cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Naturalistyczne wyjaśnienie wolnej woli (II)

The aim of this paper is to argue that naturalism is consistent with free will. Many philosophers claim that if determinism is true, and thus we are not really free agents, then we are not morally responsible. This „problem of free will” would then seem to be particularly pressing for naturalism, since naturalism considers human beings to be arrangements of matter, and therefore many scholars expect it to be consistent with determinism. Several scientific writers who have touched on the subject, including Francis Crick and E.O. Wilson, have tried to explain the phenomenology of free will (our feeling that we are free agents) on biological terms, while arguing that the human brain is so complex that the predictability of individual human action is practically impossible. Such solutions fail, however, because determinism and predictability are not the same thing. Chaotic phenomena, for example, may be unpredictable, but they are still deterministic. So the most these interesting scientific proposals can show is that free will is an illusion. But if free will is an illusion, so is moral responsibility. This paper will also explain why appeals to quantum indeterminism, which underlies presumably deterministic science, are not much help either. Nor can the problem be dismissed as Hobbes, Hume, Schlick and others have tried to do, by pointing to a linguistic confusion between the practical inevitability of natural law and the compulsion of social laws, nor by some further „linguistic analysis”. This paper develops Gary Watson’s suggestion that the question of free will is rather whether our actions can be determined by the self. The self, it will be seen, turns out tobe (largely) the brain, and the brain does indeed determine the individual’s actions. Even though the laws of physics and chemistry apply in the brain, and even though all sorts of external influences leave their imprint on the brain, each brain is sui generis and has its own set of emergent „laws” that pit the organism as an independent entity vis-a-vis the world. This is enough independence from the world, in any event, to justify the conclusion that the brain (the self) does determine its own actions, and thus that, under normal circumstances, the individual is morally responsible. The most important of the reasons discussed in the paper is the existence of „strong emergence” in brain processes. The first level of emergence is the well-known fact that the components of a brain process (e.g., electrical pulses sent by the retina to the brain) do not guarantee a particular experience. The stronger level of emergence is that the brain networks affect the individual components of the networks (e.g., synaptic weights). Thus a neural state is emergent in the sense that the weights of the synaptic connections that constitute it are not sufficient to determine it, and also emergent in the sense that those weights are also partially dependent on the neural state itself.
Parabolic Pulse Propagation in a Mamyshev Oscillator

We demonstrate parabolic pulse propagation in a Mamyshev oscillator, which generates ~50-nJ and ~ 40-fs pulses. The ~ 1-MW peak power is 10 times higher than prior single-mode fiber lasers.
Correlation between gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase activity and outcomes after Kasai portoenterostomy for biliary atresia

Background/purpose The role of serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) levels in predicting clinical outcomes after Kasai portoenterostomy (KPE) is unknown. This study analyzed whether postoperative GGT along with the aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRi) predicted prognosis of biliary atresia (BA). Methods Data were retrospectively reviewed for 169 BA patients categorized into jaundice-free (JF) (total bilirubin Results GGT concentrations >550 IU/L at month 5 (hazard ratio: 1.74, P 0.605 at month 4 (hazard ratio: 3.78, P = 0.001), and being jaundice-free at 6 months (hazard ratio: 5.49, P Conclusions Serum GGT concentrations >550 IU/L at month 5 and an APRi >0.605 at month 4 post-KPE were associated with significantly lower NLS rates. Among JF patients, those with GGT concentrations >550 IU/L at month 5 and APRi >0.605 at month 4 showed poorer outcomes. Type of study Retrospective comparative study LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III.
The Baire Hierarchy

(24.1) Definition. Let X,Y be metrizable spaces. A function f:X → Y is of Baire class 1 if f−1(U)∈ ∑ 2 0 (X) for every open set U ⊆ Y. If Y is separable, it is clearly enough in this definition to restrict U to any countable subbasis for Y. Recursively, for 1 < ξ < ω1 we define now a function f:X → Y to be of Baire class ξ if it is the pointwise limit of a sequence of functions fn:X → Y, where fn is of Baire class ξn < ξ. We denote by Bξ(X,Y) the set of Baire class ξ functions from X into Y. As usual, Bξ(X)= Bξ(X,K), where K = ℝ or ℂ (the context should make clear which case we are considering).
Drawing on other disciplines to define quality in bioethics education

AbstractIn light of the lack of scholarly studies on the determination of quality in bioethics education, this paper aims to elaborate the concept of quality, focus on its understanding in education and explore a definition of quality in bioethics education. The findings of the literature-based research indicate that quality is a multidimensional concept and its definition is largely dependent on the needs, expectations and perceptions of customers. Furthermore, in regard to quality in education, the plethora of stakeholders and different goals of each stakeholder preclude producing a unanimous definition of quality. After examining certain definitions and approaches of quality in other disciplines, quality in bioethics education is described as ‘conformance to the goals’. These goals refer to increasing ethical knowledge; improving ethical skills to strengthen ethical sensitivity, awareness and judgement; developing ethical behaviour; and promoting cultural competence.
Significance of Perioperative Tests to Diagnose the Infection in Revision Total Shoulder Arthroplasty

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value of perioperative tests for the diagnosis of infectionin revision shoulder arthroplasty.Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 537 shoulder arthroplasties (429 patients) that underwent revisionshoulder arthroplasty at our institution. Periprosthetic tissue cultures were positive in 169/537 surgeries.Results: White-blood cell count (WBC) was elevated in 3.8% revision arthroplasties. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)was elevated in 23.1% revision arthroplasties. The C-reactive protein (CRP) was elevated in 20.8% revision arthroplasties.Bone scans (technetium, indium) were performed on 9.9% patients and it was positive for osteomyelitis in just one revisionarthroplasty. Intra-operative pathology was read as consistent with acute inflammation in 11.9% revision arthroplasties.The positive and negative predictive values for intra-operative pathology were 56.7% and 71.6% respectively.Conclusion: All of the perioperative tests had a high specificity and negative predictive value, but low sensitivity andpositive predictive value.Level of evidence: III
Inferring physical agitation in dementia using smartwatch and sequential behavior models

Caregivers of community-dwelling persons with dementia (PWD) often struggle with challenging and stressful circumstances associated with agitation episodes of the PWD. Such episodes pose a major health risk for both PWD and caregivers. Timely detection can prevent escalation of such events and their hazardous consequences. Wearable sensors are widely used for continuous sensing of physiological parameters, however, reliable inference of behavioral events from such signals is still an open research. Behavior inference in residential settings is challenging due to the prevalence of unpredictable and wide-variety activity patterns. This paper presents a novel methodology to infer the onset of agitation episodes from PWD inertial motion data. As part of a transdisciplinary study, inertial sensors on smart watches are used to unobtrusively capture motion patterns during month-long deployments from eight clinically diagnosed PWD residing in their homes. These patterns are analyzed to build a sequential behavior model using long short-term memory (LSTM) based recurrent neural network. The performance of this model in inferring the onset of agitation episodes is evaluated using data from real deployments. This paper shows the potential of such models in sensing-based behavior inference for real-world applications.
Who Is Cecil B. DeMille

This chapter explores the ideological powers of mass culture as expressed through DeMille’s late-career politics and films. The chapter takes its title from Ayn Rand’s popular libertarian novel Atlas Shrugged, which famously asks, “Who is John Galt?” DeMille’s early friendship and correspondence with Rand reveals deep contrasts between their ideological goals. Unlike Rand and those who supported ideological censorship through the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, DeMille never countenanced witch-hunts, black-lists, and clearly differentiated his views on “closed shop” regulations (which he opposed) from collective bargaining (which he supported). A brief comparison of DeMille’s film Unconquered to Rand’s The Fountainhead segues to the ways that the director’s public personality shifted as a result of these ideological pressures. Once hailed as an innovative commercial artist, by the 1940s his role as mass culture’s “Mr. Hollywood” politicized his image and caricatured his work with profoundly negative consequences.
Genome-Wide Signatures of Selection Reveal Genes Associated With Performance in American Quarter Horse Subpopulations.

Selective breeding for athletic performance in various disciplines has resulted in population stratification within the American Quarter Horse (QH) breed. The goals of this study were to utilize high density genotype data to: (1) identify genomic regions undergoing positive selection within and among QH subpopulations; (2) investigate haplotype structure within each QH subpopulation; and (3) identify candidate genes within genomic regions of interest (ROI), as well as biological pathways, predicted to play a role in elite performance in each group. For that, 65K SNP genotyping data on 143 elite individuals from 6 QH subpopulations (cutting, halter, racing, reining, western pleasure, and working cow) were imputed to 2M SNPs. Signatures of selection were identified using FST-based (di ) and haplotype-based (hapFLK) analyses, accompanied by identification of local haplotype structure and sharing within subpopulations (hapQTL). Regions undergoing positive selection were identified on all 31 autosomes, and ROI on 2 chromosomes were identified by all 3 methods combined. Genes within each ROI were retrieved and used to identify pathways and genes that might contribute to performance in each subpopulation. These included, among others, candidate genes associated with skeletal muscle development, metabolism, and central nervous system development. This work improves our understanding of equine breed development, and provides breeders with a better understanding of how selective breeding impacts the performance of QH populations.
Financial Markets in the New Millennium: Will the Inmates Run the Asylum?

Financial markets as we know them today started in coffeehouses and taverns, where entrepreneurs went to find investors. The New York Stock Exchange, contrary to the popular Buttonwood legend, was founded at the Tontine Coffeehouse in Manhattan, while the London Stock Exchange started its existence at New Jonathan’s.
Oxygen-independent microbicidal mechanisms of phagocytes

The principal biological function of phagocytic cells is the destruction of invading microorganisms. Following phagocytosis, microbes are exposed to multiple antimicrobial substances ranging in complexity from simple oxygen radicals to large proteins. These substances disrupt various microbial structures and eventually kill and digest most of the invaders. This review is focused on oxygen-independent microbicidal mechanisms in granulocytes and macrophages.
Eupneic respiratory rhythm in awake goats is dependent on an intact pre-Bötzinger complex.

Different views exist regarding sites within the brain responsible for eupneic respiratory rhythmogenesis. Studies by Lumsden in the 1920’s1,2 indicated that the minimum neural substrate for respiratory rhythm was the medulla but an intact pons was necessary for eupneic rhythm. Recent studies by St. John et al.3, 4 support this concept. Another concept is that the pre-Botzinger Complex (PBC) is the site of rhythmogenesis, and in the neonatal rat spinal cord-brainstem preparation, the minimum neural substrate for respiratory rhythm is the PBC.5 Another study on awake adult rats showed that greater than 80% destruction of PBC neurons expressing the neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1-R) resulted in an “ataxic” breathing pattern and attenuation of eupneic breathing and CO2 sensitivity, leading to the conclusion that “normal breathing in an intact animal requires an intact PBC”.6 However, St. John et al4 contend that an ataxic breathing pattern is evident with lesions at other medullary sites, and we7 found that lesions in rostral medullary nuclei result in transient interruptions of eupneic breathing. In addition, pre-inspiratory neurons rostral to the PBC are capable of generating a respiratory rhythm.8, 9
Elementary Excitations in Very Thin Superfluid 4He Films

We present high precision measurements of third sound velocity in 4He films between 0.1 K and 1.5 K for superfluid surface densities between .16 atomic layers and 5.25 atomic layers. By reformulating Landau’s quantum hydrodynamics using only the area density we have been able to use these measurements to describe an elementary excitation spectrum and to add a surface roton branch.
Pyramid-Based Fully Convolutional Networks for Cell Segmentation

The low contrast and irregular cell shapes in microscopy images cause difficulties to obtain the accurate cell segmentation. We propose pyramid-based fully convolutional networks (FCN) to segment cells in a cascaded refinement manner. The higher-level FCNs generate coarse cell segmentation masks, attacking the challenge of low contrast between cell inner regions and the background. The lower-level FCNs generate segmentation masks focusing more on cell details, attacking the challenge of irregular cell shapes. The FCNs in the pyramid are trained in a cascaded way such that the residual error between the ground truth and upper-level segmentation is propagated to the lower-level and draws the attention of the lower-level FCNs to find the cell details missed from the upper-levels. The fine cell details from lower-level FCNs are gradually fused into the coarse segmentation from upper-level FCNs so as to obtain a final precise cell segmentation mask. On the ISBI cell segmentation challenge dataset and a newly collected dataset with high-quality ground truth, our method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
Development of a Discontinuous Galerkin Time Domain Solver on a staggered grid for pan-spectral single scattering analysis

The present work discusses the progress made in the development of a Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) solver in the time domain on a staggered grid specifically tailored towards the scattering of electromagnetic radiation by nonspherical particles.
Push dose pressors: Experience in critically ill patients outside of the operating room.

Abstract Purpose Evaluate push dose vasopressor (PDP) practice patterns, efficacy, and safety in critically ill patients. Methods Critically ill patients receiving phenylephrine or ephedrine PDP from November 2015–March 2017 were included. Patient demographics, medication administration details, vital signs pre- and post-administration, adverse effects, and medications errors were collected. Descriptive data are presented and comparisons were made with paired samples t-test, Wilcoxon Rank Sum and Chi-squared analysis or Fisher's Exact Test as appropriate. Results A total of 146 patients (155 PDP events) were included; mean age 64.5 ± 13.3 years and 66.4% males, respiratory failure (39.8%) or sepsis (24.9%) admission diagnosis. The surgical intensive care unit (ICU) (44.5%) and medical ICU (33.6%) used PDPs most often, and during the peri-intubation period (57.3%) or for other transient hypotension (38.2%). Following PDP, mean systolic blood pressure (BP), diastolic BP, and heart rate (HR) increased 32.5% (80 to 106 mmHg), 27.2% (48 to 61 mmHg), and 6.4% (93 to 99 bpm), respectively. There were 17 (11.6%) adverse events; most often related to excessive increases in BP or HR and one incidence of dysrhythmia. Thirteen patients (11.2%) had a dose related medication error (phenylephrine dose >200 μg or ephedrine dose >25 mg), nine (6.2%) received PDP with normal/elevated hemodynamics (systolic BP > 100 mmHg or HR > 160 bpm) and 15% while on a continuous infusion vasopressor. Conclusion PDPs were used in a variety of patient diagnoses and for select indications. Overall, they were efficacious but associated with adverse drug events and medication errors.
Optimal Energy Management for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle with a Power Split Supercharger

This work investigates the utilization of a micro-hybrid mechanism on fuel economy improvement of a vehicle with a downsized engine. The micro-hybrid system, configured with a motor, a planetary gear set and a supercharger, permits switching between parallel hybrid operation and boosting but not both. This constrained flexibility offers additional degrees of freedom, yet it requires a highly optimized decision of which functionality, torque assist or boost assist, in addition to how much energy to be used by each functionality. This unique power split supercharger (PSS) enables the use of a downsized engine as a competitive counterpart to widely used turbochargers and further implements micro-hybrid functionalities such as start-stop, regenerative braking and limited torque assist. The optimal control problem for energy management of a vehicle with an automatic transmission is formulated and solved using dynamic programming (DP) over standard drive cycles. The results indicate 25.2% fuel consumption reduction compared to a baseline turbocharged engine over the FTP75 drive cycle. It is also shown that for the range of operating points that can be realized with both torque assist and boosting, torque assist is often the optimal operating mode and boosting is mostly used when the required torque exceeds the torque of the naturally aspirated engine plus the motor, hence points to a simple strategy that can be near optimal.
A stochastic programming model with endogenous uncertainty for incentivizing fuel reduction treatment under uncertain landowner behavior

Abstract Reducing the potential damage caused by a wildfire is a problem of significant importance to land and fire managers. Fuel reduction treatment is a well-known method of reducing the risk of fire occurrence and spread on landscapes. However, officials seeking fuel reduction treatments on privately owned lands can only encourage it through incentive programs such as cost-share programs. This research developed a methodology that provides the basis for a decision-making tool to help managers allocate limited cost-share resources among a set of landowners to maximize wildfire risk reduction by implementing a hazardous fuel reduction treatment. A key feature of the methodology is that it incorporates uncertainty in the landowners’ decision of whether or not to implement treatment on their lands. The methodology is based on a stochastic programming model with endogenous uncertainty where the probability that a landowner accepts a cost-share offer to implement a fuel reduction treatment on their land depends on the offer amount. To estimate the probability that a landowner accepts a given cost-share offer amount, we used a predictive modeling technique to analyze landowner survey data. The results provide insight about the effects of different cost-share allocation strategies on the expected damage. Numerical experiments show that the risk-based allocation provides up to 37.3% more reduction in damage compared to other strategies that allocate equal cost-share amounts among landowners. Additionally, the results show that the solution quality is substantially sensitive to changes in the number of resource allocation levels.
Historical sociology and the prism of biography : Lillian Wineman and the trade in Dakota Beadwork, 1893-1929

How can researchers learn about the social lives of people and cultures who leave little or no written record of their lives? This article introduces the idea that one person's partially documented life story can serve as a kind of prismatic tool, illuminating a multitude of historical and sociological paths of inquiry about her contemporaries which might otherwise prove elusive. Breaking with traditional historical and sociological methods, it shifts the focus from how biography can illustrate social theory or serve as a case to represent a group, treating it instead as a critical “point of entry” into a newly refracted, freshly observed array of social processes and relationships.
Radiation Carcinogenesis. Introductory Remarks

Nuclear energy is expected to provide a large fraction of the future electrical energy requirements of the world. The projected health risk of nuclear energy, compared to other electrical energy sources, is currently of much concern. The health risk concerning lung cancer is particularly important. Uranium miners have an excess of lung cancer attributed to cigarette smoking and inhalation of uranium mine air contaminants, including radon and its alpha-emitting decay products and uranium ore dust. Animal studies reported at this symposium confirmed that inhalation of radon and its daughter products alone may cause lung cancer. Experiments to evaluate the role of other uranium air contaminants and cigarette smoking in the carcinogenic process are now in progress. Future nuclear reactor fuels will contain several other alpha-emitting radionuclides. Although these radionuclides have not yet been shown to be carcinogenic in people, papers in this symposium report that inhalation of alpha-emitting radionuclides (239Pu, 238Pu, 244Am, 241Am, and 210Pu) cause dose-related increased incidence of lung cancer in experimental animals. These studies are providing data necessary to assess the risk of lung cancer related to nuclear energy and to evaluate the role of radiation related to the overall lung cancer related health problem.
The unique challenges of planning a New Town: the Gandhinagar experience

The New Town of Gandhinagar was built in the 1960s as the capital of Gujarat state in western India with a spacious, modern character. Over the next four decades, it developed as an administrative center, but due to development restrictions and rigid periphery control, it was not able to effectively respond to regional growth pressures. The objective of Gandhinagar’s Development Plan for 2011 was to transform it from an administrative center into a thriving and economically vibrant community able to accommodate the demands of a rapidly urbanizing economy. This plan marked a departure from the state-led master planning and development based on eminent domain, and adopted a land readjustment mechanism for urban expansion. It applied a place-based approach to preserve the formal character of the capital city, while at the same time transform the quality of its built environment. This paper provides insights into the unique challenges of re-planning a planned New Town, and particularly highlights the opportunities that urban design scenarios provide to planners to meet a variety of planning objectives. A decade later, implementation success has been limited to urban expansion areas with the realization that the legacy of state-led development is not easily overcome without accompanying institutional changes.
Cyberbullying and Its Relationship to Current Symptoms and History of Early Life Trauma: A Study of Adolescents in an Acute Inpatient Psychiatric Unit.

BACKGROUND Cyberbullying has received wide media attention and appears to be linked to frequent adverse consequences, with multiple suicides reported. This study examined the prevalence of cyberbullying among adolescent psychiatric inpatients and related it to social media usage, current levels of symptoms, and histories of adverse early life experience. METHODS Data on the prevalence of social media utilization and cyberbullying victimization were collected from adolescent psychiatric inpatients aged 13 to 17 years from September 2016 to April 2017. Fifty adolescent psychiatric inpatients completed 2 surveys assessing childhood trauma (the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire) and the Cyberbullying Questionnaire. RESULTS Twenty percent of participants (10/50) had been victimized by cyberbullying. Access to and engagement in social media or Internet-based communication was extremely common, with most participants engaging on a daily basis or more frequently in at least 1 social media activity. Those who had been bullied endorsed significantly higher scores on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anger, and fantasy dissociation scales than those who were not bullied (all P values < .05). Subjects who reported having been victims of cyberbullying endorsed significantly higher levels of lifetime emotional abuse on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire than those who were not bullied (P = .013); however, they did not report a significantly higher level of the other types of trauma (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, or physical neglect). More bullied than nonbullied subjects had clinically and statisticallysignificant elevations in hyperresponse, PTSD, and depression scale scores (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS Being cyberbullied was associated with greater psychiatric symptom severity. Further, histories of emotional abuse were correlated with recent cyberbullying. These data suggest that individuals with histories of childhood trauma also seem vulnerable to continued adverse experiences during adolescence.
In Difference: The Vernacular Then and Now

While vernacular broadly connotes localized nonstandard cultural formations, in the crucible of British colonialism the vernacular emerged as a regulative category indispensable to colonial governa...
Inflammatory bowel disease–like conditions after organ transplantation

Abstract The association between organ transplantation (SOT) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is in multiple folds: (1) the patient undergoes OT with existing IBD; (2) patient develops de novo IBD or IBD-like conditions; (3) the use of antirejection medicine can cause IBD or IBD-like conditions; and (4) immunosuppressive agents may lead to infections, neutropenia, and immune deficiency, mimicking IBD. Those IBD-like conditions can be associated with SOT or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Small and large bowels are the most common locations for the disease involvement, which is fortunately accessible to upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy. Endoscopic and histologic evaluation plays a key role in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis.
Serial Interval and Reproductive Number of COVID-19 Among 116 Infector-infectee Pairs - Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, China, 2020.

What is already known about this topic? The key epidemiological parameters including serial interval, basic reproductive number (R0), and effective reproductive number (Rt) are crucial for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) control and prevention. Previous studies provided different estimations but were often flawed by some limitations such as insufficient sample size and selection bias. What is added by this report? In this study, a total of 116 infector-infectee pairs meeting strict inclusion criteria were selected for analysis. The mean serial interval of COVID-19 was 5.81 days (standard deviation: 3.24). The estimated mean with 95% confidence interval of R0 was 3.39 (3.07–3.75) and 2.98 (2.62–3.38) using exponential growth (EG) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods, respectively. The Rt in the early phase of the epidemic was above 1 with the peak of 4.43 occurring on January 8, and then showing subsequent declines and approaching 1 on January 24. What are the implications for public health practices? This study supports previous findings that COVID-19 has high transmissibility and that implementing comprehensive measures is effective in controlling the COVID-19 outbreak.
Academia Shrugs: how Addressing Systemic Barriers to Research Efficiency and Quality Teaching Would Allow Criminology to Make a Broader Difference

Critics have challenged that academics in the fields of criminal justice and criminology inadequately impact society due to their focus drifting from research and teaching practices that make a broader difference. Though the field produces research that sometimes affects policy and often directs students towards successful and fulfilling careers, there is legitimacy to the claim that faculty energies are only partially tied to meaningful difference-making efforts. If criminology fails to successfully focus and, thus, fails to make a difference, all members of the profession bear a degree of responsibility. However, there are numerous structural factors that serve to distract, redirect, and hinder faculty members from successfully serving their students and broader society via their research and teaching. Put simply, “academia shrugs.” It fails to adequately reward impactful work while creating obstacles and tasks with no meaningful significance. Using Ayn Rand’s, 1957 novel as a framework, the destruction of motivation in the field is discussed before exploring bureaucracies, practices, and mindsets that weaken the field’s ability to foster success. Specifically, the work identifies administrative bloat, academic redundancies, accreditation dichotomies, overinvestment in faculty governance, biased research, piecemeal publishing, and arcane teaching evaluation practices as contributing to the problem. Broader concerns about the field’s effectiveness are remedied, not by retreating to Galt’s Gulch or engaging in a strike of the mind, but by eliminating these and other similar factors.
The R-enantiomer of ketorolac reduces ovarian cancer tumor burden in vivo

Rho-family GTPases, including Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1 (Rac1) and cell division control protein 42 (Cdc42), are important modulators of cancer-relevant cell functions and are viewed as promising therapeutic targets. Based on high-throughput screening and cheminformatics we identified the R-enantiomer of an FDA-approved drug (ketorolac) as an inhibitor of Rac1 and Cdc42. The corresponding S-enantiomer is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with selective activity against cyclooxygenases. We reported previously that R-ketorolac, but not the S-enantiomer, inhibited Rac1 and Cdc42-dependent downstream signaling, growth factor stimulated actin cytoskeleton rearrangements, cell adhesion, migration and invasion in ovarian cancer cell lines and patient-derived tumor cells. In this study we treated mice with R-ketorolac and measured engraftment of tumor cells to the omentum, tumor burden, and target GTPase activity. In order to gain insights into the actions of R-ketorolac, we also performed global RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis on tumor samples. Treatment of mice with R-ketorolac decreased omental engraftment of ovarian tumor cells at 18 h post tumor cell injection and tumor burden after 2 weeks of tumor growth. R-ketorolac treatment inhibited tumor Rac1 and Cdc42 activity with little impact on mRNA or protein expression of these GTPase targets. RNA-seq analysis revealed that R-ketorolac decreased expression of genes in the HIF-1 signaling pathway. R-ketorolac treatment also reduced expression of additional genes associated with poor prognosis in ovarian cancer. These findings suggest that R-ketorolac may represent a novel therapeutic approach for ovarian cancer based on its pharmacologic activity as a Rac1 and Cdc42 inhibitor. R-ketorolac modulates relevant pathways and genes associated with disease progression and worse outcome.
Primary osteosarcoma of the parietal bone

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone tumor and usually involves the long bones. Osteosarcoma of the skull, on the other hand, is relatively rare. Here, we present a 29-year-old man with a growing mass in the skull he first noticed after a fall while skateboarding. The initial clinical diagnosis was hematoma. While undergoing an evacuation surgery for a hematoma, a suspicious mass was detected which was biopsied. Histopathological evaluation showed high-grade osteosarcoma. The patient was referred to our hospital where he underwent definitive resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. His course was complicated by wound infection. Even though osteosarcoma of the skull is a rare finding, it should be suspected in a patient with a skull mass, and the history of prior head trauma does not exclude the diagnosis.
Barriers and opportunities for nontraditional social work during COVID-19: Reflections from a small LGBTQ+ nonprofit in Detroit

COVID-19 has significantly changed individual lives and organizational structures throughout the world. Certain regions and populations, however, have experienced the effects of this global pandemi...
Punch-Drunk or Drunken Boxing? The Etiology of Alcohol-Related Physical Violence through Adolescence and Young Adulthood.

Alcohol-related physical violence (ARPV) can be a causal consequence of alcohol consumption, but only for specific individuals (e.g., those predisposed to violence). Studies have not accounted for ...
Why Race and Ethnicity Are Not Like Other Risk Factors

Since early in the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been wide disparities observed between different US racial groups’ rates of Covid-19 infections and deaths. This challenges physicians and patients to untangle what these race-associated risks mean for an individual patient. I argue that this task of providing individualized risk advice requires physicians to apply two skills: structural competency (an understanding of how societal features affect health, since race-associated risks are the result of social conditions, not innate biological differences) and epistemic humility (being mindful of the limitations of individual knowledge and a habit of working collaboratively to get the knowledge that is needed).
Nivolumab in combination with cabozantinib for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer: a phase II and biomarker study.

This single-arm phase II study investigated the efficacy and safety of cabozantinib combined with nivolumab in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC). The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) by RECIST 1.1. Biopsies at baseline and after cycle 1 were analyzed for tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), PD-L1, and whole-exome and transcriptome sequencing. Only 1/18 patients achieved a partial response (ORR 6%), and the trial was stopped early. Toxicity led to cabozantinib dose reduction in 50% of patients. One patient had a PD-L1-positive tumor, and three patients had TILs > 10%. The responding patient had a PD-L1-negative tumor with low tumor mutational burden but high TILs and enriched immune gene expression. High pretreatment levels of plasma immunosuppressive cytokines, chemokines, and immune checkpoint molecules were associated with rapid progression. Although this study did not meet its primary endpoint, immunostaining, genomic, and proteomic studies indicated a high degree of tumor immunosuppression in this mTNBC cohort.
Fake News Detection Through Topic Modeling and Optimized Deep Learning with Multi-Domain Knowledge Sources

Increased internet access has exacerbated the severity of fake news on social media leading to employing advanced deep learning methods using large-scale data. Most of these methods rely on supervised models, demanding a large volume of training data to avoid overfitting. This paper presents Fake news Identification using Bidirectional Encoder Representations from the Transformers (BERT) model with optimal Neurons and Domain knowledge (FIND), a two-step automatic fake news detection model. To accurately detect it, the FIND approach applies a deep transformer model such as the BERT with the large-scale unlabeled text corpus to facilitate the classification model, and the Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic detection model to examine the influence of the article’s headline and the body individually and collaboratively. The proposed FIND approach outperforms the existing exBAKE approach in terms of 10.78% of the greater F-score.
Introduction to Controversial Sharp Waves or Spike Patterns

The designation “controversial EEG wave forms” refers to a number of EEG patterns that tend to be more frequently detected in psychiatric populations and their association with epilepsy is weak, if at all. Included under this category are the Small Sharp Spikes (SSS), the Mitten pattern, the 6–7 and 14 positive spikes (PS), the six per second spike and waves (6/s SpW), Wicket Spikes (WS), and the Rhythmic Mid-Temporal Discharges (RMTD). It is of great interest that these waveforms have generated such heated arguments and almost all of them have two designations indicative of whether or not the speaker believes they have any clinical relevance. For example, using the term Benign Epileptiform Transients of Sleep (BETS) to refer to the SSSs would indicate that the speaker does NOT believe that this wave form has any clinical relevance. For more expanded discussion please refer to Hughes and Wilson (1983) and Hughes (1994). In the next four chapters examples of these patterns are given. The most important message is that these patterns are relatively more difficult to detect particularly to the unexperienced or hurried EEG reader. Additional examples of these patterns can be found in Gibbs and Gibbs (1964).
Effects of Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights on the research and development expenditure of Indian pharmaceutical industry

Objectives This article investigates the factors that affect the research and development (R&D) expenditure of Indian pharmaceutical industry before and after the introduction of Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights, January 1995. Methods The firm level data were obtained from the Prowess database published by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. Different econometric modelling techniques are used. Key findings and conclusions Results show that a stricter intellectual property right regime increases the R&D investment of domestic and exporting firms. Results also show that firms with high marketing and advertising expenditure invest more in R&D. This indicates that more active firms performed more R&D.
19 Hepatitis C virus infection and alcohol

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the relationship between alcohol consumption and chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Although alcohol use can be expressed in a number of ways, it is average daily consumption that has been applied most often to studies of liver disease. People who drink—particularly who drink excessively—are more likely to be infected with HCV, probably because of increased exposure to the virus rather than increased susceptibility. A substantial proportion of cirrhosis among alcoholics can actually be attributed to HCV infection. Alcohol consumption at a level that can cause cirrhosis also increases the risk of cirrhosis in persons infected with HCV. It is unclear whether there is an interaction between these two factors such that the risk of cirrhosis is increased disproportional to the amount of alcohol consumed in patients with chronic hepatitis C. In addition, it is unknown whether there is a safe level of drinking in persons with hepatitis C. Heavy alcohol consumption may increase the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, but much of this risk can be attributed to an increased risk of cirrhosis.
Ceramics As Electrical Materials

Ceramic materials contribute important component functions, including resistance, capacitance, magnetic inductance, and environmental sensing to a variety of microelectronics applications. The material choice may be based on dominant magnetic, ferroelectric, piezoelectric, pyroelectric, electrooptic, electrochemical, mechanical, or thermal properties, but the underlying function of primary importance is the electrical conductivity, which determines overall insulation behavior and device utility. Since the components are typically shaped by ceramic processes, understanding of their properties require detailed knowledge of the composition, crystal structure, microstructure, and processing conditions. The role of defects and substitution (stoichiometry) is important also in controlling electrical conduction, especially for materials containing one or more cations of variable valence. Defects likewise play a major role in the performance of ceramic sensor devices, which serve as the detecting or switching element in many circuit operations. The sensing operation is typically based on a sharp change in electrical conduction, which reflects a significant change in the thermal, chemical, mechanical, optical, electrical, or magnetic environment of the device. In this article, the basic definitions of electrical terms relating to conduction, dielectric, magnetic, and sensor properties are presented, but the primary focus is on the influence of the materials characteristics on the electrical properties detailed above, with emphasis on the electrical conductivity mechanisms for the different categories of materials. Keywords: Ceramics; Electrical conduction; Ionic conduction; Fast ion; Conductors; Glass; Electronic conduction; Spinels; Ferrites; Superconductivity; Ferroelectrics; Varistors; Insulation
Christianization and Communication in Late Antiquity: John Chrysostom and his Congregation in Antioch

How did ordinary people and Church authorities communicate with each other in late antiquity and how did this interaction affect the processes of Christianization in the Roman Empire? By studying the relationship between the preacher and his congregation within the context of classical, urban traditions of public speaking, this book explains some of the reasons for the popularity of Christian sermons during the period. Its focus on John Chrysostom's sermons allows us to see how an educated church leader responded to and was influenced by a congregation of ordinary Christians. As a preacher in Antioch, Chrysostom took great care to convey his lessons to his congregation, which included a broad cross-section of society. Because of this, his sermons provide a fascinating view into the variety of beliefs held by the laity, demonstrating that many people could be actively engaged in their religion while disagreeing with their preacher.
A Republic in Time: Temporality and Social Imagination in Nineteenth‐Century America – By Thomas M. Allen

This book stands at the intersection between literature exploring the development of nationalism and studies in sociology and social history that examine the complexity of modern temporal conscious...
The Ironic Defense of Socrates: Plato's Apology

Introduction 1. Title and preliminary considerations 2. Prooemium 3. Prothesis 4. Defense against the charges of the first accusers 5. Defense against the present accusers 6. Digression on nobility and death 7. Epilogue 8. Penalty section 9. Final speech 10. Conclusion: Socrates' human wisdom and knowledge of virtue.
Bacterial c-type cytochromes and pathogenicity

During the course of infection, bacterial pathogens must adjust their metabolism for growth in the host and to counteract host response systems that would otherwise eliminate the pathogen. A group of proteins that can participate in such metabolic shifts are the c -type cytochromes, a widely distributed class of extracellular hemoprotiens involved in many types of redox chemistry, such as respiration and H 2 O 2 scavenging. The c -type cytochromes are characterized by covalently attached heme and are assembled at the cell surface by cytochrome c maturation systems. Several studies have provided insight into the functions of bacterial c -type cytochromes and cytochrome c biogenesis systems in the ability to colonize the host and induce pathogenic damage.
Some fundamental aspects of centrifugally accelerated paper chromatography

Abstract A study has been made of some of the fundamental factors involved in obtaining good separations and reproducible chromatograms, with the technique of contrifugally accelerated paper chromatography. A study was also made of variables which might influence R F values. Mixtures of bromphenol blue, methyl orange and methyl red were fractionated as well as solutions of lencine, methionine and glycine. For the separation of the dyes, Whatman No. 1 filter paper was used with a veronal buffer solution of ionic strength 0.05 and having a pH of 8.7. For this system, it was found that the R F values of the dyes were essentially unaffected by changes in rotational speed of the rotor from 300 to 925 r.p.m. It was found that the rate of addition of solvent was important in developing satisfactory chromatograms. A flow rate of 1.15 ml/min was found to be satisfactory at all rotational speeds above 250 r.p.m. The shape of the developed chromatogram was elliptical rather than circular, for all four types of paper which were studied. For Whatman No.1, the major axis of the ellipse was parallel to the machine direction of the paper. The R F values for the dye components were essentially the same for the following papers: Whatman No. 1, Eaton-Dikeman No. 613, and Cremer-Tiselius-Munktells. The amino-acid mixture was fractionated using Whatman-3MM paper and a solvent system of butanol-glacial acetic acid and water, in the volume ratio 40:10:10, respectively. The disk was rotated at 975 r.p.m. With a solvent flow rate of 1.2 to 2.1 ml/min, sharply defined zones were obtained. The time of development was 15 min for a flow rate of 1.2 ml/min and 7 min for a flow rate of 2.1 ml/min. The R F values obtained were 0.85 for lencine, 0.56 for methionine and 0.20 for glycine.
Optical phase obtained by analogue Hartley transformation

When the two-dimensional Fourier transformation is performed with a lens the optical amplitude and phase in the output plane represent the complex transform. It can be shown that the two-dimensional Hartley transform is mathematically equivalent to the Fourier transform, but is real valued; amplitude alone fully represents everything. This is significant because ordinary optical detectors do not respond to phase. Here we describe the construction of an optical system in the form of a modified Michelson interferometer which physically demonstrates that it is possible to produce the Hartley transform of a plane luminous object. It is thus possible to encode in the form of amplitude the half of the information in a diffraction pattern that normally is carried in the form of phase.