cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Oral health status of children in Los Angeles County and in the United States, 1999-2004.

Objective To ascertain and compare the oral health status and related sociodemographic risk indicators in children in Los Angeles (LA) County with children in the United States. Methods Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004 were used to calculate prevalence estimates for children aged 2-13 years living in LA County and in the United States. Sociodemographic indicators were evaluated using multiple logistic regression modeling. Results Overall, children in LA County were more likely to experience dental caries than children in the United States in 1999-2004. In the primary dentition, nearly 40% of preschool children residing in LA County had dental caries compared to 28% of same-age children in the United States. Among children aged 6-13, 44% living in LA County had dental caries in the permanent dentition compared to 27% in the United States. Mexican American children in LA County had higher caries experience in permanent teeth (but not in primary teeth) than US Mexican American children. Among children aged 6-9 years, there was no difference in the prevalence of dental sealants in permanent teeth between those living in LA County and in the United States. However, among children aged 10-13 years, dental sealants were more than twice as prevalent in US children (40.8%) than in LA County children (17.5%). Among LA County children, the adjusted odds of having caries experience or untreated dental caries in permanent teeth were not higher among children from lower income families than in lower income children in the United States. Conclusions Children residing in LA County had less favorable oral health than children in the United States in 1999-2004. The usual sociodemographic caries risk indicators identified among children in the United States were not consistently observed among children in LA County. Unlike in the wider United States, poverty was not a risk indicator for dental caries in older children in LA County.
Abdominal Approaches to Rectal Prolapse.

Rectal prolapse is a debilitating condition with a complex etiology. Symptoms are most commonly prolapse of the rectum and pain with bowel movements or straining, with worsening fecal incontinence over time due to progressive stretching of the anal sphincters. Physical findings are fairly consistent from patient to patient—most notably diastasis of the levator ani muscles, deep pouch of Douglas, redundant sigmoid colon, a mobile mesorectum, and occasionally a solitary rectal ulcer. Evaluation includes a physical exam or imaging demonstrating the prolapse, and evaluating for other causes of pelvic floor dysfunction. Multiple surgical repairs are available, but treatment must be individualized based on patient symptoms and the presence or absence of constipation or other pelvic floor disorders. Mesh repairs have shown promising results, but carry the added risks of mesh erosion, infection, and mesh migration. The optimal repair has not been clearly demonstrated at this time.
Density Functional Theory and Generalized Wannier Functions

In this lecture I would like to sketch a current effort of reformulating density functional theory (DFT) so as to make it practically applicable to very large molecules or atomic clusters. At the present time the computing time, T, for systems of N a atoms behaves approximately as \(N_{a}^{3} \), limiting calculations to N in the range of 102±1. Our hope is that, in the new scheme, T will behave linearly with N a , allowing calculations for systems of 105±1 atoms.
Screenen oder nicht screenen – gar keine Frage

Sie sind das Echolot des Therapeuten und dienen dem Riskmanagement – Screening-Prozesse. Ihre ethischen, rollenspezifischen und berufspolitischen Facetten zeigen, wie komplex das Thema ist und welche Chancen es fur die Berufsgruppe eroffnet. Doch davon spater mehr. Jetzt erwartet Sie eine altere Dame.
Rigid formation control with nonlinear passive actuation

This paper presents a distributed control law that locally forces a group of agents to self-organize into a rigid formation specified by a subset of interagent distances. The control law presented here is distributed as its execution requires each agent to only sense its relative positions with its neighbors, i.e. agents with whom they share a specified desired distance, and its own velocity. The paper extends [13], [17], and [18]. In [13] each agent is modeled as a single integrator. On the other hand, [17] assumes double integrator dynamics but requires that agents can also sense the velocities of their neighbors, doubling the communication/sensing overhead. In [18] the agent velocities are generated by the actuation signals through a Linear Time Invariant Positive Real dynamics. Double integrator dynamics are a special case of this. Unlike [17] no agent needs its neighbor's velocities. This paper on its parts relaxes the assumption of linear time invariance and instead assumes that the actuation to velocity dynamics of each agent is nonlinear but passive. We prove that the control law of [18] still guarantees local stability despite the presence of nonlinear actuation dynamics. We argue that, like [13], [17] and [18], no law for this problem can be globally stable.
Chromium-resistant microorganisms isolated from evaporation ponds of a metal processing plant

Chromium occurs naturally at trace levels in most soils and water, but disposal of industrial waste and sewage sludge containing chromium compounds has created a number of contaminated sites, which could pose a major environmental threat. This study was conducted to enumerate and isolate chromium-resistant microorganisms from sediments of evaporation ponds of a metal processing plant and determine their tolerance to other metals, metalloids and antibiotics. Enumeration of the microbiota of Cr-contaminated sediments and a clean background sample was conducted by means of the dilution-plate count method using media spiked with Cr(VI) at concentrations ranging from 10 to 1000 mg L−1. Twenty Cr(VI) tolerant bacterial isolates were selected and their resistance to other metals and metalloids, and to antibiotics was assessed using a plate diffusion technique. The number of colony-forming units (cfu) of the contaminated sediments declined with increasing concentrations from 10 to 100 mg L−1 Cr(VI), and more severely from 100 to 1000 mg L−1 Cr(VI). The background sample behaved similarly to 100 mg L−1 Cr(VI), but the cfu declined more rapidly thereafter, and no cfu were observed at 1000 mg L−1 Cr(VI). Metals and metalloids that inhibited growth (from the most to least inhibitory) were: Hg > Cd > Ag > Mo = As(III) at 50 μg mL−1. All 20 isolates were resistant to Co, Cu, Fe, Ni, Se(IV), Se(VI), Zn, Sn, As(V), Te and Sb at 50 μg mL−1 and Pb at 100 μg mL−1. Eighty-five percent of the isolates had multiple antibiotic resistance. In general, the more metal-tolerant bacteria were among the more resistant to antibiotics. It appears that the Cr-contaminated sediments may have enriched for bacterial strains with increased Cr(VI) tolerance.
How to develop viruses into anticancer weapons

Viruses have shaped human history through devastating infections. In addition, virus infection may be responsible for up to 15% of cancer deaths [1]. Nevertheless, certain viruses can be our “friends.” At the end of the 18th century, Edward Jenner used cowpox to protect humans against infection with a lethal pathogen, smallpox. Based on the effectiveness of this “vaccination” process, in the 1960s, the World Health Organization mounted a global vaccination campaign that resulted in the eradication of smallpox [2]. In the mid-20th century, the principle of virus attenuation through adaptation to unnatural hosts was extended to cultured cells: cells from different species were used to select viruses with multiple mutations, reducing replication speed and allowing the immune system to control viral infection. Based on such a “live-attenuated” vaccine, global eradication of another viral disease, rinderpest, was recently achieved [3]. Other global vaccination campaigns, including those against polio and measles, are progressing. In addition, subunit vaccines are proving to be effective against virus-induced cancers, preventing hepatitis B virus–induced hepatocellular carcinoma and human papilloma virus–induced cervical cancer [2, 4]. A new frontier is to develop viruses into anticancer weapons. Many cancers remain incurable despite recent advances in radio-, chemo-, and immunotherapy. Based on their preferential replication in tumor cells, viruses from nine families have progressed to clinical trials of oncolysis: DNA viruses include Adenoviridae, Herpesviridae, Parvoviridae, and Poxviridae and RNA viruses Paramyxoviridae, Picornaviridae, Reoviridae, Retroviridae, and Rhabdoviridae [5, 6]. Recently, a genetically modified herpes simplex virus 1–based oncolytic vector, named talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), was approved as cancer therapeutic in the United States and Europe [7]. What are the mechanisms supporting cancer therapy with viruses, and how can oncolytic virotherapy be improved?
Update on Alzheimer’s and the Dementias: Introduction

Though the numbers of dementia cases are rising worldwide, there is evidence that incidence rates are decreasing. We now know that the neuropathological changes of Alzheimer's disease (AD) precede overt clinical signs by 15 to 20 years and we have biochemical and imaging markers that enable us to identify them. The genetic complexity of AD suggests it is not a single entity but rather represents a group of related diseases. The amyloid cascade hypothesis has led to the development of putative disease-modifying interventions but these have not yet been demonstrated to be substantively effective and additional approaches are warranted.
Generation of Hepatocyte-Like Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

The parenchymal cell of the liver is the hepatocyte. It is responsible for many of the functions associated with the liver including the secretion of serum proteins, regulation of carbohydrate metabolism, control of cholesterol and lipid flux, and oxidation of xenobiotics and pharmaceuticals. Significant advances have been made toward controlling the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells with several publications describing the generation of cells that exhibit hepatocyte characteristics. These induced hepatocyte-like cells are useful for studying the molecular basis of cell differentiation and mechanisms of liver disease. In addition, because pluripotent stem cells can self-renew indefinitely, such cells could potentially provide a limitless supply of exogenous human hepatocytes for drug toxicity studies and for cell transplant therapy. Despite tremendous progress, the differentiation of pluripotent cells toward a hepatic fate yields cells that are similar yet not identical to primary hepatocytes. Here we discuss recent progress as well as the limitations associated with hepatocytes produced from human pluripotent stem cells.
Partial pressures of Te2(g) in equilibrium with Ge12−δTe12 + δ(c) from optical density data

Abstract The partial pressures of Te 2 (g) in equilibrium with Ge-Te samples containing 1.00,49.84, 49.92, 50.00, 50.08, 50.30, 50.60, 50.70, 50.85, 51.01, 51.5 and 52.0 at.% Te have been determined between about 500 and 780°C by measuring the optical density of the vapor at 4357 and 5000 A. The data show that the maximum melting point of Ge 1 2−δ Te 1 2+δ (c) occurs at 724 ± 1°C and 49.84 at.% Te. The Te-rich solidus increases in Te-content with decreasing temperature to 500°C where it is 51.32 at.% Te. The stoichiometric solid is in equilibrium with a 52.0 at.% Te liquid and lies within the homogeneity range down to at least 600°C. At 636°C the Gibbs free energy of formation of Ge 1 2−δ Te 1 2+δ (c) from ideal Te 2 (g) and Ge(g) each at 1 atm, increases monotonically with at.% Te at the rate of about 1.1 ± 0.03 kcal/mole/ at.% Te. The partial molal enthalpies and entropies of Te and Ge in Ge 1 2−gd Te 1 2+δ (c) have also been obtained. It can be concluded that the primarily Te-rich homogeneity range of Ge 1 2−δ Te 1 2+δ (c) cannot be attributed to the properties of this phase alone, which in fact tend to shift the homogeneity range towards Ge-rich compositions.
High Speed Power Efficient Carry Select Adder Design

Adders are basic building blocks of any processor or data path application. For the design of high performance processing units high speed adders with low power consumption is a requirement. Carry Select Adder (CSA) is known to be one of the fastest adders used in many data processing applications. In this paper, we present a new CSA architecture using Manchester carry chain(MCC) in multioutput domino CMOS logic. It employs a novel MCC blocks in an hierarchical approach in the design of the CSA. The proposed design is validated by implementation of 16 and 32-bit adder circuits in a standard 45nm CMOS process technology. This proposed work evaluates the performance of the proposed designs in terms of delay, power consumption and hardware overhead. The results are analyzed and compared with existing fast adder architectures to prove its efficiency. The simulation results shows that the proposed architecture achieves two fold advantages in terms of power-delay product (PDP) and hardware overhead.
Don’t Play Ball with South Africa: The United States, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and the Davis Cup Protests

AbstractBy the mid-1970s, South Africa’s sporting teams had been banned from international competition by nearly every governing sporting body due to the nation’s apartheid policies. Yet, South Africa remained eligible to play in the Davis Cup, the prestigious international team tennis tournament. Thus, tennis became one of the last frontiers in the global sport boycott, a critical component of the transnational anti-apartheid struggle. At the same time, apartheid had moved from an issue on the fringe of American society at the beginning of the decade to an increasingly mainstream and influential protest movement taking place in various arenas across the United States, from labour unions to churches to college and university campuses. This article examines the efforts of Richard Lapchick, the American Coordinating Committee for Equality in Sport and Society (ACCESS), and other activists in the United States to force the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to ban South Africa and its athletes from compet...
The Mowry Bluff Site, 25Ft35: Site Description

(1969). Site Description by W. Raymond Wood. Plains Anthropologist: Vol. 14, Parts 1 and Part 2, pp. 3-11.
Facilitating Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking Skills in Physical Therapy Education through Technology-Enhanced Instruction: A Case Study

Technology integration into instruction is a popular concept with the growing digital native population of learners and the novelty of technology tools. Although current students in physical therapy education (PTE) programs are primarily digital natives, PTE models are typically comprised of a traditional face-to-face classroom designed for content instruction. An educational session for PT educators was developed to promote the use of technology for improving student learning outcomes via collaboration, communication and critical thinking (three Cs). Results from this presentation at a national conference were obtained for use in a pretest, posttest case study. The 90-min session consisted of participants actively engaging in, utilizing and applying two tech tools, Kahoot! and Google Suite. Posttest data provides evidence to support that PT educators perceive that with adequate technology support, they can effectively incorporate tech tools into instruction to promote higher order thinking in their students, and to increase student communication and collaboration within the students’ learning opportunities. This case study demonstrates strategies for fostering the development, adoption and implementation of technological innovations designed to promote the three Cs in PT students.
Then and Now: Themes in Language Assessment Research

This short reflection considers major themes in language assessment research in two years across a decade, 2007 and 2017. The themes were selected after reviewing three major journals in language testing. Each theme will be described and discussed along with comparisons between the two years.
Stroke and dyslipidemia: clinical risk factors in the telestroke versus non-telestroke.

Clinical risk factors related to not administering thrombolysis to acute ischemic stroke patients with incidence dyslipidemia is not clear. This issue was investigated in telestroke and non-telestroke settings. We analyzed retrospective data collected from a stroke registry to compare exclusion risk factors in the telestroke and non-telestroke. We performed multivariate analysis was performed to identify risk factors that may result in exclusion from rtPA. Variance inflation factors were used to examine multicollinearity and significant interactions between independent variables in the model, while Hosmer-Lemeshow test, Cox & Snell were used to determine the fitness of the regression models. A greater number of patients with acute ischemic stroke with incidence dyslipidemia were treated in the non-telestroke (285) when compared with the telestroke network (187). Although non-telestroke admitted more patients than the telestroke, the telestroke treated more patients with rtPA (89.30%) and excluded less (10.70%), while the non-telestroke excluded from rtPA (61.40%). In the non-telestroke, age (adjusted OR, 0.965; 95% CI, 0.942–0.99), blood glucose level (adjusted OR, 0.995; 95% CI, 0.99–0.999), international normalized ratio (adjusted OR, 0.154; 95% CI, 0.031–0.78),congestive heart failure(CHF) (adjusted OR, 0.318; 95% CI, 0.109–0.928), previous stroke (adjusted OR, 0.405; 95% CI, 0.2–0.821) and renal insufficiency (adjusted OR, 0.179; 95% CI, 0.035–0.908) were all directly linked to exclusion from rtPA. In the telestroke, only body mass index (adjusted OR, 0.911; 95% CI, 0.832–0.997) significantly excluded acute ischemic stroke patients with incidence dyslipidemia from thrombolysis therapy. Despite having more patients with acute ischemic stroke that present incidence dyslipidemia, the non-telestroke patients had more clinical risk factors that excluded more patients from rtPA when compared with telestroke. Future studies should focus on how identified clinical risk factors can be managed to improve the use of rtPA in the non-telestroke setting. Moreover, the optimization of the risk-benefit ratio of rtPA by the telestroke technology can be advanced to the non-telestroke setting to improve the use of thrombolysis therapy.
Cubic Equations from an Analytic Point of View

Abstract–About five hundred years ago, the first algebraic solution of a class of cubic equations was discovered by Scipione del Ferro. In The Great Art (1545), Girolamo Cardano devoted 13 chapters...
A Bayesian Approach for Extracting Fluorescence Lifetimes from Sparse Data Sets and Its Significance for Imaging Experiments

The measurement of fluorescence lifetimes, especially in small sample volumes, presents the dual challenge of probing a small number of fluorophores and fitting the concomitant sparse data set to the appropriate excited-state decay function. A common method of analysis, such as the maximum likelihood (ML) technique, assumes a uniform probability distribution of the parameters describing the fluorescence decay function. An improvement is thus suggested by implementing a suitable nonuniform distribution, as is provided by a Bayesian framework, where the distribution of parameters is obtained from both their prior knowledge and the evidence-based likelihood of an event for a given set of parameters. We have also considered the Dirichlet prior distribution, whose mathematical form enables analytical solutions of the fitting parameters to be rapidly obtained. If Gaussian and exponential prior distributions are judiciously chosen, they reproduce the experimental target lifetime to within 20% with as few as 20 total photon counts for the data set, as does the Dirichlet prior distribution. But because of the analytical solutions afforded by the Dirichlet prior distribution, it is proposed to employ a Dirichlet prior to search parameter space rapidly to provide, if necessary, appropriate parameters for subsequent employment of a Gaussian or exponential prior distribution.
Keeping the Story Straight: A Comparison of Commitment Strategies for a Social Deduction Game

Social deduction games present a unique challenge for AI agents, because communication plays a central role in most of them, and deception plays a key role in game play. To be successful in such games, players need to come up with convincing stories, but also discern the truth of statements of other players and adapt to the information learned from them. In this paper we present an approach for virtual agents that have to determine how long to stick to their story in the light of information obtained from other players. We apply this approach to a particular social deduction game, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, and demonstrate the effect of different levels of commitment to an agent's story.
Synthesis of nanopolycrystalline mesoporous diamond from periodic mesoporous carbon: Mesoporosity increases with increasing synthesis pressure

Abstract We report the catalyst-free synthesis of monolithic mesoporous nanopolycrystalline diamond from periodic mesoporous carbon at pressures between 15 and 21 GPa and a temperature of 1300 °C. We investigated the pressure-dependence of the porosity with 3-dimensional electron tomography. We have observed that surface areas increase from 56 to 90, 138 m2 g−1, and porosities increase from 10, 24, to 33% for materials produced at 15, 18, and 21 GPa, respectively. The increased porosity at higher pressure may be due to the earlier onset of the nucleation of diamond at higher pressure.
Biphenyl Gal and GalNAc FmlH Lectin Antagonists of Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC): Optimization through Iterative Rational Drug Design

The F9/Yde/Fml pilus, tipped with the FmlH adhesin, has been shown to provide uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) a fitness advantage in urinary tract infections (UTIs). Here, we used X-ray structure guided design to optimize our previously described ortho-biphenyl Gal and GalNAc FmlH antagonists such as compound 1 by replacing the carboxylate with a sulfonamide as in 50. Other groups which can accept H-bonds were also tolerated. We pursued further modifications to the biphenyl aglycone resulting in significantly improved activity. Two of the most potent compounds, 86 (IC50 = 0.051 μM) and 90 (IC50 = 0.034 μM), exhibited excellent metabolic stability in mouse plasma and liver microsomes but showed only limited oral bioavailability (<1%) in rats. Compound 84 also showed a good pharmacokinetic (PK) profile in mice after IP dosing with compound exposure above the IC50 for 6 h. These new FmlH antagonists represent new antivirulence drugs for UTIs.
The Barrier of Failing Infrastructure

Chapter 9 discusses water suppliers’ need for infrastructure renewal, repair and expansion in light of unpredictable climate-influence changes in regional hydrology patterns, urbanization and climate change. More and longer droughts are increasing the need for more storage capacity, while severe flooding calls for releasing more water when heavy rains exceed existing storage capacity.
Corporate Governance und regulatorische Aspekte bei M&A-Transaktionen im deutschen Finanzmarkt

Nicht erst seit der Brexit-Entscheidung Grosbritanniens sind regulatorische Anforderungen fur Banken und Unternehmen zunehmend in den Mittelpunkt geruckt. Bereits im Dezember 2013 brachte KPMG eine Studie heraus, die sich den „Auswirkungen regulatorischer Anforderungen“ widmete. Darin wurden die kontinuierlich steigenden regulatorischen Anforderungen und ihre Auswirkungen auf das Bankgeschaft untersucht.
Risk of venous thromboembolism in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma surviving blood or marrow transplantation.

Background Patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) have an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), particularly when they are receiving treatment. Blood or marrow transplantation (BMT) is recommended for relapsed/refractory NHL, and the risk of VTE after these patients undergo BMT is uncertain. Methods Patients with NHL who survived 2 years or longer after BMT were surveyed for long-term health outcomes, including VTE. The median follow-up was 8.1 years (interquartile range, 5.6-12.9 years). The risk of VTE in 734 patients with NHL versus 897 siblings without a history of cancer and the risk factors associated with VTE were analyzed. Results BMT survivors of NHL were at increased risk for VTE in comparison with siblings (odds ratio for allogeneic BMT survivors, 4.61; P 30 kg/m2 , 3.44; 95% CI, 1.15-10.23; P = .027) and a history of chronic graft-versus-host disease (HR, 3.33; 95% CI, 1.59-6.97; P = .001) were associated with an increased risk of VTE. Among autologous BMT recipients, a diagnosis of coronary artery disease (HR, 5.94; 95% CI, 1.7-20.71; P = .005) and prior treatment with carmustine (HR, 4.91; 95% CI, 1.66-14.51; P = .004) were associated with increased VTE risk. Conclusions Patients with NHL who survive BMT are at risk for developing late occurring VTE, and ongoing vigilance for this complication is required. Future studies assessing the role of thromboprophylaxis in high-risk patients with NHL are needed.
Use of Data Analytics in Supporting the Advising of Undecided Students

Higher education institutions have prioritized supporting undecided students with their major and career decisions for decades. This study used a U.S. public research-focused university’s large-sca...
Richard Rolle: the fifteenth-century translations, medieval church studies 40: by Tamás Karáth, Turnhout, Brepols Publishers, 2018, xii + 376 pp., £85 (hardback), ISBN 978-2-503-57769-2

So often what we read tells us more about the writer’s audience and readership rather than the writer themselves. This is true about Richard Rolle. He has been described as ‘the father of English p...
Monitoring System for the Elderly on Staircase using Passive RFID Sensor Tags

This research proposes a sensor system on a staircase for recognizing a fall accident in the elderly. With the use of passive RFID sensor tags to distinguish three situations on a staircase such as neutral, walking, and falling with machine learning based on the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and pressure values. The RSSI value is the value which shows the response between the tag and the antenna. However, the RSSI cannot provide an accurate distance between the tag and the antenna. In the future, this research will focus on expanding the monitoring fields and develop a real-time system.
Cross Lingual Cross Corpus Speech Emotion Recognition.

The majority of existing speech emotion recognition models are trained and evaluated on a single corpus and a single language setting. These systems do not perform as well when applied in a cross-corpus and cross-language scenario. This paper presents results for speech emotion recognition for 4 languages in both single corpus and cross corpus setting. Additionally, since multi-task learning (MTL) with gender, naturalness and arousal as auxiliary tasks has shown to enhance the generalisation capabilities of the emotion models, this paper introduces language ID as another auxiliary task in MTL framework to explore the role of spoken language on emotion recognition which has not been studied yet.
Association of APOE With Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma Suggests a Protective Effect for APOE ε4.

Purpose Prior studies have demonstrated that microglial activation is involved in the pathogenesis of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). Here we sought to identify genetic associations between POAG and variants in APOE and TREM2, genes associated with Alzheimer disease (AD) that critically regulate microglial neurodegeneration-associated molecular signature. Methods APOE genotypes were called using imputed data from the NEIGHBOR consortium (2120 POAG cases, 2262 controls) and a second cohort from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI; 486 cases, 344 controls). TREM2 coding variants were genotyped by means of the Illumina HumanExome BeadArray. The data set was analyzed for association with POAG overall, as well as the high-tension glaucoma (HTG) and normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) subgroups, using logistic regression adjusting for age and sex. Results In the combined NEIGHBOR-MEEI data set, significant association was observed for APOE e4 in POAG overall (odds ratio [OR], 0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.74-0.94; P = 0.0022) and in both the HTG subgroup (OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.70-0.94; P = 0.0052) and NTG subgroup (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.58-0.87; P = 0.0014). A rare TREM2 variant (A105V) was found only in HTG cases (3 of 2863 cases) and in none of the controls (P = 0.03). Three TREM2 rare variants associated with AD were not significantly associated with POAG (P > 0.05). Conclusions We have found that the APOE e4 allele is associated with a reduced risk of POAG. Interestingly, the same allele is adversely associated with AD, suggesting a mechanistic difference between neurodegenerative diseases of the eye and the brain. TREM2 variants associated with AD did not significantly contribute to POAG risk.
Public Opinions towards COVID-19 in California and New York on Twitter

Abstract Background With the pandemic of COVID-19 and the release of related policies, discussions about the COVID-19 are widespread online. Social media becomes a reliable source for understanding public opinions toward this virus outbreak. Objective This study aims to explore public opinions toward COVID-19 on social media by comparing the differences in sentiment changes and discussed topics between California and New York in the United States. Methods A dataset with COVID-19-related Twitter posts was collected from March 5, 2020 to April 2, 2020 using Twitter streaming API. After removing any posts unrelated to COVID-19, as well as posts that contain promotion and commercial information, two individual datasets were created based on the geolocation tags with tweets, one containing tweets from California state and the other from New York state. Sentiment analysis was conducted to obtain the sentiment score for each COVID-19 tweet. Topic modeling was applied to identify top topics related to COVID-19. Results While the number of COVID-19 cases increased more rapidly in New York than in California in March 2020, the number of tweets posted has a similar trend over time in both states. COVID-19 tweets from California had more negative sentiment scores than New York. There were some fluctuations in sentiment scores in both states over time, which might correlate with the policy changes and the severity of COVID-19 pandemic. The topic modeling results showed that the popular topics in both California and New York states are similar, with “protective measures” as the most prevalent topic associated with COVID-19 in both states. Conclusions Twitter users from California had more negative sentiment scores towards COVID-19 than Twitter users from New York. The prevalent topics about COVID-19 discussed in both states were similar with some slight differences.
Decolonial leadership for cultural resistance and social change: Challenging the social order through the struggle of identity:

The current article focuses on subaltern social groups’ efforts that emphasize the struggle of identity with purposes of cultural resistance and social change. Through a critical approach that inco...
RNA‐seq reveals novel cancer‐selective and disease subtype‐independent mechanistic targets of withaferin A in human breast cancer cells

Withaferin A (WA) exhibits cancer chemopreventive efficacy in preclinical models representative of two different subtypes of breast cancer. However, the mechanism(s) underlying breast cancer chemoprevention by WA is not fully elucidated. We performed RNA-seq analyses using a non-tumorigenic mammary epithelial cell line (MCF-10A) and human breast cancer cells (BCC) belonging to the luminal-type (MCF-7), HER2-enriched (SK-BR-3), and basal-like subtype (MDA-MB-231) to identify novel cancer-selective mechanistic targets of WA. The WA-regulated transcriptome was strikingly different between MCF-10A versus BCC. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis revealed downregulation of genes associated with cellular senescence in WA-treated BCC. Consequently, the number of senescence-associated β-galactosidase positive cells was decreased significantly in WA-treated BCC but not in the MCF-10A cells. WA treatment caused upregulation of senescence marker p21 more robustly in BCC than in MCF-10A. Breast cancer prevention by WA in rats was also associated with upregulation of p21 protein expression. The Reactome pathway analyses indicated upregulation of genes associated with cellular response to stress/external stimuli in WA-treated BCC but not in MCF-10A. Two proteins represented in these pathways (HSPA6 and NRF2) were further investigated. While HSPA6 was dispensable for WA-mediated apoptosis and autophagy or inhibition of cell migration, the NRF2 knockout cells were more resistant to apoptosis resulting from WA treatment than control cells. Finally, expression of some glycolysis-related proteins was decreased by WA treatment both in vitro and in vivo. In summary, this study provides novel insights into cancer-selective pathways affected by WA that may contribute to its chemopreventive efficacy in breast cancer.
A Nationwide Study of Intimate Partner Violence.

BackgroundIntimate partner violence (IPV) refers to physical or sexual violence, stalking, and psychological aggression by an intimate partner. The present study aims to examine the incidence, inju...
Faith and Community Engagement at Anchor Institutions: Exploring the Intersection and Turning toward an Engagement of Hope

In a year that has featured a global health pandemic, a racial justice political-social movement, and a divisive political election that stretches democratic principles, the topic of faith and community engagement may seem more prescient than ever. The exploration of the intersection of faith and community engagement at anchor institutions, though, began prior to all of these events. Yet, the topics that emerge in this special issue of Metropolitan Universities journal are even more relevant in our current context, as scholars, practitioners, and community partner co-authors explore the relationship between faith traditions and engagement in the community. As we framed this special issue as an editorial team, faith initiatives were initially broadly interpreted and all faith traditions were encouraged and considered (including, but not limited to, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu). Faith was loosely defined as a religious historical tradition and set of beliefs centered on a higher power. Faith-based organizations were generally communicated as religiously-affiliated colleges and universities, while faith-based initiatives included programs that were religiously affiliated. This special issue focuses on the intersection of faith and community engagement, specifically how they inform each other and the relationship between them at anchor institutions.
A novel approach for visualization and localization of small amounts of DNA on swabs to improve DNA collection and recovery process

In this report, a simple and practical procedure is proposed for DNA localization on a solid matrix e.g., a collection swab. The approach is straightforward and employs spectrum decomposition using a model DNA intercalator Ethidium Bromide (EtBr). The proposed approach can detect picograms of DNA in solution and nanograms of DNA on solid surfaces (swabs) without the need for PCR amplification. The proposed technology offers the possibility for developing an inexpensive, sensitive, rapid, and practical method for localizing and recovering DNA deposited on collection swabs during routine DNA screening. Improved detection of low DNA concentrations is needed and, if feasible, will allow for better decision making in clinical medicine, biological and environmental research, and human identification in forensic investigations.
ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF Er3+ IN ErRh4B4

The electronic state of Er3+ in the ternary superconductor ErRh4B4 has been investigated using the Mossbauer effect in 166Er. The crystal field ground state is found to be a doublet, about 90 % of which is the state |Jz = ± 15/2>. The moment on the Er ion is 8.1 ± 0.3 µB. Effects of the paramagnetic relaxation at low temperatures indicate the presence of other low lying crystal-field levels.
Posterior Stabilized Polyethylene Inserts in Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Retrieval Study Comparing Conventional to High-Flexion Designs.

Abstract Background High-flex (HF) total knee arthroplasties are modified posterior-stabilized (PS) implants designed to accommodate greater flexion. Methods We examined differences between HF and PS retrieved tibial inserts with regard to polyethylene surface damage. Twenty HF inserts from each of 3 manufacturers were matched using patient demographics with 20 PS inserts from the same manufacturers. Ranges of motion between matched patients were not different. Results Based on subjective damage scores, no differences were detected between HF and PS groups. Differences were found, however, among manufacturers, consistent with design approaches taken for PS and HF implants. Conclusion In our series, high flexion did not influence damage, although this was likely influenced by the fact that few HF patients in our study had larger range of motions than their PS counterparts.
An Exploration of Risk Factors Associated With Dating Violence: Examining the Predictability of Adolescent Female Dating Violence Perpetration

Teen dating violence is a growing issue impacting the adolescent experience, with adolescent females at risk to perpetrate violence. This study used the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the prevalence of related dating violence risk factors and their ability to predict perpetration by adolescent females. The predictor variables identified for teen dating violence perpetration were race, exposure to violence, adolescent alcohol use, propensity to engage in risk behaviors, mental health, and delinquency. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the likelihood to predict perpetration. Unlike prior regional studies, this research did not support inclusion of these risk factors for adolescent female dating violence perpetration. Practice implications are also discussed with attention to curriculum support, community needs, and research opportunities.
The effect of age upon the pattern of the menstrual cycle.

Basal body temperature or basal metabolism curve is chosen as a useful index of ovarian activity as it differentiates between ovulatory and anovulatory cycles and indicates the duration and efficiency of the luteal phase even though it does not pinpoint the day of ovulation. A total of 302 complete cycles of 146 women between 17 and 50 years of age is studied. Length of cycle was found to be less constant in the 17 to 19 and 40 to 50 age groups than at other ages. The most frequent menstrual length is 5 days at all ages with a range of 2 to 9 days. Fewer long menses occur after age 35. Incidence of anovulatory cycles is highest at 17 to 19 years and fairly high at 40 to 50 years although such cycles occur sporadically at other ages and occur least often at 25 to 34 years. Although ovulation occurs at any time from day 4 to day 39 of the cycle it occurs most frequently between day 12 and day 15 in the 25-34 age group. Variability is greatest before 20 and after 40 years. Short luteal phases occur most often before age 25 and after 40 years and long luteal phases most often before 20 years. The stability and efficiency of ovarian activity are greatest at 24-34 years less at 20-24 and 35-39 years and least at 17-19 and 40-50 years. Monophasic anovulatory curves may be distinguished from diphasic curves although some types of diphasic curve are puzzling.
N-Acetyl-l-cysteine effects on multi-species oral biofilm formation and bacterial ecology.

Future therapies for the treatment of dental decay have to consider the importance of preserving bacterial ecology while reducing biofilm adherence to teeth. A multi-species plaque-derived (MSPD) biofilm model was used to assess how concentrations of N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC) (0, 0·1, 1, 10%) affected the growth of complex oral biofilms. Biofilms were grown (n = 96) for 24 h on hydroxyapatite discs in BMM media with 0·5% sucrose. Bacterial viability and biomass formation was examined on each disc using a microtitre plate reader. In addition, fluorescence microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy was used to qualitatively examine the effect of NAC on bacterial biofilm aggregation, extracellular components and bacterial morphology. The total biomass was significantly decreased after exposure of both 1% (from 0·48, with a 95% confidence interval of (0·44, 0·57) to 0·35, with confidence interval (0·31, 0·38)) and 10% NAC (0·14 with confidence interval (0·11, 0·17)). 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing analysis indicated that 1% NAC reduced biofilm adherence while preserving biofilm ecology. Significance and Impact of the Study As a compound with a wide safety margin, N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC) has the potential to be used as a long term anti-plaque bacteriostatic agent for managing chronic dental decay without substantially altering biofilm's bacterial ecology. The potential anti-caries benefit of NAC is directly related to reducing the biofilm coverage which reduces the degree of acid generation and the amount of time that the surface is exposed to a lower pH.
Structural and pathogenic properties of Aeromonas schubertii.

We investigated the phenotypic, structural, and pathogenic properties of 11 Aeromonas schubertii strains recovered from extraintestinal sites. Most A. schubertii strains were autoagglutination positive, possessed a high surface charge but low hydrophobicity, and fell into one or two biogroups on the basis of carbon substrate utilization patterns. Fatty acid methyl ester analysis of A. schubertii revealed this species to contain a relatively high percentage of branched fatty acids (i-13:0, i-15:0, i-17:1, i-17:0) compared with A. hydrophila. Immunologic and biochemical analysis of the lipopolysaccharides of A. schubertii strains allowed for two groups to be distinguished, namely, (i) a collection of six strains belonging to serogroup O:11 that possessed a characteristic homogeneous O polysaccharide side chain profile by silver staining and immunoblotting techniques and (ii) a second antigenically diverse group (five strains) that either exhibited a heterogeneous side chain profile or were side chain deficient. A, schubertii O:11 strains were all found to contain a 55-kDa major protein associated with the outer membrane fraction which was glycine-hydrochloride extractable; non-O:11 strains did not harbor a similar protein molecule. Screening of A. schubertii strains for reputed virulence factors indicated (i) that slightly more than half of the isolates produce an apparent contact-dependent hemolysin that is not cell associated or released extracellularly, (ii) a potent cytotoxin active against HEp-2 cells that is devoid of hemolytic activity, and (iii) lack of enterotoxigeniclike activity as determined by suckling mouse assays. All A. schubertii strains were pathogenic for mice as determined by 50% lethal dose assays, although no single factor correlated with mouse pathogenicity. Images
Spatial-temporal properties of artificial dendritic trees

The author describes the electronic architecture and dynamic signal processing capabilities of artificial dendritic trees which comprise simple microcircuits of artificial synapses closely modeled after their biological namesakes. It is demonstrated that powerful processing of dynamic signals can be accomplished using these structures, which do not use complex computational devices such as multipliers, adders, look-up-tables, or microprocessors. Conventional weights are replaced with connections which, when combined with the nonlinear behavior of nearby synapses and the nearly linear behavior of widely separated synapses, provide an arbitrarily precise signal processing sensitivity. The connection space is extremely large and is a factorial function of the number of synapses and sensory inputs. Because of the electrical properties of the artificial dendritic tree and the very large connection space, the circuits are virtually immune to variations in the fabrication process, which makes them suitable for implementing on a wafer scale. >
Power flow through amplifiers controlling electrostrictive actuators

In this paper, the power flow between stacked electrostrictor actuators and a pulse-width-modulated switching amplifier is analyzed. The amplifier and actuator are components of a smart skin whose function is underwater acoustic echo cancellation. An integrated model is developed with includes a dynamic structural model of the actuator, a dynamic model of the power electronics and a nonlinear electromechanical coupling mechanism of the electrostrictor actuation materials.Using a linearized model, the mechanical admittance of the actuator seen by an external force is analyzed. An outer acoustic control loop is shown to modify this mechanical admittance and optimize the power coupling between the actuator and an external fluid medium by impedance matching. Effective power flow occurs only when the frequency of the external force is within the bandwidth of the amplifier.
Evidence for the transport of manganous ion against an activity gradient by mitochondria.

Abstract Mn 2+ taken up by mitochondria through the often discussed energy dependent process has been previously shown to be separable by EPR spectroscopy into two spectral fractions (T. E. Gunter and J. S. Puskin, Biophys. J. , 12 (1972) 625). One of these spectral fractions shows the characteristics of spin exchange. The other fraction, comprising roughly 10 % of the spectrally observed Mn 2+ , shows a hyperfine sextet. Evidence is presented supporting the view that under conditions of maximum uptake of Mn 2+ by the mitochondria in the absence of exogenous phosphate, the bulk of the hyperfine sextet fraction is in the Mn 2+ (H 2 O) 6 form. Spectral data is then used to show that if this view is correct, this fraction is found within mitochondria under conditions where it can be shown to have been accumulated against an activity gradient. Spectral line width data for this fraction is interpreted in such a way as to provide an upper limit to intramitochondrial local viscosity where this hexahydrate form of manganese is present. This upper limit is approximately 1.5 cP at 37 °C and 0.25 M external osmolarity for example.
Suicidal rebellions and the moral hazard of humanitarian intervention

Abstract This piece argues that the emerging norm of humanitarian military intervention, which is intended to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing, perversely causes such violence through the dynamic of moral hazard. The norm, intended as a type of insurance policy against genocidal violence, unintentionally encourages disgruntled sub-state groups to rebel because they expect intervention to protect them from retaliation by the state. Actual intervention, however, is often too late or too feeble to prevent such retaliation. Thus, the norm causes some genocidal violence that otherwise would not occur. The piece starts by documenting the fact that historically most genocidal violence—unlike that of the Holocaust—has been retaliation against groups who threaten state authority. It then develops a framework based on deterrence theory to explain why groups vulnerable to genocidal retaliation might provoke that outcome. Next, it illustrates this dynamic in two cases from the 1990s: Bosnia and Kosovo. Following...