cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Converting personal comic book collection records to linked data

The Comic Book Ontology (CBO) is a metadata vocabulary designed for the description of comic books and comic book collections. The vocabulary is part of a larger, ongoing research project exploring the design and exchange of data about comic books and graphic novels. The goal of the project is to produce a series of usable schemata and tools for the many participants in the often complex universe of comic books, which includes publishers, collectors, and libraries, among many others. The long-term objectives of the project include addressing the needs and overlapping roles of each user group through designated application profiles. Recognizing that all groups involved will have different needs, goals, and concerns, the base for each of these user application profiles is a much simpler set of elements required to first uniquely identify a resource. The intention of this core set of elements is to lower the difficulty in implementing the vocabulary and enhance the overall understandability of the ontology. The core application profile has been modeled from common elements found in the data of comic book collectors, a community of users largely responsible for the preservation of the medium, which has traditionally been underrepresented in knowledge institutions.
Jorge Luis Borges and Alfred Métraux: Disagreements, affinities.

Missing from scholarly studies of Borges’ work are substantial analyses of his interest in anthropology and the way it found carefully meditated expression in his essays and fiction. The common thread was a concern with some of the central subjects of anthropological theory: the possibilities of symbols and language to represent the world, categories of thought, systems of classification and the risks of translation. Alfred Metraux arrived in Argentina in 1928 with the ambitious project of starting a fieldwork-based school of anthropology. I contend that Borges’ adversarial engagement with Metraux’s work led directly to stories like “Dr. Brodie’s Report” and “The Ethnographer.” An inquiry on the tension between fiction and ethnography that runs through these stories sheds new light on the unorthodox history of anthropology in Argentina, and on Metraux’s relationship with Claude Levi-Strauss.
Middle cranial fossa approach to repair tegmen defects assisted by three-dimensionally printed temporal bone models

Objectives/Hypothesis To explore the perioperative utility of three-dimensionally (3D)-printed temporal bone models of patients undergoing repair of lateral skull base defects and spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leaks with the middle cranial fossa approach. Study Design Case series. Methods 3D-printed temporal bone models—based on patient-specific, high-resolution computed tomographic imaging—were constructed using inexpensive polymer materials. Preoperatively, the models demonstrated the extent of temporal lobe retraction necessary to visualize the proposed defects in the lateral skull base. Also preoperatively, Silastic sheeting was arranged across the modeled tegmen, marked, and cut to cover all of the proposed defect sites. The Silastic sheeting was then sterilized and subsequently served as a precise intraoperative template for a synthetic dural replacement graft. Of note, these grafts were customized without needing to retract the temporal lobe. Results Five patients underwent the middle cranial fossa approach assisted by 3D-printed temporal bone models to repair tegmen defects and spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leaks. No complications were encountered. The prefabricated dural repair grafts were easily placed and fit precisely onto the middle fossa floor without any additional modifications. All defects were covered as predicted by the 3D temporal bone models. At their postoperative visits, all five patients maintained resolution of their spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leaks. Conclusions Inexpensive 3D-printed temporal bone models of tegmen defects can serve as beneficial adjuncts during lateral skull base repair. The models provide a panoramic preoperative view of all tegmen defects and allow for custom templating of dural grafts without temporal lobe retraction. Level of Evidence 4 Laryngoscope, 127:2347–2351, 2017
Quantifying the effect of diagenetic recrystallization on the Mg isotopic composition of marine carbonates

Abstract The Mg and Sr isotopic compositions (δ26Mg and 87Sr/86Sr) of pore fluids and bulk carbonates from Ocean Drilling Project Site 1171 (South Tasman Rise; 2148.2 m water depth) are reported, in order to evaluate the potential of diagenesis to alter carbonate-based geochemical proxies in an open marine system. Given the trace amounts of Mg in marine carbonates relative to coexisting pore fluids, diagenesis can alter carbonate δ26Mg, a promising proxy for seawater δ26Mg that may help elucidate long-term changes in the global Mg cycle. Constraints on the effect of diagenetic recrystallization on carbonate δ26Mg are therefore critical for accurate proxy interpretations. This study provides context for assessing the fidelity of geochemical proxy-reconstructions using the primary components (i.e., foraminiferal tests and nannofossils) of bulk carbonate sediments. We find that pore fluid δ26Mg values (on the DSM3 scale) at Site 1171 increase systematically with depth (from −0.72‰ to −0.39‰ in the upper ∼260 m), while the δ26Mg of bulk carbonates decrease systematically with depth (from −2.23‰ to −5.00‰ in the upper ∼260 m). This variability is ascribed primarily to carbonate recrystallization, with a small proportion of the variability due to down-hole changes in nannofossil and foraminiferal species composition. The inferred effect of diagenesis on bulk carbonate δ26Mg correlates with down-core changes in Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, Na/Ca, and 87Sr/86Sr. A depositional reactive-transport model is employed to validate the hypothesis that calcite recrystallization in this system can generate sizeable shifts in carbonate δ26Mg. Model fits to the data suggest a fractionation factor and a partition coefficient that are consistent with previous work, assuming calcite recrystallization rates of ⩽7%/Ma constrained by Sr geochemistry. In addition, either partial dissolution or a distinctly different previous diagenetic regime must be invoked in order to explain aspects of the elemental chemistry and 87Sr/86Sr of relatively deep sediments from Holes A and C. This study indicates that the dynamics of a given sedimentary system can significantly alter bulk carbonate geochemistry, and presents a framework for considering the potential impact of such alteration on picked archives such as foraminiferal tests and nannofossils. Ultimately, this study contributes to the development of δ26Mg as a proxy for seawater δ26Mg by quantifying the susceptibility of carbonate δ26Mg to diagenetic alteration, particularly in sediments in open marine systems. This study suggests that because of the sensitivity of carbonate δ26Mg to diagenetic recrystallization, it can, in certain systems, be used to quantify the impact of diagenesis on carbonate-based geochemical proxies.
Multi-GSPS FFTs using FPGAs

This paper describes the implementation of a high throughput FFTs implemented on FPGAs, using a modified version of the Radix 2N architecture. The implementation uses a synthesis method which supports “super-sampling” to provide very high throughput. Special vector structures in the tools and hardware architecture are supported where complex vectors form the input on each clock cycle, and multiple FFT points are computed each clock cycle. Using Intel's floating point Arria 10 FPGAs, multi-GSPS throughput single precision floating point FFTs can be efficiently constructed, and a 10 GSPS, 32K point FFT in excess of 800 GFLOPS example will presented. Floating point eliminates the pruning and bit growth management as well as giving superior SNR. It does change the FFT implementation strategy, as adders are now as expensive as multipliers. A hybrid architecture incorporating both parallel and multiple serial stages is detailed. Special vector structures in the IP and tools are supported to maximize performance. For both fixed and floating point implementations, comparative results for logic, registers, DSP, memory resources and Fmax are shown. FFT throughput and GFLOPS metrics are also provided.
Demystifying Money: Fictions of Capital and Credit

The 2007 global financial crisis fueled critical scholarship on the geographies of finance, money, credit and debt. This research led to calls for clarifying and demystifying modern money and credi...
Changes in microbiome during and after travellers’ diarrhea: what we know and what we do not

The study of bacterial pathogens has advanced from culture on plates to basic biochemical studies; to sequencing reference genomes and attempting to ascribe those qualities to the whole species; to evaluating complete communities based on the universal marker of the 16S rRNA gene; to now sequencing all available nucleic acids in any sample to characterize the community as a whole. These types of scientific advances highlight that there are multiple layers of information within any sample, and to some extent we are only now beginning to be able to identify, categorize and understand the complex interactions of the host, pathogen and microbiome. In most cases, we can only now generate the data to examine these samples, but the detailed understanding of the significance of the data is lacking. We anticipate that in the future these microbiota and community data will be able to be modelled, understood and potentially used as either markers of disease, or diagnostics. This review provides a brief overview of the state of the use of microbiome studies using Travellers Diarrhea samples and what those studies have told us. More importantly these studies highlight what is remaining to be elucidated.
Examining the Evolution of Cross-National Fiscal Transparency:

Over the past two decades, global institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, have linked fiscal transparency to better g...
Using Importance-performance Analysis of Resident Perceptions to Inform a Tourism Development Framework.

Gateway communities commonly border, serve as entry points to protected lands. Due to their high quality of life, gateway communities have become a magnet for a growing number of people be they permanent or seasonal residents. But it is generally because of their unique natural attributes that they face issues of tourism development and growth. As a result, gateway communities offer important lessons for other rural areas grappling with rapid growth and change. A variation of Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) was used in this study whereby residents evaluated environmental, socio-cultural and socio-economic area attributes. IPA was chosen to serve as an additional input for communities interested in employing a tourism planning framework such as Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP). The findings suggest environmental attributes make the area special with them considered both important and of real concern currently and in the future. With the exception of a few items no other examined attributes were perceived the same as the environmental items. The modified IPA used in this study is a tool that can help inform a VERP framework intended to address tourism development as well as provide a visual means for those interested in better understanding resident perceptions.
Ordering by weighted number of wins gives a good ranking for weighted tournaments

We consider the following simple algorithm for feedback arc set problem in weighted tournaments: order the vertices by their weighted indegrees. We show that this algorithm has an approximation guarantee of 5 if the weights satisfy probability constraints (for any pair of vertices u and v, wuv+wvu=1). Special cases of the feedback arc set problem in such weighted tournaments include the feedback arc set problem in unweighted tournaments and rank aggregation. To complement the upper bound, for any constant e>0, we exhibit an infinite family of (unweighted) tournaments for which the aforesaid algorithm (irrespective of how ties are broken) has an approximation ratio of 5-e.
Sleep-Disordered Breathing among Newborns with Myelomeningocele.

In a matched cohort study, we report that the apnea-hypopnea index is significantly higher in neonates with myelomeningocele (34 ± 22) compared with age-matched controls (19 ± 11; P = .021). Assessment of newborns with myelomeningocele for sleep-disordered breathing may facilitate early treatment; the impact on long-term neurodevelopment is unknown.
Maternal hyperoxygenation: A potential therapy for congenital heart disease in the fetuses? A systematic review of the current literature

Objectives To assess efficacy, safety, outcomes, and intrauterine complications following maternal hyperoxygenation (MH) therapy in fetuses with congenital heart disease (CHD). Methods A systematic review was performed following an electronic search of databases. Articles were published before January 1, 2017, in an English-language and non-English-language journals (with English translations), and included human fetuses and expectant mothers with a fetal diagnosis of CHD who received MH. Results Ninety-six articles were identified; 72 were excluded and 24 full-text articles were reviewed. Only 9 articles met inclusion criteria and were analyzed. A total of 270 fetuses underwent MH therapy: 169 had CHD, and 101 had normal heart anatomies. Seven studies used fetal echocardiography, while 2 studies used cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR). The mean gestational age at therapy was 33.4 weeks (26-38 weeks). Majority of MH protocols used 100% FiO2 with non-rebreather face mask at 8 L of flow, achieving 60%-70% FiO2 , or maternal PaO2 goal of 250 mm Hg. No significant adverse events were reported. Four studies reported increased size of the hypoplastic cardiac structures after MH. Three studies utilized acute MH to risk stratify hypoplastic left heart syndrome fetuses. Two studies assessed acute MH in the setting of CMR. Conclusion The current evidence for MH therapy suggests an increase in pulmonary blood flow, and venous return, ductal flow, and heart dimensions in fetuses. MH has potential as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool in fetuses with CHD. Further randomized controlled trials are needed to ascertain whether MH therapy provides improved outcomes on fetuses with certain types of CHD.
Materials for Gamma-Ray Spectrometers: Inorganic Scintillators

Scintillation detectors constitute an important branch of radiation detection instrumentation. The discovery of the inorganic scintillating compound thallium-activated sodium iodide (NaI:Tl) in 194...
Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Transcription Is Not Detectable in Quiescent Human Stromal Keratitis by in Situ Hybridization

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether herpes simplex virus (HSV) transcripts are present in the corneas of patients with chronic herpetic stromal keratitis. Methods Corneal buttons from patients with a history of stromal keratitis, but no ongoing active disease, together with positive and negative control tissues, were analyzed by in situ hybridization using single-stranded RNA probes for all three classes of viral lytic cycle transcripts as well as for the latency-associated transcripts (LATs). Tissues also were screened for presence of HSV genomic DNA using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results HSV DNA was detected in 7 of 13 quiescent corneas by PCR, but no viral transcripts were detected in any of these corneas by in situ hybridization. Conclusions At the level of detection afforded by in situ hybridization, HSV persistent in scarred human corneas after stromal keratitis appears to be transcriptionally dormant. This contrasts with the situation in neurons of latently infected sensory ganglia, in which LATs are present at high levels.
SMALL BOWEL TRANSPLANTATION IN INFANTS AND CHILDREN

Multivisceral transplantation, combined liver-intestine transplantation, and isolated small bowel transplantation are very similar procedures that were first developed in the 1950s. If the viscera can be conceptualized as a cluster of grapes hanging from its arterial stems, the three procedures are characterized by virtually identical vascular anastomoses, with exclusion or inclusion of as many viscera (grapes) as necessary; however, these procedures languished for nearly four decades because of the imperfect immunosuppressive regimens of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Finally, after the development of FK506, pediatric patients may undergo intestinal transplantation with the hope for long-term survival. These procedures are reserved for TPN-dependent children with permanent intestinal insufficiency. Candidacy for transplantation is also predicated on development of potentially fatal TPN complications such as cholestasis, recurrent sepsis, or thrombosis of access sites. Since 1990, 32 pediatric patients have undergone intestinal transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh, with an overall survival of 65%. Immunosuppression has been accomplished with a combination of corticosteroids, FK506, and prostaglandin E1. Although GVHD has not been a major problem, most patients have experienced rejection episodes requiring intensification of immunosuppression with a steroid bolus, a steroid recycle, an increase in FK506 dosage, or addition of OKT3. CMV has caused little morbidity, but EBV-related PTLD has affected 20% of all patients. It has not been possible to discontinue immunosuppression in the face of PTLD without engendering severe small intestinal rejection. Other problems have included recurrent sepsis, intestinal dysmotility, and persistent food avoidance. Future therapeutic trends are likely to include the performance of combined bone marrow-visceral transplant to induce a chimeric tolerogenic state and to lessen the need for long-term immunosuppression.
On incipient-boiling wall superheats in liquid metals

Abstract It is shown that good agreement between predicted and measured incipient-boiling wall super-heats can be obtained with Holtz's [4] original superheat model, if two additional factors are taken into consideration. The first of these is the loss of inert gas from the cavity between the time of maximum boiling suppression (MBS) and the time of the incipient boiling (IB) event The second of these is the probability that the radius of curvature of the liquid-vapor interface at IB may be significantly different from that at MBS. Based upon the recent experimental IB results obtained by Chen [5] on potassium and those obtained by Holtz and Singer [8] on sodium, the following tentative conclusions have been drawn: (a) The loss of inert gas from an active cavity between the time of MBS and that of the first IB event appears to be negligibly small, but it can be considerable if a large number of IB events follow a single MBS treatment; (b) Bubble radius at IB is about 3 4 that at MBS; (c) Surface finish for standard smooth surfaces would not appear to have a strong influence on IB superheats; (d) The apparent heat-flux effect could possibly be in reality an inert-gas effect.
Evaluation of a Sodium Nonatitanate, Sodium Titanosilicate, and Pharmacosiderite-Type Ion Exchangers for Strontium Removal from DOE Waste and Hanford N-Springs Groundwater Simulants

A series of titanosilicate and titanate inorganic ion exchangers were developed by the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University in cooperation with AlliedSignal and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the selective removal of strontium from different contaminated aqueous defense wastes and groundwater.
Venezuelan economic crisis: crossing Latin American and Caribbean borders

The Venezuelan economic crisis has created a direct impact on the migration patterns in Latin America and the Caribbean, both voluntary and involuntary. The ramifications of the crisis are politica...
The positive effect of role models in evolution instruction

Previous research has identified numerous factors to explain why students have difficulty learning about evolution. Some of these factors include a student’s background (including their religion and major of study), the type of evolution instruction, and the inclusion of the nature of science (NOS) instruction. Sparse but more recent work has investigated the impact of a religious-scientist role model to help dampen perceptions of conflict between evolutionary science and worldview. We had two research goals: (1) to identify which of these factors influence students’ learning of evolution in post-secondary education; and (2) to describe the relationships among incoming biology students’ creationist reasoning, knowledge of evolution, and perceived conflict between evolution and their worldview. The single factor linked with the reduction in both creationist reasoning and in students’ perceived conflict between evolution and their worldview through a semester was the presence of a role model. Likewise, knowledge and perceived relevance of evolution increased in sections with a role model instructor and with evidence-based evolution instruction. Otherwise, tested factors (the type of evolution instruction, inclusion of NOS, biology-major/nonmajor, GPA, or religiosity) were not shown to be associated with these three constructs. We found that in the first week of the semester students with higher knowledge of evolution had lower creationist reasoning and lower perceived conflict. The single factor that collectively reduced erroneous beliefs, increased scientific knowledge, and minimized perceived conflict was the presence of a religious-scientist role model. Previous work has suggested a role model could positively impact students’ learning of evolution, yet this is the first quasi-experimental evidence supporting the importance of the course instructor as the role model in students’ learning of evolution. These findings are especially relevant to institutions with a greater proportion of religious students who could benefit from modeling to help foster their learning of evolution.
Modeling Excess Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Traffic Congestion in Urban Areas

Transportation contributes to the large amount of greenhouse gas emissions, especially for CO2. Urban planning, transportation operation, and energy use definitely affect the amount of CO2 emitted in an urban area. It would be very meaningful to quickly quantify the possible change of CO2 with different planning scenarios. This paper examines and forecasts the yearly change of CO2 emissions from traffic congestion by developing a quick response model based on a fuzzy table look-up scheme, linking the model to real-world data on city patterns and traffic conditions from 2012 Annual Urban Mobility Report by Texas Transportation Institute and United States Census Bureau. With a case study of Austin, Texas, to cap CO2 emissions from congestion at 2.61% growth per year, there is a need to keep the population-weighted density unchanged, VMT annual growth rate capped at 2.32%, and annual excess fuel consumption growth rate capped at –1.60%.
How to Calculate Rotational and Vibrational Cross Sections for Low-Energy Electron Scattering from Diatomic Molecules using Close-Coupling Techniques

This chapter is not a review; electron-molecule dynamics is already replete with fine reviews, many of which appear in books devoted entirely to this topic.1–6 These reviews discuss the applied importance of this field,7–10 survey the status of electron-molecule collision data,11–40 and address specialized topics such as resonance scattering,15 vibrational excitation,16 near-threshold scattering,17–18 particular theoretical approaches such as the R-matrix method,19 numerical methods for solving the Schrodinger equation,20–22 and scattering from polar23,24 and polyatomic25,26 targets. Neither is this chapter primarily pedagogical; readers can find elsewhere a wealth of pedagogically useful tutorial introductions and reviews that narrate the major developments in the field’s long rich history and survey recent advances that have made it the focus of intense activity during the last 20 years.27–30 Rather, this chapter is a “ready reference” of the key equations for the application of one very widely used theoretical strategy—the eigenfunction-expansion or “close-coupling“ method— to one very important class of problems: quantum scattering (at incident energies less than about 10 eV) from a closed-shell diatomic molecule accompanied, perhaps, by rotational and/or vibrational (but not electronic) excitation of the target. As exemplary of an extremely powerful method for reducing multi-variable integro-differential equations to more tractable sets of fewer-variable equations, this class of problems illustrates strategies used in many other theoretical contexts, both within and outside of electron-molecule collisions.
Rank-one Convexification for Sparse Regression.

Sparse regression models are increasingly prevalent due to their ease of interpretability and superior out-of-sample performance. However, the exact model of sparse regression with an $\ell_0$ constraint restricting the support of the estimators is a challenging (\NP-hard) non-convex optimization problem. In this paper, we derive new strong convex relaxations for sparse regression. These relaxations are based on the ideal (convex-hull) formulations for rank-one quadratic terms with indicator variables. The new relaxations can be formulated as semidefinite optimization problems in an extended space and are stronger and more general than the state-of-the-art formulations, including the perspective reformulation and formulations with the reverse Huber penalty and the minimax concave penalty functions. Furthermore, the proposed rank-one strengthening can be interpreted as a \textit{non-separable, non-convex, unbiased} sparsity-inducing regularizer, which dynamically adjusts its penalty according to the shape of the error function without inducing bias for the sparse solutions. In our computational experiments with benchmark datasets, the proposed conic formulations are solved within seconds and result in near-optimal solutions (with 0.4\% optimality gap) for non-convex $\ell_0$-problems. Moreover, the resulting estimators also outperform alternative convex approaches from a statistical perspective, achieving high prediction accuracy and good interpretability.
Retrieval dynamics of recognition and rejection

Recognition memory is often viewed as the end-product of discrete cognitive events, involving the combination of latent operations such as the assessment of memory strength, the decision time, and the memory judgement. Recently, researchers have begun using the physical dynamics of memory retrieval to provide insight into the dynamic, possibly non-discrete, processes that underlie memory decisions. In this study, the underlying distributional properties of targets and lures were manipulated by populating lists with items drawn from either homogeneous or heterogeneous word frequency and context variability ranges. In all conditions, participants' x-, y-mouse coordinates were recorded as they processed test items, allowing estimates of response dynamics (e.g., initial deviation and area under the curve [AUC]), and eventual old/new responses. The stimulus manipulations affected the distribution shapes and, to a greater degree, the placements of subjective confidence thresholds. We observed tight correspondences between confidence and AUC for both hits and correct rejections. We interpret these results within dynamic models of recognition memory.
A resource-constrained, multi-unit hospital model for operational strategies evaluation under routine and surge demand scenarios

A patient-based, resource-constrained, multi-unit hospital model is presented for evaluating hospital performance in routine and surge demand scenarios. Physical spaces, patients, medical providers...
Labor process and the environment : The effects of labor availability and compensation on the quality of herding in the Sahel

The relationship between investments of labor to agricultural production and environmental degradation in rural areas of the developing world is complex. This paper reports on qualitative and quantitative research focused on the effects of labor availability and its compensation on the way in which cattle are herded in the Maasina region of Central Mali. Within this particular region, two social relationships determine the level and form of herder compensation: that between herd patriarch and cattle owner, and that between herd patriarch and herder. Both the nature of these relationships and variations in herding practice are described prior to a presentation of statistical analyses of the effects of household labor availability and cattle wealth on travel and grazing management decisions. Reductions in both the availability of herding labor and in the economic security of Fulsse households are shown to lead to reduced herd mobility and more constricted grazing patterns with significant environmental implications.
The Lynx X-Ray Observatory: Science Drivers

Lynx is a powerful, next-generation X-ray observatory that will provide orders of magnitude increases in capability relative to previous and other planned X-ray missions. Its unprecedented views of the X-ray universe will provide essential insights into the fundamental role played by high-energy processes in virtually every aspect of astrophysics, insights available from none of the other highly ambitious space- and ground-based observatories planned for the 2030s and beyond. Lynx is a flagship mission operating as a general observatory with almost all science observations carried out via a competed and peer-reviewed General Observer (GO) program. The Lynx architecture has been designed to enable highly challenging observations in each of three broad science pillars: detecting and understanding the seeds of the first supermassive black holes, characterizing physics of the energetic processes that drive galaxy formation and evolution, and probing the broad range of high-energy processes that shape stellar birth and death, internal stellar structure, star-planet interactions, and the origin of elements.
Mechanisms of Glucocorticoid Response and Resistance in Lymphoid Malignancies

Glucocorticoids (GC) are an integral component of multi-agent therapy regimens for a wide variety of lymphoid malignancies due to their potential effects to induce apoptosis in cells of the lymphoid lineage. Despite their clinical utility, de novo and acquired resistance to GC is a significant clinical problem that contributes to inferior outcomes for many of these diseases. This review summarizes what is currently known about mechanisms of GC resistance in lymphoid malignancies, with a particular focus on novel therapeutic strategies currently in preclinical or clinical development that are rationally-designed to overcome GC resistance and improve clinical outcomes.
Association of Rising Cost and Use of Oral Anticancer Drugs With Medicare Part D Spending From 2013 Through 2017.

This cross-sectional study weighs the proportional associations of rising drug costs and use with increased Medicare Part D spending for a cohort of oral anticancer drugs used from 2013 through 2017.
Telling stories and sharing cultures for constructing identity and solidarity: A case of informal communication at a workplace

Abstract This study investigates how immigrant workers construct their identities and social relations by telling stories in multilingual work environments. My main interest lies in naturally occurring and interactionally achieved stories, from the participants’ day-to-day interaction at a workplace. Data were collected from the informal interaction among employees at a nursing home in Honolulu. Positioning itself against studies that focus on linguistic competence of workers and potential problems of miscommunication and exclusion, this study highlights how employees draw upon shared cultural resources for a more inclusive interaction. The analysis of multi-party storytelling shows the dynamic nature of the multilingual interaction, and how the participants achieve their interactional goals in their specific spatial contexts. It shows how the multilingualism varies in the local realization and how the participants put their efforts into finding common ground for belonging, achieving social inclusion, and negotiating mutual understanding with respect to their languages and cultures.
An Introduction to Disk Margins [Lecture Notes]

Feedback controllers are designed to ensure stability and achieve a variety of performance objectives, including reference tracking and disturbance rejection. Control engineers have developed different types of "safety factors" to account for the mismatch between the plant model used for control design and the dynamics of the real system. Classical margins account for this mismatch by introducing gain and phase perturbations in the feedback. The classical margins are measures of the gain and phase perturbations that can be tolerated while retaining closedloop stability.
Acute SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with an increased abundance of bacterial pathogens, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the nose.

Research conducted on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pathogenesis and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) generally focuses on the systemic host response, especially that generated by severely ill patients, with few studies investigating the impact of acute SARS-CoV-2 at the site of infection. We show that the nasal microbiome of SARS-CoV-2-positive patients (CoV+, n = 68) at the time of diagnosis is unique when compared to CoV- healthcare workers (n = 45) and CoV- outpatients (n = 21). This shift is marked by an increased abundance of bacterial pathogens, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is also positively associated with viral RNA load. Additionally, we observe a robust host transcriptional response in the nasal epithelia of CoV+ patients, indicative of an antiviral innate immune response and neuronal damage. These data suggest that the inflammatory response caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with an increased abundance of bacterial pathogens in the nasal cavity that could contribute to increased incidence of secondary bacterial infections.
The nutritional environment is sufficient to select coexisting biofilm and quorum-sensing mutants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The evolution of bacterial populations during infections can be influenced by various factors including available nutrients, the immune system, and competing microbes, rendering it difficult to identify the specific forces that select on evolved traits. The genomes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from the airway of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), for example, have revealed commonly mutated genes, but which phenotypes led to their prevalence is often uncertain. Here, we focus on effects of nutritional components of the CF airway on genetic adaptations by P. aeruginosa grown in either well-mixed (planktonic) or biofilm-associated conditions. After only 80 generations of experimental evolution in a simple medium with glucose, lactate, and amino acids, all planktonic populations diversified into lineages with mutated genes common to CF infections: morA, encoding a regulator of biofilm formation, or lasR, encoding a quorum sensing regulator that modulates the expression of virulence factors. Although mutated quorum sensing is often thought to be selected in vivo due to altered virulence phenotypes or social cheating, isolates with lasR mutations demonstrated increased fitness when grown alone and outcompeted the ancestral PA14 strain. Nonsynonymous SNPs in morA increased fitness in a nutrient concentration-dependent manner during planktonic growth and surprisingly also increased biofilm production. Populations propagated in biofilm conditions also acquired mutations in loci associated with chronic infections, including lasR and cyclic-di-GMP regulators roeA and wspF. These findings demonstrate that nutrient conditions and biofilm selection are alone sufficient to select mutants with problematic clinical phenotypes including increased biofilm and altered quorum sensing. ImportancePseudomonas aeruginosa produces dangerous chronic infections that are known for their rapid diversification and recalcitrance to treatment. We performed evolution experiments to identify adaptations selected by two specific aspects of the CF respiratory environment: nutrient levels and surface attachment. Propagation of P. aeruginosa in nutrients present within the CF airway was alone sufficient to drive diversification into subpopulations with identical mutations in regulators of biofilm and quorum sensing to those arising during infection. Thus, the adaptation of opportunistic pathogens to nutrients found in the host may select mutants with phenotypes that complicate treatment and clearance of infection.
Expression of Early and Late Simian Virus 40 Transcripts in the Absence of Protein Synthesis

We examined the synthesis of early and late simian virus 40 (SV40) mRNA9s in SV40-infected cells treated with two kinds of protein synthesis inhibitors. SV40 stimulated the synthesis of mRNA9s for both large and small tumor antigens in cells pretreated with the drug emetine before the addition of virus. Emetine is a stringent inhibitor of protein synthesis and, thus, protein factors necessary for transcription and processing of these mRNA9s probably preexist in the cell. Surprisingly, infection of cells pretreated with the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide stimulated the synthesis of about 10-fold-higher levels of early viral mRNA9s than did comparable infections of nontreated cells. This amplification of early viral mRNA steady-state levels is probably not due to inhibition of synthesis of the early A gene product since the same degree of drug-specific amplification was seen in SV40 tsA -infected cells that were cultured at the nonpermissive temperature. However, the most interesting effect of cycloheximide addition on viral mRNA synthesis was its stimulation of the appearance of late mRNA9s in the cytoplasm of cells at early periods of infection. The synthesis of late mRNA9s does not appear to require the A gene product as late RNAs can be found in the cytoplasm of cells infected with SV40 tsA mutants which have been maintained at 41°C and continuously cultured in the presence of cycloheximide. Images
Challenges on the high luminosity frontier of e/sup +/ e/sup -/ factories

For phi factories, tau-charm factories, and B factories to meet their respective luminosity goals, the circulating currents that typify e/sup +/ e/sup $/colliders must be raised an order of magnitude. At the same time the beam size at the interaction point must be decreased. The approaches to realizing these conditions include increasing the charge per bunch, increasing the number of bunches in the collider, increasing the crossing angle for rapid bunch separation, tilting the bunch with respect to the direction of motion at the interaction point ("crab-crossing"), and minimizing the /spl beta/ function at the interaction point. The technological challenges implied by such strategies include the development of 1) novel rf-cavity designs to suppress higher order modes and to provide large rf-voltages for longitudinal focusing, 2) a new generation of powerful feedback electronics to control multi-bunch instabilities, and 3) vacuum chambers and pumping schemes suitable for operation with very high levels of synchrotron radiation. In high current colliders the design of the interaction region poses special problems of allowing rapid beam separation and avoiding excessive scattering of background radiation into the detector. >
Low-fat dairy reduces inflammatory genes and liver enzymes in adults with metabolic syndrome (40.5)

We evaluated the effect of low-fat dairy (LFD) intake on plasma inflammatory markers, gene expression of these markers in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and liver enzymes in individuals with metabolic syndrome (MetS). Subjects (13 male, 22 female) with low dairy intake (<1.5 ser/dairy/day) were randomly assigned to receive LFD (296 mL low-fat milk, 170 g yogurt, 510 g cheese stick, 3 servings of dairy/day) or isocaloric control foods (CON) (42 g granola bar, 177 mL juice) daily for 6-wk. After a 4-wk wash-out, subjects were allocated to the alternate treatment. Participants had lower concentrations of both hepatic alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (p < 0.05) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (p< 0.005) as well as lower concentrations of plasma monocyte chemoattractant protein (MPC-1) (p<0.05) after the LFD period. Gene expression was evaluated in a subset of subjects (n = 17). IL-1b and IL-6 were reduced by 46 and 63%, respectively compared to the control period. Protein and gene expression of ...
The Development of Intercollegiate Women's Ice Hockey in the United States

Les images associees au hockey sur glace sont celles d'un sport violent reserve aux hommes. Pourtant, depuis 1970, il existe dans la region nord-est des Etats-Unis une ligue feminine inter-universitaire de hockey sur glace, appartenant a la « Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference ». Cette discipline sportive se presente desormais comme un sport universitaire en expansion, avec quarante-et-une equipes, meconnues (voire inconnues) en dehors de la region Nord-Est. L'article, outre le fait de presenter l'evolution de ce sport aupres des etudiantes, s'interroge sur quatre points : (1) Pourquoi la ligue a-t-elle vue le jour dans la region nord-est du pays ? (2) Pourquoi la ligue n'a-t-elle pas ete formee au Minnesota ou au Wisconsin, bastions traditionnels du hockey ? (3) Pourquoi les equipes feminines se sont-elles formees dans des universites typiquement masculines, telles Yale, Harvard, Princeton et Dartmouth et non pas dans des universites feminines, telles Smith et Mount Holyoke ? Enfin (4) pourquoi le hockey, sport traditionnellement masculin, s'est-il impose comme sport feminin inter-universitaire ?
In situ enrichment of ocean crust microbes on igneous minerals and glasses using an osmotic flow‐through device

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Hole 1301A on the eastern flank of Juan de Fuca Ridge was used in the first long-term deployment of microbial enrichment flow cells using osmotically driven pumps in a subseafloor borehole. Three novel osmotically driven colonization systems with unidirectional flow were deployed in the borehole and incubated for 4 years to determine the microbial colonization preferences for 12 minerals and glasses present in igneous rocks. Following recovery of the colonization systems, we measured cell density on the minerals and glasses by fluorescent staining and direct counting and found some significant differences between mineral samples. We also determined the abundance of mesophilic and thermophilic culturable organotrophs grown on marine R2A medium and identified isolates by partial 16S or 18S rDNA sequencing. We found that nine distinct phylotypes of culturable mesophilic oligotrophs were present on the minerals and glasses and that eight of the nine can reduce nitrate and oxidize iron. Fe(II)-rich olivine minerals had the highest density of total countable cells and culturable organotrophic mesophiles, as well as the only culturable organotrophic thermophiles. These results suggest that olivine (a common igneous mineral) in seawater-recharged ocean crust is capable of supporting microbial communities, that iron oxidation and nitrate reduction may be important physiological characteristics of ocean crust microbes, and that heterogeneously distributed minerals in marine igneous rocks likely influence the distribution of microbial communities in the ocean crust.
Boll Weevil Control Strategies: Regional Benefits and Costs *

Throughout the southern states and at the federal level, much attention is being focused on the appropriate strategy for controlling cotton insect pests, particularly the boll weevil. This paper presents estimated economic impacts to farmers, regions and consumers of implementing three alternative boll weevil control strategies. One strategy evaluated is a proposed boll weevil eradication program which involves integrating many controls including insecticides, reproduction-diapause control by early season stalk destruction, pheromone-baited traps, trap crops, early season control with insecticide, and massive releases of sterile boll weevils. The plan is to eradicate the boll weevil in the U.S., and then indefinitely maintain a barrier at the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent future weevil immigration to the U.S.
Surface-dependence of interfacial binding strength between zinc oxide and graphene

There is an increasing interest in hybrid materials with impacts such as improving structural integrity of known and commonly used materials. Recent experiments have suggested that the adhesion of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires with carbon fibers can significantly improve interfacial shear and tensile strength of fiber reinforced polymer composites. We have carried out a systematic study of the interaction between ZnO and graphene based on density functional theory, with a focus on the effect of the surface orientation and termination of ZnO. The interaction has been explored through varying both the orientation and binding sites of the interacting surfaces. The calculated binding strength shows a strong dependence on the surface orientation and termination of ZnO, which can be explained from the difference in electronegativity of Zn and O, and the induced charge redistribution owing to the in-plane and out-of-plane dipole moment of the oxide surface.
Statistical methods for short-term tests in genetic toxicology: The first fifteen years

Short-term tests (STTs) for detecting and assessing genotoxic or mutagenic effects have catalyzed the development of biostatistical methods for more than one decade. Most notably, the Ames Salmonella/microsome assay created statistical methodology with a range of applications going beyond genotoxicity. Early approaches with parametric statistical methods appeared to be insufficient and have been replaced by non-parametric ones requiring less restrictive distributional assumptions. There have also been successful attempts to use biomathematical models for establishing dose-response relationships. Overdispersion has been recognized as a major problem for the evaluation of mutagenic count data and methods to cope with it have became available. A theory of generalized linear modelling is emerging to combine dose-response modeling with much less restrictive distributional assumptions, while allowing the inclusion of concomitant factors arising from the experimental conditions. The methodological survey below reviews the present state of this development and is intended to promote further research into biostatistical issues and methods of analysis. Appropriate methods for the design and analysis of STTs are discussed. The progress for the Ames assay was only partially transmitted to the analysis of the large number of other short-term assays. Several such assays are reviewed with respect to their present state of statistical evaluation.
Differentials in infant and child mortality and their change over time: Guatemala, 1959–1973

This paper employs 5 percent samples of the Guatemalan censuses of 1964 and 1973 to estimate differential childhood mortality. For 1973, conventional indirect mortality estimation procedures were applied; for 1964, a modification of the Preston-Palloni technique was used. A major result is that differential child mortality widened appreciably between about 1959 and about 1968. Factors leading to mortality decline were possibly unequally spread by geographic region, rural-urban residence, ethnic groups, and educational groups. Guatemala City seems to have benefited most from the decline. Analysis of small geographic units supports these conclusions and suggests some role for public health. A by-product of the analysis was the finding that parity was understated in the 1964 census.