cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Expression of members of the proteolipid protein gene family in the developing murine central nervous system

Two homologous cDNAs were previously isolated by expression cloning with a monoclonal antibody that recognized a CNS neuronal membrane protein. Both cDNAs, M6a and M6b, bore significant homology with the major myelin proteolipid protein, PLP/DM20. Our initial studies of M6 gene expression in the adult mouse brain showed that M6a was present in neurons, PLP/DM20 in oligodendrocytes, and M6b in both neurons and glia. This led to the recognition of a novel gene family that included the oligodendrocyte-specific PLP/DM20 gene and the neuronal M6 genes. These observations supported the idea that PLP/DM20 may have functions other than myelination. In this report, we describe the spatial and temporal patterns of expression of M6a, M6b, and PLP/DM20 in the developing nervous system. PLP expression was limited to the white matter. M6a appeared in post-mitotic neurons of the brain and spinal cord as early as E10, and later in the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and the granule cells of the cerebellum. In contrast, M6b was expressed at early embryonic stages in the ventricular zone of the spinal cord, and later during development in both neurons and glia. The early appearance of M6a and M6b mRNAs in the murine CNS suggested that these molecules might play an important role in the development of a variety of neural cell types. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Budding of PPxY-Containing Rhabdoviruses Is Not Dependent on Host Proteins TGS101 and VPS4A

Viral matrix proteins of several enveloped RNA viruses play important roles in virus assembly and budding and are by themselves able to bud from the cell surface in the form of lipid-enveloped, virus-like particles (VLPs). Three motifs (PT/SAP, PPxY, and YxxL) have been identified as late budding domains (L-domains) responsible for efficient budding. L-domains can functionally interact with cellular proteins involved in vacuolar sorting (VPS4A and TSG101) and endocytic pathways (Nedd4), suggesting involvement of these pathways in virus budding. Ebola virus VP40 has overlapping PTAP and PPEY motifs, which can functionally interact with TSG101 and Nedd4, respectively. As for vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), a PPPY motif within M protein can interact with Nedd4. In addition, M protein has a PSAP sequence downstream of the PPPY motif, but the function of PSAP in budding is not clear. In this study, we compared L-domain functions between Ebola virus and VSV by constructing a chimeric M protein (M40), in which the PPPY motif of VSV M is replaced by the L domains of VP40. The budding efficiency of M40 was 10-fold higher than that of wild-type (wt) M protein. Overexpression of a dominant negative mutant of VPS4A or depletion of cellular TSG101 reduced the budding of only M40-containing VLPs but not that of wt M VLPs or live VSV. These findings suggest that the PSAP motif of M protein is not critical for budding and that there are fundamental differences between PTAP-containing viruses (Ebola virus and human immunodeficiency virus type 1) and PPPY-containing viruses (VSV and rabies virus) regarding their dependence on specific host factors for efficient budding.
Lactobacillus acidophilus stimulates the expression of SLC26A3 via a transcriptional mechanism.

Clinical efficacy of probiotics in treating various forms of diarrhea has been clearly established. However, mechanisms underlying antidiarrheal effects of probiotics are not completely defined. Di...
Not in My Neighborhood Assessing Registered Sex Offenders' Experiences With Local Social Capital and Social Control

Community registration laws requiring sex offenders to register with local law enforcement have become increasingly popular and increasingly restrictive in recent years. Although these laws were passed under the auspices of protecting communities from dangerous and violent sexual predators, little research has addressed their efficacy or their consequences. Building on a social capital framework that emphasizes the resources provided by local ties to family, friends, and the community, data from semistructured interviews with 23 sex offenders were analyzed to explore their experiences with local social capital while being registered and on and off of parole. Sex offenders discuss problems accessing and participating in networks of local social capital, incidents of community residential mobilization against them, and their experiences with formal barriers to social capital, including parole restrictions.
Unified Architectural Support for Soft-Error Protection or Software Bug Detection

In this paper we propose a unified architectural support that can be used flexibly for either soft-error protection or software bug detection. Our approach is based on dynamically detecting and enforcing instruction- level invariants. A hardware table is designed to keep track of run-time invariant information. During program execution, instructions access this table and compare their produced results against the stored invariants. Any violation of the predicted invariant suggests a potential abnormal behavior, which could be a result of a soft error or a latent software bug. In case of a soft error, monitoring invariant violations provides opportunistic soft-error protection to multiple structures in processor pipelines. Our experimental results show that invariant violations detect soft errors promptly and as a result, simple pipeline squashing is able to fix most of the detected soft errors. Meanwhile, the same approach can be easily adapted for software bug detection. The proposed architectural support eliminates the substantial performance overhead associated with software-based bug-detection approaches and enables continuous monitoring of production code.
Modifying a Marketing Communication Model with the Sleeper Effect

The purpose of this paper is to modify a marketing communications model published earlier by the authors. In the original model, self-esteem, source credibility, and communication discrepancy are shown to affect the persuasibility of message receiver. However, after modifying this model to accommodate a time lag phenomenon called the sleeper effect, it is apparent that the independent variables may have considerably different effects on persuasibility within a few weeks after the transmission of a marketing communication. These changed relationships may be important to the effectiveness of advertising, personal sales and other marketing communications.
Complete biosynthesis of opioids in yeast

Opioids are the primary drugs used in Western medicine for pain management and palliative care. Farming of opium poppies remains the sole source of these essential medicines, despite diverse market demands and uncertainty in crop yields due to weather, climate change, and pests. We engineered yeast to produce the selected opioid compounds thebaine and hydrocodone starting from sugar. All work was conducted in a laboratory that is permitted and secured for work with controlled substances. We combined enzyme discovery, enzyme engineering, and pathway and strain optimization to realize full opiate biosynthesis in yeast. The resulting opioid biosynthesis strains required the expression of 21 (thebaine) and 23 (hydrocodone) enzyme activities from plants, mammals, bacteria, and yeast itself. This is a proof of principle, and major hurdles remain before optimization and scale-up could be achieved. Open discussions of options for governing this technology are also needed in order to responsibly realize alternative supplies for these medically relevant compounds.
Nanoelectromechanical relays with decoupled electrode and suspension

This paper reports on the modeling, fabrication, and testing of cantilever- and parallel plate-based laterally actuated platinum-coated polysilicon nanoelectromechanical (NEM) relays. The polysilicon acts as the structural layer, while the platinum serves as a conducting contact material, as well as a local routing layer. The two-part cantilever design utilizes a source made of a compliant beam in series with a stiff bridged perimeter electrode to reduce the secondary pull-in of the source to the gate. The parallel-plate-based relay also uses stiffened electrodes in addition to serpentine structures that reduce the actuation voltage. Overdrive gate voltage in excess of 100% without failure and sharp release of the relay from output are achieved for polysilicon relays with 50nm platinum coating and 500nm actuation gap.
A discriminative framework for clustering via similarity functions

Problems of clustering data from pairwise similarity information are ubiquitous in Computer Science. Theoretical treatments typically view the similarity information as ground-truth and then design algorithms to (approximately) optimize various graph-based objective functions. However, in most applications, this similarity information is merely based on some heuristic; the ground truth is really the unknown correct clustering of the data points and the real goal is to achieve low error on the data. In this work, we develop a theoretical approach to clustering from this perspective. In particular, motivated by recent work in learning theory that asks "what natural properties of a similarity (or kernel) function are sufficient to be able to learn well?" we ask "what natural properties of a similarity function are sufficient to be able to cluster well?" To study this question we develop a theoretical framework that can be viewed as an analog of the PAC learning model for clustering, where the object of study, rather than being a concept class, is a class of (concept, similarity function) pairs, or equivalently, a property the similarity function should satisfy with respect to the ground truth clustering. We then analyze both algorithmic and information theoretic issues in our model. While quite strong properties are needed if the goal is to produce a single approximately-correct clustering, we find that a number of reasonable properties are sufficient under two natural relaxations: (a) list clustering: analogous to the notion of list-decoding, the algorithm can produce a small list of clusterings (which a user can select from) and (b) hierarchical clustering: the algorithm's goal is to produce a hierarchy such that desired clustering is some pruning of this tree (which a user could navigate). We develop a notion of the clustering complexity of a given property (analogous to notions of capacity in learning theory), that characterizes its information-theoretic usefulness for clustering. We analyze this quantity for several natural game-theoretic and learning-theoretic properties, as well as design new efficient algorithms that are able to take advantage of them. Our algorithms for hierarchical clustering combine recent learning-theoretic approaches with linkage-style methods. We also show how our algorithms can be extended to the inductive case, i.e., by using just a constant-sized sample, as in property testing. The analysis here uses regularity-type results of [FK] and [AFKK].
Sulfur in Agriculture and Food

Sulfur is an essential component of animal and vegetable tissues. The human brain contains 1.1% sulfur and 1.5% cystine. The blood albumen contains 5% cystine. The egg white contains 1.6% sulfur and cystine. In muscle tissue, that is meat, the average sulfur content is about 0.25%, of which three quarters is in organic form. The most important sulfur containing amino acids are cysteine, cystine, and methionine. All non-ruminant animals need methionine in their food for the synthesis of cysteine and cystine. The ruminant animals can absorb both inorganic sulfates and sulfur containing amino acids. The chicks need 0.8% sulfur, and the ruminants need either .17% sulfur in the form of amino acids or .32% sulfur as sulphate. The sheep and cows need far more. A cow producing 20 kg milk per day excretes 10 g sulfur perday and needs about one g sulfur per kg dry weight of feed. The adult men need 1.1 g methionine per day.
Dual-color imaging of tumor cell and nuclear deformation in the living animal

Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 46, 2005 5671 The role of the ability of the cytoplasm and nuclei of cancer cells to deform in the metastatic process is incompletely understood. We report here the visualization of nuclear and cellular deformation of tumor cells that arrest in capillaries in living mice. Red fluorescent protein (RFP) was expressed in the cytoplasm and green fluorescent protein (GFP) linked to histone H2B were expressed in the nucleus of HT1080 human fibrosarcoma cells. Due to nuclear GFP and cytoplasmic RFP expression, nuclear and cytoplasmic dynamics could be observed in intravascular cells. To observe cancer cell dynamics in the living mouse, the dual-color HT1080 cells were injected in the heart. Immediately after injection, a skin-flap at the abdomen was made and spread on a flat stand. The cells in the capillaries elongated to fit the width of these vessels. The average length of the major axis of the cancer cells in the capillaries increased to 3.97 times their normal length. The nuclei increased their length 1.64 times in the capillaries. HT-1080-dual-color cells are useful for observing cell and nuclear deformation after arrest in the microcirculation. Further studies will focus on the role of cell and nuclear deformation in the different steps of metastasis.
Household Correlates of Package-Size Proneness for Grocery Products:

The authors report the results of a study of the relationship between how much a household concentrates its purchases on small package sizes of a grocery product and its socioeconomic and purchase ...
Olfactomedin 4 expression and functions in innate immunity, inflammation, and cancer

Olfactomedin 4 (OLFM4) is an olfactomedin domain-containing glycoprotein. Multiple signaling pathways and factors, including NF-κB, Wnt, Notch, PU.1, retinoic acids, estrogen receptor, and miR-486, regulate its expression. OLFM4 interacts with several other proteins, such as gene associated with retinoic-interferon-induced mortality 19 (GRIM-19), cadherins, lectins, nucleotide oligomerization domain-1 (NOD1) and nucleotide oligomerization domain-2 (NOD2), and cathepsins C and D, known to regulate important cellular functions. Recent investigations using Olfm4-deficient mouse models have provided important clues about its in vivo biological functions. Olfm4 inhibited Helicobacter pylori-induced NF-κB pathway activity and inflammation and facilitated H. pylori colonization in the mouse stomach. Olfm4-deficient mice exhibited enhanced immunity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus infection. Olfm4 deletion in a chronic granulomatous disease mouse model rescued them from S. aureus infection. Olfm4 deletion in mice treated with azoxymethane/dextran sodium sulfate led to robust intestinal inflammation and intestinal crypt hyperplasia. Olfm4 deletion in Apc Min/+ mice promoted intestinal polyp formation as well as adenocarcinoma development in the distal colon. Further, Olfm4-deficient mice spontaneously developed prostatic epithelial lesions as they age. OLFM4 expression is correlated with cancer differentiation, stage, metastasis, and prognosis in a variety of cancers, suggesting its potential clinical value as an early-stage cancer marker or a therapeutic target. Collectively, these data suggest that OLFM4 plays important roles in innate immunity against bacterial infection, gastrointestinal inflammation, and cancer. In this review, we have summarized OLFM4’s initial characterization, expression, regulation, protein interactions, and biological functions.
Immunoglobulins from normal sera bind platelet vinculin and talin and their proteolytic fragments.

Our previous finding that normal serum immunoglobulins bind to internal platelet proteins on Western blots led us to further identify these proteins and determine the possible significance of autoantibodies against them. A 95-Kd protein reactive with immunoglobulins in most normal sera and easily confused with gpIIIa was shown to be a fragment of vinculin generated by calpain proteolysis. Identity was established by peptide sequencing of the protein purified from platelets stored without specific protease inhibitors. Normal immunoglobulins bound intact vinculin (117 Kd) and metavinculin (152 Kd), and their 105-, 95- , and 80- to 85-Kd proteolytic fragments. IgG in 89%, and IgA and IgM in 100% of normal sera reacted in titers of 10 to 1,000 with purified vinculin. In addition, IgG in 79%, and IgA and IgM in 93% of normal sera reacted in titers of 10 to 5,000 with talin (235 Kd), another cytoskeletal protein, and its 200-Kd proteolytic fragment. IgGs in sera from animals of several different phylogenetic classes also reacted with human vinculin and talin on Western blots. Frequency of occurrence, titers, and classes of antivinculin and antitalin autoantibodies in patients with thrombocytopenia did not differ discernibly from those of normal individuals. These antibodies had no effect on platelet aggregation or clot retraction, and no apparent pathogenic significance, but their widespread presence and the variability in extent of proteolysis of platelet preparations used for Western blots can complicate interpretation of patterns obtained with sera from patients with presumed immune-mediated thrombocytopenias.
Vitamin D: Molecular Biology and Gene Regulation

Abstract Vitamin D produced by sunlight exposure of the skin is essential for mineral metabolism and skeletal health. The high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in the normal population and its association with increased risk for osteoporosis, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disorders, tuberculosis, autoimmune disease, and cancer have prompted a comprehensive search for the pathogenic mechanisms underlying these associations. The multitude of actions of the vitamin D system are mediated primarily by the binding of the active vitamin D hormone (1,25(OH)2D3 or calcitriol) to its specific cellular receptor (vitamin D receptor or VDR), which initiates the formation of complex of coregulatory factors that control the rate of gene transcription. The goal of this chapter is to present the current understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying calcitriol/VDR induction or repression of vitamin D target genes mediating classical and nonclassical vitamin D actions, the abnormalities induced by kidney disease, as well as novel actions of the calcitriol/VDR complex in controlling mRNA translation, and VDR-independent actions of calcitriol regulating cell growth, apoptosis, and survival, with special focus on the pathophysiological significance of these processes in disease prevention in the healthy population and in ameliorating the progression of secondary hyperparathyroidism, renal lesions, renal osteodystrophy, and cardiovascular disorders in patients with kidney disease.
Introduction to Linear Programming

We may write the basic structure of a linear programming problem in what is called canonical form as: maximize a linear functional or hyperplane $$ f({{x}_{1}},...,{{x}_{p}}) = {{c}_{1}}{{x}_{1}} + \cdots + {{c}_{p}}{{x}_{p}} $$ (3.1) subject to (hereafter abbreviated as “s.t.”) a set of mstructural constraints $$ {a_{i1}}{x_1} + \cdots + {a_{ip}}{x_p} \le {b_i},i = 1, \ldots ,m,$$ (3.2) and pnon-negativity conditions\({x_j} \ge 0,j = 1, \ldots ,p\). If C, X€Rp, b€Rm, and A is of order (m x p), then the linear programming problem may be rewritten in matrix form as $$\max f\left( x \right) = C's.t.$$ (3.1.1) $$AXb,0,$$ (3.2.1) where $$ c = \left[ {\mathop{ \vdots }\limits_{{{{c}_{p}}}}^{{{{c}_{1}}}} } \right],x = \left[ {\mathop{ \vdots }\limits_{{{{x}_{p}}}}^{{{{x}_{1}}}} } \right],b = \left[ {\mathop{ \vdots }\limits_{{{{b}_{m}}}}^{{{{b}_{1}}}} } \right],A = \left. {\left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {{{a}_{{11}}} \cdots {{a}_{{1p}}}} \\ { \vdots \vdots } \\ {{{a}_{{m1}}} \cdots {{a}_{{mp}}}} \\ \end{array} } \right.} \right] $$
The Mixture Gatekeeping Procedure Based on Weighted Multiple Testing Correction for Correlated Tests

Hierarchically ordered objectives often occur in clinical trials. Many multiple testing adjustment methods have been proposed to control family-wise error rates while taking into account the logical relations among the null hypotheses. However, most of them disregard the correlation among the endpoints within the same family and assume the hypotheses with each family are equally weighted. This paper proposes a gatekeeping procedure based on Xie’s weighted multiple testing correction for correlated tests (Xie, Stat Med 31(4):341–352, 2012). Simulations have shown that it has power advantages compared to those non-parametric methods (which do not depend on the joint distribution of the endpoints). An example is given to illustrate the proposed method and show how it can be used in complex clinical trials.
Effect of Elevation on Soil Properties in Reconstructed Back Barrier Island Coastal Marsh Using Dredged Materials

Soil physical, chemical and bio-geochemical properties of a back barrier island coastal marsh restored by low pressure hydraulic dredging were monitored and analyzed from 2005 to 2009. A 109 ha restored marsh located at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, was divided into five habitats based on elevation. The habitats were classified as high (knoll), flat (swale), upper intertidal, intertidal and open water (submerged soils). The higher habitats were created nearer the dredged material source by deposited dredged coarser sediment mainly sand and oyster shells in mounds. Material with higher clay and silt content in the slurry were found in the habitats located at greater distances from the dredged material source. Soil elemental contents were statistically significantly different among habitats. Soil redox potential was also significantly different among habitats with the higher elevations having more oxidized redox values. Soil elevation was a strong influence on soil physical and chemical properties for several years post construction. Uneven distribution of dredged materials during the construction phase resulted in distinct variation in elevation and soil properties and the conclusion was that marsh creation would be more effective if dredged materials were uniformly distributed.
Evidence of BrdU-positive retinal neurons after application of an Alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist.

Irreversible vision loss due to disease or age is responsible for a reduced quality of life. The experiments in this study test the hypothesis that the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist, PNU-282987, leads to the generation of retinal neurons in an adult mammalian retina in the absence of retinal injury or exogenous growth factors. Using antibodies against BrdU, retinal ganglion cells, progenitor cells and Muller glia, the results of this study demonstrate that multiple types of retinal cells and neurons are generated after eye drop application of PNU-282987 in adult Long Evans rats in a dose-dependent manner. The results of this study provide evidence that progenitor cells, derived from Muller glia after treatment with PNU-282987, differentiate and migrate to the photoreceptor and retinal ganglion cell layers. If retinas were treated with the alpha7 nAChR antagonist, methyllycaconitine, before agonist treatment, BrdU-positive cells were significantly reduced. As adult mammalian neurons do not typically regenerate or proliferate, these results have implications for reversing vision loss due to neurodegenerative disease or the aging process to improve the quality of life for millions of patients.
Thermal injury model in the rabbit ear with quantifiable burn progression and hypertrophic scar.

Hypertrophic scar is a major clinical outcome of deep-partial thickness to full thickness thermal burn injury. Appropriate animal models are a limitation to burn research due to the lack of, or access to, animal models which address the endpoint of hypertrophic scar. Lower species, such as rodents, heal mainly by contracture, which limits the duration of study. Higher species, such as pigs, heal more similarly to humans, but are associated with high cost, long duration for scar development, challenges in quantifying scar hypertrophy, and poor manageability. Here, we present a quantifiable deep-partial thickness burn model in the rabbit ear. Burns were created using a dry-heated brass rod for 10 and 20 seconds at 90 °C. At the time of eschar excision on day 3, excisional wounds were made on the contralateral ear for comparison. Burn wound progression, in which the wound size expands over time is a major distinction between excisional and thermal injuries, was quantified at 1 hour and 3 days after the injuries using calibrated photographs and histology and the size of the wounds was found to be unchanged from the initial wound size at 1 hour, but 10% in the 20 seconds burn wounds at 3 days. A quantifiable hypertrophic scar, measured by histology as the scar elevation index, was present in both 20 seconds burn wounds and excisional wounds at day 35. ImageJ measurements revealed that the 20 seconds burn wound scars were 22% larger than the excisional wound scars and the 20 seconds burn scar area measurements from histology were 26% greater than in the excisional wound scar. The ability to measure both burn progression and scar hypertrophy over a 35-day time frame suits this model to screening early intervention burn wound therapeutics or scar treatments in a burn-specific scar model.
High-Power Piezoelectrics and Loss Mechanisms

Abstract Heat generation is one of the significant problems in piezoelectrics for high power density applications. In this chapter, we review first the loss phenomenology in piezoelectrics first, including three losses—dielectric, elastic and piezoelectric losses—followed by the equivalent circuit approach with these three losses. Third, heat generation analysis is discussed in piezoelectric materials for pseudo-DC and AC drive conditions. Heat generation at off-resonance is attributed mainly to intensive dielectric loss tan δʹ, while the heat generation at resonance is mainly originated from the intensive elastic loss tan ϕʹ. Fourth, various experimental techniques (high power characterization system, HiPoCS) are introduced to measure dielectric, elastic, and piezoelectric losses separately, including admittance/ impedance spectrum analysis and burst/transient response method. Mechanical quality factors (QA at resonance and QB at antiresonance) are primarily measured as a function of vibration velocity. Fifth, based on the results received by HiPoCS, new driving schemes (antiresonance drive, etc.) are proposed in order to minimize the losses and maximize the transducer efficiency. Sixth, loss mechanisms are discussed from the materials science viewpoint, particularly from the domain dynamics models. Then, practical high-powered “hard” Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT)-based materials are described, which exhibit vibration velocities close to 1 m/s (rms), leading to the power density capability 10 times that of the commercially available hard PZTs. We propose an internal bias field model to explain the low loss and high power origin of these materials. Finally, we also introduce the polarization angle dependence of losses (sample geometry), and DC bias electric field dependence of losses (sample driving technique) for the high-powered applications.
"Hey the Tomatoes Didn't Grow, but Something Else Did!": Contesting Containment, Cultivating Competence in Children Labeled with Disabilities

In this article we offer a number of empirical examples to argue that educational practices designed to provide children labeled with disabilities with a free and appropriate public education can lead to an experience of "containment." Drawing upon data from two science projects conducted with children labeled with disabilities in an elementary school in the United States we explore adults' and children's experiences of contesting containment in a special education classroom, alongside a concomitant desire to cultivate competence. Based on the work of Foucault (1977) we suggest that children with labels face a number of containment strategies including: exclusion and classification (categorizing and placing children in segregated classrooms with an alternative curriculum); individualization (Individual Education Plans); examination and assessment (measuring children's attainment against predetermined goals and tests); and control (the regulation and self-regulation of children's bodies and behaviors). Notwithstanding these disabling constraints, it is possible to move towards an approach informed by Disability Studies in Education (DSE), in which competence is cultivated through more inclusive strategies. These include positioning children as abled rather than labeled through taking a Universal Design approach to Learning (UDL); recognizing children's multimodal communicative practices; constructing learning stories as a narrative form of pedagogical documentation and assessment; valorizing the ways in which children contest containment and control through their bodily actions and child-initiated narratives; and respecting children's autonomy in the learning process.
Therapeutic Approach to Patients with Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction and End-stage Renal Disease.

Background Several risk factors including Ischemic heart disease, uncontrolled hypertension, high output Heart Failure (HF) from shunting through vascular hemodialysis access, and anemia, contribute to development of HF in patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). Guidelinedirected medical and device therapy for Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction (HFrEF) has not been extensively studied and may have limited safety and efficacy in patients with ESRD. Results Maintenance of interdialytic and intradialytic euvolemia is a key component of HF management in these patients but often difficult to achieve. Beta-blockers, especially carvedilol which is poorly dialyzed is associated with cardiovascular benefit in this population. Despite paucity of data, Angiotensin-converting Enzyme Inhibitors (ACEI) or Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs) when appropriately adjusted by dose and with close monitoring of serum potassium can also be administered to these patients who tolerate beta-blockers. Mineralocorticoid receptors in patients with HFrEF and ESRD have been shown to reduce mortality in a large randomized controlled trial without any significantly increased risk of hyperkalemia. Implantable Cardiac-defibrillators (ICDs) should be considered for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death in patients with HFrEF and ESRD who meet the implant indications. Furthermore in anemic iron-deficient patients, intravenous iron infusion may improve functional status. Finally, mechanical circulatory support with leftventricular assist devices may be related to increased mortality risk and the presence of ESRD poses a relative contraindication to further evaluation of these devices.
A Nudge Toward Temperance: User-Set Consumption Limits as an Element of Cannabis Policy

Approximately four million people in the United States currently report that they have difficulty controlling their own cannabis use. That number has multiplied by approximately a factor of seven over the past quarter-century. The move toward legal availability of cannabis risks a continuation of rising trends in the rate of cannabis use disorder. Cannabis, like other “temptation goods” (Banerjee & Mullainathan, 2010; Caulkins, 2017), can generate problems because of the challenges it creates for individual decision-making. One approach to limiting such risks is to provide “nudges toward temperance”: designing the supply system with an eye to helping consumers align their daily choices with their long-term interests. A user-determined cap on purchases – a user-set quota system, or USQS – could form an element of such an approach. Under a USQS, cannabis would be sold only to registered users, each of whom would be asked to establish a personal monthly quantity limit. Vendors would deny sales exceeding any user’s stated quota. This approach to regulation would – to an extent not easily determined in advance – reduce the incidence of diagnosable cannabis problems while respecting personal autonomy: even, in a sense, enhancing it. If such a system were to succeed in the case of cannabis, it would lay a foundation for considering whether a USQS might be usefully added to the current array of alcohol-control measures, and in particular whether a user-set quota could substitute for the current prohibition of alcohol for those between 18 and 21. The same idea might be extended to some other currently-illicit drugs, with the goal of eliminating illicit markets without the upsurge in problem use that would otherwise be an expected result of legalization.
Humoral Factors in Immune Suppression after Injury

The immune suppression which follows major accidental or operative injury leaves an otherwise normal host at risk for life threatening infections. The immunologic changes which accompany injury reverse completely with patient recovery; thus, the goal of clinical research is to intervene during the early acute period to the benefit of the patient. As noted by Ninnemann (1988), most of the lessons to date have been learned from thermal injury, which provides an easily quantified injury model. The immune suppression which accompanies burns mirrors closely the immune changes seen with other types of tissue injury (Ninnemann, 1988).
Meconium-stained amniotic fluid and the risk of postcesarean surgical site infection

To investigate the association between meconium-stained amniotic fluid (MSAF) and postcesarean surgical site infections.This was a secondary analysis of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network (M...
Differential effects of dietary MSG on hippocampal dependent memory are mediated by diet

Introduction. Free glutamate is a common dietary flavor enhancer and is also an important excitatory neurotransmitter in the body. A good number of food additives which contain glutamate are found in the Western Diet, and this diet has also been linked to obesity, a condition which increases risk of cognitive dysfunction. Objective. To examine the effects of dietary glutamate on hippocampal and non-hippocampal memory function, and whether consuming a diet high in fat/sugar could influence any observed associations. Methods. Sixty-four adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained concurrently on two different discrimination problems: (1) Pavlovian serial feature negative (sFN) discrimination, in which a brief tone stimulus was reinforced with sucrose pellets when it was presented alone (T+ trials) and nonreinforced on trials when it was preceded by the presentation of a brief light (LT- trials); and (2) a simple discrimination (SD) problem in which a white noise (WN+) cue was reinforced with sucrose pellets and a clicker (C-) stimulus was not reinforced. Previous research has shown that sFN, but not SD performance, depends on the functional integrity of the hippocampus. After solving both problems, the rats were assigned to one of four ad libitum-fed diet groups, matched on weight and discrimination performance: 1) standard low-fat chow, 2) chow + monosodium glutamate (MSG), 3) high fat, high sugar western-style diet (WD), or 4) WD + MSG. Results. After 14 weeks, rats fed WD had higher adiposity than rats fed chow. Consistent with previous findings, rats fed WD exhibited impaired performance on the sFN problem, but not on the SD, relative to rats fed chow. Adding MSG to WD abolished this impairment, whereas rats fed chow + MSG had impaired sFN performance compared to rats fed chow alone. No differences in performance on the SD task were observed. Conclusion. MSG has differing effects on memory mediated by the hippocampus, depending on underlying diet, with negative effects occurring in low adiposity animals on a typical chow diet, but beneficial effects occurring in higher adiposity animals on a Western-type diet. More research will be needed to further explore the cause of these differential effects.
Capacity Building for a Cybersecurity Workforce Through Hands-on Labs for Internet-of-Things Security

There is growing concern about a cybersecurity skills gap nationwide, as an insufficient number of students are entering this field. Hence, innovative approaches to capacity building are required. We advocate an approach that taps into public awareness and usage of internet-of-things (IoT) devices, which constitute a major source of security vulnerabilities. There is increasing student curiosity about these devices, and a growing tinkering movement.
Roadmapping Minigrid Innovations for Cost Reduction

Electrification of the world's rural regions is a high priority for both the private and public sectors, as it has been linked to economic development, improved education and public health. Minigrid systems, opposed to grid extension, have been identified as the favorable solution for electrification in many cases. However, the life cycle costs of minigrid systems remain too high for widespread implementation. To address this, Colorado State University (CSU) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) hosted a series of 3 workshops to engage a range of minigrid stakeholders to determine common issues underlying the cost of minigrid systems. The series identified numerous areas for further development in technology and business, with equal emphasis on pre-installation, capital/equip-ment, and operational costs. In addition, the workshop series emphasized the need for better market intelligence and a better understanding of productive use as a means of stimulating energy demand.
A predictive survival model for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with immune check point inhibitors.

Abstract Background ICIs have expanded treatment options for HNSCC. A minority of the patients respond to these expensive treatments. Patients and methods This is a single institutional retrospective review on 121 unresectable or metastatic HNSCC patients treated with ICIs. We predicted that inflammatory markers available through routine blood work, in addition to clinical characteristics may divide patients into groups more or less likely to respond to these agents. Here we develop and internally validate our nomogram to predict survival in patients treated with ICIs.
Foundations of Mathematics: an Optimistic Message

Historically, mathematics has often been regarded as a role model for all of science—a paragon of abstraction, logical precision, and objectivity. The 19th and early 20th centuries saw tremendous progress. The great mathematician David Hilbert proposed a sweeping program whereby the entire panorama of higher mathematical abstractions would be justified objectively and logically, in terms of finite processes. But then in 1931 the great logician Kurt Godel published his famous incompleteness theorems, leading to an era of confusion and skepticism. In this talk I show how modern foundational research has opened a new path toward objectivity and optimism in mathematics.1
Paramagnetic Hyperfine Structure in Iron Complexes with Effective Spin S=l/2

Several paramagnetic iron compounds with spin S=1/2 are known to exist(1–4) in contrast to the more common high spin iron materials which have spin S=5/2 even though there are five valence electrons associated with the iron ion in each case. These low spin iron compounds can exhibit paramagnetic hyperfine structure (PHS) in Mossbauer spectra under the proper conditions (5) and the shape of the spectrum can provide information about the spin and charge distribution even in randomly oriented absorbers. The low spin situation arises when the energy separation 10Dq between the t2g (or dE) and eg (or dy) states becomes larger than the repulsion between electrons in the same orbital. Then (assuming octahedral coordination) it is energetically favorable for the electrons in the eg states to flip their spins and occupy the t2g orbitals leaving fewer unpaired electrons — hence the “low spin” configuration. We will be discussing those iron materials which have only a single unpaired electron per atom and therefore a net spin of one half.
Determinants of agricultural technology adoption in Ethiopia: A meta-analysis

One way of fostering smallholder farmers’ agricultural productivity is through encouraging agricultural technology adoptions. However, agricultural technology adoption remains very low in Ethiopia....
Symptom-Dependent Changes in MEG-Derived Neuroelectric Brain Activity in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients with Chronic Symptoms.

Neuroelectric measures derived from human magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings hold promise as aides to diagnosis and treatment monitoring and targeting for chronic sequelae of traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study tests novel MEG-derived regional brain measures of tonic neuroelectric activation for long-term test-retest reliability and sensitivity to symptoms. Resting state MEG recordings were obtained from a normative cohort, Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (CamCAN), baseline: n = 619; mean 16-month follow-up: n = 253) and a chronic symptomatic TBI cohort, Targeted Evaluation, Action and Monitoring of Traumatic Brain Injury (TEAM-TBI), baseline: n = 64; mean 6-month follow-up: n = 39). For the CamCAN cohort, MEG-derived neuroelectric measures showed good long-term test-retest reliability for most of the 103 automatically identified stereotypic regions. The TEAM-TBI cohort was screened for depression, somatization, and anxiety with the Brief Symptom Inventory and for insomnia with the Insomnia Severity Index. Linear classifiers constructed from the 103 regional measures from each TEAM-TBI cohort member distinguished those with and without each symptom, with p < 0.01 for each—i.e., the tonic regional neuroelectric measures of activation are sensitive to the presence/absence of these symptoms. The novel regional MEG-derived neuroelectric measures obtained and tested in this study demonstrate the necessary and sufficient properties to be clinically useful—i.e., good test-retest reliability, sensitivity to symptoms in each individual, and obtainable using automatic processing without human judgement or intervention.
Diagnostic Values of Immunohistochemistry in Bladder Cancer

Diagnosis and classification of urothelial carcinoma are usually straightforward based on gross and routine microscopic examination. However, immunohistochemistry can be very helpful in several situations. In this chapter we will discuss the general consideration and value of immunohistochemistry in some special diagnosis scenarios including distinction of urothelial reactive atypia from flat urothelial carcinoma in situ, assessment of the depth of invasion, establishment of urothelial lineage including differentiating urothelial carcinoma from secondarily tumor involving the bladder, differential diagnosis of spindle cell lesions, and therapeutic and prognosis prediction. Commonly used immunohistochemistry markers, panel’s selection, and immunohistochemistry profiles in the differential diagnosis of major urinary bladder lesions will be provided.
Self-Monitoring Theory and Sales Career Choices

The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the relationship between self-monitoring and the choice of a sales career, utilizing the situational strategy for the study of personality and behavior (Snyder and Ickes, 1985). A fundamental premise of the situational approach is that people will choose to be in situations consistent with their personal attributes.
X-ray intensity-hardness correlation in Cyg X-1

Using data from the All-Sky Monitor aboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), we found that the 1.5-12 keV X-ray count rate of Cyg X-1 is, on time scales from 90 seconds to at least 10 days, strongly correlated with the spectral hardness of the source in the soft state, but is weakly anti-correlated with the latter in the hard state. The correlation shows an interesting evolution during the 1996 spectral state transition. The entire episode can be roughly divided into three distinct phases: (1) a 20-d transition phase from the hard state to the soft state, during which the correlation changes from being negative to positive, (2) a 50-d soft state with a steady positive correlation, and (3) a 20-d transition back to the hard state. The pointed RXTE observations confirmed the ASM results but revealed new behaviors of the source at energies beyond the ASM pass band. We discuss the implications of our findings.
Hot-wire deposition of hydrogenated nanocrystalline SiGe films for thin-film Si based solar cells

Hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon germanium (nc-SiGe:H) is an interesting alternative material to replace hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) as the narrow bandgap absorber in an a-Si/a-SiGe/nc-SiGe(nc-Si) triple-junction solar cell due to its higher optical absorption in the wavelength range of interest. In this paper, we present results of optical and structural investigations of nc-SiGe:H thin films made by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) with a coil-shaped tungsten filament and with a disilane/germane/hydrogen gas mixture. The optical band gaps of a-SiGe:H and nc-SiGe:H thin-films, which are deposited with a same disilane/germane /hydrogen gas mixture ratio of 3.4/1.7/7, are about 1.58 eV and 2.1 eV, respectively. The nc-SiGe:H thin-film exhibits a larger optical absorption coefficient by about a factor of 2/spl sim/4 in the 600-900 nm range than nc-Si:H thin-film. Therefore, a thinner nc-SiGe:H layer, /spl sim/500 nm thick, may be sufficient for the narrow bandgap absorber in an a-Si based multiple-junction solar cell.
Text Mining for Automatic Image Tagging

This paper introduces several extractive approaches for automatic image tagging, relying exclusively on information mined from texts. Through evaluations on two datasets, we show that our methods exceed competitive baselines by a large margin, and compare favorably with the state-of-the-art that uses both textual and image features.
Quantifying urban forest structure, function, and value: the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project

This paper is a review of research in Chicago that linked analyses of vegetation structure with forest functions and values. During 1991, the regions trees removed an estimated 5575 metric tons of air pollutants, providing air cleansing worth 9.2 million. Each year they sequester an estimated 315 800 metric tons of carbon. Increasing tree cover 10% or planting about three trees per building lot saves annual heating and cooling costs by an estimated 50 to 90 per dwelling unit because of increased shade, lower summertime air temperatures, and reduced neighborhood wind speeds once the trees mature. The net present value of the services trees provide is estimated as 402 per planted tree. The present value of long-term benefits is more than twice the present value of costs.
The Early Bird Gets the Worm: A Proposal to Develop Early Intervention Shelters Throughout Massachusetts

This Note argues that Massachusetts should create early intervention shelters to aid potential status offenders and other troubled teenagers. The current juvenile justice system deserves critique because it is too reactive and focused on problem-free outcomes such as staying arrestfree, rather than developmental outcomes such as emotional maturity. This Note explores the short-term and long-term benefits of early intervention shelters and suggests that the shelters would be a helpful solution to the problem. Massachusetts should follow the model of other states and enact legislation to create and maintain early intervention shelters on a statewide scale. Such legislation would be attentive to concerns of race, gender, class, and budget.