cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gadflies at the Gate: Why Do Individual Investors Sponsor Shareholder Resolutions?

Individual investors are active participants in the shareholder resolution process, filing approximately one quarter of the total number of shareholder resolutions voted on each year. Their activism, however, is controversial. Critics contend that the large number of resolutions filed each year waste corporate resources and shareholder attention. Defenders respond that every shareholder is a legitimate participant in corporate governance and that shareholder resolutions are an important means of exercising voting and economic rights to improve corporate outcomes. In this Closer Look, we examine the topic of individual shareholder activism in detail. We ask:• Are individual activists harbingers of important new ideas or a strain on corporate resources?• To what extent should shareholders actively participate in corporate policy? To what extent should they defer to the judgment of directors? • How much “shareholder democracy” is the right amount?• Should SEC rules governing shareholder resolutions be adjusted?The Stanford Closer Look series is a collection of short case studies through which we explore topics, issues, and controversies in corporate governance and executive leadership. In each study, we take a targeted look at a specific issue that is relevant to the current debate on governance and explain why it is so important. Larcker and Tayan are co-authors of the books Corporate Governance Matters and A Real Look at Real World Corporate Governance.
The uncertainties and causes of the recent changes in global evapotranspiration from 1982 to 2010

Recent studies have shown considerable changes in terrestrial evapotranspiration (ET) since the early 1980s, but the causes of these changes remain unclear. In this study, the relative contributions of external climate forcing and internal climate variability to the recent ET changes are examined. Three datasets of global terrestrial ET and the CMIP5 multi-model ensemble mean ET are analyzed, respectively, to quantify the apparent and externally-forced ET changes, while the unforced ET variations are estimated as the apparent ET minus the forced component. Large discrepancies of the ET estimates, in terms of their trend, variability, and temperature- and precipitation-dependence, are found among the three datasets. Results show that the forced global-mean ET exhibits an upward trend of 0.08 mm day−1 century−1 from 1982 to 2010. The forced ET also contains considerable multi-year to decadal variations during the latter half of the 20th century that are caused by volcanic aerosols. The spatial patterns and interannual variations of the forced ET are more closely linked to precipitation than temperature. After removing the forced component, the global-mean ET shows a trend ranging from −0.07 to 0.06 mm day−1 century−1 during 1982–2010 with varying spatial patterns among the three datasets. Furthermore, linkages between the unforced ET and internal climate modes are examined. Variations in Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are found to be consistently correlated with ET over many land areas among the ET datasets. The results suggest that there are large uncertainties in our current estimates of global terrestrial ET for the recent decades, and the greenhouse gas (GHG) and aerosol external forcings account for a large part of the apparent trend in global-mean terrestrial ET since 1982, but Pacific SST and other internal climate variability dominate recent ET variations and changes over most regions.
Erratum to: Pushing the Paradigm: Addressing Controversies over LGBTQ Intimate Partner Violence?

Erratum to: J Fam Viol DOI: 10.1007/s10896-016-9883-2 The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The original title "The Social Construction of Roles in Intimate Partner Violence: Is the Victim/Perpetrator Model the only Viable one?" is not correct. The correct title is "Pushing the Paradigm: Addressing Controversies over LGBTQ Intimate Partner Violence?" as reflected above. Language: en
The governance of Ottonian Germany in historiographical perspective

The historiographic tradition for the tenth-century Saxon Ottonian dynasty has without doubt been influenced by Germany's more recent past. Events in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries shaped the worldviews of historians both within Germany and without. These events also had a direct effect on the methodologies employed by those historians in studying medieval Germany, and helped to suppress interest in the field by non-German historians. But in the last decades of the twentieth century, there was a kind of watershed for Ottonian studies. Historians who remain influential yet today began to ask new questions and approach the field with new methodologies that took work on the Ottonians in new directions. Additionally, these new approaches have stimulated lively and often contentious debates. There is much about Ottonian government that continues to puzzle scholars. This article provides a sketch of some of the main institutions of Ottonian governance, using these as a way to introduce the reader to the historiography and historiographical debates in the field.
Imaging of Large Bowel with Multidetector Row CT

The use of high-resolution multidetector CT (MDCT) has revolutionized evaluation of the large bowel in both the acute emergency room setting and in chronic conditions. The physical exam is often limited and CT can help differentiate between conditions that may mimic each other clinically. Patients often present with vague abdominal symptoms, and CT can help elucidate the etiology and help guide management and treatment. The pathology is vast, and some of the more common acute conditions include appendicitis, diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and bowel obstruction. More recently, CT has also come to play a significant role in the evaluation of acute lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Primary evaluation with CTA has become accepted as an alternative initial screening exam and has been incorporated into the algorithm and work-up of lower gastrointestinal bleeding in many large medical centers. CTA allows for a quick and efficient survey of the abdomen and can triage patients appropriately, ensuring accurate, timely, and safe management.
Evaluating financial risk management strategies under climate change for hydropower producers on the Great Lakes

Hydropower on the Great Lakes makes up a substantial fraction of regional electricity generation capacity. Hydropower producers on the Niagara River (flowing between lakes Erie and Ontario) operate as run-of-river, and changing lake levels alter interlake flows reducing both generation and revenues. Index-based insurance contracts, wherein contract payouts are linked to lake levels, offer a tool for mitigating this risk. As a potentially useful tool, pricing of financial insurance is typically based on historical behavior of the index. However, uncertainty with respect to the impacts of climate change on lake level behavior and how this might translate to increased (or decreased) risk for those selling or buying the insurance remains unexplored. Portfolios of binary index-insurance contracts are developed for hydropower producers on the Niagara River, and their performance is evaluated under a range of climate scenarios. Climate Informed Decision Analysis is used to inform the sensitivity of these portfolios to potential shifts in long-term, climatological variations in water level behavior. Under historical conditions, hydropower producers can use portfolios costing 0.5% of mean revenues to increase their minimum revenue threshold by approximately 18%. However, a one standard deviation decrease in the 50 year mean water level potentially doubles the frequency with which these portfolios would underperform from the perspective of a potential insurer. Trade-offs between portfolio cost and the frequency of underperformance are investigated over a range of climate futures.
Studying the Effects of Task Notification Policies on Participation and Outcomes in On-the-Go Crowdsourcing

Recent years have seen the growth of physical crowdsourcing systems (e.g., Uber; TaskRabbit) that motivate large numbers of people to provide new and improved physical tasking and delivery services on-demand. In these systems, opportunistically relying on people to make convenient contributions may lead to incomplete solutions, while directing people to do inconvenient tasks requires high incentives. To increase people's willingness to participate and reduce the need to incentivize participation, we study on-the-go crowdsourcing as an alternative approach that suggests tasks along people’s existing routes that are conveniently on their way. We explore as a first step in this paper the design of task notification policies that decide when, where, and to whom to suggest tasks. Situating our work in the context of practical problems such as package delivery and lost-and-found searches, we conducted controlled experiments that show how small changes in task notification policy can influence individual participation and actions in significant ways that in turn affect system outcomes. We discuss the implications of our findings on the design of future on-the-go crowdsourcing technologies and applications.
Aqueous Angiography: Aqueous Humor Outflow Imaging in Live Human Subjects

Author(s): Huang, Alex S; Camp, Andrew; Xu, Benjamin Y; Penteado, Rafaella C; Weinreb, Robert N
Scheduling Chapel Tasks with Qthreads on Manycore: A Tale of Two Schedulers

This paper describes improvements in task scheduling for the Chapel parallel programming language provided in its default on-node tasking runtime, the Qthreads library. We describe a new scheduler distrib which builds on the approaches of two previous Qthreads schedulers, Sherwood and Nemesis, and combines the best aspects of both --work stealing and load balancing from Sherwood and a lock free queue access from Nemesis-- to make task queuing better suited for the use of Chapel in the manycore era. We demonstrate the efficacy of this new scheduler by showing improvements in various individual benchmarks of the Chapel test suite on the Intel Knights Landing architecture.
Experimental and numerical study on mechanical properties of Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC)

Abstract Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) is an advanced technology in concrete industry with superior characteristics such as high strength in compression and tension, ductility, and durability. This paper determines the tensile and compressive behavior of UHPC and a comparison is made with Normal Strength Concrete (NC) for the development of a numerical model to simulate the behavior of UHPC using the Finite Element (FE). The experimental tests including a cylinder and cube compressive test, flexural, briquette and splitting tension tests to evaluate the ultimate capacity of the material in compression and tension and its modulus of elasticity. The primary focus of this research, however, was to simulate material properties of UHPC through commercial FE software allowing the study of the structures including UHPC. The numerical analysis provides the mechanical properties of UHPC that can be used in FE software using Concrete Damage Plasticity model (CDP) to define ductal UHPC in the absence of sufficient experimental data. The numerical and the experimental results were generally in good agreement.
Novel Genes and Regulators That Influence Production of Cell Surface Exopolysaccharides in Sinorhizobium meliloti.

ABSTRACT Sinorhizobium meliloti is a soil-dwelling alphaproteobacterium that engages in a nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbiosis with leguminous plants. Cell surface polysaccharides are important both for adapting to stresses in the soil and for the development of an effective symbiotic interaction. Among the polysaccharides characterized to date, the acidic exopolysaccharides I (EPS-I; succinoglycan) and II (EPS-II; galactoglucan) are particularly important for protection from abiotic stresses, biofilm formation, root colonization, and infection of plant roots. Previous genetic screens discovered mutants with impaired EPS production, allowing the delineation of EPS biosynthetic pathways. Here we report on a genetic screen to isolate mutants with mucoid colonial morphologies that suggest EPS overproduction. Screening with Tn5-110, which allows the recovery of both null and upregulation mutants, yielded 47 mucoid mutants, most of which overproduce EPS-I; among the 30 unique genes and intergenic regions identified, 14 have not been associated with EPS production previously. We identified a new protein-coding gene, emmD, which may be involved in the regulation of EPS-I production as part of the EmmABC three-component regulatory circuit. We also identified a mutant defective in EPS-I production, motility, and symbiosis, where Tn5-110 was not responsible for the mutant phenotypes; these phenotypes result from a missense mutation in rpoA corresponding to the domain of the RNA polymerase alpha subunit known to interact with transcription regulators. IMPORTANCE The alphaproteobacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti converts dinitrogen to ammonium while inhabiting specialized plant organs termed root nodules. The transformation of S. meliloti from a free-living soil bacterium to a nitrogen-fixing plant symbiont is a complex developmental process requiring close interaction between the two partners. As the interface between the bacterium and its environment, the S. meliloti cell surface plays a critical role in adaptation to varied soil environments and in interaction with plant hosts. We isolated and characterized S. meliloti mutants with increased production of exopolysaccharides, key cell surface components. Our diverse set of mutants suggests roles for exopolysaccharide production in growth, metabolism, cell division, envelope homeostasis, biofilm formation, stress response, motility, and symbiosis.
PEDF expression affects the oxidative and inflammatory state of choroidal endothelial cells

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss among the elderly population, and is associated with severe macular degeneration and choroidal neovascularization (CNV). Although the pathogenesis of AMD is associated with choroidal dysfunction and CNV, the detailed underlying mechanisms remain unresolved. Altered production of pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), a neuroprotective and antiangiogenic factor, contributes to CNV. Furthermore, exogenous PEDF mitigates angiogenesis in preclinical CNV models. How PEDF expression affects choroidal endothelial cell (ChEC) function is unknown. Here we isolated ChECs from PEDF+/+ and PEDF-deficient (PEDF-/-) mice and determined the impact of PEDF expression on the proangiogenic and pro-inflammatory properties of ChECs. We showed that PEDF expression significantly affects the proliferation, migration, adhesion, and oxidative and inflammatory state of ChECs. The PEDF-/- ChECs were, however, more sensitive to H2O2 challenge and exhibited increased rate of apoptosis and oxidative stress. We also observed a significant increase in production of cytokines with a primary role in inflammation and angiogenesis including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and osteopontin, and a reprograming of chemokines and cytokines expression profiles in PEDF-/- ChECs. Collectively, our results indicate that PEDF expression has a significant impact on oxidative and inflammatory properties of ChECs, whose alteration could contribute to pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases including exudative AMD.
G protein-coupled receptor expression in Halobacterium salinarum

A fundamental problem in the study of transmembrane proteins is the availability of protein, in the quantities required for detailed biochemical and biophysical characterization [see reviews 1,2]. Atomic resolution structures have solved for a handful of membrane proteins, including photoreaction centers [3–6], prostaglandin H2 synthase [7], porins of various species [8,9], cytochrome c oxidase [10], bacteriorhodopsin [11,12] a potassium channel [13], and bovine rhodopsin [14]. The structural characterization of these proteins was achieved, in part, because they were naturally available at very high expression levels.
Utility and Customer Communication, Computing and Control (UC-3C) Technologies

The reason for giving a talk about utility/customer communication, computing, and control at this conference on new service opportunities for electric utilities lies in the nature of the services being considered. Essentially, these services involve the provision of information about the value of attributes of electricity supply (e.g., the value of reliability, security, or time-of-use). In order for the provision of this information to be a service, it must be communicated to customers in a timely fashion, the customers must be able to decide what to do about the information (computing), and they must do it (control). Also, to settle accounts, it will be necessary to communicate the results of the customers’ actions back to the utility.
Co-creating the Ethical Space of Mindfulness-Based Interventions

This chapter shifts the discussion of ethics in applications of mindfulness to look directly at the actions of those who are learning to practice mindfulness together and describe what happens. Four decades of MBI research have focused almost exclusively on quantitative analysis of individual outcomes of participants. Such an individualistic view obscures the group as essential in the delivery of the interventions, considering its relationships and resonances that build and thicken among participants and teachers across the weeks of the course. Through narrative illustrations and descriptions drawn from neurophysiology, social psychology, and aesthetics, this chapter offers a model of the interactions and relational forces at work, suggesting that an ethical space is created through the deeply shared process of the co-creation of the teaching and learning of mindfulness. The model of the relational space is then applied to ethical questions in practice, in the group.
Collisional Quenching of Highly Excited H2 due to H2 Collisions

Rate coefficients for pure rotational quenching in H2(ν 1 = 0, j 1) + H2(ν 2 = 0, j 2) collisions from initial levels of j 1 = 2–31 (j 2 = 0 or 1) to all lower rotational levels are presented. We carried out extensive quantum mechanical close-coupling calculations based on a recently published H2–H2 potential energy surface (PES) developed by Patkowski et al. that has been demonstrated to be more reliable than previous work. Rotational transition cross sections with initial levels of j 1 = 2–14, 18, 19, 24, and 25 were computed for energies ranging from 10−6 to 1000 cm−1, while the coupled-states approximation was adopted from 2000 to 20,000 cm−1. The corresponding rate coefficients were calculated for the temperature range 10−5 ≤ T ≤ 10,000 K. Scaling methods based on the ultra-cold data (10−5–1 K) were used to estimate rate coefficients for all other intermediate rotational states. Comparisons with previous work that adopted different PESs show small discrepancies at high temperatures and in low-energy resonance regions. The astrophysical applications of the current results are briefly discussed, including the rotational H2 critical densities due to para-H2 and ortho-H2 collisions.
TPVTrack v1.0: a watershed segmentation and overlap correspondence method for tracking tropopause polar vortices

Abstract. A new free modular software package is described for tracking tropopause polar vortices (TPVs) natively on structured or unstructured grids. Motivated by limitations in spatial characterization and time tracking within existing approaches, TPVTrack mimics the expected dynamics of TPVs to represent their (1) spatial structure, with variable shapes and intensities, and (2) time evolution, with mergers and splits. TPVs are segmented from the gridded flow field into spatial objects as restricted regional watershed basins on the tropopause, described by geometric metrics, associated over time by overlap similarity into major and minor correspondences, and tracked along major correspondences. Simplified segmentation and correspondence test cases illustrate some of the appeal, sensitivities, and limitations of TPVTrack, including effective representation of spatial shape and reduced false positive associations in time. Tracked TPVs in more realistic historical conditions are consistent in bulk with expectations of life cycle and mean structure. Individual tracks are less reliable when discriminating among multiple overlaps. Modifications to track other physical features are possible, with each application requiring evaluation.
The Effects of Supervisor Coaching and Workplace Mindfulness on Audit Quality-Threatening Behavior among Staff Auditors

SUMMARY This article summarizes a recent academic study (Herda, Cannon, and Young 2019) that investigates the effects of supervisor coaching and staff auditors' workplace mindfulness on premature s...
Clinical Value of Pharmacogenomic Testing in a Patient Receiving FOLFIRINOX for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Pharmacogenomic testing may have clinical value in the treatment of patients with gastrointestinal malignancies such as colorectal and pancreatic cancer. These types of cancer are often treated with combination chemotherapy regimens. These regimens can lead to severe adverse effects in patients with diminished drug tolerability potentially due to certain genetic variants in the enzymes involved in the metabolism of the chemotherapies. Genetic variants resulting in decreased enzymatic activity of uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 (UGT1A1) and dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) are known to increase irinotecan and 5-fluorouracil-related toxicity, respectively. We report a case of a patient with pancreatic adenocarcinoma who was found to be not only homozygous for the UGT1A1∗28 allele, but also heterozygous for a DPYD variant through pharmacogenomic testing. Potentially severe adverse effects were prevented in this patient's case by implementing preemptive dose reductions. On the basis of the significant implications of chemotherapy-related toxicity in this and other similar cases, we report on the clinical value of integrating pharmacogenomic testing into clinical practice to allow for preemptive and/or point-of-care dose reductions in patients potentially at risk for increased toxicity. This is even more important in an era where combinatorial triplet chemotherapies are increasingly being used.
Improvement of the Synthesis and Pharmacokinetic Properties of Chromenotriazolopyrimidine MDM2‐p53 Protein‐Protein Inhibitors.

A more robust and scalable synthetic route to chromenotriazolopyrimidine core (VI) is developed.
Latent profile analysis of cultural and racial socialization among White adoptive mothers of Chinese girls

Abstract This study examined groups of cultural and racial socialization using latent profile analysis (LPA) in a sample of White adoptive mothers of Chinese girls. This study also examined mothers' and girls' characteristics associated with group membership. Participants were 215 White mothers who had adopted Chinese girls and were members of an adoption support group. LPA revealed four groups of cultural and racial socialization based on patterns of cultural and racial socialization measured by four subscales of the Transracial Adoption Parenting Scale–Revised. The study reveals the importance of using a range of approaches to support international adoptive families. Furthermore, the profiles of cultural and racial socialization hold implications for future socialization research and post-adoption support with respect to the groups to be prioritized and the strategies to be employed. In particular, post-adoption support efforts may be targeted on groups of international adoptive parents who are in the group, low cultural and low racial socialization.
Whose Turf, whose Town? Race, Status, and Attitudes of Washington DC Residents toward Gentrification

Once coined “Chocolate City” by residents of the majority black capital city, Washington, DC, has more recently been referred to as “Chocolate Swirl.” Since the early 2000s, Washington has experienced marked shifts in its racial and socioeconomic composition. Census data indicates that from 2000 to 2012, the district’s black population decreased from 60% to 50% while the white population increased from 30 to 48%. Homes that then sold for $200,000 are now selling for over $800,000. While arguments of the advantages and disadvantages of gentrification are prevalent, this research explores a frequently overlooked perspective. Using 2014 Washington Post Poll data, we explore the perspectives of current DC residents and examine the impact of race and class on attitudes toward the costs and benefits of gentrification. Results indicate that, while race is a significant indicator, class position is a more salient determinant of resident attitudes toward gentrification in Washington, DC.
Skepticism, Relativism, and Identity: The Origins of (Pseudo-)Conservatism

In the 1950s and 1960s, Conservatives themselves sought to distinguish an authentic conservatism from what Peter Viereck called “Reactionary Nationalism” and George Nash termed “The Radical Right.” In The National Review, William F. Buckley sought to expel the John Birch Society and Ayn Rand from the emerging Conservative movement. Perhaps most famously, the renowned historian Richard Hofstadter distinguished between Conservatism on the one hand and Pseudo-Conservatism on the other, which exhibited an opposition to the broad consensus of American society and culture and what he famously identified as “the paranoid style” that was characterized by a Manichean outlook, an uncompromising political stance, a sense of betrayal, and a conspiratorial mindset. The project of this chapter is to outline the philosophical origins of this development, locating the roots of this debasement deep in the project of modernity itself in which conservatism developed in opposition to the universalism of rationality, science, and liberalism.
Diversity and Dynamics of Salmonella enterica in Water Sources, Poultry Litters, and Field Soils Amended With Poultry Litter in a Major Agricultural Area of Virginia.

The Eastern Shore of Virginia (ESV) is a major agricultural region in Virginia and in the past has been linked to some tomato-associated outbreaks of salmonellosis. In this study, water samples were collected weekly from irrigation ponds and wells in four representative vegetable farms (Farms A-D, each farm paired with one pond and one well) and a creek as well. In addition, water samples from two sites in the Chesapeake Bay on the ESV were collected monthly. Poultry litter was sampled monthly from three commercial broiler farms. Soil samples were collected monthly after fertilization with poultry litter from 10 farms in 2014, and another 14 farms in 2015. A most probable number method was used to detect Salmonella enterica presence and concentration in collected samples. Presumptive Salmonella colonies were confirmed by the cross-streaking method. Molecular serotyping was carried out to determine the Salmonella serovars. The average prevalence of Salmonella in pond, well, creek, and bay water samples were 19.3, 3.3, 24.2, and 29.2%, respectively. There were significant spatial and temporal differences for Salmonella occurrence in various water sources. The prevalence of S. enterica in four tested ponds from farms A, B, C and D were 16, 12, 22 and 27%, respectively. While the prevalence of S. enterica in irrigation wells was significantly lower, some well water samples tested positive during the study. Salmonella Newport was found to be the predominant serovar isolated from water samples. All poultry-houses of the three tested broiler farms were Salmonella-positive at certain sampling points during the study with prevalence ranging from 14.3 to 35.4%. Salmonella was found to be able to survive up to four months in poultry litter amended soils from the tested farms in 2014, and up to six months in 2015. This research examined the dynamics of S. enterica in relationship to water source, poultry litter, and amended-soil in a major agricultural area, and provides useful information for food safety risk assessments.
Early diagnosis and treatment challenges of endodermal sinus tumors: A case report.

Abstract Background Ovarian endodermal sinus tumors (ESTs) are rapidly growing and highly malignant tumors that respond well to chemotherapy. They can be difficult to diagnose and delayed diagnosis can worsen prognosis. Case We present the case of a 20-year-old woman with an EST initially misdiagnosed as a tubo-ovarian abscess who then experienced rapid progression within weeks of initial presentation and was subsequently found to have unresectable advanced stage disease. Conclusion ESTs are extremely aggressive and require prompt referral and early treatment with chemotherapy. Presenting symptoms of pain and a mass can lead to a broad range of differential diagnoses. In such patients, early consideration of tumor markers is warranted. This case report reviews the key aspects for prompt diagnosis and rapid treatment of these tumors, which significantly impacts the prognosis.
Multicultural education: issues and perspectives, 10th edition

Gradually but inevitably it appears that books in print, hard or soft copy are disappearing. This includes education textbooks. Many people, among them teachers and instructors, are distressed by s...
Associations of cumulative violence and structural vulnerability with restless sleep among female sex workers in Baltimore, Maryland.

Abstract Objective To investigate correlates of restless sleep among street-based female sex workers (FSW) in the United States, an understudied population experiencing high rates of structural vulnerabilities (e.g., homelessness, food insecurity) and trauma. Methods Using data from a cohort of street-based cisgender FSW (n = 236; median age = 35 years, 68% non-Hispanic White), we examined cross-sectional associations of individual, interpersonal, and structural factors with frequent restless sleep over the past week (5-7 vs. Results Participants reported a high prevalence of homelessness (62%), food insecurity (61%), daily heroin injection (53%), lifetime sexual or physical violence (81%), and frequent restless sleep (53%). Older age, food insecurity, poor self-rated health, and cumulative violence exposure were independently associated with frequent restless sleep. Conclusion Frequent restless sleep was prevalent among FSW with higher odds among those experiencing intersecting vulnerabilities and multiple exposures to violence. Further research on sleep health in this population is needed to understand its role in health risks.
A live-cell assay for the real-time assessment of extracellular ATP levels.

Abstract Extracellular ATP (eATP) is a potent damage associated molecular pattern (DAMP) molecule known to exert profound effects on the innate and adaptive immune responses. As such, it has become an important biomarker for studying means to pro-actively modulate inflammatory processes. Unfortunately, traditional methodologies employed for measuring eATP require cumbersome supernatant sampling, onerous time courses, or unnecessary duplication of effort. Here we describe a new reagent that is tolerable to test cells in extended exposures and enables a fully homogeneous assay method for real-time determinations of extracellular ATP levels. The reagent is introduced into assay plates containing cells at the time of stimulus introduction. The real-time feature of the format allows for sensitive, continuous accounting of eATP levels in the test model over at least 24 h. This work details our efforts to create and characterize this new reagent and to validate utility by demonstrating its use with multiple cell lines and chemically diverse eATP induction stimuli.
Does COVID-19 count?: Defining Criterion A trauma for diagnosing PTSD during a global crisis.

Introduction The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a globally significant crisis with a rapid spread worldwide, high rates of illness and mortality, a high degree of uncertainty, and a disruption of daily life across the sociodemographic spectrum. The clinically relevant psychological consequences of this catastrophe will be long-lasting and far-reaching. There is an emerging body of empirical literature related to the mental health aspects of this pandemic and this body will likely expand exponentially. The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of a historic catastrophe from which we can learn much and from which the field will need to archive, interpret, and synthesize a multitude of clinical and research observations. Methods In this commentary, we discuss situations and contexts in which a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may or may not apply within the context of diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5) criteria. Results Our consensus is that a COVID-related event cannot be considered traumatic unless key aspects of DSM-5's PTSD Criterion A have been established for a specific type of COVID-19 event (e.g., acute, life-threatening, and catastrophic). Conclusion The application of a more liberal interpretation of Criterion A will dilute the PTSD diagnosis, increase heterogeneity, confound case-control research, and create an overall sample pool with varying degrees of risk and vulnerability factors.
Family-Present Euthanasia: Protocols for Planning and Preparing Clients for the Death of a Pet

Anticipating the euthanasia of a beloved companion animal can be a nerve-wracking experience. This is especially true if owners or entire families wish to be present when their pets die.
Endocrine Aspects of Germ Cell Tumors

Germ cell tumors of both gonadal and extragonadal origin may contain a variety of cells capable of secreting hormones which occasionally produce clinical manifestations. Endocrine changes may also result from an effect of the tumor on the adjacent stroma, particularly within the ovary, or from decreased secretory activity of an involved organ as a result of destruction of its parenchyma. This article will describe the types of endocrine abnormalities associated with germ cell tumors and the mechanisms involved in the production of these abnormalities.
An examination of the factors influencing mercury and methylmercury particulate distributions, methylation and demethylation rates in laboratory-generated marine snow.

In the marine environment, settling particulates have been widely studied for their role as effective vertical transporters of nutrients and metals scavenged from the euphotic zone to the benthos. These particulates are composed of transparent exopolymers, plankton and bacterial cells, detritus and organic matter, and form various size fractions from colloids ( 300 μm). As marine snow forms in the water column, anoxic layers form around and within the aggregation potentially creating a prime environment for the methylation of mercury (Hg), which occurs primarily in low oxygen environments. To examine this process, marine aggregates were produced from sieved estuarine seawater (100 μm) in 1-L glass bottles spiked with stable isotope enriched methylmercury (CH3199Hg) and inorganic mercury (200Hg(II)) at 18° C using a roller-table. After the rolling period, different particle-size fractions were collected and analyzed, including: visible marine snow (>300μm), particulates 8 to 300 μm, and particulates 0.2 to 8μm. Particulate analysis indicated higher incorporation of both forms of Hg into marine snow compared to unrolled treatments, with greater incorporation of 200Hg(II) than CH3199Hg. In addition, inorganic Hg was methylated and CH3Hg was demethylated in the larger particulate fractions (>8μm). Methylation and demethylation rates were assessed based on changes in isotopic composition of Hg(II) and CH3Hg, and found to be comparable to methylation rates found in sediments. These results indicate that net Hg methylation can occur in marine snow and smaller aggregates in oxic coastal waters, and that this net formation of CH3Hg may be an important source of CH3Hg in both coastal and open ocean surface environments.
A Coverage Checking Algorithm for LF

Coverage checking is the problem of deciding whether any closed term of a given type is an instance of at least one of a given set of patterns. It can be used to verify if a function defined by pattern matching covers all possible cases. This problem has a straightforward solution for the first-order, simply-typed case, but is in general undecidable in the presence of dependent types. In this paper we present a terminating algorithm for verifying coverage of higher-order, dependently typed patterns. It either succeeds or presents a set of counterexamples with free variables, some of which may not have closed instances (a question which is undecidable). Our algorithm, together with strictness and termination checking, can be used to certify the correctness of numerous proofs of properties of deductive systems encoded in a system for reasoning about LF signatures.
Performance of Supertree Methods on Various Data Set Decompositions

Many large-scale phylogenetic reconstruction methods attempt to solve hard optimization problems such as Maximum Parsimony (MP) and Maximum Likelihood (ML), but they are severely limited by the number of taxa that they can handle in a reasonable timeframe. A standard heuristic approach to this problem is the divide-and-conquer strategy: decompose the data set into smaller subsets, solve the subsets (i.e., use MP or ML on each subset to obtain trees), and then combine the solutions to the subsets into a solution for the original data set. This last step — combining given trees into a single tree — is known as supertree construction in computational phylogenetics. The traditional application of supertree methods is to combine existing, published phylogenies into a single phylogeny. Here, we study supertree construction in the context of divide-and-conquer methods for large-scale tree reconstruction. We study several divide-and-conquer approaches and demonstrate experimentally their advantage over the traditional supertree technique of Matrix Representation with Parsimony (MRP), and over global heuristics such as the parsimony ratchet. For the ten large biological data sets under investigation, our study shows that the techniques used for dividing the data set into subproblems as well as those used for merging them into a single solution influence the quality of the supertree construction strongly. In most cases, our merging technique — the Strict Consensus Merger — outperformed MRP with respect to MP scores and running time. Divide-and-conquer techniques are also a highly competitive alternative to global heuristics such as the parsimony ratchet, especially on the more challenging data sets.
A multi-scale spatial analysis method for point data

This paper presents a nearest neighbor method for the spatial analysis of data collected from discrete field sampling sites. The method was applied to point counts of birds at permanent survey sites in the Nicolet National Forest of northeastern Wisconsin. The spatial analysis method we developed uses a Monte Carlo randomization approach to test for non-randomness not only of the mean nearest neighbor distance between n points but also the mean second nearest, third nearest,..., to (n−1)th nearest distances to reveal spatial information at multiple scales. Because the bird survey sites are not randomly distributed throughout the forest, the survey sites at which a given species was recorded were compared with random samples drawn from the total survey sites rather than from all possible points within the forest. More refined analyses restricted the randomization by (a) habitat type, in order to separate the effects of non-randomly distributed habitat types on species' distributions; and (b) north-south regions of the forest, in order to account for regional gradients in distribution which were evident for some species. Spatial patterns among the sites at which the birds were detected reveal information about the scale at which the birds are distributed in their environment and provide a more complete picture of multi-scale bird population dynamics.
An Internet Protocol (IP) Sound System

We describe a system that applies Internet concepts and software techniques to deliver audio from source to speakers using common computing hardware. The techniques overcome clocking and jitter problems. Microphones built into each transducer to locate loudspeakers allow the system to identify speaker placemet, automatically compensate for off-center listening locations, adjust for inter-channel gain, delay, and do frequency response matching. A research prototype demonstrates the concepts and measures the resulting quality. Blank et al. An Internet Protocol (IP) Sound System AES 117th Convention, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2004 October 28–31 Page 2 of 17
A Welcome Mat for Leprosy and Lassa Fever

a-dystroglycan and its sibling, b-dystroglycan, sit on the cell surface, bridging the membrane. Inside the cell, they connect with the cytoskeleton, and outside the cell they connect with components of the extracellular matrix. In her Perspective, Spear discusses new evidence in this issue ( Rambukkana et al . and Cao et al .) that these proteins are also the receptors for the agents of two very different diseases--leprosy and Lassa fever.
Magnetosensitive Displacement Sensor - A Non-Contact Type Sensor

A sensor is proposed for measuring the displacement of a moving part in a hydraulic system. Magnetosensitive resistance is used as the sensing element; the displacement of the measured part is reflected by the variation of the magnetic field and sensed by a magnetosensitive resistance. The magnetosensitive element is a thin film resistance with strong magnetism. It is very sensitive not only to the variation of magnetic field intensity but also to the change of direction of magnetic field. It has a high sensitivity and a good temperature characteristic. The relationship between output voltage and temperature is linear making compensation easy.
16)Oxygen irradiation enhances cued fear memory in B6D2F1 mice.

The space radiation environment includes energetic charged particles that may impact cognitive performance. We assessed the effects of (16)O ion irradiation on cognitive performance of C57BL/6J × DBA/2J F1 (B6D2F1) mice at OHSU (Portland, OR) one month following irradiation at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL, Upton, NY). Hippocampus-dependent contextual fear memory and hippocampus-independent cued fear memory of B6D2F1 mice were tested. (16)O ion exposure enhanced cued fear memory. This effect showed a bell-shaped dose response curve. Cued fear memory was significantly stronger in mice irradiated with (16)O ions at a dose of 0.4 or 0.8 Gy than in sham-irradiated mice or following irradiation at 1.6 Gy. In contrast to cued fear memory, contextual fear memory was not affected following (16)O ion irradiation at the doses used in this study. These data indicate that the amygdala might be particularly susceptible to effects of (16)O ion exposure.
Bamber, M. R. (2011). Overcoming Your Workplace Stress: A CBT-Based Self Help Guide

This interesting and concise “self-help guide” begins with the simple but profound assertion that workplace stress is ubiquitous. It ascribes the source of this stress to the global economy's “unre...
CONFOUNDING AND MISCLASSIFICATION

The authors examine some recently proposed criteria for determining when to adjust for covariates related to misclassification, and show these criteria to be incorrect. In particular, they show that when misclassification is present, covariate control can sometimes increase net bias, even when the covariate would have been a confounder under perfect classification, and even if the covariate is a determinant of classification. Thus, bias due to misclassification cannot be adequately dealt with by the methods used for control of confounding. The examples presented also show that the "change-in-estimate" criterion for deciding whether to control a covariate can be systematically misleading when misclassification is present. These results demonstrate that it is necessary to consider the degree of misclassification when deciding whether to control a covariate.
Infrared spectra of octaethylporphinatocobalt(II) and its dioxygen adduct in argon matrices

Abstract The infrared spectra of octaethylporphinatocobalt(II), Co(OEP), have been measured in argon matrices as well as in KBr pellets and as thin films. Vibrational assignments have been made based on those obtained for Ni(OEP). Cocondensation reactions of Co(OEP) with 16 O 2 and 18 O 2 diluted in argon at ∼15 K have produced ‘base-free’ O 2 adducts, Co(OEP) 16 O 2 and Co(OEP) 18 O 2 which exhibit their O 2 stretching bands at 1275 and 1202 cm −1 , respectively. Similar experiments with Co(OEP-d 4 ) confirm these assigments. These frequencies are very similar to those observed previously for Co(TPP) 16 O 2 (1278 cm −1 and Co(TPP) 18 O 2 (1209 cm -1 ) (TPP: tetraphenylporphinato anion), indicating that the electronic effect of OEP on the O 2 is similar to that of TPP. The Co(OEP) vibrations show little shifts upon the adduct formation.
Multiobjective decision making approach for determining alternate routing in a flexible manufacturing system

Abstract In a Flexible Manufacturing System a particular operation on a job can be performed at several machines because of inherent capability of the machines to load multiple tools. There is a choice in the system as to which workstation each operation should be performed. Any entering workpiece therefore has the choice of several different routes. In such a complex scenario productivity could be improved by selecting an efficient routing under computer control. This paper formulates the problem as a Coal Programming model which provides a way of striving towards several objectives simultaneously. Thus the goals to be considered are - (i) to satisfy the forecasted demand, (ii) to minimize the material movements and (iii) to minimize the workload imbalance on all the machines. The solutions obtained on solving this model specify the efficient routing to be implemented. Non-preemptive penalty values are considered for comparing the goal programming formulation with prevailing single criterion objective formulations. Appropriate reasoning for the determined penalty values for the deviations from each goals are given. An illustrative example is considered to study alternate routing under multiple criteria. Lastly, utilization of the goal programming tool lies in evaluating the different layouts and determining the best layout. The layout with minimum workload imbalance and comparatively less material movement is recommended to be the best layout.
Are Superflares on Solar Analogues Caused by Extrasolar Planets

Stellar flares with 102-107 times more energy than the largest solar flare have recently been detected from nine normal F and G main-sequence stars by Schaefer, King, and Deliyannis. These superflares have durations of hours to days and are visible from at least X-ray to optical frequencies. The absence of world-spanning aurorae in historical records and of anomalous extinctions in the geological record indicates that our Sun likely does not suffer superflares. In seeking to explain this new phenomenon, we are struck by its similarity to large stellar flares on RS Canum Venaticorum binary systems, which are caused by magnetic reconnection events associated with the tangling of magnetic fields between the two stars. The superflare stars are certainly not of this class, although we propose a similar flare mechanism. That is, superflares are caused by magnetic reconnection between fields of the primary star and a close-in Jovian planet. Thus, by invoking only known planetary properties and reconnection scenarios, we can explain the energies, durations, and spectra of superflares as well as explain why our Sun does not have such events.