cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Enhanced Myosin Function Due to a Point Mutation Causing a Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Most cases of familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy have been attributed to mutations in thick or thin filament proteins in the myofibrils of myocardial cells.1 2 3 In a minority of cases, particularly those involving myosin binding protein C, such mutations have been associated with enhanced myofibrillar function, which has been inferred from changes in force and the kinetics of force development and relaxation in isolated muscle preparations and from changes in the dynamics of pressure development in working hearts. In most cases, such as those involving thin filament regulatory proteins or subunits of myosin, familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC) mutations have been associated with depressed function in working hearts in living or skinned myocardium or in biochemical and other in vitro assays of actomyosin interaction.3 Whether myofibrillar function is enhanced or depressed, the hearts of affected individuals undergo hypertrophy as an adaptive response to altered myocardial function, and for particularly malignant mutations, there is a significantly increased probability of premature death because of mechanical or electrical abnormalities of the heart. Although several FHC mutations have been identified using gene mapping approaches, little is known about the effects of most of the mutations on myofibrillar function or integrated contractile function in the context of human intact cardiac myocytes, muscle strips, or working hearts. However, in the case of one of these mutations, R403Q in the human β-myosin heavy chain (MHC), recent studies4 5 have taken advantage of the fact that mammalian slow muscle MHC is identical to cardiac β-MHC to obtain muscle that was heterozygous for the R403Q mutation. Biopsies from soleus muscles of individuals yielded fibers on which mechanical measurements could be made. Fibers from R403Q heterozygotes exhibited less force and slower shortening velocities than fibers from healthy homozygous individuals. The R403Q mutation has also been found to slow …
Ranking Legal Periodicals and Some Other Numeric Uses of the Westlaw and Lexis Periodical Databases

Abstract This article is an excursion into some arcane realms of the JLR and ALLUS databases on Westlaw and Lexis and their use for extracting statistical information about legal periodicals and articles. Aside from various issues such as citation decay, footnote density, and prolix authors, this article delves into the prestige of legal periodicals which are reflected by (and encouraged by) ranking studies, and in particular the Washington and Lee citation count study which is based on citations from the JLR and ALLCASES databases.
LiveCompare: grocery bargain hunting through participatory sensing

Many consumers are misled into paying high prices due to the search costs associated with attaining price information [16]. The popularity of bargain-hunting web sites like Slickdeals.net, which boasts 2.5 million visitors per month, hints that many shoppers are indeed in search of tools to help them save money. We present LiveCompare, a system that leverages the ubiquity of mobile camera phones to allow for grocery bargain hunting through participatory sensing. We utilize two-dimensional barcode decoding to automatically identify grocery products, as well as localization techniques to automatically pinpoint store locations. We show that an incentive scheme is inherently ingrained into our query/response protocol, and we suggest self-regulating mechanisms for preserving data integrity. As a result, we demonstrate that money-saving price comparisons can be conducted among brick and mortar grocery stores without the explicit cooperation of the stores.
Susceptibility of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) to Metarhizium brunneum F52 (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) Using Three Exposure Assays in the Laboratory

An emulsifiable concentrate (EC) and granular (G) formulation of the entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium brunneum strain F52 (formerly Metarhizium anisopliae strain F52) were tested against unfed adults and nymphs of Ixodes scapularis Say in the laboratory. Three exposure methods; dip, surface contact, and direct spray application, and three exposure time intervals (3, 30, and 300 min) were used to evaluate the EC formulation. Application rates ranged from 2.6 x 10(2) to 2.6 x 10(8) conidia/cm2. The surface treatment was used for granular formulation with concentrations ranging from 2.3 x 10(5) to 2.3 x 10(7) conidia/cm2 for same three exposure times. Both the EC and G formulations of this fungus were highly pathogenic against I. scapularis adults and nymphs. Logistic regression analysis found formulation, spore concentration, time of exposure, and observation period were significant or highly significant factors influencing tick mortality. For adult I. scapularis, the spray application with the EC formulation of M. brunneum F52 resulted in a lower LC50 (5.9 x 10(4) conidia/cm2) at 30 min than surface exposure to the EC (LC50 = 1.3 x 10(6) conidia/cm2) or G formulation (LC50 = 8.1 x 10(5) conidia/cm2). At higher concentrations, fungal activity was evident in adult I. scapularis held at 5 degrees C suggesting the fungus may provide control in the cooler fall season. While the observed pathogenicity of a fungus against ticks can be dependent upon the bioassay assessment, we found nymphs and adults of I. scapularis to be highly susceptible to M. brunneum F52, regardless of the exposure method used.
Omega 3 fatty acids increase the chemo-sensitivity of B-CLL-derived cell lines EHEB and MEC-2 and of B-PLL-derived cell line JVM-2 to anti-cancer drugs doxorubicin, vincristine and fludarabine

Background B-Cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia in the United States. Clinical treatment of CLL is often limited due to drug resistance and severe therapy-induced toxicities. We hypothesized that the omega 3 (n-3) fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and/or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), would increase the sensitivity of malignant B-lymphocytes to anti-cancer drugs doxorubicin, vincristine and/or fludarabine in vitro and that increased sensitivity is achieved by alterations in cell-cycle progression leading to growth inhibition and/or enhanced cell death. We further postulate that enhanced sensitivity is dependent on the formation of lipid peroxides and to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS).
Why Do Parents become Involved in Their Children's Education? Implications for School Counselors.

This article discusses a theoretical model of the parental involvement process that addresses (a) why parents become involved in their children's education, (b) the forms their involvement takes, and (c) how their involvement influences both proximal (e.g., motivation) and distal (e.g., achievement) student outcomes. The authors describe how school counselors can use this model to enhance schools' and parents' capacities to engage parents effectively in children's education. Specifically, they articulate how school counselors can educate teachers and parents about the importance of teacher and school invitations to involvement, productive forms of involvement, and students' active role in shaping their own educational outcomes. The authors briefly discuss future directions for research on parental involvement in the school counseling context.
Learning, plasticity, and atypical generalization in children with autism

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show accelerated learning in some tasks, degraded learning in others, and distinct deficits when generalizing to novel situations. Recent simulations with connectionist models suggest that deficits in cortical plasticity mechanisms can account for atypical patterns of generalization shown by some children with ASD. We tested the surprising theoretical prediction, from past simulations, that the children with ASD who show atypical generalization in perceptual categorization tasks will benefit more from training with a single prototypical member of the category than from training with multiple examples, but children with ASD who generalize normally will be comparatively harmed. The experimental results confirmed this prediction, suggesting that plasticity deficits may well underlie the difficulties that some children with ASD have generalizing skills, and these deficits are not specific to the acquisition of social skills, but rather reflect a more general perceptual learning deficit that may impact many abilities.
Neuromuscular Complications of Systemic Cancer

The neuromuscular complications of systemic cancer include direct effects (compression or infiltration of peripheral nerve tissues by tumor cells), effects of radiation and chemotherapy, and remote effects. Remote effects constitute the paraneoplastic syndromes—a heterogeneous group of disorders that include motor neuron diseases, axon-loss and demyelinating polyneuropathies, Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, and inflammatory myopathies.
Born into Bondage: Enforcing the Human Rights of India's Manual Scavengers

Throughout India, manual scavengers are responsible for collecting and disposing of human filth from dry latrines. Scavengers are subject to gross violations of human dignity, extreme health risks, and social discrimination that ensure a cycle of poverty extending for generations. Manual scavenging is not a form of employment; it is a form of bondage that oppresses Dalit women disproportionately. Despite enacting domestic statutes to prohibit manual scavenging, India's constituent governments have directly undermined national efforts to combat this practice. This article identifies and analyzes India's specific treaty obligations to not only eradicate this practice; it also identifies means of holding government officials accountable for perpetuating this human rights violation.
The Politics of the Rural Vote

This article is about dispelling myths. Rural dwellers are thought to live in peaceful idyllic settings where issues are simple and unproblematic. A reduced focus on material goods renders money of less concern than in the faster paced style of urban living. Moreover, the political interests of rural dwellers are more fully protected than warranted by their actual numbers. Due to the Framers' compromises on behalf of the smaller states, institutional protections are inherent in our system of government for rural interests. These protections render conventional concerns about garnering political attention, acquiring political funding, and attaining political power largely irrelevant. For example, the issue most important to rural dwellers, that of federal subsidies to protect family farms, receives both attention and substantial congressional funding. False. Entirely, demonstrably false. This article explores the intersection of money, politics, and rural dwellers, and concludes that, contrary to popular belief, rural dwellers have disproportionately little political voice.
Coherent Signal Processing: Fundamentals and Applications

Principles of coherent signal processing in communication, computing and sensing are discussed. The role of the new technology is illustrated on examples that include noisy signal recovery, distortion cancellation and computation-free signal transformations.
Distinguishing single DNA nucleotides based on their times of flight through nanoslits: a molecular dynamics simulation study.

Transport of single molecules in nanochannels or nanoslits might be used to identify them via their transit (flight) times. In this paper, we present molecular dynamics simulations of transport of single deoxynucleotide 5′-monophoshates (dNMP) in aqueous solution under pressure-driven flow, to average velocities between 0.4 and 1.0 m/s, in 3 nm wide slits with hydrophobic walls. The simulation results show that, while moving along the slit, the mononucleotides are adsorbed and desorbed from the walls multiple times. For the simulations, the estimated minimum slit length required for separation of the dNMP flight time distributions is about 5.9 μm, and the minimum analysis time per dNMP is about 10 μs. These are determined by the nature of the nucleotide–wall interactions, channel width, and by the flow characteristics. A simple analysis using realistic dNMP velocities shows that, in order to reduce the effects of diffusional broadening and keep the analysis time per dNMP reasonably small, the nucleotide v...
The synthesis and characterization of chemically bonded silica-based zwitterion-exchangers for HPLC

The synthesis and characterization of a zwitterionic stationary phase bonded onto microparticulate silica is described. The bonded zwitterionic phase was characterized by elemental analysis, diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), and quantitative analysis of the ligands by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) following chemical cleavage from the silica backbone. Chromatographic evaluation of this novel bonded phase indicates that it functions as a weak cation exchanger at pH values above 4.5, an anion exchanger at pH values below 7, and as a zwitterionic phase between these two values. The simultaneous separation of a mixture of cationic, anionic and zwitterionic solutes with this novel bonded phase is shown. Using nucleotides as model compounds, a correlation was developed between maximum solute retention and the pH values corresponding to maximum solute/stationary phase zwitterion overlap. The possibility for a quadrupolar retention mechanism of the bonded zwitterionic phase for zwitterionic solutes is explored.
What is a better predictor of clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula (CR-POPF) following pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD): postoperative day one drain amylase (POD1DA) or the fistula risk score (FRS)?

Abstract Background Both fistula risk score (FRS) and drain amylase in postoperative day 1 (POD1DA) have been promoted as tools to guide placement and removal of surgical drains following pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). However, their individual utility has not been compared. Methods A consecutive cohort of PD patients from 2013 to 2015 were identified from a prospectively collected institutional database. Pearson correlation coefficients and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were calculated for FRS (negligible/low vs . moderate/high) and POD1DA of 600 U/L and 5000 U/L as predictors of clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula (CR-POPF). Results The incidence of CR-POPF was 27% in 216 patients. Sensitivity and specificity of FRS, POD1DA >600 U/L, and POD1DA >5000 U/L for predicting CR-POPF were 83% and 55%, 94% and 60%, 33% and 90%. The ROC area under the curve (AUC) for POD1DA >600 U/L (0.764) and FRS (0.749) were not significantly different (p = 0.713). However, POD1DA >5000 U/L (0.615) was significantly worse at predicting CR-POPF (p = 0.015). When FRS and POD1DA >600 U/L were combined; there was no improvement (p = 0.624). Discussion FRS and POD1DA are equally accurate in predicting CR-POPF. Patients with negligible/low FRS or POD1DA
Analysis Of Accidental Injuries Surveillance Data Among Old People In Anhui In 2009

Objective To study the occurrence situation and the distribution characteristics of accidental injuries among old people in Anhui,and provide scientific basis for making strategies of control and prevention.Methods The surveillance data of accidental injuries cases aged above 65 years old in sentinel hospitals among 7 cities in Anhui in 2009 were analyzed.Results A total of 4 515 accidental injury cases aged above 65 were reported in 2009,and the ratio of male to female was 1:1.19.The old people were more prone to accidental injuries between July and October in the whole year.The main accidental injuries among old people were falling and traffic injuries.There were obvious differences of injuries causes in different sex or different age group or different scene(P0.0001).Most of accidental injuries cases were mild or moderate,and the major sites were legs,head and arms.Head were the usual sites in severe injuries.Conclusion Accidental injuries affected the health of old people severely.The focused interventions of accidental injuries among old people should be carried out to decrease the injury occurrence effectively.
Ethics consultation in the intensive care unit.

Purpose of review To review the medical literature for recent reports of the role of ethics consultations in the intensive care setting. Recent findings Ethical principles can provide important guidelines for dealing with value conflicts in medical treatment decisions, particularly treatment decisions to limit life-sustaining treatment in the intensive care unit. Until recently, advocates of ethics consultations have had to rely on inconclusive supporting data. In the past few years, however, a single-site and multi-site prospective randomized controlled trial of the ethics consultations offered in response to treatment conflicts in the intensive care unit demonstrated significant reductions in hospital days, hospital costs, and ventilator days in patients who did not survive to hospital discharge. The consultations were very well received by all the parties. Summary Ethics consultations seem to be useful in resolving conflicts that may be inappropriately prolonging nonbeneficial or unwanted treatments at the end of life. Further research on whether ethics consultations are beneficial in other settings is needed to establish the optimal scope of this intervention. Also, because these benefits were achieved by highly skilled and experienced consultants, it is not certain how successful other hospitals will be when adopting this intervention.
Continuing care of the high-risk infant.

Increasing numbers of high-risk infants are being discharged from the hospital into the care of the primary physician. The author shares the results of a recent survey in which primary physicians assessed their readiness to care for these infants. This is followed by a discussion of interventions for improving outcome of the high-risk survivor.
Courtship and male ornaments as honest indicators of immune function

Having an effective immune system can be very costly, sometimes at the expense of other important life history traits, including reproduction. This trade-off can be exaggerated in males of species that have costly sexual signalling, where condition-dependent components of the signalling system reflect the health status of the bearer. It is therefore vital for a male to be able to adequately balance the costs of activating the immune system successfully while also expressing high-quality sexual signals. We examined males of the brush-legged wolf spider Schizocosa ocreata to see whether static condition-dependent components of sexual signalling in adult males are indicative of health status (immune stress response, encapsulation) and whether female preference for these traits is influenced by infection. After experimental ingestion of a bacterial pathogen (Pseudomonas aeruginosa), symmetry of male foreleg tuft (a secondary sexual trait) was found to predict the intensity of the subsequent infection, such that males with more asymmetrical tufts had higher levels of bacteria in the haemolymph. Females were equally likely to mate with infected and uninfected males in mating trials, but females that mated with infected males had bacteria in their haemolymph and on their body surface. Males that engaged in courtship had significantly lower encapsulation responses than males that did not engage in courtship, but among those males that courted, larger tuft size indicated a higher encapsulation response even after energetically costly courtship. These results indicate that females may be able to use static sexual signalling traits to examine a male's overall health, but females do not appear to discriminate against males who are actively infected, even though there is a direct cost to the female via the transfer of male infection.
Should Surgery Be Regionalized

The authors suggest that new surgical procedures be carried out initially in selected institutions and that complex procedures for which it has been or can be demonstrated that mortality is inversely related to the volume of experience also be regionalized. Regionalization in the latter instance can have a small overall impact on surgical practice but a large impact on the adverse consequences of high risk operations that are performed only occasionally.
Mormon and Irish Landscapes on Beaver Island, Lake Michigan – niche construction and socio-ecological inheritance in the nineteenth century

ABSTRACTBeaver Island, Michigan was a unique settlement location for Irish America in the late nineteenth century. Families of Irish descent migrated to northern Lake Michigan and reproduced many aspects of the rural, fishing and farming lifeways of Ireland. They had to negotiate the cultural landscape and material conditions that had previously been established on the island, notably by a Mormon sect that occupied the island between 1848 and 1856. The inheritance of landscapes by one community from another can be understood through the concept of niche construction theory. This can be used as a lens to understand how the Mormons shaped their cultural landscape and what this meant for the socio-ecological legacy taken over by their Irish replacements. We also notice the Irish influence on the Beaver Island Lumber Company who came after them. Utilising archaeological and historical data, we undertake a macro-analysis to investigate the shaping of structures and landscapes as interactive influences of one c...
Aswan High Dam Resettlement of Egyptian Nubians

During the 1960s, construction of the High Dam approximately 10 km up the Nile from Aswan created a 500 km-long reservoir, with a surface area of over 5000 km2. Named Lake Nubia in the Sudan and Lake Nasser in Egypt, the reservoir extends into the Sudan and required the relocation of at least 100,000 Nubians. This chapter deals only with High Dam impacts on the 48,000 Egyptian Nubians resettled between October 1963 and June 1964.
Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism, 1973–1994: Shifting Forces: Modeling Changes in Post–Civil Rights Black Activism

If we are serious, the black politics of Gary must accept major responsibility for creating both the atmosphere and program for fundamental, far ranging change in America. Activist, National Black Political Convention, 1972 The new civil rights movement must reframe its strategy around combating civil death, pushing for meaningful, winnable reforms that increase the civic capacities of oppressed people, permitting them to assume greater roles in determining society's future. Manning Marable, The Great Wells of Democracy , 2002 In the previous chapter, we argued that the macro-level forces of empowerment and distress act as counterweights to each other, pulling black activism upward or pushing it downward as social, economic, and political opportunities were created by some factors and constrained by others. We also presented the historical and methodological rationale for the modeling choices we make in our analysis of post–civil rights black activism. In this chapter, we use statistical models to examine how well these sets of factors explain changes in aggregate levels of black activism from 1973 and 1994. The first part of the chapter describes trends in civic activism for blacks as a group, by region, and by gender. We then present the results of our GLS models of composite participation, political work, and organizational work, which show consistent evidence of a tug-of-war between black political empowerment on the one hand and social and economic distress on the other.
‘Sometimes, it's easier to write the prescription’: physician and patient accounts of the reluctant medicalisation of sleeplessness

The medicalisation of sleep is a rich and growing area of sociological interest. Previous research suggests that medicalisation is occurring within the context of physician office visits, but the inner workings remain unclear. This study is the first to provide perspectives on the office visit interaction from both sleepless patients (n = 27) and the physicians (n = 8) who treat them. Analyses of semi-structured qualitative interviews reveal that sleep-related conversations are typically patient-initiated in routine office visits. Physicians and patients conceptualised insomnia as a symptom of another issue (depression), an everyday problem of living (stress) or the result of a natural life process (aging). Lack of sleep was not necessarily linked to daytime impairment. Even though sleep aids were routinely requested and prescribed, patients and physicians consistently expressed attitudes of reluctance toward the use of sedative hypnotics. I call this a case of 'reluctant medicalisation' and highlight the liminal space between pathology and normalcy inhabited by patients and physicians. I also build on recent work acknowledging the dynamics between macro and micro levels of medicalisation and illustrate the influence of multilevel 'engines' (consumerism, biotechnology, managed care and physicians) in patients' and physicians' accounts. A virtual abstract of this paper can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/7uLHOJPHF0I.
Association between Mismatch Negativity and Psychopathology, Cognitive Impairment, and Health Status in Patients with Schizophrenia and Comparable Healthy Subjects

Author(s): Kaufmann, Christopher N; Light, Gregory A; Martin, Averria S; Daly, Rebecca; Palmer, Barton W; Jeste, Dilip V
Impact of Two Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Interventions on Risky Sexual Behavior: A Three-Arm Cluster Randomized Control Trial

Objectives. To test the efficacy of Reducing the Risk (RTR) and Love Notes (LN) on reducing risky sexual behavior among youths yet to experience or cause a pregnancy.Methods. The four dependent variables were ever had sex, condom use, birth control use, and number of sexual partners at 3- and 6-month follow-up in a 3-arm cluster randomized controlled trial of 1448 impoverished youths, aged 14 to 19 years, in 23 community-based organizations in Louisville, Kentucky, from September 2011 through March 2014.Results. At 3 and 6 months, compared with the control condition, youths in RTR reported fewer sexual partners and greater use of birth control. At 6 months, LN participants reported greater use of birth control and condoms, fewer sexual partners, and were less likely to have ever had sex compared with the control condition.Conclusions. We provided additional evidence for the continued efficacy of RTR and the first rigorous study of LN, which embeds sex education into a larger curriculum on healthy relation...
A SYSTEMATIC FRAMEWORK FOR ADDRESSING TREATMENT INTEGRITY IN SCHOOL SETTINGS

School psychologists are tasked with ensuring treatment integrity because the level of intervention implementation affects decisions about student progress. Treatment integrity includes multiple dimensions that may impact the effectiveness of an intervention including adherence, dosage, quality, and engagement. Unfortunately, treatment integrity is not routinely monitored in consultation. A systematic framework is needed to better prepare practitioners to assess, analyze, and intervene when there are treatment integrity failures. A framework for monitoring and improving multiple dimensions of treatment integrity in natural settings is proposed to provide guidance to practitioners through two phases. The first phase focuses on improving initial treatment integrity and the second phase outlines a problem-solving process for improving treatment integrity.
Cannabinoids in Oral Fluid: Identification and Interpretation of Analytical Results

Over the last few years, improvements in technology associated with oral fluid collection, drug extraction, and analytical instrumentation have allowed oral fluid to emerge as a useful sample matrix for the analysis of cannabinoids. The detection of marijuana and its metabolites in oral fluid is useful in many applications, including traffic safety, workplace drug testing, pain management, rehabilitation programs, forensic psychiatric monitoring, and sports testing. Important issues in the valid quantification of drugs in oral fluid include the variability of collection devices, efficient recovery from collection pads, drug stability during transportation, and storage conditions. This chapter will discuss the disposition of cannabinoids in oral fluid, potential approaches to result interpretation, and will highlight areas of application.
Investigation of oxygen point defects in cubic ZrO2 by density functional theory

Abstract The energetics of formation and migration of the oxygen vacancy and interstitial in cubic ZrO2 are investigated by density functional theory calculations. In an O-rich environment, the negatively charged oxygen interstitial is the most dominant defect whereas, the positively charged oxygen vacancy is the most dominant defect under O-poor conditions. Oxygen interstitial migration occurs by the interstitialcy and the direct interstitial mechanisms, with calculated migration energy barriers of 2.94 eV and 2.15 eV, respectively. For the oxygen vacancy, diffusion is preferred along the 〈1 0 0〉 direction, and the calculated energy barriers are 0.26 eV for V O 2 + , 0.27 eV for V O 1 + and 0.54 eV for V O 0 . These results indicate that oxygen diffusivity is higher through the vacancy-migration mechanism.
Abstract 125: Intravascular Ultrasound: A Clinically Useful Tool for Carotid Plaque Characterization

OBJECTIVE: Virtual Histology Intravascular Ultrasound (VH™ IVUS) is valuable for estimating minimal lumen diameter (MLD) and plaque characterization. The clinical use of IVUS in the carotid arteries is not well characterized. To evaluate carotid plaque morphology, we performed VH™ IVUS in patients with known carotid artery stenosis. METHODS: From July 2010, patients were prospectively enrolled in an IRB approved study to undergo IVUS prior to an elective carotid stenting procedure. Hospital records were reviewed for co-morbidities, carotid/arch anatomy, preoperative carotid duplex velocity measurements, and incidence of postoperative microemboli. Comparison of pre- and postoperative diffusion-weighted MR images was used to identify microemboli. IVUS-derived MLD and vessel wall plaque characteristics were collected. Spearman correlation was performed between MLD and duplex estimated stenosis, and between plaque characteristics and frequency of postoperative microemboli. RESULTS: 14 patients were enrolled during the study period with carotid artery stenosis (average ICA/CCA ratio 5.5, 64.3% asymptomatic). Major co-morbidities included hyperlipidemia (79%), diabetes (71%), and angina (43%). 57% of patients had type 1 arches, and 50% of patients had heavily calcified irregular carotid plaques. MLD correlated with preoperative duplex ICA/CCA ratio (R2=-0.56,p=0.05), and carotid plaque area correlated with peak systolic and diastolic velocities (R2=-0.55,p=0.05). Although microembolic frequency did not correlate with preoperative patient characteristics, it correlated with IVUS-derived plaque necrotic core area (R2=0.53,p=0.05). CONCLUSION: We demonstrate that periprocedural carotid IVUS is clinically feasible and useful. Preoperative duplex measurements correlated with IVUS MLD confirming the fidelity of the technique. Moreover carotid IVUS demonstrates that patients with necrotic plaque cores have a higher frequency of postoperative microemboli. These findings suggest that carotid IVUS may be helpful to identify patients who are at higher risk of microemboli during carotid artery stenting.
Stopped-Flow NMR and Quantitative GPC Reveal Unexpected Complexities for the Mechanism of NHC-Catalyzed Lactide Polymerization

Stopped-flow NMR spectroscopy provides the first direct, in situ observation of lactide epimerization during polymerization with the N-heterocyclic carbene organocatalyst 1,3-dimesitylimidazol-2-ylidene (IMes). Hexad analysis of the polymer microstructure using 13C NMR spectroscopy supports a chain-end-controlled mechanism for stereocontrol of the lactide polymerization. Data for both monomer consumption and molecular weight distribution (MWD) as a function of time have been examined using more than one dozen kinetic models. The most successful models feature reversible, unimolecular termination, first-order propagation in monomer, no backbiting term, and include a first-order catalyst death term. The developed modeling method allows insight into a challenging mechanistic problem by successfully modeling MWD evolution and monomer concentration with time.
Denitrifying bioreactors resist disturbance from fluctuating water levels

Nitrate can be removed from wastewater streams, including subsurface agricultural drainage systems, using woodchip bioreactors to promote microbial denitrification. However, the variations in water flow in these systems could make reliable performance from this microbially-mediated process a challenge. In the current work, the effects of fluctuating water levels on nitrate removal, denitrifying activity, and microbial community composition in laboratory-scale bioreactors were investigated. The performance was sensitive to changing water level. An average of 31% nitrate was removed at high water level and 59% at low water level, despite flow adjustments to maintain a constant theoretical hydraulic retention time. The potential activity, as assessed through denitrifying enzyme assays, averaged 0.0008 mg N2O-N/h/dry g woodchip and did not show statistically significant differences between reactors, sampling depths, or operational conditions. In the denitrifying enzyme assays, nitrate removal consistently exceeded nitrous oxide production. The denitrifying bacterial communities were not significantly different from each other, regardless of water level, meaning that the denitrifying bacterial community did not change in response to disturbance. The overall bacterial communities, however, became more distinct between the two reactors when one reactor was operated with periodic disturbances of changing water height, and showed a stronger effect at the most severely disturbed location. The communities were not distinguishable, though, when comparing the same location under high and low water levels, indicating that the communities in the disturbed reactor were adapted to fluctuating conditions rather than to high or low water level. Overall, these results describe a biological treatment process and microbial community that is resistant to disturbance via water level fluctuations.
Asthma treatment and outcomes for children in the emergency department and hospital.

ABSTRACTObjective: To describe and compare the treatment of acute asthma exacerbations in children given in the emergency department (ED) and admitted to acute care floor in the hospital or intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: A retrospective chart review of visits for acute exacerbation of asthma treated at Phoenix Children's Hospital between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2016. Results: A total of 287 asthma exacerbation cases were identified including 106 (37%) ED visits, 134 (47%) hospital floor and 47 (16%) ICU admissions. A history of a previous ED visit (ED 88%, Floor 60% and ICU 68%; p < 0.0001) and prior pulmonology inpatient consultation (ED 30%, Floor 19% and ICU 15%; p = 0.05) varied significantly. Pulmonology inpatient consultations were performed more frequently in the ICU than on the hospital floor (54% versus 8%; p < 0.0001). Although overall 145 (51%) of the cases were already on inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) at the time of visit with no differences across locations, ICS initiation/step-...
Efficiency, realism, and representation in generated content: a case study using family tree generation

Work on procedural content generation often centers game mechanics and visual/audio aesthetics, whereas the generation of social structures has not received the same attention, despite potentially enabling new forms of gameplay. When the generation of social and/or cultural content is attempted, tensions naturally arise between algorithmic efficiency realism, and representation. A specific algorithm for generating family trees is used as a case study for these issues, with the hope that this can stimulate broader discussion in the community.
Mercury alters initiation and construction of nests by zebra finches, but not incubation or provisioning behaviors

Mercury is an environmental contaminant that impairs avian reproduction, but the behavioral and physiological mechanisms underlying this effect are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to determine whether lifetime dietary exposure to mercury (1.2 µg/g wet weight in food) impacted avian parental behaviors, and how this might influence reproductive success. To distinguish between the direct effects of mercury on parents and offspring, we created four treatment groups of captive-bred zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), with control and mercury-exposed adults raising cross-fostered control or mercury-exposed eggs (from maternal transfer). Control parents were 23% more likely to fledge young than parents exposed to mercury, regardless of egg exposure. Mercury-exposed parents were less likely to initiate nests than controls and spent less time constructing them. Nests of mercury-exposed pairs were lighter, possibly due to an impaired ability to bring nest material into the nestbox. However, nest temperature, incubation behavior, and provisioning rate did not differ between parental treatments. Unexposed control eggs tended to have shorter incubation periods and higher hatching success than mercury-exposed eggs, but there was no effect of parental exposure on these parameters. We accidentally discovered that parent finches transfer some of their body burden of mercury to nestlings during feeding through secretion in the crop. These results suggest that, in mercury-exposed songbirds, pre-laying parental behaviors, combined with direct exposure of embryos to mercury, likely contribute to reduced reproductive success and should be considered in future studies. Further research is warranted in field settings, where parents are exposed to greater environmental challenges and subtle behavioral differences might have more serious consequences than were observed in captivity.
Spherical Nucleic Acids: Adding a New Dimension to Nucleic Acids and Clinical Chemistry.

Featured Article: Mirkin CA, Letsinger RL, Mucic RC, Storhoff JJ. A DNA-based method for rationally assembling nanoparticles into macroscopic materials. Nature 1996;382:607–9.2 Spherical nucleic acids, or SNAs (1), were first introduced in our 1996 paper in Nature featured here. The original nanoconstructs were composed of gold nanoparticles modified with a layer of DNA at a density high enough to force the strands upright, forming a shell that adopted the spherical shape of the nanoparticle template. Since then, many other core and nucleic acid compositions have been synthesized and explored. SNAs were born from an idea I had after attending a seminar on colloidal crystallization. Researchers were exploring ways of engineering such crystals on the basis of electrostatic and simple small-molecule interactions between particles. I imagined a new type of chemistry in which the interactions between nanoparticles could be programed using sequence-specific DNA interactions—a system in which the particles could be viewed as atoms and the DNA as programmable bonds between them, offering an almost limitless number of possibilities for controlling the assembly of particles into hierarchical materials, crystals in particular. To test this concept, I asked then-Northwestern graduate students Bobby Mucic and James Storhoff to seek out Bob Letsinger, the pioneer of oligonucleotide synthesis, and learn how to make strands of DNA that could be chemically immobilized on gold. Soon after, Bobby and James synthesized two sets of gold particles, each approximately 13 nm in diameter, with DNA strands linked to their surfaces via thiol adsorption on gold; …
Orbital deformity after craniofacial fracture repair: avoidance and treatment.

Background and objectives To achieve the optimal preoperative appearance following craniofacial fracture repair, the surgeon must be facile in the most sophisticated reconstructive techniques and able to determine their application. The purpose of this article is to describe the common deformities following such repairs, outline a strategy to avoid them, and review the surgical techniques to correct them. Methods and materials The deformities are categorized by the anatomic zones of the orbit, i.e., zygomatic, frontal, and nasoethmoidal, affected by low-, middle-, and high-energy impact. The common types of deformity and acute and late treatments are discussed for each category. Results and/or conclusions The optimal time to correct posttraumatic orbital deformities is during the acute phase. Extended open reduction and rigid fixation techniques have their own morbidity, which must not outweigh the deformity of an untreated or partially treated injury. The results of late reconstruction are always limited by scarring of the overlaying soft tissue envelope.
Designing Effective Curriculum for Family Life Education

A theoretical framework is provided for developing and presenting family life programs which realize preventive goals. Such programs require comprehensive planning, the use of innovative instructio...
Against the Profit Motive: The Salary Revolution in American Government, 1780-1940

In America today, a public official's lawful income consists of a salary. But until a century ago, the law frequently provided for officials to make money on a profit-seeking basis. Prosecutors won a fee for each defendant convicted. Tax collectors received a percentage of each evasion uncovered. Naval officers took a reward for each ship sunk. Numerous other officers were likewise paid for "performance." This book is the first to document the American government's for-profit past, to discover how profit-seeking defined officialdom's relationship to the citizenry, and to explain how lawmakers--by ultimately banishing the profit motive in favor of the salary--transformed that relationship forever.
Euro-Americans Favoring People of Color: Covert Racism and Economies of White Colorism:

African American colorism in the United States is often viewed as an intraracial problem in which prejudice and discrimination are relegated to the scope of internal issues. What is often lacking i...
What Really Happened? Kenneth Goldsmith’s “7+ Deaths and Disasters,” Sophie Calle’s, Take Care of Yourself

In Seven American Deaths and Disasters (2013), Kenneth Goldsmith recounted a set of tragic and unanticipated events in recent American history by using transcriptions of radio and TV broadcasts, usually from minor networks. Designed to be an “eighth American disaster,” Goldsmith presented The Body of Michael Brown , a performance based on the St. Louis autopsy report at the “Interrupt 3” conference at Brown University (13 March 2015), eliciting widespread criticism and controversy. Seemingly very different from Goldsmith —Sophie Calle’s projects, for the past few decades, set up particular procedural processes that raise pressing epistemological questions, especially about the nature of relationships, personal and political. One of her recent projects, Prenez soin de vous ( Take Care of Yourself ) that was based on her installation for the Venice Biennale in 2007, comprises comments by 107 women on an email that Calle received from her then lover. In this project, Calle uses the “real” words of others to create a montage of possible interpretations of the discourse that confronts us in our daily lives. For Calle, as for Goldsmith, the most troubling gap is that between information and knowledge, while the issue, that a conceptual poetics can take as a premise, is that the body most difficult to get inside of turns out to be one’s own.
Cachexia Disrupts Diurnal Regulation of Activity, Feeding, and Muscle Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 in Mice.

Introduction Cancer cachexia is characterized by severe skeletal muscle mass loss, which is driven by decreased muscle protein synthesis and increased protein degradation. Daily physical activity and feeding behaviors exhibit diurnal fluctuations in mice that can impact the systemic environment and skeletal muscle signaling. Purpose We investigated the effect of cancer cachexia on the diurnal regulation of feeding, physical activity, and skeletal muscle mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling in tumor-bearing mice. We also examined the impact of increased physical activity on diurnal behaviors and skeletal muscle mTROC1 signaling in the cancer environment. Methods Physical activity and feeding behaviors were measured for four consecutive days before sacrifice in male C57BL/6 (B6; n = 24) and Apc (MIN; n = 22) mice at 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM under ad libitum condition. A subset of B6 (n = 16) and MIN (n = 19) mice were given wheel access for 2 wk before diurnal behavior measurements. Gastrocnemius muscle protein expression was examined. Results The MIN mice demonstrated altered diurnal fluctuations in feeding and activity compared with the B6. Interestingly, cachexia did not alter MIN total food intake, but dramatically reduced cage physical activity. As a measurement of mTORC1 activity, 4E-BP1 phosphorylation increased after the dark cycle in B6 and precachectic MIN mice, whereas rpS6 phosphorylation was only increased after the dark cycle in MIN mice. MIN 4E-BP1 phosphorylation at the end of the light cycle was significantly correlated with cachexia progression and reduced physical activity. Voluntary wheel running increased light cycle MIN 4E-BP1 phosphorylation and attenuated muscle mass loss. Conclusions The cancer environment can alter diurnal feeding and physical activity behaviors in tumor-bearing mice, which are linked to the progression of cachexia and muscle wasting. Furthermore, suppressed physical activity during cachexia is associated with decreased skeletal muscle mTORC1 signaling.
Designing and Disseminating Metrics to Support Jurisdictional Efforts to End the Public Health Threat Posed by HIV Epidemics

The US Department of Health and Human Services has launched a large-scale plan that aims to "End the HIV Epidemic" (EtHE) in America, including ambitious goals and targets over the next 5 to 10 years.To be successful, the EtHE Plan will require timely dissemination of relevant metrics to inform the broad array of stakeholders who are in a position to act in support of the plan's goals. Metrics should include both population health outcome metrics and implementation metrics that track the deployment and uptake of specific intervention delivery strategies. In addition to the usual HIV care continuum metrics that include all people living with HIV in the denominator, metrics dedicated to those not yet reached (i.e., as the denominator) are essential to help target EtHE implementation efforts. Special attention is required around metrics and targets that inform and drive action on HIV-related health disparities.Well-chosen metrics and a well-designed dissemination system can serve as important tools to assess the progress of the EtHE Plan, and to identify and disseminate lessons learned quickly within and across jurisdictions aiming to end HIV as a local public health threat.
Textual Curation: Authorship, Agency, and Technology in Wikipedia and Chambers’s Cyclopædia

Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia: or, an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1728) offered readers a “taxonomy of knowledge” that lists rhetoric as one of the “forty-seven major areas of the sc...