cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
5-lipoxygenase and 15-lipoxygenase-2 expression in papillary thyroid carcinoma: Potential therapeutic targets and prognostic markers

Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 47, 2006 3481 Thyroid cancer has become the most prevalent endocrine malignancy in the US. In the last decade, the incidence has risen 84% and mortality 34% thus making it a significant clinical concern, meriting research in the areas of treatment, detection and prevention. Both clinical and animal studies have correlated high dietary fat intake with an increased incidence of cancer in various tissues. More specifically, studies have implicated polyunsaturated ω-6 fatty acids such as linoleic and arachidonic acids with increased tumor growth. Recent studies show increased leukotriene synthesis, particularly the potent inflammatory chemokines in the 5-lipoxygenase pathway, with the promotion of certain cancers, including breast, lung and prostate. These studies also demonstrated the potential therapeutic effects of lipoxygenase inhibitors in cancer treatment. Additionally, the detection of 15-lipoxygenase in lung cancer is being investigated as a potential prognostic marker. Expression analysis of 7 papillary thyroid tumors vs. paired, normal thyroid tissue, revealed an approximately 5 fold increased in expression of both 5-lox (p = 0.004) and 15-lox-2 (p = 0.09) in all 7 patients. Subsequent down stream enzymes were also elevated in these patients. Thus far, 5-lox expression was validated by real-timer RT-PCR. Increased protein expression of both for 5-lox and 15-lox-2 were observed by western blotting. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that increased activity in the metabolism of arachidonic acid pathway has been demonstrated in papillary thyroid carcinoma, implicating lipoxygenases as a potential therapeutic target and prognostic marker. In addition these data suggest dietary considerations in at risk individuals and patients.
EVALUATION AND MANAGEMENT OF ADRENAL INSUFFICIENCY IN CRITICALLY ILL PATIENTS: DISEASE STATE REVIEW.

ABSTRACT Objective: The definition of normal adrenal function in critically ill patients remains controversial, despite a large body of literature. We review the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of adrenal insufficiency in critically ill patients and discuss the authors' personal approach to patient management. Methods: Extensive literature review, guidelines from professional societies, and personal experience. Results: A decrease in cortisol breakdown rather than an increase in cortisol production has been suggested as the main contributor to elevated cortisol levels in critically ill patients. The concept of relative adrenal insufficiency has multiple pathophysiologic flaws and is not supported by current evidence. Patients with septic shock who are pressor dependent or refractory to fluid resuscitation may receive a short course of hydrocortisone regardless of their serum cortisol levels or their response to a cosyntropin stimulation test (CST). Patients without septic shock who are suspected to have adrenal insufficiency should have their random cortisol levels measured. In patients with low and near-normal cortisol-binding proteins, a serum cortisol of 1.8 μg/dL, although further studies are needed to define a normal range in critically ill patients based on both severity and duration of illness. A CST may be used to further evaluate adrenal function in patients without septic shock who have borderline random serum or free cortisol levels. Conclusion: Evaluation of adrenal function in critically ill patients is complex. Recent findings of decreased cortisol breakdown in critically ill patients as the main contributor to elevated cortisol levels calls for better-designed studies to explore the optimal evaluation and treatment of adrenal insufficiency in critically ill patients. Abbreviations: ACTH = adrenocorticotropic hormone; AI = adrenal insufficiency; CBG = corticosteroid-binding globulin; CORTICUS = Corticosteroid Therapy of Septic Shock; CRH = corticotropin-releasing hormone; CST = cosyntropin stimulation test; GC = glucocorticoid; GR = glucocorticoid receptor; HPA = hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal; IL = interleukin; RAI = relative adrenal insufficiency
Selling to Management – Transitions of Care, Home Health and Nursing Home Care

Because the hospital is the major component of a healthcare system and provides the most expensive services, it is natural to focus on acute care. However neglecting other elements of care across the patient care continuum puts performance objectives at risk, harms the patient experience of care, and increases cost. Value-based purchasing has forced administrators to consider cost avoidance as an important and critical part of the business plan. CMS is clear that performance objectives for hospitals include adhering to performance objectives. These mandates constitute very important levers. It remains to be seen how healthcare systems will responded to new inpatient and outpatient quality reporting metrics with heavy financial penalties for noncompliance.
Toward professional standards for media transparency in the United States: Comparison of perceptions of non-transparency in national vs. regional media

Abstract This article reports the results of the national survey of 287 Public Relations Society of America members regarding current media transparency practices in the United States. The purpose of the study was to understand the forms of media non-transparency that exist in the United States, levels of non-transparency at the national and local/regional media, and perceptions of non-transparent practices by the public relations practitioners in the country. The project builds on previous research on global media transparency (Tsetsura & Kruckeberg, 2011) and uses Tsetsura’s (2005) framework to study media transparency. The survey results showed that direct media bribery is not a pressing issue in the United States; however, indirect media pressures that involve new forms of content creation, including native advertising and content marketing, are worrisome. Specifically, forms of indirect media bribery are common at the local and regional media levels in the USA. Research findings demonstrate that U.S. practitioners experience particular non-transparent challenges when working with the media and recognize financial pressures that U.S. media outlets face today. The results provide a basis for creating standards in U.S. practice to ensure that new forms of content creation, including native advertising and content marketing, are not acceptable at any level when sources of content are not disclosed. The study concludes with the discussion about the importance of understanding how new forms of sponsored content relate to media transparency in the USA and why U.S. practitioners should understand how media non-transparency relates to the issues of native advertising and brand journalism.
Reference intervals and allometric scaling of two-dimensional echocardiographic measurements in 150 healthy cats.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of body weight (BW), breed, and sex on two-dimensional (2D) echocardiographic measures, reference ranges, and prediction intervals using allometrically-scaled data of left atrial (LA) and left ventricular (LV) size and LV wall thickness in healthy cats. Study type was retrospective, observational, and clinical cohort. 150 healthy cats were enrolled and 2D echocardiograms analyzed. LA diameter, LV wall thickness, and LV dimension were quantified using three different imaging views. The effect of BW, breed, sex, age, and interaction (BW*sex) on echocardiographic variables was assessed using univariate and multivariate regression and linear mixed model analysis. Standard (using raw data) and allometrically scaled (Y=a × Mb) reference intervals and prediction intervals were determined. BW had a significant (P 6 kg) and smaller (<3 kg) cats. A clinically relevant difference between thickness of the interventricular septum (IVS) and dimension of the LV posterior wall (LVPW) was identified. In conclusion, allometric scaling and BW-based 95% prediction intervals should be preferred over conventional 2D echocardiographic reference intervals in cats, in particular in small and large cats. These results are particularly relevant to screening examinations for feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Obesity and Cancer Epidemiology

Evidence has expanded extensively in the past two decades on the association between body mass index (BMI) and other measures of body composition and weight gain with many cancers. Evidence is convincing for obesity as a risk factor for cancers of the esophagus, pancreas, colon and rectum, postmenopausal breast, endometrium, kidney, and thyroid and as probable for cancer of the gallbladder. Although not yet definitive, research is expanding rapidly for a number of other rare cancers and suggests associations for obesity and cancers of the ovary and liver and for several types of lymphoid and hematological malignancies. Associations between obesity and lung and head and neck cancers are confounded by tobacco use. An important shift in research has been the effort to examine the combined effect of overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, and poor diet. Generally, studies that have examined these combinations of factors have found much greater increases in risk among people who have these adverse health profiles. A number of mechanisms are being explored related to obesity and cancer, including changes in sex hormones, insulin-related growth factors, inflammation, immune function, and other growth factors. Data on racial/ethnic groups other than non-Hispanic whites and Asians are limited for most cancers, but suggest there may be some differences in BMI and cancer associations in some subgroups. The continued global epidemics of obesity and diabetes mellitus are likely to contribute to global increases in a number of obesity-related cancers.
The Three-Stage Protocol: Its Operation and Implementation

This chapter introduces the three-stage multi-photon protocol, its operation and implementation in a laboratory environment. The implementation uses free-space optics as the transmission medium. Parts of this chapter are based on the authors’ work previously reported in [1].
Thermal Stability Analysis of Gevo Jet Fuel Using Ellipsometry

Thermal stability is an important characteristic of alternative fuels that must be evaluated before they can be used in aviation engines. This characteristic is of great importance to the effectiveness of the fuel as a coolant and to the engine's combustion performance. The thermal stability of Gevo fuel, an alcohol to jet fuel made from plant feedstock was studied. This analysis was used to make comments on the effectiveness of the current thermal stability test standard. This work was performed using a spectroscopic ellipsometer to measure the thickness of deposits left on aluminum substrates. It was observed that Gevo deposit thickness increased slowly up to 375 C and much more rapidly after that point. Similar behavior was observed in JP-8 fuel. Comparisons were also made between color standard ratings and ellipsometric thickness measurements, and it was found that in some cases, darker colors did not indicate thicker deposits. Reference tubes were used to validate the optical models used in this work, and different optical constants were found to best model the results than what are published in the ASTM D3241 test method for thermal stability.
CO2 Corrosion of Low Carbon Steel under the Joint Effects of Time-Temperature-Salt Concentration

The time-dependent effect of temperature and salt (NaCl) concentration on the corrosion behavior of carbon steel in CO2-saturated environments were explored using various electrochemical techniques coupled with XRD, Raman spectroscopy and SEM/FIB examinations. At constant salt level, corrosion rate increased and stabilized when temperature was below 60 °C. When temperature was higher than 60 °C, corrosion rate firstly increased, reached an apex, and then started decreasing continuously. The magnitude of the decrease is inversely proportionally to the salt concentration, which is then attributed to the microstructure of dual-layer FeCO3 scale. Polarization experiments indicate the anodic process is more affected by salt concentration than temperature while the opposite is true for the cathodic kinetics. Although chloride is not detected in the corrosion scale, it is regarded to have significant influence on the nucleation and growth of FeCO3 and therefore the properties (e.g., thickness and compactness) of the corrosion scales. Lastly, a mechanism is proposed for the evolution of corrosion scales on carbon steel in CO2 saturated environment as a function of temperature and salt concentration.
Assessing U.S. Racial and Gender Differences in Happiness, 1972–2016: An Intersectional Approach

This study assesses trends and differentials in happiness among the U.S. population. Using data from the General Social Survey, 1972–2016 and the intersectionality paradigm to guide this work, I find that happiness differentials across gender and race are generally converging; however, patterns are quite complex and contingent on group membership (i.e. gender, race). Black women for instance, present a consistent pattern of improvement in happiness across decades, while White women display a persistent pattern of decline. In contrast, Black men experienced a discernable pattern of improvement in happiness between the 1970s and 1990s, followed by a leveling off in the early-2000s. White men experienced moderate gains in happiness between the 1970s and 1990s, but after the Great Recession/Obama Era, White male happiness followed a pattern of unprecedented decline, with the “happiness advantage” they once enjoyed (as a group) over Black men and women largely vanishing. In fact, although advantaged White men in the general population (i.e. financially satisfied) were about as happy as their White female and African–American female peers after the Great Recession, disadvantaged White men who were financially dissatisfied were less likely to report the same sentiment when compared to their White female and Black female peers who were similarly disadvantaged. Taking these patterns in account, I conclude with a discussion of what these patterns demonstrate regarding the changing nature of racial and gender inequality in the United States, past and present.
The Shrew and the Shrewd: Machado de Assis’s Lição de botânica

Machado de Assis’s play Licao de Botânica (1906) transforms William Shakespeare’s chauvinistic play Taming of the Shrew (1590-1592) into an entertaining exercise in feminist thought through the inversion of gender roles. As in Machado’s novels, the female characters in Licao become agents, acting rather than being acted upon by others. By creating strong, smart, independent female characters and contrasting them with an awkward and accidentally humorous male character, Machado undermines misogyny and endorses feminist ideals. Licao de Botânica (1906), uma peca de teatro de Machado de Assis, transforma a obra chauvinista de William Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew (1590-1592), em um divertido exercicio feminista atraves da inversao de papeis de genero. Como nos romances de Machado, as personagens femininas sao agentes; agem em vez de receber a acao de outros. Ao criar personagens femininas que sao fortes, inteligentes e independentes e ao contrasta-las com um desajeitado e acidentalmente humoristico personagem masculino, Machado enfraquece a misoginia e fortalece os ideais feministas.
Jus Sanguinis in Japan

This paper examines the origin of jus sanguinis (citizenship attribution by parentage) in Japan as an illustration of the emergence of membership criteria in the modem state. Three European cases—Britain, France and Germany—provide a comparative perspective. Previous literature has tended to associate jus sanguinis with ethnic nationalism or an ethnocultural understanding of the nation. In fact, the principle of citizenship that emphasizes descent rather than birthplace appears to fit well with the image of the ethnically exclusive nature of contemporary Japanese society. However, I will argue that in Japan, as in the three European countries, the initial adoption of particular membership criteria had little to do with conceptions of nationhood or nationalism. An analysis of the factors leading to the legislation of the 1899 nationality law reveals that Japan had potentials for developing citizenship criteria with an emphasis on birthplace (jus soli) and residence (jus domicili) just as those in Britain and France. Yet a relatively strict system of jus sanguinis, as in Germany, was instituted. The paper identifies other determinants of the principle of citizenship, including legal practices prior to the emergence of the modern state, the state's efforts to organize the populations subject to its rule, and domestic and international security concerns.
Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of the Parotid: Very Close Margins and Adjuvant Radiotherapy.

Background/aims The importance of adjuvant radiotherapy in patients with close margin resections for mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the parotid gland remains unclear. Methods Patients who underwent parotidectomy for mucoepidermoid carcinoma with or without adjuvant radiotherapy at a single academic tertiary care center from 2000 to 2014 were identified. Included patients had negative but close (≤2 mm) surgical margins without other high-risk histopathological factors including advanced T-stage, positive nodal disease, lymphovascular or perineural invasion, or high-grade histology. Results Nineteen patients were identified, of whom 15 (79%) were observed postoperatively, while 4 (21%) underwent adjuvant radiotherapy. There were no significant differences in extent of parotidectomy, elective neck dissection, T staging, or tumor size between patients who were observed and those undergoing adjuvant radiation. There were no locoregional or distant recurrences in any patients at a mean follow up 74.3 months. Patients undergoing adjuvant radiation, however, had significantly more intermediate-grade as compared to low-grade histology (75% vs. 13%, difference 62%, 95% CI 4% to 100%). Conclusions Patients with negative but close (≤2 mm) surgical margins without other high-risk histopathological factors have excellent long-term locoregional control with surgery alone. The effects of adjuvant radiotherapy for those who have intermediate-grade disease remain uncertain.
Solution Processing Dependent Bulk Heterojunction Nanomorphology of P3HT/PCBM Thin Films.

Mixtures of poly(3-hexyl-thiophene) (P3HT) and phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) have been widely employed as donor and acceptor materials, respectively, for the active layer of the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells. Experiments are able to provide only limited insights on the dynamics of blend morphology of these organic materials because of the challenges in extracting microstructural characterization amidst the poor contrast in electron microscopy. We present results from coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations (CGMD) describing the morphological evolution of P3HT/PCBM active layer under solution processing in chlorobenzene (CB). We examine the impact of various processing parameters such as weight ratio, degree of polymerization (DOP), thermal annealing, and preheating on the BHJ active layers using morphological characterizations from atomic trajectories. Simulated diffraction patterns are compared with experimental results of X-ray diffraction and Small Angle X-ray Scatte...
Visual Acuity and Foveal Structure in Eyes with Fragmented Foveal Avascular Zones.

Purpose To assess the frequency and impact of abnormal foveal avascular zone (FAZ) topography (i.e., a fragmented FAZ) on visual acuity and foveal anatomic features. Design Prospective, cross-sectional study from March 2018 through July 2019. Participants Two-hundred fifty participants were screened from a normative OCT angiography database. Of those, 12 participants were found to have at least 1 eye with a fragmented FAZ. Eight returned for follow-up imaging, along with an additional 3 participants with ocular disease (amblyopia, autosomal recessive bestrophinopathy, premature birth) having a similar FAZ phenotype. Methods Follow-up OCT imaging and monocular best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were performed for these 11 participants. Twenty-four participants with a clearly defined FAZ were recruited for comparison. A normative database was created measuring parafoveal intercapillary area (PICA) to determine if an FAZ was fragmented. Main Outcome Measures Monocular BCVA, foveal pit depth, foveal pit area, PICA, outer nuclear layer thickness, foveal inner retinal area, and peak cone density. Results The frequency of a fragmented FAZ was 4.8% of individuals (12 of 250) or 3.6% of eyes (18 of 500 eyes). A significant difference was found between the control eyes and eyes with fragmented FAZs for foveal pit depth, pit area, and total PICA (P Conclusions The presence of a fragmented FAZ seems not to be a rare phenotype in individuals with normal vision. The presence of altered FAZ topography in patients with retinal or systemic disease could negatively impact the accuracy and sensitivity of biomarkers dependent on FAZ identification.
Confronting the boundary layer data gap: evaluating new and existing methodologies of probing the lower atmosphere

Abstract. It is widely accepted that the atmospheric boundary layer is drastically under-sampled in the vertical dimension. In recent years, the commercial availability of ground-based remote sensors combined with the widespread use of small, weather-sensing uncrewed aerial systems (WxUAS) has opened up many opportunities to fill this measurement gap. In July 2018, the University of Oklahoma (OU) deployed a state-of-the-art WxUAS, dubbed the CopterSonde, and the Collaborative Lower Atmospheric Mobile Profiling System (CLAMPS) in the San Luis Valley in south-central Colorado. Additionally, these systems were deployed to the Kessler Atmospheric and Ecological Field Station (KAEFS) in October 2018. The colocation of these various systems provided ample opportunity to compare and contrast kinematic and thermodynamic observations from different methodologies of boundary layer profiling, namely WxUAS, remote sensing, and the traditional in situ radiosonde. In this study, temperature, dew point temperature, wind speed, and wind direction from these platforms are compared statistically with data from the two campaigns. Moreover, we present select instances from the dataset to highlight differences between the measurement techniques. This analysis highlights strengths and weaknesses of planetary boundary layer profiling and helps lay the groundwork for developing highly adaptable systems that integrate remote and in situ profiling techniques.
Algorithms for Radon partitions with tolerance

Let P be a set n points in a d-dimensional space. Tverberg theorem says that, if n is at least \((k-1)(d+1)\), then P can be partitioned into k sets whose convex hulls intersect. Partitions with this property are called Tverberg partitions. A partition has tolerance t if the partition remains a Tverberg partition after removal of any set of t points from P. A tolerant Tverberg partition exists in any dimensions provided that n is sufficiently large. Let N(d, k, t) be the smallest value of n such that tolerant Tverberg partitions exist for any set of n points in \(\mathbb {R}^d\). Only few exact values of N(d, k, t) are known.
Chapter 14 – Joint Ventures, Partnerships, Strategic Alliances, and Licensing

Publisher Summary This chapter summarizes the principal differences in various types of business alliances. The chapter discusses the wide variety of motives for business alliances and the factors common to most successful ones. Joint ventures (JVs) and alliances have been commonplace in high technology industries; many segments of manufacturing; the oil exploration, mining, and chemical industries; media and entertainment; financial services; pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms; and real estate. They have taken the form of licensing, distribution, co-marketing, research and development agreements, and equity investments. What all of these arrangements have in common is that they generally involve sharing the risk, reward, and control among all participants. The term business alliance is used throughout this chapter to describe the various forms of cooperative relationships common in business today, including joint ventures, partnerships, strategic alliances, equity partnerships, licensing agreements, and franchise alliances. The primary theme of this chapter is that well-constructed business alliances often represent viable alternatives to mergers and acquisitions, and they always should be considered one of the many options for achieving strategic business objectives. The chapter also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of alternative legal structures, important deal-structuring issues, and empirical studies that purport to measure the contribution of business alliances to creating shareholder wealth.
Understanding the distribution of positive Legionella samples in healthcare-premise water systems: Using statistical analysis to determine a distribution for Legionella and to support sample size recommendations.

Objective: To significantly fit a statistical distribution to the proportion of positive Legionella samples in a series of water samples from multiple facility-premise water systems. Design: Statistical fit test. Setting: A hospital and associated long-term care facility (LTCF) in New York State, as well as temporal and culture data from a deidentified hospital site supplied by one of the vendor laboratories. Methods: Culture samples (n = 1,393) were segmented into 139 test cycles with roughly 10 samples in each. The proportion of positive samples was standardized to 25 total samples per test to give a distribution of discrete values. These values were analyzed for fit with the following discrete distributions: Poisson, negative binomial, geometric, and zero-inflated Poisson. Results: The zero-inflated Poisson distribution fitted to the copper–silver ionization (CSI)-treated and untreated test cycles indicates that 88% of the expected positive proportions should occur by the 30% cutoff (rounded up to 8 positive samples among 25 total samples), similar to the 93% expectation for just CSI-treated test cycles. The other treatment in these data (chlorine dioxide) was not effective in treating Legionella in the sampled buildings, and if there is an underlying distribution to these specific test cycles, it is not the zero-inflated Poisson distribution. Conclusions: In a well-maintained or well-treated premise water distribution system, ~30% or lower proportion of positive Legionella samples should occur. Anything above that cutoff is either very unlikely or not expected at all and indicates a problem in the water system.
Assessing In Vivo Bladder Urothelial Hyper-Permeability: Preclinical and Clinical Implications

To provide an update on the detection and evaluation of bladder hyper-permeability related to interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome (IC/PBS) and inflammatory bowel disorders (e.g., inflammatory bowel syndrome). We developed a contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CE-MRI) approach to assess in vivo bladder hyper-permeability by instilling a MRI contrast agent, Gd-DTPA (gadolinium diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid), by intravesical injection through a catheter into the bladder. Molecular-targeted MRI (mt-MRI) was also used to assess in vivo bladder hyper-permeability-associated biomarker expressions (e.g., claudin-2, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1, and decorin) in preclinical models. An example of evaluating the effect of a therapy against bladder hyper-permeability is also discussed. The CE-MRI approach to detect in vivo bladder hyper-permeability not only serves as a measure of disease severity for IC/PBS and cross-talk complications associated with IBS but also be used to monitor therapeutic response.
A prospective study of lifestyle factors and bone health in breast cancer patients who received aromatase inhibitors in an integrated healthcare setting

Fracture and osteoporosis are known side effects of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) for postmenopausal hormone receptor positive (HR+) breast cancer (BC) patients. How modifiable lifestyle factors impact fracture risk in these patients is relatively unknown. We conducted a prospective cohort study to examine the association of lifestyle factors, focusing on physical activity, with risk of incident major osteoporotic fracture and osteoporosis in 2152 HR+ BC patients diagnosed from 2006 to 2013 at Kaiser Permanente Northern California and who received AIs. Patients self-reported lifestyle factors at study entry and at 6-month follow-up. Fracture and osteoporosis outcomes were prospectively ascertained by physician-adjudication and bone mineral density (BMD) values, respectively. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated from multivariable proportional hazards regression. Models were adjusted for age, menopausal status, race/ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), AJCC stage, breast cancer treatment, prior osteoporosis, and prior major fracture. Over a median 6.1 years of follow-up after AI initiation, 165 women experienced an incident osteoporotic fracture and 243 women had osteoporosis. No associations were found between overall moderate-vigorous physical activity and fracture risk, although < 150 min/week of aerobic exercise in the 6 months after BC diagnosis was associated with increased fracture risk (HR=2.42; 95% CI: 1.34, 4.37) compared with ≥ 150 min/week (meeting physical activity guidelines). Risk was also higher for never or infrequently engaging in aerobic exercise (HR=1.90; 95% CI: 1.05, 3.44). None or infrequent overall moderate-vigorous physical activity in the 6 months before BC diagnosis was associated with increased risk of osteoporosis (HR=1.94; 95% CI: 1.11; 3.37). Moderate-vigorous physical activity during the immediate period after BC diagnosis, particularly aerobic exercise, was associated with lower risk of major osteoporotic fractures in women on AI therapy. Findings may inform fracture prevention in women on AI therapy through non-pharmacologic lifestyle-based strategies.
Creativity in Crisis: a Journey into YouTube

Crisis comes with dangers and opportunities. Necessity is the mother of invention. This article explores creativity in crisis in the academic context from my personal perspective. This pandemic and stay-at-home order necessitates academic activities, teaching, in particular, to transition to a remote format. The loss of physical space, in-person contact, and taken-for-granted everyday activities comes with major concerns and requires major adjustment. The stay-at-home order necessitates rethinking teaching and learning—not just the delivery of content but the content itself, the practice of academia in general. Much of it involves increased usage of familiar and unfamiliar technologies, experimenting with different formats, and brings relevance to the course content to these circumstances. In short, the current situation requires reexamining one’s relationship with technologies and some degree of creativity in a broad sense. This creativity can also lead one into new and unexpected realms—such as the increased reliance of YouTube, not as a user, but as a creator of videos. This article will involve a selection of diverse short video clips for educational purposes that emerged out of this crisis situation.
Function and evolution of allelic variation of Sr13 conferring resistance to stem rust in tetraploid wheat (Triticum turgidum L.)

The resistance gene Sr13 is one of the most important genes in durum wheat for controlling stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt). The Sr13 functional gene CNL13 has haplotypes R1, R2 and R3. The R1/R3 and R2 haplotypes were originally designated as alleles Sr13a and Sr13b, respectively. To detect additional Sr13 alleles, we developed Kompetitive allele specific PCR (KASP™) marker KASPSr13 and four semi-thermal asymmetric reverse PCR markers, rwgsnp37-rwgsnp40, based on the CNL13 sequence. These markers were shown to detect R1, R2 and R3 haplotypes in a panel of diverse tetraploid wheat accessions. We also observed the presence of Sr13 in durum line CAT-A1, although it lacked any of the known haplotypes. Sequence analysis revealed that CNL13 of CAT-A1 differed from the susceptible haplotype S1 by a single nucleotide (C2200T) in the leucine-rich repeat region and differed from the other three R haplotypes by one or two additional nucleotides, confirming that CAT-A1 carries a new (R4) haplotype. Stem rust tests on the monogenic, transgenic and mutant lines showed that R1 differed from R3 in its susceptibility to races TCMJC and THTSC, whereas R4 differed from all other haplotypes for susceptibility to TTKSK, TPPKC and TCCJC. Based on these differences, we designate the R1, R3 and R4 haplotypes as alleles Sr13a, Sr13c and Sr13d, respectively. This study indicates that Sr13d may be the primitive functional allele originating from the S1 haplotype via a point mutation, with the other three R alleles probably being derived from Sr13d through one or two additional point mutations.
Radiology of the esophagus

This definitive reference offers a comprehensive review of the radiology of esophageal disease. Details the use of double contrast techniques for recognizing subtle mucosal abnormalities and diagnosing early conditions--including the erosions of reflux esophagitis and the small lesions of early gastric cancer. Discusses the value of new cross-sectional imaging techniques such as CT and MRI for differential diagnosis and for staging malignant diseases.
Hip Hop Therapy: An Exploratory Study of a Rap Music Intervention with At-Risk and Delinquent Youth.

This article presents the results of an exploratory study of the therapeutic potential of a rap music intervention in group work with youth. “Hip-Hop Therapy (HHT)” is an innovative synergy of rap music, bibliotherapy, and music therapy. A pretestposttest experimental design with random assignment to groups was used to compare outcomes of youth that attended HHT sessions (n = 5) and youth that attended comparison group therapy sessions (n = 6) at a residential facility for at-risk and delinquent youth. Post-hoc qualitative data are also presented to provide depth to our understanding of the experiences of the youth in the HHT group. Because rap music has become increasingly popular among youth, it was expected that under a specific set of conditions rap music would improve the therapeutic experience and outcomes for youth. Taken together, the quantitative and qualitative results partially supported the hypothesis. Implications for clinical practice, as well as future directions in research are noted.
Light and electron microscope distribution of the NMDA receptor subunit NMDAR1 in the rat nervous system using a selective anti-peptide antibody

NMDA receptors play key roles in synaptic plasticity and neuronal development, and may be involved in learning, memory, and compensation following injury. A polyclonal antibody that recognizes four of seven splice variants of NMDAR1 was made using a C-terminus peptide (30 amino acid residues). NMDAR1 is the major NMDA receptor subunit, found in most or all NMDA receptor complexes. On immunoblots, this antibody labeled a single major band migrating at M(r) = 120,000. The antibody did not cross-react with extracts from transfected cells expressing other glutamate receptor subunits, nor did it label non-neuronal tissues. Immunostained vibratome sections of rat tissue showed labeling in many neurons in most structures in the brain, as well as in the cervical spinal cord, dorsal root and vestibular ganglia, and in pineal and pituitary glands. Staining was moderate to dense in the olfactory bulb, neocortex, striatum, some thalamic and hypothalamic nuclei, the colliculi, and many reticular, sensory, and motor neurons of the brainstem and spinal cord. The densest stained cells included the pyramidal and hilar neurons of the CA3 region of the hippocampus, Purkinje cells of the cerebellum, supraoptic and magnocellular paraventricular neurons of the hypothalamus, inferior olive, red nucleus, lateral reticular nucleus, peripheral dorsal cochlear nucleus, and motor nuclei of the lower brainstem and spinal cord. Ultrastructural localization of immunostaining was examined in the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and cerebellar cortex. The major staining was in postsynaptic densities apposed by unstained presynaptic terminals with round or mainly round vesicles, and in associated dendrites. The pattern of staining matched that of previous in situ hybridization but differed somewhat from that of binding studies, implying that multiple types of NMDA receptors exist. Comparison with previous studies of localization of other glutamate receptor types revealed that NMDAR1 may colocalize with these other types in many neurons throughout the nervous system.
Preparation of Thin and Thick Film Superconductors in the Tl-Ca-Ba-Cu-O System

The advent of high temperature superconductivity in Cu-O based materials has catalyzed a tremendous amount of activity in the synthesis, characterization and application of these materials [1]. The recent discovery of superconductivity above liquid nitrogen temperature in the Bi-Ca-Sr-Cu-O system [2] and Tl-Ca-Ba-Cu-O system [3] has led to hopes that these materials could overcome some of the problems experienced to date in the first system to superconduct above liquid nitrogen temperature, the rare earth (Re)Ba2Cu3O7 [4] The (Re)Ba2Cu3O7 materials suffer from many problems including: weak links between the grains in polycrystalline aggregates [5], a complex equilibrium with oxygen, a phase change in the region where the material is processed and limited chemical stability. Further, the Tc of these materials near 90K is probably too close to 77K for many applications. These limitations mean substantial hurdles to the practical utilization of the (Re)Ba2Cu3O7 materials.
Obedience, to Authority and the Law

Obedience is behavioral compliance with a set of standards or rules formulated by an individual or by a group. Authority refers to the right or power of the individual or group who formulated the standards to ensure compliance. Keywords: enforcement; legalism; regulation; standards
Protocol Inference Using Static Path Profiles

Specification inference tools typically mine commonalities among states at relevant program points. For example, to infer the invariants that must hold at all calls to a procedure prequires examining the state abstractions found at all call-sites to p. Unfortunately, existing approaches to building these abstractions require being able to explore all paths (either static or dynamic) to all of p's call-sites to derive specifications with any measure of confidence. Because programs that have complex control-flow structure may induce a large number of paths, naive path exploration is impractical. In this paper, we propose a new specification inference technique that allows us to efficiently explore statically all paths to a program point. Our approach builds static path profiles, profile information constructed by a static analysis that accumulates predicates valid along different paths to a program point. To make our technique tractable, we employ a summarization scheme to merge predicates at join points based on the frequency with which they occur on different paths. For example, predicates present on a majorityof static paths to allcall-sites of any procedure pforms the pre-condition of p. We have implemented a tool, marga , based on static path profiling. Qualitative analysis of the specifications inferred by marga indicates that it is more accurate than existing static mining techniques, can be used to derive useful specification even for APIs that occur infrequently (statically) in the program, and is robust against imprecision that may arise from examination of infeasible or infrequently occurring dynamic paths. A comparison of the specifications generated using marga with a dynamic specification inference engine based on cute , an automatic unit test generation tool, indicates that marga generates comparably precise specifications with smaller cost.
Utilization of Employment Tax Credits: An Analysis of Employees Eligible for the 'Empowerment Zone' Wage Tax Credit

This paper gives the first estimates for employee use of the Empowerment Zone (EZ) wage tax credit, a wage subsidy claimed by employers who operate in and hire residents of federally designated areas experiencing economic distress in the 1990s. I show that about 6.4 percent (and at least 3.5 percent) of the working age population was claimed under the EZ wage credit for 1999. In addition, I estimate that 24.2 percent (and at least 13.1 percent) of those employed inside of the target area were claimed for the credit. These national estimates of use are created using information on credit dollars claimed from the IRS as well as population data on those eligible to be claimed from the Census. The measures of tax credit use presented in this paper are an alternative to firm use rates presented in the literature, and reveal how effective the credit is at reaching residents of the target area.
Single-mode fibre Fourier transform spectrometer

A single-mode all-fibre Fourier transform spectrometer is described. A resolution of ˜1 cm−1 (˜0.7 A) is demonstrated at 820 nm. The device can be configured as a remote gas sensor.
Modeling of normalized coprime factors with H/sub /spl infin//-norm bounded uncertainty

Modeling of uncertain systems with normalized coprime factor description is investigated where the experimental data is given by a finite set of frequency response measurement samples of the open loop plant that is possibly infinite-dimensional. The objective is not only to identify the nominal model but also to quantify the modeling error with H/sub /spl infin// norm bounds in form of normalized coprime factor uncertainty compatible with robust control. This work is an extension of the robust identification in H/sub /spl infin// of Helmicki et al. (1991) where the uncertainty is quantified in additive form. An algorithm is developed to model the nominal normalized coprime factor of the given plant using techniques of discrete Fourier analysis (DFA) and balanced stochastic truncation (BST) and are shown to be robust. Upper bounds are derived for the associated modeling error. It is interesting to see that the proposed modeling approach is suitable to identification of flexible structures which are inherently infinite-dimensional. >
Effect of Light Intensity on the Formation of the Photochemical Apparatus in the Green Bacterium Chloropseudomonas ethylicum

Abstract Holt, Stanley C. (Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, N.H.), S. F. Conti, and R. C. Fuller. Effect of light intensity on the formation of the photochemical apparatus in the green bacterium Chloropseudomonas ethylicum. J. Bacteriol. 91:349–355. 1966.—When the green bacterium Chloropseudomonas ethylicum was grown at various light intensities, the formation of the photosynthetic vesicles was found to be an inverse function of the light intensity at which the cells were grown. The specific chlorophyll content of isolated vesicles varied as the light intensity was changed over a wide range. Thus, the regulation of chlorophyll content in C. ethylicum in response to a change in light intensity is achieved both by a change in the number of vesicles that are formed and by a change in the specific chlorophyll content of these vesicles.
Strategies for Pathway Analysis from GWAS Data

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are a standard approach for investigating the relationship of common variation within the human genome to a given phenotype of interest. However, single-allele association results published for many GWAS studies represent only the tip of the iceberg for the information that can be extracted from these datasets. The primary analysis strategy for GWAS entails association analysis in which only the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with the strongest p values are declared statistically significant due to issues arising from multiple testing and type I error concerns. Factors such as locus heterogeneity, epistasis, and multiple genes conferring small effects contribute to the complexity of the genetic models underlying phenotype expression. Thus, many biologically meaningful associations having lower effect sizes at individual genes are overlooked, as they are difficult to separate from a sea of false-positive associations. Organizing these individual SNPs into biologically meaningful groups to look at overall effects of minor perturbations to genes and pathways is desirable. This pathway-based approach provides researchers with insight into the functional foundations of the phenotype being studied and allows testing of various genetic scenarios.
Evaluating trauma patients: addressing missing covariates with joint optimization

Missing values are a common problem when applying classification algorithms to real-world medical data. This is especially true for trauma patients, where the emergent nature of the cases makes it difficult to collect all of the relevant data for each patient. Standard methods for handling missingness first learn a model to estimate missing data values, and subsequently train and evaluate a classifier using data imputed with this model. Recently, several proposed methods have demonstrated the benefits of jointly estimating the imputation model and classifier parameters. However, these methods make assumptions that limit their utility with many real-world medical datasets. For example, the assumption that data elements are missing at random is often invalid.We address this situation by exploring a novel approach for jointly learning the imputation model and classifier. Unlike previous algorithms, our approach makes no assumptions about the missingness of the data, can be used with arbitrary probabilistic data models and classification loss functions, and can be used when both the training and testing data have missing values. We investigate the utility of this approach on the prediction of several patient outcomes in a large national registry of trauma patients, and find that it significantly outperforms standard sequential methods.
Dopamine regulates phosphate uptake by opossum kidney cells through multiple counter-regulatory receptors

The purpose of this study was to determine the mechanisms of dopamine regulation of phosphate uptake in opossum kidney (OK) cells, a model of proximal renal tubules. Dopamine stimulated cAMP generation and inhibited radiolabeled phosphate uptake into OK cell monolayers by 14.4 +/- 1.8%. The effect of dopamine was transient, as phosphate uptake returned toward control level by 3 h despite the continued presence of dopamine. Pretreatment with pertussis toxin increased dopamine inhibition of phosphate uptake to 25 +/- 3%, increased the duration of the dopamine effect to at least 3 h, and enhanced cAMP generation. In an OK cell clone that overexpressed cAMP phosphodiesterase, dopamine did not inhibit phosphate uptake, but pharmacologic inhibition of protein kinase A activation did not prevent dopamine inhibition of phosphate uptake. A DA1 receptor agonist inhibited phosphate uptake more potently than dopamine (29.5 +/- 1.1%) or a DA2 receptor agonist (7.9 +/- 2%). However, both DA1 and DA2 receptor antagonists completely blocked dopamine inhibition of phosphate uptake. DA1, but not the DA2, antagonists blocked dopamine-stimulated cAMP generation. Treatment with alpha-adrenergic receptor antagonists potentiated dopamine inhibition of phosphate uptake to the same extent as pertussis toxin and was not additive with pertussis toxin. It is concluded that dopamine inhibits phosphate uptake through DA1 and DA2 receptor stimulation by cAMP-dependent and -independent pathways and activates a pertussis toxin-sensitive counter-regulatory pathway that attenuates this response through alpha-adrenergic receptor stimulation.