cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Single-cell Suction Recordings from Mouse Cone Photoreceptors

Rod and cone photoreceptors in the retina are responsible for light detection. In darkness, cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels in the outer segment are open and allow cations to flow steadily inwards across the membrane, depolarizing the cell. Light exposure triggers the closure of the CNG channels, blocks the inward cation current flow, and thus results in cell hyperpolarization. Based on the polarity of photoreceptors, a suction recording method was developed in 1970s that, unlike the classic patch-clamp technique, does not require penetrating the plasma membrane 1. Drawing the outer segment into a tightly-fitting glass pipette filled with extracellular solution allows recording the current changes in individual cells upon test-flash exposure. However, this well-established "outer-segment-in (OS-in)" suction recording is not suitable for mouse cone recordings, because of the low percentage of cones in the mouse retina (3%) and the difficulties in identifying the cone outer segments. Recently, an inner-segment-in (IS-in) recording configuration was developed to draw the inner segment/nuclear region of the photoreceptor into the recording pipette 2,3. In this video, we will show how to record from individual mouse cone photoresponses using single-cell suction electrode.
Alteration of mechanical performance of the ventricle by intraaortic balloon counterpulsation.

Abstract Intraaortic balloon counterpulsation has been shown to reduce the immediate mortality due to acute myocardial infarction in dogs. Previous studies have emphasized the importance of the absolute or relative increases in coronary blood flow that result from augmentation of diastolic aortic pressure. This study was designed to clarify the role of the decreased systolic pressure characteristic of counterpulsation in increasing the cardiac output. Eleven dogs were studied without intervention except for counterpulsation. A decrease in peak left ventricular pressure from 138 ± 7 to 116 ± 6 mm Hg ( P Hg . As a result of the decreased impedance to ejection, peak aortic flow, stroke volume and cardiac output increased by 15 percent. In 6 dogs studied after acute myocardial infarction secondary to ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery, there were parallel but less marked changes in the hemodynamic measurements. The external performance of the ventricle when evaluated in terms of peak flow, stroke volume and output was an inverse function of the impedance to ejection. Since effective assistance to the failing heart must result in increased external performance, the importance of adequate reduction of systolic impedance must not be underestimated.
The International Civil War

This is the age of revolutions. No longer are they the domain of the theorizer or the peripheral plotter. They have moved into the center of the average man's daily thought. They are on everybody's mind and in every newspaper's headline.No continent is exempted. The whole of Europe is in upheaval. Her political parties are aligned in the name of, or in opposition to, revolution. China's four decades of civil war, India's final attainment of independence, the awakening nationalism of the Near East and South Eastern Asia spell not only the end of historical empires, but also call into action socio-revolutionary forces that break the frame of established society. Even those areas that are not engulfed by revolution are confronted with its threat. Fascism and National Socialism, though they proved in the test of history to be mere pseudo-revolts, were nourished by grievances of modern society that are not overcome by military defeat and—as long as they remain unanswered—still represent a challenge to our democratic world.
Sex-Reaction Linkage in Neurospora

In his studies on the inheritance of response to heat-treatment in Neurospora Lindegren (5) found in a certain hybrid that the spores which germinated without heating were all non-conidial, and usually of sex-reaction type A. He has also proved (7) that the "pale" and "non-pale" factors in N. crassa are linked with the reaction factors. Recently Dodge (4) has pointed out that the factors for orange-colored conidia in N. tetrasperma may be linked with the reaction factors. At the suggestion of Dr. Dodge the writer has undertaken to repeat his experiments and also to analyze progeny from the mating Sl X S9, the ancestral stock of the irradiated lines, to determine whether or not a linkage actually exists. The results of the writer's experiments show beyond doubt that the factors for the orange-color of the conidia in N. tetrasperma are linked with the sex-reaction factors as are also the factors for darkening of the substratum. In these experiments because of the limited time available for this work only the gross characters are dealt with, further work with a standard medium and a uniform set of environmental conditions should bring out other similar linkages.
Molecular Tensile Machines: Anti-Arrhenius Cleavage of Disulfide Bonds

Molecular tensile machines are bottlebrush molecules where tension along the backbone is self-generated due to steric repulsion between the densely grafted side chains. Upon adsorption onto a subst...
Standard strategies for acute ischemic stroke within the rtPA therapeutic window

The vision of thrombolysis for reversal of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) was launched in 1958,1 but it was not until 1995 that 2 landmark studies, one in Europe2 and the other in the United States,3 established IV administration of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) as an effective treatment for AIS. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke study, with a 3-hour treatment window from onset of symptoms to vein puncture, showed more efficacy and had fewer safety concerns than the original European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study (ECASS) trial that had designated 6 hours from symptom onset as the limit for IV infusion of tPA. Since 1995, the administration of IV tPA to reverse the ravages of AIS has become the standard and only validated form of treatment.4 So much has been published, discussed, commented, editorialized and publicly aired about IV tPA in AIS that one would assume that IV tPA is a universally available form of treatment. In a recent poster presentation at the 65th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), a group of investigators from the United States5 reported the global use of IV tPA for AIS by country, income group, and country-level health expenditure per capita. The researchers conducted a systematic review in PubMed from 1997 to 2012. Each country's publications in any language were reviewed and the results were startling. Of 214 countries and independent territories, 54 (25%) reported use of IV tPA for AIS. In relation to income status, the study revealed IV tPA usage in 3% (1/36) of low-income countries, 13% (7/54) of lower-middle-income countries, 28% (15/54) of upper-middle-income countries, and 44% (31/70) of high-income countries. The authors concluded that IV tPA for AIS has limited use globally, is available to patients in only one-quarter of countries in the higher income brackets, and that barriers to IV tPA use for countries at different income levels must be understood to be overcome. Ironically, stroke incidence might be increasing in lower-income countries6 as traditional risk factors for stroke become increasingly prevalent in those countries.
Development of Drag Reduced Conductor for Transmission Lines

The drag reduced conductor is a dedicated conductor for overhead transmission lines and has gradually attracted attentions along with the rapid development of overhead transmission lines.The working mechanism of the drag reduced conductor is analyzed in this paper by using the theory of hydromechanics.The paper introduces the structure and tunnel testing results of the drag reduced conductors developed respectively by two Japanese companies and compares their characteristic differences.Their application cases are also presented.In addition,the paper analysis and put forword the key issues of drag reduced conductor development.
Esophageal cancer death analysis in Hongze county residents in Jiangsu province during 2008-2010

Objective To analyze the status of esophageal death in the residents of Hongze county during 2008-2010.Methods The data of registry on all death causes in the subsystem Death Register Reports Information System of the China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention were applied to analyze the epidemiological characteristics of esophageal cancer in Hongze county.Results During 2008-2010,the annual average mortality rate of esophageal cancer was 41.33/100000 in Hongze country,ranking first in the death caused by malignant tumors.The onset ages of esophageal cancer in this county focused on 65-80 years old.4 towns including Huangji town accounted for 66.5% of the total onset cases of esophageal cancer in the whole county.Conclusion Esophageal cancer has become a significant important cause of death in Hongze county residents and shows marked increasing trend year by year.The incidence rate of esophageal cancer in males is higher than that in females with obvious age distribution and area distribution characteristics.
On- and Off-Cycle Catalyst Cooperativity in Anion-Binding Catalysis

Chiral, neutral H-bond donors have found widespread use as catalysts in enantioselective reactions involving ion-pair intermediates. Herein, a systematic mechanistic study of a prototypical anion-binding reaction, the thiourea-catalyzed enantioselective alkylation of α-chloroethers, is detailed. This study reveals that the catalyst resting state is an inactive dimeric aggregate that must dissociate and then reassemble to form a 2:1 catalyst-substrate complex in the rate-determining transition structure. Insight into this mode of catalyst cooperativity sheds light on the practical limitations that have plagued many of the H-bond donor-catalyzed reactions developed to date and suggests design strategies for new, highly efficient catalyst structures.
Introduction: Concepts of Completeness

In 1710, the author and biographer Richard Ward summarized his thoughts on the limits of human comprehension with a phrase he claimed to have borrowed from antiquity. “When a Man shall be join’d to Intellect, or Understanding,” he wrote, “by a sort of Complete Knowledge of all things, then a God (or, as I would interpret it, an extraordinary Heroe) may be said to sojourn in a Human Body.”1 Ward’s assessment implies that such a joining is improbable if not impossible—that neither the single human memory nor the single human lifespan is suited to achieving a perfect understanding of all knowledge in all its complexity. The future tense and ancient pedigree of the remark cast the pursuit of complete knowledge as part of a venerable tradition of frustrated ambition; by the early eighteenth century, it seemed, humanity had already sought it for millennia and either altogether failed to achieve it or simply lost what it once supposedly knew.
Considerations in Spinal Fusion Surgery for Chronic Lumbar Pain: Psychosocial Factors, Rating Scales, and Perioperative Patient Education—A Review of the Literature

Objective Despite widespread use of lumbar spinal fusion as a treatment for back pain, outcomes remain variable. Optimizing patient selection can help to reduce adverse outcomes. This literature review was conducted to better understand factors associated with optimal postoperative results after lumbar spinal fusion for chronic back pain and current tools used for evaluation. Methods The PubMed database was searched for clinical trials related to psychosocial determinants of outcome after lumbar spinal fusion surgery; evaluation of commonly used patient subjective outcome measures; and perioperative cognitive, behavioral, and educational therapies. Reference lists of included studies were also searched by hand for additional studies meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results Patients' perception of good health before surgery and low cardiovascular comorbidity predict improved postoperative physical functional capacity and greater patient satisfaction. Depression, tobacco use, and litigation predict poorer outcomes after lumbar fusion. Incorporation of cognitive-behavioral therapy perioperatively can address these psychosocial risk factors and improve outcomes. The 36-Item Short Form Health Survey, European Quality of Life five dimensions questionnaire, visual analog pain scale, brief pain inventory, and Oswestry Disability Index can provide specific feedback to track patient progress and are important to understand when evaluating the current literature. Conclusions This review summarizes current information and explains commonly used assessment tools to guide clinicians in decision making when caring for patients with lower back pain. When determining a treatment algorithm, physicians must consider predictive psychosocial factors. Use of perioperative cognitive-behavioral therapy and patient education can improve outcomes after lumbar spinal fusion.
Interleukin-21 Induces Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphomas (DLBCL) Via Activation of STAT3 and Upregulation of C-Myc

IL-21, a recently discovered member of the IL-2 cytokine family, has been shown to have diverse regulatory effects on B-cells including the induction of antibody secretion, differentiation, or apoptosis depending on the cellular milieu and activation status. However, the effects of IL-21 on B-cell neoplasms such as DLBCL are largely unknown. Our research has uncovered the widespread expression of the IL-21 receptor (IL-21R) in B-cell lymphomas including DLBCL. Our results confirmed reports that IL-21R stimulation results in potent phosphorylation of STAT-1 and -3 and weak activation of STAT-5. However, our findings also show that treatment of DLBCL cell lines with IL-21 induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. The cell death is caspase-dependent and evident in a majority of DLBCL cell lines. To further examine the potential therapeutic applicability of IL-21, we assessed the effects of IL-21 on primary DLBCL tumor cells and in vivo DLBCL mice models. In primary tumors, IL-21 induced apoptosis in five of five DLBCLs compared to two of three follicular lymphomas, and two of seven chronic lymphocytic leukemias. No apoptosis or cell death was induced in normal peripheral B-lymphocytes. In xenograft DLBCL tumors, in situ IL-21 injections induced tumor regression and dramatically extended the overall survival of mice (P<0.001). To elucidate the mechanism of IL-21-induced cell death, microarray analysis was performed on endogenously sensitive or resistant DLBCL cell lines as well as an RCK8 cell line that acquired IL-21 resistance following chronic exposure to the cytokine. The most striking difference between IL-21 sensitive and resistant cell lines was observed in the expression of c-Myc, a known target of STAT-3, which was only induced in cell lines undergoing apoptosis upon IL-21 treatment. We have shown that the cell death associated with IL-21 treatment was prevented by utilizing c-Myc specific siRNAs and shRNA. Interestingly, c-Myc upregulation and cell death was also prevented upon knockdown of STAT-3 with siRNAs. Stimulation of the STAT-3-cMYC signaling pathway led to decreases in levels of anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-XL and Bcl-2, which are bone-fide targets of c-Myc. Our results delineate a new IL-21-induced pro-apoptotic signaling pathway involving STAT-3 and c-Myc, which are usually considered as anti-apoptotic effectors in cancer cells. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that IL-21 is a highly potent anti-DLBCL agent in vitro and in xenograft DLBCL models and warrant initiation of clinical studies in patients.
Assessment of the Antimicrobial Activity of Olive Leaf Extract Against Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens

Olive leaf extract (OLE) has been used traditionally as a herbal supplement since it contains polyphenolic compounds with beneficial properties ranging from increasing energy levels, lowering blood pressure, and supporting the cardiovascular and immune systems. In addition to the beneficial effects on human health, OLE also has antimicrobial properties. The aim of this work was to investigate the antimicrobial effect of OLE against major foodborne pathogens, including Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Salmonella Enteritidis. Our results demonstrated that at a concentration of 62.5 mg/ml, OLE almost completely inhibited the growth of these three pathogens. In addition, OLE also reduced cell motility in L. monocytogenes, which correlated with the absence of flagella as shown by scanning electron microscopy. Moreover, OLE inhibited biofilm formation in L. monocytogenes and S. Enteritidis. Taken together, OLE, as a natural product, has the potential to be used as an antimicrobial to control foodborne pathogens.
Social cues modulate the representations underlying cross-situational learning

Because children hear language in environments that contain many things to talk about, learning the meaning of even the simplest word requires making inferences under uncertainty. A cross-situational statistical learner can aggregate across naming events to form stable word-referent mappings, but this approach neglects an important source of information that can reduce referential uncertainty: social cues from speakers (e.g., eye gaze). In four large-scale experiments with adults, we tested the effects of varying referential uncertainty in cross-situational word learning using social cues. Social cues shifted learners away from tracking multiple hypotheses and towards storing only a single hypothesis (Experiments 1 and 2). In addition, learners were sensitive to graded changes in the strength of a social cue, and when it became less reliable, they were more likely to store multiple hypotheses (Experiment 3). Finally, learners stored fewer word-referent mappings in the presence of a social cue even when given the opportunity to visually inspect the objects for the same amount of time (Experiment 4). Taken together, our data suggest that the representations underlying cross-situational word learning of concrete object labels are quite flexible: In conditions of greater uncertainty, learners store a broader range of information.
Human-Structure Interaction: Effects of Crowd Characteristics

Design for vibration serviceability currently relies almost entirely on the estimation of dynamic properties of the empty structure to be utilized for estimating the dynamic response or, at minimum, to avoid resonance with the excitation. However, the use of the empty structure properties has been questioned due to a phenomenon referred to as humanstructure interaction where the dynamic properties of the occupied structure can be significantly different from the properties of the empty structure. General trends include an increase in damping ratio and a decrease in natural frequency (although special cases of increasing frequency or new modes have been documented). These trends seem to be affected by the posture of the crowd occupying the structure, and potentially other crowd characteristics. This study aims to isolate several crowd characteristics including posture, distribution, and crowd size, to determine the relative effect that each has on the overall dynamic properties of the occupied test structure.
Visual Data Mining: Analysis of Airline Service Quality Attributes

The objectives of the study are to identify the key airline quality attributes from online review posts and to examine the effect of identified airline quality attributes on eWOM communication. Thi...
Linguistics in Pursuit of Justice

As a black child growing up in inner-city neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, John Baugh witnessed racial discrimination at a young age and began to notice correlations between language and race. While attending college he worked at a Laundromat serving African Americans who were often subjected to mistreatment by the police. His observations piqued his curiosity about the ways that linguistic diversity might be related to the burgeoning Civil Rights movement for racial equality in America. Baugh pursued these ideas whilst traveling internationally only to discover alternative forms of linguistic discrimination in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean and South America. He coined the phrase 'linguistic profiling' based on experimental studies of housing discrimination, and expanded upon those findings to promote equity in education, employment, medicine and the law. This book is the product of the culmination of these studies, devoted to the advancement of equality and justice globally.
Curricular Reform in Food Programs

The academic/vocational nexus is the focus of this chapter. It recognises the manner in which the nature of work is rapidly changing, food related issues confronting society, and a future which is increasingly unimaginable. The content reflects on the curricula and pedagogic approaches of current programs which tend to separate theory from practice. It is argued that student learning of food professions needs to start from an understanding of food and its interaction with humans, rather than from within a framework of traditional academic disciplines. A novel curriculum is imagined and illuminated, commencing with ethics as related to food systems. It challenges traditional disciplinary boundaries, combines vocational and professional education in a logical, but nevertheless creative, way, and introduces the concepts of the ‘aproned academic’ and ‘scholarly chef’.
On special forms of motion of the heavy symmetric top, particularly pseudoregular precession, and on the stability of motion

In this chapter we wish to investigate more precisely some special motions of the top: regular precession, for example, and, in particular, the motion designated by us as pseudoregular precession. The great question of the stability of motion will stand in the foreground of our interest, a question that has often been considered in recent times, but which does not yet appear to have been formulated with the necessary sharpness and clarity.
Shoppers in Cyberspace: Gender and the Transformation of Household Roles in the U.S. and the Likely Impact on Travel Behaviors

In the industrial and postindustrial economies of the West, sex and gender developed such that “feminine (female) was the consumer: located in the home, the private domain. Masculine (male) was the producer: located in the workplace, the factories, the offices, the political arena, the public domain” (Firat and Dholakia 1998). As a result, the woman has become the primary shopper for the household (Dholakia 1999; Hawfield and Lyons 1998), and shopping is categorized as a “female- typed” task (South and Spitze 1994). A recent study found that in an average household, women are responsible for over 80 percent of purchasing decisions (Nua Internet Surveys 1999).
THE FATE OF LABOR AFTER REGIME CHANGE: Lessons From Post-Communist Poland and Post-Apartheid South Africa For Tunisia’s Nobel-Prize Winning Unions

Wherever labor has played a significant role in bringing about regime change, there may be opportunities to join in the post-authoritarian ruling coalition in the hopes of consolidating its influen...
Endorsement in Referral Networks

Referral networks is an emerging research area in the intersection of Active Learning and Multi-Agent Systems where experts—humans or automated agents—can redirect difficult instances (tasks or queries) to appropriate colleagues. Learning-to-refer involves estimating topic-conditioned skills of colleagues connected through a referral network for effective referrals. Proactive skill posting is a learning setting where experts are allowed a one-time local network advertisement of a subset of their top skills. The learning challenge is exploiting partially available (potentially noisy) self-skill estimates, including adversarial strategic lying to attract unwarranted referrals. In this paper, we introduce the notion of endorsement typically found in professional networks where one colleague endorses another on particular topic(s). We first augment proactive skill posting with endorsements and propose modifications to existing algorithms to take advantage of such endorsements, penalizing subsequent referrals to agents with bogus skill reporting. Our results indicate that truthful endorsements improve performance as they act as an additional cushion to early failures of strong experts. When combined with truthful endorsements, extensive empirical evaluations indicate performance improvement in proactive-DIEL and \(\epsilon \)-Greedy in both market-aware and market-agnostic skill posting setting while retaining desirable properties like tolerance to noisy self-skill estimates and strategic lying.
Evaluating the impact of traffic volume on air quality in South Carolina

Abstract Many studies have reported associations between respiratory symptoms and resident proximity to traffic. However, only a few have documented information about the relationship between traffic volume and air quality in local areas. This study investigates the impact of traffic volume on air quality at different geographical locations in the state of South Carolina using multilevel linear mixed models and Grey Systems. Historical traffic volume and air quality data between 2006 and 2016 are obtained from the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitoring stations. The data are used to develop prediction models that relate Air Quality Index (AQI) to traffic volume for selected counties and schools. For the counties, two models are developed, one with Ozone ( O 3 ) and one with PM 2.5 as the dependent variable. For the schools, only one model is developed, with O 3 as the dependent variable. The number of counties and schools studied are limited by the availability of air monitoring stations dedicated to measuring O 3 and PM 2.5 . Several types of models were investigated. They include linear regression model (LM), linear mixed-effect regression model (LMER), Grey Systems (GM), error corrected GM (EGM), Grey Verhulst (GV), error corrected GV (EGV), and LMER + EGM. The LM model produced the least accurate estimate while the LMER + EGM model produced the most accurate estimate (average RMSE is less than 5%). The models’ estimates suggest that air quality in South Carolina will continue to get worse in the coming years due to increasing AADT. An interesting finding of this study is that some counties and schools will have higher levels of O 3 or PM 2.5 when AADT decreases. This finding suggests that there are other factors, other than AADT, that influence the air quality in these counties and schools.
A Gender- and Culturally Sensitive Weight Loss Intervention for Hispanic Men: Results From the Animo Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Background. Hispanic males have the highest rates of overweight and obesity compared with men of all other racial/ethnic groups. While weight loss can significantly reduce obesity-related health risks, there is limited research examining effective gender- and culturally tailored behavioral weight loss programs for Hispanic men. Objective. To assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a 12-week gender- and culturally sensitive weight loss intervention (GCSWLI) as compared with a waist-list control (WLC) in sedentary, Hispanic males with overweight/obesity. Method. Fifty Hispanic males (age: 43 years [SD = 11]; BMI: 34 ± 5 kg/m2; 58% Spanish monolingual) were randomized to one of two groups: GCSWLI (n = 25) or WLC (n = 25). GCSWLI participants attended weekly in-person individual sessions with a bilingual, bicultural Hispanic male lifestyle coach, and were prescribed a daily reduced calorie goal and 225 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. The WLC were asked to maintain their usual diet and physical activity habits for 12 weeks. GCSWLI participants continued with 12 additional weeks of follow-up including biweekly phone calls with lifestyle coaches. Results. At Week 12, the mean weight loss in the GCSWLI was -6.3 kg (95% confidence interval [CI; -8.1, -4.4]) compared with -0.8 kg (95% CI [-2.5, 0.9]) for the WLC (difference = -5.5 kg, 95% CI [-8.0, -2.9], p < .01). At Week 24, weight loss in the GCSWLI was maintained. Conclusions. The GCSWLI appears to be a feasible strategy to engage Hispanic males in short-term weight loss. Our pilot study indicates preliminary evidence of efficacy, though confirmation of these findings is needed in a larger study.
Use of huddles among frontline staff in clinical settings: a scoping review protocol.

Objective This scoping review aims to provide an overview of the current evidence on huddles in healthcare settings involving frontline staff. Introduction Team-based models are gaining prominence as the preferred method for delivering coordinated, cost-effective, high-quality health care. Huddles are a powerful method for building relationships among frontline staff members. Currently, no reviews have described huddles used among frontline staff in clinical settings. There is therefore a need to identify gaps in the literature on evidence informing this practice for a greater understanding of the resources available for frontline staff to implement huddles. Inclusion criteria This scoping review will consider qualitative studies, experimental and quasi-experimental studies, analytic observational studies and descriptive cross-sectional studies that explore the use of frontline staff huddles to improve quality of care in a clinical setting. Methods An initial limited search of PubMed and CINAHL Plus with Full Text will be performed, followed by analysis of the title, abstract and MeSH used to describe the article. Second, searches of PubMed, EBSCOhost and ProQuest will be conducted, followed by searches in reference lists of all articles that meet the inclusion criteria. Studies published in English from inception to the present will be considered. Retrieved papers will be screened for inclusion by at least two reviewers. Data will be extracted and presented in tabular form and a narrative summary that align with the review's objective.
Distinguishing mimics from true hemorrhagic cavernous malformations

Abstract Cavernous malformations (CM) are angiographically occult vascular malformations. CM appear as discrete, small lesions with mixed-signal characteristics on T2 reflecting the underlying pathology. However, the appearance is not pathognomonic. Distinguishing true CM from hemorrhagic tumors can be difficult. We report 5 cases of tumors mimicking CMs. We compared clinical, initial radiologic features, and MRI evolution between 5 tumor mimics and 51 true hemorrhagic, sporadic, brain CM. Compared to true CM, mimic patients were older (47.0 vs. 38.3 years; p = 0.076) and more likely to have a history of primary neoplasm (60% vs 12%; p = 0.0267). Radiologically, the CM mimics demonstrated a higher likelihood of lesion enhancement on the initial diagnostic MRI (60% vs. 16.7%%; p = 0.0609). On follow-up MRI (
An Exploration of Gender Invariance of the WISC-V Among Black Children in an Urban School District

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factorial invariance of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth Edition (WISC-V) between genders in a sample of Black students in an urban, public school district. Few researchers test the validity of cognitive assessments on Black samples and even fewer do so utilizing samples other than those used during standardization. Results from confirmatory factor analytic techniques and multi-group structural equation modeling using AMOS indicated that although the subtests of the WISC-V are measuring similar underlying constructs across genders, the intercepts differ on the Similarities and Coding subtests. This indicates that the scores are not necessarily interpretable at the same level in the domains of Verbal Comprehension and Working Memory, respectively. Furthermore, based on our sample of Black children, scores derived from the WISC-V should be interpreted with caution, as the five-factor model prescribed by the publishers did not fit. Implications for equitable cognitive assessment procedures, as well as noteworthy areas of additional research on cognitive assessment validity for Black children and samples not used during standardization are discussed.
Pediatric Palliative Care When COVID-19 Positive Adults Are Dying in a Children's Hospital.

* Abbreviations: CHAM — : Children’s Hospital at Montefiore COVID-19 — : coronavirus disease In March 2020, Montefiore Health System in the Bronx, New York, received an influx of adults who were critically ill with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM), a 130-bed facility attached to an adult hospital, accommodated adult patients in the PICU, inpatient wards, and post-anesthesia care unit. CHAM pediatric faculty and housestaff were deployed to serve as primary care physicians and subspecialists for these adults (up to 84 years old), anticipating up to 100 patients. Among many challenges faced was the commitment by the pediatric faculty and staff to find a way to continue family-centered and compassionate care in the face of social distancing rules during the pandemic. Our goal was to preserve the patient’s humanity and their relationship to family and friends who were not permitted to visit. There is an ethical imperative to provide palliative care during a crisis when lives will be lost.1 As a result, we chose to rapidly expand our palliative care capabilities by training frontline medical providers and enlarging our pediatric palliative care presence to serve each adult admitted with COVID-19. Through deployment, the palliative care presence was expanded from 1 hospice and palliative care board-certified pediatrician (S.E.N) to a team that included 15 pediatricians, 2 nurse practitioners, and 8 psychologists in 3 days. Our standard … Address correspondence to Sarah E. Norris, MD, MEd, Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, 3415 Bainbridge Ave, Bronx, NY 10467. E-mail: sanorri{at}montefiore.org
Improving the quality of care for foster children in Eastern North Carolina

Background and Objectives: There are approximately 250,0000 children placed into foster care annually in the United States. In North Carolina alone there are over 10,000 children in foster care. They are at a disproportionately higher risk of physical, developmental, behavioral and mental health problems relative to any other group of children. The North Carolina Pediatric Society and NC DHHS have partnered together to strengthen the medical home for foster children by developing “Fostering Health NC.” Our resident-led quality improvement (QI) project aimed to improve the rate of foster children that …
Synergistic Bimetallic Metallic Organic Framework-Derived Pt-Co Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysts.

The rational design of Pt-based electrocatalysts is of paramount importance for the commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Pt–Co alloys and nitrogen-doped carbons have b...
Constraints on the Equation of State of Dark Energy and the Hubble Constant from Stellar Ages and the Cosmic Microwave Background

We place constraints on the redshift-averaged, effective value of the equation of state of dark energy, w, using only the absolute ages of Galactic stars and the observed position of the first peak in the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We find w 0.2 does not yield, currently, a precise determination of w(z), but shows that the age-redshift relation is consistent with a standard ?CDM universe with w = -1.
Para repensar los estudios andinos

This note is a commentary on Ulises Juan Zevallos Aguilar’s Literatura y cultura en el sur andino. Cusco Puno (Siglos XX y XXI). Cusco: Ministerio de Cultura del Peru, 2018, pp. 281.
AR Splicing Variants and Resistance to AR Targeting Agents

Over the past decade, advances in prostate cancer research have led to discovery and development of novel biomarkers and effective treatments. As treatment options diversify, it is critical to further develop and use optimal biomarkers for the purpose of maximizing treatment benefit and minimizing unwanted adverse effects. Because most treatments for prostate cancer target androgen receptor (AR) signaling, aberrations affecting this drug target are likely to emerge following the development of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), and it is conceivable that such aberrations may play a role in drug resistance. Among the many AR aberrations, we and others have been studying androgen receptor splice variants (AR-Vs), especially AR-V7, and have conducted preclinical and clinical studies to develop and validate the clinical utility of AR-V7 as a prognostic and potential predictive biomarker. In this review, we first describe mechanisms of AR-V generation, regulation and their functions from a molecular perspective. We then discuss AR-Vs from a clinical perspective, focusing on the significance of AR-Vs detected in different types of human specimens and AR-Vs as potential therapeutic targets.
Adolescent Neglect and Health Risk.

This study examined relationships between adolescent neglect and abuse and later health risk in a sample of 1050 youth (53% female, 56% Black, and 24% White) from the Longitudinal Studies of Child ...
The Regulation of Human Trophoblast Apoptosis and Survival during Pregnancy

Apoptosis occurs in the villous trophoblast of normal placentas throughout pregnancy, but with higher frequency near term in comparison to the first trimester. In pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia or intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), a greater incidence of villous and extravillous trophoblast apoptosis has been observed, suggesting that the deregulation of trophoblast apoptosis may contribute to pathological conditions. Apoptosis may be initiated by one of two known pathways, the mitochondrial (instrinsic) pathway and the death receptor-mediated (extrinsic) pathway, or in response to exogenous stimuli such as cytokines or hypoxia. The central executioners of apoptosis are the caspase family of cysteine proteases, which cleave numerous vital cellular proteins to affect the apoptotic cascade. By controlling caspase activation, several endogenous inhibitors, including FLIP, IAPs and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members prevent further propagation of the death signal. This review focuses on the molecular mechanisms by which normal trophoblast apoptosis occurs and how it is regulated to avoid excessive trophoblast apoptosis and pregnancy complications.
Prediction of Damage Evolution in Continuous Fiber Metal Matrix Composites Subjected to Fatigue Loading

A life prediction model is being developed by the authors for application to metal matrix composites (MMC’s). The systems under study are continuous silicon carbide fibers imbedded in titanium matrix. The model utilizes a computationally based framework based on thermodynamics and continuum mechanics, and accounts for matrix inelasticity, damage evolution, and environmental degradation due to oxidation. The computational model utilizes the finite element method, and an evolutionary analysis of a unit cell is accomplished via a time stepping algorithm. The computational scheme accounts for damage growth such as fiber-matrix debonding, surface cracking, and matrix cracking via the inclusion of cohesive zone elements in the unit cell. These elements are located based on experimental evidence also obtained by the authors.
Perceptron-Based Branch Confidence Estimation

Pipeline gating has been proposed for reducing wasted speculative execution due to branch mispredictions. As processors become deeper or wider, pipeline gating becomes more important because the amount of wasted speculative execution increases. The quality of pipeline gating relies heavily on the branch confidence estimator used. Not much work has been done on branch confidence estimators since the initial work [6]. We show the accuracy and coverage characteristics of the initial proposals do not sufficiently reduce mis-speculative execution on future deep pipeline processors. In this paper, we present a new, perceptron-based, branch confidence estimator, which is twice as accurate as the current best-known method and achieves reasonable mispredicted branch coverage. Further, the output of our predictor is multi-valued, which enables us to classify branches further as "strongly low confident" and "weakly low confident". We reverse the predictions of "strongly low confident" branches and apply pipeline gating to the "weakly low confident" branches. This combination of pipeline gating and branch reversal provides a spectrum of interesting design options ranging from significantly reducing total execution for only a small performance loss, to lower but still significant reductions in total execution, without any performance loss.
Monitoring Autophagy during Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection

Tuberculosis is one of the world's most prevalent infectious diseases. The causative agent, M. tuberculosis, asymptomatically infects more than 30% of the world population and causes 8 million cases of active disease and 2 million deaths annually. Its pathogenic success stems from its ability to block phagolysosome biogenesis and subsequent destruction in the host macrophages. Recently, our laboratory has uncovered autophagy as a new means of overcoming this block and promoting the killing of mycobacteria. Here we describe the methods to study autophagy during M. tuberculosis infection of macrophages. The described assays can be used to investigate and identify factors important for autophagic elimination of mycobacteria that could potentially provide new therapeutic targets to defeat this disease.
CP, T, and CPT symmetries

The parity (P), charge conjugation (C) symmetries are briefly reviewed. CP and time reversal (T) transformations and conservation laws are studied; the strong CP problem is discussed. Experimental measurements of the violation of these symmetries are presented. Finally, the CPT theorem and its consequences are discussed.
Strategische Kulturanalyse: Deutschland, Frankreich und die Transformation der NATO

Strategische Kultur ist seit langem ein Terminus in der Sicherheitspolitik, und der Begriff wurde schon vor zweihundert Jahren von Clausewitz verwendet. Clausewitz meinte damit, dass nicht nur die Truppen, sondern auch die „Moral“ des Gegners ein Angriffsziel seien, und dass daruber hinaus selbst die rational ausgeklugeltsten Kriegsziele und Strategien von Regierungen keinen Wert hatten, wenn sie nicht auch die Gesellschaft mobilisieren konnten. Genau das hange jedoch vom jeweiligen Nationalcharakter ab, wie das Napoleonische Volksheer, die levee en masse, zeige. Die in diesem weiten Sinn kulturorientierte Interpretation im Militarwesen geht letztlich auf Thukydides und auf klassische chinesische Strategen zuruck. In der politikwissenschaftlichen Forschung ist das Konzept strategische Kultur seit rund dreisig Jahren einschlagig. Jedoch wurde es zunachst sehr eng verstanden und bezog sich einerseits auf die nationalen - unter anderem durch historische Erfahrung bedingten - Charakteristika von Militarstrategie und andererseits auf das - auch emotional geladene - Weltbild militarischer Fuhrungsgruppen wie etwa des sowjetischen Generalstabs (klassisch: Snyder 1977: z.B. 8).
Transition to geostrophic turbulence in a thermally driven sea

Abstract A gradual transition from stable flow to geostrophic turbulence has been observed in a laboratory experiment using a shallow rotating rectangular tank with differentially heated and cooled end walls. Both the end wall temperatures and the rotation rate were varied. Stable, periodic quasiperiodic, non-periodic and turbulent regimes have been identified by examining the spectral characteristics and spatial correlation of temperature signals recorded at a number of locations in the tank. Components of variability associated with baroclinic waves, eddies and Rossby waves have been identified. The results of the study are summarized in regime diagrams involving Rayleigh, Ekman and Froude numbers. These are then used to speculate on the nature of the synoptic scale variability associated with convective circulation in natural water bodies, ranging from estuaries to oceans.
A Continuum-Atomistic Analysis of Transgranular Crack Propagation in Aluminum

A concurrent multiscale modeling methodology that embeds a molecular dynamics (MD) region within a finite element (FEM) domain is used to study plastic processes at a crack tip in a single crystal of aluminum. The case of mode I loading is studied. A transition from deformation twinning to full dislocation emission from the crack tip is found when the crack plane is rotated around the [111] crystallographic axis. When the crack plane normal coincides with the [112] twinning direction, the crack propagates through a twinning mechanism. When the crack plane normal coincides with the [011] slip direction, the crack propagates through the emission of full dislocations. In intermediate orientations, a transition from full dislocation emission to twinning is found to occur with an increase in the stress intensity at the crack tip. This finding confirms the suggestion that the very high strain rates, inherently present in MD simulations, which produce higher stress intensities at the crack tip, over-predict the tendency for deformation twinning compared to experiments. The present study, therefore, aims to develop a more realistic and accurate predictive modeling of fracture processes.
Dissolution of wood in ionic liquids.

The present paper demonstrates that both hardwoods and softwoods are readily soluble in various imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) under gentle conditions. More specifically, a variety of ionic liquids can only partially dissolve wood chips, whereas ionic liquids such as 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride and 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride have good solvating power for Norway spruce sawdust and Norway spruce and Southern pine thermomechanical pulp (TMP) fibers. Despite the fact that the obtained solutions were not fully clear, these ionic liquids provided solutions which permitted the complete acetylation of the wood. Alternatively, transparent amber solutions of wood could be obtained when the dissolution of the same lignocellulosic samples was attempted in 1-benzyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride. This realization was based on a designed augmented interaction of the aromatic character of the cation of the ionic liquid with the lignin in the wood. After dissolution, wood can be regenerated as an ...
Research on Experimental Method for the Working Force between Packer Rubber and Casing Tube

On application of BDI STS-WIFI testing system and Dasylab software, the testing process for strain of the casing tube with the packer rubber being seated is carried out. From the process the different friction force and normal pressure of specified seating pressure are achieved, by which the empirical formula is matched. Setting the experimental result as the boundary condition, the calculation result of the practical location of the five-stage packer on basis of oil and gas wells rod string mechanics is obtained, the maximum deviation of which is 0.1m compared with the magnetic location data. The research process on the experiment method proves its accuracy in laboratory while promoting the precision of the block location of the multistage packer in practical well casing tube.