cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Conserved tertiary couplings stabilize elements in the PDZ fold, leading to characteristic patterns of domain conformational flexibility.

Single-domain allostery has been postulated to occur through intramolecular pathways of signaling within a protein structure. We had previously investigated these pathways by introducing a local thermal perturbation and analyzed the anisotropic propagation of structural changes throughout the protein. Here, we develop an improved approach, the Rotamerically Induced Perturbation (RIP), that identifies strong couplings between residues by analyzing the pathways of heat-flow resulting from thermal excitation of rotameric rotations at individual residues. To explore the nature of these couplings, we calculate the complete coupling maps of 5 different PDZ domains. Although the PDZ domain is a well conserved structural fold that serves as a scaffold in many protein–protein complexes, different PDZ domains display unique patterns of conformational flexibility in response to ligand binding: some show a significant shift in a set of α-helices, while others do not. Analysis of the coupling maps suggests a simple relationship between the computed couplings and observed conformational flexibility. In domains where the α-helices are rigid, we find couplings of the α-helices to the body of the protein, whereas in domains having ligand-responsive α-helices, no couplings are found. This leads to a model where the α-helices are intrinsically dynamic but can be damped if sidechains interact at key tertiary contacts. These tertiary contacts correlate to high covariation contacts as identified by the statistical coupling analysis method. As these dynamic modules are exploited by various allosteric mechanisms, these tertiary contacts have been conserved by evolution.
Biological diversity of a temporary pond herpetofauna in north Florida sandhills

From 1985 through 1990, the herpetofauna of a temporary pond in an uplands longleaf pine sandhills community in north-central Florida was monitored. A drift fence completely encircled the pond. Animals were captured in pitfall traps and marked as they entered and exited the pond basin. I captured 16 155 individuals of 42 species (16 amphibians, 26 reptiles). The species richness, diversity (using Margalef's Diversity Index) and dominance (using the Berger-Parker Index) varied among years. Between 62.5% and 87.5% of the amphibian species and 65% to 81% of the reptile species were captured in any one year. Daily amphibian capture was positively correlated with rainfall, whereas reptile capture was either not correlated or weakly negatively correlated with rainfall. Hydroperiod duration was not correlated with the numbers of either amphibians or reptiles captured. Neither the amphibian nor the reptile community showed any trends in diversity or dominance indices during the course of the study, although both communities were dominated by a few species. However, the species responsible for community dominance changed somewhat as the study progressed. Assessing the results of this study is hampered by the lack of comparable studies elsewhere, expected natural fluctuations of amphibian populations, and a prolonged drought, especially during the latter stages of the study. The herpetological community at Breezeway Pond does not appear to follow theoretical predictions of community response to stress. Temporary ponds are important centres of herpetofaunal biodiversity in uplands sandhills communities. Long-term studies are needed to monitor the composition, structure, and functional interactions of their resident species.
One-slot AC steady-state model of a canned-solid rotor induction motor

This paper presents a one-slot ac steady-state finite-element model (FEM) of a canned solid rotor induction motor. It describes a new implementation for tracking tooth ripple sources and applying this to the one-slot model of the machine. The reason for creating a one-slot model of the solid rotor induction motor is not only to simplify the whole model and reduce the computational time, but also to determine the extra losses due to the high frequency. Results are compared with the experimental data and a transient FEM of the entire machine.
Review of Coated Conductor Superconductor Wire Scale-up Research in the U.S.

Economic and application issues motivate the research goals for Coated Conductor scale-up research in the US. Four different processes, and two biaxial texture methods for the metal tape substrate are reviewed. Results of Jc, thickness of superconductor, and length of tape are increasingly promising, but there is as yet no clear leader. The near future will see increased thickness, rate, and length, with Jc > MA/cm2 for all the processes being investigated.
Making Invisible Intersectionality Visible Through Theater of the Oppressed in Teacher Education

The arts generally and theater specifically offer effective strategies to help educators recognize and make visible the multiple student and teacher identities within classrooms. Without student and teacher agency in schools, there cannot be equitable and liberatory learning environments. Noted Brazilian theater artist and activist Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed (TO) offers promising opportunities to embody Crenshaw’s notion of intersectional identities and Purdie-Vaughns and Eibach’s concept of Invisible Intersectionality. This article shares research conducted in a teacher education course on culturally relevant pedagogy where students engaged in TO activities to explore the multiplicity of their and their future students’ identities. The authors suggest that embodied and artistic approaches in preservice teacher education create so-called small openings where students may recognize their and their future students’ identities and move toward including varied identities in their future classroom communities. Language: en
Qualifying for the Home Sale Exclusion Safe Harbor

Professor Timothy R. Koski of Middle Tennessee State University discusses the determination of when a home sale is "by reason of a change in place of employment, health, or unforeseen circumstances" for purposes of the section 121 exclusion.
Method for Determination of Sucrose and Sorbose in Blood and Urine.

SummaryThe method of Hubbard and Loomis for the determination of inulin has been modified and adapted for the determination of sucrose and sorbose.
Elution of pollen antigens from tannic acid treated erythrocytes.

Summary(1) Pollen antigens (short ragweed) elute slowly from the surface of tanned sheep erythrocytes. (2) This elution does not apparently affect the titer obtained over a 2 hr incubation period. (3) Some antigenic fractions fix more permanently than others. (4) The elution is not a function of contact of the RBC-antigen with its specific antibody. (5) This method may possibly be used to separate various antigenic components in the search for antigens with fewer specificities.
Latest Advances In Over-sea-ice Seismic Reflection Surveys: Offshore New Harbor, Antarctica

Approximately 48 km of multi-channel seismic reflection data were collected during the austral spring of 2008 on a sea-ice platform east of New Harbor, Antarctica. The Offshore New Harbor (ONH) survey is the latest in a series of three successful over-sea-ice seismic reflection surveys conducted in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica (Figure 1). Previous to the 2008 ONH survey were the 2005 Southern McMurdo Sound (SMS) and 2007 Mackay Sea Valley (MSV) surveys. Upgrades in the ONH project’s field equipment substantially increased the rate at which seismic data could be acquired in a sea-ice environment compared to all previous surveys. Moreover, despite the success of the SMS survey, timing errors were irreversibly left in SMS data, and static errors were unknowingly left within the SMS data. For all three surveys, timing errors were caused by miscommunications between the Generator Injector (GI) air gun (seismic source) and the acquisition software. Static errors—only on seismic traces coincident with source locations—were caused by GI air gun created air bubbles that were trapped beneath the sea ice. For MSV and ONH data, two methods of statics corrections greatly increased the quality of the final stacked seismic sections and mitigated the aforementioned timing and static errors.
Inducement and Location Identified of Antibacterial Substances in Oxya chinensis

Imago of Oxya chinensis were treated by different inducing methods,including radiating with ultraviolet,ultrasonication,feeding and pricking with bacteria,and collected at different times.The antibacterial activity was measured by plate growth inhibition assay.The hemolymph,foregut and other parts of Oxya chinensis were distilled and measured the antibacterial activity respectively.The results showed that only feeding and pricking with bacteria method were able to induce antibacterial substances,and only the foregut of Oxya chinensis contained antibacterial matter.
Epidemiological Analysis on Echinococcosis in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province,1962-2012

Objective To understand the epidemiological features and control difficulties in Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Sichuan province in 1962-2012,and to provide scientific basis for improvement of current control strategies. Methods With stratified random sampling method,the pasture area,farming-pastoral area and farming area of the 18 counties in 1962- 2012 were investigated. Data of B ultrasound, indirect ELISA were collected in the children over 3 years old,as well as the infection data of yak,sheep,goat and dog were collected as well. The dog feces were tested antigen with double antibody sandwich method. Moreover,the cases in the information management system were conducted parallel analysis. Results Of the investigated 840 000 agro- pastoralist,12 6262 were detected with echinococcus,in which alveolar echinococoisis accounted for 36. 9% of the total,cystic echinococosis accounted for 53. 2% of the total and the mixed type accounted for 9. 9% of the total cases. The damage caused by this disease was most severe in the pasture area,then the farming- pastoral area,and finally the agricultural area. The infection rate of children with age of 7-13 was 4. 97%. The infection rate of yak,Tibetan sheep and goat was respectively 31. 87%,44. 82% and 14. 7%. There were 324 dogs conducted necropsy,with 135 positive with echinococosis( 57. 1%). The infection and prevalence distribution were mal- distributed among regions,altitude and type of industry. Conclusion The 3 type of echinococosis are widely spreading in Ganzi prefecture, especially severe in the pasture area. The dog is the most infection source so far known.
Swarmed feature selection

Feature selection is an important part of pattern recognition, helping to overcome the curse of dimensionality problem with classifiers, among other systems. In this work, we introduce a feature selection method using particle swarm optimization. Experiments using data of others and hyperspectral remote sensed data are used to measure the performance of the algorithm. Its comparison with a genetic algorithm is also shown.
STEAM: Spline-based tables for efficient and accurate device modelling

A common complaint from users of device models is that the “better” the model, the longer it takes to simulate. Modelling based on interpolation between sampled data points is attractive in this context because it offers low model evaluation times. Although such “table-based” modelling has a long history, important conceptual and implementation issues have been obscure in the literature. These issues include: separating the algebraic (“DC”) and dynamic (“charge/flux”) components properly; extrapolation outside sampled regions; smoothness; accuracy vs. computation vs. memory tradeoffs; and suitability of the table-based model for various analyses (such as DC, AC, transient, RF, etc., analyses). In this paper, we clarify precisely what functions should be sampled for a table-based device model to work properly in any analysis. We re-visit interpolation, showing that well-implemented cubic splines provide excellent smoothness and arbitrarily great accuracy at low, almost-constant evaluation cost. However, memory requirements increase with accuracy. We present a novel extrapolation scheme using passivity concepts that aids convergence. Using Berkeley MAPP, we demonstrate speedups of 150× in core BSIM model evaluations (translating to overall simulation speedups of 6–18×) with relative errors of 0.001%. Our approach can convert any existing device model to a smooth/accurate table-based model with small, fixed evaluation cost. Unlike previous work, our code will be released as open source, serving as a platform for the community to evaluate and experiment with table-based models quickly and conveniently.
Live or Die? Depends on Who You Are

In this issue of Neuron, Welsbie et al. (2017) and Norsworthy et al. (2017) implicate the transcription factor Sox11 as a key player after optic nerve injury—in DLK signaling of RGC cell death, and in RGC regeneration and survival but only in certain RGCs.
Application of Juran Trilogy and Triple Helix System for Successful Implementation of Service Projects – A Case of Rotary Eye-care Project

District 3190 is one of the 535 districts of Rotary International, a well-established service organization in the world, covering revenue districts of Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Mandya, Ramnagara, and Tumkuru of Karnataka and Chittoor of Andhra Pradesh. During the last two decades, Rotary clubs in district 3190 have successfully implemented several Eye-care Service projects. Dr Joseph M Juran (1904-2008) was a charismatic figure, acknowledged worldwide for his extensive contribution to quality management. While often referred to as one of the leading figures of total quality management, much of Juran’s work actually preceded the total quality concept. He became a legend in his own time, and has been instrumental in shaping many of our current ideas about quality. He has explained his model of quality improvement on the basis of three universal processes which have been popularly named a Juran Trilogy. Triple Helix systems provide a fine-grained view of innovation actors, relationships between them and knowledge flows within the system, in a vision of a dynamic, boundaryspanning diachronic transition between the Knowledge, Innovation and Consensus Spaces. Triple Helix systems accommodate both institutional and individual roles in innovation, and explain variations in the innovative performance in relation to the existence and development stage of the three spaces, the strength of relationships between them and their capacity to integrate various regional development strategies. The case that forms the core part of this paper enumerates how a member of Rotary club, within the framework of the orgainsation, develops and implements eye-care project for the benefit of economically down-trodden, using principles of Juran Trilogy and Triple Helix System that have been evolved over years for meeting the challenges faced by businesses and government.
Antifungal Therapy in Equine Ocular Mycotic Infections

Fungi are clinically important causes of ocular infections in the horse. Keratomycosis is the most common; however, a diverse range of mycotic infections, affecting numerous ocular tissues, may be encountered. Many equine mycoses are diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. Prompt and appropriate treatment is essential to minimize morbidity and reduce the likelihood of vision loss. Knowledge of the characteristics and properties of equine ophthalmology antifungal medications is essential to selecting an optimal treatment strategy, including selection of appropriate medication and effective administration route. Newer delivery methods and devices are available and can contribute to an improved outcome in select situations.
A Framework for Validating Session Protocols

Communication protocols are complex, their implementations are difficult, causing many unintended (and severe) vulnerabilities in protocol parsing. While the problem of packet parsing is solved, session parsing remains challenging. Building on existing systems that reliably parse individual messages, we present our four-component framework for implementing protocol session parsers with the goal to improve security of protocol parsing: specification of a protocol message, description of a protocol state machine, testing routines to validate implementations against fake and real data, and graph generation to visualize implementations. This framework enables the creation of a session parser, which validates individual protocol messages in the context of other messages in the same conversation. This is helpful because more secure parsers lead to more secure communication.
In-Source Reduction of Disulfide-Bonded Peptides Monitored by Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry

Many peptides with antimicrobial activity and/or therapeutic potential contain disulfide bonds as a means to enhance stability, and their quantitation is often performed using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Disulfides can be reduced during ESI under commonly used instrument conditions, which has the potential to hinder accurate peptide quantitation. We demonstrate that this in-source reduction (ISR) is predominantly observed for peptides infused from acidic solutions and subjected to elevated ESI voltages (3–4 kV). ISR is readily apparent in the mass spectrum of oxytocin—a small, single disulfide-containing peptide. However, subtle m/z shifts due to partial ISR of highly charged (z ≥ 3) peptides with multiple disulfide linkages may proceed unnoticed. Ion mobility (IM)-MS separates ions on the basis of charge and shape in the gas phase, and using insulin as a model system, we show that IM-MS arrival time distributions (ATDs) are particularly sensitive to partial ISR of large peptides. Isotope modeling allows for the relative quantitation of disulfide-intact and partially reduced states of the mobility-separated peptide conformers. Interestingly, hepcidin peptides ionized from acidic solutions at elevated ESI voltages undergo gas-phase compaction, ostensibly due to partial disulfide ISR. Our IM-MS results lead us to propose that residual acid is the likely cause of disparate ATDs recently measured for hepcidin from different suppliers [Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 409, 2559–2567 (2017)]. Overall, our results demonstrate the utility of IM-MS to detect partial ISR of disulfide-bonded peptides and reinforce the notion that peptide/protein measurements should be carried out using minimally activating instrument conditions.
Enhanced dopamine D2 autoreceptor function in the adult prefrontal cortex contributes to dopamine hypoactivity following adolescent social stress.

Adult psychiatric disorders characterized by cognitive deficits reliant on prefrontal cortex (PFC) dopamine are promoted by teenage bullying. Similarly, male Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to social defeat in mid-adolescence (P35-39) show impaired working memory in adulthood (P56-70), along with decreased medial PFC (mPFC) dopamine activity that results in part from increased dopamine transporter-mediated clearance. Here, we determined if dopamine synthesis and D2 autoreceptor-mediated inhibition of dopamine release in the adult mPFC are also enhanced by adolescent defeat to contribute to later dopamine hypofunction. Control and previously defeated rats did not differ in either DOPA accumulation following amino acid decarboxylase inhibition (NSD-1015 100 mg/kg ip.) or total/phosphorylated tyrosine hydroxylase protein expression, suggesting dopamine synthesis in the adult mPFC is not altered by adolescent defeat. However, exposure to adolescent defeat caused greater decreases in extracellular dopamine release (measured using in vivo chronoamperometry) in the adult mPFC upon local infusion of the D2 receptor agonist quinpirole (3 nM), implying greater D2 autoreceptor function. Equally enhanced D2 autoreceptor-mediated inhibition of dopamine release is seen in the adolescent (P40 or P49) mPFC, which declines in control rats by adulthood. However, this developmental decrease in autoreceptor function is absent following adolescent defeat, suggesting retention of an adolescent-like phenotype into adulthood. Current and previous findings indicate adolescent defeat decreases extracellular dopamine availability in the adult mPFC via both enhanced inhibition of dopamine release and increased dopamine clearance, which may be viable targets for improving treatment of cognitive deficits seen in neuropsychiatric disorders promoted by adolescent stress.
Electrochemical and Chemical Insertion for Energy Transformation and Switching

Insertion is a widely utilized process for reversibly changing the stoichiometry of a solid through a chemical or electrochemical stimulus. Insertion is instrumental to many energy technologies, in...
Early Arabian Pastoral

The Early Holocene represents a significant improvement from today’s climate, due in part to the northward displacement of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) caused by the Southwest Monsoon. Summer rainfall exceeded 250 mm on average over much of the peninsula, and created permanent lakes in the Rub al Khali, Nafud, and the desert regions of southwest Iraq, eastern Jordan, and southern Syria. Average centigrade temperatures were a number of degrees higher. By 5750 b.p. a decline in precipitation had begun, which resulted in modern conditions by 5000-4000 b.p. (see below).
Metastatic Breast Cancer: Clinical Considerations

Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women worldwide. Despite modern therapies, ~ 20% of women diagnosed with breast cancer will die from the disease. The majority of metastatic breast cancer occurs as a relapse of a previously treated early stage breast cancer, with tumor most likely recurring in the bone, liver, and lungs. The risks of recurrence vary based on tumor characteristics. The process of metastasis is complex, with cells undergoing changes in the primary tumor that permit metastasis to distant organs. Specific characteristics of metastatic sites can promote cell survival or dormancy, and ultimately, the microenvironments of these sites can actually promote metastatic growth. Treatment options for metastatic breast cancer are palliative, with local and systemic options available and aimed at treating the various symptoms of metastatic disease. Quality of life may be improved with these interventions, but ultimately, improved therapies to extend survival are still needed.
Prevention of Frey syndrome

Frey syndrome (gustatory sweating) is a common and often times significant consequence of parotid gland surgery. The classic signs and symptoms include facial sweating, flushing, rubor, and sensation of heat over the preauricular region during oral stimulation. These clinical findings may provoke quality of life changes, and thus, are considered significant. Both surgical and nonsurgical treatment modalities have been advanced in the treatment of this disorder. Surgical treatment is aimed at prevention of the development of Frey syndrome and consists of a constellation of techniques which are designed to interpose tissue in the parotid surgical bed to act as a barrier to prevent aberrant parasympathetic fiber ingrowth and innervation to facial skin eccrine sweat glands. These techniques include: limiting the extent of parotid surgery when possible, use of local tissue as advancement or rotational flaps, autologous transfer of tissue, and use of allograft material.
Phyllanthusmin Derivatives Induce Apoptosis and Reduce Tumor Burden in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer by Late-Stage Autophagy Inhibition

High grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is a lethal gynecological malignancy with a need for new therapeutics. Many of the most widely used chemotherapeutic drugs are derived from natural products or their semi-synthetic derivatives. We have developed potent synthetic analogues of a class of compounds known as phyllanthusmins, inspired by natural products isolated from Phyllanthus poilanei Beille. The most potent analogue, PHY34, had the highest potency in HGSOC cell lines in vitro and displayed cytotoxic activity through activation of apoptosis. PHY34 exerts its cytotoxic effects by inhibiting autophagy at a late stage in the pathway, involving the disruption of lysosomal function. The autophagy activator, rapamycin, combined with PHY34 eliminated apoptosis, suggesting that autophagy inhibition was required for apoptosis. PHY34 was readily bioavailable through intraperitoneal administration in vivo where it significantly inhibited the growth of cancer cell lines in hollow fibers, as well as reduced ovarian tumor burden in a xenograft model. We demonstrate that PHY34 acts as a late-stage autophagy inhibitor with nanomolar potency and significant antitumor efficacy as a single-agent against HGSOC in vivo. This class of compounds holds promise as a potential, novel chemotherapeutic and demonstrates the effectiveness of targeting the autophagic pathway as a viable strategy for combating ovarian cancer.
Interfacial dynamics of a confined liquid–vapour bilayer undergoing evaporation

The dynamics of an interface between a thin liquid–vapour bilayer undergoing evaporation is studied. Both phases are considered to be hydrodynamically and thermally active, with momentum and thermal inertia taken into account. A reduced-order model based on the weighted-residual integral boundary layer method is used to investigate the dynamical behaviour for two cases, viz., phase change in the absence of gravity and then phase change in the presence of gravity. In the first case, it is shown that evaporative instability may cause rupture of either liquid or vapour layer depending on system parameters. Close to interfacial rupture, the disjoining pressure due to intermolecular forces results in the formation of drops (bubbles) separated by a thin film for low liquid (vapour) hold-up. Momentum inertia is shown to have a stabilizing effect, while thermal inertia has a destabilizing effect. In the second case, evaporative suppression of Rayleigh–Taylor (R–T) instability shows emergence of up to two neutral wavenumbers. Weak nonlinear analysis of these neutral wavenumbers suggests that the instability may be either supercritical or subcritical depending on the rate of evaporation. At high rates of evaporation, both neutral wavenumbers are supercritical and computations on the interface evolution lead to nonlinear saturated steady states. Momentum inertia slows down the rate of interface deformation and results in an oscillatory approach to saturation. Thermal inertia results in larger interface deformation and the saturated steady state is shifted closer to the wall. At very low evaporation rates, only one neutral wavenumber of subcritical nature exists. The nonlinear evolution of the interface in this case is then similar to pure R–T instability, exhibiting spontaneous lateral sliding as it approaches the wall.
Strong Selmer companion elliptic curves

Abstract Let E 1 and E 2 be elliptic curves defined over a number field K. Suppose that for all but finitely many primes l, and for all finite extension fields L / K , dim F l ⁡ Sel l ( L , E 1 ) = dim F l ⁡ Sel l ( L , E 2 ) . We prove that E 1 and E 2 are isogenous over K.
ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT BACTERIA IN WILDLIFE: PERSPECTIVES ON TRENDS, ACQUISITION AND DISSEMINATION, DATA GAPS, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment has potential negative economic and health consequences. Thus, previous investigations have targeted wild animals to understand the occurrence of antibiotic resistance in diverse environmental sources. In this critical review and synthesis, we summarized important concepts learned through the sampling of wildlife for antibiotic-resistant indicator bacteria. These concepts are helpful for understanding dissemination of resistance through environmental pathways and helping to guide future research efforts. Our review begins by briefly introducing antibiotic resistance as it pertains to bacteria harbored in environmental sources such as wild animals. Next, we differentiate wildlife from other animals in the context of how diverse taxa provide different information on antibiotic resistance in the environment. In the third section of our review, we identify representative research and seminal works that illustrate important associations between the occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wildlife and anthropogenic inputs into the environment. For example, we highlight numerous investigations that support the premise that anthropogenic inputs into the environment drive the occurrence of antibiotic resistance in bacteria harbored by free-ranging wildlife. Additionally, we summarize previous research demonstrating foraging as a mechanism by which wildlife may be exposed to anthropogenic antibiotic resistance contamination in the environment. In the fourth section of our review, we summarize molecular evidence for the acquisition and dissemination of resistance among bacteria harbored by wildlife. In the fifth section, we identify what we believe to be important data gaps and potential future directions that other researchers may find useful toward the development of efficient, informative, and impactful investigations of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wildlife. Finally, we conclude our review by highlighting the need to move from surveys that simply identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wildlife toward hypothesis-driven investigations that: 1) identify point sources of antibiotic resistance; 2) provide information on risk to human and animal health; 3) identify interventions that may interrupt environmentally mediated pathways of antibiotic resistance acquisition and transmission; and 4) evaluate whether management practices are leading to desirable outcomes.
Learning to kill: Why a small handful of counties generates the bulk of US death sentences.

We demonstrate strong self-referential effects in county-level data concerning use of the death penalty. We first show event-dependency using a repeated-event model. Higher numbers of previous events reduce the expected time delay before the next event. Second, we use a cross-sectional time-series approach to model the number of death sentences imposed in a given county in a given year. This model shows that the cumulative number of death sentences previously imposed in the same county is a strong predictor of the number imposed in a given year. Results raise troubling substantive implications: The number of death sentences in a given county in a given year is better predicted by that county’s previous experience in imposing death than by the number of homicides. This explains the previously observed fact that a large share of death sentences come from a small number of counties and documents the self-referential aspects of use the death penalty. A death sentencing system based on racial dynamics and then amplified by self-referential dynamics is inconsistent with equal protection of the law, but this describes the United States system well.
Transparent neural interface for in vivo interrogation of human organoids

Recent advances in pluripotent stem cell technology have enabled generation of neuronal cell lines and cerebral organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). These organoids are self-assembled, 3D cellular structures that resemble early developmental stages of the human brain. However, the lack of the natural brain microenvironment in cultured organoids can influence the phenotype and maturation of the reprogrammed neurons. To mitigate this limitation, cerebral organoids are transplanted into the mouse brain where their activity can be monitored using 2-photon imaging through cranial “windows.” Here, we will replace these windows with optically transparent graphene electrode microgrids to enable multimodal longitudinal monitoring and interrogation of neuronal activity in the graft and the surrounding host neuronal circuits. We envision that this technology can helpful for modeling of disease, examination of candidate treatments, and replacement therapy.
Rights as Slogans: A Theory of Human Rights Based on African Humanism

This essay discusses the role of rights discourse in achieving fairness in the global distribution of wealth and power. It offers an alternative to the traditional human rights paradigm, replacing the one based on western classical liberalism with one based on African humanism, the predominant philosophical outlook and way of life of traditional African societies.
Paroxysmal dyspnea in Parkinson's disease: Respiratory dyskinesias and autonomic hyperventilation are not the same.

Abstract Respiratory complaints are not uncommon in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). While many are explained by pulmonary and cardiovascular problems unrelated to PD, secondary effects of PD, such as kyphoscoliosis, respiratory muscle rigidity, repeated pneumonias, or side effects of medication such as dyskinesias, there is a small group of patients with paroxysmal dyspnea for whom neither anxiety or other explanation has been found. This Point of View was written to call attention to this neglected, uncommon, but very distressing symptom.
Earnings Management and Corporate Governance: The Roles of the Board and the Audit Committee

We examine the role of the board of directors, the audit committee, and the executive committee in preventing earnings management. Supporting an SEC Panel Report's conclusion that audit committee members need financial sophistication, we show that the composition of a board in general and of an audit committee more specifically, is related to the likelihood that a firm will engage in earnings management. Board and audit committee members with corporate or financial backgrounds are associated with firms that have smaller discretionary current accruals. Board and audit committee meeting frequency is also associated with reduced levels of discretionary current accruals. We conclude that board and audit committee activity and their members' financial sophistication may be important factors in constraining the propensity of managers to engage in earnings management.
A fond farewell from the technical Editor-in-Chief.

S. Trivikrama Rao, Ph.D.As an active member of the Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) for more than four decades, I have contributed to the Association’s activities in advancing science to ...
The Role of Process Measurement in Test-Driven Development

Test-Driven Development (TDD) is a coding technique in which programmers write unit tests before writing or revising production code. We present a process measurement approach for TDD that relies on the analysis of fine-grained data collected during coding activities. This data is mined to produce abstractions regarding programmers’ work patterns. Programmers, instructors, and coaches receive concrete feedback by visualizing these abstractions. Process measurement has the potential to accelerate the learning of TDD, enhance its effectiveness, aid in its empirical evaluation, and support project tracking.
Efficient Object-Relational Interval Management and Beyond

Recently, the object-relational access method paradigm—the idea of designing index structures that can be built on top of the SQL layer of any relational database server—was proposed as a way to design easy to implement indexes while obtaining strong robustness, performance, and integration into transaction management for free. In this paper, we describe an object-relational index for the 3-sided range indexing problem. Previously an object-relational index was only known for the interval management problem, which is a special case of the 3-sided range indexing problem. Our new index is efficient in the worst-case, and it can be used to answer all general interval relationship queries efficiently. The previously known index were only able to answer 7 out of 13 possible relationship queries efficiently. We also describe a (limited) experimental study of a simplified version of our structure.
Urethral False Passage as a Complication of Intermittent Catheterization

AbstractIntermittent catheterization is used commonly to treat bladder dysfunction. We treated 10 patients who were experiencing difficulty with intermittent catheterization, 9 of whom had a false urethral passage. Of these patients 6 had previously undergone a bladder neck or urethral operation. Endoscopy was helpful to diagnose the condition. Treatment consisted of stenting in 3 patients, transurethral incision and stenting in 3, and fulguration and stenting in 4. An indwelling catheter was left in place for 2 to 3 weeks, after which intermittent catheterization was resumed with a softer catheter. Two patients again experienced severe difficulty with catheterization and they underwent a continent urinary diversion. When intermittent catheterization becomes difficult or impossible, the presence of a urethral false passage should be suspected as a possible cause. (J. Urol., 142: 1216-1217, 1989)
A Transient Green’s Function Flow and Particle Tracking Model to Quantify a Coupled River-Aquifer System: Application to the Assessment of Possible Groundwater Contamination from a Floridan Industrial River

The Fenholloway river is a small industrial river flowing through Taylor county, north Florida, into the Gulf of Mexico (Fig. 1). About 15 miles upstream of the river-mouth, southeast of the town of Perry, a cellulose paper kraft mill (for legal reasons, named henceforth the ‘B’ -plant) has been operating since 1954 and discharges approximately 50 million gallons/day (= 77.5 ft3/s) of wastewater into the river. Since the average river flow rate measured at a stream gauge station closely downstream from the ‘B’-plant’s effluent point is about 87.1 ft3/s, most of the river flow is sustained by the wastewater outflow of the ‘B’ -plant. This is particularly the case during the semi-annual dry seasons, which in Florida are usually from April-June and October-December. The amount of input water for the paper mill’s manufacturing process is about equal to the volume of wastewater effluent and consists of groundwater pumped by 8 production wells that are located upstream of the plant and which extend down into the high-yielding formations of the (mostly confined) Suwannee limestone aquifer. This aquifer forms the upper part of the vast Floridan carbonate aquifer which supplies most of the drinking water in the State of Florida.
A polynomial approximation filter design technique

An analog transversal filter design technique is suggested. The design uses a positive polynomial to approximate the frequency magnitude specifications. The Chebyshev criterion is applied for the approximation, thus the design is equivalent to finding the Chebyshev solution of a set of linear overdetermined equations. >
Phase behavior and structure of aqueous dispersions of sphingomyelin

The phase behavior of bovine brain sphingomyelin in water has been determined by polarizing light microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and X-ray diffraction. Lamellar phases, in which water is intercalated between sheets of lipid molecules arranged in the classical bilayer fashion, are present over much of the phase diagram. An order-disorder transition separates the high temperature, liquid crystalline, lamellar phase from a more ordered lamellar phase at low temperatures. The hydration characteristics of sphingomyelin are similar to the structurally related lecithin in that only limited amounts of water are incorporated above and below the transition. Above the transition at 47 degrees C, a maximum of 35% by weight of water can be incorporated between the lipid bilayers, the total thickness at maximum hydration being 60.2 A, the lipid thickness 38 A, and the surface area per lipid molecule at the interface 60 A(2). Water in excess of 35% by weight is present as a separate phase. Below the phase transition, at 25 degrees C a maximum of 42% by weight of water may be incorporated between the lipid bilayers. On increasing the hydration, the lamellar repeat distance increases from 63.5 A to a limiting value of 76 A. Within this hydration range the calculated lipid thickness decreases from 63.5 to 42.5 A, and the surface area per lipid molecule increases from 36.1 to 53.6 A(2). Although these changes may be accounted for by a structure in which the hexagonally packed ordered hydrocarbon chains tilt progressively with respect to the normal to the bilayer plane on increasing hydration, it is possible that changes in other more complex lamellar structures may be responsible for these variations in lipid thickness and surface area.
Do Chimpanzees Know What Others Can and Cannot Do? Reasoning About 'Capability'

Much recent comparative work has been devoted to exploring what nonhuman primates understand about physical causality. However, few laboratory experiments have attempted to test what nonhumans understand about what physical acts others are capable of performing. We tested seven chimpanzees’ ability to predict which of two human experimenters could deliver a tray containing a food reward. In the ‘floor’ condition, legs were required to push the tray toward the subject. In the ‘lap’ condition, arms were required to hand the tray to the subject. In Exp. 1, chimpanzees begged (by gesturing) to either an experimenter whose legs were not visible (LNV) or whose arms were not visible (ANV). Rather than flexibly altering their preferences between conditions, the chimpanzees preferred the ANV experimenter regardless of the task. In subsequent experiments, we manipulated various factors that might have controlled the chimpanzees’ preferences, such as (a) distance between experimenter and subject (Experiment 2), (b) amount of occlusion of experimenters’ body (Experiments 2 and 3), (c) contact with the food tray (Experiments 3 and 4) and (d) positioning of barriers that either impeded the movement of the limbs or not (Experiment 5). The chimpanzees’ performance was best explained by attention to cues such as perceived proximity, contact, and maximal occlusion of body that although highly predictive in certain tasks, were irrelevant in others. When the discriminative role of such cues was eliminated, performance fell to chance levels, indicating that chimpanzees do not spontaneously (or after considerable training) use limb visibility as a cue to predict the ability of a human to perform particular physical tasks. Thus, the current findings suggest a possible failure of causal reasoning in the context of reasoning about the use of the limbs to perform physical acts.
The aryl hydrocarbon receptor directs hematopoietic progenitor cell expansion and differentiation.

The evolutionarily conserved aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) has been studied for its role in environmental chemical-induced toxicity. However, recent studies have demonstrated that the AhR may regulate the hematopoietic and immune systems during development in a cell-specific manner. These results, together with the absence of an in vitro model system enabling production of large numbers of primary human hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPs) capable of differentiating into megakaryocyte- and erythroid-lineage cells, motivated us to determine if AhR modulation could facilitate both progenitor cell expansion and megakaryocyte and erythroid cell differentiation. Using a novel, pluripotent stem cell–based, chemically-defined, serum and feeder cell–free culture system, we show that the AhR is expressed in HPs and that, remarkably, AhR activation drives an unprecedented expansion of HPs, megakaryocyte-lineage cells, and erythroid-lineage cells. Further AhR modulation within rapidly expanding progenitor cell populations directs cell fate, with chronic AhR agonism permissive to erythroid differentiation and acute antagonism favoring megakaryocyte specification. These results highlight the development of a new Good Manufacturing Practice–compliant platform for generating virtually unlimited numbers of human HPs with which to scrutinize red blood cell and platelet development, including the assessment of the role of the AhR critical cell fate decisions during hematopoiesis.
Towards a Biocompatible, Biodegradable Copolymer Incorporating Electroactive Oligothiophene Units.

As part of an ongoing effort to develop biocompatible and biodegradable conducting polymers, we report here the synthesis and characterization of a novel copolymer, 5,5′′′-bis(hydroxymethyl)-3,3′′′-dimethyl-2,2′:5′,2′′:5′′,2′′′-quaterthiophene-co-adipic acid polyester (QAPE). This system was designed so as to incorporate alternating electroactive quaterthiophene units and biodegradable ester units into one macromolecular framework, while allowing for facile preparation of the polymer via a polycondensation reaction. In agreement with the design expectations, the ester groups were found to be incorporated into the polymer between the quaterthiophene subunits, as inferred from standard chemical and spectroscopic analyses. QAPE exhibited redox activity as detected by cyclic voltammetry and new red-shifted absorption peaks upon doping, providing support for the notion that the quaterthiophene units maintain electroactivity after incorporation into the QAPE polymer framework. The biodegradation of this polymer...
Narcotic antagonism of seizures induced by a dopamine-derived tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloid

This paper describes experiments designed to evaluate whether the narcotic antagonist naloxone significantly interferes with seizures induced by tetrahydroisoquinolines (TIQs). In these experiments we found that naloxone significantly reduced seizure scores induced by intra-cranially infusing mice with 50 μg of the dopamine-derived tetrahydroisoquinoline (TIQ) alkaloid, 6,7-dihydroxy TIQ. These findings support an opioid involvement in the actions of TIQs and may lead to further understanding of opioid-mediated novel excitatory receptors.
The Spectrum of Chandler's Syndrome: An Often Overlooked Cause of Unilateral Glaucoma

Eleven cases of unilateral glaucoma are summarized. The typical presentations of these cases are (1) unilateral; (2) middle-aged women; (3) blurred vision; (4) corneal endothelial guttae (unilateral); (5) corneal edema; (6) stromal iris atrophy; (7) pupil abnormality; (8) peripheral anterior synechias;(9) elevated intraocular pressure; and (10) if previously diagnosed, the diagnosis is likely incorrect. Variations in these may occur. The disease can occur in men. Some patients may have nodular iris nevi. All of them represent the spectrum of Chandler's syndrome. Accurate diagnosis is important particularly in view of the optimistic prognostic implications for the fellow eye.
Is SENS a farrago

SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) is a panel of proposed interventions in mammalian aging that I have suggested may be sufficiently feasible, comprehensive, and amenable to subsequent incremental refinement that it could prevent death from old age (at any age) within a time frame of decades, leading to four-digit lifespans of many people alive today. This extreme conclusion has drawn sharp criticism from some colleagues, especially because the methodology of SENS departs radically from approaches generally considered the most promising ways to combat aging and because it is perceived as endangering biogerontology's respectability. Here I briefly respond to these criticisms.