cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The case and opportunity for public-supported financial Incentives to implement integrated pest management

Food, water, and worker protection regulations have driven availability, and loss, of pesticides for use in pest management programs. In response, public-supported research and extension projects have targeted investigation and demonstration of reduced-risk integrated pest management (IPM) techniques. But these new techniques often result in higher financial burden to the grower, which is counter to the IPM principle that economic competitiveness is critical to have IPM adopted. As authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill and administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), conservation programs exist for delivering public-supported financial incentives to growers to increase environmental stewardship on lands in production. NRCS conservation programs are described, and the case for providing financial incentives to growers for implementing IPM is presented. We also explored the opportunity and challenge to use one key program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), to aid grower adoption of IPM. The EQIP fund distribution to growers from 1997 to 2002 during the last Farm Bill cycle totaled approximately 1.05 billion dollars with a portion of funds supporting an NRCS-designed pest management practice. The average percentage of allocation of EQIP funds to this pest management practice among states was 0.77 +/- 0.009% (mean +/- SD). Using Michigan as an example, vegetable and fruit grower recognition of the program's use to implement IPM was modest (25% of growers surveyed), and their recognition of its use in aiding implementation of IPM was improved after educational efforts (74%). Proposals designed to enhance program usefulness in implementing IPM were delivered through the NRCS advisory process in Michigan. Modifications for using the NRCS pest management practice to address resource concerns were adopted, incentive rates for pest management were adjusted, and an expanded incentive structure for IPM technique adoption was tabled for future consideration. The case is strong for using public-supported financial incentives offered by the EQIP to aid grower adoption of IPM as a means to address resource concerns, but current use of the EQIP for this purpose is modest to meager. With appropriate program adjustments and increased grower awareness, USDA NRCS conservation programs, and the EQIP in particular, may provide an important opportunity for growers to increase their use of IPM as a resource conservation and farm management tool.
Exercise haemodynamics and outcome in patients with dyspnoea

This editorial refers to ‘Pulmonary capillary wedge pressure during exercise and long-term mortality in patients with suspected heart failure and preserved ejection fraction’[†][1], by S. Dorfs et al. , on page 3103. Exercise is the most commonly encountered physiological stress in everyday life. In order for the cardiovascular system to provide up to 5-fold increases in cardiac output with exertion, there must be substantial increases in heart rate and stroke volume.1 Stroke volume enhancement is achieved through decreases in left ventricular (LV) end-systolic volume coupled with increases in LV end-diastolic volume, the latter being mediated by increased venous return and enhanced diastolic suction in the setting of a normally compliant ventricle. The fact that the left ventricle can fill to a larger diastolic volume in a shorter period of time during exercise without increasing filling pressures is an awe-inspiring testament to the remarkable diastolic reserve capacity of the normal heart.2 In people with heart failure (HF), this diastolic ventricular reserve is exhausted.3–5 Haemodynamically, HF is defined as an inability of the heart to pump blood to the body at a rate commensurate with its needs, or to do so only at the cost of high pulmonary capillary wedge pressures (PCWPs).6 These haemodynamic derangements are expressed clinically as symptoms of exercise intolerance, dyspnoea, and fatigue. These are the cardinal symptoms of HF, but they can also be caused by non-cardiovascular aetiologies. The presence of elevated PCWP in a patient with typical symptoms and normal ejection fraction (EF) is diagnostic of HF with preserved EF (HFpEF).7 However, the absence of high PCWP at rest does not exclude … [1]: #fn-2
Distributed Clustering Using Wireless Sensor Networks

Clustering spatially distributed data is well motivated and especially challenging when communication to a central processing unit is discouraged, e.g., due to power constraints. Distributed clustering schemes are developed in this paper for both deterministic and probabilistic approaches to unsupervised learning. The centralized problem is solved in a distributed fashion by recasting it to a set of smaller local clustering problems with consensus constraints on the cluster parameters. The resulting iterative schemes do not exchange local data among nodes, and rely only on single-hop communications. Performance of the novel algorithms is illustrated with simulated tests on synthetic and real sensor data. Surprisingly, these tests reveal that the distributed algorithms can exhibit improved robustness to initialization than their centralized counterparts.
COMPARATIVE STUDIES UPON CANCER CELLS AND NORMAL CELLS II. THE CHARACTER OF GROWTH IN VITRO WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CELL DIVISION.

1. In primary cultures sarcoma cells exhibit a much greater activity than do normal connective tissue cells grown from the adult blood vessel; there is a shorter latent period, ameboid phenomena are more marked, and cell multiplication proceeds more rapidly. 2. In secondary cultures sarcoma cells are less active than in primary cultures; connective tissue cells, on the other hand, show a markedly accelerated growth. 3. Connective tissue cells are more easily propagated over long periods in vitro than are sarcoma cells; they multiply actively in cultures more than three months old. 4. The method of tissue cultivation is well adapted to the study of normal and pathological cell division; the nuclear changes are easily discernible in the living cell as division proceeds, and staining methods may be applied to verify observations upon the unstained structures. 5. Atypical mitoses of several kinds are found in cultures of sarcoma cells but are not seen in growths of connective tissue. 6. The time required for division in rat connective tissue cells kept at body temperature (38 degrees C.) varies within relatively narrow limits (twenty to fifty minutes); sarcoma cells, on the contrary, exhibit marked variations and several hours may be required. 7. In studies upon living cells amitotic division has not been observed in either normal or tumor tissue. Evidences of nuclear budding, however, with the formation of cells containing several nuclei of irregular size have been noted.(3) The development of a cell with two nuclei from a mononuclear cell by mitotic division of the nucleus without division of the cytoplasm has also been observed.
IMMUNOFLUORESCENT STUDIES OF HUMAN CELL CULTURES AND CHICK EMBRYOS INOCULATED WITH THE AMEBOID CELL-"LIPOVIRUS" COMPLEX

Tissue culture cells of human origin (HeLa, Lich, and AV3) were inoculated with the AL complex. By immunofluorescent staining, AL complex antigen was detectable in the cytoplasm of infected cells as punctate fluorescent granules during the early stage and as homogeneous fluorescence during the late stage of infection. By combining fluorescence and phase-contrast microscopy, many infected cells with cytoplasmic AL complex antigen were shown to have a normal nuclear morphology indistinguishable from uninfected cells. Initiation of AL complex infection was interpreted as occurring by transfer of transmissible factor(s) from cell to cell by contact and mutiplication of such factor(s) therein. Chick embryos were susceptible to AL complex infection following allantoic or amniotic inoculations. Antigen and infectious AL complex were demonstrable in the liver, brain, intestines, lungs, and embryonic membranes. Further investigations on AL complex and its relation to human disease are suggested.
ACOUSTIC WAVEFRONT TRACING IN INHOMOGENEOUS, MOVING MEDIA

We extend the Huygens wavefront tracing algorithm, which is a part of an open source Madagascar project, to sound propagation in inhomogeneous, moving media and apply it to a series of benchmark tasks. One set of tasks admits exact analytic solutions and serves the purpose of validation of the new algorithm. Another set of calculations demonstrates applicability of the algorithm to the studies of wavefront dynamics and stability in ocean and atmospheric acoustics. The method is based on a system of differential equations equivalent to the eikonal equation, but formulated in the ray coordinate system. In this paper, we present a first-order, two-dimensional discretization scheme that is interpreted very simply in terms of the Huygens' principle. The method has proved to be a convenient alternative to conventional ray tracing.
On the accuracy and convergence of conjugate flux approximations

In the early 1970's. we developed the idea of conjugate finite element ap- proximations as a means to calculate "consistent" approximations of various functions. particularly stress fields, in problems of solid mechanics or fluxes. in general (1-4). The original idea was a simple one. based on the rather primi- tive notion that operations on functions defined on finite-dimensional. finite- element spaces make the most sense when restricted to those spaces. When an operation (such as differentiation) on a function II produces a function \' that does not belong to the given finite-dimensional space Sh' then the "consistent'· approximation of v is simply its projection Ill· back into Sh' Remarkably. a simple L 2-projection of stresses computed using conventional finite element methods produces stress fields that are generally far more accurate than those computed directly from calculated displacements (4) or II (pages 83- 34)). For this reason. L 2-projection of stresses is now in use in many finite ele- ment analyses as a practical device for obtaining improved stress fields. We should mention that there exist several methods for obtaining approxima- tions of gradients of accuracy 0 (112) other than the projection ideas covered here; e.g .. one can use superconvergence results and fit splines through stress points at which gradients are superaccurate (5-7) or one can simply use finite difference quotients based on computed displacements IIh (8/. However. our nu- merical experiments (discussed in Section V) indicate that the projection tech- niques yield results superior to both the superconvergence and the difference methods. More importantly. the projection methods seem to work for nonuni- form and even unstructured meshes. while other methods. at least in theory. rely heavily on such properties. We should mention also that the proposed procedure has features theoreti- cally similar to "the method of averaging" by Bramble and Schatz (9). How- ever. practical implementations of the two approaches are quite different: the projection is performed by solving a system of equations (possibly iteratively to
Advances in Pathology, Microscopy, and Molecular Morphology series: Gold and Silver Staining: Techniques in Molecular Staining Morphology . Series Editors: Gerhard W. Hacker, Ph.D. and Jiang Gu, M.D., Ph.D. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida; London; New York; Washington, DC; 2002, 246 pages (Hardback, alkaline paper, catalog no. 1392, US$139.95). ISBN 0-8493-1392-9

One of the most interesting aspects of this book is the frequency at which the contributing authors are found in the references at the end of not one, but usually several chapters: this is by no means a mistake. Editors Hacker and Gu have assembled a wealth of expertise from well-known individuals in the fields of autometallography, immunogold-silver staining and molecular morphology. Composed of 16 chapters with a total of 32 contributing authors, the material is presented in a very well organized and coherent format.
Effect of mobile‐phase composition on pressure‐induced shifts in solute retention for LC separations using β‐cyclodextrin stationary phases

Modest pressure - 350 bars has a significant impact on reversed-phase liquid chromatographic retention using b-cyclodextrin stationary phase. Demon- strated here for separations of the positional isomers of nitrophenol and naphthol as well as the enantiomers of hexobarbital and mephobarbital, the effect of small pressure perturbations on solute capacity factor ranges from q11 to y14%. These changes in retention arise from pressure-induced shifts in solute equilibria and are used to estimate the change in molar volume upon solute binding with b-cyclo- . dextrin DV . In this article, the effect of the mobile phase on pressure-induced comp shifts in solute retention is examined. Mobile-phase composition is observed to have a significant influence on the change in solute capacity factor with pressure and therefore on DV . As the composition of water in the mobile phase comp increases, the change in partial molar volume of complexation is observed to become more positive for both positional isomer and chiral separations. Although these studies imply that changes in solvent composition have a general effect on the observed DV and therefore on the change in pressure perturbation with comp
Connectivity of two-tier networks

In this paper, we investigate the connectivity of a two-tier network, which is composed of a primary tier and a secondary tier according to their different spectrum access priorities. The primary nodes and secondary nodes are both distributed over the same Euclidean space following two independent Poisson point processes of densities λ P and λ S , respectively. The two tiers operate over a synchronized timeslotted protocol structure. A primary link that exists between two primary nodes within a certain distance is active with probability p a at each time slot, while two secondary nodes within a certain distance could communicate only if the communication leads to no interference to the primary communication. We first introduce the definitions of the aggressive and conservative operation regions of the primary tier, which is determined by the critical primary link connection probability p∗ a (λ P ). We then show that the percolation-based connectivity for both the primary tier and the secondary tier cannot hold simultaneously with an aggressive primary tier under practical setups. In addition, we investigate the condition for a conservative primary tier to achieve a certain long-term connectivity, and the corresponding minimum density required for the secondary-tier to achieve percolation-based connectivity.
EXTERNAL MORPHOLOGY AND PALEOBIOLOGY OF HELIOPHYLLUM HALLI (ZOANTHARIA, RUGOSA), FROM THE MIDDLE DEVONIAN HAMILTON GROUP OF NEW YORK STATE

Heliophyllum halli contains highly variable, mostly solitary rugose corals. Specimens reported here come from shaly beds of the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group in New York State. Early recognition of morphotype variation led James Hall to establish numerous species in the H. halli group that were later interpreted by John Wells in terms of varying life history. Life on unstable and/or soft substrates was facilitated for these corals by talons, root-like structures that allowed larval settling and post-larval development on hard particles such as echinoderm or shell debris. Variation in subsequent growth history is reflected in corallum shape and change in diameter. Straight growth axes reflect partial burial accompanied by vertical growth, while growth axis curvature resulted from unequal settling into substrate or alternatively, life at the surface of substrate, with sharp bends (geniculations) reflecting major changes in growth orientation. Decrease in diameter resulted from environmental stress, with greatest effects on the peripheral portion of the calice. Other major reactions to increased burial rate (through sinking or increased sedimentation) are epithecal secretion to form an outer wall for isolation of itself from surrounding sediment or decrease in polyp size as shown by terminal shrinking of the corallum diameter, at times nearly to zero. Yonge's (1940) summary of observations on living coral polyps suggests that the living H. halli was nonzooxanthellate, with an efficient system of feeding that utilized its multitude of tentacles without the help of cilia, which thus were able to generate currents to promote efficient sediment cleansing. Sediment shedding would also have been aided by polypal distension (swelling) above a reflexed calical margin.
Emotional Distress and Disordered Eating Practices Among Southern Italian Women

This study is one of the first to examine the narrative links connecting social change, contested gender norms, body image, and eating disordered practices among southern Italian women. The research is based on 16 months of fieldwork, and I compare and contrast the stories of 23 educated women in southern Italy to highlight the contentious realities of entering adolescence in conservative social contexts where gender relations and value systems are undergoing rapid transformations. I examine how these young women dealt with conflicting cultural expectations of womanhood and whether it affected their emotional, psychological, and physical well-being. Their stories shed light on how parental control, community surveillance, and conflicts in developing gender identities and maturing womanly bodies contributed to their emotional distress. Distressed young women used rebellion and manipulation and control of food and the body to negotiate unjust social relations, specifically gender relations, that delegitimiz...
Royal Executions: Evidence Bearing on the Subject of Sanctioned Killing in the Middle Kingdom

Sanctioned killing in Ancient Egypt has been a much debated theme. So far, however, the perspective on this subject matter has been too broad, static, and limited in scope. Supported by a large body of inscriptional evidence dating to the Middle Kingdom, this paper argues that during this period the grounds for sanctioned killing and its practices were more wide-ranging than has often been supposed. Le theme de l'homicide sanctionne dans l'Egypte ancienne a fait l'objet de nombreux debats. Toutefois, jusqu'a present l'approche a ete trop generale, statique et limitee. Fondee sur l'etude de nombreuses inscriptions datant du Moyen Empire, cette contribution suggere que durant cette periode les principes subordonnes aux pratiques de l'homicide sanctionne etaient plus varies qu'on ne l'avait cru auparavant.
Comparative transfection of DNA into primary and transformed mammalian cells from different lineages.

Background: The delivery of DNA into human cells has been the basis of advances in the understanding of gene function and the development of genetic therapies. Numerous chemical and physical approaches have been used to deliver the DNA, but their efficacy has been variable and is highly dependent on the cell type to be transfected. Results: Studies were undertaken to evaluate and compare the transfection efficacy of several chemical reagents to that of the electroporation/nucleofection system using both adherent cells (primary and transformed airway epithelial cells and primary fibroblasts as well as embryonic stem cells) and cells in suspension (primary hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells and lymphoblasts). With the exception of HEK 293 cell transfection, nucleofection proved to be less toxic and more efficient at effectively delivering DNA into the cells as determined by cell proliferation and GFP expression, respectively. Lipofectamine and nucleofection of HEK 293 were essentially equivalent in terms of toxicity and efficiency. Transient transfection efficiency in all the cell systems ranged from 40%-90%, with minimal toxicity and no apparent species specificity. Differences in efficiency and toxicity were cell type/system specific. Conclusions: In general, the Amaxa electroporation/nucleofection system appears superior to other chemical systems. However, there are cell-type and species specific differences that need to be evaluated empirically to optimize the conditions for transfection efficiency and cell survival.
High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Analysis of Cocaine in Human Plasma

A simple isocratic HPLC procedure for the analysis of cocaine in plasma, with or without an internal c=t~nrl~lrrl it: d~c:P_rih~r fnr thin fir_el timm, Basifled ] in acetic to the final ras evaporphase and ro-particulate C-18 column, a pre-column, and a UV detector set at 232nm were used. A mobile phase containing 75% methanol and 25% 0.05 mol/L potassium phosphate buffer (pH 6.6) was used at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. Cocaine in the range of 20 to 500 ng/mL in plasma was determined on the basis of (a) peak height and (b) ratio of peak height to that of tetracaine internal standard. On either basis a linear regression on concentration was determined. The correlation coefficients (r) were 0.993 and 0.988 for (a) and (b) respectively. Twenty-two commonly used drugs wore examined for interference. Eight drugs were considered candidates for potential interference with cocaine; lidocaine and droperidol were found to interfere in actual patients' samples. Only meperidine was found to interfere with the intern al standard. Cocaine was determined in plasma from patients who received cocaine and other drugs,
Thermal strains in passivated aluminum and copper conductor lines

Line width and line thickness thermal strain components in passivated Al and Cu lines were observed to relax much more than the line length strain component. Although the width-to-thickness ratios were large, 3.5 and 4.4 for Al and Cu lines, respectively, the behaviors of the thermal stresses were far from the equibiaxial. Observed changes in deviatoric strains between room temperature and 190 °C for Al and 300 °C for Cu were consistent with a model in which the changes in line width and line thickness strains were simply related to changes in line length strains by the uniaxial Poisson’s ratio. Changes in line length strains were determined by the differences in metal and substrate thermal expansion coefficients and the magnitudes of temperature changes through retained elastic strain coefficients for Al of 30% for heating and for Cu of 60% for heating and 80% for cooling, with the balance accommodated by relaxation.
Microwave Pretreatment of Switchgrass to Enhance Enzymatic Hydrolysis

Switchgrass is a promising lignocellulosic biomass for fuel-ethanol production. However, pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials is necessary to improve its susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis. The objectives of this study were to examine the feasibility of microwave pretreatment to enhance enzymatic hydrolysis of switchgrass and to determine the optimal pretreatment conditions. Switchgrass samples immersed in water, dilute sulfuric acid and dilute sodium hydroxide solutions were exposed to microwave radiation at varying levels of radiation power and residence time. Pretreated solids were enzymatically hydrolyzed and reducing sugars in the hydrolysate were analyzed. Microwave radiation of switchgrass at lower power levels resulted in more efficient enzymatic hydrolysis. The application of microwave radiation for 10 minutes at 250 watts to switchgrass immersed in 3% sodium hydroxide solution (w/v) produced the highest yields of reducing sugar. Results were comparable to conventional 60 minute sodium hydroxide pretreatment of switchgrass. The findings suggest that combined microwave-alkali is a promising pretreatment method to enhance enzymatic hydrolysis of switchgrass.
Microphysiological systems and low-cost microfluidic platform with analytics

A multiorgan, functional, human in vitro assay system or 'Body-on-a-Chip' would be of tremendous benefit to the drug discovery and toxicology industries, as well as providing a more biologically accurate model for the study of disease as well as applied and basic biological research. Here, we describe the advances our team has made towards this goal, as well as the most pertinent issues facing further development of these systems. Description is given of individual organ models with appropriate cellular functionality, and our efforts to produce human iterations of each using primary and stem cell sources for eventual incorporation into this system. Advancement of the 'Body-on-a-Chip' field is predicated on the availability of abundant sources of human cells, capable of full differentiation and maturation to adult phenotypes, for which researchers are largely dependent on stem cells. Although this level of maturation is not yet achievable in all cell types, the work of our group highlights the high level of functionality that can be achieved using current technology, for a wide variety of cell types. As availability of functional human cell types for in vitro culture increases, the potential to produce a multiorgan in vitro system capable of accurately reproducing acute and chronic human responses to chemical and pathological challenge in real time will also increase.
THE PRESENCE OF PARADIGMS IN THE CORE HIGHER EDUCATION JOURNAL LITERATURE

Conrad, Keller, Kuh, Lincoln, and others argue that the field of higher education is limited by its theoretical foundation in functionalism. Naturalistic inquiry, constructivism, critical theory, and feminist theory are presented as alternative metatheoretical assumptions. This research uses the schema of Burrell and Morgan to gather empirical evidence of the presence of paradigms in the core higher education journal literature. Traditional and paradigmatic content analysis techniques are used in the manner of similar journal studies by Kuh and Silverman. The results confirm that the literature is fixated in objective social science and the sociology of regulation. Topics and methods of higher education research are discussed as examples of different subjective social science and radical change sociology paradigms. Conclusions are presented about the future of the knowledge base.
Solid Start: supportive housing, social support, and reentry transitions

Researchers have consistently established the centrality of the reentry experience in understanding offender life course trajectories, and housing has been cited as one of the most central bricks in establishing stable, successful lives. However, the social and structural mechanisms that explain the relationship between housing and parolee outcomes are less known. To explore this, we use in-depth interviews and a grounded theory approach to compare the reentry needs among a sample of male parolees participating in a housing program, Solid Start, with a similar sample of males on traditional parole. The results highlight the centrality of housing and social support during the reentry process, and find that housing services have important implications for structural changes, such as social relationships, and subjective, emotional outcomes. This research adds to the burgeoning literature on reentry transitions by providing narrative accounts of parolee experiences and has important implications for housing a...
Efficacies of KY62 against Leishmania amazonensis and Leishmania donovani in Experimental Murine Cutaneous Leishmaniasis and Visceral Leishmaniasis

Current therapy for leishmaniasis is unsatisfactory because parenteral antimonial salts and pentamidine are associated with significant toxicity and failure rates. We examined the efficacy of KY62, a new, water-soluble, polyene antifungal, against cutaneous infection with Leishmania amazonensis and against visceral infection with Leishmania donovani in susceptible BALB/c mice. Mice were infected with L. amazonensis promastigotes in the ear pinna and in the tail and were treated with KY62 or amphotericin B. The cutaneous lesions showed a remarkable response to therapy with KY62 at a dose of 30 mg per kg of body weight per day. At this dose, the efficacy of KY62 was equivalent to or better than that of amphotericin B at 1 to 5 mg/kg/day. Mice infected intravenously with 107 L. donovani promastigotes and treated with KY62 showed a 4-log reduction in the parasite burden in the liver and spleen compared to untreated mice. These studies indicate potent activity of KY62 against experimental cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by L. amazoniensis and against experimental visceral leishmaniasis caused by L. donovani.
A Publicly Available PCR Methods Laboratory Manual and Supporting Material

We report the creation of a PCR methods laboratory manual and supporting material. The manual contains 24 different procedures designed to illustrate basic PCR concepts and promote independent problem-solving skills. Each lab poses a question about PCR and provides a list of materials the student may use to investigate the question. Supplemental materials available to instructors include answers to post-lab questions, lab set-up information, 82 assessment questions and answers, 22 PowerPoint slides, a sample syllabus, experiment set-up illustrations and example results for most labs. The student lab book is available as a supplemental file and at http://ans.latech.edu/BasicPCRMethods.html, while Instructor-specific materials are available from the corresponding author at no charge.
Five-Antigen Fluorescent Bead-Based Assay for Diagnosis of Lyme Disease

The systematically difficult task of diagnosing Lyme disease can be simplified by sensitive and specific laboratory tests. The currently recommended two-tier test for serology is highly specific but falls short in sensitivity, especially in the early acute phase. We previously examined serially collected serum samples from Borrelia burgdorferi-infected rhesus macaques and defined a combination of antigens that could be utilized for detection of infection at all phases of disease in humans. The five B. burgdorferi antigens, consisting of OspC, OspA, DbpA, OppA2, and the C6 peptide, were combined into a fluorescent cytometric bead-based assay for the detection of B. burgdorferi antigen-specific IgG antibodies. Samples from Lyme disease patients and controls were used to determine the diagnostic value of this assay. Using this sample set, we found that our five-antigen multiplex IgG assay exhibited higher sensitivity (79.5%) than the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) (76.1%), the two-tier test (61.4%), and the C6 peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (77.2%) while maintaining specificity over 90%. When detection of IgM was added to the bead-based assay, the sensitivity improved to 91%, but at a cost of reduced specificity (78%). These results indicate that the rational combination of antigens in our multiplex assay may offer an improved serodiagnostic test for Lyme disease.
History, Ethics, Politics: Rethinking the Legacy of Truth Commissions

This paper investigates how truth commissions problematize and transform the ways in which citizens of contemporary societies think and speak about historical truth, memory, justice, reconciliation, recognition (of victimhood and violations), and official historiography. I initiate a dialogue with Friedrich Nietzsche, Pierre Nora, Jurgen Habermas, and Hannah Arendt, whose insights into the public use of history, ethics of national reconstruction, collective memory, and the place of factuality in modern politics, provide new perspectives on how truth commissions preserve, question, and transform the ways in which societies articulate the relationship between history, ethics and politics. I argue that truth commissions have opened a critical space to resignify the complex relations between history and memory, the past and the present, ethics and practical considerations, nationalism and the post-national context. They produce critical, fact-based and national (yet not nationalist) histories to reconstruct the nation and the nation-state on the basis human rights ethics, and to restore the status of factuality in politics. They emerge in the context of a double failure of the nation-state: the failure of the state to provide protection from agents acting in its name and/or private combating groups, aggravated by the failure to stand up to a measure of honesty concerning the nature of the conflict and the accompanying violations. Consequently, commissions have produced a new dynamic whereby the state seeks to legitimize its central position between history and politics only by accepting a high degree of societal penetration into the production and diffusion of official national history. The problematization of the link between historiography and state sovereignty is evidenced by the incorporation of individual and social memory-narratives into the production of official historiography. However, the tremendous challenge of articulating an ethics of national reconstruction in a transitional context exposes many of the ambiguities and limitations built into the truth commission process. They seek to recuperate the status of factuality in politics, but their findings have limited or no legal sanction. They reference post-national legal norms to address the nation-state’s failures, but their national scope prevents them from advocating a post-national political project. Ultimately, their striving for a supra-political, ethical ‘founding moment’ for the nation falters in the face of their built-in vulnerability before traditional state bureaucracies and political actors.
Treatment of depression in cancer patients is associated with better life adaptation: A pilot study

Major depression occurs in a significant number of cancer patients, and there is evidence that cancer patients with depression do not receive adequate antidepressant treatment. In an uncontrolled pilot study, the authors assess the degree of depression and the quality of life after the initiation of antidepressant medication treatment in 12 depressed cancer patients who received adequate antidepressant drugs and in 10 depressed cancer patients who received inadequate antidepressant treatment. These preliminary findings suggest that cancer patients with major depression benefit from antidepressant medication treatment and may experience an improved psychosocial adjustment to cancer. Controlled clinical trials will be necessary to verify these preliminary findings.
Imaging Evaluation of Borderline Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma has been increasing in incidence and it has been estimated to represent 3 % of new cancer diagnoses and 7 % of cancer deaths in 2014. Staging of pancreatic carcinoma follows American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) guidelines with concurrent classification of tumors into resectable, borderline resectable, and unresectable locally advanced disease for the purposes of clinical management. Evaluation of pancreatic adenocarcinoma for local extent and metastatic disease is performed primarily by multidetector CT (MDCT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Cytogenetic Challenge Assays for Assessment of DNA Repair Capacities

Different challenge assays have been used to investigate cellular responses following exposure to DNA damaging agents. Our protocol uses X- or gamma-rays or ultraviolet light to challenge cells to repair the induced damage, and chromosome aberrations as a biomarker to indicate DNA repair proficiency. The assay was used successfully to demonstrate base- and nucleotide-excision repair deficiency in certain polymorphic DNA repair genes, namely XRCC1 751Gln and XPD 312Asn, respectively. In addition, populations with elevated exposure to certain environmental mutagenic agents-cigarette smokers, pesticide sprayers, and residents who lived near uranium mining and milling sites-showed DNA repair deficiency. Because expression of chromosome aberrations is associated with a significantly increased incidence of both cancer morbidity and mortality, the challenge assay may be useful in predicting cancer risk. The protocol for the assay is straightforward and the data have practical applications.
Cognitive Impairment in Breast Cancer Survivors: The Protective Role of Physical Activity, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, and Exercise Training

An increasing population of breast cancer patients and survivors is living with treatment-related side effects including cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI). Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies suggest changes in cognitive function and brain structure and function during and after treatment. CRCI has proven difficult to treat due to a lack of understanding of the precise underlying mechanisms and lack of consensus on the appropriate assessments to diagnose the presence and severity of cognitive dysfunction. Using the aging literature as a model, physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and exercise training may protect against CRCI or restore declines in cognitive function. Preliminary studies with breast cancer survivors suggest physical activity interventions may improve cognitive function. Standardized objective assessments and normative values for the measurement of CRCI and physical activity-related factors are needed. The relationship between physical activity, exercise training, cardiorespiratory fitness, and CRCI needs to be further investigated to explore the potential for therapeutic improvement.
Limitations of bulk SiC photoconductive semiconductor switches, and evaluation of PIN SiC photoconductive semiconductor switches

A comprehensive picture of the relationship between optical fluence, optical wavelength, system load, and photocurrent efficiency (PE) in SiC photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSSs) is presented. Variation of the optical wavelength (300–380 nm) and optical fluence (0.2–200 J m−2) was accomplished with a Nd:YAG pumped optical parametric oscillator (7 ns FWHM) and a broadband variable attenuator. The PE was found to typically be in the range of 1–2 %, depending on wavelength, and the bulk PCSS on-state voltage driven by external circuit parameters. Features of the high electric field stress behavior (> 200 kV/cm) of the bulk PCSS were captured with high fidelity in a 1D drift-diffusion model with a self-consistent Poisson solver including trap assisted tunneling, Poole-Frenkel, and barrier lowering with enhanced tunneling effects. In addition, trap to band impact ionization as well as Coulombic and repulsive trapping potentials were included.
Etoposide Priming in Patients with Lymphoma Improves Mobilization without An Increased Risk of Secondary Hematologic Malignancies.

Abstract 2264 Poster Board II-241 Prior studies have demonstrated that high-dose etoposide followed by granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (VP+G) significantly improves peripheral-blood progenitor cell (PBPC) mobilization for autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) compared to granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) alone. We compared the safety and effectiveness of VP+G to G-CSF alone for PBPC mobilization in patients (pts) with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) who underwent ASCT at the Cleveland Clinic and Ohio State University. Primary end points were CD 34+ cell collection, post-priming hospitalization for neutropenic fever and incidence of secondary hematologic malignancies. Secondary endpoints included relapse-free and overall survival. From 02/1992 through 06/2006, 640 pts who received etoposide (2g/m2) followed by G-CSF (10mcg/kg/day) and 318 who received G-CSF (10mcg/kg/day) alone underwent ASCT. Patients who had inadequate cell collection ( 6 CD34+ cells) were excluded. Mean age of pts receiving VP+G was 48 years and G-CSF alone was 45 years (p 6 / kg with 42% of all pts having adequate (2×10 6 cells/ kg) CD 34+ collection after 2 days of apheresis compared to a median CD34+ cells collected in the G-CSF group of 3.83× 10 6 / kg with only 16% pts having adequate collection after 2 days (p Priming regimen was not a significant variable for relapse-free or overall survival. The present study shows that even when restricted to patients who collect adequate numbers of PBPCs, the addition of etoposide significantly improves the effectiveness of mobilization. This occurs at the cost of an increased incidence of neutropenic fever but with no mortalities. Following transplantation, there is no evidence of an increased incidence of secondary malignancies in pts receiving VP+G. Thus VP+G remains a safe and effective regimen for mobilization in pts with lymphoma. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Changing Patterns in the Distribution of Economic welfare: An International Perspective

(1999). Changing Patterns in the Distribution of Economic welfare: An International Perspective. Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 193-195.
Effect of threonine on secretory immune system using a chicken intestinal ex vivo model with lipopolysaccharide challenge

Abstract Secretory IgA (sIgA) and its transcytosis receptor, polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR), along with mucus, form the first lines of intestinal defense. Threonine (Thr) is a major component of intestinal mucins and IgA, which are highly secreted under lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced inflammation. In the current study, the effect of Thr on the secretory immune system was determined in an ex vivo chicken ileal explant model. Results showed that a 2-hour Thr-deprivation of culture medium induced a compensatory increase in the mRNA expression of interleukin-8 (IL-8), mucin 2 (MUC2), and IgA during LPS challenge, and this increase was suppressed with Thr addition to the media (P ≤ 0.05), suggesting that Thr was required for mucin and IgA production after exposure to LPS. Similarly, a 2-hour culture of explants from birds fed a Thr adequate diet showed an increase in the mRNA abundance of IL-8, MUC2, and IgA with LPS treatment (P ≤ 0.003), which had a trend to be attenuated with Thr supplementation in the media (P ≤ 0.10). In contrast, explants from birds fed a Thr deficient diet had no response to LPS treatment. These results indicated that in vivo Thr deficiency induced impaired inflammatory and secretory immune responses in broiler chicks. Furthermore, our results revealed that induction of MUC2 and pIgR gene expression required nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation. Additionally, IgA transcytosis may be dependent on extracellular-regulated protein kinase (ERK) activation, which may indirectly impact pIgR gene expression.
A New Class of Antibiotics Could Stop Drug-Resistant Bacteria in their Tracks

Bonnie Bassler, PhD is a world-renowned microbiologist and professor at Princeton University. She rose to fame, at least outside of the scientific community, after her 2009 TED talk entitled “How bacteria ‘talk’”. A stunning success, this 18-minute expose into molecular biology is widely touted as one of the best general audience interpretations of research in the natural sciences. Bassler discusses the ways that bacteria communicate with one another, called quorum sensing, and explains its rather intricate mechanisms in clear and relatable terms. Quorum sensing relies upon small chemical messengers to transmit information between bacteria. The Bassler lab played a sizable role in dissecting these molecular transmissions and ‘rewriting’ them in an effort to devise modified antibiotics that block bacterial communication systems and shut down infections before bacterial populations grow out of control and cause damage to a human host. This piece in Synthesis attempts to break apart the scientific and medical ramifications of these cutting-edge, modernized antibiotics, while exposing the reader to the benefits of clear scientific communication. Bassler’s 2009 TED Talk has done more than simply catapult a scientist to fame – it has also encouraged political leaders to pay more attention to the growing antibiotic resistance in communities and expedite research in the field of microbiology for better bacterial-killing drugs.
Acipensericola glacialis n. sp. (Digenea: Aporocotylidae) from heart of lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens Rafinesque (Acipenseriformes: Acipenseridae) in the Great Lakes Basin, Lake Winnebago System, USA.

Acipensericola glacialis n. sp. infects the heart of lake sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens (Rafinesque), in the Lake Winnebago System and differs from its only congener, Acipensericola petersoni Bullard, Snyder, Jensen & Overstreet, 2008, by having a dendritic intestine, deeply-lobed testes, a post-ovarian ootype, and a common genital pore that is medial to the dextral caecum. Acipensericola petersoni has a non-dendritic intestine, testes that are not deeply lobed, an ootype that is at level of the ovary (ventral to the ovary), and a common genital pore that is dorsal to the dextral caecum. Comparison of the large (28S) and small (18S) sub-unit ribosomal DNA and internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) regions between specimens of A. glacialis n. sp. and A. petersoni revealed 13 (of 1,621 nt; 99.2% similarity in the 28S), 8 (of 1,841 nt; 99.9% similarity in the 18S), and 11 (of 442 nt; 97.5% similarity in the ITS2) nucleotide differences. Collectively, these results comprise an unexpectedly high degree of morphological and molecular similarity given the geographical (Mississippi River Basin vs Great Lakes Basin) and phylogenetic (Polyodontidae vs Acipenseridae) separation of these hosts but seemingly did not reject a previous hypothesis concerning lake sturgeon dispersal from the Mississippi Refugium following the Wisconsin glaciation ~18,000 years ago. The new species is the first nominal blood fluke described from a sturgeon.
Wellbore breakouts: Mohr-Coulomb plastic rock deformation, fluid seepage, and time-dependent mudcake buildup

Abstract Borehole breakout is a time-dependent failure process which includes breakout initiation, propagation, and stabilization. Plastic rock deformation, fluid seepage, and time-dependent mudcake buildup on the wellbore wall affect the near-wellbore stress state and, therefore, the breakout behavior. In this paper, a hydro-mechanical model was developed for breakout prediction taking into account these factors. Filtration tests were conducted to obtain time-dependent permeability and thickness of mudcake, and the experimental testing results were incorporated to embody the dynamic mudcake buildup process. A sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the effects of horizontal stress anisotropy, drilling mud pressure, and time-dependent fluid flow and mudcake buildup on breakouts in a vertical borehole. The simulation results show increased possibility of breakouts with larger horizontal stress anisotropy. Additionally, fluid seepage between the wellbore and the surrounding formation makes the breakout a time-dependent process. For low mud pressure, the initial breakout shape immediately after drilling is very similar to the final breakout shape after reaching steady state seepage. However, for high mud pressure, the wellbore may experience significant breakout propagation after drilling, owing to considerable fluid seepage associated with the larger differential pressure between the wellbore and the formation. Time-dependent mudcake buildup on the wellbore wall can effectively reduce the likelihood of borehole breakout by acting as a low-permeability barrier that mitigates fluid seepage across the wellbore wall and reduces changes in formation pore pressure. Disregarding the mudcake or considering a perfectly impermeable mudcake can lead to overestimating or underestimating the risk of borehole breakout, respectively. The proposed model provides a useful approach to understand and assess borehole breakout for drilling design.
Identification of a Usable Six-Bar Linkage for Dimensional Synthesis

In this paper we present an algorithm to determine if a six-bar linkage that has been designed as a constrained 3R chain using Burmester Theory is usable. A usable six-bar linkage is one that moves a workpiece smoothly through a given set of task positions with actuation by one joint parameter.