cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Robot-assisted Laparoscopic Urachal Excision in Children

Objective To report the first exclusively pediatric series of robot-assisted urachal remnant excisions in children. Methods We reviewed the medical records of all children who underwent robot-assisted excision of urachal remnants from 2010 to 2016. For the procedure, a 3-port approach was performed in all cases. Excision of the urachus was performed, along with partial cystectomy if there was clear or suspected bladder involvement. Outcomes and complications were reviewed. Results Sixteen cases of robotic urachal excision were performed during the study period in patients aged 0.8-16.5 years. Complete excision was accomplished in all cases with no conversions. Partial cystectomy was performed in 11 cases, in which a urinary catheter was left for 1 day in all cases (no catheter was left in the absence of partial cystectomy). The only complication was a bladder leak requiring open surgical repair. There were no bowel injuries or hernias. The median operative time was 107 minutes. The length of stay was 2 days with partial cystectomy and 1 day without partial cystectomy. All patients were well at follow-up. Conclusion We report the largest known series of robot-assisted urachal remnant excisions in children, demonstrating this minimally invasive approach to be safe and effective.
The Inhibition of Calcium and Phosphorus Secretion in the Milk of the Dairy Cow by Various Intramammary Treatments

SUMMARY The possibility of inhibiting calcium and phosphorus transfer from the blood to the milk in the dairy cow was investigated. It is shown that various intramammary infusions did not inhibit the transfer of 45Ca or 32P from the blood to the milk. In contrast inflation of the udder with air prevented the transfer. It is suggested that the intramammary infusion method was not successful because the udder is capable of absorbing calcium and phosphate ions
Patients Visiting Multiple Emergency Departments: Patterns, Costs, and Risk Factors

Objective We sought to characterize the population of patients seeking care at multiple EDs and to quantify the proportion of all ED visits and costs accounted for by these patients. Methods We performed a retrospective, cohort study of de-identified insurance claims for privately insured patients with ≥ 1 ED visit between 2010 and 2016. We measured the number of EDs visited by each patient and determined the overall proportion of all ED visits and ED costs accounted for by patients who visit multiple EDs. We identified factors associated with visiting multiple EDs. Results 8,651,716 patients made 16,390,676 ED visits over the study period, accounting for $26,102,831,740 in ED costs. A significant minority (20.5%) of patients visited more than one ED over the study period. However, these patients accounted for a disproportionate amount of all ED visits (41.4%) and all ED costs (39.2%). A small proportion (0.4%) of patients visited 5 of more EDs but accounted for 2.8% of ED visits and costs. Among patients with two ED visits within 30-days, 32% were to different EDs. Having at least one ED visit for mental health or substance abuse related diagnosis was associated with increased odds of visiting multiple EDs. Conclusions A substantial minority of patients visit multiple EDs, but account for a disproportionate burden of overall ED utilization and costs. Future work should evaluate the impact of visiting multiple EDs on care utilization and outcomes and explore systems for improving access to patient records across care centers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Soldiers, politicians, and civilians: reforming civil-military relations in democratic Latin America, by David Pion-Berlin and Rafael Martínez

David Pion-Berlin and Rafael Martinez have produced an excellent book on the importance of civil–military relations to democratic consolidation in Latin America. Both authors have already made majo...
Persistent Upward Gaze in Coma and It’s Prognostic Implications (P1.147)

Objective: Previous authors have reported sustained vertical gaze in patients with cardiac arrest, predominantly involving the downward gaze. Minimal literature regarding the upward gaze and it’s diagnostic prognosis implications suggests investigators have been reluctant to perform more studies to unravel this finding; we have explored this sign in coma patients and found a poor prognosis, leading to death. Background: Factors associated with poor outcome after hypoxic-anoxic coma continue to be extensively studied, however literature is sparse regarding the prognostic importance of sustained vertical gaze. Upward gaze is affected far more frequently than downward gaze because some of the fibers sub-serving up gaze cross rostrally and posteriorly between the riMLF and INC nuclei and are subject to interruption before descending to the oculomotor nuclei, whereas the pathways for the down gaze apparently project directly downward from the two controlling nuclei. Design/Methods: We present four adult patients followed up after hypoxic-anoxic coma using a Glasgow Coma Scale of less than five. Daily neuro-ophthalmological examinations with specific attention to pupils, spontaneous and reflex eye movements were conducted. CT and EEGs were performed; the tendon response was exaggerated and all patients remained comatose with no sign of arousal elicited. Results: Our results suggest the appearance of the sustained upward gaze invariably heralds the downward spiral of the patient’s clinical outcome, resulting in death. Conclusions: We propose this sign be referred to as “Sun Rise Sign “ and postulate that this sign be used in addition to other clinical parameters to establish a prognostic timeline for patient. This will enable Neurologists to appropriately modulate their expectations regarding patient final outcome. So when we observe Sun Rise Sign in a comatose patient, it is quite a significant prognosticating factor. Disclosure: Dr. Pasupuleti has nothing to disclose. Dr. Pasupuleti has nothing to disclose.
Discourse on Southeast’s bad reputation: Positioning of African Americans in Washington, D.C.

This study examines the interview discourse of five African American speakers in Washington, D.C., particularly paying attention to their discussions on issues surrounding a marginalized section of...
Pharmacology—Lithium Teratology

Women are slightly more likely than men to develop manic-depressive illness (Spiegel and Bell, 1959) and manic-depressive illness typically begins and unfolds during the reproductive years. There has been a rapid accumulation of evidence that lithium is useful in the prophylaxis of manic and, perhaps, depressive episodes, and it is probably now the treatment of choice for the acute manic phase of manic-depressive illness. These facts taken together guarantee that pregnant women and their fetuses will be exposed to lithium, and that the possible teratogenicity of the lithium ion will become a matter of importance for many patients, their families, and their physicians.
Chapter 39 – Enceladus

Enceladus is a small icy moon of Saturn that is geologically active, with an uncratered, tectonized region at the south pole characterized by excess thermal emission and geysers of salty ice grains, water vapor, and organic compounds. Enceladus may undergo cycles of activity and dormancy. The activity likely derives from tidally driven opening and closing of cracks, allowing warm, water-filled fractures to periodically become exposed to vacuum, thus generating eruptive plumes. It possesses a regional sea beneath the south polar terrain (SPT), but probably not a global ocean. Its shell may be undergoing convection locally beneath the SPT, but not globally. At earlier times, other parts of Enceladus' surface were probably undergoing processes similar to what we see at the SPT today. Because it possesses liquid water, an energy source and organic molecules, and because its geysers are likely sourced in the regional sea below, Enceladus is home to a potentially habitable environment, the most accessible in the solar system.
Ignition of ultra-lean premixed hydrogen/air by an impinging hot jet

Abstract The ignition characteristics of a hot turbulent jet impinging on a flat plate surrounded by an ultra-lean premixed H2/air was studied both experimentally and numerically. The hot turbulent jet was generated by burning a small quantity of stoichiometric H2/air mixture in a separate small volume called the pre-chamber. The higher pressure resulting from pre-chamber combustion pushed the combustion products into the main chamber through a small nozzle (0.75–4.5 mm in diameter) in the form of a hot turbulent jet, which then impinged on a flat plate. Six different plates with varying impinging heights and angles were used. Two important parameters controlling the impinging characteristics of the jet, the ratio of the impinging distance to the nozzle diameter, H / D and the impinging angle, θ were examined. Simultaneous high-speed Schlieren and OH∗ chemiluminescence imaging were applied to visualize the jet penetration/impinging and ignition process inside the main combustion chamber. Results illustrate the existence of two distinct types of ignition mechanisms. If the impinging distance is short and the hot turbulent jet hits the plate with high enough momentum, the temperature increases around the stagnation point and ignition starts from this impinging region. However, if the impinging distance is long, the hot turbulent jet mixes with the ambient unburned H2/air in the main chamber and ignites the mixture at the upstream from the plate. For such type of ignition, the impinging plate has a minimum role on main chamber ignition. Employing the stagnation point ignition, a leaner limit of H2/air in the main chamber was achieved. Numerical modeling of the turbulent hot jet impingement process was carried out to explain the impinging jet ignition mechanism. It was found that H / D ratio was the controlling parameter between the two ignition mechanisms. The limiting H / D ratio was found to be 21.6, below which ignition occurred via jet impingement. Unlike the H / D ratio, the impinging angle did not affect the ignition mechanism; however, it affected the main chamber burn time.
Development and characterization of an H2O2-resistant immortal lens epithelial cell line.

PURPOSE. To determine how nature would protect lens epithelial cells from H 2 O 2 stress, an immortal murine lens epithelial cell line, αTN4-1, was subjected to gradually increasing H 2 O 2 levels over a period of approximately 8 months. The resultant conditioned cells grew normally when exposed daily to 125 μM H 2 O 2 , whereas normal cells died within 9 hours. This communication describes changes in the cell biology of the conditioned cells that allowed them to remain viable. The manner in which critical biochemical parameters were affected in both conditioned and normal cells is also reported. METHODS. Conditioned cells were obtained by gradually increasing the concentration of H 2 O 2 over a period of approximately 8 months, introducing an aliquot of H 2 O 2 every 24 hours. A wide spectra of biological parameters were evaluated, including catalase, GSH peroxidase and other antioxidative enzyme activities, cell number and cell viability, non-protein thiol, ATP, transport systems, thymidine incorporation, and DNA cleavage. RESULTS. Surprisingly, the conditioned cells did not degrade the medium H 2 O 2 more rapidly than normal cells. However, analyses of the antioxidative defenses indicated that catalase activity was increased 60-fold and glutathione peroxidase (GSH Px) approximately 2.7-fold. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, GSH S-transferase, and GSSG reductase also had increased activity. Using one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, in situ trypsin digestion and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry, a highly amplified doublet in the conditioned cell preparation was shown to be GSH S-transferase α-1 and α-2 isomers. Examination of key biochemical parameters indicated that while most such parameters in the conditioned cells showed marked decay in the first hour or so after stress, recovery was then observed and within a few hours, these parameters were back in the normal range. In contrast, damage in the normal cells was not repaired. The damage to DNA was shown to involve Fenton chemistry. In the presence of a metal ion chelator, normal cells survive H 2 O 2 stress. CONCLUSIONS. The overall conclusion from this investigation is that nature has chosen to respond to the H 2 O 2 stress by not only increasing the activity of enzymes degrading H 2 O 2 but also the systems involved in repair, generation of reducing potential, and detoxification. All but one system of those evaluated appears to be permanently modified.
Mathematical modeling and computer simulation of fire phenomena

An approach to the study of gas phase combustion and convection processes in fires using a combination of mathematical analysis and computer simulation is presented. It seeks to solve the governing equations directly (if approximately) by decomposing the fire into a large-scale convective and radiative transport problem coupled to a small-scale “thermal-element” model of combustion and radiative emission. The thermal-element model solves the combustion equations in a local Lagrangian coordinate system convected by the large-scale motion, which in turn is driven by the heat released by the combustion processes. The large-scale flow is studied using finite-difference techniques to solve large-eddy simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations. The basic theory behind the methodology is outlined and sample results of both large- and small-scale phenomena are presented. An analytical model of a large eddy is used to show how the simulation can be assembled to yield radiation feedback from a fire plume to a target surface.
The contribution of dementia to the disparity in family wealth between black and non-black Americans

The enormous economic burden of dementia in the United States of America falls disproportionately on families coping with this devastating disease. Black Americans, who are at greater risk of developing dementia than white Americans, hold on average less than one-eighth of the wealth of white Americans. This study explores whether dementia exacerbates this wealth disparity by examining dementia's effect on wealth trajectories of black versus non-black Americans over an eight-year period preceding death, using five waves of data (beginning in 2002 or 2004) on decedents in the 2012 and 2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 2,429). Dementia is associated with a loss of 97 per cent of wealth among black Americans, compared with 42 per cent among non-black Americans, while wealth loss among black and non-black Americans without dementia did not differ substantially (15% versus 19%). Dementia appears to increase the probability of wealth exhaustion among both black and non-black Americans, although the estimate is no longer significant after adjusting for all covariates (for blacks, odds ratio (OR) = 2.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.83, 5.00; for non-blacks, OR = 1.47, 95% CI = 0.95, 2.27). Dementia has a negative association with home-ownership, and the loss or sale of a home may play a mediating role in the exhaustion of wealth among black Americans with dementia.
Resilience and the multigenerational academic work environment in the United States

ABSTRACTThe academic work environment in higher education has transformed and evolved, not only with respect to the goals pursued and the means to accomplish these goals, but also with respect to i...
Dynamic Locomotion in the MIT Cheetah 3 Through Convex Model-Predictive Control

This paper presents an implementation of model predictive control (MPC) to determine ground reaction forces for a torque-controlled quadruped robot. The robot dynamics are simplified to formulate the problem as convex optimization while still capturing the full 3D nature of the system. With the simplified model, ground reaction force planning problems are formulated for prediction horizons of up to 0.5 seconds, and are solved to optimality in under 1 ms at a rate of 20–30 Hz. Despite using a simplified model, the robot is capable of robust locomotion at a variety of speeds. Experimental results demonstrate control of gaits including stand, trot, flying-trot, pronk, bound, pace, a 3-legged gait, and a full 3D gallop. The robot achieved forward speeds of up to 3 m/s, lateral speeds up to 1 m/s, and angular speeds up to 180 deg/sec. Our approach is general enough to perform all these behaviors with the same set of gains and weights.
Diagnosis and successful treatment of Eimeria infection in a pair of pet domestic rats (Rattus norvegicus) with ponazuril

ABSTRACT Two newly acquired, one-month-old, intact male pet domestic rats (Rattus norvegicus) that were housed together presented for a wellness examination. One of the rats had malodorous, green-colored, soft feces. A pooled microscopic fecal examination demonstrated presence of Eimeria oocysts. Both rats were treated individually with ponazuril (30 mg/kg p.o.) administered in two treatments 48 hours apart. Three weekly pooled fecal samples following treatment were negative, suggesting clearing of the infection. No adverse clinical signs were noted. Most reported anticoccidian treatments in rodents describe prolonged treatment protocols or administration of treatment in the water, which can result in unnecessary stress and handling, or ineffective and uncontrolled level of drug administration, respectively. This is the first report of the favorable clinical experience of this treatment protocol, suggesting it is efficacious, easy to administer, and safe when treating similar infections in rats.
Stereotactic body radiotherapy to the prostate and pelvic lymph nodes: A detailed dosimetric analysis of a phase II prospective trial

Objective: To evaluate the dosimetric ramifications of simultaneously irradiating the prostate and pelvic lymph nodes (PLNs) with a stereotactic body radiotherapy approach based on rigid registrati...
A small intergenic region of lp17 is required for evasion of adaptive immunity and induction of pathology by the Lyme disease spirochete.

The causative agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, harbours a single linear chromosome and upwards of 23 linear and circular plasmids. Only a minority of these plasmids, including linear plasmid 17, are maintained with near-absolute fidelity during extended in vitro passage, and characterisation of any putative virulence determinants they encode has only recently begun. In this work, a mutant lacking a ~4.7 kb fragment of lp17 was studied. Colonisation of murine tissues by this lp17 mutant was significantly impaired, as was the ability to induce carditis and arthritis. The deficiency in tissue colonisation was alleviated in severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice, implicating a role for this plasmid region in adaptive immune evasion. Through genetic complementation, the mutant phenotype could be fully attributed to a 317 bp intergenic region that corresponds to the discontinued bbd07 ORF and upstream sequence. The intergenic region was found to be transcriptionally active, and mutant spirochetes lacking this region exhibited an overall difference in the antigenic profile during infection of an immunocompetent murine host. Overall, this study is the first to provide evidence for the involvement of lp17 in colonisation of joint and heart tissues, along with the associated pathologies caused by the Lyme disease spirochete.
Common Sense, the Turing Test, and the Quest for Real AI

Hector Levesque proposes new ways to think about artificial intelligence and how we might test intelligent behavior. He accomplished this with an eye on the history of AI and a push to rekindle the...
Resonance excitation of surface capillary waves to enhance material removal for laser material processing

The results of detailed experiments and high fidelity modeling of melt pool dynamics, droplet ejections and hole drilling produced by periodic modulation of laser intensity are presented. Ultra-high speed imaging revealed that melt pool oscillations can drive large removal of material when excited at the natural oscillation frequency. The physics of capillary surface wave excitation is discussed and simulation is provided to elucidate the experimental results. The removal rates and drill through times as a function of driving frequency is investigated. The resonant removal mechanism is driven by both recoil momentum and thermocapillary force but the key observation is the latter effect does not require evaporation of material, which can significantly enhance the efficiency for laser drilling process. We compared the drilling of holes through a 2 mm-thick Al plate at modulation frequencies up to 20 kHz. At the optimal frequency of 8 kHz, near the resonant response of the melt pool, the drilling efficiency is greater than 10x with aspect ratio of 12:1, and without the collateral damage that is observed in unmodulated CW drilling.
Serotonin 2A and Sigma 1 Receptor Antagonists Synergize to Block the Acute Toxicity of Methamphetamine

Currently there are no Food and Drug Administration approved pharmacotherapies for methamphetamine (METH) overdose, thus identifying novel drug targets to prevent this devastating adverse event is ...
Physics and Mathematics

Mathematics and physics are closely related as disciplines. Their histories are intertwined, sometimes in the person of a single figure such as Newton. Each has helped to give form and emphasis to the other. The practice of physics requires a broad knowledge of mathematics, and the mathematician who seeks wider understanding in his or her own field does well to become familiar with the classical areas of physics.
Towards Robust Toxic Content Classification.

Toxic content detection aims to identify content that can offend or harm its recipients. Automated classifiers of toxic content need to be robust against adversaries who deliberately try to bypass filters. We propose a method of generating realistic model-agnostic attacks using a lexicon of toxic tokens, which attempts to mislead toxicity classifiers by diluting the toxicity signal either by obfuscating toxic tokens through character-level perturbations, or by injecting non-toxic distractor tokens. We show that these realistic attacks reduce the detection recall of state-of-the-art neural toxicity detectors, including those using ELMo and BERT, by more than 50% in some cases. We explore two approaches for defending against such attacks. First, we examine the effect of training on synthetically noised data. Second, we propose the Contextual Denoising Autoencoder (CDAE): a method for learning robust representations that uses character-level and contextual information to denoise perturbed tokens. We show that the two approaches are complementary, improving robustness to both character-level perturbations and distractors, recovering a considerable portion of the lost accuracy. Finally, we analyze the robustness characteristics of the most competitive methods and outline practical considerations for improving toxicity detectors.
Recurrence Rate of Melanoma in Situ when Treated with Serial Disk Staged Excision: A Case Series.

BACKGROUND Cutaneous melanoma is one of the fastest rising cancer diagnoses in recent years. Melanoma in situ (MIS) constitutes a large proportion of all diagnosed melanomas. While surgical excision is considered the standard of therapy, the literature is not clear on which surgical technique minimizes local recurrence. A common technique is serial staged excision (SSE), in which a series of mapped excisions are made according to histopathological examination of tissue. Previously published recurrence rates for SSE ranges from 0-12%, over a range of 4.7-97 months of mean follow-up. OBJECTIVE To investigate the recurrence rate of MIS when excised using a serial disk staged excision technique with tissue marked at 12 O'clock for mapping, rush permanent processing and histologic examination, 3-suture tagging for subsequent stages, and "breadloafing" microscopic analysis. Additionally, to determine the relationship between initial lesion size and subsequent stages of excision required for clearance, and final surgical margin. METHODS Single-institution retrospective chart review of 29 biopsy confirmed MIS lesions treated with our variant of SSE. Statistical analysis via independent t-tests. RESULTS No recurrences were observed with mean follow-up of 31.5 months (SD 13.9), over range of 12-58 months. Mean surgical margin of 13.1 mm (SD 5.9). A trend towards larger surgical margin was seen with increasing pre-operative lesion size. CONCLUSION This method of SSE for treatment of MIS is comparable in efficacy to other SSE techniques, and may offer physicians a relatively simple, efficacious, and accessible alternative to wide local excision and Mohs micrographic surgery.
Inducing Grammar from Long Short-Term Memory Networks by Shapley Decomposition

The principle of compositionality has deep roots in linguistics: the meaning of an expression is determined by its structure and the meanings of its constituents. However, modern neural network models such as long short-term memory network process expressions in a linear fashion and do not seem to incorporate more complex compositional patterns. In this work, we show that we can explicitly induce grammar by tracing the computational process of a long short-term memory network. We show: (i) the multiplicative nature of long short-term memory network allows complex interaction beyond sequential linear combination; (ii) we can generate compositional trees from the network without external linguistic knowledge; (iii) we evaluate the syntactic difference between the generated trees, randomly generated trees and gold reference trees produced by constituency parsers; (iv) we evaluate whether the generated trees contain the rich semantic information.
Reflections on unspoken problems and potential solutions for the well-being juggernaut in positive psychology

In an earlier paper (Goodman et al., 2018), we found that two models of subjective well-being demonstrated substantial overlap, with correlations between .85-.98. We concluded that these two models...
Body, jaw, and dentition lengths of macrophagous lamniform sharks, and body size evolution in Lamniformes with special reference to ‘off-the-scale’ gigantism of the megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon

Extinct lamniform sharks (Elasmobranchii: Lamniformes) are well represented in the late Mesozoic‒Cenozoic fossil record, yet their biology is poorly understood because they are mostly represented o...
Developing educational and vocational aspirations through international child sponsorship: Evidence from Kenya, Indonesia, and Mexico

Abstract The role of aspirations in facilitating movement out of poverty is a subject of increasing research in development economics. Previous work finds positive impacts from international child sponsorship on educational attainment, employment, and adult income. This paper seeks to ascertain whether the impacts of child sponsorship on educational outcomes may occur through elevated aspirations among sponsored children. Using an age-eligibility rule applied during program rollout to identify causal effects, we study whether international child sponsorship increases educational and vocational aspirations among a sample of 2022 children in Kenya, Indonesia, and Mexico. While effects are heterogeneous, and strongest in Kenya, we find that, averaging over the three countries, sponsorship increased indices of self-esteem (0.25sd), optimism (0.26sd), aspirations (0.29sd), and expected years of completed education (0.43 years). We find that sponsorship increases actual grade completion by 0.56 among children at the time of the survey, and mediation analysis suggests that the impact of sponsorship on aspirations is likely to mediate higher levels of grade completion. Our results contribute to a growing body of evidence indicating that the positive impacts of child sponsorship stem partly through elevating aspirations. More generally, our research contributes to a larger literature suggesting that the alleviation of internal constraints among the poor is a strong complement to addressing their external constraints.
Temporal trends of concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances among adults with overweight and obesity in the United States: Results from the Diabetes Prevention Program and NHANES.

Abstract Background Understanding the temporal trends and change of concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is important to evaluate the health impact of PFAS at both the individual- and population-level, however, limited information is available for pre-diabetic adults in the U.S. Objectives Determine trends and rate of change of plasma PFAS concentrations in overweight or obese U.S. adults and evaluate variation by sex, race/ethnicity, and age. Methods We described temporal trends of plasma PFAS concentrations using samples collected in 1996–1998, 1999–2001, and 2011–2012 from 957 pre-diabetic adults enrolled in the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) trial and Outcomes Study (DPPOS) and compared to serum concentrations from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999–2000, 2003–2016, adults with BMI ≥ 24 kg/m2). We examined associations between participants’ characteristics and PFAS concentrations and estimated the rate of change using repeated measures in DPP/DPPOS assuming a first-order elimination model. Results Longitudinal measures of PFAS concentrations in DPP/DPPOS individuals were comparable to NHANES cross-sectional populational means. Plasma concentrations of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), N-ethyl-perfluorooctane sulfonamido acetic acid (EtFOSAA), and N-methylperfluorooctane sulfonamido acetic acid (MeFOSAA) started to decline after the year 2000 and concentrations of perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) increased after 2000 and, for NHANES, decreased after 2012. We consistently observed higher PFOS, PFHxS and PFNA among male, compared to female, and higher PFOS and PFNA among Black, compared to white, participants. The estimated time for concentrations to decrease by half ranged from 3.39 years for EtFOSAA to 17.56 years for PFHxS. Discussion We observed a downward temporal trend in plasma PFOS concentrations that was consistent with the timing for U.S. manufacturers’ phaseout. Male and Black participants consistently showed higher PFOS and PFNA than female and white participants, likely due to differences in exposure patterns, metabolism or elimination kinetics.
Gallbladder volvulus: a case report.

BACKGROUND Gallbladder volvulus is a rare pathology first reported by Wendel in 1898. Although the main pathological process associated with gallbladder volvulus is not known, there is clinical evidence suggesting that lack of gallbladder adhesions to the liver leads to an eventual twisting around the cystic bile duct (a process that seems to favor older female populations). CASE PRESENTATION In this report, an 81-year-old Caucasian elderly female presented to the emergency department with acute/severe right upper quadrant pain, which was also accompanied by an elevated leukocyte count. Relevant imaging showed a distended gallbladder with gallbladder wall thickening and a dilated common bile duct. The patient was subsequently admitted to the hospital for acute cholecystitis and scheduled for surgery the next day. Upon laparoscopic surgery, the gallbladder was black and gangrenous with no visible adhesions to the liver. Further inspection demonstrated that the gallbladder had twisted clockwise around the cystic bile duct. CONCLUSIONS While many previous cases have been reported since Wendel, further case studies are nevertheless important to help guide proper clinic evaluation and pinpoint the potential for a gallbladder volvulus.
Alternative capstone nursing experience to scale up testing and case investigation.

Background Surges related to the SARS-COV2 virus in the United States have underscored the critical importance of large-scale testing, case investigation and contact tracing. Baccalaureate nursing students have the potential to serve as surge capacity workforce in mitigation measures during this public health emergency. Methods Over the course of eight weeks (September-December 2020) baccalaureate senior capstone nursing students served as case investigators for a local health department (LHD) on Long Island, New York and surveillance pooled saliva testers for their college to ensure compliance with a state-wide COVID-19 testing mandate. To determine student perceptions working in these concurrent novel academic-partnerships during the COVID-19 pandemic, a descriptive survey of open-ended interview questions was completed by student participants (n = 10). Results Analysis of aggregate responses revealed common themes across the data set linking student learning and appreciation of the "eye-opening" experience to a sense of purpose, the value of communication, education and teamwork-all within the structure of public health nursing. Conclusions Baccalaureate nursing students can effectively serve as an untapped workforce within an academic partnership to support surveillance testing and case investigation during the COVID-19 pandemic and future public health crises. This partnership had the added benefit of exposing nursing students to the critical nature of public health nursing during this historic time in our nation.
Calculating December 25 as the Birth of Jesus in Hippolytus’ Canon and Chronicon

This article argues that around 235 CE Hippolytus of Rome placed the birth of Jesus on December 25. While this has been theorized in the past, this article brings forward hitherto unheralded evidence about Jesus’ birth from Hippolytus’ Canon and his Chronicon . First, the Canon marks the Passover as the γένeσις of Jesus, a word which scholars have previously thought refers to birth. This article however uses evidence from an extensive word study to show that the term most likely refers to conception, which would then place the birth of Jesus sometime in late fall or early winter. Secondly, the article shows that in his Chronicon Hippolytus placed Jesus’ birth exactly nine months after the anniversary of the world’s creation. Calculations in his Chronicon and Canon indicate that Hippolytus thought the world was created on March 25, meaning that he likely believed that Jesus was born on December 25.
Reducing the opportunities for terrorism: applying the principles of situational crime prevention

Societies threatened by terrorism pursue many different strategies to protect themselves from attack. These include: “taking out” terrorists, sometimes through conventional warfare; strengthening laws and legal action to bring terrorists to justice; winning the “hearts and minds” of foreign and local communities that might otherwise support terrorism; persuading certain regimes to abandon their support for terrorists; and strengthening the confidence of home populations, including detailed plans for minimizing harm when attacks are made. These strategies have been widely discussed in the academic literature, but in this chapter we discuss an approach that has received less attention – that of reducing the opportunities for terrorism. By this we mean protecting the most vulnerable targets from attack, controlling the tools and weapons used by terrorists, and altering specific aspects of other social and physical systems – what we call facilitating conditions – to make it harder for terrorists to operate. This approach is an application of situational crime prevention, the science of reducing opportunities for crime (Clarke, 1980). This means that we treat terrorism as simply another form of crime – crime with a political motive (Clarke and Newman, 2006). Situational prevention has no difficulty handling the many different motives that drive crime. For example, sexual abuse is a very differently motivated offense from, say, homicide or burglary or robbery, but examples of the successful application of situational prevention exist for all these and many other crimes (e.g., see Clarke, 2005).
Comparison of the pyrogenicity, limulus activity, mitogenicity and complement reactivity of several bacterial endotoxins and related compounds

The correlation of mitogenicity, complement activation, pyrogenicity and Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) gelation induced by 17 bacterial endotoxins (LPS), modified endotoxins, related compounds, and other B cell mitogens was examined. With the use of these compounds, a significant correlation was found between pyrogenicity and mitogenicity (r = 0.85, p is less than 0.0005), pyrogenicity and LAL reactivity (r = 0.84, p is less than 0.0005), and mitogenicity and LAL reactivity (r = 0.72, p is less than 0.0025). In contrast, complement activation by these compounds did not correlate with mitogenicity, pyrogenicity or LAL reactivity (r = 0.09, p is greater than 0.4; r = -0.17, p is greater than 0.3; r = 0.17, p is greater than 0.3, respectively). These results suggest that a specific chemical configuration may induce mitogenicity, pyrogenicity, and LAL reactivity which differs from that responsible for complement activation.
Light and electron microscopy of rat kangaroo cells in mitosis. III. Patterns of chromosome behavior during prometaphase.

Chromosome orientation and behavior during prometaphase of mitosis in PtK1 rat kangaroo cells were investigated by cinemicrography and electron microscopy. The first chromosome movements occur soon after the nuclear envelope begins to break down in the region near each pole. Initial chromosome behavior is primarily determined by the distance from the kinetochore region to the spindle poles. The predominant pattern is a movement to and/or association with the proximal pole. Movement to and association with the more distant pole, or direct alignment at or near the spindle equator (direct congression) are less frequent patterns. Except for rare cases, pole-associated chromosomes congress sooner or later and most congressed chromosomes oscillate about the equator. — Ultrastructural observations suggest that pole-associated chromosomes are oriented only to the proximal pole (monotelic or syntelic orientation) and they demonstrate that the sister-kinetochores of congressing or oscillating chromosomes are oriented to opposite poles (amphitelic orientation). — Based on the structure of the early prometaphase spindle and four assumptions concerning the formation of kinetochore fibers and their force-producing interaction with complementary elements, the different patterns of chromosome behavior observed can be explained as a result of synchronous or asynchronous formation of sister-kinetochore fibers. The few chromosomes whose kinetochore region is approximately equidistant from the poles amphi-orient immediately because their sister-kinetochores form fibers synchronously and they congress directly because of the bidirectional forces to which they are subjected. The kinetochore region of most chromosomes is not equidistant from the poles. Therefore, they form a functional fiber first to the nearer pole and move to, or associate with, it because of the unidirectional force. Eventually, however, these chromosomes achieve amphitelic orientation and congress. Once established, amphitelic orientation is stable. Re-orientations do not occur during congression or oscillatory movements.
Pneumatic Retinopexy: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Comparing Pneumatic Retinopexy with Scleral Buckling

Abstract Pneumatic retinopexy was compared with scleral buckling in a multicenter (7 centers), randomized, controlled, clinical trial with 198 patients. Admission criteria included detachments with retinal break(s) no greater than 1 clock hour in size, within the superior two thirds of the fundus, without significant proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). All patients were followed for at least 6 months. Scleral buckling was compared with pneumatic retinopexy with regard to single-operation reattachment (82 versus 73%), reattachment with one operation and postoperative laser/cryotherapy (84 versus 81 %), overall reattachment with reoperations (98 versus 99%), final visual acuity of 20/50 or better in eyes with preoperative detachment of the macula for 2 weeks or less (56 versus 80%), PVR (5 versus 3%), and new retinal breaks (13 versus 23%). Complications, including reoperations, as measured by the "score" system, were similar. The anatomic results of the two operations were not significantly different ( P > 0.05), but pneumatic retinopexy had less morbidity and better postoperative visual acuity ( P = 0.01). Pneumatic retinopexy is recommended for cases meeting the admission criteria.
Overview and status of the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamics Test (DARHT) facility

The Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamics Test (DARHT) facility will employ two perpendicular electron linear induction accelerators to produce intense, bremsstrahlung X-ray pulses for flash radiography. We intend to produce measurements containing three-dimensional information with sub-millimeter spatial resolution of the interior features of very dense, explosively driven objects. The facility will be completed in two phases with the first phase having become operational in July 1999 utilizing a single-pulse, 20 MeV, 2 kA, 60 ns accelerator, a high-resolution electrooptical X-ray imaging system, and other hydrodynamics testing systems. We describe this machine and discuss its current operating status. The first electron beams will be generated in the second phase of DARHT this year. The second DARHT accelerator consists of a 18.4 MeV, 2 kA, 2-microsecond pulse-width accelerator. Four short electron micropulses of variable pulse-width and spacing will be chopped out of the original, long accelerator pulse for producing time-resolved X-ray images. The second phase also features an extended, high-resolution electro-optical X-ray system with a framing speed of about 2 MHz. We discuss this accelerator by summarizing the overall design of the long-pulse injector and accelerator as well as some component test results. We also discuss the fast kicker used to separate the long-pulse beam into short bursts suitable for radiography.
Diagnosis and Management of Drop Attacks of Vestibular Origin: Tumarkin's Otolithic Crisis

Erroneous signals of vestibular origin can cause sudden falls without warning. Drop attacks of vestibular origin in our experience most commonly occurred in patients with late or end-stage endolymphatic hydrops (usually idiopathic, ie, Meniere's disease). Eponymically termed Tumarkin's otolithic crisis, drop attacks of vestibular origin must be distinguished from drop attacks due to cardiovascular abnormalities, seizure disorders, vertebral basilar arterial insufficiency (transitory brain stem ischemia), multiple sclerosis, and drug-induced motor control disturbances. The treatment of choice for drop attacks of vestibular origin is either surgical ablation (labyrinthectomy) in the absence of serviceable hearing or middle fossa vestibular nerve section in order to preserve serviceable hearing.
Effects of levodopa on vividness of motor imagery in Parkinson disease.

Introduction Motor imagery during functional magnetic resonance imaging is commonly used to understand the neural underpinnings of complex movements. This approach has recently been applied to individuals with Parkinson disease (PD) to better understand how brain function may relate to movement dysfunction. However, the ability of individuals with PD to imagine movements when “Off” dopamine replacement medication is poorly understood. Therefore, the primary purpose of the current study is to test the ability of people with PD to imagine movements while “On” and “Off” anti-Parkinson medication.
Systemic arginine depletion: effects on protein synthesis and blood pressure in mice (258.4)

Arginine (Arg) is a semi-essential amino acid involved in protein synthesis (PS) and blood pressure (BP) regulation. Arg deiminase (ADI) is a bacterial enzyme that hydrolyses Arg imino group to yie...
Desiccating Stress–Induced Chemokine Expression in the Epithelium Is Dependent on Upregulation of NKG2D/RAE-1 and Release of IFN-γ in Experimental Dry Eye

The Th1-associated chemokines CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11 coordinate migration of CXCR3(+) Th1 cells. The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of the innate immune system in stimulating chemokine expression in an experimental model of dry eye and bridge the gap between innate and adaptive immunity. Desiccating stress (DS) induced very early (6 h) expression and production of Th1-associated chemokines in cornea and conjunctiva of C57BL/6 and RAG1 knockout (KO) mice, demonstrating that chemokine expression does not require innate T cells. We then demonstrated that activating the innate immune system prior to adoptive transfer of T cells to RAG1KO mice increased disease severity. Interestingly, lack of induction of chemokines CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11 in IFN-γKO mice provided evidence that their expression requires IFN-γ for induction. Treatment of RAG1KO mice with anti-NK1.1 prevented the increase of CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11 in response to DS, compared with isotype controls. Additionally, DS increased the expression of NKG2D in the conjunctiva. The expression of the NKG2D ligand, retinoic acid early inducible gene 1, also increased at the ocular surface at both the protein and gene levels. Neutralization of NKG2D at the ocular surface decreased the expression of CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, and IFN-γ. In summary, upregulation of CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11 expression in experimental dry eye is T cell-independent, requiring IFN-γ-producing NKG2D(+) NK cells that are activated in response to DS-induced stress signals. This study provides insight into the events that trigger the initial immune response in dry eye pathology.
Evading p53 action during tumor development and therapy

Apoptosis is a regulated form of cell death that is important for normal development and tissue homeostasis. Senescence produces 'genetic death', in that the senescent cell is incapable of further propagation. Both processes are frequently disrupted in cancer cells, and each act as potent barriers to tumorigenesis. Since radiation and many chemotherapeutic agents induce apoptosis or senescence, the integrity of these programs can influence the outcome of cancer therapy. Our laboratory strives to understand how cancer genes control apoptosis and senescence in normal cells, and how mutations that disrupt these processes impact tumor development and therapy. The goal of these efforts is develop therapeutic strategies based on an understanding of drug action and cancer genotype. We currently are using genetically engineered mouse models to understand how apoptosis and senescence are controlled in tumor cells, as well as the response of tumors to conventional and targeted therapeutics. Recent work exploring the action of tumor-derived myc mutants in oncogenesis and the role of the p53 tumor suppressor network in the action of targeted therapeutics will be discussed.
A latent feature analysis of the neural representation of conceptual knowledge

Bayesian probabilistic analysis offers a new approach to characterize semantic representations by inferring the most likely feature structure directly from the patterns of brain activity. In this study, infinite latent feature models [1] are used to recover the semantic features that give rise to the brain activation vectors when people think about properties associated with 60 concrete concepts. The semantic features recovered by ILFM are consistent with the human ratings of the shelter, manipulation, and eating factors that were recovered by a previous factor analysis. Furthermore, different areas of the brain encode different perceptual and conceptual features. This neurally-inspired semantic representation is consistent with some existing conjectures regarding the role of different brain areas in processing different semantic and perceptual properties.