cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Keystone status of plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae): Effect of control on biodiversity of native birds

The plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) of the Qinghai–Xizang (Tibetan) plateau, People's Republic of China, has been considered a pest because it putatively competes with native livestock for forage and contributes to rangeland degradation. As a result the plateau pika has been poisoned across vast areas of the high alpine meadows of the plateau. The plateau pika has also been considered a keystone species for biodiversity on the plateau. As one test of the keystone species hypothesis, we investigated the effects of poisoning plateau pikas on avian species richness and abundance. We conducted standardized censuses of birds on a number of sites across the alpine grassland of Qinghai province on which pikas either had or had not been poisoned. Avian species richness and abundance were higher on non-poisoned sites, in particular for species that nest in pika burrows such as Hume's groundpecker (Pseudopodoces humilis) and six species of snowfinch (Montifringilla spp., Pyrgilauda spp.), and species that prey on pikas (upland buzzard, Buteo hemilasius; black-eared kite, Milvus lineatus). The plateau pika thus appears to be both an allogenic engineer and a keystone species. Poisoning pikas reduces biodiversity of native species on the Qinghai–Xizang plateau, therefore management decisions concerning plateau pikas should reflect caution and careful assessment.
Theoretical analysis of the ultrafiltration behavior of highly concentrated protein solutions

Abstract Ultrafiltration is currently used for the concentration and formulation of monoclonal antibody solutions with target protein concentrations of up to 200 g/L or higher. The filtrate flux and maximum achievable antibody concentration in these systems is strongly influenced by the intermolecular interactions and non-ideal behavior in these highly concentrated protein solutions. The objective of this work was to develop a theoretical framework for analyzing the ultrafiltration of highly concentrated protein solutions accounting for the complex thermodynamic and hydrodynamic behavior in these systems. A modified polarization model was developed to describe the bulk mass transfer characteristics. In addition, the model accounts for the back-filtration phenomenon that occurs at very high protein concentrations due to the large pressure drop through the module associated with the high viscosity of the antibody solutions. Model parameters were evaluated from independent data for the protein osmotic pressure, osmotic virial coefficients, and viscosity. Model calculations demonstrate the importance of back-filtration, with numerical results in good agreement with experimental data for both the filtrate flux and maximum achievable antibody concentration obtained in a Pellicon 3 tangential flow filtration module. These results provide important insights into the key factors controlling the ultrafiltration behavior of highly concentrated protein solutions as well as a framework for the design and optimization of these ultrafiltration processes.
A Review of: “East Asian Experience in Environmental Governance: Response in a Rapidly Developing Region”

The East Asian region has some of the world's most rapidly developing economies. China alone, during the 1990s, registered annual rates of GDP increase in the double digits, if one can believe gove...
Manganese(II)-containing MRI contrast agent employing a neutral and non-macrocyclic ligand.

The ligand N,N′-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)-bis(ethylacetate)-1,2-ethanediamine (debpn) coordinates divalent transition metal ions in either a pentadentate or hexadentate fashion. The coordination number correlates with the ionic radius of the metal ion, with larger cations being heptacoordinate as assessed by solid-state analysis. With Mn(II), the debpn ligand is hexadentate and remains bound to the oxophilic metal ion, even when dissolved in water. The ligand’s incomplete coordination of the manganous ion allows water molecules to coordinate to the metal center. These two properties, coupled with the high paramagnetism associated with the S = 5/2 metal center, enable [Mn(debpn)(H2O)](ClO4)2 to serve as a stable and effective magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent despite the ligand’s lack of both a macrocyclic component and an anionic charge.
Influence of Fault Current Limiter on Protective Relaying

The main circuit topology of the fault current limiter (FCL) demonstration project in East China 500 kV power grid was presented and an equivalent system for FCL of East China 500 kV power grid was built by PSCAD.Theoretical research and simulative analysis on the influences of FCL on zero-sequence current protection,the influence of automatic reclosure on FCL and the coordination between FCL protection and line protection were performed,and a simulative analysis-based rational solution was given.
Thresholds and ultrasensitivity from negative cooperativity

Negative cooperativity is a phenomenon in which the binding of one or more molecules of a ligand to a multimeric receptor makes it more difficult for subsequent ligand molecules to bind. Negative cooperativity can make a multimeric receptor’s response more graded than it would otherwise be. However, through theory and experimental results, we show that if the ligand binds the receptor with high affinity and can be appreciably depleted by receptor binding, then negative cooperativity produces a qualitatively different type of response: a highly ultrasensitive response with a pronounced threshold. Because ultrasensitivity and thresholds are important for generating various complex systems-level behaviors, including bistability and oscillations, negative cooperativity may be an important ingredient in many types of biological responses.
Androgen-Sensitized Apoptosis of HPr-1AR Human Prostate Epithelial Cells

Androgen receptor (AR) signaling is crucial to the development and homeostasis of the prostate gland, and its dysregulation mediates common prostate pathologies. The mechanisms whereby AR regulates growth suppression and differentiation of luminal epithelial cells in the prostate gland and proliferation of malignant versions of these cells have been investigated in human and rodent adult prostate. However, the cellular stress response of human prostate epithelial cells is not well understood, though it is central to prostate health and pathology. Here, we report that androgen sensitizes HPr-1AR and RWPE-AR human prostate epithelial cells to cell stress agents and apoptotic cell death. Although 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) treatment alone did not induce cell death, co-treatment of HPr-1AR cells with DHT and an apoptosis inducer, such as staurosporine (STS), TNFt, or hydrogen peroxide, synergistically increased cell death in comparison to treatment with each apoptosis inducer by itself. We found that the synergy between DHT and apoptosis inducer led to activation of the intrinsic/mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, which is supported by robust cleavage activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3. Further, the dramatic depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane potential that we observed upon co-treatment with DHT and STS is consistent with increased mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) in the pro-apoptotic mechanism. Interestingly, the synergy between DHT and apoptosis inducer was abolished by AR antagonists and inhibitors of transcription and protein synthesis, suggesting that AR mediates pro-apoptotic synergy through transcriptional regulation of MOMP genes. Expression analysis revealed that pro-apoptotic genes (BCL2L11/BIM and AIFM2) were DHT-induced, whereas pro-survival genes (BCL2L1/BCL-XL and MCL1) were DHT-repressed. Hence, we propose that the net effect of these AR-mediated expression changes shifts the balance of BCL2-family proteins, such that androgen signaling sensitizes mitochondria to apoptotic signaling, thus rendering HPr-1AR more vulnerable to cell death signals. Our study offers insight into AR-mediated regulation of prostate epithelial cell death signaling.
Reduced Representation Methods for Subgenomic Enrichment and Next-Generation Sequencing

Several methods have been developed to enrich DNA for subsets of the genome prior to next-generation sequencing. These front-end enrichment strategies provide powerful and cost-effective tools for researchers interested in collecting large-scale genomic sequence data. In this review, I provide an overview of both general and targeted reduced representation enrichment strategies that are commonly used in tandem with next-generation sequencing. I focus on several key issues that are likely to be important when deciding which enrichment strategy is most appropriate for a given experiment. Overall, these techniques can enable the collection of large-scale genomic data in diverse species, providing a powerful tool for the study of evolutionary biology.
The Reciprocity Method

In previous chapters, we defined ring homomorphisms \(\varphi\) on the ring of symmetric functions in order to find generating functions for permutation statistics. Doing this requires an a priori insightful definition of what the function \(\varphi\) should be. This chapter introduces the reciprocity method, which provides a way to come up with such a function \(\varphi\).
Collection of Body Fluids

Publisher Summary This chapter presents multiple approaches for collecting blood, urine, feces and sperm from fish, including construction of cannulas and catheters. Special considerations for sample treatment and preservation are also presented. If a single sample of blood is desired, caudal puncture is the most common method used by investigators. Caudal puncture yields whole blood volumes of 0.2 mL to greater than 10 mL from most fish weighing more than 25 g. Prior to drawing blood, fish should be anesthetized in a dilute solution of MS222 or a similar anesthetic agent until the fish loses equilibrium. Another method of quickly collecting blood from anesthetized fish is by severing the caudal peduncle, posterior to the anal fin with a sharp knife or scalpel. Small quantities of blood can be collected from the severed body into microcapillary tubes and larger amounts can be drained into a test tube, with or without an anticoagulant added to the receiving vessel. Ventricular cardiac puncture can be used for a single blood collection of large volumes. Fish urine can be collected from living fish using urethral or urinary bladder catheters or by collecting naturally-vented urine into an isolated chamber. A simple procedure for collecting urine from anesthetized or freshly killed fish without the use of a cannula is by palpating the fish's abdominal region. Feces may be collected from individuals or pooled from multiple fish, depending on the experimental goal.
Importance of imaging method over imaging modality in noninvasive determination of left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction: Assessment by two- and three-dimensional echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract OBJECTIVES This study sought to determine the concordance between biplane and volumetric echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) strategies and their impact on the classification of patients according to left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) (LVEF). BACKGROUND Transthoracic echocardiography and MRI are noninvasive imaging modalities well suited for serial evaluation of LV volume and LVEF. Despite the accuracy and reproducibility of volumetric methods, quantitative biplane methods are commonly used, as they minimize both scanning and analysis times. METHODS Thirty-five adult subjects, including 25 patients with dilated cardiomyopathies, were evaluated by biplane and volumetric (cardiac short-axis stack) cine MRI and by biplane and volumetric (three-dimensional) transthoracic echocardiography. Left ventricular volume, LVEF and LV function categories (LVEF ≥55%, >35% to RESULTS Biplane echocardiography underestimated LV volume with respect to the other three strategies (p 0.05) between any of the strategies for quantitative LVEF. Volumetric MRI and volumetric echocardiography differed by a single functional category for 2 patients (8%). Six to 11 patients (24% to 44%) differed when comparing biplane and volumetric methods. Ten patients (40%) changed their functional status when biplane MRI and biplane echocardiography were compared; this comparison also revealed the greatest mean absolute difference in estimates of EF for those subjects whose EF functional category had changed. CONCLUSIONS Volumetric MRI and volumetric echocardiographic measures of LV volume and LVEF agree well and give similar results when used to stratify patients with dilated cardiomyopathy according to systolic function. Agreement is poor between biplane and volumetric methods and worse between biplane methods, which assigned 40% of patients to different categories according to LVEF. The choice of imaging method (volumetric or biplane) has a greater impact on the results than does the choice of imaging modality (echocardiography or MRI) when measuring LV volume and systolic function.
A Decade of Nilotinib and Dasatinib: From In Vitro Studies to First-Line Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors.

See related article by O'Hare et al., [Cancer Res 2005;65:4500–5][1] . In the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, there are many remarkable rock climbing routes. Leading the first ascent of a previously unclimbed route is respected for the accomplishment it signifies and the risk taking that it requires.
Technology-enabled, after-hours, asynchronous, peer-led supplementary instruction and mentoring in engineering gatekeeper courses

Experience and observations indicate that students often work on problem sets at hours outside those traditionally scheduled for office hours, tutoring, and supplemental instruction (SI). Moreover, their tendency is to focus their effort the night before the assignment is due. Add to this the complexity of a distributed university where students are taking engineering courses towards their degree at campuses distributed over 60+ miles. Moreover, a considerable number of University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Engineering students transfer from neighboring two-year institutions with limited to no supplemental instruction (SI) support for Engineering courses due to the lack of access to upper division students with the expertise. These complexities (i.e. students' study habits, the regional distribution of UTRGV, and the underserved needs of its transfer students) necessitate rethinking the practice of supplemental instruction. In this paper, the authors review all the different modalities of supplementary instruction reported in the literature and make the case for a technology-enabled, real-time, after-hours, and asynchronous model. In this model we employ the use of web-enabled, collaboration tools to facilitate real-time tutoring, asynchronous supplemental instruction, and peer-mentoring on a regional scale to serve the needs of students at both primary campuses and neighboring two-year institutions. The paper also describes plans to implement and the proposed model and provides a preliminary comparative study of the impact of traditional supplemental instruction versus this alternative approach on student learning outcomes.
Unprocessed IL-36a co-operates with IL-1 in psoriasiform skin inflammation (CAM1P.148)

Psoriasis has been linked to overzealous IL-1 and IL-36 signaling; however, whether these cytokines have redundant, interrelated or independent functions have not been examined. It is also unknown if the IL-36 cytokines undergo processing in vivo . Here, we examined IL-36 expression, functional involvement and interaction with IL-1/IL-1R1 signaling in a mouse model of drug induced psoriasiform skin inflammation. Normal skin did not express detectable levels of IL-36a, IL-36b, or IL-36g protein. All 3 cytokine mRNAs were up-regulated during inflammation; however, only IL-36a secretion could be detected in explant skin cultures. Significantly less (25%, p<0.01) was released from IL-1R1 deficient skin. This demonstrates that IL-1 regulates IL-36a expression in vivo . Interestingly, the released IL-36a was not processed. Using knockout (KO) mice for each individual IL-36 cytokine, we found that IL-36a, but not IL-36b and IL-36g, significantly contributed to pathology. Specifically, we observed thinner epidermis and decreased dermal inflammation in IL-36a KO mice compared to wild type. Treated IL-36a/IL-1R1 double KO mice exhibited even thinner epidermal and dermal thickness. Neutrophil recruitment to the epidermis was impaired in the IL-36a KO mice, but could be rescued with application of the chemokine CXCL1. In summary, we conclude that IL-1 dispatches unprocessed IL-36a, which in turn boosts the pro-inflammatory activity of IL-1 signaling during psoriasis-like skin inflammation.
Key Drivers in the Market for Remanufactured Products: Empirical Evidence from eBay

Measures, such as remanufacturing, to extend the economic lives of products are receiving increasing attention in theory and practice due to a variety of economic and regulatory factors. In this paper, we complement the predominantly analytical closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) research by empirically examining seller, buyer, and product-related factors pertinent to remanufacturing operations. We analyze a sample of over 700 purchases of remanufactured products spanning nine product categories on eBay to examine the drivers of differences between the prices of corresponding new and remanufactured products. Additionally, we investigate a sample of over 5000 transactions to understand the differences in buyer experience and post-purchase buyer satisfaction between remanufactured and new products. Our analysis reveals that seller reputation plays a very significant role in determining the differentials between reference prices of new products and purchase prices of remanufactured products. We also observe that price differentials vary considerably by product category, suggesting the potential significance of factors such as product technologies and sales volumes. Contrary to our hypothesis, we find that buyer experience is lower overall for remanufactured products in comparison to new products. However, we find that there exist certain product categories where buyer experience is indeed greater for remanufactured products as compared to new products. In addition, we observe significant variations in buyer experience across product categories for remanufactured products. Finally, in comparing buyers' post-purchase feedback for remanufactured and new products, we find that remanufactured products are significantly more likely to be associated with positive feedback than new products.
Uncertainty in Hiring Does Not Justify Affirmative Action

Luc Bovens has recently advanced a novel argument for affirmative action, grounded in the plausible idea that it is hard for an employer to evaluate the qualifications of candidates from underrepresented groups. Bovens claims that this provides a profit-maximizing employer with reason to shortlist prima facie less-qualified candidates from underrepresented groups. In this paper, I illuminate three flaws in Bovens’s argument. First, it suffers from model error: A rational employer does not incur costs to scrutinize candidates when it knows their qualifications with perfect certainty, nor does it refuse to hire better-qualified candidates just because they did not require extra scrutiny. Second, Bovens’s core premise--that there is greater variance in the evaluation of underrepresented candidates than there is the evaluation of other candidates--hurts underrepresented candidates rather than helps them. Third, candidates who are not shortlisted for the reasons Bovens gives have a plausible complaint about unfairness in the hiring process.
Edward Albee: A Critical Introduction

Edward Albee (1928–2016) was a central figure in modern American theatre, and his bold and often experimental theatrical style won him wide acclaim. This book explores the issues, public and private, that so influenced Albee's vision over five decades, from his first great success, The Zoo Story (1959), to his last play, Me, Myself, & I (2008). Matthew Roudane covers all of Albee's original works in this comprehensive, clearly structured, and up-to-date study of the playwright's life and career: in Part I, the volume explores Albee's background and the historical contexts of his work; Part II concentrates on twenty-four of his plays, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962); and Part III investigates his critical reception. Surveying Albee's relationship with Broadway, and including interviews conducted with Albee himself, this book will be of great importance for theatregoers and students seeking an accessible yet incisive introduction to this extraordinary American playwright.
Compared with Ethel: analyzing the singing styles of Reba McEntire and Bernadette Peters with Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun

AbstractContemporary country singer Reba McEntire and musical theatre singer Bernadette Peters are compared with Ethel Merman in their performances of Anne Get Your Gun. This paper offers a histori...
Eradication without prior consultation: the aerial fumigation of coca in the black communities of the Colombian Pacific

ABSTRACTUntil October 2015, Colombia was the only country in the world still permitting the controversial practice of aerially fumigating illicit crops – mostly coca and, to a lesser extent, opium poppies – despite evidence that suggested serious violations of the socio-environmental rights of affected communities. According to US and Colombian authorities involved in the conduct of aerial eradication, however, most of this criticism was unwarranted or exaggerated. This article, based on interviews conducted in the last year the aerial eradication program was in operation, analyzes the disconnection between officials involved in the oversight of the aerial eradication and related policy versus black communities of the Pacific region affected by this strategy. More specifically, it examines why these rural black communities, supposedly guaranteed the right to prior consultation, were never granted this process and why the aerial eradication complaint system failed to address the grievances lodged against i...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors in gastrointestinal malignancies

Gastrointestinal (GIT) tumors are extremely fatal and lethal tumors with limited therapeutic options. Antitumor immunity is new line of research in management of solid tumors. Immune check points are negative regulators of immune system and control the immune response. These checkpoints are exploited by cancer cells. Cancer cells causes early activation of checkpoints and suppress the immune response, and therefore have unchecked growth and metastasis of malignant cells. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), downregulates these checkpoints and activate the proliferation of cytotoxic T cells which helps in lysis of tumor cells. ICIs have shown the promising results in management of melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer and renal cell carcinoma. Encouraged by their recent success in solid tumors many clinical trials are ongoing to evaluate their efficacy in GIT tumors. In this article we will try to explain rationale for use of ICIs in GIT tumors. We will summarize the ongoing research, preliminary results and future aspects of ICIs in GIT malignancies.
Challenges and Opportunities in Operating a High-Altitude Site

Observing stations at elevations in excess of 4000m are rare. This report discusses the efforts to sustain and preserve one such site in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, in North America. The long-term value of such sites can be measured in terms of their optical and infrared characteristics, as well as their ability to inspire astronomers and students to study the universe. The sustainability of this site is yet to be determined.
Further Directions and Unresolved Questions

As we write this final chapter, the year is 1988. Sadly, it is the year of the death of Fritz Heider, founder of attribution theory. He was 91. As Edward Jones (1987) said in a retrospective review of Heider’s (1958) The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, it is incomprehensible to imagine what the field of social psychology would be like today were it not for this classic, enduring contribution. Would there even be an attribution theory? Jones and Davis’s (1965) and Kelley’s (1967) statements are classic works in their own right. Yet, each of these crucial 1960s statements principally was built on and was designed to elucidate and enhance the research possibilities of Heider’s seminal ideas. Jones (1987) went on to observe that “features of attribution reasoning… are woven indelibly into the fabric of contemporary psychology” (p. 215).
On the interaction between a hurricane, the Gulf Stream and coastal sea level

Tropical storms and hurricanes in the western North Atlantic Ocean can impact the US East Coast in several ways. Direct effects include storm surges, winds, waves, and precipitation and indirect effects include changes in ocean dynamics that consequently impact the coast. Hurricane Matthew [October, 2016] was chosen as a case study to demonstrate the interaction between an offshore storm, the Gulf Stream (GS) and coastal sea level. A regional numerical ocean model was used, to conduct sensitivity experiments with different surface forcing, using wind and heat flux data from an operational hurricane-ocean coupled forecast system. An additional experiment used the observed Florida Current (FC) transport during the hurricane as an inflow boundary condition. The experiments show that the hurricane caused a disruption in the GS flow that resulted in large spatial variations in temperatures with cooling of up to ~ 4 °C by surface heat loss, but the interaction of the winds with the GS flow also caused some local warming near fronts and eddies (relative to simulations without a hurricane). A considerable weakening of the FC transport (~ 30%) has been observed during the hurricane (a reduction of ~ 10 Sv in 3 days; 1Sv = 106 m3 s−1), so the impact of the FC was explored by the model. Unlike the abrupt and large wind-driven storm surge (up to 2 m water level change within 12 h in the South Atlantic Bight), the impact of the weakening GS on sea level is smaller but lasted for several days after the hurricane dissipated, as seen in both the model and altimeter data. These results can explain observations that show minor tidal flooding along long stretches of coasts for several days following passages of hurricanes. Further analysis showed the short-term impact of the hurricane winds on kinetic energy versus the long-term impact of the hurricane-induced mixing on potential energy, whereas several days are needed to reestablish the stratification and rebuild the strength of the GS to its pre-hurricane conditions. Understanding the interaction between storms, the Gulf Stream and coastal sea level can help to improve prediction of sea level rise and coastal flooding.
Display of 3-D Ultrasonic Images

Three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasonic images made up of a “stack” of adjacent digitized B-scans are displayed as a volume image using the method of numerical projection. This display method involves the generation by a computer, of two-dimensional digital projection images of the display volume viewed from any desired direction. They are formed by summing the “intensity” values of the individual volume picture elements (voxels) of the 3-D B-scan along the set of paths which project the 3-D image array onto a plane. Stereo-pair projection images generated at two angles of “view” differing by 2° to 8° are utilized to visualize the volume image in three dimensions. The 3-D display of a “stack” of B-scans may result in the obscuring of some portions of the image due to superposed “bright” structures unless this undesirable effect is overcome by selective enhancement of features of interest in the 3-D B-scan. These enhancement methods are selective “tissue dissolution” and “numerical dissection” whereby portions of the 3-D B-scan are either partially “dissolved” or totally eliminated from the volume before projection to enhance the visibility of desired structure. Because they operate on the 3-D image array before projection and not on the resulting projection image, they are both effective and highly selective as visual enhancement methods.
Sam Buss: Bounded Logic

This chapter presents a lesser-known limitation of first-order logic. Lipton had the experience of sitting on a potential breakthrough in complexity theory if only he could encode a certain construction in first-order logic. He approached Buss, who used his background in bounded logic to recognize it as a known impossibility.
Analyzing Causal Mechanisms in Survey Experiments

Researchers investigating causal mechanisms in survey experiments often rely on nonrandomized quantities to isolate the indirect effect of treatment through these variables. Such an approach, however, requires a “selection-on-observables” assumption, which undermines the advantages of a randomized experiment. In this paper, we show what can be learned about casual mechanisms through experimental design alone. We propose a factorial design that provides or withholds information on mediating variables and allows for the identification of the overall average treatment effect and the controlled direct effect of treatment fixing a potential mediator. While this design cannot identify indirect effects on its own, it avoids making the selection-on-observable assumption of the standard mediation approach while providing evidence for a broader understanding of causal mechanisms that encompasses both indirect effects and interactions. We illustrate these approaches via two examples: one on evaluations of US Supreme Court nominees and the other on perceptions of the democratic peace.
Critical review of applications of iron and steel slags for carbon sequestration and environmental remediation

One of the major concerns faced by the iron and steel industry, other than the abundant emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, is the huge quantity of slag that is generated during the manufacturing of iron and steel. A comprehensive understanding of the iron and steel slag properties has diverted them away from stockpiling or landfilling to useful engineering applications. The similarity of these slags to natural minerals used in geologic carbon dioxide sequestration has made them sustainable alternative for industrial-scale carbon capture and storage. Further, they possess properties that are conducive for remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated with heavy metals and other toxic chemicals. This paper reviews the iron and steel slag characteristics suitable for engineering applications, describes several engineering application examples, and discusses challenges and opportunities to develop practical applications using iron and steel slags. This paper also discusses the on-going research which explores the use of steel slag along with the biochar-amended soil to develop a biogeochemical landfill cover to sequester fugitive gas emissions such as CH4, CO2 and H2S from MSW landfills and attain zero-emissions landfill.
Simulation-based stochastic programming to guide real-time scheduling for smart power grids under cyber attacks

With the integration of renewable energy and advanced communication technologies, smart power grids can enhance the cost-efficiency and reliability of energy generation, transmission, and distribution. The communication network connecting numerous remotely distributed generators, devices, and controllers plays a vital role in the control of power grids. However, it is vulnerable to cyber attacks. In particular, because of its frequency and lasting impact, the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack poses an important threat to smart power grids. This paper presents a simulation-based stochastic programming approach to guide the unit commitment and economic dispatch decisions, which accounts for the prediction uncertainty of wind power and the impact from DDoS attacks. The case study demonstrates that the proposed approach can lead to a more cost-efficient and reliable operational decision guidance for smart power grids.
Abstract 56: Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone Improves Sarcomere Relaxation and Calcium Decline in Cardiomyocyte From a Mouse Model of Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is characterized by impaired relaxation, ventricular stiffening and fibrosis. Growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH) agonists reduce fibrosis in rat and swine models of ischemic myocardial injury. However, their effect on cardiomyocytes is not known. We hypothesized that activation of GHRH receptor signaling improves impaired cardiomyocyte relaxation in a mouse model of HFpEF. C57BL6N mice (n=4-5) were implanted with a mini-osmotic pump to deliver angiotensin-II (Ang-II: 0.8 mg/kg/day) for 4 weeks and received daily injections of GHRH-Agonist (GHRH-A [MR-409]: 100 μg/kg) or vehicle (DMSO+propylene-glycol). Cardiomyocytes were isolated and calcium and sarcomere shortening assessed. Ang-II-treated cardiomyocytes exhibited reduced sarcomere length, indicating an inability to completely relax, despite lower resting calcium. These cardiomyocytes also exhibited impaired ability to contract with no changes in calcium transient amplitude, deficient relaxatio...
Diiron oxo reactivity in a weak-field environment

Concomitant deprotonation and metalation of a dinucleating cofacial Pacman dipyrrin ligand platform tBudmxH2 with Fe2(Mes)4 results in formation of a diiron complex (tBudmx)Fe2(Mes)2. Treatment of (tBudmx)Fe2(Mes)2 with one equivalent of water yields the diiron μ-oxo complex (tBudmx)Fe2(μ-O) and free mesitylene. A two-electron oxidation of (tBudmx)Fe2(μ-O) gives rise to the diferric complex (tBudmx)Fe2(μ-O)Cl2, and one-electron reduction from this FeIIIFeIII state allows for isolation of a mixed-valent species [Cp2Co][(tBudmx)Fe2(μ-O)Cl2]. Both (tBudmx)Fe2(μ-O) and [Cp2Co][(tBudmx)Fe2(μ-O)Cl2] exhibit basic character at the bridging oxygen atom and can be protonated using weak acids to form bridging diferrous hydroxide species. The basicity of the diferrous oxo (tBudmx)Fe2(μ-O) is quantified through studies of the pKa of its conjugate acid, [(tBudmx)Fe2(μ-OH)]+, which is determined to be 15.3(6); interestingly, upon coordination of neutral solvent ligands to yield (tBudmx)Fe2(μ-O)(thf)2, the basicity is increased as observed through an increase in the pKa of the conjugate acid [(tBudmx)Fe2(μ-OH)(thf)2]+ to 26.8(6). In contrast, attempts to synthesize a diferric bridging hydroxide by two-electron oxidation of [(tBudmx)Fe2(μ-OH)(thf)2]+ resulted in isolation of (tBudmx)Fe2(μ-O)Cl2 with concomitant loss of a proton, consistent with the pKa of the conjugate acid [(tBudmx)Fe2(μ-OH)Cl2]+ determined computationally to be −1.8(6). The foregoing results highlight the intricate interplay between oxidation state and reactivity in diiron μ-oxo units.
A Neural Network Solution for Forecasting Labor Demand of Drop-In Peer Tutoring Centers with Long Planning Horizons.

Like many other service organizations, drop-in peer tutoring centers often struggle to determine the required number of qualified tutors necessary to meet learner expectations. Service work is largely a response to probabilistic calls for staff action and therefore difficult to forecast with precision. Moreover, forecasting models under long planning horizons often lack the complexity or specificity necessary to accurately predict flexible labor demand due to sparse availability of influential model inputs. This study builds upon the flexible demand literature by exploring the use of neural networks for labor demand forecasting for a drop-in peer tutoring center of a large university. Specifically, this study employs a neural network solution that includes a genetic algorithm to search for optimal solutions using evolutional processes. The proposed forecasting model outperforms traditional smoothing and extrapolation forecasting methods.
Old Meets New: Combining Herbarium Databases with Genetic Methods to Evaluate the Invasion Status of Baby’s Breath (Gypsophila paniculata) in North America

Aim: This paper aims to inform our knowledge of common baby9s breath9s (Gypsophila paniculata) current population structure and invasion status using a combination of contemporary genetic methods and historical herbarium data. Taxon: Gypsophila paniculata (Angiosperms: Eudicot, Caryophyllaceae). Location: Samples were collected from seven locations spanning a portion of the plant9s North American range: Washington, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan, United States. Methods: To analyze contemporary population structure, individuals of G. paniculata from 7 distinct sampling locations were collected and genotyped at 14 microsatellite loci. Population structure was inferred using both Bayesian and multivariate methods. To investigate G. paniculata9s invasion status, public herbarium databases were searched for mention of the species. Records were combined, resulting in a database of 307 herbarium collections dating from the late 18009s to current day. Using this database, invasion curves were created at different geospatial scales. Results: Results of genetic analyses suggest the presence of at least two genetic clusters spanning our seven sampling locations. Sampling locations in Washington, North Dakota, Minnesota, and northwestern Michigan form one genetic cluster, distinct from our two more southern sampling locations in Michigan, which form a second cluster with increased relative genetic diversity. Invasion curves created for these two clusters show different time periods of invasion. An invasion curve created for North America suggests G. paniculata9s range may still be expanding. Main conclusions: Gypsophila paniculata has likely undergone at least two distinct invasions in North America, and its range may still be expanding. Restricted genetic diversity seen across a wide geographic area could be a signature of limited seed distributors present during the early period of this garden ornamental9s invasion.
Constructing Crisis: Leaders, Crises and Claims of Urgency

There is no such thing as a crisis. Rather than an actual, corporeal thing, a crisis is a claim asserted from a position of power and influence, intended to shape the understanding of others. A constructed crisis by a leader may or may not be legitimate, and, legitimate or not, the content of a claim alone does not determine whether people decide to believe it. Rather than viewing crises as the result of objective events, Spector demonstrates that leaders impose crises on organizations to strategically assert power and exert control. Interpreting crisis through a critical lens, this interdisciplinary book encompasses not just management and organizational literature, but also sociology, history, cognitive science, and psychology. The resulting wide-ranging, critical, and provocative analysis will appeal in particular to students and academics researching leadership and crisis management.
Dual RNA-Seq of Mtb-Infected Macrophages In Vivo Reveals Ontologically Distinct Host-Pathogen Interactions.

Dissecting the in vivo host-pathogen interplay is crucial to understanding the molecular mechanisms governing control or progression of intracellular infections. In this work, we explore the in vivo molecular dynamics of Mtb infection by performing dual RNA-seq on Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected, ontogenetically distinct macrophage lineages isolated directly from murine lungs. We first define an in vivo signature of 180 genes specifically upregulated by Mtb in mouse lung macrophages, then we uncover a divergent transcriptional response of the bacteria between alveolar macrophages that appear to sustain Mtb growth through increased access to iron and fatty acids and interstitial macrophages that restrict Mtb growth through iron sequestration and higher levels of nitric oxide. We use an enrichment protocol for bacterial transcripts, which enables us to probe Mtb physiology at the host cell level in an in vivo environment, with broader application in understanding the infection dynamics of intracellular pathogens in general.
Exploring the Essence of Gastronomic Tourism and Its Distribution Channels in Greece

Culinary culture has always been the longest-surviving part of a culture and tradition since it reflects daily life styles, religious beliefs, habits, traditions and customs. Gastronomy tourism has become a major and rapidly growing component of the attractiveness of tourism destination in recent years, as it is another treasure of cultural heritage. Greece boasts a fascinating gastronomic culture, thanks to a plethora of artisanal products, distinctive regional cuisines of over 4000 years of cultural heritage. This paper explores the basic principles of gastronomic tourism and investigates the way Greek Gastronomic tourism should be managed, in cooperation and coordination with both public and private tourism stakeholders, through carefully designed promotional activities in a variety of distribution channels.
Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus

The species Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) belongs to the genus Tospovirus of the family Bunyaviridae. This is the only genus of the family Bunyaviridae that comprises plant-infecting viruses. In nature, TSWV is transmitted by thrips in a circulative and propagative manner. The viral genome consists of three single-stranded RNAs. The large RNA is in negative sense while the middle and small RNAs have an ambisense genome organization. As a result, the use of reverse genetics as a tool to study structure–function relationships has not been possible. However, genetic reassortment studies and complementation studies using heterologous virus systems provided insights into the functions of various TSWV gene products. The current understanding of the TSWV gene functions indicates that the NSm serves as a movement gene, NSs is a silencing suppressor, and the glycoproteins contain determinants for thrips transmission. Management of TSWV has proven to be challenging due to the wide host range of both the virus and its vector, and emergence of resistance-breaking strains. However, increased understanding of the biology, genetics, epidemiology, and molecular biology of TSWV resulted in development of practical and effective integrated disease management programs for reducing the impact of TSWV in some crops.
Computational evidence for nonlinear feedforward modulation of fusimotor drive to antagonistic co-contracting muscles

The sensorimotor integration during unconstrained reaching movements in the presence of variable environmental forces remains poorly understood. The objective of this study was to quantify how much the primary afferent activity of muscle spindles can contribute to shaping muscle coactivation patterns during reaching movements with complex dynamics. To achieve this objective, we designed a virtual reality task that guided healthy human participants through a set of planar reaching movements with controlled kinematic and dynamic conditions that were accompanied by variable muscle co-contraction. Next, we approximated the Ia afferent activity using a phenomenological model of the muscle spindle and muscle lengths derived from a musculoskeletal model. The parameters of the spindle model were altered systematically to evaluate the effect of fusimotor drive on the shape of the temporal profile of afferent activity during movement. The experimental and simulated data were analyzed with hierarchical clustering. We found that the pattern of co-activation of agonistic and antagonistic muscles changed based on whether passive forces in each movement played assistive or resistive roles in limb dynamics. The reaching task with assistive limb dynamics was associated with the most muscle co-contraction. In contrast, the simulated Ia afferent profiles were not changing between tasks and they were largely reciprocal with homonymous muscle activity. Simulated physiological changes to the fusimotor drive were not sufficient to reproduce muscle co-contraction. These results largely rule out the static set and α-γ coactivation as the main types of fusimotor drive that transform the monosynaptic Ia afferent feedback into task-dependent co-contraction of antagonistic muscles. We speculate that another type of nonlinear transformation of Ia afferent signals that is independent of signals modulating the activity of α motoneurons is required for Ia afferent-based co-contraction. This transformation could either be applied through a complex nonlinear profile of fusimotor drive that is not yet experimentally observed or through presynaptic inhibition.
An Exploration of the Role of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage in Promoting Obesity and Health Disparities.

The mechanistic role of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) in the etiology of obesity is undetermined. We address whether, compared to other foods, does consumption of SSB (1) automatically lead to failure to compensate for the energy it contains? (2) fail to elicit homeostatic hormone responses? (3) promote hedonic eating through activation of the brain’s reward pathways? We followed the evidence to address: (4) Would restriction of targeted marketing of SSB and other unhealthy foods to vulnerable populations decrease their prevalence of obesity? The data are lacking to demonstrate that SSB consumption promotes body weight gain compared with isocaloric consumption of other beverages or foods and that this is linked to its failure to elicit adequate homeostatic hormone responses. However, more recent data have linked body weight gain to reward activation in the brain to palatable food cues and suggest that sweet tastes and SSB consumption heightens the reward response to food cues. Studies investigating the specificity of these responses have not been conducted. Nevertheless, the current data provide a biological basis to the body of evidence demonstrating that the targeted marketing (real life palatable food cues) of SSB and other unhealthy foods to vulnerable populations, including children and people of color and low socioeconomic status, is increasing their risk for obesity. While the mechanisms for the association between SSB consumption and body weight gain cannot be identified, current scientific evidence strongly suggests that proactive environmental measures to reduce exposure to palatable food cues in the form of targeting marketing will decrease the risk of obesity in vulnerable populations.
Computational design of direct-bandgap semiconductors that lattice-match silicon

Crystalline silicon is an indirect-bandgap semiconductor, making it an inefficient emitter of light. The successful integration of silicon-based electronics with optical components will therefore require optically active (for example, direct-bandgap) materials that can be grown on silicon with high-quality interfaces. For well ordered materials, this effectively translates into the requirement that such materials lattice-match silicon: lattice mismatch generally causes cracks and poor interface properties once the mismatched overlayer exceeds a very thin critical thickness. But no direct-bandgap semiconductor has yet been produced that can lattice-match silicon, and previously suggested structures1 pose formidable challenges for synthesis. Much recent work has therefore focused on introducing compliant transition layers between the mismatched components2,3,4. Here we propose a more direct solution to integrating silicon electronics with optical components. We have computationally designed two hypothetical direct-bandgap semiconductor alloys, the synthesis of which should be possible through the deposition of specific group-IV precursor molecules5,6 and which lattice-match silicon to 0.5–1% along lattice planes with low Miller indices. The calculated bandgaps (and hence the frequency of emitted light) lie in the window of minimal absorption in current optical fibres.
Double Narratives in the Old Testament: The Foundations of Method in Biblical Criticism

Reviewed Medium: book Authors: Aulikki Nahkola Year: 2001 Pages: xii + 226 Publisher: De Gruyter ISBN: 3-11-016731-X Prices: $€78.00/sFr 134.00/US$101.00