cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
SP0118 Viable joint resident microbes as drivers of arthritis

The etiologic role that bacteria play in the genesis of arthritis is most clearly defined in reactive arthritis. Tremendous recent insights into the pathophysiology of reactive arthritis have been made demonstrating that the causative bacteria play a much more complex role than previously thought. The bacteria that are proven to cause reactive arthritis, one of the five types of spondyloarthritis, will be reviewed and their role in the pathophysiology of reactive arthritis will be examined. Important differences in the pathophysiology of post-chlamydial reactive arthritis compared to the post-enteric variety exist, namely synovial based chlamydiae are viable, whereas the post-enteric organisms, in general, are not. However the phenotypic features are the same. However, similar studies have also demonstrated synovial based bacteria in some patients with osteoarthritis and rarely even in normal controls. The potential role that these synovial based bacteria play in disease maintenance and the potential eradication of these synovial based organsims will be discussed. Disclosure of Interest None Declared
SP0039 Immunological and genetic basis of CRMO

Chronicnon-bacterial osteomyelitis (CNO) is an inflammatory bone disorder of yet unknown origin. The clinical spectrum ranges from relatively benign, self-limiting, mono-focal symptoms to destructive, multi-focal involvement (known as chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis, CRMO). Secondary to the absence of high-titer autoantibodies and autoreactive T lymphocytes, CNO was classified as an autoinflammatory disorder. The diagnosis is based on the clinical picture, the exclusion of differential diagnoses (including infections and malignancies), and radiographic findings. Treatment options are empiric, including NSAIDs as first line therapy, and steroids, bisphosphonates, or biologicals in more treatment resistant cases. To date, the etiopathology of CNO remains to be elucidated. Linkage analyses point to a susceptibility locus on chromosome 18q. However, conclusive evidence is lacking. A rare syndromal form of CNO, referred to as Majeed syndrome, has been linked to mutations in the LPIN2 gene on chromosome 18p. Further autoinflammatory syndromes, namely deficiency of IL-1 receptor antagonist (DIRA; mutations in IL1RN ) and pyogenic arthritis, pyoderma gangrenosum and acne (PAPA; mutations in CD2BP1 gene), share bone inflammation with CNO, however presenting with a more severe clinical picture. We will discuss 1) animal models, mimicking the phenotype of CRMO, 2) how genetic and immunological findings in related disorders may contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of bone inflammation in CNO, and 3) most recent findings, indicating that monocytes from CNO patients fail to produce IL-10, resulting in a disrupted balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Disclosure of Interest None Declared
Acid Neutralization Capacity of a Tricalcium Silicate-Containing Calcium Phosphate Cement as an Endodontic Material.

A calcium phosphate cement (CPC) was shown to have the necessary attributes for endodontic materials except adequate basicity needed for antimicrobial properties. To enhance its basicity, tricalcium silicate (Ca3SiO5), a highly alkaline compound, was added to CPC at a mass fraction of 0.25, 0.5 or 0.75. The basicity, acid neutralization and physical properties of the CPC-Ca3SiO5 composites were investigated. Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) was used as the control. The acid neutralizing capacity of the CPC-Ca3SiO5 composites and MTA were measured by titrating the suspensions of ground set samples with a 0.2 mol / L HCl at predetermined pH levels, i.e., 11, 9.0, and 7.4. The setting time of CPC-Ca3SiO5 composites determined by the Gilmore needle method was 40 ± 10 min. Acid neutralizing capacity of CPC depended (p 4 h) and excellent handling properties.
Relationships Dealing Correctly in the Development of Our Space Power

Space power is a special part of future national armed forces,and its construction involves in many fields of a country,for example, national politics,economy,military,science and technology,etc.How to deal with mutual relationships of various kinds of facts that influence the development of space power is of great importance to the improvement of Chinese space power.Viewing from the real problems that China is confronted with in space power construction,the paper discusses four kinds of relationships which should be well treated with in national space power development such as the relationship between military use and civil use,construction and application,self-determination and cooperation,and nonce and future.
An approach for reducing the error rate in automated lung segmentation

Robust lung segmentation is challenging, especially when tens of thousands of lung CT scans need to be processed, as required by large multi-center studies. The goal of this work was to develop and assess a method for the fusion of segmentation results from two different methods to generate lung segmentations that have a lower failure rate than individual input segmentations. As basis for the fusion approach, lung segmentations generated with a region growing and model-based approach were utilized. The fusion result was generated by comparing input segmentations and selectively combining them using a trained classification system. The method was evaluated on a diverse set of 204 CT scans of normal and diseased lungs. The fusion approach resulted in a Dice coefficient of 0.9855 ź 0.0106 and showed a statistically significant improvement compared to both input segmentation methods. In addition, the failure rate at different segmentation accuracy levels was assessed. For example, when requiring that lung segmentations must have a Dice coefficient of better than 0.97, the fusion approach had a failure rate of 6.13%. In contrast, the failure rate for region growing and model-based methods was 18.14% and 15.69%, respectively. Therefore, the proposed method improves the quality of the lung segmentations, which is important for subsequent quantitative analysis of lungs. Also, to enable a comparison with other methods, results on the LOLA11 challenge test set are reported.
Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels and Electrical Excitability of the Heart

Voltage-gated sodium channels initiate action potentials in cardiac myocytes and other excitable cells. In the heart, they determine the threshold for firing, the rate of conduction of the cardiac action potential, and the refractory period between action potentials. The importance of their functional role is illustrated by long QT syndrome type 3 and Brugada syndrome, which are both caused by gene mutations that affect these channels. Sodium channels are complexes of a large, pore-forming α-subunit with one or two smaller β-subunits. The activation of a sodium channel by depolarization opens a pore through the α-subunit that conducts sodium ions into the cell. The α-subunits contain four homologous domains composed of a voltage-sensing module with four transmembrane segments (S1 to S4) and a pore-forming module with two transmembrane segments (S5 and S6), plus an intervening P-loop. Sodium channels are activated when membrane depolarization induces outward movement and rotation of the S4 segment in each voltage-sensing module; this is physically coupled to the opening of the pore by the S4–S5 linker. The inactivation gate, which is formed by the intracellular loop connecting domains III and IV, folds into the inner mouth of the pore and blocks it during sustained depolarization. Local anesthetic and antiarrhythmic drugs bind to a receptor site within the pore and block it. In mammals, 10 genes encode sodium channel α-subunits and four genes encode β-subunits. Na V 1.5 channels encoded by the SCN5A gene are the principal sodium channels in the heart. However, several other sodium channels are expressed at lower levels in the heart; these are differentially localized and have subtle but significant differences in functional properties.
Language barriers between physicians and patients are not associated with thrombolysis of stroke mimics.

Abstract Background: Acute stroke is a time-sensitive condition in which rapid diagnosis must be made in order for thrombolytic treatment to be administered. A certain proportion of patients who receive thrombolysis will be found on further evaluation to have a diagnosis other than stroke, so-called “stroke mimics.” Little is known about the role of language discordance in the emergency department diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of all acute ischemic stroke patients who received IV tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) in our emergency department between July 2011 and December 2015. Baseline characteristics, patient language, and final diagnosis were compared between encounters in which the treating neurologist and patient spoke the same language (concordant cases) and encounters in which they did not (discordant cases). Results: A total of 350 patients received IV tPA during the study period. English was the primary language for 52.6%, Spanish for 44.9%, and other languages for 2.6%; 60.3% of cases were classified as language concordant and 39.7% as discordant. We found no significant difference in the proportion of stroke mimics in the language concordant compared to discordant groups (16.6% vs 9.4%, p = 0.06). Similarly, the proportion of stroke mimics did not differ between English- and Spanish-speaking patients (15.8% vs 11.5%, p = 0.27). Conclusions: Language discordance was not associated with acute stroke misdiagnosis among patients treated with IV tPA. Prospective evaluation of communication during acute stroke encounters is needed to gain clarity on the role of language discordance in acute stroke misdiagnosis.
Estimation model for global solar radiation in Lebanon

Availability of solar radiation data is very scarce in Lebanon and it is often not accessible. The estimation of solar data is the most important parameter for designing and developing various solar energy systems such as photovoltaic, solar water heater and concentrated solar power. The main objective of this paper is to present a comparison between different estimation models for global solar radiation based on sunshine duration applicable in Lebanon. Subsequently a new correlation is proposed to estimate the monthly average daily global solar radiation in Lebanon. Measured data were obtained from photovoltaic system installed on the roof of the Industrial Research Institute during 2013–2015. Estimated data of seven previous models and a proposed coefficients model, are compared to measured data based on the root mean error, the main bias error and the maximum permissible error. The results of using the new coefficients revealed that the error is minimized, and this new correlation can be used to predict the monthly mean average daily global solar radiations.
A spatially varying pulse compression filter for coded excitation signals

Coded excitation and pulse compression techniques have been used to improve the echo signal-to-noise ratio (eSNR) in ultrasonic imaging. Pulse compression can be performed using a Wiener filter. In this work, the effects of applying a spatially varying Wiener filter were evaluated. Specifically, a technique to adaptively compensate for the spatial changes in eSNR in the compression scheme was examined. Simulations and experiments were conducted with a single-element transducer (f/2.66) having a center frequency of 2.25 MHz and a −3-dB bandwidth of 50%. In simulations, tissue-mimicking phantoms with 12 point targets were imaged. In experiments, anechoic targets from the ATS 539 tissue-mimicking phantom were imaged. For simulated echoes compressed with a spatially varying Wiener filter (SVWF), an increase in eSNR of 235% was obtained over the non-SVWF at depths that typically could not be imaged using a conventional pulsed (CP) excitation. For the experiments with the anechoic targets, it was observed that the contrast-to-noise ratio was improved by 245% over CP when compressing with a SVWF. Simulation and experimental results suggest that accounting for local variations in the eSNR can lead to significant improvements in the compression performance. Specifically, the eSNR was increased in deeper areas imaged at the expense of a small degradation in spatial resolution.
VIIRS ocean color products: A progress update

In this paper, we provide overview of the progress on the evaluations of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) ocean color products with long-term time series and more in situ data for matchup analysis. Specifically, VIIRS ocean color products include normalized water-leaving radiance spectra nL w (λ) at VIIRS five spectral bands, chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a), water diffuse attenuation coefficients at the wavelength of 490 nm, K d (490), and at the domain of photosynthetically available radiation (PAR), K d (PAR). VIIRS ocean color products derived from the NOAA Multi-Sensor Level-1 to Level-2 (MSL12) ocean color data processing system are evaluated and compared routinely with in situ data from the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) and several AERONET-OC sites. In order to meet requirements from all users, we propose to routinely produce two ocean color data streams, i.e., the near-real-time (NRT) data and delayed science quality data. The NRT ocean color data stream has the advantage of quick data turn around with data latency −12–24 hours, while the science quality data stream has high consistence (with the mission-long data reprocessing) and accuracy of ocean color products. In addition, we have significantly improved on-orbit sensor calibration by combining the lunar calibration into the current solar calibration method. Our results show that VIIRS is now providing high-quality global ocean color products in support of the scientific research and operational applications.
Effects of voltage-bias annealing on metastable defect populations in CIGS and CZTSe solar cells

We report on voltage-bias annealing (VBA) experiments performed on CIGS and CZTSe solar cells. In these experiments, completed devices were annealed at moderate temperatures and subsequently quenched with continuously applied voltage bias. These treatments resulted in substantial reversible changes in device characteristics. Photovoltaic (PV) conversion efficiency of the CIGS device varied from below 3% to above 15%, with corresponding changes in CIGS hole density from ∼1014 cm−3 to ∼1017 cm−3. In the CZTSe device, open-circuit voltage varied from 289 meV to 446 meV, caused by an approximately factor of fifty change in the CZTSe hole density. We interpret these findings in terms of reversible changes to the metastable point-defect populations that control key properties in these materials. Implications for optimization of PV materials and connections to long-term stability of PV devices are discussed.
Reduction of Confinement Error in Single-Molecule Tracking in Live Bacterial Cells Using SPICER.

Single-molecule tracking can extract quantitative kinetic information and identify possible state transitions of diffusing molecules (such as switching between binding and unbinding) in the in vivo environment of living cells. Confined diffusion, caused by the encompassing membrane boundary of the cell, results in increased uncertainties in identifying state-associated diffusion coefficients and transition probabilities. This problem is particularly acute in bacterial cells because of their small sizes. A standard approach to eliminating confinement errors in bacterial cells is to analyze molecule displacements only along the long axis of the cell, where molecules experience the least confinement, and hence turn three-dimensional tracking into a one-dimensional problem. However, this approach dramatically decreases the amount of data usable for statistical analysis and leads to increased uncertainties in identifying different states. Here, we present a simple algorithm, termed single-particle tracking improvement with confinement error reduction (SPICER), which significantly decreases confinement errors by selectively incorporating data not only from the long axis but also from the short axes of the cell. We validate SPICER using both reaction-diffusion simulations and experimental single-molecule tracking (SMT) data of RNA polymerase in live Escherichia coli cells. SPICER is easy to implement with existing SMT analysis routines and should find broad applications in SMT analysis.
Neural patterns elicited by sentence processing uniquely characterize typical development, SLI recovery, and SLI persistence

A substantial amount of work has examined language abilities in young children with specific language impairment (SLI); however, our understanding of the developmental trajectory of language impairment is limited. Along with studying the behavioral changes that occur across development, it is important to examine the neural indices of language processing for children with different language trajectories. The current study sought to examine behavioral and neural bases of language processing in adolescents showing three different trajectories: those with normal language development (NL), those exhibiting persistent SLI (SLI-Persistent), and those with a history of SLI who appear to have recovered (SLI-Recovered). Through a sentence judgment task, we examined semantic and syntactic processing. Adolescents judged whether or not each sentence was semantically and syntactically correct. Stimuli consisted of naturally spoken sentences that were either correct, contained a semantic verb error, or contained a syntactic verb agreement error. Verb agreement errors consisted of omission and commission violations of the third-person singular -s. Behavioral button-press responses and electroencephalographic recordings were collected. Behavioral judgments and mean amplitude of the N400 and P600 components were examined. Adolescents in the SLI-Persistent group had lower sentence judgment accuracy overall, relative to the NL and SLI-Recovered groups. Accuracy in judging omission and commission syntactic errors were marginally different, with marginally lower accuracy for commission errors. All groups demonstrated an N400 component elicited by semantic violations. However, adolescents in the SLI-Persistent group demonstrated a less robust P600 component for syntactic violations. Furthermore, adolescents in the SLI-Recovered group exhibited a similar neural profile to the NL group for the semantic and syntactic omission violations. However, a unique profile with initial negativity was observed in the SLI-Recovered group in the commission violation condition. Adolescents with persistent language impairment continue to demonstrate delays in language processing at the behavioral and neural levels. Conversely, the adolescents in the SLI-Recovered group appear to have made gains in language processing skills to overcome their initial impairments. However, our findings suggest that the adolescents in the SLI-Recovered group may have compensatory processing strategies for some aspects of language, as evidenced by a unique event-related potential profile.
Noninvasive Respiratory Care Received by Individuals With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Since 1979-Reply.

In reply: We commend Dr Bach and his colleagues for advancing and optimizing noninvasive respiratory care for individuals with neuromuscular disease since the late 1970s. However, we believe he may have misinterpreted the aim and purpose of our study results,[1][1] and we would like to clarify. In
Classical Discriminant Analysis, Classification of Individuals, and Source Population Composition of Mixtures

Publisher Summary Classical discriminant and classification analysis has been used since the late 1950s to assess the unknown source population proportions composing fish mixtures. Measurements of individuals in learning samples from the separate sources are used to determine rules, or discriminant functions, by which to classify measured individuals of unknown sources. Linear discriminant functions are based on the assumption that the measurement distributions in the source populations are multivariate normal with common covariance matrix, or else their distributions are unspecified, but the log odds between populations are assumed to be linear. The source labels of the mixture individuals are usually assigned with uncertainty because the measurement distributions of the sources overlap. Among mixture individuals with matching measurements, the proportions composing the mixture from the separate sources limit the certainty with which they can be classified. These proportions, which vary with the measurements, are called the posterior source probabilities of the mixture individuals. The Bayes classifier, which has the lowest misclassification rate, assigns any unlabeled mixture individual to the source for which the posterior source probability is greatest.
Is cigarette smoking associated with impaired physical and mental functional status?: An office-based survey of primary care patients

Abstract Objective: To examine the relationship between cigarette smoking and self-reported physical and mental functional status. Design: Cross-sectional survey of 837 patients visiting 2 family practice centers. Patients completed a self-administered survey about functional status, tobacco use, and demographic characteristics while waiting to be called back for their appointments. Setting: An inner-city family practice clinic in Richmond, Virginia, and a more affluent suburban practice outside Washington, DC. Main Outcome Measures: Physical and mental functional status, as measured by the SF-36 (Medical Outcomes Trust, Boston, MA); current and former cigarette use; and demographic variables (age, gender, education, income). Results: Among current smokers, self-reported functional status scores were significantly lower than those of nonsmokers in all SF-36 domains ( p ≤ 0.02), a pattern that was more dramatic for mental functional status domains (social function, vitality, emotional role limitations, mental health). In several SF-36 domains, a dose-response relationship between smoking and functional status was noted. After multivariate adjustment for demographic confounders and practice site, the statistical significance of these differences diminished considerably, but it remained significant for certain domains and for the overall difference across all domains (MANCOVA p = 0.017). Conclusions: Current smokers report lower functional status than nonsmokers, in physical and especially in mental domains. The meaning of this cross-sectional relationship is unclear without further longitudinal study. Smoking may be associated with other variables that have a causal role.
Effects of binge alcohol consumption on sleep and inflammation in healthy volunteers.

ObjectiveAlcohol is a hypnotic that modifies immune function, specifically the cytokines interferon gamma (IFN-γ) and interleukin 2 (IL-2). We evaluated the association between unscheduled napping ...
Patient considerations in the management of gout and role of combination treatment with lesinurad

Gouty arthritis is one of the most common rheumatic diseases, and the prevalence continues to rise, which is likely related to increased incidence of comorbidities, lifestyle factors, and suboptimal utilization of urate-lowering therapy. In recent years, multiple new guidelines have been published along with the approval of novel drug therapies. Still, gout remains a poorly controlled disease state that is accompanied by a reduced health-related quality of life, increased health care utilization, and overall negative socioeconomic effects, all of which have a negative impact on patient-related health outcomes. The key to success in gout management is utilization of urate-lowering therapy to prevent recurrence of acute gouty arthritis and to resolve tophi, if present. Xanthine oxidase inhibitors are first-line medications for the prevention of recurrent gout followed by uricosurics, including lesinurad (a uric acid reabsorption inhibitor) as an add-on option. The recent US Food and Drug Administration Safety Communication related to cardiovascular risk with febuxostat may result in increased use of allopurinol in combination therapy with a uricosuric agent such as lesinurad. In this review, we discuss gout management, clinical end points, and patient-related outcomes for consideration, summarize the evidence for combination therapy to achieve serum urate targets, and focus on lesinurad as a novel newer medication for the prevention of gout.
Relative navigation for command and control of multiple low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles

A long-held goal of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) research has been the coordinated use of multiple vehicles for novel applications. Unfortunately, the underwater domain poses significant challenges for navigation and communication—sophisticated navigational sensors increase vehicle price, size, and power use, and acoustic communications are limited in bandwidth and channel capacity. These factors make multi-vehicle deployments rare and limited in scale, with operators commanding each AUV individually and with limited coordination. In this work, we describe an operating paradigm that enables user-friendly command and control of multiple AUVs. Each vehicle uses a custom low-power, low-cost acoustic system to navigate and receive operator commands, consisting of a passive hydrophone array and timed acquisition and processing boards which enable the vehicle to self-localize relative to a synchronized acoustic beacon. By selecting between various beacon-transmitted signals, all vehicles can be simultaneously commanded to switch between behaviors. Additionally, a consequence of beacon-relative navigation is that movement of the beacon results in the concurrent movement of all AUVs. This system is ideal for multi-vehicle operations using inexpensive, miniature AUVs, as it does not require conventional high-cost navigational sensors or acoustic modems, and its passive nature and associated operating scheme enable the deployment of an arbitrarily large number of AUVs. [Work supported by Battelle, ONR, Lincoln Laboratory, DARPA.]
Modulation of airway hyperresponsiveness by rhinovirus exposure.

Rhinovirus (RV) exposure has been implicated in childhood development of wheeze evoking asthma and exacerbations of underlying airways disease. Studies such as the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC) and Childhood Origins of ASThma (COAST) have identified RV as a pathogen inducing severe respiratory disease. RVs also modulate airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), a key characteristic of such diseases. Although potential factors underlying mechanisms by which RV induces AHR have been postulated, the precise mechanisms of AHR following RV exposure remain elusive. A challenge to RV-related research stems from inadequate models for study. While human models raise ethical concerns and are relatively difficult in terms of subject recruitment, murine models are limited by susceptibility of infection to the relatively uncommon minor group (RV-B) serotypes, strains that are generally associated with infrequent clinical respiratory virus infections. Although a transgenic mouse strain that has been developed has enhanced susceptibility for infection with the common major group (RV-A) serotypes, few studies have focused on RV in the context of allergic airways disease rather than understanding RV-induced AHR. Recently, the receptor for the virulent RV-C CDHR3, was identified, but a dearth of studies have examined RV-C-induced effects in humans. Currently, the mechanisms by which RV infections modulate airway smooth muscle (ASM) shortening or excitation-contraction coupling remain elusive. Further, only one study has investigated the effects of RV on bronchodilatory mechanisms, with only speculation as to mechanisms underlying RV-mediated modulation of bronchoconstriction.
Orbital angular momentum assisted ground penetrating radars

This paper explores using Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) controlled electromagnetic waves for enhanced ground penetrating radar (GPR) imaging and detection. A macroscopic interpretation of OAM is propagating waves with vortexshaped wave fronts. At the photon level OAM appears as a quantum degree of freedom with integer quanta of angular momentum added to each photon. This is in addition to Spin Angular Momentum (SAM). The use of OAM in GPR has at least two potential advantages. The vortex shape may enable better discernment of cylindrical versus non-cylindrical buried objects. At the quantum level entanglement of OAM with other quantum degrees of freedom may enable enhanced imaging, such as the ghost imaging of objects that produce weak signal returns. The results include experiments that demonstrate the generation and reception of EM waves with a circular pattern of antennas operating as phased arrays to produce vortex-shaped waves at frequencies and dimensions typical of conventional GPRs.
Advanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage components in haemophilic joints reveals that cartilage hemosiderin correlates with joint deterioration

Author(s): von Drygalski, Annette; Barnes, Richard FW; Jang, Hyungseok; Ma, Yajun; Wong, Jonathan H; Berman, Zachary; Du, Jiang; Chang, Eric Y | Abstract: IntroductionEvidence suggests that toxic iron is involved in haemophilic joint destruction.AimTo determine whether joint iron deposition is linked to clinical and imaging outcomes in order to optimize management of haemophilic joint disease.MethodsAdults with haemophilia A or haemophilia B (n = 23, ≥ age 21) of all severities were recruited prospectively to undergo assessment with Hemophilia Joint Health Scores (HJHS), pain scores (visual analogue scale [VAS]) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 3T using conventional MRI protocols and 4-echo 3D-UTE-Cones sequences for one affected arthropathic joint. MRI was scored blinded by two musculoskeletal radiologists using the International Prophylaxis Study Group (IPSG) MRI scale. Additionally, UTE-T2* values of cartilage were quantified. Correlations between parameters were performed using Spearman rank correlation. Two patients subsequently underwent knee arthroplasty, which permitted linking of histological findings (including Perl's reaction) with MRI results.ResultsMRI scores did not correlate with pain scores or HJHS. Sixteen joints had sufficient cartilage for UTE-T2* analysis. T2* values for cartilage correlated inversely with HJHS (rs = -0.81, P l 0.001) and MRI scores (rs = -0.52, P = 0.037). This was unexpected since UTE-T2* values decrease with better joint status in patients with osteoarthritis, suggesting that iron was present and responsible for the effects. Histological analysis of cartilage confirmed iron deposition within chondrocytes, associated with low UTE-T2* values.ConclusionsIron accumulation can occur in cartilage (not only in synovium) and shows a clear association with joint health. Cartilage iron is a novel biomarker which, if quantifiable with innovative joint-specific MRI T2* sequences, may guide treatment optimization.
Soup burns and the roles played by viscosity, solid constituents, epidermal thickness and clothing

One of the many concerns for parents of young children and caregivers of geriatric patients is the potential for scalds. Skin tissue can be thinner and more susceptible to scalds, and the accidental spilling of hot soups can be a common source of burns. The type of soup, however, may not elicit any such misgivings. Here, we elucidate the effects of reduced skin thickness on the severity of soup burns. In particular, we compare the two most popular types of soups (tomato and chicken noodle) along with hot water, to identify the roles that the viscosity and solid constituents in these different soups may play in the severity of the burn. We find that the more solid constituents in the chicken noodle soup, in particular, prevents the soup from flowing from the skin, which increases the time of exposure to elevated temperatures, and therefore increases the severity of the burn.
Valuing Productive Non-market Activities of Older Adults in Europe and the US

We measure the economic contribution of older adults (i.e., adults age 60+) in Europe and the US by examining participation in and calculating value generated by market activities and productive non-market activities (PNMA). We find that the estimated value of market and non-market contributions of older adults in the sample countries in Europe and the US sum to the equivalent of 7.3% of gross domestic product, while older adults make up 24% and 21% of the European and US population, respectively. In addition, notable variation exists in the composition of older adults’ economic contributions by age group, national setting, and gender—with a significant proportion of overall value generated from PNMA when monetized in relation to market activities. Regarding retirement policy, we find at the country level that the value generated from increased employment may be offset by the loss of value from decreased PNMA and that the impact of retirement policy on overall productivity depends on the ratio of market to non-market productivity in a country. Finally, we find that severe but common health shocks such as heart attacks, strokes, and the onset of cancer affect both market activities and PNMA appreciably across countries and genders, with an overall greater reduction in market activities by males and in PNMA by females. Taken together, we show that PNMA comprises a substantial share of older adults’ productive contributions and argue that it should be considered in policy discussions regarding retirement age, pension taxes, and healthy aging.
Role of c-Met/β1 integrin complex in the metastatic cascade

ABSTRACT Metastases cause 90% of human cancer deaths. The metastatic cascade involves local invasion, intravasation, extravasation, metastatic site colonization, and proliferation. While individual mediators of these processes have been investigated, interactions between these mediators remain less well defined. We previously identified a structural complex between receptor tyrosine kinase c-Met and β1 integrin in metastases. Using novel cell culture and in vivo assays, we found that c-Met/β1 complex induction promotes breast cancer intravasation and adhesion to the vessel wall, but does not increase extravasation. These effects may be driven by the ability of the c-Met/β1 complex to increase mesenchymal and stem cell characteristics. Multiplex transcriptomic analysis revealed upregulated Wnt and hedgehog pathways after c-Met/β1 complex induction. A β1 integrin point mutation that prevented binding to c-Met reduced intravasation. OS2966, a therapeutic antibody disrupting c-Met/β1 binding, decreased invasion and mesenchymal gene expression and morphology of breast cancer cells. Bone-seeking breast cancer cells exhibited higher c-Met/β1 complex levels than parental controls and preferentially adhere to tissue-specific matrix. Patient bone metastases demonstrated higher c-Met/β1 levels than brain metastases. Thus, the c-Met/β1 complex drives breast cancer cell intravasation and preferential affinity for bone tissue-specific matrix. Pharmacological targeting of the complex may prevent metastases, particularly osseous metastases.
Critique of Well Activity Proxy Uses Inadequate Data and Statistics

The recent publication, “Assessing Agreement in Exposure Classification between Proximity-Based Metrics and Air Monitoring Data in Epidemiology Studies of Unconventional Resource Development” by Hess et al [...]
Utility-Expanding Fair Use

Copyright’s fair use doctrine is increasingly applied to large-scale uses of creative works by new digital technologies, such as the Google Books Project. Such technologies—which the Second Circuit has recently come to call “utility-expanding”—allow the public to more productively use or efficiently access books, articles, music, films, and other copyrighted content. This is new terrain for the fair use doctrine, which has more commonly been applied to the use of a work in the service of new creative expression. This Article examines the relationship between utility-expanding technologies, fair use, and copyright’s overall policy agenda. Even though utility-expanding technologies often benefit the public, many also threaten to harm copyright owners’ dissemination markets and thus potentially undermine copyright’s overall goal of financially incentivizing cultural creation. Reflecting this tension, some recent cases have found that an access-enhancing technology was “transformative” and of benefit to the public but not fair use because of market harm to the copyright owner. In the absence of a fair use determination, technology developers can be subject to restrictive licensing demands from copyright owners or risk an injunction and a high damages award, threatening the growth and adoption of new services. As fair use appears to be an increasingly unwieldy framework for legitimizing the full range of utility-expanding technologies, this Article suggests an alternative approach: compulsory licensing. Indeed, Congress previously developed compulsory licensing systems for certain technologies that benefit the public by increasing the availability and accessibility of copyrighted works but posed some risk of market harm to copyright owners. In particular, the creation of the compulsory license for digital radio provides useful insight into the relationship between utility-expanding technologies and copyright’s policy agenda. Rather than providing no compensation to copyright owners (as fair use does) or a market-based price (as is the norm in copyright licensing markets) this regime used policy-oriented price-setting criteria explicitly designed to identify royalty rates that would allow new disseminators to flourish but still ensure that rightsholders were compensated. The Article identifies some ways a similar policy-oriented compulsory licensing approach could be implemented within copyright’s current remedies regime for those utility-expanding technologies that do not warrant a fair use finding.
Locked, Loaded, and Ready for School: The Association of Safety Concerns With Weapon-carrying Behavior Among Adolescents in the United States:

There is limited, if any, prior research exploring the potential link between adolescents’ safety concerns and their predisposition to possess weapons has been limited. This study aimed to examine ...
West Indian Diasporic Consciousness: The Case of Hartford, CT

The Theory of “Diasporic Consciousness” demonstrates that the duality of racial and ethnic identity are important in assessing how Black Ethnics perceive linkages across the Black community. This article explores the theory of diasporic consciousness by examining how this manifest in West Indians at the local level. I investigate how West Indians identify themselves, whether they perceive a diasporic consciousness and with whom, how this effects their political participation, and what this means for the future of Black political engagement in Hartford, CT. I use oral history interviews from West Indians in the area to answer these questions. This analysis helps capture how consciousness manifests in Black immigrants and contributes toward the study of group politics in unexplored areas.
Timelines: A World-Building Activity for Values Advocacy

This paper presents Timelines, a design activity to assist values advocates: people who help others recognize values and ethical concerns as relevant to technical practice. Rather than integrate seamlessly into existing design processes, Timelines aims to create a space for critical reflection and contestation among expert participants (such as technology researchers, practitioners, or students) and a values advocate facilitator to surface the importance and relevance of values and ethical concerns. The activity’s design is motivated by theoretical perspectives from design fiction, scenario planning, and value sensitive design. The activity helps participants surface discussion of broad societal-level changes related to a technology by creating stories from news headlines, and recognize a diversity of experiences situated in the everyday by creating social media posts from different viewpoints. We reflect on how decisions on the activity’s design and facilitation enables it to assist in values advocacy practices.
Historical accuracy in costume design: experiences and perceptions of Broadway costume designers

This study aims to fill this void in the body of knowledge by systematically examining the creative process of costume design for historically set productions and linking the process to established theoretical frameworks.
Proposed criteria for nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome in children assessed using statistical optimization

Nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (NBCCS) is a tumor predisposition condition, the cardinal features of which emerge in adolescence or adulthood. Using statistical optimization, this study proposes NBCCS criteria with improved sensitivity in children less than 18 years of age. Earlier detection may lead to improved surveillance and prevention of sequelae. A survey eliciting medical history was completed by, or on behalf of, individuals with NBCCS. Based on these findings, criteria for suspicion of NBCCS in children were suggested using information from a Bernoulli naive Bayes classifier relying on the human phenotype ontology. The sensitivity and specificity of the existing and proposed diagnostic criteria were also assessed. Participants (n = 48) reported their first signs of NBCCS appeared at a median age of 8 months, but by our retrospective analysis, they did not fulfill the current diagnostic criteria until a median age of 7 years. This study delineates the early-onset features of NBCCS and proposes criteria that should prompt consideration of NBCCS. Additionally, we demonstrate a method for quantitatively assessing the utility of diagnostic criteria for genetic disorders.
Development and Characterization of a Reverse Genetics System for a Human-Derived Severe Fever With Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus Isolate From South Korea

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) is an emerging, tick-borne Bandavirus that causes lethal disease in humans. As there are no licensed vaccines and therapeutics for SFTSV, there is an urgent need to develop countermeasures against it. In this respect, a reverse genetics system is a powerful tool to help achieve this goal. Herein, we established a T7 RNA polymerase-driven reverse genetics system to rescue infectious clones of a Korean SFTSV human isolate entirely from cDNA. To establish this system, we cloned cDNAs encoding the three antigenomic segments into transcription vectors, with each segment transcribed under the control of the T7 promoter and the hepatitis delta virus ribozyme (HdvRz) sequences. We also constructed two helper plasmids expressing the nucleoprotein (NP) or viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) under the control of the T7 promoter and the encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) internal ribosome entry site (IRES). After co-transfection into BHK/T7-9 cells with three transcription and two helper plasmids, then passaging in Vero E6 or Huh-7 cells, we confirmed efficient rescue of the recombinant SFTSV. By evaluating the in vitro and in vivo virological properties of the parental and rescued SFTSVs, we show that the rescued virus exhibited biological properties similar to those of the parental virus. This system will be useful for identifying molecular viral determinants of SFTSV infection and pathogenesis and for facilitating the development of vaccine and antiviral approaches.
Phenotypes and Biomarkers in Posterior Cortical Atrophy: Application of Consensus Clinical Diagnostic Criteria and the AT(N) Framework (P5.1-026)

Objective: We operationalized applications of the recently published Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) diagnostic criteria (Crutch Alzheimers Dement 2017;13:870–84) and National Institutes of Aging/Alzheimer’s Association “AT(N)” framework for classifying AD biomarkers (Jack Alzheimers Dement 2018;14:535–62) in subjects with possible PCA with the aim of determining how well our methods classified subjects with respect to syndromic diagnosis and suspected AD vs. non-AD neuropathology. Background: Consensus clinical diagnostic criteria and biomarker interpretation provide independent means of characterizing patients with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), a neurodegenerative condition involving prominent early visual/spatial dysfunction usually associated with Alzheimer disease (AD) neuropathology. Design/Methods: A sample of n=15 subjects with possible PCA underwent detailed clinical and neuropsychological evaluations, high resolution MR imaging, amyloid PET imaging with 11C-Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB), and tau PET imaging with 18F-flortaucipir (FTP). Clinical dementia rating scale (CDR) ratings were determined for standard domains, supplemental language and social/behavioral domains, and for a novel visual/spatial domain we developed for use in PCA research protocols. Results: In keeping with consensus diagnostic criteria, 12/15 subjects had prominent early visual/spatial dysfunction with relative sparing in memory, judgment and problem solving (JPS), language, and social/comportmental cognition reflected by domain ratings. Of the 3 who did not, one had equivalent ratings for visual/spatial and JPS, one had equivalent ratings for visual/spatial and memory, and the third had a progressive Gerstmann syndrome. 13/15 subjects were classified as A+T+(N)+ with respect to biomarkers. The other 2 subjects were classified as A-T-(N)+, one being the subject with the progressive Gerstmann syndrome and the other a subject who evolved to develop features of corticobasal syndrome and had a postmortem primary neuropathological diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration. Conclusions: We conclude that application of consensus clinical diagnostic criteria and of the AT(N) framework provide useful independent means of phenotyping and determining suspected AD vs. non-AD neuropathology, respectively. Disclosure: Dr. McGinnis has nothing to disclose. Dr. Wong has nothing to disclose. Dr. Putcha has nothing to disclose. Dr. Eldaief has nothing to disclose. Dr. Quimby has nothing to disclose. Dr. Collins has nothing to disclose. Dr. Brickhouse has nothing to disclose. Dr. Dickerson has received personal compensation for consulting, serving on a scientific advisory board, speaking, or other activities with Merck, Lilly, Biogen, Piramal. Dr. Dickerson has received personal compensation in an editorial capacity for Neuroimage: Clinical; Cortex. Dr. Dickerson has received research support from Biogen.
The role of lactic acid on mast cell function (HYP3P.404)

Lactic acid is produced from pyruvate during anaerobic respiration due to a high demand and low supply of oxygen. Therefore, it stands to reason that hypoxic tissues such as tumors or asthmatic bronchioles would have increased lactic acid production relative to their healthy counterparts. Mast cells are also prevalent in these tissues. The purpose of this research is to determine the effect lactic acid can have on mast cell function. Murine bone marrow derived mast cells were cultured in the presence of various amounts of L-(+)-lactic acid (0-25mM). BMMCs were activated with either IgE+antigen or IL-33. Cytokine and chemokine production was measured using ELISAs. Our results showed that IgE-mediated cytokine/chemokine production increased with the amount of lactic acid, with significantly enhanced MCP-1, IL-6 and TNFα at 12.5mM lactic acid. However, IL-33-induced cytokine/chemokine production was decreased in the presence of lactic acid, with significant suppression of MCP-1 and IL-6 at 12.5mM lactic acid. These data suggest that a hypoxic environment can alter mast cell inflammatory responses in a stimulus-dependent manner, and warrant further study into molecular mechanisms.