cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Within and Inter-Institutional Differences Between Death Certifiers on Autopsy Conclusions

This study seeks to establish whether medico-legal practitioners differ in their autopsy conclusions within and across medico-legal institutions. Data include 459 violent deaths (homicides, suicides, and accidents) autopsy reports written by more than 20 death certifiers from four medico-legal institutions in two countries (France and the United States). Multinomial models show that compared with accidental deaths, weapon use and decedents’ characteristics both influence a homicide verdict, but not a suicide one. In addition, French practitioners are more likely than Americans to reach a conclusion of homicide or suicide compared with accident, and homicides are more likely to be certified by male practitioners.
Processing Technology of the Compound Beverage of Hami Melon and Pumpkin

The processing technology parameters of the compound beverage are optimized by single experiments and orthogonal experiments,using pumpkin,Hami melon as raw materials.The optimum condition is obtained as follows:sugar 4 g/100 mL,ratio of water to pulp 2∶1,ratio of pumpkin to Hami melon 2∶3,enzymatic hydrolysis time 90 min,homogenized 3 times by colloid mill,citric acid 0.1 g/100 mL,stabilizer pectins 0.06 g/100 mL.
353 SEEING THE "BIG " PICTURE: FIRST-YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF COMMUNITY-BASED RESOURCES, BARRIERS, AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS TO THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC.

Purpose In addition to addressing issues with individuals, physicians need to understand community resources as well as barriers and potential solutions in order to effectively intervene in health behavioral issues. The purpose of our study was to determine how well first-year medical students understand these community issues after an early clinical experience. Methods Following a week-long community-based primary care experience, 103 first-year medical students were asked to write their responses to the following questions: What was the most important health-related behavioral issue leading to illness you observed? What barriers exist in the community to changing this behavior and how may these be overcome? Two raters independently examined responses for themes using qualitative methodology. Results Obesity-related issues (48%) were the most prevalent reported, followed by smoking (39%). We chose to further analyze the data regarding obesity. Student-perceived community barriers included nutritional issues (51%) and accessibility to exercise areas/programs (9%). Twenty-four percent of student responses pertained to individual behavior such as lack of time and sedentary lifestyle rather than community issues. Potential solutions included education (33%), healthy food alternatives (27%), and community-based exercise areas/programs (26%). Conclusions Students had a fairly good grasp of community barriers regarding obesity; however, they did not demonstrate an adequate knowledge of potential community-based solutions. Their main focus was on education rather than on development of community programs or collaborating with existing organizations such as schools, the workplace, or the state. Early teaching in areas of practice-based learning and systems-based practice may be useful in correcting this discrepancy.
A Dual-Channel, Interference-Free, Bacteria-Based Biosensor for Highly Sensitive Water Quality Monitoring

In this paper, we demonstrated a miniaturized bacteria-based biosensing platform for sensitive, reliable, and practical online monitoring of water quality. Two biosensors were integrated into a dual-channel microfluidic device which operated as a detection and a reference sensor, respectively. By providing a reference-compensated sensing response, the device was capable of minimizing environmental interferences, such as temperature and flow rate, ultimately leading to high sensitivity and reliability in water quality monitoring. We used a microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology as a biosensor for the detection of toxic substances in water. Toxic components inhibit bacterial metabolic activity, generating a distinct change in the current output of the MFC-based biosensor. Each biosensor incorporated a single-chambered MFC with an air cathode, which substantially decreased the device complexity and enhanced the practicability as a real-world application. The miniaturization of the MFC biosensor having a 90- $\mu \text{L}$ microfluidic chamber provided rapid and sensitive sensing responses with a concentration range from 0.003% to 0.075% of formaldehyde in media. By controlling the introduction time of the toxic sample with sequential injection of the fresh media into the detection channel, the biosensor is completely reusable and is potentially applicable to long-term in situ monitoring of water quality.
Carrier-mediated transport of lipoxin A4 in human neutrophils

Lipoxins and other eicosanoids display potent and selective biological effects on leukocytes. In this study, we utilized radiolabeled lipoxin A4 ([3H]LXA4) to investigate whether carrier-mediated transport of LXA4 might occur in human neutrophils. At a concentration of 5 nM, uptake of [3H]LXA4, above that due to specific binding to receptors, amounted to approximately 0.6 fmol.10(6) cells-1.min-1. This influx was sensitive to a number of anionic inhibitors, including 3,5-diiodosalicylic acid (K0.5 12 microM), pentachlorophenol (K0.5 25 microM), alpha-cyano-beta-(1-phenylindol-3-yl) acrylic acid, and the organomercurial agents mersalyl (K0.5 110 microM) and p-hydroxy-mercuribenzoate. Influx, which was Na+ and membrane voltage independent, exhibited a striking dependence on pH (negative log of dissociation 5.9), results compatible with an H+ + LXA4 anion cotransport system. The LXA4 carrier did not appear to interact with arachidonic acid, prostaglandin E2, 15(S)-hydroxy-(5Z,8Z,11Z,13E)-eicosatetraenoic acid, or the leukotrienes B4, C4, and D4. Moreover, transport activity was not observed in human erythrocytes, lymphocytes, or platelets, but it was inducible in HL-60 cells on differentiation by exposure to retinoic acid. These findings represent the identification and initial characterization of a novel carrier-mediated pathway in human neutrophils that facilitates transport of LXA4 into cells.
Farewell to Animal Testing: Innovations on Human Intestinal Microphysiological Systems

The human intestine is a dynamic organ where the complex host-microbe interactions that orchestrate intestinal homeostasis occur. Major contributing factors associated with intestinal health and diseases include metabolically-active gut microbiota, intestinal epithelium, immune components, and rhythmical bowel movement known as peristalsis. Human intestinal disease models have been developed; however, a considerable number of existing models often fail to reproducibly predict human intestinal pathophysiology in response to biological and chemical perturbations or clinical interventions. Intestinal organoid models have provided promising cytodifferentiation and regeneration, but the lack of luminal flow and physical bowel movements seriously hamper mimicking complex host-microbe crosstalk. Here, we discuss recent advances of human intestinal microphysiological systems, such as the biomimetic human "Gut-on-a-Chip" that can employ key intestinal components, such as villus epithelium, gut microbiota, and immune components under peristalsis-like motions and flow, to reconstitute the transmural 3D lumen-capillary tissue interface. By encompassing cutting-edge tools in microfluidics, tissue engineering, and clinical microbiology, gut-on-a-chip has been leveraged not only to recapitulate organ-level intestinal functions, but also emulate the pathophysiology of intestinal disorders, such as chronic inflammation. Finally, we provide potential perspectives of the next generation microphysiological systems as a personalized platform to validate the efficacy, safety, metabolism, and therapeutic responses of new drug compounds in the preclinical stage.
Radiative shocks create environments for dust formation in classical novae

Classical novae commonly show evidence of rapid dust formation within months of the outburst. However, it is unclear how molecules and grains are able to condense within the ejecta, given the potentially harsh environment created by ionizing radiation from the white dwarf. Motivated by the evidence for powerful radiative shocks within nova outflows, we propose that dust formation occurs within the cool, dense shell behind these shocks. We incorporate a simple molecular chemistry network and classical nucleation theory with a model for the thermodynamic evolution of the post-shock gas, in order to demonstrate the formation of both carbon and forsterite ($\rm Mg_2SiO_4$) grains. The high densities due to radiative shock compression ($n \sim 10^{14}$ cm$^{-3}$) result in CO saturation and rapid dust nucleation. Grains grow efficiently to large sizes $\gtrsim 0.1\mu$m, in agreement with IR observations of dust-producing novae, and with total dust masses sufficient to explain massive extinction events such as V705 Cas. As in dense stellar winds, dust formation is CO-regulated, with carbon-rich flows producing carbon-rich grains and oxygen-rich flows primarily forming silicates. CO is destroyed by non-thermal particles accelerated at the shock, allowing additional grain formation at late times, but the efficiency of this process appears to be low. Given observations showing that individual novae produce both carbonaceous and silicate grains, we concur with previous works attributing this bimodality to chemical heterogeneity of the ejecta. Nova outflows are diverse and inhomogeneous, and the observed variety of dust formation events can be reconciled by different abundances, the range of shock properties, and the observer viewing angle. The latter may govern the magnitude of extinction, with the deepest extinction events occurring for observers within the binary equatorial plane.
Focused ion beam sectioning studies of biomimetic hydroxyapatite coatings on Ti-6Al-4V substrates

Abstract Biomimetic hydroxyapatite (HA) coating has been used to render titanium implants with excellent osteoconductivity and osseointegration in orthopedic and dental applications. However, to date it has not been possible to reveal the fine details of the coating structure or the coating/substrate interface. In this study, a crack-free biomimetic HA coating has been successfully formed on sand-blasted, acid-etched Ti-6Al-4V discs by simply immersing the discs in a modified simulated body fluid (m-SBF). Dual-beam FIB/SEMs with either gallium ion source (GFIB) or xenon plasma ion source (PFIB) were used to prepare the cross-sections and thin transmission electron microscopy (TEM) specimens of the coating, and the capabilities of GFIB and PFIB were compared. Both the cross-sectional SEM and TEM images confirmed that a well bonded biomimetic HA coating has been formed on the Ti-6Al-4V substrate. The coating exhibits a gradient structure with a dense microstructure adjacent to the titanium substrate to facilitate strong bonding, while there is a porous structure at the surface, which is beneficial to bone cell attachment and subsequent new bone integration.
Time, Being, and Existence

1. Introduction: One criterion of adequacy for a formal ontology, we have said, is that it should provide a logically perspicuous representation of our commonsense understanding of the world, and not just of our scienti c understanding. Now a central feature of our commonsense understanding is how we are conceptually oriented in time with respect to the past, the present and the future, and the question arises as to how we can best represent this orientation. One way is to represent it in terms of a tenseless idiom of a coordinate system, as is commonly done in scienti c theories. But that amounts to replacing our commonsense understanding with a scienti c view. A more appropriate representation is one that respects the form and content of our commonsense statements about the past, the present and the future. Formally, this can be done in a logic of tense operators, or in what is called tense logic. The most natural formal ontology for tense logic is conceptual realism. This is because what tense operators represent in conceptual realism are certain cognitive schemata regarding our orientation in time that are fundamental to both the form and content of our conceptual activity. Thought and communication, in other words, are inextricably temporal phenomena, and it is the cognitive schemata underlying our use of tense operators that structures that phenomena temporally in terms of the past, the present and the future. n Tense logic is important to conceptual realism as a formal ontology for another reason as well; and that is that it helps us understand the distinction between being and existence. The problem of the distinction between
Forty Years of Engagement Research in Children’s Mental Health Services: Multidimensional Measurement and Practice Elements

Poor engagement in child and adolescent mental health services is a significant public health concern. The purpose of this study was to synthesize the engagement literature using a multidimensional measurement framework to identify practice elements that are associated with improved engagement. We examined 50 randomized controlled trials of interventions targeting treatment engagement in youth mental health services published between 1974 and 2016. We utilized a multidimensional measurement framework that includes five engagement domains (i.e., Relationship, Expectancy, Attendance, Clarity, Homework [REACH]). We also used a distillation method (Chorpita & Daleiden, 2009; Chorpita, Daleiden, & Weisz, 2005) to identify specific practices common to interventions that were effective at increasing engagement within each REACH domain. Engagement was most frequently operationalized in intervention studies as Attendance. Individual practices distilled from effective interventions were successful when used with participants with diverse characteristics in a wide variety of contexts. Importantly, we found unique practice patterns associated with outcomes from each REACH domain. Findings suggest that practices such as assessment, psychoeducation, accessibility promotion, barriers to treatment, and goal setting might be used with all youth and families to promote engagement and that other practices could be introduced on an as-needed basis to target specific engagement domains (e.g., modeling to promote Clarity about therapy; therapist monitoring to promote Homework/participation). A substantial evidence base demonstrates that engagement can be improved through specific interventions, and findings highlight opportunities to advance the field's understanding of engagement through multidimensional measurement in future studies.
Differential impact of post-deployment stress and PTSD on neural reactivity to emotional stimuli in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans

For many veterans returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, the transition from military to civilian life is complicated by an array of postdeployment stressors. In addition to significant stress associated with reintegration after deployment, many returning veterans also contend with the added burden conferred by PTSD symptoms. While the relationship between PTSD symptoms and the neurobiological substrates of emotion dysregulation has begun to be studied, even less is known about the effects of postdeployment stress on neural function. In order to assess the relationship among a neural measure of attention to emotion (i.e. the late positive potential; LPP), PTSD symptoms and postdeployment stressors, EEG was recorded and examined in a linear mixed model of 81 OEF/OIF/OND veterans. Results revealed a main effect for postdeployment stressors such that increased postdeployment stress was associated with a relatively enhanced LPP across all emotion types. There was also a main effect for PTSD symptoms such that greater symptoms were related to a relatively blunted LPP across all emotion types. Findings may have important implications for understanding how both current stress and PTSD symptoms affect motivated attention as measured by the LPP. Moreover, this work highlights the need to consider the effects of current stress, in addition to PTSD symptoms, on the functioning of returning veterans.
Perspective: AHCPR and the Strategy for Health Care Reform

In his scholarly and exciting report on the history of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR); Brad Gray rightly cites the practice variations phenomenon as the intellectual shock that first brought the crisis in the scientific and ethical bases of medicine to the attention of Congress. In my testimonies I tried to drive home the point that variations arise because of two fundamental defects in health care markets: ( 1) weaknesses in the clinical science that occur because medical ideas and theories are not well tested; and (2) weaknesses in the ethical basis for clinical decision making that allow the physician’s preferences for outcomes and treatments to dominate the choice of treatment when the right of choice properly belongs to the patient. The variations that exist between care of residents of New Haven and Boston, two of the nation’s most medically sophisticated cities, were particularly useful in raising the “which rate is right” question in the halls of Congress. Many were surprised to find out that New Havenites with angina were more than twice as likely to be treated with surgery than were Bostonians, who more often received alternative treatments such as angioplasty or drugs.Bostonians with threatened stroke had twice the risk for surgical management, while residents of New Haven were more often prescribed aspirin. 1 also made the point that the magnitude of the problem exposed by practice variations required a new initiative in federal science policy. The nation’s extraordinary investments in biomedical research do not provide for the evaluation of medical theories. The role of biomedical science is to generate ideas and technologies; it is the role of the evaluative sciences to provide the necessary clinical information linking treatments to outcomes. But the evaluative sciences are neglected; their mission, their intellectual content, and their niche within academia and
Seeding of the mucosal leukocytes in the HALT and trachea of White Leghorn chickens.

Characterising the immune cells of the head-associated lymphoid tissues (HALT) and trachea during maturation in young birds is critical to understanding the immunological responses to avian respira...
ON SELECTING A SET OF GOOD POPULATIONS

Publisher Summary In many experimental situations, the experimenter is faced with a problem of selecting one or more out of k possible treatments. The treatments are usually characterized by a numerical parameter, and the experimenter is interested in choosing the treatments with the larger parameter value. Conventionally, such problems are dealt with by tests of homogeneity and multiple comparison methods. In the statistical literature, one finds many research reports dealing directly with the problem of selecting good populations. However, one finds little evidence of their use in practice. This chapter focuses on finding an optimal invariant subset for a given loss function. It presents the applications of a loss function that is a sum of two components. The first is the difference between the best population performance and the average performance of the subset that is selected. The second is a penalty for not including the best population.
Neurological and mental health outcomes among conventional and organic farmers in Indiana, USA.

INTRODUCTION Every farming method, whether conventional or organic, has been associated with some sort of risky behaviors leading to health issues among farmers. Substantial evidence is not available in the literature to determine whether the magnitudes of health outcomes vary between conventional and organic farmers. The study investigated whether self-reported neurological and mental health symptoms differ between conventional and organic farmers living in Indiana, USA. MATERIAL AND METHODS A self-reported questionnaire survey collected information from 200 conventional and 157 organic farmers of Indiana on demographic characteristics, depression and neurological symptoms. Statistical analyses were conducted to observe the differences in self-reported symptoms by groups of farmers. RESULTS It was observed that the conventional farmers had significantly higher age-adjusted mean neurological symptom score (p<0.01) than the organic farmers. Regression models revealed positive and significant associations of conventional farming with total (β =1.34; p=0.02), sensory (β =0.83; p=0.001) and behavioural (β =0.09; p=0.03) symptoms after accounting for age, income, education and years in farming. Positive but non-significant associations were also observed in conventional farmers with cognitive and motor symptoms, and with all subscales of depression symptoms in the adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS The findings obtained suggest the importance of a larger study to further explain the difference in mental and neurological health effects in these two categories of farmers.
A Comparison of Latent Variable Models For Conversation Analysis

With the evolution of online communication methods, conversations are increasingly handled via email, internet forums and other such methods. In this paper, we attempt to model lexical information in a context sensitive manner, encoding our belief that the use of language depends on the participants in the conversation. We model the discourse as a combination of the speaker, the addressee and other participants in the conversation as well as a context specific language model. In order to do this, we introduce a novel method based on an HMM with an exponential state space to capture speaker-addressee context. We also study the performance of topic modeling frameworks in conversational settings. We evaluate the models on the tasks of identifying the set of people present in any conversation, as well as identifying the speaker for every utterance in the conversation, and they show significant improvement over the baseline models.
Mixing of Genres and Literary Program in Herodas 8

N Herodas' eighth Mimiamb, one of the most enigmatic examples of Hellenistic literary polemic, the speaker (usually identified with the poet himself) relates to one of his slaves a dream from which he has just awakened. He states explicitly (66-79) that the dream presaged attacks from his critics: just as the goatherds tore apart and feasted on the limbs of his goat, so the poet's critics will tear apart his own limbs, both literally and metaphorically (with a pun on gtLkog = poem; tx&
Heat Shock Protein Expression in the Aging Cardiovascular System

Mammalian aging is accompanied by a progressive decline in most physiologic functions and in particular by a decreased ability to maintain homeostasis when faced with conditions of stress (Shock et al., 1984; Martin et al., 1993). The cardiovascular system is no exception as aging constitutes a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, with the incidence of hypertension, atherosclerosis, stroke and myocardial infarction all increasing markedly with advancing age (Wei and Gersh, 1987; Stout, 1987; Wei, 1992). The mechanisms responsible for these age-related changes are not clear, but significant histological, biochemical and functional alterations occur in both the myocardium (e.g. left ventricular hypertrophy, diminished sensitivity to β-adrenergic hormones, and interstitial fibrosis) and vasculature (e.g. thickening of vessel walls, smooth muscle cell relocation and reduced compliance) with aging (reviewed in Lakatta, 1993; Isoyama et al., 1994; Crow et al., 1996). In addition, and perhaps of greatest significance, elderly patients are much more vulnerable to acute cardiovascular stress. Aged hearts are more susceptible to post ischemic injury than are young hearts, and older individuals display an increased tendency to develop cardiac failure following hemodynamic stress (Isoyama et al., 1994).
Compositional Characterization Of Dielectric Oxides

Many oxides containing transition metal elements are used in electronic and optical applications that require that they be insulating or transparent. The chemical criteria for such behavior are reviewed, and the strong effect of even very small changes in composition are emphasized. In some cases compositional changes in the ppm range can cause changes in electrical conductivity by many orders of magnitude. It is also indicated that in addition to oxides that are insulating after processing in air, there is another diverse family of oxides that are insulating only after chemical reduction. Very little is known about the properties of these materials but there is no reason to exclude them from possible applications.
The Organization of Sciences and the Relations of Cultures in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

The culture of a people is discovered in its arts, its institutions, and its lore — in things made, things done, and things said. The culture of a time is the culture of peoples in contact and communication. Culture is a qualification of peoples and an order of “learning,” and learning is both a process of education and an organization of sciences. Sciences are organized and developed in cultures, and cultures are known and characterized by sciences. The interactions and communications of peoples are interpreted from the perspectives of one or another of the cultures in communication or from the perspectives of an outside interpreter. The historian of culture has interpreted the culture of the Middle Ages variously from the time when Renaissance Humanists interpreted it into existence and gave it its name and its dogmatic, verbalistic characteristics, to present day scientific studies based on the invention of a science of culture and the rediscovery of a culture for the Middle Ages in the nineteenth century. The historian of science has interpreted medieval sciences from the time when early modern scientists interpreted them out of existence as sciences, through the discovery of items of observation, method, or theory uncovered in medieval writings as modern science progressed to the present. The history of cultures and of periods and the history of sciences and of discipline are written backwards from present conceptions of culture and present interpretations of science.
Auditory and Visual Perception, Sex, and Academic Aptitude As Predictors of Achievement for First-Grade Children.

This study explored the relationships among visual and auditory perception, academic aptitude, sex, and school achievement. The participants were first-grade children from an east central Indiana p...
Why Seniors Leave and Why They Return: An Exploratory Case Study:

A recent increased focus is being placed on college completion agendas, yet there is limited research on senior attrition. Examining why students leave school when they are so close to being done a...
An Architectural Approach to Instructional Design

Winner of the 2014 AECT Design & Development Outstanding Book Award An Architectural Approach to Instructional Design is organized around a groundbreaking new way of conceptualizing instructional design practice. Both practical and theoretically sound, this approach is drawn from current international trends in architectural, digital, and industrial design, and focuses on the structural and functional properties of the artifact being designed rather than the processes used to design it. Harmonious with existing systematic design models, the architectural approach expands the scope of design discourse by introducing new depth into the conversation and merging current knowledge with proven systematic techniques. An architectural approach is the natural result of increasing technological complexity and escalating user expectations. As the complexity of design problems increases, specialties evolve their own design languages, theories, processes, tools, literature, organizations, and standards. An Architectural Approach to Instructional Design describes the implications for theory and practice, providing a powerful and commercially relevant introduction for all students of instructional design.
Abstract LB-334: Signals from the microenvironment induce a malignant program accompanied by de novo epigenetic remodeling

Introduction: The active acquisition of epigenetic changes is a poorly understood but important process in development, differentiation, and disease. Our work has recently demonstrated that repression of the p16/pRb pathway in human epithelial cells, a condition common to stem cells and many tumor cells, induces dynamic epigenetic remodeling resulting in the targeted methylation of selected CpG islands. We hypothesized that cells in this epigenetically-plastic state can be programmed by the microenvironment to acquire epigenetic changes that promote tumorigenesis. Methods: Normal human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) and HMEC with repressed p16 were first transduced with constitutively active Ha-rasV12. In order to mimic the secretory aspects of the extracellular environment, the cells were subsequently cultured in a serum-rich environment. Results: When p16-repressed cells were challenged with oncogenic stress, they failed to undergo the classic proliferative arrest as documented in normal cells. When further stressed by being cultured in a serum-rich environment, they spontaneously immortalized and exhibited phenotypic changes indicative of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). The EMT was accompanied by de novo methylation of the E-cadherin promoter and increased motility. Conclusions: These data demonstrate that signals from the microenvironment can induce phenotypic and gene expression changes that result in de novo epigenetic alterations important in tumor progression.
Treatment with Lisinopril Delays the Early Progression of Proteinuria in a Novel Model of Prepubertal Obesity

Prepubertal childhood obesity (PPO) has emerged as an epidemic and major health problem in the United States. Recent studies suggest that PPO is associated with increased risk of renal injury in ch...
Elevated Pre-Transplant Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio is Associated with Increased Vasoplegia Syndrome in Cardiac Transplantation

Purpose Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), calculated from a CBC, is a marker of systemic inflammation and long-term risk in chronic illness, including heart failure (HF). Vasoplegia syndrome is a severe vasodilatory shock state after cardiac surgery. Patients undergoing heart transplantation (HTx) may be at an increased risk of vasoplegia due to inflammatory cytokine release secondary to HF. The role of NLR as a predictive marker for vasoplegia in patients undergoing HTx has not been studied. Methods Retrospective review of consecutive patients who underwent HTx from 7/2016 to 7/2018. Patients with conditions or treatments known to affect WBC count were excluded. Pre-HTx NLR was calculated from day of HTx and stratified by tertile. Vasoplegia was defined as vasopressor administration for > 24 hours to maintain mean arterial pressure > 65 mmHg for hypotension not attributed to other etiologies within 48 hours of HTx. The primary outcome was rates of vasoplegia between tertiles. Results 78 patients underwent HTx of which 70 met inclusion criteria. 18 patients had vasoplegia. Vasoplegia occurred in 8.7% (n=2) in the 1st tertile, 25% (n=6) in the 2nd tertile and 43.4% (n= 10) in the 3rd tertile (comparison 1st vs 3rd tertile, p=0.04) (Figure). In a multivariate analysis, adjusted for prior LVAD, patients in the 3rd tertile had higher rates of vasoplegia (adjusted OR 2.47, 95% CI 1.87-4.55) compared to the 1st. Mean NLR in patients without vasoplegia was 3.68±0.48 compared to 6.72±1.7 in patients with vasoplegia (p=0.019). There was no demographic or medical comorbidity difference other than hypothyroidism (p=0.04) between groups. Conclusion Vasoplegia is associated with elevated pre-HTx NLR compared to patients without vasoplegia. Chronic inflammation due to HF may play a role in the development of post-HTx vasoplegia. NLR is an inexpensive tool which clinicians may use pre-HTx to stratify which patients are at an increased risk of development of vasoplegia post-HTx.
Neutron Beam Attenuation Through Semiconductor Devices During SEU Testing

Stacking the printed circuit boards (PCBs)populated with electronic components one behind the other during SEU tests in neutron beams is a common practice to improve the error statistics. As a result of this stacking, both neutron flux and energy spectrum change from one PCB to another, which may have a significant impact on the results of SEU tests. To quantify these impacts, we measured the neutron attenuation in a stack of test PCBs. We show that the number of transmitted neutrons exponentially decreases as the number of boards grows and we show that this transmission is energy dependent. These results will allow test engineers to correct inaccuracies in the failure-in-time (FIT)rate measurements.
The operation of distributed leadership and the relationship with organizational commitment and job satisfaction of principals and teachers: A multi-level model and meta-analysis using the 2013 TALIS data

Abstract Distributed leadership has been operationalized focusing on the perception of favorable conditions that lure leadership distribution, staff empowerment, and shared decision-making, etc., but the evidence for operational aspects of DL is far from complete. Using the 2013 TALIS data, this research used rigorous multi-level models and meta-analysis to investigate how principals, management-team members, teachers, and governing board members embark on different school leadership and management functions; and how the variations in the operation of distributed leadership are related to principals and teachers’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The results suggested that principals’ and teachers’ role in developing colleagues, and the management team’s leadership in instructional management are positively related to principals and teachers’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Due to the nuanced variations found regarding how operational facets of DL are related to principals and teachers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment, future efforts to better understand this topic requires cautious evaluations of interactions between leadership functions and multiple stakeholders.
Librarian Consults Through Epic: New Opportunities for Collaboration and Education.

AbstractThe Center for Families Resource Library at St. Louis Children’s Hospital was integrated into the hospital’s new Epic electronic medical records system in June 2018. The new system enables ...
Stability in turbulence: The interplay between shocks and vorticity in a superfluid with higher-order dispersion

The authors study the shock-wave propagation and dissipation within a spatially asymmetric two-component Bose-Einstein condensate with spin-orbit coupling in a joint experimental and theoretical study. Highly nonlinear dynamics with higher-order dispersion in an ultracold atomic system are observed and investigated.
Universal molecular Clostridioides difficile screening and overtreatment in solid organ transplant recipients

BACKGROUND Screening for Clostridioides difficile (CD) colonization can be performed using molecular testing to identify the presence of microbial DNA of the toxin gene. Colonization rates for hospitalized patients are as high as 20% and may be considerably higher in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. Treatment for CD should be based on clinical disease and not colonization, yet clinicians may misinterpret a positive CD screen resulting in overtreatment. OBJECTIVES The objective of this analysis is to determine how often positive CD screens resulted in inappropriate treatment with oral vancomycin. METHODS Clostridioides difficile screens were performed using the Xpert C difficile assay (Cepheid), a nucleic acid amplification testing method utilizing polymerase chain reaction (PCR), on peri-rectal swabs for newly admitted patients. This was a single-center cohort study of adult patients with CD screens hospitalized between July 2015 and November 2018. The primary outcome was the rate of inappropriate oral vancomycin treatment in all patients and in SOT recipients, defined as therapy in the absence of diarrhea. RESULTS Of the 47 076 total CD screens reviewed, 1,921 were positive. In the SOT cohort, 58 of 329 screens were positive (4.1% vs 17.9%, P < .01). Of all patients with a positive CD screen, 20.1% (386/1921) were treated with oral vancomycin within 48 hours of swab collection. In the SOT cohort, 39.6% (23/58) with positive CD screens were treated with oral vancomycin within 48 hours. Of the SOT patients who received oral vancomycin, 39% (9/23) did not have true CD infection. CONCLUSION Solid organ transplant recipients were more likely to have CD colonization detected by peri-rectal screening than the general inpatient population. SOT and non-SOT patients were treated with oral vancomycin at similar rates in response to the positive screen. Nearly half of the oral vancomycin use in SOT recipients was likely overtreatment, but this finding is limited by the low number of patients in this cohort.
Keloid disorder: Fibroblast differentiation and gene expression profile in fibrotic skin diseases

Keloid disorder, a group of fibroproliferative skin diseases, is characterized by unremitting accumulation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of connective tissue, primarily collagen, to develop cutaneous tumors on the predilection sites of skin. There is a strong genetic predisposition for keloid formation, and individuals of African and Asian ancestry are particularly prone. The principal cell type responsible for ECM accumulation is the myofibroblast derived from quiescent resident skin fibroblasts either through trans-differentiation or from keloid progenitor stem cells with capacity for multi-lineage differentiation and self-renewal. The biosynthetic pathways leading to ECM accumulation are activated by several cytokines, but particularly by TGF-β signalling. The mechanical properties of the cellular microenvironment also play a critical role in the cell's response to TGF-β, as demonstrated by culturing of fibroblasts derived from keloids and control skin on substrata with different degrees of stiffness. These studies also demonstrated that culturing of fibroblasts on tissue culture plastic in vitro does not reflect their biosynthetic capacity in vivo. Collectively, our current understanding of the pathogenesis of keloids suggests a complex network of interacting cellular, molecular and mechanical factors, with distinct pathways leading to myofibroblast differentiation and activation. Keloids can serve as a model system of fibrotic diseases, a group of currently intractable disorders, and deciphering of the critical pathogenetic steps leading to ECM accumulation is expected to identify targets for pharmacologic intervention, not only for keloids but also for a number of other, both genetic and acquired, fibrotic diseases.
Detecting differential metabolic changes in breast cancer under methionine regulation using DO-SRS and TPF microscopy

Breast cancer is a diverse disease rife with numerous subtypes with material impact on prognoses. Current methods may lack accuracy or be cost and time prohibitive, but optical techniques such as Isotope Probed Stimulated Raman Scattering microscopy (ip-SRS), and two photon excitation fluorescence (TPEF) microscopy can reveal spatial biomolecular information useful in distinguishing cell subtypes and phenotypic states rapidly and accurately. In the present study, we used heavy water and L-methionine to probe the enzymatic incorporation during scavenging and de novo biosynthesis of macromolecules in MCF10A, MCF7, and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells with spontaneous Raman spectro-microscopy and SRS microscopy, as well as their effects on cellular respiration and organelle health by imaging the NADH and flavin pools and labeled organelles with TPEF. This will enhance diagnostic efficacy and illustrate specific biochemical effects of manipulated nutrition and targeted therapies.
Utility of a Clinical Scoring System for Point of Care Triaging in COVID-19 Pneumonia

BackgroundSurges in COVID-19 disease cases can rapidly overwhelm healthcare resources; triaging to appropriate levels of care can assist in resource planning. At the beginning of the pandemic, we developed a simple triage tool, the Temple COVID-19 Pneumonia Triage Tool (TemCOV) based on a combination of clinical and radiographic features that are readily available on presentation to categorize and predict illness severity. MethodsWe prospectively examined 579 sequential cases admitted to Temple University Hospital who were assigned severity categories on admission. Our primary outcome was to compare the performance of TemCOV in predicting patients who have the highest likely of admission to the ICU at 24 and at 72 hours to other standard triage tools: the National Early Warning System (NEWS), the Modified Early Warning System (MEWS) and the CURB65 score. Additional endpoints included need for invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) within 72 hours, total hospital admission charges, and mortality. Results26% of patients fell within our highest risk Category 4 and were more likely to require ICU admission at 24 hours (OR 11.51) and 72 hours (OR 8.6). Additionally they had the highest likelihood of needing IMV (OR 29.47) and in-hospital mortality (OR 2.37)., TemCOV performed similar to MEWS in predicting ICU admission at 24 hours (receive operator characteristic (ROC) curve area under the curve (AUC) 0.77 vs. 0.74, p=0.21) but better than NEWS2 and CURB65 (ROC AUC 0.77 vs. 0.69 and 0.77 vs. 0.64, respectively, p<0.01). While all severity scores had a weak correlation to hospital charges, the TemCOV performed the best among all severity scores measured (r=0.18); median hospital charges for Category 4 patients was $170,468 ($96,972-$487,556). ConclusionTemCOV is a simple triage score that can be used upon hospitalization in patients with COVID-19 that predicts the need for hospital resources such as ICU bed capacity, invasive mechanical ventilation and personnel staffing.
Resolving Inland Waterways with CYGNSS

Observations made by the NASA Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) of inland waterways can be used to resolve changes in water boundaries on time scales from days to weeks to months. An example of change on a daily time scale is the response of river width to rapid changes in stream flow rate. An example of change on a weekly time scale is the flood inundation caused by a land falling hurricane. And an example of change on a monthly time scale is the expansion and contraction of a major river delta due to seasonal monsoon rains. CYGNSS measurements of each of these phenomena are presented, and related considerations and implications of its measurement capability are discussed.
DEL BRICOLAJE AL TALLER O EL ESPACIO DE LA TRANSFORMACIÓN EN FRANCIA

Within the context of the current pandemic, France, like many other countries, is hoping to promote new ways of inhabiting domestic space after COVID. However, certain models seem to have emerged from a slower process of transformation. Herein we will examine how do-it-yourself work (DIY), beyond just a marginal activity, may be indicative of paradigm changes in French society. To achieve this, the essay describes the characteristics and changes in DIY across time in France based on the momentum created by the social sciences in the 1970s. It explains how DIY is able to generate changes in the people’s behavior and thus offer the possibility of a new model for the economy and production. However, in order to be able to play a role in both twenty-first century housing and the contemporary city, action taken on matter must be spatially legitimized. Therefore, we also discuss the historical role of homo faber, along with his workshop, in the construction of la cite . Last of all, parallels are drawn between the renewed appreciation of DIY and the role of the grand bricoleur, or large-scale DIY practitioner, already played by the latest generations of French architects. Thus, DIY is viewed as a way of “being in the world” that will lead to the construction of a new economic and productive model during an era of ecological transition.
Being human: The role of pluripotent stem cells in regenerative medicine and humanizing Alzheimer's disease models

Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) have the capacity to revolutionize medicine by allowing the generation of functional cell types such as neurons for cell replacement therapy. However, the more immediate impact of PSCs on treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) will be through improved human AD model systems for mechanistic studies and therapeutic screening. This review will first briefly discuss different types of PSCs and genome-editing techniques that can be used to modify PSCs for disease modeling or for personalized medicine. This will be followed by a more in depth analysis of current AD iPSC models and a discussion of the need for more complex multicellular models, including cell types such as microglia. It will finish with a discussion on current clinical trials using PSC-derived cells and the long-term potential of such strategies for treating AD.
Personalized cytomic assessment of vascular health: Evaluation of the vascular health profile in diabetes mellitus.

Background An inexpensive and accurate blood test does not currently exist that can evaluate the cardiovascular health of a patient. This study evaluated a novel high dimensional flow cytometry approach in combination with cytometric fingerprinting (CF), to comprehensively enumerate differentially expressed subsets of pro-angiogenic circulating progenitor cells (CPCs), involved in the repair of vasculature, and microparticles (MPs), frequently involved in inflammation and thrombosis. CF enabled discovery of a unique pattern, involving both MPs and CPCs and generated a personalized signature of vascular health, the vascular health profile (VHP). Methods Levels of CPCs and MPs were measured with a broad panel of cell surface markers in a population with atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and age-similar Healthy controls (HC) using an unbiased computational approach, termed CF. Results Circulating hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (CHSPCAng) levels were detected at significantly lower concentrations in DM (P < 0.001), whereas levels of seven phenotypically distinct MPs were present at significantly higher concentrations in DM patients and one MP subset was present at significantly lower concentration in DM patients. Collectively, the combination of CHSPCAng and MP levels was more informative than any one measure alone. Conclusions This work provides the basis for a personalized cytomic vascular health profile that may be useful for a variety of applications including drug development, clinical risk assessment and companion diagnostics. © 2013 International Clinical Cytometry Society
Collisional processes in cometary plasmas

The interaction of the solar wind with comets is initiated at large distances from the nucleus by the ionization of cometary neutrals. The resulting contamination of the solar wind with cometary ions mass-loads the solar wind flow, causing it to slow down. The plasma-comet interaction is largely collisionless at large cometocentric distances. However, collisional processes become important in the inner coma (within the cometopause). Collisional processes include charge-transfer between solar wind protons and neutrals, ion-neutral friction, electron and ion thermal cooling, and ion-neutral chemistry. For example, the magnetometer on the Giotto spacecraft observed a diamagnetic cavity near closest approach. This cavity is a consequence of the balance between an inward-directed magnetic pressure gradient force and an outward ion-netural frictional force. Thermalization of the cometary ion distribution function by Coulomb collisions is another important process in the inner coma of an active comet.