cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Too counter-intuitive to believe? Pragmatic accounts of mixed quotation

Intuitively, an utterance of:(1) Alice said that life is “difficult to understand”would not be true unless Alice uttered the very words “difficult to understand.” However, several recent theories of “mixed quotation” contend that the intuition here is a misleading one. According to these theories, the truth conditions of (1) are identical to those of:(2) Alice said that life is difficult to understand.On such accounts, the quotation marks in (1) are of only pragmatic significance. That Alice uttered the quoted words is something the speaker might well convey in uttering (1); it is not something literally expressed by the utterance itself. Whatever its theoretical motivations, these contentions are undeniably counter-intuitive and the pragmaticist owes us an explanation of where they come from. This paper presents and evaluates various strategies that a pragmaticist with respect to mixed quotation might appeal to in an effort to explain the source of the counter-intuitive consequences of his theory.
The formation of peroxynitrite in vivo from nitric oxide and superoxide

Abstract Peroxynitrite is predicted to be formed in vivo from the reaction of nitric oxide and superoxide. Nitric oxide at concentrations as low as 3 nM is expected to compete efficiently for Superoxide near the surface of endothelial cells, based on competition kinetics.
A result on the rank of submatrices and an economic application

Abstract In this paper, equality of ranks of particular submatrices in a matrix and its inverse is shown. These results are applied briefly to local duality and functional structure. Examples from production economics are used to illustrate the significance of the results.
Monetary versus real exchange rate targets when capital mobility is limited

Abstract A country that follows a PPP exchange-rate rule with limited capital mobility will face a trade-off between output and price stability, providing money demand is not extremely sensitive to expectations. This conclusion is thus the same as in the closed economy model of Taylor (1979).
A Mechanical Model of Porcine Vascular Tissues-Part I: Determination of Macromolecular Component Arrangement and Volume Fractions

Blood vessels are designed to transport blood to and from the various tissues of the body. To accomplish this task, they must support enough stress to prevent mechanical failure under normal physiological conditions yet must be able to remain flexible and elastic enough to aid the heart in maintaining blood flow. The endothelium, smooth muscles, fibroblasts and the extracellular matrix must act in concert to produce and maintain a material that is capable of withstanding these stresses and alter the mechanics of vascular tissue if needed. Over time, these requirements have led to the widely accepted view that the form and function of biological materials are intimately connected. The purpose of this study was to determine the morphological differences between various blood vessels and the impact of these differences, if any, on the mechanics of these tissues. The results of our work suggest that all vascular smooth muscle cells are embedded in a collagen matrix with a 1:1 volume fraction ratio. The primary differences between blood vessels of the juvenile porcine model appear to involve differences in the volume fraction and density of elastic tissue and medial thickness. In addition, cross-linking probably plays a significant role in altering mechanical properties.
TIDE-DRIVEN NUTRIENT TRANSPORT IN A BEACH MESOCOSM IN THE ABSENCE OF WAVES

ABSTRACT This paper investigates nutrient transport in a beach mesocosm operating under tidal action in the absence of waves. Numerical modeling results were compared to experimental data obtained from a tracer study on a mesocosm simulating a sand beach. Sodium chloride solution (simulating nutrient addition) was applied on the surface of the beach and was monitored at five locations in a 6.30-m length of sand plume. Both the numerical results and the experimental data agreed with findings from previously published data, where it was observed that the tracer plume moves downward and seaward and that the water table inside the beach is mostly above seawater level. Good agreement occurred between simulated water levels and observed levels; however, a mediocre fit was achieved between the simulated and the observed tracer concentrations because local variations existed in the saturated hydraulic conductivity, whereas the numerical model assumed a homogeneous domain. Implications of the results for bioremedi...
Genome Size Reduction in the Chicken Has Involved Massive Loss of Ancestral Protein-Coding Genes

Both mean genomes size and the variance in genome size among species are smaller on average in birds (class Aves) than in the other tetrapod classes. In order to test whether loss of protein-coding genes has contributed to genome size reduction in birds, we compared the chicken genome and five mammalian genomes. Numbers of members (paralogs) were significantly lower in the chicken gene families than in the corresponding mammalian families. Phylogenetic analyses of chicken, mammal, and fish paralogs supported the hypothesis that chicken-specific loss of paralogs occurred much more frequently than mammal-specific gene duplications. Moreover, the phylogenetic analyses supported the hypothesis that a substantial majority of the paralogs lost in chicken originated from duplications prior to the most recent common ancestor of tetrapods and bony fishes. In addition to loss of paralogs, numerous gene families present in the mammalian genomes were missing in the chicken genome; over 1,000 of these families were found in bony fishes, implying presence of the family in the tetrapod ancestor. In the set of families with more members on average in the mammals than in the chicken, immune system function was associated with a greater degree of gene family size reduction in the chicken, consistent with other evidence that immune system gene families have become particularly compact in birds.
The soft classroom 17 years later

Abstract A 17-year follow-up was conducted on an innovative classroom designed to improve esthetics and increase student participation. Despite a deterioration in esthetics due to neglect and poor maintenance, the room continued to maintain a constituency among students and faculty, and to enhance student participation relative to straight-row classrooms. Problems remain of accommodating an innovative design within a bureaucratic system based on standardization of spaces and functions.
Excited states of tryptophan in cod parvalbumin. Identification of a short-lived emitting triplet state at room temperature.

The fluorescence and phosphorescence spectra of model indole compounds and of cod parvalbumin III, a protein containing a single tryptophan and no tyrosine, were examined in the time scale ranging from subnanoseconds to milliseconds at 25 degrees C in aqueous buffer. For both Ca- bound and Ca-free parvalbumin and for model indole compounds that contained a proton donor, a phosphorescent species emitting at 450 nm with a lifetime of approximately 20–40 ns could be identified. A longer-lived phosphorescence is also apparent; it has approximately the same absorption and emission spectrum as the short-lived triplet molecule. For Ca parvalbumin, the decay of the long-lived triplet tryptophan is roughly exponential with a lifetime of 4.7 ms at 25 degrees C whereas for N-acetyltryptophanamide in aqueous buffer the decay lifetime was 30 microseconds. In contrast, the lifetime of the long-lived tryptophan species is much shorter in the Ca-free protein compared with Ca parvalbumin, and the decay shows complex nonexponential kinetics over the entire time range from 100 ns to 1 ms. It is concluded that the photochemistry of tryptophan must take into account the existence of two excited triplet species and that there are quenching moieties within the protein matrix that decrease the phosphorescence yield in a dynamic manner for the Ca-depleted parvalbumin. In contrast, for Ca parvalbumin, the tryptophan site is rigid on the time scale of milliseconds.
A fully coupled porous flow and geomechanics model for fluid driven cracks: a peridynamics approach

A state-based non-local peridynamic formulation is presented for simulating fluid driven fractures in an arbitrary heterogeneous poroelastic medium. A recently developed peridynamic formulation of porous flow has been coupled with the existing peridynamic formulation of solid and fracture mechanics resulting in a peridynamic model that for the first time simulates poroelasticity and fluid-driven fracture propagation. This coupling is achieved by modeling the role of pore pressure on the deformation of porous media and vice versa through porosity variation with medium deformation, pore pressure and total mean stress. The poroelastic model is verified by simulating the one-dimensional consolidation of fluid saturated rock. An additional porous flow equation with material permeability dependent on fracture width is solved to simulate fluid flow in the fractured region. Finally, single fluid-driven fracture propagation with a two-dimensional plane strain assumption is simulated and verified against the corresponding classical analytical solution.
Interpolation and estimation with spatially located data

Abstract Myers, D.E., 1991. Interpolation and estimation with spatially located data. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems , 11: 209–228. Kriging is a regression method used with irregularly spaced data in 1-, 2- or 3-space for the estimation of values at unsampled locations or for the estimation of the spatial average over a length, area or volume. The estimator is linear in the data and the weights are obtained from a system of linear equations in which the coefficients are the values of variograms or covariance functions quantifying the correlation between data at two sample locations or between a sample location and the location to be estimated. The equations are obtained by minimizing the variance of the error of estimation, the variance being computed from a theoretical model for the correlation function rather than from empirical values as in most regression formulations. Estimation and modeling of this structure function is the most important and potentially the most difficult step in the process. While the method is not implemented in standard statistical packages, public domain software for use on an IBM personal computer or clone is available. The theory is briefly reviewed, practical aspects of the application of the method are discussed and available software and extensions are outlined. The US EPA Dallas Lead Study data is used to illustrate the problems and the method.
Dielectric materials for window applications

Radio frequency (RF) windows, used in input power couplers for linear particle accelerators, are one of the components limiting the amount of power that can be coupled into an accelerator. The window failures are thought to be due to a nonlinear surface heating caused by multipacting and material imperfections. For continuous wave (CW) and superconducting accelerator applications reliable windows are critical because window failures are devastating to the system. The most common material used for RF windows is high purity polycrystalline alumina; however, alternative dielectric materials are examined in this report, focusing on aluminum nitride as a material for high power RF windows. The desirable material properties of the RF window material are discussed, then previous studies comparing dielectric materials for RF windows are examined. To learn more about the quality and properties of aluminum nitride, the material properties of the aluminum nitride and alumina ceramics used in the electronic packaging industry are also examined. In addition, an analytical study of ceramic windows in fusion reactors, which compares alumina and aluminum nitride is overviewed. Finally, the effects of processing on the properties of alumina nitride are examined and it is concluded that aluminum nitride will be a promising candidate material for RF windows.
Quantized Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equations, quantum Yang-Baxter equation, and difference equations for q-hypergeometric functions

Thesl2 quantized Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equations are solved inq-hypergeometric functions. New difference equations are derived for generalq-hypergeometric functions. The equations are given in terms of quantum Yang-Baxter matrices and have the form similar to quantum Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equations for quantum affine algebras introduced by Frenkel and Reshetikhin.
Cm,omega extension by bounded -depth linear operators

Abstract Let C m , ω ( R n ) be the space of functions on R n whose m -th derivatives have modulus of continuity ω , and C m , ω ( E ) the space of restrictions to E ⊆ R n of functions in C m , ω ( R n ) . We show that for any closed set E ⊆ R n , there exists a linear extension operator T : C m , ω ( E ) → C m , ω ( R n ) that assumes a particularly simple form, namely, T has “depth” d depending only on m and n .
Sieving and expanders

Abstract Let V be an orbit in Z n of a finitely generated subgroup Λ of GL n ( Z ) whose Zariski closure Zcl ( Λ ) is suitably large (e.g. isomorphic to SL 2 ). We develop a Brun combinatorial sieve for estimating the number of points on V for which a fixed set of integral polynomials take prime or almost prime values. A crucial role is played by the expansion property of the ‘congruence graphs’ that we associate with V. This expansion property is established when Zcl ( Λ ) = SL 2 . To cite this article: J. Bourgain et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 343 (2006).
The Matrix as Sacred Canopy: Teaching Theory in Religion

Introduction When theory in religion is taught well, classes become electric with thought, as students engage the theoretical intricacies of classic and contemporary theorists. Indeed, on occasion, students not only understand theory, but critique and create it. We have seeded this field of creative and critical thought, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in the theory of religion over the last ten years. During our most recent course, the lightning hit the ground, in large part because we used the Wachowski brothers’ Matrix trilogy. Many students had seen these films, but not all – some were aficionados of the films, while others stopped after the initial 1999 film The Matrix, balking at the film’s violence. Our class dove into the movies with eyes newly focused by the lens of theory in the study of religion. We used the films for a fifty student undergraduate course and found that the papers the students produced were articulate examinations not only of the films, but more importantly, of the use of theory and its application to cultural phenomena from the perspective of the study of religion. Discussions in class and students’ written papers lit up our hopes that theory can be much more than dry abstraction – it can be a creative field of thought. This essay explains what we did in the course – what texts we used and how we implemented the Matrix trilogy – and provides background on the movies themselves. We examine and reflect on several of the best student papers using theory to interpret the Matrix. Finally, we argue that theory is a form of critical thinking which is not so much a matter of creating the right answers, but of provoking better questions – questions that lead to greater understanding, to more adequate theories, and indeed to creative contributions from students. In this sense, the application of theory can lead to theory building as an adventure of thought, creating dynamic avenues of understanding and explanation in the study of religion.
Pre-Behavioralism in Political Science

Political behavior research has delivered less than the “behavioral revolution” seemed originally to promise. A survey of recent work suggests that the reason is not its epistemological premises (which are accepted here) or its methodology, but (1) its unsystematic, atheoretical character and limited range of research topics, and (2) the erroneous conception of human nature on which research rests. Compared with either the established principles of modern biobehavioral science or the conceptions of human problems of earlier political science, political behavior research remains “pre-behavioral.”To progress beyond this stage, political scientists must recognize and apply the basic knowledge about human behavior provided by the biobehavioral sciences. Two brief examples of such application are given: how ethological knowledge can supply a needed theoretical perspective for identifying political behavior problems worth studying; and how neurophysiological knowledge, particularly psychophysiology and psychophysics, can correct mistaken conceptions of the relationship between political attitudes, political words, and political actions.
Phylogenetic and molecular characterization of coxsackievirus A24 variant isolates from a 2010 acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis outbreak in Guangdong, China.

Acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis is a common disease in China. As a notifiable disease, cases are registered by ophthalmologists on the AHC surveillance system. An AHC outbreak caused by CA24v was observed in Guangdong Province in 2007 by the National Disease Supervision Information Management System. Three years later, a larger outbreak occurred in Guangdong during the August-October period (2010). To characterize the outbreak and compare the genetic diversity of CA24v, which was determined to be the cause of the outbreak, the epidemiology and the molecular characterization of CA24v were analyzed in this study. A total of 69,635 cases were reported in the outbreak. 73.5% of index cases originated from students, children in kindergarten and factory workers, with the ≦ 9 age group at the highest risk. The male to female ratio was 1.84:1 among 0-19 years. 56 conjunctival swabs were collected to identify the causative agent from five cities with the AHC outbreak. 30 virus strains were isolated, and two of the genomes had the highest identity values (95.8%) with CA24v genomes. Four CA24v genotypes were identified by phylogenetic analysis for the VP1 and 3C regions. CA24v which caused the outbreak belonged to genotype IV. Furthermore, full nucleotide sequences for four representative isolates in 2010 and 2007 were determined and compared. 20 aa mutations, two nt insertions and one nt deletion were observed in the open reading frame, with 5'- and 3'- UTR respectively between them. CA24v was determined to be the pathogen causing the outbreak and belongs to genotype IV. VP1 is more informative than 3CPro for describing molecular epidemiology and we hypothesize that accumulative mutations may have promoted the outbreak.
Benchmarking of a Markov Multizone Model of Contaminant Transport

A Markov chain model previously applied to the simulation of advection and diffusion process of gaseous contaminants is extended to three-dimensional transport of particulates in indoor environments. The model framework and assumptions are described. The performance of the Markov model is benchmarked against simple conventional models of contaminant transport. The Markov model is able to replicate elutriation predictions of particle deposition with distance from a point source, and the stirred settling of respirable particles. Comparisons with turbulent eddy diffusion models indicate that the Markov model exhibits numerical diffusion in the first seconds after release, but over time accurately predicts mean lateral dispersion. The Markov model exhibits some instability with grid length aspect when turbulence is incorporated by way of the turbulent diffusion coefficient, and advection is present. However, the magnitude of prediction error may be tolerable for some applications and can be avoided by incorporating turbulence by way of fluctuating velocity (e.g. turbulence intensity).
Postdictadura y desarrollismo: la recolonización de la Amazonía y las protestas en Brasil

El presente articulo ofrece una reflexion sobre los cambios y continuidades de la experiencia dictatorial en Brasil a la luz de las recientes protestas de 2013. Se propone un analisis que relaciona los modelos de desarrollo, la expansion colonizadora de la Amazonia y el pacto politico-social forjado en la postdictadura brasilena, con especial enfasis en los gobiernos de Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva y Dilma Rousseff. Bajo ese prisma, las protestas aparecen como uno de los signos mas visibles del agotamiento del pacto lulista.
Association genetics in crop improvement

Increased availability of high throughput genotyping technology together with advances in DNA sequencing and in the development of statistical methodology appropriate for genome-wide association scan mapping in presence of considerable population structure contributed to the increased interest association mapping in plants. While most published studies in crop species are candidate gene-based, genome-wide studies are on the increase. New types of populations providing for increased resolution and power of detection of modest-size effects and for the analysis of epistatic interactions have been developed. Classical biparental mapping remains the method of choice for mapping the effects of alleles rare in germplasm collections, such as some disease resistance genes or alleles introgressed from exotic germplasm.
Integrated Emotions, Cognition, and Language

Recent developments in neural and cognitive sciences resulted in appreciation of emotions as inseparable part of intelligence. Emotions evaluate conceptual contents of cognition for instinctual satisfactions. This paper describes aesthetic emotions related to the knowledge instinct. It analyzes the role of emotions in language, develops a hypothesis that aesthetic emotions integrate cognition and language within a wholeness of psyche, and discusses possible brain mechanisms.
Construction of nonregular pointwise degenerate delay-differential systems

In this note, we give an additional construction of pointwise degenerate delay-differential systems with degeneracy starting at t=2h , which reduces to Popov's construction under the regularity assumption.
Experience, Knowledge and Understanding

Anyone teaching in theological schools or university departments of religion in the West should be struck by two related factors which seem to influence the attitude and thinking, of today's students. The first is the preoccupation with ‘experience’, while the second is the openness toward Eastern religious insights as well as their meditation techniques. In this paper, the writer intends to reflect on these two factors both as the causes and the effects of the significant change that has taken place in Western man's world of meaning in our time.
Phosphorus metabolism in neoplastic tissue.

ConclusionsOf the tissues assayed the majority of the malignant tissues or those infiltrated with malignant cells retain as much or more radio-phosphorus per gram wet weight than other rapidly metabolizing tissues of the same patients.
Impact of Infant Feeding Practices on Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity is a complex disease influenced by genetic and environmental factors and their interactions. The current surge in childhood obesity in the United States is attributable to an interaction between a genetic predisposition toward obesity and a permissive environment. Several recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses have been published on the association between breast-feeding and childhood obesity. In these analyses, adjustment for confounding factors attenuated or nullified the protective effect of breast-feeding on later obesity. The Viva La Familia Study was designed to identify genetic and environmental factors affecting obesity and its comorbidities in 1030 Hispanic children from 319 families. Odds ratios for potential risk factors associated with childhood overweight were computed using binary logistic regression for panel data. Early infant-feeding practices were not significant. Salient independent risk factors for childhood obesity in this cohort of Hispanic children were age, birth weight, maternal obesity, paternal obesity, number of children in the family, and the percentage of awake time spent in sedentary activity. Breast-feeding may have a small protective effect against childhood obesity, although residual confounding may exist. Human milk is exquisitely fitted for optimal infant growth and development and may uniquely modulate neuroendocrine and immunologic pathways involved in the regulation of body weight. Nevertheless, other genetic and environmental determinants such as socioeconomic status, parental obesity, smoking, birth weight, and rapid infancy weight gain far supersede infant-feeding practices as risk factors for childhood obesity.
Parameter estimation of unsaturated soil hydraulic properties from transient flow processes

Abstract Three field methods recently proposed for estimating the soil hydraulic properties by numerical inversion of the Richards' equation are discussed. The first method involves the use of tension disc permeameter data, while the second method uses data collected with modified cone penetrometer. The third method involves the use of a multiple-step field extraction device. Experimental data for each of the above three methods were analyzed by using the HYDRUS-2D code coupled with the Levenberg–Marquardt parameter estimation algorithm. Advantages and disadvantages of the three methods are discussed.
Morphological optimization for access to dual oxidants in biofilms

A major theme driving research in biology is the relationship between form and function. In particular, a longstanding goal has been to understand how the evolution of multicellularity conferred fitness advantages. Here we show that biofilms of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa produce structures that maximize cellular reproduction. Specifically, we develop a mathematical model of resource availability and metabolic response within colony features. This analysis accurately predicts the measured distribution of two types of electron acceptors: oxygen, which is available from the atmosphere, and phenazines, redox-active antibiotics produced by the bacterium. Using this model, we demonstrate that the geometry of colony structures is optimal with respect to growth efficiency. Because our model is based on resource dynamics, we also can anticipate shifts in feature geometry based on changes to the availability of electron acceptors, including variations in the external availability of oxygen and genetic manipulation that renders the cells incapable of phenazine production.
The effect of pesticide spraying on the rate and severity of ED asthma

We report on the incidence of emergency department (ED) asthma presentations and admissions to the Lincoln Hospital, located in the South Bronx of New York City, during the 1999 eradication program of the mosquito vector for West Nile virus. Spraying of Malathion and Resmethrin occurred in the hospital's geographic area over 4 days in September 1999. During that time, 1318 pediatric and adult patients were seen in the ED for asthma-related symptoms. Of these, 222 (16.8%) were hospitalized. Emergency department visits, during days when spraying occurred, were compared with visits during days when no spraying occurred. Comparisons were made with previous years as a reference point. Findings showed that the spraying of insecticides did not increase the rate or severity of asthma presentations as measured by the Lincoln Hospital's ED asthma census or hospital admissions for asthma.
Ontology-Based Building Information Modeling

The World Wide Web has provided a vast distributed information space that is primarily designed for human consumption. The enmeshment of the Web and various business processes has made it imperative to define business information in a format that facilitates machine-to-machine exchange and automated processing. The construction industry is not an exception; construction business processes depend on a diverse set of information sources. For efficient processing of the construction business information, it is necessary to publish the information in a format that allows computer applications to easily discover, query and share the information. Currently, the standard for representing, accessing, and sharing a building model is the Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) data model. Several researchers have investigated the limitations of IFCs data model for interoperability among heterogeneous software applications. This paper presents the results of an on-going research on an ontology-based approach to building information modeling to facilitate information exchange among different knowledge domain applications. The approach developed in this study is based on a shared building ontology that models building domain element types and element relationships. The information systems to be integrated should be modeled using the shared ontology; each knowledge domain adds its own element properties to the shared building ontology. SWRL rules are used for mapping element properties from one domain to another. An example demonstrates how the developed approach can facilitate project information sharing between design and estimating domains.
Logic and Computers

1. Historical and philosophical background. Familiar connections between mathematical logic and automatic computers are the possibility of representing basic building blocks of computers by (sequential) Boolean functions and the close resemblance between programming languages and symbolisms of logic. As a result, both for the construction and for the use of computers, a certain degree of acquaintance with logic becomes indispensable. As early as 1656, Leibniz dreamed of a universal scientific language in his first published work; and many people today are actively seeking for a universal language for computers. Gottlob Frege wished to reduce arithmetic to logic from 1879 on, and in an oblique way the performance of arithmetic operations in computers by means of electronic circuits which are essentially logical functions may be said to accomplish the task in a particularly down-to-earth manner. A more basic link between logic and computers is perhaps the common interest in algorithms. Although Charles Babbage conceived of and started to build in the 1830's the Analytical Engine which possessed most of the basic characteristics of modern computers, it was only in the 1940's that automatic computers began to appear through the efforts of Howard Aiken, John von Neumann, and others. The logicians had, on the other hand, made not only a highly successful abstract study of algorithms but even clarified the relation between machines and algorithms, largely through A. M. Turing's theory of idealized machines, all in the 1930's. Traditionally the study of algorithms falls outside the domain of logic. The deepest source of the affinity of logic and computers is the preoccupation of logicians with formalization. The long evolution of attempts to formalize mathematical proofs, from Euclid to Principia, finally led to mechanizability as the ultimate criterion of complete success. This desire to make arguments formally precise and exact is concerned more with the product rather than with the theory of formalization. Only in the 1920's, D. Hilbert, P. Bernays and others began to study metamathematics: the theory of proofs, the theory of formal systems. The distinction may be illustrated by the method of "discarding 9's" for checking multiplications. It is a metamathematical result on the usual technique of multiplying particular integers that a number is divisible by 9 if the sum of its digits is. This example also brings out the fact that the distinction between mathematics and metamathematics is not sharp. For we can easily state and prove the above result as a simple theorem in number theory by the easy relation 10n=1 (mod 9). It was the concern with a theory of proofs which at first led J. Herbrand to an abstract definition of calculation processes, as a particularly simple type of proofs. Although Turing was said to have had formulated his theory of machines before he was familiar with much of the achievements in logic, he certainly did
Snowmelt Induced Hydrologic Perturbations Drive Dynamic Microbiological and Geochemical Behaviors across a Shallow Riparian Aquifer

Shallow riparian aquifers represent hotspots of biogeochemical activity in the arid western US. While these environments provide extensive ecosystem services, little is known of how natural environmental perturbations influence subsurface microbial communities and associated biogeochemical processes. Over a six-month period we tracked the annual snowmelt-driven incursion of groundwater into the vadose zone of an aquifer adjacent to the Colorado River, leading to increased dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in the normally suboxic saturated zone. Strong biogeochemical heterogeneity was measured across the site, with abiotic reactions between DO and sulfide minerals driving rapid DO consumption and mobilization of redox active species in reduced aquifer regions. Conversely, extensive DO increases were detected in less reduced sediments. 16S rRNA gene surveys tracked microbial community composition within the aquifer, revealing strong correlations between increases in putative oxygen-utilizing chemolithoautotrophs and heterotrophs and rising DO concentrations. The gradual return to suboxic aquifer conditions favored increasing abundances of 16S rRNA sequences matching members of the Microgenomates (OP11) and Parcubacteria (OD1) that have been strongly implicated in fermentative processes. Microbial community stability measurements indicated that deeper aquifer locations were relatively less affected by geochemical perturbations, while communities in shallower locations exhibited the greatest change. Reactive transport modeling of the geochemical and microbiological results supported field observations, suggesting that a predictive framework can be applied to develop a greater understanding of such environments.
Case definition for Ebola virus disease by different countries or organizations

Ebola virus disease(EVD) is a natural focus infection disease,the case fatality was 50%-90%.EVD can spread rapidly in medical institutions with non-standard health protection measures.As the basic factor in disease surveillance,case definition can play an important role in infectious diseases prevention and control.This paper summarizes the case definition for EVD developed by different countries or organizations.
High Thermal and Electrical Conductivity of Template Fabricated P3HT/MWCNT Composite Nanofibers

Nanoporous alumina membranes are filled with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and then poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) melt, resulting in nanofibers with nanoconfinement induced coalignment of both MWCNT and polymer chains. The simple sonication process proposed here can achieve vertically aligned arrays of P3HT/MWCNT composite nanofibers with 3 wt % to 55 wt % MWCNT content, measured using thermogravimetric methods. Electrical and thermal transport in the composite nanofibers improves drastically with increasing carbon nanotube content where nanofiber thermal conductivity peaks at 4.7 ± 1.1 Wm–1K–1 for 24 wt % MWCNT and electrical percolation occurs once 20 wt % MWCNT content is surpassed. This is the first report of the thermal conductivity of template fabricated composite nanofibers and the first proposed processing technique to enable template fabrication of composite nanofibers with high filler content and long aspect ratio fillers, where enhanced properties can also be realized on the ma...
Valorizando los efectos de las emigraciones y las remesas: Una comunidad costarricense ante la (re)estructuración de jerarquías de género y clase

This article is based on a descriptive research project about the perception that residents of a rural Costa Rican town have about the effects of international migration on their community. Specifically, it examines the moral economy – the moral evaluation that current community members make in the face of the socioeconomic changes that emigration brings about. Based on qualitative interviews with non-migrants and return migrants, the results show that the most widely accepted migratory pattern is temporary, short-term, and that generates remittances that are invested in productive activities in the community. I conclude that the moral economy developed reproduces the idealized script of an egalitarian rural community reproduced by the traditional family.
Abstract 216: The effect of UCP2 upregulation on cellular redox status and mitochondrial respiration

Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) is a mitochondrial protein present in the inner mitochondrial membrane. They belong to the family of anion mitochondrial carriers. UCP2 are thought to have natural antioxidant effect by attenuating the generation of superoxides. Since cancer cells exhibit elevated oxidative stress, they can effectively adapt to this situation by upregulating UCP2. As a matter of fact, UCP2 is overexpressed in many forms of cancer including prostate, breast, lung and head & neck. Not surprising, our early studies demonstrate that knockout of UCP2 suppresses skin tumor formation in a multistage skin carcinogenesis model. The purpose of this study was to detect the impact of UCP29s upregulation on mitochondrial redox status and mitochondrial respiration, using the well characterized tumor promotion model, JB6p+ cells. Our results have demonstrated that UCP2 overexpression enhanced protein expression and activity levels of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), a mitochondrial-resident enzyme that governs the egression of superoxides. To assess the impact of MnSOD upregulation on mitochondrial redox status, levels of superoxides and hydrogen peroxides were detected. Our results indicated that MnSOD upregulation maintained steady flow of hydrogen peroxides originating from mitochondria. We further examined the effect of UCP2 upregulation-induced MnSOD expression on mitochondrial respiration and glycolytic rate. In agreement with our data, cells overexpressing UCP2 had significantly higher oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR). In conclusion, our data suggests that UCP2 promotes carcinogenesis via decreasing superoxide generation whereas promoting hydrogen peroxide production via elevating MnSOD. Collectively, our results support the hypothesis that enhanced UCP2 expression sustains metabolic switch in cancer cells. Citation Format: Annapoorna Sreedhar, Yunfeng Zhao. The effect of UCP2 upregulation on cellular redox status and mitochondrial respiration. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 216.
Deconstitutive rhetoric: The destruction of legal personhood in the Global War on Terrorism

ABSTRACTThis essay examines a set of memoranda, speeches, and other official discourse issued during the Global War on Terrorism that transformed the legal paradigm under which the enemy was defined and authorized new norms of conduct previously prohibited by law. It argues that these texts employ “deconstitutive rhetoric,” defined as discursive action that undermines the existing legal status of those to whom it refers and produces a disarticulate, destitute subject by denying the individual access to the civic forums in which rhetorical agency may be exercised. The essay begins with an analysis of the use of deconstitutive rhetoric in the decision to legally re-define Afghanistan as a “failed state” in order to absolve the United States of treaty obligations with that nation. It then addresses the emergence of “unlawful enemy combatant status,” a new legal category not recognized under the international laws of war. The essay concludes with a discussion the Obama administration’s detention and drone str...
NICE algorithms based on high sensitivity troponin assays ruled out AMI but > 8.5% had MACE at 30 d.

Source Citation Parsonage WA, Mueller C, Greenslade JH, et al. Validation of NICE diagnostic guidance for rule out of myocardial infarction using high-sensitivity troponin tests. Heart. 2016;102:12...
Bone Marrow Stroma (BMS) Prevents Apoptosis of Lymphoma Cells by Upregulation of BMS-Derived B-Cell Activating Factor (BAFF) and Activation of NF-kB.

Abstract Stromal cells are an essential component of the bone marrow microenvironment that regulate or supports tumor survival. The bone marrow stroma has long been recognized as a "sanctuary site" for lymphoma cells during traditional chemotherapy. In this study, we demonstrated that adhesion of the B-cell lymphoma cell lines SUDH-4 and 10 to bone marrow stroma inhibited mitoxantrone-induced apoptosis. This adhesion-dependent inhibition of mitoxantrone-induced apoptosis correlated with decreased activation of caspases- 8 and 9, and cleavage of caspase 3 and PARP. EMSA analysis demonstrated significantly increased NF-kB binding activity in cells adhered to stroma cells compared to lymphoma cells in suspension. This DNA binding activity could be attributed to cell adhesion-mediated proteolysis of p100 NF-kappaB2 resulted in generation of active p52, which translocates to the nucleus in complex with p65 and RelB. Furthermore, co-culture with stromal cells also induced expression of the NF-kB-regulated anti-apoptotic molecules, XIAP, cIAP1 and cIAP2. In addition, because of the knowledge that BAFF shown to be critical for maintenance of normal B cell homeostasis as well as the survival of malignant B cells, we characterized the functional significance of BAFF in BMS-mediated drug resistance and survival. BAFF was detected on BMS cell line HS-5 and BMS cells derived from lymphoma patients by flow cytometry. Concentrations of BAFF were 3- to 25-fold higher in bone marrow aspirate than in peripheral blood. Lymphoma cell adhesion to HS-5 cells significantly increased BAFF secretion evidenced by both ELISA and immunoblotting. Addition of BAFF counteracted mitoxantrone-induced apoptosis, and elicited a reduction in spontaneous apoptosis in primary lymphomas via activation of NF-kB activation. Finally neutralization of BAFF by TACI enhanced lymphoma cell response to chemotherapy and overcame cell-adhesion mediated drug resistance, suggesting that lymphoma cells utilize BAFF as survival factor. These data indicate that stromal cells prevent apoptosis of lymphoma cells by upregulation of BAFF and induction of NF-kB-regulated anti-apoptotic proteins. Bone marrow-derived BAFF plays a key role in lymphoma cell survival and drug resistance in bone marrow microenvironment.
Anomalous Diffusion and Compartmentalization on the Surface of Mammalian Cells

Tracking individual proteins on the surface of live mammalian cells reveals complex dynamics involving anomalous diffusion and clustering into nanoscale domains. Theoretical models show that anomalous diffusion can be caused by various processes. By performing time series and ensemble analysis of extensive single-molecule tracks, we show that different subdiffusive processes simultaneously coexist in the plasma membrane. Interestingly, ergodicity breaking is found to be maintained by immobilization events that take place when proteins are transiently captured within endocytic pits.
Implications of prostate cancer with diabetes mellitus on patient outcomes and care: A matched case-control study.

101Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) has been associated with an increased risk of mortality among patients with many types of cancers. The aim of this case-control study was to determine the impact of DM on short-term overall survival in prostate cancer patients, and to examine the impact of prostate cancer on glycemic control in DM. Methods: 276 patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer from 2007-2014 with DM were identified from the Institutional Cancer Registry and matched to 276 prostate cancer patients without DM according to age and year of prostate cancer diagnosis. The file was linked to the electronic medical record to obtain information on DM and cancer therapies, and laboratory results. Results: The mean age of the entire prostate cancer cohort was 72 years, most (93%) were white, the most common Gleason score (in 52%) was 7, and the majority (56%) were tumor stage 2. No differences in age, race/ethnicity, Gleason score, or tumor stage were detected between patients with and without DM, a...
Decay centrality-based distance vector similarity (DIVES) metric for complex networks

Abstract We propose a universal metric called distance vector similarity (DIVES) exponent that captures the similarity among the distance vectors of the nodes (sorted in the increasing values of the path lengths to every other node) in a complex network, independent of the number of nodes and edges as well as the magnitude of the actual path lengths between any two nodes in the network. The DIVES exponent for a network is computed using the decay centrality (DEC) metric. We determine the difference between the maximum and minimum of the normalized decay centrality (N-DEC Max-Min ) values of the vertices for decay parameter ( δ ) values ranging from 0.01 to 0.99. We observe the δ vs. N-DEC Max-Min distribution for a real-world network to be negative exponential in nature: of the form N-DEC Max-Min (δ) = Ce −DIVES∗δ (where C is a proportionality constant). We claim that larger the DIVES score for a network, the larger the similarity among the distance vectors of the nodes in the network and vice-versa.
OptoGap: an optogenetics-enabled assay for quantification of cell-cell coupling in multicellular cardiac tissue

Intercellular electrical coupling is an essential means of communication between cells. It is important to obtain quantitative knowledge of such coupling between cardiomyocytes and non-excitable cells when, for example, pathological electrical coupling between myofibroblasts and cardiomyocytes yields increased arrhythmia risk or during the integration of donor (e.g. cardiac progenitor) cells with native cardiomyocytes in cell-therapy approaches. Currently, there is no direct method for assessing heterocellular coupling within multicellular tissue. Here we demonstrate experimentally and computationally a new contactless assay for electrical coupling, OptoGap, based on selective illumination of inexcitable cells that express optogenetic actuators and optical sensing of the response of coupled excitable cells, e.g. cardiomyocytes, that are light-insensitive. Cell-cell coupling is quantified by the energy required to elicit an action potential via junctional current from the light-stimulated cell(s). The proposed technique is experimentally validated against the standard indirect approach, GapFRAP, using light-sensitive cardiac fibroblasts and non-transformed cardiomyocytes in a two-dimensional setting. Its potential applicability to the complex three-dimensional setting of the native heart is corroborated by computational modeling and proper calibration.
Arteriovenous Fistula Percutaneous Flow Reduction: Balloon-Assisted Banding

This chapter discusses the case of a patient with a left upper-arm arteriovenous fistula (AVF) that was referred for evaluation of left hand pain on hemodialysis. A detailed history and physical examination ruled out the possibility of nonischemic hand pain due to carpal tunnel syndrome or neuropathy. Preoperative evaluation revealed poor distal pulses in the left hand, as well as the contralateral arm.
Transmobilities: mobility, harassment, and violence experienced by transgender and gender nonconforming public transit riders in Portland, Oregon

This research endeavours to fill a conceptual gap in the social science literature on gender, public space, and urban mobilities by exploring how transgender and gender nonconforming individuals ex...