cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
In situ laser fenestration during emergent thoracic endovascular aortic repair is an effective method for left subclavian artery revascularization

Background Retrograde laser fenestration of the left subclavian artery (LSA) during emergent thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) uses a relatively simple intraoperative method of endograft modification to revascularize aortic branches for a variety of acute thoracic aortic pathologies. This study presents our expanded experience and midterm outcomes of TEVAR with laser fenestration to revascularize the LSA as an alternative to debranching. Methods Patients who underwent TEVAR with LSA revascularization by laser graft fenestration from September 2009 through August 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. TEVAR was performed with deployment of a Dacron (DuPont, Wilmington, Del) endograft over the LSA orifice. Laser catheter fenestration of the graft was performed through retrograde brachial access, followed by balloon-expandable covered stent deployment through the fenestration to traverse the endograft and LSA. Routine postoperative follow-up imaging with computed tomography angiography was performed to assess TEVAR and LSA fenestration patency, endoleak, and aneurysm/dissection exclusion. Results TEVAR with laser fenestration was successfully performed in 22 patients (12 men; mean age, 57 years) in an urgent or emergent setting secondary to unremitting symptoms or rupture. Twelve patients had large symptomatic thoracic aortic aneurysms (eight secondary to chronic dissection); four patients had acute symptomatic type B aortic dissection, and six patients had an intramural hematoma or penetrating aortic ulcer, or both. An average of two endografts (range, 1-4) were deployed. LSA-covered stents were 8 to 10 mm in diameter. Mean operative time was 154 ± 65 minutes. Average hospital length of stay was 12 ± 7 days. No major fenestration-related complications occurred. One patient developed postoperative paraplegia. One patient died in the postoperative period, for an in-hospital mortality rate of 4.5%. Two patients died of non-TEVAR-related causes at a mean follow-up of 10 months (range, 1-40 months). Follow-up computed tomography angiography imaging demonstrated a 100% primary patency for the LSA stents. One patient had an asymptomatic LSA stent stenosis. Type II endoleaks from the LSA in two patients required endovascular coil embolization. No fenestration-related type I or III endoleaks were noted. Conclusions In situ retrograde laser fenestration is a feasible and effective option for LSA revascularization during TEVAR involving a spectrum of acute thoracic aortic pathology. Laser fenestration provides a rapid, reproducible method of fenestrating the endograft material. The high technical success, low fenestration-related morbidity, and excellent midterm patency support this technique of intraoperative endograft modification.
Improving the physical health-mental health interface for the chronically mentally ill: Could nurse case managers make a difference?

Although the increased incidence and prevalence of medical illnesses among the chronically mentally ill has been well documented, access and use of general health care services by this population remains problematic despite the implementation of case management. This article describes the problems experienced in meeting physical health care needs through the five core case-management components of client identification and outreach, assessment, service planning, monitoring of service delivery, and advocacy. A model of case management is proposed that uses psychiatric nurse clinical specialists in supervisory and consultative roles, and nurse practitioners to deliver primary care.
Exploring Carbon Nanotube Bundle Global Interconnects for Chip Multiprocessor Applications

The current paradigm of using Cu interconnects for on-chip global communication is rapidly becoming a serious performance bottleneck in ultra-deep submicron (UDSM) technologies. Carbon nanotube (CNT) based interconnects have been proposed as an alternative, because of their remarkable conductive, mechanical and thermal properties. In this paper, we investigate the system level performance of single-walled CNT (SWCNT) bundles, and mixed SWCNT/multi-walled CNT (MWCNT) bundles. Detailed RLC equivalent circuit models for conventional Cu and CNT bundle interconnects are described and used to determine propagation delays. These models are then incorporated into a system-level environment to estimate the impact of using CNT bundle global interconnects on the overall performance of several multi-core chip multiprocessor (CMP) applications. Our results indicate that the CNT bundle alternatives have a slight performance advantage over Cu global interconnects. With further improvements in CNT fabrication technology, we show how CNT bundle-based interconnects can significantly outperform Cu interconnects.
Of Proteins, Redox States and Living Things

Proteins are amazing structures. For a long while, we have trusted them to be these inoffensive, carefully crafted, highly organized particles, coded for by individual genes (by all means the culprits), and contributing largely to the harmonious activity of cells and tissues. With the recent discovery that proteins can transmit such obscure diseases as Creutzfeld-Jakob neurodegeneration, capable of twisting the programming of invaded cells, the prion proteins, and by analogy, all proteins, have forever lost our trust.
The mechanism of antimalarial action of the ruthenium (II)-chloroquine complex [RuCl2(CQ)]2

The mechanism of antimalarial action of the ruthenium-chloroquine complex [RuCl(2)(CQ)](2) (1), previously shown by us to be active in vitro against CQ-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum and in vivo against P. berghei, has been investigated. The complex is rapidly hydrolyzed in aqueous solution to [RuCl(OH(2))(3)(CQ)](2)[Cl](2), which is probably the active species. This compound binds to hematin in solution and inhibits aggregation to beta-hematin at pH approximately 5 to a slightly lower extent than chloroquine diphosphate; more importantly, the heme aggregation inhibition activity of complex 1 is significantly higher than that of CQ when measured at the interface of n-octanol-aqueous acetate buffer mixtures under acidic conditions modeling the food vacuole of the parasite. Partition coefficient measurements confirmed that complex 1 is considerably more lipophilic than CQ in n-octanol-water mixtures at pH approximately 5. This suggests that the principal target of complex 1 is the heme aggregation process, which has recently been reported to be fast and spontaneous at or near water-lipid interfaces. The enhanced antimalarial activity of complex 1 is thus probably due to a higher effective concentration of the drug at or near the interface compared with that of CQ, which accumulates strongly in the aqueous regions of the vacuole under those conditions. Furthermore, the activity of complex 1 against CQ-resistant strains of P. falciparum is probably related to its greater lipophilicity, in line with previous reports indicating a lowered ability of the mutated transmembrane transporter PfCRT to promote the efflux of highly lipophilic drugs. The metal complex also interacts with DNA by intercalation, to a comparable extent and in a similar manner to uncomplexed CQ and therefore DNA binding does not appear to be an important part of the mechanism of antimalarial action in this case.
Neglected victims of homicide: the needs of young siblings of murder victims

Fifteen children, aged 7-18 years, were interviewed an average of five months after the murder of an older sibling. Although most showed significant symptoms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and psychosocial impairment, few had received any community or mental health system support or services for these symptoms. Specific problems and needs are identified, and implications for research and practice are discussed.
A new dominant selectable marker for use in Cryptococcus neoformans

Cryptococcus neoformans is an excellent model system for studies on the molecular pathogenesis of fungal infections. There is only one dominant selectable market that can be used in the transformation of this organism, and we wanted to develop another. We found that various strains of C. neoformans are very sensitive to the aminoglycoside antibiotic nourseothricin, and that spontaneous resistance to this drug must be an extremely rare event. Resistance to nourseothricin is conferred by the product of the nourseothricin acetyltransferase gene (nat1) from Streptomyces noursei. In order to express this gene in C. neoformans, we created a fusion construct by driving expression of natl with the promoter sequence from a C. neoformans actin gene. Biolistic transformation of the serotype A C. neoformans strain H99 and the serotype D strain JEC21 with this construct resulted in transformation efficiencies of approximately 1,000 transformants microg(-1) of DNA and 20 transformants microg(-1) of DNA, respectively. Southern blots were performed using DNA from some of the H99 transformants, and this confirmed that all of the resistant isolates had the construct integrated in a random fashion within the genome. There was no cross-resistance of the nourseothricin-resistant transformants to hygromycin B, which is the other antibiotic used as a dominant selection marker in C. neoformans. The development of nourseothricin resistance as a second dominant selectable market will be helpful in future molecular studies on this important pathogenic fungus.
Mapping the Aorta: A New Look at Vascular Anatomy in the Era of Endograft Repair

Aortic anatomy, as learned in medical school, is the bedrock on which surgery was founded and continues to be performed to this day. That said, let me reassure you that this is not an effort at re-engineering that anatomy the reader knows well, but a ‘‘new look’’ is warranted as the aortic surgery field has been (literally) transformed as a result of developments in stent-graft technologies. A new anatomical dimension to the aorta has evolved as we become deeply immersed in a universe populated with terms and concepts that would not even have made sense only 10 or 15 years ago: landing zones, overstenting, and debranching are just a few examples that help define today’s aortic interventional landscape. Through it all, we can be sure of this: aortic surgery will never be the same again, and endograft therapies are here to stay. Unlike conventional operative procedures, endovascular repair unfolds within the confines of the aortic inner space. This endoluminal view has led in turn to a new and different perspective on anatomy that is relevant to the endovascular technologies and treatment strategies available to us in the XXI century. Although Balm et al. were first to suggest a system for recording the site of proximal endograft fixation in the arch by drawing lines through the distal margin of branch vessel ostia, it was Shin Ishimaru who proposed dividing the arch into actual zones that could be used to define precisely the site of proximal fixation of a thoracic endograft during the 2001 First International Summit on Thoracic Aortic Endografting held in Tokyo, Japan. Shortly thereafter, I expanded on these ideas with a sketch of an arch zone map (Fig. 1) that has since been embraced by many around the world and incorporated in several clinical trial protocols. In 2004, Ishimaru (again) expanded the anatomical map, adding zones throughout the length of the descending thoracic aorta using the relationship to spinal vertebral anatomy as designators for the various segments, but this proved somewhat complex and has not enjoyed the popularity of its predecessor. In this editorial, I intend to re-define and further clarify these concepts and offer an allencompassing anatomical zone map that highlights the relevant aspects of aortic anatomy from the perspective of endograft therapy. For the first time, a zone map of the visceral aorta will be introduced as well.
Organization and thermal maturation of long-lived arc systems: Evidence from zircons at the Aucanquilcha volcanic cluster, northern Chile

Age and trace element data from zircons constrain the progressive stages of development of the magmatic underpinnings of the long-lived, dacite-dominant Aucanquilcha volcanic cluster in northern Chile. Large U/Pb age spectra (<2 m.y.) are observed in the samples from the beginning and waning stages of the volcanoes, which are at times characterized by low eruption rates. In contrast, small age spectra (<500 k.y.) are typical of samples from the middle stage of the cluster, a time characterized by high eruptive output. The preservation of precursor crystals is interpreted to reflect the thermal maturity of the magmatic system; the middle stage is a time of homogenization and increased volumetric output rate and corresponds to a time of substantial resetting of the zircon ages, presumably through pervasive dissolution and crystallization. Crystallization temperatures for Aucanquilcha volcanic cluster zircons, calculated using the Ti-in-zircon thermometer, range from 690 to 920 °C, with typically ∼100 °C variation in single samples. Higher concentrations of Ti, and thus hotter zircon crystallization temperatures, are recorded in samples that correspond to the eruptive flare-up. The timings of plutonic and volcanic events correspond, based on correlation of peaks in zircon spot ages with eruptive episodes.
A priori bounds and structural stability for double-diffusive convection incorporating the Soret effect

An analysis is presented for the equations for convective motion in a fluid saturated porous medium under the Brinkman scheme. The temperature field is non-constant and a solute is also diffused throughout the porous body. This is thus a double diffusive convection problem, although we concentrate on studying the influence the Soret effect has on the solution9behaviour. An a priori result is established whereby we show the solution depends continuously in L 2 norm on changes in the Soret coefficient.
Temporal and Spatial Variability of Freshwater Plumes in a Semienclosed Estuarine–Bay System

While the physical forcing mechanisms that govern the outflows of major rivers throughout the world are well documented in the literature, comparably less research has been done to examine the mechanisms that govern the contributions of small rivers and streams to coastal ocean systems. These rivers and streams provide a direct means for the transport of anthropogenic and terrigenous materials from watersheds to coastal oceans. This study describes the temporal and spatial variability of freshwater plumes from Kaneohe Stream, Hawaii, USA, after storm events in the Kaneohe Bay watershed. Freshwater plumes were examined using a combination of fixed moorings, synoptic shipboard surveys, and lagrangian surface drifters. Data sets were collected over the course of 19 months from August 2005 to March 2007 with particular attention paid to storms during the boreal winters. Stream discharge and duration were found to exert a primary control on plume persistence in the southern Kaneohe Bay system. Time series data show a strong coherence between wind forcing and surface currents, which, in combination with data derived from shipboard and aerial surveys, indicate that the spatial variability of freshwater plumes is primarily determined by atmospheric forcing.
Newborn lamb coronary artery reactivity is programmed by early gestation dexamethasone before the onset of systemic hypertension

Exposure of the early gestation ovine fetus to exogenous glucocorticoids induces organ-specific alterations in postnatal cardiovascular physiology. To determine whether early gestation corticostero...
Failure mechanisms of sandwich specimens with epoxy foam cores under bending conditions

Sandwich specimens with DP590 steel face sheets and structural epoxy foam cores are investigated under three-point bending conditions. Experimental results indicate that the maximum loads correspond to extensive cracking in the foam cores. Finite element simulations of the bending tests are also performed to understand the failure mechanisms of the epoxy foams. In these simulations the plastic behavior of the steel face sheets is modeled by the Mises yield criterion with consideration of plastic strain hardening. A pressure sensitive yield criterion is used to model the plastic behavior of the epoxy foam cores. The epoxy foams are idealized to follow an elastic perfectly plastic behavior. The simulation results indicate that the load-displacement responses of some sandwich specimens agree with the experimental results. Based on the results of finite element simulations, for the given geometry and the combination of materials, cracking within the foam cores is due to large shear deformation which comes from the large difference in the load carrying capacities of the steel face sheets and the epoxy foam cores.
Fame-seeking rampage shooters: Initial findings and empirical predictions

Abstract Increasingly in America, fame is revered as the ultimate form of prestige-bearing success, and the distinction between fame and infamy seems to be disappearing. In this context, some rampage shooters succumb to “delusions of grandeur” and seek fame and glory through killing. The present study offers initial findings on the behavior of fame-seeking rampage shooters, and then tests for differences between offenders who explicitly sought fame and other offenders. The results suggest that fame-seeking rampage shooters have existed for more than 40 years, but they are more common in recent decades and in the United States than in other countries. On average, fame-seeking offenders appear younger than other rampage shooters, and they kill and wound significantly more victims. Several empirical predictions are made about the expected frequency and characteristics of future rampage shootings.
Linguistic Inability or Poor Performance: Dissociating Scalar Implicature Generation and Mismatch in the Developing Brain

Behavioral investigations of the acquisition of some have shown that children favor its logical interpretation (some and possibly all). Adults, however, use the pragmatic interpretation (some but not all) derived by a scalar implicature. Certain experimental manipulations increase children’s rates of adult-like responses, indicating that children are capable of computing implicatures. A functional MRI (fMRI) study examining adults linked the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) to implicature computation, and prefrontal regions, the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and medial frontal gyrus (MeFG), to processing the mismatch between implicatures and the context in which they were presented. In the current fMRI study, we aimed to determine whether children’s failure to give pragmatic interpretations to some results from a failure in implicature computation or in implicature-mismatch processing. We explored children’s brain activations with the same experimental task administered to adults. In a region-of-interest analysis, children showed an activational pattern similar to the one observed in adults in the left IFG with increased activations for the implicature conditions. By contrast, in the left MFG, children showed decreased activation for the mismatched implicatures compared with matched and no implicature conditions. No difference between the conditions was observed in the MeFG. For both implicature conditions, no activation in the left IFG was observed when comparing adults and children directly. However, for mismatched implicatures, adults showed greater activation in the prefrontal regions compared with children. Our results suggest that children may have an adult-like computation of implicatures (even when their behavior does not necessarily indicate that), but they fail in resolving implicature-mismatch situations.
The Pathology Interest Group: A Recruitment Tool

During the last decade, concerns about the decreasing number of medical students choosing pathology as a career prompted the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) to take action. Believing that the shortage is partially the result of the limited exposure medical students have to career pathologists, a pathology interest group was formed. As a result, the participants in the group have better understood the pathologist’s role in health care delivery. Since the creation of the pathology interest group, the percentage of graduating seniors pursuing pathology at UNMC is greater than the national average.
Counting the number of isosceles triangles in rectangular regular grids

In general graph theory, the only relationship between vertices are expressed via the edges. When the vertices are embedded in an Euclidean space, the geometric relationships between vertices and edges can be interesting objects of study. We look at the number of isosceles triangles where the vertices are points on a regular grid and show that they satisfy a recurrence relation when the grid is large enough. We also derive recurrence relations for the number of acute, obtuse and right isosceles triangles.
Surface Wetting Study via Pseudocontinuum Modeling

An accurate estimation of contact angle and surface wettability for various degrees of hydrophobicity becomes increasingly important in the molecular design of solid surfaces. In this study, we develop a simple, yet physically realistic, model for estimating contact angle via hybridizing molecular dynamics and pseudocontinuum theory. Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to compute the macroscale contact angle between a water droplet and smooth walls from the nanoscale calculations. A macrolevel droplet including numerous degrees of freedom due to a large number of molecules cannot be directly studied using atomistic simulations. To resolve this issue, we employed two approaches consisting of the pseudocontinuum approximation and the modified Young–Laplace equation. The former involves the 9–3 Lennard-Jones potential and can drastically reduce the degrees of freedom in molecular simulations, while the latter relates the mesoscale contact angle to the realistic one. We altered different parameter...
Comparative study on separation characteristics of lean hematite in various comminution modes

In order to ascertain the influence of comminution by HPGR(high pressure grinding roll) on separation indexes of lean hematite, the comminuted lean hematite respectively from HPGR and cone crusher were separated in lab conditions by the process involving classifying pre-concentration with high magnetic intensity, staged grinding and staged separation, reverse flotation with high intensity in sequence. After separation of comminuted lean hematite from HPGR, the grade of final concentrate was 65.71% with the yield of 25.84% and the recovery of 70.76%. Contrasted with the separation indexes of the comminuted lean hematite from the cone crusher, the concentrate yield and recovery of comminuted lean hematite from HPGR were 1.56 percentage points and 5.18 percentage points higher respectively in the similarity of concentrate grade. During grinding and separation of coarse pre-concentration concentrates, contrasted with the separation indexes of the comminuted lean hematite from the cone crusher, the grade of tailings from the first-stage coarse separation with high magnetic intensity after HPGR comminution reduced by 0.58%. It was noteworthy that the yield of the first-stage mill after HPGR comminution reduced by 7.5%, the fraction of-0.074 mm grains in the charge of the first-stage mill reduced by 7.29%.
DISCONTINUOUS PORE FLUID DISTRIBUTION UNDER MICROGRAVITY DUE TO PARTICLE REARRANGEMENT

This paper reports (i) the experimental investigation conducted aboard the NASA’s KC-135 reduced-gravity flights to study possible particle separation and the distribution of discontinuous wetting fluid in porous media under microgravity, and (ii) numerical study of the effect of soil particle rearrangement on the water retention characteristics in zero gravity.
Strategy: What It Is

Strategy is one of those common everyday words and concepts that we understand so well and use even appropriately, but still find difficult to define and explain in precise terms. However, once we define and explain them, they become permanently embedded in our minds and we see their applications all around us. Strategy has been used implicitly in different ways, but formally seen as the art of planning and implementing with considerate care to achieve predetermined objectives. Strategy derives from the Greek where it has clearly military references as “office of general, commander, leader and to lead.” In this military sense, strategy refers to a broad plan of action designed to achieve a predetermined objective. In this sense, strategy or grand strategy refers to high levels of engagement distinct from operations and tactics, which are concerned with the specific conduct of an engagement. Having a good strategy which leads to effective operations and tactics is a sine qua non for successful engagements in many spheres of life, especially in business, communication, corporate affairs, health management and politics, among other areas.
What’s in Store: The Brighter Side of Medical Research

Research in the biomedical field is full of a variety of pros and cons. In this section, I will provide an outline of what I view as the true joys of being in the world of biomedical research. In the following chapter, I will discuss some of its darker aspects.
A modified stochastic volatility model based on Gamma Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process and option pricing

Stochastic volatility model of the Gamma Ornstein–Uhlenbeck possess authentic capability of both capturing some stylized features of financial time series and pricing European options. In this work we modify the Gamma OU model from the viewpoint of Monte Carlo simulation, which is crucial in both model inference and exotic option pricing. We discuss topics related to the measure transformation between objective and risk-neutral measures, arbitrage-free and market incompleteness of the new model. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of this model in European options pricing and an empirical application is presented.
Abstract 3321: PUMA expression targets αvβ3/Slug+ “stem-like” tumor cells to prevent breast cancer progression independent of subtype

Breast cancer cells bearing similarities to normal mammary stem cells represent some of the most aggressive tumors cells. Here, we show that αvβ3/Slug+ “stem-like” tumor cells are highly vulnerable to cell death induced by PUMA (p53-upregulated modulator of apoptosis). In human breast cancers, we were surprised to find that αvβ3/Slug+ cells represent a unique subset of tumor cells associated with progression that are present in all major histological subtypes. Analysis of “stem-like” cell lines showed that αvβ3 directs an EMT-independent role for Slug in suppressing PUMA expression and promoting tumor cell survival and stemness. In fact, αvβ3 is both necessary and sufficient for PUMA suppression and PUMA knockdown specifically rescued defective colony formation and tumor initiation caused by decreased β3 expression. Inducing PUMA expression with specific therapies selectively ablated αvβ3/Slug+ cells, preventing the formation of new colonies or tumors, with no effect on established disease. These new findings define an unexpected role for αvβ3/Slug-mediated PUMA suppression in driving stemness and suggest that inducing PUMA with specific therapies can selectively target “stem-like” breast cancer cells to prevent aggressive disease. Citation Format: Qi Sun, Jacqueline Lesperance, Jay S. Desgrosellier. PUMA expression targets αvβ3/Slug+ “stem-like” tumor cells to prevent breast cancer progression independent of subtype. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3321.
Developing Conceptual Understanding in a Statistics Course: Merrill's First Principles and Real Data at Work.

Difficulties in learning statistics primarily at the college-level led to a reform movement in statistics education in the early 1990s. Although much work has been done, effective learning designs that facilitate active learning, conceptual understanding of statistics, and the use of real-data in the classroom are needed. Guided by Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction (First Principles), a blended, introductory college-level statistics course that incorporated real data was designed and implemented. A single descriptive case design was used to investigate how the course design facilitated learning and the development of statistical conceptual understanding (i.e., statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking skills). Results from both quantitative and qualitative data analyses indicated that the course designed using First Principles as a guide was effective in promoting students’ conceptual understanding in terms of literacy, reasoning, and thinking statistically. However, students’ statistical literacy, specifically, the understanding of statistical terminology did not develop to a satisfactory level as expected.
Excursion Wafer Loss Prediction by Local Density Segmentation

The most obvious characteristics of an excursion wafer is an elevated defect density, either confined within a signature or distributed across its surface. Quantifying the impact of such abnormal levels of defectivity is the focus of this paper. Three methods are described which provide increasingly precise predictions of Defect Limited Yield. The methods are also intended to accurately handle excursion wafers that include highly divergent signatures, as well as non-optimized defect inspection recipes which may contain elevated levels of nuisance defects. This is achieved by combining the defect distribution with the kill ratio, via a geometric progression. The conditions under which each method is ideally suited are presented.
When continents come apart

The Earth is continually moving beneath our feet, which occasionally results in dramatic events that reshape the surface of the planet. One example is continental rifting, in which continents are broken apart to form new ocean basins. This process can occur within large continents, such as the rift in Pangea that formed the present African and North American plates and the Atlantic Ocean about 180 million years ago. It can also take place near the edges of continents, like the rift that is currently separating the Baja California peninsula from North America.
Methodology in Psychophysiological Studies: Applications in Physical Activity

AbstractHerein we describe the psychophysiological methods of electrodermal recording, electromyography, electroencephalography, impedance cardiography, and micro- neurography as each has been employed in physical activity related research. In our coverage of each method, we first establish a brief historical context, then review some essential guidelines for research, provide examples of the types of physical activity related research questions that can be addressed, and describe selected studies that have employed each method. Psychophysiological measures are valuable and offer advantages over other methods of assessing behavioral responses. Physiological responses are objective and can be measured continuously without distraction during an experimental task, can be obtained more quickly and reliably than detailed analyses of overt behavior, and analogous behaviors may be differentiated based on underlying patterns of neuromuscular, electrocortical, cardiography, or muscle sympathetic nervous activity. ...
Fatty Acids Regulate Germline Sex Determination through ACS-4-Dependent Myristoylation.

Fat metabolism has been linked to fertility and reproductive adaptation in animals and humans, and environmental sex determination potentially plays a role in the process. To investigate the impact of fatty acids (FA) on sex determination and reproductive development, we examined and observed an impact of FA synthesis and mobilization by lipolysis in somatic tissues on oocyte fate in Caenorhabditis elegans. The subsequent genetic analysis identified ACS-4, an acyl-CoA synthetase and its FA-CoA product, as key germline factors that mediate the role of FA in promoting oocyte fate through protein myristoylation. Further tests indicated that ACS-4-dependent protein myristoylation perceives and translates the FA level into regulatory cues that modulate the activities of MPK-1/MAPK and key factors in the germline sex-determination pathway. These findings, including a similar role of ACS-4 in a male/female species, uncover a likely conserved mechanism by which FA, an environmental factor, regulates sex determination and reproductive development.
Redox-Ligand Complexation Controlled Chemical Fate of Ceria Nanoparticles in an Agricultural Soil

Ceria (CeO2) has received much attention in the global nanotechnology market due to its useful industrial applications. Because of its release to the environment, the chemical fate of ceria nanoparticles (NPs) becomes important in protecting the agricultural and food systems. Using experimental biogeochemistry and synchrotron-based X-ray techniques, the fate of ceria NPs (30 and 78 nm) in an agricultural soil (mildly acidic Taccoa entisols) was investigated as a function of exchangeable Ce(III) concentration (0.3 and 1.56 mM/kg in small and large NPs, respectively) under anoxic and oxic conditions. Both ceria NPs strongly adsorbed (>98%) in soils. Under the anoxic condition, the reduction of Ce(IV) was more pronounced in small NPs, whereas the greater concentration of exchangeable Ce(III) in large NPs facilitated the formation of Ce(III) phosphate/oxalate surface precipitates that suppressed the electron transfer reaction. The study shows the importance of redox-ligand complexation controlled chemical fat...
Mo@Pt overlayers as efficient catalysts for hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol and anisole

Silica alumina supported Mo@Pt overlayer catalysts were prepared via the directed deposition technique and evaluated for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of guaiacol and anisole. As predicted computationally, Mo@Pt overlayers showed reduced heats of hydrogen and carbon monoxide adsorption via chemisorption. The decreased activity of Mo@Pt overlayer catalysts for the ethylene hydrogenation descriptor reaction also suggested decreased hydrogen adsorption strength compared to a Pt only catalyst. H2-TPR results demonstrated the close interaction between Pt and Mo species for Mo@Pt overlayer catalysts and the enhanced reducibility of the molybdenum oxides via deposition of Pt to Mo. Mo@Pt overlayer catalysts showed significantly improved guaiacol and anisole hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) activity compared to the monometallic Pt and Mo catalysts. For the guaiacol HDO reaction at 350 °C, the Mo@Pt double deposition (DD) showed the highest HDO turnover frequency (TOF), twice as high as that of Pt and Mo catalysts. For the Mo@Pt DD catalyst, the selectivity to benzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTX) could reach up to 80% for HDO of guaiacol and anisole at high contact time compared to 43% for HDO of anisole over the Pt catalyst.
Improving insect control protein activity for GM crops: A case study demonstrating that increased target insect potency can be achieved without impacting mammalian safety

Abstract Many insect-protected crops express insecticidal crystal (Cry) proteins derived from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), including both naturally-occurring Cry proteins and chimeric Cry proteins created through biotechnology. The Cry51Aa2 protein is a naturally-occurring Cry protein that was modified to increase its potency and expand its insect activity spectrum through amino acid sequence changes. The improved Cry51Aa2 variant, Cry51Aa2.834_16, and other developmental variants belong to the ETX_MTX2 family of proteins but share a low level of sequence similarity to other members of this family. This similarity is largely localized to the pore-forming and oligomerization protein domains, while sequence divergence is observed within the head domain that confers receptor binding specificity. The intact Cry51Aa2.834_16 protein was heat labile at temperatures ≥55 °C, and was rapidly degraded after exposure to the gastrointestinal protease pepsin. No acute oral toxicity was observed in mice for three protein variants of Cry51Aa2, including Cry51Aa2.834_16, at doses exceeding 1000 mg/kg body weight. The weight-of-evidence therefore supports the conclusion of safety for Cry51Aa2.834_16 and demonstrates that amino acid sequence modifications can be used to substantially increase insecticidal activity of a protein without an increased hazard to mammals.
Catalytic Nucleophilic Allylation Driven by the Water–Gas Shift Reaction

The ruthenium-catalyzed allylation of aldehydes with allylic pro-nucleophiles has been demonstrated to be an efficient means to form carbon–carbon bonds under mild conditions. The evolution of this reaction from the initial serendipitous discovery to its general synthetic scope is detailed, highlighting the roles of water, CO, and amine in the generation of a more complete catalytic cycle. The use of unsymmetrical allylic pro-nucleophiles was shown to give preferential product formation through the modulation of reaction conditions. Both (E)-cinnamyl acetate and vinyl oxirane were efficiently used to form the anti-branched products (up to >20:1 anti/syn) and E-linear products (up to >20:1 E/Z) in high selectivity with aromatic, α,β-unsaturated, and aliphatic aldehydes, respectively. Attempts to render the reaction enantioselective are highlighted and include enantioenrichment of up to 75:25 for benzaldehyde.
Forgiveness then satisfaction: why the order matters for a theory of the atonement

Central to a theory of the atonement is one's position on forgiveness and satisfaction. These two issues are interrelated, but it is unclear whether one takes precedence over the other. Specifically, must one make satisfaction to remove the guilt incurred by sin prior to forgiveness, or can a victim forgive a wrongdoer independently of any work of satisfaction? Richard Swinburne argues that satisfaction must precede forgiveness, but I defend the view that forgiveness is a manifestation of love, and as such satisfaction is not required prior to forgiveness. Instead, I argue that forgiveness can and should precede satisfaction, and I highlight important implications of this view for a theory of the atonement.
Discovery of de novo concurrent vocal fold dysplasia in a nonagenarian man and his octogenarian wife

Abstract Introduction This case report describes an unusual case of a 92-year-old man with chronic dysphonia with more recent worsening and his 88-year-old wife who developed new-onset hoarseness within 6 months of her husband's surgical treatment. Methods Retrospective review of 2 cases. Results Flexible laryngovideostroboscopy showed very similar exophytic hemorrhagic-appearing lesions. The pathology reports for both husband and wife were nearly identical: inflamed polypoid granulation tissue with high-grade dysplastic epithelium. No organisms were found on Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) stain. The patients did not recall any environmental exposure in the home, dietary changes, or illnesses requiring antibiotics. Neither had prior history of vocal fold dysplasia or other vocal fold pathology. Conclusion An elderly couple presented with nearly identical vocal fold pathology – containing polypoid granulation tissue with high-grade dysplasia. The coincidence may be related to age as a risk factor; although, shared environmental or dietary factors should be taken into consideration.
Going the distance and beyond: simulated low vision increases perception of distance traveled during locomotion

In a series of experiments, we tested the hypothesis that severely degraded viewing conditions during locomotion distort the perception of distance traveled. Some research suggests that there is little-to-no systematic error in perceiving closer distances from a static viewpoint with severely degraded acuity and contrast sensitivity (which we will refer to as blur). However, several related areas of research-extending across domains of perception, attention, and spatial learning-suggest that degraded acuity and contrast sensitivity would affect estimates of distance traveled during locomotion. In a first experiment, we measured estimations of distance traveled in a real-world locomotion task and found that distances were overestimated with blur compared to normal vision using two measures: verbal reports and visual matching (Experiments 1 a, b, and c). In Experiment 2, participants indicated their estimate of the length of a previously traveled path by actively walking an equivalent distance in a viewing condition that either matched their initial path (e.g., blur/blur) or did not match (e.g., blur/normal). Overestimation in blur was found only when participants learned the path in blur and made estimates in normal vision (not in matched blur learning/judgment trials), further suggesting a reliance on dynamic visual information in estimates of distance traveled. In Experiment 3, we found evidence that perception of speed is similarly affected by the blur vision condition, showing an overestimation in perception of speed experienced in wheelchair locomotion during blur compared to normal vision. Taken together, our results demonstrate that severely degraded acuity and contrast sensitivity may increase people's tendency to overestimate perception of distance traveled, perhaps because of an increased perception of speed of self-motion.
Pathology of Gastroparesis

While symptoms of gastroparesis are defined, the pathogenesis of this condition is poorly understood. Furthermore, gastric emptying scintigraphy, the gold standard for diagnostic testing, does not correlate with symptom severity. Some patients with the classic constellation of symptoms for gastroparesis have normal or near-normal gastric emptying patterns. Uncertainty of underlying pathophysiology underscores the struggle to develop effective therapies. The inability of the stomach to effectively empty its solid and liquid contents into the duodenum in the absence of a mechanical obstruction defines gastroparesis. Gastric emptying is dependent on well-coordinated efforts by multiple components in the gastric wall. Different cells, structures, and mechanisms are hypothesized to be responsible for gastroparesis. Currently, however there is a lack of histopathologic evidence to substantiate most of these hypotheses.
Friction, Scratching/Wear, Indentation and Lubrication on Micro- to Nanoscales

Atomic force microscopy/friction force microscopy (AFM/FFM) techniques are increasingly used for tribological studies of engineering surfaces at scales, ranging from atomic and molecular to microscales. These techniques have been used to study surface roughness, adhesion, friction, scratching/wear, indentation, detection of material transfer, and boundary lubrication and for nanofabrication/nanomachining purposes. Micro/nanotribological studies of materials of scientific and engineering interests, have been conducted. Commonly measured roughness parameters are found to be scale dependent, requiring the need of scale-independent fractal parameters to characterize surface roughness. Measurements of atomic-scale friction of a freshly-cleaved highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite exhibited the same periodicity as that of corresponding topography. However, the peaks in friction and those in corresponding topography were displaced relative to each other. Variations in atomic-scale friction and the observed displacement has been explained by the variations in interatomic forces in the normal and lateral directions. Local variation in microscale friction is found to correspond to the local slope suggesting that a ratchet mechanism is responsible for this variation. Directionality in the friction is observed on both micro-and macro scales which results from the surface preparation and anisotropy in surface roughness. Microscale friction is generally found to be smaller than the macrofriction as there is less ploughing contribution in microscale measurements. Microscale friction is load dependent and friction values increase with an increase in the normal load approaching to the macrofriction at contact stresses higher than the hardness of the softer material. Wear rate for single-crystal silicon is approximately constant for various loads and test durations. However, for magnetic disks with a multilayered thin-film structure, the wear of the diamondlike carbon overcoat is catastrophic. Breakdown of thin films can be detected with AFM. Evolution of the wear has also been studied using AFM. Wear is found to be initiated at nano scratches. AFM has been modified to obtain load-displacement curves and for nanoindentation hardness and Young’s modulus of elasticity measurements with depth of indentation as low as 1 nm. Hardness of ceramics on nano scales is found to be higher than that on micro scale. Ceramics exhibit significant plasticity and creep on nanoscale. Scratching and indentation on nanoscales are the powerful ways to screen for adhesion and resistance to deformation of ultrathin films. Detection of material transfer on a nanoscale is possible with AFM. Boundary lubrication studies and measurement of lubricant-film thickness with a lateral resolution on a nanoscale have been conducted using AFM. Self-assembled monolayers and chemically-bonded lubricant films with a mobile fraction are superior in wear resistance. Finally, AFM has also shown to be useful for nanofabrication/nanomachining.
Non-small cell lung carcinoma: molecular genetics with consideration of cytologic samples

Abstract A majority of non-small cell lung carcinoma patients present with advanced disease, for which surgical resection is not an option. In such cases, both tissue diagnosis and molecular testing to identify potentially targetable genetic alterations are often performed on cytologic or small histologic biopsy specimens. Numerous recurrent genetic alterations have been identified in non-small cell carcinoma, and they correlate with morphologic subtype. Identified alterations range from single nucleotide variants to mutation burden evaluated across the entire tumour exome. Multiple alterations have been confirmed to be mutually exclusive, oncogenic driver alterations, and several are targetable or potentially targetable with personalized, genotype-directed therapeutic agents. In order to maximize the predictive and prognostic potential of genetic testing, it is important to optimize the use of cytologic biopsy specimens. Multiple methods are available for cytologic biopsy material triage and nucleic acid extraction, including cytologic cell blocks, direct smear preparations, and cell free nucleic acid.
The Septate Junction Protein Tsp2A Restricts Intestinal Stem Cell Activity via Endocytic Regulation of aPKC and Hippo Signaling

Summary Hippo signaling and the activity of its transcriptional coactivator, Yorkie (Yki), are conserved and crucial regulators of tissue homeostasis. In the Drosophila midgut, after tissue damage, Yki activity increases to stimulate stem cell proliferation, but how Yki activity is turned off once the tissue is repaired is unknown. From an RNAi screen, we identified the septate junction (SJ) protein tetraspanin 2A (Tsp2A) as a tumor suppressor. Tsp2A undergoes internalization to facilitate the endocytic degradation of atypical protein kinase C (aPKC), a negative regulator of Hippo signaling. In the Drosophila midgut epithelium, adherens junctions (AJs) and SJs are prominent in intestinal stem cells or enteroblasts (ISCs or EBs) and enterocytes (ECs), respectively. We show that when ISCs differentiate toward ECs, Tsp2A is produced, participates in SJ assembly, and turns off aPKC and Yki-JAK-Stat activity. Altogether, our study uncovers a mechanism allowing the midgut to restore Hippo signaling and restrict proliferation once tissue repair is accomplished.