cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Distinguishing between Microbial Habitats Unravels Ecological Complexity in Coral Microbiomes.

ABSTRACT The diverse prokaryotic communities associated with reef-building corals may provide important ecological advantages to their threatened hosts. The consistency of relationships between corals and specific prokaryotes, however, is debated, and the locations where microbially mediated processes occur in the host are not resolved. Here, we examined how the prokaryotic associates of five common Caribbean corals with different evolutionary and ecological traits differ across mucus and tissue habitats. We used physical and chemical separation of coral mucus and tissue and sequencing of partial small-subunit rRNA genes of bacteria and archaea from these samples to demonstrate that coral tissue and mucus harbor unique reservoirs of prokaryotes, with 23 to 49% and 31 to 56% of sequences exclusive to the tissue and mucus habitats, respectively. Across all coral species, we found that 46 tissue- and 22 mucus-specific microbial members consistently associated with the different habitats. Sequences classifying as “Candidatus Amoebophilus,” Bacteroidetes-affiliated intracellular symbionts of amoebae, emerged as previously unrecognized tissue associates of three coral species. This study demonstrates how coral habitat differentiation enables highly resolved examination of ecological interactions between corals and their associated microorganisms and identifies previously unrecognized tissue and mucus associates of Caribbean corals for future targeted study. IMPORTANCE This study demonstrates that coral tissue or mucus habitats structure the microbiome of corals and that separation of these habitats facilitates identification of consistent microbial associates. Using this approach, we demonstrated that sequences related to “Candidatus Amoebophilus,” recognized intracellular symbionts of amoebae, were highly associated with the tissues of Caribbean corals and possibly endosymbionts of a protistan host within corals, adding a further degree of intricacy to coral holobiont symbioses. Examining specific habitats within complex hosts such as corals is useful for targeting important microbial associations that may otherwise be masked by the sheer microbial diversity associated with all host habitats.
Microarray Analysis of the Peripheral Monocytes From Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Patients Reveals a Distinct Gene Expression Profile

Abstract Abstract 2010 Background: Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM) is a B-cell malignancy characterized by the accumulation, predominantly in the bone marrow, of clonally related IgM-secreting lymphoplasmacytic cells. Macrophage derived inflammatory factors are elevated in WM suggesting a possible contribution by monocytes to the growth and survival of WM cells. Patients and Method: Monocytes (CD14+) from the peripheral blood of 8 untreated WM patients, and 6 healthy donors (HDs) were isolated by immunomagnetic bead sorting. Gene expression profiling was then performed using Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 chips, and data obtained from microarray was analyzed by dChip software with fold change >=2 and p Results: Using Panther classification, 284 transcripts were identified as significantly different in monocytes derived from WM patients versus HDs. The resulted transcripts are involved in many critical signaling pathways, such as Toll-like immune receptor pathway (i.e. TLR1, TLR4, TLR8, TICAM); inflammatory response (i.e. CD40, PTAFR , FPR2 ), integrin binding (i.e. RAC2, ILK), chemokinesis (i.e. CCR2, CX3CR1), apoptosis (i.e. TNFSF10), p53 signaling (i.e. GADD45A , 1433F ) and G-protein coupled receptors (i.e. CX3CR1). Fifteen of 21 genes were validated by real-time PCR, and were over-expressed in peripheral blood monocytes from WM patients in comparison to healthy age matched donors: Gene Mean Fold Change Mann-Whitney Test CD40 1.644057 0.02857 IL2RG 1.962768 0.02857 CKLF 1.983921 0.1143 TLR8 2.573933 0.02857 CD32 3.026544 0.02857 CD64 3.144555 0.02857 UBE2D1 3.19568 0.02857 FCGR2C 3.832584 0.02857 TLR1 3.888254 0.02857 CX3CR1 4.301427 0.05714 TNFSF10 5.365451 0.02857 TLR4 5.984486 0.02857 TICAM 7.324513 0.02857 CLU 15.10627 0.02857 CCR2 17.15738 0.02857 Conclusion: Peripheral monocytes from WM patients demonstrate a distinct gene expression profile characterized by up-regulation of genes affecting Toll-like innate immunity, inflammation, and apoptosis. These studies define a distinct microenvironmental signature, and provide a framework for the exploration of novel targets for prognosis and therapy in WM. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
The rationality of faith and the benefits of religion

Religions don’t simply make claims about the world; they also offer existential resources, resources for dealing with basic human problems, such as the need for meaning, love, identity, and personal growth. For instance, a Buddhist’s resources for addressing these existential needs are different than a Christian’s. Now, imagine someone who is agnostic but who is deciding whether to put faith in religion A or religion B. Suppose she thinks A and B are evidentially on par, but she regards A as offering much more by way of existential resources. Is it epistemically rational for her to put her faith in A rather than B on this basis? It is natural to answer No. After all, what do the existential resources of a religion have to do with its truth? However, I argue that this attitude is mistaken. My thesis is that the extent to which it is good for a certain religion to be true is relevant to the epistemic (rather than merely pragmatic) rationality of faith in that religion. This is plausible, I’ll argue, on the correct account of the nature of faith, including the ways that emotion and desire can figure into faith and contribute to its epistemic rationality.
Cholinergic Changes and Synaptic Alterations in Alzheimer’s Disease

The cholinergic deficit in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain has given rise to numerous pharmacological strategies designed to enhance cholinergic metabolism and efficacy and improve cognition. Although the cholinergic system is important to cognition we know that correlations between cortical cholinergic function and level of cognition are relatively weak (DeKosky and Scheff, 1990). Synapse loss is more robustly linked to decline in cognition (DeKosky and Scheff, 1990; Terry et al., 1991; DeKosky et al., 1992). Ultrastructural assessment of cortical biopsy samples from AD patients showed a strong correlation with cognition (DeKosky and Scheff, 1990). Confocal immunohistochemical examination of postmortem brain confirmed this correlation between synapse loss and (antemortem) measurements of cognition (Terry et al., 1991). Thus, therapeutic strategies must consider both cholinergic status and the degree of synaptic loss in AD brain.
Predictors of the Need for Therapeutic Intervention in Older Adult Patients With a Nonvariceal Gastrointestinal Bleed.

OBJECTIVE Gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) is a common cause of hospitalization in the older adult population. The aim of the study was to identify factors that are associated with the need for a therapeutic intervention in patients older than 65 years with nonvariceal GIB. METHODS This is a retrospective cohort study of older adult patients admitted to a tertiary care center between 2009 and 2011 with nonvariceal GIB. The primary outcome was a composite endpoint of inpatient mortality or need for an endoscopic, surgical, or radiologic procedure to control the bleed or to treat the underlying source of the bleed. RESULTS A total of 314 patients were included. In-hospital mortality was 1.3% (4 patients). An intervention to control the bleeding was performed in 15 patients (4.8%). Four patients (1.3%) needed a nonurgent intervention. Twenty-three patients (7.23%) had the primary combined outcome of in-hospital mortality or need for any therapeutic endoscopic, surgical, or radiologic intervention. Factors that were independently associated with the primary outcome were systolic blood pressure within the first 24 hours of <90 mm Hg (odds ratio 3.05, 95% confidence interval 1.08-8.59, P = 0.001), and initial hemoglobin of <7 g/dL (odds ratio 4.81, 95% confidence interval 1.56-14.74, P = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS Nonvariceal GIB in older adult patients ceases spontaneously in most patients without an invasive intervention. Systolic blood pressure within the first 24 hours of <90 mm Hg and an initial hemoglobin level of <7 g/dL could be used to identify high-risk patients who may benefit from an urgent therapeutic intervention.
Clinical characteristics of long-term oxygen dependent neonates

Objective To investigate the situation of oxygen supplement and the incidence and clinical characteristics of long-term oxygen inhalation newborns in neonatal intensive care unit(NICU).Methods The records of oxygen supplement and the related clinical data of 12 155 neonates admitted in our NICU from Oct 2009 to May 2011 were collected and retrospectively analyzed.The results were compared with the data from a survey on 19 hospitals in China which reported by other authors.Results In 12 155 newborns,4 951 were full term,7 204 were preterm.One hundred and two patients (0.84％,102/12 155 ) accepted oxygen for more than 28 days.Among them,88 were preterm,14 were full term,with the average gestational age (31.16 ±3.70) weeks,the average birth weight (1.60 ±0.68) kg and the mean oxygen supplement period (40.60 ± 12.25) d.Finally,98 were cured or improved,4 died.The incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in 7 204 preterm infants was 1.22％ ( 88/7 204) according to the standard of continuous oxygen supply more than 28 days after birth.The incidence of BPD in preterm infants less than 32 weeks was 4.92％ (68/1 381 ) according to the standard of continuous oxygen supply more than 28 days after birth,while the rate was only 2.10％ (29/1 381 ) according to the standard of continuous oxygen supply more than 36 weeks postmenstrual age.The rates of BPD according to the two different standards were significantly different ( x2 =16.251,P ＜0.001 ).There were significant differences in the rate of supply oxygen( x2 =119.99) and supply oxygen time( F =109.27 ) among different gestational age groups in overall the 5 499 neonates ( P ＜0.001 ),but no significant differences in the average time of oxygen supply and mechanical ventilation among different gestational age groups in infants with long-term oxygen dependence ( P ＞ 0.05 ).There were significant differences in rates of pulmonary surfactant therapy,heart failure,retinopathy of prematurity,congenital heart disease,other congenital malformation and mortality among different gestational age groups in long-term oxygen dependence infants (x2 =8.789,13.538,23.176,7.778,8.842,8.246,P ＜ 0.05 ).As compared with the data from 19 hospitals,the corrected rate of long-term oxygen supplement in preterm infants in our hospital was obviously lower[0.99％ (71/7204) vsl.54％ (190/12 351),P ＜0.001].Conclusion Theincidence of BPD in our NICU is low.Lower gestational age,immature lung and secondary lung injury may be the mainly cause of neonatal long-term oxygen dependence,but some factors such as congenital heart disease,congenital malformations should be considered in more mature infants.The most appropriate standard for BPD still remains to be discussed. Key words: Oxygen therapy ; Bronchopulmonary dysplasia; Infant,newborn
Survival trends in palliative care patients with cancer: A Mayo Clinic 5-year review

9592 Background: Palliative care (PC) is an essential part of the continuum of care for cancer (CA) patients (pts). Little is known about the aggregate characteristics and survival of pts receiving inpatient palliative care consultation (PCC). Methods: We reviewed data prospectively collected on patients seen by the Palliative Care Inpatient Consult Service at Mayo Clinic - Rochester from 2003–2008. Demographics, consult characteristics, and survival were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and a Cox model of survival were produced. Results: 1794 total patients were seen over the five year period. Cancer is the most common primary diagnosis (47%). Growth in annual PCC has risen dramatically (113 in 2003 vs. 414 in 2007) despite stable total hospital admissions. Patient are predominantly men (52% vs. 48%, p=0.02); median age is 76. General medicine, medical cardiology, and medical intensive care unit services refer most often. Most frequent issues addressed are goals of care, dismissal planning, and pai...
Physiographic factors underlie rates of biomass production during succession in Great Lakes forest landscapes

Abstract Biomass production in living trees is the basis of numerous forest ecosystem functions and services. However, rates of and controls on biomass production vary widely across temperate forests, particularly over successional timescales of decades and centuries. Biomass production in temperate forests is most often interpreted within the context of biotic or top-down controls, such as species composition or disturbance. However, there is need to investigate how bottom-up physiographic factors, such as landform attributes, drainage, and soil properties mediate biomass production. In order to investigate patterns, controls, and potentials for biomass production across spatial levels ranging from individual ecosystems, to landscapes, to entire regions, we synthesized long-term forest inventory datasets from the United States Great Lakes region, placed them in the context of a hierarchical ecological unit classification, and tested the influence of physiographic factors on biomass production rates and temporal trajectories across ecological levels. Key findings include: 1) At nearly all ecological levels, physiographic controls (e.g., soil texture, drainage class, water table depth) on soil moisture status are significant predictors of variation in biomass production rates, with mesic sites accumulating biomass more rapidly than xeric sites, which, in turn accumulate biomass more rapidly than hydric sites. 2) Aboveground live biomass can apparently continue to accumulate through 2–3 centuries of succession, exceeding 300–400 Mg ha−1 on mesic sites throughout the region. 3) Stand age distributions indicate that hydric sites are harvested least often, while the high production rates of mesic sites suggest they are most appropriate for frequent harvesting. 4) Median, 1st-quartile, and 3rd-quartile growth rates of individual ecosystems, landscapes, and ecoregional subsections and sections reveal ecological units in which forests may vary in their potential for increases or decreases in biomass production, e.g., due to management interventions, climate change, or disturbances. Specifically, some units have tightly constrained distributions, suggesting little capacity for change in production rates relative to observed medians, while other units have wide variation in biomass production rates, indicating the potential for relatively large increases or decreases in production. Altogether, the results of this analysis show that physiography exerts widespread, bottom-up controls on biomass production across the region of study, and can be used in spatially explicit frameworks to understand ecosystem functioning and inform scientific forest management.
Humans and Mice Display Opposing Patterns of "Browning" Gene Expression in Visceral and Subcutaneous White Adipose Tissue Depots.

Visceral adiposity is much more strongly associated with cardio-metabolic disease in humans than subcutaneous adiposity. Browning, the appearance of brown-like adipocytes in the of white adipose tissue (WAT), has been shown to protect mice against metabolic dysfunction, suggesting the possibility of new therapeutic approaches to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes. In mice, subcutaneous WAT depots express higher levels of browning genes when compared with visceral WAT, further suggesting that differences in WAT browning could contribute to the differences in the pathogenicity of the two depots. However, the expression of browning genes in different WAT depots of human has not been characterized. Here, it is shown that the expression of browning genes is higher in visceral than in subcutaneous WAT in humans, a pattern that is opposite to what is observed in mice. These results suggest that caution should be applied in extrapolating the results of murine browning gene expression studies to human pathophysiology.
The Production of Syngas via High Temperature Electrolysis and Biomass Gasification

A process model of syngas production using high temperature electrolysis and biomass gasification is presented. Process heat from the biomass gasifier is used to improve the hydrogen production efficiency of the steam electrolysis process. Hydrogen from electrolysis allows a high utilization of the biomass carbon for syngas production. Based on the gasifier temperature, 94% to 95% of the carbon in the biomass becomes carbon monoxide in the syngas (carbon dioxide and hydrogen). Assuming the thermal efficiency of the power cycle for electricity generation is 50%, (as expected from GEN IV nuclear reactors), the syngas production efficiency ranges from 70% to 73% as the gasifier temperature decreases from 1900 K to 1500 K.Copyright © 2008 by ASME
Uniform perfusion of fluid through microbores in a hydrogel scaffold using a microfluidic manifold device

Hydrogel scaffolds, both synthetic and biological, are an important component for microscale and macroscale tissue fabrication. Owing to their high water content, hydrogel scaffolds enable the distribution of nutrients and oxygen to support cells in larger constructs. However, thickness of hydrogel scaffolds is still limited by the diffusion rate of nutrients and oxygen, versus the metabolic rate of the cell culture. The creation of microbore conduits within a hydrogel scaffold can overcome these limitations. Here, controlled perfusion through a hydrogel scaffold is demonstrated with a microfluidic manifold device. The flow profile was simulated to aid in the device design, and flow control was validated experimentally. We used this system to determine the diffusion coefficient of two model solutes, one with a small molecular weight and one with a large molecular weight, through the hydrogel scaffold.
Forget Schmitt! Political Theology Must Follow Agamben’s “Double Paradigm” of Sovereignty

It was the German juridical theorist and philosopher Carl Schmitt who gave us the term “political theology.” But Schmitt’s legacy has been, to say the least, both fraught and often underrepresented...
Correlating colorectal cancer risk with field carcinogenesis progression using partial wave spectroscopic microscopy

Prior to the development of a localized cancerous tumor, diffuse molecular, and structural alterations occur throughout an organ due to genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. This process is known as field carcinogenesis. In this study, we used partial wave spectroscopic (PWS) microscopy to explore the progression of field carcinogenesis by measuring samples collected from 190 patients with a range of colonic history (no history, low-risk history, and high-risk history) and current colon health (healthy, nondiminutive adenomas (NDA; ≥5 mm and 25% villous features]). The low-risk history groups include patients with a history of NDA. The high-risk history groups include patients with either a history of AA or colorectal cancer (CRC). PWS is a nanoscale-sensitive imaging technique which measures the organization of intracellular structure. Previous studies have shown that PWS is sensitive to changes in the higher-order (20-200 nm) chromatin topology that occur due to field carcinogenesis within histologically normal cells. The results of this study show that these nanoscale structural alterations are correlated with a patient's colonic history, which suggests that PWS can detect altered field carcinogenic signatures even in patients with negative colonoscopies. Furthermore, we developed a model to calculate the 5-year risk of developing CRC for each patient group. We found that our data fit this model remarkably well (R2 = 0.946). This correlation suggests that PWS could potentially be used to monitor CRC progression less invasively and in patients without adenomas, which opens PWS to many potential cancer care applications.
Lipidated connexin mimetic peptides potently inhibit gap junction-mediated Ca2+-wave propagation

Connexin (Cx) mimetic peptides (e.g., Gap27: SRPTEKTIFII; Peptide5: VDCFLSRPTEKT) reversibly inhibit hemichannel (HCh) and gap junction channel (GJCh) function in a concentration- and time-dependen...
Multivariate Matching Pursuit Decomposition and Normalized Gabor Entropy for Quantification of Preictal Trends in Epilepsy.

Quantification of the complexity of signals recorded concurrently from multivariate systems, such as the brain, plays an important role in the study and characterization of their state and state transitions. Multivariate analysis of the electroencephalographic signals (EEG) over time is conceptually most promising in unveiling the global dynamics of dynamical brain disorders such as epilepsy. We employed a novel methodology to study the global complexity of the epileptic brain en route to seizures. The developed measures of complexity were based on Multivariate Matching Pursuit (MMP) decomposition of signals in terms of time–frequency Gabor functions (atoms) and Shannon entropy. The measures were first validated on simulation data (Lorenz system) and then applied to EEGs from preictal (before seizure onsets) periods, recorded by intracranial electrodes from eight patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and a total of 42 seizures, in search of global trends of complexity before seizures onset. Out of five Gabor measures of complexity we tested, we found that our newly defined measure, the normalized Gabor entropy (NGE), was able to detect statistically significant (p < 0.05) nonlinear trends of the mean global complexity across all patients over 1 h periods prior to seizures’ onset. These trends pointed to a slow decrease of the epileptic brain’s global complexity over time accompanied by an increase of the variance of complexity closer to seizure onsets. These results show that the global complexity of the epileptic brain decreases at least 1 h prior to seizures and imply that the employed methodology and measures could be useful in identifying different brain states, monitoring of seizure susceptibility over time, and potentially in seizure prediction.
Land assembly with taxes, not takings

We use a novel tax mechanism – ‘rejected offer reassessment’ (ROR) – in laboratory experiments to discourage seller holdout and facilitate land assembly. Under this mechanism, if a landowner reject...
The Legacy of a Severe Wildfire on Stream Nitrogen and Carbon in Headwater Catchments

Large, high-severity wildfires alter the physical and biological conditions that determine how catchments retain and release nutrients and regulate streamwater quality. The short-term water quality impacts of severe wildfire are often dramatic, but the longer-term responses may better reflect terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem recovery. We followed streamwater chemistry for 14 years after the largest fire in recorded Colorado history, the 2002 Hayman Fire, to characterize patterns in nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) export. Throughout the post-fire period, stream nitrate and total dissolved N (TDN) remained elevated in 10 burned catchments relative to pre-burn periods and 4 unburned control catchments. Both the extent of fire in a catchment and wildfire severity influenced stream N concentrations. Nitrate was more than an order of magnitude higher in streams draining catchments that burned to a high extent (> 60% of their areas) compared to unburned catchments. Unburned catchments retained more than 95% of atmospheric N inputs, but N retention in burned catchments was less than half of N inputs. Unlike N, stream C was elevated in catchments that burned to a lesser extent (30–60% of their areas burned), compared to either unburned or extensively burned catchments. Remotely sensed estimates of upland and riparian vegetation cover suggest that burned forests could require several more decades before forest cover and nutrient demand return to pre-fire levels. The persistent stream N increases we report are below drinking water thresholds, but exceed ecoregional reference concentrations for healthy stream ecosystems and indicate that extensively burned headwater catchments no longer function as strong sinks for atmospheric N. Combined with increasing trends in wildfire severity and elevated N deposition, our findings demonstrate the potential for substantial post-wildfire changes in ecosystem N retention and have implications for nutrient export to downstream waters.
Giant craniopharyngioma in an adult presenting with new onset seizure

A 43-year-old man presented to the emergency department after experiencing a first episode seizure. No further information was available at presentation as the patient was confused on his arrival. On physical examination, vital signs were normal. The patient was confused, and his Glasgow Coma Score was 12(E3V4M5). Initial workup included complete blood count, electrolytes and ECG were normal. Thyroid function tests, insulin growth factor-1 and plasma random cortisol level were within the normal range. Testosterone levels were low, and luteinising hormone was inappropriately normal. CT demonstrated a cystic mass with peripheral calcification measuring 6.0×4.5×3.9 cm. The lesion originated from the pituitary fossa and expanded superiorly distorting the third ventricle and the left lateral ventricle causing hydrocephalus (figure 1). A pituitary MRI confirmed these findings (figure 2). The patient underwent a craniotomy with mass resection. The procedure was uneventful. Pathology demonstrated nodular whorls and irregular trabeculae of …
Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma presenting with Cardiac Tamponade- A Rare Case report and Review of the literature.

Mesothelioma is a rare tumor of the pleura, peritoneum, pericardium or tunica vaginalis. About 2,500 cases are diagnosed annually in the United States. Mesothelioma often presents with pleuritic chest pain and dyspnea related to local invasion; distal metastasis and lymphadenopathy at the time of diagnosis is rare. Pericardial involvement in mesothelioma is related to direct invasion of the tumor. We here present a 71 year-old-male who presented with pleuritic chest pain and dyspnea, noted to have diffuse ST-segment elevation in EKG and cardiac tamponade physiology on 2D echocardiogram in who imaging subsequently revealed left upper lung mesothelioma. A pericardial window was created following which tamponade resolved. The pericardial biopsy did not show any mesothelioma cells or fibrous plaques. Computer tomography revealed regional lymphadenopathy in the chest. Disrupted cardiac lymphatic flow due to tumor mesothelioma induced lymphadenopathy is likely cause of the cardiac tamponade in this patient. This is the second ever reported case of pleural mesothelioma without a direct pericardial invasion that presented with cardiac tamponade.
Creativity for Workplace Well-Being

Organizational research on creativity tends to focus on creative outcomes such as novel and useful ideas or solutions to challenging problems. The current work considers another function of workpla...
Intrafraction tumor motion during deep inspiration breath hold pancreatic cancer treatment.

PURPOSE Beam gating with deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) has been widely used for motion management in radiotherapy. Normally it relies on some external surrogate for estimating the internal target motion, while the exact internal motion is unknown. In this study, we used the intrafraction motion review (IMR) application to directly track an internal target and characterized the residual motion during DIBH treatment for pancreatic cancer patients through their full treatment courses. METHODS AND MATERIALS Eight patients with pancreatic cancer treated with DIBH volumetric modulated arc therapy in 2017 and 2018 were selected for this study, each with some radiopaque markers (fiducial or surgical clips) implanted near or inside the target. The Varian Real-time Position Management (RPM) system was used to monitor the breath hold, represented by the anterior-posterior displacement of an external surrogate, namely reflective markers mounted on a plastic block placed on the patient's abdomen. Before each treatment, a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan under DIBH was acquired for patient setup. For scan and treatment, the breath hold reported by RPM had to lie within a 3 mm window. IMR kV images were taken every 20° or 40° gantry rotation during dose delivery, resulting in over 5000 images for the cohort. The internal markers were manually identified in the IMR images. The residual motion amplitudes of the markers as well as the displacement from their initial positions located in the setup CBCT images were analyzed. RESULTS Even though the external markers indicated that the respiratory motion was within 3 mm in DIBH treatment, significant residual internal target motion was observed for some patients. The range of average motion was from 3.4 to 7.9 mm, with standard deviation ranging from 1.2 to 3.5 mm. For all patients, the target residual motions seemed to be random with mean positions around their initial setup positions. Therefore, the absolute target displacement relative to the initial position was small during DIBH treatment, with the mean and the standard deviation 0.6 and 2.9 mm, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Internal target motion may differ from external surrogate motion in DIBH treatment. Radiographic verification of target position at the beginning and during each fraction is necessary for precise RT delivery. IMR can serve as a useful tool to directly monitor the internal target motion.
Flexible laryngeal mask with pharyngeal suction for nasal surgery

Abstract Method Peri-operative data of 71 healthy patients who underwent nasal surgery using flexible laryngeal mask attached with two pharyngeal suction catheters were retrospectively analyzed to examine the evidence of glottic contamination and to assess the relationship between postoperative sore throat and the pharyngeal suction. Results No patient experienced hypoxemia or laryngospasm during the surgery and emergence. Visually, examination showed no evidence of blood contamination on the laryngeal surface of the laryngeal mask. The amount of blood evacuated from the pharynx through the attached catheters correlated with the amount of estimated blood loss and the duration of surgery (rho = 0.82 and 0.51, respectively; P Conclusions The flexible laryngeal mask with pharyngeal suction catheters provided safe airway management for nasal surgeries without apparent glottic contamination or other airway-related complications and was not associated with an increased risk of postoperative sore throat in this retrospective observational study. A large controlled prospective study is needed to confirm these findings.
How Do I Share My IoT Forensic Experience With the Broader Community? An Automated Knowledge Sharing IoT Forensic Platform

It is challenging for digital forensic practitioners to maintain skillset currency, for example knowing where and how to extract digital artifacts relevant to investigations from newer, emerging devices (e.g., due to the increased variety of data storage schemas across manufacturers and constantly changing models). This paper presents a knowledge sharing platform, developed and validated using an Internet of Things dataset released in the DFRWS 2017–2018 forensic challenge. Specifically, we present an automated knowledge-sharing forensic platform that automatically suggests forensic artifact schemas, derived from case data, but does not include any sensitive data in the final (shared) schema. Such artifact schemas are then stored in a schema pool and the platform presents candidate schemas for use in new cases based on the data presented. In this way, investigators need not learn the forensic profile of a new device from scratch, nor do they have to manually anonymize and share forensic knowledge obtained during the course of an investigation.
Mitochondrial DNA degradation: A quality control measure for mitochondrial genome maintenance and stress response

Mitochondria play a central role in bioenergetics, and fulfill a plethora of functions in cell signaling, programmed cell death, and biosynthesis of key protein cofactors. Mitochondria harbor their own genomic DNA, which encodes protein subunits of the electron transport chain and a full set of transfer and ribosomal RNAs. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is essential for cellular and organismal functions, and defects in mitochondrial genome maintenance have been implicated in common human diseases and mitochondrial disorders. mtDNA repair and degradation are known pathways to cope with mtDNA damage; however, molecular factors involved in this process have remained unclear. Such knowledge is fundamental to the understanding of mitochondrial genomic maintenance and pathology, because mtDNA degradation may contribute to the etiology of mtDNA depletion syndromes and to the activation of the innate immune response by fragmented mtDNA. This article reviews the current literature regarding the importance of mitochondrial DNA degradation in mtDNA maintenance and stress response, and the recent progress in uncovering molecular factors involved in mtDNA degradation. These factors include key components of the mtDNA replication machinery, such as DNA polymerase γ, helicase Twinkle, and exonuclease MGME1, as well as a major DNA-packaging protein, mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM).
Work-related asthma in the USA: nationally representative estimates with extended follow-up.

Objective We studied the associations of working in occupations with high asthma trigger exposures with the prevalence and incidence of asthma, and with ever reporting an asthma diagnosis throughout working life. Methods We used the nationally representative Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1968–2015; n=13 957; 205 498 person-years), with annual reports of occupation and asthma diagnoses across 48 years. We compared asthma outcomes in occupations likely to have asthma trigger exposures with those in occupations with limited trigger exposures. We estimated the prevalence ratios and the incidence risk ratios using log-binomial regression adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, and current and past atopy and smoking, and accounting for the survey design and sampling weights. We calculated the attributable risk fractions and population attributable risks, and used multinomial logistic Markov models and microsimulation to estimate the percentage of people ever diagnosed with asthma during working life. Results The adjusted prevalence ratio comparing high-risk occupations with low-risk was 4.1 (95% CI 3.5 to 4.8); the adjusted risk ratio was 2.6 (CI 1.8 to 3.9). The attributable risk was 16.7% (CI 8.5 to 23.6); the population attributable risk was 11.3% (CI 5.0 to 17.2). In microsimulations, 14.9% (CI 13.4 to 16.3) with low trigger exposure risk reported asthma at least once, ages 18–65, compared with 23.9% (CI 22.3 to 26.0) with high exposure risk. Conclusion Adults were more than twice as likely to report a new asthma diagnosis if their occupation involved asthma triggers. Work exposures to asthma triggers may cause or aggravate about 11% of all adult asthma and increase the risk of work-life asthma by 60%.
Bipartite Graph based Multi-view Clustering

For graph-based multi-view clustering, a critical issue is to capture consensus cluster structures via a two-stage learning scheme. Most current methods learn pairwise similarities between objects for each view independently, which is widely used in single view. However, the consensus information contained in multiple views are ignored, and the involved biases lead to an undesirable unified graph matrix. To this end, we propose a bipartite graph based multi-view clustering (BIGMC) approach. The consensus information can be represented by a small number of representative uniform anchor points for different views. A bipartite graph is constructed between data points and anchor points. The unified bipartite graph matrix in turn improves the bipartite graph similarity matrix of each view and the anchor set. The final unified graph matrix forms the final clusters directly. In BIGMC, an adaptive weight is added for each view to avoid outlier views. A low-rank constraint is imposed on the Laplacian matrix of the unified matrix to construct a multi-component unified bipartite graph, where the component number corresponds to the cluster number. The objective function is optimized in an alternating optimization fashion. Experimental results on synthetic and real-world data sets demonstrate its effectiveness and superiority than the state-of-the-art baselines.
A Duoethnographic Exploration of Persistent Technological Failures in Synchronous Online Education

Da Technologien fur die universitare Lehre eine immer wichtigere Rolle spielen, affizieren Technologiefehler eine ebenfalls wachsende Zahl an Lehrenden und Studierenden. Wir nutzten einen duoethnografischen Ansatz zur Untersuchung der Student/in-Instruktor/in-Dynamik wahrend fortdauernder Technologieprobleme in einem einsemestrigen synchronen Kurs zu qualitativen Forschungsmethoden. Auf diese Weise konnten wir in einem ersten Schritt die je individuelle Perspektive nachvollziehen, um dann in einen kontinuierlichen Dialog einzutreten, ohne dass eine Stimme gegenuber der anderen privilegiert wurde. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir unser geteiltes Verstandnis und unsere unterschiedlichen Sichtweisen in diesem Prozess vor. Ausgehend von einer Reflexion unserer Erfahrungen gewahren wir auch sehr personliche Einsichten in die Art und Weise, wie Studierende und Lehrende im Verlauf von Online-Lehre/-Lernen von Technologiefehlern betroffen sein konnen.
Design and Fabrication of a Nomadic Solar-Powered Quad-Rotor

This paper explores the capability of autonomous solar power charging on a quadrotor to effectively increase the vehicle’s range without bound. The recent advancements and accessibility of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), particularly hover-capable rotorcraft, have captured the world’s attention. As a result, rotorcraft UAVs are performing tasks of increasing sophistication and difficulty. Though recent advancements in battery technology and electric motor efficiency have enabled great strides in platform utility, hovering UAVs are still severely limited in their usefulness due to their short flight time. This aspect of rotorcraft makes their deployment dependent upon regular human intervention to replenish energy. However, the addition of passive energy collection has the potential to relax both the flight time constraint and the dependence of rotorcraft on direct human intervention for replenishing energy reserves. This paper demonstrates the addition of solar power collection to a prototype of the Solar UAV Quad (SUAV-Q) at the University of Minnesota and shows significant potential for performing long-term autonomous missions without the intervention of any third party.
Estimation of Visual Rating of TAR Spot Disease of Corn Using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Data and Machine Learning Techniques

Tar spot is a foliar disease of corn characterized by raised black spots that may or may not be surrounded by a tan or brown halo called a fisheye. Severe infection can lead to a 10-50% yield loss in corn. Timely detection of early symptoms is essential for implementing management tactics to reduce the disease. This study aims to propose a machine learning pipeline to estimate disease severity of tar spot of corn using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) data. The overall process comprises structure from motion (SfM), canopy attributes extraction, dimensionality reduction, and regression. The proposed method was applied to UAS data collected from research subplots located at Pinney Purdue Agricultural Center (PPAC), Indiana, USA. The study contributes to the expansion of UAS technology in agriculture by providing reliable disease severity information of tar spot of corn.
Comparison of the Safety of Prophylactic Anticoagulants After Intracranial Surgery.

Background Venous thromboembolism (VTE) represents a rare but preventable postoperative complication. Unfractionated heparin (UH) and low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) are used to prevent VTE, but comparative studies of their safety and efficacy in the neurosurgical context are limited. Objective To determine the relative safety and efficacy of UH and LMWH for prophylaxis after cranial surgery. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of 3204 elective intracranial surgical admissions in 2901 patients over the period 2013 to 2018. From chart review, we extracted demographic and clinical features, including diagnosis and procedure, drugs administered, and the occurrence of VTE events. To compare postoperative outcomes, we performed propensity score matching of patients receiving different drugs, and reviewed postoperative cranial imaging. To contextualize our results, we selected 14 prior neurosurgical studies of VTE prophylaxis to compare our outcomes to the existing literature. Results In our sample of 3204 admissions, the overall rate of VTE was 0.8% (n = 27). Rates of VTE were not statistically different in matched cohorts receiving UH and LMWH (1.7% vs 1.0%, respectively); however, LMWH was associated with a higher rate of clinically significant intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) (3.4% vs 0.5%, P = .008). Literature review and meta-analysis supported these findings. Across studies, UH and LMWH were associated with similar rates of VTE. Studies in which patients received LMWH reported significantly higher rates of ICH (4.9% higher, P = .005). Conclusion We find that LMWH and UH show similar efficacy in preventing VTE; however, LMWH is associated with higher rates of ICH.
The catalytic mechanism of the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction

Abstract: Experimental and theoretical 13C kinetic isotope effects are utilized to obtain atomistic insight into the catalytic mechanism of the Pd(PPh3)4 catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura reaction of aryl halides and aryl boronic acids. Under catalytic conditions, we establish that oxidative addition of aryl bromides occurs to a 12-electron monoligated palladium complex (Pd(PPh3)). For aryl iodides, the first irreversible step in the catalytic cycle precedes oxidative addition and is shown to be binding of the iodoarene to Pd(PPh3). Our results suggest that the commonly proposed oxidative addition to the 14-electron Pd(PPh3)2 complex can occur only in the presence of excess added ligand or under stoichiometric conditions. The transmetalation step, under catalytic conditions, is shown to proceed via a tetracoordinate boronate (8B4) intermediate with a Pd-O-B linkage.
Parallel Assessment Tracks for Human-Centered Design (PATH): A Framework for Transitioning to a New Health Information Technology System:

This practice-oriented paper presents a human-centered design (HCD) framework that we developed to perform a comprehensive evaluation of a new health information technology (HIT) system under devel...
Right-Sizing Cities: A Look at Five Cities

The right-sizing concept in planning practice is a relatively new concept in contrast to previous orientations of planned growth. Right-sizing recognizes that some shrinking cities will continue to shrink and it would be advantageous for these cities to plan for this shrinkage. One of the key indicators of success of a planned effort, such as right-sizing, is city fiscal health. This article includes a multiple case analysis of five cities which are shrinking and right-sizing. The purpose of the cases is to highlight the right-sizing conception of planning and any possible linkages right-sizing has with fiscal health.
Vortex lattice structures in YBa2Cu3O7

Abstract Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) is a unique tool to study vortex lattices in superconductors in the mixed state. It can probe the crystallography of a flux line arrangement in the bulk sample and measure the effect of defects on lattice arrangement and orientation extremely accurately. One can also determine values of characteristic lengths in superconductors via this technique.
Working through some issues

Psychologists have long wrestled with the problem of replicability. Bayesian inference and a break with the deterministic model of science might offer some respite, says Andrew Gelman
Chapter 7: indicators and monitoring.

A popular paradigm states: What cannot be measured cannot be managed. The programmatic and practical objectives of the city and members of the New York City Climate Change Adaptation Task Force are to develop Flexible Adaptation Pathways for the region’s critical infrastructure. These objectives will require ongoing and consistent monitoring of a set of climate change indicators. Monitoring of key indicators can help to initiate course corrections in adaptation policies and/or changes in timing of their implementation. The relevant indicators are related to changes in the climate, climate science, climate impacts, and adaptation activities. Thus, these indicators need to be devised and tracked over time to provide targeted quantitative measures of climate change impacts, and adaptation in order to provide useful information to decision makers in regard to timing and extent of adaptation actions.
A Simple Adaptive Controller for an Oxidation Process

In this note we discuss the application of adaptive controller design techniques in a manufacturing process. As an example, we consider the process of oxidation of silicon in dry oxygen. This process consists of a single batch step where silicon wafers are introduced in a chamber and are oxidized for a time period at high temperature. Our objective is to determine the oxidation time such that a prescribed oxide thickness is grown on the silicon.
Cinematic and Literary Representations of Africans and Afro-descendants in Contemporary Portugal: Conviviality and conflict on the margins

This article offers an analysis of feature films and literary fiction related to sub-Saharan African immigrants and their descendants in contemporary Portugal. I investigate how this cultural production reflects the changing Portuguese nation, where the boundaries between postcolonial Portugal and its former African colonies, as well as the notions of what constitutes “being African” or “being European”, are being redefined.
Predictive Analytics for Semi-structured Case Oriented Business Processes

The goal of our work is to examine the utility of predictive analytics for case-oriented semi-structured business processes. As a first step towards this goal, this paper describes an approach to leverage case history to predict outcomes at decision points in case-oriented semi-structured processes, and examine how the contents of documents at these decision points influence their outcomes. We apply an ant-colony optimization (ACO) based algorithm to create a probabilistic activity graph from traces, and use it to identify key decision points in a given process. For each activity node that represents a decision point in the mined probabilistic graph, the likelihood of different outcomes from the node can be correlated with the contents of documents accessed by the activity node. This is achieved by using a standard decision tree learning algorithm. We validate our approach on correlated case instance traces generated by a simulator that we constructed to implement non-deterministic executions of an automobile insurance claims scenario. In practice we find that our approach can lead to useful predictions at different stages of execution in a semi-structured case oriented process.
La Relación y conçudio de Hernán Gallegos: glosa, guía y memoria de Nuevo México 1581-1582

L'A. analyse un texte ecrit par Gallegos au cours de la seconde expedition au Nouveau-Mexique en 1581-1582, qui rend compte des grandes contradictions de la conquete espagnole du continent americain dans ses premiers contacts avec les populations indigenes. Il s'agit de determiner comment les discours et strategies de contact de la premiere generation d'Espagnols ont joue un role determinant pour les experiences de contact de la seconde generation