cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Accurate Atom-by-Atom Predictions of Solvation Electrostatics Using a Hydration-Shell Poisson-Boltzmann Model

Traditional Poisson-Boltzmann models of molecular electrostatics fail to model the behavior of the hydration-shell solvent, which deviates significantly from bulk. Here we present a hydration-shell Poisson-Boltzmann (HSPB) model that accounts for these deviations by perturbing the displacement-field boundary condition. The HSPB model correctly predicts charging free energies for Born ions, amino acids in multiple protonation states, and challenging test cases for charge-hydration asymmetry. Remarkably, the model achieves this accuracy using standard Lennard-Jones radii from molecular-dynamics force fields, and thus it has an order of magnitude fewer fitting parameters than traditional PB theories. Free-energy calculations in explicit solvent establish that HSPB also accurately predicts the charging free energies of individual atoms in biological molecules.In contrast, calculations using the traditional Poisson--Boltzmann model indicate substantial errors in intramolecular screening. The HSPB model's accuracy in predicting free-energy changes recommend it for drug design and protein engineering applications, where electrostatic contributions to binding are often assessed relative to hydrophobic isosteres.
Physiologic Consequences of Tracheal Intubation

Many principles that originate in the operating room and in fluid mechanics modeling are relevant to endotracheal intubation in the pulmonary and critical care setting. These factors should be appreciated by pulmonologists and intensivists, as they may contribute to improved safety during the process of airway access. The usual reflex responses to stimulation of oropharyngeal and upper airway receptors include glottic closure, hypertension, tachycardia, and reflex bronchoconstriction. These reflexes can be modified by technical or pharmacologic reduction of sensory receptor stimulation or by parenteral agents, which diminish efferent responses, including anesthetics, vasoactive drugs, and adrenergic blockers. Topical anesthesia and parenteral sedatives may be the preferred agents when overall risk and benefit are considered. Intubation also has consequences related to a reduction in airway caliber, to changes in respiratory mechanics, and to the creation of turbulent airflow in the endotracheal tube.
Selective attention in young women awakened from nocturnal sleep.

BACKGROUND Selective attention, the ability to focus on relevant stimuli for information processing while ignoring irrelevant stimuli, is pertinent to many human activities. However, there have been few attempts to measure circadian influences on selective attention. METHODS As part of a larger protocol, 14 female subjects spent 3 nights at a General Clinical Research Center. On a given night, subjects were awakened at either 24:00, 03:00, or 06:00 hours and administered a computerized flankers task using two levels of spacing for the flankers ("near", 0.75 degrees; and "far", 1.5 degrees) and three types of flanker trials (compatible, incompatible, and neutral). Before sleeping on the first or second night, subjects were also administered the flankers task at 21:00. RESULTS Neutral flanker trials resulted in faster reaction times (RTs) at 21:00 than the three nighttime conditions. The flanker effect (i.e., the difference between compatible and incompatible trials) was also significantly smaller in the 21:00 condition, but did not differ among the other three conditions. An effect component analysis indicated significantly more interference than facilitation. For incompatible/far trials, there was a trend toward a slowing down of RT across the four time conditions. CONCLUSION The present study demonstrated that the flankers task, which measures selective attention, may be a relevant measure of performance in circadian studies. The analyses suggest increases in RT if subjects are awakened from a bout of sleep, and if these results are confirmed, failures of selective attention mechanisms to inhibit stimuli that require a competing response when subjects are awakened from sleep.
Who Looks Suspicious? Racialized Surveillance in a Predominantly White Neighborhood

In recent decades, neighborhoods across the United States have begun to employ digital media to monitor their communities for outsiders who are seen as suspicious. Yet, little is known about these ...
Metatranscriptome analysis of active microbial communities in produced water samples from the Marcellus Shale

Controlling microbial activity is a primary concern during the management of the large volumes of wastewater (produced water) generated during high-volume hydraulic fracturing. In this study we analyzed the transcriptional activity (metatranscriptomes) of three produced water samples from the Marcellus Shale. The goal of this study was to describe active metabolic pathways of industrial concern for produced water management and reuse, and to improve understanding of produced water microbial activity. Metatranscriptome analysis revealed active biofilm formation, sulfide production, and stress management mechanisms of the produced water microbial communities. Biofilm-formation and sulfate-reduction pathways were identified in all samples. Genes related to a diverse array of stress response mechanisms were also identified with implications for biocide efficacy. Additionally, active expression of a methanogenesis pathway was identified in a sample of produced water collected prior to holding pond storage. The active microbial community identified by metatranscriptome analysis was markedly different than the community composition as identified by 16S rRNA sequencing, highlighting the value of evaluating the active microbial fraction during assessments of produced water biofouling potential and evaluation of biocide application strategies. These results indicate biofouling and corrosive microbial processes are active in produced water and should be taken into consideration while designing produced water reuse strategies.
Random versus Cell Cycle-Regulated Replication Initiation in Bacteria: Insights from Studying Vibrio cholerae Chromosome 2

Bacterial chromosomes initiate replication at a fixed time in the cell cycle, whereas there is generally no particular time for plasmid replication initiation or chromosomal replication initiation from integrated plasmids. In bacteria with divided genomes, the replication system of one of the chromosomes typically resembles that of bacteria with undivided genomes, whereas the remaining chromosomes have plasmid-like replication systems. For example, in Vibrio cholerae, a bacterium with two chromosomes (chromosome 1 [Chr1] and Chr2), the Chr1 system resembles that of the Escherichia coli chromosome, and the Chr2 system resembles that of iteron-based plasmids. However, Chr2 still initiates replication at a fixed time in the cell cycle and thus offers an opportunity to understand the molecular basis for the difference between random and cell cycle-regulated modes of replication. Here we review studies of replication control in Chr2 and compare it to those of plasmids and chromosomes. We argue that although the Chr2 control mechanisms in many ways are reminiscent of those of plasmids, they also appear to combine more regulatory features than are found on a typical plasmid, including some that are more typical of chromosomes. One of the regulatory mechanisms is especially novel, the coordinated timing of replication initiation of Chr1 and Chr2, providing the first example of communication between chromosomes for replication initiation.
Drying and carbonation shrinkage of cement paste containing alkalis

In this work, shrinkage performance of ordinary portland cement (OPC) paste containing various alkali salts was characterized at two drying conditions, namely: nitrogen gas and air. The results show that incorporation of alkalis dramatically increases shrinkage magnitude, but reduces shrinkage kinetics of OPC, regardless of source and type of alkalis (e.g. Na+ or K+). The amount of alkalis bound in the solid hydrated phases, rather than the free alkalis remaining in the pore solution, is crucial in controlling the shrinkage performance of OPC. It is suggested that the alkali enrichment in OPC increases the visco-elastic/visco-plastic compliance (reduce creep modulus) of its solid skeleton under drying-induced internal stresses. This phenomenon is likely to be attributed to the alkalis binding in calcium–silicate–hydrate (C–S–H), which promotes the packing of C–S–H nanoparticles. Carbonation results in shrinkage (i.e. carbonation shrinkage) in plain OPC, but expansion in OPC with alkali enrichment. The overall volume change of OPC due to carbonation may be a result of competition between dissolution-induced shrinkage and crystallization-induced expansion.
Duplex Ultrasound Findings in Intravenous Drug Users with Femoral Vein Injection

Introduction—Intravenous drug users (IVDUs) who access their common femoral vein (CFV) repetitively are at risk for a variety of vascular complications. Duplex ultrasound is often the initial imagi...
Optical see-through vs. spatial augmented reality simulators for medical applications

Currently healthcare practitioners use standardized patients, physical mannequins, and virtual patients as surrogates for real patients to provide a safe learning environment for students. Each of these simulators has different limitation that could be mitigated with various degrees of fidelity to represent medical cues. As we are exploring different ways to simulate a human patient and their effects on learning, we would like to compare the dynamic visuals between spatial augmented reality and a optical see-through augmented reality where a patient is rendered using the HoloLens and how that affects depth perception, task completion, and social presence.
Effort-based predictors of headwater stream conditions: comparing the proximity of land use pressures and instream stressors on macroinvertebrate assemblages

Environmental agencies are often faced with resource and time constraints in assessing waterbody health. We compared the strengths of varying levels of effort (field measures, laboratory chemistry, land use, and multiple combinations of these) to explain macroinvertebrate assemblage response along a gradient of urban land use intensity among 30 headwater streams in northern West Virginia. Because the spatial arrangement of human disturbance can govern biotic response, land use effects were analyzed at five spatial scales (whole catchment, and 100 m buffer zone at three fixed upstream distances and total stream network upstream of site); instream ecological measures included physical habitat, algal concentrations and water chemistry. Of the five spatial scales, we predicted that riparian land use nearest the site would explain the most variation but that instream measures would be the overall driver of the macroinvertebrate assemblages. Regression analysis evaluated the strength of single and multiple variables in explaining macroinvertebrate multimetric index (MMI) and ordination patterns, and revealed that assemblages were highly responsive to numerous stressors. In contrast to predictions, total upstream network riparian forest cover explained the most variation overall (83%) while specific conductance was the single best instream measure (64%). Stepwise regression models using combinations of field, laboratory, and land use variables all performed reasonably well but we found that a 3-variable model [% forest (catchment), road density, and specific conductance] that minimized colinearity and cost/effort explained 90% of the variation in the MMI. Validation and spatial autocorrelation results suggest that this model could potentially be used to forecast stream condition for prioritizing conservation and remediation efforts in headwaters within the ecoregion, and our general approach would be broadly applicable in other settings.
Exploring the Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Hope.

To explore the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and hope, a convenience sample of caregivers bringing in children for medical investigation of child abuse at a regional child advocacy center were surveyed for adverse childhood experiences and dispositional hope. Hope in this sample had a significant negative correlation to the adverse childhood experiences subscale "abuse" (r = -.19; p < .05). The relationship between hope and the other adverse childhood experiences subscales "neglect" (r = -.14) and "dysfunctional family" (r = -.16) was not statistically significant. An analysis of variance was performed to determine if caregivers who have experienced both sexual and physical abuse (M = 29.67; SD = 15.96) have lower hope scores compared to those caregivers who have experienced neither physical nor sexual abuse (M = 42.64; SD = 18.44). This analysis (F (1, 84) = 5.28; p < 0.05) showed that caregivers who experienced both physical and sexual abuse scored significantly lower on hope compared to their counterparts who experienced no adverse events, with an estimated effect size of moderate strength (d = 0.70). Higher adverse childhood experiences scores are associated with lower hope. This result was especially true for those adult caregivers who reported experiencing both physical and sexual abuse when compared to adults who did not experience either form of child trauma. While the empirical literature continues to demonstrate the negative consequences of adverse childhood experiences across the life span, hope offers a compelling new line of inquiry in child maltreatment research especially for studies targeting prevention or intervention.
Transient dynamics of eccentric double emulsion droplets in a simple shear flow

Three-dimensional numerical simulations are used to study the dynamics of an eccentric nested liquid droplet of three immiscible fluids. An orbiting trajectory is found if the inner drop offset is in the plane of shear, and a drift away from center is found for an offset along the vorticity direction.
From Eternity to Here: In Search of the Origins of Secularism

This article puts forth a hypothesis about the theological origins of liberalism and secularism that offers an alternative to standard accounts of the intellectual origins/theological foundations of liberalism and of political theology which see the two as separate and mutually exclusive. On my hypothesis, the emergency theory of the state associated with political theology and the liberal theory of the state are (or were at their point of origin) the same thing. The hypothesis is that the theory that the state must be secular (and must be founded on principles of due process and religious pluralism, which come to be associated with liberalism) derives from a particular tradition of thought which itself derives from the theological doctrine of divine accommodation, versions of which are found in both Christian and Jewish sources. Building on the work of Amos Funkenstein and others who have shown how modern scientific thought derives from this “secularist theology,” I propose that modern political and legal thought does, too. More specifically, I aim to show how the liberal theory of the state derived from theological propositions about the divinely authorized need to suspend divine law and replace it with human legal institutions that accommodate to human needs and imperfections, including the limitations of the human mind. I thereby propose an answer to the mystery of how Christianity became, in Samuel Moyn’s words, “terrestrialized,” that is, how it “birthed liberalism” and secularism, which locates that birthplace in the doctrine of divine accommodation and the theological tradition of accomodationist thought.
A predictive model for serous epithelial ovarian cancer chemo-response using clinical characteristics

One of the prognostic factors most highly associated with ovarian cancer survival is response to initial chemotherapy. Current prediction models of chemo-response built with comprehensive molecular datasets, like The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), could be improved by including clinical and outcomes data designed to study response to treatment. The objective of this study was to create a prediction model of ovarian cancer chemo-response using clinical-pathological features, and to compare its performance with a similar TCGA clinical model.
Dynamic linear response of a shock/turbulent-boundary-layer interaction using constrained perturbations

Comprehensive experimental and computational investigations have revealed possible mechanisms underlying low-frequency unsteadiness observed in spanwise homogeneous shock-wave/turbulent-boundary-layer interactions (STBLI). In the present work, we extend this understanding by examining the dynamic linear response of a moderately separated Mach 2.3 STBLI to small perturbations. The statistically stationary linear response is analysed to identify potential time-local and time-mean linear tendencies present in the unsteady base flow: these provide insight into the selective amplification properties of the flow at various points in the limit cycle, as well as asymmetry and restoring mechanisms in the dynamics of the separation bubble. The numerical technique uses the synchronized large-eddy simulation method, previously developed for free shear flows, significantly extended to include a linear constraint necessary for wall-bounded flows. The results demonstrate that the STBLI fosters a global absolute linear instability corresponding to a time-mean linear tendency for upstream shock motion. The absolute instability is maintained through constructive feedback of perturbations through the recirculation: it is self-sustaining and insensitive to external forcing. The dynamics are characterized for key frequency bands corresponding to high–mid-frequency Kelvin–Helmholtz shedding along the separated shear layer , low–mid-frequency oscillations of the separation bubble and low-frequency large-scale bubble breathing and shock motion , where the Strouhal number is based on the nominal length of the separation bubble, : . A band-pass filtering decomposition isolates the dynamic flow features and linear responses associated with these mechanisms. For example, in the low-frequency band, extreme shock displacements are shown to correlate with time-local linear tendencies toward more moderate displacements, indicating a restoring mechanism in the linear dynamics. However, a disparity between the linearly stable shock position and the mean shock position leads to an observed asymmetry in the low-frequency shock motion cycle, in which upstream motion occurs more rapidly than downstream motion. This is explained through competing linear and nonlinear (mass depletion through shedding) mechanisms and discussed in the context of an oscillator model. The analysis successfully illustrates how time-local linear dynamics sustain several key unsteady broadband flow features in a causal manner.
Searching for new regimes in microresonator frequency combs using a pulsed pump laser

We show how microresonators driven by optical pulses enable the efficient, low-power generation of Kerr solitons and potentially open the door to new nonlinear regimes. We observe two new kinds of low-noise Kerr frequency combs.
Article: Making Sense of High School Speech after Morse v. Frederick

Second, Fraser and Hazelwood created some confusion over how to analyze student speech rights, and in particular which case - Tinker, Fraser, or Hazelwood - should govern the typical high school speech case. Indeed, a close reading of Morse suggests that viewpoint restrictions on core speech will certainly be subject to the Tinker standard, in which schools can prohibit speech only when it poses a very real threat to substantially interfere with school operations or would infringe on the rights of other students. In doing so, the Court stated that student speech rights must be analyzed in the context of the educational needs of schools, and, in particular, the school officials' need to maintain discipline and order. Roberts then concluded that drug abuse is a serious and real problem facing schools, justifying restrictions on student speech advocating illegal drug use, stating: The "special characteristics of the school environment," and the governmental interest in stopping student drug abuse, allow schools to restrict student expression that they reasonably regard as promoting illegal drug use. In the same way, his concurrence in Morse can be read as affirming student speech rights, but Alito saw the banner displayed by Frederick as a narrow exception, both because of the nature of the speech itself and because of the critical school interest in combating drug abuse. Thus, the type of balancing contemplated in Morse is really reserved for speech restrictions that do not involve either a school-created speech forum nor school-sponsored speech. Of the five decisions, Mergens is the only one that directly involved student speech in high schools, and the only one based on statutory, rather than constitutional, free speech rights. Parks, the Fourth Circuit held a policy unconstitutional that said a school could prohibit distribution only if the principal could "forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities." This quote from Tinker suggests two possible justifications to restrict student speech, even speech that concerns core political or religious messages, or commentary on social issues. Thus, the court rejected the broader principle that any derogatory statements aimed at individuals or groups could be prohibited, stating that t-shirts saying, "Young Republicans Suck," or "Young Democrats Suck" would be protected speech, since such messages would not be "sufficiently damaging to the individual or to the educational process" to justify restrictions.
Critical Replications for Statistical Design

While writing a new book [Wiley ’87] I found several distinct statistical problems, each with a separate solution, but all in need of a higher principle of justification. I looked in vain into statistics for a higher principle or criterion which we need to serve as a common foundation for those similar solutions. Then I thought that “falsifiability” could be borrowed from the logic of scientific discovery, from the philosophy of science, if adopted in a suitably modified form to our needs in statistical design. However, discussions and correspondence with several philosophers of science and several statisticians suggested that I was wrong in trying to stretch falsifiability to cover our needs in statistics. I may also have been wrong in believing that falsifiability was both well known, well established, and well accepted as a logical principle of scientific discovery. Thus I am forced to propose a new name: Critical Replication. I can suggest several alternative names, some suggested by others, and ask for your preferences: sturdiness, robustness, resilience; sturdy conditioning, (re)conditioning, probing, replicability, generalizability, multiplicity.
Aging and Technological Advances: Human Factors

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of some of the major topics addressed by the human factors study group at the NATO Symposium on “Aging and Technological Advances.” The authors have used as a framework the individual presentations and discussion of that study group, but the content represents our own assimilation of the group’s deliberations, plus other relevant material that arose in the context of the overall symposium.
Comparing the number of judges and court staff across European countries1

This paper raises some methodological issues when a comparative approach is used to compare the number of judges and court personnel in European judiciaries. Data come from the Commission for the E...
Diagnostic yield of head CT in pediatric emergency department patients with acute psychosis or hallucinations

Children presenting to the emergency department with acute psychosis or hallucinations sometimes undergo a head CT to evaluate for a causative lesion. The diagnostic yield of head CT in this scenario has not been reported. To determine the yield for head CT in children with acute psychosis or hallucinations. We retrospectively searched the radiology report database over a 7.5-year period for head CT reports for pediatric emergency department patients using the following keywords: hallucination, psychosis, psychotic or “hearing voices.” All reports were categorized as normal or abnormal, and we reviewed and categorized the abnormal cases. We calculated the 95% confidence interval for abnormal CTs using the method of Clopper and Pearson. We identified 397 pediatric emergency department head CTs. We excluded one non-diagnostic exam. We excluded 34 additional cases (which were all normal) because of clinical indications that might have independently triggered a head CT. Of the remaining 362 cases, 12 reports described abnormalities or variants and we reviewed them individually. Based on consensus review, four were normal, four had congenital malformations, three had encephalomalacia versus demyelination and one demonstrated cortical atrophy. There were no cases with actionable findings such as mass, hemorrhage, infection or hydrocephalus. The 95% confidence interval for a CT demonstrating causative findings was calculated at 0–0.82%. In the absence of concerning factors such as focal neurological deficits, evidence of central nervous system infection, trauma or headache, routine screening head CT might not be warranted in children presenting with acute psychosis or hallucinations.
Disentangling elevational richness: a multi‐scale hierarchical Bayesian occupancy model of Colorado ant communities

Understanding the forces that shape the distribution of biodiversity across spatial scales is central in ecology and critical to effective conservation. To assess effects of possible richness drivers, we sampled ant communities on four elevational transects across two mountain ranges in Colorado, USA, with seven or eight sites on each transect and twenty repeatedly sampled pitfall trap pairs at each site each for a total of 90 d. With a multi‐scale hierarchical Bayesian community occupancy model, we simultaneously evaluated the effects of temperature, productivity, area, habitat diversity, vegetation structure, and temperature variability on ant richness at two spatial scales, quantifying detection error and genus‐level phylogenetic effects. We fit the model with data from one mountain range and tested predictive ability with data from the other mountain range. In total, we detected 105 ant species, and richness peaked at intermediate elevations on each transect. Species‐specific thermal preferences drove richness at each elevation with marginal effects of site‐scale productivity. Trap‐scale richness was primarily influenced by elevation‐scale variables along with a negative impact of canopy cover. Soil diversity had a marginal negative effect while daily temperature variation had a marginal positive effect. We detected no impact of area, land cover diversity, trap‐scale productivity, or tree density. While phylogenetic relationships among genera had little influence, congeners tended to respond similarly. The hierarchical model, trained on data from the first mountain range, predicted the trends on the second mountain range better than multiple regression, reducing root mean squared error up to 65%. Compared to a more standard approach, this modeling framework better predicts patterns on a novel mountain range and provides a nuanced, detailed evaluation of ant communities at two spatial scales.
The tumor suppressor p53 can promote collective cellular migration

Loss of function of the tumor suppressor p53 is known to increase the rate of migration of cells transiting the narrow pores of the traditional Boyden chamber assay. Here by contrast we investigate how p53 impacts the rate of cellular migration within a 2D confluent cell layer and a 3D collagen-embedded multicellular spheroid. We use two human carcinoma cell lines, the bladder carcinoma EJ and the colorectal carcinoma HCT116. In the confluent 2-D cell layer, for both EJ and HCT cells the migratory speeds and effective diffusion coefficients for the p53 null cells were significantly smaller than in p53-expressing cells. Compared to p53 expressers, p53-null cells exhibited more organized cortical actin rings together with reduced front-rear cell polarity. Furthermore, loss of p53 caused cells to exert smaller traction forces upon their substrates, and reduced formation of cryptic lamellipodia. In the 3D multicellular spheroid, loss of p53 consistently reduced collective cellular migration into surrounding collagen matrix. As regards the role of p53 in cellular migration, extrapolation from the Boyden chamber assay to other cellular microenvironments is seen to be fraught even in terms of the sign of the effect. Together, these paradoxical results show that the effects of p53 on cellular migration are context-dependent.
GenomeWarp: an alignment-based variant coordinate transformation

Summary Reference genomes are refined to reflect error corrections and other improvements. While this process improves novel data generation and analysis, incorporating data analyzed on an older reference genome assembly requires transforming the coordinates and representations of the data to the new assembly. Multiple tools exist to perform this transformation for coordinate-only data types, but none supports accurate transformation of genome-wide short variation. Here we present GenomeWarp, a tool for efficiently transforming variants between genome assemblies. GenomeWarp transforms regions and short variants in a conservative manner to minimize false positive and negative variants in the target genome, and converts over 99% of regions and short variants from a representative human genome. Availability and implementation GenomeWarp is written in Java. All source code and the user manual are freely available at https://github.com/verilylifesciences/genomewarp. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The famine of forte: Few search problems greatly favor your algorithm

Casting machine learning as a type of search, we demonstrate that the proportion of problems that are favorable for a fixed algorithm is strictly bounded, such that no single algorithm can perform well over a large fraction of them. If an algorithm greatly excels on a class of problems (e.g., convex problems), that class must necessarily be small. We give an upper bound on the expected performance for a search algorithm as a function of the mutual information between the target and the information resource (e.g., training dataset), proving the importance of certain types of dependence for machine learning. Lastly, given that the expected per-query probability of success for an algorithm is mathematically equivalent to a single-query probability of success under a distribution (called a search strategy), we prove that the proportion of favorable strategies is also strictly bounded. Thus, whether one holds fixed the search algorithm and considers all possible problems or one fixes the search problem and looks at all possible search strategies, favorable matches are exceedingly rare. The forte (strength) of any algorithm is quantifiably restricted.
Digital holography efficiency measurements with excess noise

In this paper, we use digital holography (DH) in the off-axis image plane recording geometry with a 532 nm continuous-wave laser to measure the system efficiencies (multiplicative losses) associated with a closed-form expression for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Measurements of the mixing efficiency (36.8%) and the reference noise efficiency (74.5%) provide an expected total system efficiency of 22.7%±6.5% and a measured total system efficiency of 21.1%±6.3%. These total noise efficiencies do not include our measurements of the signal noise efficiency (3%-100%), which are highly dependent on the signal strength and become significant for SNRs>100. Thus, the results confirm that the mixing efficiency is generally the dominant multiplicative loss with respect to the DH system under test; however, excess reference and signal noise are significant multiplicative losses as well. Previous results also agree with these experimental findings.
Aristotle and Iranian Ethicists: Friendship as a Moral and a Political Paradigm

From Aristotle to the end of the Middle Ages, friendship was considered to be a core notion in Western political philosophy. However, as Von Heyking and Avramenko argue, friendship has lost its prominent politico-philosophical status in the modern era, particularly in the Western liberal tradition. In the Muslim tradition, and specifically in the history of Iranian thought, friendship as a moral paradigm went through a different course of development. In this article, I will present a comparative view of friendship as reflected in the works of Aristotle and three major Iranian ethicists: Ab? ?Al? A?mad Miskawayh (d. 1030), Ab??l-Q?sim ?usayn al-R?ghib al-Isfah?n? (d. ca. 1108) and Na?ir al-D?n ??s? (d. 1274). I will examine friendship-related perspectives rooted in the Irano-Islamic philosophical traditions that represent a significant but overlooked dimension of Iranian cosmopolitanism valuable for modern peacemaking approaches beyond such concepts as: “justice before peace,” “liberal peace” and “cold peace.”
Self-Management Tasks of Adult Patients with Phenylketonuria: Needs Assessment for a Food Tracking Application:

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a lifelong condition resulting from impaired metabolism of the amino acid phenylalanine (Phe). To avoid neurological damage, patients must adhere to a low-Phe diet that sev...
Driven by Data or Derived Through Physics? A Review of Hybrid Physics Guided Machine Learning Techniques With Cyber-Physical System (CPS) Focus

A multitude of cyber-physical system (CPS) applications, including design, control, diagnosis, prognostics, and a host of other problems, are predicated on the assumption of model availability. There are mainly two approaches to modeling: Physics/Equation based modeling (Model-Based, MB) and Machine Learning (ML). Recently, there is a growing consensus that ML methodologies relying on data need to be coupled with prior scientific knowledge (or physics, MB) for modeling CPS. We refer to the paradigm that combines MB approaches with ML as hybrid learning methods. Hybrid modeling (HB) methods is a growing field within both the ML and scientific communities, and are recognized as an important emerging but nascent area of research. Recently, several works have attempted to merge MB and ML models for the complete exploitation of their combined potential. However, the research literature is scattered and unorganized. So, we make a meticulous and systematic attempt at organizing and standardizing the methods of combining ML and MB models. In addition to that, we outline five metrics for the comprehensive evaluation of hybrid models. Finally, we conclude by shedding some light on the challenges of hybrid models, which we, as a research community, should focus on for harnessing the full potential of hybrid models. An additional feature of this survey is that the hybrid modeling work has been discussed with a focus on modeling cyber-physical systems.
Clinical Laboratory Employees' Attitudes Toward Artificial Intelligence.

Objective The objective of this study was to determine the attitudes of laboratory personnel toward the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the laboratory. Methods We surveyed laboratory employees who covered a range of work roles, work environments, and educational levels. Results The survey response rate was 42%. Most respondents (79%) indicated that they were at least somewhat familiar with AI. Very few (4%) classified themselves as experts. Contact with AI varied by educational level (P = .005). Respondents believed that AI could help them perform their work by reducing errors (24%) and saving time (16%). The most common concern (27%) was job security (being replaced by AI). The majority (64%) of the respondents expressed support for the development of AI projects in the organization. Conclusions Laboratory employees see the potential for AI and generally support the adoption of AI tools but have concerns regarding job security and quality of AI performance.
Association of Electronic Surgical Consent Forms With Entry Error Rates.

This study compares use of electronic surgical consent forms with paper-based forms and their association with decreased error rates.
Are Disasters Disastrous to Nonprofit Organizations? Investigating the Financial Implications of Hurricane Sandy for Nonprofits:

Nonprofit organizations are sensitive to external disasters due to their high reliance on external funds and volunteers. In this study, I investigate how disasters affect the financial health of no...
Novel Use of Extracorporeal Blood Purification for Treatment of Severe, Refractory Neurotoxicity After Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy-A Case Report.

Background Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR-T) are transforming the treatment of B-cell leukemias and lymphomas. Cytokine release syndrome and immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome represent common, potentially life-threatening toxicities from chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy treatment. Case summary We present a 53-year-old patient with primary refractory high-grade B-cell lymphoma who developed severe, refractory neurotoxicity following chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy but exhibited complete recovery after extracorporeal blood purification with CytoSorb (CytoSorbents, Monmouth Junction, NJ).Six days after chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy infusion, the patient developed cytokine release syndrome grade 3, prompting administration of dexamethasone and tocilizumab, a monoclonal antibody against the interleukin-6 receptor. His C-reactive protein levels started to decrease with tocilizumab and dexamethasone treatments. However, his ferritin levels continued to rise, and his interleukin-6 levels were above the upper detection threshold. Thirty-six hours later, the patient showed improved cytokine release syndrome but developed severe immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome with predominant encephalopathy (grade 3) despite treatment with dexamethasone/methylprednisolone, tocilizumab, and anakinra. We therefore sought a rescue strategy to remove inflammatory mediators. Following emergency use authorization, we initiated extracorporeal blood purification with CytoSorb (CytoSorbents).Four-day extracorporeal blood purification resulted in complete resolution of immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome and greater than 95% reduction in interleukin-6 levels without side effects. The patient was discharged home 10 days later with no signs of neurotoxicity or other secondary end-organ dysfunction. Conclusions Our case represents the first reported, successful application of extracorporeal blood purification with CytoSorb (CytoSorbents) to treat severe, refractory neurotoxicity following chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy.
Change in Education and the Future Role of the Educational Communications Consultant.

Most of the approaches and techniques involved in educational communications and technology in some sense change traditional patterns of teaching. Practitioners in the field have sometimes assumed that teachers' acceptance of new ways of teaching would come naturally, once teachers became aware of them. The benefits to students of using media (or programed instruction, or whatever) seemed so self-evident that the educational communications consultant would need only to keep abreast of current developments, publicize them, and make them available to teachers on demand.
Decrease in Protein Level in Final Finishing Phase of High Lean Gain Swine

Introduction At times the price of feed protein sources is high relative to the price of corn. Producers are then tempted to reduce the amount of protein in the diet, especially during the final finishing phase. Also, there is increasing interest in niche market pork production. Many of these markets require a modest amount of carcass fat. One possible strategy to add carcass fat is to reduce the protein content of the diet. The objective of this trial was to evaluate the effect of lower protein content of the diet on growth rate and fat deposition of a modern lean genetic line of finishing pigs.
Precision Measurement of the Ω - Magnetic Moment.

Using a sample of 2.35{times}10{sup 5} polarized {Omega}{sup {minus}}{r_arrow}{Lambda}{ital K}{sup {minus}} decays, we have measured the {Omega}{sup {minus}} magnetic moment to be {mu}{sub {Omega}{sup {minus}}}=({minus}2.024{plus_minus}0.056){mu}{sub {ital N}}.
Spread spectrum techniques and applications in America

Some of the leading applications of spread spectrum techniques in America are briefly described. Outstanding problems with some of these applications are highlighted. This leads to a description of a very few of the variety of techniques being applied to solve these problems. We first consider communications applications and techniques and then proceed to navigation applications and techniques.
Deflection characteristics of some special configurations of snake-type robots

The redundant robots analyzed here have large numbers of degrees of freedom. Such robots are analogous to snake or tentacles and are useful for operation in highly constrained environments and novel forms of locomotion — here it has been defined as critical manipulation. In this paper the end-point deflection of hyper-redundant robots have been studied by parameterization of the flexible links of the robot manipulator. A number of planar configurations of the redundant manipulator were taken into consideration for the present study and the configuration which gives minimum end-point deflection has been recommended for the critical manipulation. This work is significant for some of the research activities recently going on in NASA's Kennedy Space Center towards the application of hyper-redundant robots for manipulation inside the space Shuttle Cargo Bay.
The kinetic mechanism of the hairpin ribozyme in vivo: influence of RNA helix stability on intracellular cleavage kinetics.

The relationship between hairpin ribozyme structure, and cleavage and ligation kinetics, and equilibria has been characterized extensively under a variety of reaction conditions in vitro. We developed a quantitative assay of hairpin ribozyme cleavage activity in yeast to learn how structure-function relationships defined for RNA enzymes in vitro relate to RNA-mediated reactions in cells. Here, we report the effects of variation in the stability of an essential secondary structure element, H1, on intracellular cleavage kinetics. H1 is the base-paired helix formed between ribozyme and 3' cleavage product RNAs. H1 sequences with fewer than three base-pairs fail to support full activity in vitro or in vivo, arguing against any significant difference in the stability of short RNA helices under in vitro and intracellular conditions. Under standard conditions in vitro that include 10 mM MgCl(2), the internal equilibrium between cleavage and ligation of ribozyme-bound products favors ligation. Consequently, ribozymes with stable H1 sequences display sharply reduced self-cleavage rates, because cleavage is reversed by rapid re-ligation of bound products. In contrast, ribozymes with as many as 26 base-pairs in H1 continue to self-cleave at maximum rates in vivo. The failure of large products to inhibit cleavage could be explained if intracellular conditions promote rapid product dissociation or shift the internal equilibrium to favor cleavage. Model experiments in vitro suggest that the internal equilibrium between cleavage and ligation of bound products is likely to favor cleavage under intracellular ionic conditions.
Giant and complicated variants of cystic bile duct hamartomas of the liver: MRI findings and pathological correlations

Purpose: To describe a new category of liver cyst we propose calling “giant bile duct hamartoma (giant-BDH)” and to provide a more complete record of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of BDHs with potential for clinical impact. Materials and Methods: This study was Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)-compliant. Fifteen patients were identified with surgical liver pathology in keeping with complicated BDH and MRI findings of giant cysts. Results: In all, 14/15 patients presented with pain that resolved in 14/14 with surgery. Imaging features common to pretreatment cysts included sharply defined, lobulated margins with thin, smooth rim-enhancement. Treated symptomatic cysts measured 9.8 cm on average and 21.6 cm maximum. The 14/15 patients had coexistent <2.0 cm BDH. Elevated T1 signal corresponded with hemorrhagic cyst content (10/15 patients); cyst-wall rim-enhancement corresponded with histological findings of inflammation (15/15), fibrocystic changes (12/15), and smaller BDH in the adjacent liver (13/15). Histology of giant-BDH cyst walls corresponded with complicated BDH in 15/15. The incidence of symptomatic-treated BDH at our institution was 0.4%. Conclusion: BDH is a benign hepatic cystic lesion that may undergo cystic enlargement, internal hemorrhage, and clinically present with abdominal pain treatable by minimally invasive laparoscopic fenestration. Complicated giant-BDH coexists with smaller BDH and the MRI features of giant-BDH are characteristic. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010;31:903–911. ©2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Characterization and fabrication of MOEMS-based diffractive optical switching elements

The use of miniaturized optical components for chip level communications is increasing rapidly. The possible applications include: optical switching, signal monitoring, I/O reconfiguration, and add/drop multiplexing. Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MOEMS) based on customized IC fabrication processes are being used to assemble system-level architecture for integration into mainstream circuitry. MOEMS devices based on dynamic diffractive elements are currently investigated for both their signal routing capabilities and de-multiplexing properties. These characteristics are expected to increase the speed of optical data transfer. This paper focuses on the current status of the MOEMS research program for Free Space Optical inter-chip communication at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, University at Albany- SUNY (CNSE) based on the MEMS Compound Grating (MCG) design. Operational characteristics of these MCG devices have been shown to operate at high voltages (>15V) compared to 5V levels prevalent in conventional integrated circuits. The specific goal of this work is to improve performance while minimizing power consumption. A design change that incorporates a higher capacitance and a lighter suspension system has been studied. A new fabrication process has been constructed utilizing Polyimide as a structural material. Fabrication steps have been optimized for best MCG device performance. Experimental results from both research tasks will be presented.
Characterization of the Human Submandibular/Sublingual Saliva Glycoproteome Using Lectin Affinity Chromatography Coupled to Multidimensional Protein Identification Technology

In-depth analysis of the salivary proteome is fundamental to understanding the functions of salivary proteins in the oral cavity and to reveal disease biomarkers involved in different pathophysiological conditions, with the ultimate goal of improving patient diagnosis and prognosis. Submandibular and sublingual glands contribute saliva rich in glycoproteins to the total saliva output, making them valuable sources for glycoproteomic analysis. Lectin-affinity chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry-based shotgun proteomics was used to explore the submandibular/sublingual (SM/SL) saliva glycoproteome. A total of 262 N- and O-linked glycoproteins were identified by multidimensional protein identification technology (MudPIT). Only 38 were previously described in SM and SL salivas from the human salivary N-linked glycoproteome, while 224 were unique. Further comparison analysis with SM/SL saliva of the human saliva proteome, revealed 125 glycoproteins not formerly reported in this secretion. KEGG pathway an...