cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Informal Bankruptcy: Health Expenditure Shocks and Financial Distress Avoidance

This article studies the financial decision-making behavior of U.S. families that have difficulties paying for their medical bills and investigate what alternatives they have to avoid filing for formal bankruptcy and what influence their motivation to do so. Using household financial and demographic information from the Health Tracking Household Survey in 2007 and 2010, this article finds that families with younger age members, minority ethnic background, more doctor visits, and without insurance made more diverse and severe choices to finance the payments before resorting to personal bankruptcy. Interestingly, households with better education seek more diverse but easier financing methods, suggesting that financial literacy may play a dual role in undertaking financial planning—strategic default and bankruptcy avoiding.
The Future of Misinformation

Discusses the dangers of fake news or misinformation being disseminated via online channels.
High-resolution remote acoustic localization of damage in vibrating plates

Two major challenges exist for the remote acoustic localization of damage in vibrating structures. First, the presence of damage typically results in small acoustic changes that may become “drowned out” by the majority of the sound which remains unchanged. To mitigate this, a high-resolution beamformer can be used to better resolve the acoustic sources, including the small changes (i.e., damage). However, this elicits the second challenge; many popular high-resolution beamformers exhibit poor performance in the presence of coherent sources—exactly the type of sources provided by extended, vibrating structures like a plate. To address both challenges, the Spectral Estimation Method with Coherent Background Removal (SEMCBR) is introduced, enabling the localization of small acoustic changes in a distribution of coherent sources. SEMCBR is an extension of the existing Spectral Estimation Method with Additive Noise (SEMWAN), which has previously been applied to quantify incoherent aeroacoustic sources, combined with an additional subarray averaging step to suppress coherent cross-terms. Experimental results using SEMCBR are provided for the localization of cuts, fastener faults, and delamination in 30-×-30-×-0.16 cm plates base-excited from 100–6000 Hz, using an 8-×-8 array of remote receivers. [Sponsored by NAVSEA through the NEEC and by the US DoD through an NDSEG Fellowship.]Two major challenges exist for the remote acoustic localization of damage in vibrating structures. First, the presence of damage typically results in small acoustic changes that may become “drowned out” by the majority of the sound which remains unchanged. To mitigate this, a high-resolution beamformer can be used to better resolve the acoustic sources, including the small changes (i.e., damage). However, this elicits the second challenge; many popular high-resolution beamformers exhibit poor performance in the presence of coherent sources—exactly the type of sources provided by extended, vibrating structures like a plate. To address both challenges, the Spectral Estimation Method with Coherent Background Removal (SEMCBR) is introduced, enabling the localization of small acoustic changes in a distribution of coherent sources. SEMCBR is an extension of the existing Spectral Estimation Method with Additive Noise (SEMWAN), which has previously been applied to quantify incoherent aeroacoustic sources, combine...
DNN+NeuroSim: An End-to-End Benchmarking Framework for Compute-in-Memory Accelerators with Versatile Device Technologies

DNN+NeuroSim is an integrated framework to benchmark compute-in-memory (CIM) accelerators for deep neural networks, with hierarchical design options from device-level, to circuit-level and up to algorithm-level. A python wrapper is developed to interface NeuroSim with popular machine learning platforms such as Pytorch and Tensorflow. The framework supports automatic algorithm to hardware mapping, and evaluates both chip-level performance and inference accuracy with hardware constraints. In this work, we analyze the impact of reliability in "analog" synaptic devices, and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) quantization effects on the inference accuracy. Then we benchmark CIM accelerators based on SRAM and versatile emerging devices including RRAM, PCM, FeFET and ECRAM, from VGG to ResNet, and from CIFAR to ImageNet dataset, revealing the benefits of high on-state resistance, e.g. by using three-terminal synapses. The open-source code of DNN+NeuroSim is available at https://github.com/neurosim/DNN_NeuroSim_V1.0.
E-090 Experience with treatment of arteriovenous malformations of the head and neck: a focus on yakes classification and outcomes

Purpose To report our experience with the endovascular treatment of patients with arteriovenous malformations (AVM) of the head and neck classified utilizing the Yakes system. Methods/materials IRB approval was obtained for this HIPAA-compliant retrospective analysis. A retrospective review of the electronic medical records of all patients who underwent endovascular treatment of a head and neck AVM between 1/1/2005 and 12/31/2017 were included in the cohort. Clinical records, operative notes, imaging, and post-operative course of patients were reviewed. The primary outcomes were clinical and angiographic treatment success rates and complications rates for lesions in each Yakes classification type. Differences in continuous variables were assessed utilizing the Wilcoxon rank sum test with significance at p Results A total of 29 patients were included (14 males, 15 females) with a mean age was 30.6 years. There were 0/29 (0%) Yakes type I lesions, 8/29 (28%) Yakes type IIa lesions, 5/29 (17%) Yakes type IIb lesions, 1/29 (3%) Yakes type IIIa lesions, 1/29 (3%) Yakes type IIIb lesions and 14/29 (48%) Yakes type IV lesions. Lesions were treated from an intra-arterial approach, a percutaneous approach by puncture of the nidus, and a transvenous approach with predominantly alcohol. The number of endovascular procedures was higher in the Yakes IV group than in the other groups. (W: 61 p=0.048). Excellent devascularization (>90%) was achieved in 23/29 patients (79%) including in 10/14 (71%) Yakes class IV lesions and 13/15 (87%) of the other classes. Downgrading of Schobinger clinical classification was achieved in 21/21 (100%) Schobinger class II or III patients in whom complete pre- and post-procedural clinical data was available. There were no Schobinger class IV lesions. There were a total of 5 complications in 79 procedures (6%) including 4/50 (8%) in Yakes class IV lesions and 1/29 (3%) in the other classes. Complications included skin necrosis requiring plastic surgery repair, teeth loosening requiring extraction, palatal ulceration, and a retained endovascular catheter. Conclusions Good angiographic and clinical outcomes can be achieved in head and neck AVMs utilizing endovascular therapy with acceptable complication rates. Yakes IV lesions were more common and required an increased number of procedures and had a higher complication rate, than other Yakes subtypes. Disclosures Z. Wilseck: None. J. Griauzde: None. D. Wilkinson: None. N. Chaudhary: None. A. Pandey: None. J. Gemmete: None.
Conclusion: Blending the Specific French Guyanese’s Urbanization-Migration Patterns with the Wider Theoretical Literature on the Matter

The book conclusion merges the different chapters and moves the political demography debate from a local-departmental-national level to an international one. In other words, the conclusion, which problematizes immigration policy efficiency, political demography, urbanization and urban governance, shifts from domestic politics and policy regarding local, national and transnational population-migration spatially distributed—to a broader perspective of international relations among neighboring states involving supranational-regional organizations in dealing with transnational people movements in the Americas in general as political geographies, politics of scale and geopolitics. Consequently, the book puts in perspective the French Guyanese’s patterns of migration-urbanization into broader theoretical accounts.
Lithium Abundances of the Local Thin Disk Stars

Lithium abundances are presented for a sample of 181 nearby F and G dwarfs with accurate {\it Hipparcos} parallaxes. The stars are on circular orbits about the Galactic centre and, hence, are identified as belonging to the thin disk. This sample is combined with two published surveys to provide a catalogue of lithium abundances, metallicities ([Fe/H]), masses, and ages for 451 F-G dwarfs, almost all belonging to the thin disk. The lithium abundances are compared and contrasted with published lithium abundances for F and G stars in local open clusters. The field stars span a larger range in [Fe/H] than the clusters for which [Fe/H] $\simeq 0.0\pm0.2$. The initial (i.e., interstellar) lithium abundance of the solar neighborhood, as derived from stars for which astration of lithium is believed to be unimportant, is traced from $\log\epsilon$(Li) = 2.2 at [Fe/H] = -1 to $\log\epsilon$(Li) = 3.2 at $+0.1$. This form for the evolution is dependent on the assumption that astration of lit hium is negligible for the stars defining the relation. An argument is advanced that this latter assumption may not be entirely correct, and, the evolution of lithium with [Fe/H] may be flatter than previously supposed. A sharp Hyades-like Li-dip is not seen among the field stars and appears to be replaced by a large spread among lithium abundances of stars more massive than the lower mass limit of the dip. Astration of lithium by stars of masses too low to participate in the Li-dip is discussed. These stars show little to no spread in lithium abundance at a given [Fe/H] and mass.
Dissecting cis-regulatory control of quantitative trait variation in a plant stem cell circuit.

Cis-regulatory mutations underlie important crop domestication and improvement traits1,2. However, limited allelic diversity has hindered functional dissection of the large number of cis-regulatory elements and their potential interactions, thereby precluding a deeper understanding of how cis-regulatory variation impacts traits quantitatively. Here, we engineered over 60 promoter alleles in two tomato fruit size genes3,4 to characterize cis-regulatory sequences and study their functional relationships. We found that targeted mutations in conserved promoter sequences of SlCLV3, a repressor of stem cell proliferation5,6, have a weak impact on fruit locule number. Pairwise combinations of these mutations mildly enhance this phenotype, revealing additive and synergistic relationships between conserved regions and further suggesting even higher-order cis-regulatory interactions within the SlCLV3 promoter. In contrast, SlWUS, a positive regulator of stem cell proliferation repressed by SlCLV3 (refs. 5,6), is more tolerant to promoter perturbations. Our results show that complex interplay among cis-regulatory variants can shape quantitative variation, and suggest that empirical dissections of this hidden complexity can guide promoter engineering to predictably modify crop traits.
Crying Wolf: The Unlawful Delisting of Northern Rocky Mountain Gray Wolves from Endangered Species Act Protections

Although settlers hunted gray wolves to near extinction more than a century ago, the animal remains one of the most enduring symbols of the West. In 1994, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service authorized reintroduction of gray wolves into Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming under recovery provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Fourteen years later, the Service delisted wolves in these states, contending that the reintroduced population met the numeric and distributional criteria established for recovery in 1994. Months after a district judge enjoined the Service's 2008 delisting rule, the Service again delisted gray wolves. This Note asserts that both the 2008 and 2009 delisting rules violate provisions of the Endangered Species Act guaranteeing adequacy of state regulatory mechanisms prior to delistirig, and fidelity to the best available scientific data. The Note also contends that the Service unlawfully deployed conservation tools as delisting instruments contrary to congressional intent. Lastly, the Note illuminates administrative defects in the delisting rules, namely the Service's decision to disregard its own requirement of genetic linkage among the entire gray wolf population without providing a reasoned explanation.
David Oliver: Why shouldn't GPs use social media to rebalance the debate on covid-era consultations?

On 6 June the Mail on Sunday published a piece by its health editor, Barney Calman: “All you GP face-to-face refuseniks take note: if I can read your Twitter rants, so can your patients.”1 This accompanied an article about a patient’s personal experience, whose burst appendix had been diagnosed only after an urgent trip to the emergency department when she was unable to secure a face-to-face GP appointment. Calman has received dozens of stories from readers unable to get face-to-face GP access and claimed that, despite existing pressures in primary care, this had got worse since pandemic measures took effect in March 2020. National patient surveys by Healthwatch England, the Health Foundation, and Ipsos Mori have flagged similar worries about access during the pandemic.23 …
The changing language of women on The Big Bang Theory

This study focuses on how linguistic markers are utilized by women in media to highlight stereotypes and reinforce systems of oppression. Using data from the popular television program The Big Bang Theory, the speech patterns of the three main female characters, Penny, Amy, and Bernadette, were analyzed. It was found that changes in the speed and pitch of the dialog delivered by these characters correlated with the characters enacting certain female stereotypes that are not at the forefront of their personalities. The stereotypes of the traditionally feminine woman, overly aggressive woman, and ditzy blond are key in maintaining the inferior status of women. The stereotype of the traditionally feminine woman serves as an example of how women are supposed to act out their female identity, the overly aggressive stereotype is a warning against utilizing emotions outside of a traditional feminine community of practice, and the ditzy blond stereotype is used to provide proof of the inferiority of women and justify the continued subjugation of them.
SynthBio: A Case Study in Human-AI Collaborative Curation of Text Datasets.

NLP researchers need more, higher-quality text datasets. Human-labeled datasets are expensive to collect, while datasets collected via automatic retrieval from the web such as WikiBio are noisy and can include undesired biases. Moreover, data sourced from the web is often included in datasets used to pretrain models, leading to inadvertent cross-contamination of training and test sets. In this work we introduce a novel method for efficient dataset curation: we use a large language model to provide seed generations to human raters, thereby changing dataset authoring from a writing task to an editing task. We use our method to curate SynthBio - a new evaluation set for WikiBio - composed of structured attribute lists describing fictional individuals, mapped to natural language biographies. We show that our dataset of fictional biographies is less noisy than WikiBio, and also more balanced with respect to gender and nationality.
A microbial mutualist within host individuals increases parasite transmission between host individuals: Evidence from a field mesocosm experiment

The interactions among host-associated microbes and parasites can have clear consequences for disease susceptibility and progression within host individuals. Yet, empirical evidence for how these interactions impact parasite transmission between host individuals remains scarce. We address this scarcity by using a field mesocosm experiment to investigate the interaction between a systemic fungal endophyte, Epichloe coenophiala, and a fungal parasite, Rhizoctonia solani, in leaves of a grass host, tall fescue. Specifically, we investigated how this interaction impacted parasite transmission under field conditions in replicated experimental host populations. Epichloe-inoculated populations tended to have greater disease prevalence over time, though this difference had weak statistical support. More clearly, Epichloe-inoculated populations experienced higher peak parasite prevalences than Epichloe-free populations. Epichloe conferred a benefit in growth; Epichloe-inoculated populations had greater aboveground biomass than Epichloe-free populations. Using biomass as a proxy, host density was correlated with peak parasite prevalence, but Epichloe still increased peak parasite prevalence after controlling for the effect of biomass. Together, these results suggest that within-host microbial interactions can impact disease at the population level. Further, while Epichloe is clearly a mutualist of tall fescue, it may not be a defensive mutualist in relation to R. solani.
Proportion of colon cancer attributable to lifestyle in a cohort of US women

Many modifiable lifestyle factors have been associated with colon cancer risk, but less is known about their effect on disease when considered together. Estimating the proportion of colon cancer cases that could be prevented by the adoption of combined modifiable lifestyle behaviors will provide important insights into disease prevention. In the Nurses’ Health Study, we defined a low-risk group according to a combination of six factors: body mass index <25 kg/m2, physical activity of ≥21 metabolic equivalent of task per week, alcohol consumption ≤30 g/day, cigarette smoking <10 pack-years before the age of 30, current use of multivitamins for ≥15 years, and total calcium intake ≥700 mg/day. A composite risk score index was created and the population attributable risk (PAR%) was calculated after accounting for other known risk or protective factors. We documented 1,127 colon cancer cases among 81,092 over 24 years of follow-up. Compared with women in the lowest risk category, the women at all other exposure levels had a hazard ratio of colon cancer of 1.81 (95 % confidence interval 1.15–2.85). The score index was significantly and linearly related to an increasing risk of colon cancer (p value for trend <0.0001). The PAR% of the six risk factors considered together in relation to colon cancer was 0.37 (95 % CI 0.09–0.60). When regular aspirin use (two tablets/week for six or more years) was included with the other low-risk behaviors, the PAR% increased to 0.43 (95 % CI 0.14–0.65). Beyond the known benefit from colonoscopy/sigmoidoscopy, key behavior modifications and adherence to a healthy lifestyle could avoid approximately 37 % of colon cancer cases among women.
Sepsis and Multiple Organ Failure

Background/Aims: Sepsis and multiple organ failure are complex processes that result from dysregulation of the immune response and its associated hematological, hemodynamic and metabolic disturbance
César Vallejo: enunciación y teatralidad

El ensayo parte de considerar la teatralidad como una politica de la mirada, razon por la cual no se atiene, en cuanto a los corpus vallejianos, al estudio de los textos teatrales, sino que intenta la descripcion de las estrategias y tacticas enunciativas que afectan la espectacularidad de la escritura de Cesar Vallejo: su teatralizacion historizada de la politica. Partiendo de los poemarios iniciales (Heraldos negros y Trilce), el ensayo se detiene en un analisis de las transformaciones discursivas en las Cronicas, los epistolarios y en las piezas dramaticas. Este trabajo no se restringe, pues, a las separaciones que los criticos han operado en el proceso vallejiano (poesia, prosa, teatro, por un lado, y por otro America/Europa). Por el contrario, se quiere postular un "sujeto en proceso" que se va reacomodando permanentemente sus puntos de vista mientras reflexiona sobre el escritor latinoamericano, el exilio, la modernidad, el fascismo y la revolucion, detectando cada instante de expansion, cada obstaculo y cada redefinicion de los protocolos escriturarios, artisticos y receptivos. Enunciation and theatricality Starting from the consideration of the theatrical as a politics of seeing -a reason why the discussion does not restrict itself, insofar as the Valle jan corpus is concerned, to the examination of theatrical texts- this essay intends to identify the enunciative tactics and strategies affecting the spectacularity of Cesar Vallejo' s writing; its historicized theatricalization of politics. From the opening poems (Heraldos N e gros and Trilce) this essay stops to analyze the discursive transformations in the Cronicas, the epistolaries, and the dramatic pieces. This analysis is therefore not restricted to the customary separation made by the critics in the Vallejan process (poetry, prose and theatre on one side, America/Europe on the other). On the contrary, it intends to postulate a 'subject in process' constantly reacommodating its viewpoints, while reflecting on the Latin American writer, exile, modernity, fascism and revolution, establishing each moment of expansion, each obstacle and each redefinition of the receptive, artistic and writing protocols.
[10] Tumor cell culture

Publisher Summary This chapter describes generally successful methods for culture initiation of tumor cells from multiple human and animal source tissues. The success rate of 80-90% for the initiation of viable primary cultures with the propensity to maintain the ability to divide and differentiate for at least two to three subcultures (which is 4-10 population doublings, depending on the culture) has been observed for the attempted culture of more than 10,000 source specimens from surgically resected and fetal donor tissues. The greatest chance for successful cell line establishment is from metastatic tumors or those with high metastatic potential, particularly tumors of blood cell origin, melanomas, and solid tumors that have the ability to grow in suspension as effusions or ascites. Most of the tumor cells need numerous growth factors and nutrients for in vitro growth including (1) Low seeding densities are often lethal to tumor cell cultures, particularly those derived from primary tumors. (2) Metastatic tumors, especially those in pleural effusions or ascites, are generally easier to grow and can be propagated in less complex growth media. (3) There is a general inability to readily develop cell lines using standard limiting dilution or semisolid media cloning methods.
Relative Debugging of Automatically Parallelized Programs

We describe a system that simplifies the process of debugging programs produced by computer-aided parallelization tools. The system uses relative debugging techniques to compare serial and parallel executions in order to show where the computations begin to differ. If the original serial code is correct, errors due to parallelization will be isolated by the comparison. One of the primary goals of the system is to minimize the effort required of the user. To that end, the debugging system uses information produced by the parallelization tool to drive the comparison process. In particular, the debugging system relies on the parallelization tool to provide information about where variables may have been modified and how arrays are distributed across multiple processes. User effort is also reduced through the use of dynamic instrumentation. This allows us to modify the program execution without changing the way the user builds the executable. The use of dynamic instrumentation also permits us to compare the executions in a fine-grained fashion and only involve the debugger when a difference has been detected. This reduces the overhead of executing instrumentation.
Relative rates for plasma homo- and copolymerizations of olefins in a homologous series of fluorinated ethylenes

It is well known that the rate of plasma polymerization, or deposition rate, of a given monomer depends on various plasma process parameters, e.g., monomer flow rate, pressure, power, frequency (DC, rf or microwave), location of the substrate in the reactor, reactor geometry or configuration, and temperature. In contrast, little work has been done to relate deposition rates to monomer structures for a homologous series of monomers where the rates are obtained under identical plasma process parameters. For the particular series of fluorinated ethylenes (C2HxF4-x; x = 0-4), deposition rates were reported for ethylene (ET), vinyl fluoride, vinylidene fluoride and tetrafluoroethylene (TFE), but for plasma polymerizations carried out under different discharge conditions, e.g., pressure, current density, and electrode temperature. Apparently, relative deposition rates were reported for only two members of that series (ET, x = 4, and TFE, x = 0) for which the plasma polymerizations were conducted under identical conditions. We now present relative deposition rates for both homopolymerizations and copolymerizations of the entire series of fluorinated ethylenes (x = 0-4). Our interest in such rates stems from prior work on the plasma copolymerization of ET and TFE in which it was found that the deposition rates for the plasma copolymers, when plotted versus mol % TFE in the ET/TFE feed stock, followed a concave-downward curve situated above the straight line joining the deposition rates for the plasma homopolymers. This type of plot (observed also for an argon-ET/TFE plasma copolymerization) indicated a positive interaction between ET and TFE such that each monomer apparently "sensitized" the plasma copolymerization of the other. Since the shape of that plot is not altered if mol % TFE is replaced by F/C, the fluorine-to-carbon ratio, this paper aims (1) to show how the relative deposition rates for plasma copolymers drawn from all pairs of monomers in the C2HxF4-x series, as well as the deposition rates for the individual plasma homopolymers, vary with F/C ratios of the monomers or monomer blends, and (2) to see if those rates give rise to a common plot.
The essential GTPase RbgA (YlqF) is required for 50S ribosome assembly in Bacillus subtilis.

Summary In this paper the essential GTPase YlqF is shown to participate in the biogenesis of the 50S ribosomal subunit in Bacillus subtilis . Cells depleted of YlqF displayed gene expression profiles and nucleoid morphologies that were consistent with a function for YlqF in translation. In addition, YlqF is evolutionarily linked to two eukaryotic GTPases, Nog2p and Nug1p, that are involved in the biogenesis and the nuclear export of the 60S ribosomal subunit. Analysis of ribosomes from cells depleted of YlqF demonstrated that the formation of 70S ribosomes was greatly reduced and the large subunit sedimented at 45S. Cells grown with varying depleted levels of YlqF, yielding doubling times ranging from 38 min to 150 min, all displayed the 45S intermediate. Purified YlqF-His 6 protein associates with the 45S intermediate, but not the mature 50S subunit in vitro . Analysis of proteins from the 45S intermediate indicated that ribosomal protein L16, which is added late during in vitro Escherichia coli 50S ribosome biogenesis, was missing from the 45S intermediate. These results support a model in which YlqF participates in the formation of active 70S ribosomes in the cell by functioning in a late step of 50S subunit biogenesis. Based on these results we propose to rename the ylqF gene rbgA (ribosome biogenesis GTPase A).
A method for detecting ionospheric disturbances and estimating their propagation speed and direction using a large GPS network

[1] A technique is developed for detecting short period (3–10 min) ionospheric disturbances and estimating their propagation speed and direction using data from a large GPS network (a hundred or more receivers). This method increases the signal-to-noise ratio of small signals and could be applied, autonomously, to process a large set of data for the study of the potential signal sources and statistical distributions of these disturbances. The integral electron content (IEC) for every satellite-station pair in the network is extracted from dual frequency phase data. These IEC time series are then band-pass-filtered and cross-correlated with each other. The resulting correlation power is an indication of the presence of a common disturbance recorded at the two stations, and the delay to the maximum correlation is a measurement of the propagation time between the ionospheric pierce points of the respective stations. A threshold on correlation power is used to select a subset of these delay measurements. The velocity of the detected perturbation is then estimated by fitting a two-dimensional plane wave model to this subset of measurements. A technique is developed to remove the effects of time-varying satellite motion and to reconstruct the waveform that would have been observed at a fixed point within the ionosphere. Consistency of the resulting velocity estimates is checked using a stacking-alignment method and a time-distance mapping that accounts for the motion of the GPS satellites. The sensitivity of the velocity estimate to both the assumed height of a thin-layer ionosphere and the detection threshold value is studied. A simulation is used to demonstrate the IEC waveform distortion due to satellite motion, and an example is shown in which this distortion is able to shift the dominant frequencies of an actual disturbance outside of the passband of the filter, thereby preventing detection. Four weeks of data, in different seasons, collected using the Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN), were processed. Over the total of 28 days, 127 significant disturbances were detected, most with horizontal propagation speeds between 50–1000 m/s and westward directions of propagation. A few cases with exceptionally high speed (>2000 m/s) were observed. It is hypothesized that these are manifestations of disturbances that occur simultaneously throughout the ionosphere, rather than traveling waves. The rate of occurrence of disturbances in the 3–10 min band was found to be larger than expected. Observational biases of this method are discussed.
Chemical and biological studies on 1:2-dihydro-s-triazines. XIV. Inhibition of Diplococcus pneumoniae, type II, in vitro and in vivo synergism with sulphadiazine.

Abstract A number of 1:2-dihydro-s-triazines effectively inhibit Diplococcus pneumoniae, type II, in vitro. Differences in biological activity could be correlated with certain variations in structure and substitution in the molecule. Maximum activity was observed with 3':4'-dichlorophenyl derivatives which have 2:2-dimethyl, 2-(n-decyl) or 2-(n-tridecyl) substitution in the triazine ring. The dihydrotriazines exhibited synergism with both sulphadiazine and aminopterin. Synergism between sulphadiazine and aminopterin also was observed. Inhibition analyses indicate that these three classes of inhibitor differ with respect to loci of activity. The pattern of reversal of inhibition is consistent with previous evidence that the 1:2-dihydro-s-triazines interfere with a diphosphopyridine nucleotide-mediated reduction concerned with the metabolism of pteroylglutamic acid or its derivatives. Several of these compounds are more effective than sulphadiazine in the therapy of experimental Diplococcus pneumoniae. Type II, infections in mice, and exhibit a profound synergism with sulphadiazine in vivo; combinations of concentrations of both inhibitors which are ineffective alone protect mice. Similar synergism also was observed in vivo with combinations of sulphadiazine and aminopterin, as well as with combinations of 1:2-dihydro-striazine and aminopterin.
Reassessing Carbon Sinks

Carbon dioxide is taken up more by the Southern Ocean, but less by tropical land areas, than previously thought.
A novel, privacy-preserving cryptographic approach for sharing sequencing data.

Objective DNA samples are often processed and sequenced in facilities external to the point of collection. These samples are routinely labeled with patient identifiers or pseudonyms, allowing for potential linkage to identity and private clinical information if intercepted during transmission. We present a cryptographic scheme to securely transmit externally generated sequence data which does not require any patient identifiers, public key infrastructure, or the transmission of passwords. Materials and methods This novel encryption scheme cryptographically protects participant sequence data using a shared secret key that is derived from a unique subset of an individual's genetic sequence. This scheme requires access to a subset of an individual's genetic sequence to acquire full access to the transmitted sequence data, which helps to prevent sample mismatch. Results We validate that the proposed encryption scheme is robust to sequencing errors, population uniqueness, and sibling disambiguation, and provides sufficient cryptographic key space. Discussion Access to a set of an individual's genotypes and a mutually agreed cryptographic seed is needed to unlock the full sequence, which provides additional sample authentication and authorization security. We present modest fixed and marginal costs to implement this transmission architecture. Conclusions It is possible for genomics researchers who sequence participant samples externally to protect the transmission of sequence data using unique features of an individual's genetic sequence.
Metabolic Mechanisms of Drug Resistance in Leukemia.

Tumor cells frequently undergo metabolic reprogramming, but it is unknown how these metabolic changes relate to drug resistance. A recent article now demonstrates that PI3K/AKT signaling causes a metabolic switch from glutaminolysis to aerobic glycolysis in Notch-dependent T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL).
How do features of sensory representations develop

Summary form only given, as follows. Advanced mammals are characterized by complex sensory systems with a number of interconnected sensory representations. These representations are highly similar in internal features for a given area across individuals, but differ across areas and across species. The development of these systems likely reflects both position-dependent gene expression and resulting distributions of signalling molecules, as well as information relayed from the receptor sheet. The precise roles of these two factors have been difficult to determine, but an often neglected source of relevant information comes from comparative studies of how sensory representations are similar and different. For example, disruptions and anatomically apparent septa in representations often reflect actual discontinuities in the receptor sheet that are variable in some individuals or different across species. Such variable features of sensory representations seem most compatible with theories of development that involve instruction by neural activity patterns originating in the receptor sheet.
Polymorphism in the Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) NRAMP1 gene: lack of an allelic association to tuberculosis susceptibility

Although previous tuberculosis (TB) research has suggested that underlying genetic factors influence a host's response and ability to survive Mycobacterium infection, only recently has a gene been identified, the 'natural resistance-associated macrophage protein 1' (NRAMP1) gene, which provides a degree of natural resistance to infection by some Mycobacterium species. To date, however, the role that NRAMP1 may play in resistance to Mycobacterium infection has only been examined in mouse and man. Here, we present data generated at NRAMP1 among a group of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that were euthanized because of an outbreak of Mycobacterium tuberculosis during quarantine. Data were also generated on unrelated (and healthy) rhesus macaques in order to better determine the frequency and degree of genetic polymorphism within Macaca at the NRAMP1 locus. These data represent the first study designed to examine the role that NRAMP1 may play in TB susceptibility among rhesus macaques.
Discontinuities in ecological data

Historically, ecology has focused on continuous distributions and smooth transitions. Only recently have discontinuities and thresholds become an explicit focus in some areas of ecology, especially in the realm of complex systems. The study of animal body mass distributions has been recognized for its potential to provide insight into the underlying processes shaping animal communities. Hutchinson (1) formalized the understanding of species niches and the potential for competition to shape body mass distributions. However, despite a long history of theoretical and empirical pursuit, the mechanisms driving patterns in body mass distributions remain poorly understood. The work of Scheffer and van Nes (2) in this issue of PNAS demonstrates that community interactions alone can create discontinuous, lumpy distributions of simulated species along a niche axis. Their contribution comes at a time of heightened interest in understanding the mechanisms that may lead to discontinuities in body mass or biomass distributions. Much of the renewed interest in body mass distributions has followed the publication of a provocative ecological monograph that suggested animal body mass distributions are entrained by landscape structure (3). Holling’s paper (3) initially spawned skepticism that body mass distributions are characterized by what Holling termed “lumps” and “gaps.” Currently, many ecologists accept that body size distributions are discontinuous, but there remains disagreement regarding the mechanisms responsible. One mechanism proposed focuses on interactions among species living in the same habitat. The strongest and clearest species interaction, other than predation, is competition. However, facilitative interactions are also increasingly recognized for their potential to shape community structure. Scheffer and van Nes (2) demonstrate that species interactions may result in both repulsion and attraction along a niche axis. Attraction occurs when species are similar enough to avoid competition and results … *E-mail: allencr{at}unl.edu
The impact of body mass index on perioperative outcomes of open and endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, 2005-2007.

Objectives Obesity and morbid obesity have been shown to increase wound infections and occasionally mortality after many surgical procedures. Little is known about the relative impact of body mass index (BMI) on these outcomes after open (OAR) and endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR). Methods The 2005-2007 National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), a multi-institutional risk-adjusted database, was retrospectively queried to compare perioperative mortality (in-hospital or 30-day) and postoperative wound infections after OAR and EVAR. Patient demographics, comorbidities, and operative details were analyzed. Obesity was defined as a BMI >30 kg/m 2 and morbid obesity as a BMI >40 kg/m 2 . Outcomes were compared with t test, Wilcoxon rank sum, χ 2 , and multivariate logistic regression. Results There were 2097 OARs and 3358 EVARs. Compared with EVAR, OAR patients were younger, more likely to be women (26% vs 17%, P P P P P P Conclusions Morbid obesity confers a worse outcome for death after abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Obesity is also a risk factor for infectious complications after OAR and EVAR. Obese patients and, particularly, morbidly obese patients should be treated with EVAR when anatomically feasible.
Surface and flow field measurements in a symmetric crossing shock wave/turbulent boundary layer flow

Results of an experimental investigation of a symmetric crossing shock/turbulent boundary layer interaction are presented for a Mach number of 3.44 and deflection angles of 2, 6, 8, and 9 degrees. The interaction strengths vary from weak to strong enough to cause a large region of separated flow. Measured quantities include surface static pressure (both steady and unsteady) and flowfield Pitot pressures. Pitot profiles in the plane of symmetry through the interaction region are shown for various deflection angles. Oil flow visualization and the results of a trace gas streamline tracking technique are also presented.
Communicative genes in the evolution of empathy and altruism.

This paper discusses spontaneous communication and its implications for understanding empathy and altruism. The question of the possibility of “true” altruism—giving up one’s genetic potential in favor of the genetic potential of another—is a fundamental issue common to the biological, behavioral, and social sciences. Darwin regarded “social instincts and sympathies” to be critical to the social order, but the possibility of biologically-based prosocial motives and emotions was questioned when selection was interpreted as operating at the level of the gene. In the selfish gene hypothesis, Dawkins argued that the unit of evolutionary selection must be an active, germ-line replicator: a unit whose activities determine whether copies of it are made across evolutionary timescales. He argued that the only active replicator existing across evolutionary timescales is the gene, so that the “selfish gene” is a replicator motivated only to make copies of itself. The communicative gene hypothesis notes that genes function by communicating, and the phenotype communication involves not only the individual sending and receiving abilities of the individual genes involved, but also the relationship between them relative to other genes. Therefore the selection of communication as phenotype involves the selection of individual genes and also their relationship. Relationships become replicators, and are selected across evolutionary timescales including social relationships (e.g., sex, nurturance, dominance-submission). An interesting implication of this view: apparent altruism has been interpreted by selfish gene theorists as due to kin selection and reciprocity, in which the survival of kin and comrade indirectly favor the genetic potential of the altruist. From the viewpoint of the communicative gene hypothesis, rather than underlying altruism, kin selection and reciprocity are ways of restricting altruism to kin and comrade: they are mechanisms not of altruism but of xenophobia.
Impact of coal-coking effluent on sediment microbial communities: a multivariate approach

The functional response to and recovery from coal-coking waste effluent was evaluated for sediment microbial communities. Twenty estimates of microbial population density, biomass, and activity were measured five times during a 15-month period. Significant effects on microbial communities were observed in response to both wastewater contamination and diversion of the wastewater. Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant analysis indicated that accurate differentiation between uncontaminated and contaminated sediments required a minimum of nine estimates of community response. Total viable population density, ATP, alkaline phosphatase, naphthalene, and phenanthrene mineralization rates were found to be highly weighted variables in site discrimination. Lipid and glucose mineralization, nitrogen fixation, and sediment protein also contributed significantly to explaining variation among sites. Estimates of anaerobic population densities and rates of methane production contributed little to discrimination among sites in the environment examined. In general, total viable population density, ATP, and alkaline phosphatase activity were significantly depressed in contaminated sediments. However, after removal of this contamination, the previously affected sites demonstrated greater temporal variability but a closer approximation of the mean response at the control site. Naphthalene and phenanthrene mineralization did not follow the general trend and were elevated at the contaminated sites throughout the investigation. Results of the investigation supported the hypothesis that multiple functional measures of microbial community response are required to evaluate the effect of and recovery from environmental contamination. In addition, when long-term effects are evaluated, select physiological traits, i.e., polyaromatic hydrocarbon mineralization, may not reflect population and biomass estimates of community response.
Muscles that influence knee flexion velocity in double support: implications for stiff-knee gait

Adequate knee flexion velocity at toe-off is important for achieving normal swing-phase knee flexion during gait. Consequently, insufficient knee flexion velocity at toe-off can contribute to stiff-knee gait, a movement abnormality in which swing-phase knee flexion is diminished. This work aims to identify the muscles that contribute to knee flexion velocity during double support in normal gait and the muscles that have the most potential to alter this velocity. This objective was achieved by perturbing the forces generated by individual muscles during double support in a forward dynamic simulation of normal gait and observing the effects of the perturbations on peak knee flexion velocity. Iliopsoas and gastrocnemius were identified as the muscles that contribute most to increasing knee flexion velocity during double support. Increased forces in vasti, rectus femoris, and soleus were found to decrease knee flexion velocity. Vasti, rectus femoris, gastrocnemius, and iliopsoas were all found to have large potentials to influence peak knee flexion velocity during double support. The results of this work indicate which muscles likely contribute to the diminished knee flexion velocity at toe-off observed in stiff-knee gait, and identify the treatment strategies that have the most potential to increase this velocity in persons with stiff-knee gait.
Stable isotopes reveal live prey support growth of juvenile channel catfish reared under intensive feeding regimens in ponds

Abstract Juvenile channel catfish in nursery ponds are typically supplied large daily additions of manufactured feeds to increase growth and survival. However, mounting evidence suggests that naturally occurring zooplankton and insects support early fish growth. In this study, we leveraged the large natural differences in δ 13 C and δ 15 N contents between live prey in ponds and added manufactured feeds to quantify their relative contributions to fish growth. We conducted a tank experiment to quantify the isotopic transition patterns in muscle tissue of fish subjected to constant and abruptly changing diets between foods with different δ 13 C and δ 15 N values. We then applied these results to resolve temporal isotopic patterns in muscle tissue of fish reared in ponds under treatments of (1) no manufactured feed addition, (2) a low feeding regimen (1% body-weight/day, BW/d), or (3) a high feeding regimen (3% BW/d). We found that live prey entirely supported fish growth during the first 3 weeks in ponds, regardless of feeding regimen. Thereafter, about 50% of fish growth was supported by feed in the 1% and 3% BW/d ponds, which increased fish growth rates as compared to fish reared with no feed addition. Thus, live prey organisms are important in nursery ponds to support growth throughout the first growing season, and feed supplements growth only several weeks after stocking fish in ponds. Accordingly, we recommend manufactured feeds be withheld from nursery ponds until several weeks after fish stocking.