cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Floral variation and sexual differentiation in Muntingia calabura (Elaeocarpaceae), a species with hermaphrodite flowers

Although sexual differentiation is usually quite evident in the flowers of andromonoecious, gynomonoecious, monoecious, or sexually dimorphic species, the form and extent of sexual differentiation in plants that bear only hermaphrodite flowers is not clear. It has been suggested for plants which bear only hermaphrodite flowers that all flowers do not fulfill male and female function to the same extent (Willson and Rathke, 1974; Willson, 1979; Lloyd, 1980a; Bawa and Beach, 1981). Here, we show that in a species with apparently only hermaphrodite flowers a considerable amount of sexual differentiation has been achieved through the differential development of stamens and pistils. We discuss the adaptive significance and evolution of this differentiation, and suggest that similar phenomena have been overlooked in other species. There are two principal reasons for studying the problem of floral differentiation in species with only hermaphroditic flowers. First, this may provide insights into the evolution of some poorly understood, but widespread, sexual systems such as andromonoecism, gynomonoecism and monoecism. Second, it may be helpful in interpreting the relative allocation of resources to male and female functions in hermaphrodites; this is interesting not only in its own right, but also in leading to a better understanding of the spread and establishment of the genes controlling male and female sterility which give rise to sexual dimorphism (Charlesworth and Charlesworth, 1981).
Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia management: where do we stand and where are we going?

Commentary on : Holland TL, Arnold C, Fowler VG Jr.. Clinical management of Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia: a review. JAMA 2014;312:1330–41.[OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4] Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of bacteraemia from hospitalised patients in the USA. It is also a very prevalent bacterial pathogen among clinical isolates from outpatients. Despite our technological innovations within and outside of the practice of science and medicine in the past two decades, mortality due to S. aureus bacteremia (SaB) has not changed during this time, remaining at about 20%. The goals of this review were to determine which patients with SaB need transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and to determine the optimal antibiotic regimen. This largely narrative review by Holland and colleagues provides a thorough literature review on the clinical data on which therapeutic and diagnostic standards in … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DJAMA%26rft.volume%253D312%26rft.spage%253D1330%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1001%252Fjama.2014.9743%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F25268440%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1001/jama.2014.9743&link_type=DOI [3]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=25268440&link_type=MED&atom=%2Febmed%2F20%2F4%2F126.atom [4]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000342345400019&link_type=ISI
Cell surface proteins of whole Xenopus embryos identified by radioiodination

We have examined the proteins ofXenopus whole oocytes and embryos that are accessible to surface iodination. These cell surface proteins appear to undergo stagespecific modulation during development. The most pronounced changes were observed between oocytes and the 32-cell stage when the number of labelled proteins doubled, and between early and late gastrula when the complexity declined by two thirds. The simplification of the pattern during gastrulation may reflect changes in cell position as endodermal cells move inside leaving ectodermal cells at the external surface. The lectin binding patterns for NP-40 solubilized proteins extracted from oocytes and embryos also changed in a stage-dependent manner. Con A and WGA recognized a complex pattern of glycoproteins containing glucose and mannose residues. In contrast, SAB and RCA binding to galactose residues recognized far fewer glycoproteins. Many of the observed changes occurred during cleavage stages before embryonic gene transcription is initiated and may be due to post-translational modifications.
Juvenoid Stimulation of Egg Production in Oncopeltus fasciatus1 on Non-Host Diets

During the 30-day period following eclosion, egg production by ♀ milkweed bugs, Oncopeltus fasciatus (Dallas), fed various non-host seeds, i.e., sunflower, walnut, almond, cashew or peanut, ranged from 9–32% of the milkweed-fed controls for mated females and from 0–16% of the controls for virgin females. Treatment with an optimal dose of a juvenoid increased egg production of mated and virgin females fed non-host seeds to as much as 73 and 77% of their respective controls fed milkweed seeds. Juvenoid treatment increased egg production of mated females both reared as nymphs and fed as adults on sunflower seeds from 5–40% of the production of milkweed-fed females. The apparent feeding frequency of juvenoid-treated females on each of the non-host seeds was at least equal to that of females fed milkweed seeds. Both the presence of males and juvenoid treatment of virgin females increased the number of females observed feeding. It is suggested that the capacity of a food plant to stimulate the release of juvenile hormone in adult females is an important criterion for an adequate host. The possibility is raised that applications of juvenoids for insect control may sometimes increase the population of immature stages of target or non-target insects on suboptimal species or varieties of plants.
Clinical analysis of premature infants with complications

Objective To discuss the major clinical complications of premature infants by analyzing the relationship of gestational age,birth weight,high risk pregnancy factors and complications,for clinical diagnosis,treatment and prevention.Methods The medical data of 137 premature infants admitted to Children ' s Hospital of Hebei Province were analyzed retrospectively.The relationship of gestational age,birth body mass and high pregnancy risks and complications were analyzed.Results The main complications were pneumonia,jaundice,apnea,respiratory distress syndrome,asphyxia,intracranial hemorrhage,anemia,hypoglycemia,sepsis,cholestasis,bronchial pulmonary dysplasia,retinopathy of prematurity,necrotizing enterocolitis and others.The complications in the group of gestation 28— 32 weeks and in the group of birth body massl 500 g were significantly higher than those in the group of gestation 32 — 37 weeks and in the group of birth body mass≥1 500 g(P 0.05).The complications in the group of pregnant mothers with high pregnancy risks were higher than those in the group without risk factors(P0.01).Conclusion When the gestational age was smaller and birth body mass was lower,the mortality and the complications were higher.Some high risk pregnancy factors affect the complications of premature infants.Perinatal health care should be strengthened to improve the survival quality of premature infants and reduce the fatality rate.
Insights into the Autoinhibition Mechanism of the Tiam1 Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor

The T-cell lymphoma invasion and metastasis 1 (Tiam1) is a Dbl-family guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) specific for the Rho-family GTPase Rac1. Mutations or aberrant regulation of Tiam1 have been implicated in oncogenic transformation of cells and linked to several kinds of invasive and metastatic forms of cancer. In addition to the C-terminal catalytic Dbl-homology (DH) and pleckstrin homology (PH) bi-domain (DH-PHc), Tiam1 contains several N-terminal protein-protein interaction domains (PHn-CC-Ex, RBD and PDZ) that are thought to contribute to the regulation of its GEF activity through inter-domain interactions. The mechanism for how the Tiam1 GEF function is regulated, however, remains poorly understood. Here, we show that truncation of N-terminal domains activates Tiam1 catalytic GEF function, while addition of the PHn-CC-Ex domain inhibited the catalytic activity of the DH-PHc domain in vitro. In addition, enzymatic kinetics experiments revealed that auto-inhibition of Tiam1 GEF function occurs through a competitive inhibition mechanism whereby the N-terminus decreases the substrate (GTPase Rac1) binding affinity, but does not change the maximum velocity of catalytic activity. We will also present ongoing single-molecule total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) data that characterize the kinetics of binding between Rac1 and the activated DH-PHc and inhibited PHn-PHc fragments. Finally, we derived a structural model for the Tiam1 PHn-PHc fragment based on small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data. The model reveals an auto-inhibited conformation in which the N-terminal PHn-CC-Ex domain and linker regions block access of Rac1 to the catalytic bi-domain. Together, these data elucidate the biochemical and structural mechanisms for Tiam1 GEF regulation.
Centralized reservation signaling based multiple access

An improved multiple access control(MAC)protocol,namely,centralized reservation signaling based multiple access(CRSMA),was proposed in this paper.It was a reservation based protocol utilizing the benefits of piconet coordinator(PNC)used in IEEE 802.15 to eliminate the collision,introduce less control traffic and solve empty channel problem.The performance of CRSMA was analyzed,simulated and compared with carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance(CSMA/CA)used in the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol and its typically improved methods.The analysis and numerical results in the paper prove that CRSMA outperforms both CSMA/CA and most current improved methods in terms of getting a higher throughput and better bandwidth efficiency.
A computer simulation of simultaneous heat and oxygen transport during heterogeneous three dimensional tumor hyperthermia.

The ultimate goal of mathematical modelling and simulation of hyperthermia is the real time prediction of heat application and oxygen supply during therapy to maximize the damage to cancer cells with minimum damage to normal cells. Many mathematical models used for biomedical research are based on the assumption of lumped parameters for normal tissue, tumor, and capillaries (e.g. convection in the commonly used bioheat equation — Strohbehn, 1984). Using hyperthermia alone or with other modelities, such as radiation therapy with hypertensive oxygen (Boerema et al., 1964; Wada and Iwa, 1970) or chemotherapy, it is necessary to use different physical or chemical properties between tumor, normal tissue, and vasculature of the system. Therefore, in order for the mathematical model to be useful for hyperthermia, it is essential to consider the heterogeneities of the biological system.
First Constraints on the Complete Neutrino Mixing Matrix with a Sterile Neutrino.

Neutrino oscillation models involving one extra mass eigenstate beyond the standard three (3+1) are fit to global short baseline experimental data and the recent IceCube ν_{μ}+ν[over ¯]_{μ} disappearance search result. We find a best fit of Δm_{41}^{2}=1.75 eV^{2} with Δχ_{null-min}^{2}/d.o.f. of 50.61/4. We find that the combined IceCube and short baseline data constrain θ_{34} to <80°(<6°) at 90% C.L. for Δm_{41}^{2}≈2(6) eV^{2}, which is improved over present limits. Incorporating the IceCube information provides the first constraints on all entries of the 3+1 mixing matrix.
Electric strength and molecular structure of liquid aliphatic hydrocarbons

In 1951 it was reported by Salvage (1) that the electric strengths of liquid straight-chain aliphatic hydrocarbons, as measured under d.c. conditions between hemispherical electrodes, increased with increase in the chain length of the hydrocarbon molecules. Until that time, a correlation of electrical breakdown of liquids with known molecular properties had been virtually impossible because of inadequate experimental techniques. The measured electric strength of a liquid is well known to be extremely sensitive to electrode shape and surface condition as well as to the presence of suspended foreign bodies in the liquid itself. Unless a concentrated effort is made to eliminate such complicating factors, the results obtained are usually highly scattered and unreliable.
Writing Clearly: What I Teach May Be Hazardous to Your Wallet

I am a hypocrite. I passionately believe in teaching law students to write in plain language. That is how I earn my living. But sometimes I consider ignoring my own advice because writing in plain language generally produces documents that are more concise than those that contain overly elaborate language and legalese. And shorter documents do not always further my economic best interest — either in law practice or in academia. The question is: Do I have a duty to warn my students that this could happen to them?
Application of Fuzzy Rule Extraction to Minimize the Costs of Misclassification on Software Quality Modeling

Today’s modern world has become highly dependent on computers, even on a daily basis. The dependability and functionality of many systems rely on computers, especially its software systems. Consequently, high software quality and reliability is crucial to software developers, software users, and society in general. This is because poor software quality can threaten safety, risk a company’s business, or alienate potential customers. It is not advisable to wait until a product’s release to consider its software quality, because it may be too late to significantly improve the system.
Law and Economics

When it is costly to transact, the role of institutions surfaces very prominently. Institutions are composed of legal regimes, rules and standards, conventions and informal traditions, and enforcement features (North, 1992). This generalized view of enforcement allows a combination of legal and informal enforcement mechanisms to establish and sustain different sets of property rights. Institutional features and property rights affect the efficiency of markets and overall economic performance. The role of law and the need for an ‘efficient’ legal system as a prerequisite for the minimization of transaction costs (TC) in modern societies deserves particular emphasis, however.
James and Dolley Madison: America's First Power Couple. By Bruce Chadwick. (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2014. Pp. 450. $24.95.)

There have been quite a few biographies of America's Founding Fathers over the past decade. This volume joins them with a joint biography of a president and his wife—James Madison and Dolley Payne ...
Editorial: Why Performance as Research?

In this letter from the editors of PARtake we approach the question: Why Performance as Research? The intention of this piece of writing is to open up a continuing conversation about methodology and validity of PAR in the United States and worldwide. We hope to invite practitioners and scholars to engage in the terminology of the scholartist.
Bone endoscopy : direct visual confirmation of cannulated screw placement in slipped capital femoral epiphysis

Intraosseous endoscopic examination of the femoral neck and head was performed during the course of percutaneous screw fixation in 12 patients with slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE). Visualization was satisfactory in 13 hips of these patients. We were able to distinguish trabecular bone and physeal cartilage endoscopically. Evidence of articular penetration was documented endoscopically in two patients. One patient had been referred for persistent hip pain and chondrolysis 6 months after screw insertion. Chronic joint penetration was observed endoscopically at the time of revision operation. In the second patient, transient pin penetration was visualized during cannulated screw fixation of a severe slip.
It's What They Do, Not What They Say: How to Infer the Stabilization Objectives of a Central Bank

I rst visited the Graduate Institute of International Studies in 1982. Alexander Swoboda and Hans Genberg had been awarded a Swiss National Science Foundation grant to study the e¤ect on Switzerland of foreign economic shocks. Alexander and Hans planned to undertake a statistical analysis using Vector Autoregressions and needed a project overseer. They had originally recruited Richard Meese but, late in the Spring, Meese discovered that he could not come. It thus happened that I received a "cold call" one April evening asking me to join the research team. My immediate reaction was that it was too late to ask for a leave. Teaching assignments had been set and the market for visitors concluded. But, as I told Hans, the opportunity was too good for me to assume that a leave could not be arranged. And so, expecting the worst, I made an appointment to see my department chair. Sometimes the gods smile. My department chair agreed that the opportunity was too good to pass up. And so, family in tow, I arrived in Geneva the following August to begin a personal and academic adventure that has provided rich opportunities and a lots fun from then until today. The project went well. Alexander, Hans and I were able to publish its ndings (Genberg, Salemi and Swoboda, 1983 and 1985). Good things led to others and within a couple of years we began to study Swiss monetary policy. In particular, we were interested in whether a formal analysis would con rm conventional wisdom that the Swiss National Bank (SNB) was an "ination hawk." The claim was not obviously true since estimates of the SNB reaction
MEDICI: Mining Essentiality Data to Identify Critical Interactions for Cancer Drug Target Discovery and Development

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) mediate the transmission and regulation of oncogenic signals that are essential to cellular proliferation and survival, and thus represent potential targets for anti-cancer therapeutic discovery. Despite their significance, there is no method to experimentally disrupt and interrogate the essentiality of individual endogenous PPIs. The ability to computationally predict or infer PPI essentiality would help prioritize PPIs for drug discovery and help advance understanding of cancer biology. Here we introduce a computational method (MEDICI) to predict PPI essentiality by combining gene knockdown studies with network models of protein interaction pathways in an analytic framework. Our method uses network topology to model how gene silencing can disrupt PPIs, relating the unknown essentialities of individual PPIs to experimentally observed protein essentialities. This model is then deconvolved to recover the unknown essentialities of individual PPIs. We demonstrate the validity of our approach via prediction of sensitivities to compounds based on PPI essentiality and differences in essentiality based on genetic mutations. We further show that lung cancer patients have improved overall survival when specific PPIs are no longer present, suggesting that these PPIs may be potentially new targets for therapeutic development. Software is freely available at https://github.com/cooperlab/MEDICI. Datasets are available at https://ctd2.nci.nih.gov/dataPortal.
Outline of Logistics and Supply Chain Management

This paper gives in depth knowledge of what happens in logistics and supply chain industry and how it works. The complete understanding of theory and work that is carried out in the supply chain process and the innovations made. The paper gives details about how transportation, time and raw material form the basic part of supply chain industry and its importance to carry out the process within decided time. The data focusses on the inventory, transportation details and timely delivery of the final product to the clients. This model is used to carry out the product delivery to the customers all over the world in good condition and in the stipulated time span. The topic gives a brief idea of how supply chain works and how the products are transferred to their respective destinations.
Recurrent and congenital tracheoesophageal fistula in adults.

Objectives Recurrent congenital tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF) is well documented in infancy but may also present later in life. This study reviews our experience with the clinical presentation, diagnosis and management of 5 recurrent and 2 primary congenital tracheoesophageal fistulas (TEF) in adult patients. There are no literature series of late recurrence of TEF (repaired in childhood and recurring in adulthood) and relatively few reported cases of initial adult presentation of TEF. In this series, we aim to provide the first large series description of late recurrence of congenital TEF following repair in infancy or childhood. We also present management considerations for this unique group of patients. Methods We performed a computer-based search of the adult thoracic surgery departmental operative database at our institution from 2002 to 2014. Patients with iatrogenic TEF or malignant TEF were excluded. Results Seven patients are included in our series. Five patients (71%) had recurrent congenital TEF and 2 (29%) had initial diagnosis of congenital TEF. All presented with severe coughing symptoms, and most (86%) had a history of recurrent aspiration pneumonia. Repair technique was dictated by the location of the TEF and the specific tracheoesophageal pathology. Four patients underwent repair via cervical approach with or without a tracheal resection. Three patients with distal recurrence underwent repair via right thoracotomy with partial oesophagectomy for significant tissue compromise and cervical reconstruction. Patients were followed for at least 1 year. All 7 patients experienced full resolution of symptoms. One patient required postoperative placement of a retrievable tracheal stent for tracheomalacia. There were no mortalities. Conclusions Adult presentation of congenital TEF is a rare but recognizable clinical entity. Recurrent TEF in adulthood is a possible late complication of TEF repair performed in childhood that has not previously been described. Adult patients experiencing symptoms of cough and recurrent aspiration pneumonia should be evaluated for congenital TEF. Surgical repair of congenital TEF in the adult is feasible and effective with acceptable morbidity.
Abstract 13097: Novel Interaction of Antioxidant-1 With NADPH Oxidase p47phox and TRAF4: Role in TNFα-Induced Inflammation and Atherosclerosis

Tumor necrosis factor-TNFα plays a key role in atherosclerosis via NADPH oxidase-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) and its downstream redox-sensitive inflammatory responses. Copper (Cu) has been implicated in atherosclerosis and inflammation with unknown mechanism. Bioavailability of Cu is controlled by transport-proteins including Cu-chaperone Atox1 which obtains Cu via Cu-importer CTR1 localized at plasma membrane. We recently found that Atox1 also functions as a Cu-dependent transcription factor for NADPH oxidase p47phox. However, role of Atox1 in atherosclerosis is unknown. Here we show that ApoE-/-Atox1-/- mice with 16 weeks high-fat-diet (HFD) showed decreased atherosclerotic lesion (40%, Oil-O-red staining). inflammatory cell recruitment (50% decrease, Mac3+) and extracellular matrix deposition (Masson’s Trichrome) compared to ApoE-/-HFD. Mechanistically, in cultured endothelial cells (ECs), Atox1 knockdown with siRNA, or Cu-chelator BCS inhibited TNFα-induced ROS production (70%) at later phase (16hrs) and its downstream VCAM1/ICAM1 expression and monocyte adhesion by reducing transcription of p47phox. Unexpectedly, TNFα stimulation rapidly promoted Atox1/p47phox binding in a PKCδ-dependent and Cu-“independent” manner, which is required for p47phox membrane translocation involved in early phase of (5min) ROS production and subsequent Cys oxidation of Cu-importer CTR1 detected by a biotin-labeled Cys-OH trapping reagent. This was followed by CTR1/Cu-dependent Atox1 binding to TNFα receptor associated factor (TRAF)4, which promoted Atox1 nuclear translocation to increase p47phox expression leading to late-phase of ROS production, facilitating further monocyte adhesion to ECs. In summary, Atox1 plays an important role in activating p47phox-based NADPH oxidase and inflammatory responses in ECs by binding to p47phox that induces early phase of ROS to promote CTR1 oxidation in Cu-independent manner. This is followed by Cu-dependent Atox1/TRAF4 binding required for Atox1 nuclear translocation to function as a transcription factor for p47phox, leading to late-phase of ROS production, which contributes to acceleration of atherosclerosis in vivo.
A parallel framework for a multipoint flux mixed finite element equation of state compositional flow simulator

Mathematical models of physical problems are becoming increasingly complex and computationally intensive. At the same time, computing hardware is becoming more parallelized with an increasing number of cores promoting simultaneous tasks. In this work, we present a parallel, equation of state (EOS), compositional flow simulator for evaluating CO2 sequestration, enhanced oil recovery techniques such as gas flooding, and other subsurface porous media applications. Using the multipoint flux mixed finite element (MFMFE) method for spatial discretization, it can handle complex reservoir geometries using general distorted hexahedral grid elements, as well as satisfy local mass conservation and compute accurate phase fluxes. A parallel framework for the MFMFE is presented that has been extended to the highly non-linear, EOS, compositional flow model. Much of the non-linearity is due to the local flash and stability calculations associated with interphase mass transfer and phase behavior. Parallel multigrid linear solver libraries such as HYPRE are utilized to solve the algebraic problems on each Newton step. We perform a variety of strong and weak parallel scaling studies up to 10 million elements and 1024 processors, and discuss possible load balancing issues.
Benchmarking heart rate variability toolboxes

Abstract Background Heart rate variability (HRV) metrics hold promise as potential indicators for autonomic function, prediction of adverse cardiovascular outcomes, psychophysiological status, and general wellness. Although the investigation of HRV has been prevalent for several decades, the methods used for preprocessing, windowing, and choosing appropriate parameters lack consensus among academic and clinical investigators. Methods A comprehensive and open-source modular program is presented for calculating HRV implemented in Matlab with evidence-based algorithms and output formats. We compare our software with another widely used HRV toolbox written in C and available through PhysioNet.org. Results Our findings show substantially similar results when using high quality electrocardiograms (ECG) free from arrhythmias. Conclusions Our software shows equivalent performance alongside an established predecessor and includes validated tools for performing preprocessing, signal quality, and arrhythmia detection to help provide standardization and repeatability in the field, leading to fewer errors in the presence of noise or arrhythmias.
Battles, Barrels and Belonging: Turkey and its Black Sea Neighbors

Turkey’s relations with its Black Sea neighbors are a product of both historical antecedents and future perspectives, of state-to-state ties and of Turkey's perception of itself as an “energy hub.” While domestic factors drive important parts of Turkey’s policy toward this region, powerful external actors, including the United States, the EU and especially Russia are key factors in understanding the dynamics of Turkey’s relations with this part of its neighborhood.
Event Engineering: Urban Planning for Olympics and World’s Fairs

The Olympics and World’s Fairs are complex economic, political, and planning events that combine decisions about a short-term festival with long-term land use management. While the public focuses on the glamour of a celebration, the event itself can obscure the many significant local and regional planning initiatives that can be accomplished using the Olympics and World’s Fairs as a vehicle. Many of the public spaces that grace cities today are remnants of past events, such as stadiums, new public transit systems, and landmarks such as the Champ de Mars and Eiffel Tower in Paris or Seattle’s Space Needle. While these events historically were celebrations of sports, science and technology, more recently they have also been driven by local desires to elevate the global standing of cities and make major investments in infrastructure and urban redevelopment. This paper will address the urban/regional, political, economic, and planning contexts for the Olympics and World’s Fairs. Emphasis will be placed on the political economy of decision making around these events, and the impact of major development on the host neighborhoods, cities and regions.
Occupational Health Hazards: Management and Labor in a Vital Interaction

Occupational health hazards pose a separate set of problems from those related to finding a health care provider or selecting a system of care. At the ends of the spectrum, occupational health hazards are either acute and obvious, demanding nothing short of immediate and intense effort to remove them from the workplace, or entirely unsuspected, leaving little to be done. Between the two extremes lies a large and growing grey area that challenges traditional assumptions about roles and responsibilities in the interactions between management and labor. The wide middle of the spectrum is the focus of this chapter; the ambiguity of the risks makes effective communication vital—and difficult. Together with pressures created by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct) of 1970 and with scientific findings at the tip of a possibly massive iceberg, the social movements toward self-determination discussed in the previous three chapters are accelerating demands within industry for better communication about occupational health hazards.
Gibbs free-energy differences between polymorphs via a diabat approach

Polymorph free-energy differences are critical to several applications. A recently proposed diabat interpolation framework estimated free-energy differences between polymorphs by quadratic interpolation of diabats. This work extends the Zwanzig-Bennett relation to the NPT ensemble so that the diabats directly give Gibbs free-energy differences. We also demonstrate how the approach can be used in cases where the diabats are not parabolic. We illustrate the diabat method for Gibbs free-energy difference of zirconium (BCC and HCP phases) and compare it with the conventional lattice switch Monte Carlo approach.
“Printed in the seventh year of the authors oppression”: debt, imprisonment, and the radicalization of Henry Adis

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the prison writings of Henry Adis. Writing from prison in the mid-seventeenth century, Adis rejects the status quo of the changing political regimes and develops a radic...
Suggestions on executive education pedagogy approaches

Universities are increasingly offering executive education courses (Lubeck et al., 2016). It is not uncommon for executive clients seeking such education to desire substantial control of course content. An important part of the course content in executive education is the pedagogy selected by educators for their students. Executive education research has shown aligning executive education content to the needs of business organisations is an essential ingredient for successful executive education programs. To implement a customer or client focused strategy, faculty and administrators should learn what type of pedagogy executives prefer for these courses. A survey of 218 executives who had taken executive education courses at universities was used to collect preferential information as a basis for an empirical analysis to answer two research questions: 1) Is the current use of pedagogical approaches in university executive education consistent with the preferences of executives?; 2) What specific executive educational pedagogical approaches are currently preferred by executives?
Organic Realism in Middlemarch

In Middlemarch, George Eliot’s narrative focuses on the way her characters experience their physical presence in the world. Research is based on George Henry Lewes’s findings that “the processes of the nervous system both affect and are affected by human thought and action” (Problems of Life and Mind, II, 459). The idea of a non-rational, atomistic basis for human behavior can explain narrative endings of some main characters in the novel, as they make ad hoc decisions based on their neural sensations. The aesthetic of organic realism Eliot develops at the time of writing Middlemarch is based on an experiential truth found in the material world at the molecular level of the human body’s nerve tissue.
Temperature and oxygen partial pressure dependencies of the coal-bound nitrogen to NOx conversion in O2/CO2 environments

Abstract This is an experimental and numerical study aiming to assess the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from combustion of bituminous and lignite coals in O2/CO2 environments, simulating one-pass dry oxy-combustion conditions, and to investigate the influences of temperature and oxygen partial pressure on such emissions. Combustion of coal particles and, separately, coal char particles, both in the size range of 75–90 µm, were conducted under globally fuel-lean conditions in a laboratory electrically-heated drop-tube furnace (DTF). The emissions of nitrogen oxides were correlated with separately-observed single particle volatile flame and char temperatures, deduced with multi-color optical pyrometry. As atmospheric nitrogen was absent in these experiments, the entirety of the monitored NOx was attributed to the oxidation of fuel-bound nitrogen. Experiments were conducted by separately increasing the furnace temperature or the oxygen mole fraction in the gas. Results showed that nitrogen oxide fractions in the combustion effluents increased both with increasing partial pressure of oxygen in the background gas (from 21% to 40%) and with increasing furnace temperature (from 1300 to 1500 K). As increasing either of these two parameters increases the particle temperatures (both volatile flame and char) it was hypothesized that the NOx evolution is a function of these particle temperatures. To further investigate such hypothesis a published kinetic model was used, which assumes that the coal-bound nitrogen (a) converts mostly to hydrogen cyanide and then to NO during the volatile combustion phase, and (b) converts directly to NO during the char combustion phase. Flow tube and flame simulations were performed using Cantera to investigate the relative impacts of temperature and oxygen mole fraction, and to understand the causes of the observed trends. Results support the hypothesis that the evolution of NO from fuel-bound nitrogen is a strong function of the particle volatile matter temperature.
Genome-scale profiling reveals higher proportions of phylogenetic signal in non-coding data

Accurate estimates of species relationships are integral to our understanding of evolution, yet many relationships remain controversial despite whole-genome sequence data. These controversies are due in part to complex patterns of phylogenetic and non-phylogenetic signal coming from regions of the genome experiencing distinct evolutionary forces, which can be difficult to disentangle. Here we profile the amounts and proportions of phylogenetic and non-phylogenetic signal derived from loci spread across mammalian genomes. We identified orthologous sequences from primates, rodents, and pecora, annotated sites as one or more of nine locus types (e.g. coding, intronic, intergenic), and profiled the phylogenetic information contained within locus types across evolutionary timescales associated with each clade. In all cases, non-coding loci provided more overall signal and a higher proportion of phylogenetic signal compared to coding loci. This suggests potential benefits if perspectives are altered away from primarily targeting genes or coding regions for phylogenetic studies, particularly in this era of accessible whole genome sequence data. In contrast to long-held assumptions about the phylogenetic utility of more variable genomic regions, most locus types provided relatively consistent phylogenetic information across timescales, although we find evidence that coding and intronic regions may, respectively and to a limited degree, inform disproportionately about older and younger splits. As part of this work we also validate the SISRS pipeline as an annotation-free ortholog discovery pipeline capable of identifying millions of phylogenetically informative sites directly from raw sequencing reads.
Containing the rising cost of insulin: select policy recommendations

Abstract Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects over 30 million people in the United States. Of these, approximately 7.4 million use one or more formulations of insulin to manage their condition. There is a significant financial burden on diabetic individuals, as the price of insulin keeps increasing each year. Such consistent and drastic increases in the price of insulin are due to the complexities in the insulin supply chain, pricing mechanisms particularly due to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and the dominance of a few insulin manufacturers in the market. This policy analysis has been undertaken independently and is based on information from peer-reviewed journals, government organizations and agencies, and credible news sources. Politicians and various stakeholders in the supply chain have made several policy recommendations on the pricing of insulin. From the data and information collected, we suggest basing a patient's co-payment on the net price instead of the list price of insulin, and that there should be real-time transparency in the negotiations between PBMs and pharmaceutical companies on rebates.
High-Entropy Perovskite Fluorides: A New Platform for Oxygen Evolution Catalysis

High-entropy perovskite fluorides (HEPFs) have great potential in electrocatalysis that has not been realized because of the limitation of a high-temperature synthetic route and the limited understanding of high-entropy materials. The use of HEPFs in effective oxygen evolution catalysis and a feasible synthesis route for HEPFs in a boiled solution by combining a hydrothermal method with mechanochemistry are first reported here. These HEPFs consisting of cost-effective elements dramatically gave excellent catalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction in an alkaline media.
Wearable Microphone Jamming

We engineered a wearable microphone jammer that is capable of disabling microphones in its user's surroundings, including hidden microphones. Our device is based on a recent exploit that leverages the fact that when exposed to ultrasonic noise, commodity microphones will leak the noise into the audible range. Unfortunately, ultrasonic jammers are built from multiple transducers and therefore exhibit blind spots, i.e., locations in which transducers destructively interfere and where a microphone cannot be jammed. To solve this, our device exploits a synergy between ultrasonic jamming and the naturally occur- ring movements that users induce on their wearable devices (e.g., bracelets) as they gesture or walk. We demonstrate that these movements can blur jamming blind spots and increase jamming coverage. Moreover, current jammers are also directional, requiring users to point the jammer to a microphone; instead, our wearable bracelet is built in a ring-layout that al- lows it to jam in multiple directions. This is beneficial in that it allows our jammer to protect against microphones hidden out of sight. We evaluated our jammer in a series of experiments and found that: (1) it jams in all directions, e.g., our device jams over 87% of the words uttered around it in any direction, while existing devices jam only 30% when not pointed directly at the microphone; (2) it exhibits significantly less blind spots; and, (3) our device induced a feeling of privacy to participants of our user study. We believe our wearable provides stronger privacy in a world in which most devices are constantly eavesdropping on our conversations.
With Over 60 Independent Losses, Stomata Are Expendable in Mosses

Because stomata in bryophytes are uniquely located on sporangia, the physiological and evolutionary constraints placed on bryophyte stomata are fundamentally different from those on leaves of tracheophytes. Although losses of stomata have been documented in mosses, the extent to which this evolutionary process occurred remains relatively unexplored. We initiated this study by plotting the known occurrences of stomata loss and numbers per capsule on the most recent moss phylogeny. From this, we identified 40 families and 74 genera that lack stomata, of which at least 63 are independent losses. No trends in stomata losses or numbers are evident in any direction across moss diversity. Extant taxa in early divergent moss lineages either lack stomata or produce pseudostomata that do not form pores. The earliest land plant macrofossils from 400 ma exhibit similar sporangial morphologies and stomatal distribution to extant mosses, suggesting that the earliest mosses may have possessed and lost stomata as is common in the group. To understand why stomata are expendable in mosses, we conducted comparative anatomical studies on a range of mosses with and without stomata. We compared the anatomy of stomate and astomate taxa and the development of intercellular spaces, including substomatal cavities, across mosses. Two types of intercellular spaces that develop differently are seen in peristomate mosses, those associated with stomata and those that surround the spore sac. Capsule architecture in astomate mosses ranges from solid in the taxa in early divergent lineages to containing an internal space that is directly connected to the conducing tissue and is involved in capsule expansion and the nourishment, hydration and development of spores. This anatomy reveals there are different architectural arrangements of tissues within moss capsules that are equally effective in accomplishing the essential processes of sporogenesis and spore dispersal. Stomata are not foundational to these processes.
Precrastination and individual differences in working memory capacity

When ordering tasks, people tend to first perform the task that can be started or completed sooner (precrastination) even if it requires more physical effort. Evidence from transport tasks suggests that precrastination can reduce cognitive effort and will likely not occur if it increases cognitive effort. However, some individuals precrastinate even when it increases cognitive effort. We examined whether individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) influence this suboptimal choice. Participants retrieved two cups of water along a corridor, in the order of their choosing. We measured the frequency of choosing the close cup first (precrastination) while varying water levels in each cup (attention demand) located at different distances. Results showed that the tendency to select the far cup first (avoid precrastination) increases when the close cup is full (high attention demand) vs. not full (low attention demand). Post-hoc results showed high (vs. low) WMC individuals more frequently bypass decisions with relatively higher costs of cognitive effort, avoiding precrastination when the attentional demand of carrying the close (vs. far) cup is relatively high (close-cup full and far-cup half full), but not when it is relatively low (far-cup full). However, there was no evidence that WMC could explain why some individuals always precrastinated, at costs of cognitive effort. Instead, individuals who always precrastinated reported automatic behavior, and those who avoided precrastinating reported decisions of efficiency. Learning, the relationship between precrastination and tendencies to enjoy/engage in thinking or procrastinate, and evidence that precrastination required more cognitive effort in our task, are discussed.
584 Therapeutic vascular normalization to promote tumor-associated tertiary lymphoid structures

Background Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) are non-encapsulated immune cell aggregates that form at sites of chronic inflammation, including in and around tumors. Recent studies have shown that the presence of TLS in human tumors is an indicator of positive clinical outcome. However, due to dysregulated angiogenesis, many tumors have a poorly-organized and leaky vasculature that impedes entry of immune effector cells into tumors and consequently, TLS formation. It has been shown in pre-clinical studies that low doses of antiangiogenic agents normalize the tumor vasculature, leading us to hypothesize that treating tumors with low-doses (well below drug MTD) of vascular normalizing (VN) therapies will improve immune cell infiltration and TLS formation within the tumor microenvironment (TME). Methods To test this hypothesis, melanoma-bearing mice were treated intratumorally with VN agents. Five days post-treatment, tumors were digested into single cell suspensions and RNA was isolated and used for RT-PCR. Transcript levels of TLS-promoting factors (CCL19, CCL21, CXCL13) and markers of vascular normalization (HIF1A, GLUT1) and inflammation/immune cell infiltration (CXCL10, VCAM1, CD8A) were measured and compared to PBS treated controls. Changes in tumor vasculature were evaluated using immunofluorescence microscopy (IFM) of tumor sections stained with CD31, PNAd, and PDGFRβ. Fluorescently-labeled lectin was injected into the mice to observe tumor perfusion. TLS formation was evaluated in tumor sections using IFM, with TLS being defined as PNAd+ vessels surrounded by clusters of CD45+ cells. Results We observed that the VN agents dasatinib, STING agonist, bevacizumab, and agonist anti-TNFR1 antibody each induced global changes in the TME that are consistent with enhanced immune cell infiltration and TLS formation. These changes include increases in expression of CCL19, CCL21, and VCAM1. Dasatinib and STING agonists were shown to promote VN, as demonstrated by improved lectin perfusion into the tumor and increased pericyte coverage of blood vessels on-treatment. Conclusions VN agents induce global changes in immune cell infiltration and TLS-promoting factors in the TME. In vivo, these agents induce VN in the TME and promote TLS formation. This knowledge can be used to develop optimal combination immunotherapy designs in the cancer setting.
Best Practices for Noise-Based Augmentation to Improve the Performance of Emotion Recognition "In the Wild".

Emotion recognition as a key component of high-stake downstream applications has been shown to be effective, such as classroom engagement or mental health assessments. These systems are generally trained on small datasets collected in single laboratory environments, and hence falter when tested on data that has different noise characteristics. Multiple noise-based data augmentation approaches have been proposed to counteract this challenge in other speech domains. But, unlike speech recognition and speaker verification, in emotion recognition, noise-based data augmentation may change the underlying label of the original emotional sample. In this work, we generate realistic noisy samples of a well known emotion dataset (IEMOCAP) using multiple categories of environmental and synthetic noise. We evaluate how both human and machine emotion perception changes when noise is introduced. We find that some commonly used augmentation techniques for emotion recognition significantly change human perception, which may lead to unreliable evaluation metrics such as evaluating efficiency of adversarial attack. We also find that the trained state-of-the-art emotion recognition models fail to classify unseen noise-augmented samples, even when trained on noise augmented datasets. This finding demonstrates the brittleness of these systems in real-world conditions. We propose a set of recommendations for noise-based augmentation of emotion datasets and for how to deploy these emotion recognition systems "in the wild".