cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bacterial genome reduction as a result of short read sequence assembly

High-throughput comparative genomics has changed our view of bacterial evolution and relatedness. Many genomic comparisons, especially those regarding the accessory genome that is variably conserved across strains in a species, are performed using assembled genomes. For completed genomes, an assumption is made that the entire genome was incorporated into the genome assembly, while for draft assemblies, often constructed from short sequence reads, an assumption is made that genome assembly is an approximation of the entire genome. To understand the potential effects of short read assemblies on the estimation of the complete genome, we downloaded all completed bacterial genomes from GenBank, simulated short reads, assembled the simulated short reads and compared the resulting assembly to the completed assembly. Although most simulated assemblies demonstrated little reduction, others were reduced by as much as 25%, which was correlated with the repeat structure of the genome. A comparative analysis of lost coding region sequences demonstrated that up to 48 CDSs or up to ~112,000 bases of coding region sequence, were missing from some draft assemblies compared to their finished counterparts. Although this effect was observed to some extent in 32% of genomes, only minimal effects were observed on pan-genome statistics when using simulated draft genome assemblies. The benefits and limitations of using draft genome assemblies should be fully realized before interpreting data from assembly-based comparative analyses.
Immunotherapy with Donor Leukocyte Infusions (DLIS) in Relapsed Hodgkin’s Disease (HD) Following Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation (ALLO-SCT): CD3+ Cell Dose, GVHD and Disease Response.

Background : There is paucity of data on DLIs for the management of recurrent HD following allo-SCT, and on whether CD3+ cell dose is relevant to response (and the development of GVHD) as is the case in chronic myeloid leukemia. Patients : Nine patients with advanced HD who had undergone allo-SCT received DLIs as immunotherapy for treatment of progressive disease (PD). A total of fifteen DLIs were performed, with four patients receiving more than one DLI. Their median age was 30 years (18–42), and 7/9 had failed a prior autologous SCT. In four patients prior chemotherapy was administered.. Seven had a matched sibling donor and two a matched unrelated donor, and in all but one case the conditioning regimen included fludarabine plus cyclophosphamide or melphalan (plus/minus antithymocyte globulin). The pre-DLI chimerism status was 2/9 mixed and 7/9 full donor. Results : The CD3+ cell dose administered was 77.5 x 10E6/kg (5–285). GVHD developed following the DLI in all but one patient and after 9/15 DLIs (60%). The response rate (complete/partial response) was 4/9 (44%). Three of these four responders developed GVHD and 3/4 had received chemotherapy. After the DLI mixed chimerism (n=2) was converted to complete (or near-complete) donor chimerism. The median response duration was 7 months (range 4-9+). No correlation (or threshold) was observed between CD3+ cell dose infused and disease response. The correlation between CD3+ cell dose and GVHD could not be evaluated statistically as all but one patient developed GVHD. At the latest follow-up three patients are alive (one in ongoing complete remission) and six have expired (PD n=3, non-relapse mortality n=3). Conclusions : These data suggest that DLIs for immunotherapy of recurrent HD following allo-SCT have significant activity, although they frequently lead to GVHD (and, if not already present, full donor chimerism). The small sample size does not allow any firm conclusion as to whether chemotherapy administration increases the chance of response. The CD3 cell dose infused does not seem to correlate with disease response.
Road to the Future: Priorities for Child Health Services Research

Abstract Background Prior health services research (HSR) agendas for children have been published, but major ones are now over 15 years old and do not reflect augmented understanding of the drivers and determinants of children's health; recent changes in the organization, financing, and delivery of health care; a growing emphasis on population health; and major demographic shifts in the population. A policy-relevant research agenda that integrates knowledge gained over the past 2 decades is essential to guide future child HSR (CHSR). We sought to develop and disseminate a robust, domestically focused, policy-oriented CHSR agenda. Methods The new CHSR agenda was developed through a series of consultations with leaders in CHSR and related fields. After each round of consultation, the authors synthesized the previous experts' guidance to help inform subsequent discussions. The multistep process in generation of the agenda included identification of major policy-relevant research domains and specification of high-value research questions for each domain. Stakeholders represented in the discussions included those with expertise in child and family advocacy, adult health, population health, community development, racial and ethnic disparities, women's health, health economics, and government research funders and programs. Results In total, 180 individuals were consulted in developing the research agenda. Six priority domains were identified for future research, including both enduring and emerging emphases: 1) framing children's health issues so that they are compelling to policy-makers; 2) addressing poverty and other social determinants of child health and wellbeing; 3) promoting equity in population health and health care; 4) preventing, diagnosing, and treating high priority health conditions in children; 5) strengthening performance of the health care system; and 6) enhancing the CHSR enterprise. Within these 6 domains, 40 specific topics were identified as the most pertinent for future research. Three overarching and crosscutting themes that affect research across the domains were also noted: the need for syntheses to build on the current, and sometimes extensive, evidence base to avoid duplication; the interrelated nature of the domains, which could lead to synergies in research; and the need for multidisciplinary collaborations in conducting research because research studies will look beyond the health sector. Conclusions The priorities presented in the agenda are policy-oriented and include a greater emphasis on how findings are framed and communicated to support action. We expect that the agenda will be useful for immediate uptake by investigators and research funders.
Characterization of convective systems and their association with African easterly waves

This study investigates the relationship between African easterly waves (AEWs) and different types of deep convection. It is known that AEWs impact the development of deep convection over tropical North Africa and tropical cyclone formation over the eastern Atlantic. However, the process of how AEWs interact with deep convection is not well understood. Composite analysis based on a 24-year data set of cloud systems (CS) from the International Satellite Cloud Climate Project shows that the relationship changes with various types of convection over this region. This phase change relationship analysis may shed light into the dynamics of AEWs and improve the ability of forecasters to anticipate associated rainfall over the Sahel. Weak and disorganized convective systems (WDCSs; 50 km 100 km increase in frequency within and to the west of the AEW-trough zone. MCSs are common features of summer in northwestern Africa. Our results indicate that the association between AEWs and deep convection is different and changes across North Africa. Weak AEWs over East Africa have a stronger relationship with WDCSs, while mature AEWs over West Africa have more MCS activity. This evolution suggests that the organization of convection from WDCS to MCS may play a critical role in AEW development. This hypothesis contrasts the traditional view that treats convection uniformly.
The Usage of Mock Oral Examinations for Program Improvement.

Objective Mock oral examinations are often used to prepare residents for the American Board of Surgery certifying examination. Another potential use of these examinations is to identify programmatic weaknesses. Results from a multi-institutional mock oral examination were evaluated to determine if specific areas of weakness within each of the participating programs could be identified to facilitate program development. Design A mock oral examination was administered annually consisting of 3 examination rooms per resident with 3 cases in each room. Case categories included core general surgery and subspecialties and cases were changed yearly. Each case included facets of patient management from history and physical examination, and differential diagnosis to postoperative care and professional behaviors. Setting General Surgery programs at 3 academic medical centers—Northwestern University, Rush University, and University of Illinois at Chicago. Participants A total of 259 resident examinations of fourth- and fifth-year general surgery residents over a 7-year period. Results A total of 2331 individual resident cases were evaluated with an overall case pass rate of 50.2% across all 3 programs. The weakest case category for each program was different (A = vascular 40.0% pass, B = trauma 41.4% pass, and C = breast 30.0% pass). All programs scored above their mean in gastrointestinal and abdominal surgery and below their mean in vascular surgery. Within vascular surgery, the weakest facet of patient management also differed between programs (A = select tests 44.3% pass, B = complications 57.0% pass, and C = history and physical 55.4% pass). Conclusions A standardized mock oral examination is able to identify topic areas of relative strength and weakness that differ between programs. These results can be used to define focused areas for improvement within training programs, guide rotation schedules, and improve didactic curricula.
Surface and Subsurface Remote Sensing of Concrete Structures Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging

AbstractSurface and subsurface inspection of concrete structures provides useful information for the maintenance of these structures. Remote sensing techniques such as radar and microwave sensors e...
Social Security, Ponzi Schemese, and the Need for Reform

Recently there has been much debate over whether Social Security is or is not a Ponzi scheme.Clearly Social Security has many structural characteristics that resemble those of the classic Ponzi or pyramid scheme. For example, like a Ponzi scheme, Social Security does not actually save or invest any of a participant's payments. When a worker pays taxes into the system, that money is used to pay current beneficiaries. Therefore, participants receive payments, not from returns on their own investments, but directly from inflows from subsequent participants.As a result, Social Security was able to pay early participants a windfall return on their money. But as demographic changes result in fewer workers paying into the program and more recipients taking benefits out, the return to subsequent generations grows steadily worse. Today's young workers will receive a rate of return far lower than what they could receive from private markets.However, there is one crucial distinction between Social Security and a Ponzi scheme. Once Ponzi was unable to talk enough people into investing with him, his scheme collapsed. People participate in Social Security because the government makes them. And if the Social Security system begins to run short of people paying into the system, as it is now, it can always force those people to pay more.Yet, Congress's ability to preserve Social Security through higher taxes and lower benefits should not distract from the more fundamental problem that the program's Ponzi-like structure makes it unable to pay currently promised levels of benefits with current levels of taxation. In short, the program is facing insolvency without fundamental reform.Instead of just making a bad deal worse, that reform should fundamentally restructure Social Security. It should remove the Ponzi-like aspects of the program and allow younger workers to save a portion of their payroll taxes through privately invested personal accounts.
Bullous diaper dermatitis with cloth diaper use

Irritant diaper dermatitis occurs at a higher frequency with cloth diaper use than disposable diapers. We present four cases of vesiculobullous, erosive diaper dermatitis occurring in older infants and toddlers with cloth diaper use that resolved completely after transitioning to disposable diapers. This is the first report of vesicles and bullae as a type of irritant diaper dermatitis.
Anthroposcenes: Towards an Environmental Graphic Novel

In this article, I consider how two contemporary graphic novels, Richard McGuire’s Here (2015) and Lauren Redniss’s Radioactive (2010), take up the challenge posed by the Anthropocene to represent both geologic and human scales. I argue that graphic novels prove a fruitful site for investigating the capacities of both visual art and literature to respond to such a refiguring of the boundaries of the human subject and narrative. While the most commercially popular and frequently studied texts in climate fiction tend to be novels or films, I turn from considering the patterns of genre fiction to the affordances of form. I explore how the conceptual and aesthetic frameworks of the graphic novel form encompass environmental phenomena that are often difficult to visualize elsewhere, stretching beyond human perspectives. In particular, I show how the aesthetics of temporality, or visual time, in graphic novels encourages readings that take notice of the nonhuman presence in plots and narrative events. In arguing for the environmental, more-than-human implications of visual time in the graphic novel form, I focus on how representations of domestic habits and daily routines in Here and Radioactive are articulated within and implicated by unruly scales of time and space (too small and too large to contain). I argue that the aesthetics of time in the form of the graphic novel address representational challenges central to the Anthropocene, environmental justice, and slow violence, in particular, the mediation between the planetary and the domestic.
Liver, Gallbladder, Biliary Tract, and Pancreas

Agenesis of the liver is extremely rare. Total absence of the liver is a lethal malformation. It occurs with the absence of other abdominal organs in the acardiac or amorphous twin disruption sequence owing to an artery-to-artery placental shunt (twin reversed-arterial-perfusion [TRAP] sequence). Absence or hypoplasia of the left lobe of the liver may be asymptomatic. Absence of the liver tissue to the left of the gallbladder fossa is considered diagnostic of absence of the left lobe of the liver. The right lobe may be of normal size or enlarged. Absence of the right lobe has been found in asymptomatic individuals and in patients with symptoms of hepatobiliary tract disease. Significant hypoplasia or absence of the right lobe associated with malposition of the gallbladder may cause compression of the cystic duct with subsequent cholecystolithiasis and choledocholithiasis.
Human Developmental Milestones

40 weeks (280 days) gestation measured from the first day of the last period – so, fertilization should actually occur at +2 weeks.
Electrochemical behaviour and surface analysis of chalcopyrite in alkaline glycine solutions

Abstract Electrochemical experiments with a chalcopyrite rotating disk electrode were carried out in alkaline glycine solutions. This showed no apparent passivation behaviour during anodic dissolution that is observed in acid solutions. The current increased with applied potential from the open circuit potential with no resemblance to the passivation region seen in acid solutions. A loosely held porous layer developed on the surface consisting largely of iron oxyhydroxides that had a limited effect on the anodic current. Elemental sulfur and a disulfide species were detected using XPS and Raman spectroscopy but did not passivate the surface as has been proposed for acid solutions. The disulfide species is sometimes used to infer a metal deficient sulfide or polysulfide that is responsible for passivation but in this study it had no passivating influence. Current-potential curves showed features of a non-ideal semiconductor that were explained by charge transfer via surface states.
Development of a novel micro biosensor for in vivo monitoring of glutamate release in the brain.

L- Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and hyperglutamatergic signaling is implicated in neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. Monitoring glutamate with a glutamate oxidase-based amperometric biosensor offers advantages such as high spatial and high temporal resolution. However, commercially-available glutamate biosensors are expensive and larger in size. Here, we report the development of 50 µm diameter biosensor for real-time monitoring of L-glutamate in vivo. A polymer, poly-o-phenylenediamine (PPD) layer was electropolymerized onto a 50 µm Pt wire to act as a permselective membrane. Then, glutamate oxidase entrapped in a biocompatible chitosan matrix was cast onto the microelectrode surface. Finally, ascorbate oxidase was coated to eliminate interferences from high levels of extracellular ascorbic acid present in brain tissue. L-glutamate measurements were performed amperometrically at an applied potential of 0.6 V vs Ag/AgCl. The biosensor exhibited a linear range from 5 to 150 μM, with a high sensitivity of 0.097 ± 0.001 nA/μM and one-week storage stability. The biosensor also showed a rapid steady state response to L-glutamate within 2 s, with a limit of detection of 0.044 μM. The biosensor was used successfully to detect stimulated glutamate in the subthalamic nucleus in brain slices and in vivo. Thus, this biosensor is appropriate for future neuroscience applications.
Ideating iDNA: Lessons and limitations from leeches in legacy collections

Indirect methods for conducting faunal inventories present great promise, and genomic inventories derived from environmental sources (eDNA) are improving. Invertebrate ingested DNA (iDNA) from terrestrial leeches in the family Haemadipsidae has shown potential for surveying vertebrates and biodiversity monitoring in protected areas. Here we present an initial, and critical, evaluation of the limitations and biases of current iDNA protocols for biodiversity monitoring using both standard and NGS barcoding approaches. Key findings include the need for taxon relevant multi-locus markers and reference databases. In particular, the limitations of available reference databases have profound potential to mislead and bias eDNA and iDNA results if not critically interpreted. Nevertheless, there is great potential for recovery of amplifiable DNA from gut contents of invertebrate museum specimens which may reveal both temporal patterns and cryptic diversity in protected areas with increased efficiency. Our analyses of ingested DNA (iDNA) from both freshly stored and previously collected (legacy) samples of terrestrial leeches successfully identified vertebrates from Myanmar, Australia and Madagascar and indicate the potential to characterize microbial communities, pathogen diversity and interactions at low cost.
Biocitizenship: the politics of bodies, governance and power

This collection offers a rich diversity of perspectives on what has come to be known as “biological citizenship,” or “biocitizenship.” Quoting Nikolas Rose, editors Johnson, Happe, and Levina defin...
Nutraceuticals in Reproductive Disorders

Reproductive disorders or abnormalities that occur in male and female reproductive tracts are induced by infectious and noninfectious agents and various other conditions. In the contemporary world, common use of synthetic chemicals in cosmetics and other items for domestic day-to-day uses undoubtedly contributes to the noninfectious causes of reproductive abnormalities. In both animals and humans, modern drugs are used to treat reproductive disorders. However, unwanted side effects that follow often pose severe problems and concerns, consequently increasing global use of natural products including nutraceuticals to treat reproductive abnormalities. In this chapter, the use of nutraceuticals in the treatment and management of female and male reproductive tract abnormalities is briefly highlighted.
Analytic solutions to compact binary inspirals with leading order spin-orbit contribution using the dynamical renormalization group

We calculate the real-space trajectory and spin precession of a generic spinning compact binary inspiral at any time instant using the dynamical renormalization group formalism. This method leads to closed-form analytic solutions to the binary motion through treating radiation reaction as perturbations and resumming the secular growth of perturbative terms. We consider the spin-orbit effects at leading order and the 2.5 PN radiation reaction without orbit averaging or precession averaging for arbitrary individual masses and spin magnitudes and orientations. The solutions are written in a moving reference frame, with the orbital angular momentum and binary radial directions aligned along two of the axes. The resummed solutions show improved accuracy compared to adiabatic solutions while also being an order of magnitude faster computationally compared to numerical integration methods.
ETS Transcription Factor Etsrp/Etv2 Is Required for Lymphangiogenesis in Zebrafish and Is a Potential Therapeutic Target in Lymphatic Disease

Abstract Lymphangiogenesis is of great clinical interest because of its essential role in such pathologic settings as inflammation, vascular malformations, and tumor metastasis. Previous observational hurdles are now overcome by use of the optically clear and genetically modifiable zebrafish embryo, which provides a vertebrate model for understanding lymphangiogenesis and for revealing putative therapeutic targets for metastatic disease and vascular/lymphatic malformations that currently have no cure. We and others have previously demonstrated that an evolutionarily conserved ETS transcription factor Etv2 / Etsrp functions as a master regulator during embryonic vascular development. However, its role in lymphatic development is not defined. Here we performed conditional knockdown of Etv2 function using photoactivatable morpholinos (MO) in a zebrafish model system to test Etv2 requirement during lymphangiogenesis. Our data show that conditional Etv2 inhibition at 1-day-post-fertilization (dpf) resulted in specific defects in lymphatic development, while blood vessel formation was not affected. The major lymphatic vessel, the thoracic duct, was absent or discontinuous in Etv2-depleted embryos ( Figure 1 ) and the lymphatic progenitors failed to migrate ( Figure 2 ) in absence of Etv2 function. Expression of the lymphatic markers lyve1, prox1a and the major VegfC receptor VegfR3 was strongly down regulated in the conditional Etv2 MO knockdown embryos. We further show that Etv2 expression is enriched in the posterior cardinal vein where lymphangioblasts (lymphatic endothelial cell precursors) originate during lymphangiogenesis and that overexpression of Etv2 throughout blood vasculature perturbs lymphangiogenesis. We further show that in the absence of Etv2 function, lymphatic progenitors fail to respond to VegfC signaling. Our results suggest that Etv2 initiates lymphangiogenesis in part by regulating Vegf3 expression. These results argue that Etv2 is a novel critical factor during lymphatic development, and it may represent a new target for chemical modulation in multiple lymphatic disorders. Download : Download high-res image (185KB) Download : Download full-size image Figure 1 . Download : Download high-res image (185KB) Download : Download full-size image Figure 2 . Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Alternative splicing redefines landscape of commonly mutated genes in acute myeloid leukemia

Most genes associated with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) are mutated in less than 10% of patients, suggesting alternative mechanisms for gene disruption contribute to this disease. Here we find a set of splicing events that disrupt the expression of a subset of AML-associated genes, including EZH2 and ZRSR2, independent of known somatic mutations. Most strikingly, in at least one cohort, aberrant splicing triples the number of patients with a reduction in functional EZH2 as compared to that predicted by somatic mutation of EZH2 alone. Together, these results demonstrate that classical mutation analysis underestimates the burden of functional gene disruption in AML and highlights the importance of assessing the contribution of alternative splicing to gene dysregulation in human disease.
Timing of Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation for Multiple Myeloma in the Era of Current Therapies.

Abstract Background Autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT) during the initial treatment of multiple myeloma has been shown to improve progression-free survival (PFS) but not overall survival (OS). While awaiting further prospective data, we retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of patients at our program. Patients and Methods We included consecutive patients with newly diagnosed myeloma who had undergone stem cell harvest (SCH) from 2005 to 2014 and separated them into early (SCT within 12 months of diagnosis) and delayed (all others, including SCT not yet) groups. The outcomes were OS, PFS to first relapse, and PFS to second relapse. Results Of the 514 patients who had undergone SCH, 227 were in the early and 287 in the delayed groups. Patients in the delayed group who had undergone SCT had received more therapy before SCT (55% had received ≥ 2 lines vs. 6% in the early group; P Conclusion Delaying SCT did not affect OS or even PFS to second relapse in our cohort of patients with newly diagnosed myeloma who had received current era induction therapy.
Fabrication of Gold-Silicon Nanostructured Surfaces with Reactive Laser Ablation in Liquid

Laser processing is an emerging technique capable of synthesizing metal-silicon composite surfaces for various applications. However, little is known about the chemical composition of these laser-processed surfaces, and the reaction mechanisms leading to their formation are poorly understood. In this work, we report the formation of gold-silicon nanostructured surfaces through reactive laser ablation in liquid. Silicon wafers were immersed in pH-controlled solutions of KAuCl4 and processed with ultrashort laser pulses. Gold deposition on the silicon wafers was found to depend on the pH of the precursor solution: neutral solutions (pH ∼6.3) resulted in much higher gold deposition than acidic or basic solutions. Laser processing of silicon wafers in water followed by immersion in the KAuCl4 solution resulted in lower gold deposition. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and depth profiling showed the existence of both gold (Au0) and gold-silicide (AuxSi) phases on the surfaces. Under both types of processing conditions, the gold atomic fraction and gold-silicide content increased with depth to at least 150 nm into the surface of the silicon wafer, although significantly more gold and gold-silicide were formed when the silicon was ablated in KAuCl4 solution as compared to immersion in KAuCl4 after ablation in water. Based on these data and existing literature on laser processing of silicon, we propose mechanisms that explain the observed gold penetration depth and its deposition dependence on solution pH. The mechanistic understanding gained in this work may be useful for synthesizing a variety of metal-silicon composite surfaces through laser processing to prepare functional materials such as catalysts and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy

Prolonged exposure (PE), the most widely used form of psychological therapy utilized to treat PTSD, has become the PTSD therapy of choice. The approach and protocol is described in detail for PE, noting that the average response rate is approximately 60–70%. While almost all PE studies have been done among males developing PTSD after war trauma, PE has also shown excellent results when used with patients who have failed other treatment approaches, in those meeting criteria for complex PTSD, and in the subset of PTSD patients also diagnosed with substance abuse disorder (SUD). Unfortunately, dropout rates from PE protocols are quite high (52% in some studies). This is due in part to the aversive nature of PE for both patient and therapist. Dropout rates can be reduced by increasing intensity and limiting time of the therapy process. An alternative PE approach, narrative exposure therapy, is also APA recommended as an approach for treating PTSD. Prolonged exposure is now marketed directly to consumers as the “effective” treatment for PTSD. The evidence indicates that while PE can produce better results than many other approaches, many unanswered questions remain. These include questions as to long-term persistence of effects, value in other at-risk populations, comparative efficacy to other effective PTSD therapies, negative side effects, as well as the question as to what component of treatment success can be attributed to treatment avoidance. Little data supports the use of PE in group, Internet, and AI protocols.
Identifying plant wax inputs in lake sediments using machine learning

Abstract This study aims to evaluate whether machine learning techniques can be successfully applied to process the complex information contained within the molecular abundance distributions of plant wax n-alkane and n-alkanoic acid homologous series. We trained five vegetation identification models using plant wax chain length distributions from modern plants in the Mojave Desert (hyperarid) and the San Bernardino Mountains (conifer forest) and previously published data for macrophytes from Blood Pond (USA) and Mt Kenya (Kenya). All vegetation identification models proved accurate (mean classification accuracy = 0.81) at classifying the modern plant wax chain length distributions into desert plants, conifer and macrophyte categories. We then applied the models to fossil waxes extracted from a 76 m lacustrine sediment core drilled in Searles Valley, CA with an approximate age range of 10 to 150 kyrs (SLAPP-SRLS17) to reconstruct the proportion of desert plants, conifer woodland and lake vegetation. We compared our machine learning models with a previously published linear mixing model and validated our modelled plant type distributions by comparing the results with the archaeol caldarchaeol ecometric (ACE), a proxy for lake salinity, measured in the same core. We found a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.40) between the modelled desert plant proportion and high lake salinity in our models as well as a negative correlation (r = –0.45) between modelled macrophyte plants and ACE, validating the ability of the machine learning techniques to detect both xeric and macrophyte plant communities. Our results suggest that machine learning of plant wax molecular abundance distributions has potential to reconstruct past plant communities, given information from two compound classes and highly differentiated vegetation types.
Modeling drivers’ reaction when being tailgated: A Random Forests Method

Abstract Background: Tailgating is a common aggressive driving behavior that has been identified as one of the leading causes of rear-end crashes. Previous studies have explored the behavior of tailgating drivers and have reported effective solutions to decrease the amount or prevalence of tailgating. This paper tries to fill the research gap by focusing on understanding highway tailgating scenarios and examining the leading vehicles’ reaction using existing naturalistic driving data. Method: A total of 1,255 tailgating events were identified by using the one-second time headway threshold criterion. Four types of reactions from the leading vehicles were identified, including changing lanes, slowing down, speeding up, and making no response. A Random Forests algorithm was employed in this study to predict the leading vehicle’s reaction based on corresponding factors including driver, vehicle, and environmental variables. Results: The analysis of the tailgating scenarios and associated factors showed that male drivers were more frequently involved in tailgating events than female drivers and that tailgating was more prevalent under sunny weather and in daytime conditions. Changing lanes was the most prevalent reaction from the leading vehicle during tailgating, which accounted for more than half of the total events. The results of Random Forests showed that mean time headway, duration of tailgating, and minimum time headway were three main factors, which had the greatest impact on the leading vehicle drivers’ reaction. It was found that in 95% of the events, leading vehicles would change lanes when being tailgated for two minutes or longer. Practical Applications: Results of this study can help to better understand the behavior and decision making of drivers. This understanding can be used in designing countermeasures or assistance systems to reduce tailgating behavior and related negative safety consequences.
Accounting history publications 2020

Listed below are 2020 publications, in English, within the general area of accounting history. The definition of what constitutes an accounting history article is not always a straightforward matte...
Post-Transplant CMV Glomerulitis

A 59-year-old woman with a history of CKD stage 5 due to diabetes underwent preemptive living unrelated kidney transplantation. At the time of transplant, her panel reactive antibody was 0%, and she had no preformed donor-specific antibodies. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) serology was donor positive and
Model management and schema mappings: theory and practice

We present an overview of a tutorial on model management---an approach to solving data integration problems, such as data warehousing, e-commerce, object-to-relational mapping, schema evolution and enterprise information integration. Model management defines a small set of operations for manipulating schemas and mappings, such as Match, Compose, Inverse, and Merge. The long-term goal is to build generic implementations of the operations that can be applied to a wide variety of data integration problems.
Correction of complete atrioventricular canal defect: In patients with previous pulmonary artery banding∗

Abstract Two patients with complete atrioventricular canal defects who had pulmonary artery banding in infancy and subsequent successful total correction of this defect are presented. Despite the reported high mortality for pulmonary banding in patients with complete atrioventricular canals, our experience would indicate that significant palliation can be achieved in some of them. Pulmonary banding procedure should, therefore, be seriously considered in patients in severe heart failure not controlled by stringent medical therapy.
Active enzyme gel chromatography: I. experimental aspects

Transport properties of active enzyme species can be studied effectively by layering a small band of enzyme-containing sample on a gel chromatographic column previously saturated with substrate. The column is optically scanned at successive time intervals to yield profiles representing the appearance of chromophoric product or disappearnce of chromophoric substrate. These profiles permit determination of the specific activity and rate of transport of the active species. Initial studies on mechanic of the technique establish the feasibility of accurately determining transport properties of active enzyme species chromatographed on gel columns. Illustrative results are presented for L-glutamate dehydrogenase and for homoserine dehydrogenase studied in both forward and reverse reactions. It is shown that the partititon cross sections derived from the rates of motion of catalytic activity are the same as those determined by equilibrium saturation experiments which directly measure the degree of partitioning by the protein. These results establish the validity of the technique for a variety of future studies. Active enzyme gel chromatography appears comparable in precision to the active enzyme sedimentation technique at current stages of development.
A preliminary study on the affinities of Philippine, Bornean and New Guinean hepatics

The generic and specific affinities of the Philippine, Bornean and New Guinean hepatic floras were analyzed by calculating the Kroeber’s percentage of similarity on the basis of recently published checklists. It is observed that the overall affinities parallel that exhibited by local moss floras except for one important difference. For the three areas, the number and distribution of species of large, actively evolving hepatic genera are noted to be disparate and with few shared taxa. Contrastingly, the large and actively evolving moss genera produce consistently large number of species in all three areas with an equally large number of shared taxa. The strong dependence of many hepatic taxa on asexual reproduction and the poor spore dispersability are accepted as the best explanation to this phenomenon.
Microaggressions, Feelings of Difference, and Resilience Among Adopted Children with Sexual Minority Parents.

Limited research exists about the unique experiences and possible marginalization of children with sexual minority parents. From a larger longitudinal project of diverse adoptive families, we examined cross-sectional data using mixed methods from interviews with 49 adopted children (M age = 8 years; 47 % female) in 27 two-father and 22 two-mother families. Using thematic analysis, we coded themes of awareness of difference, microaggressions, and resilience (i.e., coping and positive family conceptualizations). Children experienced “feeling different” and microaggressions from peers, but generally at a low to medium intensity and with neutral (not negative) emotion. More instances of resilience and positive family conceptualizations were reported than microaggressions or feelings of difference, suggesting that children develop positive perceptions of their family and navigate experiences of difference with resilience. Filling important gaps in the literature, we discuss implications of our results for practice and policy.
Temperature monitoring and management during neuraxial anesthesia.

MDDepartment of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, California; theLudwig Boltzmann Institute for Clinical Anesthesia and Intensive Care; and the Outcomes Research™ Laboratory,Department of Anesthesia and General Intensive Care, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Mining electronic health records: an additional perspective.

We read with great interest the article by Jensen et al. (Mining electronic health records: towards better research applications and clinical care. Nature Reviews Genetics 13, 395–405)1. This was a well-written Review that summarized a large, complex and topical subject. To augment the article, and in particular to augment Table 1, we would like to point out that one of the earliest and most successful research databases that integrated diverse data sources with electronic health records (EHRs) is the Utah Population Database (UPDB) at the University of Utah, USA. Its earliest success was the identification of families with a high incidence of breast cancer; this research led to the discovery of the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 (Refs 2,3,4,5). A crucial component of the UPDB — one that allowed it to probe genetic inheritance long before gene sequencing was widely available — was the linking of diverse data sources with family pedigrees that were originally supplied by the Utah Genealogical Society and that were later updated by probabilistic matching with vital records from the Utah Department of Health (records such as birth, death and marriage certificates).
Plasma cathepsin activity and the role of hypovolemic shock in dehydrational death in the toad, Bufo marinus.

Abstract 1. 1. The pH- and activator-dependence of toad plasma cathepsin activity assayed by hemoglobin digestion was characteristic of cathepsins B1 and D. 2. 2. Dehydration, even to the point of death, did not produce a significant elevation of plasma cathepsin activity over controls. 3. 3. Toads were remarkably resistant to the effects of splanchnic artery ligation, which also did not produce significantly higher plasma cathepsin levels. 4. Cardiac depression via the production of a myocardial depressant factor by cathepsins does not appear to be an important factor in dehydrational death in toads.
Sample Outlier Detection Based on Local Kernel Regression

Outlier often degrades the classification and cluster accuracy. In this paper, we present an outlier detection approach based on local kernel regression for instance selection. It evaluates the reconstruction error of instances by their neighbors to identify the outliers. Experiments are performed both on the synthetic and real-life data sets to show the efficacy of the proposed approach in comparison with the existing counterparts.
Cast structure and property variability in gamma titanium aluminides

Abstract Aspects of cast structure that influence mechanical property variability, and in particular tensile ductility, have been studied in a Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb titanium aluminide alloy. Macrostructure, porosity, microstructure and tensile properties have been characterized over a range of casting processing conditions. Local solidification times and subsequent solid-state cooling rates during casting have been characterized via local thermal measurements in combination with solidification modeling. Large variations in cooling rate during casting dramatically influence the initial cast structure as well as the distribution of defects such as porosity. Variations in as-cast structure persist through subsequent thermal and hot isostatic pressing cycles and contribute to the variability of tensile ductility. The current understanding of the relationship of tensile ductility to processing-induced changes in structure will be briefly discussed.
Imaging the plasmasphere with ground based GPS TEC observations and comparisons with in situ plasmaspheric observations with Van Allen Probes

For over a decade, incoherent scatter radar observations of the mid and auroral-latitude ionosphere combined with ground based GPS observations of total electron content (TEC) have been used to study the intense storm enhanced density (SED) plumes that form over the Americas during major geomagnetic storms [1]. Magnetic field mapping of the ionospheric observations to magnetospheric heights revealed close correspondence between the SED and plasmasphere erosion plumes observed from space in EUV imagery by the IMAGE satellite [2]. During the current solar cycle the global distribution of GPS receivers used in creating the TEC maps and movies has increased significantly providing near-continuous two-dimensional coverage of TEC morphology and dynamics over much the northern hemisphere mid and high-latitude region. The dynamics and structure of the outer reaches of the plasmasphere, the plasmasphere boundary layer, are driven by coupling to overlying magnetospheric processes. To first order, cold plasma redistribution proceeds such that plasma parcels at ionospheric heights and at the apex of a magnetic field line move together in the E × B direction maintaining their magnetic field alignment. In this sense the TEC structure and dynamics imaged in the ionosphere projects along the magnetic field providing an image of the plasmaspheric configuration. The recently launched Van Allen Probes twin satellites (RBSP-A & RBSP-B) are in near-equatorial orbits well suited for studies of phenomena at the apex of field lines threading the plasmasphere boundary layer. The RBSP instrumentation includes in situ electric field, density, ion composition, magnetic field, plasma wave, and full particle pitch angle and energy spectral information from <1 eV to 10s of MeV for ions and electrons. We use ground based TEC mapping to create 2-D images of the plasmasphere during transits of the RBSP and Themis spacecraft. We intercompare the dynamic changes in the plasmasphere configuration with the detailed in situ observations. We image and observe the transition from quiet plasmasphere, to erosion plume formation and development, to recovery. The RBSP spacecraft provide quantitative measurements of ion composition and erosion flux within the plume and the mapping between low and high altitudes facilitates intercomparisons between ionospheric and magnetospheric characteristics and phenomena.
Characterization of Mg2+ Inhibition of Mitochondrial Ca2+ Uptake by a Mechanistic Model of Mitochondrial Ca2+ Uniporter

Ca(2+) is an important regulatory ion and alteration of mitochondrial Ca(2+) homeostasis can lead to cellular dysfunction and apoptosis. Ca(2+) is transported into respiring mitochondria via the Ca(2+) uniporter, which is known to be inhibited by Mg(2+). This uniporter-mediated mitochondrial Ca(2+) transport is also shown to be influenced by inorganic phosphate (Pi). Despite a large number of experimental studies, the kinetic mechanisms associated with the Mg(2+) inhibition and Pi regulation of the uniporter function are not well established. To gain a quantitative understanding of the effects of Mg(2+) and Pi on the uniporter function, we developed here a mathematical model based on known kinetic properties of the uniporter and presumed Mg(2+) inhibition and Pi regulation mechanisms. The model is extended from our previous model of the uniporter that is based on a multistate catalytic binding and interconversion mechanism and Eyring's free energy barrier theory for interconversion. The model satisfactorily describes a wide variety of experimental data sets on the kinetics of mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake. The model also appropriately depicts the inhibitory effect of Mg(2+) on the uniporter function, in which Ca(2+) uptake is hyperbolic in the absence of Mg(2+) and sigmoid in the presence of Mg(2+). The model suggests a mixed-type inhibition mechanism for Mg(2+) inhibition of the uniporter function. This model is critical for building mechanistic models of mitochondrial bioenergetics and Ca(2+) handling to understand the mechanisms by which Ca(2+) mediates signaling pathways and modulates energy metabolism.
Locomotion, Posture, and Feeding Behavior of Kinkajous, Coatis, and Raccoons

Many arboreal mammals use their forelimbs and forepaws for food handling and for locomotion. To investigate the relations between these major categories of limb use, I examined the locomotor behaviors, food handling, and postures of three arboreal procyonid carnivores, kinkajous ( Potos flavus ), coatis ( Nasua narica and N. nasua ), and raccoons ( Procyon lotor ). The characteristics shared by these three species include occasional to frequent bipedalism (sitting and standing) and the ability to reverse the hind feet at least partially during climbing. The major differences between taxa are in footfall patterns and food handling behaviors. The frugivorous kinkajous grasp objects with a single-handed converging grip, hang upside down with fully reversed hind feet, display remarkable vertebral flexibility, and possess a prehensile tail. All these traits permit kinkajous to feed effectively from terminal branches. Their crouched posture and an unprecedented variety of footfall patterns are not directly related to feeding behavior, but rather to climbing ability. Coatis and raccoons find most of their food on the ground. Postures and use of the forepaws during feeding are suitable for terrestrial conditions, but appear to compromise their arboreal performance. Coatis are excellent diggers and shredders, but have little fine control of digit movements; these traits, and their musculoskeletal correlates, preclude the grasping ability and terminal branch feeding seen in kinkajous. Raccoons possess exquisite fine control of forepaw digits, but do not have the converging grasp of kinkajous. Their semidigitigrade forelimb posture reduces the surface area of forefoot contact with the substrate and may adversely affect their ability to negotiate slender supports.