cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characterization of P. aeruginosa pili binding human corneal epithelial proteins

Soluble human corneal epithelial proteins (hcep) to which P. aeruginosa pili bind were identified and characterized using gel electrophoresis and Western blotting techniques. Pilus binding proteins were identified using nitrocellulose membrane blots of one dimensional polyacrylamide gels (1-D-SDS-PAGE) of solubilized hcep and a pilus overlay assay. Five major proteins of approximate molecular weights 97 kDa bound pili using an overlay assay and immunoblotting with the monoclonal antibody (MAb) XLR-3, specific for pili. Several of these pili binding proteins were confirmed as single proteins using a similar pilus overlay assay and blotted proteins from two-dimensional polyacrylamide gels (2-D-SDS-PAGE) of hcep. A solid-phase binding assay confirmed that pili binding to hcep was specific, competitive and saturable. The importance of the carbohydrate portions of corneal pili binding proteins was assessed by preincubation of 1-D...
Classroom and Online Management Courses: A Comparison of Student Performance on Standardized Tests

This article reports the findings of a recent empirical study that was conducted at two universities in the United States. The study compared undergraduate students in traditional classrooms with those taking the same courses with the same instructors in online learning environments. The intention of the study was to compare subject matter competencies in management principles within student groups and among industry practitioners. The article provides a report of objectives, methodology, findings, discussion, conclusions, and implications relative to the study. Final suggestions concerning online courses aimed at certification testing preparation are implicated from the findings of the study.
Pilot study of childhood accidents: preliminary report.

A major problem of child health today is the prevention of accidents. Part of the answer to this problem lies in the answer to the question of why some children have more than their share of accidents. Although there is an extensive literature on the accident-susceptible or accident-prone adult, there has been but little written on this aspect of the accident-prone child. Much remains to be done in order to identify the respects in which children who have repeated accidents differ from their fellows. In spite of the lack of reported studies of children there has been a tendency to talk about the accident-prone child and to attribute to him the personality characteristics and motivations seen in the adult accident repeater. It was with a desire to do something about it, and not merely to talk about it, that the study, of which this paper is a preliminary report, was begun at the Babies Hospital of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, in the fall of 1951. The purpose of this investigation was to explore methods for identifying and determining the significance, in relation to the incidence of accidents in children, of parental attitudes, parent-child relationships, environmental accident hazards, personality characteristics and functioning of the child, physical coordination and physical disabilities as these are reflected in the experience of the accident repeater. It was planned to do this through the study of a relatively small number of children of school age and their environment, both personal and physical, comparing a group who have had repeated accidents with a group who have no accident history. Even though the number of children studied would be small some questions might be answered. In addition, leads for further investigations with a larger number of children might emerge. In any event, it would be discovered whether the proposed approach in the study would bring out meaningful information. The plan was to select for investigation 10 or 12 children of average intelligence who had been brought to the Emergency Clinic of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center for treatment of accidental injuries at least 3 times during the 18 month period prior to the outset of the study. Children whose only accidents had been traffic or who had had severe or repeated head injuries were to be included.
Cross-sectional scanning thermal microscopy of ErAs/GaAs superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Scanning thermal microscopy has been implemented in a cross-sectional geometry, and its application for quantitative, nanoscale analysis of thermal conductivity is demonstrated in studies of an ErAs/GaAs nanocomposite superlattice. Spurious measurement effects, attributable to local thermal transport through air, were observed near large step edges, but could be eliminated by thermocompression bonding to an additional structure. Using this approach, bonding of an ErAs/GaAs superlattice grown on GaAs to a silicon-on-insulator wafer enabled thermal signals to be obtained simultaneously from Si, SiO2, GaAs, and ErAs/GaAs superlattice. When combined with numerical modeling, the thermal conductivity of the ErAs/GaAs superlattice measured using this approach was 11 ± 4 W m−1 K−1.
The Message, the Method, the Madness

This article suggests the best modes of communication to use when dealing with a variety of issues.
Conversion of Indole-3-Butyric Acid to Indole-3-Acetic Acid in Shoot Tissue of Hazelnut ( Corylus ) and Elm ( Ulmus )

Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) is an endogenous compound that appears to regulate both lateral and adventitious root formation in many plant species and is also the auxin most available commercially for application to promote rooting. IBA is converted to indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) by β-oxidation in the peroxisomes. This process has been observed in a number of plant species and has been shown to be critical for normal root development in response to treatment with IBA. In this study, we investigated this process in hybrid hazelnut (Corylus americana × C. avellana), American elm (Ulmus americana), and Cathedral hybrid elm (U. pumila × U. davidiana var. japonica ‘Cathedral’), in which adventitious rooting is a major bottleneck for vegetative propagation, and the efficacy of IBA treatment is highly variable across different cultivars and at different collection times. Using differentially stable isotope-labeled IBA and IAA tracer and internal standard, respectively, and using gas chromatography coupled with selected reaction monitoring mass spectrometry, IBA-derived IAA was measured in shoot tissue treated with stable isotope-labeled IBA. In elm, higher levels of IBA-to-IAA conversion were generally observed in cultivars which formed adventitious roots most easily in softwood stem cutting trials. IBA-to-IAA conversion was observed in hazelnut genotypes with different rooting abilities and suggested a complex relationship exists between IBA conversion and root organogenesis. In both hazelnut and elm, endogenous free IAA levels were not significantly different across the genotypes examined. High rates of root formation is a key trait for establishment of large-scale production systems. Screening for optimal rates of IBA-to-IAA conversion may facilitate selection against genotypes which respond poorly to exogenous IBA and are thus difficult to propagate using hormone treatment.
Hey, How Did That Antibody Get There?

A 33-year-old female with a history of sickle cell disease is admitted with pain crisis (pain in extremities and back). The patient, who has no history of antibodies, has had several admissions to the hospital for pain crisis over the past 3 years and was transfused one unit of red blood cells (RBCs) 2 years ago; the RBCs were matched by extended phenotype (negative for C, E, and K antigens) as per your blood bank’s policy for sickle cell patients. The patient denies receiving any RBC transfusions since the one unit given 2 years ago at the hospital.
Porcine Models of Cutaneous Wound Healing

Cutaneous wound healing in the pig is frequently used as a model for human cutaneous wound healing. In this review, we examine the appropriateness of this model for studying normal and pathological wound healing, and describe models for chronic nonhealing wounds, diabetic wounds, burns, and hypertrophic scars. In addition, we focus on studies that have used pigs to evaluate wound-healing therapies, and discuss genetic engineering technology in the pig that may advance our knowledge of wound healing. We conclude that, although not perfect, the pig offers a versatile model that can be adjusted to mimic a wide range of clinical scenarios.
The Implications of Rheology for Red Cell Membrane Structure

I would like to refer to three or four of the methods that Dr. Chien mentioned and I am going to extrapolate from those methods certain items of information which I think are relevant to the way the red cell membrane molecules are put together. Due to time constraints this will be a very arbitrary process; I won’t discuss those observations I don’t think are germane and I will omit others I don’t know how to fit in.
Ionic Liquid Gel-Based Containment and Decontamination Coating for Blister Agent-Contacted Substrates

Current methods to contain and decontaminate materials contacted by toxic chemical warfare agents (CWAs) have disadvantages with respect to ease of delivery, portability, and effectiveness on porous substrates. A portable, easy-to-use, spreadable coating that immediately acts as a barrier to contain CWA vapors on contacted substrates and also decontaminates soaked-in CWAs is highly desired. A new type of decontaminating barrier coating for sulfur mustard (i.e., blister agent) CWAs has been developed that is made of (1) a spreadable nonvolatile, fluid matrix based on a room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL), (2) an organic gelator that acts as a solidifying agent to help the applied coating adhere to and prevent runoff from angled or vertical surfaces, and (3) a polyamine that acts as a reagent to chemically degrade and help draw out adsorbed blister agent. When applied to porous and nonporous substrates contacted with 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (CEES, a mustard agent simulant), this spreadable, soft solid ...
COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF ARRANGEMENTS WITHIN AND BETWEEN POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

The third chromosome of Drosophila pseudoobscura is unique in its extensive variety of gene arrangements. At present, there are 22 known arrangements of the third chromosome, three of the X-chromosome, three of the second, and one of the fourth. No satisfactory explanation for this multiplicity of inversion types, particularly of the third chromosome, has been found. The inversion heterozygote suppresses crossing over in the chromosome in which it
Evaluation of rucaparib and companion diagnostics in the PARP inhibitor landscape for recurrent ovarian cancer therapy

Rucaparib camsylate (CO-338; 8-fluoro-2-{4-[(methylamino)methyl]phenyl}-1,3,4,5-tetrahydro-6H-azepino[5,4,3-cd]indol-6-one ((1S,4R)-7,7-dimethyl-2-oxobicyclo[2.2.1]hept-1-yl)methanesulfonic acid salt) is a PARP1, 2 and 3 inhibitor. Phase I studies identified a recommended Phase II dose of 600 mg orally twice daily. ARIEL2 Part 1 established a tumor genomic profiling test for homologous recombination loss of heterozygosity quantification using a next-generation sequencing companion diagnostic (CDx). Rucaparib received US FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation for treatment of platinum-sensitive BRCA-mutated advanced ovarian cancer patients who received greater than two lines of platinum-based therapy. Comparable to rucaparib development, other PARP inhibitors, such as olaparib, niraparib, veliparib and talazoparib, are developing CDx tests for targeted therapy. PARP inhibitor clinical trials and CDx assays are discussed in this review, as are potential PARP inhibitor combination therapies and likely resistance mechanisms.
Retrograde dissection of the axillary artery during arteriogram via arteriovenous access

INTRODUCTION Retrograde arterial dissection is a recognized complication of endovascular intervention but has not been well reported especially in the context of dialysis arteriovenous access procedures. The management of this complication is also not well defined. CASE PRESENTATION We report the case of an 80-year-old female with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on dialysis who developed an asymptomatic retrograde dissection of the left axillary artery during an arteriogram performed via a retrograde approach as part of access dysfunction evaluation. The condition was managed conservatively with no other intervention and close follow-up. No surgical intervention or stenting was needed in this case. DISCUSSION Conservative management of retrograde arterial dissection in the arm may be a viable option especially in asymptomatic patients due to the nature of the injury. The force of blood flow in the antegrade direction limits the expansion of the false lumen and likely promotes the spontaneous healing of the vessel.
Advance Directives: Navigating Conflicts Between Expressed Wishes and Best Interests

Clinicians and surrogates can be faced with challenging decisions when a patient loses the capacity to participate in medical decision making. A significant number of hospitalized and critically ill adults lose decision-making capacity during hospital stays and cannot make treatment decisions.
Effect of inspiratory flow rate on the efficiency of carbon dioxide removal at tidal volumes below instrumental dead space

Objective The ability to ventilate babies with tidal volumes (V T s) below dead space has been demonstrated both in vivo and in vitro, though it appears to violate classical respiratory physiology. We hypothesised that this phenomenon is made possible by rapid flow of gas that penetrates the dead space allowing fresh gas to reach the lungs and that the magnitude of this phenomenon is affected by flow rate or how rapidly air flows through the endotracheal tube. Methods We conducted two bench experiments. First, we measured the time needed for complete CO 2 washout from a test lung to assess how fixed V T but different inflation flow rates affect ventilation. For the second experiment, we infused carbon dioxide at a low rate into the test lung, varied the inflation flow rate and adjusted the V T to maintain stable end tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO 2 ). Results At all tested V T s, lower flow rate increased the time it took for CO 2 to washout from the test lung. The effect was most pronounced for V T s below dead space. The CO 2 steady-state experiment showed that ETCO 2 increased when the flow rate decreased. Ventilating with a slower flow rate required a nearly 20% increase in V T for the same effective alveolar ventilation. Conclusions Inflation flow rate affects the efficiency of CO 2 removal with low V T . Our results are relevant for providers using volume-controlled ventilation or other modes that use low inflation flow rates because the V T required for normocapnia will be higher than published values that were generated using pressure-limited ventilation modes with high inflation flows.
Associations Between the Self-Reported Frequency of Hearing Chemical Alarms in Theater and Visuospatial Function in Gulf War Veterans.

Objective:The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the self-reported frequencies of hearing chemical alarms during deployment and visuospatial function in Gulf War (GW) veterans.Methods:The relationship between the self-reported frequency of hearing chemical alarms, neurobehavio
Exchange rate exposure of REITs

Abstract In this paper, I examine how foreign exchange rate movements affect U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs) returns. I document that REITs returns are adversely affected by U.S. dollar appreciation, regardless of the measurement of the exchange rate changes, of the REIT size and of macro-economic factors. The exchange rate exposures, however, vary significantly among the REIT types and REITs’ property. U.S. dollar appreciation adversely affects equity REITs returns while leaving no significant impact on mortgage REITs and hybrid REITs returns. The exchange rate exposure is especially prominent among health care, industrials-office, residential, retail and self-storage REITs. The findings unveil an important source of risk that REITs are exposed to, demanding more attention from REIT portfolio managers and investors alike.
Salubrinal Increases Human Fetal Hemoglobin Production Through a Post-Transcriptional Mechanism

Abstract 250 Sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia continue to cause significant morbidity and mortality. Strategies to increase fetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels can ameliorate symptoms and improve the lives of patients with these diseases. While most previous studies have focused on induction of γ-globin gene expression as an approach to induce HbF, there is evidence that HbF may be post-transcriptionally regulated. For example, butyrate was shown to increase the translational efficiency of γ-globin mRNA and 5-azacytidine (5-Aza) induces HbF to a much greater degree than γ-globin mRNA steady state levels. These findings suggest that translational regulation may play an underappreciated yet important role in controlling HbF levels and that investigating the molecular mechanisms involved in this control may provide new therapeutic targets for HbF induction. We hypothesized that the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) pathway is involved in differentially regulating fetal and adult hemoglobin production. The ISR pathway has been shown to modulate globin protein synthesis in response to heme availability and other stresses. In the absence of heme, the heme-regulated inhibitor kinase phosphorylates eIF2α, downregulates general protein synthesis, but enables translation of a limited number of transcripts that are critical for coordinating the stress response. To test our hypothesis, we first evaluated the effects of salubrinal (Sal), a small molecule that activates ISR signaling by selectively inhibiting p-eIF2α dephosphorylation, in K562 cells. 3μM and 6μM Sal increased p-eIF2α and activated ISR signaling as evidenced by increased ATF4 and GADD34 protein levels and increased gene expression of ATF3 and CHOP, two transcriptional targets of ATF4. Once we verified that Sal increased p-eIF2α and ISR signaling, we extended testing to primary human erythroid cells to evaluate its effect on hemoglobin production. We first determined a dose range of Sal that increased p-eIF2α in primary cells without reducing cell viability. Both 3μM and 6μM Sal increased p-eIF2α and only reduced cell number by 15% when applied on days 15 and 18 of differentiation, the period of maximal hemoglobin synthesis. Next, we determined that 3μM and 6μM Sal slightly reduced γ-globin and β-globin steady state mRNA levels but did not change the γ/(γ+β) ratio relative to control. In contrast, Sal significantly induced HbF when evaluated by HPLC at the end of differentiation on day 20. Compared to untreated cells, 3μM Sal increased the percent HbF from 2.7% to 5.0% (1.8 fold) and 6μM Sal resulted in 12.9% HbF (4.7 fold) (n=4, p Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Lithium Transport in an Amorphous LixSi Anode Investigated by Quasi-elastic Neutron Scattering

We demonstrate the room temperature mechanochemical synthesis of highly defective LixSi anode materials and characterization of the Li transport. We probed the Li+ self-diffusion using quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) to measure the Li self-diffusion in the alloy. Li diffusion was found to be significantly greater (3.0 × 10–6 cm2 s–1) than previously measured crystalline and electrochemically made Li–Si alloys; the energy of activation was determined to be 0.20 eV (19 kJ mol–1). Amorphous Li–Si structures are known to have superior Li diffusion to their crystalline counterparts; therefore, the isolation and stabilization of defective Li–Si structures may improve the utility of Si anodes for Li-ion batteries.
2-Chloropropionamide As a Low-Reactivity Electrophile for Irreversible Small-Molecule Probe Identification

Resurgent interest in covalent target engagement in drug discovery has demonstrated that small molecules containing weakly reactive electrophiles can be safe and effective therapies. Several recently FDA-approved drugs feature an acrylamide functionality to selectively engage cysteine side chains of kinases (Ibrutinib, Afatinib, and Neratinib). Additional electrophilic functionalities whose reactivity is compatible with highly selective target engagement and in vivo application could open new avenues in covalent small molecule discovery. Here, we report the synthesis and evaluation of a library of small molecules containing the 2-chloropropionamide functionality, which we demonstrate is less reactive than typical acrylamide electrophiles. Although many library members do not appear to label proteins in cells, we identified S-CW3554 as selectively labeling protein disulfide isomerase and inhibiting its enzymatic activity. Subsequent profiling of the library against five diverse cancer cell lines showed uni...
IPL vs PDL in treatment of facial erythema: A split-face study

SummaryBackground Lasers and noncoherent intense pulse light sources effectively treat vascular lesions. Intense pulsed light (IPL), a nonablative treatment for photorejuvenation, uses a flashlamp which emits noncoherent light between 400 and 1400 nm. The light may be filtered to target a specific chromophore. The pulsed dye laser (PDL), at 595 nm, has been the historical standard of care in the treatment of facial erythema. We sought to determine whether IPL may be used in lieu of PDL in reducing facial erythema. Objectives To determine whether IPL may be used to treat facial erythema with equal efficacy as PDL used at nonpurpuric settings. Methods Prospective investigation of a cohort of 15 subjects with unwanted bilateral facial erythema. Subjects presented for two treatments with an IPL (BBL™ BroadBand Light; Sciton, Palo Alto, CA) to one half of the face and PDL (Cynergy™; Cynosure, Westford, MA) to the other half. Results Patients with facial erythema may be successfully treated with IPL or PDL. Conclusions Intense pulsed light and pulsed dye laser with nonpurpuric settings were equally effective in reducing facial erythema.
Mallat’s Scattering Transform Based Anomaly Sensing for Detection of Seizures in Scalp EEG

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, which manifests as unprovoked seizures. The prevalence of epilepsy is higher in developing countries, where medical facilities are ill-equipped and under-staffed. Mobile EEG devices promise a new dawn for long-term ambulatory EEG monitoring, which has a potential to revolutionize health care for neurological disorders especially epilepsy. Increasing the outreach to underserved communities and continuous monitoring of patients will yield vast amount of data. This requires the development of a method that can mark regions of interest, to aid in the evaluation of the EEG trial by the experts. Such an experimental setting calls for an unsupervised method, which can detect seizure regions with high accuracy. This paper focuses on the development of a seizure detection method with the above-stated characteristics. Group invariant scattering, a novel data representation technique, has been used for feature extraction. Tested on CHB-MIT data set, the proposed methodology outperforms the current state-of-the-art approaches under similar testing conditions, by successfully detecting 180 out of 197 seizures.
A new Costa Rican species of Leptanilloides (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: doryline section: Leptanilloidinae)

Leptanilloides mckennae sp. nov. is described from Costa Rica. This is the eighth species in the poorly-known subfamily Leptanilloidinae, part of the doryline section (army ants and relatives). The other seven species in the subfamily are from widely scattered localities in South America. The new species blurs previously established distinctions between Leptanilloides and Asphinctanilloides .
Subtypes of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma defined by expression of leu-1 and Ia.

Monoclonal antibodies were used to characterize immunohistologically the expression of cellular antigens in 25 patients with cutaneous T- cell lymphoma (CTCL). Although all cases expressed the Leu-2a-/Leu-3a+ immunophenotype characteristic of helper T cells, four subtypes were defined based on variable expression of Leu-1 and Ia. In individual patients, the immunophenotype was constant irrespective of body compartment sampled or interim therapy. Ia+ non T-cells typically constituted one-third of the cellular infiltrate. Along with neoplastic cells, Ia+/T6+ dendritic cells were observed within Pautrier microabscesses, dermis, and individually throughout the epidermis. It will be important to determine if different CTCL immunophenotypes represent different biologic subsets of disease or have prognostic relevance. Prospective studies will be facilitated by single- and double-label immunohistologic techniques that allow the simultaneous evaluation of cellular antigen expression and architectural detail.
Omega Conotoxin GVIA

Omega conotoxin GVIA is a neurotoxic peptide cleavage product (VIa) of the Omega-conotoxin precursor protein contained in the venom of the marine snail, Conus geographus. It blocks specific voltage-dependent N-type Ca++ channels in neurons, but not in muscle …
Network-Based Prediction of Polygenic Disease Genes Involved in Cell Motility: Extended Abstract

Schizophrenia and autism are examples of polygenic diseases caused by a multitude of genetic variants. Recently, both diseases have been associated with disrupted neuron motility and migration patterns, suggesting that aberrant cell motility is a phenotype for these neurological diseases. Abnormal neuronal development is central to both schizophrenia and autism, which critically implicates these cell motility perturbations in the disease mechanisms. However, despite the genetic characterization of these diseases by large-scale genome-wide association studies, extracting causality for symptoms and pathophysiology from these data remains challenging due to the large number of genes implicated and the additive effect the mutations have on the cellular processes. We present a network-based machine learning approach to identify genes implicated in both a disease of interest (e.g., schizophrenia or autism) and a disease phenotype (e.g., aberrant cell motility). We use a brain-specific functional interaction network to identify which genes are most centrally implicated in a polygenic disease based on functional similarity. Our algorithm identifies genes that are near known disease genes and cell motility genes in the network. Top schizophrenia candidates include many Protein Phosphatase 1 subunits and Lysyl Oxidase, which are promising genes for follow-up experimental validation. Candidate genes predicted by our method suggest testable hypotheses about these genes' role in cell motility regulation, offering a framework for generating predictions for experimental validation.
Abstract WMP54: High Serum Troponin Levels and Sex Differences With First Time Ischemic Stroke: Findings From the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study

Introduction and Hypothesis: High troponin levels reflect myocardial damage in patients with heart disease and predict poor prognosis in stroke and cardiomyopathies. In the study, we test the hypot...
Currency warfare and cyber warfare: The emerging currency battlefield of the 21st century

This article explores the emerging currency battlefield and asks how cyber warfare capabilities influence the nature and conduct of currency warfare, defined as the use of monetary or military forc...
G protein βγ subunits play a critical role in the actions of amphetamine

Abnormal levels of dopamine (DA) are thought to contribute to several neurological and psychiatric disorders including drug addiction. Extracellular DA levels are regulated primarily via reuptake by the DA transporter (DAT). Amphetamine, a potent psychostimulant, increases extracellular DA by inducing efflux through DAT. Recently, we discovered that G protein βγ subunits (Gβγ) interact with DAT, and that in vitro activation of Gβγ promotes DAT-mediated efflux. Here, we investigated the role of Gβγ in the actions of amphetamine in DA neurons in culture, ex vivo nucleus accumbens (NAc), and freely moving rats. Activation of Gβγ with the peptide myr-Ser-Ile-Arg-Lys-Ala-Leu-Asn-Ile-Leu-Gly-Tyr-Pro-Asp-Tyr-Asp (mSIRK) in the NAc potentiated amphetamine-induced hyperlocomotion, but not cocaine-induced hyperlocomotion, and systemic or intra-accumbal administration of the Gβγ inhibitor gallein attenuated amphetamine-induced, but not cocaine-induced hyperlocomotion. Infusion into the NAc of a TAT-fused peptide that targets the Gβγ-binding site on DAT (TAT-DATct1) also attenuated amphetamine-induced but not cocaine-induced hyperlocomotion. In DA neurons in culture, inhibition of Gβγ with gallein or blockade of the Gβγ-DAT interaction with the TAT-DATct1 peptide decreased amphetamine-induced DA efflux. Furthermore, activation of Gβγ with mSIRK potentiated and inhibition of Gβγ with gallein reduced amphetamine-induced increases of extracellular DA in the NAc in vitro and in freely moving rats. Finally, systemic or intra-accumbal inhibition of Gβγ with gallein blocked the development of amphetamine-induced, but not cocaine-induced place preference. Collectively, these results suggest that interaction between Gβγ and DAT plays a critical role in the actions of amphetamine and presents a novel target for modulating the actions of amphetamine in vivo.
Marginal Improvement in Survival Post-Heart Transplantation in Patients With Prior Left Ventricular Assist Device: A Temporal Analysis of United Network of Organ Sharing Registry.

Objective An increasing number of patients undergoing heart transplantation are being bridged with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). Bridge-to-transplantation (BTT) LVAD has improved wait list survival remarkably. Historically, post-heart transplantation survival in BTT-LVAD patients, however, has remained inferior to that of primary heart transplantation. The authors hypothesized that in the modern era, the difference between post-heart transplantation survival in BTT-LVAD versus primary heart transplantation should be reduced. The objective of the present study was to determine whether there has been a change in survival after heart transplantation in patients with prior LVAD. The present study's cohort was compared with a historical cohort using the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) database from 1995 to 2004. 5 Design Retrospective observational analysis of data from the United Network of Organ Sharing database. Settings Registry-based, observational, retrospective. Participants Patients undergoing adult orthotopic heart transplantation, excluding redo transplantation and multiorgan transplantations. Interventions None. Measurements and Main Results From the UNOS database, 22,065 patients who underwent heart transplantation between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2016, were analyzed. Of these, 7,008 (31.76%) patients had prior LVAD (BTT-LVAD). Data analysis was performed with R software (Version 3.5.1) for Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard ratio (HR) modeling to identify variables influencing survival. For patients with prior LVAD, the overall HR was 1.15 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07-1.24) for survival. An HR of 3.22 (95% CI 2.23-4.68) for death in patients who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation post-transplantation and an HR of 0.72 (95% CI 0.58-0.90) for survival in patients whose procedures were performed in high-volume centers performing more than 35 transplantations per year were identified. Conclusion Reduced survival in patients who received an LVAD before heart transplantation persists. However, there may have been a slight improvement in the HR for survival in the study cohort in the recent decade compared with the historical cohort from previous decades. It is intriguing that despite the paramount advances in both technology and clinical practice of LVAD, relatively minor survival benefit, if any, has occurred in post-heart transplantation for patients bridged with prior LVAD.
Iron Overload Is Associated with Delayed Engraftment and Increased Nonrelapse Mortality in Recipients of Umbilical Cord Blood Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

ABSTRACT The negative impact of iron overload (IO) on outcomes of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is well recognized, but its impact on umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplant outcome is unknown. We retrospectively analyzed outcomes of 150 patients who received UCB-HCT at our institution, stratified by pre-HCT serum ferritin (SF) level of 2000 ng/mL. Two-year overall survival rate among patients with SF >2000 and ≤2000 ng/mL was 26.1% (95% CI, 10.6% to 44.7%) and 52.1% (95% CI, 40.1% to 62.8%), respectively; hazard ratio (HR) = 2.26 (95% CI, 1.28 to 4.00, P = .005). Two-year nonrelapse mortality rate was higher among patients with SF >2000 ng/mL (56.5%; 95% CI, 33.3% to 74.4%) compared to SF ≤2000 ng/mL (30.1%; 95% CI, 20.0% to 40.9%); HR = 2.18 (95% CI, 1.10 to 4.31, P = .025). Neutrophil engraftment at 42 days was 78.3% (95% CI, 53.5% to 90.8%) in patients with SF >2000 ng/mL versus 91.8% (95% CI, 82.1% to 96.4%) in patients with SF ≤2000 ng/mL; HR = 0.58 (95% CI, 0.35 to 0.96, P = .034). A significant difference in platelet engraftment at 3 months was also observed: 52.2% (95% CI, 29.4% to 70.8%) for SF >2000 ng/mL versus 80.8% (95% CI, 69.5% to 88.3%) for SF ≤2000 ng/mL; HR = 0.48 (95% CI, 0.23 to 0.98, P = .044). In conclusion, IO defined by SF of 2000 ng/mL is a strong adverse prognostic factor for UCB-HCT and should be considered when UCB is chosen as the graft source for patients without a fully matched donor.
Fertility preservation and timing of cancer treatment

e20629 Background: Cancer survival rates have increased steadily over time and young cancer survivors desire quality of life, including the ability to have a family. Cancer treatments, due to its t...
Experience of Using Edaravone in a US-based ALS Center (4378)

Objective: We elected to study the effect of edaravone in a US-based population since the original study data were derived from a Japanese patient population. Background: Edaravone clinical trials were conducted in Japan in a placebo controlled study of ALS patients in the early stages of disease and shown to be effective in slowing disease progression over a 6-month period. Based on these results, the US FDA approved the drug for clinical use in the summer of 2017. Design/Methods: We retrospectively studied the data of all patients that were started on edaravone at our institution after it became available in the US. We collected the data on 16 consecutive patients. Results: The average age of patients in the study was 58.8 years; 81% were male, 75% were limb onset, and 25% were bulbar onset. There were two African Americans; the remained of patients were Caucasian. All were in the early stages of disease, i.e., scoring over 2 in all categories of the ALS FRS. Of the 16 patients, 4 discontinued edaravone, the remainder were on the medication for the entire 6 months. Overall, the patients tolerated the medication well and none discontinued its use due to adverse effects. For those patients completing the study, the mean decrease of the ALS FRS score over the 6-month period was 6; the mean decrease of FVC was 13.4%. Conclusions: Edaravone is well tolerated in a regional US-based population, with only mild side adverse having been reported. The efficacy of the medication in this small sample appears reasonably comparable to the results from the original Japanese study. We would recommend that edaravone be offered to ALS patients in the early stages of disease and that US clinics continue to monitor and analyze outcomes data, as therapeutic responses across diverse populations of patients can be difficult to predict. Disclosure: Dr. Kohli has nothing to disclose. Dr. Rana has nothing to disclose.
Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) causes antiproliferation and induction of apoptosis of Ewing sarcoma tumor cells through the inhibition of IGF-1R

1814 The IGF/IGF-1R pathway including the IGF, IGF-1R, and IGFBPs proteins, plays an important role in the growth and survival of Ewing family tumors. In general, activation of IGF-1R results in intramolecular receptor autophosphorylation and phosphorylation of critical downstream targets. This leads to activation of several signaling pathways, including the PI3K/Akt pathway and the Ras/MAPK pathway, which results in activation of specific genes for cell survival and proliferation. Therefore, development of the therapeutic way for the effective inhibition of IGF-1R signal pathway may provide a promising strategy for the prevention and treatment of Ewing sarcoma tumors. It has been reported that in several tumors EGCG, the major biologically active component of green tea, inhibits activation of the RTKs such as EGFR, HER2, HER3, and IGF-1R. Cascadely it is associated with inhibition of multiple downstream signaling pathways for cell survival and proliferation. In this study, we determined the growth inhibitory and pro-apoptotic properties of EGCG on Ewing sarcoma tumors. Our data demonstrated that a treatment of EGCG resulted in a significant inhibition of the growth and viability of the Ewing tumor cell lines. EGCG treatment resulted in a significant inhibition of the activation of IGF-1R. As evident from BrdU incorporation experiments, EGCG treatment to the cells was found to result in significant inhibition of cell proliferation and dramatic increase of apoptosis. In addition, EGCG treatment caused the deactivation of Akt and MEK. In contrast, when we treated EGCG on HBMEC (Human Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells) we could not see any effects on cell antiproliferation and proapoptosis. So we think the effects of EGCG are very specific to tumor cells. Based on this study, we suggest that EGCG could be developed as a chemopreventive agent or as a treatment therapy for the management of Ewing sarcoma. However, detailed mechanistic in vitro and in vivo studies are needed to further evaluate the anti-tumor efficacy of EGCG in appropriate culture and animal models.
Microfluidic assay of antiplatelet agents for inhibition of shear-induced platelet adhesion and activation

We have developed a microfluidic system to perfuse whole blood through a flow channel with an upstream stenotic region and a downstream protein capture region. This flow-based system was used to assay how effectively antiplatelet agents suppress shear-induced platelet adhesion and activation downstream of the stenotic region. Microcontact printing was used to covalently attach one of three platelet binding proteins [fibrinogen, collagen, or von Willebrand factor (vWf)] to the surface of the downstream capture region. Whole blood with an antiplatelet agent was transiently exposed to an upstream high wall shear rate (either 4860 s−1 or 11 560 s−1), and subsequently flowed over the downstream capture region where the platelet adhesion was measured. Several antiplatelet agents (acetylsalicylic acid, tirofiban, eptifibatide, anti-vWf, and anti-GPIbα) were evaluated for their efficacy in attenuating downstream adhesion. Following antibody blocking of vWf or GPIbα, downstream platelet activation was also assessed in perfused blood by flow cytometry using two activation markers (active GPIIb/IIIa and P-selectin). Acetylsalicylic acid demonstrated its inability to diminish shear-induced platelet adhesion to all three binding proteins. GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors (tirofiban and eptifibatide) significantly reduced platelet adhesion to fibrinogen. Antibody blocking of vWf or GPIbα effectively diminished platelet adhesion to all three capture proteins as well as platelet activation in perfused blood, indicating an essential role of vWf–GPIbα interaction in mediating shear-induced platelet aggregation.
A 1GS/s 82dB Peak-SFDR 12b Single-Channel Pipe-SAR ADC with Harmonic-Injecting Cross-Coupled-Pair and Fast N-replica Bootstrap Switch Achieving 7.5fj/conv-step

High-speed medium-resolution ($\geq$ 10bits) ADCs enable direct RF sampling transceivers, which eliminate mixers and hence the troublesome mixing spurs. However, one major limitation of direct RF sampling is its limited SFDR/SNDR at RF frequencies mainly due to the challenge in designing a single-channel ADC with high speed and high linearity. This paper presents a 1GHz-ERBW 1GS/s 12b single-channel Pipe-SAR ADC with an peak SFDR 82dB and SNDR of 60.7dB at Nyquist input. As shown in Fig.1. The proposed three-stage Pipe-SAR ADC operates in a fully asynchronous fashion. The bits of the capacitor array in each of the three stages, CDAC1-CDAC3, are 4b, 4b and 6b, with size of 700fF, 40fF and 50fF, respectively. The residue amplifiers (RA), RA1 and RA2, both have a gain of about 8.
Agroforestry and non-state actors: A review

Abstract Agroforestry, or the intentional integration of trees on crop or pastureland, is a sustainable land use system that provides ecosystem services including climate change mitigation and private benefits for smallholders. While existing reviews of agroforestry adoption focus on government policy, there is increasing interest from, and opportunities for, non-state actors to accelerate agroforestry adoption. The purpose of this critical review is to identify points of entry for non-state actors to increase smallholder incentives for agroforestry adoption in low and middle income countries. We identify opportunities for non-state actors to address key market failures in all stages of the agroforestry system. We find that non-state actors have advantages of proximity and institutional knowledge that provide opportunities for direct and indirect intervention to increase agroforestry adoption.
Bone Marrow versus Peripheral Blood Grafts for Haploidentical Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation with Post-Transplantation Cyclophosphamide.

In the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic era, the number of haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantations (HCTs) with peripheral blood (PB) grafts increased significantly compared with HCTs with bone marrow (BM) grafts, which may be associated with adverse outcomes. We compared outcomes of HCT in BM graft and PB graft recipients age ≥18 years with hematologic malignancies who underwent T cell- replete haploidentical HCT and received graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis with post-transplantation cyclophosphamide, tacrolimus, and mycophenolate mofetil. Among the 264 patients, 180 (68%) received a BM graft and 84 (32%) received a PB graft. The median patient age was 50 years in both groups. The majority (n = 199; 75%) received reduced-intensity conditioning. The rate of acute leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome was higher in the BM graft recipients compared with the PB graft recipients (85% [n = 152] versus 55% [n = 46]; P < .01). The median times to neutrophil and platelet engraftment and the incidence of grade II-IV and grade III-IV acute GVHD (aGVHD) were comparable in the 2 groups. Among the patients with grade II-IV aGVHD, the rate of steroid-refractory aGVHD was 9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5% to 18%) in the BM group versus 32% (95% CI, 19% to 54%) in the PB group (hazard ratio [HR], 3.7, 95% CI, 1.5 to 9.3; P = .006). At 1 year post-HCT, the rate of chronic GVHD (cGVHD) was 8% (95% CI, 4% to 13%) in the BM group versus 22% (95% CI, 14% to 36%) in the PB group (HR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.4-6.6; P = .005), and the rate of systemic therapy-requiring cGVHD was 2.5% (95% CI, 1% to 7%) versus 14% (95% CI, 7% to 27%), respectively (HR, 5.6; 95% CI, 1.7 to 18; P = .004). The PB group had a significantly higher risk of bacterial and viral infections, with no appreciable advantage in the duration of hospitalization, immune reconstitution, relapse, nonrelapse mortality, or survival. Our data suggest a benefit of the use of BM grafts over PB grafts for haplo-HCT.
Business Networks, Firm Connectivity, and Firm Policies

I examine firm financial policies under a network structure of customer-supplier relationships. In this network, negative economic shocks that occur to one firm can affect other firms' profitability through their relationship-specific connections, leading to a contagion effect. I demonstrate theoretically that when external financing is costly, firms connected to the distressed firms will find it optimal to extend financing in order to preserve their relationship-specific synergies. Empirically, I show that firms strongly connected in the network will choose more conservative financial policies. Using firms' closeness centrality in the network as a proxy for the strength of their connections, I find that central firms choose lower leverage, higher cash holdings, and lower payout. To alleviate potential endogeneity concerns, I use mergers of firms' secondary neighbors to instrument for network structure changes. Compared to withdrawn mergers, the secondary neighbors of mergers experience increases in closeness, which lead them to adopt more conservative financial policies following the mergers.Finally, to validate the channels behind my results, I use several exogenous shocks including 9/11 and show that firms closely related to the distressed firms increase their trade credit demand and reduce their investment following negative shocks.
A counterexample to the existence of peaking functions

We construct a smoothly bounded pseudoconvex domain whose boundary contains no complex analytic variety such that some boundary point admits no holomorphic peak function.
Optimal time-variant resource allocation for Internet servers with delay constraints

The increasing popularity of high-volume performance-critical Internet applications is a challenge for servers to provide individual response-time guarantees. Considering the fact that most Internet applications can tolerate a small percentage of deadline misses, we define delay constraint as a statistical guarantee to relax server resource requirements. A recent decay function model characterizes the relationship between the request delay constraint, deadline misses, and server capacity in a transfer function based filter system. A time-invariant scheduler was proposed to minimize system load variances in support of requests with the same delay constraints. This paper extends the model to support requests with different deadlines and describes an optimal time-variant scheduling policy that minimizes load variances and capacity requirement. The resultant capacity bound is further tightened by utilizing the information of request arrival distribution. Simulation results validate the extended decay function model and show the superiority of the scheduler in comparison with other scheduling algorithms.
Switching to Satr: An Ethnography of the Particular in Women’s Choices in Head Coverings in Tajikistan

In the early years of the Soviet Union, women in Central Asia were forcibly unveiled in an attempt to suppress Islam and create the “new Soviet woman.” A post-Soviet Islamic revival in Central Asia has brought with it the renewed practice of veiling. Women adopt hijab and other conservative head coverings for complex reasons as they seek identity and belonging in Tajikistan’s evolving society. Nevertheless, the current regime views the veiled Muslim woman as a threat to the imagined national identity. The sociopolitical elite perpetuates these policies and practices, subjugating women who choose to veil. This article explores how women experience the practice of veiling in post-Soviet Tajikistan.