cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of Custom Orthosis and Rehabilitation Program on Outcomes Following Ankle and Subtalar Fusions

Background:Fractures of the distal tibia, ankle, and foot sustained through a high-energy mechanism can be extremely debilitating, and ankle and/or subtalar fusion may be indicated if the limb is deemed salvageable. Functional outcomes among this population are often poor. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effect of an advanced rehabilitation program combined with the use of a custom ankle-foot orthosis for patients with ankle or subtalar fusion on selected physical performance measures and patient-derived outcome measures and to determine if the response to treatment was predicated upon the type of fusion.Methods:We conducted a prospective, longitudinal, observational, cohort study composed of 23 active duty Service Members treated for lower extremity trauma. Patients were separated into 2 groups: group 1 was composed of 12 patients who underwent isolated ankle fusion or ankle fusion combined with ipsilateral subtalar fusion, group 2 was composed of 11 patients who underwent subtalar fusion...
Commentary on: A randomized controlled trial of fusion surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis (Forsth P, Ólafsson G, Carlsson T, Frost A, Borgström F, Fritzell P, et al. N Eng J Med 2016;374:1414-23).

Background: This article by Forsth et al. published in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled A randomized controlled trial of fusion surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis determined that decompressions alone vs. decompressions/fusions were equally effective in treating 1-2 level spinal stensois with/without degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS). Additionally, decompression alone reduced the perioperative morbidity, while reducuing the length of hospital stay (LOS), operative time, and surgical costs.
Nephrology: As It Was Then, But Is Not Now

Diseases of the kidney are old, but the discipline dedicated to their study, nephrology, is barely more than 50 years old. As recounted in this recollection of those events, the rudiments of what would become nephrology emerged in the time between the 2 World Wars from basic studies of normal kidney function and flourished after the integration of their methodologies into clinical medicine thereafter. Although shaped by studies of kidney function in the 1960s, it was the subsequent advent of dialysis that fueled the growth of nephrology well into the 21st century. Although to some extent this growth was a product of technical developments (micropuncture, dialysis, biopsy, etc), it was the paradigm shifts they engendered that brought about the revolutionary changes that stimulated the growth of nephrology from its formative years in the 1960s. Notable among those was the classification of chronic kidney disease on the basis of kidney function, calculated from serum creatinine level as estimated glomerular filtration rate, that has expanded nephrology's interaction with and integration into other disciplines and begat the recent outpouring of epidemiologic and interventional studies, thereby establishing it as a leading discipline dedicated to improving outcomes for individuals with kidney disease worldwide.
Model-based transcriptome engineering promotes a fermentative transcriptional state in yeast

The ability to rationally manipulate the transcriptional states of cells would be of great use in medicine and bioengineering. We have developed an algorithm, NetSurgeon, which uses genome-wide gene-regulatory networks to identify interventions that force a cell toward a desired expression state. We first validated NetSurgeon extensively on existing datasets. Next, we used NetSurgeon to select transcription factor deletions aimed at improving ethanol production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cultures that are catabolizing xylose. We reasoned that interventions that move the transcriptional state of cells using xylose toward that of cells producing large amounts of ethanol from glucose might improve xylose fermentation. Some of the interventions selected by NetSurgeon successfully promoted a fermentative transcriptional state in the absence of glucose, resulting in strains with a 2.7-fold increase in xylose import rates, a 4-fold improvement in xylose integration into central carbon metabolism, or a 1.3-fold increase in ethanol production rate. We conclude by presenting an integrated model of transcriptional regulation and metabolic flux that will enable future efforts aimed at improving xylose fermentation to prioritize functional regulators of central carbon metabolism.
Evolution of Auditory Cortex in Primates

Studies of the auditory system in primates indicates that there are similarities with other mammals as well as and distinct derivations. There is a fair amount of consistency among subcortical structures involved in processing auditory information in species such as rats, cats, and monkeys. As with other sensory systems, differences between primates and other mammals emerge in the number of cortical areas devoted to auditory processing. Even within primate branches, anthropoid primates appear to have an increased number of cortical areas, compared to the prosimian branch, which are thought to represent conserved primate features closest to early primates ( Kaas, 2013 ). Below is a discussion of the overall organization of primate auditory cortex including a brief review of subcortical structures, pathways, and a discussion of the anatomical and functional properties of the auditory cortex in primates.
Donor CD19 CAR T cells exert potent graft-versus-lymphoma activity with diminished graft-versus-host activity

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is a potentially curative therapy for hematological malignancies. However, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and relapse after allo-HSCT remain major impediments to the success of allo-HSCT. Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) direct tumor cell recognition of adoptively transferred T cells. CD19 is an attractive CAR target, which is expressed in most B cell malignancies, as well as in healthy B cells. Clinical trials using autologous CD19-targeted T cells have shown remarkable promise in various B cell malignancies. However, the use of allogeneic CAR T cells poses a concern in that it may increase risk of the occurrence of GVHD, although this has not been reported in selected patients infused with donor-derived CD19 CAR T cells after allo-HSCT. To understand the mechanism whereby allogeneic CD19 CAR T cells may mediate anti-lymphoma activity without causing a significant increase in the incidence of GVHD, we studied donor-derived CD19 CAR T cells in allo-HSCT and lymphoma models in mice. We demonstrate that alloreactive T cells expressing CD28-costimulated CD19 CARs experience enhanced stimulation, resulting in the progressive loss of both their effector function and proliferative potential, clonal deletion, and significantly decreased occurrence of GVHD. Concurrently, the other CAR T cells that were present in bulk donor T cell populations retained their anti-lymphoma activity in accordance with the requirement that both the T cell receptor (TCR) and CAR be engaged to accelerate T cell exhaustion. In contrast, first-generation and 4-1BB-costimulated CAR T cells increased the occurrence of GVHD. These findings could explain the reduced risk of GVHD occurring with cumulative TCR and CAR signaling.
Anna Katsnelson interviews Lera Auerbach

Lera Auerbach is a world famous composer, concert pianist, visual artist, and writer. Lera’s book of aphorisms Excess of Being is her first book in English. It was published by Arch Street Press in...
Simplified Model of ERCOT Frequency Response Validated and Tuned Using PMUs Data

An appropriate dynamic model is essential for power system frequency response assessments, which are necessary for various aspects of system management. In this paper, a simplified model for the system of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas is proposed based on dynamic models of dominant generation types. The model is also validated and tuned against system frequency measured by phasor measurement units after generation contingencies. The proposed approach of modeling and parameter tuning is applicable to other power systems.
Structure and Mechanism of the (Na,K)-ATPase

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of the structure and mechanism of the (Na, K)-ATPase. The (Na, K)-ATPase becomes concentrated into membrane fragments of unusually high density, which may be separated from other proteins and lipids by density gradient centrifugation. However, the major uncertainties currently debated are the size and subunit stoichiometry of the active pump, whether or not subunit interactions are necessary for transport, and whether or not Na+ and K+ can simultaneously bind to their respective sites on the protein. The Na+ ions leave the binding sites and are replaced by K+ ions from the outside of the cell. The presence of K+ ions near the phosphate anhydride catalyze dephosphorylation, allowing the aspartate residue to relax toward its original stable state. The large K+ ion, however, prevents complete relaxation and an intermediate is formed with the aspartate hindering K+ release to either side of the membrane. ATP rebinding to this state forces the aspartate into its original position, thereby blocking access from the extracellular side and allowing K+ release on the cytoplasmic side
A Factored Neural Network Model for Characterizing Online Discussions in Vector Space

We develop a novel factored neural model that learns comment embeddings in an unsupervised way leveraging the structure of distributional context in online discussion forums. The model links different context with related language factors in the embedding space, providing a way to interpret the factored embeddings. Evaluated on a community endorsement prediction task using a large collection of topic-varying Reddit discussions, the factored embeddings consistently achieve improvement over other text representations. Qualitative analysis shows that the model captures community style and topic, as well as response trigger patterns.
Women's Experiences of Social Reactions From Informal and Formal Supports: Using a Modified Administration of the Social Reactions Questionnaire.

A growing literature links social reactions to disclosures of intimate violence to posttraumatic outcomes. The Social Reactions Questionnaire (SRQ), a widely used measure developed to assess social...
Interpreters of Cultural Difference: The Use of Children in Jhumpa Lahiri's Short Fiction

(2003). Interpreters of Cultural Difference: The Use of Children in Jhumpa Lahiri's Short Fiction. South Asian Review: Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 120-132.
Attacks detection in SCADA systems using an improved non-nested generalized exemplars algorithm

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems became vital targets for intruders because of the large volume of its sensitive data. The Cyber Physical Power Systems (CPPS) is an example of these systems in which the deregulation and multipoint communication between consumers and utilities involve large volume of high speed heterogeneous data. The Non-Nested Generalized Exemplars (NNGE) algorithm is one of the most accurate classification techniques that can work with such data of CPPS. However, NNGE algorithm tends to produce rules that test a large number of input features. This poses some problems for the large volume data and hinders the scalability of any detection system. In this paper, we introduce our new Feature Selection and Data Reduction Method (FSDRM) to improve the classification accuracy and speed of the NNGE algorithm and to reduce the computational resource consumption. FSDRM provides the following functionalities: (1) it reduces the dataset features by selecting the most significant ones, (2) it reduces the NNGE's hyperrectangles classifiers. The experiments show that the FSDRM reduces the NNGE hyperrectangles by 29.06%, 37.34%, and 26.76% and improves the classification accuracy of the NNGE by 8.57%, 4.19%, and 3.78% using the Multi, Binary, and Triple class datasets respectively.
Running exercise mitigates the negative consequences of chronic stress on dorsal hippocampal long-term potentiation in male mice.

Abstract In the hippocampus, learning and memory are likely mediated by synaptic plasticity, known as long-term potentiation (LTP). While chronic intermittent stress is negatively correlated, and exercise positively correlated to LTP induction, we examined whether exercise could mitigate the negative consequences of stress on LTP when co-occurring with stress. Mice were divided into four groups: sedentary no stress, exercise no stress, exercise with stress, and sedentary with stress. Field electrophysiology performed on brain slices confirmed that stress alone significantly reduced dorsal CA1 hippocampal LTP and exercise alone increased LTP compared to controls. Exercise with stress mice exhibited LTP that was significantly greater than mice undergoing stress alone but were not different from sedentary no stress mice. An ELISA illustrated increased corticosterone in stressed mice compared to no stress mice. In addition, a radial arm maze was used to examine behavioral changes in memory during 6 weeks of stress and/or exercise. Exercised mice groups made fewer errors in week 2. RT-qPCR was used to examine the mRNA expression of components in the stress and exercise pathways in the four groups. Significant changes in the expression of the following targets were detected: BDNF, TrkB, glucocorticoid, mineralocorticoid, and dopamine 5 receptors. Collectively, exercise can mitigate some of the negative impact stress has on hippocampal function when both occur concurrently.
Use of a Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty Following a Fracture-Dislocation with a Brachial Plexus Palsy: A Case Report.

Case An 80-year-old woman sustained a fracture-dislocation of the proximal aspect of the humerus with a near-complete brachial plexopathy, which was successfully managed acutely using a reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) with repair of the greater and lesser tuberosities. The palsy, which was confirmed with nerve conduction studies, recovered uneventfully along with functional improvement of the shoulder. At the most recent follow-up, there was complete resolution of the plexopathy, with excellent, pain-free range of motion. Conclusion Acute RSA with tuberosity repair may be a reasonable treatment modality in the setting of an acute brachial plexus palsy following a comminuted fracture-dislocation of the proximal aspect of the humerus in an elderly patient.
Growth Factors: Biochemical Signals for Tissue Engineering

Abstract Signaling pathways initiated by growth factors mediate the communication between cells in all developing organs. For example, Mammalian tooth development is dependent on sequential and reciprocal epithelial–mesenchymal interactions mediated by multiple signaling pathways, including BMPs, FGFs, Shh, and Wnt pathways. Essential functions of these signaling pathways have been confirmed in mice, and mutations causing dental defects in humans. The unique aspect is that the same signaling pathways are used reiteratively and sequentially during advancing stages of morphogenesis. Also, there is tight control between networks of activators and inhibitors, and any modification of these networks lead to significant changes. Understanding these characteristic properties of growth factors provides a biological basis for their use in tissue engineering.
The Intentional Dean: A Guide to the Academic Deanship

Based on faculty leadership and administrative experiences, The Intentional Dean explores the reasons to pursue a deanship and how to successfully attain a position as an academic dean. Additionally, this accessible guide provides understanding of key activities and responsibilities of the deanship, such as setting positive agendas, budgeting and budget reductions, merit pay determination, and effectively attending to disciplinary issues. Stressing bold action, support for curriculum diversity, and the importance of protecting due process, this book helps prospective and current deans take deliberate steps toward making a positive difference in the lives of students. Unique in the manner in which it defends both faculty rights and important administrative prerogatives, The Intentional Dean effectively demonstrates how deans can play a key role in bettering their college, the university, and the communities they serve.
Disasters, local organizations, and poverty in the USA, 1998 to 2015

Disaster research has drawn attention to how natural hazards transform local organizational dynamics and social inequalities. It has yet to examine how these processes unfold together over time. We begin to fill this gap with a county-level, longitudinal analysis that examines how property damages from natural hazards correlate not only with local shifts in poverty a year later but also counts of for-profit as well as bonding and bridging social capital organizations. Results show that poverty and all organizational types tend to increase with local hazard damages. They also show that poverty tends to increase most where the number of bonding social capital organizations is also increasing. This pattern suggests a Janus-faced dynamic in which bonding, or more inwardly focused, organizations that arise after disaster may end up inadvertently marginalizing those in more dire need.
Chronic Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B (HBV) is a viral infection of the liver and a common cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. An estimated 240 million people are affected by chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection globally. In the United States, 850,000 to 2.2 million are estimated to be living with HBV. Screening and vaccination efforts have been globally implemented to reduce the burden of disease. This chapter will focus on the diagnosis and management of CHB.
Residential Energy Conservation: An Investigation of the Post Tax Credit Era in the U.S.:

This study examines a number of determinants of household energy conservation behavior. Personal interview data collected from a large national sample are analyzed in an effort to identify correlat...
An Introduction, In Parts

This article introduces a portfolio of three essays on the theme “What difference does the digital make?” These essays were originally given as talks at an annual forum co-hosted by this jo...
Wrist Wearables: More Questions than Answers?

CITATIONCollen JF, York CM. Wrist wearables: more questions than answers? J Clin Sleep Med. 2019;15(8):1077–1078.
Americans' views of efficacy toward campus sexual assault reform

Recently, the federal government and colleges have sought new remedies to combat campus sexual assault (CSA). Additionally, there have been calls for shifts in college culture. For this reason, an ...
Recursively modeling other agents for decision making: A research perspective

Abstract Individuals exhibit theory of mind, attributing beliefs, intent, and mental states to others as explanations of observed actions. Dennett's intentional stance offers an analogous abstraction for computational agents seeking to understand, explain, or predict others' behaviors. These recognized theories provide a formal basis to ongoing investigations of recursive modeling. We review and situate various frameworks for recursive modeling that have been studied in game- and decision- theories, and have yielded methods useful to AI researchers. Sustained attention given to these frameworks has produced new analyses and methods with an aim toward making recursive modeling practicable. Indeed, we also review some emerging uses and the insights these yielded, which are indicative of pragmatic progress in this area. The significance of these frameworks is that higher-order reasoning is critical to correctly recognizing others' intent or outthinking opponents. Such reasoning has been utilized in academic, business, military, security, and other contexts both to train and inform decision-making agents in organizational and strategic contexts, and also to more realistically predict and best respond to other agents' intent.
Early small bowel activity may predict rapid gastric transit on gastric emptying scintigraphy

1116 Objectives: In patients with symptoms of gastroparesis (early satiety, bloating, nausea/vomiting), gastric emptying scintigraphy can confirm the diagnosis or propose a common alternate etiology: Rapid gastric transit. In patients with rapid gastric transit, we noticed in our clinic that many had a portion of the radioactive meal in the small bowel on images taken immediately after meal ingestion. In this study, we evaluate whether meal in the small bowel on initial images of a standard four-hour gastric emptying scintigraphy protocol can predict rapid gastric transit or exclude gastroparesis. Methods: IRB approval was obtained. Retrospective analysis of 200 patients who underwent 4-hour gastric emptying scintigraphy using a standardized egg sandwich meal was performed. One nuclear medicine physician evaluated initial (time zero) anterior and posterior images for the presence of Tc-99m sulfur colloid labeled solid meal beyond the stomach in the small bowel loops. Gastric retention percentages at two and four hours were recorded. Patients under 18 yrs old, with prior gastrointestinal surgery, and/or solid meal consumption <70% were excluded. Results: Out of 200 patients reviewed, 70 had activity within the small bowel on initial images. Out of these 70, 26 were excluded due to reasons listed above. The remaining 44 patients were included in the analysis. Of the 44 patients with meal in the small bowel at time zero, 33 (75%) had rapid gastric emptying at 2 hours and normal emptying at 4 hours. Only three of the 44 patients (6.8%) had mildly delayed emptying (11%, 14% and 19%) at 4 hours. Conclusions: This study shows that in a small series of patients with early emptying of a radioactive meal into the small bowel, 75% were ultimately diagnosed with rapid gastric transit. This finding could be a useful clinical tool to help diagnose rapid gastric transit and to potentially decrease imaging time in patients. Further studies are warranted to reach statistical significance.
An Entropy-based Approach for Modeling Lithium-Ion Battery Capacity Fade

Batteries are key components of many electronic devices including instrumentations, vehicles, embedded systems, and medical devices. The malfunction of batteries may cause failure in operations of the entire system. Thus, the health management of the batteries, such as the determination of the operating conditions and replacement intervals, is essential in order to ensure the normal functioning and operations of the entire system. The battery health indicators built on effective health monitoring can be integrated into a prognostic model such that the batteries will be operating within the design limits to meet expected performance and safety requirements. Entropy, which originated as a concept in physics and thermodynamics, has been widely used to measure the regularities and uncover the uncertainties of stochastic processes. Different entropy measures have been introduced since Shannon presented the first definition of entropy, including Permutation entropy, Renyi entropy, Tsallis entropy, Approximate entropy, and Sample entropy. In this study, we assess various entropy measures of short voltage sequences of multiple lithium-ion batteries under different testing conditions. Then a Support Vector Machine (SVM) is employed to model the relationship between the battery capacities and various entropy measures of battery voltages. Numerical results reveal that the entropy measures are effective estimators of battery capacity loss and the proposed SVM-Entropy-based model is capable of predicting the battery capacity fade with high accuracies.
A Framework for Transit Monitoring System Using IoT Technology: Two Case Studies

With the fast increase of wireless technology, more new applications are developed targeting smart cities. It is clear that soon-to-be, each city will be covered with wireless capabilities besides the 5G cellular technology. In a modern city, the bus riders find themselves waiting for a significant amount of time for a bus while checking their smartphones. It is essential to use the numerous amount of data that can be gathered from these devices and surrounding to serve a better quality for the transportation system while preserving the ridership privacy. As to improve the quality of monitoring the transit buses system, we develop a framework using the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. In this paper, a framework is formed, and two case studies are investigated with various implementations. The goal is to use this framework to collect any data that can be used in smart cities to improve planning and increasing bus ridership through better scheduling. A complete comparison between the two case studies is provided with the performance measurement of each technique, and a hybrid methodology is suggested.
A General Framework of Nonparametric Feature Selection in High-Dimensional Data

Nonparametric feature selection in high-dimensional data is an important and challenging problem in statistics and machine learning fields. Most of the existing methods for feature selection focus on parametric or additive models which may suffer from model misspecification. In this paper, we propose a new framework to perform nonparametric feature selection for both regression and classification problems. In this framework, we learn prediction functions through empirical risk minimization over a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. The space is generated by a novel tensor product kernel which depends on a set of parameters that determine the importance of the features. Computationally, we minimize the empirical risk with a penalty to estimate the prediction and kernel parameters at the same time. The solution can be obtained by iteratively solving convex optimization problems. We study the theoretical property of the kernel feature space and prove both the oracle selection property and the Fisher consistency of our proposed method. Finally, we demonstrate the superior performance of our approach compared to existing methods via extensive simulation studies and application to a microarray study of eye disease in animals.
Antibacterial use in the age of SARS-CoV-2

BACKGROUND: Balancing the use of antibacterial therapy against selection for resistance in this pandemic era has introduced both questions and guidelines. In this project, we explored how prescription of empirical antibacterial therapy differs between those with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection. METHODS: Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine whether COVID-19 status and other factors play a role in the prescription of antibacterial therapy in an inpatient setting at a large referral academic medical centre. Further analysis was conducted to determine whether these factors differ between those testing positive and negative for SARS-CoV-2. RESULTS: Of 405 patients in the cohort, 175 received antibacterial therapy and 296 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. A positive SARS-CoV-2 test carried an OR of 0.3 (95% CI: 0.19, 0.49) for receiving antibacterial treatment in the first 48 h after admission (P < 0.0001) adjusting for age and procalcitonin results. Patients were 1% and 3% less likely to receive antibacterials for every year increase in age in the overall group and among those testing negative for SARS-CoV-2, respectively. Younger age was found to impact use of antibacterial therapy in both the overall analysis as well as the SARS-CoV-2 negative subgroup (P = 0.03 and P = 0.01). High procalcitonin values were found to be associated with increased antibacterial therapy use in both the overall and stratified analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Antibacterial therapy prescription differs by COVID-19 disease status, and procalcitonin results are most highly associated with antibacterial use across strata.
A Multidimensional Examination of the Measurement of Treatment Engagement: Implications for Children's Mental Health Services and Research.

Objective: The gap between rates of children's mental health problems and their participation in services highlights the need to address concerns related to engagement in mental health services more effectively. To identify, understand, and resolve engagement concerns appropriately requires effective measurement. In this study, we employed a multidimensional conceptual framework of engagement to examine the measurement of engagement in intervention studies focused on improving children's and/or families' engagement in services.Method: We coded 52 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of interventions designed to enhance treatment engagement published between 1974 and 2019 to examine what engagement constructs have been measured, how these constructs have been measured, who has provided information about engagement, and when and why engagement measures have been administered.Results: Attendance was measured in 94.2% of studies, and 59.6% of studies measured only attendance. Furthermore, most studies (61.5%) measured only one engagement dimension. One hundred twelve unique indicators of treatment engagement were used (61.6% measuring attendance). Infrequent measurement of youth (19.2% of studies) or caregiver (26.9%) perspectives was apparent. About half (54.7%) of measures were completed on one occasion, with 53.7% of measures completed after treatment was concluded.Conclusions: Results highlight how the field's measurement of engagement has focused narrowly on attendance and on interventions that improve attendance. We consider promising new directions for capturing the multidimensional, dynamic, and subjective aspects of engagement, and for leveraging measurement in research and practice settings to feasibly and effectively identify, monitor, and address engagement challenges.
Targeting BCMA in Multiple Myeloma.

Despite considerable advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) in the last decade, a significant number of patients still progress on current available therapies. Here, we review treatment modalities used to target BCMA in the treatment of MM, specifically antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), bispecific antibody constructs, and chimeric antibody receptor (CAR) modified T-cell therapies. We will provide an overview of therapies from these classes that have presented or published clinical data, as well as data on mechanisms of resistance to these novel agents. Clinical trials exploring different BCMA-targeting modalities to treat multiple myeloma are underway and demonstrate promising results. In relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, anti-BCMA ADCs and bispecific antibody constructs are showing impressive efficacy with manageable side effect profiles. In parallel, adoptive cellular therapy has induced dramatic durable responses in multiply relapsed and refractory myeloma patients. Therapeutic approaches targeting BCMA hold significant potential in the management of multiple myeloma and will soon be incorporated in combination with current standard therapies to improve outcomes for patients with multiple myeloma. In addition, novel approaches are being evaluated to overcome resistance mechanisms to anti-BCMA therapies.
COVID-19 Transmission Dynamics Among Close Contacts of Index Patients With COVID-19: A Population-Based Cohort Study in Zhejiang Province, China.

Importance Much remains unknown about the transmission dynamics of COVID-19. How the severity of the index case and timing of exposure is associated with disease in close contacts of index patients with COVID-19 and clinical presentation in those developing disease is not well elucidated. Objectives To investigate the association between the timing of exposure and development of disease among close contacts of index patients with COVID-19 and to evaluate whether the severity of the index case is associated with clinical presentation in close contacts who develop COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants This study used a large, population-based cohort of 730 individuals (index patients) who received a diagnosis of COVID-19 in Zhejiang Province, China, from January 8 to July 30, 2020, along with a contact tracing surveillance program. Field workers visited 8852 close contacts of the index patients and evaluated them for COVID-19 through August 2020. A timeline was constructed to characterize different exposure periods between index patients and their contacts. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was the attack rate of COVID-19, defined as the total number of new COVID-19 cases diagnosed among contacts of index patients divided by the total number of exposed contacts. A secondary outcome was asymptomatic clinical presentation among infected contacts. Relative risks were calculated to investigate risk factors for COVID-19 among contacts and asymptomatic clinical presentation among infected contacts. Results Among 8852 close contacts (4679 male contacts [52.9%]; median age, 41 years [interquartile range, 28-54 years]) of 730 index patients (374 male patients [51.2%]; median age, 46 years [interquartile range, 36-56 years]), contacts were at highest risk of COVID-19 if they were exposed between 2 days before and 3 days after the index patient’s symptom onset, peaking at day 0 (adjusted relative risk [ARR], 1.3; 95% CI, 1.2-1.5). Compared with being exposed to an asymptomatic index patient, the risk of COVID-19 among contacts was higher when they were exposed to index patients with mild (ARR, 4.0; 95% CI, 1.8-9.1) and moderate (ARR, 4.3; 95% CI, 1.9-9.7) cases of COVID-19. As index case severity increased, infected contacts were less likely to be asymptomatic (exposed to patient with mild COVID-19: ARR, 0.3; 95% CI, 0.1-0.9; exposed to patient with moderate COVID-19: ARR, 0.3; 95% CI, 0.1-0.8). Conclusions and Relevance This cohort study found that individuals with COVID-19 were most infectious a few days before and after symptom onset. Infected contacts of asymptomatic index patients were less likely to present with COVID-19 symptoms, suggesting that quantity of exposure may be associated with clinical presentation in close contacts.
From Epistemic Diversity to Common Knowledge: Rational Rituals and Publicity in Democratic Athens

Effective organization of knowledge allows democracies to meet Darwinian challenges, and thus avoid elimination by more hierarchical rivals. Institutional processes capable of aggregating diverse knowledge and coordinating action promote the flourishing of democratic communities in competitive environments. Institutions that increase the credibility of commitments and build common knowledge are key aspects of democratic coordination. “Rational rituals,” through which credible commitments and common knowledge are effectively publicized, were prevalent in democratic Athens. Analysis of parts of Lycurgus’ speech Against Leocrates reveals some key features of the how rational rituals worked to build common knowledge in Athens. This paper, adapted from a book-in-progess, is fortthcoming in the journal Episteme.
In-Use Catalyst Surface Area and Its Relation to HC Conversion Efficiency and FTP Emissions

Surface area data, steady-state hydrocarbon conversion efficiency data, and hydrocarbon emissions results have been determined for catalysts collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from properly maintained 1981 and 1982 model year vehicles. Catalysts covered in this study were limited to those with three-way-plus-oxidation monolith technologies. Catalyst surface areas were measured using the BET method, conversion efficiencies were measured on an exhaust gas generator, and emissions results were determined using the Urban Driving Schedule of the Federal Test Procedure. Results indicate that correlation of catalyst surface area data with hydrocarbon conversion efficiency data and hydrocarbon emissions results is significant for the sample studied.
An efficient strategy for developing a simulator for a novel concurrent multithreaded processor architecture

In developing a simulator for a new processor architecture, it often is not clear whether it is more efficient to write a new simulator or to modify an existing simulator. Writing a new simulator forces the processor architect to develop or adapt all of the related software tools. However, modifying an existing simulator and related tools, which are usually not well-documented, can be time-consuming and error-prone. We describe the SImulator for Multithreaded Computer Architectures (SIMCA) that was developed with the primary goal of obtaining a functional simulator as quickly as possible to begin evaluating the superthreaded architecture. The performance of the simulator itself was important, but secondary. We achieved our goal using a technique called process-pipelining that exploits the unique features of this new architecture to hide the details of the underlying simulator. This approach allowed us to quickly produce a functional simulator whose performance is only 3.8-4.9 times slower than the base simulator.
Differential Role of Lipocalin 2 During Immune Complex–Mediated Acute and Chronic Inflammation in Mice

Objectives Lipocalin-2 (Lcn2) is an innate immune protein expressed by a variety of cells and is highly upregulated during several pathological conditions including immune-complex (IC) mediated inflammatory/autoimmune disorders. However, the function of Lcn2 during IC-mediated inflammation is largely unknown. Therefore our objective was to investigate the role of Lcn2 in IC-mediated diseases.
Family Functioning Mediates the Association Between Neurocognitive Functioning and Health-Related Quality of Life in Young Adult Survivors of Childhood Brain Tumors.

Purpose: Childhood brain tumor (BT) survivors experience significant neurocognitive sequelae that affect health-related quality of life (HRQOL). A model of neurodevelopmental late effects and family functioning in childhood cancer survivors suggests associations between survivor neurocognitive functioning, family functioning, and survivor HRQOL. This study examines the concurrent associations between survivor neurocognitive functioning, family functioning, and survivor emotional HRQOL, and the indirect effects of neurocognitive functioning on survivor emotional HRQOL through family functioning. Methods: Participants included young adult-aged childhood BT survivors (18–30 years old; N=34) who were on average 16 years post-diagnosis, and their mothers. A brief neuropsychological battery assessed working and verbal memory, processing speed, and executive functioning. Survivors and mothers completed measures of family functioning, and mothers completed a proxy-report measure of survivor HRQOL. Results: Spearm...
Secondary structure in the target as a confounding factor in synthetic oligomer microarray design.

Secondary structure in the target is a property not usually considered in software applications for design of optimal custom oligonucleotide probes. It is frequently assumed that eliminating self-complementarity, or screening for secondary structure in the probe, is sufficient to avoid interference with hybridization by stable secondary structures in the probe binding site. Prediction and thermodynamic analysis of secondary structure formation in a genome-wide set of transcripts from Brucella suis 1330 demonstrates that the properties of the target molecule have the potential to strongly influence the rate and extent of hybridization between transcript and tethered oligonucleotide probe in a microarray experiment. Despite the relatively high hybridization temperatures and 1M monovalent salt imposed in the modeling process to approximate hybridization conditions used in the laboratory, we find that parts of the target molecules are likely to be inaccessible to intermolecular hybridization due to the formation of stable intramolecular secondary structure. For example, at 65°C, 28 ± 7% of the average cDNA target sequence is predicted to be inaccessible to hybridization. We also analyzed the specific binding sites of a set of 70mer probes previously designed for Brucella using a freely available oligo design software package. 21 ± 13% of the nucleotides in each probe binding site are within a double-stranded structure in over half of the folds predicted for the cDNA target at 65°C. The intramolecular structures formed are more stable and extensive when an RNA target is modeled rather than cDNA. When random shearing of the target is modeled for fragments of 200, 100 and 50 nt, an overall destabilization of secondary structure is predicted, but shearing does not eliminate secondary structure. Secondary structure in the target is pervasive, and a significant fraction of the target is found in double stranded conformations even at high temperature. Stable structure in the target has the potential to interfere with hybridization and should be a factor in interpretation of microarray results, as well as an explicit criterion in array design. Inclusion of this property in an oligonucleotide design procedure would change the definition of an optimal oligonucleotide significantly.
Experiments in reactive planning and control with mobile robots

A system aimed at controlling the actions of mobile robots in an indoor environment is presented. The main issue addressed is reactive planning: the system enables such robots to perform nonelementary tasks in an environment that unpredictably demands to adapt the robots' actions. A control system dealing with this problem was implemented in the context of a representative motion task. A demonstration was carried out on one GOFER robot to test how effectively and reliably the system could achieve this task. The control system is composed of a planning module, written in the Action Network formalism, that governs various behaviors implemented with artificial potential fields or other specific control strategies. Both the system implemented and the demonstration are detailed. >
Comparing Race and Sex Discrimination in Custody Cases

There is no shortage of legal scholarship on the relationship between race and sex discrimination. Most of this scholarship over the past decade, however, has focused on the “intersection” between the two, along with related issues of multidimensionality, multiple consciousness, and anti-essentialism. This Lecture focuses on race and sex, not where they cross, but what they look like side by side. The legal world has become
Entropic characterization of mixing in microchannels

A methodology for rigorous mixing assessment in microchannels is presented. The analysis is based on numerical simulations of flow in different geometries coupled with mixing assessment using entropic measures. The results show enhanced mixing efficiency for the staggered herringbone micromixer by comparison with a mixer with straight diagonal ridges and a lack of mixing in a non-patterned channel. These results are in agreement with published experimental data.
Unions, Solidarity, and Striking

Organizational resources and group solidarity are central foci in literature on social movements generally and worker insurgency specifically. Research, however, seldom deals with both simultaneously and their potential interrelations. In this article, we examine the complex relationships between union organization and worker solidarity relative to strike action. We draw on a data set of 133 content-coded workplace ethnographies and use a combination of qualitative comparative analysis and more standard statistical techniques. Consistent with expectations, results suggest union presence and worker solidarity, in and of themselves, have little meaningful association with strikes. Rather, it is their co-presence that bolsters strike likelihood. Conversely, a lack of union presence in combination with a lack of collective mobilization history diminishes overall strike potential. We conclude by discussing the implications of our argument and findings for more general social movement perspectives as well as prior work dealing specifically with unions, solidarity, and collective resistance.
SULFUR ISOTOPE EXCHANGE AND METAL ENRICHMENT IN THE FORMATION OF MAGMATIC Cu-Ni-(PGE) DEPOSITS

Sulfur isotope measurements provide a useful means of evaluating the source of sulfur in magmatic Cu-Ni-PGE deposits. Although low sulfur, PGE-rich deposits (e.g., J-M reef of the Stillwater Complex, Merensky reef of the Bushveld Complex) show little or no isotopic evidence for the involvement of crustally derived sulfur, several high sulfur deposits (e.g., Noril’sk, Duluth Complex) show strong evidence for contamination of mafic magmas by sulfur of crustal origin. Processes such as magma degassing or redox changes accompanying crystallization are ineffective in significantly modifying sulfur isotope signatures of sulfides that crystallize from immiscible liquids that exsolve from the mafic magmas. For this reason δ 34S values are primarily dependent on sulfur source characteristics, and variations can often be treated using a two-component mixing approach. However, deposits such as those at Noril’sk and Voisey’s Bay that appear to have formed in magma conduit systems present another possibility for modification of sulfur isotope signatures. These deposits are thought to have been upgraded in metal tenor by reaction with uncontaminated mantle-derived melts that traversed the accumulated sulfide on their way to the surface. Our calculations illustrate the efficiency of reactions that involve the exchange of Fe for Cu, Ni, or PGE in producing increases in the metal tenor of the accumulated sulfide. Sulfur isotope exchange between the crustally contaminated sulfide ore accumulation and sulfur of mantle origin may accompany chalcophile element exchange, and is capable of masking or limiting the degree of isotopic evidence for the initial stage of ore genesis that involved crustal sulfur. Sulfur isotope exchange is distinct from the addition of sulfur ( in the form of immiscible sulfide droplets from a sulfide-saturated magma) to the accumulated sulfide, although both additive mixing and exchange can lead to similar isotopic effects. Stable isotopic exchange provides a mechanism in addition to additive mixing that may lead to decoupling of different isotopic systems.
Modeling of polymeric film‐blowing processes

Industrial film-blowing processes are characterized by large deformation rates, rapid changes of temperature and high stress levels. A pilot scale process was set up to simulate these variables. The pivotal element in modeling the process is a rheological constitutive equation which describes the fluid properties accurately over the entire range of conditions encountered; it was found that contributions to the stress in the material which arise out of the changing thermal history of a fluid element were a significant fraction of the total. When the deforming film is subjected to stretching but to little or no blowing, the axial stresses in the film are predicted excellently by the model under both isothermal and non-isothermal processing conditions. With rapid blowing and major deviations from uniaxial extension, the axial stresses are predicted less well, but still satisfactorily, under the conditions used. In no case are the circumferential stresses predicted accurately: i.e. unequal biaxial extensional deformations represent complications which have not been resolved.
Acyl chloride-facilitated condensation polymerization for the synthesis of heat-sensitive poly(anhydride-ester)s

We succeeded in developing the acyl chloride-facilitated condensation polymerization method for the synthesis of new poly(anhydride-ester)s with aromatic side groups, which cannot be polymerized by the classic melt condensation polymerization method. Using chlorinated and acylated carboxylic acids as the intermediates, the polymerization was carried out at low temperatures of 120 or 135 °C to yield pure poly(anhydride-ester)s of molecular weights as high as 1.55 × 105 with minimal side-reactions. A homogeneous route of preparation was developed and optimized, using butyric anhydride as the acylating reagent and oxalyl chloride as the chlorinating reagent. A comparison of the mechanisms of the classic method and the new method indicates that the effects of transacylation—cyclization and oligomer formation—were greatly reduced due to the high reactivity of carboxylic acid chloride and the steric effect of bulky acyl groups. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 5899–5915, 2007