cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A NEW LOPHODERMELLA ON PINUS PONDEROSA AND P. ATTENUATA

SUMMARY Lophodermella morbida, an aggressive pathogen of pine foliage, is described. It has been collected from northern California, Oregon, and Washington locations west of the Cascade crest. Evidence suggests the fungus is endemic and limited to environments having moist, moderate climates. A strongly pathogenic hypodermataceous fungus was observed in 1967 on foliage of Pinus ponderosa Laws. and P. attenuata Lemm. (1). Three sets of characters each clearly set this fungus apart as a new species: the color, habit, and subhypodermal position of the ascocarps within host tissues; the dimensions of the asci and ascospores; and the associated applanate subhypodermal pycnidia. In dried, fully mature specimens the ascocarp is only slightly lighter brown than is typical of the almost black (but brown in section) color of several Davisomycella species. The pycnidia, except for their subhypodermal position, also resemble those of several Davisomycellae. Immature ascocarps of the fungus are concolorous, however, gradually becoming brown with maturity. In habit and range of coloration at maturity, the ascocarps of fresh specimens resemble those of Lophodermella montivaga Petr. The fungus also resembles L. montivaga in its
Viruses, Mark Thy Message Well

Post-transcriptional m6A methylation of RNA has profound effects on RNA splicing, export, stability, and translation. A recent study by Lichinchi et al. (2016) and one in this issue of Cell Host & Microbe by Kennedy et al. (2016) demonstrate that HIV mRNA is extensively m6A methylated, which promotes efficient virus replication.
“What They Think of the Causes of So Much Suffering”: S. Weir Mitchell, John Kearsley Mitchell, and Ideas about Phantom Limb Pain in Late 19th c. America

This paper analyzes S. Weir Mitchell and his son John Kearsley Mitchell’s views on phantom limb pain in late 19th c. America. Drawing on a variety of primary sources including journal articles, letters, and treatises, the paper pioneers analysis of a cache of surveys sent out by the Mitchells that contain amputee Civil War veterans’ own narratives of phantom limb pain. The paper utilizes an approach drawn from the history of ideas, documenting how changing models of medicine and objectivity help explain the Mitchells’s attitudes, practices, and beliefs regarding the enigma of phantom limb pain as experienced by their patients. The paper also assesses concerns over malingering, pain, authenticity, and deception through these intellectual frameworks of somaticism and mechanical objectivity. The paper concludes that much of relevance to the ways in which the Mitchells and other late 19th c. neurologists regarded and treated their patients’ pain is explicable in terms of the larger intellectual frameworks that structured these healers’ ideas about lesionless pain.
The Acidosis-Induced Slowing of Regulated Thin Filament Velocity in a Motility Assay Disappears at Low ATP

Acidosis (low pH) is a putative agent of muscle fatigue that slows contraction velocity but the mechanisms underlying this effect are unclear. It may directly affect myosin by slowing a step associated with detachment or it may act indirectly by affecting the ability of Ca++ to activate the thin filament, through effects on the regulatory proteins troponin/tropmyosin. We measured the effect of manipulating Ca++ and the lifetime rigor binding (by lowering the [ATP]) to examine the relative role of each of these mechanisms. At saturating Ca++ (pCa 4) and ATP concentrations (1mM) decreasing the pH from 7.4 to 6.8 decreased regulated actin filament velocity (Vrtf) by 50%, however at low [ATP] (<200 μM) Vrtf was unaffected by acidosis. Repeating these experiments in the absence of Ca++ (pCa 9) confirmed the phenomenon of rigor activation at normal pH (7.4), with filaments moving fastest at 50 μM ATP (0.5 μm/s). At low pH the filaments moved slower but still demonstrated rigor activation at [ATP] <75 μM. Single molecule laser trap assay experiments are under way to determine whether the slowed velocity was due slowed attachment or detachment kinetics. The acidosis-induced decrease in Vrtf at saturating Ca++ and ATP are consistent with a slowing of the steps in the cross-bridge cycle associated with ADP-release. However this effect disappears at low ATP where the attached lifetime is more dependent on the duration of rigor. Therefore the data suggest that acidosis does not affect the formation of a rigor bond or its ability to activate the thin filament. Inhibition of Ca++ binding to troponin might still contribute to slowing at saturating ATP and submaximal Ca++ levels.
Geriatric Gastroenterology: The Geriatrician’s Perspective

Aging trends confirm a population with longer life expectancy, many living to be octogenarians and centenarians. This group differs in that it has a greater likelihood for functional and cognitive disorders and additional comorbidity. With this background, the specialist including the gastroenterologist must adopt an approach that differs from that to the young patient; one can anticipate difficulties in preparing for a diagnostic procedure and comprehending the purpose for diagnostic testing or management. Physiological age must be given importance over chronological age; the ultimate goal should be restoration of functional status where possible, understanding risks involved, adherence to the patient’s wishes and keeping quality of life foremost in mind.
Erasing logic-memory boundaries in superconductor electronics

Superconductor electronics holds records for clock frequency and energy efficiency at the chip level, and is also projected to large systems that can absorb the cooling overhead. These advantages have nevertheless only managed to give this technology a back seat to CMOS digital circuits, which offer orders of magnitude more complexity. Furthermore, pursuing the CMOS paradigm with superconductor circuits would bring their clock frequency down to that of CMOS circuits. This makes superconductor technology much more open to risky innovations and even for paradigm changes. In the paper we point out that both (speed and energy efficiency) advantages of superconductor electronics could be preserved due to a unique composition of memory and logic functions of RSFQ cells. We propose to reorganize the original RSFQ cells into a new family of Memory And loGIC (MAGIC) gate/register objects that run arithmetic calculations as well as store results. The new MAGIC objects eliminate the time and energy overheads associated with the conventional transfer of computed data to memory by essentially reducing the transfer distance to zero. The new objects could serve as building blocks for distributed MAGIC-compatible architectures, differing from CMOS-like register files by processing as well as storing data. A simple Logic Unit (LU) would be sufficient to control the MAGIC registers, because the registers would provide most of the arithmetic functions and separate ALUs would not be needed. The reduction of the data exchange between logic and memory units leads to additional energy saving. Factorization of large integers is presented as an example illustrating the speed and density advantages of the new approach. The end result will be a superior technology which offers a combination of performance and energy efficiency unattainable by existing technologies or their possible extensions.
A Study of NCAA Gambling Prevention Videos on Gambling Perceptions Within a NCAA Division II Baseball Team

The purpose of this study was to investigate gambling attitudes among collegiate baseball players. We wanted to know if online educational videos developed by the NCAA would be successful in altering gambling attitudes and behaviors. A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) with a pretest-posttest design was conducted for this study. Subjects included a convenience sample of 33 baseball studentathletes from a NCAA Division II University in the mid-Atlantic region. Gambling attitudes and behaviors of collegiate baseball student-athletes were determined through survey questions and the administration of the South Oaks Gambling Screen. Findings indicated that baseball student-athletes participated in a variety of gambling activities, and that NCAA educational videos are moderately successful in altering student-athletes’ attitudes toward gambling. This study is important for college and university athletics departments as they work to counter the progambling messages that student-athletes receive.
Bisphosphonates Influence Isoprenylation of Small Gtpases in Human Myeloma Cells.

Zoledronic acid (ZOL), an aminobisphosphonate, is used in the clinic to prevent pathologic resorption of bone by osteoclasts in multiple myeloma. ZOL may also have direct anti-myeloma activity, perhaps through inhibition of farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) synthase. FPP synthase is an enzyme in the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway (step 1 in figure). This pathway is responsible for the production of isoprenoid pyrophosphates. These may be covalently linked to small GTPases; the addition of the 15 carbon farnesyl moiety is termed farnesylation (step 2) and the 20 carbon geranylgeranyl moiety is geranylgeranylation (step 3). These post-translational modifications of small GTPases allow for proper membrane association that is necessary for normal signal transduction. To further elucidate the role of FPP synthase inhibition as a potential mechanism of action of ZOL, a human derived myeloma cell line, RPMI-8226 was incubated with 50 microM ZOL for 24 hours. ZOL diminished isoprenylation of Ras, Rab 6 and Rap 1A, as determined by Western blotting. Addition of 10 microM of geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGPP) restored processing of these small GTPases. Processing was not restored with the addition of 1mM of mevalonate, 10 microM geranyl pyrophosphate (GPP), or 10 microM farnesyl pyrophosphate. As these latter components are upstream of FPP synthase these data suggest that ZOL may act by limiting availability of GGPP for isoprenylation. This is further supported by treatment of RPMI-8226 cells with a novel GGPP synthase inhibitor (step 4), which can be reversed by addition of GGPP but not by FPP. To more accurately mimic the marrow microinvironment, RPMI-8226 cells were incubated in an in vitro co-culture with murine derived osteoclasts. Briefly, bone marrow was harvested from C57B1/6 mice by flushing the long bones with culture media using a 31g needle. The cell suspension was centrifuged for 10 minutes and the cell pellet was resuspended in alpha-MEM containing 10% fetal bovine serum, 20 nM murine GM-CSF, 25nM PTHrP, 50 nM ascorbic acid, 10 nM Vitamin D3 and 1% penicillin/streptomycin. The bone marrow from two long bones was seeded in each 3.5 cm well and non-adherent cells were removed after 24 hours. This created a feeder layer which included osteoclasts, confirmed by TRAP staining. RPMI-8226 (4x106 cells/well) were added to the feeder layer on day six of the culture. The RPMI-8226 cells, normally a suspension cell line, became adherent to the feeder layer by 24 hours. They exhibited >95% viability confirmed by trypan blue exclusion. Under these conditions ZOL impaired protein isoprenylation by reducing geranylgeranylation but not farnesylation. These data further support the critical role of geranylgeranylation but not farnesylation of some small GTPases in myeloma cells. The co-culture system allows for further evaluation of the requirements of protein isoprenylation in myeloma cells and serves as an in vitro model to evaluate the impact of manipulating the isoprenoid pathway on osteoclast-myeloma interactions.
Strategies and Resources to Help Students Evaluate Web-Based Information

When asked to gather information for any type of research project, books are the last place many of our students want to look, unless forced to do so because print sources are required as part of the assignment. The research tool of this “post-literate” generation is the computer, and their most frequently used source of information is the internet. In fact, using the internet seems to be the best way to keep my students engaged in any extensive, or ongoing, research project.
Reversibility and Identifiability

Let us first consider linear stationary sequences. A sequence of independent, identically distributed real random variables ξj, j = …, -1,0,1,… is given with Eξj = 0, 0 < Eξ j 2 = σ2 < ∞. The process xj is obtained by passing this sequence through a linear filter characterized by the real weights, a j , ∑a j 2 < ∞, $$ {x_{t}} = \sum\limits_{{j = - \infty }}^{\infty } {{a_{j}}\xi t - j.} $$ (1.1.1)
Accidental Publication, Unfinished Texts and the Traditional Goals of New Testament Textual Criticism:

Notions of ‘authorship’, ‘publication’ and ‘ﬁnal text’ are often mentioned in traditional textual criticism, but less frequently discussed in detail. The projects of source and redaction criticism ...
An Ion-Responsive Pincer-Crown Ether Catalyst System for Rapid and Switchable Olefin Isomerization

Rapid, selective, and highly controllable iridium-catalyzed allylbenzene isomerization is described, enabled by tunable hemilability based on alkali metal cation binding with a macrocyclic "pincer-crown ether" ligand. An inactive chloride-ligated complex can be activated by halide abstraction with sodium salts, with the resulting catalyst [κ5 -(15c5 NCOPiPr )Ir(H)]+ exhibiting modest activity. Addition of Li+ provides a further boost in activity, with up to 1000-fold rate enhancement. Ethers and chloride salts dampen or turn off reactivity, leading to three distinct catalyst states with activity spanning several orders of magnitude. Mechanistic studies suggest that the large rate enhancement and high degree of tunability stem from control over substrate binding.
A Critical Look at Certainty Adverbs and the Essentializing Discourse of Black Female Identity in the Reality Television Show, Girlfriend Intervention

ABSTRACT“Trapped inside of every white girl is a strong black woman ready to bust out.” This is the tag line for Lifetime's new reality makeover show, Girlfriend Intervention. In the show, four Black women transform White women (who they call a BW for “basic woman”) from “a red hot mess” to a “bootylicious babe.” Throughout each episode, the girlfriends provide near-constant prescriptions for how Black women should behave and perform their femininity. This project examines the ways in which the girlfriends on the show dictate the boundaries of Black female authenticity. Specifically, the authors explore the ways the stars of the show essentialize Black womanhood as they provide viewers a sort of “hand guide” for how to be a Black woman. A critical discourse analysis of how the girlfriends use the certainty adverbs always and never will help highlight the presence of gendered and racialized essentialism found in the show. Lastly, the authors will discuss the possible implications watching Girlfriend Interv...
Tandarts voor (vrachtwagen)-chauffeurs

Amerika is een heel groot land, waar de auto koning is. Zo vind je tandartspraktijken in winkelcentra met duizenden parkeerplaatsen. En een tandarts bij een enorme truck stop langs een transcontinentale snelweg.
Computational geometric identification for quadrotor dynamics in wind fields

This paper presents a computational framework to identify the effects of wind on the dynamics of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle. Then, using the identified model, the strength and the direction of the wind are estimated with the inertial measurements. The proposed approach is based on a geometric numerical integrator on the special Euclidean group, referred to as a Lie group variational integrator such that singularities or complexities associated with the local coordinates or quaternions are completely avoided. We illustrate through numerical examples that the presented methods successfully identify the effects of the wind even for the challenging case of large initial estimation errors.
Autonomy in Human Environments

As autonomous systems move out of the research laboratory into operational environments, they need ever deeper connections to their environments. Traditional notions of full autonomy – vehicles or robots working entirely on their own – are being augmented by precise, robust relationships with people and infrastructure. This situated autonomy appears in driverless cars' dependence on human-built infrastructure, the need for new systems of unmanned traffic management in the air, and the increasing importance of collaborative robotics in factories. This talk sketches a number of these emerging scenarios, introduces new technologies to address the problems they raise, and envisions a new approach to HRI that connects people, robots, and infrastructure at scale.
Structured-illumination reflectance imaging coupled with phase analysis techniques for surface profiling of apples

Abstract Three-dimensional (3-D) geometry information is valuable for fruit quality evaluation. This study was aimed at exploring an emerging structured-illumination reflectance imaging (SIRI) system, coupled with phase analysis, for reconstructing surface profiles of fruit. Phase-shifted sinusoidal patterns, distorted by the fruit geometry, were acquired and processed through phase demodulation, phase unwrapping and other post-processing procedures to obtain phase difference maps relative to the phase of a reference plane. The phase maps were then transformed into height profiles based on phase-to-height calibrations. A reference plane-based approach, in conjunction with the curve fitting technique using polynomials of order 3 or higher, was utilized for phase-to-height calibrations, which achieved superior accuracies with the root-mean-squared errors (RMSEs) of 0.027–0.033 mm for a height measurement range of 0–91 mm. The 3rd-order polynomial curve fitting technique was further tested on two reference blocks with known heights, resulting in relative errors of 3.75% and 4.16%. Tests of the calibrated system for reconstructing the surface of apple samples showed that surface concavities (i.e., stem/calyx regions) could be readily discriminated from bruising defects from both the phase difference images and reconstructed height profiles. This study has laid a foundation for using SIRI for reconstructing the 3-D geometry, and thus expanded the capability of the technique for quality evaluation of horticultural products. Further research is needed to utilize the phase analysis techniques for detecting surface concavities of apples, and optimize the phase demodulation and unwrapping algorithms for faster and more reliable detection.
A practical diagnostic approach to hepatic masses

The differential diagnosis of hepatic mass lesions is broad and arriving at the right diagnosis can be challenging, especially on needle biopsies. The differential diagnosis of liver tumors in children is different from adults and is beyond the scope of this review. In adults, the approach varies depending on the age, gender, and presence of background liver disease. The lesions can be divided broadly into primary and metastatic (secondary), and the primary lesions can be further divided into those of hepatocellular origin and nonhepatocellular origin. The first category consists of benign and malignant lesions arising from hepatocytes, while the second category includes biliary, mesenchymal, hematopoietic, and vascular tumors. Discussion of nonepithelial neoplasms is beyond the scope of this review. The hepatocytic lesions comprise dysplastic nodules, focal nodular hyperplasia, hepatic adenoma, and hepatocellular carcinoma, and the differential diagnosis can be challenging requiring clinicopathological correlation and application of immunohistochemical (IHC) markers. Liver is a common site for metastasis, sometimes presenting with an unknown primary site, and proper workup is the key to arriving at the correct diagnosis. The correct diagnosis in this setting requires a systematic approach with attention to histologic features, imaging findings, clinical presentation, and judicious use of IHC markers. The list of antibodies that can be used for this purpose keeps on growing continually. It is important for pathologists to be up to date with the sensitivity and specificity of these markers and their diagnostic role and clinical implications. The purpose of this review is to outline the differential diagnosis of hepatic masses in adults and discuss an algorithmic approach to make a right diagnosis.
Identification of Proteins Required for Precise Positioning of Apc2 in Dendrites

In Drosophila neurons, uniform minus-end-out polarity in dendrites is maintained in part by kinesin-2-mediated steering of growing microtubules at branch points. Apc links the kinesin motor to growing microtubule plus ends and Apc2 recruits Apc to branch points where it functions. Because Apc2 acts to concentrate other steering proteins to branch points, we wished to understand how Apc2 is targeted. From an initial broad candidate RNAi screen, we found Miro (a mitochondrial transport protein), Ank2, Axin, spastin and Rac1 were required to position Apc2-GFP at dendrite branch points. YFP-Ank2-L8, Axin-GFP and mitochondria also localized to branch points suggesting the screen identified relevant proteins. By performing secondary screens, we found that energy production by mitochondria was key for Apc2-GFP positioning and spastin acted upstream of mitochondria. Ank2 seems to act independently from other players, except its membrane partner, Neuroglian (Nrg). Rac1 likely acts through Arp2/3 to generate branched actin to help recruit Apc2-GFP. Axin can function in a variety of wnt signaling pathways, one of which includes heterotrimeric G proteins and Frizzleds. Knockdown of Gαs, Gαo, Fz and Fz2, reduced targeting of Apc2 and Axin to branch points. Overall our data suggest that mitochondrial energy production, Nrg/Ank2, branched actin generated by Arp2/3 and Fz/G proteins/Axin function as four modules that control localization of the microtubule regulator Apc2 to its site of action in dendrite branch points.
Gender in the Investigation and Politics of ‘Low’ Fertility

In this review of research on gender and low fertility, I develop three main categories: (1) studies seeking to explain why fertility is low; (2) studies on the efficacy of fertility-related policies; and (3) critical feminist studies that analyze discourses surrounding low fertility and fertility-related policy. I provide examples of each to illustrate how researchers interested in fertility use the concept of gender and to what end. I suggest that by repeatedly asking why fertility is so low and examining possible factors that prevent people from having children, demographic studies often implicitly reinforce the notion that low fertility is undesirable. More critical work points us in different directions, revealing how pronatalist policies – and the discourses surrounding such policies – may have deleterious effects on gender equity. Finally, I discuss work that asks different questions, such as how demographic trends may contribute to shaping state policies and/or other gendered structures. I conclude that future research should analyze how demographic trends and patterns are both shaped by and also shape gender.
Abstract 17951: Low Total Testosterone is Associated with Inflammation and Dyslipidemia in a Large Population of Asymptomatic Middle Aged Men

Background: Low testosterone levels are associated with an increased risk of dyslipidemia and the development of atherosclerosis in older men. This study aims to investigate whether a similar relationship exists between total testosterone (TT), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels, and C-reactive protein (CRP) in a large population of asymptomatic middle aged men, between 40 to 60 years of age. In addition, we explore the effect of statin use on dyslipidemia in men with low TT. Methods: We evaluated 2,116 male participants in the Law Enforcement Cardiac Screening Program (LECS), a subset of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program. Low Total Testosterone (TT) is defined as TT of Results: Men with low TT had significantly higher TG, CRP and glucose levels, and lower HDL levels (p p = 0.025) compared to those with normal TT. See Table 1. Conclusions: We detected higher TG and CRP, and lower HDL levels in asymptomatic middle aged men with low TT. Further evaluation of men on statin therapy with low TT, revealed persistent dyslipidemia (elevated TG and reduced HDL) and inflammation (elevated CRP). Clinicians should be encouraged to measure TT in middle-aged men during assessment of cardiovascular disease risk. Source of funding: NY Fraternal Order of Police, through the Office of the NY Attorney General Charity Fund.
Endothelial apoptosis in critical illness

Endothelial injury is a hallmark of critical illness, and markers of endothelial perturbation correlate with severity of illness and final outcome. Available in vitro and experimental data suggest that endothelial apoptosis could play a role in critical illness. A review of recently described therapies for the critically ill demonstrates that all have an antiapoptotic effect on the endothelium. If the role of endothelial apoptosis is confirmed in future investigations, targeting this process with antiapoptotic therapies may lead to a breakthrough in the treatment of critically ill patients.
Measurement of coronary blood flow velocity in conscious rats

This study describes a technique for the continuous recording of coronary blood flow velocity (CBV) in conscious unrestrained rats. A pulsed Doppler flow probe consisting of a 1-mm2 crystal mounted in a 4-mm suction cup was positioned over the left coronary artery of pentobarbital sodium-anesthetized rats. The probe was held in place with mild suction and sutured to the surface of the myocardium. Probes were connected to a pulsed Doppler flowmeter, which measures Doppler shift and provides an index of blood flow velocity. While rats were still anesthetized, the measurement of CBV was validated by determining that CBV peaked during diastole and increased in parallel with arterial pressure. Phasic CBV signals obtained in conscious rats were similar to those observed in anesthetized animals. Intravenous infusion of dipyridamole (0.5-3 mg.kg-1 x mg-1) produced a dose-dependent increase in CBV and decrease in coronary vascular resistance in conscious unrestrained rats 7 days after placement of the probe. Light microscopic review of cardiac tissue from instrumented rats revealed minimal epicardial reaction (fibrin deposition) restricted to the immediate area of the probe without distortion of the coronary architecture, edema, inflammation, or necrosis compared with controls. Heart weight-to-body weight ratios of instrumented rats were also not different from those of control rats. This study describes the first technique by which CBV can be measured continuously in chronically instrumented rats.
Splinter: bare-metal extensions for multi-tenant low-latency storage

In-memory key-value stores that use kernel-bypass networking serve millions of operations per second per machine with microseconds of latency. They are fast in part because they are simple, but their simple interfaces force applications to move data across the network. This is inefficient for operations that aggregate over large amounts of data, and it causes delays when traversing complex data structures. Ideally, applications could push small functions to storage to avoid round trips and data movement; however, pushing code to these fast systems is challenging. Any extra complexity for interpreting or isolating code cuts into their latency and throughput benefits.We present Splinter, a low-latency key-value store that clients extend by pushing code to it. Splinter is designed for modern multi-tenant data centers; it allows mutually distrusting tenants to write their own fine-grained extensions and push them to the store at runtime. The core of Splinter's design relies on type- and memory-safe extension code to avoid conventional hardware isolation costs. This still allows for bare-metal execution, avoids data copying across trust boundaries, and makes granular storage functions that perform less than a microsecond of compute practical. Our measurements show that Splinter can process 3.5 million remote extension invocations per second with a median round-trip latency of less than 9 µs at densities of more than 1,000 tenants per server. We provide an implementation of Facebook's TAO as an 800 line extension that, when pushed to a Splinter server, improves performance by 400 Kop/s to perform 3.2 Mop/s over online graph data with 30 µs remote access times.
Properties Invariant Under Feedback

To continue our investigation of single-relation systems, this chapter studies such important concepts as MT-time systems, linear time systems, stationary systems, and time invariably realizable systems, along with some feedback-invariant properties.
Risk Factors for Recurrent Acute Kidney Injury in Children Who Undergo Multiple Cardiac Surgeries: A Retrospective Analysis.

Objectives:Determine the risk factors for repeated episodes of acute kidney injury in children who undergo multiple cardiac surgical procedures.Design:Single-center retrospective chart review.Setting:Cardiac ICU at a quaternary pediatric care center.Patients:Birth to 18 years who underwent at least
Hierarchical Policy Learning is Sensitive to Goal Space Design.

Hierarchy in reinforcement learning agents allows for control at multiple time scales yielding improved sample efficiency, the ability to deal with long time horizons and transferability of sub-policies to tasks outside the training distribution. It is often implemented as a master policy providing goals to a sub-policy. Ideally, we would like the goal-spaces to be learned, however, properties of optimal goal spaces still remain unknown and consequently there is no method yet to learn optimal goal spaces. Motivated by this, we systematically analyze how various modifications to the ground-truth goal-space affect learning in hierarchical models with the aim of identifying important properties of optimal goal spaces. Our results show that, while rotation of ground-truth goal spaces and noise had no effect, having additional unnecessary factors significantly impaired learning in hierarchical models.
Age-Stratified National Trends in Pulmonary Embolism Admissions.

Background Pulmonary embolism (PE) is one of the leading causes of death in hospitalized patients. Treatment patterns and patient demographics for PE are changing; therefore, we sought to evaluate national trends in admission rate, discharge disposition, and length of stay (LOS) in patients hospitalized with PE. Methods The National Inpatient Sample database was used to collect data for hospitalizations of patients ≥ 20 years old with primary diagnosis of PE between January 2000 and September 2015. Patient demographics and hospital characteristics, stratified by patient age, were reported. Trends in rates of hospitalizations for PE, LOS, discharge disposition, and hospital charges were assessed across age groups. Results There were an estimated 2,159,568 hospitalizations with primary diagnosis of PE. The rate of PE per 100,000 persons increased by > 100%, and was highest among elderly patients. Increased age and comorbidity burden were independently associated with poor outcomes. Inpatient mortality and LOS decreased across all age groups, but was highest in the elderly. Home health utilization increased in patients ≥ 55 years old. Average hospital charges increased across all age groups, despite shorter length of stay, with patients ≥ 85 experiencing $13,000 average increase. Conclusions Between 2000 and 2015, the rate of hospitalization for PE increased across all age groups. Despite improvements in average LOS and inpatient mortality, hospitalizations became more expensive, and patients required more resources (ie, home health) on discharge. This increased resource utilization was most apparent in elderly patients. This suggests that targeted clinical trials designed to improve outcomes in all age brackets are needed.
Cortical bone-derived stem cell therapy reduces apoptosis after myocardial infarction.

The following research explores aspects of cell death and inflammation that have not been previously studied in a large animal model. In addition, apoptosis and cell death have not been studied in ...
Leveraging Network-level parallelism with Multiple Process-Endpoints for MPI Broadcast

The Message Passing Interface has been the dominating programming model for developing scalable and high-performance parallel applications. Collective operations empower group communication operations in a portable, and efficient manner and are used by a large number of applications across different domains. Optimization of collective operations is the key to achieve good performance speed-ups and portability. Broadcast or One-to-all communication is one of the most commonly used collectives in MPI applications. However, the existing algorithms for broadcast do not effectively utilize the high degree of parallelism and increased message rate capabilities offered by modern architectures. In this paper, we address these challenges and propose a Scalable Multi-Endpoint broadcast algorithm that combines hierarchical communication with multiple endpoints per node for high performance and scalability. We evaluate the proposed algorithm against state-of-the-art designs in other MPI libraries, including MVAPICH2, Intel MPI, and Spectrum MPI. We demonstrate the benefits of the proposed algorithm at benchmark and application level at scale on four different hardware architectures, including Intel Cascade Lake, Intel Skylake, AMD EPYC, and IBM POWER9, and with InfiniBand and Omni-Path interconnects. Compared to other state-of-the-art designs, our proposed design shows up to 2.5 times performance improvements at a microbenchmark level with 128 Nodes. We also observe up to 37% improvement in broadcast communication latency for the SPECMPI scientific applications
Characterization and recovery of rare earth elements and other critical metals (Co, Cr, Li, Mn, Sr, and V) from the calcination products of a coal refuse sample

Abstract The impacts of calcination on the leaching recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical metals from a Baker seam coal refuse material were investigated in this study. Acid leaching test results showed that leaching recovery of the REEs, especially the light REEs, was increased significantly from around 24% to 80–90% after calcination under 600–750 °C for two hours. By considering the major element leaching kinetics and the mineralogical changes of the dominant minerals caused by calcination, two mechanisms were proposed for the improved leaching performance: (1) decomposition of difficult-to-dissolve REE-bearing minerals into soluble forms; and (2) liberation of REE-bearing minerals encapsulated in clays after calcination due to the dehydration and disintegration of the layered clay structure. Sequential chemical extraction tests showed that a significant fraction (around 75%) of the REEs in the raw material were present in an insoluble form. After calcination under proper temperatures (600–800 °C), the majority of the insoluble light REEs (LREEs) were converted into soluble forms. Changes in the modes of occurrence of the LREEs and phosphorous based on leaching rate and sequential leaching correlated well as a function of the calcination temperature. This finding in addition to SEM-EDX results tends to indicate the potential that the LREEs occur primarily as rare earth phosphates such as monazite in the untreated coal refuse material. The acid leaching and sequential chemical extraction results show that co-extraction of REEs and other critical metals such as Co, Mn, and Li is possible using a calcination-acid leaching procedure.
Epidemiology and outcomes of sepsis among hospitalizations with systemic lupus erythematosus admitted to the ICU: a population-based cohort study.

Sepsis is the most common cause of premature death among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) aged ≤ 50 years in the United States, and infection is the most common cause of admission to the ICU among SLE patients. However, there are no population-level data on the patterns of the demand for critical care services among hospitalized septic patients with SLE or the outcomes of those admitted to the ICU. We performed a retrospective cohort study, using the Texas Inpatient Public Use Data File, to identify SLE hospitalizations aged ≥ 18 years and the subgroups with sepsis and ICU admission during 2009–2014. The patterns of ICU admission among septic hospitalizations were examined. Logistic regression modeling was used to identify predictors of short-term mortality (defined as hospital death or discharge to hospice) among ICU admissions with sepsis and to estimate the risk-adjusted short-term mortality among ICU admissions with and without sepsis. Among 94,338 SLE hospitalizations, 17,037 (18.1%) had sepsis and 9409 (55.2%) of the latter were admitted to the ICU. Sepsis accounted for 51.5% of the growth in volume of ICU admissions among SLE hospitalizations during the study period. Among ICU admissions with sepsis, 25.3% were aged ≥ 65 years, 88.6% were female, and 64.4% were non-white minorities. The odds of short-term mortality among septic ICU admissions were increased among those lacking health insurance (adjusted odds ratio 1.40 [95% confidence interval 1.07–1.84]), while being unaffected by gender and race/ethnicity, and remaining unchanged over the study period. On adjusted analyses among ICU admissions, the short-term mortality among those with and without sepsis was 13% (95% CI 12.6–13.3) and 2.7% (95% CI 2.6–2.8), respectively. Sepsis was associated with 63.6% of all short-term mortality events. Sepsis is a major, incremental driver of the demand for critical care services among SLE hospitalizations. Despite its relatively low mortality, sepsis was associated with most of the short-term deaths among ICU patients with SLE.
‘A Caesar for our time’: toward empathy and perspective-taking in new teachers’ drama practices in diverse classrooms

Within a partnership between a California university and Globe Education (Shakespeare’s Globe, London), this study features early-career teachers working to infuse Shakespeare and drama in diverse ...
National Comprehensive Analysis of Characteristics of Acral Lentiginous Melanoma.

BACKGROUND/AIM Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) is the least common subtype of cutaneous melanoma and typically occurs on the palms, soles, and nails. Tumor characteristics and disease severity in the US population are not well understood. Our aim was to analyze the characteristics of ALM of the extremities. PATIENTS AND METHODS We queried the National Cancer Database to identify patients with the diagnosis of ALM and common malignant melanoma located in the extremities (CMME). We compared demographic, tumor, and treatment characteristics between patients with ALM and those with CMME. Statistical analysis was performed with chi-squared test and multivariate logistic regression models. RESULTS We identified 5,203 patients with ALM and 118,485 with CMME. When compared with patients with CMME, those with ALM were more likely to be older than 80. years at diagnosis [odds ratio (OR)=2.85, 95% confidence intervaI (CI)=2.12-3.82; p<0.001], have stage III disease (OR=4.22, 95% CI=1.47-12.16; p=0.01), and have ulceration (OR=1.52, 95% CI=1.33-1.74; p<0.001). Moreover, patients with ALM were less likely to have a mitotic count of 1/mm2 or greater (OR=0.57, 95% CI=0.48-0.67; p<0.001). No statistical difference was found for sex, lymph node involvement, regression, and use of surgery, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy between groups. CONCLUSION Age, disease stage, ulceration, and mitotic count are independent factors associated with ALM. Knowledge of the disease characteristics may allow for better diagnosis and understanding of disease pathophysiology.
Fast, good, and repeatable: Summations, vectorization, and reproducibility:

Enhanced-precision global sums are key to reproducibility in exascale applications. We examine two classic summation algorithms and show that vectorized versions are fast, good and reproducible at ...
Core of F 25 in the rotational model

In a recent experiment, carried out at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory/RIKEN, the $^{25}\mathrm{F}(p,2p)^{24}\mathrm{O}$ reaction was studied at 270 MeV/A in inverse kinematics. Derived spectroscopic factors suggest that the effective core of $^{25}\mathrm{F}$ significantly differs from a free $^{24}\mathrm{O}$ nucleus. We interpret these results within the particle-rotor model and show that the experimental level scheme of $^{25}\mathrm{F}$ can be understood in the rotation-aligned coupling scheme with its $5/{2}_{1}^{+}$ ground state as the bandhead of a decoupled band. The excitation energies of the observed $1/{2}_{1}^{+}$ and $9/{2}_{1}^{+}$ states correlate strongly with the rotational energy of the effective core, seen by the odd proton, and allow us to estimate its ${2}^{+}$ energy at $\ensuremath{\approx}3.2\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{MeV}$ and a moderate quadrupole deformation ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{2}\ensuremath{\approx}0.15$. The measured fragmentation of the $\ensuremath{\pi}{d}_{5/2}$ single-particle strength is discussed, and some further experiments suggested.
Slit2 Regulates Hyaluronan & Cytokine Synthesis in Fibrocytes: Potential Relevance to Thyroid-Associated Ophthalmopathy.

CONTEXT CD34+ fibrocytes have been implicated in development of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO), a consequential autoimmune manifestation of Graves disease (GD). In TAO, CD34+ fibrocytes appear to masquerade as CD34+ orbital fibroblasts mixed with CD34- OF (collectively, GD-OF). Slit2, an axon guidance glycoprotein, is expressed by CD34- OF and attenuates GD-OF gene expression. Cardinal features of TAO include hyaluronan (HA) accumulation and cytokine-driven inflammation. OBJECTIVE Compare expression of HA synthase isoenzymes (HAS1-3), UDP-glucose dehydrogenase (UGDH), synthesis of HA, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in fibrocytes and GD-OF. Determine whether Slit2 alters gene expression patterns. DESIGN/SETTING/PARTICIPANTS Patients with TAO and healthy donors were recruited from an academic practice. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Real-time polymerase chain reaction, HA, IL-6, and TNF-α immunoassays. RESULTS HA synthesis and release from fibrocytes is substantially lower than in GD-OF. HAS1 expression dominates in fibrocytes while HAS2 in GD-OF. In contrast, HAS2 and UGDH expression dominate GD-OF and localize to CD34- OF. Recombinant human Slit2 (rhSlit2) substantially upregulates HA synthesis and HAS2 expression in fibrocytes but attenuates IL-6 and TNF-α production in these cells. In contrast, knocking down Slit2 in GD-OF reduces HA synthesis and HAS2 and UGDH expression while upregulating IL-6 and TNF-α. CONCLUSION The dramatic differences in HA, IL-6, and TNF-α production, and HAS and UGDH expression found in fibrocytes and GD-OF appear, at least in part, to be attributable to Slit2. These findings provide novel insight into the differences in gene expression exhibited by CD34+ fibrocytes and CD34+ OF and therefore reveal important aspects of disease pathogenesis.
Ovarian teratoma in a woodchuck (Marmota monax) with hepatocellular carcinoma: radiologic and pathologic features

Teratomas are germ cell neoplasms composed of a wide variety of tissues. In the woodchuck, only one testicular teratoma has been described in the literature. The objective of this report was to describe the radiologic and pathologic findings in a female woodchuck (Marmota monax) with an ovarian teratoma consisting of mature tissues originating from all three germ layers. A 2-year-old female woodchuck that had been infected at birth with woodchuck hepatitis virus and subsequently developed hepatocellular carcinoma was incidentally discovered to have a mobile 6.6 × 4.8 × 4.7 cm abdominal mass on computed tomography (CT) imaging. The tumor was predominantly solid and heterogenous on CT with soft tissue, fat, and areas of dense calcification. The teratoma did not enhance with intravenous contrast administration. On ultrasound, the tumor was solid with heterogeneous echogenicity, reflecting the fat content and areas of calcification. Sonolucent areas were present that may have represented cysts. There was heterogeneously increased signal on T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and heterogeneous hyperintensity in T2-weighted imaging. Fat was evident within the tumor. At necropsy, the tumor was attached to the distal end of the right uterine horn. Histopathology showed mature tissue types representing all three germ layers. Ovarian teratoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of ovarian or abdominal masses in woodchucks. The tumor displayed mature tissue derived from all three germ layers. CT, ultrasound, and MRI findings were presented in detail and matched the typical imaging appearance of teratomas.
Current update on gallbladder carcinoma

Gallbladder (GB) carcinoma is a relatively rare malignancy and is associated with poor prognosis. Numerous risk factors have been associated with the development of GB carcinoma. GB carcinomas may present as mass lesions replacing the GB, focal or diffuse thickening of the GB wall, and intraluminal mass in the GB. Various benign conditions can mimic GB carcinoma. This article reviews the epidemiology, pathology, clinical findings, imaging features, and management of GB carcinomas.
Subbiliazine: A Contracted Phthalocyanine Analog

The direct borylation of two bis(pyrazolylimino)isoindoline chelates with BF3 and base under dry conditions results in the formation of two boron adducts. These are ring-contracted analogs of biliazine and can be considered as subbiliazines, as they have bowl-shaped structures similar to subphthalocyanine. Additionally, a new iminooxoisoindoline BF2 complex was made from hydrolysis of the free base in the presence ofBF3. The electronic structures of the free bases and subbiliazines were probed by density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) methods.
Socioeconomic factors and water quality in California

We investigate the relationships between water quality and socioeconomic factors in California at the county level for the years 1993–2006 using 24 water quality indicators coming from seven different types of water bodies. We estimate these relationships using three classes of models: the traditional per capita income-pollution level—Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC)—specifications, a more inclusive model containing main socioeconomic variables such as agricultural intensity, land use, ethnic composition, population density and educational attainment, and a model that includes the socioeconomic variables while accounting for spatial correlations too. For most water quality indicators, we do not find support for EKC specifications. For pollutants like phosphorus and total suspended solids, the level of agricultural activity is a significant determinant of water quality in California, but for other surface water pollutants commonly considered agricultural pollutants, such as ammonia and nitrate, the level of agricultural activity is not statistically significant. We find that education, ethnic composition, age structure, land use, population density, and water area are all significantly correlated with various indicators of water quality.