cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Preanalytic Variables, Tissue Quality and Clinical Samples from Breast Cancer Patients: Implications for Treatment Planning, Drug Discovery and Translational Research

There are an increasing number of cancer therapies that target specific molecular pathways that drive disease progression in a number of solid tumors requiring companion diagnostic assays. The testing for these tumors usually involves analyzing the tumor on a molecular level for the presence or absence of certain cancer gene signatures or biomarkers. In order for the correct treatment regimen to be determined, the test results need to be an accurate picture of what the patient’s tumor is in vivo. With the increase of this type of molecular testing on solid tumors, there has developed an urgent need to preserve the integrity of these molecular markers in the tissues being tested. A long delay between removal of the tissue from the patient and preservation of the tissue can result in degradation or alterations in the molecular integrity of the tissue, confounding analysis. This chapter will review the data about these important preanalytic variables; discuss the need for standardized tissue handling procedures, and offer solutions.
The role of papillary muscle approximation in mitral valve repair for the treatment of secondary mitral regurgitation

Secondary mitral regurgitation (MR) is present in up to half of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, and is associated with a poor prognosis. It primarily results from progressive left ventricular remodelling, papillary muscle displacement and tethering of the mitral valve leaflets. Mitral valve repair with an undersized ring annuloplasty is the reparative procedure of choice in the treatment of secondary MR. However, this technique is associated with a 30-60% incidence of recurrent moderate or greater MR at mid-term follow-up, which results in progressive deterioration of left ventricular function and increased morbidity. Combined mitral valve repair and papillary muscle approximation has been applied in order to address both the annular and subvalvular dysfunction that coexist in secondary MR, which include graft and suture-based techniques. Herein, we provide a systematic review of the published literature regarding the technical aspects, clinical application, and outcomes of mitral valve repair with combined ring annuloplasty and papillary muscle approximation for the treatment of secondary MR.
Revitalizing Social Work Education Using the Arts

ABSTRACTSocial work education has increasingly used small groups and the arts as a strategy to enhance learning and teaching, raise critical consciousness in terms of self, and inspire social justice. This study highlights the use of creative and expressive arts, within groups, in undergraduate social work education. Global Well-Being, Encounters in Human Diversity, and Grief and Bereavement in a Diverse World are the three courses whose assignments were examined. Results reveal the effectiveness of using expressive and creative arts in teaching social justice issues, self-awareness, and transformation. Implications for teaching, practice, and research are discussed.
The State of the Arts of the Study of Indigenous Religious Traditions in South America

This article reviews the principal tendencies in the contemporary studies of indigenous South American religious traditions. It divides the field into studies of socioreligious formations (particularistic and universalistic formations, more specifically) and studies of cosmologies or worldviews (so-called perspectivism). It then discusses two recent, pioneering biographies of South American shamans which, more than any other in the field, offer original approaches to understanding shamanic historical consciousness, cosmopolitics, the constant struggles of shamanic spirits to sustain the cosmos against sorcery spirits that threaten to undermine the cosmic order.
Alginate Gene Regulation

Alginate is an important virulence factor of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and so our understanding of alginate gene regulation is best understood in this species. Expression of the algD operon for alginate biosynthesis is only highly expressed in mucoid clinical isolates that usually have pathoadaptive mucA mutations. The three major regulators of the algD promoter (PalgD) are AlgR, AlgB, and AmrZ. Each binds to DNA sites relatively far upstream from the start of algD transcription. AlgR and AlgB are two-component regulators. AmrZ is an Arc-like positive regulator of PalgD, but can also be a negative regulator. A global role for these regulators is also emerging. Expression of PalgD and the regulators are under the control of σ22, an extracytoplasmic function alternative sigma factor. σ22 activity is under posttranscriptional control by membrane-bound MucAB. Release of σ22 sequestration can occur as a result of cell wall stress, which activates proteases, including AlgW (DegS-like) protease, to degrade MucA.
Oncological outcomes from trimodality therapy receiving definitive doses of neoadjuvant chemoradiation (≥60 Gy) and factors influencing consideration for surgery in stage III non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract Purpose Guidelines for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC) recommend definitive chemoradiation therapy (CRT) for cN2-N3 disease, reserving surgery for patients with minimal nodal involvement at presentation. The current literature suggests that surgery after CRT for stage III NSCLC can improve freedom-from-recurrence (FFR) but has not consistently demonstrated an improvement in overall survival, perhaps partly due to the low (45-50.4 Gy) preoperative doses delivered that result in low rates of mediastinal nodal clearance. We therefore analyzed factors associated with trimodality therapy receipt and determined outcomes in patients with LA-NSCLC who were treated with definitive doses (≥60 Gy) of neoadjuvant CRT prior to surgery. Methods and materials We retrospectively analyzed 355 consecutive patients with LA-NSCLC who were treated with curative intent between January 2000 and December 2013. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the overall survival and FFR of patients who were initially planned to receive trimodality treatment but never underwent surgery (unplanned bimodality) compared with those who were never considered to be surgical candidates (planned bimodality) and those who underwent surgical resection after CRT (trimodality). Cox proportional hazards regression with forward selection was used for multivariate analyses, and the Fisher exact test was used to test contingency tables. Results Patients who received trimodality therapy had a longer median survival than those with unplanned or planned bimodality therapy at 59.9, 20.1, and 17.3 months, respectively (P Conclusions Trimodality treatment significantly improves survival and FFR in patients with LA-NSCLC when definitive doses of radiation with neoadjuvant chemotherapy are employed. We identified important demographic features that predict the use of surgical intervention in patients with stage III NSCLC.
The Effects of External Forcing and Internal Variability on the Formation of Interhemispheric Sea Surface Temperature Gradient Trends in the Indian Ocean

AbstractA striking trend of the Indian Ocean interhemispheric gradient in sea surface temperatures (SSTs) developed during the recent global warming hiatus. The contributions of external forcing and internal variability to this trend are examined in forced climate model experiments. Results indicate that the observed negative trend was strong by historical standards and most likely due to internal variability rather than to external forcing. Anthropogenic aerosol forcing favors negative gradient trends, but its effects are countered by greenhouse gas forcing, and both are weak relative to internal variability. The observed interhemispheric gradient trend occurred in parallel with a negative phase of the interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO), a linkage that is also found in climate models. However, the physical mechanisms responsible for these gradient trends in models differ from those in ocean reanalysis products. In particular, oceanic processes via an increased Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) transport i...
What intercultural rhetoric can bring to EAP/ESP writing studies in an English as a lingua franca world

Abstract Over the last several decades, the perceived norms of writing in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) have been affected by the dominance of that language across an array of fields and settings. As writers and audiences become more linguistically and culturally diverse, the ways that English is composed at the linguistic, rhetorical, and discursive levels are changing, resulting in an ongoing search for adequate theoretical frameworks to describe the reality of academic and professional writing practices. Two related frameworks, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and translingualism, propose more flexible patterns of communication between users of different varieties of English, with negotiation and accommodation being keys to success. In this paper, we argue that the efforts to introduce ELF and translingualism into EAP and ESP contexts can benefit from Intercultural Rhetoric (IR), or “the study of written discourse between and among individuals with different cultural backgrounds” ( Connor, 2011 , p.2), which has adopted a dynamic view of culture, while continuing to stress the importance of genre comparability. Finally, we make recommendations for research and pedagogical applications that draw from IR, ELF, and translingualism to promote the growth of EAP/ESP in an ever-changing, globalized world.
Interaction of normal, thrombasthenic, and Bernard-Soulier platelets with immobilized fibrinogen: defective platelet-fibrinogen interaction in thrombasthenia

Fibrinogen is required for normal platelet adhesion to glass and aggregation by adenosine diphosphate (ADP), epinephrine, thrombin, and connective tissue, The abnormalities of platelet function in fibrinogen-free medium are similar to those found in thrombasthenia, raising the possibility that the platelets in this disorder do not interact with fibrinogen normally. To investigate the fibrinogen-platelet interaction, highly purified fibrinogen was covalently coupled to solid beads, which were then used to develop an assay in which platelets agglutinate the beads when they interact with the fibrinogen. Unstimulated normal platelets agglutinated the beads; the agglutination could be inhibited by EDTA, lidocaine, sodium azide, antifibrinogen Fab′2, and exogenous fibrinogen in solution. Aspirin caused no inhibition, while high doses of PGE1 and apyrase produced only partial inhibition. ADP and epinephrine dramatically enhanced the agglutination. Platelet-rich plasma from two patients with Bernard-Soulier syndrome also agglutinated the beads. In contrast, the platelet-rich plasma from two patients with thrombasthenia completely failed to agglutinate the beads, even with the addition of ADP and epinephrine. The inability of thrombasthenic platelets to agglutinate fibrinogen beads confirms the presence of an abnormality in interaction with fibrinogen, and since with normal platelets this interaction is independent of platelet aggregation, it suggests that the abnormal fibrinogen interaction may be the cause of the platelet aggregation defect in thrombasthenia.
Trump's Travel Ban and the Limits of the US Constitution (El Espacio de Libertad, Seguridad y Justicia y el Derecho del Convenio Europeo de Derechos Humanos)

This article will describe the announcement and implementation of the Travel Ban, including all three versions. From there, it will explain how the Travel Ban reveals limits to the protections of the United States Constitution in immigration law. The Nineteenth Century plenary power doctrine gives the political branches of the US government virtually unrestricted power when it comes to some aspects of immigration law. The Travel Ban directly implicates that outdated interpretation of constitutional immigration law. The Travel Ban is the real life manifestation of concerns about plenary power. The Travel Ban exposes a severe deficiency in US immigration law that is incompatible with American values and must be fixed.
Development of multiplex DNA electronic microarrays using a universal adaptor system for detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms.

The NanoChip® electronic microarray is designed for the rapid detection of genetic variation in research and clinical diagnosis. We have developed a multiplex electronic microarray assay, specific ...
Semantics of disjunctive logic programs and deductive databases

Recently the author introduced the so called stationary semantics which extends the well-founded semantics of normal logic programs to the class of all disjunctive logic programs and deductive databases. The stationary semantics also extends the perfect model semantics defined earlier for stratified disjunctive databases. As a result, the stationary semantics is the only currently known semantics which extends both semantics and is defined for all disjunctive databases.
Self-regulatory ability, fatigue, and the experience of pain: Mechanistic insights from pain-free undergraduates.

Self-regulatory (SR) ability is an important resource for managing pain, but chronic pain patients experience chronic self-regulatory fatigue even when they are not in pain. Pressure pain thresholds (PPT) and pain inhibition are two mechanisms that differentiate people with and without chronic pain. It was hypothesized that trait SR ability would be associated with higher PPT and better pain inhibition and that PPT and pain inhibition would be lower following high versus low SR fatigue. Three studies tested these hypotheses. Study 1 had 240 pain-free undergraduates complete measures of trait SR ability and PPT; 122 also provided data on pain inhibition. Study 2 had 38 of Study 1's participants return for two additional sessions in which they underwent PPT testing under conditions of high or low SR fatigue (within-person, counterbalanced). Study 3 repeated these procedures with pain inhibition as the outcome (n = 39). Results revealed that individual differences in SR ability were not associated with PPT or pain inhibition (all ps > 0.05). Within people, neither PPT (F(1, 36) = 1.57, p = 0.22) nor pain inhibition (F(1, 37) = 1.79, p = 0.19) were significantly different under conditions of low versus high SR fatigue. Results do not support the hypotheses that PPT or pain inhibition associate with individual differences in trait SR ability or transient changes in state SR fatigue in the absence of pain. Instead, the SR deficits in chronic pain patients may arise from the experience of chronic pain.
MAGICTRICKS: A tool for predicting transcription factors and cofactors that drive gene lists.

ABSTRACT Transcriptomic profiling is an immensely powerful hypothesis generating tool. However, accurately predicting the transcription factors (TFs) and cofactors that drive transcriptomic differences between samples represents a challenge and current approaches are limited by high false discovery rates. This is due to the use of TF binding sequence motifs that, due their small size, are found randomly throughout the genome, and do not allow discovery of cofactors. A second limitation is that even the most advanced approaches that use ChIPseq tracks hosted at sites such as the Encyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) assign TFs and cofactors to genes via a binary designation of ‘target’, or ‘non-target’ that ignores the intricacies of the biology behind transcriptional regulation. ENCODE archives ChIPseq tracks of 169 TFs and cofactors assayed in 91 cell lines. The algorithm presented herein, Mining Gene Cohorts for Transcriptional Regulators Inferred by Kolmogorov-Smirnov Statistics (MAGICTRICKS), uses ENCODE ChIPseq data to look for statistical enrichment of TFs and cofactors in gene bodies and flanking regions in gene lists. When compared to 2 commonly used web resources, o-Possum and Enrichr, MAGICTRICKS was able to more accurately predict TFs and cofactors that drive gene changes in 3 settings: 1) A cell line expressing or lacking single TF, 2) Breast tumors divided along PAM50 designations and 3) Whole brain samples from WT mice or mice lacking a single TF in a particular neuronal subtype. In summary, MAGICTRICKS is a standalone application that runs on OSX and Windows machines that produces meaningful predictions of which TFs and cofactors are enriched in a gene list.
A Novel PET Probe for Brown Adipose Tissue Imaging in Rodents

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) has emerged as a promising target to counteract obesity and its associated metabolic disorders. However, the detection of this tissue remains one of the major roadblocks. In this study, we assess the use of BODIPY 1 as a positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agent to image BAT depots in vivo in two mouse phenotypes: obesity-resistant BALB/c mice and the obesity-prone C57BL/6 mice. [18F]BODIPY 1 is a radioactive dye that processed both radioactivity for PET imaging and fluorescence signal for in vitro mechanism study. Through the co-staining of cancer cells with BODIPY 1 and MitoTracker, we found BODIPY 1 mainly accumulated in cell mitochondria in vitro. Fluorescence imaging of primary brown and white adipocytes further confirmed BODIPY 1 had significantly higher accumulation in primary brown adipocytes compared with primary white adipocytes. We evaluated [18F]BODIPY 1 for BAT imaging in both obesity-resistant BALB/c mice and obesity-prone C57BL/6 mice. Indeed, [18F]BODIPY 1 was efficiently taken up by BAT in both mouse genotypes (6.40 ± 1.98 %ID/g in obesity-resistant BALB/c mice (n = 8) and 5.37 ± 0.82 %ID/g in obesity-prone C57BL/6 mice (n = 7)). Although norepinephrine stimulation could increase the absolute BAT uptake, the enhancement is not significant in both genotypes (p > 0.05) at current sample size. These results suggest BAT uptake of [18F]BODIPY 1 may be independent of BAT thermogenic activity. As a comparison, 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose ([18F]FDG) PET imaging was performed in obesity-resistant BALB/c mice. Significantly increased uptake was observed in adrenergically activated BAT (10.08 ± 2.52 %ID/g, n = 3) but not in inactive BAT (3.803 ± 0.70 %ID/g; n = 3). Because [18F]BODIPY 1 maintained its fluorescent property, BAT tissue was excised and studied using fluorescence microscopy. Strong fluorescence signal was observed in BAT mouse that was injected with BODIPY 1. Unlike [18F]FDG, [18F]BODIPY 1 showed prominent accumulation in BAT under both inactive and stimulated status. [18F]BODIPY 1 may serve as a valuable BAT PET agent to possibly assess BAT mitochondria density, thus BAT thermogenic capacity after further evaluation.
Increasing Expression of Civic-Engagement Values by Students in a Service-Learning Chemistry Course.

A service-learning course at a midsized Midwestern research university was modified over a period of six years to integrate best-practice pedagogies that have been shown to increase civic engagement by students. Best-practice pedagogies included regular interaction with community partner(s), significant time spent on the service activity, and regular reflection (written and verbal) on the implications of the service activity. Besides water quality monitoring, students performed private well water analysis, wrote multiple formal reflection papers, and presented a public talk on the results of their project that included significant discussion time with community partners. Authentic expression of civic engagement values was assessed in final written reflections submitted by students to determine the effect new pedagogies had on students’ civic and professional identities. Five values were assessed: (1) identity within the community, (2) commitment to civic engagement, (3) connection between academic content and service, (4) teamwork, and (5) communication with community partners. Statistical analysis showed that differences in expression of civic-engagement values between pre- and post-service-learning best practices were highly significant. The most effective strategy employed multiple written reflections where students were provided with specific reflection prompts and a grading rubric, a public presentation by students of the results, significant interaction between students and their individual partners, in-class discussion of teamwork, and in-class discussion of scientists as citizens.
Experimentos gráficos y verbales en la narrativa hispánica de principios de siglo XXI

La colaboracion entre texto literario e ilustracion, caracteristica basica hoy de la novela grafica contemporanea, ha sido central a la produccion desde el origen de los tiempos, incluidas las obras medievales, a traves de los escritores clasicos del siglo XVIII como Lawrence Sterne y William Blake, numerosos artistas y escritores de los dos siglos siguientes, etc. En esta conferencia, enfocamos algunos ejemplos de textos hispanicos actuales: las diversas versiones que Alberto Fuguet dio a su relato “Road Story”, la tercera parte del Proyecto Nocilla elaborado por Agustin Fernandez Mallo y las seudo-cartas escritas por Maria Negroni. Estos experimentos narrativos abren una modalidad de escritura cuyo cierre no es posible especificar en la actualidad.
Risk of Mortality Associated with Non-selective Antimuscarinic medications in Older Adults with Dementia: a Retrospective Study

Selective antimuscarinics may offer a favorable safety profile over non-selective antimuscarinics for the management of overactive bladder (OAB) in patients with dementia. To test the hypothesis that non-selective antimuscarinics are associated with increased risk of mortality compared to selective antimuscarinics in older adults with dementia and OAB. Propensity score-matched retrospective new-user cohort design among Medicare beneficiaries in community settings. Older adults with dementia and OAB with incident antimuscarinic use. The primary exposure was antimuscarinic medications classified as non-selective (oxybutynin, tolterodine, trospium, fesoterodine) and selective (solifenacin, darifenacin) agents. All-cause mortality within 180 days of incident antimuscarinic use formed the outcome measure. New users of non-selective and selective antimuscarinics were matched on propensity scores using the Greedy 5 → 1 matching technique. Cox proportional-hazards model stratified on matched pairs was used to evaluate the risk of mortality associated with the use of non-selective versus selective antimuscarinics in the sample. The study identified 16,955 (77.6%) non-selective antimuscarinic users and 4893 (22.4%) selective antimuscarinic users. Propensity score matching yielded 4862 patients in each group. The unadjusted mortality rate at 180 days was 2.6% (126) for non-selective and 1.6% (78) for selective antimuscarinic users in the matched cohort (p value < 0.01). The Cox model stratified on matched pairs found 50% higher risk of 180-day mortality with non-selective antimuscarinics as compared to selective ones (hazard ratio (HR) 1.50; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04–2.16). The study findings remained consistent across multiple sensitivity analyses. Use of non-selective antimuscarinics was associated with a 50% increase in mortality risk among older adults with dementia and OAB. Given the safety concerns regarding non-selective antimuscarinic agents, there is a significant need to optimize their use in the management of OAB for older patients with dementia.
Development of a scale battery for rapid assessment of risk and resilience.

Abstract It is critical to understand the factors that increase risk for development of psychiatric disorders as well as promote resilience against disorders. The current study describes the development of a brief tool for risk/resilience assessment that takes a broad perspective of “risk” and “resilience” to characterize the phenomena, and assesses multiple factors that span intrapersonal, interpersonal, and wide-ranging external contexts. We administered twelve scales (212 items) to a diverse population comprising help-seeking and community participants (N = 298; 46% female) in the greater Philadelphia area. We used exploratory item-factor analysis to determine how items cluster across scales. After determining that a seven-factor solution was optimal, computerized adaptive testing (CAT) simulation was run to determine what would happen if the seven full-form factors were administered adaptively. These results were used to select items for short-form scales, producing seven final scales (items = 47). Validity was assessed by relating short-form scores to demographics, clinical diagnoses, scales, and criteria; these relationships were also compared to the relationships found with the original scales. Almost all effects detected by the twelve original scales were detected by the substantially abbreviated short-forms. The abbreviated battery shows promise for rapid assessment of multiple risk and resilience parameters, a necessity in large-scale studies.
Beating of the Amazon: Visualizing the Diurnal Cycle of the Amazonian Hydroclimatology

The Amazon rainforest is the largest and most biologically diverse ecosystem in the planet. Moisture-laden tropical winds from the Atlantic Ocean enter the Amazon, bringing precipitation to the forest; the dense canopy then then transpires and contributes water for precipitation downwind. In fact, it has been estimated that between 20% and 40% of Amazonian rain comes from transpiration and evaporation (ET) from the forest itself. However, only recently have we been able to quantify the contribution of Amazonian ET to precipitation. Using the state-of-the art Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) atmospheric model with water tracers, we are able to trace the moisture that originates from the Amazon rainforest. This is analogous to putting dye in the model’s hydrologic cycle. By visualizing the output of this model we were able to show, for the first time, that the diurnal cycle of transpiration provides a clear diurnal signal to the overlying atmospheric water vapor and can be visualized as a “beating” over the Amazon. The rain and the winds also have a clear diurnal cycle, and shows how the land’s signature can be seen in the hydroclimatology above.
Queer Farmers in the 2017 US Census of Agriculture

Research suggests queer farmers are both more prevalent than expected and different from other farmers in significant ways. Using 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture data, we investigate this premise u...
A Shocking Discovery: Apical Thrombus Formation Post-Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Placement.

Biventricular (Bi-V) implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) placement, otherwise known as cardiac resynchronization therapy with a defibrillator (CRT-D), has been shown to create immediate hemodynamic benefits (increased systolic blood pressure, increased cardiac output, and increased contractility), improve left ventricular (LV) systolic function, and promote LV reverse remodeling.1 Common indications for placement include patients with LV ejection fraction (LVEF) 150 ms with a left bundle branch block (LBBB), and New York Heart Association class II-IV heart failure.2 Rare complications following intracardiac pacing devices include lead thrombosis,3 ventricular aneurysmatic area changes,4 and LV dyssynchrony.5 All three of these aforementioned complications can lead to disruption of laminar flow, blood stasis, and ultimately thrombus formation, with systemic thromboembolism being the feared outcome. This report demonstrates an echocardiographic finding of a large LV apical thrombus after a Bi-V ICD was placed. This alarming finding may have been due to the ballooning of an aneurysmal and akinetic LV apex, worsened by the forces generated by the cardiac resynchronization therapy.
Impact of Fiducial Marker Placement Before Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy on Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Pancreatic Cancer.

Abstract Purpose Localized pancreatic cancer is commonly treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), which often requires the placement of fiducial markers. We compared the clinical outcomes of patients with and without fiducial markers. Methods and Materials We retrospectively collected data on patients with pancreatic cancer treated with neoadjuvant SBRT at a single institution. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on the placement of a fiducial marker. Local recurrence was the primary outcome. Time to event endpoints were analyzed using COX regression. Results We included 96 patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer: 46 patients (47.9%) did not have a fiducial marker, and 50 patients (52.1%) had a fiducial placed. Patients in the fiducial group were older and had more locally advanced pancreatic cancer compared with those who did not have a fiducial placed. Most patients in both groups (92.7%) received chemotherapy before SBRT treatment. SBRT was delivered to a median of 36 Gy over 5 fractions in the no-fiducial group, and 38 Gy over 5 fractions in the fiducial group. At a median follow-up of 20 months, local recurrence was similar irrespective of fiducial placement (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.6, 95% CI 0.3-1.3, P = .59). Furthermore, no difference in overall survival was noted between the 2 groups (aHR 0.8, 95% CI 0.3-1.9, P = .65). In patients who eventually underwent surgery post-SBRT, no difference in surgical margins (P = .40) or lymphovascular invasion (P = .76) was noted between the 2 groups. No patient developed acute pancreatitis after fiducial placement. Conclusions Our data suggest that the use of fiducial markers does not negatively affect clinical outcomes in patients with localized pancreatic cancer. Prospective confirmation of our results is still needed.
Positive operator-valued measure for two-photon detection via sum-frequency generation

Spontaneous parametric down conversion (PDC), in the perturbative limit, can be considered as a probabilistic splitting of one input photon into two output photons. Conversely, sum-frequency generation (SFG) implements the reverse process of combining two input photons into one. Here we show that a single-photon projective measurement in the temporal-mode basis of the output photon of a two-photon SFG process affects a generalized measurement on the input two-photon state. We describe the positive operator-valued measure (POVM) associated with such a measurement and show that its elements are proportional to the two-photon states produced by the time-reversed PDC process. Such a detection acts as a joint measurement on two photons and is thus an important component of many quantum information processing protocols relying on photonic entanglement. Using the retrodictive approach, we analyze the properties of the two-photon POVM that are relevant for quantum protocols exploiting two-photon states and measurements.
Combining evolutionary and assay-labelled data for protein fitness prediction

Abstract Predictive modelling of protein properties has become increasingly important to the field of machine-learning guided protein engineering. In one of the two existing approaches, evolutionarily-related sequences to a query protein drive the modelling process, without any property measurements from the laboratory. In the other, a set of protein variants of interest are assayed, and then a supervised regression model is estimated with the assay-labelled data. Although a handful of recent methods have shown promise in combining the evolutionary and supervised approaches, this hybrid problem has not been examined in depth, leaving it unclear how practitioners should proceed, and how method developers should build on existing work. Herein, we present a systematic assessment of methods for protein fitness prediction when evolutionary and assay-labelled data are available. We find that a simple baseline approach we introduce is competitive with and often outperforms more sophisticated methods. Moreover, our simple baseline is plug-and-play with a wide variety of established methods, and does not add any substantial computational burden. Our analysis highlights the importance of systematic evaluations and sufficient baselines.
A BETTER BEGINNING: WHY AND HOW TO HELP NOVICE LEGAL WRITERS BUILD A SOLID FOUNDATION BY SHIFTING THEIR FOCUS FROM PRODUCT TO PROCESS

Several years ago, we set out to discover why early legal writing is so difficult for many beginning law students and what we can do to make it easier. In a prior article, we described several key factors that contributed to student overconfidence and illustrated how this overconfidence impeded students’ progress in both early legal analysis and early legal writing. In this follow-up article, we suggest strategies for better orienting students to law school learning and better managing their goals for legal writing at the beginning of the first-year course. The legal writing classroom is usually the place where students are first introduced to the foundational process of legal analysis. It is also usually the place where students receive their earliest feedback on how well they are learning this process. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that legal writing professors design “a better beginning” for their first-year students. In Part II of this Article, we discuss the importance of giving students a fuller, clearer orientation to the study of law in general; this orientation should emphasize the process of legal analysis as the foundation for all other law school learning. In Part III of the Article, we suggest three specific ways that legal writing professors can design their courses and teaching practices to facilitate students’ receptivity to this process: (1) setting clear, realistic goals and objectives for the first semester of legal writing and communicating them transparently; (2) deliberately encouraging students to be more active metacognitive learners; and (3) providing more opportunities for students to pre-write and to “write to learn” before asking them to “write to communicate” to a legal reader.
Preterm birth among pregnant women living in areas with high social vulnerability.

BACKGROUND Communities and individuals widely vary in their resources and ability to respond to external stressors and insults. To identify vulnerable communities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed the Social Vulnerability Index, an integrated tool to assess community resources and preparedness; it is based on 15 factors and includes individual scores in the following 4 themes: socioeconomic status (theme 1), household composition and disability (theme 2), minority status and language (theme 3), and housing type and transportation (theme 4) and an overall composite score. Several Social Vulnerability Index components have been independently associated with an increased risk of preterm birth. OBJECTIVE We sought to investigate the association of the Social Vulnerability Index for each patient's residence during pregnancy, personal clinical risk factors, and preterm birth. STUDY DESIGN This was a retrospective cohort study of women carrying nonanomalous singleton or twin gestations delivering at a large university health system from April 2014 to January 2020. Women at high risk of spontaneous and medically indicated preterm birth were assigned to a census tract based on their geocoded home address, and a Social Vulnerability Index score was assigned to each individual by linking each patient's home address at the census tract level. Higher scores indicate greater social vulnerability. The primary outcome was preterm birth at RESULTS Overall, 15,364 women met the inclusion criteria, of which 18.5%, 6.5%, 2.1% of women delivered at CONCLUSION The Social Vulnerability Index is a valuable tool that may further identify communities and individuals at the highest risk of preterm birth and may enable clinicians to integrate information regarding the local home environment of their patients to further refine preterm birth risk assessment.
Comparing Alternative Corrections for Bias in the Bias-Corrected Bootstrap Test of Mediation.

Although the bias-corrected (BC) bootstrap is an often-recommended method for testing mediation due to its higher statistical power relative to other tests, it has also been found to have elevated ...
Intrinsic surface areas and bond site concentrations of silica aerogels of different densities

Abstract Silica aerogels were investigated to determine the relationship of density, surface area, and the concentration of molecular absorption bonding sites. Aerogel surface areas were measured, by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), for densities ranging from 35 mg/cm3 to 200 mg/cm3. Chlorosilanes were chosen as the test adsorbates for this study, as they do not physisorb in multiple layers on the mesoporous silica surface. Trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) was selected as the primary adsorbate because of its high vapor pressure at ambient conditions. Aerogel samples were exposed to TMCS vapors until saturation. Complete infiltration was verified by Raman spectroscopy of a cross-sectioned sample. The total amount of adsorbate at saturation was determined through the weight gain using a microbalance. The cumulative TMCS surface area at saturation, calculated from the footprint of the TMCS molecule and the total number of molecules derived from the weight gain, is significantly smaller than the intrinsic surface area measured by BET. This implies that chemisorption, and not physisorption, governs the saturation phenomenon. This hypothesis was verified with chlorosilanes with larger molecules – phenyldimethylchlorosilane and diphenylmethylchlorosilane. The gained weight per unit volume in the silica aerogels scaled as the molecular mass of the radicals, bonded to the silica network, and did not scale as the footprint area of the different chlorosilane molecules. This work provides fundamental information for understanding the capabilities of aerogels to collect and concentrate organic molecules for subsequent spectroscopic analysis.
The management of nicotinamide and nicotinic acid in the mouse.

The metabolism of nicotinic acid and nicotinamide has been examined in a number of mouse tissues following intraperitoneal injection of 0.9 µmole of 14C-labeled nicotinic acid and nicotinamide. In all the tissues except liver, and to some extent intestine, nicotinamide was clearly a better precursor of DPN than was nicotinic acid. In the case of liver and intestine [14C]nicotinic acid produced a transient and considerable labeling of DPN. By 30 min after injection of nicotinic acid, label in the DPN pools of these two tissues had fallen to levels below that found after the administration of [14C]nicotinamide. The amounts of [14C]nicotinamide in the liver following [14C]nicotinic acid injection were far higher than the amounts found after injection of [14C] nicotinamide. Following the oral administration of nicotinic acid to mice, levels of nicotinic acid and nicotinamide in the blood changed in a fashion compatible with the liver and intestine serving as centers for the conversion of nicotinic acid to nicotinamide. Furthermore, it was shown that deamidation of nicotinamide to nicotinic acid was not a prerequisite for absorption of nicotinamide from the digestive tract. These observations are compatible with the hypothesis that metabolism in the mouse is designed for the utilization of nicotinamide as a precursor of DPN and that nicotinic acid is converted to nicotinamide for that purpose.
The Oxidation of Protein-bound Hydroxylysine by Periodate

Abstract In each of several collagen and gelatin preparations of various origins exposed to the action of 0.06 m alkaline periodate, part of the hydroxylysine resisted destruction by the periodate. The resistant fraction varied from 50% of the total hydroxylysine in bone gelatin to 10% in a citrate-soluble collagen. The resistant fraction was not changed by prolonging the periodate action from 2 min to 2 hours or by digesting gelatin to peptides before the treatment with periodate. It appears that in the periodate-resistant fraction of the hydroxylysine either the hydroxyl group or the amino group of the amino alcohol moiety is bound in covalent combination. Other evidence (20) makes binding of the amino group improbable. Treatment with hydroxylamine under conditions that break ester linkages failed to increase the periodate-resistant fraction of hydroxylysine in bone gelatin, indicating that the resistance was not due to ester linkage of the hydroxyl group.
Relaxation of persistent photoconductivity in Al0.3Ga0.7As

Stretched-exponential decay of persistent photoconductivity (PPC) has been observed in ${\mathrm{Al}}_{0.3}$${\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.7}$As in the temperature region T90 K. The decay time constant and exponent have been measured at different temperatures. Experimental results show that the thermal activated capture of electrons at the DX centers becomes negligible at T40 K. However, a transition from a thermally activated to a nearly-temperature-independent tunneling capture at a temperature on the order of 40 K has been observed for the first time for ${\mathrm{Al}}_{0.3}$${\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.7}$As, which is consistent with the multiphonon-emission model for DX centers of large lattice relaxation.
Vibrational studies of cyclopentane: Effect of 10-fold barrier to pseudorotation

Abstract A computer program has been used to determine the effects of 10-fold potential energy (V10) and kinetic energy (B10) terms on the pseudorotational energy levels of cyclopentane. The magnitudes of the calculated perturbations on the spectra have been evaluated, and the values of V10 and B10 are shown to be less than 20 and 0.2 cm−1, respectively.
Release of annexin V-binding membrane microparticles from cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells after treatment with camptothecin

Elevated plasma counts of endothelial microparticles (MP) have been demonstrated in various diseases with a vascular injury component. We used flow cytometry to study the MP-release from cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) stimulated by various agonists. MP-release by a topoisomerase I inhibitor camptothecin has been studied in detail. Overnight stimulation of HUVEC with either LPS or TNFα, or 30 min stimulation with thrombin, phorbol-myristate-acetate, tissue plasminogen activator, or angiotensin-II did not cause a significant release of annexin V-binding MP. In contrast, induction of apoptosis with 5 μM camptothecin, documented by 60–70% desquamation of HUVEC culture, annexin V-binding to the cells and DNA-fragmentation, led to a release of annexin V-binding microparticles (~80,000 MP/103 cells). This microparticle-release was prevented by Z-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethyl-ketone (ZVAD). Lower concentration of camptothecin (500 nM) induced comparable microparticle-release without loss of the culture confluence and without increase in annexin V-binding to the cells or DNA-fragmentation. Analyzed microparticles were free of nucleic acids and 95% of microparticles were 0.3–1 μm in size. Double-labeling flow cytometry assay showed that all annexin V-binding Microparticles expressed CD59 but only approximately 50% of these also expressed CD105. Camptothecin treated HUVEC released different populations of annexin V-binding membrane microparticles at early stage after proapoptotic stimulation before detection of phosphatidylserine exposure on the cells or DNA fragmentation. The microparticle-release was ZVAD sensitive but was not enhanced at the executive phase of apoptosis. These observations offer a new insight into microparticle-release as a marker of endothelial stimulation and injury.
Radioactive beams — A new application of radioanalytical chemistry

An emerging, exciting area of nuclear science is the use of radioactive nuclear beams to study chemical and physical phenomena. One uses the radioactive products (ms<t1/2<y) of nuclear reactions induced by charged particles or nuetrons to induce secondary reactions or to act as radiotracers. The use of such beams enhances the tools of the radioanalytical chemist. Applications of such beams in materials science (where the beams act as tracers), and the synthesis of new nuclei (especially with Z≥104) are described.
Ethylene Ignition and Detonation Chemistry, Part 2: Ignition Histories and Reduced Mechanisms

The detailed mechanism of 148 steps among 34 chemical species that has been described previously is reduced through steady-state and partial-equilibrium approximations to achieve simplified descriptions for use in ignition and detonation studies. The concentration histories for ethylene oxidation reveal different types of ignition processes under not very different conditions of pressure and temperature. When unimportant steps are sequentially deleted from the detailed mechanism, a short mechanism is developed involving only 38 irreversible elementary steps among 21 chemical species. This short mechanism is designed to be applied with reasonable accuracy over the entire range of conditions indicated previously. If attention is restricted to the induction period, then these 38 steps can be decreased to 21. During induction, the important chain carriers are mainly H, O, OH, and C 2 H 3 above 1500 K, whereas C 2 H 3 , HO 2 , and H 2 O 2 become dominant carriers below this temperature. At high temperatures, expressions for ignition time are derived by using radical depletion as the ignition criterion, whereas at lower temperatures, simplified thermal explosion theory in principle can be applied. Based on the detailed mechanism, a two-step mechanism involving only seven species is developed, which can facilitate computational investigations of multidimensional ignition and detonation processes of ethylene-air mixtures.
Operator-valued transmission lines as models of a horizontally layered earth under transient two-dimensional electromagnetic excitation

A new method of computing the transient behavior of a horizontally layered earth under two-dimensional electromagnetic excitation is presented. The earth's conductivity, magnetic permeability, and electric permittivity are assumed to vary only with depth, but those variations are allowed to be quite arbitrary. Displacement current is not neglected. After discretization of Maxwell's equations, the earth is modeled by infinite RLC electrical networks. No truncations of those networks are invoked during the computational procedure. Instead, those networks are viewed as infinite ladder networks of Hilbert ports, that is, as operator-valued lumped transmission lines, and the computations are based upon the recently devised theory of such systems. This analysis yields a new surface impedance operator, which provides a considerably more comprehensive representation of the earth's behavior than does the Tikhonov-Cagniard surface impedance. For example, the Tikhonov-Cagniard surface impedance is applicable only when the electric or magnetic fields vary slowly or linearly with respect to horizontal displacements. The surface-impedance operator derived herein does not require those restrictions; only quadratic summability and Laplace transformability are needed.