cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Treatment of Fatigue in Primary Biliary Cholangitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Fatigue is the most common complication of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and can be debilitating. Numerous interventions have been trialed targeting several proposed mechanisms of PBC-associated fatigue. We sought to summarize and perform a meta-analysis to determine the efficacy of these interventions. A comprehensive database search was conducted from inception through March 27, 2018. The primary outcome was proportion of fatigued patients or reduction in degree of fatigue. Adverse events were a secondary outcome. We assessed studies for risk of bias, graded quality of evidence, and used meta-analysis to obtain overall effect by pooling studies of the same class. We identified 16 studies evaluating ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) (7), liver transplantation (2), serotonin reuptake inhibitors (2), colchicine (1), methotrexate (1), cyclosporine (1), modafinil (1), and obeticholic acid (1). On meta-analysis, UDCA was not associated with a reduction in risk of fatigue (RR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.69–1.08, p = 0.19, I2 = 56.2%). While liver transplantation did reduce degree of fatigue (SMD − 0.57, 95% CI − 0.89 to − 0.24, p = 0.001, I2 = 67.3%), fatigue did not return to baseline indicating the underlying cause may not be addressed. While there is some improvement in fatigue with liver transplantation, there is a lack of high-quality evidence supporting the efficacy of any other intervention in the treatment of PBC-related fatigue. Further research into the underlying pathophysiology may help guide future trials.
'They Divide Us While Connecting Us': The Effects of Migration and Cell Phone Use on Bulsa Communities in Ghana's Upper East Region

At any one moment, urban migration involves at least two kinds of actors: those who leave and those who stay behind. Digital technologies (DTs), such as cell phones, are widely viewed as enabling these two kinds of actors to stay in touch (e.g. Muto 2012). While DTs help to connect distant friends and relatives, they may also be weakening the integrity and importance of face-to-face relations among the community members who remain home (e.g. Geser 2006). Based on three months of anthropological field research in Ghanas Upper East Region, I found this to be true among Bulsa speakers. Routinely, call recipients answered their ringing phones and walked away from individuals who were present. Additionally, no one interrupted the person on the phone, with Bulsa speakers excusing the hiccup in their conversations by saying that the caller was unknown and might have pressing news. This view came at the cost of behaviors widely considered disrespectful, such as youth leaving elders to answer a call and phone users ignoring passers-by who are greeting. This paper sheds new light on how coastal employment, urban migration, and DTs conspire to impact the quality of daily life and relationships within home communities in Ghana.
Development of predictive responses in theory of mind brain regions

When we watch movies, we consider the characters' mental states in order to understand and predict the narrative. Recent work in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) uses movie-viewing paradigms to measure functional responses in brain regions recruited for such mental state reasoning (the theory of mind ["ToM"] network). Here, two groups of young children (n = 30 3-4 years old, n = 26 6-7 years old) viewed a short animated movie twice while undergoing fMRI. As children get older, ToM brain regions were recruited earlier in time during the second presentation of the movie. This "narrative anticipation" effect is specific: there was no such effect in a control network of brain regions that responds just as robustly to the movie (the "Pain Matrix"). These results complement prior studies in adults that suggest that ToM brain regions play a role not just in inferring, but in actively predicting, other people's thoughts and feelings, and provide novel evidence that as children get older, their ToM brain regions increasingly make such predictions.
Design and optimization of patient-specific, 3D printed pediatric laryngoscopes

Laryngoscopes have been used for endotracheal intubation since the early 1900s. Macintosh and Miller blade designs are the most widely accepted with recent improvements, including embedded optics focused on addressing challenging airways. Patient-specific 3-D Printed laryngoscope blades offer a valuable approach to difficult airway intubation. Our team introduces a proof-of-concept approach to using Imaging (CT and MRI) data to design a patient-specific laryngoscope blade.
The interplay between business and personal trust on relationship performance in conditions of market turbulence

Extant research examining interpersonal trust in business-to-business (B2B) buyer–seller relationships focuses on its multidimensionality, mainly from a business perspective. Our research captures an element of business relationships that is heretofore under-examined: the personal side of the relationship between the buyer and seller. We examine the interplay between both business and personal trust on performance in the relationship, namely analyzing customer relationship satisfaction and customer loyalty. We also test our model using perceived market turbulence as a moderating variable since turbulence in the marketplace could strain the relationship between the buyer and seller and affect the strength of the statistical relationships between business and personal trust on performance in the relationship.
Pathology of Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms have long fascinated clinicians and pathologists, because tumors with similar histopathological appearance can present with distinct clinical syndromes caused by the release of endocrine hormones into the central circulation. In the past these neoplasms have been classified based on their clinical functional status of hormone secretory or nonsecretory. However, with the availability of long-term patient survival data (SEERS database), it is now unequivocally demonstrated that an accurate estimate of a patient’s length of survival is determined by the grade and stage of the tumor and not its functional status. This is reflected in the current grading and staging systems as proposed by the WHO classification of neuroendocrine neoplasms of the pancreas, the European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society TNM classification of GEP-NEN (ENETS 2007), and the US TNM classification tumors (AJCC 2010). Accordingly, the pathological evaluation of pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms is focused on grade and stage, while functional status should only be supplemented if a clinical syndrome is recognized.
Is there reporting and citation bias for completed phase III interventional brain tumor trials

Abstract Aims Reporting and citation bias based on positive versus negative outcome among completed phase III interventional brain tumor trials (IBTTs) have not been previously reported. Thus, we aimed to assess the evidence. Methods Clinicaltrials.gov was used to obtain all phase III IBTTs completed prior to December 31st 2016. Trials closed due to poor accrual or non-phase III were excluded. Data about the funding source, type of intervention, conducted at U.S or Non-U.S locations, patients enrolled, primary completion date, time to dissemination of results in months (either reported on Clinicaltrials.gov or published in a journal), citations per year (from web of science) and outcome (positive or neutral/negative) were abstracted. Median time to dissemination was estimated using Kaplan-Meier estimates and a log rank test for statistical significance. The number of citations per year for positive and negative/neutral studies was compared using a t-test. Results 67 studies were analyzed. The median time from primary completion to dissemination of results for trials with a positive outcome was 20 months (n = 20; 95% CI: 12-31) compared to 30 months for trials with a negative outcome (n=35; 95 % CI: 22 – 37) (p = 0.095). The average number of citations per year for trials with a positive outcome is 62.4 (n = 21; range 1.1 – 614.8) compared to 25.0 for trials with a negative outcome (n=35; range 0.14 - 158.8) (p = 0.213). There was no significant difference in time to dissemination based on the funding source, type of intervention or the location where the trial was conducted. Conclusion There was no evidence of reporting or citation bias among completed phase III IBTTs. Nevertheless, positive phase III IBTTs were reported more promptly and cited more often compared to negative or neutral trials. These findings might need consideration for risk of bias assessment while conducting systematic reviews.
Functional Alterations in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity in Anxiety Disorders

Adolescents with anxiety disorders exhibit excessive emotional and somatic arousal. Neuroimaging studies have shown abnormal cerebral cortical activation and connectivity in this patient population. The specific role of cerebellar output circuitry, specifically the dentate nuclei (DN), in adolescent anxiety disorders remains largely unexplored. Resting-state functional connectivity analyses have parcellated the DN, the major output nuclei of the cerebellum, into three functional territories (FTs) that include default-mode, salience-motor, and visual networks. The objective of this study was to understand whether FTs of the DN are implicated in adolescent anxiety disorders. Forty-one adolescents (mean age 15.19 ± 0.82, 26 females) with one or more anxiety disorders and 55 age- and gender-matched healthy controls completed resting-state fMRI scans and a self-report survey on anxiety symptoms. Seed-to-voxel functional connectivity analyses were performed using the FTs from DN parcellation. Brain connectivity metrics were then correlated with State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) measures within each group. Adolescents with an anxiety disorder showed significant hyperconnectivity between salience-motor DN FT and cerebral cortical salience-motor regions compared to controls. Salience-motor FT connectivity with cerebral cortical sensorimotor regions was significantly correlated with STAI-trait scores in HC (R2 = 0.41). Here, we report DN functional connectivity differences in adolescents diagnosed with anxiety, as well as in HC with variable degrees of anxiety traits. These observations highlight the relevance of DN as a potential clinical and sub-clinical marker of anxiety.
Social-environmental resiliencies protect against loneliness among HIV-Positive and HIV- negative older men who have sex with men: Results from the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS).

Abstract Rationale Loneliness is associated with negative health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, dementia, physical functional decline, depression, and increased mortality risk, among HIV- positive and HIV-negative older men who have sex with men (MSM). Given these negative health outcomes, it is imperative to identify factors that minimize loneliness in these vulnerable groups. Objective We sought to examine whether social-environmental resiliencies—defined as an individual's level of support, social bonding, and psychological sense of community among gay men—buffer against symptoms of loneliness. Method We analyzed longitudinal data from 1,255 older MSM with and without HIV infection, all of whom were enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). Using longitudinal latent class analysis (LLCA), we identified three underlying classes (Social Connectors, Non-community Connectors, and Social Isolates) in the social environment of the sample. We assessed the prevalence of loneliness by these latent classes. By lagging social environmental factors over time, we were able to examine the temporal relationships between latent classes and subsequent loneliness. Results Consistent with our hypothesis, multivariate associations revealed that compared to Social Connectors with high levels of social support and social bonding and a strong perceived sense of community among gay men, Social Isolates (Prevalence Ratio (PR): 1.42; 95% CI: 1.08–1.88; p = 0.0120) and Non-community Connectors (PR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.03–1.75; p = 0.0322) were more likely to experience loneliness after adjustment for covariates and baseline loneliness. There were no differences by HIV status. Conclusions These longitudinal data allowed us to make causal inferences related to the social environmental resiliencies lowering the odds of loneliness among HIV-positive and HIV-negative older MSM. Developing individual- and community-level tailored interventions for these populations by leveraging social environmental resiliencies is key to reducing loneliness and promoting health.
Racial justice pedagogy: foregrounding what it means to be an immigrant teacher of color in the United States

This paper contributes to the discourse on the role of critical pedagogy in the U.S. education system. The paper is inspired by the story of a participant from a larger ongoing phenomenological stu...
An adaptive scheme for better utilization with QoS constraints for VBR video traffic in ATM networks

The efficient transportation of real-time variable bit rate (VBR) video traffic in high-speed networks is critical for current multimedia applications. The real-time VBR video traffic has stringent delay and cell-loss requirements. The high burstiness of the correlated VBR video traffic makes the adaptive resource management, highly desirable. This paper presents a dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme for VBR video traffic based on buffer monitoring and a simple least mean square (LMS) traffic prediction system. The goal is to reduce the frequency of the bandwidth changes and at the same time reduce the cell-loss rate (CLR) with better bandwidth utilization. Simulation results indicate that utilization of up to 0.8 can be achieved by the proposed scheme even under high source alignment for bursty VBR video traffic, with less frequent reallocations.
Predicting equity returns from securities data with minimal rule generation

Based on our experiments with financial market data, we have demonstrated that the domain can be effectively modeled by classification rules induced from available historical data for the purpose of making gainful predictions for equity investments, and that new techniques developed at IBM Research, including minimal rule generation (R-MINI) and contextual feature analysis, are robust enough to consistently extract useful information from noisy domains such as financial markets. We will briefly introduce the rationale for our rule minimisation technique, and the motivation for the use of contextual information in analysing features. We will then describe our experience from several experiments with the S&P 500 data, showing the general methodology, and the results of correlations and managed investment based on classification rules generated by R-MINI. We will sketch how the rules for classifications can be effectively used for numerical prediction, and eventually to an investment policy. Both the development of robust "minimal" classification rule generation, as well as its application to the financial markets, are part of a continuing study.
Reaction induced spreading of metal oxides: in situ Raman spectroscopic studies during oxidation reactions

Publisher Summary The thermal spreading of metal oxides over oxide supports has been intensively investigated over the past decade and much is currently known about this process. This chapter discusses the recent reports in the literature that an alternative route to the preparation of such supported metal oxide catalysts involves solid-state reactions. A new phenomenon of reaction induced spreading of crystalline MoO 3 and V 2 O 5 on oxide supports is observed at temperatures much lower than that required for thermal spreading via solid-state reactions, 200–250 °C vs. 400–500 °C. It has been demonstrated that significant dispersion of MoO 3 or V 2 O 5 on a titania support could not be achieved at temperatures of 500°C with the physically mixed oxides in the form of a catalyst pellet. Thus, dispersion of MoO 3 and V 2 O 5 on oxide supports, at much lower temperatures, for physically mixed catalysts in the form of pellets, cannot be because of thermal spreading and must occur by another mechanism. The in situ Raman studies clearly demonstrate that spreading of MoO 3 and V 2 O 5 over different oxide supports in the form of catalyst pellets readily occurred during methanol oxidation at temperatures as low as 230 °C. This suggests that a strong interaction between the gas phase components and the crystalline metal oxide phases may be occurring. The current findings that reaction induced spreading of metal oxides on oxide supports can occur during oxidation reactions at very low temperatures have important implications for commercial applications as well as fundamental studies.
Specific Assay of Aminoglycosidic- or Polymyxin-Type Antibiotics Present in Human Sera in Combination with Cephalosporins

Monitoring of serum concentrations of aminoglycosidic or polymyxin antibiotics when administered concurrently with cephalosporins or penicillins requires a special assay technique. Selective enzymatic degradation of the β-lactam antibiotic from the serum specimen allows subsequent assay of the antibiotic being monitored. This report gives details of a simple procedure for laboratory production of a crude enzyme capable of degrading cephalosporins or penicillins. An assay procedure for quantitating aminoglycosidic or polymyxin antibiotics after enzymatic degradation of a coexisting β-lactam antibiotic is described. Images
A system dynamics software process simulator for staffing policies decision support

Staff attrition is a problem often faced by software development organizations. How can a manager plan for the risk of losses due to attrition? Can policies for this purpose be formulated to address his/her specific organization and project? A software development process simulator tuned to a specific organization is used for running "what-if" scenarios for assessing the effects of managerial staffing decisions on a project's budget, schedule and quality. We developed a system dynamics simulator of an incremental software development process and used it for analyzing the effect of the following policies: to replace engineers who leave the project, to overstaff in the beginning of the project, or to do nothing, hoping that the project will still be completed in time and within budget. This paper presents the simulator, the experiments that we ran, the results that we obtained, and our analysis and conclusions.
Modeling activation and effective connectivity of VWFA in same script bilinguals

Previous neuroimaging research revealed a small area in the inferior occipito-temporal cortex (VWFA), which seems to be involved in recognition of written words. The specialized response of the VWFA to words could result from repeated exposure to print in the course of functional fine-tuning of the brain. Research with bilingual speakers holds promise in helping to reveal response properties of the VWFA by assessing its sensitivity to language proficiency, word-form similarity, and meaning overlap across two languages. Using fMRI, we compared VWFA activity for cognate and homograph prime-target pairs in a group of fluent Spanish-English speakers. Cognates share form and meaning in two languages, while homographs only share form. Relative to baseline, the VWFA showed repetition suppression to pairs of homographs, but not to pairs of cognates, suggesting that this area is sensitive to word meaning. The different response to cognates and homographs was only observed when English was the prime language and Spanish was the target language. To help explain this result we compared patterns of effective connectivity between the VWFA and other parts of the reading network implicated in semantic and phonological processing. Our neural models showed that English targets engaged a direct ventral route from the VWFA to the frontal lobe and Spanish targets engaged an indirect dorsal route. Considering that frontal cortex has been implicated in semantic processing, a direct connection to this area could signal a fast and automatic access to meaning and would facilitate early semantic influences in visual word recognition.
Molecular epidemiology and the dynamics of tuberculosis transmission among foreign-born people

As incidence rates of tuberculosis fall in wealthy countries and rise in at least some poorer countries, it is not surprising that much of tuberculosis in Canada and the United States occurs in foreign-born people. The high risk of tuberculosis in immigrants to Europe, Australia, the United States
Advocacy Practice for Social Justice, 2nd Edition, by Hoefer, R

Advocacy Practice for Social Justice is designed to both illustrate how advocacy practice is similar to other forms of problem-solving models in social work and to provide a rationale and planning ...
On computing Darboux type series analyses

1. The reliability of the estimates for the location and the order of primary singularities is estimated by comparing two sets of estimates at the same stage instead of by comparing estimates from different stages. 2. The system of nonlinear equations which must be solved for the location and order of the primary singularities at each stage is replaced by a linear system which is much easier to solve.
Ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography at 1.15 μm using photonic crystal fiber with no zero-dispersion wavelengths

We report a broad-band continuum light source with high power, low noise and a smooth spectrum centered at 1.15 μm for ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT). The continuum is generated by self-phase modulation using a compact 1.059 μm femtosecond laser pumping a novel photonic crystal fiber, which has a convex dispersion profile with no zero dispersion wavelengths. The emission spectrum is red-shifted from the pump wavelength, ranges from 800 to 1300 nm and results in a measured axial resolution of ~2.8 μm in air. We demonstrate ultrahigh-resolution OCT imaging of biological tissue using this light source. The results suggest PCF with this type of dispersion profile is advantageous for generating SC as a light source for ultrahigh-resolution OCT.
New potential regulators of uterine leiomyomata from DNA arrays: the ionotropic glutamate receptor GluR2.

Abstract In the post-Genome era, new concepts emerge about the growth regulation of uterine leiomyomata. Screening of leiomyoma and myometrial tissues with DNA arrays revealed numerous genes up-regulated in leiomyomata that were not known to be expressed in the human uterus. GluR2, a subunit of a ligand-gated cation channel, is up-regulated in leiomyomata relative to myometrium by 15- to 30-fold at the protein and mRNA level and is localized in endothelial cells. GluR2 pre-mRNA in leiomyoma and myometrial tissues is nearly 100% edited at the Q/R site, indicative of low Ca 2+ permeability of the ion channels. In spontaneous leiomyomata in women or leiomyomata induced in the guinea pig model, there is a likely synergism linking increased production of estradiol and all- trans retinoic acid with up-regulation of nuclear receptor PPARγ and RXRα proteins to support tumor growth. GluR2 might be coupled to this synergism directly or via interleukin-17B, kinesin KIF5 or related genes also up-regulated in leiomyomata. GluR antagonists should be tested as inhibitors of leiomyoma growth.
Customer compatibility management, or revisiting the silence rule

Emphasizes the controllability of customer‐to‐customer interaction in the library service environment. Argues that customers′ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their experience of a library may be significantly influenced by their experience of other customers. Uses some concepts from the services marketing literature and proposes a more focused and comprehensive customer compatibility management programme. Uses the theatrical metaphor to illustrate the roles and functions that need to be adopted in a compatibility management programme.
The Expanding World of Tissue Engineering: The Building Blocks and New Applications of Tissue Engineered Constructs

The field of tissue engineering has been growing in the recent years as more products have made it to the market and as new uses for the engineered tissues have emerged, motivating many researchers to engage in this multidisciplinary field of research. Engineered tissues are now not only considered as end products for regenerative medicine, but also have emerged as enabling technologies for other fields of research ranging from drug discovery to biorobotics. This widespread use necessitates a variety of methodologies for production of tissue engineered constructs. In this review, these methods together with their non-clinical applications will be described. First, we will focus on novel materials used in tissue engineering scaffolds; such as recombinant proteins and synthetic, self assembling polypeptides. The recent advances in the modular tissue engineering area will be discussed. Then scaffold-free production methods, based on either cell sheets or cell aggregates will be described. Cell sources used in tissue engineering and new methods that provide improved control over cell behavior such as pathway engineering and biomimetic microenvironments for directing cell differentiation will be discussed. Finally, we will summarize the emerging uses of engineered constructs such as model tissues for drug discovery, cancer research and biorobotics applications.
Foraging and distribution patterns in a termite assemblage dominated by fungus-growing species in semi-arid northern Botswana

Termite foraging was monitored with cellulose baits in both the wet and dry season in the semi-arid Okavango Delta region of northern Botswana. Seven wood-feeding species were found. Fungus-growing termites dominated the assemblage in all plots, and four species (Macrotermes michaelseni, Odontotermes sp. A, Allodontermes sp. and Microtermes sp.) were found in most. Foraging by smaller-bodied Allodontermes sp. and Microtermes sp. was largely confined to the wet season. Foraging by M. michaelseni and Odontotermes sp. A was more constant, but showed a general peak in the early dry season (May and June), likely due to nutrient and energy demands associated with alate production. Despite extensive overlap in distributions of these species, co-occurrences on baits were significantly less frequent than expected by chance. In addition, incidence in a plot of Allodontermes sp. and Microtermes sp. was negatively correlated in the wet season, as was that of M. michaelseni and Odontotermes sp. A in the dry season. Differences in body size, life history, and nest structure produce temporal and spatial heterogeneity in the foraging and distribution patterns of termites, and therefore suggest that consideration of community composition can improve prediction of the influence of termite assemblages on decomposition.
Acoustic and Lexical Representations for Affect Prediction in Spontaneous Conversations.

Abstract In this article we investigate what representations of acoustics and word usage are most suitable for predicting dimensions of affect— arousal , valance , power and expectancy —in spontaneous interactions. Our experiments are based on the AVEC 2012 challenge dataset. For lexical representations, we compare corpus-independent features based on psychological word norms of emotional dimensions, as well as corpus-dependent representations. We find that corpus-dependent bag of words approach with mutual information between word and emotion dimensions is by far the best representation. For the analysis of acoustics, we zero in on the question of granularity. We confirm on our corpus that utterance-level features are more predictive than word-level features. Further, we study more detailed representations in which the utterance is divided into regions of interest (ROI), each with separate representation. We introduce two ROI representations, which significantly outperform less informed approaches. In addition we show that acoustic models of emotion can be improved considerably by taking into account annotator agreement and training the model on smaller but reliable dataset. Finally we discuss the potential for improving prediction by combining the lexical and acoustic modalities. Simple fusion methods do not lead to consistent improvements over lexical classifiers alone but improve over acoustic models.
Anxiety and failure in concept identification

This study compared 56 undergraduates exhibiting high or low anxiety on their ability to solve a concept identification problem following success or failure on a prior problem. Those low in anxiety showed better performance on the problem following failure; those high in anxiety showed better performance following success. This outcome is consistent with previously reported studies using patients hospitalized for anxiety reactions, but it differs from those comparing Type A and Type B coronary-prone personalities.
Sociooccupational and physical outcomes more than 20 years after the diagnosis of osteosarcoma in children and adolescents: limb salvage versus amputation.

BACKGROUND To the best of the authors' knowledge, there has been relatively little research published to date regarding very long-term survivors of childhood and adolescent osteosarcoma. In the current study, the authors compared the very long-term survival outcomes of patients with osteosarcoma who were treated with either limb salvage procedures or amputation. METHODS A total of 38 patients with osteosarcoma who survived ≥ 20 years from the time of diagnosis were divided into 2 groups according to whether they underwent amputation or limb salvage. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning their education, employment, annual income, marital status, health insurance, lifestyle, siblings, and all current and past health issues. RESULTS Education, employment, marital status, and health insurance were not found to differ significantly between the 2 groups of survivors, who described themselves as being similar to their siblings. Eight percent of survivors underwent secondary amputation because of complications with an endoprosthesis. The cumulative incidence of second primary neoplasms was 13%, and this finding was significantly higher in females and in survivors who underwent radiotherapy and had a genetic predisposition. The second primary malignancies were breast cancer (ductal invasive carcinoma, ductal in situ carcinoma, and leiomyosarcoma), mediastinal leiomyosarcoma, and squamocellular carcinoma of the oral cavity and the uterine cervix. Amputees required more assistive walking support than survivors who received limb salvage treatment (P < .05, chi-square test). CONCLUSIONS Despite the many challenges that osteosarcoma survivors face, patients who survived ≥ 20 years after their initial diagnosis reported having overall adjusted well to their physical limitations and were productive individuals. Cancer 2013;119:3727–3736. © 2013 American Cancer Society.
Reconciling the Stereochemical Course of Nucleopalladation with the Development of Enantioselective Wacker‐Type Cyclizations

A novel stereochemical substrate probe was used to assess the factors that affect the stereochemical course of nucleopalladation (cis vs. trans) in the context of an enantioselective Wacker-type reaction. We demonstrate that the enantioselectivity correlates directly with the nucleopalladation pathway, and both the neutral-donor and anionic ligands on palladium are capable of controlling selectivity for cis or trans nucleopalladation.
Heat Shock Protein 70 Enhances Mucosal Immunity against Human Norovirus When Coexpressed from a Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Vector

UNLABELLED Human norovirus (NoV) accounts for 95% of nonbacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. Currently, there is no vaccine available to combat human NoV as it is not cultivable and lacks a small-animal model. Recently, we demonstrated that recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) expressing human NoV capsid protein (rVSV-VP1) induced strong immunities in mice (Y. Ma and J. Li, J. Virol. 85:2942-2952, 2011). To further improve the safety and efficacy of the vaccine candidate, heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) was inserted into the rVSV-VP1 backbone vector. A second construct was generated in which the firefly luciferase (Luc) gene was inserted in place of HSP70 as a control for the double insertion. The resultant recombinant viruses (rVSV-HSP70-VP1 and rVSV-Luc-VP1) were significantly more attenuated in cell culture and viral spread in mice than rVSV-VP1. At the inoculation dose of 1.0 × 10(6) PFU, rVSV-HSP70-VP1 triggered significantly higher vaginal IgA than rVSV-VP1 and significantly higher fecal and vaginal IgA responses than rVSV-Luc-VP1, although serum IgG and T cell responses were similar. At the inoculation dose of 5.0 × 10(6) PFU, rVSV-HSP70-VP1 stimulated significantly higher T cell, fecal, and vaginal IgA responses than rVSV-VP1. Fecal and vaginal IgA responses were also significantly increased when combined vaccination of rVSV-VP1 and rVSV-HSP70 was used. Collectively, these data indicate that (i) insertion of an additional gene (HSP70 or Luc) into the rVSV-VP1 backbone further attenuates the VSV-based vaccine in vitro and in vivo, thus improving the safety of the vaccine candidate, and (ii) HSP70 enhances the human NoV-specific mucosal and T cell immunities triggered by a VSV-based human NoV vaccine. IMPORTANCE Human norovirus (NoV) is responsible for more than 95% of acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. Currently, there is no vaccine for this virus. Development of a live attenuated vaccine for human NoV has not been possible because it is uncultivable. Thus, a live vector-based vaccine may provide an alternative vaccine strategy. In this study, we developed a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-based human NoV vaccine candidate. We constructed rVSV-HSP70-VP1, coexpressing heat shock protein (HSP70) and capsid (VP1) genes of human NoV, and rVSV-Luc-VP1, coexpressing firefly luciferase (Luc) and VP1 genes. We found that VSVs with a double gene insertion were significantly more attenuated than VSV with a single VP1 insertion (rVSV-VP1). Furthermore, we found that coexpression or coadministration of HSP70 from VSV vector significantly enhanced human NoV-specific mucosal immunity. Collectively, we developed an improved live vectored vaccine candidate for human NoV which will be useful for future clinical studies.
Analysis of sex differences in preadmission management of ST-segment elevation (STEMI) myocardial infarction.

Abstract Background Many reports suggest gender disparity in cardiac care as a contributor to the increased mortality among women with heart disease. Objective We sought to identify gender differences in the management of Myocardial Infarction (MI) Alert–activated ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients that may have resulted from prehospital initiation. Methods A retrospective database was created for MI Alert STEMI patients who presented to the emergency department (ED) of an academic community hospital with 74,000 annual visits from April 2000 through December 2008. Included were patients meeting criteria for an MI Alert (an institutional clinical practice guideline designed to expedite cardiac catheterization for STEMI patients). Data points (before and after initiation of a prehospital alert protocol) were compared and used as markers of therapy: time to ECG, receiving β-blockers, and time to the catheterization laboratory (cath lab). Differences in categorical variables by patient sex were assessed using the χ 2 test. Medians were estimated as the measure of central tendency. Quantile regression models were used to assess differences in median times between subgroups. Results A total of 1231 MI Alert charts were identified and analyzed. The majority of the study population were male (70%), arrived at the ED via ambulance (60.1%), and were taking a β-blocker (67.8%) or aspirin (91.6%) at the time of the ED admission. Female patients were more likely than male patients to arrive at the ED via ambulance (65.9% vs 57.6%, respectively; P = 0.014). The median age of female patients was 68 years, whereas male patients were significantly younger (median age, 59 years; P P = 0.33). A total of 1064 MI Alert patients went to the cath lab: 766 male patients (88.9%) and 298 female patients (80.8%). Overall, the median time to cath lab arrival was 79 minutes for men and 81 minutes for women ( P = 0.38). Overall, the median time to cath lab arrival significantly decreased from MI1 to MI3, ( P trend P = 1.0). For hospital-initiated alerts, time to cath lab arrival was 82 minutes for male patients and 84 minutes for female patients ( P = 0.38). Prehospital activation of the process decreased the time to the cath lab by 19 minutes ( P Conclusion No significant gender differences were apparent in the STEMI patients analyzed, whether the MI Alert was initiated in the ED or prehospital initiated. Initiating prehospital-based alerts significantly decreased the time to the cath lab.
A Circumstellar Disk in a Pre-main-sequence Binary Star

New high-resolution images of HK T Tauri B, the companion to the 106 yr old classical T Tauri star HK Tauri A, show it to be surrounded by an optically thick, edge-on circumstellar disk that extends to a radius of at least 50 AU. The images were taken using a modified speckle technique to achieve a linear resolution of 8 AU. The disk is strikingly coherent, showing no evidence of any strong perturbation by the primary star. The disk is illuminated by the central star, and it hides the star from direct view. The small changes in vertical thickness with wavelength require a dust + gas mass 10-3 M☉. The relative position angles of the disk and the binary suggest that the disk probably does not lie in the plane of the binary orbit.
Selective Output-discriminative Signals in the Motor Cortex of Waking Monkeys

Monkeys and humans have similar capacities to discriminate between the frequencies of mechanical sinusoids delivered to the glabrous skin of their hands. Combined psychophysical-electrophysiological experiments in monkeys discriminating in the range of flutter provided evidence that this capacity depends upon differences in the cycle lengths in the sets of periodically entrained activity, evoked by the stimuli discriminated, in neurons of areas 3b and 1 of the (sensory) hemisphere opposite the stimulated hand. Identical experiments have now been made, in similarly trained and discriminating monkeys, in the motor cortex (area 4) of the hemisphere opposite the arm projecting selectively to one of two targets, to indicate discrimination (five hemispheres, 1137 neurons studied). We observed a selective signal of the upcoming correct discrimination in about 25% of the neurons of area 4 active in the task. The neuronal discharge occurs selectively for stimuli either lower or higher in frequency than that of the base stimulus, and commonly begins within 200-300 msec after onset of the comparison stimulus. These neuronal discharges are aperiodic, with no sign of the stimulus frequencies. EMG recording during performance of the discrimination showed that the muscles of the arm opposite the side of recording were silent during the period of stimulus presentations. Recordings during trials in which the animal made errors showed most commonly that the output of the discrimination operation was itself in error, followed by an appropriate arm projection to the wrong target. We interpret the selective response during the comparison stimulus to be a postdiscrimination signal projected transcallosally from the sensory hemisphere to the motor area of the hemisphere controlling the responding arm. We obtained no evidence that the discrimination operation is localized to any particular area, and we surmise it to occur in the dynamic activity within the distributed system linking the sensory cortex of one hemisphere and the motor cortex of the other. One-third of the neurons of the motor cortex responded to indentation of the skin of the ipsilateral hand, at trial onset. These responses varied from those closely linked to that sensory stimulus to those linked to the upcoming movement of the contralateral hand. These onset responses did not occur when similar sequences of mechanical stimuli were delivered to alert but idling monkeys.
What's killing mothers and what's killing women? Contextualising maternal conditions in the post-MDG era using the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2010

Abstract Background Reducing maternal mortality has been particularly prominent on the public health agenda since the establishment of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 (reducing the maternal mortality ratio by two thirds). Yet maternal conditions remain a substantial source of mortality and morbidity in many places, and the specific causes of death and disability across countries and time have not been well understood. Moving into the post-MDG era, understanding the specific causes of death and contextualising maternal mortality into the overall health of women of reproductive age will be key for priority setting and resource allocation. We aimed to quantify maternal mortality by country, age, year, and cause, and to consider this burden in the greater context of all deaths for women of reproductive age. Methods We calculate overall maternal mortality using ensemble modelling on more than 4700 site-years of data, including vital registration, verbal autopsy, and maternal mortality surveillance systems. We then extract HIV-related deaths and use literature-review-based meta-analysis for causal attribution of the remainder. Findings Maternal mortality by cause differs substantially across countries and time. Maternal conditions range from first to 54th in the country-level ranking of number of deaths and first to 47th in premature years of life lost (YLLs) among women aged 15 to 49 years in 2010. Globally, they constitute 7·3% (254 682 of 3 496 480) of deaths and 7·9% (14 314 053 of 181 079 482) of YLLs among women of reproductive age. Interpretation Most countries are not on track to meet the MDG 5 target for any cause of maternal mortality. While efforts to reduce mortality and morbidity during childbirth should continue, many of the countries failing to meet targets are also failing their adult female population in several other domains of health. In the post-MDG era, efforts to improve women's health must address maternal health in conjunction with cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other diseases with substantial burden. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
A Meta-Analysis of the Rossell and Baker Review of Bilingual Education Research

Abstract In 1996, Christine Rossell and Keith Baker conducted a review of the literature on the effectiveness of bilingual education and concluded that the majority of 75 methodologically acceptable studies showed that bilingual education was not beneficial. This study re-examines their literature review to verify the Rossell and Baker list of methodologically acceptable studies. After identifying only 11 studies that actually meet the standards for being methodologically acceptable, this study aggregates the results of those studies by a technique known as meta-analysis. The conclusion of the meta-analysis is that the use of at least some native language in the instruction of limited English proficient children has moderate beneficial effects on those children relative to their being taught only in English.
“Rheumatoid” serologic reactions in experimental animals. II. Bentonite flocculation test in rats with experimental arthritis

Rats with experimental infectious arthritis developed elevated BFT and SSCA titers. These reactions were also produced in immunized rats without joint lesions. Immunized rabbits developed high BFT titers only, and the responsible factor in rabbit serum was immunologically and physically distinct from human rheumatoid factor. The elevated BFT titers in infected or immunized animals appeared to be a response to human protein in the culture medium, but occurred only when the bacteria were actively growing in it. Rattos con infectiose arthritis experimental disveloppava elevate titros in le tests de flocculation a bentonite e de agglutination de sensibilisate cellulas ovin. Iste reactiones esseva etiam producite in immunisate rattos sin lesiones articular. Immunisate conilios disveloppava titros elevate solmente in le test de flocculation a bentonite, e le factor responsabile in le sero de conilio esseva immunologicamente e physicamente distincte de factor rheumatoide human. Le elevate titros de flocculation a bentonite in inficite o immunisate animales pareva representar un responsa al presentia de proteina human in le medio de culturation, sed illo occurreva solmente quando le bacterios cresceva activemente in ille medio.
Physical, Social, and Personal Factors in the Perception of Crowding

This study investigated the effects of density, posters, sex of subject, and group composition on anagram solving and also the perception of oneself and the physical and social environment. There were four major findings: (1) The addition of posters to a room in a high density nonsocial situation led to enhanced perceptions of crowding for males but not for females. These results were interpreted in terms of sensory overload. (2) Females rated themselves more positively in high density while males rated themselves more positively in low density. (3) Subjects rated the physical environment more negatively in high density than in low density. (4) There was no density effect on anagram solving.
Role of intramitochondrial pH in the energetics and regulation of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation

The dependence of ATP synthesis coupled to electron transfer from 3-hydroxy-butyrate (3-OH-B) to cytochrome c on the intramitochondrial pH (pHi) was investigated. Suspensions of isolated rat liver mitochondria were incubated at constant extramitochondrial pH (pHe) with ATP, ADP, Pi, 3-OH-B, and acetoacetate (acac) (the last two were varied to maintain [3-OH-B]/[acac] constant), with or without sodium propionate to change the intramitochondrial pH. Measurements were made of the steady-state water volume of the mitochondrial matrix, transmembrane pH difference, level of cytochrome c reduction, concentration of metabolites and rate of oxygen consumption. For each experiment, conditions were used for which transmembrane pH was near maximal and minimal values and the measured extramitochondrial [ATP], [ADP], and [Pi] were used to calculate log[ATP]/[ADP][Pi]. When [3-OH-B]/[acac] and [cyt c2+]/[cyt c3+] were constant, and pHi was decreased from approx. 7.7 to 7.2, log [ATP]/[ADP][Pi] at high pHi was significantly (P less than 0.02) greater than at low pHi. The mean slope (delta log [ATP]/[ADP][Pi] divided by the change in pHi) was 1.08 +/- 0.15 (mean +/- S.E.). This agrees with the slope of 1.0 predicted if the energy available for ATP synthesis is dependent upon the pH at which 3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase operates, that is, on the pH of the matrix space. The steady-state respiratory rate and reduction of cytochrome c were measured at different pHi and pHe values. Plots of respiratory rate vs.% cytochrome c reduction at different intra- and extramitochondrial pH values indicated that the respiratory rate is dependent upon pHi and not on pHe. This implies that the matrix space is the source of protons involved in the reduction of oxygen to water in coupled mitochondria.
When Computers Were Amateur

This article examines the records of the Amateur Computer Society (1966-1976), a hobbyist organization whose newsletters chronicle an important corner in the history of computing. It argues for amateurism as an important foil to histories firmly ensconced in the firm or lab, often focused on technological artifacts. The author offers two readings of the newsletters: one that looks at the discussion of schematics as a contested representation of amateur expertise and the other that reveals the crucial links between amateur practice and domesticity. In addition to this portrait of early computer building hobbyists, the article sketches the amateur as a meaningful analytic category for the history of computing.