cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bio-Inspired Molecular Catalysts for Hydrogen Oxidation and Hydrogen Production

Recent advances in Ni-based bio-inspired catalysts obtained in the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, demonstrated the possibility of cleaving H2 or generating H2 heterolytically with turnover frequencies comparable or superior to those of hydrogenase enzymes. In these catalysts the transformation between H2 and protons proceeds via an interplay between proton, hydride and electron transfer steps and involves the interaction of a dihydrogen molecule with both a Ni(II) center and with pendant amine bases incorporated in a six-membered ring, which act as proton relays. These catalytic platforms are well designed in that when protons are correctly positioned (endo) toward the Raugei-ACS-Books.docxPrinted 12/18/12 2 metal center, catalysis proceeds at very high rates. We will show that the proton removal (for H2 oxidation) and proton delivery (for H2 production) are often the rate determining steps. Furthermore, the presence of multiple protonation sites gives rise to reaction intermediates with protons not correctly positioned (exo relative to the metal center). These isomers are easily accessible kinetically and are detrimental to catalysis because of the slow isomerization processes necessary to convert them to the catalytically competent endo isomers. In this chapter we will review themore » major findings of our computational investigation on the role of proton relays for H2 chemistry and provide guidelines for the design of new catalysts. This research was carried out in the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Battelle. Computational resources were provided at W. R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL), a Raugei-Bio-Inspired Molecular-Catalysts-for-Hydrogen- Oxidation-and-Hydrogen-Production.doc Printed 12/18/2012 23 national scientific user facility sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Jaguar supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (INCITE 2008-2011 award supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DE-AC0500OR22725).« less
How well do we understand 7Be + p → 8B + γ? An Effective Field Theory perspective

We have studied the 7 Be( p , γ ) 8 B reaction in the Halo effective field theory (EFT) framework. The leading order (LO) results were published in Ref. [1] after the isospin mirror process, 7 Li( n , γ ) 8 Li, was addressed in Ref. [2]. In both calculations, one key step was using the final shallow bound state asymptotic normalization coefficients (ANCs) computed by ab initio methods to fix the EFT couplings. Recently we have developed the next-to-LO (NLO) formalism [3], which could reproduce other model results by no worse than 1% when the 7 Be-p energy was between 0 and 0:5 MeV. In our recent report [4], a different approach from that in Ref. [1] was used. We applied Bayesian analysis to constrain all the NLO-EFT parameters based on measured S -factors, and found tight constraints on the S -factor at solar energies. Our S ( E = 0 MeV) = 21.3 ± 0.7 eV b. The uncertainty is half of that previously recommended. In this proceeding, we provide extra details of the Bayesian analysis, including the computed EFT parameters’ probability distribution functions (PDFs) and how the choice of input data impacts final results.
Adherence to Anticoagulant Therapy in Pediatric Patients Hospitalized With Pulmonary Embolism or Deep Vein Thrombosis: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Objectives:The American College of Chest Physicians recommends anticoagulant therapy for at least 3 months in children hospitalized for venous thromboembolism. The objectives of the study were to e...
Cytoplasmic Budding of Human Lymphocytes Produced by Cortisone and Hydrocortisone in in vitro Preparations.

Summary1. Significant numbers of lymphocytes exhibiting cytoplasmic budding were found within 30 seconds following addition of cortisone or hydrocortisone to plasma and then to buffy coat of the blood of normal human subjects. It is suggested that cytoplasmic budding of lymphocytes may be a reversible process and that the occurrence of cytoplasmic budding, pycnosis or karyorrhexis may depend upon differential susceptibility of lymphocytes.
On Measuring the Religious Variable: Rejoinder to Weigert and Thomas

havior of a Sample of College Students." Social Compass 15(1) :37-44. Glock, Charles Y. 1962 "On the Study of Religious Commitment." Religious Education: Research Supplement 42(July-August) :98-110. Glock, Charles Y., and Rodney Stark 1965 Religion and Society in Tension. Chicago: Rand McNally. Lehman, E. C., Jr., and D. Shriver, Jr. 1968 "Academic Discipline as Predictive of Faculty Religiosity." Social Forces 47 (December) :171-182. Stark, Rodney, and Charles Y. Glock 1968 American Piety: The Nature of Religious Commitment. Berkeley: University of California Press. Weigert, Andrew J. 1968 "Parent-Child Interaction Patterns and Adolescent Religiosity: A Cross-National Analysis." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota.
Phenomenon of Local Skin Reactivity to Culture Filtrates of Various Microorganisms.

In previous communications a new phenomenon of local skin reactivity to B. typhosus culture filtrates in rabbits was described.1 The local skin reactivity was induced by skin injections of the filtrate. If 24 hours later the filtrate was injected intravenously into the locally prepared rabbits there appeared extremely severe hemorrhagic necrosis at the site of previous skin injections 4 to 5 hours after the intravenous injection. There were observed certain features which considered together distinguished this phenomenon from the known manifestations of bacterial hypersusceptibility and the Arthus phenomenon. These features were: the local reactivity, the short incubation period necessary to induce the local reactivity, the short duration of the state of reactivity, the ability to induce local reactivity by a single skin injection, the severity of the reaction and the necessity to make the second injection of the toxic agent by the intravenous route.The factors inducing the local skin reactivity were term...
Delivering Feedback: Supervisors’ Source Credibility and Communication Competence:

This study investigated how perceptions of supervisor communication competence and source credibility were affected by the valence and synchronicity of a feedback message and the channel used to de...
Design and implementation of agricultural products circulation traceability based on LPC1766

Agricultural products traceability system is designed and implemented based on LPC1766 central processing unit to overcome the difficulties of tracing the origins and verifying the flow in the circulation phases.The hardware circuit includes LPC1766 core circuit,power,A/D,RFID interface,Ethernet interface.The function of weighing,electronic trading,product tracking,RFID identity recognition,two-dimensional bar code printing is implemented based on keil μVision3 IDE platform,including distributed control by means of wireless UDP.The results show that the system has good usability and high precision and improves management level,and implements effective tracing and tracking of agricultural products.
Parameters of knowledge management success

Abstract We offer a perspective on knowledge management (KM) activities that can occur in most any organization, viewing them as parameters in a functional specification of organization effectiveness. Nine such activities are examined; they are mutually exclusive, relatively comprehensive, and segmented into those that focus on direct manipulation of knowledge resources (first order) and those that are managerial influences on the conduct of knowledge management (second order). We argue that any of the activities can be adjusted in the interest of achieving greater success from an organization’s KM efforts. Together, the nine parameters form a checklist for auditing how KM is being handled in an organization, for systematically formulating new KM initiatives, for studying how to improve an organization’s practice of KM, and for avoiding blind spots in a search for avenues to KM success.
Clinical Presentation of Breast Tissue Composition Metrics

Breast tissue composition is linked to both risk of developing breast cancer as well as the sensitivity of mammography. Thus, breast tissue composition assessment is important for patient management. However, it is not clear from published work if the visualization of breast tissue composition is relevant for clinical screening or diagnosis. We investigated the usefulness of different approaches to presenting quantitative tissue composition metrics to radiologists on a review workstation to address this question. Five different display methods were used to present the tissue composition metrics, 1) a word label, 2) a number, 3) superimposed contours, 4) a histogram, and 5) all together. For the specific presentation methods, we found that the radiologists polled preferred the first two methods to methods 3) and 4). All radiologists believed that it would be useful to present accurate, quantitative tissue composition information for establishing a consistent breast tissue composition score for each patient/mammogram.
Learning Science Communication on the Job

Most professional scientists have no formal training in communicating science to the broader community. Exposure to the ‘big time’ of newspapers and television often comes very suddenly, and with little warning. High quality science journalists working for prestigious dailies like The New York Times may contact you because your latest ‘breakthrough paper’ is to be published in a leading format, such as Science, Nature or the New England Journal of Medicine. Your Institution may push you into the limelight because of a perception that your brilliant work on cancer may help to attract philanthropy. In my case, I became interesting when I shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with my Swiss friend, Rolf Zinkernagel. Being a Nobel Laureate confers an instant and identifiable personality status in a media world obsessed with personality.
Binary Classifier Calibration Using an Ensemble of Linear Trend Estimation.

Learning accurate probabilistic models from data is crucial in many practical tasks in data mining. In this paper we present a new non-parametric calibration method called ensemble of linear trend estimation (ELiTE). ELiTE utilizes the recently proposed l1 trend ltering signal approximation method [22] to find the mapping from uncalibrated classification scores to the calibrated probability estimates. ELiTE is designed to address the key limitations of the histogram binning-based calibration methods which are (1) the use of a piecewise constant form of the calibration mapping using bins, and (2) the assumption of independence of predicted probabilities for the instances that are located in different bins. The method post-processes the output of a binary classifier to obtain calibrated probabilities. Thus, it can be applied with many existing classification models. We demonstrate the performance of ELiTE on real datasets for commonly used binary classification models. Experimental results show that the method outperforms several common binary-classifier calibration methods. In particular, ELiTE commonly performs statistically significantly better than the other methods, and never worse. Moreover, it is able to improve the calibration power of classifiers, while retaining their discrimination power. The method is also computationally tractable for large scale datasets, as it is practically O(N log N) time, where N is the number of samples.
Connections: Superplasticity, Damascus Steels, Laminated Steels, and Carbon Dating

In this paper, a description is given of the connections that evolved from the initial development of a family of superplastic plain carbon steels that came to be known as Ultra-High Carbon Steels (UHCS). It was observed that their very high carbon contents were similar, if not identical, to those of Damascus steels. There followed a series of attempts to rediscover how the famous patterns found on Damascus steels blades were formed. At the same time, in order to improve the toughness at room temperature of the newly-developed UHCS, laminated composites were made of alternating layers of UHCS and mild steel (and subsequently other steels and other metals). This led to a study of ancient laminated composites, the motives for their manufacture, and the plausibility of some of the claims relating to the number of layers in the final blades. One apparently ancient laminated composite, recovered in 1837 from the great pyramid of Giza which was constructed in about 2750 B.C., stimulated a carbon dating study of ancient steels. The modern interest in “Bladesmithing” has connections back to many of these ancient weapons.
Current posttraumatic stress disorder and exaggerated threat sensitivity associated with elevated inflammation in the Mind Your Heart Study.

Abstract Objective Elevated inflammation has been repeatedly observed in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and it may drive the development of both psychiatric symptoms and physical comorbidities. However, it is not clear if elevated inflammation is a feature of both remitted and current PTSD, and little is known about relationships between specific clusters of PTSD symptoms and inflammation. Exaggerated threat sensitivity, as indexed by threat reactivity and avoidance of perceived threats, may be particularly closely associated with inflammation. Methods We assessed PTSD symptoms and threat sensitivity using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale in 735 Veterans Affairs patients (35% current PTSD; 16% remitted PTSD) who participated in the Mind Your Heart Study (mean age = 59 ± 11; 94% male). High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), white blood cell count (WBC), and fibrinogen were used as indices of inflammation. Analysis of covariance models with planned contrasts were used to examine differences in inflammation by PTSD status, adjusting for age, sex, race, kidney function and socioeconomic status. Results Individuals with current PTSD had significantly higher hsCRP and WBC than patients with no history of PTSD, but there were no significant differences in inflammatory markers between those with remitted versus no history of PTSD. Within patients with current PTSD, higher threat reactivity was independently associated with higher hsCRP (β = 0.16, p = 0.01) and WBC count (β = 0.24, Conclusion Our data indicate that elevated inflammation may be a feature of current, but not remitted, PTSD. Within patients with PTSD, higher threat reactivity was also associated with elevated inflammation. A better understanding of the relationship between threat sensitivity and inflammation may inform interventions for patients with PTSD.
Getting to know you: a multimodal investigation of team behavior and resilience to stress

Team cohesion has been suggested to be a critical factor in emotional resilience following periods of stress. Team cohesion may depend on several factors including emotional state, communication among team members and even psychophysiological response. The present study sought to employ several multimodal techniques designed to investigate team behavior as a means of understanding resilience to stress. We recruited 40 subjects to perform a cooperative-task in gender-matched, two-person teams. They were responsible for working together to meet a common goal, which was to successfully disarm a simulated bomb. This high-workload task requires successful cooperation and communication among members. We assessed several behaviors that relate to facial expression, word choice and physiological responses (i.e., heart rate variability) within this scenario. A manipulation of an â€oeice breakerâ€ condition was used to induce a level of comfort or familiarity within the team prior to the task. We found that individuals in the â€oeice breakerâ€ condition exhibited better resilience to subjective stress following the task. These individuals also exhibited more insight and cognitive speech, more positive facial expressions and were also able to better regulate their emotional expression during the task, compared to the control.
Transforming Growth Factor β plays divergent roles in modulating vascular remodeling, inflammation and pulmonary fibrosis in a murine model of scleroderma

The efficacy and feasibility of targeting transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) in pulmonary fibrosis and lung vascular remodeling in systemic sclerosis (SSc) have not been well elucidated. In this s...
RNA SYNTHESIS TERMINATION FACTOR RHO

Publisher Summary This chapter elaborates the RNA synthesis termination factor Rho. Rho also catalyzes the hydrolysis of Pi from nucleoside triphosphates in complete RNA polymerase reaction mixtures under conditions where RNA is made. This occurs only when p is active in termination. There are conditions where RNA polymerase is active in catalyzing the synthesis of RNA but where the p factor does not function in termination. This occurs, for instance, during the transcription of T7 DNA in 0.15 M KCl. Under these conditions there is also no hydrolysis of nucleoside triphosphates. In the absence of KCl, p functions to terminate T7 transcription and there is hydrolysis of nucleoside triphosphates catalyzed by p. It is also known that mutant p factors that have normal NTPase activity with poly but are much less effective at terminating transcription with T4 or T7 DNA, also have much lower NTPase activity during the transcription of these templates. It is found that although these correlations suggest that the ATPase activity of p is related to its termination activity, more convincing evidence for this relationship has come from the use of analogs of nucleoside triphosphates that cannot be hydrolyzed by the p factor.
E-097 Use of the Catalyst 5 Distal Access Catheter for Treatment of Intracranial Aneurysms: The First North American Experience

Introduction Distal intracranial support systems provide a safe and stable foundation during endovascular approaches to intracranial aneurysms. Increased catheter support allows for precise manipulation of microcatheters/devices, critical when dealing with distal targets, larger device-delivery systems, and increased vessel tortuosity. The Navien and Neuron catheters were developed to meet this demand. Here, we report the first published experience using the AXS Catalyst 5 catheter (Stryker), the newest next-generation distal access catheter. Methods A single-center aneurysm database was reviewed to identify patients who underwent endovascular embolization with the Catalyst 5 (Figure 1). Patient demographics, equipment utilized, cervical ICA tortuosity, intraprocedural catheter positions, and periprocedural complications were documented. Results 32 patients underwent 36 embolizations of 40 aneurysms (Table 1). The average age was 57.9 ± 13.7. 5 (13.9%) were male. 38 (95%) aneurysms were located anteriorly. 36 (90%) were small aneurysms, 1 (2.5%) was a large aneurysm, and 3 (7.5%) were giant, with an average size of 6.9 mm. 32 patients received a total of 40 pipeline embolization devices (Table 2), 2 received the WEB embolization device, and 3 patients received coils. The Catalyst was used with the Marksman microcatheter in 3 (8.3%) cases, and the VIA microcatheter in 34 (94.4%) cases. The Catalyst was successfully advanced in all cases (Figure 2), with the distal tip located in the petrous ICA 1 (2.7%), proximal cavernous 6 (16.7), distal cavernous/clinoidal 24 (66.7%), ophthalmic 1 (2.7%), communicating 1 (2.7), distal ACA 1 (2.7%), and distal vertebral artery 2 (5.4%). No patients experienced iatrogenic vessel dissection or other complications related to the catheter. Conclusions The Catalyst 5 is an adept distal access catheter for cerebral aneurysm embolization with facile utility in the deployment of PEDs, WEB devices, as well as traditional aneurysm coiling. This catheter has outstanding trackability and stability during device deployment, and is a useful option to have when achieving distal access and support in an atraumatic fashion in the treatment of intracranial aneurysms. Disclosures G. Colby: None. L. Lin: None. R. Xu: None. M. Bender: None. B. Jiang: None. D. Lubelski: None. A. Coon: None.
Encode When Necessary: Correlated Network Coding Under Unreliable Wireless Links

Recent research has shown that network coding has great potential to improve network performance in wireless communication. The performance of network coding in real-world scenarios, however, varies dramatically. It is reported that network coding brings negligible improvements but extra coding overhead in some scenarios. In this article, for the first time, we analyze the impact of link correlation on network coding and quantify the coding benefits. We propose correlated coding, which encodes packets only when performance improvement is achieved. Correlated coding uses only one-hop information, which makes it work in a fully distributed manner and introduces minimal communication overhead. The highlight of the design is its broad applicability and effectiveness. We implement the design with four broadcast protocols and three unicast protocols, and we evaluate them extensively on one 802.11 testbed and three 802.15.4 testbeds. The experimental results show that (i) more coding operations do not lead to fewer transmissions, and (ii) compared to existing network coding protocols, the number of transmissions is reduced with lower coding overhead.
The role of psychosocial stimulation in the pathogenesis of hypertension.

Both mice and men have neuroendocrine mechanisms based on the hypothalamus which respond to the powerful emotions of attachment and competitive behavior. We will present behavioral, physiological, and biochemical evidence that mice can experience sustained arousal as a result of social interaction. The same sympathetic adrenal-medullary defense reaction and the same pituitary adrenal-cortical alarm response, which determine the elevations of systolic arterial blood pressure in men and in experimental primates, also operate in mice. We will show that when a mouse has spent a large fraction of its life-span in a population cage where there is social discorder cardiovascular disease ensues. At first the changes are reversible, but, as in the human condition, after a long time, the measured pressures remain elevated and arteriosclerosis ensue [1].
A Brief History of Oil and Gas Development From an Environmental Perspective

This chapter provides a brief history of unconventional oil and gas development, including the role of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies in the shale gas revolution. A survey of the environmental and public health literature related to oil and gas development is also included, with an emphasis on air quality and climate change impacts. The main environmental aspects covered are the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas compared to coal, ozone nonattainment in urban shale plays (e.g., the Barnett Shale of Texas), hazardous air pollutants such as formaldehyde and benzene, and the likely underestimate of emissions from oil and gas activities in official emission inventories.
Massive Gastric Juvenile Polyposis: A Clinicopathologic Study Using SMAD4 Immunohistochemistry.

Objectives Juvenile polyps involving the stomach are uncommon. Massive gastric juvenile polyposis is even rarer. Methods We describe the clinicopathologic features of nine cases of massive gastric juvenile polyposis. Results All patients had anemia; four had hypoalbuminemia. The polyps were composed predominantly of dilated crypts lined by columnar epithelium and abundant edematous stroma with mixed inflammatory infiltrates. One patient had a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, arising in juvenile polyp-associated intraepithelial neoplasia. A second patient had a well-differentiated intramucosal adenocarcinoma arising in a juvenile polyp with high-grade dysplasia. Three of our cases had polyposis restricted to the stomach. Six (66.6%) had loss of SMAD4 immunoreactivity, making them subject to severe bleeding and hypoproteinemia, as well as developing severe dysplasia or adenocarcinoma. Conclusions SMAD4 immunohistochemstry is a helpful ancillary diagnostic test in cases of suspected juvenile polyposis syndrome involving the stomach.
Brain Death and Management of the Heart-Beating, Brain-Dead Organ Donor

Brain death is defined as the permanent and irreversible loss of all brain function. Most states in the United States consider brain death to be synonymous with the death of the patient. The patient who is brain dead is dead. The determination of brain death is a clinical diagnosis. Confirmatory tests such as electroencephalogram (EEG) and blood flow studies are not required. The specific requirements for the determination of brain death vary from institution to institution and state to state. However, they all have a number of features in common: 1. The recognition of the irreversibility of the brain insult requires that a. The cause of brain death be established b. The insult be of a sufficient severity to account for the loss of the brain function 2. A period of reasonable observation (and treatment) is required before the determination of brain death, to ensure irreversibility of brain damage. a. At least 6 hours if structural brain damage is present. b. At least 12 hours if there is nonstructural brain damage. c. At least 24 hours post-cardiac arrest. d. When drugs are implicated, the blood levels of these agents must be below therapeutic levels before the determination of brain death. e. The patient’s temperature must be >34°C. f. The patient must not be in shock. 3. Most institutions require that two physicians independently perform a clinical determination of brain death. The clinical findings must be clearly recorded in the patient’s chart.
Chapter 2 – Global Supply of Ancient Grains in the 21st Century: Keys to Unlocking Their Full Potential

Abstract Understanding of the supply and demand for ancient grains is hampered by limited availability of national data on quantities produced, consumed, and traded over time. This limitation is compounded by thin markets for the grains and the lack of price information that could be used to better understand the potential for future growth in consumer demand and substitution for other cereals. This chapter presents targeted information on the supply of selected ancient grains drawing upon international data sources. Supply of selected ancient grains, such as quinoa and sorghum has increased in the last decade, while supply of other grains, such as the millets or buckwheat, has stagnated or declined.
Ketamine-Induced Glutamatergic Mechanisms of Sleep and Wakefulness: Insights for Developing Novel Treatments for Disturbed Sleep and Mood.

Ketamine, a drug with rapid antidepressant effects and well-described effects on slow wave sleep (SWS), is a useful intervention for investigating sleep–wake mechanisms involved in novel therapeutics. The drug rapidly (within minutes to hours) reduces depressive symptoms in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar disorder (BD), including those with treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine treatment elevates extracellular glutamate in the prefrontal cortex. Glutamate, in turn, plays a critical role as a proximal element in a ketamine-initiated molecular cascade that increases synaptic strength and plasticity, which ultimately results in rapidly improved mood. In MDD, rapid antidepressant response to ketamine is related to decreased waking as well as increased total sleep, SWS, slow wave activity (SWA), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Ketamine also increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels. In individuals with MDD, clinical response to ketamine is predicted by low baseline delta sleep ratio, a measure of deficient early night production of SWS. Notably, there are important differences between MDD and BD that may be related to the effects of diagnosis or of mood stabilizers. Consistent with its effects on clock-associated molecules, ketamine alters the timing and amplitude of circadian activity patterns in rapid responders versus non-responders with MDD, suggesting that it affects mood-dependent central neural circuits. Molecular interactions between sleep homeostasis and clock genes may mediate the rapid and durable elements of clinical response to ketamine and its active metabolite.
Motivation to Address Self-Reported Hearing Problems in Adults With Normal Hearing Thresholds

Purpose The purpose of this study was to compare the motivation to change in relation to hearing problems in adults with normal hearing thresholds but who report hearing problems and that of adults...
Coxeter Groups and the Davis Complex

We take a constructive and active look at group theory, by focusing on the action of finitely presented groups on CW-complexes. In particular, we focus on the action of Coxeter groups on the so-called Davis complex. Students are invited to participate in several constructions and investigate the group theoretic and geometric properties of the Davis complex. Students are encouraged to check the references on the included concepts and definitions, especially the italicized words.
Polynomial Near-Rings: Polynomials with Coefficients from a Near-Ring

In 1987, A. P. J. van der Walt [1] overcame the difficulties caused by the lack of one distributive law in near-rings in order to create matrix near-rings with the property that when the near-ring is a ring, the matrix near-ring is the usual matrix ring. By an approach similar to that used by A. P. J. van der Walt we introduce in this paper a new polynomial near-ring with coefficients from a near-ring and derive some of its properties. Similar to van der Walt’s matrix near-ring work, when the coefficient near-ring is a ring, our polynomial near-ring coincides with the usual polynomial ring.
Modern Contract Law and the Limits of Contract Theory

This book has surveyed, analyzed, and critiqued various modern theories of contract law. My goal in each chapter was to compare the principal insights and perspectives of two largely contrasting theories in order to find possible areas of agreement and to construct a consensus or pluralist thesis. Ultimately, I argue that this synthesizing thesis constitutes the most persuasive account of contract law’s nature and functions.
Energy efficient spark plasma sintering: Breaking the threshold of large dimension tooling energy consumption

An energy efficient spark plasma sintering method enabling the densification of large size samples assisted by very low electric current levels is developed. In this method, the electric current is concentrated in the graphite foils around the sample. High energy dissipation is then achieved in this area enabling the heating and full densification of large (alumina) parts ({{\O}} 40 mm) at relatively low currents (800 A). The electrothermal mechanical simulation reveals that the electric current needed to heat the large samples is 70 % lower in the energy efficient configuration compared to the traditional configuration. The presence of thermal and densification gradients is also revealed for the larger size samples. Potential solutions for this problem are discussed. The experiments confirm the possibility of full densification (96-99 %) of large alumina samples. This approach allows using small (and low cost) SPS devices (generally limited to 10-15 mm samples) for large size samples (40-50 mm). The developed technique enables also an optimized energy consumption by large scale SPS systems.
Development of genomic predictions for harvest and carcass weight in channel catfish

Catfish farming is the largest segment of US aquaculture and research is ongoing to improve production efficiency, including genetic selection programs to improve economically important traits. The objectives of this study were to investigate the use of genomic selection to improve breeding value accuracy and to identify major single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with harvest weight and residual carcass weight in a channel catfish population. Phenotypes were available for harvest weight (n = 27,160) and residual carcass weight (n = 6020), and 36,365 pedigree records were available. After quality control, genotypes for 54,837 SNPs were available for 2911 fish. Estimated breeding values (EBV) were obtained with traditional pedigree-based best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) and genomic (G)EBV were estimated with single-step genomic BLUP (ssGBLUP). EBV and GEBV prediction accuracies were evaluated using different validation strategies. The ability to predict future performance was calculated as the correlation between EBV or GEBV and adjusted phenotypes. Compared to the pedigree BLUP, ssGBLUP increased predictive ability up to 28% and 36% for harvest weight and residual carcass weight, respectively; and GEBV were superior to EBV for all validation strategies tested. Breeding value inflation was assessed as the regression coefficient of adjusted phenotypes on breeding values, and the results indicated that genomic information reduced breeding value inflation. Genome-wide association studies based on windows of 20 adjacent SNPs indicated that both harvest weight and residual carcass weight have a polygenic architecture with no major SNPs (the largest SNPs explained 0.96 and 1.19% of the additive genetic variation for harvest weight and residual carcass weight respectively). Genomic evaluation improves the ability to predict future performance relative to traditional BLUP and will allow more accurate identification of genetically superior individuals within catfish families.
ACETATE, A KEY INTERMEDIATE IN METHANOGENESIS

Acetate is the chief precursor of methane in anaerobic fermentations. Methane can be formed from H 2 and CO 2 by most methanogenic bacteria, but these substrates can also be converted to acetate by Clostridium aceticum , isolated from sludge. Its activity may increase the fraction of methane arising from acetate. Anaerobic 2% Ca acetate mineral enrichments forming methane were transferred weekly with a one-sixth volume inoculum. The rate of methane production was 9 μmoles ml −1 day −1 . Methanosarcina barkeri was the chief methanogen in the enrichment but numerous non-methanogens were present, three of which were isolated. In pure cultures of M. barkeri in medium supplemented with trypticase and yeast extract the rate of methanogenesis was 20 ymoles ml −1 day −1 , and similar supplementation of the enrichment culture increased the rate from 9 to 23 μmoles ml −1 day −1 . The rate of methane production was affected not only by M . barkeri but also by the non-methanogens in the enrichment. Microbiological analyses of methanogenic ecosystems is recommended as a means to provide clues of value in practical applications.
Onset and Resolution of Chiari Malformations and Hydrocephalus in Syndromic Craniosynostosis following Posterior Vault Distraction.

BACKGROUND Patients with syndromic craniosynostosis have an increased incidence of progressive hydrocephalus and Chiari malformations, with few data on the relative benefit of various surgical interventions. The authors compare the incidence and resolution of Chiari malformations and hydrocephalus between patients undergoing posterior vault distraction osteogenesis (PVDO) and patients undergoing conventional cranial vault remodeling. METHODS Patients with syndromic craniosynostosis who underwent cranial vault surgery from 2004 to 2016 at a single academic hospital, with adequate radiographic assessments, were reviewed. Demographics, interventions, the presence of a Chiari malformation on radiographic studies and hydrocephalus requiring shunt placement were recorded. Mann-Whitney U and Fisher's exact tests were used as appropriate. RESULTS Forty-nine patients underwent PVDO, and 23 patients underwent cranial vault remodeling during the study period. Median age at surgery (p = 0.880), sex (p = 0.123), and types of syndrome (p = 0.583) were well matched. Patients who underwent PVDO had a decreased incidence of developing Chiari malformations postoperatively compared with the cranial vault remodeling cohort (2.0 percent versus 17.4 percent; p = 0.033). Not surprisingly, no significant difference was found between the groups with regard to the incidence of postoperative hydrocephalus requiring shunt placement (PVDO, 4.1 percent; cranial vault remodeling, 4.3 percent; p = 0.999). CONCLUSIONS As expected, PVDO did not significantly affect intracranial hydrodynamics to the extent that hydrocephalus shunting rates were different for patients with syndromic craniosynostosis. However, PVDO was associated with a reduced risk of developing a Chiari malformation; however, prospective evaluation is needed to determine causality. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic, III.
Symptom Duration Is Positively Correlated with Factor XIIIa Activity in Acute Pulmonary Embolism

Abstract Background Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) patients are at variable risk of morbidity, mortality, and response to therapy. Patients often present at various time points from the symptom onset. Several factors may shed light into the state of endogenous thrombotic and fibrinolytic system at the time of presentation. Factor XIIIa plays a critical role in clot stabilization and may impact clot dissolution. Relation of Factor XIIIa activity and symptom duration is not known. Methods We prospectively collected blood samples from patients evaluated by Pulmonary Embolism Response Team at a tertiary care center. Blood was centrifuged, and plasma collected for analysis. We used ELISA method utilizing a commercially available kit from Hyphen, BioMed (Neuville-sur-Oise France), specific for measurement of Factor XIIIa, D-dimer, and Pro-TAFI antigens. Baseline clinical characteristics were collected from electronic medical record. Symptom duration was gathered from patient subjective assessment. Additional workup included radiographic and echocardiographic evaluation. We performed correlation analysis to test the association between symptom duration and Factor XIIIa activity, D-dimer, and Pro-TAFI antigen. Additionally we performed linear regression analyses to quantify the degree of association of symptom duration and Factor XIIIa activity. Results ±±9.8, 8 patients were treated with catheter directed thrombolysis, while the rest were treated with anticoagulation alone. Symptom duration was positively correlated with Factor XIIIa activity (r2=0.227). More so, for every one day increase in symptom duration the Factor XIIIa activity was increased by 2.2%. (p=0.014). We demonstrated no correlation between symptom duration and D-Dimer (p=0.58) or symptom duration and Pro-TAFI antigen (p=0.84). Conclusion In patients with acute PE, symptom duration positively correlated with Factor XIIIa activity, for every one day increase in symptom duration the Factor XIIIa activity was increased by 2.2%. Future studies are needed to ascertain the impact of Factor XIIIa activity and clot dissolution as well as functional outcomes. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Generic Moral Grounding

Moral theories often issue general principles that explain our moral judgments in terms of underlying moral considerations. But it is unclear whether the general principles have an explanatory role beyond the underlying moral considerations. In order to avoid the redundancy of their principles, two-level theories issue principles that appear to generalize beyond the considerations that ground them. In doing so, the principles appear to overgeneralize. The problem is conspicuous in the case of contractualism, which proposes that moral principles are grounded in generic reasons that operate in only a subset of the cases covered by the relevant principle. Arguments that motivate the use of generic reasons on the basis of guidance, institutional necessity, or fairness are unsatisfactory. But the generality of moral principles can be justified in terms of the idea of a generic interest, which is an interest that all occupants of a standpoint have in virtue of what occupants of the standpoint as such typically take an interest in. The notion of a generic interest therefore acknowledges a distinction between having and taking an interest, and its use in moral theory is a way of giving expression to the significance of autonomy. This is reminiscent of the idea of a normative power; but the idea of a generic interest is less expensive and makes better sense of the way in which autonomy features in our moral lives.
Rurality in Leisure Research: A Review of Four Major Journals

Rurality maintains a significant position in the United States’ culture and eco nomic system. A key aspect to enhancing rural areas is appropriate research to inform policy and practice. The purpose of this paper was to systematically review leisure and recreation research and summarize how academics in this field con ceptualize rural settings and issues. For our sample, we selected four major leisure journals in the U.S. given their leading roles as sources of research and knowledge. We identified 57 articles focusing on U.S. rurality and six topical themes. Findings suggested that future research in this area should consider the context of different rural settings, account for axiological orientations in approaches to rurality, and recognize the complexities and implications of rural measures.
Concept placement using BERT trained by transforming and summarizing biomedical ontology structure.

Abstract The comprehensive modeling and hierarchical positioning of a new concept in an ontology heavily relies on its set of proper subsumption relationships (IS-As) to other concepts. Identifying a concept’s IS-A relationships is a laborious task requiring curators to have both domain knowledge and terminology skills. In this work, we propose a method to automatically predict the presence of IS-A relationships between a new concept and pre-existing concepts based on the language representation model BERT. This method converts the neighborhood network of a concept into “sentences” and harnesses BERT’s Next Sentence Prediction (NSP) capability of predicting the adjacency of two sentences. To augment our method’s performance, we refined the training data by employing an ontology summarization technique. We trained our model with the two largest hierarchies of the SNOMED CT 2017 July release and applied it to predicting the parents of new concepts added in the SNOMED CT 2018 January release. The results showed that our method achieved an average F1 score of 0.88, and the average Recall score improves slightly from 0.94 to 0.96 by using the ontology summarization technique.
Impairment Mechanisms and Intervention Approaches for Aged Human Neuromuscular Junctions

The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is a chemical synapse formed between a presynaptic motor neuron and a postsynaptic muscle cell. NMJs in most vertebrate species share many essential features; however, some differences distinguish human NMJs from others. This review will describe the pre- and postsynaptic structures of human NMJs and compare them to NMJs of laboratory animals. We will focus on age-dependent declines in function and changes in the structure of human NMJs. Furthermore, we will describe insights into the aging process revealed from mouse models of accelerated aging. In addition, we will compare aging phenotypes to other human pathologies that cause impairments of pre- and postsynaptic structures at NMJs. Finally, we will discuss potential intervention approaches for attenuating age-related NMJ dysfunction and sarcopenia in humans.
Glycomic profiling and the mammalian brain.

The paper by Lee et al. (1) illustrates, in remarkable detail, the advances in glycomic analysis providing deep structural characterization of a glycan subtype in human and mouse brains. With all the existing evidence suggesting glycosylation is important in brain development, this research represents a major advancement in characterizing brain glycosylation while providing comprehensive glycomic analyses of both spatial and temporal variations of N-glycans. N-glycans are generally the most abundant type, easiest to localize on proteins, and most mechanistically understood. Remarkable advances in analytical methods for the genome and the proteome have been made, where sequence defines the molecule. However, glycomic analysis has been considerably more constrained because every molecule must be structurally identified and elucidated. The research by Lee et al. shows how these limitations are being overcome. It further illustrates additional challenges and the difficulties in the analysis of brain glycosylation as well as future benefits in translation. Glycosylation is indeed a key and common posttranslational modification of brain proteins and lipids. Over 70% of brain proteins are glycosylated, and a large fraction of the lipids are glycolipids. It is also the most structurally complicated and diverse type of posttranslational modification in proteins. The limitations in the ability to profile glycans with quantitation have similarly limited our ability to obtain a deeper understanding of the role of glycosylation. Unlike the genome and the proteome, there is no template for the creation of the glycome (the totality of glycan structures). Glycans are metabolically synthesized to yield a host of structures that vary heterogeneously by linkage, length, degree of branching (number of antennae), and composition. The glycome differs with gender (2); however, for individuals they remain generally constant over time (3) but are altered with increasing age (1, 2, 4, 5) and changes in health status (6 … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: cblebrilla{at}ucdavis.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Mediating effect of use perceptions on technology readiness and adoption of artificial intelligence in accounting

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing rapidly in accounting practice, and firms desire new hires who have adopted this technology. Universities can prepare students to adopt AI. The pu...