cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Materials science: Cracks help membranes to stay hydrated.

Membranes have been prepared with a cracked coating that prevents them from drying out in low-humidity conditions — a boon for devices, such as fuel cells, that need hydrated membranes to function. See Letter p.480 Polymeric membranes are important in many processes that rely on ionic or size separation — for example, in water filtration, power generation by reverse electrodialysis, and energy generation and storage in fuel cells and flow batteries. Many applications require the membrane to be hydrated at all times so that ionic transport across it is maintained, and this can be a problem where the membrane is not in a humid environment. Here Young Moo Lee and colleagues report a strategy to keep hydrocarbon membranes from drying out and therefore maintain ionic conductivity across them. Inspired by stomata in cactus plants, which allow water in at night but close up in hotter and drier conditions, they apply a hydrophobic surface coating featuring nanometre-scale cracks 'nanocracks' to hydrocarbon proton-exchange fuel-cell membranes. When the membrane starts to dry out, it shrinks and the cracks in the coating close, acting as nanovalves to delay water desorption and maintain ion conductivity in the membrane upon dehumidification. The authors demonstrate improved performance in an intermediate temperature fuel cell and a reverse-electrodialysis membrane when fitted with surface nanocrack coatings.
95 INCIDENCE OF DEEP VENOUS THROMBOSIS IN PATIENTS WITH NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER ON MEGESTROL ACETATE.

Purpose of the Study To evaluate the incidence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who take megestrol acetate as an appetite stimulant. Material and Methods A retrospective study of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was performed to determine the incidence of DVT. We reviewed medical records of patients with NSCLC who were treated with and without megestrol acetate as an appetite stimulant during the course of their treatment or follow-up. Cochran-Mantel-Hansel statistics were performed. Results We reviewed the charts of 179 patients with NSCLC. Eighty-six patients received megestrol acetate during the course of treatment or follow-up, whereas 93 did not. Within the treatment group, 28 patients were female and 58 were male. In the control group, 43 patients were female and 50 were male. The frequency of DVT was 3.4 times higher in the treatment group as compared to the control group, adjusting for gender (p Conclusion After adjusting for gender or stage, the incidence of DVT appears to be higher for patients with NSCLC who took megestrol acetate as compared to those who did not. Since megestrol acetate was being used as an appetite stimulant, it is possible that some of the observed differences were due to differences in the performance status of the two groups. Further prospective study of the risks and benefits of megestrol acetate as an appetite stimulant in patients with advanced NSCLC is warranted.
Preoperative Irradiation in Cancer Therapy

By 1950 there were few remaining advocates of this therapeutic technique, its increased morbidity, wound problems, pulmonary fibrosis, and added cost diminishing the enthusiasm of its users. The availability of megavoltage radiations, which permit primary healing of a surgical wound in an irradiated area, renewed interest. Improvements in the understanding of radiation biology currently are leading to more effective treatment plans.
Vascular Cell Proliferation Dynamics: Implications for Gene Transfer and Restenosis

Pharmacologic treatment of restenosis following coronary angioplasty has completely failed. The most widely accepted cause is formation of neointimal hyperplasia, considered a result of uncontrolled medial smooth muscle cell proliferation [1–5]. Studies in the rat carotid artery injury model has been the basis of this paradigm, having been documented in many studies [6, 7]. Therapies aimed at inhibiting proliferation have been quite successful in rat arterial injury [8, 9]. Yet when applied to large scale patient trials, these therapies have failed to exhibit any effect whatsoever on the loss of minimal lumen diameter (MLD) [10]. Reasons for these failures are unclear, but may relate in part to an incomplete understanding of cell kinetics in the growth of human neointimal hyperplasia. The literature is conflicting regarding the role of proliferation in human restenosis. Two studies of human restenotic lesions obtained using directional atherectomy demonstrated opposite conclusions. Pickering and colleagues [11] found peak cellular proliferation rates of about 20%, while in a similar study, O’Brien [12] reported a proliferation rate of less than 1%. Much debate has surfaced about the reasons for these divergent results, but centers on questions of technical factors such as tissue fixation methods and visual interpretation of positive cells by proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) staining.
Cardiovascular diseases and sleep apnea.

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the polysomnography and discusses the pathophysiological consequences of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The chapter presents the associated cardiovascular disorders and the effects of treatment of OSA on these disorders. The chapter discusses Cheyne–Stokes breathing (CSB) with CSA in congestive heart failure, its mechanisms, pathophysiology, and effects of treatment. Potential cardiovascular complications of OSA include systemic arterial hypertension, pulmonary arterial hypertension, and cor pulmonale, arrhythmias, coronary artery disease, and heart failure. There are also cerebrovascular complications that may include stroke, neuropsychological dysfunction, and dementia. The premise that OSA could cause cardiovascular complications is based on: (1) strong biological plausibility; (2) strong evidence from animal laboratory studies; (3) evidence from epidemiological studies in humans; (4) reversal of neurohormonal abnormalities and also reduction in blood pressure with treatment of OSA with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP); and (5) studies that show increased cardiovascular mortality of untreated OSA patients, when compared to those treated with CPAP.
The Use of Product Differentiation in Higher Education: A Comparative Study of Two Institutions

This paper compares the effectiveness of product differentiation between two institutions of higher education in the state of Colorado. Both schools offer similar claims to their publics. Using a quesionnaire-style instrument, students at the schools were queried as to why they chose to attend their specific college. The findings are reported and compared. A review of significant literature, and the findings of this research indicate that there may be a need for greater marketing knowledge or the application of marketing techniques at American colleges and universities.
Origins of the Nervous System in Amphibians

The embryonic origins of the central nervous system (CNS) can be traced back to the fertilized egg, in which the information for establishing the basic pattern of the nervous system is encoded not only in the nucleus but also in the cytoplasm, as Wilhelm His1.2 first proposed in his book Unsere Korperform. His modified the 18th-century preformationism3 and proposed a more advanced theory of prelocalization of “organ-forming germ regions” in the egg cytoplasm and hence under control of the maternal genome. The problem of how much control of development is exerted by maternally derived determinants in the egg cytoplasm and how much the embryo’s own genome contributes to its development are central themes of books by Wilson4 and Davidson.5 These books, written 90 years apart, show how little progress had been made in thattime in understanding the control of development of morphological patterns.
On the Reachable Set for Bilinear Systems

For finite dimensional linear systems, under very mild regularity assumptions, the reachable set for a compact control set is closed and convex, regardless of the initial state. This fact is significant in understanding the time optimal control problem and in the design of computational algorithms for producing optimal controls. For bilinear systems the reachable set is typically not convex and not even simply connected although Filippov’s theorem [1) shows that it is closed if the control set is compact and convex. Sussmann [2] has shown that it need not be closed for a compact control set, and examples abound indicating that its connectivity depends heavily on the initial state.
Experiments in mechanical and optical coincidence in photoplasticity

In the extension of the shear-difference method to the separation of interior principal stresses in the elasto-plastic state1, a basic question arises whether the optical isoclinics give the directions of the principal stresses, i.e., whether optical coincidence exists. Experiments are described aiming to answer this question, and preliminary results are given for cellulose nitrate as a model material. Experiments are also described dealing with mechanical coincidence.
Toward an effective approach to collaboration education: A taxonomy for game design

Collaborative video games provide a challenge to designers, who must account for not only the thoughts and actions of individuals, but also the events and interactions among players. However, such games are also an important potential tool for teaching and promoting collaboration, a concept crucial to academia, industry, and education. Before we can develop the necessary design principles to guide game design or the assessment tools to determine the impact of collaborative video games, we must first understand the concept of collaboration. Unfortunately, collaboration is ambiguous, and contradictory definitions exist throughout literature. To reconcile the research space and develop a concrete understanding of collaboration, we analyzed over 25 existing studies and surveys from a wide range of disciplines and with diverse target demographics. The resulting multilevel taxonomy has four main components: group quality, coordination, communication, and support, which in turn are split into subcomponents. Our taxonomy can be used by researchers to inform study design, by game creators to develop design principles, and by educators to guide collaboration assessment.
Accessing Disadvantaged Pregnant Women in Houston, Texas, and Characterizing Biomarkers of Metal Exposure: A Feasibility Study

Abstract: Communities of color or low socioeconomic status are disproportionately affected by metal exposure given spatial variability of the ambient levels of these contaminants. Despite this, there is little research characterizing metal concentrations in blood among disadvantaged populations in the U.S., especially among pregnant women who are particularly vulnerable and difficult to access. Thus, we conducted a pilot study among disadvantaged pregnant women in Houston, Texas to assess willingness to participate in key activities of an epidemiologic study and characterize exposures to 16 metals. Thirty-one women attending a Medicaid-serving prenatal clinic were included in this pilot study and completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire. We obtained and measured metal compounds in whole blood samples for 22 of these women during third-trimester prenatal visits. Median whole blood concentrations of Ni, As, Cd, and Pb were 27, 1.4, 0.6, and 6.3 µg/L, respectively. Most women were willing to participate in critical aspects of a research study, including wearing a personal air-sampling badge for 2-3 days (87.1%), receiving ultrasounds (83.9%), and providing blood draws (64.5%). Despite the small sample, our results provide evidence of women's metal exposure and their willingness to participate in future research studies to elucidate exposure pathways and explore related health effects experienced among this population of disadvantaged pregnant women.
Noninvasive Monitoring of Epoxy Curing

A noncontact, nonintrusive, imaging technique is proposed for monitoring the curing of epoxy resins. Electrical capacitance tomography was employed to characterize changes in the distribution of electrical permittivity of epoxy specimens during curing. The results showed that permittivity varied in tandem with curing time. These changes are validated by observing the same changes in their mechanical properties as determined by ultrasonic testing.
Celecoxib restores angiogenic factor expression at the maternal-fetal interface in the BPH/5 mouse model of preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia (PE), a hypertensive disease of pregnancy, is a leading cause of fetal and maternal morbidity/mortality. Early angiogenic and inflammatory disturbances within the placenta are thought ...
Design and Synthesis of Porous Nickel(II) and Cobalt(II) Cages

Coordination assemblies containing transition-metal cations with coordinatively unsaturated sites remain a challenging target in the synthesis of porous molecules. Herein, we report the design, synthesis, and characterization of three porous hybrid inorganic/organic porous molecular assemblies based on cobalt(II) and nickel(II). Precise tuning of ligand functionalization allows for the isolation of molecular species in addition to two- and three-dimensional metal–organic frameworks. The cobaltous and nickelous cage compounds display excellent thermal stabilities in excess of 473 K and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface areas on the order of 200 m2/g. The precise ligand functionalization utilized here to control phases between discrete molecules and higher-dimensional solids can potentially further be tuned to optimize the porosity and solubility in future molecular systems.
The dispersion formula and the Green's function associated with an attenuation obeying a frequency power law

An attenuation obeying a frequency power law scales as | ω | β , where ω is angular frequency and β is a real constant. A recently developed dispersion formula predicts that the exponent β can take only certain values in well defined, disjoint intervals. It is shown here that these admissible values of β are consistent with the physical requirement, stemming from the second law of thermodynamics, that the work done during the passage of a wave must always be positive. Since the dispersion formula, which is derived from the strain-hardening wave equation, is a causal transform, it is expected that the associated Green's function should also satisfy causality for all the permitted values of β. Such is not the case, however: the Green's function is maximally flat at the time of source activation, and hence is causal, but only for values of β in the interval (0.5, 1). This restriction supersedes the weaker constraints on β derived from the dispersion formula alone. For the previously admissible values of β outside the interval (0.5, 1), although the dispersion formula satisfies causality, the Green's function is non-causal. Evidently, causality may be satisfied by the dispersion formula but violated by the Green's function.
Expedited digital appraisal for regular archivists: an MPLP-type approach

Working with a German state archives, the author developed a MPLP approach to digital appraisal/processing. Testing 10 deduplication software (80% failed), she selected a user friendly and inexpens...
Random variable. Expectation. Independence

This chapter discusses the random variable, expectation, and independence. It presents an assumption where the probability space ( Ω, F, P ) is given. R 1 = (− ∞, +∞ ) the (finite) real line, R* = [− ∞, +∞ ] the extended real line, R 1 = the Euclidean Borel field on R 1 , R* = the extended Borel field. A set in R* is just a set in R possibly enlarged by one or both points ±∞. A real, extended-valued random variable is a function X whose domain is a set Δ in F and whose range is contained in R* = [− ∞, +∞ ] such that for each B in R *, one has {ω : X ( ω )∈;B} ∩; Δ ∩ F , where Δ ∩ F is the trace of F on Δ. A complex-valued random variable is a function on a set Δ in F to the complex plane whose real and imaginary parts are both real, finite-valued random variables.
Multi-User Multi-Stream mmWave WLANs With Efficient Path Discovery and Beam Steering

Multi-stream 60 GHz communication can potentially achieve data rates up to 100 Gbps via multiplexing multiple data streams. Unfortunately, establishing multi-stream directional links is a high overhead procedure as the search space increases with the number of spatial streams and the product of AP-client beam resolution. In this paper, we present MUlti-stream beam-Training for mm-wavE networks (MUTE) a novel system that leverages channel sparsity, GHz-scale sampling rate, and the knowledge of mm-Wave RF codebook beam patterns to construct a set of candidate beams for efficient multi-stream beam steering. MUTE repurposes the mandatory periodic beam sweeps in 60 GHz WLANs to discover the dominant paths of the mmWave channel between the AP and any client with zero additional overhead. Coupling path estimates with beam pattern knowledge, MUTE selects a set of candidate beams that capture diverse or ideally orthogonal paths to obtain maximum stream separability. Our over-the-air experiments demonstrate that MUTE achieves 90% of the maximum achievable aggregate PHY rate while incurring only 1.2% of exhaustive search’s training overhead.
Viral opportunistic infections in Mauritian cynomolgus macaques undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation mirror human transplant infectious disease complications.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and xenotransplantation are accompanied by viral reactivations and virus-associated complications resulting from immune deficiency. Here, in a Mauritian cynomolgus macaque model of fully MHC-matched allogeneic HSCT, we report reactivations of cynomolgus polyomavirus, lymphocryptovirus, and cytomegalovirus, macaque viruses analogous to HSCT-associated human counterparts BK virus, Epstein-Barr virus, and human Cytomegalovirus. Viral replication in recipient macaques resulted in characteristic disease manifestations observed in HSCT patients, such as polyomavirus-associated hemorrhagic cystitis and tubulointerstitial nephritis or lymphocryptovirus-associated post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder. However, in most cases, the reconstituted immune system, alone or in combination with short-term pharmacological intervention, exerted control over viral replication, suggesting engraftment of functional donor-derived immunity. Indeed, the donor-derived reconstituted immune systems of two long-term engrafted HSCT recipient macaques responded to live attenuated yellow fever 17D vaccine (YFV 17D) indistinguishably from untransplanted controls, mounting 17D-targeted neutralizing antibody responses and clearing YFV 17D within 14 days. Together, these data demonstrate that this macaque model of allogeneic HSCT recapitulates clinical situations of opportunistic viral infections in transplant patients, and provides a pre-clinical model to test novel prophylactic and therapeutic modalities.
Toxoplasma gondii Recruits Factor H and C4b-Binding Protein to Mediate Resistance to Serum Killing and Promote Parasite Persistence in vivo

Regulating complement is an important step in the establishment of infection by microbial pathogens. Toxoplasma gondii actively resists complement-mediated killing in non-immune human serum (NHS) by inactivating C3b, however the precise molecular basis is unknown. Here, a flow cytometry-based C3b binding assay demonstrated that Type II strains had significantly higher levels of surface-bound C3b than Type I strains. However, both strains efficiently inactivated C3b and were equally resistant to serum killing, suggesting that resistance is not strain-dependent. Toxoplasma activated both the lectin (LP) and alternative (AP) pathways, and the deposition of C3b was both strain and lectin-dependent. A flow cytometry-based lectin binding assay identified strain-specific differences in the level and heterogeneity of surface glycans detected. Specifically, increased lectin-binding by Type II strains correlated with higher levels of the LP recognition receptor mannose binding lectin (MBL). Western blot analyses demonstrated that Toxoplasma recruits both classical pathway (CP) and LP regulator C4b-binding proteins (C4BP) and AP regulator Factor H (FH) to the parasite surface to inactivate bound C3b to iC3b and C3dg and limit formation of the C5b-9 attack complex. Blocking FH and C4BP contributed to increased C5b-9 formation in vitro. However, parasite susceptibility in vitro was only impacted when FH was blocked, indicating that down regulation of the alternative pathway by FH may be more critical for parasite resistance. Infection of C3 deficient mice led to uncontrolled parasite growth, acute mortality and reduced antibody production, indicating that both the presence of C3, and the ability of the parasite to inactivate C3, was protective. Taken together, our results establish that Toxoplasma regulation of the complement system renders mice resistant to acute infection by limiting parasite proliferation in vivo, but susceptible to chronic infection, with all mice developing transmissible cysts to maintain its life cycle.
Decoding the transcriptome of atherosclerotic plaque at single-cell resolution

Atherogenesis involves an interplay of inflammation, tissue remodeling and cellular transdifferentiation (CTD), making it especially difficult to precisely delineate its pathophysiology. Here we examine the single-cell transcriptome of entire atherosclerotic core (AC) plaques and patient-matched proximal adjacent (PA) portions of carotid artery tissue from patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy. We use a novel tissue dissociation strategy, single-cell RNA sequencing, and systems-biology approaches to analyze the transcriptional profiles of six main cell populations and identify key gene drivers of pathogenic biological processes in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and endothelial cells (ECs). Our results reveal an anatomic continuum whereby PA cells promote and respond to inflammatory processes and eventually transition through CTD into matrix-secreting cells in the AC. Inflammatory signaling in PA ECs is driven by IL6, while TNFa signaling defines inflammation in both PA ECs and VSMCs. Furthermore, we identify POSTN, SPP1 and IBSP in AC VSMCs, and ITLN1, SCX and S100A4 in AC ECs as key drivers of CTD in the atherosclerotic core. These results establish an anatomic framework for atherogenesis and suggest a site-specific strategy for disruption of disease progression.
Epidemiology of Chiari I Malformation

Almost 1% of normal adults studied with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain will have a finding of Chiari I malformation based on 5 mm or more of cerebellar tonsillar ectopia, while as many as 3.6% of normal children will have a Chiari I malformation finding using the same criteria. The proportion of adults with symptoms and MRI evidence of Chiari I malformation is estimated to be in the range of 0.01–0.04%. Symptoms of Chiari I malformation occurred in 0.007% of children in one study. Symptoms occur most commonly when tonsillar ectopia exceeds 13 mm and when lesser degrees of ectopia are accompanied by narrowing of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) space posterior to the cerebellar tonsils, molding of the tonsils, and syringomyelia. Tonsillar ectopia and morphologic changes in the cerebellum and medulla found in Chiari I malformation are thought to arise from decreased development of the bones of the inferior part of the posterior fossa. Thus, factors that prevent normal development of these bones impact the development of Chiari I malformation. In monozygotic twins and triplets, the symptomatic index cases have considerably greater tonsillar ectopia than their generally asymptomatic monozygotic siblings, suggesting that a genetic predisposition to reduced development of the posterior fossa is not the only factor involved in creating tonsillar ectopia and in narrowing the CSF pathways. Factors reported to increase the likelihood of developing Chiari I malformation include birth injury, trauma, pseudotumor cerebri, hydrocephalus, ancestry from a Pacific island, female gender in adults in the United States, and male gender in the Tatarstan, Russia. Epigenetic changes due to environmental factors or normal aging and differences in the placenta and amniotic sac are also suspected of playing a role in the development of Chiari I malformation. Going forward, more rigorous measurements of the prevalence and incidence of Chiari I malformation would result from prospective epidemiologic studies of large populations designed for this purpose than from retrospective queries of the databases of private and governmental healthcare organizations.
Pediatric ocular disease in an ophthalmic surgical mission trip to belize: A 7-year review

Purpose: The purpose is to identify the various causes of ocular disease and surgical interventions undertaken in children (0–18 years of age) seen during an annual ophthalmic surgical trip to Belize. Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional review of records from seven annual surgical trips conducted by the World Pediatric Project providing pediatric ophthalmologic clinical and surgical care to Belize from 2013 to 2019 was performed. Results: The charts of 313 patients who received care during the surgical mission trips were examined. From these 313 patients, there were 545 independent clinical encounters, yielding 405 diagnoses. Patients aged 6–10 years were most commonly seen (32.1%) followed by those 2–5 years old (28.1%). The most common pathophysiology seen was strabismus/ocular motility disorder (151 diagnoses; 37.4%), followed by refractive issues (69 diagnoses; 17.1%), eyelids and/or lacrimal system disorders (53 diagnoses; 13.1%), disorders of the retina/vitreous (30 diagnoses; 7.4%), lens abnormalities/cataract (28 diagnoses; 6.9%), amblyopia (23 diagnoses; 5.7%), disorders of the cornea/conjunctiva (23 diagnoses; 5.7%), trauma (13 cases; 3.2%), conditions affecting the globe/orbit (7 diagnoses; 1.7%), other (6 diagnoses; 1.5%), and glaucoma (1 diagnoses, 0.2%). Conclusion: This study identified the most frequently diagnosed ocular conditions encountered during annual surgical mission trips to Belize. The most prevalent pathophysiology encountered was strabismus/ocular motility disorders, followed by refractive issues. The most common refractive issues encountered were myopia and astigmatism. This is the first study detailing pediatric ocular disease in Belize.
Necessity for Validation of Effectiveness of Selected Guide RNA In Silico for Application of CRISPR/Cas9

Selection of guide RNA (gRNA) is important to increase the efficiency of gene editing in the CRISPR/Cas9 system. Due to the variation in actual efficiency of insertion/deletion (indel) mutation among selected gRNAs in silico, reliable methods for validation of efficiency of gRNA need to be developed. Three gRNAs with high on-target scores (72.0 for target 1, 65.4 for target 2, and 62.9 for target 3) were designed to target the quail retinol binding protein 7 (qRbp7) gene, and indel efficiencies were predicted by the Sanger sequencing and Inference of CRISPR Edits (ICE) analysis of sorted cell populations receiving the CRISPR/Cas9 vector. Unlike the order of on-target scores among 3 gRNAs, predicted rates of indel mutations were highest in gRNA2, intermediate in gRNA1, and lowest in gRNA3. This was confirmed by actual indel mutation rates, 51.8% in gRNA2, 31% in gRNA1, and 12.9% in gRNA3, which were calculated by sequencing individual allele cloned into a vector. These data showed a rapid and reliable method for estimation of the efficiency of selected gRNAs, providing a critical necessary step for successful gene editing for further applications.
Stanford Pragmatiec Effectiveness Comparison (SPEC) protocol: Comparing long-term effectiveness of high-frequency and burst spinal cord stimulation in real-world application.

Abstract Objectives High-frequency and burst stimulation are newer waveforms that have demonstrated promise compared to traditional tonic spinal cord stimulation (SCS), but more studies are needed to compare their effectiveness. We report the study methods for an ongoing, single center, pragmatic randomized clinical trial to compare the effectiveness of high-frequency and burst SCS in patients with chronic back and/or leg pain. Materials and methods Participants who are candidates for spinal cord stimulation are enrolled and screened. Participants will be randomly assigned using point-of-care randomization to receive either high-frequency or burst SCS. Data collection will be through Stanford Pain Management Center's learning healthcare system: CHOIR. CHOIR surveys include National Institutes of Health Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System item banks, a body map, questions about pain intensity, pain catastrophizing scale, and questions about patients' pain experience and healthcare utilization. Participants will complete online surveys at baseline and then 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months after their device implant. All participants will use our routine process of trial and implant. Reported adverse events are monitored throughout the study. Our primary outcome is change from baseline in pain intensity at 12 months. Results We hypothesize that high-frequency SCS is more effective than burst SCS in improving pain, physical function and pain interference in participants with chronic low back and/or leg pain. Conclusions The pragmatic nature of our proposed trial enables us to recruit a larger participant cohort faster and to follow up these participants longer than currently published clinical trials.
Calf Respiratory Disease and Pen Microenvironments in Naturally Ventilated Calf Barns in Winter

Dairy operators have constructed naturally ventilated barns with individual pens to house calves from birth to weaning. These barns vary in terms of construction materials, stocking density, pen enclosures, bedding, and operation of sidewall openings and ridges. Endemic calf pneumonia is common in these barns, particularly through the winter months. We investigated the use of airborne bacteria counts to characterize naturally ventilated calf barns and pens, and examined the relationship between airborne bacterial counts, various pen factors, and calf respiratory health.
Cochlear Implantation in Pediatric Patients With Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct: A Systematic Review.

Objective(s) To describe cochlear implantation (CI) outcomes, with speech perception, auditory, language, and parent-reported auditory and speech behaviors, in children with an enlarged vestibular aqueduct (EVA) and incomplete partition type 2 (IP-II) and compare to control children without inner ear malformations (IEMs) and to determine cerebrospinal fluid gusher rates and effect on outcomes. Study design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, and CINAHL databases were searched from inception to February 2020. Studies reporting relevant outcomes in children with EVA or EVA + IP-II and controls without IEMs undergoing CI were included. Mean differences in speech perception, auditory, and language scores between cases and controls were meta-analyzed. Gusher rates were determined by proportion meta-analyses. Results Of 214 identified articles, 42 met inclusion criteria, evaluating 775 cases and 2,191 controls. Of -cases, 578 (74.6%) had EVA and 197 (25.4%) had EVA + IP-II. Cases showed a significant improvement in speech perception, auditory and language performance, comparable to controls. Parent-reported auditory and speech production behaviors outcomes were positive among cases and comparable to controls. Pooled gusher proportions in EVA and EVA + IP-II cases were 27.7% (95% CI: 17.6-39.1) and 48.6% (95% CI: 28.6-69.0), respectively, with a proportion difference of 20.9% (95% CI: 11.0-30.1). Gusher occurrence did not impact speech perception or language outcomes. Conclusion Outcomes in children with EVA or EVA + IP-II undergoing CI are favorable and largely comparable to outcomes in children with hearing loss undergoing CI without IEMs. Intraoperative gusher is more prevalent among children with EVA + IP-II as compared to iEVA. Gusher does not influence speech perception and language development outcomes. Level of evidence NA Laryngoscope, 2021.
Using Mobile Technology in Education: Perspectives of Students and Instructors

Mobile technology has the tremendous potential in supporting and improving education and its delivery. As a new phenomenon that is gaining popularity, the values of mobile technology in education need to be better researched and understood. In this research, we used the Value-Focused Thinking approach to interview students and instructors to identify the values of education that are enabled by mobile technology. These values are represented in the form of a means-ends objective network that not only captures the values of education facilitated by mobile technology but also depicts the relationships between these values. The values of education enabled by mobile technology support all four types of learning approaches – behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and social constructivism, thus facilitating the different forms of learning and providing flexibility to students on their preferred way of learning. The means-ends objective network derived from this research can serve as a conceptual foundation for future studies and provides useful guidelines to practitioners for implementation of mobile technology in education.
Adaptive cardiac arrhythmia control: what are the prospects?

The field of nonlinear dynamics has made important contributions towards a mechanistic understanding of cardiac arrhythmias. In recent years, many of these advancements have been in the area of controlling cardiac electrophysiological dynamics. Initial results in the control of temporal arrhythmia dynamics have been promising. However, more recent studies suggest that extending such methods to the control of realistic spatiotemporal dynamics, as would be required to control lethal cardiac arrhythmias, may be difficult. Here we discuss the current state of the art and the prospects for future progress in this area.
Relative stability of the α‐helix of deuterated poly(γ‐benzyl‐L‐glutamate)

The coil-to-helix transition temperatures of hydrogen bearing and deuterated poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate) in 1,3-dichlorotetrafluoroacetone/H2O and/D2O mixtures, respectively, have been determined. Together with previously obtained data for the conformational transition of this polypeptide in normal and deuterated dichloroacetic acid, these results have been used in an analysis of the effect of deuterium substitution on the intrinsic stability of the α-helical form of poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate). The findings, consistent for both solvent systems, showed that the deuterated polypeptide is some 5% more stable than the normal protonated poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate), while the polypeptide-active solvent interaction enthalpy is also slightly increased by deuterium substitution in the respective molecules. A consideration of available data for poly(β-benzyl-L-aspartate) reveals an anomaly with respect to the present analysis.
A method for distinguishing the intended margins for a melanoma from the tissue cones after surgical excision.

Background Surgical excision of severely dysplastic nevi and thin cutaneous melanomas (<1 mm in depth) remains the most effective treatment to date. However, sometimes a severely dysplastic nevus may be upstaged to a melanoma in situ, or a melanoma in situ may be upgraded to an invasive melanoma once the completely excised specimen is reviewed microscopically. This then requires a re-excision around the entire scar at follow-up as the dermatological surgeon can be perplexed as to where the precise locations of the pigmented lesion and the tissue cones are, thereby generating a longer scar. Objective We want to introduce a simple, cost-effective and easy-to-implement approach that permits the dermatological surgeon to distinguish from a linear scar the site of the original pigmented lesion and the lengths of the tissue cones. Therefore, if a re-excision is necessary, instead of surgical removal around the entire scar, only a focal directed excision of the pigmented lesion is necessary and this will result in a shorter scar; this will be useful for cosmetically sensitive areas on the face. A case is included to illustrate our objective. Results and Discussion Using our surgical method on a patient’s left cheek pigmented lesion originally diagnosed as melanoma in situ with a subsequent revised diagnosis of invasive melanoma generated a shorter scar and a favorable cosmetic outcome.
The fascinating world of neural crest cells.

Neural crest cells are a multipotent, stem cell-like population that have fascinated scientists for generations. First described by Wilhem His in 1868, Santiago Ramon y Cajal termed them “pregangli...
Control of seismic-excited buildings using active variable stiffness systems

Active variable stiffness (AVS) systems have been demonstrated to be effective in response control of buildings subjected to earthquake excitations. Based on the theory of variable structure system (VSS) or sliding mode control (SMC), control methods for applications of AVS systems to seismic-excited buildings are presented. In addition to full-state feedback controllers, general static output feedback controllers as well as special output feedback controllers using only collocated sensors are also presented. Simulation results demonstrate that the performance of the control methods presented is remarkable, and that the performance of output feedback controllers is comparable to that of the full-state feedback controllers.
Redistribution of the Stormtime Ionosphere and the Formation of a Plasmaspheric Bulge

Plasmasphere drainage plumes resulting from the erosion of the plasmasphere boundary layer by disturbance electric fields have been identified from both ground and space. Here we describe a localized enhancement of total electron content (TEC) seen at the base of the erosion plume, on field lines mapping into the outer plasmasphere. Observations suggest that this enhanced TEC results from a poleward redistribution of post-noon sector low latitude ionospheric plasma during the early stages of a strong geomagnetic disturbance. Ground based and low- altitude observations with GPS TEC, incoherent scatter radar, and DMSP in situ observations provide details and a temporal history of the evolution of such events. Seen from space by IMAGE EUV, the region of enhanced TEC appears as a pronounced brightening in the inner plasmasphere. IMAGE FUV provides complementary images at lower altitude of this inner-plasmasphere feature, showing that it is associated with localized enhancement in the vicinity of the equatorial anomaly peak. These effects are especially pronounced over the Americas, and we suggest that this results from a strengthening of the equatorial ion fountain due to undershielded (penetrating) electric fields in the vicinity of the South Atlantic magnetic anomaly. The enhanced low-latitude features, seen both from the ground and from space, corotate with the Earth once they are formed. The high-TEC plasma in these regions contributes to the intensity of the erosion plumes arising in the American sector during strong disturbance events.
Semi-blind channel identification in OFDM

Semi-blind channel estimators promise to dramatically reduce the number of pilots needed for accurate channel estimation over pilot-only based techniques while providing much better performance than blind algorithms. This paper presents a novel semi-blind multi-user channel estimator for OFDM based on the maximum likelihood estimator. The estimator works by iterating between estimating the channels between multiple transmit antennas and each receive antenna and the respective symbols for each transmitter. Simulation results show that the semi-blind channel estimator is effective even when the frequency-domain pilot spacing is greater than the Nyquist spacing.
Sensory networks and distributed cognition in animal groups

Understanding how social influence shapes biological processes is a central challenge in contemporary science, essential for achieving progress in a variety of fields ranging from the organization and evolution of coordinated collective action among cells, or animals, to the dynamics of information exchange in human societies. Using an integrated experimental and theoretical approach, I will address how, and why, animals coordinate behavior. In many schooling fish and flocking birds, decision-making by individuals is so integrated that it has been associated with the concept of a "collective mind". As each organism has relatively local sensing ability, coordinated animal groups have evolved collective strategies that allow individuals, through the dynamical properties of social transmission, to access higher-order capabilities at the group level. However we know very little about the relationship between individual and collective cognition. A major limitation is that it has not been possible to observe directly the pathways of communication, and social networks are typically based on proxies such as spatial proximity among organisms. I will demonstrate new imaging technology that allows us to reconstruct (automatically) the dynamic, time-varying networks that correspond to the visual cues employed by organisms when making movement decisions. Sensory networks are shown to provide a much more accurate representation of how social influence propagates in groups, and one that cannot be captured correctly by social networks based on spatial proximity (regardless of how they are parameterized). I investigate the coupling between spatial and information dynamics in groups and reveal that emergent problem solving is the predominant mechanism by which mobile groups sense, and respond to complex environmental gradients. This distributed sensing requires rudimentary cognition and is shown to be highly robust to noise. I will also demonstrate the critical role uninformed individuals (those who have no information about the feature upon which a collective decision is being made) play in fast, and effective, democratic consensus decision making in collectives.
Towards multi-modal wearable driver monitoring: Impact of road condition on driver distraction

The objective of this paper is to propose initial steps towards the design of the next generation multi-modal driver monitoring platform to be facilitated in urban driving scenarios. The main novel ingredient is the adaptation of the proposed driver safety platform operation to the individual driver behavior (e.g., aggressive driving) and his/her current biological state (e.g., attention level). We have developed a robust driver monitoring platform consisting of automotive sensors (i.e. OBD-II) that capture the real-time information of the vehicle and driving behavior as well as a heterogeneous wearable body sensor network that collects the driver biometrics (e.g., electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG)). In this investigation, we intend to examine the effect of the driving condition on the driver distraction as one aspect of the driver monitoring platform. Distraction during driving has been identified as a leading cause of car accidents. Our aim is to investigate EEG-based brain biometric measures in response to driving distraction. Using our proposed driver monitoring platform, we study driver cognition under real driving task in two different road conditions including of peak and non-peak traffic periods. Five subjects are recruited in our study and their EEG signals are recorded throughout the driving experience. The experimental results illustrated that the power of theta and beta bands in the frontal cortex were substantially correlated with the road condition. Our investigations suggested that the features extracted from the time-frequency brain dynamics can be employed as statistical measures of the biometric indexes for early detection of driver distraction in real driving scenarios.
Effect of temperature on toxicity and cardiac chronotropic action of sympathicotropic drugs

Abstract The effect of increased temperature on the i.v. toxicity of adrenergic stimulating or blocking agents was studied in mice. The toxicity of epinephrine increased 14.4 times when the environmental temperature was raised from 23° to 35°C; the Q ' 10 = [1/ Q 10 ] being 9.2. Norepinephrine became 2.3 times more toxic, [ Q ' 10 =2.4]. This appears to be the greatest quantitative difference in activity reported between these two amines. The alpha-stimulators phenylephrine and methoxamine also showed marked increases in toxicity and high Q ' 10 values of 6.6 and 1.86, respectively, but not tyramine, the beta-stimulator isoproterenol, or the adrenergic blocking agents dichlorisoproterenol, phenoxybenzamine and propranolol. Effects of these drugs on the contraction rate of isolated guinea-pig atria was determined at temperature intervals of 2°C, between 32°–42°C. All beta-stimulating compounds caused rate increases composed of temperature and drug effects, but only epinephrine at 1.17 × 10 −4 mM concentration changed the slope of the dose-effect curve. Phenylephrine, phenoxybenzamine and propranolol failed to influence the rate at any temperature studied.
NativeWrap: ad hoc smartphone application creation for end users

Smartphones have become a primary form of computing. As a result, nearly every consumer, company, and organization provides an "app" for the popular smartphone platforms. Many of these apps are little more than a WebView widget that renders downloaded HTML and JavaScript content. In this paper, we argue that separating Web applications into separate OS principals has valuable security and privacy advantages. However, in the current smartphone application ecosystem, many such apps are fraught with privacy concerns. To this end, we propose NativeWrap as an alternative model for security and privacy conscious consumers to access Web content. NativeWrap "wraps" the domain for given URL into a native platform app, applying best practices for security configuration. We describe the design of a prototype of NativeWrap for the Android platform and test compatibility on the top 250 Alexa Websites. By using NativeWrap, third-party developers are removed from platform code, and users are placed in control of privacy sensitive operation.
Intestinal organoids as tissue surrogates for toxicological and pharmacological studies

Recently developed cell culture protocols have allowed for the derivation of multi-cellular structures dubbed intestinal "organoids" from embryonic stem cells (ESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs), and adult intestinal stem cells (ISCs). These structures resemble in vivo intestinal crypts, both in structure and developmental processes, and can be grown quickly and in relatively large quantities. Although much research has focused on developing intestinal organoids for tissue repair, more immediate applications include high-throughput screening for agents that target intestinal epithelium. Here we describe current methods for deriving mouse and human intestinal organoids and discuss some applications aimed at developing novel therapies or preventive agents for diseases of the lower GI tract such as inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer.
Heifer disposition and bonding of lambs to heifers

Abstract Abusive and non-abusive (tolerant) heifers were individually identified during pen confinement with young sheep. Physical aggression by abusive heifers toward lambs included butting and kicking. Two groups of three 75-day-old lambs confined with tolerant heifers developed a bond after 20 days and a strong bond after 55 days. However, three lambs confined with abusive heifers were not bonded at 20 days, but formed a satisfactory bond with the cattle after 55 days as the cattle became more tolerant of the lambs. During pen confinement, lambs with abusive heifers spent 41% of the time in a creep area away from heifers. In contrast, lambs in two tolerant lamb-heifer groups spent only 15% of their time in the creep area. Heifers which are abusive to lambs should be identified and removed from lamb-heifer groups if bonding is to be accomplished consistently and efficiently.