cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
TRANSPLANTING THE FLOWER OF CIVILIZATION: THE “PEONY GIRL” AND JAPAN'S 1874 EXPEDITION TO TAIWAN

This article examines available narratives and modes of representation concerning “civilization” and “savagery” in the early Meiji proto-colonial discursive sphere. It focuses on a major event in the 1874 Taiwan Expedition: Japan's capture and attempted assimilation of an orphaned aboriginal girl. Through an analysis of Japanese newspaper reports, woodblock prints, illustrated books, and commercial photography, this article argues that alongside the well-characterized “rhetoric of aboriginal savagery” that exaggerated the otherness of Taiwanese indigenes, there developed a synergistic “rhetoric of aboriginal civilization” that emphasized the indigenes' capacity for transformation. This mode of representation stressed not the aboriginals' alterity but rather their latent affinity to Japan. According the aboriginal a measure of temporality, the rhetoric of aboriginal civilization formed an indispensable counterpart to the rhetoric of aboriginal savagery: one that affirmed the campaign's “civilizing” component by demonstrating its viability.
Ascertaining free histidine from mixtures with histidine-containing proteins using time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy.

The use of photoluminescent probes for differentiating free amino acids from biomolecules containing the same amino acids is challenging. Photoluminescent probes generally present similar emission spectra when in the presence of either free-amino acids or protein containing those same amino acids. Probes based on cyclometalated iridium(III) complexes Ir(L)2(sol)2 (where L is 2-phenylpyridine, 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)pyridine, or benzo[h]quinolone, and sol is a solvent molecule) present long-lived emission when bound to histidine. This emission is tuned by the microenvironment around the complex and therefore its lifetime is different for free histidine (487 ns) than from histidine-containing proteins such as bovine serum albumin (average lifetime > 700 ns). As a proof-of-concept we demonstrate that free histidine can be discerned from a mixture with histidine-containing proteins by using time-resolved photoluminescence decays. In the presence of multiple sources of histidine, iridium(III) probes display a m...
Comparing consumer preferences for locally grown and certified organic produce in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States

Two separate surveys were administered (17–19 Nov. 2008 and 7–10 Apr. 2009) to consumers residing in five metropolitan areas in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States (1710 for Survey 1 and 1518 for Survey 2) to investigate and compare consumer stated preferences toward locally grown and certified organic produce. In Survey 1, participants were asked to indicate whether they agreed that purchasing locally grown produce was more important than purchasing organically grown produce. In addition, they were asked to report whether locally grown and certified organic were factors in their produce purchasing decision. Compared with their counterparts (each demographic examined independently), White/Anglos, Asian Americans, and those aged 25 years and older agreed that purchasing locally grown produce was more important than purchasing organically grown produce. A greater percentage of participants aged 37 years and older (average of 65%) and 66% of White/Anglo participants selected ‘‘produce was grown in my local area.’’ In addition, a greater percentage of participants aged between 21 and 64 years (average of 32%) and 48% of Asian Americans selected ‘‘produce was grown using ‘certified’ organic methods,’’ compared with their counterparts. In Survey 2, participants were presented with six pairwise comparisons and asked to indicate their stated preference between each of the two options, which included combinations of ‘‘locally grown,’’ ‘‘not locally grown,’’ ‘‘certified organic,’’ and ‘‘not certified organic.’’ Stated preference for locally grown produce was highest among the following participant groups (each group examined independently): those aged 37 years and older, White/Anglo participants, those without children living in their household, females, and participants with income levels $25,000 and greater. In addition, stated preference for certified organic was highest among the following groups (again, each group examined independently): those aged between 21 and 36 years; Black/African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans; those with children living in their household; females; and participants with income levels of $25,000 and greater. Produce industry members in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region (e.g., farmers, distributors, retail store owners, restauranteurs, agricultural extension personnel) can incorporate this research into marketing plans, purchasing decisions, or educational or applied research programs as appropriate.
Weighted-Tuple: Fast and Accurate Synchronization for Parallel Architecture Simulators

Computer architecture research relies on software simulation to evaluate processor performance. Single-threaded simulators have unacceptable simulation times when modeling complex architectures with hundreds of cores. While parallelizing a simulator can improve performance, parallel simulators face the issue of synchronizing threads, which forces them to trade performance for accuracy. We study relaxed synchronization policies for parallel architecture simulators and introduce the weighted-tuple synchronization policy. Weighted-tuple is a distributed synchronization scheme which improves upon existing policies. We evaluate weighted-tuple for two parallel simulator settings: multicore simulation and network-on-chip simulation. For the multicore setting using weighted-tuple synchronization, average simulation time is reduced by $8$ percent over barrier synchronization; error is also reduced by $28$ percent. For network-on-chip simulation, weighted-tuple synchronization improves simulation speed by $42$ percent with an $0.3$ percent error increase compared to the barrier baseline.
PLDI 2004: Scalable Lock-Free Dynamic Memory Allocation

Dynamic memory allocators (malloc/free) rely on mutual exclusion locks for protecting the consistency of their shared data structures under multithreading. The use of locking has many disadvantages with respect to performance, availability, robustness, and programming flexibility. A lock-free memory allocator guarantees progress regardless of whether some threads are delayed or even killed and regardless of scheduling policies. This paper presents a completely lockfree memory allocator. It uses only widely-available operating system support and hardware atomic instructions. It offers guaranteed availability even under arbitrary thread termination and crash-failure, and it is immune to deadlock regardless of scheduling policies, and hence it can be used even in interrupt handlers and real-time applications without requiring special scheduler support. Also, by leveraging some high-level structures from Hoard, our allocator is highly scalable, limits space blowup to a constant factor, and is capable of avoiding false sharing. In addition, our allocator allows finer concurrency and much lower latency than Hoard. We use PowerPC shared memory multiprocessor systems to compare the performance of our allocator with the default AIX 5.1 libc malloc, and two widely-used multithread allocators, Hoard and Ptmalloc. Our allocator outperforms the other allocators in virtually all cases and often by substantial margins, under various levels of parallelism and allocation patterns. Furthermore, our allocator also offers the lowest contention-free latency among the allocators by significant margins
Abstract B12: DNA methyltransferase 3A expression in cancer cells following treatment with DNMT inhibitors and in human solid tumors

Background. The DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) catalyze the addition of a methyl group to the 5-cytosine residue of CpG dinucleotides. This family of enzymes includes DNMT1 that functions as a DNA maintenance methyltransferase, and DNMT3A and DNMT3B that methylate previously unmethylated regions of DNA and are required for genome-wide de novo DNA methylation. However, there have been challenges to characterize DNMT3A protein expression in human tissue samples and it remains unclear its potential inhibition by classic and novel DNMT inhibitors. Materials and Methods. MCF-7 breast cancer and NCI-H23 non-small cell lung cancer cells were treated with DNMT inhibitors of 49-thio-29-deoxycytidine (T-dCyd), 49-thio-5-aza-29-deoxycytidine (aza-T-dCyd) and decitabine at 1 μM T-dCyd for 96h, and changes in DNMT3A expression were assessed by western blot and immunocytochemistry (ICC). DNMT3A expression was examined by immunohistochemistry in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded human breast, colorectal and lung cancers as well as lymphomas. Results. Expression of DNMT3A was decreased by all three DNMT inhibitors in MCF-7 and NCI-H23 cells detected by western blot and ICC. The mean staining index in NCI-H23 cells after T-dCyd treatment was 18.4, compared to 48.8 of vehicle control, by quantitative imaging and analysis (P Citation Format: Sherry X. Yang, Dat Nguyen, Larry Rubinstein, Alice P. Chen, James H. Doroshow. DNA methyltransferase 3A expression in cancer cells following treatment with DNMT inhibitors and in human solid tumors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2015 Nov 5-9; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2015;14(12 Suppl 2):Abstract nr B12.
Classification of Wine by Electronic Nose

An electronic nose system was developed for detecting different class of wines.Identification experiments for three kinds of wine with similar odor were carried out.According to the aroma of wine,the electronic nose system has been developed with an array of four gas sensors,which was optimized from initial eight by PCA method.And then,the effect of the optimization for three wines was discriminated by Fisher discriminant analysis. Finally,there were comparative emulation experiment for different number of training samples of wine by using SVM algorithm and BP network algorithms.The experimental results show that PCA-SVM-based pattern recognition algorithms has high recognition accuracy,strong classification capability,and there are potential advantages in small sample classification and recognition experiments.
Optimal bioenergy power generation for climate change mitigation with or without carbon sequestration.

Restricting global warming below 2 °C to avoid catastrophic climate change will require atmospheric carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Current integrated assessment models (IAMs) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scenarios assume that CDR within the energy sector would be delivered using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Although bioenergy-biochar systems (BEBCS) can also deliver CDR, they are not included in any IPCC scenario. Here we show that despite BECCS offering twice the carbon sequestration and bioenergy per unit biomass, BEBCS may allow earlier deployment of CDR at lower carbon prices when long-term improvements in soil fertility offset biochar production costs. At carbon prices above $1,000 Mg-1 C, BECCS is most frequently (P>0.45, calculated as the fraction of Monte Carlo simulations in which BECCS is the most cost effective) the most economic biomass technology for climate-change mitigation. At carbon prices below $1,000 Mg-1 C, BEBCS is the most cost-effective technology only where biochar significantly improves agricultural yields, with pure bioenergy systems being otherwise preferred.
The Project Protect Infection Prevention Fellowship: A model for advancing infection prevention competency, quality improvement, and patient safety.

Background The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2016 Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) Progress Report documented no change in catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) between 2009 and 2014. There is a need for investment in additional efforts to reduce HAIs, specifically CAUTI. Quality improvement fellowships are 1 approach to expand the capacity of dedicated leaders and infection prevention champions. Methods The fellowship used a model that expanded collaboration among disciplines and focused on partnership by recruiting a diverse cohort of fellows and by providing 1-on-1 mentoring to enhance leadership development. The curriculum supported the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Prevention Competency Model in 2 domains: leadership and performance improvement and implementation science. Results The fellowship was successful. The fellows and mentors had self-reported high level of satisfaction, fellows' knowledge increased, and they demonstrated leadership, quality improvement, and implementation science competency within the completed capstone projects. Conclusions A model encompassing diverse educational topics, discussions, workshops, and mentorship can serve as a template for developing infection prevention champions. Although this project focused on CAUTI, this template can be used in a variety of settings and applied to a range of other HAIs and performance improvement projects.
Results of the phase Ib study of ipilimumab and gemcitabine for advanced pancreas cancer.

e15281 Background: Agents with durable responses are needed for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer (APC). T regulatory cells (Treg) create a protective microenviroment around pancreatic tumor...
Use of Airborne Inoculum Detection for Disease Management Decisions

Knowledge of inoculum presence has been used for decades to help guide disease management decisions. However, its implementation on a broad scale has been limited due to the capital costs and technical skill required to effectively monitor pathogen presence across large areas. Recent advances in nucleic acid detection technologies are showing promise in enabling field level implementation of inoculum detection and quantification to aid in disease management decisions. Over the past 7 years we have investigated the use various molecular approaches to monitor the presence of Erysiphe necator in commercial vineyards and time fungicide applications based on its detection. We have found loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) to be a robust method for the detection of E. necator DNA that may be suitable for practitioner implementation.
Archives Without Archives: (Re)Locating and (Re)Defining the Archive Through Post-Custodial Praxis

The post-custodial paradigm of archives re-positions archivists from institutional custodians of archival records to stewards of records in their places of creation or use. Through this dislocation from traditional practice, post-custodial praxis democratizes the power dynamic of archives by disaggregating the value of archival records from dependence on the archival repository and prioritizing the context of records creation over records content. The post-custodial paradigm disaggregates archives praxis from physical custody of records and (re)locates the work of the archivist to be neither only the institutional repository nor the site of records creation, but rather a third space that crosses borders between the two and can function in both but belongs wholly to neither. This article discusses how locations of power and agency can be (re)positioned by post-custodial archives theory and praxis within a case study of the University of Texas Libraries' Human Rights Documentation Initiative.
Profit, Accumulation, and Crisis: Long-Term Movement of the Profit Rate in China, Japan, and the United States

China has emerged as the center of global capital accumulation. But, there have been few studies on the movement of the profit rate in the Chinese economy. This article measures China’s economy-wid...
Interactive impacts of elements of distribution systems and PV on network harmonic resonance

As more number of distributed generators like PV are penetrated into the power system network, the interaction of the filter elements associated with PV inverter and rest of the distribution system elements on network resonance needs to be investigated. Although the recent investigation of network resonance is focusing only on distributed generators like PV, the impact from distribution lines coming from substation and underground cables that possesses the line charging capacitances (including the variation in line length), VAR support capacitors for voltage regulation and power factor correction capacitors in the system, inductive loads in the distribution systems needs a detailed investigation on resonance. The resonance phenomenon can be witnessed in the presence or even without the presence of distributed generators. With the increase in distributed generators, the interaction between them and the elements in the system presents a higher probability of network resonances that needs more attention. Power quality planning require the researchers and engineers to perform such studies to witness the impact of elements in distribution systems. There are limited papers that have done detailed research studies, projecting the impact of elements of distribution systems on network resonances. This paper brings out a contribution that would serve as a reference for researchers and power system planning engineers to plan on several aspects pertaining to power quality.
Predicting differential antigen-antibody contact regions based on solvent accessibility.

A novel computational approach was examined tor predicting epitopes from primary structures of the seven immunologically distinct botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT/A-G) and tetanus toxin (TeTX). An artificial neural network [Rost and Sander (1994), Proteins 20, 216] was used to estimate residue solvent accessibilities in multiple aligned sequences. A similar network trained to predict secondary structures was also used to examine this protein family, whose tertiary fold is presently unknown. The algorithm was validated by showing that it was 80% accurate in determining the secondary structure of avian egg-white lysozyme and that it correctly identified highly solvent-exposed residues that correspond to the major contact regions of lysozyme–antibody cocrystals. When sequences of the heavy (H) chains of TeTX and BoNT/A–G were analyzed, this algorithm predicted that the most highly exposed regions were clustered at the sequentially nonconserved N- and C-termini [Lebeda and Olson (1994), Proteins 20, 293]. The secondary structures and the remaining highly solvent-accessible regions were, in contrast, predicted to be conserved. In experiments reported by others, H-chain fragments that induced immunological protection against BoNT/A overlap with these predicted most highly exposed regions. It is also known that the C-terminal halves of the TeTX and BoNT/A H-chains interfere with holotoxin binding to ectoacceptors on nerve endings. Thus, the present results provide a theoretical framework for predicting the sites that could assist in the development of genetically engineered vaccines and that could interact with neurally located toxin ectoacceptors. Finally, because the most highly solvent-exposed regions were not well conserved, it is hypothesized that nonconserved, potential contact sites partially account for the existence of different dominant binding regions for type-specific neutralizing antibodies.
Stress intensification due to an edge crack in an anisotropic elastic solid

Integral transform techniques are used to determine the stress intensity factors of a crack at the edge of an anisotropic elastic half space under generalized plane strain conditions. Numerical results are given for a carbon fibre reinforced epoxy in uniaxial tension.
Physical Regions of an Equation of State

There are several key physical regions in any equation of state. We are concerned with astrophysical and similar such applications. The key regions are: (i) All the electrons have coalesced about the nuclei to form atoms (cold curve). Included here would be the further condensation into fluids and solids. (ii) There is a plasma of electrons and nuclei (hot curve). (iii) The low-density, partial-ionization region (ionization curve). The density and temperature go to zero together for this region, because for fixed, non-zero temperature, total ionization occurs in the low density limit. (iv) The intermediate region. Regions (i) and (ii) merge at high density. It is our thesis that region (iv) can be obtained from the hot curve, the ionization curve and the cold curve plus the low order perturbations about them by a suitable interpolation proceedure. By the “cold curve” we must also understand the pendant phase-diagram structure adjoining it. As in our previous work, we will use the Thomas-Fermi equation of state as a test for these ideas. We have previously developed the hot curve, the cold curve and their perturbations. Herein, we discuss the ionization curve. The virtue of our approach is that, if successful, the Thomas-Fermi approximations for these quantities (which have a great many well known defects) can be replaced by the more accurate results of quantum many-body theory to give a greatly improved equations of state.
ORGANIC-INORGANIC SYSTEMS FOR THE CHEMICAL MODIFICATION OF MOLECULAR NITROGEN UNDER MILD CONDITIONS

This account is concerned with non-enzymic chemical transformations of dinitrogen (N 2 ), reactions based on organometallic titanium, molybdenum and iron compounds as the N 2 -coordinating species which permit room temperature and atmospheric pressure phenomena, including: reduction to ammonia (NH 3 ) by the radical anion of naphthalene; the development, of a chemical cyclic system (over-all catalytic, based on titanium) for NH 3 production; NH 3 formation by direct reaction of N 2 from the air; the catalytic electrolytic synthesis of NH 3 ; description of isolable transition metal compounds with N 2 ligands capable of undergoing reduction to NH 3 ; elucidation of the titanocene-based N 2 coordination and reduction mechanism; controlled reduction of N 2 to hydrazine; direct utilization of N 2 in the synthesis of nitrogeneous organic compounds; elaboration of biogenetic-type nitrogen fixation reactions which feature the use of Mo(N 2 ) 2 (dppe) 2 and certain ferredoxin model compounds of the type Fe 4 S 4 (SR) 4 (4Fe-4S cluster).
Second-generation IL-2 receptor-targeted diphtheria fusion toxin exhibits antitumor activity and synergy with anti–PD-1 in melanoma

Denileukin diftitox (DAB-IL-2, Ontak) is a diphtheria-toxin-based fusion protein that depletes CD25-positive cells including regulatory T cells and has been approved for the treatment of persistent or recurrent cutaneous T cell lymphoma. However, the clinical use of denileukin diftitox was limited by vascular leak toxicity and production issues related to drug aggregation and purity. We found that a single amino acid substitution (V6A) in a motif associated with vascular leak induction yields a fully active, second-generation biologic, s-DAB-IL-2(V6A), which elicits 50-fold less human umbilical vein endothelial cell monolayer permeation and is 3.7-fold less lethal to mice by LD50 analysis than s-DAB-IL-2. Additionally, to overcome aggregation problems, we developed a production method for the fusion toxin using Corynebacterium diphtheriae that secretes fully folded, biologically active, monomeric s-DAB-IL-2 into the culture medium. Using the poorly immunogenic mouse B16F10 melanoma model, we initiated treatment 7 days after tumor challenge and observed that, while both s-DAB-IL-2(V6A) and s-DAB-IL-2 are inhibitors of tumor growth, the capacity to treat with higher doses of s-DAB-IL-2(V6A) could provide a superior activity window. In a sequential dual-therapy study in tumors that have progressed for 10 days, both s-DAB-IL-2(V6A) and s-DAB-IL-2 given before checkpoint inhibition with anti-programmed cell death-1 (anti-PD-1) antibodies inhibited tumor growth, while either drug given as monotherapy had less effect. s-DAB-IL-2(V6A), a fully monomeric protein with reduced vascular leak, is a second-generation diphtheria-toxin-based fusion protein with promise as a cancer immunotherapeutic both alone and in conjunction with PD-1 blockade.
Legacies of 1968

Fifty years ago at Nanterre University outside of Paris, students with diverse commitments gathered and formed the March 22nd Movement. They were upset about a number of different issues: the repre...
Surveillance results and bone effects in the Gulf War depleted uranium-exposed cohort.

A small group of Gulf War I veterans wounded in depleted uranium (DU) friendly-fire incidents have been monitored in a clinical surveillance program since 1993. During the spring of 2017, 42 member...
RadicalxChange: An Academic Agenda

Radical Markets was, for me, less an academic or even popular book than attempt to launch a social movement. Its success in doing so makes the most fruitful academic response likely somewhat different than for other book. In this piece I discuss some of the most productive avenues I see for general academic development around the growing RadicalxChange movement and highlight several specific problems to which I think economic, legal and other academics could fruitfully contribute.
Compact MOVB Theory

The analysis of the various stereochemical problems presented in the previous section has been a detailed one. Oftentimes a careful consideration of subsystems can assist us in developing a thorough understanding of the energetic consequences of a stereochemical change. In this work we have used the detailed approach not only for this reason but also with the purpose of exemplifying adequately a new way of thinking about molecules and reactions. However, in applied theory, simplicity is a virtue of paramount importance. How can we render the analyses presented above “back of the envelope” analyses? The answer is very simple: Instead of enumerating all subsystems and the energetic consequences of stereochemical change for each subsystem, we can view the entire system as a U, H, or D type system. Furthermore, placement of a dagger next to the bond type symbol can be taken to denote the form in which spatial overlap has been impaired. For example, the transformation of L to B BeH2 can be viewed as a D to H≠ conversion.
Abstract 4622: The YUMMER.G mouse melanoma model recapitulates the heterogeneous response to immune checkpoint blockade based on patient sex

Existing murine melanoma models, such as syngeneic transplantation of the B16 melanoma cell line, are aggressive, but poorly immunogenic, and as a result, studying the response to immunotherapy in these models has been challenging. Furthermore, in humans, a heterogeneous response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy has been observed between male and female melanoma patients, yet no immunogenic murine cancer model exists to study this sex-related dimorphism. To address these challenges, we created the YUMMER.G model, a melanoma cell line driven by human-relevant Braf activation and loss of Pten and Cdkn2a. YUMMER.G is related to the previously described YUMMER1.7 model; however important differences include: diploid state, female genotype, and Mc1re/e (pheomelanin producing) background. YUMMER.G was created by treatment with UV-light, resulting in a neoantigen rich subclone. Subcutaneous injection of 2 million YUMMER.G cells into C57BL/6J mice resulted in melanoma formation in both male and female mice. Treatment of established tumors with anti-CTLA-4 resulted in a comparable response between male and female mice, with complete, durable tumor regression in 100% of female mice and 88% of male mice. However, when established YUMMER.G tumors were treated with anti-PD-1, 63% of female mice, but only 13% of male mice exhibited complete tumor regression (p = 0.0330). These findings demonstrate the important role of host sex in the response to immunotherapy, and they parallel the sex-related differences in checkpoint inhibitor efficacy that have been observed in human patients. In summary, the YUMMER.G model is a human-relevant, immunogenic mouse melanoma model that will serve as a valuable platform for further investigating the mechanisms that mediate the sex-related dimorphism in anti-tumor immunity and response to immunotherapy. Citation Format: Julie Y. Ramseier, Alexandra Charos, Koonam Park, William Damsky, Marcus W. Bosenberg. The YUMMER.G mouse melanoma model recapitulates the heterogeneous response to immune checkpoint blockade based on patient sex [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4622.
Animating Feminist Anger: Economies of Race and Gender in Reaction GIFs

GIF use in digital platforms offers community space for humour, play and joy. Focusing on reaction GIFs, this chapter examines how feminist anger can be digitally expressed, represented and circulated by looking at the process of meme-fication within online affective economies of anger. While reaction GIFs can function as performative gestures and rhetorical devices that animate feminist anger, GIFs must also be contextualized within the racial and gendered body politics around “whose” bodies animate anger and whose bodies circulate within the digital visual economy. Taking up Sara Ahmed’s figure of the “feminist killjoy”, I analyse the form and aesthetics of killjoy and “white male tear” GIFs.
Hypertension in patients with repaired aortic coarctation: the long and puzzling road from Morgagni to stent implantation.

Aortic coarctation (CoAo) is a common congenital heart disease that may occur isolated or associated to complex malformations. Giovan Battista Morgagni first described it in the XVIII letter of his book De sedibus and causis morborum per anatomen indagatis published in Venice in 1761. This publication represented one of the first systematical efforts to use anatomopathology as a tool to understand and explain clinical manifestations. In fact, before Morgagni, a disease was considered as an imbalance of ‘humours’ and fluids. Nowadays, following a mechanistic approach, treatment of CoAo aims to get rid of the stenotic segment. Treatment depends on many factors including patient size and age, type of lesion and individual anatomy. In older children, adolescents and adults, a transcatheter approach is usually preferred to the surgical treatment. Percutaneous procedures include balloon angioplasty and stent implantation. Even if balloon angioplasty has been shown favourable results, it may be complicated by aortic wall injury and a higher rate of recurrence.1 Therefore, in suitable anatomy and patient size, stent placement has become the treatment of choice. Nevertheless, …
Factors contributing to serious and fatal injuries in belted rear seat occupants in frontal crashes

Objectives: Earlier research has shown that the rear row is safer for occupants in crashes than the front row, but there is evidence that improvements in front seat occupant protection in more recent vehicle model years have reduced the safety advantage of the rear seat versus the front seat. The study objective was to identify factors that contribute to serious and fatal injuries in belted rear seat occupants in frontal crashes in newer model year vehicles. Methods: A case series review of belted rear seat occupants who were seriously injured or killed in frontal crashes was conducted. Occupants in frontal crashes were eligible for inclusion if they were 6 years old or older and belted in the rear of a 2000 or newer model year passenger vehicle within 10 model years of the crash year. Crashes were identified using the 2004-2015 National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System (NASS-CDS) and included all eligible occupants with at least one Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) 3 or greater injury. Using these same inclusion criteria but split into younger (6 to 12 years) and older (55+ years) cohorts, fatal crashes were identified in the 2014-2015 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and then local police jurisdictions were contacted for complete crash records. Results: Detailed case series review was completed for 117 rear seat occupants: 36 with Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) 3+ injuries in NASS-CDS and 81 fatalities identified in FARS. More than half of the injured and killed rear occupants were more severely injured than front seat occupants in the same crash. Serious chest injury, primarily caused by seat belt loading, was present in 22 of the injured occupants and 17 of the 37 fatalities with documented injuries. Nine injured occupants and 18 fatalities sustained serious head injury, primarily from contact with the vehicle interior or severe intrusion. For fatal cases, 12 crashes were considered unsurvivable due to a complete loss of occupant space. For cases considered survivable, intrusion was not a large contributor to fatality. Discussion: Rear seat occupants sustained serious and fatal injuries due to belt loading in crashes in which front seat occupants survived, suggesting a discrepancy in restraint performance between the front and rear rows. Restraint strategies that reduce loading to the chest should be considered, but there may be potential tradeoffs with increased head excursion, particularly in the absence of rear seat airbags. Any new restraint designs should consider the unique needs of the rear seat environment.
Journalists’ level of knowledge on empirical research and opinion polling: A study of Kenyan journalists

This study examines the level of knowledge of Kenyan political reporters on a few key concepts of empirical research and opinion polling. Although data from this study are from a nonrepresentative ...
A Measurement Protocol for the Marginal and Internal Fit of All-Ceramic Crowns.

Aims To evaluate in vitro the influence of firing on marginal and internal fit of all-ceramic milled and pressed lithium-disilicate crowns. Materials and methods One Standardized model with 1.6mm occlusal and 1.4mm axial reduction was used to fabricate 64 crowns. Using a factorial design, eight groups of lithium disilicate ceramics (n=8) using P=press, C=CAD/CAM, M=monolithic, O=coping, V=veneered, R=as produced: PMR, PMG, POR, PVG, CMR, CMG, COR, CVG. Crowns were produced and cemented on stone dies, then embedded in clear epoxy resin and sectioned into two plains. With a digital microscope, the distance between die and crowns was measured at the occlusal and axial walls. The horizontal/vertical fit at the finishing line of each section were measured as well. Results For the marginal fit, the analysis shows that the influence of material and design was significant on horizontal and vertical margins, and the influence of finish was significant with horizontal but not vertical margins (p=0.09). For the internal fit, the analysis showed that the axial gap was significantly influenced by material and finish but not by design (p=0.44). Conclusions With a few exceptions, horizontal and vertical marginal discrepancies were below 100 μm. Additional firing increased the discrepancies.
Vertebral Bone Quality Score and Postoperative Lumbar Lordosis Associated with Need for Reoperation After Lumbar Fusion

Background Poor bone quality is a known risk factor for hardware failure and adjacent segment disease after lumbar fusion. One new method of analyzing bone quality is the vertebral bone quality (VBQ) score, which can be obtained from preoperative lumbar magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. We decided to evaluate whether patients' VBQ scores were associated with reoperation after lumbar fusion. Methods We queried records of patients who underwent elective lumbar fusion for degenerative conditions between 2012 and 2017. Patients who required reoperations after lumbar fusions because of symptomatic hardware failure or adjacent segment disease were combined into a case group and compared with a matched control group. Results Of the 46 patients who underwent elective lumbar fusions and required reoperation, 30 met the inclusion criteria. A 2:1 control group of 60 individually age-, body mass index–, and sex-matched patients who did not require reoperation was then created. The reoperation group had significantly lower degrees of postoperative lumbar lordosis. There were no significant differences regarding other spinopelvic parameters, adjacent Pfirrmann scores, or dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) T scores. There was, however, a significant difference in VBQ scores between the groups, with the reoperation group having a higher VBQ score. Conclusions This study found that bone quality, according to the VBQ score rather than the DXA T score, is an important risk factor for reoperation after lumbar fusion surgery. Therefore, this MRI-based tool may be used to assist surgeons in preoperative planning for spine surgeries with the goal of reducing the risk of requiring reoperation.
Oral oncolytic education and adherence monitoring in poor, rural and minority patients.

e19212Background: Oral oncolytics therapy use has been exponentially growing over the last several years necessitating education and monitoring. Pharmacy driven interventions have been shown to inc...
Prediction-Based Uncertainty Estimation for Adaptive Crowd Navigation

Fast, collision-free motion through human environments remains a challenging problem for robotic systems. In these situations, the robot’s ability to reason about its future motion and other agents is often severely limited. By contrast, biological systems routinely make decisions by taking into consideration what might exist in the future based on prior experience. In this paper, we present an approach that provides robotic systems the ability to make future predictions of the environment. We evaluate several deep network architectures, including purely generative and adversarial models for map prediction. We further extend this approach to predict future pedestrian motion. We show that prediction plays a key role in enabling an adaptive, risk-sensitive control policy. Our algorithms are able to generate future maps with a structural similarity index metric up to 0.899 compared to the ground truth map. Further, our adaptive crowd navigation algorithm is able to reduce the number of collisions by 43% in the presence of novel pedestrian motion not seen during training.
An Integrated Thermal Actuation/Sensing Array with Stacked Oscillators for Efficient and Localized Heating of Magnetic Nanoparticles with Sub-Millimeter Spatial Resolution

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) can generate localized thermal stress in response to an external ac magnetic field, offering unique opportunities for a wide range of biomedical applications. For example, hyperthermia cancer therapy, which raises the local temperature of tumors up to 43–45°C, can trigger apoptosis and disrupt cancer cells’ ability to repair DNA damage [1]. In neuroscience, temperature-sensitive ion channels can be thermally activated using MNP-induced heating, which allows for minimally invasive brain stimulation [2,3]. Compared to dielectric heating and ohmic heating, MNP-based magnetic heating offers superior specificity and minimal damage to the surrounding tissues since most biological systems are non-magnetic.
Capmatinib-Induced Pseudo-Acute Kidney Injury: A Case Report.

We present a case of pseudo–acute kidney injury (AKI) following capmatinib therapy in an 84-year-old man with combined non–small cell (adenocarcinoma) and small cell lung cancer with MET exon 14–skipping mutation. His past medical history was significant for chronic kidney disease stage 3 with a baseline serum creatinine (Scr) of 1.6 mg/dL rising to 2.44 mg/dL (estimated glomerular filtration rate [GFR] 24 mL/min/1.73 m2) while on capmatinib. Scr improved to 1.84 mg/dL with the cessation of capmatinib but rose again to 2.22 mg/dL upon resumption of therapy. Further investigation with cystatin C and renal iothalamate clearance showed that despite fluctuation in Scr levels, there was not much variation in GFR calculated using these methods. Urinalysis and urinary protein-creatinine ratio were unremarkable. Treatment with capmatinib was continued at reduced dose and a third instance of rise in Scr was observed, followed by a spontaneous return to baseline. Thus, MET inhibitor therapy can result in an asymptomatic rise in Scr, and it must be distinguished from AKI with more accurate non–creatinine-based methods to evaluate GFR. This could spare such patients from invasive diagnostic tests, such as a kidney biopsy, and premature cessation of prognostically important cancer therapies.
Tulasnella calospora (UAMH 9824) retains its effectiveness at facilitating orchid symbiotic germination in vitro after two decades of subculturing.

Background The technique of symbiotic germination-using mycorrhizal fungi to propagate orchids from seed in vitro-has been used as one method to cultivate orchids in North America and abroad for > 30 years. A long-held assumption is that mycorrhizal fungi used for this purpose lose their effectiveness at germinating seeds over time with repeated subculturing. Results We provide evidence for the lingering efficacy of one particular strain of Tulasnella calospora (266; UAMH 9824) to stimulate seed germination exemplified by the North American terrestrial orchid, Spiranthes cernua, as a case study. This fungus was originally acquired from roots from Spiranthes brevilabris in 1999 and sub-cultured during the two decades since. Seeds inoculated with the fungus in vitro developed to an advanced protocorm stage after 16 days, and leaf elongation was pronounced after 42 days. In a pilot study, seedlings co-cultured with Tulasnella calospora 266 were deflasked after 331 days and later transferred to soil under greenhouse conditions where they eventually initiated anthesis. During the course of two decades, seeds of 39 orchid species, cultivars and hybrids spanning 21 genera, germinated in vitro co-cultured with Tulasnella calospora 266. These orchids included temperate terrestrials and tropical epiphytes alike. Conclusions The sustained effectiveness of this fungus is noteworthy because it argues against the concept of mycorrhizal fungi losing their symbiotic capability through prolonged subculturing. This study serves as an example of why in situ habitat preservation is essential for the conservation of orchids as a source of potentially useful mycorrhizal fungi.
Radiation Risks in Perspective

Contents Risky Business More than a Number Safety without Risk? What's Risky? Is It Dangerous? Can I Get Exposed? Can It Hurt Me? What Are the Risks? Damage Control Perception Is Reality References Scientific Guesswork Making the Right Choice Predictive Theories in Risk Assessment Linear No-Threshold Theory Sublinear Nonthreshold Supralinear Hormesis Threshold Limitations and Uncertainties Speculation versus Reality Risk Management and Risk Communication Quantifying Risk at Small Doses References No Safe Dose LNT: The Theory of Choice The LNT Controversy Elements of the Debate The Question of Thresholds Repair of Radiation Damage and Cellular Autonomy Uses and Misuses of LNT Case 1: Estimation of Health Effects of Fallout from the Chernobyl Reactor Accident Case 2: Childhood Cancer Following Diagnostic X-ray Case 3: Public Health Impacts from Radiation in a Modern Pit Facility Uncertain Risk How Low Can You Go? Risk Assessment Considering Uncertainty Uncertain Choices Another Approach Zero or Bust Management Triggers Technical Triggers Size Matters Sensitive People Assigned Blame Social Triggers Safety Protection of Children and the Unborn Polluters Should Pay Catastrophe and Apathy Public Information and Distorting Risks Political Triggers Perceptions and Conflicts of Interest Management Strategies As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) Best Available Technology (BAT) The Precautionary Principle Risk-Risk Trade-offs and Unintended Consequences Risk Offset Risk Substitution Risk Transfer and Risk Transformation Challenges Misplaced Priorities Priorities and Realities Factors in Prioritization Scientific Evidence Public Perception of Risks Management Capacity Court Actions Influence of Stakeholder Groups Real Risks and Reordering Priorities Monetary Costs Environmental Cleanup at the Nevada Test Site Characterization of Waste Destined for WIPP Avoiding Risk The Case Against Risk Different Risks Agent-Agent Interactions Dose as a Surrogate for Risk The Case for Dose A Dose-Based System of Protection Regulatory Dose Limit Natural Background Acceptable Dose Management Decisions Based on Dose Proportion Simplification of Radiation Quantities and Units Review of the Current System of Radiation Protection Radiation from the Gods The Watras Case Human Exposure to Radon Health Hazards of Radon Is There Really a Public Health Hazard? Public Health Perceptions and Fears Economic Impacts National/Regional Differences Hold the Phone Will Cell Phones "Fry" Your Brain? Managing Phantom Risks Imprudent Precaution International Calls PR Campaign: Proportion, Prioritization, and Precaution Proportion Prioritization Precaution Glossary Index
A role for the ribosome in deciding the fate of damaged RNA (752.10)

Fast and faithful translation of the cellular messenger RNAs is a defining feature of the ribosome and the translation factors. High-accuracy protein synthesis ensures that errant proteins, which are more prone to misfold, are not made. On aberrant mRNAs, such as truncated ones and those either containing premature or lacking stop codons, a number of ribosome-based quality control processes ensure that these RNAs are not translated and instead are targeted for degradation. While these mRNA-surveillance mechanisms have received much attention during the past decade, curiously a different class of aberrant mRNAs has received little study. In particular, chemically-damaged RNAs pose a significant hurdle to translational fidelity and efficiency. Of particular interest to us is oxidized RNA in the form of 8-oxoguanine, which has been linked to a number of neurodegenerative diseases. The exact mechanism by which the cell recognizes the aberrant mRNAs and targets them for degradation remains elusive. To this end...
Pregnancy is a Risk Factor for Pancreatitis After Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography in a National Cohort Study

Background & Aims There are limited data on the safety of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) during pregnancy, only data from observational series (approximately 350 cases) have been published. We aimed to evaluate the safety of ERCP in pregnant women by evaluating a large nationwide database. Methods We performed a retrospective matched-cohort study, collecting data from the National Inpatient Sample from 2008 through 2009. We compared data from pregnant women who underwent ERCP (n = 907) with those from nonpregnant women who underwent ERCP (controls, n = 2721). Complications related to ERCP were measured against the matched controls. Obstetric and fetal complications were measured against the national average of all obstetric admissions. Results ERCP-associated complications of perforation, infection, and bleeding were infrequent in both cohorts ( P > .05). Post-ERCP pancreatitis (PEP) occurred in 12% of pregnant women and in 5% of controls ( P P Conclusions Pregnancy is an independent risk factor for PEP; PEP and PEP among pregnant women are each more prevalent in community hospitals than teaching centers. Proper precautions therefore should be considered for pregnant women undergoing ERCP, including transfer to a tertiary care center if appropriate.