cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Chemospecific deficits in taste detection after selective gustatory deafferentation in rats

Electrophysiological data support the existence of sodium-specific taste receptors that appear to be limited to the anterior tongue. However, previous behavioral findings suggest that bilateral transection of the chorda tympani nerve (CTn) has minimal consequences on NaCl intake and preference. This study employed a conditioned avoidance procedure to measure detection thresholds to NaCl and sucrose both before and after bilateral transection of the CTn. Rats were trained to maintain spout contact in response to water presentations (70 microliters) and to avoid spout contact when a taste solution (70 microliters) was presented. In experiment 1, all rats (n = 3) showed statistically significant impairments in the detectability of NaCl after bilateral section of the CTn. The mean increase in the NaCl detection threshold was 1.41 log units. In contrast, sucrose threshold in these same rats was marginally affected by CTn section (mean increase = 0.22 log units). Experiment 2 (n = 4) replicated the findings of the first experiment. The mean increase in the NaCl detection threshold was 2.23 log units. Sucrose threshold in these rats was, again, only marginally affected by CTn section (mean increase = 0.83 log units). Histological examination of the anterior tongue from the rats in experiment 2 indicated that the CTn transections were complete. These findings reveal that the anterior oral receptive field (innervated by the CTn) containing only 15% of the total taste bud population is critical for the normal detection of NaCl.
PERFORMANCE BENEFITS FROM NONIMAGING SECONDARY CONCENTRATORS IN POINT FOCUS DISH SOLAR THERMAL APPLICATIONS

A performance model based on a Monte Carlo ray-trace technique is used to evaluate the benefits associated with the addition of a nonimaging, maximally concentrating secondary, to a conventional paraboloidal solar dish. The model shows that for a primary dish with a focal length to diameter ratio of 0.6, a characteristic slope error of 5 milliradians, and a cavity receiver operated at temperature of 1000°, the optimized efficiency with a secondary is 0.70 compared to 0.59 for the primary alone. The relative performance advantage provided by a secondary decreases somewhat if either the temperature or the primary slope error are decreased, however, it remains significant at all temperatures above 400°, even in the “high performance limit” of slope errors < 2 milliradians. In this limit, there is an alternative secondary optimization strategy, for which the off-track tolerance can be doubled relative to a single stage configuration while maintaining the identical efficiency. The relative performance when the primary is spheroidal rather than paraboloidal shows that the optimum performance with a secondary is much better than the best performance with no secondary. This may have important implications for the use of primaries utilizing stretched-membrane technologies.
Liposome-mediated delivery of tobacco mosaic virus RNA into petunia protoplast : Improved conditions for liposome-protoplast incubations.

Liposome-mediated delivery of TMV RNA into petunia protoplasts and resulting virus antigen production has been used as an assay for determining incubation conditions which favor increased uptake of vesicle contents by plant cells. Vesicle phospholipid composition, incubation buffer divalent metal ion concentration, the type and concentration of polyalcohol used to stimulate vesicle uptake and the RNA content of the liposome preparation were determined to be critical factors influencing the efficiency of delivery. Manipulation of these parameters resulted in a 50-fold improvement in virus antigen production over that obtained with conditions previously used for liposome-protoplast incubations (Proc Natl Acad Sci 79: 1859–1863, 1982). Virus antigen production could be detected following incubation of protoplasts with 80% of the protoplasts could be infected. Comparisons with other techniques used to introduce nucleic acids into plant protoplasts indicated that liposome-mediated delivery was 10-to 1 000-fold more efficient than these other methods. The general use of liposomes to introduce RNA and DNA molecules into plant protoplasts is discussed.
Design of low Reynolds number airfoils. II

Low Reynolds number airfoils were designed for high lift-to-drag ratios. Design considerations of low Re-airfoils are discussed and design examples are presented. It is shown that the performance of advance low Reynolds airfoils critically depends on proper laminar separation and transition control for the minimum profile drag coefficient with minimum turbulator device drag. This transition control close to the laminar separation is possible by enforcing transition on the upper surface either directly by means of spanwise rows of three-dimensional roughness elements, bleed or suction holes, or indirectly by means of destabilizing the upper surface boundary layer by means of backward facing surface steps, two-dimensional or zig-zag tapes or weak boundary layer blowing. Pneumatic turbulators are found to be advantageous because they can be adjusted to different external flow conditions better than mechanical ones.
Anti-N-methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis in 7-Month Old Infant Following Influenza Vaccination (P5.136)

Objective: This case describes antibody-verified anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate (anti-NMDA) receptor encephalitis in a previously healthy 7 month-old infant female presenting within 48 hours of receiving an influenza booster vaccination during her first influenza season. Background: A previously healthy 7 month old infant female presented with acute onset of altered mental status, decreased activity, roving eye movements, and opisthotonic posturing within 48 hours of receiving an influenza booster vaccination. She was initially diagnosed with acute demyelinating encephalomyelitis (ADEM) and treated with a short burst of corticosteroids followed by a taper. Symptoms subjectively improved during steroid therapy but did not persist, prompting further diagnostic evaluations. Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis was confirmed by cerebrospinal fluid antibody titer 68 days after onset of symptoms. Treatment was then undertaken with serial courses of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and rituximab. The patient’s hospital course was protracted, and she required utilization of intensive care unit resources due to aspiration risk, surgical placement of nutritional and vascular access devices, and paroxysmal autonomic hyperactivity (PAH). Minimal improvement in her neurologic exam was observed at time of hospital discharge and may be due to delayed start of treatment, as well as the cumulative effect of unrecognized seizures early in her illness course. Conclusions: This case describes the youngest patient with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis yet reported, and the first to suggest correlation with recent influenza vaccination. As higher likelihood of neurologic recovery is associated with early initiation of treatment, providers are encouraged to consider autoimmune neurologic disorders like anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis when mental status abnormalities and developmental regression persist, regardless of patient age. Disclosure: Dr. Cartisano has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kicker has nothing to disclose.
Outcome Evaluation of a Family-Based Jail Reentry Program for Substance Abusing Offenders

Offender reentry programs have proliferated since the passage of the Second Chance Act in 2008. This study examines the effectiveness of one such jail-based reentry program for male inmates diagnosed with substance dependency and who have minor children, the Delaware County (OH) Jail Substance Abuse Treatment program. This program served 34 offenders and their families over 2 years and was based on the Community Reinforcement and Family Training model, a treatment modality for substance abuse involving both operant conditioning and family-based therapy for behavioral modification. Results from a quasi-experimental design indicate that program participants were significantly less likely to be rearrested within 1 year after release relative to a comparison group of similarly situated offenders and more likely to comply with child support orders following release. Findings also revealed the treatment group had significantly more days to failure for those who did recidivate.
Clinical analysis on continuous epidural labor analgesia in 224 cases

Objective To explore the effect of continuous epidural labor analgesia and its impact on pregnancy outcome.Method A total of 224 primiparous women receiving continuous epidural labor analgesia voluntarily were selected as study group; 250 primiparous women not receiving continuous epidural labor analgesia during the same period were randomly selected as control group; the analgesic effects and pregnancy outcomes in the two groups were compared.Results VAS score in study group was significantly lower than that in control group;the incidence rate of uterine inertia during stages of labor in study group was significantly higher than that in control group; the duration time of the first stage of labor,the duration time of the second stage of labor,the total duration time of stages of labor in study group were significantly higher than those in control group; the rate of lateral episiotomy in study group was significantly lower than that in control group,there were statistically significant differences in the above-mentioned indexes between the two groups (P 0.005) ; there was no statistically significant difference in the incidence rates of cesarean section,surgical midwifery,postpartum hemorrhage,and neonatal asphyxia between the two groups (P 0.05) .Conclusion The effect of continuous epidural labor analgesia is good,the method can reduce the harms of delivery to pregnant women and their babies,the safety is high,so the method is worthy to be popularized extensively.
Disentangling the efficiency drivers in country‐level global health programs: An empirical study

Abstract Motivated by the cost reductions and outcome improvements generated by benchmarking in many industries, we focus on in-country global health programs to identify and quantify opportunities for process improvement. We empirically study the major efficiency drivers of reproductive health (RH) country programs in Sub-Saharan Africa sponsored by international funding organizations. To ensure a level playing field for comparison across countries, we quantify the impact of cross-country heterogeneity and random shocks on the efficiency of RH programs. To analyze these relationships and isolate the effects attributable to managerial inefficiency, we use a three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)/Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) model. We show the impact of environmental factors on program efficiency, linking policy making decisions with operational and health outcome performance. We also show that donor fragmentation negatively impacts managerial efficiency, and we suggest actions to mitigate this effect. We then provide a way to improve performance through benchmarking efforts within groups of countries and present an initial prototype of such efforts.
Improvement of the Surgical Apgar Score by Addition of Intraoperative Blood Transfusion Among Patients Undergoing Major Gastrointestinal Surgery.

The surgical Apgar score (SAS) has been shown to correlate with postoperative outcomes. A key component of the SAS is estimated blood loss (EBL), which has been shown to be inaccurate and discordant with intraoperative blood transfusion. Given this, the objective of the current study was to assess the added predictive value of the including receipt of intraoperative transfusion to the SAS. We identified 1833 patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery (pancreatic, hepato-biliary, and colorectal) between January 1, 2010 and August 31, 2013 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The primary outcome was postoperative complications or death. A modified SAS was created by assigning a “0” EBL score for every patient who received an intraoperative blood transfusion, regardless of the actual EBL. Model performance was tested using logistic regression and c-statistic. Mean EBL of the entire cohort was 250 mL. Two hundred ninety-two patients (15.9 %) received at least 1 unit of blood intraoperatively. Approximately, one half of patients (55.1 %) who had an EBL 1000 mL: 29.2 %; P < 0.001). The variance inflation factor between EBL and intraoperative transfusion was 1.23 for postoperative morbidity/mortality, suggesting that the multicollinearity between the two variables was low. With the inclusion of intraoperative transfusion in the modified SAS, the modified model (c-statistic 0.6552) had an improved discrimination of predicting postoperative morbidity and mortality as compared to the original SAS (c-statistic 0.6391) (P = 0.01). The modified SAS demonstrated improvement in predicting raw differences in the incidence of postoperative morbidity/mortality based on the overall score (P < 0.05). The inclusion of intraoperative transfusion in a modified SAS significantly improves the risk-stratifying ability of the score with regard to postoperative morbidity and mortality. Given the variability of intraoperative transfusion, its discordance with EBL, and its strong negative impact on postoperative outcomes, we strongly support the inclusion of this factor in a modified SAS.
Greetings from the new president of world association of radiopharmaceutical and molecular therapy

As the New Year 2016 has been rolling on, I am looking forward to continue serving the World Association of Radiopharmaceutical and Molecular Therapy (WARMTH) as its President for the remaining part of 2016 and the year 2017. I must again repeat what I said in my initial letter when I took my office that I greatly appreciate my predecessors (Richard Baum, the Late Ajit Padhy, and Harvey Turner) who have provided excellent examples of leadership of our WARMTH. I am fortunate to have been a part of such exciting teams and working with the exceptional people instrumental in directing the WARMTH, and thus, my goal would be to keep maintaining its phenomenal success.
Is the deliberate self-induction of alcohol tolerance associated with negative alcohol outcomes?

Abstract Research indicates 10% of college student drinkers report deliberately training to increase alcohol tolerance (a diagnostic criterion for alcohol use disorder) to avoid passing out early or to keep up with peers. Given that tolerance training may be considered a harm reduction technique designed to reduce acute aversive consequences, we examined the associations between tolerance training and the use of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) more generally. A cross-sectional survey of 1080 lifetime drinkers was conducted at a large Midwestern university. Of this sample, 5.6% ( n = 60) reported training to increase their tolerance. Drinkers who endorsed having trained to increase tolerance reported notably more alcohol-related problems than those who reported never training ( M adj = 51.80 versus M adj = 39.30; p fewer PBS (e.g., avoid drinking games) on the Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale (PBSS, Martens et al., 2005) than participants who had never trained ( M adj = 16.89 versus M adj = 18.90; p
Breaking news production processes in US metropolitan newspapers: Immediacy and journalistic authority:

Incremental updates to breaking news stories online have become embedded in newspapers in the 24/7 online era. This article reviews four US metropolitan newspapers, using field observations and interviews to examine how journalists choose breaking news stories and their rationale for these continuous updates. Specifically, the article explores the connection between temporality and authority, positing that journalists use these updates to retain their role as authoritative truth-tellers in relation to audiences, the competition, and their own position in the profession. As newspaper coverage becomes more like local TV, these metropolitan newspaper journalists worry that a breaking news strategy, while potentially necessary, is also questionable and even potentially harmful, but nonetheless pursue it.
Penile transplantation: an emerging option for genitourinary reconstruction

Penile transplantation is an emerging option for patients with severe genital defects not amenable to traditional reconstructive options. In this article, we discuss the burgeoning problem of severe male genitourinary trauma in the military, the limitations of traditional reconstructive options in addressing these problems, and the potential for penile transplantation to provide improved outcomes. We also review the preclinical research and limited worldwide experience with penile transplantation to date, including lessons learned, and discuss the many important technical, logistical, and ethical considerations pertaining to penile transplantation that must be addressed to maximize the likelihood of successful implementation.
Allogeneic Committed Hematopoietic Progenitors Are Protective Against Radiation.

Whole-body irradiation may lead to bone marrow failure and death. It was previously reported that congenic myeloerythroid-restricted progenitors are able to radioprotect lethally irradiated animals. However, this approach will not be practical because syngeneic/congenic donors are rarely available in humans. To solve this problem, we investigated whether allogeneic committed progenitors are also radioprotective. Hematopoietic committed progenitors were isolated by FACS based on the presence of early progenitor marker CD244 and the absence of stem cell marker CD150 (CD244 + CD150 − ). BALB/c mice (H2 d ) were lethally irradiated with 8.5 Gy. Within 4 hours of irradiation, the irradiated mice were infused with 5x10 5 sorted hematopoietic progenitors from major histocompatibility complex mistmatched C57BL/6 donors (H2 b ). As shown in the Figure B, all the mice in the radiation control group died within 15 days post irradiation (median survival time: 13 days). Infusion of hematopoietic committed progenitors significantly prolonged the survival of the lethally irradiated mice (P=0.0018, median survival time: 28 days). These results are similar to the results obtained from congenic hematopoietic progenitors using 1x10 5 cells (Figure A, P
Opportunities and Challenges of Adolescent and Adult Vaccination Administration Within Pharmacies in the United States

Pharmacies have been endorsed as alternative vaccine delivery sites to improve vaccination rates through increased access to services. Our objective was to identify challenges and facilitators to adolescent and adult vaccination provision in pharmacy settings in the United States. We recruited 40 licensed pharmacists in states with different pharmacy vaccination laws. Eligible pharmacists previously administered or were currently administering human papillomavirus (HPV); tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (TDAP); or meningitis (meningococcal conjugate vaccine [MCV4]) vaccines to adolescents aged 9 to 17 years. Pharmacists participated in a semistructured survey on in-pharmacy vaccine provision. Pharmacists commonly administered vaccinations to age-eligible adolescents and adults: influenza (100%, 100%), pneumococcal (35%, 98%), TDAP (80%, 98%), MCV4 (60%, 78%), and HPV (45%, 53%). Common challenges included reimbursement/insurance coverage (28%, 78%), education of patients/parents (30%, 40%), and pharmacists' time constraints (28%, 35%). Three-quarters of pharmacists reported that vaccination rates could be increased. National efforts should expand insurance coverage for vaccine administration reimbursement and improve data information systems to optimize provision within pharmacies.
3.24 – Emotional Learning: Animals

Learning and memory serve a critical function in allowing organisms to alter their behavior in the face of changing environments. This chapter considers the nature and mechanisms of emotional learning and memory, particularly the acquisition and expression of memory for aversive (fearful) events. Of particular importance in this regard is work with animals that has taken advantage of invasive techniques to yield extensive information into the biology of emotional learning and memory systems. Hence, extensive coverage is given to the anatomy and physiology of brain systems involved in fear memory based on experimental investigations in animals.
mmChoir: Exploiting Joint Transmissions for Reliable 60GHz mmWave WLANs

60 GHz millimeter-wave WLANs are gaining traction with their ability to provide multi-gigabit per second data rates. In spite of their potential, link outages due to human body blockage remain a challenging outstanding problem. In this work, we propose mmChoir, a novel proactive blockage mitigation technique that utilizes joint transmissions from multiple Access Points (APs) to provide blockage resilience to clients. We derive a new reliability metric based on angular spread of incoming paths to a client and their blockage probabilities. The metric can be used to intelligently select joint transmissions that can provide higher reliability. The reliability metric along with a novel interference estimation model, is used by mmChoir's scheduler to judiciously schedule joint transmissions, and increase network capacity and reliability. Our testbed and trace-driven simulations show that mmChoir can outperform existing beamswitching based blockage mitigation scheme with on an average 58% higher network throughput.
The safety and versatility of video-thoracoscopy : a prospective analysis of 895 consecutive cases

BACKGROUND The application of video-endoscopy to general thoracic surgery is radically changing the approach to many benign and malignant diseases of the chest. Since July 1991, we have performed 794 purely thoracoscopic and 101 video-assisted thoracic surgical (VATS) procedures on 860 patients. STUDY DESIGN Comprehensive, prospectively acquired data examining the specific indications for and outcomes of this new technique were prospectively entered into a thoracic surgical database. Preoperative, intraoperative, postoperative, and outcome variables were studied for the entire group as well as three high-risk cohorts: age over 70 years (n = 198), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) of less than 1 L (n = 46), and Karnofsky performance index of less than 8 (n = 61). RESULTS The 895 cases involved 449 men and 446 women of ages 15 to 89 years (mean 56 +/- 16 years standard deviation). The indications for surgery were diagnostic in 501 cases (56 percent), therapeutic in 244 cases (27 percent), and both diagnostic and therapeutic in an additional 150 cases (17 percent). The specific procedures performed were operations on the lung (569 cases), pleura (196 cases), esophagus (42 cases), mediastinum (51 cases), and pericardium (37 cases). Fifty-seven percent of the procedures were for a malignant process and 43 percent were for benign or infectious pathology. There were nine deaths for a series operative mortality rate of 1.0 percent. Thirteen patients (1.4 percent) required conversion to a limited thoracotomy for technical reasons. There were 127 complications in 121 patients yielding a morbidity rate in all patients of 14 percent. Mortality rates in the elderly, poor lung function, and depressed performance index cohorts were 1.5, 2.1, and 9.8 percent, respectively. Morbidity rates in these high-risk populations were 19, 30, and 18 percent, respectively. The median postoperative length of stay was three days after closed thoracoscopy and five days after VATS resection. CONCLUSIONS These data underscore the flexibility, safety, efficacy, and potential for cost savings of videoscopic surgery in patients with thoracic diseases. The ability to perform excisional biopsy improves diagnostic specificity and sensitivity to nearly 100 percent. Video-assisted thoracic surgical techniques also offer a minimally invasive procedure with acceptable risk to patients heretofore inoperable by standard thoracotomy.
Empirical Study of Guideline Review Tools

Our analysis of automated evaluation tools in Chapter 11 revealed that the tools do not cover the full range of user abilities. There was also very little consistency in their assessments for the same web page. But how do the tools perform in practice for the user abilities and other aspects that they do support?
Spanish Imperial Vassalage and the Social Reproduction of Slavery in Colonial Cuba

With the social reproduction of slavery in colonial Cuba as its center point, this essay draws on the recent historiographical acknowledgment of the way vassalage mediated the often starkly drawn social distinctions between whites and enslaved people within colonial Spanish America. Inside the region’s emergent, capitalist political economy, feudal vassalage continued to define each social sector’s rights and responsibilities vis-a-vis the Spanish Crown. The rights of enslaved vassals derived from their potential contributions to the Spanish monarchy’s imperial survival, in their capacity to populate the extensive empire with loyal Catholic subjects and potential military defenders. These concerns also justified the Spanish monarchial state’s ability to intervene between its slaveholding vassals and its enslaved vassals, by limiting private property rights over enslaved people and operating in ways that did not fully conform to capitalist profit motives. Awareness of such sovereign-vassal interdependencies challenges historians to broaden their understanding of the relationship between capitalism and slavery to include the remnants of feudal social-political forms, even into the nineteenth century.
Solid and Cystic Masses and Mass-Like Lesions of the Liver, Bile Ducts, and Pancreas

This chapter focuses on the imaging of masses and mass-like entities of the upper abdomen arising from the liver, bile ducts, and pancreas. Radiologists play the crucial role in first discovering these masses, determining their site of origin, and providing the differential diagnosis. Masses in adults are different than those in children, and some masses arising from the biliary tree, liver, and pancreas even may be diagnosed prenatally.
CaSym: Cache Aware Symbolic Execution for Side Channel Detection and Mitigation

Cache-based side channels are becoming an important attack vector through which secret information can be leaked to malicious parties. implementations and Previous work on cache-based side channel detection, however, suffers from the code coverage problem or does not provide diagnostic information that is crucial for applying mitigation techniques to vulnerable software. We propose CaSym, a cache-aware symbolic execution to identify and report precise information about where side channels occur in an input program. Compared with existing work, CaSym provides several unique features: (1) CaSym enables verification against various attack models and cache models, (2) unlike many symbolic-execution systems for bug finding, CaSym verifies all program execution paths in a sound way, (3) CaSym uses two novel abstract cache models that provide good balance between analysis scalability and precision, and (4) CaSym provides sufficient information on where and how to mitigate the identified side channels through techniques including preloading and pinning. Evaluation on a set of crypto and database benchmarks shows that CaSym is effective at identifying and mitigating side channels, with reasonable efficiency.
Covalent crosslinking of human coagulation factor V by activated factor XIII from guinea pig megakaryocytes and human plasma.

Coagulation factor V (FV) has been shown to be synthesized in both the liver and megakaryocytes. We now present evidence that FV can be covalently crosslinked by an enzyme originating from megakaryocytes to form polymeric multimers of factor V. The guinea pig megakaryocyte enzyme appears to be factor XIIIa since the FV-crosslinking activity (1) had an absolute requirement for Ca++, (2) was completely inhibited by iodoacetamide, 5,5′-dithiobis- (2-nitrobenzoic acid), p- chloromercuribenzene sulfonic acid, and N-ethylmaleimide, all known alkylators of the thiol group at the active site of the factor XIIIa, (3) was blocked by known pseudoamine donor substrates of factor XIIIa including dansylcadaverine and putrescine, and (4) could be directly demonstrated in the guinea pig megakaryocyte lysate by a specific activity staining procedure. No tranglutaminase was detected in guinea pig megakaryocytes in contrast to red cells and liver. A similar pattern of covalent crosslinking of human FV by purified activated human plasma factor XIII was also demonstrated. Analysis of the crosslinked products of FV formed by the guinea pig enzyme by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) indicates the formation of intermediate as well as higher molecular weight polymers, suggesting that the crosslinking is a stepwise polymerization process.
Macaca fascicularis: alternative epileptic model.

Abstract In view of the relatively recent Indian embargo on rhesus monkeys ( Macaca mulatta ), our data indicate that the iris (or crab-eating) macaque ( M. fascicularis ) is a suitable substitute species as a model for experimental epilepsy. Sensorimotor intracortical aluminum-hydroxide injections in the iris monkey result in chronic recurring seizures as readily as in rhesus. Comparable drug plasma levels and seizure frequency patterns show the former is a reliable alternative epileptic animal model for the latter. Differences between these two species in diet and body size do not require extensive readjustment of housing and maintenance facilities. The histochemical findings suggest that the iris monkey might also become an alternative to other experimental animal models for which the rhesus has been used in the health sciences.
Race/Ethnic Disparities in Cardiac Transplantation

Heart transplant (HT) is the therapy of choice for patients with end-stage heart failure (HF), leading to substantial improvements in quality of life, functional status, and longevity compared to optimal medical therapy for end-stage HF. However, race/ethnic disparities in post-HT survival persist and remain a major concern. The purpose of this review is to describe differences in post-transplant outcomes based on race/ethnicity and to highlight evolving knowledge of the reasons for these persistent disparate outcomes. Black HT recipients have the highest risk for allograft failure and the worst survival post-HT compared to other race/ethnic groups. Although differences in socioeconomic status, access to medical care, and medical compliance have been cited in the past as reasons for these disparate outcomes, recent research highlights the importance of heightened immune reactivity in black HT recipients as a major cause of allograft loss and death. Novel techniques such as gene expression profiling, detection of donor specific antibodies, and detection of genotypes associated with increased metabolism of immunosuppressive medications highlight the role of immune and inflammatory dysregulation and reduced immunosuppressive drug efficacy as significant contributors to post-HT outcomes. Race/ethnic disparities in post-HT outcomes are due to a complex interplay of immunologic, clinical, and socioeconomic factors. However, multiple reports that demonstrate that black race confers a survival disadvantage post-HT that is independent of differences in access to care or socioeconomic status highlight the need for more research to understand racial differences in biological and genetic responses to immunosuppressive therapy.
Digoxin Initiation and Outcomes in Patients with Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction.

Abstract Background Digoxin reduces the risk of heart failure hospitalization in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Less is known about this association in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), the examination of which was the objective of the current study. Methods In the Medicare-linked OPTIMIZE-HF registry, 7374 patients hospitalized for HF had ejection fraction ≥50% and were not receiving digoxin prior to admission. Of these, 5675 had a heart rate ≥50 beats per minute, an estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥30 mL/min/1.73 m2 or did not receive inpatient dialysis, and digoxin was initiated in 524 of these patients. Using propensity scores for digoxin initiation, calculated for each of the 5675 patients, we assembled a matched cohort of 513 pairs of patients initiated and not initiated on digoxin, balanced on 58 baseline characteristics (mean age, 80 years; 66% women; 8% African American). Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for outcomes associated with digoxin initiation were estimated in the matched cohort. Results Among the 1026 matched patients with HFpEF, 30-day heart failure readmission occurred in 6% and 9% of patients initiated and not initiated on digoxin, respectively (HR 0.70; 95% CI, 0.45-1.10; P = .124). HRs (95% CIs) for 30-day all-cause readmission and all-cause mortality associated with digoxin initiation were 0.95 (0.73-1.23; P = .689) and 0.93 (0.55-1.56; P = .773), respectively. Digoxin initiation had no association with 6-year outcomes. Conclusion Digoxin initiation prior to hospital discharge was not associated with 30-day or 6-year outcomes in older hospitalized patients with HFpEF.
Child externalizing behavior in context: Associations of mother nonstandard work, parenting, and neighborhoods

Abstract Background Parenting styles and neighborhood dynamics are key predictors of youth externalizing behavior. However, other contextual factors, such as parents’ work-related stress and parents’ work schedules, have received less empirical attention. Objective We examine the direct and indirect relationships of four key factors on child externalizing behavior: (1) nonstandard work shift, (2) parents’ work-related stress, (3) parenting (corporal punishment and warmth), and (4) neighborhood collective efficacy. Methods The study sample (n = 1,035) was derived from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS). We use a subset of the FFCWS, inclusive of mothers who reported having worked at Waves 3 and 4. We carry out a multilevel model to examine direct effects of the predictors and to account for nested observations. To examine the indirect effects of the four key factors, we conduct mediation tests. Results Multilevel model results reveal a positive relationship between both mother’s work-related stress (β = 0.74, p Conclusions Child externalizing behavior is directly and indirectly linked with maternal corporal punishment, work-related stress (related to mother’s nonstandard work shift), and neighborhood collective efficacy.
Closed-form solutions for a real-time energy-optimal and collision-free speed planner with limited information

Under real-world driving conditions, connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) must plan and follow an energy-optimal and collision-free speed trajectory with a high updating rate, based on available information limited by its communication range. This paper presents a speed planner using analytical closed-form optimal solutions. Using the simplest vehicle model, we derive closed-form solutions as functions of boundary conditions (BCs) and summarize them without and with pure state variable inequality constraints imposed by speed limits and the preceding vehicle. Then we introduce multiple driving modes (e.g., eco-approach to a traffic signal) for responding to dynamically changing situations and show how to set BCs for each mode while retaining the nature of globally optimal solutions. Finally, we perform a large-scale simulation study to identify and quantify the energy impacts of CAVs for real-world driving routes. A simple but effective planner based on closed-form solutions shows a significant energy saving potential compared with human-driven vehicles and adaptive cruise controlled vehicles with connectivity.
Frequent ICD shocks due to double sensing in patients with bi-ventricular implantable cardioverter defibrillators.

Biventricular pacing has emerged as a modality for treatment of patients with heart failure. Combined biventricular pacers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators offer treatment of heart failure as well as protection from sudden cardiac death. However, inappropriate ICD shocks as a result of double sensing due to widely spaced ventricular bipoles may pose a significant problem in these patients. We examined the ICD records of twenty-three patients with biventricular ICDs, and evaluated all episodes of double sensing that resulted in aborted or delivered therapy. In follow-up of 3.7 ± 2.6 months, thirty-three shocks in fifteen episodes occurred in five patients (21.7%) due to double sensing. Four patients (17.4%) had aborted shocks due to double sensing. All episodes resulting in shock occurred because of sinus tachycardia or supraventricular tachycardia above the upper programmed pacing rate of the device with resultant AV conduction and double sensing of the nonpaced ventricular depolarization. In conclusion, double sensing of the R-wave is a common and clinically important cause of inappropriate ICD detection and shock in patients with biventricular ICDs. Appropriate programming of the ICD can prevent episodes of inappropriate shocks.
Mosaic Ends Tagmentation (METa) assembly for extremely efficient construction of functional metagenomic libraries

Functional metagenomic libraries, physical bacterial libraries which allow the high-throughput capture and expression of microbiome genes, have been instrumental in the sequence-naive and cultivation-independent discovery of novel genes from microbial communities. Preparation of these libraries is limited by their high DNA input requirement and their low cloning efficiency. Here, we describe a new method, METa assembly, for extremely efficient functional metagenomic library preparation. We apply tagmentation to metagenomic DNA from soil and gut microbiomes to prepare DNA inserts for high-throughput cloning into functional metagenomic libraries. The presence of mosaic end sequences in the resulting DNA fragments synergizes with homology-based assembly cloning to result in a 300-fold increase in library size compared to traditional blunt cloning based protocols. Compared to published libraries prepared by state-of-the-art protocols we show that METa assembly is on average 23- to 270-fold more efficient and can be effectively used to prepare gigabase-sized libraries with as little as 200 ng of input DNA. We demonstrate the utility of METa assembly to capture novel genes based on their function by discovering novel aminoglycoside (26% amino acid identity) and colistin (36% amino acid identity) resistance genes in soil and goose gut microbiomes. METa assembly provides a streamlined, flexible, and efficient method for preparing functional metagenomic libraries, enabling new avenues of genetic and biochemical research into low biomass or scarce microbiomes.
Assessment of a five-session school-based curriculum on student perceptions and intent to try e-cigarettes

Introduction Approximately one in three high school and one in ten middle school students are current tobacco users per national data in 2019. E-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product by adolescents, with known health harms on the lungs, heart, blood vessels, brain and long-term effects from addiction. While educational school based curriculum are increasingly utilized with the goal of decreasing youth use of e-cigarettes, there have been limited studies on the impact of school-based educational curriculum on student perceptions and intent to …
Nuclease-Deficient Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat-Based Approaches for In Vitro and In Vivo Gene Activation

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-based technology has been adapted to achieve a wide range of genome modifications, including transcription regulation. The focus of...
Market Perceptions of Fair Value Reporting for Tangible Assets

This article examines equity market perceptions of fair value reporting for tangible assets. We identify six events—four designated as increasing, two as decreasing—affecting the likelihood of U.S....
A survey of software implementations used by application codes in the Exascale Computing Project

Author(s): Evans, TM; Siegel, A; Draeger, EW; Deslippe, J; Francois, MM; Germann, TC; Hart, WE; Martin, DF | Abstract: The US Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration initiated the Exascale Computing Project (ECP) in 2016 to prepare mission-relevant applications and scientific software for the delivery of the exascale computers starting in 2023. The ECP currently supports 24 efforts directed at specific applications and six supporting co-design projects. These 24 application projects contain 62 application codes that are implemented in three high-level languages—C, C++, and Fortran—and use 22 combinations of graphical processing unit programming models. The most common implementation language is C++, which is used in 53 different application codes. The most common programming models across ECP applications are CUDA and Kokkos, which are employed in 15 and 14 applications, respectively. This article provides a survey of the programming languages and models used in the ECP applications codebase that will be used to achieve performance on the future exascale hardware platforms.
Irregular hospital discharge from acute inpatient and residential mental health treatment settings in a large integrated healthcare system.

Abstract Objective Irregular discharge is a concern among mental health populations and associated with poor outcomes. Little is known about the relationship between irregular discharge and treatment setting. Because care processes differ between acute inpatient and residential settings, it is important to evaluate irregular discharge in these settings. Method A retrospective study was conducted in patients with mental health conditions admitted to acute inpatient or residential mental health settings in the Department of Veterans Affairs, 2003–2019. Logistic regression and multivariate Cox proportional hazards were used to evaluate factors associated with irregular discharge risk in the first 90- days of admission. Results Among 1.8 million discharges, 7.4% had an irregular discharge within 90- days of admission. Younger age was a central predictor of risk. Irregular discharge rates were four-fold higher in residential versus acute settings. When accounting for length of stay (LOS) across settings, there was a modest higher risk of irregular discharge from acute versus residential settings (HR = 1.06, 95% Confidence Interval 1.04–1.07). Conclusions Patients are at high risk for irregular discharge from acute and residential settings when they are young. LOS is an important determinant of irregular discharge risk.. Interventions are needed to address drivers of irregular discharge.
Integrated technology roadmap development process: Creating smart grid roadmaps to meet regional technology planning needs in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest

Smart grid has been described as the Energy Internet: Where Energy Technology meets Information Technology. The incorporation of such technology into vast existing utility infrastructures offers many advantages, including possibilities for new smart appliances, energy management systems, better integration of renewable energy, value added services, and new business models, both for supply-and demand-side management. Smart grid also replaces aging utility technologies that are becoming increasingly unreliable, as the average ages for many critical components in utility systems now exceed their original design lives. However, while smart grid offers the promise of revolutionizing utility delivery systems, many questions remain about how such systems can be rolled out at the state, regional, and national levels. Many unique regulatory and market structure challenges exist, which makes it critical to pick the right technology for the right situation and to employ it in the right manner. Technology Roadmapping may be a valuable approach for helping to understand factors that could affect smart grid technology and product development, as well as key business, policy, and market drivers. As emerging smart grid technologies are developed and the fledgling industry matures, a critical issue will be understanding how the combination of industry drivers impact one another, with technology development informing the development of business or service models, which in turn can lead to rethinking of policy and market structures. This will be a co-evolutionary process. To better understand how this could affect future smart grid roadmaps in both Oregon and the Pacific Northwest region, this research proposes to build upon existing roadmapping processes by adding decision modeling tools which incorporate key metrics defined by experts. This will create a more robust roadmap that will allow key variables to be tested and different pathways to be explored.
Positive Association between Plasma Amylin and Cognition in a Homebound Elderly Population

Our recent study reported that amylin, a pancreatic peptide that readily crosses the blood-brain barrier, improves learning and memory in Alzheimer’s disease mouse models. However, the relationship between peripheral amylin and cognition in humans is unknown. In this follow-up study, using a cross-sectional, homebound elderly population, improvement in cognitive function with increasing quartiles of plasma amylin was suggested by positive association with verbal memory (p = 0.0002) and visuoconstruction tasks (p = 0.004), and inverse association with timed measures of attention (p < 0.0001) and executive function (p = 0.04). After adjusting for demographic information, apolipoprotein E4 allele, diabetes, stroke, kidney function, and lipid profile, log10 of plasma amylin remained associated with these cognitive domains. In contrast, plasma amyloid-β peptide was not associated with these specific cognitive domains. Our study suggests that peripheral amylin may be protective for cognitive decline, especially in the domains affected by Alzheimer’s disease.
Identification of QTL for agronomic traits and resistance to white mold in wild and landrace germplasm of common bean

With 1 figure and 5 tables Abstract White mold, caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) De Bary, is a serious yield reducing fungal pathogen of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Our objective was to identify QTL for resistance to white mold from wild and landrace accessions of common bean using two inbred backcross line (IBL) populations derived from the recurrent black bean parent ‘Tacana’. Selective phenotyping failed to detect QTL for field disease resistance but other agronomic traits less sensitive to environmental conditions or population size were detected. Four novel QTLs for white mold resistance WM3.3TW, WM7.5TL, WM9.2TW, and WM11.1TL were identified in the greenhouse straw test on linkage groups B3, B7, B9, and B11, respectively, and two previously mapped QTL were also validated on B2 and B4. QTL, SY2.1TL that accounted for 19–37% of the variation for yield under white mold pressure over 3 years, was detected on B2 in the TL population. Enhanced resistance to white mold in common bean could be achieved by combining different QTL associated with physiological resistance with yield under disease pressure.
Uniform bounds for stably integral points on elliptic curves

We show that a conjecture by Lang and Vojta regarding integral points on varieties of logarithmic general type implies the existence of a uniform bound on the number of stably S-integral points on an elliptic curve over a degree-d number field.