of this procedure through a multidimensional approach.