cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Genetic Analysis of Giant Cell Lesions of the Maxillofacial and Axial/Appendicular Skeletons

Purpose To compare the genetic and protein expression of giant cell lesions (GCLs) of the maxillofacial (MF) and axial/appendicular (AA) skeletons. We hypothesized that when grouped according to biologic behavior and not simply by location, MF and AA GCLs would exhibit common genetic characteristics. Materials and Methods This was a prospective and retrospective study of patients with GCLs treated at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1993 to 2008. In a preliminary prospective study, fresh tissue from 6 aggressive tumors each from the MF and AA skeletons (n = 12 tumors) was obtained. RNA was extracted and amplified from giant cells (GCs) and stromal cells first separated by laser capture microdissection. Genes highly expressed by GCs and stroma at both locations were determined using an Affymetrix GeneChip analysis. As confirmation, a tissue microarray (TMA) was created retrospectively from representative tissue of preserved pathologic specimens to assess the protein expression of the commonly expressed genes found in the prospective study. Quantification of immunohistochemical staining of MF and AA lesions was performed using Aperio image analysis to determine whether immunoreactivity was predictive of aggressive or nonaggressive behavior. Results Five highly ranked genes were found commonly in GCs and stroma at each location: matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), cathepsin K (CTSK), T-cell immune regulator-1 (TCIRG1), C-type lectin domain family-11, and zinc finger protein-836. MF (n = 40; 32 aggressive) and AA (n = 48; 28 aggressive) paraffin-embedded tumors were included in the TMA. The proteins CTSK, MMP-9, and TCIRG1 were confirmed to have abundant expression within both MF and AA lesions. Only the staining levels for TCIRG1 within the GCs predicted the clinical behavior of the MF lesions. Conclusions MMP-9, CTSK, and TCIRG1 are commonly expressed by GCLs of the MF and AA skeletons. This supports the hypothesis that these lesions are similar but at different locations. TCIRG1 has not been previously associated with GCLs and could be a potential target for molecular diagnosis and/or therapy.
Regulation of MYC by protein kinase A and polo-like kinase 1: New therapeutic avenues for cancer

T level of MYC oncoprotein in cells is tightly regulated through transcriptional, translational and post-translational mechanisms. Deregulation of MYC regulation is associated with many cancers. We identified the existence of a novel MYCProtein Kinase A (PKA)-Polo-like Kinase 1 (PLK1) signaling loop in cancer cells. Sequential MYC phosphorylation by PKA and PLK1 protects MYC from proteasome-mediated degradation. Interestingly, short-term pan-PKA inhibition diminishes MYC level, while prolonged PKA catalytic subunit α (PKACα) knockdown, but not PKA catalytic subunit β (PKACβ) knockdown, increased MYC. The short-term effect of pan-PKA inhibition on MYC was identified to be post-translational and the PKACαspecific long-term effect on MYC transcriptional. These data also reveal distinct functional roles among PKA catalytic isoforms in MYC regulation. We attribute this effect to differential phosphorylation selectivity among PKA catalytic subunits, which we demonstrate for multiple substrates. Further, we also show that MYC up-regulates PKACβ transcriptionally forming a proximate positive feedback loop. These results establish PKA as a regulator of MYC and reveal the distinct biological roles of the different PKA catalytic subunits. In addition, these results also highlights both the promise and potential pitfalls of global kinase inhibition, and emphasizes the need to develop next generation therapeutic strategies capable of disrupting specific kinasesubstrate interactions. Achuth Padmanabhan, Biochem Anal Biochem 2013, 2:4 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2161-1009.S1.003
Discrimination, Concept of

The term discrimination can be used in a descriptive or a normative way. To discriminate can mean simply to draw distinctions among people, or it can refer to distinguishing among people in a way that is wrong. When discrimination is wrong, what makes it wrong? Some theories of discrimination focus on an actor’s intention, some on a policy’s effects, and some on its meaning. In addition, scholars debate whether discrimination is a problem about classification and its rationality or instead primarily an issue of subordination. Exploring these issues often occurs in the context of contentious social issues such as affirmative action or same-sex marriage.
An efficient algorithm for computing the exact overlay of triangulations

This paper presents a proposal for the development of 3D-EPUG-Overlay, an efficient algorithm for exactly computing the intersection of 3D triangulations. 3D-EPUG-Overlay will be innovative because of two reasons. First, it will use arbitrary-precision rational numbers to represent and process spatial data, thereby completely avoiding round-off errors caused by floating-point numbers, what could create topological impossibilities. The use of rationals goes beyond merely using existing packages, which are inefficient when used in parallel on large problems. Second, for efficiency, 3D-EPUG-Overlay will use high performance computing and a uniform grid to index the data.In order to validate these ideas, we developed and implemented EPUG-Overlay, a version of 3D-EPUG-Overlay for overlaying polygonal maps. EPUG-Overlay uses a two-level uniform grid for indexing the edges in the maps and high performance computing to accelerate the computations. Preliminary experiments showed that EPUG-Overlay was faster than GRASS GIS, even though GRASS uses inexact arithmetic. This suggests that the 3D version will also be efficient.
Book Review: Mineral Resources, Economics and the Environment, 2nd edition by Stephen E. Kesler and Adam C. Simon

Book Review: Mineral Resources, Economics and the Environment, 2nd edition. By Stephen E. Kesler, Adam C. Simon. (2016) Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781107074910, 446 p. $89.99 (available as e-book). The second edition of Mineral Resources, Economics and the Environment by Stephen E. Kesler and Adam C. Simon is a welcome update and expansion of the 1994 (first) edition by S.E. Kesler. As a teacher and researcher of both environmental geochemistry and geochemistry of hydrothermal ore deposits, I used the first edition of this book as a resource in my graduate-level class called “Mineral Resources and the Environment.” Although the book is written at a level consistent with first to second year undergraduate science students in geology and mineralogy, it could and should have a broad appeal and uses for upper level undergrads and graduate students in other fields of science, engineering, business, law, and even liberal arts. Like all businesses, extractive mineral resource companies (e.g., mining and hydrocarbon extraction) need to be profitable to remain viable. Exploration for new mineral resources is an expensive proposition and the time between the discovery of a valuable deposit and its ultimate extraction is increasing worldwide, most notably in the U.S.A. As a result, and because “time is money,” the cost of finding and then producing new mineral resources is increasing. In addition to the expense of …
Darstellung der wichtigsten Zustandsänderungen im Entropiediagramm

Die isothermische Zustandsanderung zeichnet sich in der Entropietafel als Parallele zur Abszissenachse. Innerhalb der Grenzkurve fallt sie zusammen mit der Kurve konstanten Druckes.
Routine Urethrography After Buccal Graft Bulbar Urethroplasty: The Impact of Initial Urethral Leak on Surgical Success

Objective To determine the long-term impact of extravasation at initial post-urethroplasty urethrogram, we present a novel classification system and report the association of leak severity with outcome. Materials and Methods A total of 91 patients underwent buccal graft urethroplasties of the bulbar urethra from 2007 to 2015. Median time to urethrogram was 23 days. All leaks were characterized by length and width. Cutoffs for length and width were calculated using receiver operating characteristic curves. Each urethrogram was graded 0-3 (0 = no leak) with 1 point given for any leak, length ≥1.03 cm, and width ≥0.32 cm. Failure was stricture recurrence on cystoscopy. One-year failures were compared using Fisher test. Kaplan-Meier curves were constructed to measure the impact of variables on recurrence. Results Mean age was 46.1 years. Of 91 urethroplasties, 31 had extravasation on initial imaging. With median follow-up of 11 months, 15 patients had stricture recurrence, 6 of whom had leak on initial urethrogram. For patients with at least 1 year of follow-up, there was no difference at 1 year for failures, as to any leak (P = .220), length (P = 1.000), width (P = 1.000), or grade (P = .823). Grade 3 was associated with higher failure rates compared with grades ≤2 using Kaplan-Meier curves (P = .031), with the curves significantly diverging around the 1-year mark. Similarly, length ≥1.03 cm was associated with higher failure rates compared with Conclusion Although there is no indication that leaks at 3 weeks are associated with short-term failure, leak length and width appear to be a predictor of longer term recurrence (>1 year).
Structure of aryl O-demethylase offers molecular insight into a catalytic tyrosine-dependent mechanism

Some strains of soil and marine bacteria have evolved intricate metabolic pathways for using environmentally derived aromatics as a carbon source. Many of these metabolic pathways go through intermediates such as vanillate, 3-O-methylgallate, and syringate. Demethylation of these compounds is essential for downstream aryl modification, ring opening, and subsequent assimilation of these compounds into the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, and, correspondingly, there are a variety of associated aryl demethylase systems that vary in complexity. Intriguingly, only a basic understanding of the least complex system, the tetrahydrofolate-dependent aryl demethylase LigM from Sphingomonas paucimobilis, a bacterial strain that metabolizes lignin-derived aromatics, was previously available. LigM-catalyzed demethylation enables further modification and ring opening of the single-ring aromatics vanillate and 3-O-methylgallate, which are common byproducts of biofuel production. Here, we characterize aryl O-demethylation by LigM and report its 1.81-A crystal structure, revealing a unique demethylase fold and a canonical folate-binding domain. Structural homology and geometry optimization calculations enabled the identification of LigM's tetrahydrofolate-binding site and protein-folate interactions. Computationally guided mutagenesis and kinetic analyses allowed the identification of the enzyme's aryl-binding site location and determination of its unique, catalytic tyrosine-dependent reaction mechanism. This work defines LigM as a distinct demethylase, both structurally and functionally, and provides insight into demethylation and its reaction requirements. These results afford the mechanistic details required for efficient utilization of LigM as a tool for aryl O-demethylation and as a component of synthetic biology efforts to valorize previously underused aromatic compounds.
Meeting the Needs of Children with Emotional Problems in a Profoundly Rural Area: A Preventive Model.

In an attempt to better meet the needs of children with emotional problems in profoundly rural areas, the Wyoming Department of Education and the University of Wyoming organized a summer institute ...
Developmental change in children's sensitivity to sound symbolism.

Abstract The current study examined developmental change in children’s sensitivity to sound symbolism. Three-, five-, and seven-year-old children heard sound symbolic novel words and foreign words meaning round and pointy and chose which of two pictures (one round and one pointy) best corresponded to each word they heard. Task performance varied as a function of both word type and age group such that accuracy was greater for novel words than for foreign words, and task performance increased with age for both word types. For novel words, children in all age groups reliably chose the correct corresponding picture. For foreign words, 3-year-olds showed chance performance, whereas 5- and 7-year-olds showed reliably above-chance performance. Results suggest increased sensitivity to sound symbolic cues with development and imply that although sensitivity to sound symbolism may be available early and facilitate children’s word–referent mappings, sensitivity to subtler sound symbolic cues requires greater language experience.
3D Printing of Molecular Models with Calculated Geometries and p Orbital Isosurfaces

3D printing was used to prepare models of the calculated geometries of unsaturated organic structures. Incorporation of p orbital isosurfaces into the models enables students in introductory organic chemistry courses to have hands-on experience with the concept of orbital alignment in strained and unstrained π systems.
Thinking, Fast and Slow

Buku terlaris New York Times Pemenang Penghargaan Buku Terbaik Akademi Sains Nasional pada tahun 2012 Dipilih oleh New York Times Book Review sebagai salah satu dari sepuluh buku terbaik tahun 2011 A Globe and Mail Judul Buku Terbaik Tahun 2011 Salah Satu Buku The Economist tahun 2011 Salah Satu Buku Nonfiksi Terbaik The Wall Street Journal of the Year 2011 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Pekerjaan Kahneman dengan Amos Tversky adalah subyek dari Proyek Undoing Michael Lewis: Persahabatan yang Mengubah Pikiran Kita Dalam buku terlaris internasional, Berpikir, Cepat, dan Lambat, Daniel Kahneman, psikolog terkenal dan pemenang Hadiah Nobel dalam Ekonomi, membawa kita pada perjalanan pemikiran yang inovatif dan menjelaskan dua sistem yang mendorong cara kita berpikir. Sistem 1 cepat, intuitif, dan emosional; Sistem 2 lebih lambat, lebih deliberatif, dan lebih logis. Dampak dari terlalu percaya pada strategi perusahaan, kesulitan memprediksi apa yang akan membuat kita bahagia di masa depan, efek mendalam dari bias kognitif dalam segala hal mulai dari bermain pasar saham hingga merencanakan liburan kita berikutnya ― masing-masing dapat dipahami hanya dengan mengetahui bagaimana kedua sistem tersebut membentuk penilaian dan keputusan kami. Melibatkan pembaca dalam percakapan yang hidup tentang bagaimana kita berpikir, Kahneman mengungkapkan di mana kita bisa dan tidak dapat mempercayai intuisi kita dan bagaimana kita dapat memanfaatkan manfaat dari pemikiran yang lambat. Dia menawarkan wawasan praktis dan mencerahkan tentang bagaimana pilihan dibuat baik dalam bisnis kita dan kehidupan pribadi kita ― dan bagaimana kita dapat menggunakan teknik yang berbeda untuk menjaga gangguan mental yang sering membawa kita ke dalam masalah. Pemenang Penghargaan Buku Terbaik Akademi Sains Nasional dan Hadiah Buku Los Angeles Times dan dipilih oleh The New York Times Book Review sebagai salah satu dari sepuluh buku terbaik tahun 2011, Berpikir, Cepat dan Lambat ditakdirkan menjadi klasik.
Defect-mediated, thermally-activated encapsulation of metals at the surface of graphite

Abstract We show that 3 metals – Dy, Ru, and Cu – can form multilayer intercalated (encapsulated) islands at the graphite (0001) surface if 2 specific conditions are met: Defects are introduced on the graphite terraces to act as entry portals, and the metal deposition temperature is well above ambient. Focusing on Dy as a prototype, we show that surface encapsulation is much different than bulk intercalation, because the encapsulated metal takes the form of bulk-like rafts of multilayer Dy, rather than the dilute, single-layer structure known for the bulk compound. Carbon-covered metallic rafts even form for relatively unreactive metals (Ru and Cu) which have no known bulk intercalation compound.
Variation in the 12-Month Treatment Trajectories of Children and Adolescents After a Diagnosis of Depression.

Importance Depression during childhood and adolescence is heterogeneous. Treatment patterns are often examined in aggregate, yet there is substantial variability across individual treatment trajectories. Understanding this variability can help identify treatment gaps among youths with depression. Objective To characterize heterogeneity in 12-month trajectories of psychotherapy and antidepressant treatment in youths with depression. Design, Setting, and Participants This is a longitudinal-cohort study of youths 18 years or younger with a new diagnosis of depression and at least 12 months of follow-up following diagnosis, as determined from commercial insurance claims filed from 2007 to 2014. Latent class models were fit to summary measures of psychotherapy and antidepressant use in the 12 months following the index diagnosis. We examined variation in baseline health, health care utilization, and health outcomes across classes with similar patterns of psychotherapy and antidepressant use. Data analysis took place between June 2016 and March 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures Psychotherapy and antidepressant use. Results The cohort included 84 909 individuals with a mean (SD) age at index diagnosis of 15.0 (2.6) years, of whom 49 995 (59%) were female. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (n = 14 625; 17%) and anxiety (n = 12 358; 15%) were the most common comorbid diagnoses. During the assessment period, 59 023 individuals (70%) received psychotherapy at any point, and 33 997 individuals (40%) were dispensed antidepressants at any point. Eight classes with distinct treatment trajectories were identified, which we classified into 4 broad groups: 3 classes that received dual therapy (n = 18 710; 22%), 2 classes that received antidepressant monotherapy (n = 15 287; 18%), 2 classes that received psychotherapy monotherapy (n = 40 313; 48%) and 1 class that received no treatment (n = 10 599; 13%). The most common class received psychotherapy monotherapy (n = 35 243; 42%) and had the lowest incidence of attempted suicide (0.8 per 100 person-years [PY]) and inpatient hospitalization (3.5 per 100 PY) during the assessment period and postassessment period (0.5 per 100 PY and 1.3 per 100 PY, respectively). The group receiving dual therapy had the highest incidence of attempted suicide during the assessment period (4.7-7.1 per 100 PY, depending on the class) and postassessment period (1.5-1.7 per 100 PY). Conclusions and Relevance In our sample, 13% of youths received no treatment, and 18% received antidepressants without concomitant psychotherapy. Summary measures of treatment can mask informative patterns of psychotherapy and antidepressant use. Latent class analysis can be used to identify subgroups of individuals with similar treatment trajectories and help identify treatment gaps under current practice patterns.
Ethical, legal, and social implications of learning health systems.

Health information was once generally collected and reserved either to inform clinical care, conduct research, or survey the public's health. Today, with digital data infrastructure, health information can technically flow between all of these purposes simultaneously, enabling learning health systems (LHSs) and related enterprises. LHSs are emerging through infrastructural innovation that allows for connectedness in data collection, analytics to transform data to knowledge, and application of that knowledge in practice and in ways that generate new data through evaluation of outcomes (Figure 1).1 LHSs create cycles of continuous improvement that will allow health systems to address well‐known, chronic maladies—e.g., high rates of medical error, spiraling costs, the slow rate of translational science, and failure to implement agreed‐upon best practices.2, 3 LHSs represent an innovation in health infrastructure such that learning occurs at multiple levels of scale, ranging from individuals, single practices, and systems to systems of systems spanning organizational and geopolitical boundaries. LHSs are successful when platforms and culture support efficient organization of technology, people, processes, and policy.4 Open in a separate window Figure 1 Learning health systems are infrastructural innovations
Self-assembled Nanomaterials for Bacterial Infection Diagnosis and Therapy

Self-assembled nanomaterials are composed of building blocks through non-covalent interaction and spontaneously arranged into well-ordered nanostructures with defined functions. The well-organized arrangement and the two-/three-dimensional nanostructure of the architectures endow the nanomaterials abundant excellent biofunctions for bacterial infection detection and therapy applications. Beyond nature-inspired sources, the hybrid artificial nanomaterials including inorganic nanoparticles, nanosized small synthetic molecules assemblies, self-assembled multilayer polymers are reviewed in this chapter. In addition, the design concept, assembled driving forces, nanostructural effect, antimicrobial mechanism, detection methods are also discussed and summarized. As the promising field, in vivo self-assembled nanomaterials with specific stimuli-responsiveness and surprised biofunctions are also included in this chapter to explore and fabricate fascinated self-assembled nanomaterials.
Cultural entrepreneurship in U.S. cities

The cultural economy and entrepreneurship have been recognized as driving forces for urban and regional economic development. However, the overlap between the two—that is, cultural entrepreneurship...
Earnings Performance of African Immigrants: Evidence from the American Community Survey

Although the number of African immigrants in the U.S. has increased rapidly in recent decades, relatively little regarding their economic performance and assimilation appears in the economics literature. We use pooled cross-sectional data (2011–2015) from the American Community Survey to explore the effects on African immigrant earnings of immigrant characteristics such as degrees attained, type of major, years in the U.S., citizenship status, English-speaking abilities, and country of origin. We also use earnings functions to analyze the earnings assimilation of African immigrants with natives over the past decade. The results show that college-educated African immigrants have experienced some earnings convergence with natives between 2005 and 2015. Surprisingly, the assimilation analysis of non-college graduate African immigrants shows that they have achieved an earnings advantage over native non-college graduates.
Complexation of an indole-based α-aminoimine ligand to Pd(II)

Abstract The indole-based α-aminoimine ligand 6-Me-4-iPr-6-{(2,6-iPr2-C6H3)N CMe}-6,11-dihydro-5H-indolo[3,2-c]quinoline (6) was synthesized by condensation of (2,6-iPr2-C6H3)N C(Me)C( O)Me (5) and 2-(indol-2-yl)-6-iPr-C6H3NH2 (4). Ligand 6 coordinates in a κ2-C N,NH fashion in the square planar complex (6)PdCl2.
Chemistry of Cuticular Sclerotization

Abstract Sclerotization hardens the exoskeletons of newly molted cuticle of nearly all insects. Sclerotization involves the reactions of endogenously generated reactive catecholamine derivates with structural proteins and chitin fibers. The biochemical mechanism of this vital process that is essential for the survival of nearly all insects is summarized in this review. As many as four reactive intermediates – quinones, quinone methides, quinone methide imine amide and semiquinones –have been identified so far. The reactions of these molecules are summarized. The participation of other forces such as non-covalent interaction is critically evaluated. Based on this, the unified mechanism proposed by this laboratory is strengthened. The biochemistry of the unified mechanism for hardening is discussed and compared with other physiologically important processes such as eumelanization that occurs in nearly all organisms, byssal adhesion and tunic formation that takes place in a variety of marine animals.
Heterogeneity in the Social Networks of Young and Older Adults: Prediction of Mental Health and Cardiovascular Reactivity during Acute Stress

We examined the utility of a broad framework that separated positive, negative, and ambivalent social network members. One hundred thirty-three young and older participants completed the social relationships index, measures of mental health, and a cardiovascular reactivity protocol. Results replicated prior research on the beneficial influence of positive (supportive) ties on psychological outcomes. More important, analyses also revealed that the number of ambivalent network ties predicted age-related differences in depression and sympathetic control of heart rate reactivity during stress. The statistical interactions between age and ambivalent ties on cardiovascular responses during stress were not changed when statistically controlling for other social network categories, demographic variables, and various personality factors. These data suggest that social network ambivalence was a relatively unique predictor of cardiovascular reactivity and highlight the utility of separating the variance due to positive, negative, and ambivalent network ties. Implications for the study of social relationships, physiological processes, and health outcomes are also discussed.
User Role-Based Security Model for a Distributed Environment

A distributed resource environment (DRE) allows distributed components (i.e., servers, legacy systems, databases, COTs, printers, scanners, etc.) to be treated akin to OS resources, where each component (resource) can publish services (an API), that are then available for use by clients and resources alike. DREs have lagged in support of security. To address this deficiency, this paper concentrates on proposing a technique for seamlessly integrating a role-based security model, authorization, authentication, and enforcement into a DRE, including our prototyping with the JINI DRE.
Population Pharmacokinetics of Amikacin in Adult Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

Practitioners commonly use amikacin in patients with cystic fibrosis. Establishment of the pharmacokinetics of amikacin in adults with cystic fibrosis may increase the efficacy and safety of therapy. This study was aimed to establish the population pharmacokinetics of amikacin in adults with cystic fibrosis. We used serum concentration data obtained during routine therapeutic drug monitoring and explored the influence of patient covariates on drug disposition. We performed a retrospective chart review to collect the amikacin dosing regimens, serum amikacin concentrations, blood sampling times, and patient characteristics for adults with cystic fibrosis admitted for treatment of acute pulmonary exacerbations. Amikacin concentrations were retrospectively collected for 49 adults with cystic fibrosis, and 192 serum concentrations were available for analysis. A population pharmacokinetic model was developed using nonlinear mixed-effects modeling with the first-order conditional estimation method. A two-compartment model with first-order elimination best described amikacin pharmacokinetics. Creatinine clearance and weight were identified as significant covariates for clearance and the volume of distribution, respectively, in the final model. Residual variability was modeled using a proportional error model. Typical estimates for clearance, central and peripheral volumes of distribution, and intercompartmental clearance were 3.06 liters/h, 14.4 liters, 17.1 liters, and 0.925 liters/h, respectively. The pharmacokinetics of amikacin in individuals with cystic fibrosis seems to differ from those in individuals without cystic fibrosis. However, further investigations are needed to confirm these results and, thus, the need for variations in amikacin dosing. Future pharmacodynamic studies will potentially establish the optimal amikacin dosing regimens for the treatment of acute pulmonary exacerbations in adult patients with CF.
Teaching and Learning about Diversity and Social Justice at the Graduate Level: Students' Attitudes toward Classroom Sharing.

This paper explores student participation in dialogue in two sections of a master’s level course in diversity and social justice. The researchers, including a student from the course and the instru...
Delayed Spine Pruning of Direct Pathway Spiny Projection Neurons in a Mouse Model of Parkinson's Disease

In animal models of Parkinson's disease (PD), principal striatal spiny projection neurons (SPNs) lose axospinous synapses. However, there has been a disagreement about whether this loss is restricted to a specific type of SPN or not, as some studies have reported pruning in both direct pathway SPNs and indirect pathway SPNs, while others have found this pruning to be restricted to indirect pathway SPNs. One possible explanation for the discrepancy is the period between the induction of the parkinsonian state and the assessment of spine loss. To test this hypothesis, transgenic mice were subjected to unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons and then direct pathway SPNs examined in ex vivo brain slices using two photon laser scanning microscopy either one or 2 months afterwards. These studies revealed that 1 month after the lesion, there was no loss of spines in direct pathway SPNs. However, 2 months after the lesion, spine loss was significant in direct pathway SPNs. In addition to reconciling the existing literature on the impact of the parkinsonian state on axospinous synapse elimination in SPNs, our results suggest that the delayed spine loss in direct pathway SPNs is not driven by homeostatic mechanisms [as posited for indirect pathway (iSPNs)], but rather by network pathophysiology.
The piano pedagogy scenes in India and the Philippines: An introductory cross-cultural comparison:

Categorized as developing nations, India and the Philippines are not generally known as centers for piano study. There has been little research investigating the traditions of piano education in th...
The Back Plate Inscription and eclipse scheme of the Antikythera Mechanism revisited

This paper presents a new edition of the Back Plate Inscription (BPI) of the Antikythera Mechanism, a series of descriptions of circumstances associated with eclipses indicated cyclically by the inscriptions of the Mechanism’s Saros Dial Scale. Our edition features several significant new readings as well as the confirmation of a disputed reading pertaining to one of the index letters by which the BPI’s paragraphs are linked to the specific eclipse glyphs of the Saros Dial. On the basis of the new text, we deduce a revision of the established models for determining which lunar months of the Saros cycle had solar and lunar eclipse possibilities (EPs) and for assigning the solar EPs to paragraphs of the BPI. We further confirm that the entire extant part of the BPI comprises consecutive paragraphs concerning the solar EPs, all inscribed along the right side of the Mechanism’s Back Plate, and we revisit the questions of what the BPI’s predictions mean and how they relate to the model for the solar EPs.
More Elongated Solution Structures in Lignin Precursors Improve Properties of Resultant Carbon Fibers

Kraft lignin was isolated into fractions encompassing a range of molecular weights (MW) using a fractionation/purification process. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) was used to determine the a...
Reflections on Encountering Minor-Transnationalism

This essay is a reflection on the “Trans-Pacific Japanese Diaspora Art” symposium and my paper “Ancestral Cartography: Transpacific Interchanges and Okinawan Indigeneity.” I also offer an overview ...
The technological, organizational and environmental determinants of adoption of mobile health applications (m-health) by hospitals in Kenya.

Introduction Sub-Saharan Africa lags in adoption of mobile health (m-health) applications and in leveraging m-health for sustainable development goals. There is a need for a comprehensive investigation of determinants of hospitals' adoption of m-health in Sub-Saharan Africa to inform policies, practices and investments. Methods This investigation used a logit regression model to analyze the determinants of m-health adoption in Kenyan hospitals applying the Technological, Organizational and Environmental (TOE) framework and the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory. A representative sample of 211 executives of Level 4-6 hospitals in 24 counties provided primary data on Patient-Centered (PC) and Facility-Centered (FC) m-health applications. Results Both PC and FC m-health adoption were predicted by competition for patients (PC p = 0.041, FC p = 0.021), IT human resource capacity (PC p = 0.048, FC p = 0.037), and hospital pursuit of market growth through technological leadership (PC p = 0.010, FC p = 0.020). Further determinants of PC m-health adoption included hospital access to slack financial resources (p = 0.006), acquisition strategy (p = 0.011), compatibility with the hospital systems (p = 0.015), trialability (p = 0.019), medical insurance company support (p = 0.025),patient pressure (p = 0.036), and perceived effect of global medical tourism (p = 0.039). FC m-health adoption was predicted by hospital size (p = 0.008), ICT infrastructure capacity (p = 0.041), and government support (p = 0.013). Conclusion A differentiated approach is required to scale up m-health adoption. PC m-health requires emphasis on establishing national and regional compatibility and interoperability, developing trialability processes and validation mechanisms, incentivizing patient competition and mobility, establishing innovative and cost-effective acquisition strategies, and ensuring integration of digital services within national insurance schemes and policies. These policies require support from patients and communities to drive demand and spur investment in adequate IT human resources to maintain reliability. Pilot PC m-health projects should prioritize hospitals with slack financial resources, while FC m-health should target large facility size. FC m-health applications are more complex and costly than PC, requiring government incentives to trigger hospital investments and national investment in ICT infrastructure. Investors and hospital managers should integrate m-health into market growth strategies for sustainable m-health scale-up in Kenya and beyond.
TNet: Phylogeny-Based Inference of Disease Transmission Networks Using Within-Host Strain Diversity

The inference of disease transmission networks from genetic sequence data is an important problem in epidemiology. One popular approach for building transmission networks is to reconstruct a phylogenetic tree using sequences from disease strains sampled from (a subset of) infected hosts and infer transmissions based on this tree. However, most existing phylogenetic approaches for transmission network inference cannot take within-host strain diversity into account, which affects their accuracy, and, moreover, are highly computationally intensive and unscalable.
What Science and STEM Teachers Can Learn from COVID-19: Harnessing Data Science and Computer Science through the Convergence of Multiple STEM Subjects

The COVID-19 pandemic is a historic global event that has extended to all parts of society and shaken the core of what we know and how we live. During this pandemic, the work of STEM professionals ...
Experiências pedagógicas da práxis tecnológica: (re)pensando seus sentidos tecnopoiéticos

Trata-se de uma resenha da obra As Tecnologias na Educacao: (re)pensando seus sentidos tecnopoieticos, organizada por Adilson Cristiano Habowski e Elaine Conte, publicada em 2019. A obra reune um conjunto de catorze artigos com a finalidade de desvendar a atividade criadora do trabalho pedagogico, em termos de faculdade tecnopoietica (Alvaro Vieira Pinto), aprofundando experiencias pedagogicas com as tecnologias em transformacoes reais. A obra, no seu conjunto, desperta para pensar questoes das tecnologias em termos de racionalidade, construcao de identidades, formas de linguagens e relacoes sociais, enfocando tambem o papel das tecnologias como dimensoes da pratica social.
Brainstem hypoxic–ischemic lesions on MRI in infants treated with therapeutic cooling: effects on the length of stay and mortality

To test the hypothesis that brainstem hypoxic–ischemic injury on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) would be independently associated with short-term outcomes in cooled asphyxiated infants. A total of 90 consecutively cooled asphyxiated infants who survived to have brain MRI were reviewed. A neuroradiologist who was masked to outcomes evaluated MRI images for brainstem involvement. Outcomes were mortality and length of stay. Brainstem lesions were present on post-cooling brain MRI in 20 of the 90 infants (22%). Overall, four infants died before discharge, and all four had brainstem involvement. The infants with brainstem involvement had longer hospital stay (29 days, IQR 20–47 versus 16 days, IQR 10–26; P = 0.0001), compared to infants without brainstem lesions (n = 70); and upon multivariate analysis, brainstem involvement remained independently associated with prolonged hospital stay (β = 12.4, P = 0.001). This study demonstrates the importance of recognizing brainstem injury for the prediction of short-term outcomes in cooled asphyxiated infants.
Adding Supra-Aortic Trunk Surgical Reconstruction to Carotid Endarterectomy: Implications on Risk of Stroke and Death.

Background Additive risks of combining supra-aortic trunk surgical reconstruction (SAT) with carotid endarterectomy (CEA) for associated carotid bifurcation and great vessel disease management are not well defined. This study sought to define risk of combining SAT with CEA. Study design Isolated CEA (ICEA) and CEA+SAT (from 2005 to 2015) were identified from NSQIP, excluding nonocclusive indications. CEA+SAT were compared with ICEA as well as a propensity-matched ICEA cohort. Primary outcomes included 30-day stroke, death, and composite (SD). Outcomes were then weighted by symptomatic status. Univariate and logistic regression analyses were performed. Results Patients included 79,477 ICEA and 270 CEA+SAT. SAT reconstructions included 19 (7%) aorto-carotid bypasses, 21 (8%) carotid-subclavian transpositions, 85 (31%) carotid-carotid bypasses, and 145 (54%) carotid-subclavian bypasses. There was no difference in 30-day mortality (vs CEA+SAT 1.5% vs ICEA 0.7% p = 0.12). CEA+SAT had higher rates of stroke (3.7% vs 1.6%, p = 0.005) and stroke and death (SD) (4.8% vs 2.1%, p = 0.001). Predictors of SD included CEA+SAT (odds ratio [OR] 5.2, 95% CI 1.03–26.3, p = 0.046) and symptomatic status (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1–3.2, p = 0.02). After propensity matching, CEA+SAT continued to have higher rates of stroke (3.4% vs 0.4%, p = 0.01) and SD (4.5% vs 1.5%, p = 0.04), with similar mortality (1.5% vs 1.1%, p = 0.70). No differences were noted in primary endpoints in asymptomatic patients. In symptomatic patients, CEA+SAT carried significantly higher stroke (5.6% vs 2.1%, p = 0.04) and SD risk (7.0% vs 2.8%, p = 0.03). Conclusions CEA+SAT confers increased risk of stroke and SD over ICEA. Symptomatic status and concomitant procedure contribute to this risk. Management should be considered within the context of lesion characteristics, patient longevity, and individual operative risk profile.
Natural variation in Caenorhabditis elegans responses to the anthelmintic emodepside

Treatment of parasitic nematode infections depends primarily on the use of anthelmintics. However, this drug arsenal is limited, and resistance against most anthelmintics is widespread. Emodepside is a new anthelmintic drug effective against gastrointestinal and filarial nematodes. Nematodes that are resistant to other anthelmintic drug classes are susceptible to emodepside, indicating that the emodepside mode of action is distinct from previous anthelmintics. The laboratory-adapted Caenorhabditis elegans strain N2 is sensitive to emodepside, and genetic selection and in vitro experiments implicated slo-1, a BK potassium channel gene, in emodepside mode of action. In an effort to understand how natural populations will respond to emodepside, we measured brood sizes and developmental rates of wild C. elegans strains after exposure to the drug and found natural variation across the species. Some of the observed variation in C. elegans emodepside responses correlates with amino acid substitutions in slo-1, but genetic mechanisms other than slo-1 coding variants likely underlie emodepside resistance in wild C. elegans strains. Additionally, the assayed strains have higher offspring production in low concentrations of emodepside (a hormetic effect), which could impact treatment strategies when parasites are underdosed. We find that natural variation affects emodepside sensitivity, supporting the suitability of C. elegans as a model system to study emodepside responses across natural nematode populations. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=135 SRC="FIGDIR/small/425329v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (18K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@10609a8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1642033org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@7e359corg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1f19818_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG HighlightsO_LIEmodepside responses vary across the C. elegans species. C_LIO_LIWild strains of C. elegans model natural differences in parasite emodepside responses. C_LIO_LIVariation in the emodepside target slo-1 and other loci correlate with resistance. C_LIO_LILow doses of emodepside cause a hormetic effect on offspring production. C_LI
Collective Sensitivity of Artificial Hair Sensors to Flow Direction

We study the collective response of synthetic hair sensors to changes in the airflow direction. Specifically, we examine whether an array of isotropic sensors, which are unable to detect the direct...
WDVV-type relations for Welschinger invariants: Applications

We first recall Solomon’s relations for Welschinger invariants counting real curves in real symplectic fourfolds and the Witten–Dijkgraaf–Verlinde–Verlinde (WDVV)-style relations for Welschinger invariants counting real curves in real symplectic sixfolds with some symmetry. We then explicitly demonstrate that, in some important cases (projective spaces with standard conjugations, real blowups of the projective plane, and two- and threefold products of the one-dimensional projective space with two involutions each), these relations provide complete recursions determining all Welschinger invariants from basic input. We include extensive tables of Welschinger invariants in low degrees obtained from these recursions with Mathematica. These invariants provide lower bounds for counts of real rational curves, including with curve insertions in smooth algebraic threefolds.
Iron Redox Shuttles with Wide Optical Gap Dyes for High-Voltage Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

A series of iron polypyridyl redox shuttles were synthesized in the 2+ and 3+ oxidation states and paired with a series of wide optical gap organic dyes with weak aryl ether electron-donating groups. High voltage dye-sensitized solar cell (HV-DSC) devices were obtained through controlling the redox shuttle energetics and dye donor structure. The use of aryl ether donor groups, in place of commonly used aryl amines, allowed for the lowering of the dye ground-state oxidation potential which enabled challenging to oxidize redox shuttles based on Fe2+ polypyridyl structures to be used in functional devices. By carefully designing a dye series that varies the number of alkyl chains for TiO2 surface protection, the recombination of electrons in TiO2 to the oxidized redox shuttle could be controlled, leading to HV-DSC devices of up to 1.4 V.
A Systematic Review of Mandibular Distraction Osteogenesis Versus Orthodontic Airway Plate for Airway Obstruction Treatment in Pierre Robin Sequence.

Objective:Mandibular distraction osteogenesis (MDO) is frequently performed to address airway obstruction in patients with Pierre Robin sequence (PRS), though more recently the technique of orthodo...
Battle of the Defaults: Extracting Performance Characteristics of HDF5 under Production Load

Popular parallel I/O libraries, such as HDF5, provide tuning parameters to obtain superior performance. However, the selection of effective parameters on production systems is complex due to the interdependence of I/O software and file system layers. Hence, application developers typically use the default parameters and often experience poor I/O performance. This work conducts a benchmarking-based analysis on the HDF5 behaviors with a wide variety of I/O patterns to extract performance characteristics under the production workload. To make the analysis well controlled, we exercise I/O benchmarks on POSIX-IO, MPI-IO, and HDF5 using the same I/O patterns and in the same jobs. To address high performance variability in production environments, we repeat the benchmarks across I/O patterns, storage devices, and time intervals. Based on the results, we identified consistent HDF5 behaviors that appropriate configurations and operations on dataset layout and file-metadata placement can improve performance significantly. We apply our findings and evaluate the tuned I/O library on two supercomputers: Summit and Cori. The results show that our tuned parameters can achieve more than 10× I/O performance speedup than that with default parameters on both systems, suggesting the effectiveness, stability, and generality of our solution.
Application of a Mutant Cell Library to Determine the Structure-Function Relationship of Heparan Sulfate in Facilitating FGF2-FGFR1 Signaling.

Heparan sulfate (HS) is a linear polysaccharide with complex structures and modulates a wide range of biological functions. Elucidating the structure-function relationship of HS has been challenging. Recently, we generated a HS mutant mouse lung endothelial cell library by systematic deletion of HS genes expressed in the cell individually or in their combination. Here, we describe the experimental procedure using the mutant cell library to determine the structure-function relationship of HS in the regulation of FGF2-FGFR1 signaling at the levels of cell surface FGF2 binding and the downstream intracellular signaling activation. Our results demonstrated that strictly defined fine structure is required for HS to act as a co-receptor for FGF2-FGFR1 signaling.
Modeling oxidised polypyrrole in the condensed phase with a novel force ﬁeld.

A novel model potential is developed for simulating oxidised oligopyrroles in condensed phases. The force ﬁeld is a coarse grained model that represents the pyrrole monomers as planar rigid bodies with ﬁxed charge and dipole moment and the chlorine dopants as point atomic charges. The analytic function contains 17 adjustable parameters that are initially ﬁtted on a database of small structures calculated within all-electron density functional theory. A subsequent potential function reﬁnement is pursued with a battery of condensed phase isothermal-isobaric Metropolis Monte Carlo in-silico simulations at ambient conditions with the goal of implementing a hybrid parametrization protocol enabling agreement with experimentally known thermodynamic properties of oxidised polypyrrole. The condensed system is composed of oligomers containing 12 monomers with a 1:3 dopant-to-monomer concentration. The ﬁnal set of force ﬁeld optimised parameters yields an equilibrium density of the condensed system at ambient conditions in excellent agreement with oxidised polypyrrole samples synthesised in wet-laboratories.
Feedback insensitivity to small measurement errors

This paper provides a precise result which shows that, if a (continuous-time, finite-dimensional) system is stabilizable in any way whatsoever (even by means of a dynamic, time varying, discontinuous feedback) then it can also be stabilized in a way which is insensitive to small measurement errors. This robustness property cannot be achieved, in general, by memoryless state-feedback controllers; the solution given involves a hybrid strategy based on the idea of sampling at a "slow enough" rate.