cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Approximation of Fire-Return Intervals with Point Samples in the Southern Range of the Coast Redwood Forest, California, USA

A legacy of past fires is evident in the form of blackened basal hollows found throughout the southern range of the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens [D. Don] Endl.) forest. A deeper look reveals cambial scars dating back centuries, telling a story of low- to moderate-intensity fires that burned periodically across California’s Central Coast bioregion. While attempts have been made to reconstruct the fire history of this forest type, estimates of the fire-return interval vary widely, and the relationship of the fire-return interval to varying cultural influences is not fully understood. We analyzed 373 fire scars from 70 cross-sections removed from stumps, downed logs, and live trees in the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains of California, USA, in order to estimate fire-return intervals (FRI) for individual trees, mean FRI across samples, and seasonality of historical fires. The mean FRI, averaged across point samples, was 60.6 yr with a median of 40.1 yr. Fire scars were most prevalent in the dormant and latewood portions of annual growth rings. A sub-sample of 19 cross-sections, for which we were able to determine approximate fire years, exhibited a high degree of variation between samples with individual tree FRIs ranging from 10.4 yr to 128 yr. The mean FRI of 43.3 yr was marginally higher for the pre-settlement period (1352 to 1849) compared to 30.7 yr for the settlement period (1850 to 1924) and 32.3 yr for the recent period (1925 to 2013). While our results suggest a longer estimate of fire-return intervals than previously documented for this forest type, high variation within and between samples clouded distinctions and illustrates a culturally constructed fire regime characterized by temporal and spatial heterogeneity.
Evaluation of the WISC-III and WPPSI-R for Gifted Children.

The WISC‐III and WPPSI‐R are both recent additions to the assessment scene. Each revised battery is technically excellent, and has several features that enhance its usefulness for gifted children: ...
Short sale constraints and information-driven short selling: evidence on NASDAQ

ABSTRACTThis article examines the impact of the NASDAQ’s bid test rule on the information content of short sales surrounding the U.S. Security Exchange Commission introduction of the pilot programme in 2005. It shows that abnormal short selling prior to analyst recommendation changes were very informative when stocks were restricted by the bid test rule. Such informativeness of short selling disappears when the bid test rule was temporarily suspended for pilot stocks. The results are robust after controlling for various factors that may contribute to this anomaly. Both the shorting efficiency hypothesis and the regulatory concern hypothesis are developed to provide explanations for this anomaly. Additional tests show that the regulatory concern is more consistent with the data.
Determination of Trace Vanadium in Environmental Water Samples by Xylenol Orange-Potassium Bromate System-Sequential Injection-Catalytic Spectrophotometry

In acidic medium,potassium bromate could oxidize and decolorize the xylenol orange under the catalysis of V(Ⅳ).A new catalytic spectrophotometric method combined with sequential injection has been proposed for the determination of trace V(Ⅳ)based on this oxidation reaction.Under the optimized experimental conditions,the linear ranges were 0.5~50ng/mL with the detection limit of 0.4ng/mL.The relative standard deviation for eleven replicate determinations of the solution containing 10ng/mL V(Ⅳ)was 1.1%.The method has been used in the determination of trace vanadium in environmental water samples with recovery over 91%~108%.
Study on Epidemic Isolates and Antibiotic Resistance of Vibrio cholerae in Maoming Area in 2007

Objective To study the epidemic isolates and antibiotic resistance of Vibrio cholera in Maoming Area,and provide the references for prevention and control of cholera. Method Samples were collected from the general surveillance and epidemic situation of cholera. Bacterial strains were isolated according to the "Manual for the Prevention and Control of Cholera" (version 5). The Vibrio cholerae isolates were tested for their resistance to 20 different common antibiotics using the automatic microorganism identification machine. Result 334 samples were collected. Among those samples, 12 isolates of O1 group of El Tor Vibrio cholerae sero type Inaba 1d was detected. The antibiotic resistance of 12 isolates to the 20 kinds antibiotic was completely consistent. Among the antibiotics, the isolates showed the highest susceptibility to 11 kinds such as Ceftriaxone, and Gentamicin, with proportion of 55 percent (11/20), and moderate susceptibility to 8 kinds such as Ampicillin, with proportion of 40 percent (8/20). The isolates only showed 100% resistance to sulfamethoxazole, with a proportion of 5 percent (1/20). Conclusion The epidemic isolates of Vibrio cholerae were identified as O1 group of El Tor Vibrio cholerae sero type Inaba 1d in Maoming Area in 2007. These epidemic isolates were susceptible (or moderate susceptible) to most of the 20 commonly used antibiotics, except sulfamethoxazole. No epidemic isolates showed multiple resistances to antibiotics.
Correlation between mRNA levels for bone cell proteins and bone formation in long bones of maturing rats.

This report describes the relationship between bone formation and mRNA levels for selected bone proteins. Dynamic bone histomorphometry was used to measure bone formation in tibial periosteum of ma...
Oldfield, S. 2003. Rainforest. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in association with Fauna and Flora International, 160 pp. ISBN 0-262-15106-5, price (cloth) $29.95

S. Oldfield 2003. Rainforest. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in association with Fauna and Flora International, 160 pp. ISBN 0-262-15106-5, price (cloth) $29.95. Rainforest is a coffee table book of wonderful production. Following a foreword that outlines rainforest diversity and both present threats and future options for rainforests, 9 chapters address major rainforest regions of the world, including 1 on temperate rainforests. Nearly 200 photographs underscore the diversity and beauty of rainforest biota and biological processes and do service to the associated text. As a charismatic group with deep appeal to conservationists and the public, mammals play an important …
A viscous solvent enables information transfer from gene-length nucleic acids in a model prebiotic replication cycle

Many hypotheses concerning the nature of early life assume that genetic information was once transferred through the template-directed synthesis of RNA, before the emergence of coded enzymes. However, attempts to demonstrate enzyme-free, template-directed synthesis of nucleic acids have been limited by ‘strand inhibition’, whereby transferring information from a template strand in the presence of its complementary strand is inhibited by the stability of the template duplex. Here, we use solvent viscosity to circumvent strand inhibition, demonstrating information transfer from a gene-length template (>300 nt) within a longer (545 bp or 3 kb) duplex. These results suggest that viscous environments on the prebiotic Earth, generated periodically by water evaporation, could have facilitated nucleic acid replication—particularly of long, structured sequences such as ribozymes. Our approach works with DNA and RNA, suggesting that viscosity-mediated replication is possible for a range of genetic polymers, perhaps even for informational polymers that may have preceded RNA. An unanswered question in the RNA world scenario is how sequence information could be transferred during replication of duplex RNA. Without the aid of sophisticated enzymes, strand reannealing occurs more quickly than template-directed synthesis. Now, a plausible prebiotic solution to this problem is presented, in which a viscous solvent enables information transfer from a gene-length double-stranded template.
Modeling crash injury severity by road feature to improve safety.

ABSTRACTObjective: The objective of this research is 2-fold: to (a) model and identify critical road features (or locations) based on crash injury severity and compare it with crash frequency and (b) model and identify drivers who are more likely to contribute to crashes by road feature.Method: Crash data from 2011 to 2013 were obtained from the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) for the state of North Carolina. Twenty-three different road features were considered, analyzed, and compared with each other as well as no road feature. A multinomial logit (MNL) model was developed and odds ratios were estimated to investigate the effect of road features on crash injury severity.Results: Among the many road features, underpass, end or beginning of a divided highway, and on-ramp terminal on crossroad are the top 3 critical road features. Intersection crashes are frequent but are not highly likely to result in severe injuries compared to critical road features. Roundabouts are least likely to result in both...
Epilogue: Looking Back to Look Ahead:

By definition, an epilogue is a concluding segment of a literary work that often describes the futures of its main characters. It can also be a short speech at the end of a play or musical interlud...
Using Satellite Measurements of N 2 O to remove dynamical variability from HCl measurements

Abstract. Column HCl measurements show deviations from the expected slow decline following the regulation of chlorine-containing compounds by the Montreal Protocol. We use the simultaneous measurements of N 2 O and HCl by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on the Aura satellite to examine this problem. We find that the use of N 2 O measurements at a specific altitude to represent the impact of dynamical variability on HCl results in a derived linear trend in HCl that is negative (ranging from − 2.5 to 5.3 % decade −1 ) at all altitudes between 68 and 10 hPa. These trends are at or near 2 σ statistical significance at all pressure levels between 68 and 10 hPa. This shows that analysis of simultaneous measurements of several constituents is a useful approach to identify small trends from data records that are strongly influenced by dynamical interannual variability.
A novel molecular toolkit for rapid detection of the pathogen and primary vector of thousand cankers disease

Thousand Cankers Disease (TCD) of Juglans and Pterocarya (Juglandaceae) involves a fungal pathogen, Geosmithia morbida, and a primary insect vector, Pityophthorus juglandis. TCD was described originally from dying Juglans nigra trees in the western United States (USA), but it was reported subsequently from the eastern USA and northern Italy. The disease is often difficult to diagnose due to the absence of symptoms or signs on the bark surface of the host. Furthermore, disease symptoms can be confused with those caused by other biotic and abiotic agents. Thus, there is a critical need for a method for rapid detection of the pathogen and vector of TCD. Using species-specific microsatellite DNA markers, we developed a molecular protocol for the detection of G. morbida and P. juglandis. To demonstrate the utility of the method for delineating TCD quarantine zones, we tested whether geographical occurrence of symptoms and signs of TCD was correlated with molecular evidence for the presence of the cryptic TCD organisms. A total of 1600 drill cores were taken from branch sections collected from three regions (n = 40 trees for each location): California-J. hindsii (heavy disease incidence); Tennessee-J. nigra (mild disease incidence); and outside the known TCD zone (Missouri-J. nigra, no record of the disease). California samples had the highest incidence of the TCD organisms (85%, 34/40). Tennessee had intermediate incidence (42.5%, 17/40), whereas neither organism was detected in samples from Missouri. The low cost molecular protocol developed here has a high degree of sensitivity and specificity, and it significantly reduces sample-processing time, making the protocol a powerful tool for rapid detection of TCD.
The minimal clinically important difference of the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale in patients with cancer with agitated delirium.

Background The Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS) is commonly used to assess psychomotor activity; however, to the authors' knowledge, its minimal clinically important difference (MCID) has not been determined to date. The objective of the current study was to identify the MCID for RASS using 2 anchor-based approaches. Methods The current study was a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial to compare the effect of lorazepam versus placebo as an adjuvant to haloperidol for persistent agitation in patients with delirium. The primary outcome was change in RASS (10-point numeric rating scale ranging from -5 [unarousable] to +4 [combative]) from baseline to 8 hours after treatment administration. The sensitivity-specificity and within-patient change methods were used to identify the MCID, with the anchor being patient comfort after the study intervention as perceived by caregivers and nurses. Results A total of 90 patients were randomized and 58 (64%) received the study medication for restlessness/agitation (mean baseline RASS, 1.6). A total of 23 caregivers (61%) and 23 nurses (55%) perceived that the patient was more comfortable after treatment. Using the sensitivity-specificity method, the optimal RASS reduction was ≥4 points according to both caregivers (sensitivity of 61% and specificity of 80%; area under the curve, 0.71) and nurses (sensitivity of 73% and specificity of 84%; area under the curve, 0.78). The RASS cutoff value based on the within-patient change method was similar (-4.2 for caregivers and -4.0 for nurses). Conclusions For patients with persistent restlessness/agitation, a reduction of ≥4 points in RASS was considered to be the MCID for both nurses and caregivers. These preliminary findings may have implications for sample size calculation and the interpretation of treatment effect in future delirium trials. Cancer 2018;124:2246-52. © 2018 American Cancer Society.
Acquisition of Ice-Tethered Profilers with Velocity (ITP-V) Instruments as a contribution to the Marginal Ice Zone DRI

Abstract : The PI group seeks to observe the upper Arctic Ocean using autonomous instrumentation and build understanding of the physical processes controlling the evolving thermohaline stratification, the ocean currents and air-ice-sea interactions on time scales of minutes to interannual. This award is supporting the acquisition of 4 Ice-Tethered Profilers with Velocity (ITP-V) instruments as a contribution to the Marginal Ice Zone DRI. This specific research element is designed to observe the seasonal evolution of the upper-ocean stratification, document the time-varying ocean currents and characterize the turbulent ice-ocean exchanges of heat, salt and momentum as the sea ice cover retreats poleward in spring/summer.
Classroom demonstration of the visual effects of eye diseases.

An understanding of the visual system is a fundamental aspect of many neuroscience and psychology courses. These classes often cover a variety of visual diseases that are correlated with the anatomy of the visual system, e.g., cataracts are caused by a clouding of the lens. Here, we describe an easy way to modify standard laboratory glasses/goggles to simulate the various perceptual deficits that accompany vision disorders such as astigmatism, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, optic neuritis, posterior vitreous detachment, and retinitis pigmentosa. For example, when teaching about cataracts, students can put on glasses that mimic how severe cataracts affect one’s vision. Using the glasses will allow students to draw connections between the disorder, its perceptual deficits, and the underlying anatomy. We also discuss floaters in the eye and provide an easy method to allow students to detect their own floaters. Together, these demonstrations make for a more dynamic and interactive class on the visual system that will better link diseases of the eye to anatomy and perception, and allow undergraduate students to develop a better understanding of the visual system as a whole.
Hulls and Kernels of Function Classes

The rearrangement-invariant, equimodular, and solid hulls and kernels of some function classes on R n are characterized. The definition of these classes takes into account the behavior of the Fourier transform. The paper contains a table illustrating what is known and what is unknown in the hull and kernel problem.
Invasion of Plants by Powdery Mildew Fungi, and Cellular Mechanisms of Resistance

Cereal powdery mildews are among the most intensely studied of plant diseases. Consequently, much of what is known about early host-parasite interactions has come from studies of these diseases. Most of this information has already been adequately reviewed within the past decade (Aist, 1981, 1983; Aist and Gold, 1987; Bushnell, 1982; Kunoh, 1982, 1987; Sherwood and Vance, 1982) and will not be emphasized here. We will focus, instead, on results of more recent research into early interactions between Erysiphe graminis and its cereal hosts, especially those interactions related to disease resistance, to provide an update on the state of our knowledge in this host-pathogen system.
Professional and Personal Development: Professionalism, Leadership, and Effective Communication Skills

Continuing professional development is a lifelong process of self-directed learning to broaden one9s knowledge. Within the medical laboratory science profession, continuing professional development promotes broadening of professional and personal knowledge and skills. This introductory article provides an overview of the interrelated topics of professionalism, leadership and effective communication skills for leading others.
Deep-sea Hydrothermal Vent Metagenome-assembled Genomes Provide Insight into the Phylum Nanoarchaeota

Ectosymbiotic Nanoarchaeota live on the surface of diverse archaeal hosts. Despite being broadly distributed in global geothermal systems, only three Nanoarchaeota have been successfully co-cultivated with their hosts, and until now no nanoarchaeotal cultures or genomes have been described from deep-sea hydrothermal vents. We recovered three nanoarchaeotal metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites at the Eastern Lau Spreading Center (M10-121), Guaymas Basin (Gua-46) and the Mid-Cayman Rise (MC-1). Based on average amino acid identity analysis, M10-121 is a novel species in the candidate genus Nanoclepta, while the other two MAGs represent novel genera in the Nanoarchaeota. Like previously sequenced Nanoarchaeota, each MAG encodes at least one split protein-coding gene. The MAGs also contain a mosaic of key nanoarchaeotal features, including CRISPR repeat regions and marker genes for gluconeogenesis and archaeal flagella. MC-1 also encodes the pentose bisphosphate pathway, which may allow the nanoarchaeote to bypass several steps in glycolysis and produce ATP.
Balancing Athletic Revenues with Ethical Behavior: Dilemma of NCAA

The desire to win and make money from college athletics threatens the integrity and reputations of once prestigious universities. These pressures to generate revenue can undermine institutional legitimacy and severely injure perceptions of institutions of higher learning. This study assesses ethical violations in four major college programs. These case studies illustrate how concerns for winning, generating revenue, pleasing alumni, and mollifying boosters override adherence to ethical norms. The paper utilizes a seven-fold taxonomy to assess conduct at high-profile institutions. Abuses indicate that a desire for short-term cash flow can weaken core underpinnings of institutions. The paper offers recommendations for corrective action.
Helical structure of P pili from Escherichia coli. Evidence from X-ray fiber diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy.

The structure of the P pili from Escherichia coli has been studied using X-ray fiber diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Analysis of the fiber diffraction data indicates that the pili are constituted largely of structural subunits arranged helically with approximately 33 subunits in 10 turns in an axial repeat of 244·5 ± 1·8 A. Radial electron density distributions calculated from equatorial diffraction data and STEM data indicate that the pili are about 65 A in diameter with a small central cavity roughly 15 A across. The principal protein component of the pili is PapA, which has a molecular weight of 16·5 kDa. Assuming that each subunit consists of a single PapA molecule, the mass-per-unit-length of the pili predicted from the X-ray data is 2·23 kDa/A. Measurements of mass-per-unit-length were also made through the analysis of STEM images. These measurements indicate a value of 2·13 ± 0·14 kDa/A. STEM images demonstrated the presence of thin, thread-like structures emerging from the ends of pili and spanning breaks in the pili structure. These structures, which have been observed under other conditions, have been termed fibrillae. In the STEM images the fibrillae appear about 20 A in diameter. The mass-per-unit-length of the fibrillae was estimated using the STEM data to be 0.4 kDa/A. These data are consistent with the fibrillae representing an unwound or unraveled form of the pili proteins overstretched to about five times the length they would have in the intact pili.
Photoresponsivity and motility in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea vary diurnally.

ABSTRACTThe planarian flatworm has become one of the leading animal model systems for studying stem cell behavior and tissue regeneration. Recent studies have shown that components of the circadian...
Charting a TRP to Novel Therapeutic Destinations for Kidney Diseases

Ion channels are critical to kidney function, and their dysregulation leads to several distinct kidney diseases. Of the diversity of ion channels in kidney cells, the transient receptor potential (TRP) superfamily of proteins plays important and varied roles in both maintaining homeostasis as well as in causing disease. Recent work showed that TRPC5 blockers could successfully protect critical components of the kidney filter both in vitro and in vivo, thus revealing TRPC5 as a tractable therapeutic target for focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a common cause of kidney failure. Human genetics point to three additional TRP channels as plausible therapeutic targets: TRPC6 in FSGS, PKD2 in polycystic kidney disease, and TRPM6 in familial hypomagnesemia with secondary hypocalcemia (HSH). We conclude that targeting TRP channels could pave the way for much needed therapies for kidney diseases.
Low-Rank Modeling of Local Sinogram Neighborhoods with Tomographic Applications

Previous work has demonstrated that Fourier imaging data will often possess multifold linear shift-invariant autoregression relationships. This autoregressive structure is useful because it enables missing data samples to be imputed as a linear combination of neighboring samples, and also implies that certain structured matrices formed from the data will have low rank characteristics. The latter observation has enabled a range of powerful structured low-rank matrix recovery techniques for reconstructing sparsely-sampled and/or low-quality data in Fourier imaging modalities like magnetic resonance imaging. In this work, we demonstrate theoretically and empirically that similar modeling principles also apply to sinogram data, and demonstrate how this can be leveraged to restore missing information from real high-resolution X-ray imaging data from an integrated circuit.
Riemannian geometry and statistical modeling correct for batch effects and control false discoveries in single-cell surface protein count data from CITE-seq

Recent advances in next generation sequencing-based single-cell technologies have allowed high-throughput quantitative detection of cell-surface proteins along with the transcriptome in individual cells, extending our understanding of the heterogeneity of cell populations in diverse tissues that are in different diseased states or under different experimental conditions. Count data of surface proteins from the cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes by sequencing (CITE-seq) technology pose new computational challenges, and there is currently a dearth of rigorous mathematical tools for analyzing the data. This work utilizes concepts and ideas from Riemannian geometry to remove batch effects between samples and develops a statistical framework for distinguishing positive signals from background noise. The strengths of these approaches are demonstrated on two independent CITE-seq data sets in mouse and human. Python source code implementing the algorithms is available at https://github.com/jssong-lab/SAGACITE.
Social Skills Instruction, Online Modules, and Telecoaching to Develop Planning Skills of Young Adults With Autism:

This study examined the efficacy of an intervention package consisting of small group instruction, online instructional modules, and telecoaching to increase planning skills of eight young adults (...
In Defense of Weird Hypotheticals

Professor Allen (this issue) critiques the value of using “weird” hypotheticals to mine intuitions about legal systems. I respond by supporting the value of “thin” hypotheticals for pro-viding information about how people reason generally, rather than for revealing peoples’ specific answers. I note that because legal systems are the products of many minds thinking about how other minds operate, the object of inquiry is metacognition—that is, understanding how reason-ing works.
Evaluation of the ocular surface mycobiota in clinically normal horses

The eye is host to myriad bacterial, fungal, and viral organisms that likely influence ocular surface physiology in normal and diseased states. The ocular surface mycobiota of horses has not yet been described using NGS techniques. This study aimed to characterize the ocular surface fungal microbiota (mycobiota) in healthy horses in 2 environmental conditions (stalled versus pasture). Conjunctival swabs of both eyes were obtained from 7 adult stallions stabled in an open-air pavilion and 5 adult mares living on pasture. Genomic DNA was extracted from ocular surface swabs and sequenced using primers that target the Internal Transcribed Spacer 1 (ITS1) region of the fungal genome on an Illumina platform. Sequences were processed using Quantitative Insights Into Molecular Ecology (QIIME 2.0) and taxonomy assigned with the Findley et al. 2013 ITS1 database. The most abundant genera identified were Leptosphaerulina (22.7%), unclassified Pleosporaceae (17.3%), Cladosporium (16.2%), Alternaria (9.8%), unclassified Pleosporales (4.4%), unclassified Montagnulaceae (2.9%), Fusarium (2.5%), and Pestalotiopsis (1.4%). Fungal community composition (Jaccard, R = 0.460, p = 0.001) and structure (Bray-Curtis, R = 0.811, p = 0.001) were significantly different between pastured mares and stabled stallions. The ocular surface of pastured mares had significantly increased fungal species richness and diversity compared to stabled stallions (Shannon p = 0.0224, Chao1 p = 0.0118, Observed OTUs p = 0.0241). Relative abundances of Aspergillus (p = 0.005) and Alternaria spp. (p = 0.002) were significantly increased in the mycobiota of pastured mares. This is the first report to describe the mycobiota of the equine ocular surface. Environmental factors such as housing influence the composition, structure, and richness of the equine ocular surface mycobiota.
Experiences of College Students With Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic

College students with children are a unique subset of emerging adults, whose lives were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, challenging their pursuit for education and financial independence. We so...
The Association Between Social and Spatial Closeness With PrEP Conversations Among Latino Men Who Have Sex With Men.

Background US Latino men who have sex with men (LMSM) are a group at highest risk for HIV. One driver of HIV among LMSM is inadequate access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) information. The social network theory of homophily suggests that sharing similar sociodemographic factors could influence PrEP conversations within networks. This study aimed to determine how the effects of homophily across sociodemographic, immigration, cultural, and PrEP-related factors, is associated with PrEP-related communication. Setting This study was conducted in Miami-Dade County, FL. Methods Data collected between August 2018 and October 2019 included ten sociocentric friendship groups of 13 LMSM (N=130). Participants were recruited using respondent-driven sampling by a community-based organization in Miami. We used the Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure (MRQAP) to identify the effects of homophily and relationship characteristics, on PrEP-related conversations using R software. Results More frequent PrEP-related conversations were associated with dyadic friendships characterized by homophily on knowledge of PrEP effectiveness, heterophily on depressive symptom severity, home addresses proximity, friend closeness, and interaction frequency. Past PrEP-related conversation frequency also increased based on heterophily on the Latino cultural value of familism (i.e. emotional support to family). Racial homophily, heterophily on severity of depressive symptoms, home addresses proximity, friendship closeness, and frequency of interactions increased likelihood to encourage a friend to use PrEP. Discussion: Social and spatial closeness, and homophily play a role in PrEP-related conversations. Information from social networks contextualized in geographic settings can be elucidated to contribute towards the design of novel opportunities to end HIV.
Taming the tyranny of scales: models and scale in the geosciences

While the predominant focus of the philosophical literature on scientific modeling has been on single-scale models, most systems in nature exhibit complex multiscale behavior, requiring new modeling methods. This challenge of modeling phenomena across a vast range of spatial and temporal scales has been called the tyranny of scales problem. Drawing on research in the geosciences, I synthesize and analyze a number of strategies for taming this tyranny in the context of conceptual, physical, and mathematical modeling. This includes several strategies that can be deployed in physical (table-top) modeling, even when strict dynamical scaling fails. In all cases, I argue that having an adequate conceptual model—given both the nature of the system and the particular purpose of the model—is essential. I draw a distinction between depiction and representation, and use this research in the geosciences to advance a number of debates in the philosophy of modeling.
Science and Innovations in Russia in 2020

Over the past year, the pandemic and the resulting crisis whipped up the decision-making process in science and technology policies. A number of top-level programs were revised, alongside some adjustment of budget allocations for R&D projects. Operational decisions were adopted across a number of areas, where discussions and coordinated planning had been underway for several years already (e.g., the transformation of scientific research funds, improvement of coordination and promotion of continuity between the development institutions operating in the science and technology sector, alterations in the current procedures for estimating the cost-effectiveness of budget-funded venture capital investment, etc.), in order to significantly change the situation in that sphere. Besides, some important normative legal changes were introduced, which addressed the science sector and promoted the creation of a favorable environment for developing and implementing technological innovations.
Mir-17∼92 promotes terminal differentiation of effector CD8 T cells by lowering TCR stimulation threshold (LYM4P.750)

MicroRNAs are small RNAs (∼22 nucleotides) that regulate gene expression via post-transcriptional mechanisms, and are emerging as major players in immune cell development and function. Using dual strategy of conditional deletion or constitutive overexpression of miR-17∼92, we have recently shown that miR-17∼92 has a critical CD8 T cell-intrinsic role in driving terminal effector differentiation by promoting proliferation (Khan, et al., 2013, Blood). We hypothesized that miR-17∼92 increases the sensitivity of CD8 T cells to TCR stimulation, thus driving proliferation and terminal differentiation. Indeed, when we overexpressed miR-17∼92 in effector CD8 T cells, we observed heightened levels of proximal phosphorylation events downstream of TCR. While PTEN and PD-1 (negative regulators of T cell stimulation) were downregulated upon overexpression of miR-17∼92, dramatic potentiation of TCR signal transduction occurred as evidenced by 50-fold upregulation of ribosomal S6 Kinase activity compared to WT. Converse results were obtained when miR-17∼92 was deleted, and about 10-folds higher levels of peptide-MHC were needed to induce TCR signals to levels similar to WT. Consistent with these observations, under conditions of limiting TCR stimulation, in vivo expansion of virus-specific miR-17∼92-deleted CD8 T cells was also severely compromised. Our data, altogether present a novel role of miR-17∼92 in regulating TCR sensitivity during CD8 T cell activation and effector differentiation.
Constitutive inorganic pyrophosphatase of Escherichia coli. IV. Chemical studies of protein structure.

Abstract The amino acid composition of Escherichia coli pyrophosphatase has been determined and related to the number of peptides obtained after tryptic digestion and after cyanogen bromide treatment. The results indicated the presence of 6 identical subunits in the protein, each containing 20 lysine plus arginine residues and 3 methionines. The NH2-terminal sequence was serine-leucine (isoleucine)-leucine (isoleucine)-, and the COOH-terminal sequence was -alanine-lysine. Quantitative interpretation of the end group data led to the estimate of 6 polypeptide chains per molecule of native enzyme. Each subunit was found to contain 2 residues of cysteine, which in the native protein were inaccessible to sulfhydryl reagents. The proline content of the enzyme was very high (80 moles per 120,000 g of protein), and the serine plus threonine content was exceptionally low (72 moles per 120,000 g of protein). No cofactors nor trace metals were found in the protein.
NKp30 Ligation Induces Rapid Activation of the Canonical NF-κB Pathway in NK Cells

Studies of patients with congenital immunodeficiency due to mutation of the NF-kappaB essential modulator (NEMO) gene have demonstrated that NEMO integrity is required for NK cell cytotoxicity. Thus, we have studied the physiology of NF-kappaB activation in NK cells during the cytolytic program. In resting ex vivo human NK cells or cell lines, IkappaB was degraded after 10 min exposure to PMA and ionomycin, or TNF and was maximally degraded by 30 min. Ligation of several NK cell activation receptors including NKp30 induced a similar response and was blocked by pretreatment with the proteosome inhibitor MG132. There was no short-term effect on p100 processing, the signature of noncanonical NF-kappaB activation. NK cell IkappaB degradation corresponded to increases in nuclear NF-kappaB as detected by EMSA. Supershift of stimulated NK cells and fluorescence microscopy of individual NK cells in cytolytic conjugates demonstrated that the p65/p50 heterodimer was the primary NF-kappaB used. NF-kappaB function was evaluated in NK92 cells transduced with a kappaB GFP reporter, and their conjugation with K562 cells or ligation of NKp30 ligation resulted in rapid GFP accumulation. The latter was prevented by the Syk inhibitor piceatannol. Thus, NK cell activation signaling specifically induces transcriptional activation and synthesis of new NF-kappaB dependent proteins during the initiation of cytotoxicity.
Iso-disparity Surfaces for General Stereo Configurations

This paper discusses the iso-disparity surfaces for general stereo configurations. These are the surfaces that are observed at the same resolution along the epipolar lines in both images of a stereo pair. For stereo algorithms that include smoothness terms either implicitly through area-based correlation or explicitly by using penalty terms for neighboring pixels with dissimilar disparities these surfaces also represent the implicit hypothesis made during stereo matching. Although the shape of these surfaces is well known for the standard stereo case (i.e. fronto-parallel planes), surprisingly enough for two cameras in a general configuration to our knowledge their shape has not been studied. This is, however, very important since it represents the discretisation of stereo sampling in 3D space and represents absolute bounds on performance independent of later resampling. We prove that the intersections of these surfaces with an epipolar plane consists of a family of conics with three fixed points. There is an interesting relation to the human horopter and we show that for stereo the retinas act as if they were flat. Further we discuss the relevance of iso-disparity surfaces to image-pair rectification and active vision. In experiments we show how one can configure an active stereo head to align iso-disparity surfaces to scene structures of interest such as a vertical wall, allowing better and faster stereo results.
Partners in Crime: National Theft of Global Fund Medicines

Millions of dollars of donated antimalarial drugs have been stolen, most often by staff of recipient government medical stores; this strengthens criminal gangs and undermines donor intent. The main culprit donor is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, which worryingly is pushing ahead with further schemes that have the same inherent weaknesses, which may worsen the theft problem. Sweden and Germany have already suspended funding to the Global Fund due to financial irregularities, but it is time for a thorough investigation of drug theft - to ensure that drugs are being used by those intended, rather than encouraging illegal parallel distribution systems, in both recipient nations and nations where products are diverted. It is likely that the entire incentive system needs to change, so that donors only receive future taxpayer funds when they can show that the drugs they buy actually reach intended patients in developing nations, not just reach their governments’ medical stores.
Deterministic three-half-order kinetic model for microbial degradation of added carbon substrates in soil.

The kinetics of mineralization of carbonaceous substrates has been explained by a deterministic model which is applicable to either growth or nongrowth conditions in soil. The mixed-order nature of the model does not require a priori decisions about reaction order, discontinuity period of lag or stationary phase, or correction for endogenous mineralization rates. The integrated equation is simpler than the integrated form of the Monod equation because of the following: (i) only two, rather than four, interdependent constants have to be determined by nonlinear regression analysis, (ii) substrate or product formation can be expressed explicitly as a function of time, (iii) biomass concentration does not have to be known, and (iv) the required initial estimate for the nonlinear regression analysis can be easily obtained from a linearized form rather than from an interval estimate of a differential equation. 14CO2 evolution data from soil have been fitted to the model equation. All data except those from irradiated soil gave better fits by residual sum of squares (RSS) by assuming growth in soil was linear (RSS = 0.71) as opposed to exponential (RSS = 2.87). The underlying reasons for growth (exponential versus linear), no growth, and relative degradation rates of substrates are consistent with the basic mechanisms from which the model is derived.
Λs(1405) and negative parity baryon states

Abstract After a brief historical background on the Λ s (1405), we revisit the 25 year old controversy on whether Λ s (1405) is a qqq ( L =1) three quark state or a K N quasi virtual bound state. This work is stimulated by the recent suggestion of Isgur that s be treated as a heavy quark in heavy quark effective theory HQET. We re-examine the empirical evidence for minimal mixing amongst singlets and octets in negative parity baryon states, with a possible dynamical origin in the opening of inelastic threshold channels. Finally, we suggest that Λ s (1405) belongs to a class of hadrons which are described simultaneously as qqq or q q states and as hadronic bound states.
Calcium signaling and glucose response is different in adult compared to neonatal rat astrocytes (1177.7)

Much of our mechanistic understanding of astrocytes comes from neonatal cells which may not represent the mature glial phenotype. We sought to determine if neonatal and adult astrocytes respond sim...
The Writing Center as a Key Actor in Secondary School Preparation

Abstract Secondary schools use a variety of methods to assess students’ learning. In particular, writing assignments are not only among the most widely utilized type of evaluation but also are one of the most important for future success in post-secondary school environments. The present analysis utilizes the McCallie School Caldwell Writing Center as a case study in high school writing center design and practice. Particularly, this article discusses how writing centers can play a vital role in assisting students, faculty, and schools to better prepare pupils for college and vocational success.
Dependence of polarization mode and threshold current on tensile strain in AlGaAs/GaAsP quantum well lasers

Abstract Trends in threshold current and other device characteristics were measured in a series of tensile-strained Al 0.34 Ga 0.66 As GaAs 1−y P y separate confinement heterostructure single quantum-well (SCH-SQW) lasers. Tensile strain in the wells was varied between 0 and 1% by changing the phosphorous composition from 0 to 30%. For short (300 μm) cavity length, devices with 15% P demonstrated the lowest threshold current density of 330 A/cm2. For longer cavities, the threshold was lowest (195 A/cm2) for nearly lattice-matched devices, and increased slightly with higher P compositions up to 18% (222 A/cm2). The output of the tensile-strained lasers is transverse magnetic (TM) polarized for devices with ≥9% P in the well.
Sequence analysis of termini of conjugative transposon Tn916.

Abstract Transposon Tn916 is a 16.4-kilobase, broad-host-range, conjugative transposon originally identified on the chromosome of Enterococcus (Streptococcus) faecalis DS16. Its termini have been sequenced along with the junction regions for two different insertions. The ends were found to contain imperfect inverted repeat sequences with identity at 20 of 26 nucleotides. Further in from the ends, imperfect directly repeated sequences were present, with 24 of 27 nucleotides matching. The transposon junction regions contained homologous segments but of a nature not consistent with a direct duplication of the target sequence. Within the right terminus was a potential outwardly reading promoter. Tn916 is believed to transpose via an excision-insertion mechanism; based on the analyses of the termini, as well as two target sequences (before insertion and after excision), a possible model is suggested.
RAS and Leukemia: From Basic Mechanisms to Gene-Directed Therapy

PURPOSE AND DESIGN: The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the literature linking Ras signaling pathways and leukemia and to discuss the biologic and potential therapeutic implications of these observations. A search of MEDLINE from 1966 to October 1998 was performed. RESULTS: A wealth of data has been published on the role of Ras pathways in cancer. To be biologically active, Ras must move from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane. Importantly, a posttranslational modification—addition of a farnesyl group to the Ras C-terminal cysteine—is a requisite for membrane localization of Ras. Farnesylation of Ras is catalyzed by an enzyme that is designated farnesyltranferase. Recently, several compounds have been developed that can inhibit farnesylation. Preclinical studies indicate that these molecules can suppress transformation and tumor growth in vitro and in animal models, with little toxicity to normal cells. CONCLUSION: An increasing body of data suggests that disruption of Ras signaling ...
FRACTIONATION OF NEWCASTLE DISEASE VIRUS BY CHROMATOGRAPHY ON DIETHYLAMINOETHYL CELLULOSE

Wilson, Dwight E. (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y.). Fractionation of Newcastle disease virus by chromatography on diethylaminoethyl cellulose. J. Bacteriol. 84:295–301. 1962.—The L. Kansas and NK strains of Newcastle disease virus were chromatographed on diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) cellulose ion-exchange columns. L. Kansas virus eluted from DEAE columns showed one peak of hemagglutinating and infective particles. Two peaks of hemagglutinins and one peak of infective particles were observed when the NK strain was chromatographed, indicating that the stock virus contained a noninfectious hemagglutinating component. Treatment of the noninfectious particles with Genetron 113 resulted in an increase in the ratio of infective to hemagglutinating particles. The Genetron-treated noninfectious particles were also eluted from the DEAE column at a higher salt concentration than the untreated noninfectious particles. The results indicate that the Genetron treatment removes inhibitors of infectivity bound to the noninfectious virus particle.
Alkylations Using Hexacarbonyl(Propargylium)Dicobalt Salts: 2‐(1‐Methyl‐2‐Propynyl)Cyclohexanone

Alkylations using hexacarbonyl(propargylium)dicobalt salts: 2-(1-methyl-2-propynyl)cyclohexanone solvent: 300 mL of dry dimethylformamide intermediate: 1-trimethylsiloxycyclohexene reactant: hexacarbonyl(1-methyl-2-propynylium)dicobalt tetrafluoroborate product: 2-(1-methyl-2-propynyl)cyclohexanone Keywords: alkylation, C-alkylation; cyclization, condensation; metalation reactions, cobalt; silylation; chlorotrimethylsilane; dichloromethane (methylene chloride); N,N-dimethylformamide; tetrafluoroboric acid-acetic acid mixture, preparation; triethylamine; air sensitive solutions, handling; metal carbonyls, toxicity