cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
“Sand-drift” echoes and thrombus formation in the left atrium

D I A S T O L E REFERENCES 1. Freedom RM, Culham G, Moss F, Olley PM, Rowe RD. Differentiation of functional and structural pulmonary atresia: role of aortography. Am J Cardiol 1978;41:914. 2. Smallhorn JF, Izukawa T, Benson L, Freedom RM. Noninvasive recognition of functional pulmonary atresia by echocardiography. Am J Cardiol 1984;54:925. 3. Berman W, Whitman V, Stanger P, Rudolph AM. Congenital tricuspid incompetence simulating pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum: a report of two cases. AM HEART J 1978;96:655. 4. Silberbach GM, Ferrara B, Berry JM, Einzig S, Bass JL. Diagnosis of functional pulonary atresia using hyperventilation and Doppler ultrasound. Am J Cardiol 1987;59:709. 5. Kutsche LM, Van Mierop LHS. Pulmonary atresia with and without ventricular septal defects: a different etiology and pathogenesis for the atresia in the two types? Am J Cardiol 1983;51:932. 6. Allan LD, Crawford DC, Tynan MJ. Pulmonary atresia in prenatal life. J Am Coll Cardiol 1986;8:1131.
Analysis of membrane tank-tread of nonspherical capsules and red blood cells

We present an analysis of membrane motion of deformable capsules and red blood cells suspended in a linear shear flow and undergoing swinging and tumbling motions using three-dimensional numerical simulations. This study is motivated by the theory of the shape-preserving cells which predicts that the direction of the membrane rotation depends on the cell orientation and reverses at every 45° inclination angle of the cell major axis with respect to the external flow direction. By considering large deformation of capsules and red blood cells, here we investigate how the shape oscillation affects the time dependence and the direction reversal of the membrane rotation. We find that the membrane tank-tread is highly time-dependent in nature and synchronized with the time-dependent deformation. The maximum and minimum of the tank-tread velocity occur at and near the minimum and maximum deformation, respectively. For the swinging capsules and red blood cells, the direction of the membrane rotation is always along the direction of the external fluid rotation; however, a direction reversal occurs during the tumbling motion in which case the membrane rotates in the direction of the external fluid rotation when the major axis is mostly in the extensional quadrant of the shear flow, and in the opposite direction when it is mostly in the compressional quadrant. Unlike the theory which predicts the direction reversal at every 45° inclination angle irrespective of the control parameters, namely, the capillary number, viscosity ratio, and asphericity, we find that the angle at which the direction reversal occurs depends on these parameters. In particular, if the tumbling motion occurs by decreasing the capillary number, the membrane rotation is in the direction of the external flow rotation in the entire extensional quadrant, but in the opposite direction in the compressional quadrant, irrespective of the specific values of the capillary number. If the tumbling motion occurs by increasing the viscosity ratio and asphericity, the angle at which the direction reversal occurs depends on the specific values of these two parameters. The spatial variation of the tank-tread velocity also is analyzed and attributed to the straining motion of the external flow.
When is it Advantageous to Cast a Negative Vote

It has been proposed by George A. W. Boehm (1) in an unpublished essay that voters in an election be allowed either to cast a vote for or against a candidate, but not both. A candidate’s “negative” votes would be subtracted from his “positive” votes to determine his net vote, and the candidate with the highest net vote would win.
The Oxford Street Inn

At seven o'clock on any given night of the year, men of all ages begin to congregate around the entrance of a large green corrugated steel building on Oxford Street. These men are gathering in anticipation of the eight o'clock opening of the Oxford Street Inn, a shelter for homeless men in Syracuse, New York. One of the unique characteristics which draws these men to the Inn is its "minimal intervention" approach.
Change in US Retail Market Structure: What does it mean for Advertisers?

In this article, the question is posed as to whether or not market share gains for certain US retail types can be partially explained by consumers ' perceptions of value. Quality/price differentials across six different retail types are presented and analysed. Implications in terms of advertising efforts are discussed.
Green simulation designs for repeated experiments

In this article we present the concept of green simulation, which views simulation outputs as scarce resources that should be recycled and reused. Output recycling, if implemented properly, can turn the computational costs in an experiment into computation investments for future ones. Green simulation designs are particularly useful for experiments that are repeated periodically. In this article we focus on repeated experiments whose inputs are observations from some underlying stochastic processes. Importance sampling and multiple importance sampling are two particular output recycling implementations considered in this article. A periodic credit risk evaluation problem in the KMV model is considered. Results from our numerical experiments show significant accuracy improvements, measured by mean squared errors, as more and more outputs are recycled and reused.
Review of Konjac Glucomannan

The paper reviews the solution and gelling properties of konjac glucomannan (KGM) and its interactions with other hydrocolloids such as xanthan and carrageenan for food applications. Research activities in the area of KGM processing in environmentally friendly aqueous environments have been discussed for coatings and packaging applications.
Competitive transfer of sorbose and glucose in placenta of rabbit.

SummarySorbose alone and with glucose have been infused intravenously into pregnant rabbits near term, and permeability coefficients for sorbose under these 2 conditions have been calculated. It has been shown that there is a significant depression of permeability coefficient for sorbose when the maternal blood is overloaded with glucose. The results have been interpreted as indicating a competitive inhibition by glucose of sorbose transfer across the placenta.
364 SEIZURE-INDUCED NEURONAL NECROSIS IS A CASPASE-INDEPENDENT PROCESS.

Purpose Previous studies have suggested that seizure induces necrotic death of neurons. However, the exact mechanism of neuronal cell death following seizures is not completely understood. The purpose of this study was to determine if either caspase-9 or caspase-8, upstream cysteine proteases in the intrinsic mitochondrial and Fas death receptor extrinsic caspase-dependent pathways respectively, is activated following 3-h lithium-pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (LPCSE). In addition, presence or absence of activation of the central downstream executioner caspase caspase-3 was examined. Methods LPCSE lasting 3 h was induced in male Wister rats, which were allowed to recover for 6 or 24 h before perfusion-fixation. Neuronal death was then assessed by light microscopy with H&E stain, TUNEL stain, and stains using caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9 antibodies. Results Consistent with previous findings, H&E showed morphologically necrotic neurons. TUNEL staining showed TUNEL-positive nuclei in those rats with 3 h status epilepticus (SE) and 24 h recovery but not in 3 h SE and 6 h recovery. Immunoreactivity to caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9 was negative in both groups. Conclusion These results show that neurons undergo necrotic cell death following seizures and that this process is independent of caspase pathways.
Results of the 2003 Topic Detection and Tracking Evaluation

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) administered the sixth open evaluation of Topic Detection and Tracking (TDT) technologies in November of 2003. The TDT project supports development of technologies that automatically organize eventrelated news stories. The program leverages expertise in core technologies, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Document Retrieval (DR), and Machine Translation (MT) to build the TDT technologies. The participants in the 2003 TDT project built systems that organized broadcast news and newswire stories collected from Arabic, English and Mandarin Chinese sources. There were four evaluation tasks in the 2003 evaluation: new event detection, topic detection, topic tracking and link detection. The 2004 TDT Evaluation is scheduled for Fall 2004. The evaluation will focus on the core task of monolingual TDT tasks. The community is also experimenting with a new evaluation task, Hierarchical Topic Detection (HTD). HTD aims to overcome the problems with the topic detection task – specifically topic granularity and multiple-topic stories.
DNA Damage Sensitivity Assays in Caenorhabditis elegans

C. elegans has served as a genetically tractable multicellular model system to examine DNA damage-induced genotoxic stress which threatens genome integrity. Importantly, the high degree of conservation shared between worms and humans offers the advantage that findings about DNA damage-induced cell cycle arrest/checkpoint response and DNA double-strand break repair in worms are applicable to human studies. Here, we describe simple DNA damage sensitivity assays to quantify the response of C. elegans to diverse types of DNA damaging agents. These assays have provided important insights into the mechanisms of function for factors such as ZTF-8 that are involved in DNA damage repair and response in the C. elegans germline. These DNA damage sensitivity assays rely on the straightforward readouts of either egg or larval lethality and involve the use of various DNA damaging agents. We use γ-irradiation (γ-IR), which produces DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), camptothecin (CPT), which induces single-strand breaks, nitrogen mustard (HN2), which produces interstrand crosslinks (ICLs), hydroxyurea (HU), which results in replication fork arrest thus preventing DNA synthesis, and UV-C, which causes photoproducts (pyrimidine dimers). See Table 1. Comparisons between the relative sensitivity/resistance observed in, for example, mutants compared to wild type, for various DNA damaging agents allows for inferences regarding potential repair pathways being affected.
Occurrence of Ochratoxin A in Infant Foods in the United States.

ABSTRACT Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a possible human carcinogen and occurs frequently in cereal grain, soy, and other agricultural commodities. Infants and young children may be more susceptible to contaminants than adults because of their lower body weight, higher metabolic rate, reduced ability to detoxify food toxicants, and more restricted diet. The purpose of this study was to investigate the occurrence and levels of OTA in infant formula and infant cereal products available in the U.S. market. In the present study, 98 powdered infant formula (milk- and soy-based) samples and 155 infant cereal (barley-, rice-, oat-, wheat-, and mixed grain–based) products were collected from different retail locations in the United States over a 2-year period. OTA levels were determined by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Although OTA was not detected in any of the infant formula samples, 47 (30%) of 155 infant cereals were contaminated with OTA in the range of 0.6 to 22.1 ng/g. At present, there is no regu...
Surgical Factors Associated with Prolonged Hospitalization after Reconstruction for Oncological Spine Surgery.

BACKGROUND Posterior trunk reconstruction is increasingly possible as a result of advances in spinal instrumentation, reconstructive approaches, and perioperative critical care. Extensive cases often require a muscle flap or complex closure to obliterate dead space. Postsurgical wound complications and subsequent reoperations can lead to neural injury, higher hospital costs, and longer hospitalizations. We aim to identify risk factors that are associated with increased length of stay (LOS) for patients receiving flaps to close a spinal defect. METHODS A single institution, retrospective cohort study was performed on all patients from 2002 to 2014 who received a muscle flap to close a spine defect. Medical and perioperative variables that were significantly associated with LOS (P < 0.05) in univariate analysis were included in a stepwise regression model. RESULTS A total of 288 cases were identified. Presence of instrumentation, preoperative chemotherapy, wound dehiscence, cerebrospinal fluid leak, partial/total flap loss, and medical morbidity occurrence were all independently associated with increased LOS in a combined multivariate model (P < 0.02 for each of the 6 variables). Importantly, Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that postoperative wound dehiscence increased LOS by 12 days. CONCLUSIONS Spinal tumor resections often create large cavitary defects that necessitate the use of muscle flaps for closure. Patients who have received adjuvant chemotherapy require instrumentation, or those who develop specific wound-related or medical complications are at increased risk for prolonged hospitalization after spinal reconstruction. Thus, implementing measures to mitigate the occurrence of these adverse events will reduce costs and decrease the length of hospitalization.
Increases in self-reported fentanyl use among a population entering drug treatment: The need for systematic surveillance of illicitly manufactured opioids

Abstract Background/purpose Recent reports indicate a sharp increase in fentanyl-related overdose deaths across the United States, much of which is likely related to the introduction of cheap, illicitly manufactured fentanyl derivatives. In this study, we sought to estimate the magnitude of illicit fentanyl use from 2012 to 2016 using a national opioid abuse surveillance system. Methods The study program surveyed 10,900 individuals entering substance abuse treatment for opioid use disorder, with participants asked to endorse past month ‘use to get high' of fentanyl drugs, stratified by identifiable (i.e., branded) fentanyl formulations or a ‘type unknown' drug alleged to contain fentanyl. Main findings Total past-month fentanyl-use rose modestly from 2012 to 2016. While use of known fentanyl products remained relatively stable (mean = 10.9%; P = 0.25), endorsements of ‘unknown’ fentanyl products nearly doubled from 9% in 2013 to 15.1% by 2016 (P Conclusions This first attempt to assess the prevalence of illicit fentanyl use shows that recent increases in fentanyl use seem to be due almost entirely to ‘unknown' fentanyl presumed to be illicitly manufactured. Given that it is difficult to assess the extent to which fentanyl may have been substituted for another drug (i.e., oxycodone, alprazolam, etc.) or was used as a heroin admixture, our data likely represent an underestimation of the full magnitude of illicit fentanyl abuse. As such, this growing public health problem requires immediate attention and more systematic efforts to identify and track its abuse.
Graph Problems: Hard Problems

A cynical view of graph algorithms is that “everything we want to do is hard.”Indeed, no polynomial-time algorithms are known for any of the problems in this section.All of them are provably NP-complete with the exception of graph isomorphism—whose complexity status remains an open question.
Emotions in Social Networks: Distributions, Patterns, and Models

Understanding the role emotions play in social interactions has been a central research question in the social sciences. However, the challenge of obtaining large-scale data on human emotions has left the most fundamental questions on emotions less explored: How do emotions vary across individuals, evolve over time, and are connected to social ties? We address these questions using a large-scale dataset of users that contains both their emotions and social ties. Using this dataset, we identify patterns of human emotions on five different network levels, starting from the user-level and moving up to the whole-network level. At the user-level, we identify how human emotions are distributed and vary over time. At the ego-network level, we find that assortativity is only observed with respect to positive moods. This observation allows us to introduce emotional balance, the "dual'' of structural balance theory. We show that emotional balance has a natural connection to structural balance theory. At the community-level, we find that community members are emotionally-similar and that this similarity is stronger in smaller communities. Structural properties of communities, such as their sparseness or isolatedness, are also connected to the emotions of their members. At the whole-network level, we show that there is a tight connection between the global structure of a network and the emotions of its members. As a result, we demonstrate how one can accurately predict the proportion of positive/negative users within a network by only looking at the network structure. Based on our observations, we propose the Emotional-Tie model -- a network model that can simulate the formation of friendships based on emotions. This model generates graphs that exhibit both patterns of human emotions identified in this work and those observed in real-world social networks, such as having a high clustering coefficient. Our findings can help better understand the interplay between emotions and social ties.
A Review of Communication Failure Impacts on Adaptive Microgrid Protection Schemes and the Use of Energy Storage as a Contingency

A main challenge in the practical implementation of a microgrid is the design of an adequate protection scheme in both grid-connected and islanded modes of operation. Microgrid protection requires a fast, reliable, and robust communication system to adjust relay settings to the appropriate current level according to the operation mode. Various approaches have been implemented to deal with this problem, yet the most promising ones are the use of adaptive protection techniques abiding by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61850 communication standard. This paper presents a review of the technical challenges for the use of classical protection techniques and the need for an enhanced, adaptive, smart protection system. However, the risk of communication link failures and cyber security threats still remain a challenge in implementing a reliable adaptive protection scheme. A contingency is essential in the event that a communication failure prevents a relay from adjusting between grid-connected and islanded mode. An adaptive protection scheme is proposed, which utilizes energy storage devices to enhance resiliency against communication outages. The proposed solution does not incur additional costs to the network, as the energy storage devices are already utilized for other purposes. A case study experimentally verifies this contingency under a worst-case scenario, where a fault occurs simultaneously with a pulsed load while operating in islanded mode with a communication failure.
Supersymmetric interactions of a six-dimensional self-dual tensor and fixed-shape second quantized strings

``Curvepole (2,0)-theory'' is a deformation of the (2,0)-theory with nonlocal interactions. A curvepole is defined as a two-dimensional generalization of a dipole. It is an object of fixed two-dimensional shape of which the boundary is a charged curve that interacts with a 2-form gauge field. Curvepole theory was previously only defined indirectly via M-theory. Here, we propose a supersymmetric Lagrangian, constructed explicitly up to quartic terms, for an ``Abelian'' curvepole theory, which is an interacting deformation of the free (2,0) tensor multiplet. This theory contains fields of which the quanta are curvepoles (i.e., fixed-shape strings). Supersymmetry is preserved (at least up to quartic terms) if the shape of the curvepoles is (two-dimensional) planar. This nonlocal six-dimensional quantum field theory may also serve as a UV completion for certain (local) five-dimensional gauge theories.
Females and males respond more strongly to duets than to female solos: comparing the function of duet and solo singing in a tropical songbird (Icterus icterus)

Both females and males of many animals possess elaborate displays, such as solo songs and duets of songbirds. We know little about the function of female song or what selects for duets. To examine their possible functions, we played female solos, duets and a heterospecific control to pairs of troupials (Icterus icterus). Both sexes responded strongly to duets by approaching the playback speaker significantly closer, faster, and more often compared to female solos or the control. Neither sex responded strongly to female solos; troupials approached closer, sang sooner, and duetted more following female solos than the control, but this difference was not significant. Our results indicate that troupial duets pose a greater threat than female solos and female troupial solos are not particularly threatening. Troupial duets may be especially threatening because they indicate the presence of a mated pair, which likely poses a greater territorial threat than lone, unmated birds.
UNSUPERVISED INFERENCE OF DATA FORMATS IN HUMAN-READABLE NOTATION

One common approach to validating data such as email addresses and phone numbers is to check whether values conform to some desired data format. Unfortunately, users may need to learn a specialized notation such as regular expressions to specify the format, and even after learning the notation, specifying formats may take substantial time. To address these problems, this paper introduces Topei, a system that infers a format from an unlabeled collection of examples (which may contain errors). The generated format is presented as understandable English, so users can review and customize the format. In addition, the format can be used to automatically check data against the format and find outliers that do not match. Topei shows substantially higher precision and recall than an alternate algorithm (Lapis) on test data. Topei’s usefulness is demonstrated by integrating it with spreadsheet, database, and web services systems.
Elevated rates of heterotrophic respiration in shrub-conditioned arctic tundra soils

Abstract The response of arctic ecosystems to global change will be critical for future climate, due to their vast stores of carbon. Climate warming appears to be linked to the expansion of shrubs across tundra, but it is unclear how shrubs affect the activity of soil microbes. We investigated three potential mechanisms by which shrubs may stimulate soil microbial activity, by 1) increasing the rate of litter inputs, 2) promoting soil microbial adaptation to litter and 3) reducing nutrient limitation. We created microcosms of root-free soils collected from shrub (Alnus fruticosa, Betula nana, and Salix pulchra) and non-shrub plots in arctic Alaska and conducted two experiments. We quantified heterotrophic soil respiration rates in response to litter inputs (experiment 1), or nutrient inputs (nitrogen, phosphorus, or both nutrients together, experiment 2). We found that shrub-conditioned soils maintained higher rates of soil respiration in both experiments. Shrub litter increased respiration in both soil types, but the relative response was greater in non-shrub soils. We found no evidence that shrubs reduce nutrient limitation to heterotrophic respiration, although we observed a short-term increase in respiration after phosphorus addition in both soil types. Collectively, our results suggest that higher rates of respiration in shrub-conditioned soils may be the result of higher litter input rates, but other factors such as organic matter quality or microbial community structure may also contribute to our observed differences in respiration.
A Cognitive Behavioral Approach Towards Bullying Remediation

This chapter updates literature on shame, guilt, and workplace bullying and introduces different possible cognitive behavioral approaches that could be used to help remediate the shame underlying bullying in the workplace. Differences between shame and guilt are distinguished in terms of their consequences. Given these consequences, a move towards guilt promotion (i.e., acceptance of responsibility) will be argued. Methods to move from shame to guilt will be explored using different cognitive behavioral approaches with an emphasis on strategies for overcoming shame and promoting pro-social work behaviors such as taking responsibility and experiencing empathy.
Berunda Polypeptides: Biheaded Rapamycin Carriers for Subcutaneous Treatment of Autoimmune Dry Eye Disease.

The USFDA-approved immunosuppressive drug rapamycin (Rapa), despite its potency, is limited by poor bioavailability and a narrow therapeutic index. In this study, we sought to improve bioavailability of Rapa with subcutaneous (SC) administration and to test its therapeutic feasibility and practicality in a murine model of Sjogren's syndrome (SS), a systemic autoimmune disease with no approved therapies. To improve its therapeutic index, we formulated Rapa with a carrier termed FAF, a fusion of the human cytosolic FK506-binding protein 12 (FKBP12) and an elastin-like polypeptide (ELP). The resulting 97 kDa FAF (i) has minimal burst release, (ii) is "humanized", (iii) is biodegradable, (iv) solubilizes two Rapa per FAF, and (v) avoids organic solvents or amphiphilic carriers. Demonstrating high stability, FAF remained soluble and monodisperse with a hydrodynamic radius of 8 nm at physiological temperature. A complete pharmacokinetic (PK) analysis of FAF revealed that the bioavailability of SC FAF was 60%, with significantly higher blood concentration during the elimination phase compared to IV FAF. The plasma concentration of Rapa delivered by FAF was 8-fold higher with a significantly increased plasma-to-whole blood ratio relative to free Rapa, 24 h after injection. To evaluate therapeutic effects, FAF-Rapa was administered SC every other day for 2 weeks to male non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice, which develop an SS-like autoimmune-mediated lacrimal gland (LG) inflammation and other characteristic features of SS. Both FAF-Rapa and free Rapa exhibited immunomodulatory effects by significantly suppressing lymphocytic infiltration, gene expression of IFN-γ, MHC II, type I collagen and IL-12a, and cathepsin S (CTSS) activity in LG compared to controls. Serum chemistry and histopathological analyses in major organs revealed no apparent toxicity of FAF-Rapa. Given its improved PK and equipotent therapeutic efficacy compared to free Rapa, FAF-Rapa is of further interest for systemic treatments for autoimmune diseases like SS.
A Further Look at the Current Equivalence Test for Analytical Similarity Assessment

Establishing analytical similarity is the foundation of biosimilar product development. Although there is no guidance on how to evaluate analytical data for similarity, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently suggested an equivalence test on the mean difference between innovator and the biosimilar product as the statistical similarity assessment for Tier 1 quality attributes (QAs), defined as the QAs that are directly related to the mechanism of action. However, the mathematical derivation and simulation work presented in this paper shows that the type I error is typically increased in most realistic settings when an estimate of sigma is used for the equivalence margin. This error cannot be improved by increasing sample size. The impacts of the constant c on type I error and sample size adjustment in the imbalanced situation are discussed, as well.
Abstract 212: Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Mutations With Opposite Effects on ß-myosin Biomechanics Show Similar Structural and Biomechanical Phenotypes in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Cardiomyocytes (hipsc-cms)

Introduction: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most prevalent heritable cardiovascular disease, commonly caused by mutations in beta cardiac myosin heavy chain (βMYH). We have measured the ...
Environmental Perception in Autonomous Vehicles Using Edge Level Situational Awareness

Currently, assisted vehicles depend on GPS to deliver accurate navigation during their drive, making cellular network access essential to their function. Absence of network connectivity leads to navigation failure on vehicles that will require understanding the path ahead without GPS. Such a scenario is not a practical option when considering fully autonomous vehicles. A video analytics framework powered by edge computing can help tackle the challenge efficiently. In this paper, a general overview of the recent progresses and challenges in Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) is presented and an idea for new generation of assisted framework for AVs is discussed where the perception about the environment is achieved through drone level imagery. In this new technology, a fleet of drone provides situational awareness for autonomous vehicles and communicate with control system for better perception and more accurate decision. The main characteristic of the new assisted framework is to (i) provide drone level camera for image acquisition for a view of the area of interest of the autonomous vehicle, (ii) deliver Edge analytics using deep learning for on-board GPU based training model to provide situational awareness about the route with available geo-tagged images and landmarks, and; (iii) integrate perception and prediction with the autonomous vehicle decision making system for reliable and precise navigation.
Exhaustive Product Analysis of Three Benzene Discharges by Microwave Spectroscopy.

Using chirped and cavity microwave spectroscopies, automated double resonance, new high-speed fitting and deep learning algorithms, and large databases of computed structures, the discharge product...
Recurring pediatric anaplastic ependymoma with rare peritoneal carcinomatosis: a case report and hypothesis of mechanism

Although recurrent anaplastic ependymoma in pediatric patients is not uncommon, recurrent disease leading to widespread metastases to the peritoneum is extremely rare. We present a case of an 18-month old male who initially presented with posterior fossa anaplastic ependymoma, who then proceeded to present 1 year later with spinal recurrence, and then 2 years after that with widespread disease involving the intracranial ventricular system and peritoneum. We posit that surgical interventions to treat primary and recurrent presentations in combination with a conduit to the peritoneum via a ventriculoperitoneal shunt contributed to the mechanisms of this complex case.
Effect of drought and carbon dioxide on nutrient uptake and levels of nutrient-uptake proteins in roots of barley

PREMISE Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2 ) concentration is increasing, as is the frequency and duration of drought in some regions. Elevated CO2 can decrease the effects of drought by further decreasing stomatal opening and, hence, water loss from leaves. Both elevated CO2 and drought typically decrease plant nutrient concentration, but their interactive effects on nutrient status and uptake are little studied. We investigated whether elevated CO2 helps negate the decrease in plant nutrient status during drought by upregulating nutrient-uptake proteins in roots. METHODS Barley (Hordeum vulgare) was subjected to current vs. elevated CO2 (400 or 700 ppm) and drought vs. well-watered conditions, after which we measured biomass, tissue nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations (%N and P), N- and P-uptake rates, and the concentration of the major N- and P-uptake proteins in roots. RESULTS Elevated CO2 decreased the impact of drought on biomass. In contrast, both drought and elevated CO2 decreased %N and %P in most cases, and their effects were additive for shoots. Root N- and P-uptake rates were strongly decreased by drought, but were not significantly affected by CO2 . Averaged across treatments, both drought and high CO2 resulted in upregulation of NRT1 (NO3- transporter) and AMT1 (NH4+ transporter) per unit total root protein, while only drought increased PHT1 (P transporter). CONCLUSIONS Elevated CO2 exacerbated decreases in %N and %P, and hence food quality, during drought, despite increases in the concentration of nutrient-uptake proteins in roots, indicating other limitations to nutrient uptake.
Use of noninvasive scores for advanced liver fibrosis can guide the need for hepatic biopsy during bariatric procedures

Abstract Background Patients with obesity are at increased risk for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The effectiveness of noninvasive screening tests for ruling out advanced fibrosis (stage 3–4) is unknown. Objectives To determine the prevalence of advanced fibrosis in patients undergoing routine liver biopsy during bariatric surgery and assess the effectiveness of existing noninvasive risk calculators. Setting Academic medical center in the United States. Methods Routine liver biopsies were obtained during first-time bariatric surgery (January 2001–December 2017). Patient demographic characteristics, co-morbidities, and preoperative laboratory values were compiled. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), and positive predictive value (PPV) were compared between 3 noninvasive risk calculators for advanced fibrosis: the fibrosis-4 index, NAFLD fibrosis score, and aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI). Results Among 2465 patients, the prevalence of advanced fibrosis (stage 3–4) was 3.4%. The mean age was 45.5 years, and the mean body mass index was 46.8. The sensitivity of noninvasive risk calculators ranged from 85% (NAFLD fibrosis score) to 24% (APRI). The NAFLD fibrosis score performed best in screening out advanced fibrosis, with an NPV of 99%. The PPV ranged from 9% to 65%. In this study cohort, the use of the NALFD fibrosis score correctly ruled out advanced fibrosis in 893 (36%) patients, with 13 false negatives. Conclusions The prevalence of advanced fibrosis in individuals undergoing routine first-time bariatric procedures is 3.4%. Use of the NALFD fibrosis score can rule out advanced fibrosis in one-third of this population, and guide surgical decision-making.
Automatic Detection and Repair of Transition- Based Leakage in Software Binaries

The effectiveness of masking as a countermeasure against information leakage in cryptographic ciphers is contingent upon individual instructions leaking information independently . An example of dependent leakage is transition-based leakage: side-channels can leak data proportional to the exclusive-or of the old and the new value during a register write, despite proper first-order masking. In this paper we present a technique to detect and repair transition-based leakage. Our detection technique symbolically executes a binary to relate the old and new values during a register write. We then combine existing analyses to check for, and quantify, any leakage caused by the write. Our repair module closes a leak by flushing the affected register before writing it.
Abolishing Exclusive Jurisdiction in the Federal Circuit: A Response to Judge Wood

Chief Judge Diane Wood’s discussion of appellate authority over patent law brings a welcome new voice to the debate over the Federal Circuit’s jurisprudence. Her article adds considerable insight into the process of appellate court decision making and provides an insider’s account of the value of percolation in “sharpening” judicial writing, “testing” positions, and occasionally persuading a judge that “someone else’s perspective is preferable.” In a follow-up interview, she elaborated on what she sees as a deliberative deficit at the Federal Circuit:
Genetic variants and physical activity interact to affect bone density in Hispanic children.

Our aim was to investigate if moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), calcium intake interacts with bone mineral density (BMD)-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to influence BMD in 750 Hispanic children (4-19y) of the cross-sectional Viva La Familia Study. Physical activity and dietary intake were measured by accelerometers and multiple-pass 24 h dietary recalls, respectively. Total body and lumbar spine BMD were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. A polygenic risk score (PRS) was computed based on SNPs identified in published literature. Regression analysis was conducted with PRSs, MVPA and calcium intake with total body and lumbar spine BMD. We found evidence of statistically significant interaction effects between the PRS and MVPA on total body BMD and lumbar spine BMD (p < 0.05). Higher PRS was associated with a lower total body BMD (β = − 0.040 ± 0.009, p = 1.1 × 10− 5) and lumbar spine BMD (β = − 0.042 ± 0.013, p = 0.0016) in low MVPA group, as compared to high MVPA group (β = − 0.015 ± 0.006, p = 0.02; β = 0.008 ± 0.01, p = 0.4, respectively). The study indicated that calcium intake does not modify the relationship between genetic variants and BMD, while it implied physical activity interacts with genetic variants to affect BMD in Hispanic children. Due to limited sample size of our study, future research on gene by environment interaction on bone health and functional studies to provide biological insights are needed. Bone health in Hispanic children with high genetic risk for low BMD is benefitted more by MVPA than children with low genetic risk. Our results may be useful to predict disease risk and tailor dietary and physical activity advice delivery to people, especially children.
Design and outcomes of a nurse practitioner preceptor development program.

ABSTRACT Nurse practitioners (NPs) are educated to provide high-quality patient- and family-centered care to underserved, culturally diverse, medically complex populations. Nurse practitioner faculty plan curricular activities that challenge NP students to critically assess individuals and populations with the goal of preparing NP students to be "practice-ready" upon graduation. Nurse practitioner clinical training occurs in practice settings with NP preceptors, with specific areas of clinical expertise. However, there is a lack of NP clinical preceptors educationally prepared to clinically teach and evaluate NP students. This article presents the design, implementation, evaluation, and outcomes from a 3-year grant funded by the United States Human Resources and Administration Services that featured a web-based Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Preceptor Development Program. Ninety percent of NPs who precepted NP students completed all web-based learning modules. Preceptors with educational preparation via online modules to guide NP student learning in clinical settings are a critical resource for faculty to prepare NP students to be practice-ready upon graduation. This web-based learning platform for online NP preceptor education may be a successful approach for expanding and improving the NP preceptor pool nationwide.
Multi-objective and Multidisciplinary Optimal Design of a Flexible Wing with Multiple Ailerons

In this article, a multidisciplinary and multi-objective optimal design of ailerons' sizes and active control systems for an aircraft's wing with three control surfaces is developed. A Multi-Input-Multi-Output (MIMO) controller is designed using the LQR (Linear Quadratic Regulator) algorithm. The geometrical parameters of the control surfaces and the design details of the LQR penalty matrices are tuned by the NSGA-II (Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm). Three objectives are considered: minimizing impacts of external gust loads, maximizing stability robustness, and reducing control energy consumption. To investigate the effect of the air stream velocity on the solution of the optimization problem, three multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs) are formulated and solved at three different airspeeds. The optimization results demonstrate competing relationships among the design objectives and the necessity of handling the design problem in multidisciplinary and multi-objective settings. Three major results are obtained 1) a unique control gain can be designed for the entire flight envelope, 2) the flutter boundaries are extended to more than 92% beyond the design envelope, and 3) the MOP designed at higher air stream velocities offers better design options.
Registration, publication, and outcome reporting among pivotal clinical trials that supported FDA approval of high-risk cardiovascular devices before and after FDAAA.

Selective registration, publication, and outcome reporting of clinical trials distort the primary clinical evidence that is available to patients and clinicians regarding the safety and efficacy of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medical devices. The purpose of this study is to compare registration, publication, and outcome reporting among pivotal clinical trials that supported FDA approval of high-risk (class III) cardiovascular devices before and after the FDA Amendment Act (FDAAA) was enacted in 2007. Using publicly available data from ClinicalTrials.gov , FDA summaries, and PubMed, we determined registration, publication, and reporting of findings for all pivotal clinical studies supporting FDA approval of new high-risk cardiovascular devices between 2005 and 2020, before and after FDAAA. For published studies, we compared both the primary efficacy outcome with the FDA’s Premarket Approval (PMA) primary efficacy outcome and the published interpretation of findings with the FDA reviewer’s interpretation (positive, equivocal, or negative). Between 2005 and 2020, the FDA approved 156 high-risk cardiovascular devices on the basis of 165 pivotal trials, 48 (29%) of which were categorized as pre-FDAAA and 117 (71%) as post-FDAAA. Post-FDAAA, pivotal clinical trials were more likely to be registered (115 of 117 (98%) vs 24 of 48 (50%); p < 0.001), to report results (98 of 117 (87%) vs 7 of 48 (15%); p < 0.001) on ClinicalTrials.gov , and to be published (100 or 117 (85%) vs 28 of 48 (58%); p < 0.001) in peer-reviewed literature when compared to pre-FDAAA. Among published trials, rates of concordant primary efficacy outcome reporting were not significantly different between pre-FDAAA trials and post-FDAAA trials (24 of 28 (86%) vs 96 of 100 (96%); p = 0.07), nor were rates of concordant trial interpretation (27 of 28 (96%) vs 93 of 100 (93%); p = 0.44). FDAAA was associated with increased registration, result reporting, and publication for trials supporting FDA approval of high-risk medical devices. Among published trials, rates of accurate primary efficacy outcome reporting and trial interpretation were high and no different post-FDAAA.
Mechanisms and Management of Chronic Constipation

The mechanisms of chronic constipation are complex and vary in severity from a dietary deficiency of fiber to a diffuse systemic neuropathy. Most patients with milder degrees of constipation will respond promptly to an increase in dietary fiber.1–3 In fact, epidemiologic studies indicate that many colonic disorders that are endemic to Western nations, including the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), constipation, and colon cancer, occur rarely in societies that injest higher quantities of dietary fiber.4,5 In contrast, there are increasing reports about the medical and surgical treatment of more intractable forms of constipation.6–12 Figure 1 shows the abdominal x-rays of a patient with severe constipation due to anal sphincter dysfunction. The diagnosis went unrecognized for over a decade, and thus led to years of discomfort that could have been avoided by earlier treatment. Data from several centers suggest that in a subset of patients, constipation may be the presenting symptom of a diffuse disorder of enteric and autonomic nerves.7,10 An increased understanding of the mechanisms of constipation will lead to a more rational approach to the diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from this condition.
Tase me one more time: an analysis of the Ninth Circuit's interpretation of the fourth amendment, qualified immunity, and tasers in Brooks v. City of Seattle

The article discusses a court case wherein the Ninth Circuit addressed the issue of immunity of police officers when they tased a pregnant woman who refused to exit her car after refusing to sign a traffic ticket. The court ruled in favor of law enforcers using the multi-factor test from a case Graham v. Connor. It argues that the court erred in its decision, exploring also the dangers that Taser guns may inflict especially on pregnant women.
Why Not Ask

In the year of our Lord 1432, there arose a grievous quarrel among the brethren over the number of teeth in the mouth of a horse. For 13 days the disputation raged without ceasing. All the ancient books and chronicles were fetched out, and wonderful and ponderous erudition, such as was never before heard of in this region, was made manifest. At the beginning of the 14th day, a youthful friar of goodly bearing asked his learned superiors for permission to add a word, and straightway, to the wonderment of the disputants, whose wisdom he sore vexed, he beseeched them to unbend in a manner coarse and unheard-of, and to look in the open mouth of a horse and find answer to their questionings. At this, their dignity being grievously hurt, they waxed exceedingly wroth; and, joining in a mighty uproar, they flew upon him and smote him hip and thigh, and cast him out forthwith. For, said they, surely Satan hath tempted this bold neophyte to declare unholy and unheard-of ways of finding the truth contrary to all the teachings of the fathers. Attributed to Francis Bacon, 1592.
Rulemaking 2.0

In response to President Obama’s Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, federal agencies are on the verge of a new generation in online rulemaking. However, unless we recognize the several barriers to making rulemaking a more broadly participatory process, and purposefully adapt Web 2.0 technologies and methods to lower those barriers, Rule-making 2.0 is likely to disappoint agencies and open government advocates alike.This article describes the design, operation and initial results of Regulation Room, a pilot public rulemaking participation platform created by a cross-disciplinary group of Cornell researchers in collaboration with the Department of Transportation. (A companion article, Rulemaking in 140 Characters or Less: Social Networking and Public Participation in Rulemaking, is forthcoming in Pace Law Review.) Regulation Room uses selected live rulemakings to experiment with human and computer support for public comment. The ultimate project goal is to provide guidance on design, technological, and human intervention strategies, grounded in theory and tested in practice, for effective Rulemaking 2.0 systems. Early results give some cause for optimism about the open-government potential of Web 2.0 - supported rulemaking. But significant challenges remain. Broader, better public participation is hampered by 1) ignorance of the rulemaking process; 2) unawareness that rulemakings of interest are going on; and 3) information overload from the length and complexity of rulemaking materials. No existing, commonly used Web services or applications are good analogies for what a Rulemaking 2.0 system must do to lower these barriers. To be effective, the system must not only provide the right mix of technology, content, and human assistance to support users in the unfamiliar environment of complex government policy-making; it must also spur them to revise their expectations about how they engage information on the Web and also, perhaps, about what is required for civic participation.