cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The role of physician oversight on advanced practice nurses’ professional autonomy and empowerment

Background and purpose Little is known about the effects of physician oversight on advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). Examination of these relationships provides insight into the strength of independent practice. The purpose of this study was to examine whether APRNs’ perceptions of autonomy and empowerment varied according to type of physician oversight, whether facilitative or restrictive. Data sources A cross-sectional survey design was used to examine whether APRNs’ perceptions of autonomy and empowerment varied according to physician oversight, geographical location, and practice setting. Five hundred questionnaires were mailed in March 2013 with 274 returned. Participants were asked about autonomy, empowerment, demographics, physician oversight, geographical location, and practice setting. Conclusions Among surveyed respondents, physician oversight was related to increased empowerment, regardless of whether the oversight was defined in facilitative or restrictive terms; both had similar positive effects on empowerment. Implications for practice If APRNs are to be part of the solution to the growing problem of healthcare access, it is important to study factors that contribute to their success. We speculate that increasing opportunities for collaboration and interaction with physicians, and possibly other healthcare professionals, could facilitate APRN empowerment, optimizing their contribution.
Thermomechanical stabilization of electron small polarons in SrTi O 3 assessed by the quasiharmonic approximation

We predict a predominance diagram for electron defects in the temperature-hydrostatic stress space for $\mathrm{SrTi}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ by combining density functional theory and the quasiharmonic approximation. We discovered two regimes where small polarons dominate: under tensile stress at lower temperature due to a larger relaxation volume of the defect $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}$, and under compressive stress at higher temperature due to a smaller $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}$ and larger formation entropy. This provides a means to modulate the electronic conductivity via controlling the underlying charge carrier. Furthermore, the results challenge the common association between larger $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}$ and charge localization by demonstrating that at high temperature the free electron can induce larger $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}$ compared to the small polaron. This finding is attributed to the ability of the free electron to generate greater vibrational entropy upon finite isothermal expansion.
MantisBot Changes Stepping Speed by Entraining CPGs to Positive Velocity Feedback

This paper demonstrates and analyzes how CPGs can entrain joints of a praying mantis robot (MantisBot) to positive velocity feedback resulting in a duration change of a leg’s stance phase. We use a model of a single leg segment, as well as previously presented design techniques to understand how the gain of positive velocity feedback to the CPGs should be modulated to successfully implement the active reaction (AR) during walking. Our results suggest that the AR simplifies the descending control of walking speed, naturally producing the asymmetrical changes in stance and swing phase duration seen in walking animals. We implement the AR in neural circuits of a dynamic network that control leg joints of MantisBot, and experiments confirm that the robot modulates its walking speed as the simple model predicted. Aggregating the data from hundreds of steps in different walking directions show that the robot changes speed by altering the duration of stance phase while swing phase remains unaffected, as seen in walking animals.
Reproducible and Replicable Computational Fluid Dynamics: It’s Harder Than You Think

Completing a full replication study of the authors’ previously published findings on bluff-body aerodynamics was harder than they thought, despite them having good reproducible-research practices, such as sharing their code and data openly. Here’s what they learned from three years, four computational fluid dynamics codes, and hundreds of runs.
Abstract B03: Functional Stratification of Cancer Variants via Network Perturbations

In the past decade, genome and exome sequencing projects have identified thousands of genetic variants in patients across a large number of cancer types. However, the explosion of genomic information has left many fundamental questions regarding genotype-phenotype relationships unresolved. One critical challenge is to distinguish causal disease mutations from non-pathogenic polymorphisms. Even when causal mutations are identified, the functional consequence of such mutations is often elusive. Classical one gene, one function, one disease models can not reconcile with the complexity that different mutations of the same gene often lead to different phenotypes. The extent to which network perturbations are involved in disease malfunction and how distinct interaction perturbation patterns can distinguish cancer mutations are largely unknown. Here we report a systematic approach to investigate genetic variant-specific effects on molecular interactions at large scale across diverse human cancers. Remarkably, in comparison to non-disease polymorphisms, disease mutations are more likely to associate with interaction perturbations. A large fraction of missense disease mutations are found to cause protein interaction alterations. While half result in loss of all their interactions, the other half exhibit selective elimination of specific interactions (edgetic). Different mutations of the same gene give rise to different interaction profiles, accounting for distinct disease outcomes. Edgetic mutations perturb interactions through disrupting specific interaction interfaces, and the perturbed partners are more likely expressed in relevant disease tissue. Together, our approach is insightful in prioritizing disease-causing variants, and uncovering patient mutation-specific disease mechanisms at a base-pair resolution, a critical step towards personalized precision medicine. Furthermore, our results suggest distinct interaction perturbations as a widespread mechanism underlying genetic heterogeneity, providing a fundamental link between genotype and phenotype in cancer. Citation Format: Nidhi Sahni, Song Yi. Functional Stratification of Cancer Variants via Network Perturbations [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Precision Medicine Series: Opportunities and Challenges of Exploiting Synthetic Lethality in Cancer; Jan 4-7, 2017; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2017;16(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B03.
Design and fabrication of narrow band radar absorbing materials at terahertz frequencies

The technique of tailoring the complex refractive index of an artificial dielectric material has been developed at the University of Lowell Research Foundation (ULRF). Low reflection coatings, generally referred to as Dallenbach layers, have been designed for metal substrates using the artificial dielectric. The method of characterizing materials for the purpose of tailoring their dielectric properties at terahertz frequencies will be discussed. Results will be shown for a typical dielectric coated aluminum plate specifically designed for low reflection behavior at ? 0.6 terahertz.
The Relation between Diagnosis and Treatment in Casework

A report of the examination of the relationship between twenty-seven client diagnostic variables and eleven treatment procedures in family counseling
Laryngeal Activity for Production of Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Rats

Abstract Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) emitted by rats are frequently used as measures of animal emotional states and brain functions in a large variety of behavioral responses. They are used in research paradigms, particularly in modeling psychiatric disorders; emotional responses; and addictive behavior because of high translatability to human behavior. Here, we describe rat USV production and review the physiological and anatomical literature that implicates the larynx as the source of the USVs. The prevailing view is that USVs are generated by a constriction within the larynx, presumably at the level of the vocal folds, compressing an exhalatory airflow resulting in an ultrasonic whistle-like sound. The frequency of this whistle can be rapidly modulated using the laryngeal muscles, resulting in a wide variety of vocalization types that vary according to age, sex, and situation. We provide an example of this variability with the effects of sexual dimorphism on parameters of USVs.
Insulin hexamer dissociation dynamics revealed by photoinduced T-jumps and time-resolved X-ray solution scattering

The structural dynamics of insulin hexamer dissociation were studied by the photoinduced temperature jump technique and monitored by time-resolved X-ray scattering. The process of hexamer dissociation was found to involve several transient intermediates, including an expanded hexamer and an unstable tetramer. Our findings provide insights into the mechanisms of protien–protein association.
An Error Analysis of Pulmonary Vascular Permeability Measurements Made with Positron Emission Tomography

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a powerful, quantitative, nuclear medicine imaging technique, useful for studying many problems in lung physiology and biochemistry (1). With PET, compounds are labeled with positron-emitting isotopes. After being administered either. intravascularly or inhalationally, the tissue activity concentration of the isotope is determined with an imaging device similar in appearance to an X-ray computed tomography scanner. Multiple two-dimensional images are then reconstructed from the activity data and interpreted to represent a physiologic process of interest. PET derives its power from several factors: (1) the labeled compounds are themselves biologically important; (2) the isotope half-life is often sufficiently short that studies may be repeated if desirable; (3) the isotope tissue concentration can be determined quantitatively, accurately, and in many instances, noninvasively; and (4) the activity distribution can be located with great accuracy. Because of this latter feature in particular, the activity data can be presented regionally, in an image format, so that measurements may be correlated with other regionally specific measurements over time.
A unified framework for UC from only OT

In [1], the authors presented a unified framework for constructing Universally Composable (UC) secure computation protocols, assuming only enhanced trapdoor permutations. In this work, we weaken the hardness assumption underlying the unified framework to only the existence of a stand-alone secure semi-honest Oblivious Transfer (OT) protocol. The new framwork directly implies new and improved UC feasibility results from only the existence of a semi-honest OT protocol in various models. Since in many models, the existence of UC-OT implies the existence of a semi-honest OT protocol. Furthermore, we show that by relying on a more fine-grained analysis of the unified framework, we obtain concurrently secure computation protocols with super-polynomial-time simulation (SPS), based on the necessary assumption of the existence of a semi-honest OT protocol that can be simulated in super-polynomial times. When the underlying OT protocol has constant rounds, the SPS secure protocols constructed also have constant rounds. This yields the first construction of constant-round secure computation protocols that satisfy a meaningful notions of concurrent security (i.e., SPS security) based on tight assumptions. A notable corollary following from our new unifed framwork is that stand-alone (or bounded-concurrent) password authenticated key-exchange protocols (PAKE) can be constructed from only semi-honest OT protocols; combined with the result of [2] that the existence of PAKE protocols implies that of OT, we derive a tight characterization of PAKE protocols.
Pretargeting: Improved Pharmacokinetics and Therapeutic Ratio

Pre-clinical studies of three step pretargeting of an anti-hapten mAb were done in BALB/c mice with KHJJ mouse adenocarcinoma. An 80% reduction in whole body radiation burden and a 10 fold increase in Therapeutic Ratio was achieved, compared to directly labeled mAb in this model.
ELECTRICITY IN THE ATMOSPHERE | Lightning

This article is reproduced from the previous edition, volume 3, pp 1216–1223, © 2003, Elsevier Ltd.
Reforming Juvenile Delinquency Treatment to Enhance Rehabilitation, Personal Accountability and Public Safety

This article describes the widespread violence, beatings and other abuse the U.S. Justice Department has found in its inspections of several state juvenile detention facilities. The article then discusses Missouri's Division of Youth Services (DYS), which is widely considered the national model of sound practices. The article concludes with recommendations for national reform.
Abstract 5168: Understanding the role of integrins in breast cancer

Breast cancer is a highly prevalent disease and the second-leading cancer related death in women. Mortality rates have declined a 38% in recent years thanks to early detection and development of treatments. However, the five year survival rate of patients with a distant metastasis is only 26%. Hence, it is important to identify key players that mediate or promote the migration of cells to other organs. Integrins are cell surface receptors that mediate cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix. They are involved in roles such as cell migration and proliferation. In this project we seek to understand the role of integrin α2 in breast cancer metastasis. It has been previously reported that integrin α2 is a metastasis suppressor of a Her2+ model of breast cancer. However, its role in triple negative breast cancer is unknown. We found the integrin α2 gene (ITGA2) a target of has-miR-206 which controls metastasis and stemness of breast cancer. We hypothesize integrin α2 has a metastasis regulating role in triple negative breast cancer. The triple negative breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231 has been used to characterize the role of integrin α2 in migration, cell viability and lung colonization of mice injected though tail vein injection. Lung colonization of breast cancer cells in NSG mice is significantly altered by the knockdown expression of integrin α2. Consistent with the phenotypes in migration and invasion. Taken together, these results suggest integrin α2 regulates breast cancer metastasis through modified cell migration and lung colonization. Citation Format: Valery Adorno-Cruz, Xia Liu, Huiping Liu. Understanding the role of integrins in breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5168.
Do Suspensions Affect Student Outcomes

Discipline reformers claim that suspensions negatively affect suspended students, while others suggest reforms have unintended consequences for peers. Using student panel data from the School Distr...
Replantation and Revascularization of Limbs

Since the pioneer work of Carrel and his associates [4,5] and of Leriche and his associates [18,19] in the early part of this century, great strides have been made in vascular surgery, culminating in the appearance of the new field of replantation of limbs or portions of limbs.
Workplace Bullying in Schools: Teachers’ Perceptions of Why They Were Mistreated

AbstractThis article explores teachers’ perceptions of why their administrators bullied them. Data sources included surveys collected from 250 teachers and interviews with 26 teachers. Survey data indicated the main reasons teachers felt bullied were: their age, their association with a teacher union, and their behaviors. Qualitative results showed teachers felt their administrators bullied them out of jealousy, power, because a previous administrator hired them, teacher traits, and differences in teaching styles.
Traditional and cyber bullying and sexual harassment: A longitudinal assessment of risk and protective factors.

Adolescents engage in bullying and sexual harassment perpetration both in-person and online. Yet, little is known about the overlap of traditional (in-person) and cyber bullying and sexual harassment perpetration. The present study assessed the co-occurrence of these forms of aggression in high school and identified middle school predictors based on participants' perceptions of factors across the social ecology. Racially diverse middle and high school students (n = 3549) were surveyed over four time points from Spring 2008 to Spring 2013. A latent class analysis was used to identify classes of individuals according to endorsement of traditional and cyber bullying and sexual harassment items in high school. Four classes were identified: (1) high all, consisting of traditional and cyber bullying and sexual harassment perpetration (n = 227); (2) traditional bullying perpetration (n = 604); (3) traditional and cyber bullying perpetration (n = 450); and (4) low all (n = 1,261). Students who reported high levels of anger, self-esteem, empathy, pornographic exposure, and traditional masculinity (individual level), lower levels of social support and parental monitoring (relational level), and higher levels of school belonging (community level) had increased odds of being in the high all class when compared to the other classes. Given the co-occurrence of traditional and cyber bullying and sexual harassment, prevention programming that addresses both forms of aggression across traditional and online contexts may be beneficial. This study also suggests the importance of comprehensive prevention efforts that incorporate approaches at the different ecological levels, such as teaching adolescents healthy emotional and interpersonal skills, and engaging parents in prevention.
Philosophical Foundations for Citizen Science

Citizen science is increasingly being recognized as an important approach for gathering data, addressing community needs, and creating fruitful engagement between citizens and professional scientists. Nevertheless, the implementation of citizen science projects can be hampered by a variety of barriers. Some of these are practical (e.g., lack of funding or lack of training for both professional scientists and volunteers), but others are theoretical barriers having to do with concerns about whether citizen science lives up to standards of good scientific practice. These concerns about the overall quality of citizen science are ethically significant, because it is ethically problematic to waste resources on low-quality research, and it is also problematic to denigrate or dismiss research that is of high quality. Scholarship from the philosophy of science is well-placed to address these theoretical barriers, insofar as it is fundamentally concerned about the nature of good scientific inquiry. This paper examines three important concerns: (1) the worry that citizen science is not appropriately hypothesis-driven; (2) the worry that citizen science does not generate sufficiently high-quality data or use sufficiently rigorous methods; and (3) the worry that citizen science is tainted by advocacy and is therefore not sufficiently disinterested. We show that even though some of these concerns may be relevant to specific instances of citizen science, none of these three concerns provides a compelling reason to challenge the overall quality of citizen science in principle.
Deep ${Q}$ -Learning-Based Node Positioning for Throughput-Optimal Communications in Dynamic UAV Swarm Network

In this paper, we study the communication-oriented unmanned air vehicle (UAV) placement issue in a typical manned-and-unmanned (MUM) airborne network. The MUM network consists of a few powerful aircraft nodes in the higher layer and high-density UAVs in the lower layer. While the aircraft network is relatively stable, the UAVs can form different swarm network topologies. Some UAVs are selected as gateway nodes to aggregate the received UAV data and send to a nearby aircraft which acts as a control node for the UAVs in a swarm. Assume a source UAV has data to be sent to its gateway node by using a route which may have broken links. Our goal is to guide the position of one or more relay UAVs to make up for the broken wireless links under the dynamic swarm topology. The placement of the relay node is determined by both traffic quality-of-service (QoS) requirements and the link conditions. We design a new queueing model, called multi-hop priority queue, to analyze the achievable QoS performance through multi-hop queue-to-queue accumulation modeling. To handle dynamic swarm topology and time-varying link conditions, we design a deep ${Q}$ -learning (DQN) model to determine the optimal link between two UAV nodes, and then use an optimization algorithm to locally fine-tune the position of the UAV node to optimize the overall network performance. The DQN-based UAV link selection is computed in the powerful aircraft (control node) which maintains the graphs of the swarm topology, where the optimization is implemented at the UAV. Our simulation results validate the throughput efficiency of our DQN-based UAV positioning scheme.
Identifying predictors of pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for muscle invasive bladder cancer.

e16015Background: Pathologic complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy is associated with improved outcome in patients (pts) with muscle invasive and/or lymph node positive (LN+) bladder ...
An Efficient and Scalable Synthesis of Perfluorinated Phosphatidylcholines

Perfluorinated glycerophosphocholine (1), which is useful as an emulsifier in fluorocarbon suspensions, was prepared in multikilogram scale in 38% overall yield. The desired phosphocholine was prepared from diacylglycerol (6) by sequential phosporylation by POCl3, reaction with choline p-toluenesulfonate, and aqueous hydrolysis. Purification was accomplished by treatment of crude 1 with ion-exchange resin. Diacylglycerol (6) was prepared by esterification of rac-1-benzyloxy-2,3-propanediol with perfluorinated acid followed by hydrogenolysis of the protective group.
Raven: Open Surgical Robotic Platforms.

The Raven I and the Raven II surgical robots, as open research platforms, have been serving the robotic surgery research community for ten years. The paper 1) briefly presents the Raven I and the Raven II robots, 2) reviews the recent publications that are built upon the Raven robots, aim to be applied to the Raven robots, or are directly compared with the Raven robots, and 3) uses the Raven robots as a case study to discuss the popular research problems in the research community and the trend of robotic surgery study. Instead of being a thorough literature review, this work only reviews the works formally published in the past three years and uses these recent publications to analyze the research interests, the popular open research problems, and opportunities in the topic of robotic surgery.
Reported Thought in Writing Center Talk: A Resource for Doing Support and Socialization

Drawing on conversation analysis (CA), this study examines reported thought (e.g., “you’re like ‘do I really have to do that?’”) and its function in writing center talk. Previous related studies, which are informed by Goffman’s (1981) notion of footing, have demonstrated how reported thought (RT) is a resource for modeling undesirable reactions and conveying criticisms in instructional interaction (Park, 2018; Sandlund, 2014). Extending this previous research on RT, I show how tutorial participants also produce RT to accomplish two kinds of supportive action: (1) praising drafts and (2) affiliating with interlocutors’ stances. With RT, tutors can “depersonalize” (Waring, 2017, p. 26) their positive assessments of writers’ drafts and demonstrate sympathetic understanding of writers’ complaints. In line with recent research (Baffy, 2018; Brown, 2010), this analysis offers additional evidence that RT is integral for socialization, or conveying and reinforcing key practices, processes, and values in academic writing and reading. To conclude, I consider how future work on RT in writing center talk, specifically on its utility for representing and constructing audiences, might inform teaching pedagogy and future research.
Metabolic fractures: How household livelihood practices differentiate agricultural input use in southwest China

Abstract As smallholders in the global South engage in new ways with agricultural markets, they change their farming strategies and use of agricultural inputs. In many locales, heavy use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides gives state authorities figurative headaches and farmers actual health hazards and soil degradation. It has been argued that agricultural commercialization and urbanization generate metabolic rifts—gaps in nutrient cycling that impoverish soils and accumulate wastes. Replacement of organic with synthetic inputs is central to this dynamic. We join metabolic rift theory with livelihood analysis to examine how varying livelihood strategies differentiate input use in an area of southwest China where farming is partially commercialized. We draw on household survey data to identify five household clusters with distinct on-farm activity patterns. Regression analyses show that these farming strategies mediate effects of household and community attributes on use of synthetic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, and organic manure fertilizer. Strategies associated with diverse on-farm crop rotations are associated with greater use of manure. Emergent tree-borne crops are associated with greater pesticide use, but new high-elevation cash crops are linked to less use of both synthetic and organic inputs. These variations have gendered impacts: women's work around compost fertilizer gives way to male-dominated synthetic input management. Our theoretical synthesis and empirical results enrich both livelihoods and metabolic rift scholarship by showing how livelihood strategies mediate political economic forces, generating heterogeneous input use. This study demonstrates the uneven processes through which metabolic rifts tear open and the necessity for soil enhancement efforts to address farmers' variegated practices.
An Intelligent LEGO Tutoring System for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Prior studies have shown the effectiveness of LEGO-based activities to improve children's social skills, especially those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In such activities, teachers are expected to provide instructions/guidance and facilitate communication among children during their collaborative play. When the ratio of children to teacher increases, an intelligent monitoring system could be very helpful to prompt the teachers of any necessary intervention, or to provide children some trivial feedback so that their teachers could focus on other tasks. In this paper, we propose such a system to assist both teachers and children in playing with LEGO bricks. At first, teachers may use the system to create some models. The system will then generate step-by-step instructions in both visual and auditory forms. In addition, the system can track the children's brick-building process in real time and provide some feedback when any mistakes were made. Two cameras with a unique image recognition module are used to capture the 3D structure of LEGO bricks.
Children Need Clean Water to Grow : E. Coli Contamination of Drinking Water and Childhood Nutrition in Bangladesh

Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions are increasingly recognized as essential for improving nutritional outcomes in children. Emerging literature describes the negative effects of poor sanitation on child growth. However, limited evidence has shown a link between water quality and nutritional outcomes. Similar to poor sanitation, it is plausible that water contaminated with E. coli could affect the nutritional status of children through various possible biological pathways, such as repeated episodes of diarrhea, environmental enteropathy, parasites, or other mechanisms that inhibit nutrient uptake and absorption. This study explores the relationship between contaminated water and stunting prevalence among children younger than age five years, using unique cross-sectional data from the 2012–13 Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, which was one of the first nationally representative surveys to include water quality testing for E. coli. E. coli contamination in drinking water is measured at household and source points. Stunting is measured using height-for-age z-scores for children under five, where a child is considered stunted when he or she is two or more standard deviations below the median of the World Health Organization reference population. The results of multiple probit regression models indicate a 6 percent increase in the prevalence of stunting in children who are exposed to highly contaminated drinking water at household point compared with those exposed to low-to-medium contamination. When contamination is measured at the source level, the association is greater, with a 9 percent increase in the likelihood of stunting when exposed to a high level of contamination.
Neurexins cluster Ca 2+ channels within the presynaptic active zone.

To achieve ultrafast neurotransmission, neurons assemble synapses with highly organized presynaptic and postsynaptic nanomachines that are aligned by synaptic adhesion molecules. How functional assembly of presynaptic active zones is controlled via trans-synaptic interactions remains unknown. Here, we conditionally deleted all three neurexin adhesion molecules from presynaptic neurons of the calyx of Held in the mouse auditory system, a model synapse that allows precise biophysical analyses of synaptic properties. The pan-neurexin deletion had no effect on synapse development or the basic release machinery, but dramatically impaired fast neurotransmitter release. The overall properties of presynaptic calcium ion channels appeared normal, as reflected by the similar characteristics of calcium currents recorded at the nerve terminals. However, the pan-neurexin deletion significantly impaired the tight coupling of calcium influx to exocytosis, thereby suppressing neurotransmitter release. Furthermore, the pan-neurexin deletion reduced the function of calcium-activated BK potassium channels, whose activation depends on their tight association with presynaptic calcium channels. Together, these results suggest that neurexins perform a major function at the calyx synapse in coupling presynaptic calcium channels to release sites.
Consumption Smoothing under Labor Market Uncertainty: Do Household Characteristics Impact Saving?

We examine the household consumption response to fluctuations in income and uncertainty, exploiting a large panel dataset that spans the period of the Great Recession. The results show that after controlling for changes in realized income, both household-specific income uncertainty and local labor market uncertainty depress consumption spending. We also find evidence of heterogeneity in consumption behavior, most notably an inverted U-shape response to income fluctuation and a greater vulnerability to labor market risk by male-only headed households and those with relatively intensive levels of occupation-specific human capital.
Bioprosthetic valve infective endocarditis: why is it important?

Abstract The influence of environmental factors on the structure and composition of plant communities in the Caatinga is complex and poorly explored. Spatial variation of biodiversity in Caatinga is poorly know and strictly attributed to climatic conditions. We investigated the influence of slags on floristic composition and structure of a shrubby-arboreal community in one of the driest region in Brazil. Chemical and physical analyses of soils were performed in samples of seven plots from savannic formations and from forest formations. Vegetation was characterized floristically and structurally in all plots. Habitats were structurally distinct, and diversity differed between peripheral and non-peripheral areas of slags. Nine of the ninety-seven species identified are reported to (sub)humid biomes. Soils are dominantly shallow, eutrophic and sandy loam. However, soils in the periphery of slags are more developed once paludization, melanization and bioturbation were verified. Our results suggest that soil fertility did not influence vegetable cover in Caatinga. The cover of plant species considered exclusive of (sub)humid biomes in Brazil extends beyond highlands in the semiarid, associated with high soil organic carbon content and water retention capacity of more developed soils than the typical of the Caatinga.
Direct Acting Antivirals in Hepatitis C-Infected Kidney Transplant Recipients: Associations with Long-term Graft Failure and Patient Mortality.

Background: Direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy among hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected kidney transplant recipients is associated with short-term improvement in protein/creatinine (P/C) ratios, but how HCV cure affects long-term graft outcomes remains unknown. Methods: This is a retrospective follow-up study of 59 HCV-infected patients who underwent kidney transplant at the University of Alabama at Birmingham between 2007-2015 who were followed until the end of 2017. We examined the association of DAA-induced HCV cure with graft failure or death by survival analyses (Kaplan-Meier, Cox regression). Redsults: Mean age was 55 years, 73% were African American, and 68% were male. Median baseline creatinine was 1.4 mg/dL, P/C ratio was 0.5, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was 59 mL/min. Of those who received DAA, 24 (83%) achieved cure. The remaining 5 DAA patients (17%) did not have documented evidence of sustained virologic response (SVR). Overall, 19 (32%) patients experienced graft failure or death; with lower incidence in treated patients than untreated (4 vs 15 events; 2.6 vs 10.3 per 100 person-years [cHR 0.19, 95% CI: 0.06–0.66]). When adjusted for age, sex, race, and proteinuria, the association remained strong and invariant across time-varying (aHR 0.30, 95% CI: 0.08–1.10), time-averaged (aHR 0.28, 95% CI: 0.07–1.07), and time-varying-cumulative (aHR 0.32, 95% CI: 0.08–1.21) proteinuria metrics. Conclusions: DAAs therapy was associated with improved graft survival and reduced mortality. While not statistically significant, the association was strong, and these single-center findings warrant larger studies to demonstrate the benefits of HCV treatment in this population.
Transferability of teacher noticing

Numerous studies have reported positive outcomes of noticing interventions on the development of prospective mathematics teachers’ (PMTs) noticing of a range of important aspects of classroom instruction. Less is known, however, about whether noticing skills that are developed during an intervention transfer to support PMTs’ in-the-moment noticing during their own teaching practice. This study compared PMTs’ noticing while teaching a lesson during their student teaching internship of PMTs who participated in a noticing intervention to those who did not participate in the intervention to determine whether the two groups of PMTs noticed different aspects of instruction. The study documented very different noticing foci of the two groups of PMTs, suggesting that the noticing intervention did, in fact, support the PMTs’ in-the-moment noticing of aspects of instruction that aligned with the goals of the noticing intervention. The findings of the study suggest that noticing skills developed during a university-based noticing intervention can transfer to support novice teachers’ in-the-moment noticing during their classroom practice.
Standoff Non-Line-of-Sight Vibration Sensing Using Millimeter- Wave Radar

We explore the use of W-band frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) millimeter-wave radar to detect the small micron-order vibrations induced when machining metallic objects. The advantage of using millimeter-wave frequencies is its ability to penetrate appropriate materials, leading to its application in sensing vibration behind objects in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments. We demonstrate the ability to reliably detect vibration on the order of 10 microns of reflective objects through a lossy inhomogeneous material. From these results, FMCW millimeter-wave radar shows promise to be incorporated as an inexpensive sensor in systems that require knowledge of vibration profiles in NLOS environments.
Volume Matters: Longitudinal Retrospective Cohort Study of Outcomes Following Consultation and Standardization of Adrenal Surgery

Subspecialization of adrenal surgery through regionalization has not been adequately evaluated. We assessed implementation of subspecialization and the association of regionalization with adrenalectomy outcomes in a community-based setting. In this longitudinal retrospective cohort study, we used an interrupted time series analysis on consecutive adrenal surgeries at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, 2010–2019. The intervention was regionalization of surgery in 2016. Main outcomes include surgical volumes, operative time, length of stay, 30-day return-to-care, and 30-day complications obtained from the electronic medical record. t-Tests and multivariable models were used to analyze time trends in outcomes after accounting for changes in patient and disease characteristics. In total, 850 adrenal surgery cases were eligible. Between 2010 and 2019, the annual incidence of surgery (per 100,000 persons) increased from 2.4 (95% CI 1.9–3.1) to 4.1 (95% CI 3.5–4.8). Average annual surgeon volume increased from 2.4 (95% CI 1.6–3.1) to 9.9 (95% CI 4.9–14.9), while hospital volume increased from 3.5 (95% CI 2.3–4.6) to 15.4 (95% CI 6.9–24.0). Operative time was 34 (23–45) min faster in 2018–2019 compared with 2010–2011. After regionalization, same-day discharges increased to 64% in 2019 (p < 0.0001). The frequency of return-to-care (p = 0.69) and the overall complication rate (p = 0.31) did not change. Regionalizing adrenal surgery through surgical subspecialization and standardized care pathways was feasible and decreased operative time, and hospital stay, while increasing the frequency of same-day discharges without increasing return-to-care or complications.
Delayed-onset homonymous hemianopia following stent assisted coil embolization of a large internal carotid artery bifurcation aneurysm; case report and review of the literature

Abstract We present the case of a 78-year-old patient with a large right internal carotid artery aneurysm found incidentally after 2-weeks of blurry vision without headache. The patient underwent endovascular coiling of the aneurysm with flow diverting stent placement for vessel reconstruction. The patient developed a left homonymous hemianopia two weeks after treatment. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated aneurysm expansion with perianeurysmal edema in the thalamus, basal ganglia and mild compression of the optic chiasm. The patient was started on high dose dexamethasone and his vision slowly improved over the next several months. This is a rare case of expansion of a coiled large cerebral aneurysm with mass effect on the anterior visual pathway.
Dynamic Models of Deliberation and the Theory of Games

Deliberation can be modeled as a dynamic process. Where deliberation generates new information relevant to the decision under consideration, a rational decision maker will (processing costs permitting) feed back that information and reconsider. A firm decision is reached at a fixed point of this process - a deliberational equilibrium. Although there may be many situations in which informational feedback may be neglected and an essentially static theory of deliberation will suffice, there are others in which informational feedback plays a crucial role. From the point of view of procedural rationality, computation itself generates new information. Taking this point of view seriously leads to dynamic models of deliberation within which one can embed the theory of non-cooperative games. In the sort of strategic situations considered by the theory of games, each player's optimal act depends on the acts selected by the other players. Thus each player must not only calculate expected utilities according to her current probabilities, but must also think about such calculations that other players are making and the effect on the probabilities of their acts, and of the import of other players thinking at this level as well, and so forth. In one idealized version of this problem, the players are endowed with enough initial common knowledge and computational resources so that each can emulate the reasoning of the others. A conjecture that all players have reached a firm decision as to the optimal act is consistent just in case it corresponds to a deliberational equilibrium on the part of each player. Under these idealized conditions, such a joint deliberational equilibrium on the part of the players is just a Nash equilibrium of the game. This embedding of classical game theory in the theory of dynamic deliberation suggests some non-classical extensions of the theory of strategic rationality. (I) Once one has a genuine dynamics one can ask a very rich set of questions instead of just asking which points are equilibria. As one illustration we can notice that notions of dynamical accessibility and stability of equilibria provide natural refinements of the Nash equilibrium concept. (II) In a more realistic theory, the highly idealized assumptions of common knowledge required for the coincidence of Nash equilibrium and joint deliberational equilibrium should be relaxed.
Butyrate-induced upregulation of intestinal glucose transport represents a possible nutrient therapy for individuals with malabsorptive disorders (1035.14)

Individuals with significant intestinal malabsorption face challenges digesting and absorbing sufficient nutrients. Therapies that increase intestinal nutrient processing capacity are needed. Objec...
Respiratory muscle endurance training in cystic fibrosis

Background Respiratory muscle endurance training (RMET) has been shown to increase endurance performance in trained and untrained healthy subjects and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD). Two studies have been performed in adult patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), however with conflicting study design and results. Aims The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of an eight week RMET with the SpiroTiger® device in children and adolescents with CF on respiratory endurance (RE), exercise endurance (EE), quality of life (QoL), lung function and clinical score. Methods 16 children (8-18 years, FEV187.0 ± 25.8%pred [mean ± SD]) were included. All children underwent an incremental exercise test and a first RMET using the SpiroTiger® device. Three weeks later patients were randomly assigned either group A or B. Group A performed eight weeks RMET followed by eight weeks standard chest physiotherapy whereas group B absolved the program in reverse order. Primary outcome measures consisted in a respiratory endurance test using the SpiroTiger® device, a constant workload cycling test and CFQ, and secondary outcomes were clinical score and lung function. Results Respiratory endurance increased significantly from 3.7 ± 2.1to 16.8± 10.2 min (mean± SD); p < 0.001), whereas exercise endurance increased from 7.9 [8.1] to 10.25.8] min (median [IQR]; p= 0.008), respectively. All other outcomes including CFQ scores, clinical score, FEV1 (L) and FVC (L) did not change significantly after RMET. Conclusions The RMET leads to a significant increase in respiratory endurance and exercise endurance. However, other clinical relevant outcomes such as lung function, quality of life and clinical score were unaffected by RMET.
Mutations in the flhD gene of Escherichia coli K‐12 do not cause the reported effect on cell division

The hetero-oligomeric FlhD/FlhC complex is a global regulator of transcription in Escherichia coli. FlhD alone, independent of FlhC, has also been reported to control when E. coli cells stop dividing and enter the stationary phase. This work is frequently cited as evidence that FlhD regulates cell division; however, our data indicate that this is not the case. The results presented here show that the previously observed phenotype is not due to the flhD locus, but is instead due to differences in the thyA alleles present in the flhD+ and flhD− strains used in the original studies. We find that when the strains being compared have the same thyA allele (wild type or mutant), flhD mutations have no effect on growth.
A Nuclear restorer-of-fertility Mutation Disrupts Accumulation of Mitochondrial ATP Synthase Subunit α in Developing Pollen of S Male-Sterile Maize

Mitochondrial biogenesis and function depend upon the interaction of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. Forward genetic analysis of mitochondrial function presents a challenge in organisms that are obligated to respire. In the S-cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS-S) system of maize, expression of mitochondrial open reading frames ( orf355 - orf77 ) conditions collapse of developing haploid pollen. Nuclear restorer-of-fertility mutations that circumvent pollen collapse are often homozygous lethal. These spontaneous mutations potentially result from disruption of nuclear genes required for mitochondrial gene expression, in contrast to homozygous-viable restorer-of-fertility alleles that function to block or compensate for the expression of mitochondrial CMS genes. Consistent with this hypothesis, the homozygous-lethal restoring allele historically designated RfIII was shown to be recessive in diploid pollen produced by tetraploid CMS-S plants. Accordingly, the symbol for this allele has been changed to r estorer-of- f ertility l ethal 1 ( rfl1 ). In haploid rfl1 pollen, orf355-orf77 transcripts and mitochondrial transcripts encoding the α-subunit of the ATP synthase (ATPA) were decreased in abundance. Haploid rfl1 pollen failed to accumulate wild-type levels of ATPA protein, indicating that functional requirements for mitochondrial protein accumulation are relaxed in maize pollen. The CMS-S system and rfl mutations therefore allow for the selection of nuclear mutations disrupting mitochondrial biogenesis in a multicellular eukaryote.
Algorithmic Information Content, Church — Turing Thesis, Physical Entropy, and Maxwell’s Demon

Measurements convert alternative possibilities of its potential outcomes into the definiteness of the “record” — data describing the actual outcome. The resulting decrease of statistical entropy has been, since the inception of Maxwell’s demon, regarded as a threat to the second law of thermodynamics. For, when the statistical entropy is employed as the measure of the useful work which can be extracted from the system, its decrease by the information gathering actions of the observer would lead one to believe that, at least from the observer’s viewpoint, the second law can be violated.
Lowering the bar: Privileged court filings as substitutes for press releases in the court of public opinion

In the civil lawsuit against Kobe Bryant for sexual assault, the judge admonished lawyers for engaging in “public relations litigation”—the use of pleadings to attract media attention and try cases in the court of public opinion. This article examines the legal ramifications of such practices and the doctrines of law that encourage some lawyers and litigants to use pleadings as a form of press release. These include the law of republication and the fair report and judicial privileges as well as the power of judges to gag trial participants. The article concludes that courts have adequate tools to control such practices, and lawyers and public relations professionals can responsibly use court documents to communicate with the public, so long as they do not abuse the judicial process.