cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Genome-wide RNAi Screen for Modifiers of the Circadian Clock in Human Cells

Two decades of research identified more than a dozen clock genes and defined a biochemical feedback mechanism of circadian oscillator function. To identify additional clock genes and modifiers, we conducted a genome-wide small interfering RNA screen in a human cellular clock model. Knockdown of nearly 1000 genes reduced rhythm amplitude. Potent effects on period length or increased amplitude were less frequent; we found hundreds of these and confirmed them in secondary screens. Characterization of a subset of these genes demonstrated a dosage-dependent effect on oscillator function. Protein interaction network analysis showed that dozens of gene products directly or indirectly associate with known clock components. Pathway analysis revealed these genes are overrepresented for components of insulin and hedgehog signaling, the cell cycle, and the folate metabolism. Coupled with data showing many of these pathways are clock regulated, we conclude the clock is interconnected with many aspects of cellular function.
Effects of lifestyle modification and metformin on irisin and FGF21 among HIV-infected subjects with the metabolic syndrome.

SummaryObjective Few studies have investigated irisin and FGF21 to elucidate the role of these hormones to regulate ‘beiging’ in HIV-infected patients. Design Fifty HIV-infected subjects with the metabolic syndrome were previously recruited and randomized to receive lifestyle modification (LSM) and/or metformin over 12 months. In the current study, we assessed FGF21 and irisin at baseline and after intervention. In addition, we assessed circulating FGF21 and irisin in relationship to brown adipose tissue (BAT) gene expression in dorsocervical subcutaneous fat biopsies from 13 HIV-infected subjects. Results At baseline, prior to intervention, HIV-infected subjects demonstrated increased log FGF21 (2·13 ± 0·06 vs 1·98 ± 0·05 pg/ml, P = 0·05) and log irisin (0·33 ± 0·02 vs 0·17 ± 0·04 μg/ml, P = 0·003) compared with healthy controls well matched based on waist circumference. After 12 months, HIV-infected subjects randomized to LSM demonstrated a relative reduction in FGF21 compared with those not randomized to LSM (−10 [−35,22] vs 40 [0,94] %change, P = 0·01). Changes in FGF21 were inversely associated with improved parameters of energy homoeostasis, including increased REE (ρ = −0·34, P = 0·046) and max VO2 (ρ = −0·38, P = 0·02), and reduced RQ (ρ = 0·40, P = 0·02) among all HIV-infected subjects. Increased UCP-1 (r = 0·75, P = 0·003), DIO2 (r = 0·58, P = 0·04) and CideA (r = 0·73, P = 0·01) gene expression in dorsocervical fat was significantly associated with FGF21 in HIV-infected subjects. Conclusion HIV-infected subjects with metabolic complications demonstrate increases in FGF21 in relationship to BAT gene expression. Relative reductions in FGF21 in those receiving long-term LSM relate to overall improvements in energy expenditure parameters. In contrast, irisin levels are elevated in HIV-infected subjects, but are not influenced by LSM nor associated with BAT gene expression.
Improved Prediction Method for Estimating Notch Elastic-Plastic Strain

Notch stress-strain conversion (NSSC) rules are widely used to estimate non-linear and history dependent stress-strain behavior of the notch components or structures. This paper focuses on the estimation of stress and strain using the conventional NSSC rules, by considering the entire relaxation locus during the inelastic action. On the basis of local effects, net section collapse and the reference stress, a simple method for estimating stress-strain fields in the vicinity of stress concentrations is proposed. The accuracy of the method is compared with elastic-plastic finite element analysis for several notch configurations with different loading conditions and in plane stress, plane strain and axisymmetric configurations.
Behavioral Outcomes among Children of Alcoholics During the Early and Middle Childhood Years: Familial Subtype Variations

This study examined early behavioral outcomes among young children of alcoholics (COAs) as a function of differences in subtype of paternal alcoholism. Participants were 212 children (106 girls and 106 boys, ages 3 through 8) and both of their biological parents. Families were characterized as antisocial alcoholics, nonantisocial alcoholics, and nonalcoholic controls. There were significant familial subtype group differences on parent report measures of children's total behavior problems, externalizing behavior, and internalizing behavior, and on measures of children's intellectual functioning and academic achievement. In all instances, COAs had poorer functioning than controls. In the behavior problem domain, but not for the domain of intellectual functioning, children from antisocial alcoholic families had greater problems than children from nonantisocial alcoholic families. In addition to the subtype effects, boys had higher levels of behavior problems than girls in all three areas, and older children had more internalizing problems than younger children. Maternal functioning pertaining to lifetime alcohol problem involvement and antisocial behavior also contributed to child subtype differences in internalizing behavior. Results indicate that, even at very early ages, male and female COAs are heterogeneous populations that are distinguishable by way of familial subtype membership, as well as distinguishable from their non-COA peers. Thus, findings underscore the need to consider the heterogeneity of alcoholism when looking at its effects on child development.
Glucose-induced desensitization of the pancreatic β-cell is species dependent

The capacity of 20 mM glucose to desensitize insulin release was determined. A prior exposure to 20 mM glucose impaired the response of rat islets to subsequent restimulation. Compared with control...
The Priest and the Prince: Co-Opting the Church

The Hume-Gibbon attack on Christianity brought to bear harsh criticism of a church which used its political power to crush its spiritual rivals. Pagan Rome was relatively tolerant of diverse religious practices—a favorable circumstance for the advancement of the freedom of thought in the view of Hume and Gibbon—and the predominately civic character of the theologically primitive polytheistic cults seemed to appeal to both of these philosophic historians. Hume’s Natural History and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall link the phenomena of religious intolerance and chauvinism inexorably to the growth and development of the monotheistic doctrines that emerged in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the history of Christianity, as Hume and Gibbon present it, the political development of the church, with a jealously protected body of doctrinal truth and with its increasing power and influence, puts into play a highly visible but unstable tension between the aspirations of otherworldly spirituality and this-worldly ambition. In the history of Christianity we observe the development of a class of spiritual professionals (the clergy) who balance their spiritual designs with their rivalry for material goods, including political power. In the church Hume and Gibbon saw a slavish and uncritical devotion to orthodoxy and a vested interest in the elevation of superstition.
Place, Space, Time

Media gatekeeping has been a critical theoretical tenet in the formation of iconic images. Traditionally, news photographs became iconic, in large part, through their prominent placement on elite n...
The Value of Echocardiography in Congestive Cardiomyopathy in Children

Four patients with congestive cardiomyopathy (CO, were evaluated by echocardiography (ECHO). Age ranges were from one to three years. Three were diagnosed as endocardial fibroelastosis (EFE) by their clinical, chest x-rav and electrocardiographic findings. One was shown to have EFE at autopsy. In all patients, the left ventricular (LV) chamber was markedly dilated and the mitral valve amplitude (MVA) was diminished. The thickness of the ventricular septum (VS) and LV wall was near normal, but their motions were uniformly reduced. One patient had good clinical improvement one year after digitalis therapy. The ECHO showed that the LV size was reduced to 2/3 of the initial study. The MVA and the motion of VS and LV wall were improved. In 2 patients there was no significant change in clinical or ECHO examination. From our present experience, monitoring LV function and size by serial ECHO study promises to be a valuable method for detecting cardiac enlargement and ventricular dysfunction, and for following the response to medical therapy in children with CC.
Mechanisms of improvement in pulmonary gas exchange during isovolemic hemodilution

Severe anemia is associated with remarkable stability of pulmonary gas exchange (S. Deem, M. K. Alberts, M. J. Bishop, A. Bidani, and E. R. Swenson.J. Appl. Physiol. 83: 240–246, 1997), although th...
Complex regional pain syndrome in pediatric sports: a case series of three young athletes.

SETTING Outpatient Sports Medicine Clinic. PATIENTS Three adolescent young female athletes who developed clinical findings compatible with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) after lower extremity trauma. INTERVENTION Based on the clinical picture, the patients were identified and treated with physical therapy, which included desensitization techniques, stress loading, edema control, early mobilization and electrical stimulation. It was combined with pharmacotherapeutic measures such as non-steroidal anti-inflamatories, oral corticosteroids and gabapentin. One of the patients required serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors, opioid analgesics and acupuncture as an adjunctive treatment. RESULTS All three patients had involvement of the lower extremities, with a degree of pain and edema exceeding the expected for the nature of their injury. They exhibited a good response to conservative treatment, with physical therapy playing a significant role on the treatment plan. One of the patients, whose diagnosis and treatment was delayed due to late referral, had a more severe presentation and protracted recovery. CONCLUSION CRPS is a challenging disease that may affect young active and athletic patients. In this population, early clinical suspicion and aggressive treatment may lead to excellent clinical results and the avoidance of invasive procedures or long-term disability. Laboratory and imaging studies should be used to discard other conditions with clinical presentations similar to CRPS.
Oresteia as transformative work

Robert Icke's transformative adaptation of Aeschylus' Oresteia updates its themes and gives it a profound emotional urgency.
Comparison of Tray Sizes for Mass Rearing Boll Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Studies showed that boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis Boheman, can be reared successfully in rearing trays that are ca. 65% wider than ones now used without significantly reducing the adult production—egg implantation ratio. The use of wider trays reduces the number of trays to be handled, thereby saving on labor and time in the rearing operation, permitting a higher weevil production rate with the same time and labor, saving on the cost of the tray and cover materials, and giving more choices in selecting and procuring equipment for forming and sealing the trays for the operation.
Abstract C27: Phosphorylation of the polycomb group protein polyhomeotic (Ph) induces a relaxed chromatin state through depolymerization of the Ph SAM domain

The transcriptional repressor polyhomeotic (Ph) is part of the polycomb group (PcG). PcG proteins are responsible for repressing Hox genes, a set of transcription factors that determine segmental identification early in development. PcG proteins are highly conserved throughout evolution, and recent studies have identified that the human homologue polyhomeotic-like protein 3 (PHC3) plays a role in tumor suppression in osteosarcomas. In order to understand how PHC3 functions, we utilized a cellular system with Ph. In our study we found that Ph is phosphorylated at a Ser residue several positions before the SAM domain. This region is important for controlling Ph SAM polymerization raising the possibility that phosphorylation alters the polymeric state of Ph. Phosphorylation was detected only in wild-type Ph and a mutant intended to increase polymerization, but not on polymer deficient Ph mutants. Because Ph repressive ability is dependent on SAM polymerization, we hypothesize that phosphorylation could trigger SAM depolymerization and consequently induce a relaxed chromatin state. To this point, mutating the phosphorylated Ser to Ala produced a better transcriptional repressor than wild-type. These results point to a potential way of controlling Ph SAM polymerization where phosphorylation leads to depolymerization and a replication competent chromatin state. Upon completing replication, the original repressive epigenetic state could be inherited by the daughter cell through dephosphorylation and Ph repolymerization. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Basic Cancer Research; 2011 Sep 14-18; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(18 Suppl):Abstract nr C27.
Language and communication: Syntactic euphemism

Abstract Linguists have tended to assume naively that language is used only to convey information with maximum efficiency, ignoring speaker manipulation of the communication in complex ways. Expository prose examples make it clear that language use is a subjective projection on the part of the speaker‐writer.
Impact of influenza and other community-acquired viruses.

The incidence of community-acquired pneumonia peaks during the winter season each year. Increases in mortality from these pneumonias and influenza-like illnesses (PI included are impairments of mucus clearance and T cell, polymorphonuclear cell and macrophage functions, as well as alterations in respiratory epithelium that can enhance adherence of bacteria. Recent studies indicate that the role of respiratory syncytial virus infections in causing acute pulmonary syndromes in elderly individuals, including secondary bacterial pneumonia, is essentially equivalent to that of influenza A viruses during years when there is not a severe influenza epidemic. Although other respiratory viruses can occasionally cause or facilitate the development of community-acquired pneumonia, currently available epidemiological data do not support significant roles for them relative to those of influenza and respiratory syncytial viruses.
Validation of automated image analysis methods for evaluation of AMACR expression in prostate biopsies with high grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN)

A49 Introduction >Automated image analysis (AIA) systems for quantification of immunostained tissue could provide more accurate and sensitive results than manual scoring by a pathologist. Previously we have shown that AMACR expression in normal glands from patients subsequently diagnosed with prostate cancer was higher than those who did not. No difference was observed for AMACR expression in HGPIN glands. In this study, we hypothesize that the difference in AMACR expression between the two subsets of patients might be better quantified using AIA. >Materials and Methods >Prostatic needle biopsies from 44 patients with HGPIN were immunostained for AMACR. 21 patients (cases) showed cancer on a later biopsy and 22 (controls) had no cancer and at least 3 negative biopsies. Immunostained slides were digitally scanned using the ScanScope CS ® (Aperio Technologies, CA). Regions of interests were drawn within benign and HGPIN compartments and scored using ‘Positive Pixel Count™’ and ‘Co-Localization’ algorithms. Separate scores for benign and HGPIN glands were computed as the product of percent area positive and mean intensity of staining. Manual scoring was performed on an ordinal scale of 0-3 intensity by a single pathologist. >Results >For the normal compartment, the mean manual score per gland for the cases (0.29) was higher than that of the controls (0.21) [p Conclusions >The ability to discriminate HGPIN according to risk of subsequent cancer supports the hypothesis that AIA has enhanced sensitivity and biological validity. This method might provide improved measurements for research and clinical prediction.
Competitive Binding to Myosin S2 by C-Protein, Anti-S2 Peptides, and Antibodies Modulate Myosin Coiled Coil Stability and Myofibril Contractility

The myosin subfragment 2 (S2) provides a flexible linkage of myosin heads to the thick filament that is modulated by S2 binding proteins in single molecule assays and myofibrillar contractility. Myosin binding protein C (C-protein), S2 targeted antibody and anti-S2 peptide (modified poly-l-lysine residues) induced antagonistic effects on S2 stability. Competitive ELISA (c-ELISA), myofibrillar contractility assays, and gravitational force spectroscopy (GFS) detected competitive binding between the antibody and anti-S2 peptide for binding S2. The c-ELISA results indicated that the anti-S2 peptide out-competes the antibody in binding to both human cardiac myosin S2 and, to a lesser degree, rabbit skeletal myosin S2. The GFS confirmed competition between the antibody and the anti-S2 peptide by reducing the number of beads attached to myosin via the antibody when the myosin was pre-incubated with anti-peptide. The few GFS measurements observed were consistent with control myosin that did not have anti-S2 peptide bound. In contrast, GFS performed with myosin pre-incubated with C-protein indicated that binding of C-protein to myosin filament stabilized the myosin coiled coil compared to controls without C-protein. Thus C-protein stabilized S2 by binding to a different site on myosin than the anti-S2 peptide. Myofibrillar contractility assay results depicted that binding of antibody to myosin S2 resulted in destabilizing the myosin coiled coil while binding anti-S2 peptide stabilized the coiled coil even in the presence of the antibody. Destabilizing the coiled coil increased contractility observed in myofibrils incubated with antibody compared to untreated myofibrils while stabilizing the coiled coil with the anti-S2 peptide decreased myofibrillar contractility. The results suggest that the myosin S2 performs a sensitive function in muscle contraction that can be modulated by proteins that bind to it.
Human leucocyte antigen class I and II imputation in a multiracial population.

Summary Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) genes play a central role in response to pathogens and in autoimmunity. Research to understand the effects of HLA genes on health has been limited because HLA genotyping protocols are labour intensive and expensive. Recently, algorithms to impute HLA genotype data using genome-wide association study (GWAS) data have been published. However, imputation accuracy for most of these algorithms was based primarily on training data sets of European ancestry individuals. We considered performance of two HLA-dedicated imputation algorithms – SNP2HLA and HIBAG – in a multiracial population of n = 1587 women with HLA genotyping data by gold standard methods. We first compared accuracy – defined as the percentage of correctly predicted alleles – of HLA-B and HLA-C imputation using SNP2HLA and HIBAG using a breakdown of the data set into an 80% training group and a 20% testing group. Estimates of accuracy for HIBAG were either the same or better than those for SNP2HLA. We then conducted a more thorough test of HIBAG imputation accuracy using five independent 10-fold cross-validation procedures with delineation of ancestry groups using ancestry informative markers. Overall accuracy for HIBAG was 89%. Accuracy by HLA gene was 93% for HLA-A, 84% for HLA-B, 94% for HLA-C, 83% for HLA-DQA1, 91% for HLA-DQB1 and 88% for HLA-DRB1. Accuracy was highest in the African ancestry group (the largest group) and lowest in the Hispanic group (the smallest group). Despite suboptimal imputation accuracy for some HLA gene/ancestry group combinations, the HIBAG algorithm has the advantage of providing posterior estimates of accuracy which enable the investigator to analyse subsets of the population with high predicted (e.g. >95%) imputation accuracy.
Biological Age and Circulating Progenitor Cell Levels as Predictors Heart Disease Events.

Identifying patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) at high risk for future heart attacks or death remains a challenge for all cardiologists. The study entitled Telomere Shortening, Regenerative Capacity, and Cardiovascular Outcomes in this issue has shed new light in the field.1 Hammadah et al1 focused on the relationship between circulating CD34+ cell levels, telomere length, and cardiovascular outcomes in subjects with stable CAD. Their study yielded 2 novel findings: (1) 10% shorter telomeres correlated with 5% lower levels of circulating CD34+ cells and (2) both short leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and low CD34+ cell levels independently predict adverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes (death, myocardial infarction [MI], coronary revascularization, or cerebrovascular events). Measurements of LTL and circulating CD34+ cells may facilitate risk stratification of patients with stable CAD distinct from traditional CVD risk factors. Prior studies reported associations between shortened LTL and CVD,2 and postulated that decreased regenerative capacity may be a primary cause of CVD events. The study by Hammadah et al1 is the first and largest study to test the hypothesis that LTL may be linked to the levels of CD34+ cells as a surrogate for regenerative capacity, and correlate these measures with CVD events. Article, see p 1130 Telomeres prevent chromosome ends from being recognized as a DNA break and activating DNA damage response pathways …
Reaching Goals and Doing Good: Exploring Consumer Responses to Meaningful Advertisements

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to investigate how consumers respond to meaningful advertisements, which promote products or brands by portraying moral virtues and life meaning. The authors present findings of an online survey in which participants reported their responses to two meaningful advertisements. A conceptual model was proposed and tested based on the survey data. Results demonstrated that when viewing meaningful advertisements participants' perceptions of meaningfulness positively influenced their feelings of elevation, which leaded to favorable attitudes towards the advertisement and brand. Empathy served as a moderator in the conceptual model. Participants who felt low empathy actually experienced stronger feelings of elevation. This study presents how consumers respond to portrayals of moral virtues and life meaning in advertisements. It contributes to the literature of advertising by demonstrating that the emotion of elevation benefits advertising effectiveness. It has significant impl...
Early life stress confers lifelong stress susceptibility in mice via ventral tegmental area OTX2

Early life stress increases risk for depression. Here we establish a “two-hit” stress model in mice wherein stress at a specific postnatal period increases susceptibility to adult social defeat stress and causes long-lasting transcriptional alterations that prime the ventral tegmental area (VTA)—a brain reward region—to be in a depression-like state. We identify a role for the developmental transcription factor orthodenticle homeobox 2 (Otx2) as an upstream mediator of these enduring effects. Transient juvenile—but not adult—knockdown of Otx2 in VTA mimics early life stress by increasing stress susceptibility, whereas its overexpression reverses the effects of early life stress. This work establishes a mechanism by which early life stress encodes lifelong susceptibility to stress via long-lasting transcriptional programming in VTA mediated by Otx2.
“CHIP”s are bad for patients with solid tumors

In patients with nonhematologic cancers, clonal hematopoiesis is prevalent and associated with poor prognoses.
Measuring Pain Catastrophizing and Pain-Related Self-Efficacy: Expert Panels, Focus Groups, and Cognitive Interviews

Pain-related self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing are important psychosocial determinants of pain and can be therapeutic targets for chronic pain management. Advances in psychometric science have made shorter or dynamically administered instruments possible. The aim of this study was to generate and test candidate items for two new patient-reported outcome measures of pain-related self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing. An expert panel of pain clinicians and researchers was convened to establish construct definitions of pain-related self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing and guide item development. Two patient advisors provided guidance throughout the project. Nineteen people with chronic pain participated in focus groups about their perspectives and experiences related to pain-related self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing. Twenty-two people with chronic pain participated in cognitive interviews to test proposed candidate items. Saturation was reached after three focus groups with no new subdomains identified by participants in the third focus group. Following cognitive interviews, five of the 48 initial pain-related self-efficacy candidate items were dropped and seven required substantial revision resulting in 43 pain-related self-efficacy candidate items. After two rounds of cognitive interviews, ten items were eliminated and ten substantially revised, resulting in a set of 30 from the initial 43 pain catastrophizing candidate items. This article summarizes results of the qualitative phase of the development of new measures of pain-related self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing. Candidate items will be field tested with a large sample of people with chronic pain and the data will be used to calibrate items to an item response theory model. Resulting item banks and short forms will be made publicly available to researchers and clinicians.
The Prevalence of Burnout Among US Neurosurgery Residents.

BACKGROUND Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Its prevalence among US physicians exceeds 50% and is higher among residents/fellows. This is important to the practice of neurosurgery, as burnout is associated with adverse physical health, increased risk of substance abuse, and increased medical errors. To date, no study has specifically addressed the prevalence of burnout among neurosurgery residents. OBJECTIVE To determine and compare the prevalence of burnout among US neurosurgery residents with published rates for residents/fellows and practicing physicians from other specialties. METHODS We surveyed 106 US neurosurgery residency training programs to perform a descriptive analysis of the prevalence of burnout among residents. Data on burnout among control groups were used to perform a cross-sectional analysis. Nonparametric tests assessed differences in burnout scores among neurosurgery residents, and the 2-tailed Fisher's exact test assessed burnout between neurosurgery residents and control populations. RESULTS Of approximately 1200 US neurosurgery residents, 255 (21.3%) responded. The prevalence of burnout was 36.5% (95% confidence interval: 30.6%-42.7%). There was no significant difference in median burnout scores between gender (P = .836), age (P = .183), or postgraduate year (P = .963) among neurosurgery residents. Neurosurgery residents had a significantly lower prevalence of burnout (36.5%) than other residents/fellows (60.0%; P < .001), early career physicians (51.3%; P < .001), and practicing physicians (53.5%; P < .001). CONCLUSION Neurosurgery residents have a significantly lower prevalence of burnout than other residents/fellows and practicing physicians. The underlying causes for these findings were not assessed and are likely multifactorial. Future studies should address possible causes of these findings.
Abstract WP402: Ischemic Stroke Admission Factors Associated with Longer Length of Stay and Disposition to Non-home Setting

Background: Discharge planning is a major component of stroke care. Early prediction of hospital disposition may increase efficient delivery of health care by initiating appropriate discharge plann...
DECELERATION OF CANCER MORTALITY RATES WITH AGE AND TIME

Mortality rates from all causes and from cardiovascular diseases rise exponentially with age. Cancer, on the other hand, first rises rapidly in middle life then plateaus, accounting for less than 12 percent of all deaths among persons over age 80. This pattern does not support a direct relationship between cancer and aging, or a simple association between cancer and cumulative exogenous or endogenous factors. Cancer deaths can be expected to represent an ever decreasing proportion of total mortality although a slight rise in absolute numbers should persist.
Innovation, science and technology in the USA: A sociocultural perspective

This essay is constructed around two assumptions. First is that any analytical view of a culture must start from a position of marginality. Only those who have left a system have the ability to interpret it. This can be illustrated by the old adage that “Fish know nothing about water”. Our understanding of a given environment begins only when we are exposed to stimuli different from those to which we are accustomed. In my particular case, this is certainly true. What understanding I have of US culture, society and economy is intimately linked to my residential and travel experience outside of my country of birth, particularly Brazil and secondarily Asia, particularly Singapore and Hong Kong, and in Europe, Germany. As a result this essay will attempt to advance insights about science, technology, and innovation in the USA by posing contrasts to other national experiences, particularly Brazil.
Infection of developing mouse embryos with murine leukemia virus: tissue specificity and genetic transmission of the virus.

The tissue specificity of Moloney leukemia virus (M-MuLV) was studied by infecting mice at two different stages of development. Either newborn mice which can be considered as essentially fully differentiated animals were infected with M-MuLV or preimplantation mouse embryos were infected in vitro at the 4–8 cell stage, a stage of development before any differentiation has taken place. After surgical transfer to the uteri of pseudopregnant surrogate mothers, the latter developed to term and adult mice. In both cases, animals were obtained that had developed an M-MuLV induced leukemia.
RegulonIT - A web based tool for regulon, gene, and co-expression data

One of the greatest challenges in the field of biology today is the determination of unknown gene function. A number of web applications are currently being developed which aim at providing gene related information, such as gene expression and co-expression data for individual genes. Integrating gene expression networks with external data sources may give researchers additional information about these genes. A regulon is a collection of highly co-expressed genes which can be identified by clustering a network of genes obtained from transcriptomic analysis. Regulon analysis offers a potential way to evaluate functions of genes in a given gene family or for developing hypothesis about the function of unknown genes. Hence, it is important that information about regulons, genes, and co-expression data be available to all biologists in a user friendly manner. Currently, information about regulons and its associated genes are not easily accessible, and in order to view regulon information, manual look up into flat files such as text files is required. In order to avoid this, we come up with an application which aim at providing regulon, gene, and co-expression data for three important species in a user-friendly manner using a web interface. RegulonIT is a web based tool that aims at providing information about regulons and other gene related information. Currently, the tool provides regulon, gene and co-expression information for three species (Arabidopsis thaliana, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Homo sapiens) for very large transcriptomic datasets using a web interface. RegulonIT is a user friendly platform independent web tool and is available at http://metnetdb.org:9090/regulonit.
Torture and textuality: Guantánamo Diary as postcolonial text

This article offers a reading of Guantanamo Diary that aims at decentring left critiques of the war on terror by offering a postcolonial perspective of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s important testimony of...
Variation in nestling feather mercury concentrations at individual, brood, and breeding colony levels: Implications for sampling mercury in birds.

Nestling feathers are often used to monitor and estimate Hg exposure in birds. Decision-making and results of studies on effects of exposure to Hg depend on adequate estimation of [Hg] at the studied level, which in turn is sensitive to variation in [Hg] in sampling units. However, there is little information on how feather [Hg] varies within nestlings, between nest mates, or between broods. We sampled feathers from sibling great egret nestlings in three breeding colonies of the Everglades where birds were exposed to variable Hg levels through diet. We compared the deviation of samples from average [Hg] within four levels of aggregation: individual (different scapular feathers of the same individual); brood (samples from siblings in the same nest), breeding colonies; and the entire wetland ecosystem. We found, on average, little intra-individual ( 20%) and within the entire wetland (>30%) that could bias estimates of exposure to Hg obtained through small sample sizes. We simulated the influence of inter-brood variability in estimates of exposure to Hg under different sample sizes, and we found that uncertainty decreases markedly with samples sizes >6, and suggest a sample size of 10 individuals from different nests for monitoring programs and to estimate Hg contamination in areas where no previous knowledge is available.
Pregnancies in Challenging Locations

Abstract There are times when a pregnancy implants outside the uterus and develops to an advanced gestational age. Under certain circumstances, these pregnancies can result in delivery of a healthy infant. However, the safety of both the mother and the infant relies heavily on preoperative planning and an interdisciplinary approach. This chapter discusses complex cases at our institution that resulted in positive outcomes for both the mother and the fetus.
User-Centric Interference-Aware Load Balancing for Cloud-Deployed Applications

VMs deployed in cloud environments are prone to performance interference due to dynamic and unpredictable contention for shared physical resources among colocated tenants. Current provider-centric solutions, such as careful co-scheduling of VMs and/or VM migration, require a priori profiling of customer VMs, which is infeasible in public clouds. Further, such solutions are not always aware of the user's SLO requirements or application bottlenecks. This paper presents DIAL, an interference-aware load balancing framework that can directly be employed by cloud users without requiring any assistance from the provider. The key idea behind DIAL is to infer the demand for contended resources on the physical hosts, which is otherwise hidden from users. Estimates of the colocated load are then used to dynamically shift load away from compromised VMs without violating the application's tail latency SLOs. We implement DIAL for web and online analytical processing applications, and show, via experimental results on OpenStack and AWS clouds, that DIAL can reduce tail latencies by as much as 70% compared to existing solutions.
Promoting Pro-Social Skills to Reduce Violence Among Urban Middle School Youth

Adolescent violence is a significant public health problem. The goal of this evaluation was to determine whether communication skills, relationships with adults, and relationships with peers were enhanced through participating in an after-school program aimed at reducing violence-related behaviors among urban middle school youth. Elements that helped to foster success among our population were providing a program that enabled consistent choice in recreational activities in a safe place, and also providing busing home to increase safety. A non-experimental study was conducted with 115 students who participated in the program. Bivariate, ANOVA analysis, and Kruskal–Wallis tests were carried out. Results indicated that participating in the program significantly impacted student relationships with adults and their peers as well as positively impacted their communication skills. The program was designed with purposeful activities that would address pro-social behaviors, enhance youth interest, and increase attendance. The program specifically used recreation to help foster relationships with their peers and the adults in the program, with the intention of reducing conflict, and therefore violence among the students.
Managing the Dynamics of New Technologies in the Global Supply Chain

Technology has been rapidly changing the business environment over the past several decades, and these changes are occurring at an accelerating rate. How to effectively integrate, deploy, and manage technologies in a cost-efficient manner across an organization's supply chain is a key concern of business practitioners. Due to the significant resources of personnel and money required to implement these technologies, as well as the potential for disruptions to ongoing business operations, it is imperative for technology implementers to reduce their risks. In this article, we discuss the supply chain impact of the following technologies: radio frequency identification, the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and blockchains. We identify the implementation challenges and expected benefits of these technologies and the managerial implications of merging the technologies to create a long-term strategic competitive advantage within a multiorganizational supply chain setting.
Gender and Sexual Identities Predicting Patterns of Co-occurring Health Risks Among Sexual Minority Youth: a Latent Class Analysis Approach

Behavioral health disparities (e.g., substance use, mental health) exist for gender nonconforming (GNC) and sexual minority youth; however, there is limited knowledge on disparities that may be unique among youth who identify as both a sexual and gender minority. This study utilized a diverse sample of GNC and cisgender sexual minority youth seeking crisis services to examine co-occurrence of behavioral health outcomes. Surveys were administered with youth (aged 12–24, N = 592), and latent class analyses were applied. Two latent class regression models were conducted to examine how gender and sexual identity separately (independent effect; Model 1) and configurations of gender and sexual identity (Model 2) predicted class membership. Analyses resulted in a four-class solution: High All (17.6%), High Substance Use and Moderate Mental Health (10.6%), Low All (20.1%), and High Suicide and High Mental Health (51.7%). In our first model, youth who identified as GNC had 2.11 higher odds of being in the High Suicide and High Mental Health class compared to the Low All class; however, sexual identity was not a significant predictor. In the second model, individuals identifying as GNC gay or lesbian or GNC pansexual had 1.95 and 2.57 higher odds, respectively, of being in the High Suicide and High Mental Health class compared to the Low All class. Our study suggests the information on gender and sexual identities together are more helpful in identifying youth at risk for co-occurring negative health outcomes. Implications for prevention approaches are described.
Changes in an Invaded Florida ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Community Over 25 Years

Exotic invasive species are one of the most widespread and common agents of change in ecosystems worldwide. Here, we are focused on community-level changes associated with the appearance and persistence of exotic species in an ecosystem over more than 2 decades. We combined datasets of Florida's ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) community from Wekiwa Springs State Park, Florida, USA, spanning 25 yr, which included 3 sampling events in several distinct upland ecosystems. Species accumulation curves, non-parametric species estimators, community similarity indices, and ratios of exotic to native ants were used to assess sampling effort, including patterns of diversity, and changes in community composition. Our data showed that the ant community of Wekiwa Springs has at least 4 exotic species present in all of the ecosystems sampled within the park. These upland ecosystems are accumulating exotics slowly and, with one exception, there is no clear signal that the exotic species are displacing native species. The likely exception is the invasive fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), causing local extinction of the native fire ant Solenopsis geminata (Fabricius) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Continued long-term monitoring efforts are necessary to understand how these exotics may impact native communities in the future.
Do Donors Respond to Nonprofit Performance? Evidence from Housing

Standard economic theories of nonprofits argue that donors largely cannot observe nonprofit performance. Using market data from the US nonprofit housing sector, federal financial data, and rare int...
Global fitting and parameter identifiability for amyloid-β aggregation with competing pathways

Aggregation of the amyloid-$\beta$(A$\beta$) protein has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Since, low molecular weight A$\beta$ aggregates are hypothesized to serve as the primary toxic species in AD pathogenesis, significant research has been conducted to understand the mechanistic details of the aggregation process. We previously demonstrated that heterotypic interactions between A$\beta$ and fatty acids (FAs) can lead to competing pathways of A$\beta$ aggregation, termed as the off-pathway; this off-pathway kinetics can also be modulated by FA concentrations as captured by mass action models. We employed ensemble kinetics simulations which uses a system of Ordinary Differential Equations to model the competing on-and off-pathways of $A\beta$ aggregation that were trained and validated by biophysical experiments. However, these models had several rate constants, treated as free parameters to be estimated, which resulted in over-fitting of the model. Hence, in this paper, we present a global fitting based method to accurately identify the rate constants involved in the complex competing pathway model of $A\beta$ aggregation. We additionally employ detailed parameter identifiability tests for uncertainty quantification using the profile likelihood method. Since, the emergence of off-or on-pathway aggregates are typically controlled by a narrow set of rate constants, it is imperative to rigorously identify the proper rate constants involved in these pathways. These rate constants serve as a basis for future experiments on modulating the aggregation pathways to populate a particular possibly less toxic oligomeric species. The obtained rate constants also motivate new biophysical experiments to better understand the mechanisms of amyloid aggregation in other neurodegenerative diseases.
Solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation on a subspace: Approximations and consequences for low-dimensional materials

Author(s): Qiu, DY; Da Jornada, FH; Louie, SG | Abstract: It is well known that the ambient environment can dramatically renormalize the quasiparticle gap and exciton binding energies in low-dimensional materials, but the effect of the environment on the energy splitting of the spin-singlet and spin-triplet exciton states is less understood. A prominent effect is the renormalization of the exciton binding energy and optical strength (and hence the optical spectrum) through additional screening of the direct Coulomb term describing the attractive electron-hole interaction in the kernel of the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The repulsive exchange interaction responsible for the singlet-triplet splitting, on the other hand, is unscreened within formal many-body perturbation theory. However, Benedict argued that in practical calculations restricted to a subspace of the full Hilbert space, the exchange interaction should be appropriately screened by states outside of the subspace, the so-called S approximation [L. X. Benedict, Phys. Rev. B 66, 193105 (2002)PRBMDO0163-182910.1103/PhysRevB.66.193105]. Here, we systematically explore the accuracy of the S approximation for different confined systems, including a molecule and heterostructures of semiconducting and metallic layered materials. We show that the S approximation is actually exact in the limit of small exciton binding energies (i.e., small direct term) and can be used to significantly accelerate convergence of the exciton energies with respect to the number of empty states, provided that a particular effective screening consistent with the conventional Tamm-Dancoff approximation is employed. We further find that the singlet-triplet splitting in the energy of the excitons is largely unaffected by the external dielectric environment for most quasi-two-dimensional materials.
Metric k-median clustering in insertion-only streams

Abstract We present a low-constant approximation for the metric k -median problem on insertion-only streams using O ( e − 3 k log n ) space. In particular, we present a streaming ( O ( e − 3 k log n ) , 2 + e ) -bicriterion solution that reports cluster weights. Running the offline approximation algorithm due to Byrka et al. (2015) on this bicriterion solution yields a ( 17 . 66 + e ) -approximation (Guha et al., 2003; Charikar et al., 2003; Braverman et al., 2011). Our result matches the best-known space requirements for streaming k -median clustering while significantly improving the approximation accuracy. We also provide a lower bound, showing that any polylog ( n ) -space streaming algorithm that maintains an ( α , β ) -bicriterion must have β ≥ 2 . Our technique breaks the stream into segments defined by jumps in the optimal clustering cost, which increases monotonically as the stream progresses. By storing an accurate summary of recent segments of the stream and a lower-space summary of older segments, our algorithm maintains a ( O ( e − 3 k log n ) , 2 + e ) -bicriterion solution for the entirety of the stream. In addition to our main result, we introduce a novel construction that we call a candidate set. This is a collection of points that, with high probability, contains k points that yield a near-optimal k -median cost. We present an algorithm called monotone faraway sampling (MFS) for constructing a candidate set in a single pass over a data stream. We show that using this candidate set in tandem with a coreset speeds up the search for a solution set of k cluster centers upon termination of the data stream. While coresets of smaller asymptotic size are known, comparative simplicity of MFS makes it appealing as a practical technique.