cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Stem Cells for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neuromuscular disorder with rapid loss of motor function and death within 5 years of diagnosis. The pathophysiology is complex, but various types of stem cells have properties that make them well suited for treating this disease. Proof-of-principle studies in rodent models of ALS have demonstrated improvements in motor function and survival, although we have yet to reach a cure. These studies have formed the basis of 10 published and 21 planned/ongoing clinical trials. These trials are primarily safety studies and have not yielded significant evidence of therapeutic efficacy to date. Importantly, while animal and in vitro studies have suggested that cells from healthy individuals are superior to cells from diseased sources, the majority of clinical trials have used autologous transplantation. This fact may account for some of the lack of therapeutic benefit observed. However, the future of stem cell therapy for ALS may not lie in the simple autologous or allogeneic transplantation of cells. Instead, the field may move toward the use of genetically modified cells, amplifying the power of these cells to treat the disease and perhaps making moot the question of allogeneic versus autologous transplantation entirely.
Noninvasive Neurophysiological Imaging with Magnetoencephalography

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a noninvasive neurophysiological recording technique that is primarily utilized in human studies of system-level brain function. Although the seminal MEG measurements occurred more than 40 years ago, the precision of the instruments and the analytical sophistication of the field have dramatically increased over the past decade. At present, MEG is the only noninvasive high-resolution neurophysiological imaging technique and the only functional brain imaging method to offer both high temporal (<1 ms) and spatial (2–5 mm) resolution. The current chapter will provide a brief historical introduction to MEG and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is the most common method of functional brain imaging. Description of the physical and physiological bases of the signals measured in noninvasive functional imaging will follow, with an emphasis on the neuromagnetic signals quantified in human MEG measurements. An introduction to the most common MEG analysis methods will be presented; and thereafter, several examples of MEG applications will be discussed to illustrate the type of questions often pursued in MEG research and the general areas of study where MEG measurements are making an impact. The chapter will conclude by presenting some new applications for MEG-based functional brain imaging.
Fast-neutron elastic-scatter imaging for material characterization

Fast-neutron associated-particle imaging (API) using neutrons created via the deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion reaction is a powerful technique for imaging the internal geometry of target items, even if they contain large amounts of shielding. Although traditional neutron transmission radiography and tomography performed using API techniques provide detailed information about geometry, they provide little or no information about the materials in the items under inspection. Fortunately, material-specific information is available using neutrons that elastically scatter in the target and are subsequently detected. Because the API technique provides knowledge of the time and initial direction of 14 MeV neutrons produced in the DT reaction, the angular deviation and time of flight of detected neutrons are used to identify these elastically scattered neutrons. The most distinctive elastic-scatter signal exists for materials with low mass numbers (4), so initial development has focused on producing low-4 images. This paper describes the elastic-scatter imaging approach, describes the imaging system, describes analysis and image reconstruction approaches with a focus on elastic scatters from A = 1 nuclei, and presents the first elastic-scatter images from laboratory measurements.
Costs and Consequences Associated With Misdiagnosed Lower Extremity Cellulitis

Importance Inflammatory dermatoses of the lower extremity are often misdiagnosed as cellulitis (aka “pseudocellulitis”) and treated with antibiotics and/or hospitalization. There is limited data on the cost and complications from misdiagnosed cellulitis. Objective To characterize the national health care burden of misdiagnosed cellulitis in patients admitted for treatment of lower extremity cellulitis. Design, Setting, and Participants Cross-sectional study using patients admitted from the emergency department (ED) of a large urban hospital with a diagnosis of lower extremity cellulitis between June 2010 and December 2012. Patients who were discharged with a diagnosis of cellulitis were categorized as having cellulitis, while those who were given an alternative diagnosis during the hospital course, on discharge, or within 30 days of discharge were considered to have pseudocellulitis. A literature review was conducted for calculation of large-scale costs and complication rates. We obtained national cost figures from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), provided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for 2010 to calculate the hospitalization costs per year attributed to misdiagnosed lower extremity pseudocellulitis. Exposures The exposed group was composed of patients who presented to and were admitted from the ED with a diagnosis of lower extremity cellulitis. Main Outcomes and Measures Patient characteristics, hospital course, and complications during and after hospitalization were reviewed for each patient, and estimates of annual costs of misdiagnosed cellulitis in the United States. Results Of 259 patients, 79 (30.5%) were misdiagnosed with cellulitis, and 52 of these misdiagnosed patients were admitted primarily for the treatment of cellulitis. Forty-four of the 52 (84.6%) did not require hospitalization based on ultimate diagnosis, and 48 (92.3%) received unnecessary antibiotics. We estimate cellulitis misdiagnosis leads to 50 000 to 130 000 unnecessary hospitalizations and $195 million to $515 million in avoidable health care spending. Unnecessary antibiotics and hospitalization for misdiagnosed cellulitis are projected to cause more than 9000 nosocomial infections, 1000 to 5000 Clostridium difficile infections, and 2 to 6 cases of anaphylaxis annually. Conclusions and Relevance Misdiagnosis of lower extremity cellulitis is common and may lead to unnecessary patient morbidity and considerable health care spending.
Approach of passive smoking by Brazilian pediatricians

To aim: To identify the approach performed by pediatricians in their outpatient practice in relation to passive smoking and also investigate the main reasons cited by interviewees to justify the lack of approach. Methods: Pediatricians were invited to participate and answer questionnaires composed of 7 objective questions on the topic of passive smoking. Results are expressed as means, frequencies and percentages. Results: Three hundred fifty pediatricians (mean professional time: 15,6 years) were interviewed. The majority (82.86%) of pediatricians declare to approach smoking issue during the consultations. The main reason for not addressing the issue was because it was not part of the main complaint (18.57%) or lack of time (6.29%). The vast majority (96%) said to act when identified a case of passive smoking and 92% perceive some impact in child health. The most accomplished action was the orientation about the harmful effects of this practice, but no spontaneous reports of more proactive measures such as route the parents to smoking cessation services. Only 3 respondents (0.86%) reported not find important to approach the subject with parents during the consultation. Conclusion: Most pediatricians, independently of specialty and profession time, address the issue of passive smoking in their consultations with some frequency. Although pediatricians consider the theme relevant, practical actions about passive smoking were not described as routine by the interviewees.
Hypothesis Tests, Confidence Intervals, and Simulation to Infer Population Characteristics and Differences

Samples are collected and analyzed to estimate population characteristics. Chapter 3 explores the practice of inference: how hypotheses about what may be true in the population are tested and how population parameters are estimated with confidence intervals.
Feasibility, Benefits, and Limitations of a Penicillin Allergy Skin Testing Service.

Objective: To critically examine the feasibility, benefits, and limitations of an inpatient penicillin skin testing service and how pharmacists can be utilized. Data Sources: A PubMed search was performed from July 2016 through September 2016 using the following search terms: penicillin skin testing, penicillin allergy, β-lactam allergy. Additional references were identified from a review of literature citations. Study Selection and Data Extraction: All English-language studies assessing the use of penicillin skin testing as well as management and clinical outcomes of patients with a β-lactam allergy were evaluated. Data Synthesis: The prevalence of people self-identifying as penicillin allergic ranges from 10% to 20% in the United States. Being improperly labeled as penicillin allergic is associated with higher health care costs, worse clinical outcomes, and an increased prevalence of multidrug-resistant infections. Penicillin skin testing can be a tool used to clarify penicillin allergies and has been d...
Supporting Deep Engagement: The Teaching for Transformative Experiences in Science (TTES) Model

ABSTRACTThe Teaching for Transformative Experiences in Science (TTES) model was designed to facilitate the application of academic learning in students' everyday experiences. In the current study, we describe a 2-year design-based intervention that aimed to further develop and evaluate the TTES model. In the first year, a teacher implemented the TTES model in two of his four classes. The findings indicated enhanced engagement and learning, but primarily among students with higher prior engagement and learning. Insights led to revision of the TTES model. In the second year, the revised TTES model was implemented in all the teacher's classes, with another teacher's classes used for comparison. Intervention students demonstrated significantly greater learning and reported significantly higher levels of transformative experience than the comparison students.
Constraints on the geological history of the karst system in Southern Missouri, U.S.A. provided by radiogenic, cosmogenic and physical/chemical characteristics of doline fill

Obmocje Ozarkov v južnem Missouriju gradijo predvsem karbonatne, morske, platformne kamnine paleozojske starosti. Teren, ki vsebuje obsiren kras, predstavlja kopno že od poznega Paleozojka. Da bi bolje razumeli geolosko zgodovino tega kraskega sistema, smo raziskali stratigrafske podatke ohranjene v zapolnitvi velike vrtace pri najvecjem izviru v okolici. Vzorci zapolnitve iz naravnih izdankov in iz vrtine so bili analizirani s termoluminiscenco (TL) in 10Be kozmogeno metodo. Fizikalno-kemijske znacilnosti zapolnitve so bile dolocene vizualno, z rentgensko metodo in merjenjem velikosti delcev. Podatki vrtine kažejo, da je debelina alohtonega materiala, ki zapolnjuje vrtaco 36,3 m. Ta material prekriva podorne bloke in sedimente debeline vsaj 15,6 m. Glede na teksturo, strukturo in barvo delimo material, ki zapolnjuje vrtaco na 7 con. Analize 10Be koncentracij kažejo, da material za celotni stolpec zapolnitve izvira iz rezidualnega materiala iz srednjega (Illinoian) in zgornjega Pleistocena (Wisconsian). Rentgenske analize glin kažejo, da zapolnitev vrtace vsebuje enake kolicine kaolinita in illita, kar je skladno z zemeljskim preperevanjem. The Ozark Plateaus region of southern Missouri is underlain by dominantly carbonate marine platform rocks of Paleozoic age. The region has been sub-aerially exposed since the late Paleozoic and is characterized by extensive karst. To better understand the geologic history of this regional karst system, we examined the stratigraphic record preserved in the fill of a large doline near the largest spring in the region. Samples of fill from natural exposures and drill core were analyzed using thermoluminescence (TL) and 10Be cosmogenic techniques, and the physical/chemical characteristics of the fill material were determined by visual inspection, X-ray analyses, and grain-size measurements. Drill-hole data indicate that the allochthonous doline fill is 36.3 m thick and rests on at least 15.6 m of cave breakdown and sediment. The doline fill is divisible into 7 zones. Analysis of 10Be concentrations suggest that the entire doline fill was derived from local residuum during the middle (Illinoian) to late Pleistocene (Wisconsinan). X-ray diffraction analyses of clays throughout the doline fill indicate that they consist of nearly equal amounts of kaolinite and illite, consistent with terrestrial weathering.
Association of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate with primary allograft survival in HIV‐positive kidney transplant recipients

Background Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) is an anti-retroviral agent frequently used to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). There are concerns regarding its potential to cause acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, and proximal tubulopathy. Although TDF can effectively suppress HIV after kidney transplantation, it is unknown whether use of TDF-based anti-retroviral therapy (ART) after kidney transplant (KT) adversely affects allograft survival. Methods We examined 104 HIV+ KT recipients at our center between 2001 and 2014. We generated a propensity-score for TDF treatment using recipient and donor characteristics. We then fit Cox proportional hazards models to investigate the association between TDF-treatment and 3-year, death-censored primary allograft failure, adjusting for the propensity score and delayed graft function (DGF). Results Of the 104 HIV+ KT candidates who received transplant during the study period, 23 (22%) were maintained on TDF-based ART at the time of transplant and 81 (78%), on non-TDF-based ART. Median age of the cohort was 48 years-old; 87% were male; 88%, black; and median CD4 count at transplant was 450 cells/mm3. Median kidney donor risk index was 1.2. At 3 years post transplant, primary allograft failure occurred in 26% of patients on TDF-based ART and 28% of patients on non-TDF-based ART (P-value 0.5). TDF treatment was not associated with primary allograft failure at 3 years post transplant after adjusting for DGF and a propensity score for TDF use (hazard ratio 2.12, 95% confidence interval 0.41-10.9). Conclusions In a large single-center experience of HIV+ kidney transplantation, TDF use following KT was not significantly associated with primary allograft failure. These results may help inform management for HIV+ kidney recipients in need of TDF therapy for adequate viral suppression. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Loss Function-Based Evaluation of Physician Report Cards

Report cards classifying physicians into performance tiers are central to health care quality improvement initiatives. Misclassification is a concern since physicians often have small patient panels for standard performance measures. Given that report cards are used for different purposes by different stakeholders, we specify loss functions and evaluate the potential cost of misclassification for physician report card designs. Monte Carlo simulation to explore misclassification risk and cost for four illustrative physician report card designs and three loss functions representing overall misclassification, patient, and pay-for-performance program perspectives. True physician performance is simulated under a beta-binomial model with parameters yielding simulated true scores resembling previously reported estimates. Misclassification risk varied across report card designs. Overall misclassification risk increased with the number of performance tiers for our simulated scenarios. However, the relationship between misclassification cost and number of tiers was inconsistent across the loss functions. The report card with the lowest misclassification cost varied across stakeholders. Within stakeholder, the costs of a two-tier report card with a high or low hurdle (25th and 75th percentile, respectively) varied. Loss functions and report card designs are illustrative and not intended to exhaustively catalog all possibilities. Little guidance exists on misclassification costs from the patient perspective. Misclassification cost depends on how performance information will be used and by whom. Selecting the lowest-cost design for a given stakeholder could maximize the usefulness of physician performance data. Misclassification cost could guide report card design, improving the usefulness of a report card for one stakeholder without disadvantaging others .
Planning as strategy for improving Black and Latinx student equity: Lessons from nine California community colleges

In 2014, California policymakers passed the Student Equity Plans (SEP) policy to address disparities in the community college system. The reform effort formalized a campus-wide planning effort that required institutions to examine their data for disparities, develop goals and strategies to mitigate identified inequities, and use new fiscal resources to realize their plans. In recent years, there has been an increase in the enactment of state-level higher education policies, but few, if any, have focused on the notion of equity or explicitly named racial and ethnic groups as policy beneficiaries. This study examines nine student equity plans in the state’s largest community college district. Drawing upon critical policy analysis, we place a focus on understanding if, and how, the planning process was used to address inequities facing Black and Latinx students. Based on our analysis we found several themes on how plans identified and address barriers facing Black and Latinx students. After examining 178 equity activities, we found only 28 promising activities that explicitly targeted Black and Latinx students with culturally relevant, data-driven, evidence-based strategies. These findings have compelling implications for policymakers seeking to develop reform efforts and institutions using policy to address current and historic inequities faced by Black and Latinx students. The use of planning for improvement is commonplace in educational policy, but we find that more training and capacity-building efforts are necessary to use planning as an opportunity to address racial inequity in community college.
Short Tandem Repeat (STR) Profiles of Commonly Used Human Ocular Surface Cell Lines.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to establish the short tandem repeat (STR) profiles of several human cell lines commonly used in ocular surface research.Materials and Methods: Independently D...
Metabolism and Antiseizure Drugs

A 57-year-old black male had hypertension, diabetes, end-stage renal failure, and was on hemodialysis (HD) three times weekly for 4 h. He was seen in the Emergency Department (ED) locally after presenting with a generalized seizure 3 h after arriving home from HD. His past medical history had included two similar generalized seizures. A first seizure occurred during HD. It was convulsive but was not treated because it was felt to reflect fluid and electrolyte shifts. The second one was considered an unprovoked seizure, though the patient declined treatment after an EEG was normal. He later insisted that it was provoked by his “medical condition.” On examination in the ED, he was lethargic but aroused to tactile stimulation. He was disoriented to date and person and confused about the situation. A relative weakness was present in his left arm and leg, and a posterior-lateral tongue laceration was present. He was given 1,000 mg of Levetiracetam (LEV) intravenously. Laboratory studies revealed a creatinine of 10.1 mmol/ml and blood urea nitrogen was 36 mmol/ml. Hemoglobin was 11.1 g/dl with hypochromic microcytic indices. MRI revealed subcortical white matter microvascular ischemic change. An electroencephalogram (EEG) and neurology evaluation were ordered, and he was admitted for further evaluation (Fig. 20.1).
CRIMES: Using Evidence to Secure the Cloud

Cloud applications are appealing targets to attackers, yet current cloud infrastructures have few ways of helping defend their customers from attacks. However, the use of virtual machines, and the economy of scale found in cloud platforms, provides an opportunity to offer strong security guarantees to tenants at low cost to the cloud provider. We present CRIMES, an evidence based, modular security framework for cloud platforms that uses speculative execution coupled with memory introspection tools to detect malicious behavior in real time. By buffering VM outputs (i.e., outgoing network packets and disk writes) until a scan has been completed, CRIMES gives strong guarantees about the amount of damage an attack can do, while minimizing overheads. When an attack is detected, CRIMES rolls back to a recent checkpoint and performs automated forensic analysis to help pinpoint the source of an attack. Our evaluation demonstrates that CRIMES incurs less overhead compared to memory protection tools such as AddressSanitizer, while offering valuable forensic analysis for buffer overflow attacks and malware detection across multiple applications and the OS.
The Cambrian Explosion and emergence of “modern” body plans

The Phanerozoic Era is so named because of the much richer fossil record starting about 550 million years ago, largely the result of animals having developed the capability of producing hard body parts, of either organic or mineral material. The Cambrian Explosion that led off the Phanerozoic saw the sudden (geologically speaking) appearance of virtually all of the basic body types seen in modern animals, including arthropods and vertebrates. The emergence of limbs gave new capabilities to these novel creatures leading to both more effective predation and resistance to same. Improved locomotion of “grazers” and predators may explain the extirpation of the Ediacaran fauna, as well as the rapid diversification of the “new” organisms.
Motion Characterization for Vehicular Visible Light Communications

The increasing use of light emitting diodes (LED) and light receptors such as photodiodes and cameras in vehicles motivates the use of visible light communication (VLC) for inter–vehicular networking. However, the mobility of the vehicles presents a fundamental impediment for high throughput and link sustenance in vehicular VLC. While prior work has explored vehicular VLC system design, yet, there is no clear understanding on the amount of motion of vehicles in real world vehicular VLC use–case scenarios. To address this knowledge gap, in this paper, we present a mobility characterization study through extensive experiments in real world driving scenarios. We characterize motion using a constantly illuminated transmitter on a lead vehicle and a multi–camera setup on a following vehicle. The observations from our experiments reveal key insights on the degree of relative motion of a vehicle along its spatial axis and different vehicular motion behaviors. The motion characterization from this work lays a stepping stone to addressing mobility in vehicular VLC.
Scanning tunneling shot-noise spectroscopy in Kondo systems

Using a large-$N$ theory in combination with the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function formalism, we investigate the current, differential conductance, zero-frequency shot noise, and Fano factor as measured by scanning tunneling shot-noise spectroscopy (STSNS) using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) near single Kondo impurities and in Kondo lattices. We show that the Fano factor $F$ exhibits a characteristic bias dependence arising from Kondo screening that is similar to the Kondo resonance observed in the differential conductance. Moreover, the line shape of $F$ is strongly dependent on the ratio of the tunneling amplitudes for electron tunneling from the STM tip into the conduction band and electronic levels of the magnetic adatoms. We demonstrate that the Fano factor can be enhanced or suppressed due to interference effects and as such, is not only a sensitive probe for the correlation effects arising from Kondo screening, but also for quantum interference between tunneling electrons. We identify a correlation between the form of the differential conductance and the Fano factor that could be tested in future STSNS experiments.
Neutrophils in innate immunity and systems biology-level approaches.

The innate immune system is the first line of host defense against invading microorganisms. Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs or neutrophils) are the most abundant leukocyte in humans and essential to the innate immune response against invading pathogens. Compared to the acquired immune response, which requires time to develop and is dependent on previous interaction with specific microbes, the ability of neutrophils to kill microorganisms is immediate, nonspecific, and not dependent on previous exposure to microorganisms. Historically, studies of PMN-pathogen interaction focused on the events leading to killing of microorganisms, such as recruitment/chemotaxis, transmigration, phagocytosis, and activation, whereas postphagocytosis sequelae were infrequently considered. In addition, it was widely accepted that human neutrophils possessed limited capacity for new gene transcription and thus, relatively little biosynthetic capacity. This notion has changed dramatically within the past 20 years. Further, there is now more effort directed to understand the events occurring in PMNs after killing of microbes. Herein, we give an updated review of the systems biology-level approaches that have been used to gain an enhanced view of the role of neutrophils during host-pathogen interaction and neutrophil-mediated diseases. We anticipate that these and future systems-level studies will continue to provide information important for understanding, treatment, and control of diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms. This article is categorized under: Physiology > Organismal Responses to Environment Physiology > Mammalian Physiology in Health and Disease Biological Mechanisms > Cell Fates.
Barry R. Weingast Recommends “Economic Backwardness in Political Perspective” by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

This paper is one of my favorites in the extensive and powerful Acemoglu and Robinson (AR) et al. corpus. Although it is not among their most recognized works, it deserves greater attention. This paper demonstrates the power of the political economics approach, especially how political institutions directly influence economic development.
Nucleotide polymorphism assay for the identification of west African group Bacillus anthracis: a lineage lacking anthrose

The exosporium of the anthrax-causing Bacillus anthracis endospores display a tetrasaccharide composed of three rhamnose residues and an unusual sugar termed anthrose. Anthrose is a proposed potential target for immunotherapy and for specific detection of B. anthracis. Although originally thought to be ubiquitous in B. anthracis, previous work identified an anthrose negative strain from a West African lineage isolated from cattle that could represent a vaccine escape mutant. These strains carry genes required for expression of the anthrose operon but premature stop codons resulting from an 8-bp insertion in BAS3320 (an amino-transferase) and a C/T substitution at position 892 of the BAS3321 (a glycosyltransferase) gene prevent anthrose expression. Various other single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified throughout the operon and could be the basis for detection of anthrose-deficient strains. In this study, we evaluated rhAmp genotypic assays based on SNPs at positions 892 and 1352 of BAS3321 for detection and differentiation of anthrose negative (Ant−) West African strains. Discrimination of anthrose negative West African isolates was achieved with as low as 100 fg of DNA, whereas consistent genotyping of Sterne necessitated at least 1 pg of DNA. Screening of a global panel of B. anthracis isolates showed anthrose-expressing alleles are prevalent worldwide whereas the anthrose-deficient phenotype is to date limited to West Africa. Our work also revealed a third, previously unreported anthrose genotype in which the operon is altogether missing from a Polish B. anthracis isolate.
Study and deployment of methacrylate-based polymer resins for immobilized lipase catalyzed triglyceride hydrolysis

Abstract The performance of microbial lipase from the organism Candida rugosa immobilized onto three methacrylate-based polymer resins was studied. Two of the resins are surface functionalized with epoxy & butyl (ECR8285) and octadecyl (ECR8806M) groups and were compared with an un-functionalized resin (ECR1030M). Sizing of protein using dynamic light scattering technique suggested immobilization was surface dominant. Lipase was immobilized from 0.1 M, pH 7.4 phosphate buffer, at 22 °C for a contact time of 20 h. The resins were characterized using FT-IR spectrometry, N2 adsorption, contact angle measurements and scanning electron microscopy. Continuously stirred-tank batch reactors operated at 100 RPM were used to compare the performance of the immobilized lipase using triglyceride hydrolysis. Octadecyl functionalized methacrylate resins showed superior performance and showed a maximum of 62% yield of FFA on a 100-h time course study. Comparing octadecyl functionalized resins with un-functionalized resins, a four-fold increase in activity retention was observed. Epoxy & butyl functionalized resins showed lower performance compared to octadecyl functionalized resins but higher than un-functionalized resins. Performance in the presence of chemical modifying agents, glutaraldehyde, (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane and itaconic acid, applied during immobilization protocol was measured. Superior performance was observed in the case of itaconic acid for functionalized resins.
Some Observations on the Mechanism and Chemistry Aspects of Chemical Dispersion

An overview of the mechanism of chemical dispersion is presented in order to put the subject in the proper perspective. The methodology and role of the surface active agent in the generation of finely dispersed oil droplets are reviewed. This discussion of the dispersing mechanism will help resolve some of the misconceptions that have persisted for the past 10 years, such as the dispersant acting to either sink or solubilize the oil droplets into the water column, or both. The incentives, concerns, and resultant present status of chemical dispersion are developed.
Mechanisms of Effector-Mediated Immunity Revealed by the Accidental Human Pathogen Legionella pneumophila

Many Gram-negative bacterial pathogens employ translocated virulence factors, termed effector proteins, to facilitate their parasitism of host cells and evade host anti-microbial defenses. However, eukaryotes have evolved to detect effector-mediated virulence strategies through a phenomenon termed effector-triggered immunity (ETI). Although ETI was discovered in plants, a growing body of literature demonstrates that metazoans also utilize effector-mediated immunity to detect and clear bacterial pathogens. This mini review is focused on mechanisms of effector-mediated immune responses by the accidental human pathogen Legionella pneumophila. We highlight recent advancements in the field and discuss the future prospects of harnessing effectors for the development of novel therapeutics, a critical need due to the prevalence and rapid spread of antibiotic resistance.
Class-Modeling of Septic Shock With Hyperdimensional Computing

Abstract Sepsis arises when a patient’s immune system has an extreme reaction to an infection. This is followed by septic shock if damage to organ tissue is so extensive that it causes a total systemic failure. Early detection of septic shock among septic patients could save critical time for preparation and prevention treatment. Due to the high variance in symptoms and patient state before shock, it is challenging to create a protocol that would be effective across patients. However, since septic shock is an acute change in patient state, modeling patient stability could be more effective in detecting a condition that departs from it. In this paper we present a one-class classification approach to septic shock using hyperdimensional computing. We built various models that consider different contexts and can be adapted according to a target priority. Among septic patients, the models can detect septic shock accurately with 90% sensitivity and overall accuracy of 60% of the cases up to three hours before the onset of septic shock, with the ability to adjust predictions according to incoming data. Additionally, the models can be easily adapted to prioritize sensitivity (increase true positives) or specificity (decrease false positives).
Imaginary Worlds as Social Experiments

There are perhaps two ways to think about “worlds as experiments”. Making a world is an experiment in itself, an attempt to build anew a place for people to be. In this sense, to experiment is to try something new, to fiddle around with the tools at hand and see what happens. The other sense of experiment is more mundane: Experimenting is a scientific protocol, a recipe for knowledge discovery. To conduct an experiment, you hold certain factors fixed and then vary a specific thing in a specific way, and observe changes in something else, some outcome of interest. Many imaginary worlds, maybe the majority, have been experiments in the first sense. This essay concerns itself with experiments in the second sense. What about using synthetic worlds to conduct experiments along the lines of the scientific protocol? There are very good reasons to think hard about this, as outlined in the following sections. The possibilities and problems of doing synthetic world experiments occupy the rest of the essay. It is exciting to imagine using vast worlds with millions of people to discover solutions to important social problems. Making the discoveries would be quite hard. Games are hard to make; massively-populated games harder still; massively-populated games in which behavior is relevant to broader questions are perhaps beyond our current capacity. On the other hand, the sheer cost of making interactive systems is falling. It may soon be as common for people to make new worlds as it is for them to make short videos today. If so, we might face a bright dawn of new knowledge about how we all live together.
To Interfere or Not To Interfere: Information Revelation and Price-Setting Incentives in a Multiagent Learning Environment

We consider a platform in which multiple sellers offer their products for sale over a time horizon of T periods. Each seller sets its own price. The platform collects a fraction of the sales revenue and provides price-setting incentives to the sellers to maximize its own revenue. The demand for each seller's product is a function of all sellers' prices and some customer features. Initially, neither the platform nor the sellers know the demand function, but they can learn about it through sales observations: each seller observes its own sales, whereas the platform observes all sellers' sales as well as the customer feature information. We measure the platform's performance by comparing its expected revenue with the full-information optimal revenue, and design policies that enable the platform to judiciously manage information revelation and price-setting incentives. Perhaps surprisingly, a simple "do-nothing" policy does not always exhibit poor revenue performance and can perform exceptionally well under certain conditions. With a more conservative policy that reveals information to make price-setting incentives more effective, the platform can always protect itself from large revenue losses caused by demand model uncertainty. We develop a strategic-reveal-and-incentivize policy that combines the benefits of the aforementioned policies and thereby achieves asymptotically optimal revenue performance as T grows large.
More than meets the eye: Using AI to identify reduced heart function by electrocardiograms

Electrocardiographic (ECG) assessment of patients with suspected heart disease is a bedrock of cardiology for diagnosing conduction system disease, arrhythmias, and heart attack. Now, using AI-assisted interpretation of ECGs, the signals within these studies are able to tell us so much more. In their recent randomized trial published in Nature Medicine, Yao and colleagues illustrate the power of utilizing AI-enabled ECGs to identify individuals with reduced heart function using a scalable, pragmatic approach.
Subdural Hematoma as a Serious Complication of Huntington's Disease: An Observational Study.

BACKGROUND Persons with Huntington's disease (HD) are at increased risk for subdural hematomas (SDH) because of underlying brain atrophy and increased frequency of falls and head trauma. SDH can cause serious disability, but there is little information about the association of SDH with HD in the medical literature. OBJECTIVE To review the occurrence and characteristics of SDH seen in clinics specializing in HD. METHODS A retrospective review identifying the occurrence and manifestations of SDH in HD patients attending three HDSA Centers of Excellence. RESULTS Twenty-five HD patients (16F/9M) were identified with SDH. Twelve (44%) SDH were bilateral, 16 (60%) required surgical intervention, and 2 resulted in death. Mean age at the time of SDH was 60 years, mean duration of HD symptoms prior to event was 8 years, mean CAG repeat expansion size was 43 and mean UHDRS motor score obtained closest to time of SDH was 51 (16 patients). Most SDH occurred in the context of ground level falls or using stairs although 5 patients had no history of head trauma. Additional brain injury may occur along with the SDH. The most common symptoms were altered mental status, hemiparesis and loss of consciousness. The over-representation of females in this study requires replication and further investigation. CONCLUSION Patients with HD are at increased risk for SDH. An increased suspicion for SDH in HD patients should be considered, as this phenomenon may be initially unrecognized, may require extensive utilization of medical resources and is a potential cause of death.
Isolation, Screening, and Degradation Characteristics of a Quinclorac-Degrading Bacterium, Strain D, and Its Potential for Bioremediation of Rice Fields Polluted by Quinclorac

Quinclorac (QNC) is a persistent, highly selective, hormonal herbicide of low toxicity. QNC accumulates in soil and affects the growth and development of crops planted subsequent to its application. In this study, we isolated and screened a QNC-degrading bacterial strain, strain D, from rice paddy soil. Morphological analysis, physiological and biochemical tests, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing led us to identify strain D as a Cellulosimicrobium cellulans strain. We investigated the characteristics of strain D in relation to QNC degradation. Under optimal culture conditions, the QNC degradation rate was 45.9% after 21 days of culture. QNC degradation by strain D in the field was modeled and quantified by a pot experiment. The results show that strain D promotes rice growth and degrades QNC. This research has identified a new bacterial species that degrades QNC, providing a foundation for further research into QNC remediation. IMPORTANCE QNC-degrading bacteria have been isolated from different environments, but there are no reports of Cellulosimicrobium cellulans strains that degrade QNC. In this study, a previously unidentified bacterial strain that degrades QNC, strain D, was screened from paddy soil. The characteristics of strain D that relate to QNC degradation were investigated in detail. The results showed that strain D effectively degraded QNC. Two degradation products of QNC formed by strain D that have not been reported previously, i.e., 3-pyridylacetic acid (m/z 138.0548) and 3-ethylpyridine (m/z 108.0805), were identified using high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry. Strain D has the capacity to degrade QNC in a QNC-polluted paddy.
A Complex-Systems Agenda for Influencing Policy Studies

This paper describes a possible agenda for changing the teaching and conduct of policy analysis to better reflect the centrality of complex adaptive systems and the potential role of new analytic methods, including computational social science (CSS). The agenda identifies desirable changes in four categories: (1) world view when conceiving and posing problems, (2) the basis for reasoning and inference, (3) analytic style, and (4) the character of models and model-based analysis. The paper’s intent is to obtain reactions and suggestions from others in the CSS community to help refine the ideas.
Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy of the Pancreas

This article covers basic topics such as indications, contraindications, techniques and complications. Individual sections focus on the differential diagnosis between adenocarcinoma and benign or reactive processes, diagnosis of pancreatic endocrine tumors, and the diagnosis of cystic lesions using pancreatic cyst fluid analysis including cytopathology.
Miranda: The Case, the Man, and the Players

On the eve of America's bicentennial, the American Bar Association told its members of a plan to publish a book about the "milestone events" in 200 years of American legal history, and invited them to vote on the milestones to be included. When the balloting was over, Miranda v. Arizonal "the high-water mark" of the Warren Court's revolution in American criminal procedure2 had received the fourth highest number of votes.3 I venture to say that if members of the general public had been asked to list the "most regrettable" or "most unfortunate" milestones in American legal history, Miranda might have finished even higher in the voting. To many Miranda was "the red flag of Warren Court liberalism."4 The case "plunge[d] the Court into an ocean of abuse" and made it "one of the leading issues of the 1968 Presidential campaign."5 Somebody was bound to write a history of this epochal case, and now, in Miranda. Crime, Law and Politics, Liva Baker has written a book that is massive and exhaustively researched, yet thoughtful and readable. Although this review concentrates on what Baker has to say about Miranda, its ancestry, and its progeny, her book is much more than a book about Miranda the case and Miranda the man and
NEW DOMAINS FOR STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

Can network thinking be extended to the broad range of social organization conventionally studies by sociologists? Applying structural thinking to American election data, it is possible to detect a social-economic hierarchy solely from the links among categories, without reference to external numerical indicators of rank. It is possible to detect and verify sensible and suggestive relative social positions for categories of income, education, gender, age, religion, race, party identification, and region – forming correlated hierarchies. The special contribution of the structural analysis is its simultaneous attention to detail and the overview of links, coupled with less dependence on a priori assumptions.
Let's Get the Job Done!

I am pleased to report that this year's Annual Meeting in Palm Springs, CA, enjoyed record attendance of more than 1,000 in attendance, with over 179 scientific posters and 100 exhibitors present. We had the privilege of hearing from experts in the forefront of Pain Medicine throughout the week and the opportunity to hear from internationally renowned experts in pain, including this year's keynote speaker Linda R. Watkins, PhD, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology & Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Watkins presented breaking scientific news on the immune and glial factors within the peripheral and central nervous systems that relate to chronic pain states and how therapeutics targeting key glial activation receptors is being approached in …
Effects of third-order nonlinearities on jamming cancellation

Hardware errors adversely affect the performance of jamming sidelobe cancellation in a digital beamforming array that combines array elements into subarrays for digital combining and uses auxiliary channels to obtain an estimate of the jammer signals. Analysis is needed to determine how much hardware error can be tolerated to obtain a desired level of jamming cancellation performance. Under a specific set of assumptions, we derive analytical, closed-form expressions that relate third-order nonlinearities (TONs) to jamming cancellation power residue in a sidelobe cancellation system. We show that the TON residue is dominated by the subarray pattern. We demonstrate that for one jammer and many auxiliaries, if the auxiliary channels have similar nonlinear parameters to the subarrays, the sidelobe canceller can remove the TON components in the sum channel to obtain almost ideal (i.e., no nonlinearities in either subarray or auxiliary channels) performance.
Surgical outcomes for patients aged 80 and older: morbidity and mortality from major noncardiac surgery.

Objectives: To gather information about surgical outcomes for patients in their 80s and 90s. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. Participants: Patients (26,648 aged ≥80; 568,263 aged <80) enrolled in the Veterans Affairs National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (NSQIP) who had noncardiac surgery between 1991 and 1999. Methods: Data were collected prospectively from medical records and healthcare providers. Detailed information was collected about patients' preoperative status, intraoperative experience, and postoperative outcomes. Postoperative outcomes were survival status at 30 days (deaths from any cause occurring during hospitalization and after hospital discharge were captured) and the occurrence of 21 selected surgical complications within 30 days postoperatively: wound complications (3 types), respiratory complications (4), urinary tract complications (3), nervous system complications (3), cardiac complications (3), and other complications (5). Measurements: Mortality and the occurrence of 21 surgical complications within 30 days of surgery. Results: Thirty-day all-cause mortality rates varied widely across operations and were higher for patients aged 80 and older than for younger patients (8% vs 3%, P<.001). Mortality rates for those aged 80 and older were less than 2% for many commonly performed operations (e.g., transurethral prostatectomy, hernia repair, knee replacement, carotid endarterectomy). Of patients aged 80 and older, 20% had one or more postoperative complications, and patients who suffered complications had higher 30-day mortality than those who did not (26% vs 4%, P<.001). For 11 of the 21 complications, mortality for patients aged 80 and older was greater than 33%. The risk factors for poor outcomes were the same for older and younger patients, and the NSQIP Mortality Risk model performed well on patients aged 80 and older (C statistic=0.83). Conclusion: A substantial minority of patients aged 80 and older died or suffered a complication within 30 days of surgery, but for many operations mortality rates were extremely low. Postoperative complications were associated with high 30-day mortality in patients aged 80 and older.
Use of computer graphics and cluster analysis in aiding relational judgement

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the use of computer graphics and cluster analysis in aiding human relational judgment. The experimental stimuli were similarity matrices from real-worl...