cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Poly(2-deoxy-2-methacrylamido glucopyranose)-b-Poly(methacrylate amine)s: Optimization of Diblock Glycopolycations for Nucleic Acid Delivery

A series of nine poly(2-deoxy-2-methacrylamido glucopyranose)-b-poly(methacrylate amine) diblock copolycations has been synthesized as new colloidally stable polynucleotide vehicles. The cationic block was varied in length and in the degree of methyl group substitution (secondary, tertiary, quaternary) on the pendant amine in an effort to optimize the structure and activity for plasmid DNA (pDNA) delivery. Upon a thorough kinetic study of polymerization for each polymer, the glycopolymers were prepared with well-controlled Mn and Đ. The binding and colloidal stability of the polymer–pDNA nanocomplexes at different N/P ratios and in biological media have been investigated using gel electrophoresis and light scattering techniques. The toxicity and transfection efficiency of the polyplexes have been evaluated with Hep G2 (human liver hepatocellular carcinoma) cells; several polymers displayed excellent delivery and toxicity profiles justifying their further development for in vivo gene therapy.
Because We Deserve It: The Influence of Performance Attributions on Corporate Misconduct (WITHDRAWN)

Misconduct by high ranking managers is a ubiquitous phenomenon within organizations that causes severe harm. However, only very little is known about the underlying psychological mechanisms that ar...
Supported Catalysts Useful in Ring-Closing Metathesis, Cross Metathesis, and Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization

Ruthenium and molybdenum catalysts are widely used in synthesis of both small molecules and macromolecules. While major developments have led to new increasingly active catalysts that have high functional group compatibility and stereoselectivity, catalyst/product separation, catalyst recycling, and/or catalyst residue/product separation remain an issue in some applications of these catalysts. This review highlights some of the history of efforts to address these problems, first discussing the problem in the context of reactions like ring-closing metathesis and cross metathesis catalysis used in the synthesis of low molecular weight compounds. It then discusses in more detail progress in dealing with these issues in ring opening metathesis polymerization chemistry. Such approaches depend on a biphasic solid/liquid or liquid separation and can use either always biphasic or sometimes biphasic systems and approaches to this problem using insoluble inorganic supports, insoluble crosslinked polymeric organic supports, soluble polymeric supports, ionic liquids and fluorous phases are discussed.
Learning overcomplete representations from distributed data: a brief review

Most of the research on dictionary learning has focused on developing algorithms under the assumption that data is available at a centralized location. But often the data is not available at a centralized location due to practical constraints like data aggregation costs, privacy concerns, etc. Using centralized dictionary learning algorithms may not be the optimal choice in such settings. This motivates the design of dictionary learning algorithms that consider distributed nature of data as one of the problem variables. Just like centralized settings, distributed dictionary learning problem can be posed in more than one way depending on the problem setup. Most notable distinguishing features are the online versus batch nature of data and the representative versus discriminative nature of the dictionaries. In this paper, several distributed dictionary learning algorithms that are designed to tackle different problem setups are reviewed. One of these algorithms is cloud K-SVD, which solves the dictionary learning problem for batch data in distributed settings. One distinguishing feature of cloud K-SVD is that it has been shown to converge to its centralized counterpart, namely, the K-SVD solution. On the other hand, no such guarantees are provided for other distributed dictionary learning algorithms. Convergence of cloud K-SVD to the centralized K-SVD solution means problems that are solvable by K-SVD in centralized settings can now be solved in distributed settings with similar performance. Finally, cloud K-SVD is used as an example to show the advantages that are attainable by deploying distributed dictionary algorithms for real world distributed datasets.
Molecular cloning approach for a putative ethylene receptor gene in Arabidopsis.

The plant hormone ethylene is an endogenous regulator of growth and development in higher plants. This gaseous compound influences a diverse and complex range of responses during many phases of plant development and in most parts of the plant. Responses mediated by ethylene include breaking of seed dormancy, seedling growth, flower initiation, leaf abscission, senescence and fruit ripening. Ethylene biosynthesis is induced by environmental stresses such as oxygen deficiency, wounding, pathogen invasion and flooding. These stresses may result in ethylene-mediated acceleration of senescence, abscission of infected organs or induction of specific plant defence proteins.
The effect of daily challenges in children with autism on parents’ couple problem-solving interactions.

The vulnerability-stress-adaptation model guided this examination of the impact of daily fluctuations in the symptoms and co-occurring behavior problems of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on parents' couple problem-solving interactions in natural settings and as these interactions spontaneously occur. A 14-day daily diary was completed by mothers and fathers in 176 families who had a child with ASD. On each day of the diary, parents separately reported on the child with ASD's daily level of symptoms and co-occurring behavior problems and the topic and level of negative affect in their most meaningful or important daily couple problem-solving interaction. Multilevel modeling was used to account for the within-person, within-couple nested structure of the data. Results indicated that many parents are resilient to experiencing a day with a high level of child ASD symptoms and co-occurring behavior problems and do not report more negative couple problem-solving interactions. However, household income, level of parental broader autism phenotype, and presence of multiple children with special care needs served as vulnerability factors in that they were related to a higher overall rating of negative affect in couple interactions and moderated the impact of reporting a day with a high level of child ASD symptoms and co-occurring behavior problems on next-day ratings of negative couple problem-solving interactions. The magnitude of these effects was small. Understanding mechanisms that support adaptive couple interactions in parents of children with ASD is critical for promoting best outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record
CMOS RF performance gain by gate resistance optimization

We report experimental improvement of both RF and digital AC performance of a 28nm CMOS technology by predoping the gate poly. The results are explained in terms of the physical structure of the gate and the atomic structure of the gate TiN/Si interface in the gate stack.
Automated inter-plant spacing sensing of corn plant seedlings and quantification of laying hen behaviors using 3d computer vision

Within-row plant spacing plays an important role in uniform distribution of water and nutrients among plants, hence affects the final crop yield. While manual in-field manual measurements of within-row plant spacing is time and labor intensive, little work has been carried out to automate the process. An automated system is developed using a state-of-the-art 3D vision sensor that accurately measures within-row corn plant spacing. The system is capable of processing about 1200 images captured from a 61 m crop row containing approximately 280 corn plants in about three and half minutes. Stocking density of laying hens in egg production remains an area of investigation from the standpoints of ensuring hen's ability to perform natural behaviors and production economic efficiency. It is therefore of socio-economic importance to quantify the effect of stocking density on laying hens behaviors and thus wellbeing. In this study, a novel method for automatic quantification of stocking density effect on some natural laying hen behaviors such as locomotion, perching, feeding, drinking and nesting is explored. Image processing techniques are employed on top view images captured with a state-of-the-art time-of-flight (TOF) of light based 3D vision camera for identification as well as tracking of individual hens housed in a 1.2 m × 1.2 m pen. A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensor grid consisting of 20 antennas installed underneath the pen floor is used as a recovery system in situations where the imaging system fails to maintain identities of the hens.
Compact CMOS amperometric readout for nanopore arrays in high throughput lab-on-CMOS

In depth characterization of nanopores such as ion channel proteins holds great value for medical and pharmaceutical applications. In this paper, an electrochemical interface circuit (EIC) is presented that enables both readout of individual nanopores and high throughput implementation within a lab-on-CMOS array platform. The EIC was designed for an electrochemical array microsystem that would facilitate proteomics research via parallel characterization of multiple ion channel proteins with single channel resolution. Fabricated in 0.5 μm AMI CMOS, the EIC can record rapid and extremely weak ion channel current pulses within a very noisy environment. Measurements show that the circuit can detect currents as low as 10 pA with a pulse width of 10 μsec. The readout circuit is low power and very compact to facilitate up to 1024 channels on a large CMOS chip.
Civil Unrest Prediction: A Tumblr-Based Exploration

This work focuses on detecting emerging civil unrest events by analyzing massive micro-blogging streams. Specifically, we propose an early detection system consisting of a novel cascade of text-based filters to identify civil unrest event posts based on their topics, times and locations. In contrast to the model-based prediction approaches, our method is purely extractive as it detects relevant posts from massive volumes of data directly. We design and implement such a system in a distributed framework for scalable processing of real world data streams. Subsequently, a large-scale experiment is carried out on our system with the entire dataset from Tumblr for three consecutive months. Experimental result indicates that the simple filter-based method provides an efficient and effective way to identify posts related to real world civil unrest events. While similar tasks have been investigated in different social media platforms (e.g., Twitter), little work has been done for Tumblr despite its popularity. Our analysis on the data also shed light on the collective micr-oblogging patterns of Tumblr.
Resiliency in the sustainability of Distributed Green Data Centers

This paper presents a study of the effect of workload distribution on the resiliency of a new paradigm in sustainable data centers which considers small modular units, called “Distributed Green Data Centers” (DGDC), that are distributed over a geographical region and primarily powered by local energy sources, particularly but not limited to renewables. Considering as resiliency metric the probability of system unavailability, it is seen in this work how workload distribution increases resiliency even in challenging scenarios where the DGDCs experience similar patterns of solar energy availability because they are all located in the same geographical area. While workload distribution has a positive effect in increasing the resiliency, it also increases the data center mean response time. Nevertheless, simulation results show that while keeping the relative increase in response time within acceptable ranges, the probability of system unavailability is reduced in relative terms by 11% and 7% for, respectively, the cases of diverse and similar solar energy availability patterns at the DGDCs.
Variations in the functional visual field for detection of lung nodules on chest computed tomography: Impact of nodule size, distance, and local lung complexity.

Purpose To explore the characteristics that impact lung nodule detection by peripheral vision when searching for lung nodules on chest CT-scans. Methods This study was approved by the local IRB and is HIPAA compliant. A simulated primary (1°) target mass (2 × 2 × 5 cm) was embedded into 5 cm thick subvolumes (SV) extracted from three unenhanced lung MDCT scans (64 row, 1.25 mm thickness, 0.7 mm increment). One of 30 solid, secondary nodules with either 3–4 mm and 5–8 mm diameters were embedded into 192 of 207 SVs. The secondary nodule was placed at a random depth within each SV, a transverse distance of 2.5, 5, 7.5, or 10 mm, and along one of eight rays cast every 45° from the center of the 1° mass. Video recordings of transverse paging in cranio-caudal direction were created for each SV (frame rate three sections/sec). Six radiologists observed each cine-loop once while gaze-tracking hardware assured that gaze was centered on the 1° mass. Each radiologist assigned a confidence rating (0–5) to the detection of a secondary nodule and indicated its location. Detection sensitivity was analyzed relative to secondary nodule size, transverse distance, radial orientation, and lung complexity. Lung complexity was characterized by the number of particles (connected pixels) and the sum of the area of all particles above a −500 HU threshold within regions of interest around the 1° mass and secondary nodule. Results Using a proportional odds logistic regression model and eliminating redundant predictors, models fit individually to each reader resulted in the following decreasing order of association based on greatest reduction in Akaike Information Criterion: secondary nodule diameter (6/6 readers, P < 0.001), distance from central mass (6/6 readers, P < 0.001), lung complexity particle count (5/6 readers, P = 0.05), and lung complexity particle area (3/6 readers, P = 0.03). Substantial inter-reader differences in sensitivity to decreasing nodule diameter, distance, and complexity characteristics were observed. Conclusions Of the investigated parameters, secondary nodule size, distance from the gaze center and lung complexity (particle number and area) significantly impact nodule detection with peripheral vision.
How Millennials and Teens Consume Mobile Video

Technology and services available for mobile video have evolved since previous studies were conducted. A majority of teens now have mobile phones and there is an increase in younger users watching video through paid subscriptions. We set out to describe the scenarios in which Millennials and teens view mobile video, their motivations, and how they access video. Twenty-four participants completed diary entries over a five-day period. Nine of these participants also took part in individual interviews that followed. Our findings describe the scenarios and motivations in detail and highlight two main findings. 1) Several mood and emotional states, beyond boredom and killing time, lead to viewing mobile video. 2) When accessing video, choices are made based on desired level of engagement, stimulation, and length. This study provides information that can be used to inform mobile video experiences and proposes opportunities for future research.
Laser processed calcium phosphate reinforced CoCrMo for load-bearing applications: Processing and wear induced damage evaluation

Abstract To mitigate shortcomings in current biomedical CoCrMo alloy, composites of CoCrMo with calcium phosphate (CaP) were envisioned. CoCrMo alloy was reinforced with CaP to enhance the wear resistance of the alloy. A powder based direct energy additive manufacturing technique of Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS™) was used for processing of CoCrMo alloy with 1% and 3% (by weight) of CaP in the form of hydroxyapaptite. Addition of CaP was found to stabilize the e (hcp) phase along with the more common γ (fcc) phase of the CoCrMo alloy, and the microstructure showed discontinuous chromium carbide phase. The resultant composite showed hardness similar to the base material, however, there was significant increase in the wear resistance of the alloy due to the addition of CaP. During wear testing, a tribo-layer or a tribofilm was found to develop on the surface. This led to the reduction in the leaching of Co and Cr ions during wear testing. The tribofilm was found to be dependent on the wear distance, and made the CoCrMo-CaP composites an in situ self-protecting system. The overall coefficient of friction of the CoCrMo-CaP composite was found to increase but was more stable with the wear distance as compared to the CoCrMo alloy with no CaP addition. Statement of Significance Co-based alloys, an ideal choice for biomedical load-bearing implants, show low wear rates along with low coefficient of friction (COF) and good resistance to corrosive media. However, significant material loss can occur in vivo due to wear and/or corrosion of CoCrMo over long periods of time. Release of metal ions in the human body over time leads to medical complications such as metallosis, which can often require a revision surgery that can adversely affect the quality of life for the patient. We hypothesize that metal ion release from CoCrMo alloys can be reduced during articulation using an in situ formed inorganic tribofilm, and our results validate our hypothesis in calcium phosphate reinforced CoCrMo composites.
DNA damage response: Selected review and neurologic implications

An estimated 105 DNA lesions occur daily in the mammalian genome as a consequence of spontaneous decay, replication errors, and cell metabolism, including reactive oxygen species produced by the mitochondria. Oxidative stress is a major mechanism of DNA damage in the nervous system. Damaged DNA must be repaired to allow the proper reading of the genetic code. The response to DNA damage involves DNA damage recognition first, followed by resection of the affected site, DNA processing, filling the gap by action of DNA polymerases, and sealing of the nick by DNA ligases. Severe DNA damage also triggers chromatin remodeling, transient interruption of the cell cycle, and, if left unrepaired, programmed cell death. Whereas disturbances in DNA repair have been primarily linked to carcinogenesis or immunodeficiency, they can also affect development or survival of cells in the nervous system. A prototype neurologic disorder of DNA repair is ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) due to mutation of the A-T mutated ( ATM ) gene encoding A-T mutated (ATM), a kinase that coordinates responses to double-strand DNA breaks. Ataxia with oculomotor apraxia (AOA) results from mutations of key proteins involved in DNA end-processing and transcription regulation. Many neurodegenerative disorders are associated with inability to repair oxidative base modifications in both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. Mismatch and base excision–repair are important modifiers in trinucleotide repeat expansion disorders. There are several reviews on the complex mechanisms involved in DNA repair1–7 and the neurologic disorders associated with defective DNA repair pathways.8–16 A comprehensive discussion of these is beyond the scope of this review and only selected topics are discussed here.
Smooth 4-manifolds and Symplectic Topology

One of the famous problems of topology is the classification problem for simply connected 4-manifolds. In the context of topological manifolds (up to homeomorphism), Freedman reduced the problem in 1981 to the classification of ℤ-quadratic forms ([F]; see also [FQ]). However, for smooth manifolds (up to diffeomorphism) the problem remains wide open, and it is currently the focus of intense research. Henceforth, we only consider smooth (compact, boundaryless) manifolds. Most of our knowledge about such simply connected 4-manifolds has descended from work of Donaldson. In particular, his invariants [D] allow us for the first time to distinguish different diffeomorphism types within a given homotopy type of such manifolds — or equivalenty in this context, within a given homeomorphism type [F]. We know that many homeomorphism types each contain infinitely many diffeomorphism types (a situation that is not possible in any other dimension). This explosion of distinct examples has left topologists struggling to find order amid the confusion.
Phytase-induced changes in mineral utilization in zinc-supplemented diets for pigs.

Forty-eight pigs (barrows:gilts, 1:1) with an average initial weight of 9.4 kg were used in a 2 x 2 factorial experiment to determine the influence of dietary phytase (0 or 1,500 phytase units/kg) and zinc (0 or 100 mg/kg) supplementation of a corn-soybean meal diet on the utilization of P, Ca, Cu, Mg, Mn, and Zn. After a 21-d growth experiment, feed was withheld for 24 h and blood was collected from the anterior vena cava of all pigs for plasma mineral analyses. Twenty-four barrows from the growth experiment were then placed in metabolism cages and used in an 8-d mineral balance study. All pigs were maintained on their previous diet. Growth rate was fastest (P .05) by dietary treatment. Plasma P (P .05) by phytase when the diet was supplemented with 100 mg of Zn/kg. Apparent Ca, P, and Cu balance were improved (P < .05) with phytase addition; however, Cu balance was reduced (P < .05) by Zn supplementation. Zinc balance was increased (P < .05) with supplemental zinc and phytase in the diet. These results indicate that the growth-promoting effect of phytase may be due to an overall increase in the availability of minerals.
Rationality of the Individual and Rationality of the System: A Critical Examination of the Economic Calculation Problem Over Socialism

We restate Mises’ argument about the impossibility of socialist calculation through the lenses of modern developments in microeconomic theory. In so doing, we provide an alternative interpretation of the debate between Austrians and Market Socialists, which we believe should inform economists’ understanding of the market process.
Polynomial Time Mechanisms for Collective Decision Making

We investigate the problem of designing mechanisms to control collective decisions made by self-interested autonomous agents. In particular, we examine how results in the economics literature on mechanism design apply to collective decisions involving NP-hard optimization problems. We formalize the idea of polynomial time mechanism design and investigate mechanism design for a multiagent version of MAXSAT. We prove that there exists a polynomial time mechanism for multiagent MAXSAT that guarantees the outcome to be within a factor of 1/2 of the optimal outcome. We also show that, in general, a 1/2 approximation is the best approximation possible for dominant strategy, Nash, undominated Nash and subgame perfect implementation. Our analysis highlights some of the difficulties that arise in applying results from mechanism design to computational problems. Our results suggest that we may be much less successful using approximation to overcome hardness results in multiagent settings than in traditional computational settings especially when we require game theoretic guarantees on the outcomes.
Employing Virtual Collaborative Exchanges to Expand Global Awareness

Universities commonly mention global components in their mission statements. Many governments endorse the concept of global preparedness for its industry and people, and support student and faculty mobility. Yet not all students have the resources or motivation to study abroad, though still value an international experience. This 3-year study, based in the United States and Finland, explores the use of the Internet to connect university students in equivalent classes across international borders, completing collaborative assignments requiring student-student virtual dialog and cross-cultural reflection. After 10 repetitions of virtual exchanges between U.S. and European undergraduate students, quantitative and qualitative results indicate that virtual exchanges, like actual student exchanges, can provide learning opportunities for global awareness. Students, regardless of prior international experience, recommend virtual exchanges. No single pedagogy achieves 100% success and improvements are underway. This paper identifies virtual exchange goals, describes pedagogical activities, presents results, identifies areas for improvement and offers research suggestions. The approach can apply to any discipline at any level. Faculty hesitant about either technology or interference with course structure may be motivated to try this easy-to-use, cost-effective pedagogy to broaden global perspectives that can be scaled up, down, or custom-tailored.
Skin Signs of HIV Infection

Cutaneous manifestations of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are predominantly the consequence of the progressive loss of immunocompetence leading to immune dysregulation and opportunistic infections. Occasionally, the virus itself can cause cutaneous manifestations. A variety of neoplastic, infectious, and noninfectious diseases may present with dermatologic findings throughout the course of HIV disease and correlate directly with a declining CD4+ T cell count. This chapter will review the clinical presentations of common dermatologic conditions that may present in the setting of HIV infection as well as noninfectious and infectious disorders in patients with advanced disease.
Femtosecond-assisted LASIK flaps resistant to lift secondary to corneal epithelial defects: Case reports and ex vivo studies.

Purpose To evaluate why epithelial defects created before femtosecond laser ablation result in laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) flaps resistant to lift. Setting Boston Eye Group, Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. Design Case reports and ex vivo studies. Methods To examine the mechanism of resistance to flap lift after epithelial defects, flap creation with a femtosecond laser was performed in 30 fresh porcine eyes. Before ablation, the eyes were assigned to 3 groups. Group 1 was a control group with intact corneal epithelium. In Group 2, a central 2.0 mm corneal epithelial defect was created by marking it with a 2.0 mm trephine. In Group 3, a peripheral 2.0 mm epithelial defect was created similarly. After the femtosecond laser procedure was performed, the flaps were lifted and the resistance to lift was documented. The corneas were further examined using anterior segment optical coherence tomography. Results In Group 1, no resistance was felt during flap lifts. In Group 2, significant resistance was encountered at the edge of the epithelial defects and the flaps could not be lifted in 7 of 10 eyes. In Group 3, similar significant resistance was encountered in all 10 eyes. Six of 10 flaps could not be lifted. Anterior segment optical coherence tomography from a representative cornea from Group 2 demonstrated a deeper dissection plane in the area where the overlying epithelium was missing. Conclusion Epithelial defects can interfere with proper LASIK flap creation with the femtosecond laser. This seems to be attributable to a deeper cutting plane under the area of the epithelial defects compared with the surrounding area with intact epithelium.
Health information seeking and people with disability: A systematic search and scoping review.

Abstract Background Health information and access to it are important aspects of maintaining health. There are 61 million people with disability in the U.S., many of whom experience health disparities. However, it may not be clear to health professionals how people with disability seek health information. Objective Assess the breadth, examine the characteristics, and evaluate the risk of bias in the existing literature related to health information seeking and people with disability. Methods The authors conducted a systematic search across five databases (Pubmed, Scopus, PsycINFO, HealthSTAR, and CINAHL) to identify empirical journal articles related to health information seeking among people with disability. Analysis of data items and a quality assessment were completed. Results Forty-two articles met the criteria for inclusion and were assessed. The articles primarily used survey methodology (50%), and primarily focused on ten disability types, including MS (19%), CP (17%) and general disability (17%). The articles primarily investigated the internet (88%), and healthcare providers (71%) as sources of health information. Trustworthiness (31%), accuracy (29%), and accessibility (29%) were also commonly assessed. The overall quality was high, with room for improvement in minimizing bias. Conclusions The literature addressing health information seeking among people with disability is heterogeneous, but generally of high quality. Future research may benefit from an inclusive definition of disability and a more consistent definition of health information. Focused research on best practices and interactions among sources of health information would be valuable additions.
Measurement Invariance of the Career Futures Inventory–Revised Across General and Client Samples:

Establishing measurement invariance has been emphasized as an important scale validation procedure for group comparisons. The 28-item Career Futures Inventory–Revised (CFI-R) is a widely used measu...
Trends and Factors Associated With Physician Burnout at a Multispecialty Academic Faculty Practice Organization

Importance Physician burnout is common, and prevalence may differ throughout a clinician’s career. Burnout has negative consequences for physician wellness, patient care, and the health care system. Identifying factors associated with burnout is critical in designing and implementing initiatives to reduce burnout. Objective To measure trends and identify factors associated with physician burnout. Design, Setting, and Participants Survey study conducted from May 16 to June 15, 2014, and again from May 16 to June 15, 2017, measuring rates of physician burnout in a large academic medical practice. Factors associated with burnout out were evaluated. In 2014, 1774 of 1850 eligible physicians (95.9%) completed the survey. In 2017, 1882 of 2031 (92.7%) completed the survey. Exposures Medical specialty, demographic characteristics, years in practice, and reported rates of burnout. Main Outcomes and Measures Burnout rates measured at 2 points and risk factors associated with burnout. Results Respondents included 1027 men (57.9%) and 747 women (42.1%) in 2014 and 962 men (51.1%) and 759 women (40.3%) in 2017. The mean (SD) number of years since training completion was 15.3 (11.3) in the 2014 survey data and 15.1 (11.3) in the 2017 data. Burnout increased from 40.6% to 45.6% between the 2 points. The increased rate was associated with an increase in exhaustion (from 52.9% in 2014 to 57.7% in 2017; difference, 4.8%; 95% CI, 1.6%-8.0%;P = .004) and cynicism (from 44.8% in 2014 to 51.1% in 2017; difference, 6.3%; 95% CI, 3.1%-9.6%;P 30 years since training) were less vulnerable (odds ratio, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.40-0.88). Conclusions and Relevance Efforts to alleviate physician burnout and administrative burden require a combination of a shared commitment from physicians and organizations and central and locally implemented programs. Continued research is necessary to establish the most effective initiatives to decrease physician burnout at the individual and organizational level.
The Synthesis of Insulin

Pioneering studies by Sanger and co-workers in the period 1945–1955 led to the determination of the amino acid sequence and subsequently the overall structure of insulin from various species (1). This achievement, in conjunction with the earlier work of Banting and Best and of Abel, placed insulin in a unique place among the other proteins. It was one of the first proteins to be recognized as a hormone and thus forced the acceptance of the fact that a protein could be a hormone. It was the first protein whose structure has been elucidated and thus became the vanguard of protein structural analysis; and finally, from the discussion that will follow, it becomes apparent that insulin is the first protein to be chemically synthesized.
Host selection and stochastic effects influence bacterial community assembly on the microalgal phycosphere

Abstract Microalgae have major functions in global biogeochemical cycles and are promising sources of renewable energy, yet the relationships between algal hosts and their associated microbiomes remain relatively underexplored. Understanding community organization of microalgal microbiomes, such as how algal species identity influences bacterial community structure, will aid in efforts to engineer more efficient phototrophic ecosystems. Here, we examined the community assembly of phycosphere-associated (attached) and free-living bacterial taxa associated with two marine microalgae: the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum and eustigmatophyte Microchloropsis salina. Samples were collected from outdoor mesocosms, raceway ponds, and laboratory enrichments, and bacterial taxa identified by 16S rRNA gene sequences. In outdoor mesocosms, we found distinct bacterial taxa associated with each algal species, including the Cytophagaceae and Rhodobacteraceae families with P. tricornutum, and Rhodobacteraceae, Hyphomonadaceae, and Saprospiraceae with M. salina. Additionally, there were host-specific differences in the bacterial genera associated with the phycosphere, including Novosphingobium and Rhodopirellula with P. tricornutum, and Methylophaga and Dyadobacter with M. salina. Bacterial communities from outdoor monoalgal P. tricornutum and polyalgal P. tricornutum/M. salina samples were used as inocula for laboratory enrichments with axenic P. tricornutum. Here, similar bacterial communities emerged, suggesting that the algal host exerts substantial influence over bacterial community assembly. Further enrichments for phycosphere-association revealed differing outcomes of community assembly processes contingent on the initial community composition. Phycosphere-associated communities from monoalgal P. tricornutum mesocosms were highly similar to one another, suggesting deterministic processes, whereas cultures from mixed M. salina/P. tricornutum raceways followed two apparent paths differentiated by the stochastic loss of specific community members and convergence towards or further deviation from the monoalgal samples. These results demonstrate that algal-associated bacterial communities are controlled by algal host, culture conditions, and the initial inoculum composition of the algal microbiome, and this knowledge can inform the engineering of more productive algal systems.
Autophagy in Neurotrauma: Good, Bad, or Dysregulated

Autophagy is a physiological process that helps maintain a balance between the manufacture of cellular components and breakdown of damaged organelles and other toxic cellular constituents. Changes in autophagic markers are readily detectable in the spinal cord and brain following neurotrauma, including traumatic spinal cord and brain injury (SCI/TBI). However, the role of autophagy in neurotrauma remains less clear. Whether autophagy is good or bad is under debate, with strong support for both a beneficial and detrimental role for autophagy in experimental models of neurotrauma. Emerging data suggest that autophagic flux, a measure of autophagic degradation activity, is impaired in injured central nervous systems (CNS), and interventions that stimulate autophagic flux may provide neuroprotection in SCI/TBI models. Recent data demonstrating that neurotrauma can cause lysosomal membrane damage resulting in pathological autophagosome accumulation in the spinal cord and brain further supports the idea that the impairment of the autophagy–lysosome pathway may be a part of secondary injury processes of SCI/TBI. Here, we review experimental work on the complex and varied responses of autophagy in terms of both the beneficial and detrimental effects in SCI and TBI models. We also discuss the existing and developing therapeutic options aimed at reducing the disruption of autophagy to protect the CNS after injuries.
DETERMINANTS OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH AMONG LGBT OLDER ADULT CAREGIVERS

Caregivers experience chronic stress that can negatively affect their health, resulting in lower quality of life. This study aims to understand the physical and mental health of caregivers by examining modifiable risk and protective factors. Life experiences of LGBT older adults are considered. In the longitudinal study, Aging with Pride: National Health Aging, Sexuality and Gender Study, approximately one third (31%, n=754) of LGBT older adults (50+ years) provide care: 38% to partner/spouse, 29% friends, 20% other relatives, and 8% ex-partner/ex-spouse. Linear regression models examined the effects of risk and protective factors at T0 on health outcomes at T2. Mastery, physical activity, and nutrition predicted better physical functioning, lower mental distress, and higher health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Social participation and support, community engagement, and lower identity stigma predicted better mental health. Microaggression predicted lower physical HRQOL. Interventions enhancing protective factors may promote physical and mental health of LGBT caregivers.
Implementation of a Standardized Multimodal Postoperative Analgesia Protocol Improves Pain Control, Reduces Opioid Consumption, and Shortens Length of Hospital Stay After Posterior Lumbar Spinal Fusion

BACKGROUND Multimodal analgesia regimens have been suggested to improve pain control and reduce opioid consumption after surgery. OBJECTIVE To institutionally implement an evidence-based quality improvement initiative to standardize and optimize pain treatment following neurosurgical procedures. Our goal was to objectively evaluate efficacy of this multimodal protocol. METHODS A retrospective cohort analysis of pain-related outcomes after posterior lumbar fusion procedures was performed. We compared patients treated in the 6 mo preceding (PRE) and 6 mo following (POST) protocol execution. RESULTS A total of 102 PRE and 118 POST patients were included. The cohorts were well-matched regarding sex, age, surgical duration, number of segments fused, preoperative opioid consumption, and baseline physical status (all P > .05). Average patient-reported numerical rating scale pain scores significantly improved in the first 24 hr postoperatively (5.6 vs 4.5, P < .001) and 24 to 72 hr postoperatively (4.7 vs 3.4, P < .001), PRE vs POST, respectively. Maximum pain scores and time to achieving appropriate pain control also significantly improved during these same intervals (all P < .05). A concomitant decrease in opioid consumption during the first 72 hr was seen (110 vs 71 morphine milligram equivalents, P = .02). There was an observed reduction in opioid-related adverse events per patient (1.31 vs 0.83, P < .001) and hospital length of stay (4.6 vs 3.9 days, P = .03) after implementation of the protocol. CONCLUSION Implementation of an evidence-based, multimodal analgesia protocol improved postoperative outcomes, including pain scores, opioid consumption, and length of hospital stay, after posterior lumbar spinal fusion.
Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP): role in migraine pathophysiology and therapeutic targeting

Introduction: The neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is recognized as a critical player in migraine pathophysiology. Excitement has grown regarding CGRP because of the development and clinical testing of drugs targeting CGRP or its receptor. While these drugs alleviate migraine symptoms in half of the patients, the remaining unresponsive half of this population creates an impetus to address unanswered questions that exist in this field.Areas covered: We describe the role of CGRP in migraine pathophysiology and CGRP-targeted therapeutics currently under development and in use. We also discuss how a second CGRP receptor may provide a new therapeutic target.Expert opinion: CGRP-targeting drugs have shown a remarkable safety profile. We speculate that this may reflect the redundancy of peptides within the CGRP family and a second CGRP receptor that may compensate for reduced CGRP activity. Furthermore, we propose that an inherent safety feature of peptide-blocking antibodies is attributed to the fundamental nature of peptide release, which occurs as a large bolus in short bursts of volume transmission. These facts support the development of more refined CGRP therapeutic drugs, as well as drugs that target other neuropeptides. We believe that the future of migraine research is bright with exciting advances on the horizon.
Multicomponent diffusion analysis reveals microstructural alterations in spinal cord of a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ex vivo.

The microstructure changes associated with degeneration of spinal axons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) may be reflected in altered water diffusion properties, potentially detectable with diffusion-weighted (DW) MRI. Prior work revealed the classical mono-exponential model fails to precisely depict decay in DW signal at high b-values. In this study, we aim to investigate signal decay behaviors at ultra-high b-values for non-invasive assessment of spinal cord alterations in the transgenic SOD1G93A mouse model of ALS. A multiexponential diffusion analysis using regularized non-negative least squares (rNNLS) algorithm was applied to a series of thirty DW MR images with b-values ranging from 0 to 858,022 s/mm2 on ex vivo spinal cords of transgenic SOD1G93A and age-matched control mice. We compared the distributions of measured diffusion coefficient fractions between the groups. The measured diffusion weighted signals in log-scale showed non-linear decay behaviors with increased b-values. Faster signal decays were observed with diffusion gradients applied parallel to the long axis of the spinal cord compared to when oriented in the transverse direction. Multiexponential analysis at the lumbar level in the spinal cord identified ten subintervals. A significant decrease of diffusion coefficient fractions was found in the ranges of [1.63×10−8,3.70×10−6] mm2/s (P = 0.0002) and of [6.01×10−6,4.20×10−5] mm2/s (P = 0.0388) in SOD1G93A mice. Anisotropic diffusion signals persisted at ultra-high b-value DWIs of the mouse spinal cord and multiexponential diffusion analysis offers the potential to evaluate microstructural alterations of ALS-affected spinal cord non-invasively.
Arrays of Plasmonic Nanostructures for Absorption Enhancement in Perovskite Thin Films.

We report optical characterization and theoretical simulation of plasmon enhanced methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI 3 ) thin-film perovskite solar cells. Specifically, various nanohole (NH) and nanodisk (ND) arrays are fabricated on gold/MAPbI 3 interfaces. Significant absorption enhancement is observed experimentally in 75 nm and 110 nm-thick perovskite films. As a result of increased light scattering by plasmonic concentrators, the original Fabry-Perot thin-film cavity effects are suppressed in specific structures. However, thanks to field enhancement caused by plasmonic resonances and in-plane interference of propagating surface plasmon polaritons, the calculated overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the solar cell is expected to increase by up to 45.5%, compared to its flat counterpart. The role of different geometry parameters of the nanostructure arrays is further investigated using three dimensional (3D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, which makes it possible to identify the physical origin of the absorption enhancement as a function of wavelength and design parameters. These findings demonstrate the potential of plasmonic nanostructures in further enhancing the performance of photovoltaic devices based on thin-film perovskites.
A mid-infrared broadband achromatic astronomical beam combiner for nulling interferometry

Integrated optic beam combiners offer many advantages over conventional bulk optic implementations for astronomical imaging. To date, integrated optic beam combiners have only been demonstrated at operating wavelengths below 4 microns. Operation in mid-infrared wavelength region, however, is highly desirable. In this paper, a theoretical design technique based on three coupled waveguides is developed to achieve fully achromatic, broadband, polarization-insensitive, lossless beam combining. This design may make it possible to achieve the very deep broadband nulls needed for exoplanet searching.
Effectiveness of gamma globulin combined with methylprednisolone sodium succinate in severe hand foot mouth disease - Baoding Children's Hospital, China.

OBJECTIVE To determine the curative effect of gamma globulin combined with methylprednisolone sodium succinate on paediatric patients with severe hand-foot-mouth disease and analyse its influence on cardio-pulmonary functions. Methodology Eighty paediatric patients with severe hand-foot-mouth diseases (HFMD) treated in Baoding Children's Hospital, Key Laboratory of Clinical Research on Respiratory Digestive Disease from January 2015 to January 2017 were selected. This study was designed as a case control study with equally dividing patients into test and control groups through random digital method. Patients in the control group accepted methylprednisolone sodium succinate treatment based on conventional therapy. Those in the test group accepted gamma globulin combined with methylprednisolone sodium succinate. The efficacy of the two groups were observed and compared and the improvement of cardiac function index was detected after 3 days of treatment. RESULTS The time for symptom remission and hospitalisation of children in the test group were significantly shorter than those in the control group (P<0.05). The differences between the two groups had no statistical significance in terms of PaO2, PaCO2, OI, HR, EF% and CO before treatment. After the treatment, patients in the test group had significant improvement compared with the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Curative effect of gamma globulin combined with methylprednisolone sodium succinate on paediatric patients showed significance and this treatment could be effectively improve clinical symptoms and cardio-pulmonary functions of paediatric patients.
Le bouc et la barbiche de l’oreille

Resume Le terme tragus est associe a la petite saillie cartilagineuse, aplatie et triangulaire placee anterieurement a l’entree du conduit auditif externe. Le but de cette notice historique est d’etudier l’etymologie de ce terme tragus, signifiant bouc, et d’analyser le processus ayant conduit a sa definition anatomique actuelle et ses differentes interpretations dans la litterature medicale.
Computational Microeconomic Experiments and the Study of Exchange

This paper proposes a general methodology to study economic laws defined in terms of the computations performed by economic systems. Using this methodology, a new economic law is proposed where economic computations move towards minimum cost solutions. This law is applied to a review of some of the relevant literature on exchange systems. Finally, a research program is proposed to further explore the consequences of cost-minimizing computations in the study of exchange.
Profiles of Parenting in the Digital Age: Associations With Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Use.

Objective: This study assessed parental communication and behavior related to children's Internet and social media usage to delineate profiles of parenting regarding these newer forms of media and ...