cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A computational account of basic level and typicality effects

Cognitive psychology has uncovered two effects that have altered traditional views of human classification. Basic level effects suggest that humans prefer concepts at a particular level of generality, while typicality effects indicate that some instances of a class are more readily recognized as such than others. This paper describes a model of memory that accounts for basic level effects, typicality effects, and interactions between them. More generally, computer experiments lay the groundwork for a formal unification of basic level and typicality phenomena.
Finite Deformation Behavior of Elastomers: Dependence of Strain Energy Density on Degree of Crosslinking for SBR

Abstract The non-linear mechanical behavior of styrene-butadiene rubbers (SBR) having five different crosslink densities (νe) has been determined in large deformation biaxial stress-relaxation tests of thin-sheet specimens. A significant experimental development was the use of individual strain gages at the specimen support points to determine directly the stress distribution in the web. The tests indicated the separability of strain and time effects for extension ratios up to 3.0 for the most lightly crosslinked SBR. Long-time data showed the equilibrium shear modulus Ge to be directly proportional to νe. The ratio W/Ge was independent of crosslinking so that the strain energy density W has the same functional strain dependence for all SBR systems.
Aortic blood flow velocity during Wenckebach periods in man

Abstract By means of the Doppler ultrasonic flowmeter catheter, phasic aortic blood flow velocity and simultaneous aortic pressure, right atrial pressure, and Lead II of the electrocardiogram were measured in 7 normal subjects and 8 patients with heart disease during right atrial pacing. At pacing rates between 110 and 170 per minute, type I, second-degree atrioventricular block appeared. The increase in peak aortic blood flow velocity was generally proportional to the preceding cycle length and inversely related to the P-R interval. These variations were more pronounced during shorter Wenckebach periods. The first beat of a period always manifested a greater peak flow velocity than did the last beat. Short cycle lengths with less ventricular diastolic filling resulted in diminished aortic systolic flow velocity, with reduction up to 80 per cent. The changes in flow velocity paralleled the changes in aortic pressure. Compared with similar pacing rates at 1: 1 conduction, the aortic peak flow associated with the first ventricular complex following a dropped beat increased 40 per cent. The conclusion is that Wenckebach periods cause cyclic changes in aortic blood flow velocity, related to diastolic filling and to the length of the P-R interval.
Sodium Requirement of Adult Cats for Maintenance Based on Plasma Aldosterone Concentration

The sodium requirement of adult cats for maintenance was determined using a randomized block design of eight dietary sodium treatments (0.1, 0.4, 0.5, 0.66, 0.8, 1.2, 1.6 or 2.0 g Na/kg in a casein-lactalbumin-based purified diet) administered for periods of 4 wk. A total of 35 adult specific-pathogen-free domestic shorthaired cats (26 males and 9 females, 1.5-3 y of age) was given an equilibration diet (2 g Na/kg) for 14 d before assignment (or reassignment) to the treatments. A total of 12 cats (8 males, 4 females) was randomly assigned to the lowest six levels of sodium, and four cats to the highest two sodium levels. Cats consuming the diet containing 0.1 g Na/kg had significantly elevated aldosterone concentration in plasma, and packed cell volume. In addition, these cats exhibited anorexia, body weight loss, reduced urinary specific gravity and sodium excretion, and had a negative sodium balance. However, adult cats did not develop polydypsia and polyuria reported in sodium-deficient kittens. Cats given the diet containing 0.66 g Na/kg did not have an increased packed cell volume, but aldosterone concentration in the plasma was significantly elevated. However, cats given diets containing >/=0.8 g Na/kg had plasma aldosterone concentrations </=0.7 nmol/L (reference value for sodium-replete cats) and normal packed-cell volumes. A minimal sodium requirement of adult cats for maintenance of 0.8 g Na/kg diet (energy density = 22 kJ/g diet) or 0.4 mmol Na. kg body weight-1. d-1 is proposed.
Polymerization of Beef Actomyosin Induced by Transglutaminase

Polymerization of beef actomyosin was induced by addition of transglutaminase. The relative intensity analyzed by densitometry after sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis indicated that bands containing the polymerized myosin increased from 10.1 ± 2.2% to 20.7 ± 3.5% while the myosin monomer band decreased from 20.9 ± 3.4% to 13.0 ± 2.7% as the reaction time extended from 10 to 120 min at 35°C. Polymerization of actomyosin induced by transglutaminase resulted in gelation of the actomyosin that was visualized by confocal laser scanning microscopy.
In vitro infection of megakaryocytes and their precursors by human cytomegalovirus.

Apart from congenital human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection, manifest HCMV disease occurs primarily in immunocompromised patients. In allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, HCMV is frequently associated with graft failure and cytopenias involving all hematopoietic lineages, but thrombocytopenia is the most commonly reported hematologic complication. The authors hypothesized that megakaryocytes (MK) may be a specific target for HCMV. Although the susceptibility of immature hematopoietic progenitors cells to HCMV has been established, a productive viral life cycle has only been linked to myelomonocytic maturation. The authors investigated whether HCMV can also infect MK and impair their function. They demonstrated that HCMV did not affect the thrombopoietin (TPO)-driven proliferation of CD34+ cells until MK maturation occurred. MK challenged with HCMV showed a 50% more rapid loss of viability than mock-infected cells. MK and their early precursors were clearly shown to be susceptible to HCMV in vitro, as evidenced by the presence of HCMV in magnetic column-purified CD42+ MK and 2-color fluorescent staining with antibodies directed against CD42a and HCMV pp65 antigen. These findings were confirmed by the infection of MK with a laboratory strain of HCMV containing the β-galactosidase (β-gal) gene. Using chromogenic β-gal substrates, HCMV was detected during MK differentiation of infected CD34+ cells and after infection of fully differentiated MK. Production of infectious virus was observed in cultures infected MK, suggesting that HCMV can complete its life cycle. These results demonstrate that MK are susceptible to HCMV infection and that direct infection of these cells in vivo may contribute to the thrombocytopenia observed in patients infected with HCMV.
Extracellular ATP acts as a damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) signal in plants

As sessile organisms, plants have evolved effective mechanisms to protect themselves from environmental stresses. Damaged (i.e., wounded) plants recognize a variety of endogenous molecules as danger signals, referred to as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). ATP is among the molecules that are released by cell damage, and recent evidence suggests that ATP can serve as a DAMP. Although little studied in plants, extracellular ATP is well known for its signaling role in animals, including acting as a DAMP during the inflammatory response and wound healing. If ATP acts outside the cell, then it is reasonable to expect that it is recognized by a plasma membrane-localized receptor. Recently, DORN1, a lectin receptor kinase, was shown to recognize extracellular ATP in Arabidopsis. DORN1 is the founding member of a new purinoceptor subfamily, P2K (P2 receptor Kinase), which is plant-specific. P2K1 (DORN1) is required for ATP-induced cellular responses (e.g., cytosolic Ca2+ elevation, MAPK phosphorylation, and gene expression). Genetic analysis of loss-of-function mutants and overexpression lines showed that P2K1 participates in the plant wound response, consistent with the role of ATP as a DAMP. In this review, we summarize past research on the roles and mechanisms of extracellular ATP signaling in plants, and discuss the direction of the future research of extracellular ATP as a DAMP signal.
Interfacial water on crystalline silica: a comparative molecular dynamics simulation study

Understanding the properties of interfacial water at solid–liquid interfaces is important in a wide range of applications. Molecular dynamics is becoming a widespread tool for this purpose. Unfortunately, however, the results of such studies are known to strongly depend on the selection of force fields. It is, therefore, of interest to assess the extent by which the implemented force fields can affect the predicted properties of interfacial water. Two silica surfaces, with low and high surface hydroxyl density, respectively, were simulated implementing four force fields. These force fields yield different orientation and flexibility of surface hydrogen atoms, and also different interaction potentials with water molecules. The properties for interfacial water were quantified by calculating contact angles, atomic density profiles, surface density distributions, hydrogen bond density profiles and residence times for water near the solid substrates. We found that at low surface density of hydroxyl groups, the...
Rollback based on vector time

Causality, as made concrete by Lamport's "happened before" relation, is the central underlying basis in the design of optimistic protocols for checkpoint and recovery. After the recovery of a formerly failed process, all events and messages which causally follow the events and messages discarded by restoration of a state checkpoint must be discarded also. The isomorphism between causality and vector time is well-known. That isomorphism is exploited here in order to develop and verify a simple and effective protocol which explicitly uses the causal partial order, through the use of vector time, in order to rollback a computation in response to a process failure. >
Selective effects of division of attention on discrimination conditioning

The contribution of attention to learning was examined in delay, trace, discrimination, and discrimination reversal eyeblink conditioning in young healthy adults. Participants performed either single- or two-cued conditioning paradigms with three levels of distraction: no distraction (full attention), concurrently watching a silent movie, or concurrent verbal shadowing. Conditioning for single-cue delay and trace conditioning paradigms was unaffected by the level of distraction. Conditioning for the two-cue paradigms of discrimination and discrimination reversal was reduced greatly when attention was divided. Silent movie watching allowed for some acquisition (CRs to the CS+) but no discrimination (differential responses to CS+ vs. CS−). Verbal shadowing eliminated both acquisition and discrimination. These results indicate that, in the human, attention makes a critical contribution to the successful acquisition of two-cue eyeblink conditioning tasks that require discrimination and discrimination reversal.
Energetics of order-disorder in layered magnesium aluminum double hydroxides with interlayer carbonate.

Laboratory synthesis of layered double hydroxides (LDH) often results in materials replete with stacking faults. Faults are known to affect several properties including sorption, electrochemical, and catalytic activity of this important class of materials. Understanding the occurrence of faults thus calls for a comprehensive analysis of formation and stability of ordered and faulted LDHs. High-temperature oxide melt solution calorimetric measurements made on an ordered and a faulted Mg–Al LDH with carbonate interlayer anion shows that ordered LDH is energetically more stable than the faulted one by ∼6 kJ/mol. The stacking faults are an intergrowth of 3R1 and 2H1 polytypes, and faults could thus mediate transformation of 3R1 to 2H1 polytypes. Several factors including pH and temperature of precipitation also affect layer stacking. The formation of stacking faults could therefore have its origin in kinetics. Water content in the interlayer also affects layer stacking, and hence it may affect properties of L...
The mechanism of stomatal movement--once more. Review article.

The recent explosion of information on stomatal action has led to a rejection of the old, classical theory of the mechanism, proposed byScarth (1932) and its replacement byFujino's (1959) concept of active K+ transport. Many of the new facts, however, do not seem to fit into either concept, and neither provides a sufficiently detailed, step-by-step scheme to account for all the known facts. Enough information is now available for the proposal of a new scheme which embodies the best features of each of the above and eliminates the inadequacies of both.
Hotspotting: a probabilistic graphical model for image object localization through crowdsourcing

Object localization is an image annotation task which consists of finding the location of a target object in an image. It is common to crowdsource annotation tasks and aggregate responses to estimate the true annotation. While for other kinds of annotations consensus is simple and powerful, it cannot be applied to object localization as effectively due to the task's rich answer space and inherent noise in responses. We propose a probabilistic graphical model to localize objects in images based on responses from the crowd. We improve upon natural aggregation methods such as the mean and the median by simultaneously estimating the difficulty level of each question and skill level of every participant. We empirically evaluate our model on crowdsourced data and show that our method outperforms simple aggregators both in estimating the true locations and in ranking participants by their ability. We also propose a simple adaptive sourcing scheme that works well for very sparse datasets.
Fixed-Delay Tree Search

In this chapter, we show that a fast and efficient tree-search algorithm exists which is a variation of the constrained optimum detector devised by Abend and Frichtman. The resulting algorithm can be viewed as a depth-limited tree search with systematic ambiguity checking capability. It is closely related to the recursive version of the decision-feedback tree search proposed by Proakis and Khazen-Terezia, whose derivation was inspired by Massey’s feedback decoding. Assuming that past decisions are correct, we derive a general expression for the effective minimum distance in terms of the error event structure and channel impulse response. We show that the effective minimum distance of a fixed-delay system is simply the minimum energy in any truncated output error sequence and can easily be related to the minimum distance of MLSD. Using partial response channels as examples, we investigate the impact of a finite-delay constraint on the detection performance. We observe that the catastrophic error events common in uncoded partial response systems are eliminated by the minimum run-length constraint, which may be beneficial in high-density recording for many practical reasons. We show that in the presence of the minimum run-length constraint, the fixed delay tree search with a small delay, which is faster and more cost-effective than the Viterbi algorithm and other sequence detectors, achieves the same effective minimum distance as the optimum detector.
High Frequency Numerical Modeling of Passive Monolithic Circuits and Antenna Feed Networks

During the past ten years, the requirements for low cost systems with small volume and low weight introduced the need for high operating frequencies and led to the development of monolithic technology. An important characteristic of this technology is that all antenna elements, active devices and passive circuits including components and interconnections are formed on the surface of a semi-insulating substrate by some deposition method.
Many of the conserved nucleotides of tRNA(Phe) are not essential for ternary complex formation and peptide elongation.

An RNase protection assay was used to show that the dissociation rate constants and equilibrium constants of unmodified yeast and Escherichia coli phenylalanyl-tRNA(Phes) to elongation factor Tu from E.coli were very similar to each other and to their fully modified counterparts. The affinity of aminoacylated tRNA to elongation factor Tu was substantially lower when GTP analogues were used in place of GTP, emphasizing the importance of the beta-gamma phosphate linkage in the function of G-proteins. Fourteen different mutations in conserved and semi-conserved nucleotides of yeast phenylalanyl-tRNA(Phe) were tested for binding to elongation factor Tu.GTP and assayed for activity in the ribosomal A- and P-sites. Most of the mutations did not severely impair the function of these tRNAs in any of the assays. This suggests that the translational machinery does not form sequence-specific interactions with the conserved nucleotides of tRNA.
Synchronous reluctance motor/alternator for flywheel energy storage systems

This paper presents a synchronous reluctance machine design for high-speed high-power applications, such as the motor/alternator for a flywheel energy storage system. The rotor consists of alternating layers of ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic steel that are joined together by a process known as explosion bonding. Analytical expressions for the direct and quadrature inductances of the machine are presented, and are then used to optimize machine design. These expressions compare well with results obtained from finite element analysis. Structural and electrical analyses of a 60 kW, 48000 r.p.m. machine indicate that the design will be appropriate for flywheel systems. Current work involves construction and testing of the above design.
Overlap Syndromes of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis

Primary sclerosing cholangitis can have features of autoimmune hepatitis or primary biliary cholangitis. Overlapping features with primary biliary cholangitis occur in only 0.7 % of patients, but concurrent findings of autoimmune hepatitis occur in 4–17 %. Overlapping features can be present at onset or develop in sequence. Laboratory indices of marked liver inflammation, serological markers of immune reactivity, and histological findings of interface hepatitis with dense lymphoplasmacytic infiltration suggest an overlap syndrome with autoimmune hepatitis. Antimitochondrial antibodies and histological findings of destructive cholangitis suggest an overlap syndrome with primary biliary cholangitis. Overlap syndromes of primary sclerosing cholangitis involving the small bile ducts may have a better long-term prognosis than disease involving the large bile ducts. Treatment is directed at the predominant disease component and tailored to the individual response. Prednisolone and azathioprine have been the principal drugs used in treating the overlap syndrome with autoimmune hepatitis, and ursodeoxycholic acid has been the main drug used in treating the overlap syndrome with primary biliary cholangitis. The inflammatory indices commonly improve and may normalize in patients with features of autoimmune hepatitis, whereas the cholestatic indices usually remain abnormal. Histological progression can occur despite laboratory improvement, and survival has ranged from 56 to 100 %. Liver transplantation has been required in at least 19 %, and malignancies develop in 0–12 %. Patients with features of primary biliary cholangitis can improve liver tests to normal or near normal and remain stable for up to 17 years. Overlap syndromes must be considered in all patients with atypical manifestations and disease progression.
PU.1 and pRb Bind GATA-1 on DNA and Recruit a Histone H3K9 Methyl Transferase-Containing Complex to Repress the Erythroid Transcription Program.

Current work indicates that transcriptional repression is at least as important as transcriptional activation in normal development. Inappropriate or untimely transcriptional repression in immature hematopoietic cells is often the basis for a block to differentiation in hematologic malignancies. Activation of PU.1, a myeloid and B-cell specific transcription factor, in erythroid cells plays a key role in Friend virus-induced mouse erythroleukemia (MEL). Previous results from our laboratory showed that PU.1 blocks the erythroid differentiation-promoting activity of GATA-1 by binding directly to GATA-1 on DNA and inhibiting its transcriptional function. PU.1-mediated repression of GATA-1 on transiently transfected GATA-1 target genes is dependent on the corepressor pRb that also binds to PU.1 (Rekhtman et al., Genes & Dev 1999 and Mol Cell Biol 2003). To further investigate the mechanism of PU.1-mediated repression of GATA-1 in chromatin, we examined the occupancy of several GATA-1 target genes by PU.1 and pRb, as well as the state of core histone modifications at these loci in MEL cells by quantitative chromatin immunoprecipitation. These studies included both endogenous GATA-1 target genes and an exogenous GATA-1 target gene (alpha globin) integrated at a specific locus in MEL cells by Recombinase-Mediated Cassette Exchange. We found that GATA-1 sites at both the exogenous, integrated gene as well as at endogenous genes (including the regulatory regions of the alpha globin, beta globin, alas-e, eklf, p45 nf-e2) are occupied by a GATA1 - PU.1 - pRb complex in undifferentiated MEL cells. The presence of all three components of the complex is dependent on intact GATA-1 binding sites in the exogenous, integrated gene. The histone methyltransferase Suv39H1 and the histone H3MeK9 binding protein, HP1alpha, are also present at the repressed loci. During induced differentiation of MEL cells, PU.1, pRb, Suv39H1 and HP1alpha occupancy at these sites declines but GATA-1 continues to be present at its binding sites. The disruption of the repression complex at these loci during differentiation as well as during siRNA-mediated PU.1 knock down is associated with conversion of methylated H3K9 to acetylated H3K9 and significant transcriptional derepression of these GATA-1 target genes. These findings support a model for repression of GATA-1 by PU.1 at endogenous loci through recruitment of the corepressor pRb and associated histone methyltransferase (Suv39H1) and H3MeK9 binding (HP1alpha) activities.
A Confetti Drone: Exploring drone entertainment

Drones are taking flight, through services in packaging and delivering, reconnaissance, video, film, and public services. It is only a matter of time before drones are fully integrated to enhance the entertainment experience at a certain venue on social gathering. This paper explores the concept and develops an abstract design of a confetti drone for “dronetainment” - a robotic unmanned aircraft system (UAS) that dispenses particles of debris. Its specifications were identified through a group 6-3-5 method that led to a model being implemented by taking 3 steps of a system design approach. A confetti canister was introduced to test the feasibility of a drone dispensing paper particles.
Leveraging high performance data cache techniques to save power in embedded systems

Voltage scaling reduces leakage power for cache lines unlikely to be referenced soon. Partitioning reduces dynamic power via smaller, specialized structures. We combine approaches, adding a voltage scaling design providing finer control of power budgets. This delivers good performance and low power, consuming 34% of the power of previous designs.
In operando X-ray diffraction strain measurement in Ni3Sn2 – Coated inverse opal nanoscaffold anodes for Li-ion batteries

Abstract Volume changes associated with the (de)lithiation of a nanostructured Ni3Sn2 coated nickel inverse opal scaffold anode create mismatch stresses and strains between the Ni3Sn2 anode material and its mechanically supporting Ni scaffold. Using in operando synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements, elastic strains in the Ni scaffold are determined during cyclic (dis)charging of the Ni3Sn2 anode. These strains are characterized using both the center position of the Ni diffraction peaks, to quantify the average strain, and the peak breadth, which describes the distribution of strain in the measured volume. Upon lithiation (half-cell discharging) or delithiation (half-cell charging), compressive strains and peak breadth linearly increase or decrease, respectively, with charge. The evolution of the average strains and peak breadths suggests that some irreversible plastic deformation and/or delamination occurs during cycling, which can result in capacity fade in the anode. The strain behavior associated with cycling of the Ni3Sn2 anode is similar to that observed in recent studies on a Ni inverse-opal supported amorphous Si anode and demonstrates that the (de)lithiation-induced deformation and damage mechanisms are likely equivalent in both anodes, even though the magnitude of mismatch strain in the Ni3Sn2 is lower due to the lower (de)lithiation-induced contraction/expansion.
Characterization of inter-tissue and inter-strain variability of TCE glutathione conjugation metabolites DCVG, DCVC, and NAcDCVC in the mouse

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a ubiquitous environmental toxicant that is a liver and kidney carcinogen. Conjugation of TCE with glutathione (GSH) leads to formation of nepthrotoxic and mutagenic meta...
A Novel Low-Complexity Adaptive Bit Mapping Scheme for Spatial Modulation

We propose a novel low-complexity adaptive bit mapping scheme for spatial modulation (SM) called the nearest point method (NPM). In this scheme, the SM symbols are first sorted according to a certain sorting order, then bit sequences that are different only in 1 bit are assigned to subsequent SM symbols according to that sorting order. To determine the sorting order, NPM starts with the pair of SM symbols that has the minimum distance. From one of the SM symbols in that pair, it identifies the nearest SM symbol and continues to do so until it visits all the SM symbols without visiting the same SM symbol more than once. Simulation results show that NPM achieves performance close to the lower bound of the BER for SM and space shift keying (SSK) using full channel state information at the transmitter. It also achieves BER improvement for SSK using the channel distribution and correlation information. The complexity of the proposed NPM is on the order $\mathcal {O}(K^2)$ , where $K$ is the number of symbols, which is remarkably low.
The Public Face of Transplantation: The Potential of Education to Expand the Face Donor Pool.

Background:Despite the growing success of facial transplantation, organ donor shortages remain challenging. Educational health campaigns can effectively inform the general public and institute behavioral modifications. A brief educational introduction to facial transplantation may positively influen
Will Maintenance of Oral Hygiene in Nursing Home Residents Prevent Pneumonia

This article is an evaluation of the literature on oral hygiene as a risk factor for nursing home-associated pneumonia (NHAP) and with interventions to improve oral hygiene and reduce the incidence of NHAP. The background for this article is that studies that have evaluated interventions to improve oral hygiene and prevent NHAP have conflicting results. To try to understand the reason for these results, the objective was to examine risk factor and intervention studies and determine their methodological validity. Review of studies evaluating oral hygiene status as a risk factor for NHAP found multiple methodological problems, resulting in limited evidence to support this association. Studies of intervention methods, whether finding benefit or not in preventing NHAP, all had methodological limitations. Therefore, it is unclear whether oral hygiene is a risk factor for NHAP and whether improving oral hygiene decreases the incidence of this infection. A recommendation is made that future studies should carefully define the etiology of suspected NHAP using molecular techniques when evaluating methods to prevent this infection because viral pneumonia and aspiration pneumonitis may mimic bacterial pneumonia even though, at times, there may be coinfection with bacteria. In this latter situation, improving oral hygiene may not prevent pneumonia. Therefore, viral infection and pneumonitis with or without bacterial coinfection need to be excluded so that the focus is on prevention of bacterial pneumonia.
Expression of p27 and c-Myc by immunohistochemistry in breast ductal cancers in African American women.

Abstract Objectives Proteins p27 and c-Myc are both key players in the cell cycle. While p27, a tumor suppressor, inhibits progression from G1 to S phase, c-Myc, a proto-oncogene, plays a key role in cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. The objective of our study was to determine the association between expression of c-Myc and the loss of p27 by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in the four major subtypes of breast cancer (BC) (Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2, and Triple Negative) and with other clinicopathological factors in a population of 202 African-American (AA) women. Materials and methods Tissue microarrays (TMAs) were constructed from FFPE tumor blocks from primary ductal breast carcinomas in 202 AA women. Five micrometer sections were stained with a mouse monoclonal antibody against p27 and a rabbit monoclonal antibody against c-Myc. The sections were evaluated for intensity of nuclear reactivity (1–3) and percentage of reactive cells; an H-score was derived from the product of these measurements. Results Loss of p27 expression and c-Myc overexpression showed statistical significance with ER negative (p Conclusion In our study, a statistically significant association between c-Myc expression and p27 loss and the triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) was found in AA women. A recent study found that constitutive c-Myc expression is associated with inactivation of the axin 1 tumor suppressor gene. p27 inhibits cyclin dependent kinase2/cyclin A/E complex formation. Axin 1 and CDK inhibitors may represent possible therapeutic targets for TNBC.
Oceans of Plastic: A Research Agenda to Propel Policy Development

Abstract Although the phenomenon of marine plastic debris is now widely recognized as a problem for the international community, significant gaps in understanding still inhibit the creation and implementation of effective policy responses. This paper reviews the state of scientific knowledge about the causes and consequences of marine plastic debris, including its sources, pathways, composition, location, and impacts on ecosystems and human activities. Much remains unknown about the large scale impacts of plastic debris on ecosystem functions and human health, among other information gaps. Additional scientific research about the nature, extent, and harms of marine plastic debris could increase the political salience of the problem, and produce urgent and focused attention on the formulation of solutions. Although many policy responses have been proposed, and even pursued, additional research could assist in the prioritization of the most cost-effective strategies. The research agenda outlined would support a more detailed and comprehensive assessment of the nature of the problem of marine plastic debris, and inform the creation and implementation of effective solutions.
Correction: Duncan, K.R., Suzuki, Y.J. Vitamin E Nicotinate. Antioxidants 2017, 6, 20

In the original version of our article [1], three lines were omitted from the α-tocopherol and α-tocopheryl nicotinate structures in Figure 1 during the manuscript processing[...]
Evolution of pathogenic Escherichia coli

Abstract Why do bacteria cause disease in humans? Is disease adaptive for the pathogen or just a biological accident? And if disease is adaptive, how does it influence the long-term or short-term fitness for the pathogen and how is it sustained in nature? In this chapter we try to address these questions by dissecting the molecular mechanisms of both pathogenicity and evolution of Escherichia coli, one of the most notorious and versatile human pathogens, which is also one of the most common human commensal bacteria. We examine how and, more importantly, why horizontally transferred virulence factors and pathoadaptive mutations are acquired by and sustained by certain E. coli lineages. The evolution of pathogenicity is thus reviewed from the perspective of E. coli ecology, with the discussion of various models of virulence evolution in general and some of its paradoxes. We hope to shed light from the evolutionary perspective on how professional, accidental, or opportunistic pathogens might be defined.
Reversible oxidant-induced increases in albumin transfer across cultured endothelium: alterations in cell shape and calcium homeostasis.

To determine whether reactive oxygen molecules could directly and reversibly increase the transfer of albumin across an endothelial barrier, we measured albumin transfer across monolayers of endothelium cultured on micropore filters before and after exposure to xanthine and xanthine oxidase. Xanthine and xanthine oxidase increased endothelial albumin transfer in a dose-dependent fashion. Parallel phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy demonstrated retraction of adjacent cells from one another and disruption of the actin filaments. The oxidant- induced increases in albumin transfer and changes in cell shape were reversed by removing xanthine oxidase and then incubating the monolayers for 3 1/2 hours in tissue culture media enriched with fetal bovine serum. However, incubation in tissue culture media without serum resulted in progressive injury and cell death. Hence, the brief exposure to oxidants initiated a progressive injury process that was reversed by incubation in serum. Because intracellular and extracellular calcium are important determinants of cell shape, and because some oxidized membrane lipids act as calcium ionophores, we asked whether oxidants altered endothelial calcium homeostasis. Xanthine-xanthine oxidase increased release of 45Ca++ from preloaded cells. The calcium antagonist lanthanum chloride prevented xanthine- xanthine oxidase increases in endothelial albumin transfer and prevented the changes in cell shape; chelation of extracellular calcium inhibited lysis of endothelium by xanthine-xanthine oxidase; and the calcium ionophore A23187 increased endothelial albumin transfer and mimicked the oxidant-induced changes in cell shape. Lanthanum chloride inhibited these effects of A23187. These data suggest that oxygen radicals can reversibly increase endothelial permeability to macromolecules, that this is associated with reversible changes in endothelial cell shape and actin filaments, and that the changes in cell shape are related to oxidant-induced changes in endothelial calcium homeostasis.
When SNS Privacy Settings Become Granular: Investigating Users' Choices, Rationales, and Influences on Their Social Experience

Privacy researchers have suggested various granular audience control techniques for users to manage the access to their disclosed information on social network sites. However, it is unclear how users adopt and utilize such techniques in daily use and how these techniques may impact social interactions with others over time. In this study, we examine users' experience during everyday use of granular audience control techniques in WeChat, one of the most popular social network applications in China. Through an interview study with 24 WeChat users, we find that users adjust their configurations and develop rationales for these configurations over time. They also perceive mixed impacts of WeChat's privacy settings on their information disclosure and social interactions, which brings new challenges to privacy design. We discuss the implications of these findings and make suggestions for the future design of privacy settings in SNSs.
Deconstructing the Administrative State: Constitutional Debates over Chevron and Political Transformation in American Law

In 2018, Justice Kennedy wrote that the Supreme Court should “reconsider the premises” of Chevron v. NRDC based on “separation-of-powers principles.” In 2015, Justice Thomas was the first judge to argue in an opinion that Chevron is unconstitutional, and Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are the only judicial nominees whose anti-Chevron critiques were featured elements of their candidacy. Petitions for certiorari have challenged Chevron’s constitutionality, echoing litigants in other federal courts, and academics have joined both sides of the debate. This Article responds to modern disputes over Chevron with a new history of how the constitutional crisis developed, a rebuttal of modern critiques, and a description of their potentially destructive effect on administrative governance and constitutional law. The Article describes a shift from Reagan-era support for Chevron to “post-Scalian” attacks. It concludes by considering anti-Chevron constitutional critiques alongside other Trumpist efforts to “deconstruct the administrative state.” To overrule Chevron would be the most radical decision about constitutional structure in eighty years, unsettling hundreds of judicial decisions, thousands of statutes, and countless agency decisions. This Article contributes to existing literature with novel historical research, and detailed engagement with anti-Chevron critiques that have become newly sophisticated and politically powerful.
Innovations in biological assessments of chronic stress through hair and nail cortisol: Conceptual, developmental, and methodological issues

Much of the existing research on biological mechanisms underlying the stress experience has focused largely on moment-to-moment stress, rather than on chronic stress, an arguably more powerful predictor of long-term outcomes. Recent methodological innovations have paved the way for new lines of research on chronic stress, with promising implications for developmental researchers and for those who study health and adversity. In particular, there are increasing studies that have focused on chronic stress assessments by relying on cortisol derived from hair and nails as a biomarker for chronic stress. In this paper, we provide an overview of their use, describe how hair and nail cortisol ought to be conceptualized differently across the lifespan, how developmental factors may impact its interpretation, and the circumstances under which its use may be more methodologically sensible. The purpose of this review is to provoke further discussion and encourage careful research designs that utilize hair and nail cortisol for understanding the effects of chronic stress exposure from the early developmental period, across adverse contexts, and in association with psychological and physical health outcomes.
Reducing Unplanned Extubations Across a Children's Hospital Using Quality Improvement Methods.

Introduction Children who require an endotracheal (ET) tube for care during critical illness are at risk of unplanned extubations (UE), or the unintended dislodgement or removal of an ET tube that can lead to significant patient harm. A proposed national benchmark is 1 UE per 100 ventilator days. We aimed to reduce the rate of UEs in our intensive care units (ICUs) from 1.20 per 100 ventilator days to below the national benchmark within 2 years. Methods We identified several key drivers including ET securement standardization, safety culture, and strategies for high-risk situations. We employed quality improvement methodologies including apparent cause analysis and plan-do-study-act cycles to improve our processes and outcomes. Results Over 2 years, we reduced the rate of UEs hospital-wide by 75% from 1.2 to 0.3 per 100 ventilator days. We eliminated UEs in the pediatric ICU during the study period, while the UE rate in the neonatal ICU also decreased from 1.2 to 0.3 per 100 ventilator days. Conclusion We demonstrated that by using quality improvement methodology, we successfully reduced our rate of UE by 75% to a level well below the proposed national benchmark.
Bondi–Hoyle–Lyttleton accretion in supergiant X-ray binaries: stability and disc formation

We use 2D (axisymmetric) and 3D hydrodynamic simulations to study Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton (BHL) accretion with and without transverse upstream gradients. We mainly focus on the regime of high (upstream) Mach number, weak upstream gradients and small accretor size, which is relevant to neutron star (NS) accretion in wind-fed Supergiant X-ray binaries (SgXBs). We present a systematic exploration of the flow in this regime. When there are no upstream gradients, the flow is always stable regardless of accretor size or Mach number. For finite upstream gradients, there are three main types of behavior: stable flow (small upstream gradient), turbulent unstable flow without a disk (intermediate upstream gradient), and turbulent flow with a disk-like structure (relatively large upstream gradient). When the accretion flow is turbulent, the accretion rate decreases non-convergently as the accretor size decreases. The flow is more prone to instability and the disk is less likely to form than previously expected; the parameters of most observed SgXBs place them in the regime of a turbulent, disk-less accretion flow. Among the SgXBs with relatively well-determined parameters, we find OAO 1657-415 to be the only one that is likely to host a persistent disk (or disk-like structure); this finding is consistent with observations.
Political competition in legislative elections

We develop a theory of candidate nomination processes predicated upon the notion that members of the majority party in a legislature collaboratively influence policy. Because of this team aspect, voters care both about their local candidates’ positions, and the positions of their parties which are determined by the positions of all their elected representatives in the legislature. We show that candidates may be unable to escape the burden of their party association, and that the primary voters in both parties exploit the median voters’ national preferences to nominate the most extreme electable candidates. We also show that gerrymandering affects the equilibrium platforms not only in those districts that become more extreme, but also in those
Sustainable Vehicular Edge Computing Using Local and Solar-Powered Roadside Unit Resources

In this paper, we explore a sustainable solution to growing vehicular computing and communication needs by utilizing edge computing and communication resources of a network of Solar- powered Roadside Units (SRSUs), along with any vehicular computing resources available. The solution ensures no additional grid energy expended while minimizing any QoS loss for the vehicle users (VUs). An SRSU consists of a small cell base station (SBS) and a road-edge computing (REC) node, is powered by a low-cost solar system. VUs can offload their vehicular application tasks to SRSUs to receive high throughput and low latency services. However, the limited capacity of solar energy, REC computing, and bandwidth resources may cause service disruption and affect the Quality of Service (QoS) that VUs receive. To minimize such QoS loss, we formulate a dynamic offloading QoS loss minimization problem, where the different subtasks of a VU application are optimally executed either locally using the VU computing resource or remotely using the REC resource, considering the energy, computing and bandwidth constraints of the SRSU network. We then propose to solve it by a heuristic algorithm which jointly makes the optimal user association, subtask offloading, and SRSU resource allocation decisions. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, we build a simulation framework consisting of a dense SRSU network using real-world solar energy generation and urban vehicular traffic data. The simulation results show that our proposed approach can significantly reduce QoS loss compared to other best effort strategies.
Towards Safer Prescription for Gestational Use

Pharmacovigilance captures the safety profile of drugs used by the mass market. The wealth of clinical and administrative data can inform drug safety on a populational level. We propose studying the prescriptions for pregnant women whose tolerance and response to drugs are not typically studied in clinical trials. A case-control study design will be used to identify possible prescriptions related to preterm deliveries. Trimesterspecific information will be explored using visualization, natural language processing and machine learning techniques.
Hop Downy Mildew Caused by Pseudoperonospora humuli: A Diagnostic Guide

Downy mildew, caused by Pseudoperonospora humuli, is one of the most destructive diseases of hop. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the pathogen, the host range and geographi...
Discounting as a double-edged sword: the values of both future goods and present economic growth decrease with the discount rate

How to compromise between economic growth and sustainable development is a major question. Particularly, climate policy affects capital and production levels (GDP), but it also affects the long-ter...
Snare-assisted thoracic endovascular aortic repair for redirection of a false lumen elephant trunk.

Abstract In recent years, a hybrid approach to the classic two-stage elephant trunk technique has come into favor for treatment of thoracic aortic dissection. During the first stage, inadvertent intraoperative placement of the elephant trunk into the false lumen can occur on rare occasions, resulting in untoward difficulties during the second stage of the procedure. We describe here a snare-assisted technique for endovascular salvage of an elephant trunk that had inadvertently been placed in the false lumen of a chronic aortic dissection.
Simple Things Are Not Simple: Pulsatile Tinnitus due to Tortuous Occipital Artery.

Background Pulsatile tinnitus is often a chronic and debilitating condition and normally has a vascular origin. We describe a case of pulsatile tinnitus due to an aberrant branch of the external carotid artery (ECA), which has not been reported previously. Method A 67-year-old female with chronic unilateral pulsatile tinnitus, which could be controlled completely with direct pressure on a small tortuous superficial branch behind her left ear. This was confirmed with doppler to be an unusually tortuous occipital branch of the ECA. Under local anesthesia, this vessel was identified with intraoperative doppler and ligated. Result Complete resolution of tinnitus immediately, with consistent results 3 months postoperatively. Conclusions Pulsatile tinnitus due to aberrances in the occipital ECA branch is rare, and in this case, was successfully treated with minor surgery.
Accelerating Energy Transition in India: A Comparative Perspective

India is among the world's most significant carbon emitters and has set among the most ambitious goals for transforming its energy sector. The goal of this essay is to situate India’s renewable energy goals within the international context, as it has done through its Nationally Determined Contribution to the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, and then to look closely at this ambition through a comparative policy lens. With this approach, the essay provides insight into reform models for electricity regimes with potentially broad applicability. Although regulatory frameworks vary in countries around the globe, there are often substantial commonalities that comparative work can highlight. The essay demonstrates this with a focus on two models for policy innovation in India that build on trends in renewable energy law worldwide: (1) aligning corporate demand for clean power with renewable energy targets and (2) minimizing renewables’ intermittency and land use impacts through hybrid renewables policy. The essay underscores the role of transnational policy exchange as well as the critical importance of tailoring policy innovations to each country’s unique infrastructure, resources, and legal context.