cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Well-to-wake analysis of ethanol-to-jet and sugar-to-jet pathways.

To reduce the environmental impacts of the aviation sector as air traffic grows steadily, the aviation industry has paid increasing attention to bio-based alternative jet fuels (AJFs), which may provide lower life-cycle petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than petroleum jet fuel. This study presents well-to-wake (WTWa) results for four emerging AJFs: ethanol-to-jet (ETJ) from corn and corn stover, and sugar-to-jet (STJ) from corn stover via both biological and catalytic conversion. For the ETJ pathways, two plant designs were examined: integrated (processing corn or corn stover as feedstock) and distributed (processing ethanol as feedstock). Also, three H2 options for STJ via catalytic conversion are investigated: external H2 from natural gas (NG) steam methane reforming (SMR), in situ H2, and H2 from biomass gasification. Results demonstrate that the feedstock is a key factor in the WTWa GHG emissions of ETJ: corn- and corn stover-based ETJ are estimated to produce WTWa GHG emissions that are 16 and 73%, respectively, less than those of petroleum jet. As for the STJ pathways, this study shows that STJ via biological conversion could generate WTWa GHG emissions 59% below those of petroleum jet. STJ via catalytic conversion could reduce the WTWa GHG emissions by 28% with H2 from NG SMR or 71% with H2 from biomass gasification than those of petroleum jet. This study also examines the impacts of co-product handling methods, and shows that the WTWa GHG emissions of corn stover-based ETJ, when estimated with a displacement method, are lower by 11 g CO2e/MJ than those estimated with an energy allocation method. Corn- and corn stover-based ETJ as well as corn stover-based STJ show potentials to reduce WTWa GHG emissions compared to petroleum jet. Particularly, WTWa GHG emissions of STJ via catalytic conversion depend highly on the hydrogen source. On the other hand, ETJ offers unique opportunities to exploit extensive existing corn ethanol plants and infrastructure, and to provide a boost to staggering ethanol demand, which is largely being used as gasoline blendstock.
Acculturation matters in the relation between ambivalence over emotional expressions and well-being among Chinese American breast cancer survivors

Purpose Ambivalence over emotional expression (AEE) is the inner conflict of desiring emotion expression and fearing consequence of emotion expression. Few studies to date have examined the effects of AEE within an ethnic group that prioritizes emotional self-control. The present study examined the associations between AEE and well-being (viz., quality of life and depressive symptoms) as a function of acculturation among a sample of Chinese American breast cancer survivors.
Nutritional Evaluation and Nutrition Support of Oral Cancer Patients

Disease-free survival and quality of life of the oral cancer patient can be influenced by nutritional status. Malnourished patients are at high risk for surgical and treatment-related complications ultimately impacting survival and many aspects of quality of life. Validated malnutrition screening can identify oral cancer patients who are at risk for malnutrition and promote proactive intervention for prevention by triggering a full nutritional assessment by a qualified nutrition profession, such as a Registered Dietitian. Prevention and rehabilitation strategies should be individually planned and initiated within a team setting that includes not only nutrition, but also speech and swallowing therapy, physical and occupational therapy, and psychosocial therapy. The Patient Generated-Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) is a robust tool for both screening and assessing cancer patients. Individualized intensive dietary counseling and nutrition support are warranted. Predictive factors indicating need for nutrition support among oral cancer patients include, but are not limited to, tumor location, tumor stage, multi-modal therapy, body mass index <20, and pretreatment diet consistency. Predictive models for nutrition support and feeding algorithms based on patient data need to be validated and incorporated into comprehensive nutrition care pathways.
The Optimal Mechanism for Selling to a Budget-Constrained Buyer

Abstract This paper finds an optimal mechanism for selling a good to a buyer who may be budget-constrained. We consider a seller with one unit of a good facing a buyer with a quasilinear utility function. If the buyer does not face a binding budget constraint, textbook monopoly pricing is optimal. By contrast, the possibility of a binding budget constraint can make it optimal for the seller to use nonlinear pricing, to commit to a declining price sequence, to require the buyer to disclose his budget, or to offer financing. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C70, D42, D45, D89, L12.
Dorsal and Volar Surgical Approaches to the Metacarpophalangeal Joint: A Comparative Anatomic Study.

Background: We compared 3 surgical approaches to the MP joint: a dorsal extensor tendon–splitting approach, a dorsal extensor tendon–reflecting parasagittal approach, and the volar A1 pulley approa...
Self-Help for Grandmothers Parenting Again

Increasingly, grandmothers are parenting grandchildren in homes where parental presence is sporadic or nonexistent. A disproportionate percentage of African American grandparents fall in this category. The author reviews the literature on the African American grandmother in the context of the African American family and describes a practice model for service provision to those women who seek support as they “parent again.”
The Costs of Caring: A Perspective on the Relationship Between Sex and Psychological Distress

This paper is different from the others in this volume in that we discuss the health-damaging effects of providing social support rather than the health-promoting effects of receiving it. Our topic has heretofore been neglected. Yet, as we show below, there is good reason to think that there are serious personal costs associated with being a supporter; costs that should be taken into account by those who advocate community interventions to increase access to support.
The Story of The Book

This chapter conveys, apparently for the first time, the story of the creation of the legendary two-volume “Moderne Algebra” by Van der Waerden and the role of Emil Artin in creating this book.
Ocean Management and Planning in the United States: From Competition to Cooperation

The history of US marine and ocean law involves numerous federal statutes and government agencies. It also involves acrimony with state governments over offshore oil and gas drilling and its associated pollution. Faced with the opportunity for offshore renewable energy development -- such as wind, wave and tidal facilities -- states have been leaders in creating marine spatial plans to streamline regulatory and permitting practices and accommodate multiple, varied and increasing uses of coastal and marine areas. The federal government has plans, now, to follow suit with regional coastal and marine spatial plans. To be successful, state and federal governments must cooperate.
Barriers and facilitators of medication adherence in hypertensive African Americans: a qualitative study.

Objective This study explored the perspectives of hypertensive African-American patients, in 2 primary care practices, regarding the factors they perceived as barriers or facilitators of adherence to prescribed antihypertensive medications. Design This qualitative study used a grounded theory methodology with data collection occurring through in-depth individual patient interviews. Setting and participants One hundred and six hypertensive African-American patients followed at 2 urban primary care practices participated in the open-ended interviews. Methods During interviews, patients' experiences taking antihypertensive medications and their perceptions of the challenges they face in adhering to their medications as prescribed were explored. Patients were also asked about the situations that make it easy or difficult for them to take their antihypertensive medications as prescribed and the skills they thought were necessary for patients to adhere to their medications as prescribed. All responses were recorded verbatim and analyzed using grounded theory methodology. Results Fifty-eight percent of participants were women, mean age was 56 years, and 60% had uncontrolled hypertension. Four categories of barriers and 5 categories of facilitators were identified. The barriers included patient-specific, medication-specific, logistic, and disease-specific barriers. The facilitators included use of reminders, having a routine, knowledge about hypertension, its treatment and complications, having social support and good doctor-patient communication. Conclusion This study provides a framework for investigating issues of medication adherence in hypertensive African Americans by describing a taxonomy of barriers and facilitators of adherence identified by patients.
Persistence of Mycoplasma hominis after therapy: importance of tetracycline resistance and of coexisting vaginal flora.

In past studies Mycoplasma hominis has persisted after treatment with placebo, penicillins, or rifampin in 88-97% of women and 49-77% of men with infections of the lower genital tract. Among women with nonspecific vaginitis, M. hominis persisted in only a third of those treated with metronidazole as compared with at least 70% of those treated with ampicillin (P = 0.01), even though M. hominis is resistant in vitro to metronidazole and to its acid and hydroxy metabolites. Persistence of M. hominis after treatment with metronidazole was significantly associated with persistence of Bacteroides species in the vagina (P = .03). These results suggest that colonization of the vagina with M. hominis is partly dependent on other components of the vaginal microbial flora. In prior studies, M. hominis has persisted in zero to 50% of women and in zero to 30% of men after treatment with tetracycline or lincomycin, but the role of tetracycline resistance in treatment failure was not defined. The susceptibility of M. hominis to tetracycline is bimodal; and the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of tetracycline for strains isolated before or soon after treatment was greater than or equal to 16 micrograms/ml for seven (78%) of nine that did persist and for two (17%) of 12 that did not persist after tetracycline therapy for cervicitis in women (P = .002). The MIC of tetracycline was greater than or equal to 16 micrograms/ml for two (12%) of 17 isolates from women in Seattle in 1972-1973, as compared with 27 (34%) of 79 isolates from Seattle men and women in 1979-1982.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Pastoral Approaches to Sexual Dysfunctions

Modern society has raised many questions about the nature of sex and its role in human life. Many of these questions demand a religious response. As we understand it, human sexuality depends largely on how one looks at the human body and relates it to the totality of communication. Judeo-Christian ethics views human sexuality as a gift of the Creator, reiterated by the redeemer with the message that God speaks in love to all (2).
First Attempt Toward a Holistic Understanding of the Interdependent Rippled Impacts Associated with Out-of-Sequence Work in Construction Projects: System Dynamics Modeling Approach

Abstract Out-of-sequence (OOS) work during construction is a major cause of productivity losses, cost and schedule overruns, and quality decline, either directly or indirectly. Given the complexity...
Sequential Effect Systems with Control Operators.

Sequential effect systems are a class of effect system that exploits information about program order, rather than discarding it as traditional commutative effect systems do. This extra expressive power allows effect systems to reason about behavior over time, capturing properties such as atomicity, unstructured lock ownership, or even general safety properties. While we now understand the essential denotational (categorical) models fairly well, application of these ideas to real software is hampered by the sheer variety of source level control flow constructs in real languages. Denotational approaches are general enough to accommodate any particular control flow construct, but provide no guidance on the details, let alone applications. We address this new problem by appeal to a classic idea: macro-expression of commonly-used programming constructs in terms of control operators. We give an effect system for a subset of Racket's tagged delimited control operators, as a lifting of an effect system for a language without direct control operators. This gives the first account of sequential effects in the presence of general control operators. Using this system, we also re-derive the sequential effect system rules for control flow constructs previously shown sound directly, and derive sequential effect rules for new constructs not previously studied in the context of source-level sequential effect systems. This offers a way to directly extend source-level support for sequential effect systems to real programming languages.
Experimental and Multireference ab Initio Investigations of Hydrogen-Atom-Transfer Reactivity of a Mononuclear MnIV-oxo Complex.

A combined experimental–computational study of hydrocarbon oxidation by the MnIV-oxo complex of the neutral, pentadentate N4py ligand [N,N-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)-N-bis(2-pyridyl)methylamine] offers s...
Child Poverty and Material Deprivation in the European Union during the Great Recession

The 2008 financial crisis triggered the first contraction of the world economy in the post-war era. This paper investigates the effect of the economic crisis on child poverty and material deprivation across the EU-28 plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. First, it examines if children were affected by the crisis to a greater extent than the population as a whole. Second, it analyses inequities among households with children and the degree to which those in workless households, migrant households, lone parent families and large families were at a greater risk of poverty and deprivation. Finally, it studies the extent to which social safety nets may have softened the negative impact of the economic crisis. The paper observes a negative relationship between the absolute change in economic output and the change in material circumstances of children: absolute increases in both child poverty and deprivation between 2008 and 2012 were larger in countries experiencing greater falls in GDP per capita. The relationship was stronger for child poverty, indicating that household income is more responsive to macroeconomic shocks. The effect of adverse economic circumstances was not distributed equally among households with children: in countries most affected by the crisis, notably Greece and Iceland, child poverty and deprivation rates rose substantially faster among children in workless households, lone parent families and migrant families than among the population of children as a whole. Controlling for the socio-demographic structure of the child population, both the child poverty rates and the severe deprivation rates were significantly lower in countries with more generous safety nets. However, once total social spending and working-age unemployment were accounted for, the effects of the minimum income protection indicator were no longer statistically significant. Social spending was associated with lower risks of child poverty at the start of the crisis only, when many European countries implemented fiscal stimulus packages, while unemployment had large effects on both poverty and deprivation throughout the entire period 2008-2012. This suggests that social safety nets and social spending did not shield children from the effects of labour market turbulence during the Great Recession.
Retinopathy of Prematurity: Evolving Treatment With Anti–Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor

Purpose To discuss the evolution in retinopathy of prematurity since its first description as retrolental fibroplasia in the United States, including the changes in the understanding of pathophysiology; methods of diagnosis; destructive, anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF), and supportive treatments; and differences in retinopathy of prematurity manifestations worldwide. The overall goal is to clarify retinopathy of prematurity currently and formulate questions to optimize future care. Study Design Literature review and synthesis. Methods Critical review and consideration of the literature with inclusion of historical articles and those regarding pathophysiologic risk factors, retinopathy of prematurity worldwide, basic and clinical science particularly regarding anti-VEGF mechanisms and agents tested in clinical trials. Results Retinopathy of prematurity has evolved from affecting infants approximately 2 months premature to affecting extremely premature infants. Worldwide, retinopathy of prematurity differs and, in emerging countries, has features similar to that experienced in the United States when retinopathy of prematurity first manifested. Treatments have evolved from destruction of the peripheral avascular retina to inhibit angiogenic stimuli to anti-VEGF agents, which inhibit pathologic angiogenesis but also extend normal intraretinal angiogenesis by ordering the development of intraretinal vessels. Clinical trial evidence is accruing with the goal to develop less destructive treatments to optimize vision and that are protective to the retina and infant. Conclusions Goals for retinopathy of prematurity are to optimize prenatal and perinatal care, improve diagnostic acumen worldwide and refine treatment strategies, including with anti-VEGF agents, to inhibit intravitreal angiogenesis and facilitate vascularization of the previously avascular retina, which include supporting neural and vascular development of the premature infant and retina.
Sustainable energy system analysis modeling environment: Analyzing life cycle emissions of the energy transition

Abstract One of the global community’s most significant contemporary challenges is the need to satisfy growing energy demand, while simultaneously achieving very significant reductions in the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the production, delivery, and consumption of energy. The energy sector is transforming via the convergence of power, transportation, and industrial sectors and inter-sectoral integration. To assess the level of decarbonization achieved through this change, one needs to study the carbon footprint of the energy system as a whole. Here, we present a novel, system-scale energy analysis tool, the Sustainable Energy System Analysis Modelling Environment (SESAME), to assess the pathway- and system-level GHG emissions of today’s changing energy system. The underlying analytic tool constitutes more than a thousand individual energy pathways. SESAME provides a consistent platform to estimate life cycle GHG emissions of all stages of the energy sector. Furthermore, the system representation is embedded into the tool for power and transportation sectors. The developed novel architecture, and implications of energy choices for example scenarios (vehicle fleet projections for US and generator-level hourly power generation) are presented to demonstrate SESAME’s high-resolution analysis capabilities. Impact of operational variations such as partial loading of power generation units and technology choices, such as treatment of the same crude oil in different refinery configurations, is explored.
GABAergic but not Antidepressant Medications Increase Risk for Clostridioides difficile Infection in a National Cohort of Veterans.

Background Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is primarily mediated by alterations in the host gut ecosystem. While antibiotic use is the primary risk factor for CDI, other medications that modulate the gut ecosystem, particularly those targeting the gut-brain axis, could impact CDI risk. This study aimed to investigate the association between recent antidepressant and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic medication use with CDI risk in a national cohort of United States veterans. Methods This was a retrospective case-control study of patients seen in Veterans Health Administration facilities from October 2002 to September 2014. CDI and non-CDI control patients were propensity score matched 1:1 using a maximum caliper of 0.0001. Antidepressant and GABAergic medication use 90 days before cohort inclusion were analyzed for CDI association using bivariable and multivariable logistic regression models. Results A total of 85 831 patients were included, and 9287 CDI and 9287 control patients were propensity score matched. Antidepressant use overall was not significantly associated with CDI risk (odds ratio [OR], 1.05; 95% CI, 0.98-1.12), although GABAergic medication use was associated with increased risk (OR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.70-1.92). In multivariable models of individual medications/classes, benzodiazepines had the strongest CDI association (OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.77-2.07). SSRIs (OR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.81-0.95) and bupropion (OR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.57-0.78) were negatively associated with CDI. Conclusions In this national study of veterans, GABAergic medication use was a positive predictor of CDI risk, though antidepressant use was not. Further research is needed to understand biological mechanisms, and confirmatory studies are needed to validate these findings.
Elastin haploinsufficiency in mice has divergent effects on arterial remodeling with aging depending on sex.

Elastin is a primary structural protein in the arterial wall that contributes to vascular mechanical properties and degrades with aging. Aging is associated with arterial stiffening and an increase in blood pressure. There is evidence that arterial aging follows different timelines with sex. Our objective was to investigate how elastin content affects arterial remodeling in male and female mice with aging. We used male and female wild-type (Eln+/+) and elastin heterozygous (Eln+/-) mice at 6, 12, and 24 mo of age and measured their blood pressure and arterial morphology, wall structure, protein content, circumferential stress, stretch ratio, and stiffness. Two arteries were used with varying contents of elastin: the left common carotid and ascending aorta. We show that Eln+/- arteries start at a different homeostatic set point for circumferential wall stress, stretch, and material stiffness but show similar increases with aging to Eln+/+ mice. With aging, structural stiffness is greatly increased, while material stiffness and circumferential stress are only slightly increased, highlighting the importance of maintaining these homeostatic values. Circumferential stretch shows the smallest change with age and may be important for controlling cellular phenotype. Independent sex differences are mostly associated with males being larger than females; however, many of the measured factors show age × sex and/or genotype × sex interactions, indicating that males and females follow different cardiovascular remodeling timelines with aging and are differentially affected by reduced elastin content.NEW & NOTEWORTHY A comprehensive study on arterial mechanical behavior as a function of elastin content, aging, and sex in mice. Elastin haploinsufficient arteries start at a different homeostatic set point for mechanical parameters such as circumferential stress, stretch, and material stiffness. Structural stiffness of the arterial wall greatly increases with aging, as expected, but there are interactions between sex and aging for most of the mechanical parameters that are important to consider in future work.
Revisiting Research as Care: A Call to Decolonize Narratives of Trauma

As scholars who are interested in the ways in which trauma and rhetoric interconnect, we believe that our field’s narrative research methods, even those rooted in ethical responsivity, too often re...
Evaluation of Enogen Feed Corn on growth performance and carcass characteristics of finishing pigs.

Enogen Feed Corn (EFC; Syngenta Seeds, LLC, Downers Grove, IL) hybrids contain a trait for expression of heat-stable α-amylase in the grain. α-Amylase is an enzyme responsible for breakdown of starch in the small intestine; supplementation of exogenous α-amylase to pigs may result in greater starch digestibility and thus improved gain efficiency. A total of 288 pigs (Line 600 × 241, DNA, Columbus, NE; initially 41.6 kg) were utilized in an 82-d trial to determine if replacing conventional yellow dent corn (CONV) with EFC in diets with or without distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) influences growth performance and carcass characteristics. Pens of pigs were randomly assigned to one of four dietary treatments balancing for initial body weight. There were nine pens per treatment with eight pigs per pen (an equal number of barrows and gilts per pen). Treatments were arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial with main effects of corn source (CONV or EFC) and DDGS (0% or 25%). Experimental diets were fed in meal form in three phases: days 0 to 29, 29 to 47, and 47 to 82. Pigs were weighed approximately every 2 wk and at the beginning of each phase. On day 82, pigs were transported to a commercial abattoir for processing and carcass data collection. Data were analyzed using PROC GLIMMIX procedure of SAS with pen as the experimental unit. There were no corn source by DDGS interactions (P > 0.05) observed for overall performance or carcass characteristics. Overall, average daily gain (ADG) was marginally greater (P 0.196) for difference in average daily feed intake (ADFI), gain:feed ratio (G:F), hot carcass weight (HCW), or other carcass traits. Addition of DDGS decreased (P < 0.047) overall ADG and G:F. Pigs fed DDGS had marginally lower (P < 0.071) HCW, less (P < 0.050) backfat depth, greater (P < 0.026) loin depth, and greater (P < 0.020) percentage lean and carcass fat iodine value (IV). In summary, addition of 25% DDGS to the diet decreased ADG and increased carcass fat IV. Pigs fed EFC tended to have improved overall ADG; however, G:F and carcass characteristics were not different between corn sources. These results suggest that EFC, although not beneficial, may be used as a substitute for CONV without any deleterious effects on growth performance. Further research should be conducted to understand whether addition of EFC to swine diets could be beneficial in younger pigs exhibiting decreased pancreatic α-amylase secretion following weaning or whether heat treatment of diets, such as pelleting, may influence the response to EFC.
Rational Emotions: An Evolutionary Perspective

Despite the existence of a compelling literature that articulates the function of emotions from an evolutionary standpoint, the role of emotions in motivating economic behavior has not been systematically studied. In those rare instances in which emotions are invoked to explain large-scale economic phenomena (e.g., market euphoria), they are usually treated as a form of constraint on otherwise rational behavior. By integrating experimental findings scattered across various fields into coherent narrative, this paper offers an accessible framework for understanding the evolutionary origins of our emotions; their role in supporting higher-level cognitive faculties; and their constitutive function in facilitating impersonal exchange, and coordination at the organizational level on which the modern economy is built.
Depth of tumor implantation affects response to in situ vaccination in a syngeneic murine melanoma model

An important component of research using animal models is ensuring rigor and reproducibility. This study was prompted after two experimenters performing virtually identical studies obtained different results when syngeneic B78 murine melanoma cells were implanted into the skin overlying the flank and treated with an in situ vaccine (ISV) immunotherapy. Although both experimenters thought they were using identical technique, we determined that one was implanting the tumors intradermally (ID) and the other was implanting them subcutaneously (SC). Though the baseline in vivo immunogenicity of tumors can depend on depth of their implantation, the response to immunotherapy as a function of tumor depth, particularly in immunologically ‘cold’ tumors, has not been well studied. The goal of this study was to evaluate the difference in growth kinetics and response to immunotherapy between identically sized melanoma tumors following ID versus SC implantation. We injected C57BL/6 mice with syngeneic B78 melanoma cells either ID or SC in the flank. When tumors reached 190–230 mm3, they were grouped into a ‘wave’ and treated with our previously published ISV regimen (12 Gy local external beam radiation and intratumoral hu14.18-IL2 immunocytokine). Physical examination demonstrated that ID-implanted tumors were mobile on palpation, while SC-implanted tumors became fixed to the underlying fascia. Histologic examination identified a critical fascial layer, the panniculus carnosus, which separated ID and SC tumors. SC tumors reached the target tumor volume significantly faster compared with ID tumors. Most ID tumors exhibited either partial or complete response to this immunotherapy, whereas most SC tumors did not. Further, the ‘mobile’ or ‘fixed’ phenotype of tumors predicted response to therapy, regardless of intended implantation depth. These findings were then extended to additional immunotherapy regimens in four separate tumor models. These data indicate that the physical ‘fixed’ versus ‘mobile’ characterization of the tumors may be one simple method of ensuring homogeneity among implanted tumors prior to initiation of treatment. Overall, this short report demonstrates that small differences in depth of tumor implantation can translate to differences in response to immunotherapy, and proposes a simple physical examination technique to ensure consistent tumor depth when conducting implantable tumor immunotherapy experiments.
Role of AMPK and Akt in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Lung Colonization

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive disease with a 5-y relative survival rate of 11% after distant metastasis. To survive the metastatic cascade, tumor cells remodel their signaling pathways by regulating energy production and upregulating survival pathways. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and Akt regulate energy homeostasis and survival, however, the individual or synergistic role of AMPK and Akt isoforms during lung colonization by TNBC cells is unknown. The purpose of this study was to establish whether targeting Akt, AMPKα or both Akt and AMPKα isoforms in circulating cancer cells can suppress TNBC lung colonization. Transient silencing of Akt1 or Akt2 dramatically decreased metastatic colonization of lungs by inducing apoptosis or inhibiting invasion, respectively. Importantly, transient pharmacologic inhibition of Akt activity with MK-2206 or AZD5363 inhibitors did not prevent colonization of lung tissue by TNBC cells. Knockdown of AMPKα1, AMPKα2, or AMPKα1/2 also had no effect on metastatic colonization of lungs. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that transient decrease in AMPK isoforms expression alone or in combination with Akt1 in circulating tumor cells does not synergistically reduce TNBC metastatic lung colonization. Our results also provide evidence that Akt1 and Akt2 expression serve as a bottleneck that can challenge colonization of lungs by TNBC cells.
I Am Your God: A D’var Torah on Parshat Yitro

What, in the religious imagination, was the point of the Ten Commandments and their dramatic revelation to Israel at Mount Sinai? After all, most of the Ten Commandments consist of the sort of general rules of conduct that the Israelites already knew. In any event, the Torah strongly suggests that Moses began receiving legal revelations from God even before Sinai. One obvious answer is that Sinai was not just an occasion to pass down the law. It was a theophany, a rare, awe-filled, direct encounter with the divine, an appearance of God to human beings. But that just provokes a further question: Why did the theophany at Sinai have to be filled with law? This D’var Torah’s tentative answer to these questions is that the Israelites did indeed bring their common-sense ideas about right and wrong to Sinai and then learned, amid the thunder and lighting, that the divine reality on the other side of the curtain includes those truths too: that the inner life of the universe is founded on straightforward principles of justice and truth, in addition to love and redemption. That is a revelation worth noting, and celebrating.
Surgical Options for Migraine: An Overview.

Objective: The goal of this manuscript was to provide a comprehensive review of the surgical treatment for migraine headaches with a focus on trigger points and their clinical presentations, and to emphasize the importance of appropriate patient selection. Background: Migraine is a prevalent neurological disease with headache being a disabling component of it. Surgical treatment for migraine headache became available two decades ago, which is based on proper identification and the deactivation of the specific trigger sites in the head and neck area. Design: This manuscript reviews the discovery and evolution of migraine surgery with changes in patients' selection throughout the years. Conclusion: Patients with migraine headaches who do not respond or cannot tolerate the medical treatment might benefit from trigger site deactivation surgery. The success of the surgery is closely related to proper identification of trigger point (s) and close collaboration with a neurologist or a headache specialist. This collaboration would enhance patients' positive outcomes and help to rule out other causes of the headache.
Influence of Cable Temperature Rise on PDC Method Test Results of Water Tree Aged Cables

There is a certain temperature rise in the field running cable because of the load bearing. To study the influence of cable temperature rise on the polarization and depolarization current (PDC) method, 10kV XLPE short cables were accelerated aging three months by water needle electrode method, and the PDC method was used to test the new and aged cables under constant humidity. The polarization and depolarization current of the cable samples was analyzed, and the conductivity and low frequency dielectric loss spectra were obtained and inspected. The results show that: in the experiment selected test temperature, the change laws of conductivity of the new and aged cables are the same, and the conductivity gradually rose after a slight drop in 40 °C; in the dielectric loss spectrum, the polarization of the new sample is low and the polarization loss changes little with temperature, and the dielectric loss is mainly affected by the conductivity, so the test result is clearly divided into two regions. And water tree aged samples have strong polarization and are obviously affected by temperature, so their low frequency dielectric loss showed the trend of first rising and then decreasing and the maximum appeared at 60 °C.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Buddhism & The Crisis in Myanmar (Burma)

The relationship of the current military regime in Myanmar to Aung San Suu Kyi and her father are necessary for full understanding of the political situation and future changes that might take place. The events of the pre-World War II period clarify current alignments of political and economic power as do the religious and ethnic elements.
Ectoderm- and endomesoderm-specific GATA transcription factors in the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilli.

SUMMARY The GATA family of transcription factors appears to retain conserved roles in early germ layer patterning in most, if not all, animals; however, the number and structure of GATA factor genes varies substantially when different animal genomes are compared. Thus, the origin and relationships of invertebrate and vertebrate GATA factors, and their involvement in animal germ layer evolution, are unclear. We identified two highly conserved GATA factor genes in a marine annelid, the polychaete Platynereis dumerilii. A phylogenetic analysis indicates that the two Platynereis GATA factors are orthologous to the GATA1/2/3 and GATA4/5/6 subfamilies present in vertebrates. We also identified conserved motifs within each GATA class, and assigned the divergent Caenorhabditiselegans and Drosophila melanogaster GATA factor genes to the vertebrate classes. Similar to their vertebrate homologs, PdGATA123 mRNA expression was restricted to ectoderm, whereas PdGATA456 was detected only in endomesoderm. Finally, we identified in genome databases one GATA factor gene in each of two distantly related cnidarians that include motifs from both bilaterian GATA factor classes. Our results show that distinct orthologs of the two vertebrate GATA factor classes exist in a protostome invertebrate, suggesting that bilaterian GATA factors originated from GATA1/2/3 and 4/5/6 ancestral orthologs. Moreover, our results indicate that the GATA gene duplication and the functional divergence that led to these two ancestral GATA factor genes occurred after the split of the bilaterian stem group from the cnidarians.
Protein kinase C and protein tyrosine kinase activity contribute to mitogenic signaling by endothelin-1: Cross-talk between G protein-coupled receptors and pp60c-src

Endothelin (ET) peptides are potent growth factors that bind to G protein-coupled receptors. Although short-term signals activated by ET receptors have been extensively characterized, relatively little is known about mitogenic signal transduction. We investigated the ET receptor subtype involved in mitogenic signaling in glomerular mesangial cells and the role of protein kinase C (PKC) and protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) activity. Pertussis toxin attenuates increases in [Ca2+]i by ET-1 but not [3H]thymidine uptake. An ETA-selective receptor antagonist, BQ 123, blocks increments in [Ca2+]i by ET-1 and inhibits [3H]thymidine uptake. A nonselective ETA-ETB receptor antagonist (PD 142893) blocked [3H]thymidine uptake, but ETB receptor-selective agonists (S6c and [Ala1,Ala3,Ala11,Ala15]ET-1(6-21)) were unable to increase [Ca2+]i or [3H]thymidine uptake. Collectively, these data suggest that mitogenic signaling occurs through an ETA receptor subtype in mesangial cells. Experiments with both PKC inhibition and depletion demonstrate that PKC was necessary but not sufficient for mitogenic signaling. ET-1 increased tyrosine phosphorylation of cellular proteins in quiescent mesangial cells that was blocked by preincubation with herbimycin A. Two chemically and mechanistically dissimilar PTK inhibitors (herbimycin A and genistein) blocked [3H]thymidine uptake by ET-1. In addition, herbimycin A attenuated c-fos induction, AP-1 DNA binding, and transcription directed by an AP-1 cis-element in response to ET-1. Taken together, these data suggest that mitogenic signaling by ET-1 also involves a PTK-based mechanism. We further demonstrated that ET-1 stimulated autophosphorylation of pp60c-src and pp60c-src-catalyzed phosphorylation of a peptide substrate specific for PTK activity. That the dose-response relationship for ET-1-induced pp60c-src activation and [3H]thymidine uptake were similar suggests that these events might be functionally linked. Thus, cross-talk between G protein-coupled receptors and nonreceptor PTK such as pp60c-src might be involved in transcriptional regulation and mitogenic signaling by ET-1.
Origin of Winds in Cool Giants and Supergiants

The properties of the winds of cool giants and supergiants are reviewed. The observations of circumstellar lines, dust shells, absorption lines in the spectra of companions, resonance- scattered light, molecular absorption, interferometry, and TTV, X-ray and radio fluxes are discussed with respect to finding the mass loss rate of the star. Four classes of model for the origin of the wind are then considered: dust-driven models, gas-pressure-driven models, wave-pressure-driven models, and shock wave-driven models. All the models have inadequacies, so the actual origin of the winds is not clear.
Identificación macroscópica y microscópica de materias primas líticas en Cardonal (Valle del Cajón, Catamarca, Argentina): Una primera aproximación a su aprovechamiento

The identification of different types of stone used in the fabrication of lithic artifacts is an unavoidable starting point for the reconstruction and comprehension of the lithic technological practices of any group of people. With this aim, in this work, the results of macroscopic and petrography microscopic analysis of flaked lithic materials recovered in a household structure (E1 Nucleo 1) of Cardonal archaeological site (Cajon Valley, Catamarca province), are presented.The data obtained in these studies allowed us to identify lithic raw materials in the artifact assemblage. This, together with the geological information of the area, led us to propose a series of tentative observations of their potential proveniences, located at different distances of Cardonal site, within and without the local range.Also, an analysis of the frequencies of the different types of stones in a sample of the artifact assemblage is presented, in order to start reconstructing the potential practices involved in obtaining the different lithic raw materials.
African Colonial Economies: Land, Labor, and Livelihoods

In what ways and through what mechanisms and policy instruments did colonial regimes seek to draw Africans into the colonial economy as laborers, wage earners, taxpayers, and consumers of foreign manufactured goods? How successful were colonial efforts to reform access to agricultural land as a way of establishing a foundation for colonial agriculture, undermining preexisting but disfavored African land tenure practices, compelling taxation, and mobilizing African labor? This essay responds to these and related questions, surveying the main debates, key conceptual turns, and points of discussion on a critical aspect of colonial economic management in Africa: the commoditization of land and labor by colonial regimes and its consequences. The essay discusses the intertwinements of land and labor mobilization regimes, and the ways in which African maneuvers, initiatives, and strategies of self-preservation produced outcomes that confounded and at times defeated colonial intentions in matters of land and labor.
A Tail of Two Specifi-cities

The pathogenic bacterium Bordetella can switch phenotype to evade attack by viruses called bacteriophages. In his Perspective, [Hatfull][1] discusses new work ([ Liu et al ][2].) that describes how a bacteriophage uses a reverse transcriptase-dependent process to generate variants that can infect both phenotypes of Bordetella . [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/295/5562/2031 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/295/5562/2091
Abstract 1635: Discovery of novel SMAC mimetics as selective IAP inhibitors

Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA Inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) proteins are widely considered as promising cancer drug targets, especially for drug-resistant tumors. Mimicking the IAP-binding motif of second mitochondria-derived activator of caspases (SMAC) is a rational strategy to design potential IAP inhibitors. In this report, we used the bioactive conformation of AVPI tetrapeptide in the N-terminus of SMAC as a template and performed a shape-based virtual screening against a drug-like compound library to identify novel IAP inhibitors. Top hits were subsequently docked to available IAP crystal structures as a secondary screening followed by validation using in vitro biological assays. Four novel hit compounds were identified to potently inhibit cell growth in two human melanoma (A375 and M14) and two human prostate (PC-3 and DU145) cancer cell lines. The best compound, UC-112, has IC50 values ranging from 0.7 to 3.4 µM. UC-112 also potently inhibits the growth of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) overexpressed multidrug-resistant cancer cells, strongly activates capase-3/7 and caspase-9 activities, and selectively down-regulates survivin level at a concentration as low as 1 µM. Co-incubation of UC-112 with a known proteasome inhibitor (MG132) rescued survivin inhibition, consistent with the anticipated mechanism of action for UC-112. As a single agent, UC-112 strongly inhibits tumor growth and reduces both XIAP and survivin levels in an A375 human melanoma xenograft model. Overall, our study identified novel scaffolds, especially UC-112, as new platforms on which potent and selective IAP antagonists can be developed. Citation Format: Jin Wang, Wei Li. Discovery of novel SMAC mimetics as selective IAP inhibitors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1635. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1635
Impact of micromixing on performance of a membrane-based absorber

Abstract In this study, microstructures are employed to manipulate thermohydraulic characteristics of the lithium bromide (LiBr) solution flow in a membrane-based absorber in order to enhance the absorption rate. In a membrane-based absorber, the liquid absorbent is constrained between a solid wall and a highly permeable membrane, thus facilitating manipulation of the flow properties. Recent numerical studies have shown that transport mode in a laminar flow can be changed from diffusive to advective via the implementation of surface microstructures on the flow channel walls. Here, we experimentally evaluate the enhancement in absorption rate caused by the introduction of microstructures on the solution flow channel wall of a membrane-based absorber. The experiments are conducted in a fully instrumented membrane-based absorption refrigeration system. The geometry and dimensions of the microstructures are based on the optimal values determined in our previous numerical studies. Absorption rates as high as that of a 100-μm-thick solution film (in the absence of wall features) is achieved but at two orders of magnitude less pressure drop. The achievement of a high absorption rate at a relatively low solution pressure drop in the proposed approach enhances the prospect of developing large-scale membrane-based absorbers.
Development of a Novel, Highly Quantitative In Vivo Model for the Study of Biofilm-Impaired Cutaneous Wound Healing

A growing body of evidence suggests that in addition to hypoxia, ischemia-reperfusion injury, and intrinsic host factors, bacterial biofilms represent a fourth major pillar in chronic wound pathogenesis. Given that most studies to date rely on in vitro or observational clinical data, our aim was to develop a novel, quantitative animal model enabling further investigation of the biofilm hypothesis in vivo. Dermal punch wounds were created in New Zealand rabbit ears, and used as uninfected controls, or inoculated with green fluorescent protein-labeled Staphylococcus aureus to form wounds with bacteria predominantly in the planktonic or biofilm phase. Epifluorescence and scanning electron microscopy revealed that S. aureus rapidly forms mature biofilm in wounds within 24 hours of inoculation, with persistence of biofilm viability over time seen through serial bacterial count measurement and laser scanning confocal imaging at different time points postwounding and inoculation. Inflammatory markers confirmed that the biofilm phenotype creates a characteristic, sustained, low-grade inflammatory response, and that over time biofilm impairs epithelial migration and granulation tissue in-growth, as shown histologically. We have established and validated a highly quantitative, reproducible in vivo biofilm model, while providing evidence that the biofilm phenotype specifically contributes to profound cutaneous wound healing impairment. Our model highlights the importance of bacterial biofilms in chronic wound pathogenesis, providing an in vivo platform for further inquiry into the basic biology of bacterial biofilm-host interaction and high-throughput testing of antibiofilm therapeutics.