cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
60 EFFECTS OF INSULIN AND FREE FATTY ACIDS ON ASYMMETRIC DIMETHYL ARGININE, A NOVEL CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTOR.

Background Asymmetric dimethyl L-arginine (ADMA) has emerged as a novel cardiovascular risk factor. ADMA has been shown to induce endothelial dysfunction. Further, plasma ADMA levels are tightly regulated in healthy individuals and have been found to be increased in type 2 diabetes as well as other insulin-resistant states. However, the mechanisms of regulation of ADMA levels are still unknown. Blunting of insulin9s ability to induce glucose uptake and a concomitant elevation of free fatty acids are metabolic hallmarks of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Hypothesis We hypothesized that insulin and free fatty acids play a role in regulating ADMA levels. Methods Toward this end, we performed two sets of independent experiments in two groups of healthy, normotensive subjects with normal glucose tolerance. (A) Group A: We studied 8 healthy subjects (age 31 ± 4 years, BMI 24 ± 1, body fat 20.4 ± 4.1%, LDL cholesterol 82 ± 10 mg/dL, HDL cholesterol 50 ± 13 mg/dL, mean arterial pressure 93 ± 3 mm Hg). Subjects underwent a 240-minute hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp (120 mU/m2/min). (B) Group B: We studied 6 healthy subjects (age 33 ± 3 years, BMI 23.7 ± 0.5, LDL cholesterol 125 ± 14 mg/dl, HDL cholesterol 48 ± 4 mg/dL, mean arterial pressure 91 ± 2 mm Hg). Subjects underwent a 360-minute infusion of Intralipid 20% with heparin 0.2 units/kg/min. Plasma ADMA concentrations were measured at baseline in both groups, at steady-state hyperinsulinemia in group A, and at the end of 360 minutes of infusion of free fatty acids in group B. ADMA concentrations were determined by reverse-phase HPLC. Results Group A: Subjects had normal insulin sensitivity, with glucose disposal rates of 8.1 ± 1.1 mg/kg/min. Plasma ADMA levels were 0.42 ± 0.05 μM at baseline and decreased significantly in response to insulin to 0.30 ± 0.05 μM at steady state of the clamp (p Summary Our results demonstrate for the first time that (a) insulin acutely lowers ADMA levels, (b) the decrease in ADMA in response to insulin appears to be related to the magnitude of insulin-mediated glucose uptake, and (c) free fatty acids acutely increase ADMA levels. Conclusions We conclude that insulin and free fatty acids appear to regulate ADMA; further, blunting of the effect of insulin to lower ADMA and a concomitant exaggeration of the effect of free fatty acids to increase ADMA may, in part, explain the elevated ADMA levels and, in turn, both the endothelial dysfunction and the heightened cardiovascular risk in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Epidemiological Analysis of Public Health Emergencies in Wuming County of Guangxi Province during 2005-2010

[Objective]To understand the information and epidemiological characteristics about public health emergencies in Wuming County,and improve the response capacity of public health emergencies. [Methods]Descriptive epidemiological method was adopted to analyze the reported public health emergencies in Wuming County during 2005 to 2010. [Results]A total of 28 incidents of public health emergency were reported,with 1 511 cases and 2 deaths,mainly belonged to infectious diseases and food poisoning,which accounted for 64.29% and 17.86%.Most incidents occurred in the rural area,Mainly concentrated in March-June;17 the majority of student-oriented events occurred in schools. [Conclusion]According to epidemiological characteristics about public health emergencies in Wuming County,it is necessary to strengthen the health supervision and health education in schools,kindergartens,rural areas,construction sites to prevent and control infectious diseases and food poisoning.
Percutaneous stone removal in children.

AbstractPercutaneous removal of renal and ureteral calculi has become an established and successful procedure in adults. Stone disease in children often is metabolic or infectious in origin and multiple surgical procedures during a long interval may be required. Therefore, percutaneous stone removal could be particularly advantageous in these patients. We have performed percutaneous stone removal successfully in 7 children, none of whom required a second procedure or were discharged from the hospital with a nephrostomy tube.
Comparison of pain measures in surgical patients.

Numerous instruments have been developed for the measurement of pain with various clinical populations. This study was designed to compare pain measures for research in a sample of postoperative patients. The Brief Pain Inventory--Short Form (BPI-SF) was administered along with the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) and two visual analogue scales, one for pain while at rest (VAS-R) and one for pain upon movement (VAS-M), in random order, to 115 hospitalized patients twice following their surgery. An additional 29 patients completed the instruments once. Correlations between the visual analogue scales, BPI-SF, and SF-MPQ ranged from .33 to .76 (p < .01), suggesting that the instruments measure different aspects of pain and that instructions can influence the results. Recommendations for the selection of pain measures in patients experiencing acute pain and for future research are described.
Species Identification of Food Contaminating Beetles by Recognizing Patterns in Microscopic Images of Elytra Fragments

A crucial step of food contamination inspection is identifying the species of beetle fragments found in the sample, since the presence of some storage beetles is a good indicator of insanitation or potential food safety hazards. The current pratice, visual examination by human analysts, is time consuming and requires several years of experience. Here we developed a species identification algorithm which utilizes images of microscopic elytra fragments. The elytra, or hardened forewings, occupy a large portion of the body, and contain distinctive patterns. In addition, elytra fragments are more commonly recovered from processed food products than other body parts due to their hardness. As a preliminary effort, we chose 15 storage product beetle species frequently detected in food inspection. The elytra were then separated from the specimens and imaged under a microscope. Both global and local characteristics were quantified and used as feature inputs to artificial neural networks for species classification. With leave-one-out cross validation, we achieved overall accuracy of 80% through the proposed global and local features, which indicates that our proposed features could differentiate these species. Through examining the overall and per species accuracies, we further demonstrated that the local features are better suited than the global features for species identification. Future work will include robust testing with more beetle species and algorithm refinement for a higher accuracy.
Dynamic Model for System-Level Strategic Intermodal Facility Investment Planning

This paper proposes a scenario-based mixed-integer dynamic capacitated intermodal facility location model (IFLM) for determining the optimal strategic intermodal facility investment planning strategy that accounts for freight transportation demand uncertainty. The proposed model helps high-level policy makers with strategic investment planning for intermodal facilities at a regional or national level and fosters coordinated strategies and policies for intermodal facility development from a systems perspective. A scenario-based approach characterizes demand uncertainty induced by global trade changes and emerging infrastructure development projects. Dynamic demand is incorporated into the model to capture the impact of differences in the evolution of various scenarios on system-level strategic intermodal investment planning. The proposed IFLM captures the impact of congestion, transshipment costs, changes in capacity of intermodal facilities, economies of scale, and empty-container repositioning costs on f...
Outsourcing to convert fixed costs into variable costs: A competitive analysis

Abstract Outsourcing of production, services, and various economic activities is a pervasive phenomenon across industries. One of the key economic benefits of this popular practice, as mentioned by its sellers and buyers, is that it allows the outsourcing firm to reduce its fixed costs such as expenditures on equipment, information technology, fixed salaries of employees, etc., and convert those into a variable cost in the form of the purchase price that the outsourcing firm then pays the outside industry. This paper examines the strategic implications of this role of outsourcing in an oligopolistic setting. We show how these strategic considerations imply that, even absent any cost savings from outsourcing, competing firms can find it profitable to outsource. Furthermore, in such a setting, one firm may outsource while the ex-ante similar competing firm may not outsource. We also examine how consumer and social welfare are adversely affected when outsourcing plays this fixed-cost-to-variable-cost conversion role in an oligopolistic setting.
Schedulability Analysis for Real-Time Task Set on Resource with Performance Degradation and Dual-Level Periodic Rejuvenations

Researches in real-time scheduling often assume that the performance of a computing resource does not change over time. However, as system softwares and system architectures become increasingly complex, resource performance degradation over time becomes more evident. In this paper, we study the schedulability of a hard real-time task set on a resource which has performance degradation over time with a known pattern and use both cold and warm periodic rejuvenations as countermeasures. Such resource model is referred to as $P^2D$ -resource model for p erformance degradation and p eriodic rejuvenation with d ual-levels. In this paper, we study (1) the formal specification of the $P^2D$ -resource model, (2) $P^2D$ -resource supply analysis, and (3) task set utilization bounds of a $P^2D$ -resource under Earliest Deadline First (EDF) and Rate Monotonic (RM) scheduling policies.
New physics in the visible final states of B → D (∗) τν

We derive compact expressions for the helicity amplitudes of the many-body B → D (∗)(→ DY)τ(→ Xν)ν decays, specifically for X = lν or π and Y = π or γ. We include contributions from all ten possible new physics four-Fermi operators with arbitrary couplings. Our results capture interference effects in the full phase space of the visible τ and D ∗ decay products which are missed in analyses that treat the τ or D ∗ or both as stable. The τ interference effects are sizable, formally of order m τ /m B for the standard model, and may be of order unity in the presence of new physics. Treating interference correctly is essential when considering kinematic distributions of the τ or D ∗ decay products, and when including experimentally unavoidable phase space cuts. Our amplitude-level results also allow for efficient exploration of new physics effects in the fully differential phase space, by enabling experiments to perform such studies on fully simulated Monte Carlo datasets via efficient event reweighing. As an example, we explore a class of new physics interactions that can fit the observed R(D (∗)) ratios, and show that analyses including more differential kinematic information can provide greater discriminating power for new physics, than single kinematic variables alone.
RF-powered BIONs/spl trade/ for stimulation and sensing

Virtually all bodily functions are controlled by electrical signals in nerves and muscles. Electrical stimulation can restore missing signals but this has been difficult to achieve practically because of limitations in the bioelectric interfaces. Wireless, injectable microdevices are versatile, robust and relatively inexpensive to implant in a variety of sites and applications. Several variants are now in clinical use or under development to perform stimulation and/or sensing functions and to operate autonomously or with continuous coordination and feedback control.
CD44 Is Selectively Required for the Homing and Engraftment of BCR-ABL-Expressing Leukemic Stem Cells.

Abstract In chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients treated by autologous hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation, malignant progenitors in the graft can contribute to relapse of leukemia (Deisseroth et al., Blood 1994; 83:3068), but the mechanisms of homing and engraftment of leukemic CML stem cells are unknown. Although the frequency of autografting in CML has decreased following the introduction of imatinib, most imatinib-responsive patients harbor residual BCR-ABL-expressing stem cells (Graham et al., Blood 2002; 99:319) and some will develop progressive leukemia. Autografting with cells harvested at the time of minimal residual disease could be an important salvage therapy, but methods to selectively block the engraftment of leukemic stem cells are needed. In this study, we show that CD44 expression is increased on murine BCR-ABL-expressing stem/progenitor cells and contributes to the ability of these cells to bind to Selectins. In a retroviral transduction/transplantation model of CML, BCR-ABL-transduced progenitors from CD44-deficient donors were defective in homing to recipient marrow, resulting in defective engraftment and impaired induction of CML-like myeloproliferative disease. By contrast, CD44-deficient stem cells transduced with empty retrovirus engrafted as efficiently as wild-type HSC. In addition, CD44 was not required for induction of acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) by BCR-ABL, indicating that the engraftment requirement for CD44 is specific to leukemic cells initiating CML, not B-ALL. The requirement for donor CD44 was bypassed by direct intrafemoral injection of BCR-ABL-transduced CD44-deficient stem cells, or by co-expression of human CD44 with BCR-ABL. Treatment of BCR-ABL-transduced stem/progenitor cells from wild-type donors with antibody to CD44 attenuated the induction of CML-like leukemia in recipients. These results demonstrate a major role for CD44 in homing and engraftment of BCR-ABL-expressing leukemic stem cells, possibly through adhesive interactions with Selectins and/or hyaluronan in the recipient bone marrow niche. They further argue that BCR-ABL-transduced stem/progenitor cells depend to a greater extent on CD44 for engraftment than do normal HSC, and suggest that CD44 blockade may be beneficial in autologous transplantation in CML.
Historical Review of Learning Strategies Research: Strategies for the Whole Learner—A Tribute to Claire Ellen Weinstein and Early Researchers of This Topic

This selective historical review summarizes research on learning strategies conducted in the past 50 years and summarizes how the field has evolved. Two goals guide the review: (1) update the literature on the origins of the learning strategies research ‘movement’ and (2) highlight in the supplement the work of one of the early contributors, Claire Ellen Weinstein, whose pioneering work endures up to now. This review fills the gap of other recent reviews by including research on learning strategies began in the 1960s and 1970s that received significant funding from military sources but remained largely hidden in technical reports and hard to find academic documents. The outcomes of this review reveal that the field is thriving, with two major unifying themes. First, there is a focus on metacognition and second, there is a focus on the whole learner and interventions that address cognitive, metacognitive, affective, physical, cultural, and social needs. The research of Dr. Weinstein (who passed June 23, 2016) has framed past and current learning strategies research agendas and includes her development, validation, and implementation of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) in traditional and online learning contexts. This review and supplemental section’s personal stories include many of the early learning strategies research findings, definitions, and interventions that remain in use across the nation and world today. Future research issues and areas needing more focused attention in the years ahead given our increasing complex, digital, and diverse world are summarized in final sections of this review.
The Preparation of Biopsy Specimens for Routine and Molecular Cytology: Technical Steps, Pearls, and Pitfalls

Preparation of the fine-needle aspiration (FNA) aspirate is critically important to the end result. No matter how well the FNA is performed, the specimen is only as good as it is prepared. There is an art to making direct smears that are not only interpretable by the cytopathologist but provide the best features for a specific diagnosis. There are several methods for preparing, fixing, and staining FNA material. The aim of this chapter is to review some of these methods and provide some cytopathology insights for reasons behind them.
Local Wave Activity and the Onset of Blocking along a Potential Vorticity Front

AbstractInteraction between a train of transient waves and a diffluent westerly jet is examined using a regional quasigeostrophic equivalent barotropic model with a (nearly) binary potential vorticity (PV) distribution. Unlike most previous studies, but consistent with the observed extratropical tropopause, cross-stream variation in the layer thickness is allowed to contribute to the discontinuity in PV. In all cases examined, short (i.e., barotropic) edge waves are continuously forced in the upstream, then migrate downstream, and eventually exit the domain. A quasilinear 1D theory based on the conservation of local wave activity predicts that no steady wave train can be maintained where the westerly zonal flow is decelerated below one-half of the initial value, at which point the wave envelope develops a migratory shock analogous to the Lighthill–Whitham–Richards traffic flow problem. Fully nonlinear high-resolution 2D calculations show that the wave train indeed undergoes a significant transformation on...
Signs and Symptoms of Autism in Willa Cather's PAUL'S CASE

Since Willa Cather's “Paul's Case” was published in 1905, developments in society, psychology, and medical science have allowed for various interpretations of the story's protagonist. Critics have ...
Metadata discovery of heterogeneous biomedical datasets using token-based features

Metadata discovery is the process of recognizing semantics and descriptors of data elements and datasets. This study uses a machine-learning approach to classify biomedical dataset characteristics for metadata discovery. Four common types of biomedical data sources were included in this study - genetic variant, protein structure, scientific publications, and general English corpus. Decision tree classification models were built using token-based features derived from these data files. These decision tree classification models are able to identify the four data sources with average F1 scores ranging from 0.935 to 1.000. This study demonstrates that biomedical data of different types have different distributions of token-based document structural features and that such structural features can be leveraged for metadata discovery.
Extended, continuous measures of functional status in community dwelling persons with Alzheimer's and related dementia: Infrastructure, performance, tradeoffs, preliminary data, and promise.

Abstract Background The past decades have seen phenomenal growth in the availability of inexpensive and powerful personal computing devices. Efforts to leverage these devices to improve health care outcomes promise to remake many aspects of healthcare delivery, but remain in their infancy. New method We describe the development of a mobile health platform designed for daily measures of functional status in ambulatory, community dwelling subjects, including those who have Alzheimer’s disease or related neurodegenerative disorders. Using Smartwatches and Smartphones we measure subject overall activity and outdoor location (to derive their lifespace). These clinically-relevant measures allow us to track a subject’s functional status in their natural environment over prolonged periods of time without repeated visits to healthcare providers. Functional status metrics are integrated with medical information and caregiver reports, which are used by a caregiving team to guide referrals for physician/APRN/NP care. Comparison with Existing Methods We describe the design tradeoffs involved in all aspects of our current system architecture, focusing on decisions with significant impact on system cost, performance, scalability, and user-adherence. Results We provide real-world data from current subject enrollees demonstrating system accuracy and reliability. Conclusions We document real-world feasibility in a group of men and women with dementia that Smartwatches/Smartphones can provide long-term, relevant clinical data regarding individual functional status. We describe the underlying considerations of this system so that interested organizations can adapt and scale our approach to their needs. Finally, we provide a potential agenda to guide development of future systems.
From Conceptual Metaphors to Cultural Metaphors: Metaphorical Language in Yoruba Proverbs and Praise Poems

This study attempts an analysis of metaphors in the context of Yoruba cultural discourse. The data for the study include proverbs and praise poems which were collected from oral interviews with nat...
Effects of a Honeypot on the Cyber Grand Challenge Final Event

Throughout much of the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) Final Event (CFE), one team deliberately included a honeypot in the form of a simple buffer overflow within most of their “patched” services. This vulnerability could not be reached while executing on the CGC infrastructure but was trivially reachable when executing on other platforms, for example, an instrumented instance of the CGC execution environment used by a competitor during the competition to analyze software for vulnerabilities. This ruse fooled some competitors into abandoning working proofs of vulnerabilities (PoVs) to instead attack the honeypot. However, logic within the patched service designed to control execution divergence toward or away from the honeypot appears to contain a flaw, which led to the service crashing. These crashes occurred many times, to the detriment of the availability score of the honeypot’s author.
Special Education in Kenya

Access to basic education for all students is an essential goal for many countries around the world. Also, as worldwide calls for providing inclusive education continue to intensify, access to basi...
Organizational Culture as a Knowledge Resource

Organizational culture has long been recognized as the underlying set of values systems that determines how firms perceive and react to their environments. While there is widespread agreement over the relevance of culture and its impact on organizations, many believe that culture exists as a concept than can be neither measured nor controlled. This chapter considers an alternate view in characterizing culture as an important knowledge resource that facilitates the management of a firm’s intellectual (knowledge) assets. We first present a brief overview of organizational culture and then examine culture as an organizational resource that facilitates four key knowledge management activities. As part of this analysis, a series of research hypotheses is offered to provide a link between certain cultural sub-types and effective knowledge management practice in each of four areas: knowledge creation, storage, transfer, and application. A key implication of this chapter is that firms must increasingly view their culture as a competitive resource that must be managed in order to become a learning organization. As part of this management process, senior executives must be able to manage the various sub-cultures found within their organizations and to foster those sub-cultures consistent with knowledge management objectives. The chapter concludes by considering knowledge management initiatives as an opportunity to change corporate cultures.
Stepwise-Programmed Regulation of Manufacturing Quality

In the process of attaining manufacturing targets (e.g., 6-σ quality targets), regulatory actions are often restricted to the so-called stepwise-programmed (or dispersal feedback) regulation, which contains a countable set of feedback-based decision-making points. For example, quality auditing of Toyota production systems calls for a series of feedback reviews (or audits) guided by a feedback strategy, which usually leads to disruptive stepwise changes in regulatory actions. The disruptive nature of dispersal feedback causes the quality regulation to be non-smooth (i.e., non-smooth Hamiltonian), with the result that classical solutions are no longer suitable. As shown in modern control theory, the so-called generalized (or viscosity) solutions need to be considered in this case. However, non-smooth quality regulation problems are predominantly treated as if they were smooth.
Some Biochemical and Clinical Aspects of Lead Intoxication

Publisher Summary The effects of nutrition on lead intoxication have been poorly studied. The neurologic signs of lead exposure have been given little etiologic explanation, and to a considerable extent, the significance of lead in various organ systems has been poorly characterized. The major biochemical effects of lead on the organism can be broadly grouped into three classes. First, lead has a high affinity for sulfhydryl groups. It is this effect which leads to the inhibition of various sulfhydryl-dependent enzymes, most notably δ-aminolevulinate dehydratase and ferrochelatase, two enzymes in the heme synthetic pathway. Second, divalent lead is similar in some respects to divalent calcium and its competitive action against calcium affects, among other systems, mitochondrial respiration and various neurologic functions. Third, lead has effects on desoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid, the mechanisms of which are not as yet known but these effects may have important biological implications. The heme pathway, the nervous system, the kidney, and the nucleic acid systems are not each affected solely via a single mode of action. It is found that lead toxicity is modulated by many factors. Children and adults absorb lead to different degrees, express toxicities at different levels of lead absorption, and present with different clinical syndromes. Several assays are available to evaluate the extent of lead exposure. These depend on direct determination of lead, or the biological effects of lead.
On-Chip Circuit Technique for Measuring Jitter and Skew with Picosecond Resolution

When VLSI circuits operate at multi-GHz frequencies, the demand for precise clock generation and distribution become more and more stringent. Inevitably, clock edges develop timing jitter, which is the deviation of the timing of the clock edges from their ideal values. Jitter arises from power supply noise on the circuits which distribute the clock, and from the phase-locked loops (PLLs) which generate a high frequency clock by multiplying a very stable lower frequency signal. Since computation requires that certain logical operations are completed within each clock cycle, a certain amount of jitter is assumed in the design of a chip, by including it in the clock budget. Jitter which is too large can impact the allowed clock budget, or even cause data transmission and computation errors. The measurement of jitter is required for high-speed circuits, to determine if timing specifications and margins are met. In contemporary circuits, where clock periods may be as small as 250 or 300 ps, rms jitter may be required to be as small as a few picoseconds. Conventional measurement of such small timing delays requires driving the signal of interest off-chip with high fidelity off chip drivers. Measurement is performed with a high performance oscilloscope or similar instrument, limiting characterization to only a few samples.
Verilog HDL for Design and Test

In Chapter we discussed the basics of test and presented ways in which hardware description languages (HDLs) could be used to improve various aspects of digital system testing. The emphasis of this chapter is on Verilog that is a popular HDL for design. The purpose is to give an introduction of the language while elaborating on ways it can be used for improving methodologies related to digital system testing. After, the basic concepts of HDL modeling, the main aspects of describing combinational and sequential circuits using different levels of abstraction, and the semantics of simulation in Verilog language are expressed. Then, we get into the testbench techniques and virtual tester development, which are heavily utilized in the presentation of test techniques in the rest of this book. Finally, a brief introduction to the procedural language interface (PLI) of Verilog and the basics of implementing test programs in PLI is given. The examples we present in this chapter for illustrating Verilog language and modeling features are used in the rest of this book as circuits that are to be tested. The HDL codes for such examples are presented here. Verilog coding techniques for gate-level components that we use for describing our netlists in the chapters that follow are also shown here.
Meaning-making in the course of action: affordance theory at the pilgrim/tourist nexus

AbstractThe primary objective of this article is to review the potential of affordance theory for interpreting visitor interactions at sites with multiple and overlapping uses, including pilgrimage...
Multiple Marginality and the Variation in Delinquency and Substance use Among Adolescent Gang Members.

Background: Gang membership is a significant contributor to delinquency and violent victimization among adolescents. Yet, there is considerable variability in the extent to which gang members engag...
1. Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) and of Endoscopic Surgery (FES)

The Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) program was developed by surgeons, educators, and administrators, under the leadership of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). The impetus to create this curriculum was born out of the need to safely introduce laparoscopic techniques into clinical practice and by the demand to demonstrate basic competence in the application of this new technology. Many of the same issues that prompted the development of FLS are apparent in the training of competent flexible endoscopists both in the fields of gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery. The importance of these skills for surgeons is rapidly increasing as we work toward the development of increasingly less invasive methods to treat gastrointestinal disease. In response to the need for an objective way to teach and assess the knowledge and skills required to perform basic flexible endoscopy, members of SAGES began to discuss the possibility of developing a flexible gastrointestinal endoscopy program, similar to FLS, that could serve as a benchmark for physicians of all specialties.
The History of Experts in English Common Law, with Practice Advice for Beginning Experts

The first chapter provides a brief history of the use of special witnesses in courtrooms. The early expert customs and rules in English Common Law show striking similarity to current rationales. Today the scrutiny of review for expert testimony is much more science based but not devoid of concern in certain areas. The remainder of the chapter develops cases and events involving some forensic disciplines and individual groups that represent examples of forensic challenges, inconsistencies and deficiencies.
Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Germination

ABSTRACT We report the proof-of-principle demonstration of a methodology, called Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Germination, to modulate the germination of plant seeds and growth of plants using gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and microwave heating. As a model plant seed, basil seeds were heated in a solution of 20 nm Au NPs using a microwave waveguide fiber connected to a solid-state microwave operating at 8 GHz at 20 W, which resulted in the development of longer basil gum as observed by optical microscopy. In control experiments, Au NPs or microwave heating was omitted to establish a baseline growth level under standard experimental conditions (no microwave heating or no Au NPs). Our results also show that hydroponic growth and soil growth of basil plants can be delayed with the use of 20 nm Au NPs at room temperature without microwave heating. The combined use of 20 nm Au NPs and microwave heating at 10 W for 6 minutes results in accelerated growth prolonged life of basil plants.
Perverting the ‘Natural’ in José Victorino Lastarria’s ‘El mendigo’: Herderian Manipulations to Contest the Colonial Era and the Portalian Regime to Progress

As the newly elected director of the Sociedad Literaria in Santiago, Chile, Jose Victorino Lastarria outlined the Society’s objectives in a discourse in 1842. He duly described the role of nature as it related to the nation’s past and impending progress that the letrados were to continue to cultivate through original compositions steeped in sociopolitical utility. In preparation for that task, John Godfrey Herder’s historiographical work had been selected to serve as fundamental source material. The following year, Lastarria published what many conceive to be Chile’s first short story, ‘El mendigo’. Reflecting many aspects of the discourse, the short story manipulated facets of Herderian thought to constitute a counter-hegemonic discourse intensified through a concomitant reading of Lastarria’s ‘Investigaciones’ (1844). As this study reveals, analysing the story against its Herderian intertext and alongside other Lastarrian productions affords a deeper understanding of Lastarria’s espoused ‘liberal’ ideology in the post-Portalian era that bridged various contexts for their critique in a bid for future success.
Cyclin D: CDK4/6 Kinase Activity, Regulated by GATA-1, Is Required for Megakaryocyte Polyploidization.

Megakaryocytes, which fragment to give rise to platelets, undergo a unique form of cell cycle, termed endomitosis, to become polyploid and terminally differentiate. During this process, cells transverse the cell cycle but the late stages of mitosis are bypassed to lead to accumulation of DNA up to 128N. While the mechanisms of polyploidization in megakaryocytes are poorly understood, a few cell cycle regulators, such as cyclin D3, have been implicated in this process. Hematopoietic transcription factors, including GATA-1 and RUNX1 are also essential for polyploidization, as both GATA1-deficient and RUNX1-null megakaryocytes undergo fewer rounds of endomitosis. Interestingly, GATA-1 deficient megakaryocytes are also smaller than their wild-type counterparts. However, the link between transcription factors and the growth and polyploidization of megakaryocytes has not been established. In our studies to identify key downstream targets of GATA-1 in the megakaryocyte lineage, we discovered that the cell cycle regulators cyclin D1 and p16 were aberrantly expressed in the absence of GATA-1: cyclin D1 expression was reduced nearly 10-fold, while that of p16ink4a was increased 10-fold. Luciferase reporter assays revealed that GATA-1, but not the leukemic isoform GATA-1s, promotes cyclinD1 expression. Consistent with these observations, megakaryocytes that express GATA-1s in place of full-length GATA-1 are smaller than their wild-type counterparts. Chromatin immunoprecipitation studies revealed that GATA-1 is bound to the cyclin D1 promoter in vivo, in primary fetal liver derived megakaryocytes. In contrast, GATA-1 is not associated with the cyclin D1 promoter in erythroid cells, which do not become polyploid. Thus, cyclin D1 is a bona fide GATA-1 target gene in megakaryocytes. To investigate whether restoration of cyclin D1 expression could rescue the polyploidization defect in GATA-1 deficient cells, we infected fetal liver progenitors isolated from GATA-1 knock-down mice with retroviruses harboring the cyclin D1 cDNA (and GFP via an IRES element) or GFP alone. Surprisingly, expression of cyclin D1 did not increase the extent of polyploidization of the GATA-1 deficient megakaryocytes. However, co-overexpression of cyclin D1 and Cdk4 resulted in a dramatic increase in polyploidization. Consistent with the model that cyclinD:Cdk4/6 also regulates cellular metabolism, we observed that the size of the doubly infected cells was also significantly increased. Finally, in support of our model that cyclin D:Cdk4/6 kinase activity is essential for endomitosis, we discovered that introduction of wild-type p16 TAT fusion protein, but not a mutant that fails to interact with Cdk4/6, significantly blocked polyploidization of primary fetal liver derived megakaryocytes. Taken together, our data reveal that the process of endomitosis and cell growth relies heavily on cyclinD:Cdk4/6 kinase activity and that the maturation defects in GATA-1 deficient megakaryocytes are due, in part, to reduced Cyclin D1 and increase p16 expression.
Irrigation suitability of White River in Indiana, Midwestern USA

Climate change models consistently project future precipitation reduction and temperature increase during the crop growing season in the US Midwest, which may exacerbate surface water scarcity issues confronting regional agriculture. To maintain consistent crop yields under the risk of increased droughts, farmers may shift from rain-fed agriculture to irrigation agriculture, particularly during drought periods. There is an urgent need to understand whether surface water in the Midwest is suitable for irrigation. In this study, irrigation water quality was comprehensively analyzed for commonly used parameters regarding salt content including sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), adjusted sodium adsorption ratio (SARadj), soluble sodium percentage (SSP), electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), residual sodium bicarbonate (RSBC), magnesium adsorption ratio (MAR), permeability index (PI), Kelley’s ratio (KR), synthetic harmful coefficient (SHC), and salinity. Results indicate that water in the White River at Muncie was rated mostly in excellent to good condition with regard to irrigation quality. However, the irrigation suitability level exhibited two distinct patterns between May–July and August–October. Specifically, an average of 7.8% of the samples from May to July were unsuitable for irrigation, and an average of 24.5% of samples from August to October were unsuitable for irrigation considering all parameters. Flow rate change over time and the release of pollutants from wastewater treatment plants and combine sewage outflows to the White River impacted on the irrigation water quality variations of the river. This study showed that there are higher risks during the fall season for farmers to use surface water as an irrigation source, and this risk might be greater if extended or more frequent drought events occur in the future. To our best knowledge, this is the first peer-reviewed study on irrigation water quality assessment in the Midwest and provides useful information for farmers and decision makers to consider while formulating applications for irrigation.
Pandemic Risk and the Interpretation of Exceptions in MAE Clauses

In business combination transactions, Material Adverse Effect (MAE) clauses allocate risks to the target’s business that arise between signing and closing. The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected many businesses and so led to a series of broken deals in which acquirers claimed they were entitled to terminate a pending merger agreement because the pandemic had had a material adverse effect on the target. MAE clauses typically allocate to the acquirer many systematic risks to the target’s business by removing them from the definition of “Material Adverse Effect” in broadly worded exceptions. A key issue in the MAE disputes arising from the pandemic has thus been whether one or more of these exceptions shifted the relevant risk to the acquirer. In some cases, the issue has been the relatively straightforward one of whether the pandemic should count as a “natural disaster” or “calamity” in an exception related to force majeure events. In other cases, however, the issues have been considerably more complicated. In particular, when the causal chain from the pandemic to the material adverse effect on the company passes through multiple events (e.g., from pandemic to governmental lock-down orders to a drop in demand for the company’s products or services to the material adverse effect), and when, further, some of these events fall into exceptions in the MAE definition but others do not, the ultimate allocation of the risk depends on how we should understand the relation between the exceptions and the base part of the definition and the interrelations among the exceptions themselves. Working from the assumption that the sophisticated commercial parties that enter into business combination transactions are rational profit-maximizers who intend to allocate risks in a predictable way, this Article presents a general theory of how exceptions from MAE definitions should be interpreted in order to respect the intentions of the parties. It argues that the conclusions reached in dicta on the relevant issues in AB Stable and other cases are wrong, in large part because they confuse Material Adverse Effects with material adverse effects (i.e., events causing material adverse effects with the material adverse effects themselves).
The Association between the Legal and Financial Reporting Environments and Forecast Performance of Individual Analysts

We test the ability of analyst characteristics to explain relative forecast accuracy across legal origins (common law versus civil law). Common-law countries generally have more effective corporate governance mechanisms, including stronger investor protection laws and inputs provided through higher-quality financial reporting systems. In this type of environment, we predict that analysts with superior ability and resources in common-law countries will more consistently outperform their peers because appropriate market-based incentives exist. In civil-law countries, where the demand for earnings information is reduced because of weaker corporate governance mechanisms and lower-quality financial reporting, we predict that analysts with superior ability will less consistently provide superior forecasts. Results are consistent with our expectations and suggest an association between legal and financial reporting environments and analysts' forecast behavior.
Improving Prehospital Stroke Diagnosis Using Natural Language Processing of Paramedic Reports

Background and Purpose: Accurate prehospital diagnosis of stroke by emergency medical services (EMS) can increase treatments rates, mitigate disability, and reduce stroke deaths. We aimed to develo...
Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis: experience at a New York hospital.

Introduction Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) often mimics breast cancer. Presentation includes pain, palpable mass, suppuration or suspicious imaging. Widely reported in Asia and the Middle...
Professional Preparation for Science Teachers in Environmental Education

Environmental Education (EE) is intended to be interdisciplinary and supplemental throughout the K-12 curriculum. However, because EE is not confined to one subject area the professional preparation in EE for preservice teachers becomes complex. The National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) and the Guidelines for the Initial Preparation of Environmental Educators (NAAEE, 2000) guide how preservice teachers should be prepared to implement EE. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is as important in EE methods as it is with any other subject area. The complexity of environmental issues introduced throughout the K-12 curriculum demands a strong science-content base. Consequently, teacher preparation in EE involves a dual pedagogical challenge that requires addressing social change and the ability of teachers to become reflective practitioners. A mentoring program at Central Michigan University for preservice teacher preparation in EE is presented within this chapter. Recommendations for professional preparation of preservice teachers in EE are included.
Vulnerability of crops and native grasses to summer drying in the U.S. Southern Great Plains

Abstract The Southern Great Plains are characterized by a fine-scale mixture of different land-cover types, predominantly winter-wheat and grazed pasture, with relatively small areas of other crops, native prairie, and switchgrass. Recent droughts and predictions of increased drought in the Southern Great Plains, especially during the summer months, raise concern for these ecosystems. We measured ecosystem carbon and water fluxes with eddy-covariance systems over cultivated cropland for 10 years, and over lightly grazed prairie and new switchgrass fields for 2 years each. Growing-season precipitation showed the strongest control over net carbon uptake for all ecosystems, but with a variable effect: grasses (prairie and switchgrass) needed at least 350 mm of precipitation during the growing season to become net carbon sinks, while crops needed only 100 mm. In summer, high temperatures enhanced evaporation and led to higher likelihood of dry soil conditions. Therefore, summer-growing native prairie species and switchgrass experienced more seasonal droughts than spring-growing crops. For wheat, the net reduction in carbon uptake resulted mostly from a decrease in gross primary production rather than an increase in respiration . Flux measurements suggested that management practices for crops were effective in suppressing evapotranspiration and decomposition (by harvesting and removing secondary growth), and in increasing carbon uptake (by fertilizing and conserving summer soil water). In light of future projections for wetter springs and drier and warmer summers in the Southern Great Plains, our study indicates an increased vulnerability in native ecosystems and summer crops over time.
Expandiendo la reforma en la capacitación de docentes en Guatemala: El rol de los procesos de pensamiento de los maestros.

Resumen es: El gobierno de Guatemala se ha embarcado en un ambicioso proyecto de reforma educativa que incluye la descentralizacion del sistema educativo y la adecu...
Galaxies in a simulated ΛCDM Universe – I. Cold mode and hot cores

We study the formation of galaxies in a large volume (50 h −1 Mpc, 2 × 288 3 particles) cosmological simulation, evolved using the entropy and energy-conserving smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code GADGET-2. Most of the baryonic mass in galaxies of all masses is originally acquired through filamentary ‘cold mode’ accretion of gas that was never shock heated to its halo virial temperature, confirming the key feature of our earlier results obtained with a different SPH code. Atmospheres of hot, virialized gas develop in haloes above 2–3 × 10 11 M � , a transition mass that is nearly constant from z = 3 to 0. Cold accretion persists in haloes above the transition mass, especially at z ≥ 2. It dominates the growth of galaxies in low-mass haloes at all times, and it is the main driver of the cosmic star formation history. Our results suggest that the cooling of shock-heated virialized gas, which has been the focus of many analytic models of galaxy growth spanning more than three decades, might be a relatively minor element of galaxy formation. At high redshifts, satellite galaxies have gas accretion rates similar to central galaxies of the same baryonic mass, but at z < 1t he accretion rates of low-mass satellites are well below those of comparable central galaxies. Relative to our earlier simulations, the GADGET-2 simulations predict much lower rates of ‘hot mode’ accretion from the virialized gas component. Hot accretion rates compete with cold accretion rates near the transition mass, but only at z ≤ 1. Hot accretion is inefficient in haloes
Segregation of Clock and Non-Clock Regulatory Functions of REV-ERB

The molecular clock is a master controller of circadian cellular processes that affect growth, metabolic homeostasis, and behavior. A report in Science by Zhang et al. (2015) redefines our understanding of how Rev-erba acts as an internal feedback inhibitor that modulates activity of the core clock while simultaneously regulating tissue-specific metabolic processes.