cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Meningioma—Toward an Improved Understanding of the Role of Sex Steroids in Tumor Development and Progression

N t c n m r r h w I ntracranial meningiomas are the second most common primary brain tumor in adults, comprising approximately 25% of newly diagnosed primary brain tumors (11). Although he overall prevalence of meningioma is approximately 0.1% 15), clinical studies suggest that subclinical disease may be resent in up to 2.8% of the female population (7). Increasing use f cranial imaging has led to improved accuracy in reporting the isease, and it is not unreasonable to expect the incidence of eningioma to artificially rise in the future with increasing enetrance of cranial imaging (15). Although some patients resent with localizing neurologic symptoms, in many patients umors are found incidentally during workup for nonspecific ymptoms such as headache. Surgery and radiation play the argest roles in meningioma therapy. Conservative management ith serial imaging has a greater role in incidentally diagnosed eningiomas. Medical management with chemotherapy and ormonal therapy is largely ineffective and is typically used only f surgical and radiation options have been exhausted. A subset of atients fails all therapeutic options. Understanding the genetic nd molecular pathways important for tumor progression is key o developing new therapies for patients whose tumors are efractory to standard therapy.
Focus Issue: Genomic Medicine--Opening the Door to Discovery

This week, Science 's STKE and Science address the ways in which knowledge of the human genome has created both controversies and advances for the treatment of human disease. New methods for analysis and treatment of pathological conditions have emerged. In addition, knowledge of genetic sequences
Accident Compensation in New Zealand: How Does It Work? A Review of Palmer's Compensation for Incapacity and Ison's Accident Compensation

New Zealand is the place of the big experiment in no-fault accident compensation, and both Geoffrey Palmer's and Terence G. Ison's recent books' deal with this experiment. Since 1967, when a Royal Commission chaired by A. O. Woodhouse recommended abolishing tort liability for practically all accidents resulting in personal injury and putting in its place a comprehensive compensation system, and even more since 1972, when the New Zealand Parliament passed the Accident Compensation Act, that country has attracted the attention of tort lawyers all over the world, particularly those interested in workers' compensation and automobile accident compensation. The no-fault insurance movement in the United States, which has lost much of its vigor in the past five years, has been limited to automobile accidents (except for the more ambitious proposals offered by Jeffrey O'Connell, the most vocal no-fault advocate). The New Zealand system, however, provides compensation, irrespective of the fault or negligence of anyone, for accidents of whatever kind or circumstance, whether in the work place, at home, on the road, in the air, during dangerous sports activities, or even during commission of a crime. The system is operated by a government agency, the Accident Compensation Commission, and is
An Experimental Study and Numerical Simulation of Two-Phase Flow of Cryogenic Fluids through Micro-Channel Heat Exchanger

The design, fabrication, testing and analysis of a micro-channel heat exchanger, a key component for a microminiature Joule-Thomson Cryogenic Refrigerator, is described. Results show that the heat exchanger can be fabricated efficiently and economically with the existing manufacturing technology. The heat exchanger was tested and found to be mechanically robust and durable under high pressure operating conditions. “Choking” did not occur in the micro-channels of the heat exchanger. The thermal performance is excellent, providing the rapid cooling as designed. A numerical code is developed both to interpret the data and to provide some sensitivity study and assessment on the performance characteristics of the heat exchanger. Furthermore, this code will be utilized as a design tool for optimizing the performance of next generation planar heat exchangers.
Identification of a cell death pathway in Candida albicans during the response to pheromone.

Mating in hemiascomycete yeasts involves the secretion of pheromones that induce sexual differentiation in cells of the opposite mating type. Studies in Saccharomyces cerevisiae have revealed that a subpopulation of cells experiences cell death during exposure to pheromone. In this work, we tested whether the phenomenon of pheromone-induced death (PID) also occurs in the opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans. Mating in C. albicans is uniquely regulated by white-opaque phenotypic switching; both cell types respond to pheromone, but only opaque cells undergo the morphological transition and cell conjugation. We show that approximately 20% of opaque cells, but not white cells, of laboratory strain SC5314 experience pheromone-induced death. Furthermore, analysis of mutant strains revealed that PID was significantly reduced in strains lacking Fig1 or Fus1 transmembrane proteins that are induced during the mating process and, we now show, are necessary for efficient mating in C. albicans. The level of PID was also Ca 2 dependent, as chelation of Ca 2 ions increased cell death to almost 50% of the population. However, in contrast to S. cerevisiae PID, pheromone-induced killing of C. albicans cells was largely independent of signaling via the Ca 2 -dependent protein phosphatase calcineurin, even when combined with the loss of Cmk1 and Cmk2 proteins. Finally, we demonstrate that levels of PID vary widely between clinical isolates of C. albicans, with some strains experiencing close to 70% cell death. We discuss these findings in light of the role of prodeath and prosurvival pathways operating in yeast cells undergoing the morphological response to pheromone. Mating in the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as well as in the related hemiascomycete Candida albicans, involves communication between a and cells via sexual pheromones. The program of sexual differentiation has been particularly well defined in S. cerevisiae, where pheromone signaling activates a conserved mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade culminating in the transcriptional response of almost 500 genes (44). During mating, yeast cells increase the expression of genes required for conjugation, undergo arrest in G1 of the cell cycle, and produce polarized mating projections in preparation for cell fusion (52). Mating also requires partial degradation of the cell wall to allow direct membrane fusion between a and cells, followed by nuclear karyogamy and formation of a diploid cell. Previous studies have established that a subpopulation of S. cerevisiae a cells responding to high levels of pheromone undergoes cell death (23, 48, 58). In these studies, pheromone treatment resulted in 25 to 30% cell death. However, prevention of a Ca 2 ion influx resulted in cell death in up to 95% of the population (23, 58). High levels of pheromone-induced death (PID) were also observed in mutants lacking components required for calcium signaling, including the high-affinity Ca 2 influx channel (Cch1/Mid1), cal
Fast scene segmentation using multi-level feature selection

High time cost is the bottle-neck of video scene segmentation. In this paper we use a heuristic method called sort-merge feature selection to construct automatically a hierarchy of small subsets of features that are progressively more useful for segmentation. A novel combination of fastmap for dimensionality reduction and Mahalanobis distance for likelihood determination is used as induction algorithm. Because these induced feature sets from a hierarchy with increasing classification accuracy, video segments can be segmented and categorized simultaneously in a coarse-fine manner that efficiently and progressively detects and refines their temporal boundaries. We analyze the performance of these methods, and demonstrate them in the domain of long (75 minute) instructional video.
Excessive RNA Splicing and Inhibition of HIV-1 Replication Induced by Modified U1 Small Nuclear RNAs

HIV-1 RNA undergoes a complex splicing process whereby over 40 different mRNA species are produced by alternative splicing. In addition, approximately half of the RNA transcripts remain unspliced and either are used to encode Gag and Gag-Pol proteins or are packaged into virions as genomic RNA. It has previously been shown that HIV-1 splicing is regulated by cis elements that bind to cellular factors. These factors either enhance or repress definition of exons that are flanked by the HIV-1 3' splice sites. Here we report that expression of modified U1 snRNPs with increased affinity to HIV-1 downstream 5' splice sites and to sequences within the first tat coding exon act to selectively increase splicing at the upstream 3' splice sites in cotransfected 293T cells. This results in a decrease of unspliced viral RNA levels and an approximately 10-fold decrease in virus production. In addition, excessive splicing of viral RNA is concomitant with a striking reduction in the relative amounts of Gag processing intermediates and products. We also show that T cell lines expressing modified U1 snRNAs exhibit reduced HIV-1 replication. Our results suggest that induction of excessive HIV-1 RNA splicing may be a novel strategy to inhibit virus replication in human patients.
Can Managers Successfully Time the Maturity Structure of Their Debt Issues

This paper shows that, contrary to existing evidence, corporate managers cannot successfully time the maturity of their debt issues to reduce their cost of capital. Our results indicate that the negative correlation between future excess long-term bond returns and the ratio of long-term debt issues to total debt issues is driven by aggregate pseudo market timing. We show that a structural shift in U.S. monetary and fiscal policy during the early 1980s induces a pseudo market timing effect in the in-sample tests of bond return predictability. After accounting for this structural shift, we find no evidence that corporate managers are able to predict future variations in excess long-term bond returns or to strategically choose the maturity of their debt.
A simple, inexpensive method for the salt‐free concentration of proteins for analysis by two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis

A rapid, inexpensive method for the salt-free concentration of small quantities of proteins for analysis by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) has been developed. Proteins adsorbed to diatomaceous earth are subsequently removed using either sodium dodecyl sulfate or urea solubilization reagents for 2D-PAGE analysis. This procedure has been found to concentrate proteins having wide ranges of molecular weight and charge. It is also valuable for the concentration of large numbers of small samples from cells cultured in vitro.
Influence of a husband's healthcare decision making role on a woman's intention to use contraceptives among Mozambican women.

Previous studies in developing countries suggest that a husband plays an influential role in a woman’s contraceptive use. The influence of a husband/partner’s healthcare decision making power on a woman’s intention to use contraceptives in Mozambique has not been studied. The present study examined this relationship using data from the 2011 Mozambique Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), which included a nationally representative sample of 7,022 women aged 15-49 years.
Distinct domains of the Candida albicans adhesin Eap1p mediate cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions.

The adhesion of Candida albicans to host tissues contributes to its virulence, and adhesion to tissues or medical devices is a necessary step in biofilm formation. EAP1 encodes a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored glucan-cross-linked cell wall protein that mediates adhesion of C. albicans to various materials and cells, and appears to be required for C. albicans biofilm formation in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we demonstrated that the Eap1p N-terminal signal peptide and C-terminal GPI-anchor sequences result in similar protein localization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and C. albicans. To investigate the contribution of different Eap1p domains to adhesion, we expressed Eap1p domain deletion mutants in non-adherent S. cerevisiae strains. The N-terminal domain mediates yeast cell–cell adhesion and invasive growth. Two Ser/Thr-rich domains containing tandem repeats were required to project the N-terminal region into the extracellular environment and to mediate adhesion to polystyrene. The N-terminal tandem repeat domain mediated adhesion to mammalian epithelial cells and promoted S. cerevisiae pseudohyphal growth. These results suggest a modular structure of Eap1p in which each domain serves multiple, often distinct, functions.
Shared Task Proposal: Syntactic Paraphrase Ranking

We describe a new shared task on syntactic paraphrase ranking that is intended to run in conjunction with the main surface realization shared task. Taking advantage of the human judgments collected to evaluate the surface realizations produced by competing systems, the task is to automatically rank these realizations---viewed as syntactic paraphrases---in a way that agrees with the human judgments as often as possible. The task is designed to appeal to developers of surface realization systems as well as machine translation evaluation metrics: for surface realization systems, the task sidesteps the thorny issue of converting inputs to a common representation; for MT evaluation metrics, the task provides a challenging framework for advancing automatic evaluation, as many of the paraphrases are expected to be of high quality, differing only in subtle syntactic choices.
Palestinian, Arab, American, Muslim: “Looping Effects” of Categories and Meaning

In this paper I reflect on the power and messiness of identity categories and their meaning. Inspired by the term “looping effects” of philosopher Ian Hacking, I discuss the intricate processes of looping and shifting meanings of categories within and between the realms of the public and the personal. I argue that the notion of looping can contribute to the way we think about the relationship between categories and those being categorized, or in Hacking’s words, the relationship between “names” and “the named.” Due to a wariness of the discursive and linguistic determinism of poststructuralist approaches, I intend to show the intricacy of the “subjective in-between” and the urgency of agency by focusing on one young woman’s unpredictable negotiation of various categories, such as Muslim, American, Palestinian, and Arab, categories placed on her by others as well as herself at different times and in different places. Drawing further on Hacking’s work, the paper also reflects on the ways we as scholars are “making-up” people through the use and promotion of certain categories, and how people categorized embrace and/or resist these in dynamic ways throughout different scales, from public and political spaces to the intimate scale of the personal.
Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell Lymphoma

Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) is a peripheral T-cell lymphoma that is associated with systemic manifestations and involves lymph nodes. The neoplasm is morphologically characterized by a polymorphous infiltrate associated with prominent high endothelial venules and follicular dendritic cell proliferation. The definition of this neoplasm also appears to be in flux and immunophenotypic data are becoming more important in diagnosis.
The Power of 2.5 Million Words.

Today, I am writing for the first time as the new editor of the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing (CJON). It is my honor to assume this role from my colleague and mentor, Deborah K. Mayer, PhD, RN, AOCN, FAAN. For eight years, Deb served as the editor of one of the most widely read journals in oncology nursing, CJON. .
Electronic Structure of Metallic Compounds and Alloys: Experimental Aspects

Publisher Summary The chapter presents a review on the experimental methods for obtaining quantitative information directly relatable to the electronic structure of metallic compounds and disordered alloys, and presents a comparison on the results with theoretical results when the latter are available. There are many measurable quantities which depend on the electronic state; the chapter discusses those experiments that give information that can confront, in a direct way, an energy-band or density-of-states calculation with a significant quantitative test. Electron states in the one-electron approximation are discussed, for it is well known that these states are sufficient to explain many of the observed electronic and optical properties of solids, and because these states are the “zero-order” states upon which any many-body states and phenomena must depend. The chapter explains the ideas behind the experiments, the results which have been obtained, and the comparison of experiment with theory. The chapter presents a brief review only the early, simple models for the electronic structure of alloys and give references to several of the recent theoretical papers, with emphasis on those that are sufficiently close to “reality” ‘(a real alloy system) that quantitative comparison with experiment can be made. The chapter also discusses continually ordered or disordered alloys of a given composition.
A Numerical Solution to Transient Wave Induced Harbor Oscillations Using Boundary Element Technique

A new numerical technique for solution to transient linear long wave induced oscillations is introduced. It is based on the boundary element method, which is well recognized by its numerical efficiency and convenience. Several harbor models are investigated. Advantages of the proposed method as compared to the existing techniques are discussed.
A Micrometer Plunger Adaptation to the Stern-Kirk Microrespirometer

SummaryA Stern-Kirk microrespirometer was provided with a plunger adaptation which obviates the need of prior calibration of volumes of respiration and compensation chambers. By combining interchangeable plungers of different diameters with various available capillary manometer tubes, the range of the instrument can be extended. Use of the instrument in measuring the oxygen uptake of human gingival tissue is described.
Structural requirements for substrate recognition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis 14 alpha-demethylase: implications for sterol biosynthesis.

Sterol 14 alpha-demethylase (14DM) is a cytochrome P-450 involved in sterol biosynthesis in eukaryotes. It was reported that Mycobacterium smegmatis also makes cholesterol and that cholesterol is essential to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT) infection, although the origin of the cholesterol is unknown. A protein product from MT having about 30% sequence identity with eukaryotic 14 alpha-demethylases has been found to convert sterols to their 14-demethyl products indicating that a sterol pathway might exist in MT. To determine the optimal sterol structure recognized by MT 14DM, binding of 28 sterol and sterol-like (triterpenoids) molecules to the purified recombinant 14 alpha-demethylase was examined. Like eukaryotic forms, a 3 beta-hydroxy group and a 14 alpha-methyl group are essential for substrate acceptability by the bacterial 14 alpha-demethylase. The high affinity binding of 31-norcycloartenol without detectable activity indicates that the Delta(8)-bond is required for activity but not for binding. As for plant 14 alpha-demethylases, 31-nor-sterols show a binding preference for MT 14DM. Similar to enzymes from mammals and yeast, a C24-alkyl group is not required for MT 14DM binding and activity, whereas it is for plant 14 alpha-demethylases.Thus, substrate binding to MT 14DM seems to share common features with all eukaryotic 14 alpha-demethylases, the MT form seemingly having the broadest substrate recognition of all forms of 14 alpha-demethylase studied so far. - Bellamine, A., A. T. Mangla, A. L. Dennis, W. D. Nes, and M. R. Waterman. Structural requirements for substrate recognition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis 14 alpha-demethylase: implications for sterol biosynthesis. J. Lipid Res. 2001. 42: 128;-136.
The Politics of Resentment: A Genealogy, by Jeremy Engels

On January 8, 2011, while speaking to constituents in the parking lot of a local mall, Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head. The shooter then fired indiscriminately into th...
In-vitro susceptibility of staphylococci to fleroxacin in comparison withsix other quinolones

Susceptibilities of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA, n = 32), methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA, n = 32), and S. epidermidis (SE, n = 24) were determined to fleroxacin, amifloxacin, ciprofloxacin, difloxacin, enoxacin, norfloxacin, and ofloxacin. All organisms were isolated from the blood of patients with infective endocarditis. MRSA and MSSA MIC90s were less than 1.0 mg/l of fleroxacin, ciprofloxacin, difloxacin, and ofloxacin while amifloxacin and norfloxacin produced MIC90s of less than 2.0 mg/l and enoxacin MIC90s of less than 4.0 mg/l. For S. epidermidis MIC90s were less than 1.0 mg/l of all quinolones except amifloxacin whose MIC90 was less than 2.0 mg/l. Two strains from each staphylococcal group were used in time-kill trials performed with all seven quinolones. Within 8 h, all quinolones colony counts were decreased by one log. At 24 h, most quinolones decreased MRSA, MSSA, and SE colony counts by two to four logs; however, exceptions were found with (1) difloxacin, enoxacin, and norfloxacin against MRSA, (2) ciprofloxacin and enoxacin against MSSA, and (3) ciprofloxacin against SE in which all colony counts increased one to three logs in 24 h. When quinolone time-kill trials did not show a decrease in colony counts at 24 h, the MIC's for the 24 h growth showed a four- to 250-fold increase when compared with pre-trial MICs. No selection or emergence of resistant organisms was found with fleroxacin, amifloxacin or ofloxacin.
Performance of hair breeds and prolific wool breeds of sheep in southern Illinois : wool production and fleece quality

The objective of this study was to compare weight and quality of fleeces of different F 1 ewe types produced from breeds with a broad range of fleece types. Weights of 629 fleeces produced during 1988 through 1991 from F 1 ewes that were daughters of Suffolk and Targhee dams and Finnsheep, Combo-6, Booroola Merino, St. Croix, and Barbados sires were recorded. Staple length was measured on the mid-side of each ewe present in 1991. Fleeces shorn in 1991 were sent to a wool marketing organization, and staple length, wool grade, and clean fleece yield were subjectively estimated (n = 220). Mid-side fleece samples were collected from no more than two randomly selected ewes from each subclass (breed of dam-breed of sire-age of ewe) in 1991 (n = 78) and sent to a wool laboratory where fiber diameter, yield, and percentage of colored, med, and kemp fibers were objectively determined. Ewes from Targhee dams produced fleeces with greater weight, greater fiber length, smaller fiber diameter, lower yield, and fewer colored fibers than ewes from Suffolk dams (all differences significant, P <.01). Booroola Merino-sired ewes produced heavier (P <.01) fleeces than did Finnsheep- and Combo-6-sired ewes (4.13 and 3.09 kg, respectively), and in turn, Finnsheep- and Combo-6-sired ewes produced heavier (P <.01) fleeces than did ewes sired by hair breed rams (3.09 and 1.70 kg, respectively). Among hair breed-sired ewes, St. Croix-sired ewes produced heavier ( P <.01) fleeces than did Barbados-sired ewes (1.88 and 1.52 kg, respectively). Fleeces produced by Booroola Merino-sired ewes had smaller (P <.01) fiber diameter than all sire breed groups except Combo-6-sired ewes, and fleeces produced by St. Croix-sired ewes had greater ( P <.01) fiber diameter than all other sire breed groups. Lab scoured yield was greater (P <.01) for fleeces from ewes from hair breed than for fleeces from ewes from wool breed sires (74.2 vs 66.1%). Proportions of undesirable fibers (med, kemp, and colored) were 20 to 600 times greater (P <.01) in fleeces of ewes from hair breed sires than in fleeces of ewes from wool breed sires. In general, F 1 ewes from Booroola Merino sires produced the heaviest, highest quality fleeces, and ewes from the hair breed sires of St. Croix and Barbados produced the lightest, lowest quality fleeces. Ewes from Finnsheep and Combo-6 sires produced fleeces that were more similar to the fleeces of ewes from Booroola Merino sires than to the fleeces of ewes from the hair breed sires.
An alternative classification of project delivery methods used in the United States building construction industry

Although many sources describe the project delivery methods available to owners, there is little empirical data on their defining characteristics. The objective of this research was to examine patterns in contract arrangements, procurement practices and compensation terms used in the US building construction industry. Survey data were collected for projects completed between 2008 and 2013 (N = 204) from owners and contractors belonging to large US professional organizations. A latent class analysis was used to identify five distinct patterns or ‘classes’ based upon eight characteristics of the project delivery process. These classes were defined as: (I) late builder and trade involvement, with an open, cost-based selection and lump sum contract (9% of projects in sample); (II) late builder and trade involvement, with a prequalified, cost-based selection and lump sum contract (19%); (III) early builder and late trade involvement, with a prequalified non-cost based selection and guaranteed maximum price (GM...
Daily Interpersonal Experience Partially Explains the Association Between Social Rank and Physical Health.

Socioeconomic position is a well-established risk factor for poor physical health. This study examines whether the effects of lower social rank on physical health may be accounted for by differences in daily social experience. In a large community sample (N = 475), we examined whether subjective social rank is associated with self-rated health, in part, through positive and negative perceptions of daily interpersonal interactions, assessed using ecological momentary assessment. Higher social rank was associated with higher average perceived positivity of social interactions in daily life (e.g., B = .18, p < .001), but not with perceived negativity of social interactions. Further, the association between social rank and self-rated physical health was partially accounted for by differences in perceived positivity of social interactions. This effect was independent of well-characterized objective markers of SES and personality traits. Differences in the quality of day-to-day social interactions is a viable pathway linking lower social rank to poorer physical health.
Pulmonary Hypertension: Diagnosis and Treatment

Pulmonary hypertension is a common, complex group of disorders that result from different pathophysiologic mechanisms but are all defined by a mean pulmonary arterial pressure of 25 mm Hg or greater. Patients often initially present to family physicians; however, because the symptoms are typically nonspecific or easily attributable to comorbid conditions, diagnosis can be challenging and requires a stepwise evaluation. There is limited evidence to support screening of asymptomatic individuals. Echocardiography is recommended as the initial step in the evaluation of patients with suspected pulmonary hypertension. A definitive diagnosis cannot be made on echocardiographic abnormalities alone, and some patients require invasive evaluation by right heart catheterization. For certain categories of pulmonary hypertension, particularly pulmonary arterial hypertension, treatment options are rapidly evolving, and early diagnosis and prompt referral to an expert center are critical to ensure the best prognosis. There are no directed therapies for many other categories of pulmonary hypertension; therefore, family physicians have a central role in managing contributing comorbidities. Other important considerations for patients with pulmonary hypertension include influenza and pneumonia immunizations, contraception counseling, preoperative assessment, and mental health.
230. A Novel Gammaretroviral Shuttle Vector Insertional Mutagenesis Screen To Identify Breast Cancer Metastasis Genes

Retroviral insertional mutagenesis screens have been used to efficiently identify genes involved in a wide variety of cancers. Identifying causal driver genes in malignant disease is crucial to develop improved targeted therapies. Here, we have utilized a replication-incompetent gammaretroviral vector to perform a mutagenesis screen to identify genes involved in breast cancer metastasis progression. MDA-MB-231 cells that were mutagenized with a gammaretroviral vector were xenotransplanted into the mammary fat pad of immunodeficient mice, and the primary tumors and metastases allowed to develop. Metastatic tumors were collected and analyzed for proviral integration sites using a shuttle vector rescue approach that allows for rapid rescue of plasmids in E. coli that contain long terminal repeat-chromosomal junctions. In our approach, clones with vector proviruses that dysregulate nearby metastatic driver genes have a selective advantage to form metastatic tumors. The vector provirus acts as a molecular tag to identify candidate dysregulated metastasis driver genes. Using this approach, we identified several candidate breast cancer metastasis genes including WWTR1 (TAZ), a known and recently validated breast cancer metastasis gene. Identifying genes that drive the metastatic process can identify targets for improved therapy.
Repeated mild traumatic brain injuries is not associated with volumetric differences in former high school football players

We investigated potential brain volumetric differences in a sample of former high school football players many years after these injuries. Forty community-dwelling males ages 40-65 who played high school football, but not college or professional sports, were recruited. The experimental group (n = 20) endorsed experiencing two or more mTBIs on an empirically validated mTBI assessment tool (median = 3, range = 2-15). The control group (n = 20) denied ever experiencing an mTBI. Participants completed a self-report index of current mTBI symptomatology and underwent high-resolution T1-weighted MRI scanning, which were analyzed using the Freesurfer software package. A priori regions of interest (ROIs) included total intracranial volume (ICV), total gray matter, total white matter, bilateral anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral hippocampi, and lateral ventricles. ROIs were corrected for head size using a normalization method that took ICV into account. Despite an adequate sample size and being matched on age, education, estimated premorbid IQ, current concussive symptomatology, there were no statistically significant volumetric group differences across all of the ROIs. These data suggest that multiple mTBIs from high school football may not be associated with measurable brain atrophy later in life. Accounting for the severity of injury and chronicity of sport exposure may be especially important when measuring long-term neuroanatomical differences.
Arbitrary waveform modulated pulse EPR at 200GHz

We report here on the implementation of arbitrary waveform generation (AWG) capabilities at ∼200GHz into an Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) and Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) instrument platform operating at 7T. This is achieved with the integration of a 1GHz, 2 channel, digital to analog converter (DAC) board that enables the generation of coherent arbitrary waveforms at Ku-band frequencies with 1ns resolution into an existing architecture of a solid state amplifier multiplier chain (AMC). This allows for the generation of arbitrary phase- and amplitude-modulated waveforms at 200GHz with >150mW power. We find that the non-linearity of the AMC poses significant difficulties in generating amplitude-modulated pulses at 200GHz. We demonstrate that in the power-limited regime of ω1 10MHz) spin manipulation in incoherent (inversion), as well as coherent (echo formation) experiments. Highlights include the improvement by one order of magnitude in inversion bandwidth compared to that of conventional rectangular pulses, as well as a factor of two in improvement in the refocused echo intensity at 200GHz.
A Qualitative Analysis of Patients' Perceptions of Shared Decision Making in the Emergency Department: "Let Me Know I Have a Choice".

Background and objectives Despite increasing attention to the use of shared decision making (SDM) in the emergency department (ED), little is known about ED patients' perspectives regarding this practice. We sought to explore the use of SDM from the perspectives of ED patients, focusing on what affects patients' desired level of involvement and what barriers and facilitators patients find most relevant to their experience. Methods We conducted semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of ED patients or their proxies at two sites. An interview guide was developed from existing literature and expert consensus and based on a framework underscoring the importance of both knowledge and power. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed in an iterative process by a three-person coding team. Emergent themes were identified, discussed, and organized. Results Twenty-nine patients and proxies participated. The mean age of participants was 56 years (range, 20 to 89 years), and 13 were female. Participants were diverse in regard to race/ethnicity, education, number of previous ED visits, and presence of chronic conditions. All participants wanted some degree of involvement in decision making. Participants who made statements suggesting high self-efficacy and those who expressed mistrust of the health care system or previous negative experiences wanted a greater degree of involvement. Facilitators to involvement included familiarity with the decision at hand, physicians' good communication skills, and clearly delineated options. Some participants felt that their own relative lack of knowledge, compared to that of the physicians, made their involvement inappropriate or unwanted. Many participants had no expectation for SDM and although they did want involvement when asked explicitly, they were otherwise likely to defer to physicians without discussion. Many did not recognize opportunities for SDM in their clinical care. Conclusions This exploration of ED patients' perceptions of SDM suggests that most patients want some degree of involvement in medical decision making but more proactive engagement of patients by clinicians is often needed. Further research should examine these issues in a larger and more representative population.
Chip-Firing And A Devil's Staircase

The devil's staircase ― a continuous function on the unit interval $[0,1]$ which is not constant, yet is locally constant on an open dense set ― is the sort of exotic creature a combinatorialist might never expect to encounter in "real life.'' We show how a devil's staircase arises from the combinatorial problem of parallel chip-firing on the complete graph. This staircase helps explain a previously observed "mode locking'' phenomenon, as well as the surprising tendency of parallel chip-firing to find periodic states of small period.
Convergence of Artificial Protein Polymers and Intrinsically Disordered Proteins.

A flurry of research in recent years has revealed the molecular origins of many membraneless organelles to be the liquid phase separation of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). Consequently, protein disorder has emerged as an important driver of intracellular compartmentalization by providing specialized microenvironments chemically distinct from the surrounding medium. Though the importance of protein disorder and its relationship to intracellular phase behavior are clear, a detailed understanding of how such phase behavior can be predicted and controlled remains elusive. While research in IDPs has largely focused on the implications of structural disorder on cellular function and disease, another field, that of artificial protein polymers, has focused on the de novo design of protein polymers with controllable material properties. A subset of these polymers, specifically those derived from structural proteins such as elastin and resilin, are also disordered sequences that undergo liquid–liquid pha...
Characterization of Self-Assembled Monolayers of Genetically Engineered Cytochrome b5

De novo gene synthesis techniques have been used to synthesize mutants of a water-soluble form of the electron transport protein cytochrome b5 in which a unique reactive cysteine group is formed on the water-accessible surface of the protein. This cysteine is used to covalently attach the protein to a silica surface derivatized with a thiol-reactive alkylsilane. The resulting molecular assemblies are characterized by their surface coverage, antigenic activity, contact angles, and Raman spectra. These measurements indicate that organized protein assemblies are obtained with near unity coverage, but which are still relatively porous with respect to water.
Update of the Massachusetts General Hospital Experience of Combined Local Excision and Radiotherapy for Rectal Cancer

Twenty consecutive patients with invasive carcinoma of the low rectum have been treated by local excision through the anus and irradiation. There have been no local failures and no deaths, with a mean follow-up of 47 months. The treatment protocol and selection criteria are described.
1.7 GHz Y-Cut Lithium Niobate MEMS Resonators with FoM of336 andfQ of9.15×10 12

This work presents a new class of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) resonators enabled by Y -cut lithium niobate (LiNb03) thin films. In operation, the devices are excited into the first order antisymmetric (A1) mode vibration. The fabricated MEMS resonator has demonstrated a large effective electromechanical coupling $(\pmb{k}_{\pmb{t}}^{2})$ of 6.3% and a high quality factor (Q) of 5341, hence resulting in an extremely high figure of merit $(\mathbf{FoM}= \pmb{k}_{\pmb{t}}^{2}\cdot \pmb{Q})$ of 336 at 1.7 GHz. Additionally, this work also marks the highest experimental/Q product of $\mathbf{9.15}\times \mathbf{10}^{\mathbf{12}}\mathbf{Hz}$ for state-of-the-art MEMS resonators based on transferred lithium niobate thin films.
The bold, silent type: predictors of ultrasonic vocalizations in the genus Peromyscus

An ongoing question related to the evolution of monogamy is how behavioral traits that characterize individuals in monogamous species evolve, and whether monogamy influences the evolution of these traits. One of the most important models for the study of monogamy in mammals is the California mouse (Peromyscus californicus) that uses ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in multiple behavioral contexts, including pair-bonding and courtship. Because the genus Peromyscus has many species that both use USVs and express a variety of mating systems, we were able to examine the relationship among USVs, and other ecological (e.g., xeric habitat), physiological (testosterone), and behavioral (e.g., boldness) traits across species. We measured USVs from seven species at the Peromyscus Genetic Stock Center and derived character traits associated with the species' ecology, physiology, and behavior from published studies, including those that had used stocks from the Peromyscus Genetic Stock Center. We determined whether there were USV traits that were particular to monogamous species or whether traits other than mating system best predicted USVs. The trait that best predicted USVs was not related to mating system, but rather, species boldness. Bold species produced few aggressive barks (likely a defensive agonistic USV type) at a higher mean fundamental frequency than less bold species. In relation to mating system, the barks in monogamous species were shorter in duration than the barks in non-monogamous species. Our results suggest that boldness of a species has a higher selection on USVs than the species mating system, ecology, or physiology and that selection has acted on agonistic acoustic signals. Because another type of USV, the sustained vocalization or SV type, did not differ among species in spite of mating system differences, and because all species produced bark types, we suggest that the USVs in rodents evolved as general signals that have generally been co-opted for particular functions within the mating system context that differs across species, as opposed to signals that have been shaped by mating system type.
Development and validation of a simplified method to generate human microglia from pluripotent stem cells

Microglia, the principle immune cells of the brain, play important roles in neuronal development, homeostatic function and neurodegenerative disease. Recent genetic studies have further highlighted the importance of microglia in neurodegeneration with the identification of disease risk polymorphisms in many microglial genes. To better understand the role of these genes in microglial biology and disease, we, and others, have developed methods to differentiate microglia from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). While the development of these methods has begun to enable important new studies of microglial biology, labs with little prior stem cell experience have sometimes found it challenging to adopt these complex protocols. Therefore, we have now developed a greatly simplified approach to generate large numbers of highly pure human microglia. iPSCs are first differentiated toward a mesodermal, hematopoietic lineage using commercially available media. Highly pure populations of non-adherent CD43+ hematopoietic progenitors are then simply transferred to media that includes three key cytokines (M-CSF, IL-34, and TGFβ-1) that promote differentiation of homeostatic microglia. This updated approach avoids the prior requirement for hypoxic incubation, complex media formulation, FACS sorting, or co-culture, thereby significantly simplifying human microglial generation. To confirm that the resulting cells are equivalent to previously developed iPSC-microglia, we performed RNA-sequencing, functional testing, and transplantation studies. Our findings reveal that microglia generated via this simplified method are virtually identical to iPS-microglia produced via our previously published approach. To also determine whether a small molecule activator of TGFβ signaling (IDE1) can be used to replace recombinant TGFβ1, further reducing costs, we examined growth kinetics and the transcriptome of cells differentiated with IDE1. These data demonstrate that a microglial cell can indeed be produced using this alternative approach, although transcriptional differences do occur that should be considered. We anticipate that this new and greatly simplified protocol will enable many interested labs, including those with little prior stem cell or flow cytometry experience, to generate and study human iPS-microglia. By combining this method with other advances such as CRISPR-gene editing and xenotransplantation, the field will continue to improve our understanding of microglial biology and their important roles in human development, homeostasis, and disease.
Barriers to natural regeneration in temperate forests across the USA

For millennia, natural disturbance regimes, including anthropogenic fire and hunting practices, have led to forest regeneration patterns that created a diversity of forest lands across the USA. But dramatic changes in climates, invasive species, and human population, and land use have created novel disturbance regimes that are causing challenges to securing desired natural regeneration. Climate is an ever-present background disturbance and determinant of species distribution. Changes in certain other factors such as large herbivore populations, wildfire, and pests modify forest composition and structure, and are common barriers to natural regeneration of desired species. Changes in long-standing disturbance regimes have led to the homogenization of forest landscape composition and structure. Today, forests have low regeneration potential and are low in resilience. They have reduced productivity and are prone to widespread health issues including severe forest mortality. In addition to epidemics of native invasive species due to climate change and availability of habitat at landscape scales, the continued introduction and spread of non-native pests and diseases are causing large-scale forest mortality. These ecological changes have cascading ecological consequences such as increases in severe wildfire, which pose new barriers to natural regeneration. Equally challenging are the barriers to natural regeneration that arise from social, political and economic factors. To address many of these issues requires active management that links all critical stages in the regeneration niche necessary for achieving desired regeneration to sustain forest development and production in a socially acceptable manner and economically viable market system.
Immersion PMUTs Fabricated with a Low Thermal-Budget Surface Micromachining Process

This study presents encapsulated piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs)fabricated by surface micromachining, forming high fill-factor arrays for high transmitting pressure output. The structures were made by the low-temperature processes, and in-situ sealed by SiO2 PECVD reactor in vacuum, and coated by a PDMS layer to have good protection and acoustic impedance matching, resulting in a high mechanical displacement and wide bandwidth for immersion applications. The displacement-frequency measurement shows the bandwidth improvement by a quarter wavelength thickness PDMS coating, which agrees with the simulations. By pulse-echo measurements, a 6⨯6 PMUT array of 0.81 mm2is characterized by 20Vp-p continuous-wave excitation, resulting in 1.3kPa echo receiving and 60% fractional bandwidth with 0.7 mm fluid depth. This study achieves 5X greater transmission efficiency and 2X better receiving bandwidth than the previous work.