cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of portable, manually powered ultra-violet water treatment

A novel, portable water purification device was developed that utilizes UV radiation at 254 nm as its primary mode of disinfection. This wavelength has been proven to deactivate all known bacteria, viruses, and protozoan water contaminants. The device operated solely on the power provided from a mechanical-electrical hand crank generator. The device proved effective in a study using E.coli as the target water contaminant. A maximum UV dosage of 13,000 µWs/cm2 was supplied across the device, the dosage needed to kill all organisms. The effect of the UV device on bacteria disinfection was measured over time, and proved to kill all traces of E.coli within 35 seconds. Based on the UV dosage needed to kill the toughest pathogens, the device was shown to kill all dangerous pathogens within 70 seconds. The device provided a novel means to decontaminate water without the need for any external power, i.e. electricity or batteries. The device can be found useful in wilderness applications where external power sources are not accessible, and in third world homes where large-scale water purification systems are not provided by their governments.
Optimal Admission Control for a Markovian Queue Under the Quality of Service Constraint

We study an optimal admission of arriving customers to a Markovian finite-capacity queue, e.g. M/M/c/N queue, with several customer types. The system managers are paid for serving customers and penalized for rejecting them. The rewards and penalties depend on customer types. The goal is to maximize the average rewards per unit time subject to the constraint on the average penalties per unit time. We provide a solution to this problem through a Linear Programming transformation and characterize the structure of optimal policies based on Lagrangian optimization. For a feasible problem, we show the existence of a 1-randomized trunk reservation optimal policy with the acceptance thresholds for different customer types ordered according to a linear combination of the service rewards and rejection costs. I n addition, we prove that any 1-randomized optimal policy has this structure. In particular, we establish the structure of an optimal policy that maximizes the average rewards per unit time subject to the constraint on the blocking probability for one of the customer types or for a group of customer types pooled together, i.e., the QoS (Quality of Service) constraint. In the end, we also formulat the problem with multiple constraints and similar results hold.
Biodistribution of 14C-lomustine in an Animal Tumor Model

A formulation of 14C-lomustine in propylene glycol-ethanol (4:1) was administered intravenously to rats infiltrated with glioma tumors of the astrocytic series (RT6). The organ and tumor distribution of this agent was followed at 1, 4, 12, and 24 hr. Rapid blood disappearance (0-1 hr) of the label concomitant with an increase in all organs except the lung, muscle, and brain was observed. Only the blood, liver, and muscle contained >1% of the dose after 24 hr. The bladder, liver, small bowel, and kidneys concentrated the highest percentages throughout the study. The distribution of 14C-lomustine in the tumor relative to the brain, muscle, and blood showed a maximum 4-12 hr after administration.
Isolated cleft posterior mitral valve leaflet: an uncommon cause of mitral regurgitation

A 53-year-old woman with a history of hypertension was referred for an echocardiogram by her primary care physician after an unspecified abnormal ECG. The echocardiogram showed normal left ventricular size and function; however, an isolated cleft posterior mitral valve leaflet was identified with concomitant bileaflet prolapse and mild mitral regurgitation. She was subsequently referred to a cardiologist for clinical evaluation. Cleft mitral valve leaflet (CMVL) is an uncommon congenital cause of mitral regurgitation. Clefts, defined as slit-like holes or defects, are hypothesized to be a result of incomplete expression of an endocardial cushion defect which most commonly involves the anterior mitral valve leaflet with a paediatric incidence of 1:1340. Clefts affecting only the posterior mitral valve leaflet are extremely rare with only four cases being reported in the medical literature. Important co-existing anomalies with either posterior and/or anterior CMVL include counterclockwise rotation of the papillary muscles, the presence of an accessory papillary muscle or mitral valve leaflet, atrial septal defects, and mitral valve prolapse. Regurgitation from CMVL can lead to important physiological and anatomical changes within the cardiac system. Regurgitation results from blood flow directly through the cleft itself or from malcoaptation from accessory chordae with or without papillary muscle distortion. Significant chronic mitral regurgitation elevates left atrial filling pressures and leads to chamber enlargement and eccentric left ventricular hypertrophy. Early detection through two-dimensional echocardiography can provide accurate anatomical images of the various mitral valve structures and identify associated congenital anomalies. Early surgical correction is preferred before mitral regurgitation causes unfavourable remodelling. Most mitral valve cleft defects can easily be repaired by suturing the edges of the cleft. If a cleft resection leads to limited residual valve tissue, the leaflet of the mitral valve can be reconstructed using an autologous pericardial patch pre-treated with buffered glutaraldehyde. Posterior CMVL is an uncommon but clinically important cause of mitral insufficiency. Early recognition of this rare clinical entity and possible co-existent anomalies can identify the patients who would benefit from surgical intervention before compensatory left ventricular remodelling and contractile dysfunction develop.
Cancer mortality among workers in the meat department of supermarkets.

OBJECTIVES--The aim was to study the risk of dying from cancer among workers in the meat department of supermarkets potentially exposed to oncogenic retroviruses and fumes during the wrapping and labelling of meat. METHODS--Cancer mortality for the period 1949 to 1989 was compared in a previously studied cohort of 10,841 members of a local meatcutters' union in Baltimore, Maryland who worked in the meat department of supermarkets, after an extended follow up of nine years (1981-9). Person-years and deaths were apportioned in five-year intervals by sex, age, and calendar year, and standardised mortality ratio (SMR) and proportional mortality ratio (PMR) analyses were conducted. The United States general population was used as the comparison group. Analyses of SMR and PMR were also conducted for a control group of workers from the same union who worked exclusively in non-meat companies. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION--Among women, an SMR of 1.6 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.1-2.2) and a PMR of 1.5 (95% CI 1.0-2.0) for lung cancer were found. For men, the SMR for cancer of the buccal cavity and pharynx was 1.8 (95% CI 1.0-3.0), and for colon cancer it was 1.5 (95% CI 1.1-2.1). The respective PMRs were 1.9 (95% CI 1.1-3.1) and 1.5 (95% CI 1.1-2.1). Whereas the role of non-occupational factors needs to be taken into account before occupational factors can be implicated in the occurrence of the excess of cancer of the buccal cavity and pharynx, and colon cancer in men, there is reason to suspect that occupational factors may be responsible for the lung cancer excess in women. Thus exposures that occur predominantly in women, such as exposure to fumes during wrapping and labelling, should be investigated as to their role in this excess.
Dynamic Processes of Abyssal Sedimentation: Erosion, Transportation, and Redeposition on the Deep-sea floor

Summary The concept of a quiet, nearly motionless, and certainly currentless deep-sea floor lacking the processes of erosion so prevalent in shallower seas was well ingrained in scientific thought until discoveries of the past decade revised this serene and static picture. The new concept is a more dynamic one in which submarine landslides, raging turbidity currents, internal tides, deep-sea current scour, and submarine post-depositional solution and alteration play a part in shaping the sea floor, in disturbing and nurturing its fauna and which produce sedimentary structures and distributions formerly thought to be the exclusive mark of shallow water deposits. The concepts involved are still in a critical state of flux with many conflicting viewpoints as to the processes involved and their relative importance. The development of the major concepts is traced and the principal variant viewpoints are briefly reviewed.
The impact of government funding of poverty reduction programmes

This research evaluates the impacts on poverty rates of government funds for education, health and hospitals, and public welfare allocated to poverty reduction for counties with persistently high poverty in the Southern United States. Our analysis found that increases in education funding in a poverty hot-spot county reduce the poverty rates of that county and its neighbouring hot-spot counties. We also found that higher health and hospital funding in a hot-spot county is associated with higher poverty rates in neighbouring hot-spot counties and that public welfare funding is not effective in mitigating poverty either within or outside of poverty hot-spots.
The Size of Operable Cancers: (A Study of 7179 Specimens)

My particular interest in the size of operable cancers has been stimulated by the impression that the medical profession is not making notable progress in the recognition of the early stages of cancer. Sufficient time has already elapsed since the beginning of extensive “cancer campaigns” by our leading medical organizations for the results to become apparent. In 1917 I began the routine measurement of all resected or excised cancers from all parts of the body; in this presentation I shall show the results only in cancers of the breast, stomach, and large intestine. I have chosen the breast because special attention has been given to that organ for over thirty years by the medical profession; radical surgery has long been the practice in treating this, the most visible and palpable harborer of cancer. The stomach, the most common site of this disease, has only recently come within the realm of modern methods of diagnosis and standardized surgery; the large intestine is an organ or series of organs even more recently approached by modern methods. Of all of these organs, the breast and rectum are the most accessible to unaided clinical examination; the stomach and the large intestine, with the exception of the rectum, require the assistance of expert and highly technical roentgenology. There may be some reason for failure to recognize early cancers in the cecum, ascending, transverse, and descending colon, the sigmoid, splenic, and hepatic flexures, and perhaps in the stomach, but very little excuse in the breast and rectum.
Primary motor cortical discharge during force field adaptation reflects muscle-like dynamics

We often make reaching movements having similar trajectories within very different mechanical environments, for example, with and without an added load in the hand. Under these varying conditions, our kinematic intentions must be transformed into muscle commands that move the limbs. Primary motor cortex (M1) has been implicated in the neural mechanism that mediates this adaptation to new movement dynamics, but our recent experiments suggest otherwise. We have recorded from electrode arrays that were chronically implanted in M1 as monkeys made reaching movements under two different dynamic conditions: the movements were opposed by either a clockwise or counterclockwise velocity-dependent force field acting at the hand. Under these conditions, the preferred direction (PD) of neural discharge for nearly all neurons rotated in the direction of the applied field, as did those of proximal limb electromyograms (EMGs), although the median neural rotation was significantly smaller than that of muscles. For a given neuron, the rotation angle was very consistent, even across multiple sessions. Within the limits of measurement uncertainty, both the neural and EMG changes occurred nearly instantaneously, reaching a steady state despite ongoing behavioral adaptation. Our results suggest that M1 is not directly involved in the adaptive changes that occurred within an experimental session. Rather, most M1 neurons are directly related to the dynamics of muscle activation that themselves reflect the external load. It appears as though gain modulation, the differential recruitment of M1 neurons by higher motor areas, can account for the load and behavioral adaptation-related changes in M1 discharge.
An inhibitor of microsomal oxidation from gut tissues of the honey bee (Apis mellifera).

1. 1. A potent inhibitor of microsomal oxidation was isolated and partially purified from the soluble fraction of gut tissue homogenates of adult worker honey bees. 2. 2. Inhibitory potency towards epoxidase, hydroxylase and O-demethylase activities in southern armyworm gut preparations was greater than towards the corresponding enzyme systems in rat liver microsomes. 3. 3. Inhibitory activity of the material was potentiated after digestion with pronase and reversed by digestion with ribonuclease (RNase T1 or pancreatic RNase). 4. 4. Inhibition was associated with a nucleic acid (RNA) moiety of a macromolecule, possibly a nucleoprotein, with a molecular weight of approximately 19,000. 5. 5. Some commercially available nucleic acids, including core and transfer RNA from baker's yeast and transfer RNA from Torula yeast, also inhibited epoxidase activtiy in southern armyworm gut preparations.
Multi-male mating and female choice increase offspring growth in the spiderNeriene litigiosa(Linyphiidae)

The purpose of this controlled-breeding study was to investigate the viability consequences of female choice and sequential polyandry for oVspring in a way that would separate the influences of these two aspects of female sexual behaviour. Female sierra dome spiders, Neriene litigiosa (=Linyphia litigiosa) typically mate two to three times before production of their first batch of eggs, although some females (ca 16%) mate only once. Strong fighters are preferred as first mates and principal sires. Large males that give a vigorous performance during copulatory courtship are preferred as sires among a female's secondary mates. In this study, the number of matings by free-living females was experimen- tally controlled and the size and copulatory vigour of all the females' mates were recorded. At the end of the breeding season, the females were collected and their broods were obtained in captivity. Randomly chosen subsets of 28 female's oVspring were reared under standard conditions during the following spring. The spiderlings were reared for 27 days in the company of siblings under conditions that would encourage the expression of genetic variation in viability, and growth and survivorship were monitored. After controlling for maternal eVects (i.e. female size and oviposition date) and variance in feeding opportunities among rearing groups, both mate number and mate size were positively and independently related to oVspring growth rates and the size of oVspring attained after emergence from the natal cocoon. The results support the hypotheses that the preference for large males yields viability benefits to oVspring and that polyandry can augment the benefits of selective mating. ? 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
Breast Cancer Update

The large number of excellent presentations on breast cancer at this year's ASCO meeting reflects the enormous interest in clinical trials of this common disease. In the reports of adjuvant hormonal therapy, the most interest- ing included Abstract 273 by Boccardo et al., who reported that postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor posi- tive (ER +) cancers who had already completed three years of tamoxifen experienced better overall survival if treated with two years of subsequent aminoglutethimide (a first- generation aromatase inhibitor) rather than another two years of tamoxifen. This whets our appetite for studies cur- rently under way to define the role of third-generation aro- matase inhibitors in the adjuvant setting. A report by Fisher from the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project B-23 study (Abstract 277) provided confir- mation of what is rapidly becoming accepted, that the addition of tamoxifen to chemotherapy does not benefit breast cancer patients with negative lymph nodes who have ER - cancers. In premenopausal women, another report of the benefit of hormonal therapy, this time by the French Adjuvant Study Group using complete hor- monal blockade with a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist and tamoxifen (Abstract 279) showed that hormonal therapy can be at least as good as, if not better, than six cycles of 5-fluorouracil 500 mg/m 2 , epiru- bicin 50 mg/m 2 , cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m 2 in terms of
Major QTLs for critical photoperiod and vernalization underlie extensive variation in flowering in the Mimulus guttatus species complex

Species with extensive ranges experience highly variable environments with respect to temperature, light and soil moisture. Synchronizing the transition from vegetative to floral growth is important to employ favorable conditions for reproduction. Optimal timing of this transition might be different for semelparous annual plants and iteroparous perennial plants. We studied variation in the critical photoperiod necessary for floral induction and the requirement for a period of cold-chilling (vernalization) in 46 populations of annuals and perennials in the Mimulus guttatus species complex. We then examined critical photoperiod and vernalization QTLs in growth chambers using F(2) progeny from annual and perennial parents that differed in their requirements for flowering. We identify extensive variation in critical photoperiod, with most annual populations requiring substantially shorter day lengths to initiate flowering than perennial populations. We discover a novel type of vernalization requirement in perennial populations that is contingent on plants experiencing short days first. QTL analyses identify two large-effect QTLs which influence critical photoperiod. In two separate vernalization experiments we discover each set of crosses contain different large-effect QTLs for vernalization. Mimulus guttatus harbors extensive variation in critical photoperiod and vernalization that may be a consequence of local adaptation.
Toxicity Assessments of Multisized Gold and Silver Nanoparticles in Zebrafish Embryos

The potential toxicity of nanoparticles is addressed by utilizing a putative attractive model in developmental biology and genetics: the zebrafish (Danio rerio). Transparent zebrafish embryos, possessing a high degree of homology to the human genome, offer an economically feasible, medium-throughput screening platform for noninvasive real-time assessments of toxicity. Using colloidal silver (cAg) and gold nanoparticles (cAu) in a panoply of sizes (3, 10, 50, and 100 nm) and a semiquantitative scoring system, it is found that cAg produces almost 100% mortality at 120 h post-fertilization, while cAu produces less than 3% mortality at the same time point. Furthermore, while cAu induces minimal sublethal toxic effects, cAg treatments generate a variety of embryonic morphological malformations. Both cAg and cAu are taken up by the embryos and control experiments, suggesting that cAg toxicity is caused by the nanoparticles themselves or Ag(+) that is formed during in vivo nanoparticle destabilization. Although cAg toxicity is slightly size dependent at certain concentrations and time points, the most striking result is that parallel sizes of cAg and cAu induce significantly different toxic profiles, with the former being toxic and the latter being inert in all exposed sizes. Therefore, it is proposed that nanoparticle chemistry is as, if not more, important than specific nanosizes at inducing toxicity in vivo. Ultimately such assessments using the zebrafish embryo model should lead to the identification of nanomaterial characteristics that afford minimal or no toxicity and guide more rational designs of materials on the nanoscale.
Rights, responsibilities, and duties: A comparison of ethics for internal and external evaluators

Internal and external evaluators experience the same ethical dilemmas, and both work toward resolving them in principled, justified ways. The different communities they occupy, however, affect how they are likely to resolve their ethical dilemmas.
General Issues in the Prevention of AIDS in Women

As many authors in this volume indicate, women are increasingly represented among AIDS cases in the United States and are the demographic group most rapidly becoming infected. Further, most HIV transmission that takes place now, both in the United States and globally, occurs during heterosexual intercourse. Worldwide, it is estimated that 71% of HIV transmission has occurred through heterosexual contact (Ehrhardt, 1992).
Parallel and survivable multipath circuit provisioning in ESnet's OSCARS

Data generation is approaching petascale and exascale rates by cutting-edge science and research applications varying from material informatics to physics. With data generation and management comes the necessity to transmit such vast collections of information across the world's networks for processing, analysis, storage, or peer-sharing. This practice is becoming the norm to the large-scale scientific community, but complications can arise during networking. There are countless situations such as component failure due to a harmless construction accident or a devastating natural disaster that may lead to catastrophic interruption of service. Furthermore, given the size of datasets, there is a strong need to support intelligent and fast parallelism throughout the network to allow end users to efficiently consume available bandwidth. We therefore propose a multipath extension for ESnet's On-demand Secure Circuits and Advance Reservation System (OSCARS), the network research community's most popular long-lived circuit-provisioning software package. Presently, OSCARS supports purely point-to-point circuits; however, our proposed client software provides an overlay onto the default OSCARS path computation engine that enables end users to route their data along multiple link-disjoint paths to provide session survivability and increase the degree of parallelism. We have also adapted the proposed multipath extension to an existing anycast OSCARS deployment, which allows for the selection of one preferred destination node from among a set of potential candidates. Through thorough simulation analysis and exposure to realistic failure event distributions, we quantitatively evaluate the multipath client performance and showcase the relative benefits when compared to the standard single-path OSCARS deployment.
A comparison of simultaneous organic carbon and nitrogen removal in microbial fuel cells and microbial electrolysis cells.

This study demonstrates simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal in laboratory-scale continuous flow microbial fuel cell (MFC) and microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) and provides side-by side comparison of these bioelectrochemical systems. The maximum organic carbon removal rates in MFC and MEC tests were similar at 5.1 g L(-1) d(-1) and 4.16 g L(-1) d(-1), respectively, with a near 100% carbon removal efficiency at an organic load of 3.3 g L(-1) d(-1). An ammonium removal efficiency of 30-55% with near-zero nitrite and nitrate concentrations was observed in the MFC operated at an optimal external resistance, while open-circuit MFC operation resulted in a reduced carbon and ammonium removal of 53% and 21%, respectively. In the MEC ammonium removal was limited to 7-12% under anaerobic conditions, while micro-aerobic conditions increased the removal efficiency to 31%. Also, at zero applied voltage both carbon and ammonium removal efficiencies were reduced to 42% and 4%, respectively. Based on the observed performance under different operating conditions, it was concluded that simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal was facilitated by concurrent anaerobic and aerobic biotransformation pathways at the anode and cathode, which balanced bioelectrochemical nitrification and denitrification reactions.
Feedback About Personal and Organizational Outcomes and Its Effect on Persistence of Planned Behavioral Changes

This study examined the relationship between the presence and content of feedback about differentially valued outcomes and the decision to persist at a novel task performance strategy. Among other ...
Preparation of Extracts of the Renal Pressor Substance.

SummarySome technical factors which are of importance in the preparation of extracts of the renal pressor substance (the “renin” of Tigerstedt and Bergmann) have been investigated. A method which has been found to be satisfactory for the preparation of potent extracts of this substance is described in detail.
What drives changes in commodity prices? Is it biofuels?

There has been substantial controversy over the role of biofuels in commodity price increases. With the commodity price spikes in 2008, many argued that the increases in prices of corn, soybeans, w...
Perioperative Pain Management: Multi-modalities to Prevent Postoperative Chronic Pain

Inguinal hernia surgery is the most common operation done by a general surgeon. Despite extensive experience with this procedure, one of the most feared complications remains chronic pain, which occurs in 11 % of patients, one-third of whom report limitations in daily leisure activities. One component of this problem may be inadequate control of acute pain, making it imperative that surgeons employ excellent pain management strategies for their hernia patients to not only ensure a good perioperative experience but also to avoid long-term problems. This chapter describes the concepts of multimodal pain therapy and provides examples of medications that can be used in this approach. It also provides recommendations for pain management in the pre-, intra-, and postoperative periods.
Disease Survey Report on Tianzhu White Yak

The paper would provide the scientific basis for the cure disease of white yak through the statistic,summarization and analysis on clinical records,laboratory test and records on selection of specimens,then the types and popular rules of prone infectious diseases were obtained,and proposed the cure methods and precaution measures of the infectious diseases of Tianzhu white yak.
Structural studies of immunomodulators. Part 2: Crystal structure and conformation of azimexon (BM 12.531) an immunostimulant and an anti-tumor drug.

Azimexon [2-cyanaziridinyl-2-carbamoyl-aziridinyl-1-propane] is a derivative of 2-cyanaziridine. Azimexon is an immunostimulant which shows therapeutic effects in tumor models and experimental infections in mice in vitro, enhances T lymphocyte transformation in vitro and increases phagocytosis of latex particles by mouse peritoneal cells. In cancer patients it increases blood active T rosettes, increases T4/T8 ratio and is used in the treatment of melanomas. The crystal structure analysis of azimexon has been undertaken to study the conformation of the molecule in the solid state as a first step in the investigation of a possible structure-function relationship of immunomodulators. Crystals of azimexon are triclinic, space group P1, with a = 6.342(2), b = 6.804(1), c = 13.106(2) A, alpha = 75.17(1), beta = 89.17(2), gamma = 83.26(2) degrees, V = 542.8 A3, Z = 2, D0 = 1.18 g cm-3 and Dc = 1.189 g cm-3. The structure was solved using CAD-4 data by multisolution techniques and refined to a final R value of 0.057. There are two independent molecules in the asymmetric unit with very different conformations relating the two aziridine rings in the molecule. The mean lengths of C-N and C-C in the aziridine rings are 1.461 and 1.494 A and the configuration of the ring nitrogen is pyramidal. The mean C-C-N and C-N-C bond angles in the ring are 59.2 and 60.6 degrees respectively. The two molecules, which differ significantly in the relative orientation of their aziridine rings, are linked by hydrogen bonding involving the amino group of one molecule as the donor and the cyano nitrogen and carbamoyl oxygen of the other molecule as the acceptor. There are a number of C-H...O and C-H...N interactions in the structure. The mode of action of azimexon is unknown. It has been suggested that azimexon may alkylate DNA. The knowledge of the three-dimensional structure should facilitate distance geometry calculations that would determine which modes of crosslinking would be possible. The end-to-end distances between the two ends of the molecule is 9.0 A which is of the same order as the intrastrand distances in the DNA double helix. The present structural work of azimexon strongly indicates that azimexon crosslinks with DNA using its two reactive groups at its ends. Further study is necessary in order to determine which modes of crosslinking would be possible.
Meta-analysis and models of substance abuse prevention.

Recently reviewers in a number of disciplines have realized that research synthesis techniques can be applied in reviews of issues more complex than those previously studied. Meta-analysis has been criticized for attending only to main effects (Cook and Leviton 1980) and ignoring the important roles of mediating and moderating variables. Applications of meta-analytic techniques to complex processes (Becker 1992b; Premack and Hunter 1988), as well as methodological developments (Becker 1992a, 1992c), show that this oversimplification need not occur (see also Cook et al. 1992, p. 341).
Adenoviral Vectors in Hematology: Purging, Stem Cell Gene Transfer, or Both

To the Editor: In a recent report, Watanabe et al[1][1] reported that adenoviral vectors can mediate gene transfer to CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells. A subsequent letter to the editor suggested alternate interpretations for some of the data.[2][2] These communications reflect a broader debate
The Biochemical and Physiological Basis of Selective Toxicity

It may not be a travesty of the truth to suppose that as soon as the first two living organisms appeared in the primeval soup where life began, one tried to poison the other to its own advantage. Certainly the biological world is now full of poisoners and potential victims in a chemical warfare of a subtlety and virulence which man, fortunately, has not yet equaled. The potent natural neurotoxins described by Shankland in Chapter 6 are eloquent testimony to one route which has been exploited repeatedly by organisms in this struggle to survive and gain ascendency. Any organism thus finds itself continually challenged by the presence of potentially harmful chemicals from a variety of sources in the food, water, and air it takes in. In some cases these naturally occurring toxicants may be put to good use by man for insecticidal or medicinal purposes; for example, the root of false hellebore (Veratrum spp.) which contains the potent neurotoxic veratrine alkaloids has been used as an insect stomach poison (Crosby, 1971), and John Gerard (1633) in his classical herbal noted its vigorous therapeutic benefits: The root of white Hellebor procureth vomite mightily, wherein consisteth his chief vertue, and by that means voideth all superfluous slimes and naughtie humors.
Revanchist Masculinity: Gender Attitudes in Sex Work Management

Pimps, or male managers of female sex workers, are commonly represented in popular culture as hypermasculine and as a ubiquitous part of sex work. However, there is little empirical scholarship on pimps or the construction of their masculinity. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data, this article demonstrates how pimps produce a “revanchist masculinity” that seeks to reclaim power from women and establish status over other men. Pimps are suspicious of sex workers' motives and deny them decision-making power and profit sharing—processes that highlight how work practices can structure gender identity construction.
Nanocellulose in packaging: Advances in barrier layer technologies

The review aims at reporting on recent developments in nanocellulose-based materials and their applications in packaging with special focus on oxygen and water vapor barrier characteristics. Nanocellulose materials, including cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), and bacterial nanocellulose (BNC), have unique properties with the potential to dramatically impact many commercial markets including packaging. In addition to being derived from a renewable resource that is both biodegradable and non-toxic, nanocellulose exhibits extremely high surface area and crystallinity and has tunable surface chemistry. These features give nanocellulose materials great potential to sustainably enhance oxygen and water vapor barrier properties when used as coating, fillers in composites and as self-standing thin films.
A Computational Strategy for Fractal Analogies in Visual Perception

A theory of general intelligence must account for how an intelligent agent can map percepts into actions at the level of human performance. We sketch the outline of a new approach to this perception-to-action mapping. Our approach is based on four ideas: the world exhibits fractal self-similarity at multiple scales, the structure of representations reflects the structure of the world, similarity and analogy form the core of intelligence, and fractal representations provide a powerful technique for perceptual similarity and analogy. We divide our argument into three parts. In the first part, we describe the nature of visual analogies and fractal representations. In the second, we illustrate a technique of fractal analogies and show how it gives human-level performance on an intelligence test called the Odd One Out. In the third, we describe how the fractal technique enables the percept-to-action mapping in a simple, simulated world.
Popping the Bubble: Did Moral Hazard or Adverse Selection Cause the Housing Bubble?

The US housing bubble was a major component of the recent financial crisis. Trillions of dollars of wealth were created and then destroyed in the bubble and subsequent burst. Given the importance of the crisis, there is significant policy debate as to the causes. Some claim by the relaxation of GSE (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac) loan standards, to encourage greater new home ownership, caused adverse selection that lead to additional risky low income borrowers being added to securitized assets. Others argue that the rapid growth of private securitization markets induced moral hazard such as lax monitoring by mortgage initiators. An extension of this argument is that predatory lending expanded with the growth of private securitization. A fourth possibility is that both the mortgage initiator and borrower had knowledge that was not priced in the securitization, we label this "two-sided moral hazard." To unpack these effects, we introduce a formal definition and measures of a bubble, and examine it across markets at the zip code level. We find significant bubble heterogeneity across markets. We then introduce a measure of the importance of asymmetric information in the housing market. We use this measure and exploit differences in two legal features to disentangle the various asymmetric information effects. First markets differ by the incentive structure they impose (on the borrower and lender) as governed by State mortgage laws. Second, the dollar limit on allowable "conforming" mortgages that GSEs can securitize allows us to distinguish the impact of GSEs from private securitization. Empirical analysis reveals that even though the bubble is pervasive, it varies widely from market to market, but is meaningfully correlated with market's characteristics; legal regime, population growth, and demographics. In particular, we find evidence that predatory lending droves the bubble at the lower end of the market while two-sided moral hazard fueled the bubble at the higher end of the market.
Thermodynamic Magnetization of Normal and Superfluid 3He

We have measured the thermodynamic magnetization in the various phases of normal and superfluid3He. The A-B discontinuity differs from that inferred from nuclear-specific (NMR) experiments. We offer reasons why this apparent disagreement can be consistent with our current picture of super-fluid3He. One consequence of this measurement is an improved set of values for the phenomenological Landau-Ginzburg free energy β-parameters.
Diverse C-Terminal Sequences Involved in Flavobacterium johnsoniae Protein Secretion

Flavobacteriumjohnsoniae and many related bacteria secrete proteins across the outer membrane using the type IX secretion system (T9SS). Proteins secreted by T9SSs have amino-terminal signal peptides for export across the cytoplasmic membrane by the Sec system and carboxy-terminal domains (CTDs) targeting them for secretion across the outer membrane by the T9SS. Most but not all T9SS CTDs belong to the family TIGR04183 (type A CTDs). We functionally characterized diverse CTDs for secretion by the F. johnsoniae T9SS. Attachment of the CTDs from F. johnsoniae RemA, AmyB, and ChiA to the foreign superfolder green fluorescent protein (sfGFP) that had a signal peptide at the amino terminus resulted in secretion across the outer membrane. In each case, approximately 80 to 100 amino acids from the extreme carboxy termini were needed for efficient secretion. Several type A CTDs from distantly related members of the phylum Bacteroidetes functioned in F. johnsoniae, supporting the secretion of sfGFP by the F. johnsoniae T9SS. F. johnsoniae SprB requires the T9SS for secretion but lacks a type A CTD. It has a conserved C-terminal domain belonging to the family TIGR04131, which we refer to as a type B CTD. The CTD of SprB was required for its secretion, but attachment of C-terminal regions of SprB of up to 1,182 amino acids to sfGFP failed to result in secretion. Additional features outside the C-terminal region of SprB may be required for its secretion.IMPORTANCE Type IX protein secretion systems (T9SSs) are common in but limited to members of the phylum Bacteroidetes Most proteins that are secreted by T9SSs have conserved carboxy-terminal domains that belong to the protein domain family TIGR04183 (type A CTDs) or TIGR04131 (type B CTDs). Here, we identify features of T9SS CTDs of F. johnsoniae that are required for protein secretion and demonstrate that type A CTDs from distantly related members of the phylum function with the F. johnsoniae T9SS to secrete the foreign protein sfGFP. In contrast, type B CTDs failed to target sfGFP for secretion, suggesting a more complex association with the T9SS.
Permethrin and malathion LD90 values for Culex quinquefasciatus vary with topical application site

Prior research in multiple insect species has demonstrated that insecticide-induced mortality varies according to the body region exposed on the insect. This variation has been demonstrated in Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae), but has not been quantified using dose-response curves. Applications of technical permethrin or malathion to one of three body regions on Cx. quinquefasciatus resulted in dose-response curves that were not equivalent to one another. The generated LD90 values and curves for each body region were compared with previously reported LD values for analogous sites in several mosquito species, specifically the mesothorax. Based on the present results, the permethrin and malathion LD50 and LD90 concentrations required for droplets impinging on the abdomen and mesothorax of Cx. quinquefasciatus when applied through ground-based spray systems utilized by mosquito control programmes were calculated.
Fused Estimation of Sparse Connectivity Patterns From Rest fMRI—Application to Comparison of Children and Adult Brains

In this paper, we consider the problem of estimating multiple sparse, co-activated brain regions from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) observations belonging to different classes. More precisely, we propose a method to analyze similarities and differences in functional connectivity between children and young adults. Often, analysis is conducted on each class separately, and differences across classes are identified with an additional postprocessing step using adequate statistical tools. Here, we propose to rely on a generalized fused Lasso penalty, which allows us to make use of the entire data set in order to estimate connectivity patterns that are either shared across classes, or specific to a given group. By using the entire population during the estimation, we hope to increase the power of our analysis. The proposed model falls in the category of population-wise matrix decomposition, and a simple and efficient alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm is introduced to solve the associated optimization problem. After validating our approach on simulated data, experiments are performed on resting-state fMRI imaging from the Philadelphia neurodevelopmental cohort data set, comprised of normally developing children from ages 8 to 21. Developmental differences were observed in various brain regions, as a total of three class-specific resting-state components were identified. Statistical analysis of the estimated subject-specific features, as well as classification results (based on age groups, up to 81% accuracy, $n = 583$ samples) related to these components demonstrate that the proposed method is able to properly extract meaningful shared and class-specific sub-networks.
Crossing the Digital Divide, Alone and Together: The View from the Catholic University of America

This article focuses on the Catholic University Archives to discuss the problems and opportunities raised by the digital revolution today. It recounts the history of the Archives of Catholic University, the gathering of its collections and the trends in its facilities and staff as well as its current efforts to meet the challenge of the digital revolution. It suggests that archives of American Catholic history have made enormous advances over the last thirty years, but that they must think seriously about confronting this new technological challenge. It argues for consideration of collaborative efforts among archives in American Catholic history to meet that challenge.
Human mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells possess capacity for B cell help

Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are an innate-like T cell subset, restricted by the nonclassic MHC class I-related protein MR1 and enriched at mucosal sites. Human studies have shown an association between MAIT cells and pathogen-specific antibody responses. In this study, we investigate the effect of human MAIT cells on B cells ex vivo. We found that supernatants from microbe- or cytokine-stimulated MAIT cells, when added to purified autologous B cells, increase frequencies of plasmablasts and promote IgA, IgG, and IgM production. We found effects to be mostly MR1-dependent and that the increases in plasmablasts are likely a result of increased differentiation from memory B cells. Furthermore, microbe-activated MAIT cell supernatant contains multiple cytokines known to stimulate B cells, including IL-6, -10, and -21. This study thus provides the first direct evidence of a newly identified role of MAIT cells in providing help to B cells.
Metabolic profiling of triple-negative breast cancer cells reveals metabolic vulnerabilities

Among breast cancers, the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtype has the worst prognosis with no approved targeted therapies and only standard chemotherapy as the backbone of systemic therapy. Unique metabolic changes in cancer progression provide innovative therapeutic opportunities. The receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and MET receptor are highly expressed in TNBC, making both promising therapeutic targets. RTK signaling profoundly alters cellular metabolism by increasing glucose consumption and subsequently diverting glucose carbon sources into metabolic pathways necessary to support the tumorigenesis. Therefore, detailed metabolic profiles of TNBC subtypes and their response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors may identify therapeutic sensitivities. We quantified the metabolic profiles of TNBC cell lines representing multiple TNBC subtypes using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. In addition, we subjected MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, Hs578T, and HCC70 cell lines to metabolic flux analysis of basal and maximal glycolytic and mitochondrial oxidative rates. Metabolic pool size and flux measurements were performed in the presence and absence of the MET inhibitor, INC280/capmatinib, and the EGFR inhibitor, erlotinib. Further, the sensitivities of these cells to modulators of core metabolic pathways were determined. In addition, we annotated a rate-limiting metabolic enzymes library and performed a siRNA screen in combination with MET or EGFR inhibitors to validate synergistic effects. TNBC cell line models displayed significant metabolic heterogeneity with respect to basal and maximal metabolic rates and responses to RTK and metabolic pathway inhibitors. Comprehensive systems biology analysis of metabolic perturbations, combined siRNA and tyrosine kinase inhibitor screens identified a core set of TCA cycle and fatty acid pathways whose perturbation sensitizes TNBC cells to small molecule targeting of receptor tyrosine kinases. Similar to the genomic heterogeneity observed in TNBC, our results reveal metabolic heterogeneity among TNBC subtypes and demonstrate that understanding metabolic profiles and drug responses may prove valuable in targeting TNBC subtypes and identifying therapeutic susceptibilities in TNBC patients. Perturbation of metabolic pathways sensitizes TNBC to inhibition of receptor tyrosine kinases. Such metabolic vulnerabilities offer promise for effective therapeutic targeting for TNBC patients.
Potential Mechanisms Underlying Inflammation-Enhanced Aminoglycoside-Induced Cochleotoxicity.

Aminoglycoside antibiotics remain widely-used for urgent clinical treatment of life-threatening infections, despite the well-recognized risk of permanent hearing loss, i.e., cochleotoxicity. Recent studies show that aminoglycoside-induced cochleotoxicity is exacerbated by bacteriogenic-induced inflammation. This implies that those with severe bacterial infections (that induce systemic inflammation), and are treated with bactericidal aminoglycosides are at greater risk of drug-induced hearing loss than previously recognized. Incorporating this novel comorbid factor into cochleotoxicity risk prediction models will better predict which individuals are more predisposed to drug-induced hearing loss. Here, we review the cellular and/or signaling mechanisms by which host-mediated inflammatory responses to infection could enhance the trafficking of systemically-administered aminoglycosides into the cochlea to enhance the degree of cochleotoxicity over that in healthy preclinical models. Once verified, these mechanisms will be potential targets for novel pharmacotherapeutics that reduce the risk of drug-induced hearing loss (and acute kidney damage) without compromising the life-saving bactericidal efficacy of aminoglycosides.