cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Morphology of the Tymbal Organ of the Beet Leafhopper, Circulifer tenellus,

The sound emission apparatus, the tymbal organ, in both sexes of Circulifcr tenellus (Baker) is situated in the 1st abdominal segment. External evidences of the tymbals are the tymbal sclerites and dorsal apodemes. Internally this organ consists of the tymbal muscles, tymbal apodemes, tensor muscles, and an enlarged furca. Histological studies indicated that the apparatus is functionally similar to the tymbal organs of the Cicadidac.
Choline Esterase Activity of Skeletal Muscle in Various Conditions

SummaryThe choline esterase activity of the whole gastrocnemic muscle (TChE) in rats was found to be reduced by approximately one-third after denervation and in nutritional muscular dystrophy. It was slightly lowered after repeated injections of high doses of prostigmine and after adrenalectomy. Single injections of high doses of prostigmine had no such effect.Thymectomy, thyroidectomy, parathyroidectomy, and castration had no effect on the TChE of the rat gastrocnemius.The TChE of the muse, obliqu. inf. Oculi in a patient who died from myasthenia gravis was found to be only half as high as that of the lowest in a series of 12 controls. It was not possible to decide whether or not all of this reduction of the enzyme activity was an effect of prostigmine treatment. The ChE activity in the muscle of a patient dying from hyperthyroidism was within the range of the controls.
Bioengineered Kidney and Bladder

Abstract The kidney and bladder have seen exciting advancements in the field of bioengineering. Rapid developments over the past century in stem cell research, molecular biology, biomaterial synthesis, and bioreactors have brought bioengineered organs from the laboratory to the clinic. With a severe shortage in organ donors and clinical difficulties in managing allogenic transplants, bioengineered organs are a highly sought out solution for patients in end-stage organ failure.
Medical school exposure to spirituality and response to a hypothetical cancer patient.

Background Spiritual and religious issues (SRI) in medical school curricula may promote psychosocial and spiritual sensitivity, but few data exist on this relationship. Method A questionnaire was administered to third-year medical students (response rate = 69.2%). Students indicated exposure to SRI and read a vignette about a hypothetical cancer patient. Results SRI exposure through lectures, small-group discussions, and physician modeling predicted, respectively, likelihood of extra attention toward the patient, conversing with the patient about dying, and praying with the patient. Conclusions Exposure to SRI in medical school may sensitize students to the psychosocial and spiritual needs of dying patients.
Fatigue fracture of the femoral shaft.

Thirty-eight fatigue fractures of the femoral shaft in thirty-five patients are reported on and analyzed. All but one occurred in young men undergoing the first eight weeks of basic military training. The other case was that of a seventeen-year-old youth, who was training for track. The right femoral shaft was involved in thirty fractures and the left in eight; three patients had bilateral fractures. Sixteen fractures were displaced and twenty-two were undisplaced. The most frequently encountered symptom was pain in the knee or thigh with activity. Even when the fatigue reaction or fracture was located in the upper part of the femur, symptoms were often referred to the knee. The most important aspect of treatment is early recognition in order to prevent displacement. For accurate diagnosis, an awareness of the possibility of such a fracture and complete roentgenograms of the femur are essential in patients in whom such a fracture is suspected and who complain of knee pain. Results of treatment have been satisfactory in both the displaced and undisplaced fractures. In undisplaced fractures, curtailment of physical activity by means of bed rest or use of crutches is necessary, depending on the severity of symptoms and roentgenographic appearance. Skeletal traction generally is adequate for treatment of displaced fractures, but, on occasion, open reduction and internal fixation may be employed, depending on the amount of comminution and degree of displacement.
Evaluation and management of the treatment-resistant anxiety disorder patient.

Effective evaluation and management of patients with anxiety disorders require an integrated theoretical model that predicts risk for the disorder as a consequence of constitutional vulnerability shaped by developmental experience and activated or influenced by environmental factors. From this perspective, the author describes a rational therapeutic strategy with treatment-resistant patients. He particularly urges a careful evaluation of risk factors and associated conditions that may contribute to persisting distress
A Hometown Artist of the World: Sabah Naim (Visual Artist in Egypt)

Sabah Naim is now one of the few visual artists from Egypt who has become internationally recognized. You can find her on the Internet: she has exhibited in the famous biennial exhibitions in Venice and Havana, and in many other venues throughout the Middle East and Europe. Her work has sold like hotcakes, and the critics love her. But when I first met her just a few years ago, she was almost completely marginalized in the local Cairo art scene. Her work had been ignored by some of the most important Egyptian curators at the time. They dismissed her as an “ignorant girl” who didn’t know anything about the cosmopolitan world of art that they fancied themselves to be part of. Sabah might not have been “cosmopolitan” in their sense of the word. She lived in a poorer neighborhood of Cairo where few people had completed even secondary education, let alone knew much about the visual arts. She did not speak any Western language and had never traveled outside Egypt. Like many young women her age, she wore a headscarf and talked openly about religious belief and practice. To the Egyptian curators, members of an older generation of elites, this last fact represented all that had gone wrong in Egypt and in many other Muslim-majority countries. But what they did not realize was that Sabah was cosmopolitan in a different way.
Thermal and Chemical Perturbations of Molecular Order at the Interface and in the Alkyl Chain Region of a Lyotropic Liquid Crystal

Magnetic field-orientable lyotropic mesophases are useful both as ordering solvents in NMR spectroscopy and as models for membranes and membrane processes. In NMR studies of the latter category, detailed information concerning the behavior of the alkyl chain of the amphiphilic component of the system is obtainable from the quadrupole splittings of the specifically deuterated chain positions (1). Although this is a highly useful and widely applicable approach it is unable to provide the signs of the order parameters in the general case (unless |s|>.5) where the quadrupole splitting is much greater than the direct and indirect couplings (2). We have now measured the 13C shift anisotropies for positions in the alkyl chain for the laurate amphiphile over a range of temperatures. Not only does this eliminate sign ambiguities in the order parameters for the alkyl chain, it also provides a measure of order and its sign for the carboxyl group. The latter information, which is not otherwise available, makes it possible to characterize the situation at the lipid-aqueous interface, an important consideration for model membrane studies. Conventional high-resolution 13 C NMR techniques are not ordinarily suitable for shift anisotropy determination, in ordered systems but the solid-state proton-enhanced cross-polarization methods (3) have been successfully applied to thermotropic systems and lecithin dispersions (4–7).
A Functional Role for Neural Columns: Resolving F2 Transition Variability in Stop Place Categorization

Documented examples from neuroethology have revealed species-specific neural encoding mechanisms capable of mapping highly variable, but lawful, visual and auditory inputs within neural columns. By virtue of the entire column being the functional unit of both representation and processing, signal variation is collectively ‘absorbed’, and hence normalized, to help form natural categories possessing an underlying physically-based commonality. Stimulus-specific ‘tolerance ranges’ define the limits of signal variation, effectively shaping the functionality of the columnar-based processing. A conceptualization for an analogous human model utilizing this evolutionarily conserved neural encoding strategy for signal variability absorption is described for the non-invariance issue in stop place perception.
Parental Perception of Self-Empowerment in Pediatric Pharmacogenetic Testing: The Reactions of Parents to the Communication of Actual and Hypothetical CYP2D6 Test Results

ABSTRACTConcerns about the ethical and social implications of genetics persist as more applications of genetic and genomic technology have become available. Pediatric testing for genetic influences on response to opioids like codeine is one area of application. We interviewed parents of children enrolled in a mixed-methods study following the communication of actual or hypothetical results for CYP2D6, which impacts opioid response. Forty-one parents of children naive to opioids and 42 parents of children previously exposed to opioids participated in qualitative interviews. Findings did not differ by the child’s opioid exposure or by actual versus hypothetical results. Parents’ responses centered on the experience of the parent(s) and the potential impact of that information on the parent, rather than the result’s impact on the child. Parents also emphasized that the results did not impact their perceptions of the child, reaffirming that the child was still “normal” regardless of test result. When asked ab...
Clinical Decision-Making for Older Patients With Multiple Chronic Conditions: A Case-Based Exercise for Medical Students.

Abstract Introduction Over half of patients over age 65 in the US have multimorbidity, defined as having three or more chronic diseases, but most clinical research on chronic disease management foc...
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Control Evaluations Under Sensor and Actuator Faults.

Nonlinear aircraft controlled by its linearized model based controller will be asymptotically stable if its trajectories originating from various initial conditions are all contained in the stability region (or the region of attraction). In such a stable aircraft, suppose a sensor or an actuator fault occurs. Depending upon the fault size, the stability region is modified. As a result, the trajectories for a potential failure to contain in the modified stability region could lead to flight control degradation. In this paper, first, a stability margin is determined to separate an acceptable fault size from an unacceptable fault. Secondly, with an acceptable fault size, the aircraft will remain stable in distorted stability regions. In this paper, admissible control inputs which generate the perturbed trajectories in the distorted stability regions is presented for safe unmanned aerial vehicle flight control evaluations. A three degree of freedom aircraft in pitch plane is considered to illustrate the stability margins and control inputs that are safe to operate the damaged aircraft.
Autoimmune and Connective Tissue Disease in Skin of Color

The manifestations of autoimmune and connective tissue disease in skin of color populations is multifaceted and unique. Incidence of diseases, such as lupus, morphea, scleroderma, dermatomyositis, and sarcoidosis in ethnic populations has been show to differ in several ways from their Caucasian counterparts. Furthermore, in ethnic groups, disease burden at presentation, severity of disease, prognosis, and disease-specific mortality have been shown to differ between ethnicities, as well when compared to Caucasian populations.
Image segmentation with stochastic magnetic tunnel junctions and spiking neurons

Image segmentation is a crucial pre-processing stage used in many object identification problems. The purpose of image segmentation is to simplify the representation of an image such that it can be more conveniently analyzed in the later stages of a problem. This is generally achieved through partitioning a complicated image into specific groups based on color, intensity or texture of the pixels of that image. Locally Excitatory Globally Inhibitory Oscillator Network or LEGION is one such segmentation algorithm, where synchronization and desynchronization between coupled oscillators are used to segment an image. To extract maximum benefits from the fast parallel processing nature of LEGION, one must resort to a hardware implementation of this architecture. Unfortunately, the present structure of LEGION with relaxation oscillators as nodes, is not ideal for scalable and energy efficient hardware realization of the network. In this work we propose two different networks for image segmentation, one with leaky integrate and fire neurons and the other with stochastic Magnetic Tunneling Junctions (MTJs), both inspired by the operating principles of LEGION. The structure of the proposed networks allows them to be translated into energy efficient and scalable hardware platforms. We demonstrate that the proposed networks can effectively and efficiently segment binary and gray-scale images with multiple objects.
Building a comprehensive team for the longitudinal care of single ventricle heart defects: Building blocks and initial results.

Introduction With increasing survival of children with HLHS and other single ventricle lesions, the complexity of medical care for these patients is substantial. Establishing and adhering to best practice models may improve outcome, but requires careful coordination and monitoring. Methods In 2013 our Heart Center began a process to build a comprehensive Single Ventricle Team designed to target these difficult issues. Results Comprehensive Single Ventricle Team in 2014 was begun, to standardize care for children with single ventricle heart defects from diagnosis to adulthood within our institution. The team is a multidisciplinary group of providers committed to improving outcomes and quality of life for children with single ventricle heart defects, all functioning within the medical home of our heart center. Standards of care were developed and implemented in five target areas to standardize medical management and patient and family support. Under the team 100 patients have been cared for. Since 2014 a decrease in interstage mortality for HLHS were seen. Using a team approach and the tools of Quality Improvement they have been successful in reaching high protocol compliance for each of these areas. Conclusions This article describes the process of building a successful Single Ventricle team, our initial results, and lessons learned. Additional study is ongoing to demonstrate the effects of these interventions on patient outcomes.
Model validation of multi-pulse rectifiers for charging capacitors

It is conceivable that the future fleet of US Navy vessels will deploy multiple high power AC and DC loads that must be reliably energized. Integration and operation of AC and DC loads will likely be achieved using an intelligently controlled microgrid architecture that is able to actively regulate and distribute power from both AC generation sources and DC energy storage devices. Some future loads may utilize intermediate energy storage that is highly capacitive, 10s of mF, and they may operate in a highly transient manner that is very stressful on the shipboard power system. Silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) based, multi-pulse rectifiers that are intelligently controlled, may be an attractive option for regulating AC power to charge capacitive DC loads in a repetitive manner. Though SCR multi-pulse rectifiers are well documented in the literature, there has been no published work found that studies their power quality when they are used to power repetitively operated capacitive loads. The work discussed here is aimed at developing experimentally validated Simulink® models of small scale, ∼ 1 kW, 6, 12, 18, and 24 pulse rectifiers, respectively, when they are used charge repetitive capacitive loads. The simulation models will be discussed along with results collected to date.
Economics of evaluation (with special reference to promotion and tenure committees)

Previous research suggests that universities that fear tenuring bad candidates more than they fear rejecting good candidates would optimally have both department and outside evaluating committees. I find that a higher relative cost of accepting bad candidates is neither necessary nor sufficient for the optimality of more than one committee. Also, with some probability, t, the administration will tenure one with split recommendations from two committees, if one committee is more accurate than the other, one structure will have fewer errors of both types for some range of t, and possibly a lower expected loss from errors for all t.
CLAG3 Self-Associates in Malaria Parasites and Quantitatively Determines Nutrient Uptake Channels at the Host Membrane

Malaria parasites increase host erythrocyte permeability to ions and nutrients via a broad-selectivity channel known as the plasmodial surface anion channel (PSAC), linked to parasite-encoded CLAG3 and two associated proteins. These proteins lack the multiple transmembrane domains typically present in channel-forming proteins, raising doubts about their precise roles. Using the virulent human Plasmodium falciparum parasite, we report that CLAG3 undergoes self-association and that this protein's expression determines channel phenotype quantitatively. We overcame epigenetic silencing of clag3 paralogs and engineered parasites that express two CLAG3 isoforms simultaneously. Stoichiometric expression of these isoforms yielded intermediate channel phenotypes, in agreement with observed trafficking of both proteins to the host membrane. Coimmunoprecipitation and surface labeling revealed formation of CLAG3 oligomers. In vitro selections applied to these transfectant lines yielded distinct mutants with correlated changes in channel activity. These findings support involvement of the identified oligomers in PSAC formation and parasite nutrient acquisition.IMPORTANCE Malaria parasites are globally important pathogens that evade host immunity by replicating within circulating erythrocytes. To facilitate intracellular growth, these parasites increase erythrocyte nutrient uptake through an unusual ion channel. The parasite CLAG3 protein is a key determinant of this channel, but its lack of homology to known ion channels has raised questions about possible mechanisms. Using a new method that allows simultaneous expression of two different CLAG3 proteins, we identify self-association of CLAG3. The two expressed isoforms faithfully traffic to and insert in the host membrane, while remaining associated with two unrelated parasite proteins. Both the channel phenotypes and molecular changes produced upon selections with a highly specific channel inhibitor are consistent with a multiprotein complex that forms the nutrient pore. These studies support direct involvement of the CLAG3 protein in channel formation and are relevant to antimalarial drug discovery projects targeting parasite nutrient acquisition.
Martingales and Weak Convergence

The basic questions dealt with in this book concern approximations of relatively complex processes by simpler and more tractable processes. These simpler processes will usually be diffusions, reflected diffusions, or reflected jump-diffusions. They might be controlled or not controlled. They are of interest to facilitate numerical or mathematical analysis and practical design, or to expose the more important structural properties and parametric dependencies. Some of the basic processes and methods will be introduced in this and in the next chapter. The martingale and Wiener processes are among the most fundamental in stochastic analysis, and the basic ideas are reviewed in Section 1. In the course of the analysis in the succeeding chapters it will be necessary to characterize the various processes that are obtained as limits of the approximation procedures. Of particular concern are methods for verifying that such a process is a Wiener process, and some standard and useful methods are described in Subsection 1.2 and in Section 8. Section 2 gives the basic definitions of the Ito stochastic integral with respect to a Wiener process, in preparation for the discussion of stochastic differential equations in the next chapter. Poisson and other jump processes will occur, for example, in the state-dependent models in Chapter 8, when the servers are subject to interruptions, and in “impulsive” models of arrival processes. The necessary background is dealt with in Section 3, as is the martingale decomposition of a Poisson-type jump process. In Section 4 we state some important results concerning the decomposition of the square of a martingale, and these will be employed in the proofs that certain weak-sense limits are Wiener processes or stochastic integrals.
Elimination of Pits and Subground‐Level Pumprooms

The practice of locating wells and pumping equipment in basements, subground-level pumprooms, or specially constructed pits below ground surface has been followed for many years, and is, to a large extent, still being carried on. It has not been, and is not yet, generally understood that water supplies may become dangerously contaminated through conditions resulting from this type of construction. Consequently, suction pumps and piping and even deepwell pumps have been located in pumprooms below ground. Pits or subground-level pumprooms become receptacles for the accumulation of waste water, and if leaks occur in a suction pipe or well casing which is situated in such pit or pumproom, the contaminating waste water may be drawn into or gain access to the water supply. Experience shows that the special drainage systems which are a necessary adjunct of pit construction, cannot be relied upon, and sooner or later a pit or subground-level pumproom will be flooded with sewage or contaminated water. Flood waters backing up through drains into pits, stoppage in drains, sump pumps that do not function properly, and broken pipings, all have, at one time or another, resulted in the flooding of well or pump pits. Flooded well pits have been involved in large epidemics of water-borne disease. The Mankato (1908) and the Benson (1917) epidemics in Minnesota are examples of the serious results of this type of construction. When a pipe is under a negative head, the action of the forces is toward and into the pipe (figure 1). From a sanitary point of view, the combination of a suction pipe situated in a pit or subground-level pumproom is one of the worst, for the flooded pit usually provides the contamination which will be drawn into the water supply if a leak occurs in the pipe. This identical arrangement caused the Benson epidemic (figure 2). The first step taken to correct this type
Autonomous Manipulation of Movable Obstacles

In this chapter we describe recent progress towards autonomous manipulation of environment objects. Many tasks, such as nursing home assistance, construction or search and rescue, require the robot to not only avoid obstacles but also move them out if its way to make space for reaching the goal. We present algorithms that decide which objects should be moved, where to move them and how to move them. Finally, we introduce a complete system that takes into account humanoid balance, joint limits and fullbody constraints to accomplish environment interaction.
On the Use of Hybrid Vertical Coordinates in Ocean Circulation Modeling

The rationale for building hybrid-coordinate ocean circulation models is discussed in the context of various approaches presently taken to improve mathematical and physical aspects of ocean models. Design choices made in formulating the vertical grid generator, the core component of hybrid models, are laid out. A new experimental approach toward minimizing numerical errors and inconsistencies during simultaneous advection of temperature, salinity and density is presented.
Conformational analysis of a TADDOL-based phosphoramidite P,N ligand in a palladium(II) η3-π-allyl complex

Abstract The most stable conformations of a TADDOL-based phosphoramidite P,N ligand coordinated to a palladium(II) η3-π-allyl fragment have been investigated using molecular mechanical and quantum mechanical calculations. The conformational analysis initially generated 53 unique structures within 5 kcal/mol and subsequent geometry optimization narrowed the number of low-energy conformers down to 13. The two lowest energy conformers differ mainly in the conformation of the allyl group. The conformer with an endo allyl group has a slightly higher relative energy than the conformer with an exo allyl group. Comparison of the main geometric parameters around the Pd(II) metal center in the two lowest energy conformers with the available X-ray single crystal structures of Pd(II) η3-π-allyl complexes of P,N ligands shows a good agreement in both the bond lengths and angles. The lowest energy structure has a “chair” conformation of the seven-membered phospha-dioxa-cycloheptane ring and “edge-on/face-on/face-on/edge-on” arrangement of the phenyl rings. The next lowest energy conformer with an exo allyl group has a “twist” conformation of the seven-membered ring and alternating “edge-on” and “face-on” arrangement of the phenyl rings as anticipated from the Knowles “edge-on/face-on” concept. The results of this study support published hypotheses regarding the origin of the chiral induction in the enantioselective Pd(0) catalyzed intramolecular allylic alkylation reaction by the repulsive interactions between one of the phenyl groups in the seven-membered ring in the lowest energy conformer of the ligand with the substrate. As such, the results of this research can be used to guide the synthesis of new and improved variants of this important catalyst family.
Hydrogen adsorption and reaction on RuO2(110)

Abstract Ruthenium dioxide is used extensively as a co-catalyst in a wide range of photocatalytic water splitting systems. As such, understanding how it promotes the evolution of hydrogen and oxygen is of high importance. In this study, we employ scanning tunneling microscopy to study the adsorption and reaction of hydrogen on a model RuO2(110) surface. We find that at low coverages H2 dissociates heterolytically to hydride‑hydroxyl pairs even at 5 K. The onset temperature for the low coverage H2 dissociation is surprising as it is not expected based on prior temperature programmed desorption studies. At higher coverages, H2 chemisorbs molecularly on bare ruthenium sites that are neighboring the hydride‑hydroxyl pairs. Upon annealing, the chemisorbed H2 disappears by 120 K, primarily due to H2 desorption from the surface. Further annealing between 120 and 295 K leads to the conversion of hydride species to bridging hydroxyls. The bridging hydroxyls ultimately recombine between 450 and 600 K to form water, yielding clean RuO2(110) with oxygen vacancies.
Reduced Neural Sensitivity to Social vs Nonsocial Reward in Schizophrenia

Background Human beings find social stimuli rewarding, which is thought to facilitate efficient social functioning. Although reward processing has been extensively studied in schizophrenia, a few studies have examined neural processes specifically involved in social reward processing. This study examined neural sensitivity to social and nonsocial rewards in schizophrenia. Methods Twenty-seven patients with schizophrenia and 25 community controls completed a One-Armed Bandit Task, an implicit reinforcement learning task, in the scanner. There were 2 conditions with an identical trial structure, one with social rewards and the other with nonsocial rewards. The data were analyzed using a region of interest (ROI) approach, focusing on the ventral striatum, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex. Results Across all 3 ROIs, patients showed reduced activation for social rewards compared to controls. However, the 2 groups showed comparable levels of activation for nonsocial rewards. Within the patient group, levels of neural activation in these ROIs during the social reward condition were associated with better performance. Conclusions This study found reduced neural sensitivity in patients with schizophrenia in key reward-processing regions for social but not for nonsocial rewards. These findings suggest a relatively specific social reward-processing deficit in schizophrenia during an implicit reinforcement learning task.
The relationship between religiosity and work-related ethical beliefs: A tale of two paradigms

We believe the inconsistent results in previous research relating religiosity to ethical outcomes which Hood, Spilka, Hunsberger, and Gorsuch (1996) have characterized as ‘something of a roller coa...
Renal cell carcinoma and brain metastasis: Questioning the dogma of role for cytoreductive nephrectomy.

Abstract Introduction Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) brain metastasis is generally viewed as poor prognostic features and often excludes patients from cytoreductive nephrectomy or participation in clinical trials. We aim to evaluate patients presenting with brain metastasis and their outcomes. Methods Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results-18 registries database was queried for all patients with metastatic RCC from 2010 to 2014. Patients with renal cancer as their only malignancy were included. Information was available for metastatic disease to bone, liver, lung, and brain. Patients were then further stratified into those with isolated brain metastases and those with additional metastasis to other sites as well. Overall survival was compared between groups using logrank analysis. Results A total of 6,667 patients were identified with metastatic RCC. Among them, 775 (12.1%) had brain metastasis at time of diagnosis. Of these patients with brain metastasis, 152 (20.4%) had isolated brain metastasis. Only 23.8% of all patients with brain metastasis underwent cytoreductive nephrectomy, compared to 40.8% of patients with isolated brain metastasis. Patients with brain and other metastasis and brain metastasis only treated by cytoreductive nephrectomy exhibited a median survival of 11 and 33 months, respectively. Those patients who did not undergo cytoreductive nephrectomy experienced a median survival of 4 and 5 months, respectively. Conclusion It appears that selected patients with brain metastasis may experience durable long-term survival. This information may be beneficial for patient counseling, surgical planning, and consideration for inclusion in clinical trials.
Worklife by Occupation Physical Requirements: A Three-State Model

Abstract Do workers in more physically demanding jobs have different worklives than those in more sedentary occupations? To answer this question, we link individual data from the Current Population...
Study of the electrostatic jet initiation in near-field electrospinning.

Abstract Hypothesis The electrostatic initiation of a jet from the meniscus of a polymeric solution is a key step in near-field electrospinning (NFES), however this process is not sufficiently understood to determine a criterion for the critical emitter voltage triggering the jet, nor to optimize the electrodes. It is expected that the jet initiation in NFES is similar to that in cone-jet electrosprays, and can be described with a first principles model. Experiments The electrostatic jet initiation of an SU-8 polymeric solution is studied with two different electrode geometries to quantify the initiation parameters and illustrate the optimization of the electric field. A first-principles model is developed to predict and analyze the initiation. Findings Two jet emission mechanisms are identified: one in which the jet is ejected from a free-standing conical meniscus; and one resulting from the contact of the meniscus with the collector, as it evolves from a spherical to a conical shape. Both are triggered by a critical emitter potential. The former produces the thinnest jets with a diameter that depends on the properties of the fluid, while the latter is an alternative to existing mechanical initiation methods. The model reproduces well the experimental phenomena including the critical voltage.
Calculating Cognitive Augmentation – A Case Study

We are entering an era in which humans will increasingly work in partnership and collaboration with artificially intelligent entities. For millennia, tools have augmented human physical and mental performance but in the coming era of cognitive systems, human cognitive performance will be augmented. We are only just now beginning to define the fundamental concepts and metrics to describe, characterize, and measure augmented and collaborative cognition. In this paper, the results of a cognitive augmentation experiment are discussed and we calculate the increase in cognitive accuracy and cognitive precision. In the case study, cognitively augmented problem solvers show an increase of 74% in cognitive accuracy—the ability to synthesize desired answers—and a 27% increase in cognitive precision—the ability to synthesize only desired answers. We offer a formal treatment of the case study results and propose cognitive accuracy and cognitive precision as standard metrics to describe and measure human cognitive augmentation.
H + transport is an integral function of the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier

The mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier (AAC) is a major transport protein of the inner mitochondrial membrane. It exchanges mitochondrial ATP for cytosolic ADP and controls cellular production of ATP. In addition, it has been proposed that AAC mediates mitochondrial uncoupling, but it has proven difficult to demonstrate this function or to elucidate its mechanisms. Here we record AAC currents directly from inner mitochondrial membranes from various mouse tissues and identify two distinct transport modes: ADP/ATP exchange and H+ transport. The AAC-mediated H+ current requires free fatty acids and resembles the H+ leak via the thermogenic uncoupling protein 1 found in brown fat. The ADP/ATP exchange via AAC negatively regulates the H+ leak, but does not completely inhibit it. This suggests that the H+ leak and mitochondrial uncoupling could be dynamically controlled by cellular ATP demand and the rate of ADP/ATP exchange. By mediating two distinct transport modes, ADP/ATP exchange and H+ leak, AAC connects coupled (ATP production) and uncoupled (thermogenesis) energy conversion in mitochondria.
Sepsis Induces Prolonged Epigenetic Modifications in Bone Marrow and Peripheral Macrophages Impairing Inflammation and Wound Healing.

Objective: Sepsis represents an acute life-threatening disorder resulting from a dysregulated host response. For patients who survive sepsis, there remains long-term consequences, including impaire...
Chapter 5 Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Etiology, Pathogenesis, Clinical Manifestations, and Management

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the etiology, clinical manifestations, genetics, and treatments of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). SLE is an autoimmune disease characterized by widespread inflammation and resultant end-organ damage. The etiology of SLE remains unknown. Although great strides are being made toward clarifying the immune dysregulation seen in SLE, clinical disease expression is the end-result of varied environmental and immunologic stimuli acting on a genetically predisposed individual. Abnormalities of T cells, B cells, dendritic cells, F cγ receptors, pro-inflammatory cytokines, the complement pathway, and apoptosis play a role in the pathogenesis of SLE. As with any chronic medical condition, the treatment of SLE in children is a particular challenge. Treatment of SLE is individually tailored to each patient's clinical manifestations. Corticosteroids remain the first line of treatment for SLE. However, depending upon the extent and severity of internal organ involvement, medication regimens can range from low-dose corticosteroids and anti-malarials to inpatient treatment with pulse methylprednisolone and cytotoxic medications such as cyclophosphamide and rituximab.
Mechanism of Peripheral Nerve Stimulation in Chronic Pain.

Introduction With the advancement of technology, peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) has been increasingly used to treat various chronic pain conditions. Its origin is based on the gate control theory postulated by Wall and Melzack in 1965. However, the exact mechanism behind PNS' analgesic effect is largely unknown. In this article, we performed a comprehensive literature review to overview the PNS mechanism of action. Design A comprehensive literature review on the mechanism of PNS in chronic pain. Methods Comprehensive review of the available literature on the mechanism of PNS in chronic pain. Data were derived from database searches of PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library and manual searches of bibliographies and known primary or review articles. Results Animal, human, and imaging studies have demonstrated the peripheral and central analgesic mechanisms of PNS by modulating the inflammatory pathways, the autonomic nervous system, the endogenous pain inhibition pathways, and involvement of the cortical and subcortical areas. Conclusions Peripheral nerve stimulation exhibits its neuromodulatory effect both peripherally and centrally. Further understanding of the mechanism of PNS can help guide stimulation approaches and parameters to optimize the use of PNS.
Employment and well-being among caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder

We used the 2016–2018 National Survey of Children’s Health to assess restricted work participation among caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and special health care needs (SH...
Exploring College Sports in the Time of COVID-19: A Legal, Medical, and Ethical Analysis

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic threatens the safety of people attending large social gatherings including organized sporting events. As the number of deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19 skyrocketed in March 2020, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) suspended all member colleges’ spring sports seasons. The NCAA has since implemented new guidelines that allow for individual member colleges to make independent decisions about if, and when, to resume their intercollegiate sports programs. This Article explores the implications of resuming intercollegiate sports in the midst of a pandemic from a legal, medical and ethical perspective. The team of scholars who authored this Article include professors at four major public universities, with terminal degrees in the fields of law, medicine, education, and sports management. Adopting a true interdisciplinary approach to the question of how and when to return to sport, the authors collectively express their concerns regarding how NCAA member colleges are approaching the legal and ethical issues surrounding the offering of intercollegiate sports during a pandemic, and propose ten best practices for colleges to determine when and how to resume offering intercollegiate sports.
The Psychometric Properties of the Prioritizing Positivity Scale

The tendency to use pleasant states as a key criterion for how to structure daily life is called prioritizing positivity and has been measured with a 6-item scale. The Prioritizing Positivity Scale...
Capturing the Informal Economy in South Sudan

During the course of my dissertation fieldwork in South Sudan, from 2014 - 2015, I found many discrepancies between the realities I witnessed and encountered on the ground, and the images that were being promulgated by the international community providing aid as well as the journalists reporting on conflict in the country. For outsiders that depend on these constricted views, it is easy to underestimate the level of labor and productivity that occurs in South Sudan to generate income and assume that the majority of citizens are complacently dependent on foreign aid due to underdevelopment and the conflict. Unfortunately, this view was perpetuated at times by the international aid workers that I interviewed, and then exacerbated by representatives of the national government where it was purported that community members were too reliant on the government for services. However, in approaching my research project with an expanded view of what constitutes self-determination, productivity, and growth on the part of communities, I was able to contribute to the documentation of the vital role that community self-determination has in meeting the needs of citizens in areas where governments and NGOs have failed. This narrative is often missing from existing literature, which inherently limits our knowledge of both the historical and contemporary realities we encounter when designing programs, policies, and research studies. Part of the missing narratives is hidden in the informal economy of South Sudan. Parents that I interviewed shared that they worked diligently to ensure their children’s school fees were paid, or medical costs were covered, by pursuing low-cost income-generating activities to raise funds. In order to document and institutionalize these missing narratives, I will argue for the inclusion and valuing of informal economies in current standards and measurements of economic development. Specifically, I will make a case for South Sudan’s extensive informal economy to be considered in country-based assessments and international indices. Given that the majority of the population participates in the informal economy in one form or another, this is a critical tool for policy-makers to possess in order to obtain a holistic perspective of South Sudan.
Human Ubiquilin 2 and TDP-43 copathology drives neurodegeneration in transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a debilitating, fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes rapid muscle wasting. It shares a spectrum of symptoms and pathology with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). These diseases are caused by aberrant activity of a set of proteins including TDP-43 and UBIQUILIN-2 (UBQLN2). UBQLN2 encodes an ubiquitin-like adaptor protein involved in the ubiquitin-proteasome protein degradation pathway. Mutations in the PXX domain of UBQLN2 cause familial ALS. UBQLN2 aggregates in skein-like inclusions with other ALS and FTLD associated proteins including TDP-43 and ubiquitin. To facilitate further investigation of UBQLN2-mediated mechanisms of neurodegeneration, we made Caenorhabditis elegans transgenic lines pan-neuronally expressing human UBQLN2 cDNAs carrying either the wild-type UBQLN2 sequence or UBQLN2 with ALS causing mutations. Transgenic animals exhibit motor dysfunction accompanied by neurodegeneration of GABAergic motor neurons. At low levels of UBQLN2 expression, wild-type UBQLN2 causes significant motor impairment and neurodegeneration that is exacerbated by ALS associated mutations in UBQLN2. At higher levels of UBQLN2 expression, both wild-type and ALS mutated versions of UBQLN2 cause severe impairment. Molecular genetic investigation revealed that UBQLN2 dependent locomotor defects do not require the involvement of the endogenous homolog of TDP-43 in C. elegans (tdp-1). However, co-expression of wild-type human TDP-43 exacerbates UBQLN2 deficits. This model of UBQLN2-mediated neurodegeneration may be useful for further mechanistic investigation into the molecular cascades driving neurodegeneration in ALS and ALS-FTLD.
Redesigning Applied Phonology for a Virtual Classroom: Reimagining Kinesthetic Activities

Engaging a student in active and meaningful learning, which has traditionally occurred in physical spaces, hastranscended. With ongoing advances in technology and recently spurred by an unprecedented pandemic,meaningful learning is transitioning to virtual spaces. By accessing digital tools, course instructors now createengaging online learning spaces where learners invest directly in their own learning by interacting virtually withclassmates and by doing academic activities and socially oriented activities (Bigatel & Edel-Malizia, 2017). Inthese recently created virtual classrooms, course instructors are able to model kinesthetic activities and guideonline learners to use their entire body for doing physical actions that support the processing of new informationsuch as in the teaching of applied phonology. Such educational experiences become further enhanced when thesevirtual learning spaces embody a teaching presence, a social presence, and a cognitive presence. As outlined bythe Community of Inquiry Framework, an instructor’s virtual teaching presence directly affects social presenceand cognitive presence in this mutually shared space (Garrison et al., 2010). Together, these three types ofpresence impact the learners’ sense of community and overall satisfaction with the virtual learning process (Blain,2019). Similar to other course instructors, teacher educators have also been converting their courses to virtualmodalities (Foulger et al., 2017). To that end and as part of a larger study (Prado et al., 2020), the current studydocuments and explores emerging teacher presence during the online transition of an applied phonology coursewhich, for over a decade, has been a major cornerstone within an ESL master’s degree at a university in thesoutheastern United States. This study also examines the corresponding transition in reimagining kinestheticactivities from this course’s former physical space to its redesigned virtual space.
Flooding and Herbivory Interact to Alter Volatile Organic Compound Emissions in Two Maize Hybrids.

Flooding is a major plant abiotic stress factor that is frequently experienced by plants simultaneously with other biotic stresses, including herbivory. How plant volatile emissions, which mediate interactions with a wide range of organisms, are influenced by flooding and by multiple co-occurring stress factors remains largely unexplored. Using Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) (fall armyworm) as the insect pest and two maize (Zea mays, L. Poaceae) hybrids differentially marketed for conventional and organic production, we assessed the effects of flooding, herbivory, and both stress factors on the composition of blends of emitted volatiles. Headspace volatiles were collected from all treatment combinations seven days after flooding. We documented metrics indicative of biomass allocation to determine the effects of individual and combined stressors on plant growth. We also evaluated relationships between volatile emissions and indicators of soil chemical characteristics as influenced by treatment factors. Flooding and herbivory induced the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in similar ways on both maize hybrids, but the interaction of both stress factors produced significantly larger quantities of emitted volatiles. Thirty-eight volatile compounds were identified, including green leaf volatiles, monoterpenes, an aldehyde, a benzoate ester, sesquiterpenes, a diterpene alcohol, and alkane hydrocarbons. The hybrid marketed for organic production was a stronger VOC emitter. As expected, plant biomass was detrimentally affected by flooding. Soil chemical properties were less responsive to the treatment factors. Taken together, the results suggest that flooding stress and the interactions of flooding and insect attack can shape the emission of plant volatiles and further influence insect-plant interactions.
Restorative Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence Experienced in Adulthood: A Scoping Review:

Sexual violence (SV) is a widespread human rights issue. Survivors of SV often experience profound dehumanization and poor health outcomes when their trauma is not properly addressed, rendering it ...
Urethralklappen

Hintere Harnrohrenklappen fuhren aufgrund der Obstruktion zu charakteristischen Veranderungen der Blase und des oberen Harntrakts. Die Blase entwickelt eine muskulare Hyperthrophie, Dilatation der prostatischen Urethra („Schlussellochphanomen“) und eine progressive Hydroureteronephrose. Zeitpunkt und Schwere der Obstruktion bestimmen, welche Veranderungen reversibel sind (Muskelwandhypertrophie, Hydronephrose) und welche nicht (renale Dysplasie).