cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Crystal structure of the ubiquitin-like small archaeal modifier protein 2 from Haloferax volcanii.

The discovery of ubiquitin-like small archaeal modifier protein 2 (SAMP2) that forms covalent polymeric chains in Haloferax volcanii has generated tremendous interest in the function and regulation of this protein. At present, it remains unclear whether the Hfx. volcanii modifier protein SAMP1 has such polyubiquitinating-like activity. Although SAMP1 and SAMP2 use the same conjugation machinery to modify their target proteins, each can impart distinct functional consequences. To better understand the mechanism of SAMP2 conjugation, we have sought to characterize the biophysical and structural properties of the protein from Hfx. volcanii. SAMP2 is only partially structured under mesohalic solution conditions and adopts a well-folded compact conformation in the presence of 2.5M of NaCl. Its 2.3-A-resolution crystal structure reveals a characteristic α/β central core domain and a unique β-hinge motif. This motif anchors an unusual C-terminal extension comprising the diglycine tail as well as two lysine residues that can potentially serve to interlink SAMP2 moieties. Mutational alternation of the structural malleability of this β-hinge motif essentially abolishes the conjugation activity of SAMP2 in vivo. In addition, NMR structural studies of the putative ubiquitin-like protein HVO_2177 from Hfx. volcanii show that like SAMP1, HVO_2177 forms a classic β-grasp fold in a salt-independent manner. These results provide insights into the structure–function relationship of sampylating proteins of fundamental importance in post-translational protein modification and environmental cues in Archaea.
High prevalence of red blood cell alloimmunization in sickle cell disease despite transfusion from Rh-matched minority donors

Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is a key treatment of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) but remains complicated by RBC immunization. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of antigen matching for Rh D, C, and E, and K and transfusion from African American donors in 182 patients with SCD. Overall, 71 (58%) chronic and 9 (15%) episodically transfused patients were alloimmunized. Fifty-five (45%) chronic and 7 (12%) episodically transfused patients were Rh immunized. Of 146 antibodies identified, 91 were unexplained Rh antibodies, one-third of which were associated with laboratory evidence of delayed transfusion reactions. Fifty-six antibodies occurred in patients whose RBCs were phenotypically positive for the corresponding Rh antigen and 35 in patients whose RBCs lacked the antigen and were transfused with Rh-matched RBCs. High-resolution RH genotyping revealed variant alleles in 87% of individuals. These data describe the prevalence of Rh alloimmunization in patients with SCD transfused with phenotypic Rh-matched African American RBCs. Our results suggest that altered RH alleles in both the patients and in the donors contributed to Rh alloimmunization in this study. Whether RH genotyping of patients and minority donors will reduce Rh alloimmunization in SCD needs to be examined.
Elevated catecholamines in thirty-day-old chicken brain after depletion during development.

The effects of prenatal reserpine administration upon uptake of tritiated norepinephrine (H3-NE) by newly hatched chick brain suggests an interference of catecholamine (CA) uptake and/or binding. The relationship between fluorescence from CA and the radioactivity from H3-NE approached unity in the control group where no such relation was seen in the reserpine treated group. Moreover, 30 days after hatching, CA levels in whole brain of chicks hatched from drug-injected eggs were significantly higher than vehicle-injected controls. However, reserpine did cause a slight but significant elevation of total protein in 14-day-old embryo brain. These data support the hypothesis that ontogenetic alteration of systems exhibiting end-product inhibition can be of a long-lasting, perhaps permanent nature. The direction of change in CA 30 days after hatching, opposite to the change induced pharmacologically during development, is additional support for the concept of „thermostat” type regulation of enzyme activity being determined by product concentration at critical periods during development.
Calendar of International Meetings

(1995). Calendar of International Meetings. Water International: Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 163-165.
A Stopped Negative Binomial Distribution

This paper introduces a new discrete distribution suggested by curtailed sampling rules common in early-stage clinical trials. We derive the distribution of the smallest number of independent Bernoulli(p) trials needed in order to observe either s successes or t failures. The closed form expression for the distribution as well as the compound distribution are derived. Properties of the distribution are shown and discussed. A case study is presented showing how the distribution can be used to monitor sequential enrollment of clinical trials with binary outcomes as well as providing post-hoc analysis of completed trials.
Sexual health knowledge and training in a child and adolescent mental health setting

ABSTRACTSexual health is a core component of human well-being. This mixed-methods study (N = 158) assessed mental health clinicians’ sexual health knowledge, attitudes, values, clinical behaviors, and training. Findings pertaining to sexual health knowledge, clinical behaviors, and specific sexual health training are reported. The study found that while many clinicians scored well on the sexual health knowledge scale, most did not discuss sexual health with clients. Additional findings were that the majority of participants believed sexual health should be an important clinical focus, but most did not receive training pertaining to sexual health topics. Reasons for not discussing sexual health will be discussed and implications for training and practice are explored.
Durkheim’s theory of anomie and crime: A clarification and elaboration:

In contemporary criminology, the proposal of a relationship between anomie and crime typically is traced to the work of Emile Durkheim. Yet, despite the prominence of anomie theory in this field, Durkheim’s theory of anomie and crime has not been carefully explicated and elaborated. Durkheim did not provide an extensive discussion of how anomie affects crime rates, and he certainly did not present anomie as the only cause of crime. Nonetheless, a careful examination of his rather elusive concept of anomie, together with a few small inferences, yields a relatively coherent theory of crime that differs from the popular interpretations of his work. The analysis begins with an inquiry into five different conceptions of anomie that can be abstracted from Durkheim’s writings. This is followed by an examination of what he implied regarding anomie as a cause of property crime, violent crime, and “juvenile crime.” The final section explores the effects of anomie on criminal law—that is, on decisions to define and ...
Imaging and Management of Complications of Urogynecologic Surgery

We engage in “repair” of the pelvic floor by surgical means. To accomplish this, we utilize different biomaterials and meshes to reconstitute pelvic floor anatomy. The goal of the current chapter is to introduce the reader to modalities used in imaging surgical complications. Some treatment modalities are also discussed.
Low morbidity reported after iliac bone-graft harvesting: commentary on an article by Bryan J. Loeffler, MD, et al.: “Prospective observational study of donor-site morbidity following anterior iliac crest bone-grafting in orthopaedic trauma reconstruction patients”.

The morbidity associated with bone-graft harvesting is an important determinant of the indications for its use as well as for the use of bone-graft substitutes. The number of bone-grafting procedures performed annually is estimated to be 1.5 million in the U.S.1,2 and 2.2 million worldwide3,4. Bone-grafting procedures are performed for a wide variety of indications including fusion of the spine and other joints; bone replacement for tumor; infection; periprosthetic bone loss; pediatric bone deficiency; and trauma reconstruction including fracture, nonunion, and traumatic bone loss. Bone autograft provides osteoconductive scaffolding, osteoinductive growth factors, and osteogenic progenitor cells. Autograft has been used for over 100 years to effectively fill bone voids and stimulate desirable bone formation. A variety of sources of bone autograft have been reported but the iliac crest is the most common source, with good quality and quantity of bone graft readily available. Although complications associated with bone-graft harvesting have been reported for years, it was generally considered a safe and reliable procedure until the 1990s, when higher rates of complications began to be reported (as discussed by Loeffler …
Thatcher’s European Policy II: Sovereignty and Nationalism

It is remarkable, in retrospect, that the British government saw the 1983 Stuttgart summit as significant for establishing the principles of a final budget settlement, and not for the Solemn Declaration on European Union. The Solemn Declaration committed members of the European Council to ‘… broad action to ensure the relaunch of the Community’, and to providing ‘… a general political impetus for the construction of Europe’. As such, it took its place in a long line of similar calls for European unity stretching back to the Treaty of Rome and beyond. Economic integration, according to key figures like Paul-Henri Spaak and Walter Hallstein, was the means to eventual political union, and the Paris summits of 1972 and 1974 had committed the Community to achieving this goal by 1980. To facilitate this, they had commissioned a report by the Belgian Prime Minister, Leo Tindemans, which called for: the establishment of economic and monetary union; reform of Community institutions; and the implementation of common foreign, regional and social policies. The Solemn Declaration was itself a response to an initiative launched by the foreign minister of the Federal Republic, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, with the assistance of his Italian counterpart, Emilio Colombo, two years previously.
How Effective Is Supplemental Intraseptal Anesthesia in Patients with Symptomatic Irreversible Pulpitis

Abstract Introduction Previous studies have reported high levels of success with intraseptal injection for various dental procedures but provide limited information on the use of the injection during endodontic treatment. Therefore, the purpose of this prospective study was to determine the anesthetic efficacy of the supplemental intraseptal technique in mandibular posterior teeth diagnosed with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis when the conventional inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) block failed. Methods One hundred patients with a diagnosis of symptomatic irreversible pulpitis in a mandibular posterior tooth were recruited. Following profound lip numbness after the administration of the conventional IAN block, endodontic treatment was initiated. Patients still experiencing moderate to severe pain during treatment were administered mesial and distal supplemental intraseptal injections using 0.7 mL 4% articaine with 1:000,000 epinephrine administered with a computer-controlled local anesthetic delivery unit. Success was defined as the ability to perform endodontic access and instrumentation with mild to no pain. Results Success with the IAN block was achieved in 25% of patients. Supplemental intraseptal injections provided success in 29% of patients. Conclusions Supplemental intraseptal injections achieved profound pulpal anesthesia in 29% of patients when the IAN block failed. This low level of success would not provide predictable levels of anesthesia for patients requiring emergency endodontic treatment for symptomatic irreversible pulpitis in mandibular posterior teeth.
Painful Cervical Facet Joint Injury Is Accompanied by Changes in the Number of Excitatory and Inhibitory Synapses in the Superficial Dorsal Horn That Differentially Relate to Local Tissue Injury Severity.

Immunohistochemistry labeled pre- and postsynaptic structural markers to quantify excitatory and inhibitory synapses in the spinal superficial dorsal horn at 14 days after painful facet joint injury in the rat. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between pain and synapse density in the spinal cord after facet injury. Neck pain is a major contributor to disability and often becomes chronic. The cervical facet joints are susceptible to loading-induced painful injury, initiating spinal central sensitization responses. Although excitatory synapse plasticity has been reported in the superficial dorsal horn early after painful facet injury, whether excitatory and/or inhibitory synapse density is altered at a time when pain is maintained is unknown. Rats underwent either a painful C6/C7 facet joint distraction or sham surgery. Mechanical hyperalgesia was measured and immunohistochemistry techniques for synapse quantification were used to quantify excitatory and inhibitory synapse densities in the superficial dorsal horn at day 14. Logarithmic correlation analyses evaluated whether the severity of facet injury correlated with either behavioral or synaptic outcomes. Facet joint injury induces pain that is sustained until day 14 (P <0.001) and both significantly greater excitatory synapse density (P = 0.042) and lower inhibitory synapse density (P = 0.0029) in the superficial dorsal horn at day 14. Injury severity is significantly correlated with pain at days 1 (P = 0.0011) and 14 (P = 0.0002), but only with inhibitory, not excitatory, synapse density (P = 0.0025) at day 14. This study demonstrates a role for structural plasticity in both excitatory and inhibitory synapses in the maintenance of facet-mediated joint pain, and that altered inhibitory, but not excitatory, synapse density correlates to the severity of painful joint injury. Understanding the functional consequences of this spinal structural plasticity is critical to elucidate mechanisms of chronic joint pain. Level of Evidence: N /A
POWER2: performance measurement and analysis of TPC-C

This paper discusses the implementation and features of the POWER2 system's embedded hardware performance monitor, describes its application to the analysis of the behavior of the Transaction Processing Performance Council's TPC-C benchmark on the POWER2 CPU, simulating an on-line transaction processing (OLTP) workload, and summarizes the results of the analysis. The POWER2 performance monitor provides hardware measures that are important to software developers tuning the operating system and application software, as well as to system designers responsible for the development of new systems. The measures characterize storage system performance and compiler instruction scheduling opportunity, both critical to good system performance. >
US adult tobacco users' absolute harm perceptions of traditional and alternative tobacco products, information-seeking behaviors, and (mis)beliefs about chemicals in tobacco products

Abstract Introduction Harm perceptions about tobacco products may influence initiation, continued use, and cessation efforts. We assessed associations between adult traditional tobacco product use and absolute harm perceptions of traditional and alternative tobacco products. We also described the topics individuals looked for during their last search for information, their beliefs about chemicals in cigarettes/cigarette smoke, and how both relate to harm perceptions. Methods We ran multivariable models with jackknife replicate weights to analyze data from the 2015 administration of the National Cancer Institute's Health Information National Trends Survey (N = 3376). Results Compared to never users, individuals reported lower perceived levels of harm for products they use. Among current tobacco users, ethnicity, thinking about chemicals in tobacco, and information-seeking were all factors associated with tobacco product harm perceptions. In the full sample, some respondents reported searching for information about health effects and cessation and held misperceptions about the source of chemicals in tobacco. Conclusions This study fills a gap in the literature by assessing the absolute harm perceptions of a variety of traditional and alternative tobacco products. Harm perceptions vary among tobacco products, and the relationship among tobacco use, information seeking, thoughts about chemicals in tobacco products, and harm perceptions is complex. Data suggest that some individuals search for information about health effects and cessation and hold misperceptions about chemicals in tobacco products. Future inquiry could seek to understand the mechanisms that contribute to forming harm perceptions and beliefs about chemicals in tobacco products.
A Note on the Economics of Stolen Valor

The economics of stolen valor concerns the act of trading on false claims of being awarded valorous military service medals. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 2005 Stolen Valor Act, largely on ...
First Baptist Church of Vila Da Penha: An Example of the Phenomenal Growth of Protestants in Brazil in Recent Years

In Brazil, as in all of Latin America, the phenomenal growth of evangelical Protestant religious groups in recent years challenges the perception of the country as a Roman Catholic state. In the 1980s a Brazilian Bishop observed that Latin America was becoming Protestant faster than Central Europe did during the Protestant Reformation (Stoll xiv). The number of evangelical Protestants in Brazil almost quadrupled from 1960 to 1985; if that growth rate were extrapolated to 2010, fifty-seven percent of the population would be Protestant (Stoll 337). Ordained Protestant ministers had surpassed Catholic priests, 17,000 to 13,000 by 1973 (Stoll 6). Joseph A. Page, in his recent book, The Brazilians , made this interesting observation: “A confidential study undertaken by Brazil’s Roman Catholic bishops and sent to the Vatican on the eve of Pope John Paul II’s 1991 trip to Brazil estimated that the Brazilian Catholic Church was losing six hundred thousand members a year to Protestant denominations and other religious groups, and that the number of Brazilian Catholics who actually practiced their faith did not match the number of practicing Protestants” (372). Phillip Berryman cites similar views in his book Religion in the Megacity: Catholic and Protestant Portraits From Latin America (3). A former student of the author noted that all the individuals who worked for her parents, her grandparents, and her aunts and uncles in service jobs, such as cooks, maids, and chauffeurs, were evangelical Protestants (Sampaio).
Grain growth during ultrasonic welding of nanocrystalline alloys

Abstract The effects of ultrasonic welding on the structure of nanocrystalline feedstock were investigated using nanostructured Ag-W as a model system. Transmission electron microscopy of welded Ag-W foils revealed extensive grain growth as well as second phase precipitation along the weld interface. These structural changes were related to the ultrasonic welding process variables by combining classical models of frictional heating and grain growth. Process diagrams showing the extent of grain growth under a given set of welding conditions were computed and used to identify combinations of weld pressure and weld time that give strong bonds while still preserving the structure of the feedstock.
Effects of a Lutein and Zeaxanthin Intervention on Cognitive Function: A Randomized, Double-Masked, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Younger Healthy Adults

Background: Past studies have suggested that higher lutein (L) and zeaxanthin (Z) levels in serum and in the central nervous system (as quantified by measuring macular pigment optical density, MPOD) are related to improved cognitive function in older adults. Very few studies have addressed the issue of xanthophylls and cognitive function in younger adults, and no controlled trials have been conducted to date to determine whether or not supplementation with L + Z can change cognitive function in this population. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not supplementation with L + Z could improve cognitive function in young (age 18–30), healthy adults. Design: A randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial design was used. Fifty-one young, healthy subjects were recruited as part of a larger study on xanthophylls and cognitive function. Subjects were randomized into active supplement (n = 37) and placebo groups (n = 14). MPOD was measured psychophysically using customized heterochromatic flicker photometry. Cognitive function was measured using the CNS Vital Signs testing platform. MPOD and cognitive function were measured every four months for a full year of supplementation. Results: Supplementation increased MPOD significantly over the course of the year, vs. placebo (p < 0.001). Daily supplementation with L + Z and increases in MPOD resulted in significant improvements in spatial memory (p < 0.04), reasoning ability (p < 0.05) and complex attention (p < 0.04), above and beyond improvements due to practice effects. Conclusions: Supplementation with L + Z improves CNS xanthophyll levels and cognitive function in young, healthy adults. Magnitudes of effects are similar to previous work reporting correlations between MPOD and cognition in other populations.
Strategies for Preventing Cognitive Decline in Healthy Older Adults.

Objective:Many advances have been made in the understanding of age-related changes in cognition. As research details the cognitive and neurobiological changes that occur in aging, there is increased interest in developing and understanding methods to prevent, slow, or reverse the cognitive decline that may occur in normal healthy older adults. The Institute of Medicine has recently recognized cognitive aging as having important financial and public health implications for society with the increasing older adult population worldwide. Cognitive aging is not dementia and does not result in the loss of neurons but rather changes in neurotransmission that affect brain functioning. The fact that neurons are structurally intact but may be functionally affected by increased age implies that there is potential for remediation.Method and Results:This review article presents recent work using medication-based strategies for slowing cognitive changes in aging. The primary method presented is a hormonal approach for a...
“Into the Thick of the Fray”: Black Missionaries, American Adaptive Education, and the Foundations of United States Foreign Relations with Angola

This article considers American foreign relations with Angola by exploring the application of so-called adaptive education. Beginning in 1919, black American missionaries at the Congregational Galangue mission station instituted systems of schooling originally developed among freedmen and women in the American South after the Civil War. These pedagogies were specifically designed to educate black Americans without upsetting dominant white structures. When transferred to Angola, these same teachings helped to empower Angolans economically and, ultimately, politically. And yet, they carried with them the unresolved legacy of American slavery. The success of Southern-inspired mission schools among Angolans opens up new questions about the legacies of slavery in US foreign relations with Angola and Africa.
Repurposing the anthelmintic drug niclosamide to combat Helicobacter pylori.

There is an urgent need to discover novel antimicrobial therapies. Drug repurposing can reduce the time and cost risk associated with drug development. We report the inhibitory effects of anthelmintic drugs (niclosamide, oxyclozanide, closantel, rafoxanide) against Helicobacter pylori strain 60190 and pursued further characterization of niclosamide against H. pylori. The MIC of niclosamide against H. pylori was 0.25 μg/mL. Niclosamide was stable in acidic pH and demonstrated partial synergy with metronidazole and proton pump inhibitors, such as omeprazole and pantoprazole. Niclosamide administration at 1 × MIC concentration, eliminated 3-log10 CFU of H. pylori adhesion/invasion to AGS cells. Interestingly, no resistance developed even after exposure of H. pylori bacteria to niclosamide for 30 days. The cytotoxic assay demonstrated that niclosamide is not hemolytic and has an IC50 of 4 μg/mL in hepatic and gastric cell lines. Niclosamide administration decreased transmembrane pH as determined by DiSC3(5) assay indicating that the mechanism of action of the anti-H. pylori activity of niclosamide was the disruption of H. pylori proton motive force. Niclosamide was effective in the Galleria mellonella-H. pylori infection model (p = 0.0001) and it can be develop further to combat H. pylori infection. However, results need to be confirmed with other H. pylori and clinical strains.
Relaxation in Powdered Metallic Antimony in Contact with Liquid 3He

The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation in finely powdered antimony metal immersed in liquid 3 He has been studied at low temperatures. For T < 75 mK, a new surface relaxation mechanism becomes significant. This surface relaxation is due to the modulation by the quantum zero-point motion of the dipole-dipole interaction between the Sb spins at the metal surface and the 3 He spins in the solid-like layer on the surface. Replacement of the liquid 3 He by 4 He restores the relaxation rates to the bulk value. This work helps explain anomalies found in previous relaxation studies on powdered Pt immersed in liquid 3 He.
Evidential reasoning using DELIEF

The Dempster-Shafer theory of belief functions [Shafer 1976] is an intuitively appealing formalism for reasoning under uncertainty. Several AI implementations have been undertaken [e.g., Lowrance et al. 1986, Biswas and Anand 1987], but the computational complexity of Dempster's rule has limited the usefulness of such implementations. With the advent of efficient propagation schemes in Markov trees [Shafer et al. 1987], the time is ripe for more powerful systems. This paper discusses DELIEF (Design of bELIEFs), an interactive system that allows the design of belief function arguments via a simple graphical interface. The user of DELIEF constructs a graph, with nodes representing variables and edges representing relations among variables. This graph serves as a default knowledge schema. The user enters belief functions representing evidence pertinent to the individual variables in a specific situation, and the system combines them to obtain beliefs on all variables. The schema may be revised and reevaluated until the user is satisfied with the result. The Markov tree used for belief propagation is displayed on demand. The system handles Bayesian causal trees [Pearl 1986] as a special case, and it has a special user interface for this case.
Robust Monotonically Convergent Spatial Iterative Learning Control: Interval Systems Analysis via Discrete Fourier Transform

Additive manufacturing (AM) systems use a layer-by-layer paradigm to build three-dimensional structures. There are myriad of advantages to AM; however, challenges with real-time actuation and sensing relegate AM processes to be largely open-loop processes. In this paper, we build upon the spatial iterative learning control (SILC) strategy to close the loop in the iteration domain in AM systems, enabling autonomous process control in the absence of real-time sensing. We approximate the steady-state partial differential equations of AM systems by discrete two-dimensional convolution operators and assume uncertain spatially varying kernels to have a more realistic representation of these complex processes. From this system description, we formalize the robust monotonic convergence (RMC) criterion for SILC. Importantly, we use discrete Fourier transform-based tools to study spatial dynamics, a practical framework for data-rich spatial sensors used in AM. The theoretical results are complemented with experiments on the AM process electrohydrodynamic jet printing, demonstrating that the RMC criterion can predict the design boundary for convergent behavior for norm-optimal SILC.
FastHLA: Energy-Efficient Mobile Data Transfer Optimization Based on Historical Log Analysis

Mobile data traffic will exceed PC Internet traffic by 2020. As the number of smartphone users and the amount of data transferred per smartphone grow exponentially, limited battery power is becoming an increasingly critical problem for mobile devices which depend on the network I/O. Despite the growing body of research in power management techniques for the mobile devices at the hardware layer as well as the lower layers of the networking stack, there has been little work focusing on saving energy at the application layer for the mobile systems during network I/O. In this paper, we propose a novel technique, called FastHLA, that can achieve significant energy savings at the application layer during mobile network I/O without sacrificing the performance. FastHLA is based on historical log analysis and real-time dynamic tuning of mobile data transfers to achieve the optimization goal. FastHLA can increase the data transfer throughout by up to 10X and decrease the energy consumption by up to 5X compared to state-of-the-art HTTP/2.0 transfers.
An experimental method for evaluating reinforcement corrosion in cracked concrete

This technical note presents an experimental method for evaluating corrosion behavior of steel-reinforcement bars in cracked concrete members. The method utilizes a small (23.5 cm (9.25 in.) deep x...
Institutional protocols for the oral administration (gavage) of chemicals and microscopic microbial communities to mice: Analytical consensus.

Although there are numerous Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocols aimed at standardizing the oral administration (gavage) of liquid chemicals to laboratory rodents, there is...
The effect of operative time on early postoperative complications in total shoulder arthroplasty: An analysis of the ACS-NSQIP database:

BackgroundTotal shoulder arthroplasty has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment for arthritis of the glenohumeral joint. Prior studies have identified longer operative times as a risk fact...
Insights into recurrent body-focused repetitive behaviors: evidenced by New York Times commenters

In September 2019, the New York Times (NYT) published the article "Fighting the Shame of Skin Picking," which discussed the cosmetic, social and emotional impacts of body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs). BFRBs, including excoriation disorder, trichotillomania, onychotillomania, and onychophagia, are recurring actions that damage one's physical appearance. The aim of this study is to characterize the demographic information provided and themes raised in the 166 comments posted in response to the article. The most commonly reported condition was skin picking (38.2%), followed by trichotillomania and/or trichophagia (30.3%), onychotillomania (24.7%), and onychophagia (23.6%). All conditions had a female predominance. Treatment of body-focused repetitive behaviors was the most common topic of discussion, followed by shame and impact on appearance. Since commenters described significant impairments to quality of life, larger randomized controlled trials on skin picking, trichotillomania, onychophagia, and onychotillomania are necessary to provide evidence-based management to patients.
The Framers' Inadvertent Gift: The Electoral College and the Constitutional Infirmities of the National Popular Vote Compact

The National Popular Vote Compact requires member states to appoint presidential electors based on the outcome of the national popular vote in presidential elections. It enters into force when states holding a total of 270 votes in the Electoral College adopt it. The Compact has already progressed more than 2/3 of the way toward that goal. If it enters into force, the Compact will fundamentally change the nature of presidential elections without a constitutional amendment. The Compact suffers from numerous constitutional flaws that have not been addressed in the literature. It violates the right to vote of member states’ citizens, by requiring those states to appoint presidential electors based on national vote tallies in which the votes of a member state’s eligible voters are diluted or even overwhelmed by votes of other states’ citizens who are ineligible to vote there. The Compact also violates the Equal Protection Clause as applied in Bush v. Gore because it requires all votes cast throughout the nation to be tallied together, even though they were cast under fifty-one different electoral systems, with materially differing voter qualification standards, voter registration and identification requirements, rules for counting and recounting ballots, and even policies on whether ranked-choice voting is permitted. The Compact also violates the Constitution’s implicit structural protections by undermining the special protection that the Electoral College affords smaller states and allowing a cabal of states to decide among themselves who the President will be, rendering other states’ electoral votes irrelevant. Finally, the Compact violates the Presidential Electors Clause by purporting to limit the inalienable plenary authority that the U.S. Constitution confers directly on state legislatures to determine the manner in which the state will choose its electors. Even if the Compact were constitutionally valid, prudential and practical constraints counsel strongly against it. The Electoral College allows a presidential election to be resolved as a series of fifty-one discrete, parallel contests, rather than a single national election involving over 136,000,000 votes cast at thousands of locations. The Electoral College’s compartmentalization makes the system manageable, confines the scope of recounts or post-election litigation, and limits the consequences of any natural disasters, mistakes, or even fraud that may occur. Due to the geographical breadth of our modern nation and size of our population, the ability to elect a national leader through dozens of smaller, limited elections has become a largely inadvertent gift from the Framers that we should not squander.
CHAPTER 12 – SECOND QUANTIZATION

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the second quantization and provides an account of creation and annihilation operators. The wave function of a system of indistinguishable particles must be either symmetric or antisymmetric with respect to an interchange of any two particles. The occupation number formalism described so far pertains to fermions. The chapter further describes the analogous formalism appropriate for bosons. Bosons, in contrast to fermions, are not restricted by the Pauli principle. One- and two-electron operators may be expressed in terms of the creation and annihilation operators. The chapter lists the rules for the diagrams that schematize the various matrix elements for fermion operators and discusses the field operators.
Otoconia degeneration as a consequence of primary hyperparathyroidism

Abstract Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common endocrine condition which disrupts physiologic calcium regulation. PHPT causes persistent hypercalcemia via the elevated and constant secretion of parathyroid hormone. Due to the effects of parathyroid hormone on target organs such as the bones, kidneys and gastrointestinal tract, untreated PHPT can lead to complications such as decreased bone mineral density, nephrolithiasis, and chronic abdominal pain, respectively. Given PHPT’s drastic effect on calcium metabolism, it is likely that the condition also affects other organ systems, such as the inner ear, which rely on calcium for normal structure and function. Specifically, the saccule and utricle have otoconia made of calcium carbonate deposited on a protein framework. We hypothesize that PHPT, the epitome calcium disorder, can cause otoconia degeneration, one manifestation of which is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). As a preliminarily test of this hypothesis, we measured the levels of otolin-1, an inner ear glycoprotein found in the otoconia protein framework and a proposed biomarker for otoconia degeneration in patients with PHPT. We found a positive linear relationship between PTH (parathyroid hormone) and otolin-1 levels (R2 = 0.53) and total calcium and PTH levels (R2 = 0.32). These findings suggest that both PTH and total calcium levels affect otolin-1 levels, implying that the calcium dysregulation caused by PHPT may contribute to the otoconia breakdown and may be associated with inner ear disorders such as BPPV.
The biology of tardigrade disordered proteins in extreme stress tolerance.

Disordered proteins have long been known to help mediate tolerance to different abiotic stresses including freezing, osmotic stress, high temperatures, and desiccation in a diverse set of organisms. Recently, three novel families of intrinsically disordered proteins were identified in tardigrades, microscopic animals capable of surviving a battery of environmental extremes. These three families include the Cytoplasmic-, Secreted-, and Mitochondrial- Abundant Heat Soluble (CAHS, SAHS, and MAHS) proteins, which are collectively termed Tardigrade Disordered Proteins (TDPs). At the level of sequence conservation TDPs are unique to tardigrades, and beyond their high degree of disorder the CAHS, SAHS, and MAHS families do not resemble one another. All three families are either highly expressed constitutively, or significantly enriched in response to desiccation. In vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro experiments indicate functional roles for members of each TDP family in mitigating cellular perturbations induced by various abiotic stresses. What is currently lacking is a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the fundamental mechanisms by which TDPs function, and the properties of TDPs that allow them to function via those mechanisms. A quantitative and systematic approach is needed to identify precisely what cellular damage TDPs work to prevent, what sequence features are important for these functions, and how those sequence features contribute to the underlying mechanisms of protection. Such an approach will inform us not only about these fascinating proteins, but will also provide insights into how the sequence of a disordered protein can dictate its functional, structural, and dynamic properties.
UAV Micro-Doppler Signature Analysis

The radar phenomenology of UAVs interacts with the micro-Doppler signal processing in interesting and useful ways. This paper adjusts the micro-Doppler processing to establish more consistent UAV micro-Doppler signatures and improve the separability of relevant features. The outlined approach is developed in the context of UAV rotor analysis. The techniques are demonstrated in both simulated and experimentally measured results of UAV rotor blades to distinguish three different types of UAV.
Chirped dissipative solitons in driven optical resonators

Solitons are self-sustaining particle-like wave packets found throughout nature. Optical systems such as optical fibers and mode-locked lasers are relatively simple, are technologically important, and continue to play a major role in our understanding of the rich nonlinear dynamics of solitons. Here we present theoretical and experimental observations of a new class of optical soliton characterized by pulses with large and positive chirp in normal dispersion resonators with strong spectral filtering. Numerical simulations reveal several stable waveforms including dissipative solitons characterized by large frequency chirp. In experiments with fiber cavities driven with nanosecond pulses, chirped dissipative solitons matching predictions are observed. Remarkably, chirped pulses remain stable in low quality-factor resonators despite large dissipation, which enables new opportunities for nonlinear pattern formation. By extending pulse generation to normal dispersion systems and supporting higher pulse energies, chirped dissipative solitons will enable ultrashort pulse and frequency comb sources that are simpler and more effective for spectroscopy, communications, and metrology. Scaling laws are derived to provide simple design guidelines for generating chirped dissipative solitons in microresonator, fiber resonator, and bulk enhancement cavity platforms.
Extraperitoneal Single-Port Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy.

Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) is currently the standard minimally invasive procedure for the surgical management of localized prostate cancer. It has been shown that the minimally inv...
Plasma-Enhanced Catalysis for NH 3 Synthesis at Low Temperature, Low Pressure Conditions Using a Non-Equilibrium Plasma Combined with Alloy Catalysts

Industrial synthesis of ammonia (Haber-Bosch (HB) process) requires high pressures (~ 30 MPa) and high temperatures (500°C) to achieve high yields of NH 3 . As a promising alternative, non-equilibrium plasma promoted NH 3 synthesis can produce NH 3 under atmospheric pressures and low temperatures. However, the overall energy efficiency of the NH 3 synthesis in plasma must be greatly improved.
The Role of Peer Support for Girls and Women in STEM: Implications for Identity and Anticipated Retention

The present study examined the role peers play in girls’ and women’s intent to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The primary goal was to test a mediational model in which three affordances from the STEM peer climate (motivation, confidence, and belongingness) predicted girls’ and women’s identification with STEM, which in turn predicted their intent to remain in STEM. In testing the model, particular attention was paid to differences that were driven by participants’ phase of education. The sample included STEM-oriented girls and women who attended high school, college, or graduate school in the United States. Analyses carried out with path analysis supported the hypothesized mediational model. Among high school and college students, STEM peers’ influence on motivation predicted participants’ STEM identification, which in turn predicted their intent to pursue a STEM career. Similarly, among graduate students, STEM peers’ influence on confidence predicted participants’ STEM identification, which in turn predicted their intent to pursue a STEM career. As anticipated, participants’ phase of education moderated several of the paths in the model. Discussion highlights both theoretical and applied implications.
Critical role of energy supply and glycolysis during short-term hibernation

The terms “acute hibernation” and “short-term hibernation” may seem oxymoronic since “hibernation” implies a prolonged period of dormancy and subsequent reawakening. Nonetheless, the concept of acute hibernation has provided a useful framework for research studies involving relatively brief periods of low flow or moderate ischemia which depress myocardial function but do not cause homogeneous irreversible injury; therefore significant recovery or “reawakening” of the ischemically depressed myocardium can occur with reperfusion. The sequence of relatively brief ischemia followed by reperfusion has obvious relevance to clinical scenarios of unstable angina, acute coronary thrombosis and impending myocardial infarction which is treated with thrombolytic therapy, and the ischemia-reperfusion sequence which accompanies cardiac surgery. The mechanisms regulating acute hibernation during low-flow ischemia and recovery during reperfusion merit serious investigation because of their clinical relevance and potential for beneficial therapeutic manipulation.
ONCOCIN: an expert system for oncology protocol management

We describe an oncology protocol management system, named ONCOCIN, that is designed to assist physicians in the treatment of cancer patients. The system is actually a set of programs, one of which is a rule-based reasoner that encompasses the necessary knowledge of cancer chemotherapy. Representation and control techniques are discussed, and ONCOCIN is contrasted with systems that could be built using EMYCIN. of particular interest is the need to provide ONCOCIN with an interface that will make the system acceptable to oncologists.
Nonencumbering Visual Performance Measurements

INSTRUMENTATION HAS BEEN DEVELOPED TO TRACK AND RECORD DYNAMICALLY AN AUTOMOBILE DRIVER'S VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY EYE MOTIONS WITH NO ENCUMBRANCE TO THE DRIVER'S HEAD OR EYE. THIS PORTABLE EYE-TRACKING SYSTEM MAKES POSSIBLE FIELD STUDIES OF THE DRIVER'S: (1) ANGLE OF GAZE REFERENCED TO THE SCENE; (2) INVOLUNTARY EYE MOTIONS AS POSSIBLE INDICATIONS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL STATE (FATIGUE, INTOXICATION, ETC); AND (3) PUPIL RESPONSE. /SAE/
Qualia Structure and the Compositional Interpretation of Compounds

The analysis of nominal compound constructions has proven to be a recalcitrant problem for linguistic semantics and poses serious challenges for natural language processing systems. We argue for a compositional treatment of compound constructions which limits the need for listing of compounds in the lexicon. The Generative Lexicon (Pustejovsky, 1995) provides us with a model of the lexicon which couples sufficiently expressive lexical semantic representations with mechanisms which capture the relationship between those representations and their syntactic expression. In our approach, the qualia structures of the nouns in a compound provide relational structure enabling compositional interpretation of the modification of the head noun by the modifying noun. This brings compound interpretation under the same rubric as other forms of composition in natural language, including argument selection, adjectival modification, and type coercion. We examine data from both English and Italian and develop analyses for both languages which use phrase structure schemata to account for the connections between lexical semantic representation and syntactic expression. In addition to applications in natural language understanding, machine translation, and generation, the model of compound interpretation developed here can be applied to multi-lingual information extraction tasks.
Being Empathic: The Role of Motivation to Empathize and the Nature of Target Emotions

The effect of the observer's motivation to empathize and the nature of the target person's emotions on empathy was examined. The study distinguished intellectual empathy, the extent to which the observer takes the target person's perspective, and empathic emotion, the extent to which the observer feels the target emotions. Intellectual empathy was measured via attribution errors that the observer made in attributing the target person's situation, and empathic emotion by the congruence between the emotions of the target person and the observer. The first experiment showed that pleasant emotions and sadness elicited more empathic emotion than did shame and anger. The second experiment revealed that motivation increased intellectual empathy when the target person was sad, and empathic emotion when the target person was happy. Intellectual empathy and empathic emotion appeared to be distinguishable constructs and could correlate under certain conditions.