cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Thiol synthesis and arsenic hyperaccumulation in Pteris vittata (Chinese brake fern)

Pteris vittata (Chinese brake fern) has potential for phytoremediation of As-contaminated sites. In this study, the synthesis of total thiols and acid-soluble thiols in P. vittata was investigated under arsenic exposure. The strong and positive correlation between As concentration and acid-soluble thiols in plant leaflets suggests that acid-soluble thiols may play a role in As detoxification. A major As-induced thiol was purified and characterized. A molecular ion (M + 1) of 540 m/z suggests that the thiol was a phytochelatin (PC) with two base units (PC(2)). However, the ratios of acid-soluble thiols to As in leaflets exposed to As ranged from 0.012 to 0.026, suggesting that only a very small part of As is complexed by PC(2). PCs could play a minor detoxification role in this hyperaccumulator. A PC-independent mechanism appears to be mainly involved in As tolerance, while PC-dependent detoxification seems to be a supplement.
Partisan Conversion in the 1990s: Ideological Realignment Meets Measurement Theory

A well-known debate in electoral behavior has centered on the potential for individual-level partisan change. As the recent work on ideological realignment published in this journal suggests, this debate is far from settled. Using 1992-1994-1996 NES panel data, I test the conversion assumption of ideological realignment theories using a structural equation model combined with two measurement models to control for measurement error in my indicators of ideology and party identification. Results suggest that while partisan conversion did occur during the 1994 midterm election, ideological realignment theories must be qualified.
Low O2 Atmospheres Affect Storage Quality of Zucchini Squash Slices Treated with Calcium

Calcium chloride treated or nontreated zucchini squash slices were stored in air or low O2 (0.25, 0.5 and 1%) at 107C. Respiration rate, ethylene production, and development of browning/decay were reduced under low O2. Slices stored under 0.25% O2 had less weight loss and browning/decay, and greater shear force and L-ascorbic acid content than those stored in air. Microbial count, pH, and color at the end of storage were improved by low O2. Calcium treatment had no additive effect on maintaining quality of zucchini squash slices stored in 0.25% O2 atmosphere.
Genetics and genomics of complex diseases : mouse atherosclerosis modifier genes and human gene expression after bariatric surgery.

The overall goal of our research was to study and identify genes involved in the development of complex diseases in mice and humans through integrative genetic/genomic approaches. Two complex diseases were the focus of research, atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes. Mouse models of atherosclerosis, in which the genetic background and the environment can be controlled for, were used to identify and validate atherosclerosis modifier genes. We studied an atherosclerosis quantitative trait locus (QTL) on the distal end of chromosome 5, called Ath24, and generated interval-specific congenic mice on the atherosclerosis resistant AKR and susceptible DBA/2 apoE-deficient strains. To date we have not validated this locus. Because the congenic mice were on pure parental backgrounds we cannot account for strain dependent gene-gene interactions present in the F2 cohort used to identify Ath24; and thus, we are currently generating congenic mice for the Ath24 QTL on the F1 background. A major goal of this research was to confirm or exclude Pan3 as the atherosclerosis modifier gene responsible for the Ath24 QTL, and/or identify new candidate genes. Strain differences in Pan3 sequence and splicing were characterized. Pan3 hemizygous
Bringing Up Baby (Criminals): The Failure of Zero Tolerance and the Need for a Multidisciplinary Approach to State Actions Involving Children

The United States legal system is predicated on logic and reason, to say nothing of compassion. Without reason, there would be no self-defense, negligence, justifiable homicide, or even degrees of murder. There would be one punishment for each category of crime; intent, motive, or means would not be criteria for adjudication.While our legal system recognizes and allows for such mitigating circumstances, school districts in recent years have enacted their own system of justice with much harsher results, eliminating even the idea of mitigation. Zero-tolerance policies have been enacted nationwide in response to incidents of violence in schools. No one would suggest that these school districts were not only acting from a firm conviction that action needed to be taken, but also from an affirmative obligation to do so. Yet an idea, which theoretically had potential for good in controlling violence and providing a safe haven for students, has become an instrument of harm in and of itself, and worse, according to some of its critics, a tool for school administrators seeking a legitimate way to target difficult children, including those in special education programs.This Article explores how and what we are teaching today's children. Most importantly, this Article examines whether zero tolerance is working, or, instead, is contributing to the growing acts of violence and disassociation of our children. It will not purport to be an examination of statistics and structure of the various zero-tolerance policies, but looks at whether both the school and state have abandoned their responsibility to children in the guise of protecting and furthering society. After the introduction in Part I, Part II of this Article examines the effects of such policies on children in general, including a look at the positive goals of the policies and both the immediate and lasting effects of suspension and expulsion from school. Part III takes a closer look at how specific groups of children are affected, including minorities and special education children, and will examine the irony of using the very environments created to help these children as their means of punishment. Part IV focuses on the potential long-term effects of eliminating zero tolerance in its most basic forms from our schools, including how zero tolerance carries over into intolerance for others, to say nothing of creating a new species of criminals. Part V looks at alternative means of achieving the results sought from these policies, including a call for the full integration of families and social science professionals in all areas of family and juvenile law.
Chlorpromazine-Induced Changes in Serum Prolactin in Women with Oligomenorrhea, Amenorrhea, and Pituitary Adenoma

Chlorpromazine (CPZ, Thorazine) administration has been found to result in an increase in peripheral serum levels of prolactin (hPRL) in both men and women. Normal menstruating women were found to have at least a doubling of serum hPRL (100% increase) over basal values within 150minutes of the intramuscular administration of CPZ (0.7mg/kg). Thirty-nine women with oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea with normal or elevated basal levels of serum hPRL were evaluated by this testing modality. Their responses were compared with those of normal women as well as those of 18 women with elevated serum hPRL levels and roentgenographic evidence of pituitary microadenoma. Women with oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea and normal serum hPRL levels generally had a normal response to CPZ (9 of 16 [56.3%]). A smaller percentage of normal responses was found in women with elevated hPRL levels but no overt evidence of pituitary microadenoma (7 of 21 [33%]). Women with elevated hPRL levels and evidence of pituitary microadenoma uniformly failed to have a normal hPRL response following CPZ administration. Although the group with microadenomas did not show a significant hPRL response to CPZ, this test does not unequivocally differentiate between women who have evidence of pituitary adenoma and those who do not. Suggestive, but not conclusive, evidence of hypothalamic dysfunction as the cause of the oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea is presented.
Correlations for Fully Softened Shear Strength Parameters

Fully softened shear strength is an important engineering concept for slope stability analyses of cuts in stiff clays and compacted embankments constructed of high plasticity clays. The “softening” concept has been used to explain many first-time failures for which the back-calculated shear strength is below the peak strength measured in the laboratory using undisturbed or freshly compacted samples. A comprehensive laboratory testing program was undertaken to measure the fully softened shear strength of 46 soils using over 300 direct shear tests. These results were used to develop correlations that allow estimation of a continuous and nonlinear fully softened failure envelope using soil index properties. These new correlations were developed to address some of the problems observed with existing correlations for fully softened shear strength parameters. The new correlations are presented along with the statistical parameters needed to assess reliability of the shear strength parameters and to allow use within a probabilistic framework.
Presidential Elections: An Explanation of Voting Defection *

This paper proposes and tests a modest theory of voting defection, the act of voting contrary to party identification. The relevance of voting defection to popular control of government is clear. Except for the infrequent elections that Key calls “critical,” the identification of people with their parties is very stable over time. The percentage of Democrats and Republicans in the electorate changed only slightly in the four presidential elections from 1952 to 1964. Short term shifts in public attitudes, then, are reflected not in shifts in the distribution of party identification, but in the degree that people vote in accordance with their identification. When they are disenchanted with the President, defection will be high among members of the opposition party and low among members of the party in office. In 1952 people were weary of the Korean War; this weariness was apparent in the massive numbers of Democrats who thought Eisenhower a man capable of ending the conflict and who backed up their convictions with Republican votes. In short, in the rate of defection we have a mirror that reflects popular discontent with the politics of the President. My present concern is to explore some personal attributes of the voters who make up this critical electorate, to augment the propositions surrounding party identification with one explanation of why it is that people vote contrary to their party allegiance.
Melatonin and Experimental Perinatal Asphyxia

Researchers from University College London, Hopital Robert Debre, and Universite Paris Diderot, Paris assessed the neuroprotective effects of melatonin combined with therapeutic hypothermia after transient hypoxia-ischemia in a piglet model of perinatal asphyxia.
Application value of PDCA quality improvement process in central sterile supply quality management

Objective To discuss the application value of PDCA quality improvement process in central sterile supply quality management. Methods Score results of device management, environmental management, cleaning quality surgical instruments, disinfection quality and packaging quality were compared before and after PDCA circle training. So were efficiency and effectiveness of the department members, pass rate of cleaning and disinfection and the cost of spending situation. Results Score results of central sterile supply quality management were significantly improved after PDCA circle training comparing with score results before PDCA circle training, work efficiency and enthusiasm for Learning of staff in central sterile supply department were higher after PDCA circle training than before, the differences were statistically significant(P 0.05). There was a significant increase in cleaning and sterilization quality management of central sterile supply department after PDCA circle training(P 0.05). Conclusion Management quality monitoring system in central sterile supply department became more planned and more systemic after PDCA circle training.PDCA circle is a fast and efficient way to improve the efficiency of central sterile supply quality management and it has important applications for continuous quality improvement in central sterile supply department.
Effect of Chronic Electrostimulation of the Sacral Roots on the Striated Urethral Sphincter

Abstract Chronic electrostimulation of the sacral roots induces an increase in urethral resistance due to activation of muscles of the striated urethral sphincter. Histochemical study of the urethral striated musculature (nonstimulated) revealed 3 main varieties of fibers: 1) Slow twitch fibers (35 per cent of the whole muscle); 2) Fast twitch fatiguable fibers (52 per cent); and 3) An intermediate type, fast twitch fatigue resistant (13 per cent). Ten dogs with chronically implanted electrodes at the 2nd sacral root were subjected to a program of prolonged stimulation under anesthesia. After prolonged electrostimulation, we detected hypertrophy of the striated muscle fibers of the urethra, anal sphincter and stimulated side of the tail. The stimulated muscle fibers showed a higher overall oxidative activity than the controls. This occurred both in intact and spinalized animals. We thus expect the urethral striated musculature to be more resistant to fatigue because of the increased oxidative activity. Stimulated fibers also had increased glycolytic activity as shown by the enhanced intermyofibrillar deposition, especially in the fast twitch fibers. The increased glycolytic activity may also increase fatigue resistance by producing energy during periods of low oxygen supply at the peak of muscular contraction. As a consequence of increase in oxidative and glycolytic capacities and muscular hypertrophy, we expect that the striated musculature of the urethra will be not only more resistant to fatigue but also capable of generating higher tension. Both are important in achieving continence via electrostimulation of sacral nerve roots. Approximately 3 months after conclusion of the stimulation program these changes had gradually reverted to the normal prestimulation level.
Abstract 3704: TRISENOX disrupts MDM2-DAXX-HAUSP interaction and increased promyelocytes formation in murine model of APL

Trisenox (ATO) is widely used in the treatment of all age group of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) patients in both induction and consolidation therapy. In vitro studies are shown that it works through oxidative stress, cell cycle regulation and apoptosis to kill APL cells having PML-RAR α oncogene. Some ATO resistant case of APL patients are reported with different oncogenes combination. However, in vivo anti-leukemic mechanism of action of ATO in APL patients poorly known. We have used transgenic murine model to elucidate the anti-cancer properties of ATO through new target. We hypothesized that ATO disrupts MDM2-DAXX-HAUSP interaction and also increased more number of promyelocytes formation inside bone marrow cells of APL mice. To test the hypothesis, we used different groups of younger (4-5weeks old) transgenic APL mice and standardized different dose of ATO (1.25, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 mg/kg body wt) after 21days continuous treatment in PBS. We utilized western blotting, immunocytochemistry, confocal imaging and other molecular techniques to identify molecular mechanisms of ATO action in APL mice hepatocytes as well as bone marrow cells. We found that it increases number of promyelocyte formation in bone marrow cells and also degradation of PML-RARα dose dependent fashion. ATO nicely activated p53 expression in both liver tissue as well as bone marrow cells of APL mice through degradation of MDM2. It was also disrupted both expression and association of MDM2-DAXX-HAUSP complex molecules dose dependent manner in mice liver tissues. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that ATO disrupts MDM2-DAXX-HAUSP interaction, increased promyelocytes formation, MDM2 degradation by accumulating P53 in APL mice liver tissues. It is novel target for treatment of APL patients through designing of new anti-leukemic drugs. Keywords: Trisenox, P53, MDM2-DAXX-HAUSP complex molecules APL Mice hepatocytes and bone marrow cells. Acknowledgements: This research was financially supported by National Institutes of Health NCRR Grant No. 5G12RR013459 and MIMHD Grant No. 8G12MD007581, through the RCMI-Center for Environmental Health at Jackson State University. Citation Format: Sanjay Kumar, Paul Tchounwou. TRISENOX disrupts MDM2-DAXX-HAUSP interaction and increased promyelocytes formation in murine model of APL. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3704.
Building the Pipeline for Community College International Education Leadership

International educational programs play a key role in providing the skills needed for a competitive, globally competent workforce and for a citizenry who are cultured, transformative, and empowered to support reform at the local and global level. This educational focus was mentioned as a key role for community colleges in the 1947 Truman Commission Report, is a theme in President Barack Obama’s “Race to the Top” initiative, and is supported by community college chancellors, presidents, Boards of Trustees, and associations. Astin and Astin (2000) describe transformative leadership as a pattern that involves individuals as “change agents” who seek to create intentional change within the institution. In the community college, strong leadership is needed at the faculty, mid-administrator level, and executive officer levels, to turn their vision into action that stimulates and affects long-term and systemic change.
Rising nitrogen fertilizer prices and projected increase in maize ethanol production: the future of forage production and the potential of legumes in forage production systems

Nitrogen (N) fertilizers are critical in today's agriculture especially in the United States. Leaching, methane and nitrous oxide emissions from N fertilizer use and the implications for global climate and water pollution raised serious concerns among environmentalists and agronomists. Prices of N fertilizers increased geometrically over the past few years. The projected increase in maize (Zea mays L.) ethanol production is expected to increase N fertilizer demand and prices. Hay prices are, however, staggering and producers are looking for alternatives to N fertilizers. This review paper assessed trends in fertilizer use and prices as well as factors affecting fixation and transfer of dinitrogen (N2) in forage production systems. Additionally, economic implications of using N fertilizers and grass-legume mixtures are discussed. From the review, it was apparent that legumes have the potential to replace N fertilizers or at least complement the use of N fertilizers in forage production systems. However, N transfer in forage production systems is low. A lot more research is needed to answer the question “Why legumes fix so much N2 and transfer just a small proportion to other crops.” Similarly, identifying compatible grass-legume species that enhance N2 fixation will be a giant step towards reduced N fertilizer use and ensuring environmental sustainability. With the sharp increase in N fertilizer prices, the use of legumes in forage production systems seems promising.
Suicide Acceptability and Religious Well-Being: A Comparative Analysis in African American Suicide Attempters and Non-Attempters

This study was designed to examine the relationship between suicide acceptability and religious well-being, and to investigate the differences that may exist between African American suicide attemp...
Detection of tuberculosis using hybrid features from chest radiographs

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease and becomes a major threat all over the world but still diagnosis of tuberculosis is a challenging task. In literature, chest radiographs are considered as most commonly used medical images in under developed countries for the diagnosis of TB. Different methods have been proposed but they are not helpful for radiologists due to cost and accuracy issues. Our paper presents a methodology in which different combinations of features are extracted based on intensities, shape and texture of chest radiograph and given to classifier for the detection of TB. The performance of our methodology is evaluated using publically available standard dataset Montgomery Country (MC) which contains 138 CXRs among which 80 CXRs are normal and 58 CXRs are abnormal including effusion and miliary patterns etc. The accuracy of 81.16% was achieved and the results show that proposed method have outperformed existing state of the art methods on MC dataset.
Some from here, some from there: cross-project code reuse in GitHub

Code reuse has well-known benefits on code quality, coding efficiency, and maintenance. Open Source Software (OSS) programmers gladly share their own code and they happily reuse others'. Social programming platforms like GitHub have normalized code foraging via their common platforms, enabling code search and reuse across different projects. Removing project borders may facilitate more efficient code foraging, and consequently faster programming. But looking for code across projects takes longer and, once found, may be more challenging to tailor to one's needs. Learning how much code reuse goes on across projects, and identifying emerging patterns in past cross-project search behavior may help future foraging efforts. To understand cross-project code reuse, here we present an in-depth study of cloning in GitHub. Using Deckard, a clone finding tool, we identified copies of code fragments across projects, and investigate their prevalence and characteristics using statistical and network science approaches, and with multiple case studies. By triangulating findings from different methods, we find that cross-project cloning is prevalent in GitHub, ranging from cloning few lines of code to whole project repositories. Some of the projects serve as popular sources of clones, and others seem to contain more clones than their fair share. Moreover, we find that ecosystem cloning follows an onion model: most clones come from the same project, then from projects in the same application domain, and finally from projects in different domains. Our results show directions for new tools that can facilitate code foraging and sharing within GitHub.
Measuring and quantifying skin sympathetic nervous system activity in humans

Development of the technique of microneurography has substantially increased our understanding of the function of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in health and in disease. The ability to directly record signals from peripheral autonomic nerves in conscious humans allows for qualitative and quantitative characterization of SNS responses to specific stimuli and over time. Furthermore, distinct neural outflow to muscle (MSNA) and skin (SSNA) can be delineated. However, there are limitations and caveats to the use of microneurography, measurement criteria, and signal analysis and interpretation. MSNA recordings have a longer history and are considered relatively more straightforward from a measurement and analysis perspective. This brief review provides an overview of the development of the technique as used to measure SSNA. The focus is on the utility of measuring sympathetic activity directed to the skin, the unique issues related to analyzing and quantifying multiunit SSNA, and the challenges related to its interpretation.
The effects of grace interventions in church communities

Grace remains little studied though several recent studies have developed promising ways to measure grace. Here we report two studies involving grace interventions as part of an ongoing investigati...
Towards modeling agent negotiators by analyzing human negotiation behavior

Negotiation is a fundamental aspect of social interaction. Our research aims to contribute towards the creation of artificial agent negotiators that can be used for training purposes to improve human negotiation skills. To achieve that, we address the challenge of identifying differences in human negotiation styles and relating those differences to individuals' personality traits. In particular, we follow a data-driven approach by collecting data on how people negotiate against an agent using a fixed-response strategy during a task involving the partition of a set of items. We then use different machine learning techniques to: 1) analyze the relationship between negotiation styles and personality traits; 2) characterize changes in the human negotiation behavior during the game; 3) discover human behavior patterns in response to different offers by the agent player. Our analyses show how different personality traits lead to distinct behaviors during the negotiation. In turn, this data will allow us to build agent negotiators that have a rich behavioral repertoire and are able to adapt to human negotiation trainees, thus fostering more interesting learning experiences.
A Meta-Theoretical Framework for Counselling People of African Ancestry: An Ecologically Oriented Response to the Special Section Articles

This article is a review of the preceding six articles included in the Special Section related to the subject of counselling people of African ancestry. The major objective was to ascertain whether...
Jürgen Habermas on the (Non-)Translatability of Religious Meaning

The relationship between religious faith and public reason has occupied an increasingly central role in Jurgen Habermas’s mature work. Yet this recent engagement with questions of religious meaning also illuminates a significant area of development in Habermas’s thought. While his earlier writings emphasized a need to subordinate religious beliefs to rational critique and to translate religious truth claims into publicly accessible forms of reasoning, his later writings signal a shift to a more cooperative understanding of religious faith and critical reason that highlights the ongoing potential of religion to advance rational discourse and social criticism in the public sphere. This essay traces this growing recognition of the irreducibility of religious meaning in Habermas’s writings, and it attends to the non-translatable dimension of religious faith as a source of its ongoing contemporary significance.
Regulation of Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II By Autophosphorylation/Dephosphorylation

Publisher Summary This chapter elaborates regulation of Ca 2+ /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II by autophosphorylation/dephosphorylation. In many neural tissues and tissues innervated by them, intracellular changes in Ca 2+ concentrations are known to regulate processes underlying cell contractility, cytoskeletal functions and cell–cell communication. In forebrain, CaM-KII is present in cytosolic and particulate cellular compartments. The effects of autophosphorylation on CaM-KII activity toward the subsequent phosphorylation of synapsin I was assessed by a sequential two-stage (I and II) assay. When autophosphorylated CaM-KII was incubated with protein phosphatase type-1 (PrP-1) for 20 minutes at 30°C, 80% and 85% of the 32 P associated with the 50 and 60 kDa subunits of CaM-KII were removed, respectively. It was indicated that the in vitro autophosphorylation of CaM-KII produces an enzyme whose properties are quite different from that of the unphosphorylated kinase. Ca 2+ /CaM-dependent form of cytosolic CaM-KII can be regenerated from the autophosphorylated kinase by dephosphorylation with purified type-1 protein phosphatase. Recent experiments indicate that the phosphorylation of CaM-KII does occur in brain tissue slices differences between in situ vs. in vitro phosphorylation properties have been observed.
A Continuum of Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Reactivity

ConspectusProton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) covers a wide range of reactions involving the transfer(s) of electrons and protons. The best-known PCET reaction, hydrogen atom transfer (HAT), has been studied in detail for more than a century. HAT is generally described as the concerted transfer of a hydrogen atom (H• ≡ H+ + e–) from one group to another, Y + H–X → Y–H + X, but a strict definition of HAT has been difficult to establish. Distinctions are more challenging when the transfer of “H•” involves e– and H+ that transfer to/from spatially distinct sites or even completely separate reagents (multiple-site concerted proton–electron transfer, MS-CPET). MS-CPET reactivity is increasingly proposed in biological and synthetic contexts, and some reactions typically described as HAT more resemble MS-CPET. Despite that HAT and MS-CPET reactions “look different,” we argue here that these reactions lie on a reactivity continuum, and that they are governed by many of the same key parameters. This Account wa...
Microstructure and property based statistically equivalent RVEs for polycrystalline-polyphase aluminum alloys

Abstract This paper develops necessary preprocessors for image-based micromechanical analysis of polycrystalline-polyphase microstructures of Al alloys such as Al7075-T651. Starting from input data in the form of electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) maps of orthogonal surfaces of experimental specimens, the paper creates a robust methodology for generating 3D statistically equivalent virtual microstructures (3D-SEVMs) by 3D stereological projection of 2D statistical distribution and correlation functions using a genetic algorithm (GA)-based numerical algorithm. Validation studies of the SEVM reconstruction process by comparing with morphological and crystallographic distributions of grains and precipitates from the experiments. Next, microstructure-based statistically equivalent representative volume element (M-SERVE) that corresponds to the minimum sized SERVE for convergence of morphological or crystallographic distributions, are established using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) tests. Finally, property-based statistically equivalent RVE (P-SERVE), defined as the smallest SERVE for predicting response functions (both effective and local), are estimated by conducting crystal plasticity finite-element simulations. Convergence plots of material response functions are used to assess the P-SERVE. Comparison of M-SERVE and P-SERVE sizes are made to comprehend microstructure-property relations.
Forgotten Fathers: Postpartum Depression in Men

Although postpartum depression is common and well-studied in mothers, many fathers also experience symptoms. This qualitative study investigated fathers’ experiences of postpartum depression. Data ...
Fintech and Banking

This paper is a review of fintech and its interaction with banking. Included in fintech are innovations in payment systems (including cryptocurrencies), credit markets (including P2P lending), and insurance, with blockchain-assisted smart contract playing a role. The paper provides a definition of fintech, examines some statistics and stylized facts, and then reviews the theoretical and empirical literature. The review is organized around four main research questions. That paper summarizes our knowledge on these questions and concludes with questions for future research.
The 3D Spatial Autocorrelation of the Branching Fractal Vasculature

The fractal branching vasculature within soft tissues and the mathematical properties of the branching system influence a wide range of important phenomena from blood velocity to ultrasound backscatter. Among the mathematical descriptors of branching networks, the spatial autocorrelation function plays an important role in statistical measures of the tissue and of wave propagation through the tissue. However, there are open questions about analytic models of the 3D autocorrelation function for the branching vasculature and few experimental validations for soft vascularized tissue. To address this, high resolution computed tomography scans of a highly vascularized placenta perfused with radiopaque contrast through the umbilical artery were examined. The spatial autocorrelation function was found to be consistent with a power law, which then, in theory, predicts the specific power law behavior of other related functions, including the backscatter of ultrasound.
The structural basis of N-acyl-alpha-amino-beta-lactone formation catalyzed by a nonribosomal peptide synthetase.

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases produce diverse natural products using a multidomain architecture where the growing peptide, attached to an integrated carrier domain, is delivered to neighboring catalytic domains for bond formation and modification. Investigation of these systems can lead to the discovery of new structures, unusual biosynthetic transformations, and to the engineering of catalysts for generating new products. The antimicrobial β-lactone obafluorin is produced nonribosomally from dihydroxybenzoic acid and a β-hydroxy amino acid that cyclizes into the β-lactone during product release. Here we report the structure of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase ObiF1, highlighting the structure of the β-lactone-producing thioesterase domain and an interaction between the C-terminal MbtH-like domain with an upstream adenylation domain. Biochemical assays examine catalytic promiscuity, provide mechanistic insight, and demonstrate utility for generating obafluorin analogs. These results advance our understanding of the structural cycle of nonribosomal peptide synthetases and provide insights into the production of β-lactone natural products. The antimicrobial β-lactone obafluorin is produced by a Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetase (NRPS). Here the authors present the crystal structure of the obafluorin NRPS and develop a reconstitution assay that allows them to analyse product formation from obafluorin NRPS mutants and alternate substrates.
Balanced Wideband Impedance Transformer (BWIT) for Common-Mode Resonance Cancellation in UWB Dipoles over a Ground Plane

Within the context of modern radios, differential Radio Frequency (RF) front-ends provide much greater immunity to noise and distortion by suppressing second order harmonics. Recent advancements in differential RF front-ends offer high dynamic range, high linearity, and low noise in the transceiver chain. However, a major bottleneck with differential systems is the presence of common-mode resonances when scanning to low angles across large bandwidths. In this paper, we present a novel wideband differential feed for ultra-wideband (UWB) dipoles like the Tightly Coupled Dipole Array (TCDA). Our Balanced Wideband Impedance Transformer (BWIT) feed is developed for the UHF-S band (viz. 0.4 GHz to 3.2 GHz) with emphasis on resonance-free wide-angle scanning in the E-plane.
Nutrition Support Therapies on the Medication Administration Record: Impacts on Staff Perception of Nutrition Care

Background It has been reported that many hospitals in the United States have fragmented and ineffective ordering, administration, documentation, and evaluation/monitoring of nutrition therapies. This paper reports on a project to investigate if perceived hospital staff awareness and documentation of nutrition support therapies (NSTs) improves by including them as part of the medication administration record (MAR). Methods Surveys were conducted with nursing staff, physicians, and dietitians before and after adding NSTs to the MAR to evaluate the perceived impact on the outcome of interest. The outcomes of interest include nurses' perception of ease of finding information, awareness of an order, and ability to assess administration and documentation and dietitian, nurse, and physician staff perceptions of impact of intervention on aspects of the nutrition care process. Results After adding NST to the MAR, nursing staff perceived improvement in knowing that their patient had an oral nutritional supplement (ONS) order (P = .01), when and how much product was last administered (P = .01), and documentation of the type of product consumed (P = .01) and volume of product consumed (P = .01). The majority of dietitian and nurses surveyed reported perceived improvement in placing and finding ONS orders, in administration of ONS, in ability to evaluate patient nutrition status, and in ONS intake and a positive impact on clinical practice. Conclusion Inclusion of NST in the MAR presents an innovative solution to enhance staff awareness of ordered therapies and perception of improved documentation of nutrition interventions for hospitalized patients.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of surgical morbidity of primary versus patch repaired congenital diaphragmatic hernia patients

Large studies comparing the surgical outcome of primary versus patch repair in congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) patients are rare. This study aims to evaluate the incidence of surgical complications in both types of CDH repair. PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane and Web of Science were searched for peer-reviewed articles. Studies on CDH between 1991 and August 2020 were systematically screened and meta-analyses were performed. Primary outcomes of this review were: haemorrhage, chylothorax, recurrences and small bowel obstruction (SBO). A total of 6436 abstracts were screened, after which 25 publications were included (2910 patients). Patch repaired patients have a 2.8 times higher risk on developing a recurrence (20 studies) and a 2.5 times higher risk on developing a chylothorax (five studies). Moreover, they have a two times higher risk on developing a SBO. No studies could be included that evaluated the incidence of surgical haemorrhage between these patients. Although the quality of the studies was relatively low, patch repaired patients have a higher risk on developing a recurrence, chylothorax and small bowel obstruction. Large prospective studies are required to adjust for severity of disease, to reveal the true causative factors in order to minimize the risk on these surgical complications in both types of patients.
The m6A reader IMP2 directs autoimmune inflammation through an IL-17– and TNFα-dependent C/EBP transcription factor axis

Excessive cytokine activity underlies many autoimmune conditions, particularly through the interleukin-17 (IL-17) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) signaling axis. Both cytokines activate nuclear factor κB, but appropriate induction of downstream effector genes requires coordinated activation of other transcription factors, notably, CCAAT/enhancer binding proteins (C/EBPs). Here, we demonstrate the unexpected involvement of a posttranscriptional "epitranscriptomic" mRNA modification [N6-methyladenosine (m6A)] in regulating C/EBPβ and C/EBPδ in response to IL-17A, as well as IL-17F and TNFα. Prompted by the observation that C/EBPβ/δ-encoding transcripts contain m6A consensus sites, we show that Cebpd and Cebpb mRNAs are subject to m6A modification. Induction of C/EBPs is enhanced by an m6A methylase "writer" and suppressed by a demethylase "eraser." The only m6A "reader" found to be involved in this pathway was IGF2BP2 (IMP2), and IMP2 occupancy of Cebpd and Cebpb mRNA was enhanced by m6A modification. IMP2 facilitated IL-17-mediated Cebpd mRNA stabilization and promoted translation of C/EBPβ/δ in response to IL-17A, IL-17F, and TNFα. RNA sequencing revealed transcriptome-wide IL-17-induced transcripts that are IMP2 influenced, and RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing identified the subset of mRNAs that are directly occupied by IMP2, which included Cebpb and Cebpd Lipocalin-2 (Lcn2), a hallmark of autoimmune kidney injury, was strongly dependent on IL-17, IMP2, and C/EBPβ/δ. Imp2-/- mice were resistant to autoantibody-induced glomerulonephritis (AGN), showing impaired renal expression of C/EBPs and Lcn2 Moreover, IMP2 deletion initiated only after AGN onset ameliorated disease. Thus, posttranscriptional regulation of C/EBPs through m6A/IMP2 represents a previously unidentified paradigm of cytokine-driven autoimmune inflammation.
Identification of topoisomerase as a precision-medicine target in chromatin reader SP140-driven Crohn’s disease

Summary How mis-regulated chromatin directly impacts human immunological disease is poorly understood. Speckled Protein 140 (SP140) is an immune-restricted PHD and bromodomain-containing chromatin ‘reader’ whose loss-of-function associates with Crohn’s disease (CD), multiple sclerosis (MS) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). However, mechanisms underlying SP140-driven pathogenicity and therapeutic approaches that rescue SP140 remain unexplored. Using a global proteomic strategy, we identified SP140 as a repressor of topoisomerases (TOP) that maintains heterochromatin and immune cell fate. In humans and mice, SP140 loss resulted in unleashed TOP activity, genome instability, severely compromised lineage-defining and microbe-inducible innate transcriptional programs and defective bacterial killing. Pharmacological inhibition of TOP1 or TOP2 rescued these defects. Furthermore, exacerbated colitis was restored with TOP1 or TOP2 inhibitors in Sp140-/- mice, but not wild-type mice, in vivo. Collectively, we identify SP140 as a repressor of topoisomerases and reveal repurposing of TOP inhibition as a precision strategy for reversing SP140-driven immune disease.
Ibrutinib’s off-target mechanism: cause for dose optimization

Ibrutinib (Imbruvica®, 2013) is a Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor approved for multiple B-cell malignancies and cGVHD. Its treatment is associated with increased risk of cardiac adverse events. Atrial fibrillation is a common cause of therapy discontinuation and interruptions, which have been correlated with shorter progression-free survival in chronic lymphocyte leukemia (CLL) patients. Recently, Xiao et al. identified that ibrutinib-mediated atrial fibrillation is likely due to off-target CSK inhibition. Given promising in vitro and in vivo evidence of maintained biological activity in CLL at lower-than-labeled ibrutinib doses, this elucidated mechanism substantiates the case to investigate alternative dosing schedules. The potential to minimize ibrutinib's off-target effects while conserving response warrants further discussion and investigation of optimal ibrutinib dosing.
Magnetic Nanomaterials for In Vivo and In Vitro Cancer Diagnostics

The sections in this article are Introduction Physico-Chemical Properties of Magnetic Nanoparticles Surface Coating for Improved Biocompatibility and Bioavailability MRI for In Vivo Diagnostics Principles of MRI SPIOs as MRI Contrast Agents Specific Targeting of Tumors for Imaging MRI for the Monitoring of Treatment Application of Magnetic Nanoparticles in In Vitro Diagnostics Magnetic Nanoparticle-Based Improvements on Immunoassays Electrochemical Immunoassays Immunoassays Using Magnetic Luminescent Nanoparticles (MLNPs) Magnetic Relaxation Switch (MRSw) Biosensors for Multi-Sample Analysis DNA Sequence Detection by Brownian Relaxation Frequency Measurement Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells Aptamers as an Alternative to Antibodies Conclusions Keywords: cancer diagnosis; magnetic nanoparticles; immunoassays; circulating tumor cells
Computers and industrial engineering education: perspectives from the University of Toledo

Abstract This paper will describe how computers are and could be utilized in industrial engineering education from perspectives of the University of Toledo. The paper will show the status and scope of computer usage in industrial engineering education at the University of Toledo. This will be discussed by giving examples of the computer hardware and software used in typical industrial engineering courses such as: Work Design and Measurement, Engineering Economy, Operations Research, Quality Control, Computer-Aided Manufacturing, Human Factors, Management Information Systems, Facility Planning and Design, and Simulation.
Performance Optimization of Fractal Dimension Based Feature Selection Algorithm

Feature selection is a key issue in the advanced application fields like data mining, multi-dimensional statistical analysis, multimedia index and document classification. It is a novel method to exploit fractal dimension to reduce dimension of feature spaces. The most famous one is the fractal dimension based feature selection algorithm FDR proposed by Traina Jr et al. This paper proposes an optimized algorithm, OptFDR, which scans the dataset only once and avoids the efficiency problems of multiple scanning large dataset in the algorithm FDR. The performance experiments are made for evaluating OptFDRalgorithm using real-world image feature dataset and synthetic dataset with fractal characteristics. The experimental results show that OptFDR algorithm outperforms FDR algorithm.
A generic reaction-based biogeochemical simulator

This paper presents a generic biogeochemical simulator, BIOGEOCHEM. The simulator can read a thermodynamic database based on the EQ3/EQ6 database. It can also read user-specified equilibrium and kinetic reactions (reactions not defined in the format of that in EQ3/EQ6 database) symbolically. BIOGEOCHEM is developed with a general paradigm. It overcomes the requirement in most available reaction-based models that reactions and rate laws be specified in a limited number of canonical forms. The simulator interprets the reactions and rate laws of virtually any type for input to the MAPLE symbolic mathematical software package. MAPLE then generates Fortran code for the analytical Jacobian matrix used in the Newton-Raphson technique, which is copiled and linked into the BIOGEOCHEM executable. With this feature, the users are exempted from recoding the simulator to accept new equilibrium expressions or kinetic rate laws. Two examples are used to demonstrate the new features of the simulator.
Implementation and research issues in query processing for wireless sensor networks

This is a three-hour seminar discussing the design and implementation of software systems as well as open research problems related to data processing and collection in wireless sensor networks. During the first hour-and-ahalf, we focus on the design of the TinyDB data collection system for networks of Berkeley motes running the TinyOS operating system. Then, during the remainder of the seminar, we survey relevant literature from the database, networking, and OS communities and identify a number of unsolved and inadequately addressed research problems. This seminar is intended for anyone interested in wireless sensor networks with a general background in computer science, be they users of sensor networks looking for an easy way to collect data, developers interested in the design of TinyOS and TinyDB, or researchers in search of challenging new problems.