cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Apoptosis Stimulating Protein of p53 (ASPP2) Haploinsufficiency Promotes Irradiation-Induced High Grade Lymphomas in a Mouse Model.

Abstract Apoptosis Stimulating Protein of p53 (ASPP2) binds the tumor suppressor protein p53 and promotes damage-induced apoptosis in part through stimulation of p53 apoptotic function. We have previously demonstrated that low ASPP2 levels correlate with poor clinical outcome in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with anthracycline-based chemotherapy, which is consistent with its role as a tumor suppressor. We targeted the ASPP2 allele in a mouse model by homologous recombination using a knockout vector that replaced exons 10–17 with a neoR gene. Although ASPP2−/− is an early embryonic lethal event, ASPP2+/– mice appeared developmentally normal and reproduce. Importantly, ASPP2+/– mice developed tumors spontaneously at a higher frequency than sibling ASPP2+/+ controls. We now show that after ionizing irradiation, ASPP2+/– mice develop high grade lymphatic malignancies compared to ASPP2+/+ mice. ASPP2+/+ and +/– mice were irradiated, with either 6 Gy or 10,5 Gy, 8 weeks after birth. Following irradiation, mice were monitored weekly by blood smears and flow cytometry if suspicious cells were observed. Tumor formation was detected as early as 17 weeks post-irradiation. In the 10,5 Gy group, ASPP2+/– mice developed thymic lymphomas (7/31), while no tumors were detected in ASPP2+/+ mice (0/14). Tumor-free survival was statistically significant (p= 0,045, log-rank test). In the 6 Gy dose group 9 out of 28 of the ASPP2+/– mice developed high-grade thymic lymphomas compared to 0/20 ASPP2+/+ mice. Tumor-free survival was statistically significant (p=0,024, log-rank test). Immunophenotyping and flow cytometry on mice with circulating tumor cells from whole unfractionated gated viable bone marrow (Bm) cells revealed that the Bm was typically almost completely replaced by CD4neg, CD5+, CD8+ leukemic/lymphoma cells that are negative for B-cell (B220) and myeloid markers (Mac-1/Gr-1). Preliminary analysis demonstrated that MEFs (mouse embryonic fibroblasts) from ASPP2+/– mice treated with doxorubicin, serum starvation or irradiation had an attenuated G1/G0 checkpoint arrest. Ongoing experiments are being conducted in thymocytes prepared from mice of different ASPP2 and p53 genotypes. Our data demonstrates that ASPP2 plays an important role in suppressing the development of lymphomas after irradiation in a mouse model. Consequently, disruption of the p53-ASPP2 axis may be important in lymphomagenesis and response to therapy. Furthermore, our data provides a rationale for the future study of ASPP2 expression in patients during the formation of secondary hematologic malignancies after therapies with DNA damaging agents.
The African Origins of the Athenian Democracy

Democracy is arguably the most studied concept and form of social organization in political science, but, surprisingly, political scientists have showed little interest in its origins. Midlarsky (1992) thinks that this is the case because scholars are “mostly concerned (correctly) with the substance of contemporary politics, not its history.” The few studies that discuss the emergence of the concept and practice of democracy invariably look at the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece. Thus, the general consensus among scholars seems to be that Athens is the birth place of democracy; other parts of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa, are ignored or omitted from the historical evolution of democracy. Some scholars totally dismiss Africa in particular, arguing that there was nothing democratic about pre-colonial African institutions (Simiyu, 1988). Some go as far as to say that Africa’s difficulties arise from cultural norms that are less likely to support democratic institutions (Coquery-Vidrovitch 1992; Schatzberg 2001). From their perspective, Africa has been devoid of democratic elements until these institutions were introduced and imposed by Western colonialism. But nothing could be further from the truth and the reality is that historical evidence simply does not support such contention. In fact, the works of historians suggest that it is from Africa that the fire of the Athenian democracy was stolen. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate the Africa origins of the Athenian democracy.
Multi-institutional evaluation of women at high-risk for developing breast cancer.

e12580 Background: Well-established risk factors for breast cancer (BC) include family history, BRCA mutations and biopsies with atypical hyperplasia (AH) or lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS). Sever...
Leveraging Partnerships: Nursing Student Veteran-Centered Simulation In Situ

Abstract Background Veterans receive care in multiple health systems, requiring a nursing workforce to recognize their unique needs. Methods Through our University's relationship with the Veteran's Administration Nursing Academic Partnership, an in situ simulation was designed and implemented to enhance nursing students learning of veteran-centered care. Results METI Simulation Effectiveness Tool responses (n = 23) were overwhelmingly positive. Paired t -test measured student knowledge gains. Post-simulation test scores were 16.6% higher (±15.2%) than on pre-test; statistically significant ( t = 4.09, df = 13, and p = .001). Conclusion Leveraging clinical partnerships to perform simulation experiences in-situ is an effective teaching strategy to teach nursing students veteran-centered care.
Demystifying automata processing: GPUs, FPGAs or Micron's AP?

Many established and emerging applications perform at their core some form of pattern matching, a computation that maps naturally onto finite automata abstractions. As a consequence, in recent years there has been a substantial amount of work on high-speed automata processing, which has led to a number of implementations targeting a variety of parallel platforms: CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, and Network Processors. More recently, Micron has announced its Automata Processor (AP), a DRAM-based accelerator of non-deterministic finite automata (NFA). Despite the abundance of work in this domain, the advantages and disadvantages of different automata processing accelerators and the innovation space in this area are still unclear. In this work we target this problem and propose a toolchain to allow an apples-to-apples comparison of NFA acceleration engines on three platforms: GPUs, FPGAs and Micron's AP. We discuss the automata optimizations that are applicable to these three platforms. We perform an evaluation on large-scale datasets: to this end, we propose an NFA partitioning algorithm that minimizes the number of state replications required to maintain functional equivalence with an unpartitioned NFA, and we evaluate the scalability of each implementation to both large NFAs and large numbers of input streams. Our experimental evaluation covers resource utilization, traversal throughput, and preprocessing overhead and shows that the FPGA provides the best traversal throughputs (on the order of Gbps) at the cost of significant preprocessing times (on the order of hours); GPUs deliver modest traversal throughputs (on the order of Mbps), but offer low preprocessing times (on the order of seconds or minutes) and good pattern densities (they can accommodate large datasets on a single device); Micron's AP delivers throughputs, pattern densities, and preprocessing times that are intermediate between those of FPGAs and GPUs, and it is most suited for applications that use datasets consisting of many small NFAs with a topology that is fixed and known a priori.
Laparoscopic Distal Gastrectomy with Billroth II Reconstruction

Laparoscopic distal gastrectomy is performed for selected cases of distal gastric mass for which more radical resection is not indicated in chronic peptic ulcer disease and in other cases of gastric outlet obstruction. This chapter lists the indications, essential steps, common technical variations, and complications of the procedure. A detailed operative note dictation template is included.
Aglycone structures and glycosylations affect anthocyanin transport and uptake in human gastric epithelial (NCI-N87) cells

Abstract Anthocyanins are ubiquitous pigments in the human diet, but their metabolic fate is poorly understood. Absorption of these compounds may occur in the stomach, where acidic pH favors anthocyanin stability. The NCI-N87 cell line gastric model was used to examine the effects of anthocyanin chemical structure on their transport and uptake at pH 3, representative of the gastric environment. Chokeberry, containing different cyanidin derivatives, was used to determine the effects of different sugar substitutions; red grape was used as a source of monoglucosylated derivatives of different aglycones. The type of sugar substitution on cyanidin affected both cellular uptake and transport to the basolateral chamber, with cyanidin-3-arabinoside showing the greatest transport and cyanidin-3-glucoside the highest uptake by the cell. The aglycone structure also affected uptake and transport. Anthocyanins bearing B-ring di-substitution, cyanidin-3-glucoside and peonidin-3-glucoside, were transported and taken up the most by cells. Transport through NCI-N87 cells was most efficient for cyanidin-3-glucoside followed by peonidin, delphinidin, pelargonidin, malvidin, and petunidin-3-glucosides, in that order. Cyanidin-3-glucoside was also more efficiently taken up by the cells, followed by peonidin, pelargonidin, delphinidin, petunidin, and malvidin-3-glucosides. Although the metabolism of anthocyanins requires much more study, further evidence of the role of chemical structure is provided.
The Fossil Record of Shell-Breaking Predation on Marine Bivalves and Gastropods

Any treatment of durophagous (shell-breaking) predation on bivalves and gastropods through geologic time must address the molluscivore’s signature preserved in the victim’s skeleton. Pre-ingestive breakage or crushing is only one of four methods of molluscivory (Vermeij, 1987; Harper and Skelton, 1993), the others being whole-organism ingestion, insertion and extraction, and boring. Other authors in this volume treat the last behavior, whereas whole-organism ingestion, and insertion and extraction, however common, are unlikely to leave preservable evidence. Bivalve and gastropod ecologists and paleoecologists reconstruct predator-prey relationships based primarily on two, although not equally useful, categories of pre-ingestive breakage, namely lethal and sublethal (repaired) damage. Peeling crabs may leave incriminating serrated, helical fractures in whorls of high-spired gastropods (Bishop, 1975), but unfortunately most lethal fractures are far less diagnostic of the causal agent and often indistinguishable from abiotically induced, taphonomic agents of shell degradation.
Echocardiographic and clinical markers of left ventricular ejection fraction and moderate or greater systolic dysfunction in left ventricular noncompaction cardiomyopathy

Background Left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) is associated with progressive LV systolic dysfunction and dilated cardiomyopathy. We aimed to investigate the echocardiographic and clinical characteristics associated with LV ejection fraction (LVEF) and moderate or greater systolic dysfunction in patients with LVNC. Methods Our institutional echocardiography database was retrospectively reviewed between 2008 and 2014, and 62 patients with LVNC were identified. Forty-three (69%) had moderate or greater LV systolic dysfunction (LVEF ≤ 40%) and were compared with 19 (31%) patients with preserved or mildly reduced LVEF (>40%). Linear regression analyses were utilized to identify markers associated with LVEF. Results The mean age was 63 ± 17 years and noncompacted-to-compacted ratio was 2.3 ± 0.5, and was larger in patients with LVEF ≤ 40% (2.4 vs 2.1; P = .02). Patients with LVEF ≤ 40% were older, had more congestive heart failure, significant QRS interval prolongation, and greater LV remodeling and worse mean global longitudinal strain (GLS). Multivariate regression analysis revealed increased age (standardized regression coefficient (β) = -0.17; P = .04) and QRS duration (β = -0.13; P = .08), congestive heart failure (β = -0.18; P = .04), and worsened GLS (β = -0.40; P = .001) were independently associated with decreased LVEF in the cohort (overall model fit R2 = 0.71; P 40%. Conclusions The independent markers associated with LVEF and moderate or greater LV systolic dysfunction in patients with LVNC, in particular GLS and QRS duration, may detect high-risk candidates for more aggressive clinical surveillance and medical therapy.
A Dynamic Model of Repositioning

Consumer preferences change through time and firms must adjust their product positioning for their products to continue to be appealing to consumers. These changes in product positioning require fixed investments such that firms reposition only occasionally. I construct a model that can include predictable and unpredictable consumer preference changes, and where a firm optimally repositions its product given the current market conditions, and expected future repositionings. When unpredictable consumer preferences evolve away from a current firm’s positioning, the decision to reposition is like exercising an option to be closer to current consumer preferences, or waiting to reposition later or for those preferences to return so as to be closer to the firm’s current position. We characterize this optimal repositioning strategy, how it depends on the discount factor, variance of preferences, and repositioning costs. I compare the optimal policy of the firm with what could be optimal from a social welfare poi...
Utilitarians Among the Optimists

To paraphrase one of my childhood serials, can a Utilitarian from a small cloistered discipline find happiness on a review board of worldly research scientists? Wayne Sumner thinks that he can; I have my doubts.1
The Trouble with Possible Worlds

In what sense or senses, if any, should we admit that “there are” possible but nonexistent beings or possible but nonactual worlds? Sources of motivation for some such admission are powerful and various. By positing nonexistent individuals, it seems, we may understand true negative existentials and accommodate the intentionality of certain mental entities. By positing nonactual worlds or states of affairs, we may achieve our familiar but still remarkable reduction of the alethic modalities to quantifiers,1 formulate truth-conditional semantics for prepositional attitudes and hosts of other troublesome constructions, display the otherwise mysterious connections between Fregean senses and linguistic meaning,2 illuminate the pragmatics of counterfactuals and other conditionals, and provide a rigorous format for the theoretical study of decision making.3 Even ordinary ways of speaking encourage us to reify nonexistent possibles at every turn.4
Specific Gravity Test Strips Used in Monitoring Urine Concentrations of Urolithiasis Patients

Abstract Current therapy for urolithiasis patients includes instructions to increase water intake and 24-hour urine output. Previous studies have measured changes in the 24-hour urine volume to evaluate the efficacy of fluid therapy in each patient. We used paper test strips to monitor urine pH and specific gravity in 22 of our stone clinic patients: 10 were instructed to increase water intake just before the study (group 1) and 12 were not so instructed (group 2). Mean specific gravities of 1.0222 (1.0238 corrected for pH) for group 1 and 1.0197 (1.0220 corrected for pH) for group 2 did not differ significantly. Urine specific gravities also were compared for 3 intervals: 1 to 9 a.m., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Of the 22 patients 10 (3 from group 1 and 7 from group 2) had significant diurnal variations in the urine specific gravities, corrected and uncorrected, among these 3 periods. In addition, both groups had a significantly higher mean specific gravity from 1 to 9 a.m. (1.0234 uncorrected and 1.0248 corrected) than from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (1.0194 uncorrected and 1.0218 corrected). The 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. (mean of 1.0220 uncorrected and 1.0239 corrected) specific gravity did not differ significantly in either group. If 1.015 is the highest acceptable specific gravity of urine in stone patients, the findings suggest inadequate dilution of urine in these patients, whether or not they were instructed to increase water intake. Also, the significant diurnal variation in urine specific gravity would allow a nighttime triggering event at these hours of higher urine concentration.
A suicide crisis intervention model with 25 practical strategies for implementation.

Suicidal clients are a difficult and challenging population in counseling. This article contains 25 practical, hands-on strategies for mental health counselors to assist in their interactions with suicidal clients. The strategies are situated within a seven-step model for crisis intervention that is specifically tailored to suicidal clients.
Generalized and Contingent Trust of Others Among Sexual Minority Individuals: Generalized and Contingent Trust

Objective This study examines how perceptions of the trustworthiness of others are influenced by an individual's sexual orientation. We hypothesize that gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals will be more likely than heterosexual individuals to express generalized distrust and what we conceptualize as contingent trust. The latter is represented by responses of “it depends.” Methods Using data from the 2008–2016 General Social Surveys, we conduct multinomial logistic regression analyses to examine patterns of trust in others, with a particular focus on differences across sexual orientation groups. Results We find that gay or lesbian individuals are significantly more likely than heterosexual individuals to say that their trust of others “depends.” Bisexual individuals, however, do not significantly differ from heterosexual individuals. Conclusion This study contributes to the trust literature by considering the influence of sexual orientation as well as expanding upon the idea of contingent trust. Future research could build upon this by also considering the “depends” response as a conceptually unique attitude toward trust of others.
Clinical and MRI Outcomes of Fresh Osteochondral Allograft Transplantation After Failed Cartilage Repair Surgery in the Knee.

UpdateThis article was updated on December 4, 2018, because of previous errors. On pages 1949 and 1958, in the byline, the second author was incorrectly listed as “Dean X. Wang, MD,” which was then abbreviated to “D.X. Wang” in the ORCID iD list. The author's name is now listed as “Dean Wang, MD” in
Dalbavancin Alone and in Combination with Ceftaroline against Four Different Phenotypes of Staphylococcus aureus in a Simulated Pharmacodynamic/Pharmacokinetic Model

Glycopeptides such as vancomycin have been used as the first-line therapy against MRSA infections for over half a century. Reduced susceptibility and emergence of resistance to first-generation glycopeptides has led to development of second-generation lipoglycopeptide derivatives such as dalbavancin which hold broader ranges of activity and enhanced pharmacokinetic properties. We evaluated the MIC values for a total of 100 isolates, including 25 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), 25 heterogeneus vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus, 25 daptomycin nonsusceptible (DNS), and 25 vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus strains against dalbavancin, ceftaroline, and vancomycin alone and in combination. Dalbavancin was highly active against hVISA, DNS, and MRSA strains, achieving 96 to 100% susceptibility and 72% susceptibility against VISA strains. The combination of dalbavancin plus ceftaroline reduced dalbavancin MICs 62.5-fold and demonstrated enhanced killing against all four phenotypes in pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic models. Four strains of the aforementioned phenotypes were randomly chosen for pharmacodynamic/pharmacokinetic simulation models. Of interest, while both dalbavancin and vancomycin in combination with ceftaroline demonstrated significant improvement in glycopeptide fAUC/MIC values against these four phenotypes, the dalbavancin-ceftaroline combinations exhibited a 44- to 11,270-fold higher fAUC/MIC value in comparison to vancomycin-ceftaroline combinations. In addition, the time to detection limit was reduced for this combination (24 to 32 h) versus the vancomycin-ceftaroline combination (24 to 72h). To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study of dalbavancin and vancomycin combinations with ceftaroline. These data provide a novel approach for combating recalcitrant MRSA infections.
Wireless Information and Power Transfer in Relay-Assisted Downlink Massive MIMO

The feasibility of utilizing a relay-assisted downlink massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) to boost the performance of simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is investigated. The key idea is to simultaneously transmit power and information toward the direct/relayed-users by leveraging the excess degrees-of-freedom offered by massive antenna arrays at the base-station (BS). The performance limits are established by deriving the harvested energies, achievable rates, and energy-rate trade-offs in the presence of imperfectly estimated/partial channel state information (CSI). These performance metrics are derived for a generalized SWIPT model, which facilitates analysis for both time-switching (TS) and power-splitting (PS) protocols. Two linear precoders based on zero-forcing and maximal ratio transmission are used at the massive MIMO BS, and a practically viable non-linear energy harvesting model is adopted for the direct/relayed-users. Joint detrimental implications of imperfect CSI at the BS, limited/statistical CSI at the users, and non-linear characteristics of energy harvesters are analytically quantified. In order to jointly guarantee user-fairness in terms of both energy and rate, a max–min optimal transmit power control policy is proposed. Then, the max–min fairness optimal energy-rate trade-offs are quantified for non-linear massive MIMO SWIPT. Our results reveal that the proposed relay-assisted downlink massive MIMO can be exploited to boost the achievable energy-rate trade-off by effectively reducing the end-to-end path-loss via shorter hop distances rendered by intermediate amplify-and-forward relays.
Attenuation of waves in a viscoelastic peridynamic medium

The effect of spatial nonlocality on the decay of waves in a dissipative material is investigated. The propagation and decay of waves in a one-dimensional, viscoelastic peridynamic medium is analyz...
Evolutionary Relationships Between Low Potential Ferredoxin and Flavodoxin Electron Carriers.

Proteins from the ferredoxin (Fd) and flavodoxin (Fld) families function as low potential electrical transfer hubs in cells, at times mediating electron transfer between overlapping sets of oxidoreductases. To better understand protein electron carrier (PEC) use across the domains of life, we evaluated the distribution of genes encoding [4Fe-4S] Fd, [2Fe-2S] Fd, and Fld electron carriers in over seven thousand organisms. Our analysis targeted genes encoding small PEC genes encoding proteins having ≤200 residues. We find that the average number of small PEC genes per Archaea (~13), Bacteria (~8), and Eukarya (~3) genome varies, with some organisms containing as many as 54 total PEC genes. Organisms fall into three groups, including those lacking genes encoding low potential PECs (3%), specialists with a single PEC gene type (20%), and generalists that utilize multiple PEC types (77%). Mapping PEC gene usage onto an evolutionary tree highlights the prevalence of [4Fe-4S] Fds in ancient organisms that are deeply rooted, the expansion of [2Fe-2S] Fds with the advent of photosynthesis and a concomitant decrease in [4Fe-4S] Fds, and the expansion of Flds in organisms that inhabit low-iron host environments. Surprisingly, [4Fe-4S] Fds present a similar abundance in aerobes as [2Fe-2S] Fds. This bioinformatic study highlights understudied PECs whose structure, stability, and partner specificity should be further characterized.
Operating systems and network sampler internet

College exposes computer science students to various computer ideas and concepts but often one has little chance to experiment with these ideas on a variety of operating systems and networking configurations. In many other courses, such as chemistry, students perform many lab experiments to supplement ideas they are exposed to. In computer science, however, students are often not allowed complete access to computer systems on campus because many people, including non-computer science majors, intend the systems for general use. The systems must be secure and manageable in bulk. Therefore, very little experimentation is allowed. I decided, along with my advisor, to build an "Operating Systems and Networking Sampler Internet".
Phylogenomic analysis of novel Diaforarchaea is consistent with sulfite but not sulfate reduction in volcanic environments on early Earth.

The origin(s) of dissimilatory sulfate and/or (bi)sulfite reducing organisms (SRO) remains enigmatic despite their importance in global carbon and sulfur cycling since at least 3.4 Ga. Here, we describe novel, deep-branching archaeal SRO populations distantly related to other Diaforarchaea from two moderately acidic thermal springs. Dissimilatory (bi)sulfite reductase homologs, DsrABC, encoded in metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) from spring sediments comprise one of the earliest evolving Dsr lineages. DsrA homologs were expressed in situ under moderately acidic conditions. MAGs lacked genes encoding proteins that activate sulfate prior to (bi)sulfite reduction. This is consistent with sulfide production in enrichment cultures provided sulfite but not sulfate. We suggest input of volcanic sulfur dioxide to anoxic spring-water yields (bi)sulfite and moderately acidic conditions that favor its stability and bioavailability. The presence of similar volcanic springs at the time SRO are thought to have originated (>3.4 Ga) may have supplied (bi)sulfite that supported ancestral SRO. These observations coincide with the lack of inferred SO42− reduction capacity in nearly all organisms with early-branching DsrAB and which are near universally found in hydrothermal environments.
Do simulations improve higher-order learning outcomes? Evaluating student learning through a simulated regional trade agreement negotiation

When the subject matter is difficult for students, such international trade, achieving higher-order learning can be challenging. We developed a regional trade agreement simulation (RTA) to help solve student learning difficulties. In the simulation, students attempt to negotiate a RTA in small groups over two weeks. We then use this RTA simulation to evaluate whether it contributes to student knowledge, motivation, and critical thinking ability. Most previous studies have been limited to investigating student knowledge retention and motivation, but it remains an open question whether active learning techniques (like simulations) help achieve higher-order, critical thinking learning objectives. We have conducted surveys and pre-/post-tests in three courses at different universities. From multiple-choice questions and essay responses, we evaluate the simulation's contributions to student knowledge attainment, motivation about the subject, and improvements in critical thinking ability.
150-LB: Moving the Needle on the High-Risk T1D Panel: Lessons from the T1D Exchange Quality Improvement Collaborative (T1DX-QI)

There is an increased risk of complications among “high risk” patients (having elevated HbA1c scores). Social, racial, and economic factors contribute to the difficulty in reducing HbA1c. The T1DX-QI is a type 1 diabetes learning health system with over 10 endocrinology centers working collaboratively on the goal of improving outcomes for people with type 1 diabetes. The program is coordinated by the T1D Exchange in Boston, MA. “High-risk” patients are defined as having two clinic visits in the preceding 12 months and two HbA1cs above 9%. Centers shared data monthly with the coordinating office which used statistical process control charts to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions. (Figure 1). This abstract describes how 10 centers used QI principles and interventions to reduce the proportion of high-risk patients. Successful efforts include: utilizing a patient navigator, workflow redesign, developing insulin pump and CGM education classes, depression screening, and addressing social determinants of health. The Collaborative set a goal to decrease percentage of high risk patients by 5% from baseline and made a significant 3% improvement; data is projected to meet goal by June 2020. Six of 10 centers met the goal, impacting over 200 patients. Continued efforts are needed to expand interventions to additional sites to reduce the number of high-risk patients. Disclosure N. Rioles: None. C. Bunker: None. M.A. Clements: Consultant; Self; Glooko, Inc. Other Relationship; Self; Glooko, Inc. K. Gallagher: None. A. Garrity: None. N. Jones: None. M.K. Kamboj: Research Support; Self; Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet, Unitio, Inc. S. Majidi: Advisory Panel; Self; Companion Medical. P. Prahalad: None. R.Y. Sonabend: None. K. Thivener: None. O. Ebekozien: None. Funding The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
Noonan syndrome on the African Continent.

BACKGROUND Noonan syndrome is a common genetic syndrome caused by pathogenic variants in genes in the Ras/MAPK signaling pathway. The medical literature has an abundance of studies on Noonan syndrome, but few are from the African continent. METHODS The medical literature was searched for studies on Noonan syndrome from the African continent and these reports were added to our experience in Africa. Facial analysis was reviewed from two previous reports from our group using a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm and an analysis using the Face2Gene convolutional neural network technology. RESULTS Individuals with Noonan syndrome from reports in African populations have the classic phenotype characteristics including typical minor facial anomalies such as widely spaced eyes (31-100%), short stature (71-100%), and congenital heart disease with pulmonary stenosis found in 24-100% of patients. Similarly, the genotypes are similar with the majority of variants occurring in the gene PTPN11 (72%) and 36% of these variants occurred in the amino acid residue Asn308, which is most commonly found in other populations. The two separate facial analysis algorithms successfully discriminated Africans with NS from unaffected matched individuals with area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operator characteristic of 0.94 (SVM) and 0.979 for the Face2Gene research methodology. CONCLUSION Few studies characterizing Noonan syndrome in Africans have been conducted, highlighting the need for more genetic and genomic research in African populations. Available clinical data, genotypes, and facial analysis technology data show that individuals of African descent with NS can be efficiently diagnosed using available standards.
Dim and Dmoc Protecting Groups for Oligodeoxynucleotide Synthesis

This protocol provides details for the preparation of nucleoside phosphoramidites with 1,3-dithian-2-yl-methyl (Dim) and 1,3-dithian-2-yl-methoxycarbonyl (Dmoc) as protecting groups, and a linker with Dmoc as the cleavable function, then using them for solid phase synthesis of sensitive oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs). Using these Dim-Dmoc phosphoramidites and Dmoc linker, ODN synthesis can be achieved under typical conditions using phosphoramidite chemistry with slight modifications, and ODN deprotection and cleavage can be achieved under mild conditions involving oxidation with sodium periodate at pH 4 followed by aniline at pH 8. Under the mild deprotection and cleavage conditions, many sensitive functional groups including but not limited to esters, thioesters, alkyl halides, N-aryl amides, and α-chloroamides-which cannot survive the basic and nucleophilic deprotection and cleavage conditions such as concentrated ammonium hydroxide and dilute potassium methoxide used in typical ODN synthesis technologies-can survive. Thus, it is expected that the Dim-Dmoc ODN synthesis technology will find applications in the synthesis of ODNs that contain a wide range of sensitive functional groups. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol: Synthesis, deprotection, cleavage, and purification of sensitive oligodeoxynucleotides Support Protocol 1: Synthesis of Dim-Dmoc nucleoside phosphoramidites Support Protocol 2: Preparation of CPG with a Dmoc linker Support Protocol 3: Synthesis of a phosphoramidite containing a sensitive alkyl ester group.
The Impact of Household Food Insecurity on Health and Well-Being of Women and Children

Ecology of Food and Nutrition (EFN) promotes scholarly discussion and engagement on the holistic and cross-cultural dimensions of the study of food and nutrition. Articles published in this journal...
Review of Schneider & Eitelmann (2020): Linguistic inquiries into Donald Trump’s Language: From ‘Fake News’ to ‘Tremendous Success’

This article reviews Linguistic inquiries into Donald Trump’s Language: From ‘Fake News’ to ‘Tremendous Success’
Atrioventricular Nodal Reentrant Tachycardia

This case describes a 24-year-old with WPW a symptomatic, narrow-complex tachycardia. A full set of diagnostic maneuvers is required to make the correct diagnosis in this case. The case also highlights a dilemma in the clinical decision making process for a complex arrhythmia.
Two Efficient and Reliable a posteriori Error Estimates for the Local Discontinuous Galerkin Method Applied to Linear Elliptic Problems on Cartesian Grids

In this paper, we derive two a posteriori error estimates for the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method applied to linear second-order elliptic problems on Cartesian grids. We first prove that the gradient of the LDG solution is superconvergent with order $$p+1$$ towards the gradient of Gauss-Radau projection of the exact solution, when tensor product polynomials of degree at most p are used. Then, we prove that the gradient of the actual error can be split into two parts. The components of the significant part can be given in terms of $$(p+1)$$ -degree Radau polynomials. We use these results to construct a reliable and efficient residual-type a posteriori error estimates. We further develop a postprocessing gradient recovery scheme for the LDG solution. This recovered gradient superconverges to the gradient of the true solution. The order of convergence is proved to be $$p+1$$ . We use our gradient recovery result to develop a robust recovery-type a posteriori error estimator for the gradient approximation which is based on an enhanced recovery technique. We prove that the proposed residual-type and recovery-type a posteriori error estimates converge to the true errors in the $$L^2$$ -norm under mesh refinement. The order of convergence is proved to be $$p + 1$$ . Moreover, the proposed estimators are proved to be asymptotically exact. Finally, we present a local adaptive mesh refinement procedure that makes use of our local and global a posteriori error estimates. Our proofs are valid for arbitrary regular meshes and for $$P^p$$ polynomials with $$p\ge 1$$ . We provide several numerical examples illustrating the effectiveness of our procedures.
A Nation-wide Review of Elective Surgery and COVID-Surge Capacity.

ABSTRACT Background The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 225,000 excess deaths in the United States. A moratorium on elective surgery was placed early in the pandemic to reduce risk to patients and staff and preserve critical care resources. This report evaluates the impact of the elective surgical moratorium on case volumes and intensive care unit (ICU) bed utilization. Methods This retrospective review used a national convenience sample to correlate trends in the weekly rates of surgical cases at 170 Veterans Affairs Hospitals around the United States from January 1 to September 30, 2020 to national trends in the COVID-19 pandemic. We reviewed data on weekly number of procedures performed and ICU bed usage, stratified by level of urgency (elective, urgent, emergency), and whether an ICU bed was required within 24 hours of surgery. National data on the proportion of COVID-19 positive test results and mortality rates were obtained from the Center for Disease Control website. Results 198,911 unique surgical procedures performed during the study period. The total number of cases performed from January 1 to March 16 was 86,004 compared with 15,699 from March 17 to May 17. The reduction in volume occurred before an increase in the percentage of COVID-19 positive test results and deaths nationally. There was a 91% reduction from baseline in the number of elective surgeries performed allowing 78% of surgical ICU beds to be available for COVID-19 positive patients. Conclusion The moratorium on elective surgical cases was timely and effective in creating bed capacity for critically ill COVID-19 patients. Further analyses will allow targeted resource allocation for future pandemic planning.
Validation of a method for measuring 226Ra in drinking waters by LSC

Abstract A simple method for measuring 226 Ra in drinking waters has been validated and validation parameters are provided. It is based on the measurement by LSC of 222 Rn, at equilibrium with 226 Ra, which is absorbed into a water immiscible scintillation cocktail (Ultima Gold F) inside the counting vial. The validated application field ranges between the detection limit (2·10 −3 Bq/kg) to 150 Bq/kg. The method has proven to be reliable, effective and suitable for wide-range measuring campaigns. A summary of results obtained in recent years is also given.
Gallbladder emptying response to sham feeding in humans

Cholescintigraphy, using 99mTc-HIDA, was employed to determine the gallbladder emptying response to sham feeding of a steak and potato meal, and to compare it with the emptying responses to direct cholinergic stimulation by bethanechol and to ingestion of the test meal. The maximal cumulative gallbladder emptying response to sham feeding was 44.1% + 10.1%, which was not significantly different from the response to bethanechol. Cholinergic blockade with atropine eliminated the emptying response to sham feeding. Also, sham feeding did not stimulate gallbladder emptying in patients with vagotomy. This study suggests that intact vagus nerves and cholinergic pathways are required in order for the gallbladder to respond to sham feeding. The precise mechanism for this effect has not been elucidated.
The origin and role of dust in the early solar system

Dust was the primary building material of the solar nebula planetesimals that accumulated to form minor planets, solid planets, and the cores of giant planets. Collected interplanetary dust particle (IDP) samples probably contain preserved samples of nebular dust that formed over a wide range of radial distance. There are two general source regions of IDP's, the asteroid belt and the short-period comets. The collected asteroid particles are likely to be rather representative samples of material that accreted into planetesimals in the 2.2 to 3.3 AU region. The comet samples are likely to be representative samples of grains that accreted in the Kuiper belt region between 20 AU and some hundreds of AU. Many of the solar system effects on grains should have been more pronounced or even restricted to the less than 5 AU region where the asteroids were formed. A major goal of IDP research is to try to identify typical asteroidal and cometary IDP's and to study their properties. If successful this will provide fundamental insight into both the initial solids in the solar nebula and materials modified by a variety of important nebular processes.
Transitional B Cells Lose Their Ability to Receptor Edit but Retain Their Potential for Positive and Negative Selection

Ligation of B cell receptors on immature bone marrow B cells, either by an endogenous Ag or by an anti-B cell receptor Ab induces secondary V(D)J gene rearrangements, termed receptor editing. Whether the same signal induces receptor editing in transitional B cells is not clear. In this study, we examined the responses of immature and transitional B cells from V H 12Vκ1A Ig transgenic mice to stimulation with an anti-Igβ Ab. Our results demonstrated that immature B cells stimulated with a low concentration of anti-Igβ Ab, mimicking Ag stimulation, underwent receptor editing both in vivo and in vitro, as evidenced by the detection of dsDNA breaks at Jκ recombination signal sequences, whereas transitional B cells did not. The lack of dsDNA breaks in transitional B cells contrasts with their increased expression of RAG1 and RAG2, suggesting a novel mechanism that may prevent rearrangements. Furthermore, treatment of transitional B cells with high concentrations of anti-Igβ Abs induced apoptosis, whereas low concentrations induced differentiation. Our results support the idea that transitional B cells lose the capacity to edit, but are sensitive to positive and negative selection.
Gramicidin Channels: Versatile Tools

Gramicidin channels are miniproteins in which two tryptophan-rich subunits associate by means of transbilayer dimerization to form the conducting channels. That is, in contrast to other ion channels, gramicidin channels do not open and close; they appear and disappear. Each subunit in the bilayer-spanning channel is tied to the bilayer/solution interface through hydrogen bonds that involve the indole NH groups as donors and water or the phospholipid backbone as acceptors. The channel’s permeability characteristics are well-defined: gramicidin channels are selective for monovalent cations, with no measurable permeability to anions or polyvalent cations; ions and water move through a pore whose wall is formed by the peptide backbone; and the single-channel conductance and cation selectivity vary when the amino acid sequence is varied, even though the permeating ions make no contact with the amino acid side chains. Given the plethora of available experimental information—for not only the wild-type channels but also for channels formed by amino acid-substituted gramicidin analogues—gramicidin channels continue to provide important insights into the microphysics of ion permeation through bilayer-spanning channels. For similar reasons, gramicidin channels constitute a system of choice for evaluating computational strategies for obtaining mechanistic insights into ion permeation through the more complex channels formed by integral membrane proteins.
DNA BENDING BY THE TRPI PROTEIN OF PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA

TrpI protein, the activator of transcription of the trpBA operon of fluorescent pseudomonads, bends the DNA when it forms either of two well-characterized complexes with the trpBA regulatory region. In complex 1, with TrpI bound only to its strong binding site (site I), the calculated bending angle is 65 to 67 degrees and the center of bending is in the middle of site I. In complex 2, which is required for activation of the trpBA promoter, with TrpI bound both to site I and to the weaker site II, the bending angle is increased to 89 to 90 degrees and the center of bending is at the site I-site II boundary. Indoleglycerol phosphate (InGP), which strongly stimulates formation of complex 2 and is required for activation, does not affect the bending angle of either complex. However, a mutation (-10C/11C) shown previously to affect activation has a small but detectable effect on bending, reducing the calculated bending angle to 83 to 86 degrees. These results suggest a way that DNA bending and InGP may be important for activation.
Control flow integrity for COTS binaries

Control-Flow Integrity (CFI) has been recognized as an important low-level security property. Its enforcement can defeat most injected and existing code attacks, including those based on Return-Oriented Programming (ROP). Previous implementations of CFI have required compiler support or the presence of relocation or debug information in the binary. In contrast, we present a technique for applying CFI to stripped binaries on ×86/Linux. Ours is the first work to apply CFI to complex shared libraries such as glibc. Through experimental evaluation, we demonstrate that our CFI implementation is effective against control-flow hijack attacks, and eliminates the vast majority of ROP gadgets. To achieve this result, we have developed robust techniques for disassembly, static analysis, and transformation of large binaries. Our techniques have been tested on over 300MB of binaries (executables and shared libraries).
Morphogenesis and ultrastructure of Geotrichum candidum septa.

Abstract The ultrastructure and mode of formation of septa of Geotrichum candidum were investigated by light and electron microscopy. The invaginations of the lateral membrane and wall appear to initiate at multiple points around the circumference of the cell; the immature septum subsequently assumes a cart-wheel shape, with branched spokes radiating from the center of the septum. Each face of the septum is covered with a membrane possessing hitherto undescribed structural differentiation; the membrane substructures are comprised of two central subunits encircled by 12 identical subunits. The diameter of the entire 12 plus 2 structure is 24 to 25 nm, and the diameter of each individual subunit is approximately 4 nm. The maturation of the septum appears to occur by further deposition of material along the branched skeletal regions. Numerous small openings (micropores), formed as a result of incomplete deposition, ultimately give rise to plasmodesmata. During arthrospore formation, the plasmodesmal canals and associated micropores are occluded by electron-dense materials, rendering each segment of the hyphae completely independent of the rest of the hyphae.
Bimagnetic Core/Shell FePt/Fe3O4 Nanoparticles

Bimagnetic core/shell Fe58Pt42/Fe3O4 nanoparticles are synthesized from high-temperature solution phase coating of 4 nm Fe58Pt42 core with Fe3O4 shell. The shell is tunable from 0.5 to 3 nm. Magnetic properties of the as-synthesized core/shell particles are dependent on shell thickness due to the exchange coupling between core and shell. Upon reductive annealing, an assembly of the core/shell nanoparticles is transformed into a hard magnetic nanocomposite with enhanced energy product.
International Arenas of Geological Debate in the Early Nineteenth Century

Modern historians of the earth sciences should follow Zittel's example by recognising the intrinsically international character of their subject. As a brief example, this paper describes three scientific meetings that took place, on English-, French- and German-speaking soil, during one sample year (1835) in the "early classical" period of the history of the earth sciences. The meetings illustrate the structure and dynamics of the international geological community a century and a half ago, and the role of social interaction in the shaping of new consensual knowledge about the earth.
The Financial Times Guide to Executive Health: Building Your Strengths, Managing Your Risks

The article presents a review of the book “The Financial Times Guide to Executive Health: Building Your Strengths, Managing Your Risks,” by James Campbell Quick, Cary L. Cooper, Jonathan D. Quick, and Joanne H. Gavin.
Sudan: a humanitarian response to a silent genocide: an American nurse's perspective.

*Editor’s note: Ms Gately first began volunteering in the late 1980s in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion of that nation. Since then, she has returned to Afghanistan for 6 months with the organization Doctors Without Borders, volunteered at refugee camps in Kenya, the Balkans, and Iraq, and has now made 2 trips to Darfur. For the past 4 years, Gately has been on aid missions more than she has been at home, so she currently works per diem at Boston Medical Center to have the flexibility she needs to perform her volunteer work. While in Darfur, Ms Gately developed a Web series for the BBC, which was picked up by others, and she was asked to contribute to a book on refugees that is scheduled for publication later this year. In discussing her volunteer role, Gately explains, ‘‘No direct nursing care is involved, although my most fulfilling moments are when I am able to spend time with and hold the children and babies.’’