cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pediatric Acute Transverse Myelitis Overview and Differential Diagnosis

Acute transverse myelitis is a clinical syndrome affecting the spinal cord, which is characterized by acute onset of motor, sensory, and autonomic dysfunction. Approximately 20% of cases of acute transverse myelitis occur in children. This review summarizes the current published literature on acute transverse myelitis, including epidemiology, diagnostic criteria, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, clinical evaluation, and differential diagnosis. The article also summarizes the neuroimaging features, acute and chronic complications, treatments, and prognosis of acute transverse myelitis in the pediatric population. The initial evaluation centers on differentiation from other causes of myelopathy, and cases are further divided into idiopathic or disease-associated acute transverse myelitis. Correct diagnosis is important for treatment and prognosis. Treatment begins with intensive surveillance for acute life-threatening respiratory or autonomic complications. Immunomodulating therapy is recommended for noninfectious causes, using high-dose intravenous corticosteroids or plasma exchange. Other therapeutic options are also discussed. Prognosis depends on a number of factors, and evidence suggests that the majority of children have a good outcome. A small percentage of children diagnosed with acute transverse myelitis later are diagnosed with other demyelinating diseases, especially neuromyelitis optica, or multiple sclerosis. The most common long-term complications of acute transverse myelitis are urinary, motor, or sensory dysfunction.
Dynamic thermoelectric glucose sensing with layer-by-layer glucose oxidase immobilization

Abstract A microfluidic calorimeter was developed to measure dynamic temperature changes during glucose oxidation in the presence of layer-by-layer self-assembled glucose oxidase (GOD). The device contains a single flow channel which is 12 mm wide, 60 mm long and 100 μm high with two fluid inlets and one fluid outlet. An antimony–bismuth thin film thermopile with high common mode rejection ratio is attached to the lower channel wall of the microfluidic calorimeter. Layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly is used to form multilayers of glucose oxidase on the glass coverslips by alternate electrostatic adsorption of polyelectrolyte and enzyme. The heat released (−79 kJ mol −1 ) by the oxidation of glucose in the presence of glucose oxidase is measured by the thermopile to detect the glucose concentration. Results showed an increased response with an increase in the number of immobilized enzyme layers or increase in the flow rate. The device has a lowest detection limit of 1 mg dL −1 for glucose.
A taxonomy of indexing structures for mathematical programming modeling languages

The author proposes a taxonomy of the most commonly used indexing structures for mathematical programming modeling languages, and illustrates it with 25 examples stated in plain but precise English. The examples were designed with these criteria in mind: span the taxonomy of indexing structures; bring out clearly the important points requiring discussion in a thorough study of indexing; be simple yet obviously of practical relevance; demonstrate the main indexing capabilities of the leading modeling languages for mathematical programming; and be nonredundant, but build on one another when possible. The present work is an independently useful part of a full report (A.M. Geoffrion, 1989) which works all 25 examples in AMPL, GAMS, LINGO, and SML, and uses the results to evaluate the relative merits of these languages. >
The Comparative history of public policy

Introduction - puzzles of political economy, Francis, G. Castles social protection by other means - Australia's strategy of coping with external vulnerability, Francis G.Castles learning from catastrophes - West Germany's public policy, Manfred G.Schmidt the comparative history of public policy in Israel, Michael Shalev "pillarization" and "popular movements". two variants of welfare state capitalism - the Netherlands and Sweden, Goran Therborn Japan's creative conservatism - continuity under challenge, T.J.Pempel the United Kingdom - paradoxes of an underground statism, Patrick Dunleavy taking exception - explaining the distinctiveness of American public policies in the past century, Edwin Amenta and Theda Skocpol.
Effects of Wrist Tendon Vibration on Targeted Upper-Arm Movements in Poststroke Hemiparesis

Background. Impaired motor control of the upper extremity after stroke may be related to lost sensory, motor, and integrative functions of the brain. Artificial activation of sensory afferents migh...
The pros and cons of shelter‐in‐place

Recently shelter-in-place has received a lot of attention regarding its effectiveness as an emergency response measure. While proponents feel that it is an effective measure, opponents are equally confident that shelter-in-place itself could represent a threat and be the cause of injuries, fatalities, and general loss of comfort. This paper provides an overview of the current knowledge on shelter-in-place, procedures for effective shelter-in-place, and factors that should be taken into account in recommending shelter-in-place. The authors argue that shelter-in-place should not be the only alternative considered by emergency response planners. However, at the minimum, shelter-in-place should be considered as a high-level element in the hierarchy of emergency response options available to emergency response planners, emergency responders, and incident commanders. Within this paper are summaries cataloging the effectiveness of shelter-in-place. It demonstrates the circumstances in which shelter-in-place can be a viable response measure. Also included are the initial steps towards development of a decision tree that can be used to evaluate the many options that safety managers are faced with. While all of these protective methods are viable, one method may be preferred over another in certain circumstances.
The arbitrariness of supermajority rules

There may be good general grounds for the adoption of supermajoritarian thresholds, but no such general arguments can justify the selection of a specific threshold. Although the benefits of supermajority rules, especially in the context of constitutional-amendment procedures, may outweigh the costs of their ex ante indeterminacy, the technically unjustifiable nature of specific thresholds means that those who are disadvantaged under such rules can be given no rational or reasonable explanation for their defeat other than the de facto power of coordination on a threshold. Political theory has a potential remedy in cases in which good reasons are not available, and in which bad reasons (such as the desire to ensure a veto for a powerful minority) might be brought to bear: randomization. If the benefits of supermajority rules are worth the costs of arbitrariness, we may wish to randomize the choice of threshold, though the move to do so may have its own negative consequences.
Demecolcine-Induced Oocyte Enucleation for Somatic Cell Cloning: Coordination Between Cell-Cycle Egress, Kinetics of Cortical Cytoskeletal Interactions, and Second Polar Body Extrusion

Studies were designed to further explore the use of pharmacological agents to produce developmentally competent enucleated mouse oocytes for animal cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer. Metaphase II oocytes from CF-1 and B6D2F1 strains were activated with ethanol and subsequently exposed to demecolcine at various times postactivation. Chromosome segregation, spindle dynamics, and polar body (PB) extrusion were monitored by fluorescence microscopy using DNA-, microtubule-, and microfilament-selective probes. Exposure to demecolcine did not affect rates of oocyte activation induced by ethanol but did disrupt the coordination of cytokinesis and karyokinesis, suppressing the extent and completion of spindle rotation and second PB extrusion in a strain-dependent manner. Moreover, strain- and treatment-specific variations in the rate of oocyte enucleation were also detected. In particular, CF1 oocytes were more efficiently enucleated relative to B6D2F1 oocytes, and demecolcine treatments initiated early after activation resulted in higher enucleation rates than when treatment was delayed. The observed strain differences are possibly caused by a combination of factors, such as the time course of meiotic cell-cycle progression after ethanol activation, the degree of spindle rotation, and the extent of second PB extrusion. These results suggest that developmentally competent cytoplasts can be produced by timely exposure of activated oocytes to agents that disrupt spindle microtubules. However, the utility of the demecolcine-induced enucleation protocol will require further investigation into factors linking karyokinesis to cytokinesis at the levels of cell-cycle control and oocyte cytoskeletal remodeling following artificial or natural means of egg activation.
The Effect of Nonorthogonality on the Dependence of F Ratios Sharing a Common Denominator

Abstract The problem of testing two or more hypotheses about cell means in an analysis of experimental data using F ratios sharing a common denominator mean squared error has been considered by Ghosh (1955), Ramachandran (1956), Krishnaiah (1964), and Hurlburt and Spiegel (1976). Hurlburt and Spiegel considered the case in which the numerator sums of squares of two F statistics are independent and the denominator sums of squares identical. In this article we extend Hurlburt and Spiegel's results to allow dependence between the numerator sums of squares. This can occur when testing row and column effects in nonorthogonal designs, with the degree of dependence varying with the degree of nonorthogonality. The Type I error in testing differences in row effects conditioned on rejecting no difference in column effects is a function of the degrees of freedom and the extent to which the design is nonorthogonal. These relations can be partially explained in terms of the correlation coefficient between the numerato...
Inducible Antisense-mediated Post-transcriptional Gene Silencing in Transgenic Pine Cells Using Green Fluorescent Protein as a Visual Marker

;An inducible post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) system was established in Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana Mill.) cells. This system is based on the activation of an antisense gfp gene construct by a chimeric transcriptional activator GVG (Gal4-binding domain–VP16 activation domain–glucocorticoid receptor fusion) upon application of the inducer to gfp transgenic cell lines. A detailed characterization of the inducible PTGS system in transgenic cell lines demonstrated that this system is stringently controlled. The degree of silencing with this construct could be regulated by the concentration of inducer and the time of treatment. Such transgenic cell lines may provide a useful system to study signaling mechanisms of gene silencing in transgenic pine cells. The inducible system could be a useful tool for functional discovery of novel plant genes.
System-level Built-In Self-Test of global routing resources in Virtex-4 FPGAs

We describe the implementation of a crosscoupled parity Built-In Self-Test (BIST) approach for the global routing resources in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). The BIST approach facilitates systemlevel testing of the FPGA global routing resources prior to configuring the intended system function for high reliability/availability systems. We discuss the application of the BIST approach to the global routing resources in Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs including experimental results of implementations in actual devices.
Jet Production in High-Energy Hadron - Proton Collisions

Abstract We present experimental details from a study of hadron jet production at high transverse momentum (p⊥) in 130 and 200 GeV hadron-proton collisions. Jet definition and acceptance of the apparatus are discussed thoroughly. Jet cross sections are measured for p , π − , π + , K − , K + , and p incident on a liquid hydrogen target. These cross sections depend strongly on the number of valence quarks in the beam. The p⊥ dependence of the jet cross section is measured to be significantly flatter than that for single particles. We show that a model based on quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is able to qualitatively explain both the large jet cross section and the event structure on the trigger and away sides. We present evidence for scale breaking; higher transverse momentum jets are seen to be composed of a greater number of lower momentum particles. The average momentum ( ) of these particles transverse to the jet direction is observed to increase with increasing jet p⊥. Charged particle correlations on both the trigger and away sides are given for both pion and proton beams.
Dynamic Wavelength Routing in WDM Networks under Multiple Signal Quality Constraints

Most research works in routing and design of optical networks assume that the optical medium can carry signals without any bit error. However, the physical impairments on the optical signal quality introduced by optical components, such as erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) and optical cross connects (OXCs), must be considered in the routing and design problems of WDM networks in practice. In this paper, we studied the dynamic connection provisioning problem in WDM networks under multiple signal quality constraints. We present a polynomial time optimal algorithm that finds an active path for an incoming connection request with minimum network resource consumption. Simulation results show that our solution outperforms the previously best solution to the problem.
Spectral analysis of the electronic structure of γ-B28

Elemental boron and boron-rich compounds have been the subjects of intense theoretical and practical interest and seem to be surrounded by an almost unceasing controversy with respect to their fundamental atomic and electronic structures. The sensitivity of boron to the presence of impurities leads to exceptional difficulty in preparing material samples of a specific purity or stoichiometry. Hence, the detailed effort to map out and understand the atomic and electronic structures of these materials, which has been painstakingly performed by numerous researchers over many decades, has often been fraught with missteps. However, when a theoretical or experimental method finally has proven to be successful in dealing with boron and its compounds it is often heralded as a triumph of science and is thus linked with the development of a deeper and more fundamental understanding of the physics of atomic interaction. This focused review article provides an analysis of the current state of understanding the atomic and electronic structures of elemental boron and boron-rich compounds with a strong bent towards the parts of the story related to the γ-B28 modification of pure boron. Also, while many techniques have been instrument-al, the focus here will be on the results obtained from experimental and theoretical/computational methods of core level spectroscopy.
Active Site Structure in Zeolite-Supported Lean NO x Catalysts

Copper ions exchanged into the zeolite, ZSM-5, are known to catalyze the reduction of NO to N2 in the oxidizing environment of lean automotive exhaust, but do require trace hydrocarbons. The interface of this catalyst provides a locally reducing environment even when the surrounding exhaust has molecular oxygen concentrations as high as 10%. The mechanism of this reduction is still unclear; however, structure calculations of the active sites and dynamics simulations of species diffusion within the zeolite pores provide insight into the mechanism of reduction. One active site is proposed to be Cu++ ionically bound to a bridge oxygen in a nonsymmetric site within a zeolitic pore. Another proposed site has the copper ion centrally (symmetrically) bound within a six member zeolitic ring. Evidence suggests that the copper ions cycle between Cu++ and Cu+ during the reduction of NO to N2. The nonsymmetric copper ions are shown here to be hydrated ions attached to the Bronsted acid sites in the zeolite. The calculations here show a four member, first hydration shell for Cu++ and a first shell of 2-3 oxygens for the Cu+ ion. An examination of the pore size in ZSM-5 indicates sufficient room for a first and second hydration shell for most of the possible acid sites. The conclusion that the copper ions are typically hydrated suggests that the catalytic mechanism may have much in common with homogeneous catalysis which is sometimes termed heterogenized homogeneous catalysis.
Serial analysis of gene expression

Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) is a method used to obtain comprehensive, unbiased and quantitative gene-expression profiles. Its major advantage over arrays is that it does not require a priori knowledge of the genes to be analyzed and reflects absolute mRNA levels. Since the original SAGE protocol was developed in a short-tag (10-bp) format, several modifications have been made to produce longer SAGE tags for more precise gene identification and to decrease the amount of starting material necessary. Several SAGE-like methods have also been developed for the genome-wide analysis of DNA copy-number changes and methylation patterns, chromatin structure and transcription factor targets. In this protocol, we describe the 17-bp longSAGE method for transcriptome profiling optimized for a small amount of starting material. The generation of such libraries can be completed in 7–10 d, whereas sequencing and data analysis require an additional 2–3 wk.
Tuberculosis vaccine types and timings.

ABSTRACT Traditionally, the design of new vaccines directed against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the most successful bacterial pathogen on the planet, has focused on prophylactic candidates that would be given to individuals while they are still young. It is becoming more apparent, however, that there are several types of vaccine candidates now under development that could be used under various conditions. Thus, in addition to prophylactic vaccines, such as recombinant Mycobacterium bovis BCG or BCG-boosting vaccines, other applications include vaccines that could prevent infection, vaccines that could be given in emergency situations as postexposure vaccines, vaccines that could be used to facilitate chemotherapy, and vaccines that could be used to reduce or prevent relapse and reactivation disease. These approaches are discussed here, including the type of immunity we are trying to specifically target, as well as the limitations of these approaches.
Transforming growth factor-beta1: differential effects on multiple myeloma versus normal B cells

Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a product of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs), is a growth factor for multiple myeloma (MM) cells. Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) is also produced by BMSCs and can regulate IL- 6 secretion by several tissues, including BMSCs. The present study was designed to characterize in vitro tumor growth regulation by TGF-beta1 in MM. Sorted CD38+CD45RA- MM cells secreted significantly more TGF- beta1 (8.2 +/- 2.0 ng/mL) than peripheral blood mononuclear cells (P < .001), splenic B cells (P < .001), and CD40 ligand (CD40L) pretreated B cells (P < .05). TGF-beta1 secretion by MM-BMMCs (3.8 +/- 0.9 ng/mL) was significantly greater than by N-BMMCs (1.2 +/- 0.1 ng/mL, P < .001). MM-BMSCs also secreted significantly more TGF-beta1 (6.6 +/- 2.5 ng/mL, n = 11) than N-BMSCs (4.4 +/- 0.6 ng/mL, P < .02, n = 10) and N- BMSC lines (3.9 +/- 0.2 ng/mL, P < .02, n = 6). TGF-beta1 secretion was correlated with IL-6 secretion in MM-BMSCs. Anti-TGF-beta1 monoclonal antibody both blocked IL-6 secretion by BMSCs and inhibited the increments in IL-6 secretion by BMSCs induced by MM cell adhesion. Moreover, exogenous TGF-beta1 upregulated IL-6 secretion by MM-BMSCs, normal BMSCs, and CD38+ CD45RA- MM cells, as well as tumor cell proliferation. This is in contrast to the inhibitory effect of TGF- beta1 on proliferation and Ig secretion of normal splenic B cells. Finally, retinoblastoma proteins (pRB) are constitutively phosphorylated in MM cells; TGF-beta1 either did not alter or increased pRB phosphorylation. pRB are dephosphorylated in splenic B cells and phosphorylated in CD40L triggered B cells in contrast to its effects on MM cells, TGF-beta1 decreased phosphorylation of pRB in CD40L treated B cells. These results suggest that TGF-beta1 is produced in MM by both tumor cells and BMSCs, with related tumore cell growth. Moreover, MM cell growth may be enhanced by resistance of tumor cells to the inhibitory effects of TGF-beta1 on normal B-cell proliferation and Ig secretion.
Antibacterial and antifungal potential of Ga‐bioactive glass and Ga‐bioactive glass/polymeric hydrogel composites

A bioactive glass series (0.42SiO2 -0.10Na2 O-0.08CaO-(0.40 - x)ZnO-(x)Ga2 O3 ) was synthesized, and it is efficacy against the Gram (-ve) bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli), the Gram (+ve) bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and the fungus Candida albicans (C. albicans), were characterized through liquid broth analysis. The glass series was also seeded in CMC-Dex hydrogels at three different loadings (0.05, 0.10, and 0.25 m2 ), and the antibacterial and antifungal efficacies of the resulting composites were characterized using both liquid broth and agar diffusion analysis. Liquid broth analysis was conducted using liquid extracts, which for glass samples were obtained after incubation for up to 30 days in both ultrapure water and phosphate buffered saline (PBS), while glass-hydrogel extracts were obtained solely in PBS. Glass extracts (water) decreased C. albicans viability, while those obtained in PBS decreased the viability of both E. coli and C. albicans. Glass-hydrogel extracts exhibited slight inhibition of E. coli and C. albicans. However, none of the liquid extracts decreased S. aureus viability. Glass-hydrogel composites produced inhibition zones in all three microbial cultures, with the greatest efficacy against C. albicans. The results of this study suggest these materials have potential as bone void-filling materials which display antifungal, and possibly, antibacterial properties. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 105B: 1102-1113, 2017.
Living biofouling-resistant membranes as a model for the beneficial use of engineered biofilms

Membrane systems are used increasingly for water treatment, recycling water from wastewater, during food processing, and energy production. They thus are a key technology to ensure water, energy, and food sustainability. However, biofouling, the build-up of microbes and their polymeric matrix, clogs these systems and reduces their efficiency. Realizing that a microbial film is inevitable, we engineered a beneficial biofilm that prevents membrane biofouling, limiting its own thickness by sensing the number of its cells that are present via a quorum-sensing circuit. The beneficial biofilm also prevents biofilm formation by deleterious bacteria by secreting nitric oxide, a general biofilm dispersal agent, as demonstrated by both short-term dead-end filtration and long-term cross-flow filtration tests. In addition, the beneficial biofilm was engineered to produce an epoxide hydrolase so that it efficiently removes the environmental pollutant epichlorohydrin. Thus, we have created a living biofouling-resistant membrane system that simultaneously reduces biofouling and provides a platform for biodegradation of persistent organic pollutants.
Community College Student-Researchers’ Real Life Application: Stress, Energy Drinks, and Career Choices!

ABSTRACTFreshman community college students often show signs of stress as they balance their newly acquired responsibilities in the classroom with long-term responsibilities of family, employment, and household management. Logically, freshman students may try some new coping mechanisms to combat stress. This study was conducted by a freshman psychology student who was personally feeling increased levels of stress and increased consumption of energy drinks. During Introduction to Psychology, students were asked to create a psychology project using variables from their life experiences that brought about the variables of stress and caffeine consumption. Next, a Research Methods class and research scholarship generated Institutional Review Board approval, the use of Statistics Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for data analysis and the pursuit of publishing to share findings. The results of this study showed that students consuming energy drinks had significantly higher levels of stress. Seventy-four pe...
Effect of additives on LiMo3Se3 nanowire film chemical sensors.

Here we investigate the effect of lithium iodide and cetyltrimethylammonium (CTA) bromide additives on the ability of LiMo3Se3 nanowire film sensors to bind and detect organic solvents electrically. Both additives decrease the electrical conductivity of the films. Lithium iodide increases the response of the films to both polar and nonpolar analytes. CTA increases the response of the films to nonpolar analytes but reduces the response to polar analytes. Quartz crystal microbalance measurements show that the modified electrical sensitivities of the films are due to altered analyte adsorption abilities of the films. These results show that the Li+ ions are involved in analyte binding in native LiMo3Se3 films and that a programming of LiMo3Se3 nanowire film sensors is possible by replacing lithium cations with other receptors.
SCIENCE, COMMODITIES, AND CORRUPTION IN THE GILDED AGE

This essay argues that categories of corruption and reform, so often used by historians to assess the Gilded Age, are themselves the ideological products of the period's struggles for political, economic, and social power. It does so by exploring fierce disputes over how to value sugar, a crucial commodity in the political economy of the late nineteenth-century United States. Confronted with evidence of massive fraud, the Treasury hoped that chemical techniques would rationalize the collection of sugar tariffs. Instead their introduction enabled the rise of the notorious Sugar Trust, by making it more difficult to distinguish corrupt influence from the legitimate exercise of expert judgment. Sugar exemplifies how Gilded Age battles over corruption should be seen in the broader and longer context of the history of capitalism, in which self-proclaimed reformers have used charges of fraud and adulteration to discredit the knowledge of artisans and workers while mantling themselves in claims to objectivity and reason. Scientific knowledge, far from being the inevitable ally of accountability and good governance, could just as easily be deployed to obfuscate and confuse, and thereby to wrest control of social and economic power.
Baron Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842): Father of modern military surgery, innovater, humanist

There is no question that Baron Larrey was the first modern military surgeon. The high morale of Napolean's troops, which contributed to the success of his armies, was in a major way dependent on Larrey's superb medical care of the wounded. It was Napoleon's brilliance to recognize this and to give Larrey free rein. Beginning in the Civil War, when ambulances first brought in the wounded to receive surgical care at the Battle of Antietam (1862), down to World War II and the Vietnam War, his principles were increasingly followed by the U.S. Army Medical Corps. In Vietnam a true "flying ambulance," the medical helicopter, was obviously the final perfection of Larrey's ambulance volante. Perhaps his dedicated humanism in the care of the wounded soldier was his best characteristic and the one that should be followed most carefully today. Even in this era of great ethical concerns for the sick and wounded, Larrey's principles set the highest of standards for all.
The illiterate brain and the neuropsychological assessment: From the past knowledge to the future new instruments

The lifetime learning of illiterate and low-educated individuals shapes their cognitive skills, which are challenging to grade by the current available neuropsychological tools. Eight hundred million of the global population are illiterate. It is very challenging to interpret the cognitive performance of this population by the available formal neuropsychological tests, mainly developed for higher educated people. From extensive literature investigation, we reviewed the cognitive process and performance of illiterate and low-educated population on various cognitive domains including language, executive function, memory, visual-related function, and motor skills. We also suggested the concept in the development of the appropriate tools for the cognitive assessment among this population. Finally, we provide the available cognitive screening tools validated in the illiterate and low-educated subjects within the last three decades.
Survival of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus in Casein and Sodium Caseinate Produced from the Milk of Infected Cows1

Milk-borne transmission of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) was implied during the 1967-1968 epizootic in England. Consequently, experiments were designed to study survival of FMDV in milk and dairy products. As part of these studies, eight batches of casein were prepared from milk collected at various times after infection of cows with FMDV. Raw skimmilk was used in two batches and pasteurized (72 C, 15 sec), skimmilk was used in six. Casein was obtained by acidulation of skimmilk to pH 4.6 with HCI. Each batch was tested for FMDV infectivity either as casein or sodium caseinate in cell cultures and by inoculation of cattle. Samples assayed in cell cultures did not show evidence of infectious FMDV. However, cattle inoculated with these samples became infected with FMDV in one of two trials in which the casein was prepared from raw skimmilk and in three of six trials with skimmilk which was pasteurized. Samples from one of two dried casein batches infected test cattle. Samples from four of six batches of casein prepared from uninfected cows milk to which FMDV was added before pasteurization also infected cattle.
Linguistic Indicators of Pain Catastrophizing in Patients With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain.

Abstract The present study examined markers of pain catastrophizing in the word use of patients with chronic pain. Patients (N = 71) completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale and wrote about their life with pain. Quantitative word count analysis examined whether the essays contained linguistic indicators of catastrophizing. Bivariate correlations showed that catastrophizing was associated with greater use of first person singular pronouns, such as "I" (r = .27, P ≤ .05) and pronouns referencing other people (r = .28, P ≤ .05). Catastrophizing was further significantly associated with greater use of sadness (r = .35, P ≤ .01) and anger (r = .30, P ≤ .05) words. No significant relationships with positive emotion and cognitive process words were evident. Controlling for patients' engagement in the writing task, gender, age, pain intensity, and neuroticism in multiple regression, the linguistic categories together uniquely explained 13.6% of the variance in catastrophizing ( P ≤ .001). First person singular pronouns (β = .24, P ≤ .05) and words relating to sadness (β = .25, P ≤ .05) were significant, and pronouns referencing other people (β = .19, P ≤ .10) were trending. The results suggest that pain catastrophizing is associated with a "linguistic fingerprint" that can be discerned from patients' natural word use. Perspective Quantitative word count analysis examined whether pain catastrophizing is reflected in patients' written essays about living with pain. Catastrophizing was associated with more first person singular pronouns, more pronouns referencing other people, and more expressions of sadness and anger. The results can help understand how catastrophizing translates into communicative behaviors.
CERN's 10-year plan marred by Spanish debt problems

At a cost of SFr 2.23bn (£1.05bn), the proposed Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will cause the laboratory's budget to exceed planned income from member states over the next 10 years by about SFr 0.5bn. Hoped-for additional contributions from member and non-member states could make up the difference, CERN's council was told last month. But Spain has refused to pay its contribution for the last two years, leaving CERN in debt to the tune of over SFr 150m.
Encoding seasonal patterns using the Kasai algorithm

Data series that contain patterns are the expression of a set of rules that specify the pattern. In cases where the data series is known but the rules are not known, the Kasai algorithm can analyze the data pattern and produce the complete set of rules that described the data pattern observed to date.
When Google's algorithm fails: Bringing order to social networks

This paper presents a novel social network ranking algorithm called CrRank, designed specifically for social media. The algorithm computes the user ranks by analyzing the content they contribute in terms of words and hashtags. The main intuition is based on the user subscriptions to the various topics of a given dataset. Such subscription is measured against a notion of ground-truth that is objectively computed in advance. CrRank is a biologically-inspired multilayered network algorithm. It is equipped with a network measure (i.e., density) and social media heuristics (e.g., number of hashtags votes) to compute distinct ranks. The algorithm and experiments have shown a great deal of promise in outperforming major ranking algorithms (e.g., PageRank) and other measures (e.g., network centrality).
The Rising Incidence of Thyroid Cancer: Contributions from Healthcare Practice and Biologic Risk Factors

The incidence of thyroid cancer has dramatically increased over the past several decades, while mortality from thyroid cancer remains exceedingly low. Mortality has increased slightly in more recent years, by less than 1% per year. The simplest explanation for this pattern is an increase in the radiologic detection and pathologic reporting of identified thyroid nodules with very little change in underlying biology. A number of biologic mechanisms have been proposed but are unlikely to account for the dramatic upward trend in incidence over such a short time. Radiation exposure at a young age is an established cause of thyroid cancer, but this typically requires doses equivalent to nuclear catastrophe or radiation cancer treatment and thus is unlikely to have a significant global impact on thyroid cancer incidence. Similarly a number of behavioral and environmental factors influence TSH levels and other proposed hormonal drivers of thyroid cancer cell proliferation. Of these, an increase in obesity and a decrease in smoking may contribute to a small increase in thyroid cancer, but this will require significantly larger and more rigorous studies to formally establish.
Google search keywords that best predict energy price volatility

Abstract Internet search activity data has been widely used as an instrument to approximate trader attention in different markets. This method has proven effective in predicting market indices in the short-term. However, little attention has been paid to demonstrating search activity for keywords that best grab investor attention in different markets. This study attempts to build the best practically possible proxy for attention in the market for energy commodities using Google search data. Specifically, we confirm the utility of Google search activity for energy related keywords are significant predictors of volatility by showing they have incremental predictive power beyond the conventional GARCH models in predicting volatility for energy commodities' prices. Starting with a set of ninety terms used in the energy sector, the study uses a multistage filtering process to create combinations of keywords that best predict the volatility of crude oil (Brent and West Texas Intermediate), conventional gasoline (New York Harbor and US Gulf Coast), heating oil (New York Harbor), and natural gas prices. For each commodity, combinations that enhance GARCH most effectively are established as proxies of attention. The results indicate investor attention is widely reflected in Internet search activities and demonstrate search data for what keywords best reveal the direction of concern and attention in energy markets.
Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects and the Effects of Heterogeneous Treatments with Ensemble Methods

Randomized experiments are increasingly used to study political phenomena because they can credibly estimate the average effect of a treatment on a population of interest. But political scientists are often interested in how effects vary across subpopulations—heterogeneous treatment effects—and how differences in the content of the treatment affects responses—the response to heterogeneous treatments. Several new methods have been introduced to estimate heterogeneous effects, but it is difficult to know if a method will perform well for a particular data set. Rather than using only one method, we show how an ensemble of methods—weighted averages of estimates from individual models increasingly used in machine learning—accurately measure heterogeneous effects. Building on a large literature on ensemble methods, we show how the weighting of methods can contribute to accurate estimation of heterogeneous treatment effects and demonstrate how pooling models lead to superior performance to individual methods across diverse problems. We apply the ensemble method to two experiments, illuminating how the ensemble method for heterogeneous treatment effects facilitates exploratory analysis of treatment effects.
Gravitational wave probes of parity violation in compact binary coalescences

Is gravity parity violating? Given the recent observations of gravitational waves from coalescing compact binaries, we develop a strategy to find an answer with current and future detectors. We identify the key signatures of parity violation in gravitational waves: amplitude birefringence in their propagation and a modified chirping rate in their generation. We then determine the optimal binaries to test the existence of parity violation in gravity, and prioritize the research in modeling that will be required to carry out such tests before detectors reach their design sensitivity.
Quantum many-body effects in x-ray spectra efficiently computed using a basic graph algorithm

The growing interest in using x-ray spectroscopy for refined materials characterization calls for an accurate electronic-structure theory to interpret the x-ray near-edge fine structure. In this work, we propose an efficient and unified framework to describe all the many-electron processes in a Fermi liquid after a sudden perturbation (such as a core hole). This problem has been visited by the Mahan-Nozi\'eres-De Dominicis (MND) theory, but it is intractable to implement various Feynman diagrams within first-principles calculations. Here, we adopt a nondiagrammatic approach and treat all the many-electron processes in the MND theory on an equal footing. Starting from a recently introduced determinant formalism [Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 096402 (2017)], we exploit the linear dependence of determinants describing different final states involved in the spectral calculations. An elementary graph algorithm, breadth-first search, can be used to quickly identify the important determinants for shaping the spectrum, which avoids the need to evaluate a great number of vanishingly small terms. This search algorithm is performed over the tree-structure of the many-body expansion, which mimics a path-finding process. We demonstrate that the determinantal approach is computationally inexpensive even for obtaining x-ray spectra of extended systems. Using Kohn-Sham orbitals from two self-consistent fields (ground and core-excited state) as input for constructing the determinants, the calculated x-ray spectra for a number of transition metal oxides are in good agreement with experiments. Many-electron aspects beyond the Bethe-Salpeter equation, as captured by this approach, are also discussed, such as shakeup excitations and many-body wave function overlap considered in Anderson's orthogonality catastrophe.
Chronic Alcohol, Intrinsic Excitability, and Potassium Channels: Neuroadaptations and Drinking Behavior

Neural mechanisms underlying alcohol use disorder remain elusive, and this lack of understanding has slowed the development of efficacious treatment strategies for reducing relapse rates and prolonging abstinence. While synaptic adaptations produced by chronic alcohol exposure have been extensively characterized in a variety of brain regions, changes in intrinsic excitability of critical projection neurons are understudied. Accumulating evidence suggests that prolonged alcohol drinking and alcohol dependence produce plasticity of intrinsic excitability as measured by changes in evoked action potential firing and after-hyperpolarization amplitude. In this chapter, we describe functional changes in cell firing of projection neurons after long-term alcohol exposure that occur across species and in multiple brain regions. Adaptations in calcium-activated (KCa2), voltage-dependent (KV7), and G protein-coupled inwardly rectifying (Kir3 or GIRK) potassium channels that regulate the evoked firing and after-hyperpolarization parallel functional changes in intrinsic excitability induced by chronic alcohol. Moreover, there are strong genetic links between alcohol-related behaviors and genes encoding KCa2, KV7, and GIRK channels, and pharmacologically targeting these channels reduces alcohol consumption and alcohol-related behaviors. Together, these studies demonstrate that chronic alcohol drinking produces adaptations in KCa2, KV7, and GIRK channels leading to impaired regulation of the after-hyperpolarization and aberrant cell firing. Correcting the deficit in the after-hyperpolarization with positive modulators of KCa2 and KV7 channels and altering the GIRK channel binding pocket to block the access of alcohol represent a potentially highly effective pharmacological approach that can restore changes in intrinsic excitability and reduce alcohol consumption in affected individuals.
Polyphosphate Stabilizes Protein Unfolding Intermediates as Soluble Amyloid-like Oligomers.

Abstract Inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) constitutes one of the most conserved and ubiquitous molecules in biology. Recent work in bacteria demonstrated that polyP increases oxidative stress resistance by preventing stress-induced protein aggregation and promotes biofilm formation by stimulating functional amyloid formation. To gain insights into these two seemingly contradictory functions of polyP, we investigated the effects of polyP on the folding model lactate dehydrogenase. We discovered that the presence of polyP during the thermal unfolding process stabilizes folding intermediates of lactate dehydrogenase as soluble micro-β-aggregates with amyloid-like properties. Size and heterogeneity of the oligomers formed in this process were dependent on the polyP chain length, with longer chains forming smaller, more homogenous complexes. This ability of polyP to stabilize thermally unfolded proteins even upon exposure to extreme temperatures appears to contribute to the observed resistance of uropathogenic Escherichia coli toward severe heat shock treatment. These results suggest that the working mechanism of polyP is the same for both soluble and amyloidogenic proteins, with the ultimate outcome likely being determined by a combination of polyP chain length and the client protein itself. They help to explain how polyP can simultaneously function as general stress-protective chaperone and instigator of amyloidogenic processes in vivo.
Towards an AC Optimal Power Flow Algorithm with Robust Feasibility Guarantees

With growing penetrations of stochastic renewable generation and the need to accurately model the network physics, optimization problems that explicitly consider uncertainty and the AC power flow equations are becoming increasingly important to the operation of electric power systems. This paper describes initial steps towards an AC Optimal Power Flow (AC OPF) algorithm which yields an operating point that is guaranteed to be robust to all realizations of stochastic generation within a specified uncertainty set. Ensuring robust feasibility requires overcoming two challenges: 1) ensuring solvability of the power flow equations for all uncertainty realizations and 2) guaranteeing feasibility of the engineering constraints for all uncertainty realizations. This paper primarily focuses on the latter challenge. Specifically, the robust AC OPF problem is posed as a bi-level program that maximizes (or minimizes) the constraint values over the uncertainty set, where a convex relaxation of the AC power flow constraints is used to ensure conservativeness. The resulting optimization program is solved using an alternating solution algorithm. The algorithm is illustrated via detailed analyses of two small test cases.
Beyond Worst Case Needs: Measuring the Breadth and Severity of Housing Insecurity Among Urban Renters

Many indicators of renter household insecurity remain widespread or have shown signs of worsening in the past decade, including unaffordability, poor unit conditions, overcrowding, and evictions. M...
Recycling in Supply Chains for Tomorrow’s Low-Carbon Industries

Metal production and recycling technology changes are urgently needed to confront multiple simultaneous grand challenges in society. Energy production and distribution and transportation are undergoing disruptive transformations, and industry will follow. Unlike prior disruptions, such as the Internet and biotech, this will up-end material and energy flows around the planet. Due to both heightened awareness of climate impacts and plunging costs of sustainable technology, fossil energy and metals technologies which took 250 years to reach planet-wide industrial ubiquity must be swept aside and replaced in 2–3 decades. This talk will present energy industry scenarios and discuss new supply chains which will need to emerge in order to support these scenarios, the role which recycling must play in order to make these new supply chains themselves sustainable, and the timescales in which these changes need to happen, in order to meet targets for preventing large-scale climate disruption.
A Brief History of Franco-American Circulation in the Twentieth Century

This chapter discusses the centuries-long relationship between the US and France in terms of history, politics, and, above all, music. American and French popular culture have been intertwined for almost as long as either state has existed. This chapter also discusses how local record labels like Dischord and Postcard have documented that circulation on both sides of the Atlantic.
Wideband bright-soliton frequency-comb generation at optical telecommunication wavelength in a thin silicon nitride film

Bright-soliton frequency comb generation in a thin-film silicon nitride microresonator at optical telecommunication wavelengths is numerically demonstrated using our recently developed approach for dispersion engineering by virtue of coupling dispersion between two coupled microresonators. By coupling two identical resonators through an asymmetric Mach–Zehnder structure, sinusoidal splitting of the resonance frequencies can be achieved. This enables the engineering of the dispersion of the resulting modes of the coupled structure. Using this approach, anomalous dispersion of the resonant modes can be achieved at the pumping wavelength (which is selected to be the optical telecommunication wavelength, i.e., 1.55 μm) to enable Kerr-comb generation. In addition, by utilizing soliton-induced Cherenkov radiation in the coupled-resonator structure, we can increase the bandwidth of the resulting Kerr-comb signal.