cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Genetic Diversity in a Bacillus anthracis Historical Collection (1954 to 1988)

Bacillus anthracis, the etiologic agent of anthrax, has been widely described as a genetically monomorphic species. We used both multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) and pagA gene sequencing to determine the genetic diversity of a historical collection of B. anthracis isolates collected from the 1950s to the 1980s from various geographic locations and sources. We sequenced the pagA gene of 124 diverse B. anthracis isolates and found all previously identified B. anthracis pagA types except type 4. Sixty-three of the 124 B. anthracis strains were identified as pagA type 6, while 44 were pagA type 5, 12 were pagA type 1, and individual isolates were identified for types 2 and 3, respectively. Two new pagA genotypes were discovered in three environmental isolates within the historical collection. Two isolates had the same new genotype, and an additional isolate produced a second new genotype. MLVA detected 22 previously described genotypes in the historical collection. In addition, 33 new MLVA genotypes were found. For 11 isolates, an MLVA genotype could not be assigned because one or more alleles did not amplify. While only two additional B. anthracis pagA types were identified, in two instances, the use of pagA sequencing discriminated isolates with the same MLVA genotype. MLVA revealed that 39 of the 124 isolates were previously undocumented genotypes and that 1 isolate was found to be in the C cluster when it was subtyped by MLVA.
How residents learn predicts success in surgical residency

Background Predictors of success in surgical residency have been poorly understood. Previous studies have related prior performance to future success without consideration of personal attributes that help an individual succeed. Surgical educators should consider how residents learn to gain insight into early identification of residents at risk of failing to complete their surgical training. Methods We examined our 14-year database of surgical resident learning-style assessments, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education operative log data of graduating residents from 1999 to 2012, first time pass rates on the American Board of Surgery Qualifying and Certifying examinations, and departmental records to identify those residents who did not complete their surgery training at our institution. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi-square test, Wilcoxon rank-sum, and regression analysis with significance set at p Results We analyzed 441 learning-style assessments from 130 residents. Surgical residents are predominantly action-based learners, with converging (219, 49.7%) and accommodating (112, 25.4%) being the principal learning styles. Assimilating (66, 15%) and diverging (44, 10%) learning styles, where an individual learns by observation, were less common. Regression analysis comparing learning style with case volume revealed that residents who are action-based learners completed more cases at graduation (p Conclusions Surgical residents are predominantly action-based learners. However, a subset of surgical residents learn primarily by observation. These residents are at risk for a less robust operative experience and not completing surgical training. Learning-style analysis may be utilized by surgical educators to identify the potential at-risk residents in general surgery.
The crystal structures of a hydrolysis product of 2, 8, 9-trioxa -1-phospha-adamantane

Abstract The structure determination by X-ray diffraction of one of the two isomers formed in the hydrolysis of 2,8,9-trioxa-1-phospha-adamantane is reported. The conformation of the isomer 3-α-oxo-3-β-hydrido-7-β- hydroxy-2,4-dioxa-3-phosphabicyclo [3.3.1]nonane, predicted earlier on the basis of infrared and pnmr spectral evidence, is fully confirmed. The structures of both isomeric hydrolysis products are discussed in terms of conformational stability and a proposed mechanism for the reaction. PO4C6H11 crystallizes in space group P212121 with unit cell dimensions 5.84×11.67×10.91 A with four molecules per unit cell(ϱ = 1.59 g/cm3). The intensities of 1007 reflections were measured by counter methods and refined by least squares to a conventional R factors of 6.3%.
Global Estimates for Quasilinear Elliptic Equations on Reifenberg Flat Domains

New global regularity estimates are obtained for solutions to a class of quasilinear elliptic boundary value problems. The coefficients are assumed to have small BMO seminorms, and the boundary of the domain is sufficiently flat in the sense of Reifenberg. The main regularity estimates obtained are in weighted Lorentz spaces. Other regularity results in Lorentz–Morrey, Morrey, and Holder spaces are shown to follow from the main estimates.
Effect of hemorrhage, reinjection of blood and dextran on the reactivity of the sympathetic and para-sympathetic systems.

The posterior hypothalamus and the central end of the sciatic nerve have been stimulated in anesthetized cats before and after bleeding and also after reinjection of blood or Dextran. The sympathetic responses indicated by the contraction of the nictitating membrane (n. m.), the rise in blood pressure and the acceleration of the heart rate are increased after bleeding but diminished after reinjection of blood or Dextran. The parasympathetic reactions resulting in a decrease in heart rate and fall in blood pressure are increased after reinjection and Dextran. These changes are abolished by sino-aortic denervation. The contraction of the denervated n. m. in response to a standard stimulus is increased after bleeding and reduced after injection of Dextran. A pressor response to a hypothalamic stimulus may be converted into a depressor response through injection of blood or Dextran. The experiments illustrate the principle that the autonomic nervous system may be “tuned” via the baroreceptors.
Sufficient conditions for solving linearly constrained separable concave global minimization problems

A concave function defined on a polytope may have many local minima (in fact every extreme point may be a local minimum). Sufficient conditions are given such that if they are satisfied at a point, this point is known to be a global minimum. It is only required to solve a single linear program to test whether the sufficient conditions are satisfied. This test has been incorporated into an earlier algorithm to give improved performance. Computational results presented show that these sufficient conditions are satisfied for certain types of problems and may substantially reduce the effort needed to find and recognize a global minimum.
OPTIMAL METHOD OF URGENT DECOMPRESSION OF THE COLLECTING SYSTEM FOR OBSTRUCTION AND INFECTION DUE TO URETERAL CALCULI

AbstractPurpose: We compare the efficacy of percutaneous nephrostomy with retrograde ureteral catheterization for renal drainage in cases of obstruction and infection associated with ureteral calculi.Materials and Methods: We randomized 42 consecutive patients presenting with obstructing ureteral calculi and clinical signs of infection (temperature greater than 38C and/or white blood count greater than 17,000/mm.3) to drainage with percutaneous nephrostomy or retrograde ureteral catheterization. Preoperative patient and stone characteristics, procedural parameters, clinical outcomes and costs were assessed for each group.Results: Urine cultures obtained at drainage were positive in 69.9% of percutaneous nephrostomy and 19.1% of retrograde ureteral catheterization patients. There was no significant difference in the time to treatment between the 2 groups. Procedural and fluoroscopy times were significantly shorter in the retrograde ureteral catheterization (32.7 and 5.1 minutes, respectively) compared with...
Settlement scaling and increasing returns in an ancient society.

A key property of modern cities is increasing returns to scale—the finding that many socioeconomic outputs increase more rapidly than their population size. Recent theoretical work proposes that this phenomenon is the result of general network effects typical of human social networks embedded in space and, thus, is not necessarily limited to modern settlements. We examine the extent to which increasing returns are apparent in archaeological settlement data from the pre-Hispanic Basin of Mexico. We review previous work on the quantitative relationship between population size and average settled area in this society and then present a general analysis of their patterns of monument construction and house sizes. Estimated scaling parameter values and residual statistics support the hypothesis that increasing returns to scale characterized various forms of socioeconomic production available in the archaeological record and are found to be consistent with key expectations from settlement scaling theory. As a consequence, these results provide evidence that the essential processes that lead to increasing returns in contemporary cities may have characterized human settlements throughout history, and demonstrate that increasing returns do not require modern forms of political or economic organization.
Phylogenetic Comparison of the Methanogenic Communities from an Acidic, Oligotrophic Fen and an Anaerobic Digester Treating Municipal Wastewater Sludge

Methanogens play a critical role in the decomposition of organics under anaerobic conditions. The methanogenic consortia in saturated wetland soils are often subjected to large temperature fluctuations and acidic conditions, imposing a selective pressure for psychro- and acidotolerant community members; however, methanogenic communities in engineered digesters are frequently maintained within a narrow range of mesophilic and circumneutral conditions to retain system stability. To investigate the hypothesis that these two disparate environments have distinct methanogenic communities, the methanogens in an oligotrophic acidic fen and a mesophilic anaerobic digester treating municipal wastewater sludge were characterized by creating clone libraries for the 16S rRNA and methyl coenzyme M reductase alpha subunit (mcrA) genes. A quantitative framework was developed to assess the differences between these two communities by calculating the average sequence similarity for 16S rRNA genes and mcrA within a genus and family using sequences of isolated and characterized methanogens within the approved methanogen taxonomy. The average sequence similarities for 16S rRNA genes within a genus and family were 96.0 and 93.5%, respectively, and the average sequence similarities for mcrA within a genus and family were 88.9 and 79%, respectively. The clone libraries of the bog and digester environments showed no overlap at the species level and almost no overlap at the family level. Both libraries were dominated by clones related to uncultured methanogen groups within the Methanomicrobiales, although members of the Methanosarcinales and Methanobacteriales were also found in both libraries. Diversity indices for the 16S rRNA gene library of the bog and both mcrA libraries were similar, but these indices indicated much lower diversity in the 16S digester library than in the other three libraries.
U.S. Foreign Policy, 1959-80: Impact on Refugee Flow from Cuba

Migration from Cuba to the United States since Castro assumed power, and the characterization of those leaving as refugees, have been strongly affected by U.S. foreign policy concerns. During the 1959-62 migration wave, particularly prior to the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Cubans were welcomed as temporary exiles, likely to topple Castro and return home. The second major migration wave began in 1965, in the midst of a U.S. campaign for systematically isolating and economically depriving Cuba and its citizens. When thousands of those citizens left Cuba, primarily to improve their economic circumstances and rejoin family members, they were welcomed as refugees because of the symbolic value of their rejection of Latin America's only communist state. The third migration wave occurred in 1980, after a decade of detente and gradually improving U.S.-Cuban relations. It served no clear U.S. foreign policy ends and was perceived as helping Cuba rid itself of undesirables. Consequently those arriving recei...
Duplex Scanning of the Carotid Arteries

The past 30 years have seen a significant evolution in the application of noninvasive technology for the diagnosis of extracranial vascular disease with more widespread utilization of direct methods of diagnosis. Of these, duplex scanning has achieved major prominence. In this time, a technology that was initially highly experimental has achieved clinical maturity with validation of its application by many comparative studies. An appreciation of why this technology has enjoyed such acceptance is best obtained by understanding the evolution of the concept of using combined imaging and velocity detection techniques.
Control of many robots moving in the same direction with different speeds: A decoupling approach

This paper considers the problem of controlling a group of microrobots that can move at different speeds but that must all move in the same direction. To simplify this problem, the movement direction is made a periodic function of time. Although the resulting control policy is suboptimal for an infinite-horizon quadratic cost, a bound is provided on how suboptimal it is. This bound is extended to show that, in theory, the design compromise making all robots move in the same direction only increases the expected cost by a factor of at most √2. Results are shown in simulation.
Beyond the Stars: Improving Rating Predictions using Review Text Content.

Online reviews are an important asset for users deciding to buy a product, see a movie, or go to a restaurant, as well as for businesses tracking user feedback. However, most reviews are written in a free-text format, and are therefore difficult for computer systems to understand, analyze, and aggregate. One consequence of this lack of structure is that searching text reviews is often frustrating for users. User experience would be greatly improved if the structure and sentiment conveyed in the content of the reviews were taken into account. Our work focuses on identifying this information from free-form text reviews, and using the knowledge to improve user experience in accessing reviews. Specifically, we focused on improving recommendation accuracy in a restaurant review scenario. In this paper, we report on our classification effort, and on the insight on user-reviewing behavior that we gained in the process. We propose new ad-hoc and regression-based recommendation measures, that both take into account the textual component of user reviews. Our results show that using textual information results in better general or personalized review score predictions than those derived from the numerical star ratings given by the users.
Robust optimization using training set evolution

Training set evolution is an eclectic optimization technique that combines evolutionary computation (EC) with neural networks (NN). The synthesis of EC with NN provides both initial unsupervised random exploration of the solution space as well as supervised generalization on those initial solutions. An assimilation of a large amount of data obtained over many simulations provides encouraging empirical evidence for the robustness of evolutionary training sets as an optimization technique for feedback and control problems.
A Prospective Study of Plasma Selenoprotein P and Lung Cancer Risk among Low-Income Adults

Background: Epidemiologic studies have shown increased risks of lung cancer among adults with low blood levels of selenium, although evidence is inconsistent. In the United States, the incidence of lung cancer is higher and mean serum selenium levels lower among Blacks than Whites, but prior studies have not assessed the selenium–lung cancer association among Blacks. Methods: From the prospective Southern Community Cohort Study, we identified 372 participants who provided blood samples and subsequently developed lung cancer. Selenoprotein P (SEPP1), the most abundant selenoprotein in plasma and a biomarker of selenium nutriture, was measured in the plasma from these individuals and from 716 matched controls. Results: Mean SEPP1 levels were significantly ( P < 0.0001) lower among Blacks than Whites. Conditional logistic regression models accounting for smoking revealed a significant trend of increasing OR of lung cancer with decreasing SEPP1 tertiles among Blacks ( P = 0.0006) but not Whites ( P = 0.69; P interaction = 0.10). The ORs and corresponding 95% confidence intervals of lung cancer risk among those with lowest versus highest tertile levels of SEPP1 were 2.4 (1.5–3.0) among Blacks and 1.1 (0.6–2.1) among Whites. Conclusions: Among a mostly low-income population in the southeastern United States, lower levels of SEPP1 were associated with an increasing risk of lung cancer among Blacks but not Whites. Impact: The combined findings of higher prevalence of low selenium status and higher lung cancer risk associated with low status raise the possibility that selenium deficiency may contribute to observed racial disparities in lung cancer incidence. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 23(7); 1238–44. ©2014 AACR .
PSPMT and photodiode designs of a small scintillation camera for imaging malignant breast tumors

The authors are investigating the concept of utilizing a small gamma ray scintillation camera to help identify and localize malignant breast tumors after a in a mammogram. Excellent sensitivity and specificity for malignant breast tumors has been achieved using conventional nuclear medicine scintillation cameras with certain /sup 99m/Tc-labeled radiopharmaceuticals. However, because of the large size, low image resolution and high cost of these devices, they are not ideal for use in breast imaging in a mammography suite. A dedicated miniaturized camera would allow imaging at angles that are physically impossible with the standard camera. These lateral views would not include the background activity from the heart and liver. In addition, with a potentially higher intrinsic resolution, shorter collimator and if breast compression is applied, a small camera could significantly improve the sensitivity and signal to noise ratio for the scintillation imaging method. The authors are exploring 2 different photodetector technologies for a small prototype camera development. The first uses a position sensitive photomultiplier (PSPMT) as the photodetector, the second, an array of silicon PIN photodiodes (PD). In this report, the authors present imaging results obtained with a NaI(Tl)-PSPMT design, and the design features, expected performance and relevant energy and position measurements obtained for a test CsI(TI)-PD device.
The relationship between student pre‐performance concerns and evaluation apprehension

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between student pre‐performance concerns, student evaluation apprehension, and receiving a grade for a speech. It was hypothesized that in the public speaking course, (a) a positive relationship would exist between student pre‐performance concerns and student evaluation and (b) students who believed their speech was being evaluated for a grade would report a greater amount of pre‐performance concerns than students who believed their speech was not being evaluated for a grade. Both hypotheses were supported. Results are discussed in light of what instructors might do in the classroom to reduce students' pre‐performance concerns.
Disruption of Leptin Receptor–STAT3 Signaling Enhances Leukotriene Production and Pulmonary Host Defense against Pneumococcal Pneumonia

The adipocyte-derived hormone leptin regulates energy homeostasis and the innate immune response. We previously reported that leptin plays a protective role in bacterial pneumonia, but the mechanisms by which leptin regulates host defense remain poorly understood. Leptin binding to its receptor, LepRb, activates multiple intracellular signaling pathways, including ERK1/2, STAT5, and STAT3. In this study, we compared the responses of wild-type and s/s mice, which possess a mutant LepRb that prevents leptin-induced STAT3 activation, to determine the role of this signaling pathway in pneumococcal pneumonia. Compared with wild-type animals, s/s mice exhibited greater survival and enhanced pulmonary bacterial clearance after an intratracheal challenge with Streptococcus pneumoniae. We also observed enhanced phagocytosis and killing of S. pneumoniae in vitro in alveolar macrophages (AMs) obtained from s/s mice. Notably, the improved host defense and AM antibacterial effector functions in s/s mice were associated with increased cysteinyl-leukotriene production in vivo and in AMs in vitro. Augmentation of phagocytosis in AMs from s/s mice could be blocked using a pharmacologic cysteinyl-leukotriene receptor antagonist. Phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and cytosolic phospholipase A(2) α, known to enhance the release of arachidonic acid for subsequent conversion to leukotrienes, was also increased in AMs from s/s mice stimulated with S. pneumoniae in vitro. These data indicate that ablation of LepRb-mediated STAT3 signaling and the associated augmentation of ERK1/2, cytosolic phospholipase A(2) α, and cysteinyl-leukotriene synthesis confers resistance to s/s mice during pneumococcal pneumonia. These data provide novel insights into the intracellular signaling events by which leptin contributes to host defense against bacterial pneumonia.
Cultivating life skills at a project-based charter school

Surveys that focused on academic and life skill development were collected from alumni who attended Avalon Charter School in St Paul, Minnesota. Avalon is a small public charter school that uses project-based learning as their primary teaching method. Forty-two alumni responded to the online survey. Students ranked life skills such as creativity, problem solving, and time management extremely high, whereas academic skills such as note taking and test taking were ranked much lower. Students graduate from this school with a strong sense of purpose and self-confidence, which helps them become productive members of society.
Analytical model for injection-seeded erbium-doped fiber ring lasers

We present a model for the injection seeding of a fiber ring laser. Agreement between theory and experiment is found to be excellent. An injection-seeded fiber laser is attractive for lidar applications requiring narrow linewidth and highly stable peak output wavelength.
The Development of an Emotions Scale for Writers

The Brand Emotions Scale for Writers (BESW) is a 20-item scale designed to measure the emotions of writers (a) immediately before writing (state-before); (b) immediately after writing (state-after); and (c) during the process (trait). The present article describes the development of the BESW and the factor structure of these three different forms. Common factors analyses (orthogonal rotation), which yielded two factors for each of the three forms- state-before, state-after, and trait when writing-accounted for 36%, 42%, and 44% of the total variance, respectively. The item make-ups of the two factors, labeled positive and negative, were very similar across the three forms. In general, the BESW appears to be an internally consistent instrument capable of measuring positive and negative emotions before and after writing and of reflecting a trait when writing.
Complexes of deoxyribonucleic acid with lysine-rich (f1) histone phosphorylated at two separate sites: circular dichroism studies.

Abstract Samples of lysine-rich (f1) histone from calf thymus were enzymatically phosphorylated at each of two separate serine sites, one toward the N-terminus (ser-37), the other near the center of the molecule (ser-106). In addition, f1 phosphorylated simultaneously at both sites was prepared. Reconstituted complexes of calf thymus DNA with each of these phosphorylated histones were examined by means of circular dichroism. The conformational properties of these complexes were found to depend greatly upon the extent of f1 phosphorylation, but not significantly upon the position of phosphorylation. With each of the monophosphorylated histones, the magnitude of the circular dichroism changes of the DNA in f1-DNA complexes is diminished by approximately the same amount, as compared to nonphosphorylated f1-DNA. Furthermore, at any given f1: DNA ratio, complexes containing doubly phosphorylated f1 exhibit circular dichroic spectra more similar to that of free DNA than to the corresponding monophosphorylated complexes. Doubly phosphorylated f1 is particularly ineffective at inducing conformational distortion of DNA at high f1:DNA ratios. These observations cannot be attributed to reduced binding affinity to DNA for phosphorylated f1. The potential significance of multiple histone phosphorylation in modulating the function of f1 histone is discussed.
Reply to Gilden et al

TO THE EDITOR—Dr Gilden and his group have proposed that persistent or low-grade productive varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection occurs in sensory ganglia of patients with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) [1]. In Nagel’s excellent article [2], an observation that more VZV DNA was present in the saliva of patients with PHN than in saliva from patients without PHN would probably have been interpreted as consistent with this hypothesis, regardless of whether the immune system does or does not control VZV in PHN patients [3]. The fact that the incidence and concentration of prolonged shedding of VZV DNA in saliva was similar in both groups of patients, however, does not support the idea that prolonged replication of VZV causes PHN, although it does not rule it out. We do not know why VZV DNA is present in saliva of patients with herpes zoster and those postinfection [2, 4]. As Dr Gilden and his colleagues note, ganglionitis in PHN has not been directly associated with VZV, possibly, in part, because human ganglia are not readily available for study [1]. Because it is unclear whether the pathogenesis of zoster sine herpete is similar to that of PHN [1], responses to antiviral therapy may not be comparable in each of these conditions. Therefore, because zoster sine herpete responds to antiviral therapy, it does not necessarily follow that PHN will respond in a similar manner. I believe, however, that we can agree that the presence of VZV DNA in saliva and the etiology of PHN remain mysterious and deserve further study [1, 4].
A Review of “The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China”

Chiang Kai-shek has been called many things over the course of his lifetime. During World War II, General Joseph Stilwell famously referred to him as “the Peanut” and “not mentally stable” whereas ...
An extended U2AF 65 –RNA-binding domain recognizes the 3′ splice site signal

How the essential pre-mRNA splicing factor U2AF(65) recognizes the polypyrimidine (Py) signals of the major class of 3' splice sites in human gene transcripts remains incompletely understood. We determined four structures of an extended U2AF(65)-RNA-binding domain bound to Py-tract oligonucleotides at resolutions between 2.0 and 1.5 A. These structures together with RNA binding and splicing assays reveal unforeseen roles for U2AF(65) inter-domain residues in recognizing a contiguous, nine-nucleotide Py tract. The U2AF(65) linker residues between the dual RNA recognition motifs (RRMs) recognize the central nucleotide, whereas the N- and C-terminal RRM extensions recognize the 3' terminus and third nucleotide. Single-molecule FRET experiments suggest that conformational selection and induced fit of the U2AF(65) RRMs are complementary mechanisms for Py-tract association. Altogether, these results advance the mechanistic understanding of molecular recognition for a major class of splice site signals.
Theory of a Plasma induced by Resonance Enhanced Multi- Photon Ionization in Inert Gas

We present a model for the evolution of resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) produced plasma during and after the ionizing laser pulse in inert gas at arbitrary pressures. Our theory includes the complete process of the REMPI plasma generation and losses, together with the changing gas thermodynamic parameters. Plasma expansion represents a classical ambipolar diffusion. Gas heating results in a weak shock or acoustic wave. It is shown that the gas becomes involved in the motion not only by the pressure gradient due to the heating, but also because of momentum transfer from the charged particles to gas atoms. The time dependence of the total number of electrons computed in theory is in agreement with the results of coherent microwave scattering experiments. I. Introduction ecently, a new diagnostics method based on microwave scattering from laser-induced small-volume plasmas has been demonstrated. This approach has the ability to measure the resonance multiphoton ionization (REMPI) signal nonintrusively at high and low pressures with a response frequency high enough to capture the fastchanging plasma dynamics 1-3 . The non-intrusive detection method is based on coherent microwave Rayleigh scattering. Because the REMPI plasma length scale is much smaller than the microwave wavelength, the microwave scattering from the plasma generated by REMPI can be approximated as coherent dipole scattering by a point dipole, when the skin layer of microwave radiation exceeds the plasma scale. In that case, the electric field of the scattered signal is directly proportional to the total number of electrons in the volume 1-3
Zinc oxide nanocluster formation by low energy ion implantation

Variable size nanocluster embedded in silicon substrate were obtained by low energy implantation methods. We used optical spectroscopy to measure the optical properties of the implanted samples. The implantation parameters like the ions energy, dose and sputtering rate were calculated with SRIM [13]. Most of the implanted Zn ions (83%) clustered and oxidized during the implantation process, with the remaining 17% being oxidized during annealing in air.
Sequence-based typing ofLegionella pneumophila isolates from the water of public cooling tower

The aim was to investigate the genetic characteristics of Legionella pneumophila(LP) isolated from cooling tower water of the central air conditioning systems in public place of Wenzhou City by the sequence-based typing(SBT).Seven housekeeping genes including flaA,asd,mip,pilE,mompS,proA,and neuA were amplified by PCR from 31 strains of LP,and then the amplified products were sequenced and the results were compared with the database of EWGLI.Furthermore,genotyping results were analyzed by DNAsp 5.0,BioNumerics 5.1,and SplitsTree.Results showed that among 31 LP strains,11 strains of LP1 were divided into 2 sequence types(STs),and 17 strains of non-LP1 were divided into 8 STs,including 7 new STs and one new allele gene.The neuA gene was not amplified from 3 strains,and hence they were not assigned to a specific genotype.The range of 7 housekeeping genes' nucleotide polymorphism(Pi) was 0.00995(mip) to 0.02311(flaA) with that flaA has the highest nucleotide polymorphism.The genetic evolutionary relationship of the local isolates was obtained by using cluster analysis.In brief,L.pneumophila strains from the cooling tower water in public place in Wenzhou City are related to other domestic and foreign strains,and also have region-specific and genetic diversity.
Health situation of 110 cases of pneumoconiosis from a coal mine enterprise in 2010

[Objective]To learn the health situation of pneumoconiosis patients and pneumoconiosis' progression rules.[Methods]The occupational health examination was performed on pneumoconiosis patients according to the" Occupational Health Surveillance Measures" issued by Ministry of Health.[Results] Among 110 cases of pneumoconiosis patients,the abnormal rates of ECG expression,ultrasound expression,blood pressure readings and blood routine examination were fairly high,which were 72.73%,66.36%,65.45%,60.00%,respectively.Nineteen cases progressed from stageⅠto stage,and the progression rate was 17.27%.The average age(75.68±6.15) of 19 progression cases was significantly higher than the other 91 cases'(71.80±7.69)(P0.05),however there was no significant differences between them about the average age of dust exposure for the first time and the average length of dust exposure.[Conclusion]The health situation of pneumoconiosis patients is not optimistic,pneumoconiosis progress with the time.It's necessary to carry out the occupational health examination regularly and subsequent visit timely for them.
Interacts well with patients

Editor’s Note: Submissions to this column may be in the form of papers, essays, poetry, or other similar forms. Editorial assistance will be provided to develop early concepts or drafts. If you have a potential submission or idea, or if you would like reactions to a document in progress, contact the series editor directly: William D. Grant, EdD, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Department of Family Medicine, 475 Irving Avenue, Suite 200, Syracuse, NY 13210. 315-464-6997. Fax: 315-464-6982. grantw@upstate. edu. Lessons From Our Learners
Neurologic complications of immunosuppressive agents.

Immunosuppressive agents are an integral part of organ transplantation. They are used to protect grafts from rejection as well as to treat or prevent graft-versus-host disease. Those agents most commonly employed in transplantation are cyclosporine, corticosteroids, OKT3 monoclonal antibody, high-dose cytarabine, azathioprine, and antithymocyte globulin. With increasing experience and longer patient survival, the neurologic toxicity of these agents has become a concern.
Variation in the Use of Chemoradiotherapy for Stage II and III Anal Cancer: Analysis of the National Cancer Data Base

Treatment for anal canal cancer has evolved from radical operations to definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT), which allows for sphincter preservation in most patients. The aim of this study was to examine the use of CRT for patients with stage II and III anal cancer, among different patient demographics, geographic regions, and facility types. Utilizing the National Cancer Data Base, we examined patients with stage II and III anal canal squamous cell carcinoma from 2003 to 2010. Via univariate analysis, we examined patterns of treatment by patient demographics, tumor characteristics, geographic region, and facility type (academic vs. community). A multivariable logistic regression model was built to evaluate differences in treatment patterns when adjusting by age, sex, race, comorbidities, and stage. A total of 12,801 patients were analyzed, of which 11,312 (88 %) received CRT. After adjusting for confounders, CRT was less likely to be administered to males [odds ratio (OR) 0.61, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.54–0.69], Black patients (OR 0.70, 95 % CI 0.59–0.83), and those with multiple comorbidities (OR 0.60, 95 % CI 0.51–0.72). CRT was not as widely utilized in the West (OR 0.74, 95 % CI 0.59–0.93), and patients treated in academic-based centers were less likely to receive CRT (OR 0.81, 95 % CI 0.72–0.92). Improved median overall survival was observed when CRT was utilized (p = 0.008). When controlling for age, sex, race, comorbidities, and stage, discrepancies in the use of CRT for anal cancer treatment exist between demographic subtypes, geographical regions, and facility types.
Uncertainty, Indeterminacy, and Agent-Centred Constraints

ABSTRACTCommon-sense morality includes various agent-centred constraints, including ones against killing unnecessarily and breaking a promise. However, it's not always clear whether, had an agent ϕ-ed, she would have violated a constraint. And sometimes the reason for this is not that we lack knowledge of the relevant facts, but that there is no fact about whether her ϕ-ing would have constituted a constraint-violation. What, then, is a constraint-accepting theory (that is, a theory that includes such constraints) to say about whether it would have been permissible for her to have ϕ-ed? In this paper, I canvass various possible approaches to answering this question and I argue that teleology offers the most plausible approach—teleology being the view that every act has its deontic status in virtue of how its outcome (or prospect) ranks, relative to those of its alternatives. So although, until recently, it had been thought that only deontological theories can accommodate constraints, it turns out that tel...
Temporal and spatial variations in sand budgets with application to southern Monterey Bay, California

Abstract Often in calculating a sediment budget there is an unknown contribution, which is ascribed to the residual of the balance, and the budget cannot be fulfilled. The temporal and spatial variations and sediment size within a littoral cell provide additional information to define sediment budgets. The approach here is to consider only medium to coarse sand (grain size > 0.25 mm) over a long time period during significant changes of natural and anthropogenic inputs and losses that allow calculating several budgets to isolate the unknown inputs and outputs to close the system. Considering only medium to coarse sand eliminates including the cross-shore transport of fine sand by waves, which is poorly quantified. To demonstrate these concepts, shoreline recession rates measured over a 101-year time period are used to calculate sediment budgets for southern Monterey Bay, California, littoral cells. The coarse sandy shoreline is backed by extensive bluffs and dunes that reach 44 m in elevation. Intensive sand mining of coarse sand derived directly from the beach and surfzone started in 1927 and continues today. A contribution of about 100 k m 3 /year of medium to coarse sand from the Salinas River is calculated from measured shoreline accretion for the period 1910–1945 starting when the river first flowed into the littoral cell, prior to damming of the river and significant losses owing to sand mining. Sediment budgets are calculated for 1940–1989 and 1989–2011 to spatially identify the loss of about 200 k m 3 /year attributed to different mining operations that captured the littoral transport. The primary contributions of medium to coarse sand to the littoral system is approximately 180 k m 3 /year from the eroding dunes and beaches. Only a quarter of the dune sand is found to be compatible with the coarser beach sand with the finer fraction carried offshore. A conclusion is that sand mining is the cause of the observed high recession rates.
Biomedical Applications of Cucurbiturils and Derivatives

This article covers the biomedical applications of cucurbit[ n ]urils (CB[ n ]) and their derivatives, including acyclic ones, published in the past three years. We first address the remarkable lack of toxicity of CB[ n ]s and the thermodynamics of guest encapsulation as they affect drug recognition. We then discuss the encapsulation of biologically relevant guests, such as drugs, toxins, and peptidic residues, into (1) the cavity of CB[ n ]s and (2) CB[ n ]-containing matrices, such as vesicles and functionalized mesoporous silica. In the first subsection, we show that CB[ n ]s can be used to solubilize hydrophobic drugs, to control the release of DNA- and protein-binding agents upon external stimulation (even site-selectively in some cases) and to alter the electrostatic properties of bioactive agents by encapsulating them. A separate discussion is dedicated to acyclic CB[ n ]s and their applications as neuromuscular blocking reversal agents. In the second subsection, we show that CB[ n ]s can be incorporated into stimulus-sensitive matrices, such as vesicles, nanospheres, and mesoporous silica, which host bioactive agents and can release them slowly. We conclude the article with an account of CB[ n ]-based drug sensing and surface functionalization for the control of cell growth and motion.
Home and Family

Not long after “Beitrag zur Konstitution anorganischer Verbindungen” had assured him a reputation as a scientist of some consequence and after his lectures at the Universitat had proved him to be a professor fulfilling the promising predictions made about him by his teachers, Werner committed himself to Zurich, in which he now felt thoroughly at home, in two decisive ways: he married a Swiss woman, and less than a month later, on Oct. 24,1894, having established himself as a person “of blameless reputation and with an annual income of Fr. 4,000”, he was granted the rights of local (Burgerrecht) and federal (Landrecht) Swiss citizenship. Although it was possible to maintain dual citizenship, Werner chose to renounce his German citizenship, a not unexpected course of action in view of his antagonism toward Germany.
Adolescent Girls’ Sexual Development

Adolescence is a period of development when the body has the most rapid change in physical growth second only to infancy. Along with dramatic physical changes at the entry into adolescence, the adolescent decade is defined by the restructuring of social roles, expectations, and relationships within the family, peer group, and school environment (e.g., Adams, Montemayor, & Gullotta, 1989–2000; Feldman & Elliott, 1990; Graber, Brooks-Gunn, & Petersen, 1996). Notably, the pubertal transition, which has often been used to define the beginning of adolescence, has also been viewed as the impetus for other behavioral and social changes with which puberty co-occurs and precedes (Brooks-Gunn & Petersen, 1983; Petersen & Taylor, 1980). Changes within an individual’s social environment are in some part attributable to the response of family, friends, and teachers to a more adultlike appearance.
The Chiari Malformations: A Historical Context

It was not until the late nineteenth century when reports of hindbrain herniation (Chiari malformations) began to be published. However, even earlier reports can be found in the extant literature. These include a report of hindbrain herniation in association with myelomeningocele by Tulp (1593–1674) in 1641. Cleland and Arnold would also report cases of hindbrain herniation found in patients with myelomeningoceles. Probably the first description of hindbrain herniation in the absence of myelodysplasia was made by Langhans in 1881. However, it was Chiari, 10 years later, who would classify and further our knowledge of these embryologic derailments. Penfield, Gardner, and Van Houweninge Graftdijk would each further our understanding of these malformations via surgical intervention. The evolution of surgery for hindbrain herniation is indebted to pioneers such as those described herein. Our current understanding and treatment of these embryological derailments are based on years of observation and surgical trial and error.
384. Findings From a Candida auris Admission Screening Pilot in New York State

Background Candida auris is an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast which can spread within healthcare facilities and is associated with significant morbidity. Over 160 clinical cases have been reported in NYS. This pilot aims to assess the feasibility of C. auris admission screening and to better understand its role in controlling spread of C. auris in an area where it has emerged.
Benzocyclohex-1-en-3-yne at High Temperature

Generation of benzocyclohex-1-en-3-yne in two ways leads to naphthalene and methyleneindene (benzofulvene). Labeling studies favor a multistep mechanism involving an initial electrocyclic ring opening, and carbene−alkene interconversions.
Measuring light absorption by freshly emitted organic aerosols: Optical artifacts in traditional solvent-extraction-based methods

Abstract. Recent studies have shown that organic aerosol (OA) could have a nontrivial role in atmospheric light absorption at shorter visible wavelengths. Good estimates of OA light absorption are therefore necessary to better estimate radiative forcing due to these aerosols in climate models. One of the common techniques used to measure OA light absorption is the solvent extraction technique from filter samples which involves the use of a spectrophotometer to measure bulk absorbance by the solvent-soluble organic fraction of particulate matter. Measured solvent-phase absorbance is subsequently converted to particle-phase absorption coefficient using scaling factors. The conventional view is to apply a correction factor of 2 to absorption coefficients obtained from solvent-extracted OA based on Mie calculations. The appropriate scaling factors are a function of biases due to incomplete extraction of organic carbon (OC) by solvents and size-dependent absorption properties of OA. The range for these biases along with their potential dependence on burn conditions is an unexplored area of research. Here, we performed a comprehensive laboratory study involving three solvents (water, methanol, and acetone) to investigate the bias in absorption coefficients obtained from solvent-extraction-based photometry techniques as compared to in situ particle-phase absorption for freshly emitted OA from biomass burning. We correlated the bias with OC∕TC (total carbon) mass ratio and single scattering albedo (SSA) and observed that the conventionally used correction factor of 2 for water and methanol-extracted OA might not be extensible to all systems, and we suggest caution while using such correction factors to estimate particle-phase OA absorption coefficients. Furthermore, a linear correlation between SSA and the OC∕TC ratio was also established. Finally, from the spectroscopic data, we analyzed the differences in absorption Angstrom exponents (AAE) obtained from solution- and particulate-phase measurements. We noted that AAE from solvent-phase measurements could deviate significantly from their OA counterparts.
Efficient Convex Relaxations for Streaming PCA

We revisit two algorithms, matrix stochastic gradient (MSG) and $\ell_2$-regularized MSG (RMSG), that are instances of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) on a convex relaxation to principal component analysis (PCA). These algorithms have been shown to outperform Oja’s algorithm, empirically, in terms of the iteration complexity, and to have runtime comparable with Oja’s. However, these findings are not supported by existing theoretical results. While the iteration complexity bound for $\ell_2$-RMSG was recently shown to match that of Oja’s algorithm, its theoretical efficiency was left as an open problem. In this work, we give improved bounds on per iteration cost of mini-batched variants of both MSG and $\ell_2$-RMSG and arrive at an algorithm with total computational complexity matching that of Oja's algorithm.
Durable and ductile double-network material for dust control

Abstract Dust generation is a world-wide issue due to its serious deleterious effects on the environment, human health and safety, and the economy. Although various dust suppression methods have been used for decades, some critical drawbacks in state-of-the-art technology still remain unsolved, such as short-lasting, ground water impact, and prone to water. This work reports a soil stabilizer based on non-toxic material and forms a ductile and durable double-network in soil, namely “D3 soil stabilizer”, which not only improves soil mechanical toughness of surface soil but also suppresses dust generation. A copolymer comprising hydrophilic and hydrophobic components combined with enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation is utilized as an in-situ gelation binder to soil particle. The tunable hydrophobic-to-hydrophilic component ratio minimizes undesirable soil matrix expansion and mechanical strength loss upon experiencing wet-dry processes, while still retains good water affinity. We further demonstrated controllable treatment depth by fine-tuning precursor composition, which is essential to minimize environmental impact. The double-network morphology with carbonate precipitate embedded uniformly in polymer matrix is observed via microscopic imaging. The nature of outstanding ductility, high durability against water, and good long-term stability were supported by systematic unconfined compressive strength (UCS) measurements on treated soil, which show strong inter-particles binding, good retention of peak strength, increased strain at peak strength, and increased toughness after soil samples have experienced wet-dry processes.