cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Variants of Recombinant Factor IX with Enhanced Functional Properties.

Abstract Activated human factor IX (FIXa) exhibits very low catalytic activity towards its physiologic substrate factor X (FX), unless the cofactors, activated factor VIII (FVIIIa), procoagulant phospholipid membranes and Ca2+ are present. We were interested in the elucidation of the structural basis for the FVIIIa dependency of FIXa activity. The surface loop 99 of FIXa is important for regulation of FIXa activity. In FIXa not bound to FVIIIa, this loop is stabilized in an inactive conformation and limits access of substrate to the catalytic cleft. Aiming to improve the catalytic activity in the absence of FVIIIa, amino acid exchanges supposedly influencing the 99-loop were introduced into FIX's catalytic domain (Hopfner KP et al. EMBO J 1997; 16:6626–35; Sichler K et al. JBC 2003; 278:4121–26). One of the 3 most promising mutants generated was FIX-Y94F/K98T (FIX-C), with 2 residues exchanged in the 99-loop. Both residues are known to restrict access of FX to the S2 and S4 substrate binding pockets. In FIX-Y94F/K98T/Y177F/I213V/E219G (FIX-L) two additional sites were targeted. By hydrogen bond formation with Asn97 and Asn100, Y177 locks the 99-loop in an inactive conformation, which is released by binding of FVIIIa to FIXa. I213 and E219 at the S1 site are conserved in FIX whereas V213 and G219 are conserved among most other trypsin-like proteases. In FIX-Y94F/A95aK/K98T/Y177F/I213V/E219G (FIX-M) the mutation A95aK is thought to support the interaction between loop 99 and 60, so that conformations similar to equivalent loops of FXa can be adopted. All full-length mutants and wild type FIX were expressed in HEK293 cells, purified and preactivated FIX was removed by chromatographic steps. The resulting proteins were tested for their amidolytic activity and further assessed in FX activation assays in the absence and the presence of FVIIIa. Activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) assays were carried out, using plasmas depleted of FVIII or FIX, and FVIII-inhibitor patient plasma. The rationally designed proteins showed not only improved catalytic properties but also some FVIIIa independent activity (table 1). In an aPTT assay, FIX-M activity was equivalent to 1.6% FVIII in FVIII-depleted plasma and to 162 mU/ml FEIBA in FVIII inhibitor patient plasma whereas the combination of mutations Y94F/K98T as exemplified in FIX-C resulted in a molecule with ∼2.5-fold higher specific activity than plasma derived FIX when assayed in FIX-depleted plasma. Characterization of rationally designed FIX proteins. Amidolytic Activity FX activation aPTT +FVIIIa −FVIIIa Ratio FIX-DP FVIII-DP FVIII-IP kcat / KM kcat / KM +FVIIIa / −FVIIIa mM−1min−1 ×10−3 mM−1min−1 mM−1min−1 ×10−4 ×103 mU/mg mU FVIII /5μg FIX mU FEIBA / 5μg FIX pdFIX 6 10 2 52 194 0 0 FIX-WT 9 9 3 37 216 1 15 FIX-C 22 12 4 29 498 15 114 FIX-L 15 32 33 10 180 12 115 FIX-M 7 9 11 8 208 16 162 (Abbreviations: DP, depleted plasma; IP, inhibitor patient plasma)
Vignettes: Implications for LIS Research

Vignettes, brief descriptions of fictional characters and situations, serve as a tool to study people’s lives, perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes about specific situations. Although not widely used in library and information science (LIS) research, vignettes can depersonalize responses to controversial situations or behavioral responses related to abstract concepts when employed in focus groups, in-depth interviews, or surveys. We use two research projects, one focused on the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education and one on the vocabulary used to describe library services, to discuss the strengths of vignettes and implications for LIS research.
Heather Boushey: Finding Time: The Economics of Work-Life Conflict

In her ambitious and insightful book, Finding Time: The Economics of Work-Life Conflict, Heather Boushey develops many important arguments in defining and articulating the economics of work-life co...
Local parastomal hernia repair with biological mesh is safe and effective.

Abstract Purpose The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, morbidity and safety of local parastomal hernia repair using biological mesh. Patients and methods A retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained database was performed for parastomal hernia repairs. All patients who underwent local parastomal hernia repair with biological mesh between July 2006 and July 2015 were included in the study. Non-local (laparoscopic or midline incision) procedures were excluded. The type of repair, incision used, mesh placement and morbidity were analyzed. Time to recurrence was measured as an independent variable. Results 58 procedures with a median follow up of 3.8 years were analyzed. The majority (91%) of repairs were performed on an elective basis. Underlay technique was used in 24 patients (39%), overlay in 4 (7%) and both overlay and underlay (sandwich technique) in 33 (54%) of the cases. Overall, 11 patients (18.1%) experienced recurrence. Recurrence occurred in 8 patients in the underlay group (33%), 1 in the overlay group (25%), with 2 recurrences identified in the sandwich technique group (6%; p = 0.02). There was one occurrence of 30-day morbidity in our study population (0.016%). No difference was observed for recurrence or morbidity according to the type of biologic mesh used (human, bovine, or porcine). Conclusion Our results demonstrate that local parastomal hernia repairs are associated with moderate recurrence rates, very low morbidity and consistent with the current literature. The sandwich technique was found to have a significantly lower recurrence rate compared to underlay or overlay techniques. Keyhole incisions were associated with less recurrence than traditional circular incisions. Our findings further reveal biologic mesh type was not associated with any difference in outcomes. Local parastomal hernia repair with biologic mesh is a safe procedure with very low morbidity and acceptable recurrence rate, especially using the sandwich repair technique.
An Update on the Centered and Eccentric Geomagnetic Dipoles and Their Poles for the Years 1980–2015

This paper is an update and extension of an earlier study of the centered and eccentric dipole models of the Earth's magnetic field [Fraser-Smith, 1987]. We use the 1980–2015 IGRF Gauss coefficients to recalculate the magnetic dipole moments and pole positions for both the centered and eccentric dipoles for an additional 35 years. The changes that have taken place are mostly extensions of the trends described earlier. Interestingly, the earlier weak suggestion of an accelerated decline in the magnetic moment over the interval 1975–1985 persists in the more recent data; if the current decline for the years 2000–2015 continues, the Earth's field is projected to decline to nothing around the year 3797 AD. This projected decline to zero field will almost certainly not occur on this date but it is of interest because the time scale for the decline is remarkably short compared with the time scales derived for past field reversals. The asymmetry of the Earth's field continues to increase quite rapidly, with the offset of the equivalent dipole from the Earth's center now close to 9% of the Earth's radius. Since we now know that all the planets in our solar system with global magnetic fields have asymmetric fields that can be modeled more accurately as eccentric dipole fields, and not as centered dipole fields, the eccentric dipole analysis reported here can now be viewed more generally as an approach to planetary magnetic fields and not just to the magnetic field of our own planet.
The Adoption of Emerging Technology: Technology Before Requirements

Survey and interview data indicates that companies have abandoned their obsession with elaborate, "validated" business requirements and are adopting emerging technologies rapidly to enable digital transformation.
Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw: Animals, Language, Sensation, by Debra Hawhee. Chicago: The U of Chicago P, 2017. 256 pp. $45.00 (cloth)

“A dog walks into the middle of Aristotle’s Rhetoric” (1).In reading the opening line to Hawhee’s most recent book, published with The University of Chicago Press, a reader might anticipate the eme...
Media usage diminishes memory for experiences

Abstract People increasingly use social media to record and share their experiences, but it is unclear whether or how social media use changes those experiences. Here we present both naturalistic and controlled studies in which participants engage in an experience while using media to record or share their experiences with others, or not engaging with media. We collected objective measures of participants' experiences (scores on a surprise memory test) as well as subjective measures of participants' experiences (self-reports about their engagement and enjoyment). Across three studies, participants without media consistently remembered their experience more precisely than participants who used media. There is no conclusive evidence that media use impacted subjective measures of experience. Together, these findings suggest that using media may prevent people from remembering the very events they are attempting to preserve.
Robust adaptive optics systems for vision science

Adaptive Optics (AO) is of growing importance for understanding the impact of retinal and systemic diseases on the retina. While AO retinal imaging in healthy eyes is now routine, AO imaging in older eyes and eyes with optical changes to the anterior eye can be difficult and requires a control and an imaging system that is resilient when there is scattering and occlusion from the cornea and lens, as well as in the presence of irregular and small pupils. Our AO retinal imaging system combines evaluation of local image quality of the pupil, with spatially programmable detection. The wavefront control system uses a woofer tweeter approach, combining an electromagnetic mirror and a MEMS mirror and a single Shack Hartmann sensor. The SH sensor samples an 8 mm exit pupil and the subject is aligned to a region within this larger system pupil using a chin and forehead rest. A spot quality metric is calculated in real time for each lenslet. Individual lenslets that do not meet the quality metric are eliminated from the processing. Mirror shapes are smoothed outside the region of wavefront control when pupils are small. The system allows imaging even with smaller irregular pupils, however because the depth of field increases under these conditions, sectioning performance decreases. A retinal conjugate micromirror array selectively directs mid-range scatter to additional detectors. This improves detection of retinal capillaries even when the confocal image has poorer image quality that includes both photoreceptors and blood vessels.
Theory of safety surrogates using vehicle trajectories in macroscopic and microscopic settings: Application to dynamic message signs controlled traffic at work zones

Abstract This paper presents a new mathematical framework for obtaining quantitative safety measure using macroscopic as well as microscopic traffic data. The safety surrogate obtained from the macroscopic data is in terms of analysis performed on vehicle trajectories obtained from the macroscopic data. This method of obtaining safety measure can be used for many different types of applications. The safety surrogate for the traffic dynamics are developed in terms of a new concept of Negative Speed Differentials (NSD) that involve a convolution of vehicle speed function obtained from vehicle trajectories and then performing the integration of the square of the output for its negative values. The framework is applicable to microscopic traffic dynamics as well where we can use car following models for microscopic dynamics or the LWR model for macroscopic dynamics. This paper then presents the use of this new safety surrogate on the development of a feedback control law for controlling traffic in work zones using Dynamic Message Signs. A hybrid dynamics model is used to represent the switching dynamics due to changing DMS messages. A feedback control design for choosing those messages is presented as well as a simple simulation example to show its application.
A Transcultural Perspective on Health Behavior

An explicit transcultural perspective on health behavior has emerged since the mid-1970s. It rests upon an enduring and widely scattered research literature, primarily from the field of anthropology, the central, unifying concept of which is the concept of culture. Secondarily, it has come from the fields of sociology, psychology, social work, nursing, and medicine, the research protocols of which, increasingly, have incorporated culture as a significant variable. There is every indication that the findings of transculturally oriented research will have a profound impact upon the provision of orthodox health care and the training of biomedicai health professionals in the future (e.g., Harwood, 1981; Helman, 1984; Kleinman, 1980; Lefley & Pedersen, 1986).
Professional Psychology as a Health Care Profession

Across its history, professional psychology has allowed broad latitude in the conceptualization of approaches to education and practice in the field. Education and practice have often revolved around the widely differing theoretical orientations, and the scientist-practitioner and professional models of training have involved quite different approaches to education. As a result, there is a lack of clarity about the basic nature and purposes of professional psychology education and practice. On the other hand, orienting professional psychology around the behavioral health and biopsychosocial needs of the general public is very helpful for clarifying the basic purposes and nature of the field. After analyzing current definitions of professional psychology used by various stakeholders in the field, a definition is proposed that is based on a health care orientation to clinical practice and a scientific understanding of human development, functioning, and behavior change.
Immunohistochemistry in Surgical Pathology: Principles and Practice

The extent to which data from immunohistochemical (IHC) staining are useful is critically dependent not only upon the proper performance and control of the method but also upon appropriate interpretation. A decade ago an individual pathologist may have nurtured a reasonable expectation of achieving a comprehensive understanding of the IHC literature across the whole field of pathology. Today such an expectation is clearly unreasonable with a simple Medline search of the IHC literature postdating the general adoption of antigen retrieval (arbitrarily 1996), yielding more than 100,000 "relevant" articles. The problem is compounded by enormous variability in sample preparation, by the literally thousands of antibodies that are available in catalogs, by the complexity of the tissue section environment, exactly which cells stain, or which do not, and by the subjective assessment of the presence and intensity of specific staining.This chapter describes attempts being made to address these issues. It also outlines the practical steps that may be taken to maximize effectiveness and reproducibility of IHC results within a lab. Adopting a "total test" mindset with attention to every phase of the process is the key initial step.The rapid growth of predictive markers, companion diagnostics, or advanced personalized diagnostics merely serves to underline the inadequacies of IHC and to reinforce the necessity for improved standardization, consistent interpretation, and precise quantification that almost certainly will involve the introduction of new internal and external reference standards, plus digital assistance in interpretation and quantification.
Can You Be Born a Couch Potato? The Genomic Regulation of Physical Activity

Most behaviors are controlled by a combination of environmental and genetic/biological factors. The regulation of daily physical activity levels, however, has primarily been considered to be environmental in origin. A growing body of recent data suggests that, in actuality, the primary controller of physical activity levels may be genetic in origin, especially in adults. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to describe the current “state of the art” regarding physical activity genetics. Extensive human and animal models have produced an initial genomic map indicating potential genomic locations associated with physical activity. This map in addition to other criteria has produced several potential candidate genes associated with physical activity with varying levels of support for their candidacy. The literature has quantified the influence of genetics on activity and identified some potential responsible genes. Yet, much work is needed to establish the mechanisms through which these genes control physical activity as well as the regulatory factors located outside the genomic boundary of annotated genes (i.e., within the intergenic areas) associated with physical activity regulation.
Screening for syphilis infection in pregnant women us preventive services task force reaffirmation recommendation statement

Importance Untreated syphilis infection in pregnant women can be transmitted to the fetus (congenital syphilis) at any time during pregnancy or at birth. Congenital syphilis is associated with stillbirth, neonatal death, and significant morbidity in infants (eg, bone deformities and neurologic impairment). After a steady decline from 2008 to 2012, cases of congenital syphilis markedly increased from 2012 to 2106, from 8.4 to 15.7 cases per 100 000 live births (an increase of 87%). At the same time, national rates of syphilis increased among women of reproductive age. Objective To update the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) 2009 recommendation on screening for syphilis infection in pregnant women. Evidence Review The USPSTF commissioned a reaffirmation evidence update to identify new and substantial evidence sufficient enough to change its prior recommendation. Given the established benefits and practice of screening for syphilis in pregnant women, the USPSTF targeted its evidence review on the direct benefits of screening on the prevention of congenital syphilis morbidity and mortality and the harms of screening for and treatment of syphilis infection in pregnant women. Findings Using a reaffirmation process, the USPSTF found that accurate screening algorithms are available to identify syphilis infection. Effective treatment with antibiotics can prevent congenital syphilis and significantly decrease adverse pregnancy outcomes, with small associated harms, providing an overall substantial health benefit. Therefore, the USPSTF reaffirms its previous conclusion that there is convincing evidence that screening for syphilis infection in pregnant women provides substantial benefit. Conclusions and Recommendation The USPSTF recommends early screening for syphilis infection in all pregnant women. (A recommendation)
Perceptions of Parenting Residents Among Family Medicine Residency Directors.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Parenting during residency is increasingly common, and resident parents face unique demands on their time and emotional and cognitive resources. Physicians at all levels of training perceive negative impacts of parenting on career and family life. Surveys of program directors (PDs) in other specialties reveal concern about performance and quality of life of parenting residents. The primary aims of this study were to examine family medicine PDs' perceptions of parenting residents' performance and the adequacy of parenting support structures. METHODS Data were collected from the 2017 Council of Academic Family Medicine (CAFM) Educational Research Alliance (CERA) Family Medicine Residency Program Directors survey. Directors provided the number and status of parenting residents and rated adequacy of parenting resources, resident performance, and impact of parenting on residents using a Likert scale. Results were compared between male/female PDs and male/female residents. RESULTS Response rate was 57.1%. Less than half of PDs reported adequate parenting support structures in their program (46%). Over 40% of PDs reported that 81%-100% of female residents who take parental leave end up extending their residency training, the most common response category. PDs did not report gender-based differences in performance of parenting residents. PDs most often reported significantly worse well-being for female parenting residents but perceived improved well-being of male parents. CONCLUSIONS Less than half of family medicine PDs feel their program has adequate parenting resources. Female parenting residents commonly extend residency training. PDs perceive parenting negatively impacts well-being of female residents, but not male residents.
Association of Worksite Food Purchases and Employees' Overall Dietary Quality and Health.

Introduction Most Americans spend half their waking hours at work and consume food acquired there. The hypothesis was that the healthfulness of worksite food purchases was associated with employees’ overall diet and health. Methods Participants were 602 hospital employees who regularly used worksite cafeterias and enrolled in a health promotion study in 2016–2018. All cafeterias used traffic-light labels (green=healthy, yellow=less healthy, red=unhealthy). A Healthy Purchasing Score was calculated for each participant by summing weighted proportions of cafeteria items purchased over a 3-month observation period (red=0, yellow=0.5, green=1; range, 0–1). Healthy Eating Index scores (range, 0–100) were calculated based on two 24-hour dietary recalls. BMI, blood pressure, and HbA1c were measured. Hypertension and prediabetes/diabetes diagnoses were determined by self-reported and clinical data. Regression analyses examined dietary quality and diagnoses by tertile of Healthy Purchasing Score (T1=least healthy purchases, T3=most healthy), adjusting for demographics. All data were collected before the start of the intervention and were analyzed in 2018. Results Mean age was 43.6 years (SD=12.2), 79% were female, and 81% were white. Mean BMI was 28.3 kg/m2 (SD=6.5); 21% had hypertension, and 27% had prediabetes/diabetes. Mean Healthy Eating Index was 60.4 (SD=12.5); mean Healthy Purchasing Score was 0.66 (SD=0.15). Healthier purchases were associated with healthier Healthy Eating Index scores (T1=55.6, T2=61.0, T3=64.5, p Conclusions Worksite food purchases were associated with overall dietary quality and cardiometabolic risk. Interventions to increase healthfulness of food choices at work may improve employees’ health.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa: a controlled burn pathogen?

Abstract : P. aeruginosa (PA) became a commonly reported burn patient isolate after the introduction of the first generation of modern antimicrobial agents. With today's knowledge of the natural and acquire mechanisms of resistance to agents such as the sulfonamides and penicillin, it seems obvious that Pseudomonas was a natural candidate for the niche initially occupied by group A beta-hemolytic streptococci and other susceptible gram-positive burn pathogens. This microbial evolution and the resulting clinical changes were first recognized at this and other burn care facilities in the late 1950s. The early reports of a morbid condition resulting from invasion of burn wounds by PA were not universally accepted. This skepticism was met by experimental proof of the pathogenicity of this organism for burned hosts by fulfilling Koch's postulates in a burned rat model. By the mid-1960s, the occurrence and clinical significance of PA infection in burned patients was accepted and PA was recognized as the predominant worldwide agent causing fatal wound infections in burned patients. (JS)
Economic Perspectives on the Organization and Governance of Mental Health Care

This chapter examines the allocation of responsibilities for meeting the needs of people experiencing a mental disorder. These responsibilities have shifted among the private and public sectors; federal, state, and local governments; and between the mainstream of health policy and specialized policymaking. In general, the organization of the system that treats and addresses the needs of people with mental illnesses is far more complex, and involves more actors, than the comparable organization of the systems that address the problems of people with other types of health conditions, but over time, the systems have become more similar. This evolution reflects both changes in treatment practices and changes in societal attitudes and programs.
Proportional Fair Information Freshness Under Jamming

The success of a UAV mission depends on communication between a GCS (Ground Control Station) and a group of UAVs. It is essential that the freshness of the commands received by UAVs is maintained as mission parameters often change during an operation. Ensuring the freshness of the commands received by UAVs becomes more challenging when operating in an adversarial environment, where the communication can be impacted by interference. We model this problem as a game between a transmitter (GCS) equipped with directed antennas, whose task is to control a group of UAVs to perform a mission in a protected zone, and an interferer which is a source spherically propagated jamming signal. A fixed point algorithm to find the equilibrium is derived, and closed form solutions are obtained for boundary cases of the resource parameters.
Standardized Opioid Prescription Protocol Reduces Opioid Consumption After Total Joint Arthroplasty.

Previous studies demonstrate routine overprescription of pain medications after total joint arthroplasty (TJA). A standardized reduced opioid prescription protocol for TJA was initiated at our institution, which we hypothesized would lead to a reduction in opioid consumption compared with patients who had surgery before initiation of the new protocol. Methods We evaluated 97 consecutive opioid-naive patients undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA) using a standardized opioid prescription protocol (standardized group). A control subject group consisted of 99 patients undergoing TKA and THA just before the adaptation of the standardized prescribing protocol (historic group). Postoperatively, patients brought their remaining pain medication to their 1-month follow-up visit. The number of pills consumed was counted and converted into oral morphine equivalents (OME). Current pain level and the need for pain medication refill was assessed. Results Among TKA patients, mean opioid consumption in the standardized group (48.5 pills; 432 OME) was markedly less than the historic group (76.2 pills; 903 OME) (both P < 0.01). Refills were required in 50% of the standardized group and 29% of the historic group (P = 0.038). Average pain scores for the standardized and historic groups were 2.3 and 3.2, respectively (P = 0.057). Among THA patients, mean opioid consumption in the standardized group (19.1 pills; 200 OME) was markedly less than the historic group (41.3 pills; 504 OME) (both P < 0.01). Refills were required in 16% of the standardized group and 8% of the historic group (P = 0.263). Average pain scores for the standardized and historic groups were 1.7 and 1.8, respectively (P = 0.608). Discussion Initiation of a standardized opioid prescribing protocol after TJA for opioid-naive patients led to a reduction in opioid consumption, but resulted in an increased need for refills.
Optical fiber sensors

Optical fiber sensor development has led to a new class of sensing device which has demonstrated performance that is competitive with existing technologies. Over 100 fiber sensor types have been fabricated, and the incorporation of many of these devices into engine and flight control, shipboard machinery and damage controls, medical probing, and industrial process controls demonstrations is planned. These demonstrations are aimed at illustrating and quantifying the advantages of fiber sensors in nonlaboratory environments and are the next required step before widespread commercialization of this technology is realized. Despite the significant technological progress realized in optical fiber sensor development, to date only a relatively small number of optical fiber sensors have entered the marketplace.
New dog, old tricks: Developmental programs resurface in inflammation.

Cellular cartography of human tissues has provided unprecedented insight into health and disease. In a recent issue of Science, Reynolds et al. (2021) use single-cell transcriptomics to define cell states and gene programs in human skin and uncover fetal programs in dermatological diseases that may fuel inflammatory pathology.
Isolation, screening, degradation characteristics of a quinclorac-degrading bacteria D and its potential of bioremediation for rice field environment polluted by quinclorac

Abstract Quinclorac (QNC) is a highly selective, hormonal, and low-toxic herbicide with a long duration. And the growth and development of subsequent crops are easily affected by QNC accumulated in the soil. In this paper, a QNC-degrading strain D was isolated and screened from the rice paddy soil. Through morphology, physiological and biochemical tests and 16Sr DNA gene analysis, strain D was identified as Cellulosimicrobium cellulans sp. And the QNC degradation characteristics of strain D were studied. Under the optimal culture conditions, the QNC-degrading rate was 45.9% after culturing for 21 days. The QNC-degrading efficiency of strain D in the field was evaluated by a simulated pot experiment. The results show that strain D can promote the growth of rice and QNC-degrading effectively. This research could provide a new bacterial species for microbial degradation of QNC and lay a theoretical foundation for further research on QNC remediation. Importance At present, some QNC-degrading bacteria have been isolated from different environments, but there are no reports of Cellulosimicrobium cellulans sp. bacterial that could degrade QNC. In this study, a new QNC-degradation strain was selected from the paddy soil. The degradation characteristics of strain D were studied in detail. The results shown that strain D had a satisfactory quinclorac-degrading efficiency. Two degradation products of QNC by strain D were identified by HPLC-Q-TOF/MS: 3-pyridylacetic acid (138.0548 m/z) and 3-ethylpyridine (108.0805 m/z), which have not been reported before. The strain D had a potential ability of quinclorac-degrading effectively in the quinclorac-polluted paddy field environment.
Displacement Error Propagation From Embedded Markers to Brain Strain.

Head injury model validation has evolved from against pressure to relative brain-skull displacement, and more recently, against marker-based strain. However, there are concerns on strain data quality. In this study, we parametrically investigate how displacement random errors and synchronization errors propagate into strain. Embedded markers from four representative configurations are used to form unique and nonoverlapping tetrahedrons, triangles, and linear elements. Marker displacements are then separately subjected to up to ±10% random displacement errors and up to ±2 ms synchronization errors. Based on 100 random trials in each perturbation test, we find that smaller strain errors relative to the baseline peak strains are significantly associated with larger element sizes (volume, area, or length; p < 0.05). When displacement errors are capped at the two extreme levels, the earlier "column" and "cluster" configurations provide few usable elements with relative strain error under an empirical threshold of 20%, while about 30-80% of elements in recent "repeatable" and "uniform" configurations are considered otherwise usable. Overall, denser markers are desired to provide exhaustive pairwise linear elements with a range of sizes to balance the need for larger elements to minimize strain error but smaller elements to increase the spatial resolution in strain sampling. Their signed strains also provide unique and unambiguous information on tissue tension and compression. This study may provide useful insights into the scrutinization of existing experimental data for head injury model strain validation and to inform how best to design new experiments in the future.
Showing Up Is Half the Battle: The Impact of Telehealth on Psychiatric Appointment Attendance for Hospital-Based Intensive Outpatient Services During COVID-19.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated telehealth to deliver psychiatric services. Continuation of psychiatric services for individuals with high clinical acuity was critical. This study e...
Factor Graphs for Heterogeneous Bayesian Decentralized Data Fusion.

This paper explores the use of factor graphs as an inference and analysis tool for Bayesian peer-to-peer decentralized data fusion. We propose a framework by which agents can each use local factor graphs to represent relevant partitions of a complex global joint probability distribution, thus allowing them to avoid reasoning over the entirety of a more complex model and saving communication as well as computation cost. This allows heterogeneous multi-robot systems to cooperate on a variety of real world, task oriented missions, where scalability and modularity are key. To develop the initial theory and analyze the limits of this approach, we focus our attention on static linear Gaussian systems in tree-structured networks and use Channel Filters (also represented by factor graphs) to explicitly track common information. We discuss how this representation can be used to describe various multi-robot applications and to design and analyze new heterogeneous data fusion algorithms. We validate our method in simulations of a multi-agent multi-target tracking and cooperative multi-agent mapping problems, and discuss the computation and communication gains of this approach.
Mitochondrial chaperone in human health and diseases

Molecular chaperones are a family of proteins that maintain cellular protein homeostasis through non-covalent peptide folding and quality control mechanisms. The chaperone proteins found within mitochondria play significant protective roles in mitochondrial biogenesis, quality control, and stress response mechanisms. Defective mitochondrial chaperones have been implicated in aging, neurodegeneration, and cancer. In this review, we focus on the two most prominent mitochondrial chaperones: mtHsp60 and mtHsp70. These proteins demonstrate different cellular localization patterns, interact with different targets, and have different functional activities. We discuss the structure and function of these prominent mitochondrial chaperone proteins and give an update on newly discovered regulatory mechanisms and disease implications.
Extremal Structure of Convex Sets: Components and Faces

In this chapter we introduce the concept of extreme subset of a convex set. The idea is suggested by and is a generalization of the classical notion of vertices, edges and faces of a polyhedron. Properties of extremeness are studied, and two types of extreme subset of a convex set, called components and faces, are singled out for special attention. The components and faces of a convex set K are intimately related, since the interior operation converts the family of faces of K into the family of its components. The components of K are essentially its maximal open subsets and form a partition of K. The faces of K play a major role in the study of its structure and can be characterized as sections of K by linear spaces which do not “cut” K and are said to be extremal to it. An application of the theory is made to the characterization of the components and faces of a polytope.
Pituitary dendritic cells communicate immune pathogenic signals.

Abstract This study reveals the presence of dendritic cells (DCs) in the pituitary gland, which play a role in communicating immune activation to the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. Using enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (eyfp) expression as a reporter for CD11c, a marker of DCs, we demonstrate anatomically the presence of CD11c/eyfp+ cells throughout the pituitary. Flow cytometric analysis shows that the predominant cellular phenotype of pituitary CD11c/eyfp+ cells resembles that of non-lymphoid DCs. In vivo and in vitro immune challenge with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulates these pituitary CD11c/eyfp+ DCs, but not eyfp neg cells, to increase levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α. In vivo analysis of plasma glucocorticoid (GC) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels at this early phase of the immune response to LPS suggest that pro-inflammatory cytokine production by DCs within the pituitary may activate the release of GCs from the adrenals via ACTH. Pituitary CD11c/eyfp+ cells also express annexin A1 (ANXA1), indicating a role in GC signal attenuation. In summary, our data demonstrate that a resident DC population of the pituitary gland coordinates GC release in the early phase of systemic immune activation, thereby providing an essential immune signaling sentinel for the initial shaping of the systemic immune response to LPS.
Benign and Malignant Primary Spinal Tumors

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is increasingly being used in the definitive treatment of patients with primary spine tumors. SBRT-based regimens are used to treat unresectable primary spine tumors and are administered as a neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment in those receiving definitive surgery. SBRT-based treatments optimize structural, mechanical, and functional outcomes and are emerging as the radiation treatment of choice for several primary tumors of the spine.
Basic Concepts of Minicomputers

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses that in order to gain an understanding of the place of minicomputers in the hierarchy of all computer systems, it is necessary to review the history of the development of the general purpose computer. The development of the minicomputer is the sequel to the development of the small process control computers. A minicomputer has a central processing unit (CPU), a memory, and a scientifically oriented instruction set and operates on a stored program concept in exactly the same manner as does the larger EDP computer system. The main distinguishing characteristics of minicomputers have been their relative lower cost, their applications, and the types of software packages that have been available with them on delivery. As the application of minicomputers has grown and as the costs of memory have dropped, several minicomputer systems have become available that contain more than 32,768 words of memory. The chapter also explores that some minicomputer systems offer specific software subroutine functions that will enhance the operation of the minicomputer system to an extent that it operates many times faster than without the microprogrammed firmware package. The short-term outlook for the minicomputers is very favorable, with a continuing growth in applications. The microcomputer is expected to absorb some of the applications now being served by the smaller minicomputer systems, but in most cases the microcomputer is finding application in completely new areas. The conventional minicomputer system has grown much larger and will become a more significant factor in the competition for the smaller business data processing applications.
Electrical Property Studies of Neutron Transmutation Doped Silicon

Irradiation of semiconducting materials in a nuclear reactor1 was initiated about 30 years ago at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The primary interest at that time was the study of radiation damage effects, but transmutation doping was used to determine isotopic cross sections, introduce a known dopant concentration, and study impurity banding effects. Research on neutron transmutation doped (NTD) silicon was resumed at ORNL approximately four years ago. In this paper results of several studies of electrical properties conducted since then will be reviewed and discussed.
Opposing roles for the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27kip1 in the control of CD4+ T cell proliferation and effector function.

Cell division drives T cell clonal expansion and differentiation, and is the result of concerted signaling from Ag, costimulatory, and growth factor receptors. How these mitogenic signals are coupled to the cell cycle machinery in primary T cells is not clear. We have focused on the role of p27 kip1 , a major cyclin-dependent kinase binding protein expressed by CD4 + T cells. Our studies using p27 kip1 gene dosage demonstrate that early after activation, p27 kip1 acts to promote, rather than inhibit, G 1 to S phase progression within the first division cycle. However, throughout subsequent cell divisions p27 kip1 behaves as a negative regulator, directly establishing the threshold amount of growth factor signaling required to support continued cell division. During this phase, signals from CD28 and IL-2R cooperate with the TCR to “tune” this threshold by inducing the degradation of p27 kip1 protein, and we show that agents that block these pathways require elevated p27 kip1 levels for their full antiproliferative activity. Finally, we show that p27 kip1 opposes the development of CD4 + T cell effector function, and is required for the full development of anergy in response to a tolerizing stimulus. Our results suggest that p27 kip1 plays a complex and important role in the regulation of cell division and effector function in primary CD4 + T cells.
Plumbing the depths: extending ecological niche modelling and species distribution modelling in three dimensions

Aim Ecological niche modelling (ENM) and species distribution modelling (SDM) have been used extensively to study biogeographic and macroecological patterns of terrestrial fauna and flora. Few studies to date have applied ENM and SDM to marine ecosystems, and those that have treated the marine environment as a two-dimensional space owing to limitations of the implementations of current ENM/SDM tools. For many marine organisms, ENM/SDM should be performed in three-dimensional space, taking into account latitude, longitude and depth. We present a case study demonstrating a strategy for three-dimensional ENM/SDM. Location Open ocean; global. Methods We decompose the three-dimensional structure of marine environmental and species occurrence data into a series of two-dimensional spaces using an easy-to-implement transformation, after which existing ENM/SDM tools can be used to analyse the data. We demonstrate our approach by modelling the potential distribution of a deep-sea-dwelling jellyfish with two commonly used algorithms. Potential effects of missing data and spatial sampling biases were assessed using resampling approaches. Results We demonstrate that it is feasible to derive predictive models of three-dimensional distributions of marine species using existing software tools developed with two-dimensional terrestrial situations in mind. The strategy presented here allowed us to model the distribution of a jellyfish species that inhabits the deep sea. We assessed the effects of missing occurrence data and spatial bias of occurrence data, and found that interpolation among occurrence data-points and extrapolation into unsampled conditions present distinct challenges that may require different modelling algorithms and interpretations. Main conclusions Our modified ENM/SDM approach is straightforward, and can be used to model situations that have heretofore been beyond the reach of ENM/SDM applications. In particular, geographic distributions and ecological niches of organisms inhabiting three-dimensional habitats such as water columns in marine and freshwater environments can be modelled using the framework presented here.
Disc plate method of microbiological antibiotic assay. I. Factors influencing variability and error.

Several factors are investigated that normally cause variation in zone diameters in conventional disc plate diffusion assay procedures. Of these factors the most serious is the unequal exposure of the individual plates at top or bottom of stacks to temperatures above and below room temperature. This unequal temperature exposure is avoided by novel handling and incubation procedures. A major variable, but one which can be controlled, is the varying time interval between pouring seeded agar and the time of applying the pads with antibiotic to the plates. This influence of time of setting and the effects of several other sequential operations are combined into a composite variable. This variable is then accounted for and normalized by interposing “external” reference plates set with a reference solution in the sequence of approximately 100 plates. No “internal” reference zones are employed. Such factors as volume of agar poured, wedge shape of agar in a dish, volumetric errors in dilutions, and timing considerations are studied and discussed. The results of this study form the basis for a test protocol which is presented in a following paper.
Electron screening corrections to 0 + →0 + beta decays

Abstract We correct the perturbative calculation of the electron screening corrections to 0+→0+ beta decays given by Drukarev and Strikman. The corrected calculation agrees with the standard Rose treatment of the screening corrections and eliminates the Z-dependent discrepancies in the corrected ft values for the superallowed Fermi transitions claimed by those authors.
Contemporary Public Sculpture: Tradition, Transformation, and Controversy

In the last forty years public sculpture has changed drastically. Classical or Renaissance tradition has been questioned and rejected or transformed and other basic premises of Western art have been overturned. This book, the first to place contemporary public sculpture into historical and critical perspective, looks at the topic in the context of these changing ideas in order to reach a clearer understanding of its development and what is really at stake in the public art controversy.
Assessment of gut mucosal perfusion and colonic tissue blood flow during abdominal aortic surgery with gastric tonometry and laser Doppler flowmetry.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of infrarenal aortic cross-clamping and unclamping on gut mucosal perfusion by gastric tonometry and on sigmoid colonic tissue blood flow by laser Doppler flowmetry during abdominal aortic surgery. This was a prospective before-and-after intervention comparison study in a university hospital of 8 male patients, aged 57-87, undergoing elective infrarenal abdominal aortic surgery. Each patient was pretreated with ranitidine. Following general anesthesia, a nasogastric tonometer was inserted into the stomach. The balloon of the tonometer was filled with 2.5 mL of normal saline for gas tension and pH analysis. This process was repeated before and after aortic cross-clamping and unclamping. Gastric mucosal pHi was calculated with the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation from the arterial Hco3 and the tonometrically measured mucosal Pco2. A laser Doppler flow probe was placed in contact with the serosa of the sigmoid colon against the mesentery after the abdom...
Cycloaliphatic epoxide crosslinkable core-shell latexes: A new strategy for waterborne epoxide coatings

New core-shell acrylic latexes designed for crosslinking with cycloaliphatic diepoxides were prepared. The core consisted of methyl methacrylate (MMA), butyl acrylate (BA), 2-hydroxyethyl met hacrylate (HEMA), and the shell MMA, BA, and methacrylic acid (MAA). A strong acid acrylate was incorporated into the shell to catalyze the crosslinking reactions. The diepoxide crosslinker was introduced into the latex formulation via three methods: (1) added with the monomers during the polymerization of the latex, (2) added after the preparation of the latex in an organic solvent, and (3) added as a separate emulsion. The stability of epoxide was shown to be dependent on latex morphology, initiator system, and reaction conditions.