cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Critical Race Theory and the Whiteness of Teacher Education

This article uses three tenets of critical race theory to critique the common pattern of teacher education focusing on preparing predominantly White cohorts of teacher candidates for racially and e...
Identification of CpG islands using a bank of IIR lowpass filters [DNA sequence detection]

It has been known that biological sequences such as the DNA sequence display different kinds of patterns depending on their biological functions. This statistical difference can be exploited for identifying the region of interest, such as the protein coding regions or CpG islands, in a new biological sequence that has not been annotated yet. A region of particular interest is the CpG island, which is a region in a DNA sequence that is rich in the dinucleotide CpG, since it is known that they can be used as gene markers. There have been several computational methods for identifying CpG islands, each with its own strength and weakness. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme for detecting CpG islands in a genomic sequence, which is based on a bank of IIR lowpass filters. The proposed method is capable of identifying CpG islands efficiently at a low computational expense. Simulation results are included where appropriate to demonstrate the idea.
Towards a synthetic nuclear transcription system in green algae: Characterization of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii nuclear transcription factors and identification of targeted promoters

Abstract Algae represent a unique opportunity to develop a sustainable production platform for many valuable products. A key hindrance to exploiting algae's potential as a bio-product manufacturing platform is our limited understanding of nuclear genetic regulatory systems. To begin to address this deficiency we identified prospective transcription factor-promoter pairs that have the potential for use in a controllable synthetic transcription system. We constructed a library of 92 recombinant nuclear transcription factors (TFs) from the model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Using a yeast one-hybrid assay, we identified TFs with the ability to activate transcription and chose TF64 for further analysis. We generated two independent C. reinhardtii strains that constitutively expressed the gene encoding TF64 and used RNA-sequencing on these strains to identify transcripts that were altered by expression of the TF's gene. Many mRNAs were regulated by TF64, and we confirmed activation of transcription of nine genes from the LHCBM family by RT-qPCR. Overall, we were able to identify numerous potential TF-cognate promoter binding partners in C. reinhardtii, thus laying the groundwork to develop a controllable synthetic nuclear transcription system for microalgae, an essential tool for realizing their full biotechnological potential.
Short-Run Aggregate Supply/Aggregate Demand and Policy

This chapter deals with relationships between the price level and real output. A higher price level is linked with a reduced level of aggregate demand (AD), but with an increased level of aggregate supply (AS). The curves for AD and AS are first explained in conventional Keynesian terms, where a change in the price level causes a change in the quantity demanded and the quantity supplied; AD is shaped by the central bank’s response to inflation, while AS is driven by stories of sticky wages or worker misperceptions. These are followed by alternative explanations: AD is shaped by the uncertain transition from planned expenditure to achieved real demand. AS results from the varying degree of firms’ willingness and ability to respond to increased demand by increasing output. The chapter ends with a discussion of the Lucas critique and an extension of that insight to broader issues of how policy is perceived.
Novel Beta-Lactamase Inhibitors: Unlocking Their Potential in Therapy

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae are amongst the most feared pathogens due to severely limited treatment options. In response to this threat, three novel β-lactamase inhibitors have been developed in an attempt to reinvigorate and sustain our current antimicrobial therapies. Avibactam, vaborbactam, and relebactam are inhibitor agents with high affinity to Ambler class A and C β-lactamases and favorable outcomes in current clinical trials. However, although they do possess key similarities, these agents have unique differences which may have important clinical implications. The microbiologic spectrum, pharmacokinetics, and key clinical trials for each of these novel agents are reviewed. A proposed role in therapy and potential novel combinations are examined.
Effectiveness of UNAIDS targets and HIV vaccination across 127 countries

The HIV pandemic continues to impose enormous morbidity, mortality, and economic burdens across the globe. Simultaneously, innovations in antiretroviral therapy, diagnostic approaches, and vaccine development are providing novel tools for treatment-as-prevention and prophylaxis. We developed a mathematical model to evaluate the added benefit of an HIV vaccine in the context of goals to increase rates of diagnosis, treatment, and viral suppression in 127 countries. Under status quo interventions, we predict a median of 49 million [first and third quartiles 44M, 58M] incident cases globally from 2015 to 2035. Achieving the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS 95–95–95 target was estimated to avert 25 million [20M, 33M] of these new infections, and an additional 6.3 million [4.8M, 8.7M] reduction was projected with the 2020 introduction of a 50%-efficacy vaccine gradually scaled up to 70% coverage. This added benefit of prevention through vaccination motivates imminent and ongoing clinical trials of viable candidates to realize the goal of HIV control.
Behavioral response to conspecific songs on foraging territories of the heart-nosed bat

Singing to create and defend territory boundaries is common among birds but rare in mammals. The African heart-nosed bat, Cardioderma cor, is hypothesized to use loud, low-frequency songs to reestablish foraging territories nightly. Territoriality can be defined ecologically, whereby an individual exclusively uses an area repeatedly, and behaviorally, through defense of an area. C. cor males sing on tightly abutting, exclusive areas nightly, which they return to throughout the season and sometimes across seasons. C. cor meets the ecological determinants of territoriality, but assessments of the use of song to maintain territories are lacking. We explore the singing behavior in this species by conducting song playback experiments within the borders of singing areas of 10 target individuals, with echolocation playbacks conducted as a control. In addition, we further explore the influence of song metrics on the behavioral response. Song playbacks prompted investigative and aggressive behavior, including passing by, approaching, and in one case, attacking the speaker, whereas echolocation did not. Additional post hoc analyses suggested that major song parameters, including song length, syllable frequency, intersyllable interval, and the number of double syllables comprising song stimuli influenced the level of response. For five bats we assessed whether their songs changed in response to the playback, and found that they sang faster, lower-frequency songs. These results are consistent with observations in other territorial animals including birds and gibbons, and provide a basis for further exploration of the territory defense hypothesis in the heart-nosed bat. We conclude that C. cor song features likely play an important role in mediating behavioral interactions within signaling networks of foraging bats. It has been hypothesized that birdsong first evolved in support of territorial defense because it offered a cost-effective alternative to patrolling large spaces by flight. Singing-like behaviors have also been documented in several species of bats but never as a tool for maintaining foraging territories. However, evidence of foraging territoriality is scarce for bats, likely due to technical challenges associated with documenting such behaviors for a small, flying animal that may travel large distances at night. Here, we show for the first time that a bat responds to conspecific songs in a manner strikingly similar to many songbirds, providing support from outside songbirds for the hypothesis that territorial defense is a key selective pressure for singing in small, flying animals. This work provides the important basis for continuing to explore the role of singing, including song variability, in natural bat behavior outside of the roost.
Low Biodiversity of Small Mammals in Soybean Fields in the Northern Flint Hills, Kansas

We studied small mammals in lowland soybean fields along Kings Creek on Konza Prairie during autumn 1981 and spring 1982 to assess the composition of the small mammal community in this particular cropland habitat. We also compared species composition and other community characteristics in these crop fields to those observed in native prairie, planted brome grasslands and riparian woodlands. The small mammal community in the soybean fields was dominated by seed-eating rodents as we recorded 100% deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) during autumn and primarily deer mice (92%) with a low proportion (8%) of white-footed mice (P. leucopus) during spring. In upland tallgrass prairie comprised primarily of warm-season grasses, the small mammal community was dominated by deer mice (32%), western harvest mice (30%; Reithrodontomys megalotis) and by white-footed mice (8%) in autumn and then by deer mice (35%), white-footed mice (22%) and harvest mice (21%) in spring. The community of small mammals in soybean fields w...
Influenza infection results in upregulation of inflammatory and atrophy genes in murine skeletal muscle (VIR5P.1146)

Though influenza is a respiratory infection, myalgia is a common symptom and associations with acute myositis and rhabdomyolysis have been noted. It is currently unclear if these symptoms are secondary due to the systemic response or if muscle may contribute to inflammation. Further, the effect of influenza on muscle damage and potential repair is not well established. We aimed to determine the expression level of select myokines, atrophy, and myogenic markers in skeletal muscle during influenza infection. Young C57BL/6 mice were inoculated with Pr8 influenza virus (IN, 500 EID 50 ) and sacrificed 7 or 15 days post infection (DPI) or were uninfected (n=4/group). Gastrocnemius gene expression was analyzed via RT-qPCR. Myostatin, IL4, IL6, IL6 receptor alpha, Ubiquitin B, Ubiquitin C, Foxo1, Atrogin-1, and MuRF-1 gene expression was upregulated 7 DPI indicating increased inflammation, protein degradation, and atrophy. Expression of positive regulators of muscle growth and maintenance (Igf-1, MyoD, and Mef2C) was downregulated at this time as well. At 15 DPI Atrogin-1 and MuRF-1 were downregulated though upregulation of myogenic markers did not occur. Our results indicate influenza infection is associated with muscle-localized inflammation, protein degradation, and atrophy that is resolved by day 15 post infection. It is known that influenza infection in the elderly leads to increased disability and loss of independence; it is likely muscle atrophy is a contributing factor.
Brain Tumors and Vein of Galen Malformations

Abstract Space-occupying lesions—including brain tumors, vein of Galen malformations, and arachnoid cysts—represent important intracranial mass lesions and share certain clinical features. Improvements in management in recent years have made the prognosis of these serious disorders considerably more favorable than in the past in selected cases. Still, very few children survive without unfavorable consequences, including hydrocephalus, intractable seizures, or significant developmental delay. Risks of interventions, such as anesthesia and blood loss, are tolerated better by infants older than 3 months, and definitive treatment may be deferred until later in infancy. Arachnoid cysts are an exception and can often be treated immediately with minimally invasive techniques.
Bayesian Subjunctive Conditionals for Games and Decisions

The theory of rational decision has always been implicitly involved with subjunctive and counterfactual conditionals. “If I were to do A, this would happen; if I were to do B that would happen. ” When I have done A, I use the counterfactual: “If I had done B, the outcome would have been worse. ” Counterfactuals are handled so smoothly in decision theory and game theory that they are hardly ever explicitly discussed except in cases where they cause problems. For many philosophers, Newcomb’s paradox was such a critical case (See Gibbard and Harper (1978)). In game theory, questions about beliefs off the equilibrium path in extensive form games and related issues of backward and forward induction provoked explicit discussion of counterfactuals (See Aumann (1995), Bicchieri (1988), Binmore (1987), Harsanyi and Selten (1988), Reny (1993), Stalnaker (1994), (forthcoming)). Where subjunctive conditionals cause problems, we need an explicit theory. What theory should we use? There is the selection function semantics of Stalnaker (1968) based on the idea of “most similar possible world in which the antecedent is true”, and related theories of Woodruff (1969), Lewis (1973), Pollock (1976), Nute (1980), which relax some of Stalnaker’s assumptions.
Variation and repeatability of cutaneous water loss and skin resistance in relation to temperature and diel variation in the lizard Sceloporus consobrinus.

Variation in rates of water loss has been proposed to be an important mechanism in the survival of terrestrial organisms, as high rates of water loss in desiccating environments may lead to hydric stress and death. Vapor density deficit, the driving force for evaporative water loss, increases exponentially as temperature increases. Acute temperature changes may be the result of daily behavioral thermoregulation of ectotherms, which may influence the among individual variation rates of water loss. The goals of this study were to determine (1) how rates of cutaneous water loss (CWL) and skin resistance (Rs) are affected by acute temperature acclimation, (2) how rates of CWL and Rs vary throughout the day allowing behavioral thermoregulation and (3) the repeatability of CWL and Rs within and among sampling periods. We measured CWL and calculated skin resistance (Rs) of 30 male Sceloporus consobrinus lizards across three summers. We measured CWL on the dorsal and ventral surface of each lizard at 23 °C followed by measurements at 35 °C, and three separate times throughout the day. We found a significant increase in Rs and decrease in CWL at increased acclimation temperatures (35 °C), a significant difference in CWL and Rs throughout the day allowing behavioral thermoregulation, and support for the repeatability of CWL and Rs. Our results demonstrate variability in CWL and Rs in relation to temperature acclimation and thermoregulation, but mixed evidence for repeatability across treatments. Our results suggest other factors, such as peripheral blood flow, may be influencing the inter-individual variation in CWL and Rs.
Teaching Dynamic Psychiatry to Social Work Students

A method tested for more than a decade in schools of nursing, medicine, dentistry, occupational therapy, and genetic counseling is described
Toward a Just World: The Critical Years in the Search for International Justice

Book review of Toward a Just World: The Critical Years in the Search for International Justice by Dorothy V. Jones (The University of Chicago Press, 2002).
Hierarchical multi-channel hidden semi Markov models

Many interesting human actions involve multiple interacting agents and also have typical durations. Further, there is an inherent hierarchical organization of these activities. In order to model these we introduce a new family of hidden Markov models (HMMs) that provide compositional state representations in both space and time and also a recursive hierarchical structure for inference at higher levels of abstraction. In particular, we focus on two possible 2-layer structures - the Hierarchical-Semi Parallel Hidden Markov Model (HSPaHMM) and the Hierarchical Parallel Hidden Semi-Markov Model (HPaHSMM). The lower layer of HSPaHMM consists of multiple HMMs for each agent while the top layer consists of a single HSMM. HPaHSMM on the other hand has multiple HSMMs at the lower layer and a Markov chain at the top layer. We present efficient learning and decoding algorithms for these models and then demonstrate them first on synthetic time series data and then in an application for sign language recognition.
Estimation Under Model-Based Sparsity

Beyond the ordinary, extensively studied, plain sparsity model, a variety of structured sparsity models have been proposed in the literature Bach (2008); Roth and Fischer (2008); Jacob et al. (2009); Baraniuk et al. (2010); Bach (2010); Bach et al. (2012); Chandrasekaran et al. (2012); Kyrillidis and Cevher (2012a). These sparsity models are designed to capture the interdependence of the locations of the non-zero components that is known a priori in certain applications. For instance, the wavelet transform of natural images are often (nearly) sparse and the dependence among the dominant wavelet coefficients can be represented by a rooted and connected tree. Furthermore, in applications such as array processing or sensor networks, while different sensors may take different measurements, the support set of the observed signal is identical across the sensors. Therefore, to model this property of the system, we can compose an enlarged signal with jointly-sparse or block-sparse support set, whose non-zero coefficients occur as contiguous blocks.
Reverse Credit Transfer and the Value of the Associate’s Degree: Multiple and Contradictory Meanings

ABSTRACTThis study examined how transfer students perceived the value of the associate’s degree in the context of reverse credit transfer. Five student focus groups of transfer students provided in...
Impact of Stratospheric Ozone on Tropospheric Concentrations

Estimates of the natural background levels of stratospheric ozone (O 3 ) in the lower troposphere are made using both stratospheric mass-balance calculations and radioactive fallout data. There is excellent agreement between both approaches, suggesting that there is a natural background of O 3 of approximately 20 percent of the federal 1-h max value (the concentration not to be exceeded for longer than 1 h) or roughly 30 μg/g. The maximum stratospheric O 3 concentrations in the lower troposphere on occasion can approach, and even exceed, this federal guideline value.
Cultural Practices Used by Georgia's Expanding Blueberry Industry

Abstract Blueberry growers in Georgia were surveyed to obtain information on the use of insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizers and cultural practices including mowing, cultivating, and p...
Acute Myocarditis: “I Thought My Soul Was Weak, but My Heart??”

Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the myocardium that has a wide spectrum of illness severity. There are multiple etiologies of myocarditis, the most common of these is viral infections. The treatment for acute myocarditis varies according to the spectrum of disease. For patients who present with symptoms of acute heart failure secondary to dilated cardiomyopathy, they typically respond well to standard heart failure treatment. Patients presenting with fulminant myocarditis and cardiogenic shock may need mechanical circulatory support, such as an intra-aortic balloon pump, a ventricular assist device, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as a bridge to transplant.
Reduced Left Atrial Emptying Fraction and Chymase Activation in Pathophysiology of Primary Mitral Regurgitation

Increasing left atrial (LA) size predicts outcomes in patients with isolated mitral regurgitation (MR). Chymase is plentiful in the human heart and affects extracellular matrix remodeling. Chymase activation correlates to LA fibrosis, LA enlargement, and a decreased total LA emptying fraction in addition to having a potential intracellular role in mediating myofibrillar breakdown in LA myocytes. Because of the unreliability of the left ventricular ejection fraction in predicting outcomes in MR, LA size and the total LA emptying fraction may be more suitable indicators for timing of surgical intervention.
An intrinsic FRET sensor of protein-ligand interactions

We describe an approach for the development of fluorescent sensors of metabolite binding in which a genetically encoded fluorescent non-canonical amino acid (fNCAA) containing a 7-hydroxycoumarin moiety (7-HCAA) forms a FRET pair with native tryptophan residues. Although previous studies demonstrated the potential for using 7-HCAA as an acceptor for tryptophan, this approach has not yet been explored within a single protein containing multiple tryptophan residues. A structure-based analysis of a hexokinase enzyme with multiple native tryptophan residues identified glutamate 50 as a potential site of 7-HCAA incorporation; Glu50 moves closer to the native tryptophans upon substrate binding. Substitution of 7-HCAA at residue 50 led to an increase in FRET efficiency in the presence of the substrate; this effect was not observed in a control protein where no change in distance between 7-HCAA and the native tryptophans occurs on substrate binding. This system was then used to directly observe differences in binding affinity of the hexokinase that occur at a number of pH values. Our approach builds on previous research in that it eliminates the need for the incorporation of multiple fNCAAs or fluorescent labels within a target protein and can be used to study substrate binding with native ligands. As such, it serves to expand the versatility of FRET-based techniques.
DEVELOPING YOUR RESEARCH CAREER

Abstract This meeting provides information on opportunities for new researchers in geriatric psychiatry and how to get started, obtain research training and support, and persist in the research field.
The Concept of Power

The book focuses on economic and political power, but many other types of power are also relevant to the understanding of those two types of power, including religious power, military power, and personal power. The substantial academic literature on power, mostly in political science, defines power in different ways, so the chapter considers those different definitions. This book defines economic power as the institutionalized control over resources, and political power as the institutionalized control over the actions of people through threats of coercion. The institutions that define power play an important role in this analysis. While one might take issue with these definitions, this chapter argues that they work well for the purposes that lie ahead.
Species-specific growth capacity for floodplain forest trees inferred from sapwood efficiency and individual tree competition

Abstract Although typically a strong determinant of site quality, the influence of flooding is not well understood for mixed-species floodplain forests. It is, however, generally assumed that growth is limited in floodplains that experience stagnant flooding because they are disconnected from river channels. Here, this assumption was tested across three connectivity levels (connected-to, partially-connected-to, and disconnected-from flowing water), using tree-ring sequences and field surveys of two dominant trees that cohabitate heavily flooded swamps but have contrasting life histories: short-lived black willow (Salix nigra) and long-lived baldcypress (Taxodium distichum). To characterize growing conditions for individual trees, we calculated sapwood efficiency (growth per sapwood area) and found that it declined in baldcypress from connected to disconnected sites; in contrast, black willow mean sapwood efficiency was lowest in the connected site. Overall, individual-tree sapwood efficiencies were highly variable, and local competition had a strong influence on baldcypress growth, independent of river-floodplain connectivity. Black willow appeared not to be sensitive to competition; however, it showed declining basal area trends that are likely attributable to age-related senescence. Black willow grows fast and indiscriminately, whereas baldcypress growth is sensitive to competition but persistent. Ring-width chronologies were used to identify species differences in growth responses to water levels; albeit similarly showing growth enhanced by flooding, baldcypress growth was consistently greatest with deep water (>3 m) whereas black willow growth was greatest with shallower water (1–2.5 m), especially in the less-connected sites. In addition to showing species-dependent growth responses to connectivity, these results show that tree growth is potentially more influenced by competition than by these degrees of connectivity, highlighting challenges in quantifying site-level growing conditions and flooding responses in disturbed, mixed stands.
Efficient segment-based ground filtering and adaptive road detection from mobile light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data

Mobile light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has been widely applied to support a variety of tasks because it captures detailed three-dimensional data of a scene with high accuracy with reduced costs...
COVID-19 Gender Disparities and Mitigation Recommendations: A Narrative Review

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has rapidly created widespread impacts on global health and the economy. Data suggest that women are less susceptible to severe illness. However, sex-disaggregated data are incomplete, leaving room for misinterpretation, and focusing only on biologic sex underestimates the gendered impact of the pandemic on women. This narrative review summarizes what is known about gender disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic, domestic, and health burdens along with overlapping vulnerabilities related to the pandemic. In addition, this review outlines recommended strategies that advocacy groups, community leaders, and policymakers should implement to mitigate the widening gender disparities related to COVID-19.
Texas Estate Planning Judicial Update: Spring 2021 Edition

This article discusses recent judicial developments (first quarter of 2021) relating to the Texas law of intestacy, wills, estate administration, trusts, and other estate planning matters. The discussion of each case concludes with a moral, i.e., the important lesson to be learned from the case. By recognizing situations that have led to time consuming and costly litigation in the past, estate planners can reduce the likelihood of the same situations arising with their clients.
Balancing for Amino Acids in Dairy Diets

The objectives of this study were 1) to test the ability of the amino acid submodel of the CNCPS to predict amino acid flow at the duodenum, and 2) to determine if early lactation cows would respond to rumen bypass amino acids with an increase in milk or milk protein yield. Five early-lactation Holstein cows were fitted with rumen and duodenal cannulae and utilized in a metabolism trial with a 5 x 5 Latin square design. Two diets were formulated to contain equal amounts of crude protein, degradable and undegradable protein (UIP), neutral detergent fiber, and non-structural carbohydrate. These diets used either fish meal or corn gluten meal and corn distiller's grain as sources of UIP. Bypass lysine (23 g/day) or bypass methionine (13 g/day) or both were then added to the corn protein-based diet. Diets consisted of grass silage, a barley and corn-based concentrate with the appropriate protein supplement, and whole cottonseed.
Indian Country’s Voice: Recognizing, Respecting and Protecting Our Electoral Power

After Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential Election, Republican lawmakers across the country introduced swaths of legislation that will make voting more burdensome with the effect of suppressing future turnout. Without impugning their intentions, the motivation is clear: keep Americans from the ballot box to maintain GOP control; or, more specifically, keep Americans who they don’t agree with (i.e. many members of the BIPOC community) from participating in our democracy. They even said so much themselves. The actions of lawmakers indicate that if the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election had been a Republican victory, many partisan bills masquerading as ‘election integrity’ would likely have never been drafted. Further, we can say with absolute certainty that rhetoric about the security and validity of American elections would be radically different. Last fall, AIPI highlighted the many barriers precluding Native American participation in our democracy, emphasizing the need to remain vigilant to safeguard our right to vote ahead of the 2020 election. With all that has transpired since then, including record voter turnout in Indian Country, our vigilance must persist as the right to vote is presently under attack across the United States. This article provides a cursory overview of what has been taking place with regard to voting rights, specifically in Arizona, and the potential impacts on voters, especially those in Native American communities.
A Minimal Intervention Definition of Reverse Engineering a Neural Circuit.

In neuroscience, researchers have developed informal notions of what it means to reverse engineer a system, e.g., being able to model or simulate a system in some sense. A recent influential paper of Jonas and Kording, that examines a microprocessor using techniques from neuroscience, suggests that common techniques to understand neural systems are inadequate. Part of the difficulty, as a previous work of Lazebnik noted, lies in lack of formal language. We provide a theoretical framework for defining reverse engineering of computational systems, motivated by the neuroscience context. Of specific interest are recent works where, increasingly, interventions are being made to alter the function of the neural circuitry to both understand the system and treat disorders. Starting from Lazebnik's viewpoint that understanding a system means you can ``fix it'', and motivated by use-cases in neuroscience, we propose the following requirement on reverse engineering: once an agent claims to have reverse-engineered a neural circuit, they subsequently need to be able to: (a) provide a minimal set of interventions to change the input/output (I/O) behavior of the circuit to a desired behavior; (b) arrive at this minimal set of interventions while operating under bounded rationality constraints (e.g., limited memory) to rule out brute-force approaches. Under certain assumptions, we show that this reverse engineering goal falls within the class of undecidable problems. Next, we examine some canonical computational systems and reverse engineering goals (as specified by desired I/O behaviors) where reverse engineering can indeed be performed. Finally, using an exemplar network, the ``reward network'' in the brain, we summarize the state of current neuroscientific understanding, and discuss how computer-science and information-theoretic concepts can inform goals of future neuroscience studies.
GraalVM native image: large-scale static analysis for Java (keynote)

GraalVM Native Image combines static analysis, heap snapshotting, and ahead-of-time compilation to produce a highly optimized standalone executable for a Java application. In this talk, we first introduce the overall architecture of GraalVM Native Image: instead of “just” compiling Java bytecode ahead of time, it also initializes parts of the application at build time. This reduces the startup time and memory footprint of the application at run time. In the second part of the talk, we dive into details of the points-to analysis. We show which of our original research ideas worked or did not work when analyzing large production applications; and we show the benefits of tightly integrating the static analysis with the ahead-of-time compiler.
The Kinematics of Early Type Galaxies

Recent observations of the kinematics of the central regions of M 31, M 32 and NGC 4594 at high spatial resolution have revealed steep central velocity gradients and high velocity dispersions that have been interpreted as indicating the presence of large central masses. Axisymmetric, constant mass-to-light ratio models can account for the steep rise in velocity dispersion found in these galaxies if the stellar orbits become increasingly radial towards the center, but cannot simultaneously reproduce the steep velocity gradients observed. When central point masses of 106–9 M ⊙ are added to these models, both the rotation and dispersion profile can be fit simultaneously. Alternative explainations for the observed behavior need to be investigated. For example, in the case of M 31, a nuclear bar viewed end-on has been suggested to account for the observations. In addition, we need to understand how the presence of a black hole would effect the distribution of the orbits of the stars, and what observable effects might be generated.
Sequential Phenolate Oxidations in Octahedral Cobalt(III) Complexes with [N2O3] Ligands

Three six-coordinate cobalt(III) complexes containing electron-rich phenolato pentadentate [N2O5] ligands were synthesized and characterized, namely, [CoIII(L1)(MeOH)] (1), [CoIII(L2)(MeOH)] (2) and [CoIII(L3)(MeOH)] (3), where L1, L2 and L3 are the triply deprotonated, triply negative form of(E)-6,6′-[({2-[(3,5-di-tert-butyl-2-hydroxybenzylidene)amino]phenyl}azanediyl)bis(methylene)]bis(2,4-di-tert-butylphenol), (E)-6,6′-[({3-[(3,5-di-tert-butyl-2-hydroxybenzylidene)amino]naphthalen-2-yl}azanediyl)bis(methylene)]bis(2,4-di-tert-butylphenol) and (E)-6,6′-[({2-[(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)amino]phenyl}azanediyl)bis(methylene)]bis(2,4-di-tert-butylphenol), respectively. Crystal structures were obtained for 1–3 and reveal a hexacoordinate cobalt(III) ion bound to the [N2O3] donors of each ligand and a methanol molecule occupying the sixth position. The complexes exhibited comparable electronic behavior dominated by phenolatecobalt charge transfer processes and four redox-accessible states involving three distinct phenolato/phenoxyl radical couples and a fourth process associated with the CoII/CoIII couple. The redox processes were cycled 30 times without major decomposition at the surface of the electrode for 1 and 2, indicating that the oxidized species should be substitutionally inert and do not degrade significantly upon cycling. Electronic-structure DFT calculations on models 1′ and 2′ favor the generation of localized phenoxyl radicals and suggest distinctive oxidation sequences associated to the nature of the ligands.
Natural law liberalism

Part I. Contemporary Liberalism: 1. Contemporary liberal exclusionism I: John Rawls's antiperfectionist liberalism 2. Contemporary liberal exclusionism II: Rawls, Macedo, and 'Neutral' Liberal Public Reason 3. Contemporary liberal exclusionism III: Gutmann and Thompson on 'Reciprocity' 4. Contemporary liberalism and autonomy I: Ronald Dworkin on Paternalism 5. Contemporary liberalism and autonomy II: Joseph Raz on trust and citizenship 6. 'Offensive liberalism': Macedo and 'liberal education' Part II. Liberalism and Natural Law: 7. Understanding liberalism: a broader vision 8. Understanding natural law 9. Liberalism and natural law 10. 'Cashing out' natural law liberalism: the case of religious liberty 11. A natural law public philosophy.
Possible Effects of Climate Change on Plant/Herbivore Interactions in Moist Tropical Forests

The interactions between plants and herbivores are key determinants of community structure world wide. Their role is particularly important in lowland tropical rain forests where rates of herbivory are higher, plants are better defended chemically and physically, and herbivores have specialized diets. In contrast to the temperate zone, most of the herbivory in the tropics occurs on ephemeral young leaves (>70%), which requires herbivores to have finely tuned host-finding abilities. As a consequence of these tight ecological and evolutionary linkages, the interplay between plants and herbivores in the tropics may be more susceptible to perturbations of climate change.
Research on social inequalities in health in India.

Sauvaget and colleagues1 use data from a prospective cohort study based in the peri-urban areas of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, a state known for its egalitarian social policies, to document the socio-economic inequalities in mortality. The large sample size, longitudinal design, low attrition, and efforts to verify cause of death are important strengths of their study. The study reports that low, compared to high socio-economic status (SES) groups had lower life expectancy at age 40 (about 1.5 to 2 yr less). The study also found that SES disparities were wider among men than women. An interesting question raised by the study is how to interpret the presence and magnitude of social inequalities that are observed in a state known for its history of egalitarian policies. What more could Kerala have done to further reduce these inequalities? How do the inequalities in an egalitarian regime compare with other “non-egalitarian” regimes? The magnitude of inequalities needs to be viewed cautiously since the study does not account for caste, potentially overestimating socio-economic inequalities. Further, a disaggregated analysis of the association of socio-economic status and cause of death would have been more insightful. There is no discussion on how the magnitude of inequalities would vary if life expectancy was estimated at a different age, instead of at age 40. It is also not clear whether the findings from Thiruvananthapuram can be extrapolated to other parts of Kerala. Notwithstanding these, the study makes an important contribution to the small but growing body of research on social disparities in health in the India2–11. While social factors affecting health are mentioned in a majority of studies of population health in India, these are viewed more as statistical covariates and not as causal factors in their own right. However, the lack of significant progress in prevention of disease, as well as the persistence of socio-economic inequalities in health2, suggest the need to re-examine the theory and practice of public health in India by explicitly incorporating a social determinants perspective. We focus the remainder of the comment in outlining an agenda for research on social determinants in India.
Serine and SAM Responsive Complex SESAME Regulates Histone Modification Crosstalk by Sensing Cellular Metabolism

Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) is a key enzyme for glycolysis and catalyzes the conversion of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) to pyruvate, which supplies cellular energy. PKM2 also phosphorylates histone H3 threonine 11 (H3T11); however, it is largely unknown how PKM2 links cellular metabolism to chromatin regulation. Here, we show that the yeast PKM2 homolog, Pyk1, is a part of a novel protein complex named SESAME (Serine-responsive SAM-containing Metabolic Enzyme complex), which contains serine metabolic enzymes, SAM (S-adenosylmethionine) synthetases, and an acetyl-CoA synthetase. SESAME interacts with the Set1 H3K4 methyltransferase complex, which requires SAM synthesized from SESAME, and recruits SESAME to target genes, resulting in phosphorylation of H3T11. SESAME regulates the crosstalk between H3K4 methylation and H3T11 phosphorylation by sensing glycolysis and glucose-derived serine metabolism. This leads to auto-regulation of PYK1 expression. Thus, our study provides insights into the mechanism of regulating gene expression, responding to cellular metabolism via chromatin modifications.
GaN heterostructure barrier diodes (HBD) with polarization-induced delta-doping

The nonlinear characteristics of solid-state devices are widely used for high frequency applications such as mixers, detectors, and frequency multipliers; for example, the nonlinear rectifying behaviors of Schottky and heterostructure backward diodes are widely used for mixing and detection. Improved flexibility in device design while retaining a rectifying I-V can be realized by back-to-back Schottky diodes, such as by p-type δ-doping in the middle of an intrinsic GaAs layer, known as the Planar Doped Barrier (PDB) diode (Figure 1) [1]. The barrier height and depletion region thickness L1 and L2 are decided by the position and concentration of the δ-doping (Figure 1 (d)). A reliable PDB is limited by the control of δ-doping. In III-Nitride heterostructures, due to the presence of a high spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization charge, a effective δ-doping can be induced at sharp heterojunctions with atomic control and doping densities far beyond what is achievable by chemical acceptor (or donor) δ-doping in other III-V semiconductors. Polarization-induced sheet charges have not yet been exploited for HBD design in the III-Nitride system; this work presents preliminary results in that direction.
A novel approach to plastid transformation utilizes the phiC31 phage integrase

Thus far plastid transformation in higher plants has been based on incorporation of foreign DNA in the plastid genome by the plastid's homologous recombination machinery. We report here an alternative approach that relies on integration of foreign DNA by the phiC31 phage site-specific integrase (INT) mediating recombination between bacterial and phage attachment sites (attB and attP, respectively). Plastid transformation by the new approach depends on the availability of a recipient line in which an attB site has been incorporated in the plastid genome by homologous recombination. Plastid transformation involves insertion of an attP vector into the attB site by INT and selection of transplastomic clones by selection for antibiotic resistance carried in the attP plastid vector. INT function was provided by either expression from a nuclear gene, which encoded a plastid-targeted INT, or expressing INT transiently from a non-integrating plasmid in plastids. Transformation was successful with both approaches using attP vectors with kanamycin resistance or spectinomycin resistance as the selective marker. Transformation efficiency in some of the stable nuclear INT lines was as high as 17 independently transformed lines per bombarded sample. As this system does not rely on the plastid's homologous recombination machinery, we expect that INT-based vectors will make plastid transformation a routine in species in which homologous recombination rarely yields transplastomic clones.
Increased seminal reactive oxygen species levels in patients with varicoceles correlate with varicocele grade but not with testis size

Increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are associated with clinical varicoceles; however, its correlation with varicocele grade and testis size is unknown. In our study, seminal ROS levels showed significant correlation with left varicocele grade and significantly elevated seminal ROS levels were seen in men with left varicocele grade 2 and 3 compared to grade 1.
Superresolution STED Imaging Reveals a Periodic Punctate Pattern of Adenylyl Cyclase Type III on Primary Cilia

Primary cilia are organelles serving essential sensory and signaling functions in nearly all mammalian cell types. They serve as a center of complex signaling, involved in cAMP, Wnt and Shh signaling pathways. Adenylyl cyclases type III (ACIII) is a primary cilia marker involved in cAMP signaling, playing important roles in regulating ciliogenesis and sensory function. Despite its importance, detailed ACIII localization and their interactions with other proteins remain unclear due to the limited resolution of conventional microscopy. To determine the morphological characteristics of ACIII in primary cilia, we conducted superresolution imaging of immunostained ACIII in fibroblasts and neurons using stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, which allows us to resolve the localization of ACIII achieving a resolution of 50 nm. In contrast to the previous understanding that ACIII distributes uniformly along a primary cilium, our STED images revealed that ACIII formed a periodic punctate pattern with a roughly equal spacing between groups of puncta. These puncta occupied less than 50% of the area, with the size of 137±20 nm in the axial direction along the primary cilia. The spacing between puncta was 250±67 nm. Some primary cilia even showed two rows of periodic puncta along the axial direction, with a tilted angle of about 12° to 35° between the two rows. The spacing between the two rows was 195±19 nm. In some cells, ACIII was only localized in the basal body, where the periodic punctate pattern was absent. Based on our superresolution studies, we concluded that ACIII can be transported into a primary cilium, but would only occupy regions approximately equally spaced along the cilium.
Gauge-independent quantization of the schrödinger and radiation fields

The quantization of several Schrodinger fields interacting with the electromagnetic field is carried out without reference to a particular gauge. The canonical formalism requires a modification introduced by Dirac and Bergmann for constraints. The Coulomb interaction is separated from the radiation and it gives rise to bound states of atoms and molecules. Particle operators are represented in the usual manner in Fock space, while the radiation field can be described by state functionals. Constraints can be included in the canonical formalism by Lagrange multipliers, leading to results equivalent to those of Dirac and Bergmann.
A Comparison of Speech-Language Pathologists in Rural and Urban School Districts in the State of Washington

Questionnaires were sent to speech-language pathologists who work in rural and urban school districts in the state of Washington in order to compare employment in these environments. Significant di...
Chemosystematic aspects of flavonoid distribution in twenty-two taxa of Helenium☆

Abstract Distributional data for 12 flavonoids in twenty-two taxa of Helenium are presented. Flavonoids identified to date are all flavones based on luteolin and apigenin. Chemosystematic interpretations are made concerning several species and species groups.
Right atrial mass after primary repair of an atrial septal defect : Thrombus masquerading as a myxoma

Atrial septal defects are among the most common congenital anomalies requiring surgical repair. Thrombus formation after patch-based repair is a recognized complication, usually manifested by an embolic event. However, thromboembolic complications after primary repair of atrial septal defects are exceedingly rare. We present a 38-year-old woman found to have a right atrial mass diagnosed as a myxoma by echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging 3 years after primary atrial septal defect repair. However, final pathology revealed an organized thrombus. A review of the literature and clinical management of postoperative atrial thrombi are discussed.
Resin embedments of quantitative meiofauna samples for ecological and structural studies — Description and application

In enumerating data for systematic and ecological studies on meiofauna, an unfortunate diversification exists in the methods used for observation, identification, preservation and curatorial treatment of various taxa. The application of transmission electron microscopy resin embedment techniques to whole, quantitative, extracted meiofauna samples is described here as a new method, which overcomes most of these problems. Slide-shaped resin blocks are produced by this method; they contain the mass-embedded meiofauna on one side and sand from the sample site on the other side; the latter can be used in studying sand-grain epigrowth of Protista, Fungi and Monera. Examples for the applicability of these slides to various meiobenthic studies are given for most taxa, but especially for Turbellaria, Annelida and Mystacocarida. Using this resin-slide technique, whole quantitative transects can be deposited as “ecotype material” in museums.