cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An instantaneous approach for determining the infrared emissivity of swine surface and the influencing factors

Infrared thermal imaging technology has been widely employed in temperature measurements of human and animals and its accuracy relies on the determination process of the emissivity of the target to a large extent. However, common used methods were unable to determine the emissivity of the surface of living animals and thus lower the accuracy. In this paper, we suggested a new approach to acquire the infrared emissivity of living swine in real time. In the approach, the surface temperature of swine and reference body were measured to compute the emissivity and the measurement process was completed in a non-contact and non-invasive manner. We changed the surface reflection energy of animals and reference body by changing the ambient radiant energy and obtain the surface emissivity in real time without confirming the actual temperature of animal surface. In this way, the infrared emissivity of the animal surface can be determined instantaneously and without knowing the real temperature. Both swine specimen and a living swine were used in this study. Using this method, we measured the emissivity of different body sites of the swine. The results showed that the emissivity values at different body sites show the significant differences. The emissivity values at trotter and eye were respectively 0.895 and 0.930 and the emissivity on swine surface varied from 0.945 to 0.978. More important, the distribution of the infrared emissivity on a living swine was explored and the detailed differences of the emissivity on a swine surface can be cleanly seen. Furthermore, we studied the influencing factors on the emissivity of animal surface, through measuring the emissivity distribution on swine surface when pig specimens were sprayed with water on the surface or heated using this method. This study is of great significance for the accurate measurement of swine surface temperature.
Foleyella candezei (Onchocercidae: Dirofilariinae) from a Fischer's chameleon, Bradypodion fischeri (Sauria: Chamaeleonidae) with a comment on the synonymy of F. candezei.

The onchocercid nematode Foleyella candezei was collected from an imported Fisher's chameleon, Bradypodion fischeri, during necropsy. This represents a new host record for this helminth, as well as being only the third nematode species to be collected from B. fischeri, The synonymy of F. candezei and Foleyella agamae is reviewed, and the inappropriate use of the junior synonym in recent literature is noted.
Taxonomic Position of the Eccrinales and Related Fungi

(1960). Taxonomic Position of the Eccrinales and Related Fungi. Mycologia: Vol. 52, No. 3, pp. 410-428.
Professional Moral Courage

The desire and decision to be an ethical and moral person needs to be durable—continuously maintained and strengthened. Managers, leaders, and employees at every level of the organization have come to some level of agreement that there is both necessity and value in being ethical in business. Despite the jokes that the combination of business and ethics is an apparent oxymoron, many of us believe that the two can go hand-in-hand.
Based on ETC Control of Speed Limit Device Design

Along with the China vehicle quantity increase, road safety problem is becoming more and more serious, in all traffic accidents, due to speeding caused a large proportion, in order to reduce the accidents, China has promulgated the policy requirements for M2, M3, N2, N3 type vehicle to add speed limiting device. In this paper introduced normal speed limit method, and design a limit device suitable for China national condition, and its structure, design principle, control strategy is described, finally summarizes the current limiting technology development situation and the development direction henceforth..
Novel catalysis by metalloporphyrins

Metalloporphyrins have long been known to be effective catalysts for a variety of organic reactions. These include cyclopropanation, epoxidation, and aziridination of olefins. Iron porphyrins are also efficient catalysts for the olefination of aldehydes and ketones in the presence of triphenylphosphine. This suggested to us that iron porphyrins may have the potential to mediate a variety of other processes. The work described in this dissertation broadly extends the reactions catalyzed by iron(III) tetraphenylporphyrin chloride, Fe(TPP)Cl. We have found that Fe(TPP)Cl is an efficient catalyst for N-H insertion reactions, C-H activation and the Buchner reaction between diazo reagents and arenes. These studies have also led to the development of efficient syntheses of piperazinones and morpholinones. N-H insertion reactions of a variety of aliphatic and aromatic amines were catalyzed by Fe(TPP)Cl using ethyldiazoacetate (EDA) as a carbene source with yields ranging from 68-97%. Primary amines were able to undergo a second insertion when another equivalent of EDA was added by slow addition. N-Heterocyclic compounds were poor substrates giving low yields or no N-H insertion products. Competition reactions and linear free energy relationships provided mechanistic insights for the insertion reaction. An attempt to achieve C-H insertions using EDA and Fe(TPP)Cl led to formation of maleate and fumarate dimers. However, using Fe(III), Cu(II) and Ag(II) porphyrin complexes and carbenes transferred from methyl diazomalonate produced both benzylic and aromatic C-H insertions products
Two-sided bi-directional Na+/K+- ATPase-liposomes. Structure and function

The minimal functional unit of the Na+/K+-ATPase or sodium pump system, which contains also a hormonal and pharmacological receptor, is composed of a 110 kD α-subunit, a β-glycoprotein, membrane phospholipids and cholesterol; its primary function consists, in mediating the transmembrane movements of Na and K ions with energy derived from ATP hydrolysis (13,14). It is well known that the link between the chemical reaction and the vectorial process is made in a first step by transfer of the terminal phosphate of the ATP molecule to an aspartyl residue located on the intracellular protein loops of the a subunit and that, secondly; the phosphorylation of the pump induces a conformational change priming the transmembrane Na/K-exchange. However, the molecular mechanism of the vectorial ion movement, in particular its allosteric modulation by the receptor for cardioactive steroids is still poorly understood.
The Enterococcal Cytolysin Synthetase Coevolves with Substrate for Stereoselective Lanthionine Synthesis

Stereochemical control is critical in natural product biosynthesis. For ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs), the mechanism(s) by which stereoselectivity is achieved is still poorly understood. In this work, we focused on the stereoselective lanthionine synthesis in lanthipeptides, a major class of RiPPs formed by the addition of Cys residues to dehydroalanine (Dha) or dehydrobutyrine (Dhb). Nonenzymatic cyclization of the small subunit of a virulence lanthipeptide, the enterococcal cytolysin, resulted in the native modified peptide as the major product, suggesting that both regioselectivity and stereoselectivity are inherent to the dehydrated peptide sequence. These results support previous computational studies that a Dhx-Dhx-Xxx-Xxx-Cys motif (Dhx = Dha or Dhb; Xxx = any amino acid except Dha, Dhb, and Cys) preferentially cyclizes by attack on the Re face of Dha or Dhb. Characterization of the stereochemistry of the products formed enzymatically with substrate mutants revealed that the lanthionine synthetase actively reinforces Re face attack. These findings support the hypothesis of substrate-controlled selectivity in lanthionine synthesis but also reveal likely coevolution of substrates and lanthionine synthetases to ensure the stereoselective synthesis of lanthipeptides with defined biological activities.
‘Learn From Every Patient’: implementation and early results of a learning health system

Aim The convergence of three major trends in medicine, namely conversion to electronic health records (EHRs), prioritization of translational research, and the need to control healthcare expenditures, has created unprecedented interest and opportunities to develop systems that improve care while reducing costs. However, operationalizing a ‘learning health system’ requires systematic changes that have not yet been widely demonstrated in clinical practice. Method We developed, implemented, and evaluated a model of EHR-supported care in a cohort of 131 children with cerebral palsy that integrated clinical care, quality improvement, and research, entitled ‘Learn From Every Patient’ (LFEP). Results Children treated in the LFEP Program for a 12-month period experienced a 43% reduction in total inpatient days (p=0.030 vs prior 12mo period), a 27% reduction in inpatient admissions, a 30% reduction in emergency department visits (p=0.001), and a 29% reduction in urgent care visits (p=0.046). LFEP Program implementation also resulted in reductions in healthcare costs of 210% (US$7014/child) versus a Time control group, and reductions of 176% ($6596/child) versus a Program Activities control group. Importantly, clinical implementation of the LFEP Program has also driven the continuous accumulation of robust research-quality data for both publication and implementation of evidence-based improvements in clinical care. Interpretation These results demonstrate that a learning health system can be developed and implemented in a cost-effective manner, and can integrate clinical care and research to systematically drive simultaneous clinical quality improvement and reduced healthcare costs.
The Use of Life-Sustaining Procedures in the Last Month of Life Is Associated With More Depressive Symptoms in Surviving Spouses

Abstract Context Family caregivers of individuals with serious illness who undergo intensive life-sustaining medical procedures at the end of life may be at risk of negative consequences including depression. Objectives The objective of this study was to determine the association between patients' use of life-sustaining procedures at the end of life and depressive symptoms in their surviving spouses. Methods We used data from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal survey of U.S. residents, linked to Medicare claims data. We included married Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older who died between 2000 and 2011 (n = 1258) and their surviving spouses. The use of life-sustaining procedures (i.e., intubation/mechanical ventilation, tracheostomy, gastrostomy tube insertion, enteral/parenteral nutrition, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation) in the last month of life was measured via claims data. Using propensity score matching, we compared change in depressive symptoms of surviving spouses. Results Eighteen percent of decedents underwent one or more life-sustaining procedures in the last month of life. Those whose spouses underwent life-sustaining procedures had a 0.32-point increase in depressive symptoms after death (scale range = 0–8) and a greater likelihood of clinically significant depression (odds ratio = 1.51) compared with a matched sample of spouses of those who did not have procedures (P Conclusion Surviving spouses of those who undergo intensive life-sustaining procedures at the end of life experience a greater magnitude of increase in depressive symptoms than those whose spouses do not undergo such procedures. Further study of the circumstances and decision making surrounding these procedures is needed to understand their relationship with survivors' negative mental health consequences and how best to provide appropriate support.
Fusion of features for the effective facial expression recognition

Facial Expression is the easy way of telling/showing inner feelings. The Facial Expression Recognition system has many applications including human behavior understanding, detection of mental disorders, synthetic human expressions and many more. This paper presents a quick survey of facial expression recognition as well as a comparative study of various features on JAFFE and CK datasets. It mainly focuses on appearance based techniques. Recently, HOG has been widely used for feature extraction in image. It is found in our experiment that HOG feature gives comparable good recognition rate in facial expression recognition. Fusion of LBP with LGC and Fusion of HOG with other features like LDP and wavelets also improved their respective recognition rates.
Support Systems for Developing System Models

From a system modeling perspective, it is important to develop an accurate mathematical model of a structure. Such a model can be built with measured frequency response functions obtained from a modal test. The test structure can be subjected to free, constrained or operating boundary conditions. Setting up a structure with either constrained or operating boundary conditions is impractical/prohibitive. It is easier to approach free boundary condition in the lab using soft supports, such as foam, shock cords, air suspension, etc. A good support system should have the least intrusion. It should not introduce nonlinearity or damping. The effectiveness of a good support system is quantified by the extent of separation of the rigid body modes from the elastic modes and a high degree of uncoupling of the dynamics of support system and the structural modes. The influence of various boundary conditions and soft support systems chosen for modeling a lightweight structures, such as Formula SAE racecar space frame, a rectangular steel plate structure and a circular aluminum plate are discussed.
Healing in modern medicine.

The practice of modern medicine has followed the tradition of Cartesian reductionism, which clings to probabilities and material certainties, and invests in genes and molecules.
Effects of Sentence Length, Content, and Transformational Form in a Memory Overflow Task

Savin and Perchonock (1965) used a memory-overflow paradigm to investigate sentence memory. For a series of trials, they required subjects to remember a sentence and as many words as possible from a subsequent eight-word string. They found that word recall decreased as the sentences’ transformational complexity increased. Subsequently, Matthews (1968) revealed that the original study had confounded transformational complexity with sentence length, and that the latter was found to produce the memory effects. In the present study, the variables transformational form, sentence length, and number of content words in the sentence (also previously confounded) were manipulated, and the effects of these factors were separated with regression analyses. It was found that the best model, using criteria of prediction and simplicity, was based on content words alone.
Continuous Intestinal Absorption Model Based on the Convection-Diffusion Equation.

Prediction of the rate and extent of drug absorption upon oral dosing needs models that capture the complexities of both the drug molecule and intestinal physiology. We report here the development of a continuous intestinal absorption model based on the convection–diffusion equation. The model includes explicit enterocyte apical membrane and intracellular lipid radial compartments along the length of the intestine. Physiologic functions along length x are built into the model and include velocity, diffusion, surface areas, and pH of the intestine. Also included are expression levels of the intestinal active uptake transporter OATP2B1 and efflux transporter P-gp. Oral dosing of solution as well as solid (with a dissolution function) was modeled for several drugs. The fraction absorbed (FA) and concentration–time (C–t) profiles were predicted and compared with clinical data. Overall, FA was well predicted upon oral (n = 21) or colonic dosing (n = 11), with four outliers. The overall accuracy (prediction of ...
Factors associated with high pain intensity during wound care procedures: A model

The most common wound care procedures (WPCs) performed on open wounds are dressing changes and wound cleansing. Dressing changes cause moderate to severe pain in 74% of patients, nearly half (36%) of whom experience severe pain (rated as 8-10 on a 10-point numeric rating scale). The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of clinically accessible factors that can be tested in order to develop a clinical tool to identify which patients are likely to experience high intensity pain during nonoperative WCPs, such as dressing changes. Although multiple factors are known to be associated with pain, the factors selected for this model were limited to those that (1) are supported based on evidence and/or pain mechanisms and (2) are readily accessible to clinicians/practitioners and can be tested as a prediction tool to be used prior to WCPs. This model may be helpful to identify those likely to experience high intensity pain during WCPs. In this way, use of aggressive pain management strategies, including specialty dressings, pharmacologic analgesics, and/or non-pharmacological strategies, such as high intensity transcutaneous electrical stimulation.
Asymmetric kriging emulator for stochastic simulation

In many situations, e.g., simulation optimization and input uncertainty quantification, we need to assess the system performance at a large number of alternative inputs. Since each simulation run could be computationally expensive, statistical emulator could efficiently use the simulation budget to estimate the system performance. This paper proposes a new emulator for stochastic simulation, called asymmetric kriging (AK), which can be used to emulate the distribution of simulation outputs at each input point. Different from existing methods in the simulation literature, our approach does not require strong assumptions on either the functional form of the response surface or the normal distribution of the simulation estimation error. Numerical studies indicate the efficacy of our approach compared to alternative methods in the literature.
Case 42: Breathing Difficulties After an ECT

You are scheduled to do an outpatient electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on a 36-year-old female. This is her fourth ECT in a series of at least 8. She tells you that the previous ones have been uneventful and that her mood is better. She is 90 kg and 5′6″ in height. She works in her husband’s restaurant where she is a cook. Her medical history is significant for depression, hypertension, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and hypothyroidism. She takes nifedipine, enalapril, insulin, thyroxine, paroxetine, and fluphenazine. After she arrives in the treatment room, an IV is started. You examine the patient and find nothing abnormal, including her airway exam. Her chest is clear to auscultation. Her heart rate is 90, BP is 130/70, respiratory rate is 12, and room air oxygen saturation is 97%. You place noninvasive monitors on the patient and start to preoxygenate her. Anesthesia is induced with etomidate 16 mg, followed by succinylcholine 1 mg/kg. The patient is hyperventilated, and the ECT procedure is done uneventfully, except excess salivation is noted after the treatment. The patient awakens from the anesthetic but suddenly sits up and starts to cough violently. Her saturation falls to 86%. You diagnose laryngospasm and provide positive pressure mask ventilation with 100% oxygen. After a few minutes, the laryngospasm is broken and she is now breathing easier. She sits up, and although her oxygen saturation is now 96% on nasal oxygen (6 liters/min), she complains that she does not get enough air. The nurse tells you now that this difficulty with breathing happened last time she had an ECT, but she slowly improved over a 20-min period and was discharged home. The nurse tells the patient to lie down, but she refuses. She again states that she cannot breathe. She rips off all her monitors and refuses to have them replaced. The nurse tells you she did that last time too.
Mode of clinical presentation and delayed diagnosis of Turner syndrome: a single Centre UK study.

Early diagnosis of girls with Turner syndrome (TS) is essential to provide timely intervention and support. The screening guidelines for TS suggest karyotype evaluation in patients presenting with short stature, webbed neck, lymphoedema, coarctation of aorta or ≥ two dysmorphic features. The aim of the study was to determine the age and clinical features at the time of presentation and to identify potential delays in diagnosis of TS. Retrospective data on age at diagnosis, reason for karyotype analysis and presenting clinical features was collected from the medical records of 67 girls with TS. The mean age of diagnosis was 5.89 (±5.3) years ranging from pre-natal to 17.9 years (median 4.6 years). 10% were diagnosed antenatally, 16% in infancy, 54% in childhood (1–12 years) and 20% in adolescence (12–18 years). Lymphoedema (27.3%) and dysmorphic features (27.3%) were the main signs that triggered screening in infancy. Short stature was the commonest presenting feature in both childhood (52.8%) and adolescent (38.5%) years. At least 12% of girls fulfilled the criteria for earlier screening but were diagnosed only at a later age (mean age = 8.78 years). 13.4% of patients had classical 45XO karyotype and 52.3% of girls had a variant karyotype. Majority of girls with TS were diagnosed only after the age of 5 years. Short stature triggered evaluation for most patients diagnosed in childhood and adolescence. Lack of dedicated community height-screening programme to identify children with short stature and lack of awareness could have led to potential delays in diagnosing TS. New strategies for earlier detection of TS are needed.
N uptake, soil retention and loss of soil-applied 15NH415NO3 in young Fuji/M.26 apple trees with different N status

SummaryNitrogen (N) uptake, soil retention and loss of soil-applied N were studied in young apple trees with different N backgrounds. Bench-graft potted Fuji/M.26 (Malus domestica Borkh) trees were fertigated with 5, 10 or 20 mM N twice a week from June to August, and the trees were removed from soil and bare-root stored in a 2°C cold room in December of the first season. In April of the second season, the trees were washed and replanted in containers with a N-free medium (perlite:vermiculite=l:l v), and received 500 ml Hoagland’s nutrient solution without N weekly through the experiment. The trees received 15NH415NO3 at 1g per plant or no N on June 21. Four trees from each treatment were harvested at one, two and four weeks after 15N application, and 15N and total N in plant tissues and soil were analysed. N fertigation rates during the first growing season increased tree growth and N reserve levels, and N content in trees in the second year. New shoot and leaf growth in the following season was positive...
Walking under the influence of the alcohol: A case study of pedestrian crashes in Tennessee

Abstract Alcohol adversely affects human behavior and judgment, and it is one of the contributing factors in traffic crashes. Although a large body of research has investigated driving behavior under the influence of the alcohol, to the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated the crash characteristics of the pedestrians under the influences of the alcohol. Tennessee Police Crash Data from 2011 to 2016 was used in this study to identify crashes between motor vehicles and pedestrians who were walking under the influence of alcohol (WUI). Results indicate that the number of fatally injured pedestrians for WUI cases has increased since 2011. Alcohol was present in 7% of the pedestrian crashes. Tested pedestrians averaged BAC levels of 0.17 g/dL. As pedestrian injury severity increased, the share of the WUI crashes increased. WUI contributed in 22% of the fatally injured pedestrian and only in 2% of the pedestrian crashes with no-injury. Comparisons indicate that the WUI crashes had their characteristics, which distinguished them from non-WUI crashes. Analysis indicates that 83% of the WUI crashes occurred in the nights; moreover, 54%, 69%, and 85% of WUI crashes respectively occurred on weekends, mid-block section of the road, and areas with no traffic control device. Results of a binary logit regression indicate that pedestrian’s age, males, posted speed limit, and nighttime crashes had a positive association with the WUI crashes. On the other hand, urban context, intersection crashes, driver maneuvers (i.e., parking-related, turning, and straight), and daylight had a negative association with the WUI crashes. Findings are discussed in line with road safety countermeasures.
S ilent K nock : practical, provably undetectable authentication

Port knocking is a technique to prevent attackers from discovering and exploiting vulnerable network services, while allowing access for authenticated users. Unfortunately, most work in this area suffers from a lack of a clear threat model or motivation. To remedy this, we introduce a formal security model for port knocking, show how previous schemes fail to meet our definition, and give a provably secure scheme. We also present SilentKnock, an implementation of this protocol that is provably secure under the assumption that AES and a modified version of MD4 are pseudorandom functions, and integrates seamlessly with existing applications.
The Ca 2+ channel subunit Ca V β2a-subunit down-regulates voltage-activated ion current densities by disrupting actin-dependent traffic in chromaffin cells

β-Subunits of the Ca2+ channel have been conventionally regarded as auxiliary subunits that regulate the expression and activity of the pore-forming α1 subunit. However, they comprise protein-protein interaction domains, such as a SRC homology 3 domain (SH3) domain, which make them potential signaling molecules. Here we evaluated the role of the β2a subunit of the Ca2+ channels (CaV β2a) and its SH3 domain (β2a-SH3) in late stages of channel trafficking in bovine adrenal chromaffin cells. Cultured bovine adrenal chromaffin cells were injected with CaV β2a or β2a-SH3 under different conditions, in order to acutely interfere with endogenous associations of these proteins. As assayed by whole-cell patch clamp recordings, Ca2+ currents were reduced by CaV β2a in the presence of exogenous α1-interaction domain. β2a-SH3, but not its dimerization-deficient mutant, also reduced Ca2+ currents. Na+ currents were also diminished following β2a-SH3 injection. Furthermore, β2a-SH3 was still able to reduce Ca2+ currents when dynamin-2 function was disrupted, but not when SNARE-dependent exocytosis or actin polymerization was inhibited. Together with the additional finding that both CaV β2a and β2a-SH3 diminished the incorporation of new actin monomers to cortical actin filaments, β2a-SH3 emerges as a signaling module that might down-regulate forward trafficking of ion channels by modulating actin dynamics.
Copper-Catalyzed Carbon–Silicon Bond Formation

Organosilanes have become a mainstay in organic synthesis as they can participate in a wide number of reactions where they act as a soft carbon nucleophile. They can engage in coupling reactions wh...
Part-per-billion measurement of the 4 2 S 1 / 2 → 3 2 D 5 / 2 electric-quadrupole-transition isotope shifts between Ca + 42 , 44 , 48 and Ca + 40

We report a precise measurement of the isotope shifts in the $4{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{2}{S}_{1/2}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}3{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{2}{D}_{5/2}$ electric quadrupole transition at 729 nm in $^{40\ensuremath{-}42,44,48}\mathrm{Ca}^{+}$. The measurement has been made via high-resolution laser spectroscopy of co-trapped ions, finding measured shifts of 2 771 872 467.6(7.6), 5 340 887 394.6(7.8), and 9 990 381 870.0(6.3) Hz between $^{42,44,48}\mathrm{Ca}^{+}$ and $^{40}\mathrm{Ca}^{+}$, respectively. By exciting the two isotopes simultaneously, using frequency sidebands derived from a single laser, systematic uncertainties resulting from laser frequency drifts are eliminated. This permits far greater precision than similar previously published measurements in other alkaline-earth-metal systems. The resulting measurement accuracy provides a benchmark for tests of theoretical isotope shift calculations and also offers a step towards probing new physics via isotope shift spectroscopy.
Teaching as Emotional Practice or Exercise in Measurement? School Structures, Identity Conflict, and the Retention of Black Women Science Teachers.

To effectively teach historically marginalized groups of students, educators have argued for increasing recruitment and retention of teachers of color. This qualitative study draws on identity theo...
The Accountability Crisis In Advertising and Marketing: Self-Regulation and Deeper Metrics Are Needed to Survive the Digital Age

Once upon a time a new medium emerged that captured the attention of audiences. The inventor had great dreams for the medium: It would become a powerful tool for teaching and learning, making illiteracy a thing of the past. Instead of waiting for others to describe events, and put their own
Understanding Limb Position and External Load Effects on Real-Time Pattern Recognition Control in Amputees

Limb position is a factor that negatively affects myoelectric pattern recognition classification accuracy. However, prior studies evaluating impact on real-time control for upper-limb amputees have done so without a physical prosthesis on the residual limb. It remains unclear how limb position affects real-time pattern recognition control in amputees when their residual limb is supporting various weights. We used a virtual reality target achievement control test to evaluate the effects of limb position and external load on real-time pattern recognition control in fourteen intact limb subjects and six major upper limb amputee subjects. We also investigated how these effects changed based on different control system training methods. In a static training method, subjects kept their unloaded arm by their side with the elbow bent whereas in the dynamic training method, subjects moved their arm throughout a workspace while supporting a load. When static training was used, limb position significantly affected real-time control in all subjects. However, amputee subjects were still able to adequately complete tasks in all conditions, even in untrained limb positions. Moreover, increasing external loads decreased controller performance, albeit to a lesser extent in amputee subjects. The effects of limb position did not change as load increased, and vice versa. In intact limb subjects, dynamic training significantly reduced the limb position effect but did not completely remove them. In contrast, in amputee subjects, dynamic training eliminated the limb position effect in three out of four outcome measures. However, it did not reduce the effects of load for either subject population. These findings suggest that results obtained from intact limb subjects may not generalize to amputee subjects and that advanced training methods can substantially improve controller robustness to different limb positions regardless of limb loading.
Pharmacologic inhibition of transient receptor channel vanilloid 4 attenuates abdominal aortic aneurysm formation.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) formation is characterized by inflammation, leukocyte infiltration, and vascular remodeling. This study investigates the role of TRPV4 channels, which are transmembrane calcium channels that can regulate vascular tone, in modulating AAA formation. The elastase-treatment model of AAA in C57BL6 (WT) mice and Angiotensin II treatment model in ApoE-/- mice were used to confirm our hypotheses. The administration of a specific TRPV4 antagonist, GSK2193874, in elastase-treated WT mice and in AngII-treated ApoE-/- mice caused a significant attenuation of aortic diameter, decrease in pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-17, MCP-1, MIP-1α, MIP-2, RANTES, and TNF-α), inflammatory cell infiltration (CD3 + T cells, macrophages, and neutrophils), elastic fiber disruption, and an increase in smooth muscle cell α-actin expression compared to untreated mice. Similarly, elastase-treated TRPV4-/- mice had a significant decrease in AAA formation, aortic inflammation, and vascular remodeling compared to elastase-treated WT mice on Day 14. In vitro studies demonstrated that the inhibition of TRPV4 channels mitigates aortic smooth muscle cell-dependent inflammatory cytokine production as well as decreases neutrophil transmigration through aortic endothelial cells. Therefore, our results suggest that TRPV4 antagonism can attenuate aortic inflammation and remodeling via decreased smooth muscle cell activation and neutrophil transendothelial migration during AAA formation.
Methods for copy number aberration detection from single-cell DNA-sequencing data

Copy number aberrations (CNAs), which are pathogenic copy number variations (CNVs), play an important role in the initiation and progression of cancer. Single-cell DNA-sequencing (scDNAseq) technologies produce data that is ideal for inferring CNAs. In this review, we review eight methods that have been developed for detecting CNAs in scDNAseq data, and categorize them according to the steps of a seven-step pipeline that they employ. Furthermore, we review models and methods for evolutionary analyses of CNAs from scDNAseq data and highlight advances and future research directions for computational methods for CNA detection from scDNAseq data.
Snare-Assisted Delivery for Ascending Endovascular Repair of Acute Type A Dissection

Endovascular stenting of the ascending aorta has been described for various aortic pathologies, including type A dissection in patients who are prohibitive risk for open surgery. Endovascular treatment of ascending aortic pathology poses unique anatomic and technical challenges related to aortic morphology. Herein, we present a novel technique of endovascular ascending stent graft delivery from a transfemoral approach for treatment of an acute type A dissection, utilizing a snare-guided deployment technique to facilitate favorable device deployment.
The Administrative Power: How State Courts Can Expand Access to Justice

This Article examines the administrative powers of courts and the ways it can be used to expand access to justice. Administrative power, or rule-making power, is the power that state supreme courts have to regulate the lower courts, rules, practice and procedure, and the legal profession. Although they are often underutilized these powers have great potential to address the access to justice crisis throughout the nation. For virtually every area of law is touched by the administrative power of courts. The Article details the extent of the access to justice crisis, charts the history of administrative powers over time, and explores their benefits. It then proposes five solutions that state high courts should implement: (1) making courts more accommodating to self-represented parties, (2) opening up the justice system so that non-lawyers can play more meaningful roles in court, (3) using summary jury trials to reduce the costs of litigation for civil plaintiffs, (4) reforming pro bono so that more lawyers contribute to it, and (5) establishing and expanding funding mechanisms to pay for access to justice initiatives. In the end, the Article seeks not only to convince courts to adopt reforms, but to convince legal reformers that the rule-making powers of courts should be given as much attention as traditional litigation to advance reform.
Updating Deceased Donor Kidney Allocation—What Are the Challenges?

It is a well-known fact that the demand for kidneys far outpaces our society’s supply. The kidney allocation system (KAS) was created to ensure a fair distribution of a scarce societal resource. In 2014, the KAS was revised to help balance the equity and utility. Here we examine the many inequalities the KAS 2014 overcame, discuss the barriers that still exist, and evaluate the future implications of the new version of the KAS that is set to begin March 14, 2021. With the implementation of KAS 2014, longevity matching was much improved with decrease in number of recipient and donor age mismatch >15 years. There was an increase in highly sensitized transplants, especially those with calculated panel reactive antibody (cPRA) >98% due to a sliding scale of points and local/regional/national priority. Some groups even reported that it may have advantaged the very highly sensitized patients too much and suggested a more gradual sliding scale of points. The racial/ethnic disparities were much improved with allowance of wait time to start at time of dialysis initiation to capture those who did not have adequate and early access to a transplant center. Despite these improvements, there remains a geographic disparity which was not addressed with KAS 2014. KAS 2021 (set to begin March 14, 2021) was created to lessen the geographic barriers without compromising the utility of the organs. By eliminating donor service area (DSA) and instead using 250 nautical mile (nm) concentric circles around donor hospitals, this new system is intended to broaden the sharing. This change to the allocation is another step toward the goal of improving equality, but how this change will affect the utility remains to be seen.
Linear Temporal Logic - From Infinite to Finite Horizon.

Linear Temporal Logic (LTL), proposed by Pnueli in 1977 for reasoning about ongoing programs, was defined over infinite traces. The motivation for this was the desire to model arbitrarily long computations. While this approach has been highly successful in the context of model checking, it has been less successful in the context of reactive synthesis, due to the challenging algorithmics of infinite-horizon temporal synthesis. In this paper we show that focusing on finite-horizon temporal synthesis offers enough algorithmic advantages to compensate for the loss in expressiveness. In fact, finite-horizon reasonings is useful even in the context of infinite-horizon applications.
High Energy Long Pulse Marx bank driver for the High-Power Microwave Sources*

The Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of New Mexico is conducting basic physics research on charged particle beam driven High Power Microwave (HPM) sources, high brightness Bremsstrahlung sources and pulsed power drivers.
Authors’ reply to Lin and colleagues

Lin and colleagues commented that because the differences between treatments were small we were unjustified in recommending one treatment over another.1 2 In our conclusions we stated that it was reasonable to proceed with pharmacotherapy first, given the small differences seen. If physical therapy and surgery—which is associated with much higher costs and risks than physical therapy—were shown to be equivalent, would they still state …
A novel link between the proteasome pathway and the signal transduction pathway of the bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs).

The intracellular signaling events of the Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs) involve the R-Smad family members Smad1, Smad5, Smad8 and the Co-Smad, Smad4. Smads are currently considered to be DNA-binding transcriptional modulators and shown to recruit the master transcriptional co-activator CBP/p300 for transcriptional activation. SNIP1 is a recently discovered novel repressor of CBP/p300. Currently, the detailed molecular mechanisms that allow R-Smads and Co-Smad to co-operatively modulate transcription events are not fully understood. Here we report a novel physical and functional link between Smad1 and the 26S proteasome that contributes to Smad1- and Smad4-mediated transcriptional regulation. Smad1 forms a complex with a proteasome β subunit HsN3 and the ornithine decarboxylase antizyme (Az). The interaction is enhanced upon BMP type I receptor activation and occur prior to the incorporation of HsN3 into the mature 20S proteasome. Furthermore, BMPs trigger the translocation of Smad1, HsN3 and Az into the nucleus, where the novel CBP/p300 repressor protein SNIP1 is further recruited to Smad1/HsN3/Az complex and degraded in a Smad1-, Smad4- and Az-dependent fashion. The degradation of the CBP/p300 repressor SNIP1 is likely an essential step for Smad1-, Smad4-mediated transcriptional activation, since increased SNIP1 expression inhibits BMP-induced gene responses. Our studies thus add two additional important functional partners of Smad1 into the signaling web of BMPs and also suggest a novel mechanism for Smad1 and Smad4 to co-modulate transcription via regulating proteasomal degradation of CBP/p300 repressor SNIP1.
The Misdirected Debate over the Economics of Disabilities Accommodation

This chapter, which will appear in a festschrift celebrating the life and work of Professor Vernon Briggs, explains why the debate over the economics of workplace accommodations mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been misdirected. The ADA, and its accommodation mandate in particular, have been harshly criticized as government meddling in otherwise smoothly operating and efficient labor markets. The attack begins with the premise that accommodations raise employers' costs of hiring workers with disabilities. The ADA's accommodations mandate thereby prices workers with disabilities out of the labor market and contributes to the continuing decline in the employment rate of people with disabilities - a tempting man-bites-dog narrative about labor market regulation harming its intended beneficiaries. Two commentators have based calls for the repeal of the ADA on these grounds. Vernon Briggs would skewer this type of argument if it were attempted in his scholarly arena. This chapter presumes to respond on his behalf. It examines certain neoclassical economic and other assumptions that are too seriously flawed to justify the central role they have played in the economic debate over disabilities accommodations. In essence, this debate began with the wrong premise and, as a result, ruminated over wrong conclusions. These flawed premises have distracted attention from likelier causes of the low and declining employment rate among workers with disabilities - that is, the hypotheses that should have been the debate's starting point. After reviewing how this debate went wrong, this chapter suggests hypotheses that should have been, and should be, at the center of the debate over the economics of workplace disabilities accommodations.
Human alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase-molecular cloning, nucleotide sequence, and expression of a full-length cDNA. Homology with human alpha-galactosidase A suggests evolution from a common ancestral gene.

Human alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase (alpha-GalNAc, E.C. 3.2.1.49), the lysosomal glycohydrolase that cleaves alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminyl moieties from glycoconjugates, is encoded by a gene localized to chromosome 22q13----qter. The deficient activity of alpha-GalNAc is the enzymatic defect in Schindler disease, an inherited neuroaxonal dystrophy. To isolate a full-length cDNA, the enzyme from human lung was purified to homogeneity, 129 non-overlapping amino acids were determined by microsequencing the N terminus and seven tryptic peptides, and four synthetic oligonucleotide mixtures were used to screen a human fibroblast cDNA library. A full-length cDNA, pAGB-3, isolated from a placental lambda gt11 cDNA library, had a 2158-base pair (bp) insert with an open reading frame which predicted an amino acid sequence that was colinear with all 129 microsequenced residues of the purified enzyme. The pAGB-3 insert had a 344-bp 5'-untranslated region, a 1236-bp open reading frame encoding 411 amino acids, a 514-bp 3'-untranslated region, and a 64-bp poly(A) tract. A signal peptide sequence of 17 amino acids as well as six N-glycosylation sites were predicted. The pAGB-3 cDNA was subcloned into the p91023(B) mammalian expression vector and human alpha-GalNAc activity was transiently expressed in COS-1 cells, demonstrating the functional integrity of the full-length cDNA. Northern hybridization analysis of mRNA revealed two transcripts of about 3.6 and 2.2 kilobases (kb), and primer extension studies indicated a cap site at nucleotide -347 for the 2.2-kb transcript. The 3.6-kb cDNA (pAGB-35) was isolated; the 3598-bp pAGB-35 insert was identical to that of the 2.2-kb insert but had additional 5'- and 3'-untranslated sequences including a second downstream polyadenylation signal at nucleotide 3100-3105. Isolation of a genomic clone, gAGB-1, and sequencing the 2048-bp region including pAGB-3 revealed a 1754-bp intron between codons 319 and 320, which also was the site of a 70-bp insertion and a45-bp deletion in other cDNA clones. Notably, the alpha-GalNAc cDNA had remarkable amino acid homology with the human alpha-galactosidase A (alpha-Gal A) cDNA suggesting the evolutionary relatedness of these genes. The alpha-GalNAc cDNA had 46.9-64.7% amino acid identity in sequences (codons 1-319) corresponding to alpha-Gal A exons 1 through 6, while the comparable exon 7 sequence (pAGB-3 codons 320-411) had only 15.8% homology with numerous gaps.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Sonographic prenatal diagnosis of marginal placental cord insertion: clinical importance.

Objective. To assess the impact of a sonographic diagnosis of marginal placental cord insertion on birth weight and duration of pregnancy. Methods. A retrospective chart review was performed for 100 singleton pregnancies with prospectively identified marginal placental cord insertion. Results. Birth weights below the 10th percentile occurred in 6.25% of pregnancies without preeclampsia. Spontaneous preterm delivery occurred in 7.3% of pregnancies without preeclampsia. Rates of birth weight below the 10th percentile and preterm delivery were not significantly different from those in the general population. Preeclampsia developed in 4 patients; all had elective preterm deliveries, and all gave birth to neonates with birth weights below the 10th percentile. Conclusions. A prenatal diagnosis of marginal placental cord insertion is not associated with increased risk of growth impairment or preterm delivery.
Writing Systems and Learning to Read in a Second Language

The primary goal of this chapter is to explore precise ways in which writing systems mandate particular competencies underlying second language lexical development. Given that (a) writing systems vary in their structural, functional, and representational properties; and (b) lexical processing skills and strategies transfer from one language to another in L2 reading, it is virtually certain that structural variation in first language (L1) writing systems is a major source of individual differences in processing behaviors among L2 readers. Methodical investigations of such variance, therefore, should shed substantial light on its specific influence on the formation of lexical-processing competence, and, at the same time, permit conceptual exploration of the cognitive and linguistic requisites to literacy in a given language. Within this framework, we conducted cross-linguistic analyses in two sequential steps: (a) isolating language-specific requisite competencies underlying lexical development in two ty ologically diverse languages, Chinese and English; and (b) determining lexical-processing behaviors uniquely associated with print-processing experience in Chinese. Based on the analysis, we compared processing variations among adult L2 readers of English with Chinese and non-Chinese L1 backgrounds; examined the specific effects of restricted L2 processing experience on lexical development among adult L2 learners of Chinese; and, finally, considered possible impediments to the acquisition of these competencies among child L2 learners with no prior literacy experience.