cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Preoperative Medical Evaluation: Part 2: Pulmonary, Endocrine, Renal, and Miscellaneous Considerations

Abstract A thorough assessment of a patient's medical status is standard practice when dental care is provided. Although this is true for procedures performed under local anesthesia alone, the information gathered may be viewed somewhat differently if the dentist is planning to provide sedation or general anesthesia as an adjunct to dental treatment. This article, the second of a 2-part sequence on preoperative assessment, will address pulmonary and other noncardiovascular disorders.
Over-expression of the transcription factor, ZBP-89, leads to enhancement of the C2C12 myogenic program

Myogenesis involves the complex interplay between the down-regulation of non-muscle genes and the up-regulation of muscle-specific genes. This interplay is controlled by the myogenic regulatory factors Myf5, MRF4, MyoD and myogenin. To trigger the up-regulation of these muscle-specific factors, certain environmental cues, such as the removal of serum, signal C2C12 myoblast cells to withdraw from cell cycle, fuse and activate muscle-specific genes. Here, the level of ZBP-89 (zfp148), a Kruppel-like transcription factor, has been shown to increase during myogenesis. Over-expression of ZBP-89, via adenoviral infection, led to the enhancement of the myogenic program without requiring the removal of serum. Quantitative real-time PCR and ChIP assays documented that ZBP-89 promoted the down-regulation of Pax7 coupled with the up-regulation of MRF4 and MyoD to regulate C2C12 differentiation in vitro. In addition, ZBP-89 over-expression up-regulated p21 and Rb while promoting the down-regulation of cyclinA and cyclinD1. In converse, the diminution of ZBP-89 by siRNA promoted the retention of myogenic and cell cycle regulators at myoblast levels resulting in a concomitant delay of the myogenic program. From these studies we conclude that the transcription factor ZBP-89 plays an important role in the timing of the myogenic program.
Neo-Confucian Hermeneutics at Work:Cheng Yi's Philosophical Interpretation of Analects 8.9 and 17.3*

In this article, I discuss the Song 宋 Neo-Confucian Cheng Yi's 程頤 (1033–1107) interpretation of two related controversial passages in the Analects, the recorded sayings of Confucius. The term “neo-Confucianism” was coined by Western scholars to refer to the Confucianism of the period from the Song dynasty to the Ming 明 dynasty (and sometimes through the Qing 清 dynasty). Among Chinese scholars, neo-Confucianism is most commonly referred to as the Learning of Principle (li xue 理學). Although before Cheng Yi and his brother Cheng Hao 程顥 (1032–1085) there were three other philosophers who are normally also regarded as neo-Confucians— Shao Yong 邵雍 (1011–1077), Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 (1017–1073), and Zhang Zai 張載 (1020–1077)—we can justifiably regard the Cheng brothers as the real founders of neo-Confucianism in the sense that principle becomes the essential philosophical concept for the first time in their works. There is no consensus among scholars as to the relationship between the philosophies of these two brothers. The traditional view regards them as substantially different due to the two different schools of neo-Confucianism that developed from their teachings, the realistic school synthesized by Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200) from the teachings of Cheng Yi and the idealist school culminating in Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472–1529) from the teachings of ChengHao. I, however, tend to think that the philosophical positions of the two brothers are largely similar. Unfortunately, since Cheng Hao did not live as long as Cheng Yi, there is insufficient material to create a systematic picture of his view of the Analects passages with which this article will deal.
The utility of radiographs prior to pin removal after operative treatment of supracondylar humerus fractures in children.

Purpose To determine the safety, utility, and efficacy of pin removal prior to radiographs during the postoperative care of surgically treated displaced pediatric supracondylar humerus fractures.
Percutaneous absorption of 3,3′,4,4≥-tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB 77) from soil.

Six dermal absorption experiments (one in vivo, five in vitro) were conducted using 3,3′,4,4′-tetrachlorobiphenyl (TCB) either neat at 141 μg/cm2 or sorbed on a low organic (LOS) or high organic (HOS) soil at 6–10 μg/cm2. All soil experiments were conducted at 1000 ppm and soil loads of 6–10 mg soil/cm2. After 96 h the percentage of applied dose absorbed (PADA) for TCB sorbed on LOS was 49.7 (rat, in vivo), 31.9 (rat, in vitro), and 7.4 (human, in vitro). The 96-h PADA for TCB sorbed on HOS was 9.6% (rat, in vitro). Generally, rat skin was observed to be four- to ninefold more permeable to TCB than human skin (in vitro). At steady state, the dermal flux of TCB on LOS at 1000 ppm and on HOS at 1000 ppm (both in vitro, rat) was 33 and 10 ng/cm2/h, respectively (ratio = 3.3).
Identifying Early Decline of Physical Function in Community-Dwelling Older Women: Performance-Based and Self-Report Measures

Background and Purpose. The ability to identify early decline in physical function is important, but older people experiencing decline may fail to report the early changes in physical function. The purpose of this study was to compare the descriptions of physical function in community-dwelling older women obtained using performance-based and self-report measures. Subjects and Methods. One hundred seventy community-dwelling women with a mean age of 74.3 years (SD=4.3, range=56.6–83.6) completed the activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and social activity (SA) sections of the Functional Status Questionnaire (FSQ). They also completed performance-based measures of gait speed and the 7-item Physical Performance Test (PPT). Results. The majority of the women scored at the ceiling for the self-report measures of function (ADL=77%, IADL=61%, SA=94%), whereas only 7% scored at the ceiling for the PPT and 30% scored at the ceiling for gait speed (defined as >1.2 m/s). For 2 items of the FSQ, sensitivity was low (8% and 9%) and specificity was high (97% and 98%) compared with performance on the PPT. Discussion and Conclusion. In this sample of community-dwelling older women, performance-based measures identified more limitations in physical function than did self-report measures.
Inference about constrained parameters using the elastic belief method

Statistical inference about unknown parameter values that have known constraints is a challenging problem for both frequentist and Bayesian methods. As an alternative, inferential models created with the weak belief method can generate inferential results with desirable frequency properties for constrained parameter problems. To accomplish this, we propose an extension of weak belief called the elastic belief method. Compared to an existing rule for conditioning on constraint information, the elastic belief method produces more efficient probabilistic inference while maintaining desirable frequency properties. The application of this new method is demonstrated in two well-studied examples: inference about a nonnegative quantity measured with Gaussian error and inference about the signal rate of a Poisson count with a known background rate. Compared to several previous interval-forming methods for the constrained Poisson signal rate, the new method gives an interval with better coverage probability or a simpler construction. More importantly, the inferential model provides a post-data predictive measure of uncertainty about the unknown parameter value that is not inherent in other interval-forming methods.
Evolution of communities on Twitter and the role of their leaders during emergencies

Twitter is presently utilized as a channel of communication and information dissemination. At present, government and non-government emergency management organizations utilize Twitter to disseminate emergency relevant information. However, these organizations have limited ability to evaluate the Twitter communication in order to discover communication patterns, key players, and messages that are being propagated through Twitter regarding the event. More importantly there is a general lack of knowledge of who are the individuals or organizations that disseminate warning information, provide confirmations of an event and associated actions, and urge others to take action. This paper presents a methodology that shows how Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Social Network Analysis (SNA) can aid in addressing these issues. The methodology, in addition to qualitative data collected during on-site interviews and publicly available information, was successfully applied to a Twitter data set collected during 2011 Japan tsunami. NLP techniques were applied to extract actionable messages. Based on the messages extracted by NLP, SNA was used to construct a network of actionable messages. While SNA discovered communities and extracted the community leaders, NLP was used to determine the behavior of the community members and the role of the community leaders. Therefore, the proposed methodology automatically finds communities, evaluates its members' behaviors, and authenticates cohesive behaviors of the community members during emergencies. Moreover, the methodology efficiently finds the leaders of the communities, while also identifying their role in communities.
Thyroid disorders and diseases.

This issue of "Medical Clinics of North America" provides the latest essential updates on thyroid disorders and diseases. Topics covered include the following: thyroid synthesis and physiology; hyperthyroidism; hypothyroidism; thyroid nodules; goiter; differentiated thyroid cancer; subacute, silent, and postpartum thyroiditis; thyroid and pregnancy; thyroid and the elderly; medications and thyroid hormones; thyroid and the heart; thyroid and lipids; and, Graves' ophthalmology.
Effects Of Gender Presence In Senior Leadership Positions Upon Perspectives For Enhancing Workforce Diversity

The evidence gathered through this research supports the conclusion that the perceptions of leaders regarding who is more effective in addressing workforce diversity issues are more likely to be significantly different depending on the degree of presence of females’ leaders in senior management. In this regard, the presence of female’s leaders in senior management appears to be a significant factor in how males and females are perceived as to whom best allocates current operational resources when addressing workforce diversity issues
Using the BOPPS balloon mission as a tool to provide engineers with end-to-end mission development experience

This paper discusses the benefits that high-altitude balloon missions offer to engineers in the space industry as a way to gain end-to-end mission development experience. Other types of missions such as sounding rockets, cubesats, and ride-along payloads offer similar benefits, but they are out of the scope of this paper. We provide an overview of NASA’s balloon program followed by a description of the Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS) mission and a brief history of the previous high-altitude balloon missions that JHU/APL has launched. Then we discuss the benefits that balloon missions provide to workforce development in the space industry, especially in the areas of understanding the impacts of early design decisions, document tailoring, improved requirements engineering, appropriate tool selection, and providing engineers with proximity to flight systems.
Clinical implications of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in pregnancy

Purpose of reviewMethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become an increasingly aggressive and prevalent pathogen in medicine. This pattern has also been noted in obstetrics. This review will delineate the epidemiology and clinical implications of MRSA during pregnancy.Recent findings
Urban high-resolution fossil fuel CO2 emissions quantification and exploration of emission drivers for potential policy applications

Fossil fuel carbon dioxide (FFCO2) emissions are the largest driver of anthropogenic climate change. Approximately three-quarters of the world’s fossil fuels carbon dioxide emissions are generated in urban areas. We used the Hestia high resolution approach to quantify FFCO2 for Salt Lake County, Utah, USA and demonstrate the importance of high resolution quantification to urban emissions mitigation policymaking. We focus on the residential and onroad sectors across both urbanized and urbanizing parts of the valley. Stochastic Impact by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) regression models using sociodemographic data at the census block group level shows that population, per capita income, and building age exhibit positive relationships while household size shows a negative relationship with FFCO2 emissions. Compact development shows little effect on FFCO2 emissions in this domain. FFCO2 emissions in high income block groups is twice as sensitive to income than low income block groups. Emissions are four times as sensitive to household size in low-income versus high-income block groups. These results suggest that policy options targeting personal responsibility or knowledge feedback loops may be the most effective strategies. Examples include utility bill performance comparison or publicly available energy maps identifying high-emitting areas. Within the onroad sector, high emissions density (FFCO2/km) is associated with primary roads, while high emissions intensity (FFCO2/VMT) is associated with secondary roads. Opportunities exist for alignment of public transportation extension with remaining high emission road segments, offering a prioritization of new onroad transportation policy in Salt Lake County.
Notes on the Bionomics of Lixus Fimbriolatus Boh. (Coleoptera, Curculionidae)

In 1889 Webster reported upon some of the habits of this snout beetle referring to it as Lixus macer Lee. The present paper, based on investigations carried out in the fall of 1939 and the spring and summer of 1940 at Urbana, Illinois, further contributes to the bionomics of this insect. The beetle was abundant along railroads, where the host plants grew profusely.
Institutionalizing the USPTO Law School Clinic Certification Program for Transactional Law Clinics

With 188 transactional law clinics nationwide and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) Law School Clinic Certification Program (“Program”) recently established as a statutory program of the USPTO, this Article argues that every transactional clinic that works on trademark and patent applications should apply to become part of the Program. In satisfying the participation requirements of the Program, transactional law clinics will usher in a new, uniform way to educate aspiring intellectual property attorneys. As a result, the law students will not only be “practice ready,” but also more effective attorneys once they are in practice. Participating in the Program benefits the clinic, law student, and client. The Article examines those benefits and the different models of organization that clinics should consider under the Program and discusses the benefits of participating in the program. Then, it reviews the advantages and drawbacks of each model. Additionally, the Article explores alternative ways in which transactional law clinics can undertake trademark and patent projects if the clinic is not involved in the Program.
Retrospection and expectation on special column of clinical trials of anti-bacterial drugs

This article is to retrospect Special Column of Clinical Trials of Anti-bacterial Drugs,and gives some considerations and suggestions to further development of the guidance for clinical trials of anti-bacterial drugs.
Management of the Failed Exstrophy Closure

In the last 5 years we have seen 15 boys and 9 girls with failure of exstrophy closure, including 20 who had classical bladder exstrophy and 4 who had cloacal exstrophy. At the time of presentation 18 patients had undergone 1 closure while 6 patients had undergone 2 prior exstrophy closures. Closure was performed for complete bladder dehiscence in 16 cases and for significant bladder prolapse in 8. None of the patients underwent any form of osteotomy at the time of initial closure and in 19 closure was done within 72 hours of birth. Two patients underwent posterior iliac osteotomy elsewhere at the time of secondary closure. All patients referred to our institution underwent either posterior iliac osteotomy (8 patients) or anterior innominate osteotomy (16 patients). Epispadias repair along with reclosure of bladder exstrophy was done in 13 boys. The upper tract remained normal in all patients. There were no instances of failure in this group of reclosures. Eight patients have undergone subsequent bladder neck reconstruction of whom 7 are dry for 4 hours and 1 remains totally incontinent. Two patients have undergone simultaneous bladder neck reconstruction and augmentation cystoplasty, and they are dry on intermittent self-catheterization. The failed exstrophy closure presents a formidable dilemma. However, a secure reclosure can be achieved with careful surgical technique, a well performed osteotomy (even if previously performed) and concomitant epispadias repair for male subjects.
Do arterial phase helical CT images improve detection or characterization of colorectal liver metastases

Our goal was to determine if arterial phase images from dual phase helical CT improve either the detection or the characterization of hepatic metastases in patients with colorectal carcinoma. Sixty-two patients with known colorectal cancer underwent 65 dual phase helical CT examinations to evaluate for possible liver metastases. Three blinded reviewers independently evaluated the portal venous phase images alone to determine if hepatic metastases were present or absent. Arterial phase images were then analyzed to determine if they identified additional lesions or aided in characterizing small hepatic lesions. Scores of the two methods for diagnosing metastases were compared with the "gold standard" established by a consensus panel of three other radiologists who reviewed all images together with clinical, pathologic, and other imaging data. The addition of arterial phase imaging did not detect any new metastases. However, in 6 of the 64 technically adequate examinations, hepatic arterial phase images increased lesion conspicuity and significantly increased diagnostic confidence when compared with portal vein phase scans alone. In patients with colorectal cancer, the addition of arterial phase imaging does not increase sensitivity, but improves the specificity in diagnosing liver metastases in a small number of cases. Dual phase helical CT does not appear to be indicated in the evaluation of liver metastases from colorectal cancer.
Berkeley and the Primary Qualities: Idealization vs. Abstraction

In the First of the Three Dialogues, Berkeley’s Hylas, responding to Philonous’s question whether extension and motion are separable from secondary qualities, says: What! Is it not an easy matter, to consider extension and motion by themselves, . . . Pray how do the mathematicians treat of them?
Exploring the Pathophysiology of Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy

The purpose of this review is to explore the pathophysiology of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy by appraising the interplay between myocardial perfusion, function, metabolism, and, particularly, sympathetic innervation. A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the pathogenesis of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, which include (1) catecholamine cardiac toxicity, (2) myocardial sympathetic innervation disruption, (3) coronary vasospasm, (4) myocardial microvascular dysfunction, and (5) aborted myocardial infarction. These proposals are primarily derived from findings of nuclear myocardial perfusion, metabolism, and cardiac sympathetic innervation imaging. Although data in the literature are not necessarily uniform, the two most plausible working postulates for explaining the phenomenon are (1) regional myocardial stunning (due to coronary vasospasm, microvascular dysfunction, or aborted myocardial infarction) and (2) cardiac sympathetic innervation disruption or toxicity. Current data suggest that disturbances of both coronary circulation and neural innervation are associated with the Takotsubo cardiomyopathy: myocardial stunning from transient ischemic attack and sympathetic innervation disruption. It remains to be determined, however, whether the observed leading mechanistic explanations that have gained momentum are merely the sequelae of the disease rather than its primary etiology.
Human Behavior-Based Target Tracking With an Omni-Directional Thermal Camera

We investigate human behavior-based target tracking from omni-directional (O-D) thermal images for intelligent perception in unmanned systems. Current target tracking approaches are primarily focused on perspective visual and infrared (IR) band, as well as O-D visual band tracking. The target tracking from O-D images and the use of O-D thermal vision have not been adequately addressed. Thermal O-D images provide a number of advantages over other passive sensor modalities such as illumination invariance, wide field-of-view, ease of identifying heat-emitting objects, and long term tracking without interruption. Unfortunately, thermal O-D sensors have not yet been widely used due to the following disadvantages: low resolution, low frame rates, high cost, sensor noise, and an increase in tracking time. This paper outlines a spectrum of approaches which mitigate these disadvantages to enable an O-D thermal IR camera equipped with a mobile robot to track a human in a variety of environments and conditions. The curve matched Kalman filter is used for tracking a human target based on the behavioral movement of the human and maximum a posteriori (MAP)-based estimation is extended for the human tracking as long term which provides a faster prediction. The benefits to using our MAP-based method are decreasing the prediction time of a target’s position and increasing the accuracy of prediction of the next target position based on the target’s previous behavior while increasing the tracking view and lighting conditions via the view from O-D IR camera.
Activating transcription factor 3 in immune response and metabolic regulation.

Abstract Activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) is a member of the ATF/cyclic adenosine monophosphate(cAMP)-response element binding protein (CREB) family of transcription factors. In response to stress stimuli, ATF3 forms dimers to activate or repress gene expression. Further, ATF3 modulates the immune response, atherogenesis, cell cycle, apoptosis, and glucose homeostasis. Recent studies have shown that ATF3 may also be involved in pathogenesis of other diseases. However, more studies are needed to determine the role of ATF3 in metabolic regulation.
Mechanism of Tin Oxidation and Stabilization by Lead Substitution in Tin Halide Perovskites

The recent development of efficient binary tin- and lead-based metal halide perovskite solar cells has enabled the development of all-perovskite tandem solar cells, which offer a unique opportunity to deliver high performance at low cost. Tin halide perovskites, however, are prone to oxidation, where the Sn2+ cations oxidize to Sn4+ upon air exposure. Here, we identify reaction products and elucidate the oxidation mechanism of both ASnI3 and ASn0.5Pb0.5I3 (where A can be made of methylammonium, formamidinium, cesium, or a combination of these) perovskites and find that substituting lead onto the B site fundamentally changes the oxidation mechanism of tin-based metal halide perovskites to make them more stable than would be expected by simply considering the decrease in tin content. This work provides guidelines for developing stable small band gap materials that could be used in all-perovskite tandems.
Altered vasopressin and natriuretic peptide levels in a rat model of spinal cord injury: implications for the development of polyuria

Urinary dysfunction is a common complaint following spinal cord injury (SCI) and is a leading issue for individuals with SCI that impacts their quality of life. One urinary complication that has re...
Oil flow at the scroll compressor discharge: visualization and CFD simulation

Oil is important to the compressor but has other side effect on the refrigeration system performance. Discharge valves located in the compressor plenum are the gateway for the oil when leaving the compressor and circulate in the system. The space in between: the compressor discharge plenum has the potential to separate the oil mist and reduce the oil circulation ratio (OCR) in the system. In order to provide information for building incorporated separation feature for the oil flow near the compressor discharge, video processing method is used to quantify the oil droplets movement and distribution. Also, CFD discrete phase model gives the numerical approach to study the oil flow inside compressor plenum. Oil droplet size distributions are given by visualization and simulation and the results show a good agreement. The mass balance and spatial distribution are also discussed and compared with experimental results. The verification shows that discrete phase model has the potential to simulate the oil droplet flow inside the compressor.
Associations among Omega-3 Fatty Acid Status, Anxiety, and Mental Toughness in Female Collegiate Athletes

ABSTRACTObjective: Poor omega-3 fatty acid status has been linked to anxiety in the general population, but scarce data are available describing omega-3 fatty acid levels in athletes and their associations with anxiety and mental toughness.Methods: Whole blood samples were obtained from 54 female collegiate athletes and analyzed for fatty acids as a part of this cross-sectional observational study. Participants also completed a food frequency questionnaire on the intake of omega-3 fatty acids, as well as the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS)-2, and Mental Toughness Scale (MTS). Measures were collected during the athletes' off-season. Spearman's rho coefficients were used to examine the associations between fatty acid levels and psychological scores.Results: Blood levels of the HS-Omega-3 Index® (rho = −0.32, p = 0.02), eicosapentaenoic acid (rho = −0.40, p = 0.003), and docosapentaenoic acid (rho = −0.33, p = 0.02) were negatively correlated with BAI scores. Likewise, dietary intakes...
Experimental study on the confinement-dependent characteristics of a Utah coal considering the anisotropy by cleats

Characterizing a coal from an engineering perspective for design of mining excavations is critical in order to prevent fatalities, as underground coal mines are often developed in highly stressed ground conditions. Coal pillar bursts involve the sudden expulsion of coal and rock into the mine opening. These events occur when relatively high stresses in a coal pillar, left for support in underground workings, exceed the pillar's load capacity causing the pillar to rupture without warning. This process may be influenced by cleating, which is a type of joint system that can be found in coal rock masses. As such, it is important to consider the anisotropy of coal mechanical behavior. Additionally, if coal is expected to fail in a brittle manner, then behavior changes, such as the transition from extensional to shear failure, have to be considered and reflected in the adopted failure criteria. It must be anticipated that a different failure mechanism occurs as the confinement level increases and conditions for tensile failure are prevented or strongly diminished. The anisotropy and confinement dependency of coal behavior previously mentioned merit extensive investigation. In this study, a total of 84 samples obtained from a Utah coal mine were investigated by conducting both unconfined and triaxial compressive tests. The results showed that the confining pressure dictated not only the peak compressive strength but also the brittleness as a function of the major to the minor principal stress ratio. Additionally, an s-shaped brittle failure criterion was fitted to the results, showing the development of confinement-dependent strength. Moreover, these mechanical characteristics were found to be strongly anisotropic, which was associated with the orientation of the cleats relative to the loading direction.
The Belinskii-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz Discrete Evolution as an Approximation to Mixmaster Dynamics

Mixmaster dynamics is defined to be the evolution of vacuum, diagonal Bianchi IX spatially homogeneous cosmologies. Belinskii, Lifshitz, and Khalatnikov (BKL) developed a discrete approximation to Mixmaster dynamics. Here we analyze their approximation to discuss how well it represents the true solution. We show that sufficiently close to the singularity, the BKL approximation describes all the features of an accurately computed Mixmaster trajectory. Within the BKL approximation, the origination of any sensitivity to initial conditions can be explicitly identified. Since a precise analogy can be drawn between the BKL parameters and variables which describe the true Mixmaster dynamics, it can be argued that the trajectories inherit any chaos that characterizes the approximation. Since the discrete evolution which is the closest analog of the true dynamics is only “marginally chaotic,” recent controversies over whether or not the dynamics is chaotic may be more semantic than substantive.
ANALYSIS OF COMMUNITY CENSUS DATA: A MULTIVARIATE APPROACH

A method of comparing sample census data between biotic communities is described and illustrated with data from grassland bird communities. The method is based on multivariate contrast analysis and takes into account variation within species (over replications or subsamples, depending on the experimental design) and of covariation among species. Three methods of constructing contrasts are given, Roy-Bose, Bonferroni t-interval, and Scheffe's S methods. A sample SAS program illustrating the Bonferroni t-interval method is supplied.
Combustion gases and morphology of ice crystals; experimental studies under tropopausal conditions

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on effects of surrounding gases on the morphology of ice crystals formed immediately after quenching and subsequent changes after aging during their mass transfer through entrainment by jet streams. It was discovered that the small molecules like CO2, SO2, and SO3, can easily diffuse through both the original amorphous ice and aged ice, and that is why the atmospheric mass transfer range for these gases is from one thousand to fifteen hundred kilometers. The PAH's and other bigger molecules most probably get sequestered inside the ice crystals, where they are protected from UV or oxidation attacks and are carried along jet streams to the polar regions.
Updating the Oddy Test: Comparison with Volatiles Identified Using Chromatographic Techniques

A design of experiment (DOE) approach was used to significantly modify The Metropolitan Museum of Art's (MMA) three-in-one Oddy test. The results permitted the optimization of the Oddy test for bot...
A minimal physiologically based pharmacokinetic model to investigate FcRn-mediated monoclonal antibody salvage: Effects of Kon, Koff, endosome trafficking, and animal species

Manipulation of binding affinity between monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) has been leveraged to extend mAb half-life; however, the steps required for success remain ambiguous and experimental observations are inconsistent. Recent models have considered the time course of endosomal transit a major contributor to the relationship between FcRn affinity and antibody half-life. Our objective was to develop a minimal physiologically based pharmacokinetic model to explain how changes in IgG-FcRn association rate constant (Kon), dissociation rate constant (Koff), and endosomal transit time [T(w)] translate to improved IgG clearance across mice, monkeys and humans. By simulating mAb clearance across physiological values of Kon, Koff, and T(w), we found that lowering Koff improves clearance only until the dissociation half-life reaches endosomal transit time. In contrast, Kon influenced clearance independently of T(w).The model was then applied to fit 66 mAb plasma profiles across species digitized from the literature, and clearance of mAb (CLIgG) and vascular fluid-phase endocytosis rate (CLup) were estimated. We found that CLIgG scaled well with body weight (allometric exponent of 0.90). After accounting for mAbs with significant FcRn binding at physiological pH, CLup was allometrically scalable (exponent 0.72). For the antibodies surveyed, Kon was more highly correlated with CLIgG across all species. The relationship between Koff and KD with CLIgG was largely inconsistent. Taken together, this model provides a parsimonious approach to evaluate endosomal transit kinetics using only mAb plasma concentrations. These findings reinforce the idea that endosomal transit kinetics should be considered when modeling FcRn salvage.
Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God

As Brazilian democracy faces a crisis of legitimacy, political divisions grow among Catholic, evangelical, and non-religious citizens. What has caused religious polarization in Brazilian politics? Does religious politics shore up or undermine democracy? Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God uses engaging anecdotes and draws on a wealth of data from surveys and survey experiments with clergy, citizens, and legislators, to explain the causes and consequences of Brazil's 'culture wars'. Though political parties create culture war conflict in established democracies, in Brazil's weak party system religious leaders instead drive divisions. Clergy leverage legislative and electoral politics strategically to promote their own theological goals and to help their religious groups compete. In the process, they often lead politicians and congregants. Ultimately, religious politics pushes Brazilian politics rightward and further fragments parties. Yet Religion and Brazilian Democracy also demonstrates that clergy-led politics stabilizes Brazilian democracy and enhances representation.
How Do Organizations Shape Entrepreneurship? Explaining Employee Entrepreneurs' Entry and Performance

My three-essay dissertation consists of three independent chapters that examine how two major institutions, organizations and family, shape entrepreneurship in Sweden. In chapter one, I frame a contingent approach to social influence on entrepreneurship and empirically test the specifications about the contingencies. I first conceptualize entrepreneurship as a process of discovering and pursuing startup opportunities, I then theorize the conditions that amplify or reduce peer influence on entrepreneurship. In chapter two, I investigate the question of under what conditions spousal couples leave their wage jobs to become co-entrepreneurs. Whereas some spousal couples jointly create new business together, others may decide to have one person becoming an entrepreneur while the other person remaining employed in an established organization. I distinguish between competing theoretical accounts by investigating wives and husbands' transitions into entrepreneurship, taking into account their separate employment in the labor market and their joint household conditions. In chapter three, I investigate how founders and their recruited employees jointly create new businesses, contingent on the founding context of new businesses. I argue that an important dimension of developing routines and delineating boundaries is manifest in entrepreneurs' selections of employees from their local labor markets (Scott 2008). Once recruited, employees join the founders to create new organizations and exert influences on organizations' structures and performances. Even though entrepreneurs largely follow the blueprints they learned from prior employer organizations to recruit employees, the effects of transferring routines may be contingent on the founding conditions surrounding the new businesses. Tackling these research questions requires big data on founders’ employment history and their workplaces. I use a large-scale data set that are well-suited for my research questions, which are panel data from multiple cohorts on employer organizations and their employees in all industries in Sweden from 1989 to 2002.
Synapse: New Data Integration Abstractions for Agile Web Application Development

The growing demand for data-driven features in today’s Web applications—such as targeting, recommendations, or predictions—has transformed those applications into complex conglomerates of services operating on each others’ data without a coherent, manageable architecture. We present Synapse, an easy-to-use, strong-semantic system for largescale, data-driven Web service integration. Synapse lets independent services cleanly share data with each other in an isolated and scalable way. The services run on top of their own databases, whose layouts and engines can be completely different, and incorporate read-only views of each others’ shared data. Synapse synchronizes these views in real-time using a new scalable, consistent replication mechanism that leverages the high-level data models in popular MVC-based Web applications to replicate data across heterogeneous databases. We have developed Synapse on top of the popular Web framework Ruby-on-Rails. It supports data replication among a wide variety of SQL and NoSQL databases, including MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Neo4j, and Elasticsearch. We and others have built over a dozen microservices using Synapse with great ease, some of which are running in production with over 450,000 users.
New global characterisation of landslide exposure

Abstract. Landslides triggered by intense rainfall are hazards that impact people and infrastructure across the world, but comprehensively quantifying exposure to these hazards remains challenging. Unlike earthquakes or flooding, which cover large areas, landslides occur only in highly susceptible parts of a landscape affected by intense rainfall, which may not intersect human settlement or infrastructure. Existing datasets of landslides around the world generally include only those reported to have caused impacts, leading to significant biases toward areas with higher reporting capacity, limiting our understanding of exposure to landslides in developing countries. In this study, we use an alternative approach to estimate exposure to landslides in a homogenous fashion. We have combined a global landslide hazard proxy derived from satellite data with open-source datasets on population, roads and infrastructure to consistently estimate exposure to rapid landslide hazards around the globe. These exposure models compare favourably with existing datasets of rainfall-triggered landslide fatalities, while filling in major gaps in inventory-based estimates in parts of the world with lower reporting capacity. Our findings provide a global estimate of exposure to landslides from 2001 to 2019 that we suggest may be useful to disaster mitigation professionals.
Gastrointestinal malakoplakia: Clinicopathologic analysis of 26 cases

Malakoplakia is an inflammatory process related to defective macrophage response to bacterial infection. To further characterize the clinicopathologic manifestations of gastrointestinal malakoplakia, 26 cases were identified from 6 institutions. Hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides and available stains were reviewed, and pertinent clinicopathologic features analyzed. Sixteen patients were women (62%). Mean patient age was 64 (range: 24 to 83). Sites included the colorectum (n=23), appendix (n=1), and stomach (n=2). Clinical indications for tissue procurement included screening (n=14), tumor resection (n=5), diarrhea (n=1), adenoma surveillance (n=1), ulcerative colitis flare (n=1), abdominal pain (n=1), and appendicitis (1). All cases featured histiocytes with abundant, pale, eosinophilic cytoplasm focally containing Michaelis-Gutmann bodies. The process frequently involved the mucosa (n=19), with architectural distortion in 13 cases. Lymphoid aggregates were present in 18 cases, which were prominent or obscuring in 11 (all colon biopsies) and provoked concern for lymphoma in 2. Associated findings included adenocarcinoma (n=5), adenoma (n=2), gastric hyperplastic polyps (n=1), chemical gastritis (n=1), collagenous colitis (n=1), and active chronic colitis (n=2). In cases with available stains, Michaelis-Gutman bodies were highlighted by Periodic Acid-Schiff with diastase, Von Kossa, and iron stains. Although 2 cases were positive for Tropheryma whipplei antibody, no T. whipplei transcripts were detected on real-time polymerase chain reaction. All patients with available follow-up are alive and well with no additional instances of malakoplakia. Malakoplakia of the gastrointestinal tract is a benign, incidental finding. Although histologic features in the stomach and colon resections are similar to those at other sites, exuberant lymphocytic response in colon biopsies and immunoreactivity with T. whippleii antibody may provoke initial confusion and lead to unnecessary time and resource investment.
Chapter 3 – Synthesis and Reactivity: An Overview

As a preliminary to more detailed discussions in later chapters, methods for the synthesis of carboranes from basic starting materials are outlined, as are several types of cage interconversion reactions. Several commonly employed approaches for introducing organic and inorganic substituents onto the cage skeleton are described, and the general behavioral characteristics of carboranes as ligand units in organic and organometallic systems are discussed.
Raw Material and Regionalization in Stone Age Eastern Africa

Stone tools are the dominant artifact type at Paleolithic sites, and the kinds of stone tools used and their methods of manufacture form some of the richest datasets to assess temporal and geographic patterning in hominin behavior. Using these datasets to compare different lithic assemblages requires comprehensive analytical frameworks that be applied across multiple sites, but this is complicated by the varied nature of the different rock types used in the past. The bedrock lithology of eastern Africa is particularly varied, and we show for a range of Early Pleistocene-to-Holocene-aged archaeological sites that the type and frequency of raw material used, particularly quartz, has significant impacts on a number of typological, technological, and metric variables used to measure variation across time and space, severely weakening our abilities to assess the extent to which past geographic variation in the archaeological record in particular can be attributed to hominin behavior or bedrock geology. Convergence (homoplasy) in particular may be difficult to discern, as even similar behaviors resulting from shared cultural traditions (homology) may result in very different looking artifact types because of the nature of the rock types used.
Conjectures and Open Questions on the Structure and Regularity of Spaces with Lower Ricci Curvature Bounds

In this short note we review some known results on the structure and regularity of spaces with lower Ricci curvature bounds. We present some known and new open questions about next steps.
Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns as Double-Edged Swords in Sepsis

Significance: Sepsis is defined as a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by dysregulated host response to infection. This leads to an uncontrolled inflammatory response at the onset of infection, followed by immunosuppression. The development of a specific treatment modality for sepsis is still challenging, reflecting our inadequate understanding of its pathophysiology. Understanding the mechanism and transition of the early hyperinflammation to late stage of immunosuppression in sepsis is critical for developing sepsis therapeutics. Recent Advances: Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are intracellular molecules and released upon tissue injury and cell death in sepsis. DAMPs are recognized by pattern recognition receptors to initiate inflammatory cascades. DAMPs not only elicit an inflammatory response but also they subsequently induce immunosuppression, both are equally important for exacerbating sepsis. Recent advances on a new DAMP, extracellular cold-inducible RNA-binding protein for fueling inflammation and immunosuppression in sepsis, have added a new avenue into the dual functions of DAMPs in sepsis. Critical Issues: The molecular modification of DAMPs and their binding to pattern recognition receptors transit dynamically by the cellular environment in pathophysiologic conditions. Correlation between the dynamic changes of the impacts of DAMPs and the clinical outcomes in sepsis still lacks adequate understanding. Here, we focus on the impacts of DAMPs that cause inflammation as well as induce immunosuppression in sepsis. We further discuss the therapeutic potential by targeting DAMPs to attenuate inflammation and immunosuppression for mitigating sepsis. Future Directions: Uncovering pathways of the transition from inflammation to immunosuppression of DAMPs is a potential therapeutic avenue for mitigating sepsis.
Predicting future amyloid biomarkers in dementia patients with machine learning to improve clinical trial patient selection.

Introduction In Alzheimer's disease, asymptomatic patients may have amyloid deposition, but predicting their progression rate remains a substantial challenge with implications for clinical trial enrollment. Here, we demonstrate an artificial intelligence approach to use baseline clinical information and images to predict changes in quantitative biomarkers of brain pathology on future images. Methods Patients from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) who underwent positron emission tomography (PET) with the amyloid radiotracer 18F-AV45 (florbetapir) were included. We identified important baseline PET image features using a deep convolutional neural network based on ResNet. These were combined with eight clinical, demographic, and genetic markers using a gradient-boosted decision tree (GBDT) algorithm to predict future quantitative standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR), an established biomarker of brain amyloid deposition. We used this model to better identify individuals with the highest positive change in amyloid deposition on future images and compared this to typical inclusion criteria for clinical trials. We also compared the model's performance to other methods such as multivariate linear regression and GBDT without imaging features. Findings Using 2577 PET scans from 1224 unique individuals, we showed that the GBDT with deep image features was significantly more accurate than the other approaches, reaching a root mean squared error of 0.0339 ± 0.0027 for future SUVR prediction. Using this approach, we could identify individuals with the highest 10% SUVR accumulation at rates 2- to 4-fold higher than by random pick or existing inclusion criteria. Discussion Predicting quantitative biomarkers on future images using machine learning methods consisting of deep image features combined with clinical data may allow better targeting of treatments or enrollment in clinical trials.
No Wait Nonstop Pneumatic Tired Transit System

Nonstop travel, constant cruising speed operation, immediate no-wait boarding, minimum pollution of the environment, and freedom from traffic tie-up are some of the more important attributes of an ideal transit system. Described herein is a system designed to provide those aspects of ideal service. The system utilizes relatively small vehicles that operate in an on-demand mode, thus eliminating waiting time.