cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Focal adhesion kinase mediates porcine venular hyperpermeability elicited by vascular endothelial growth factor

Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is known to mediate endothelial cell adhesion and migration in response to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The aim of this study was to explore a potential role for FAK in VEGF regulation of microvascular endothelial barrier function. The apparent permeability coefficient of albumin (Pa) was measured in intact isolated porcine coronary venules. Treating the vessels with VEGF induced a time- and concentration-dependent increase in Pa. Inhibition of FAK through direct delivery of FAK-related non-kinase (FRNK) into venular endothelium did not alter basal barrier function but significantly attenuated VEGF-elicited hyperpermeability. Furthermore, cultured human umbilical vein endothelial monolayers displayed a similar hyperpermeability response to VEGF which was greatly attenuated by FRNK. Western blot analysis showed that VEGF promoted FAK phosphorylation in a time course correlating with that of venular hyperpermeability. The phosphorylation response was blocked by FRNK treatment. In addition, VEGF stimulation caused a significant morphological change of FAK from a punctate pattern to an elongated, dash-like staining that aligned with the longitudinal axis of the cells. Taken together, the results suggest that FAK contributes to VEGF-elicited vascular hyperpermeability. Phosphorylation of FAK may play an important role in the signal transduction of vascular barrier response to VEGF.
One-day admission for major lung resections in septuagenarians and octogenarians: a comparative study with a younger cohort.

Objectives: The proportion of elderly patients presenting with a potentially resectable lung malignancy is increasing. Due to their greater operative risk, these patients are frequently offered a lesser resection, non-surgical treatment, or no treatment at all. The goal of this study is to determine whether septuagenarians and octogenarians undergoing video-assisted major lung resections benefit from an accelerated recovery program as much as younger patients, enabling them to be discharged after an overnight hospital stay. A short length of hospital stay, per se, does not represent the actual goal of this clinical care pathway. Instead, it should be considered as a measurement of how quickly functional ability is restored. Methods: Of 65 consecutive patients who underwent major lung resections, 30 were 70 years of age or older (25 septuagenarians and five octogenarians; mean age, 75.7 years). Forty-six lobectomies, eight bilobectomies, and 11 pneumonectomies were performed using a video-assisted muscle-sparing minithoracotomy. In the elderly group, 24 lobectomies, three bilobectomies, and three pneumonectomies were performed. Patient and family education, multimodal analgesia, and an accelerated recovery program were implemented for all patients and the results were compared between the elderly group and the younger cohort. Discharge criteria included: (a), pain controlled with oral analgesics; (b), clear lungs in chest radiograph and without evidence of pneumothorax with the chest tube off suction; (c), independent ambulation; (d), adequate oxygenation; and (e), patient’s acceptance and with home support. Whenever these criteria were met, regardless of how early or late during the hospital stay, the patient was released from the hospital. Results: There were no deaths within 30 days of the operation and only three complications (one in the elderly group), and none of them altered the patients’ clinical courses. The mean length of hospital stay for the whole group was 1.2 days (54 patients had an overnight hospital stay and two were outpatient procedures). The mean length of hospital stay for the elderly group was 1 day (27 patients had an overnight hospital stay and one was an outpatient procedure). None of the patients required conversion to a standard posterolateral thoracotomy and no patient required readmission related to an early discharge. Conclusions: These data show that it is feasible to create strategies to prevent or attenuate physiological derangements during surgery while performing major lung resections. As a result, an early recovery with few complications has been attained, allowing patients to consistently meet stringent discharge criteria after only an overnight hospital stay, even in the case of septuagenarians and octogenarians. q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Vehicular lifelogging: new contexts and methodologies for human-car interaction

This paper presents an automotive lifelogging system that uses in-car sensors to engage drivers in ongoing discoveries about their vehicle, driving environment, and social context throughout the lifecycle of their car. A goal of the design is to extend the typical contexts of automotive user-interface design by (1) looking inward to the imagined character of the car and (2) looking outward to the larger social context that surrounds driving. We deploy storytelling and theatrical strategies as a way of moving our thinking outside the familiar constraints of automotive design. These methods help us to extend the concept of a lifelog to consider the lives of objects and the relationship between humans and non-humans as fruitful areas of design research.
Proper Use of Allele-Specific Expression Improves Statistical Power for cis-eQTL Mapping with RNA-Seq Data

Studies of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) offer insight into the molecular mechanisms of loci that were found to be associated with complex diseases and the mechanisms can be classified into cis- and trans-acting regulation. At present, high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is rapidly replacing expression microarrays to assess gene expression abundance. Unlike microarrays that only measure the total expression of each gene, RNA-seq also provides information on allele-specific expression (ASE), which can be used to distinguish cis-eQTLs from trans-eQTLs and, more importantly, enhance cis-eQTL mapping. However, assessing the cis-effect of a candidate eQTL on a gene requires knowledge of the haplotypes connecting the candidate eQTL and the gene, which cannot be inferred with certainty. The existing two-stage approach that first phases the candidate eQTL against the gene and then treats the inferred phase as observed in the association analysis tends to attenuate the estimated cis-effect and reduce the power for detecting a cis-eQTL. In this article, we provide a maximum-likelihood framework for cis-eQTL mapping with RNA-seq data. Our approach integrates the inference of haplotypes and the association analysis into a single stage, and is thus unbiased and statistically powerful. We also develop a pipeline for performing a comprehensive scan of all local eQTLs for all genes in the genome by controlling for false discovery rate, and implement the methods in a computationally efficient software program. The advantages of the proposed methods over the existing ones are demonstrated through realistic simulation studies and an application to empirical breast cancer data from The Cancer Genome Atlas project.
First Report of Impatiens Downy Mildew Caused by Plasmopara obducens in Ohio.

Single and double flowered impatiens (Impatiens walleriana Hook.f.) plants with symptoms of downy mildew were found in commercial greenhouses in Delaware, Wayne, and Holmes counties, Ohio, in April 2012. Plants were stunted and defoliated. Symptoms on remaining leaves included general chlorosis without discrete spots and downward curling of leaves. A downy white growth was observed on the lower surface of infected leaves. The disease was widespread in affected greenhouses and incidence in cvs. Shimmer Coral, Accent Mix, and Super Elfin was nearly 90%. The downy growth consisted of coenocytic mycelia, monopodial sporangiophores, and ovoid, hyaline sporangia typical of Plasmopara obducens (J. Schrot.) J. Schrot in Cohn (1,2,4). Sporangia were borne on branchlets measuring 5 to 15 μm long (average 10 μm) at right angles to the main axis of the sporangiophore. Sporangia were 9.4 to 17.5 × 12.8 to 16.3 μm. No oospores were observed. Total DNA was extracted directly from plant tissue with the Wizard SV Genomic ...
Bacillus anthracis spore interactions with mammalian cells: Relationship between germination state and the outcome of in vitro

During inhalational anthrax, internalization of Bacillus anthracis spores by host cells within the lung is believed to be a key step for initiating the transition from the localized to disseminated stages of infection. Despite compelling in vivo evidence that spores remain dormant within the bronchioalveolar spaces of the lungs, and germinate only after uptake into host cells, most in vitro studies of infection have been conducted under conditions that promote rapid germination of spores within the culture medium. Using an in vitro model of infection, we evaluated the influence of the germination state of B. anthracis spores, as controlled by defined culture conditions, on the outcome of infection. Spores prepared from B. anthracis Sterne 7702 germinated in a variety of common cell culture media supplemented with fetal bovine serum (FBS) while, in the absence of FBS, germination was strictly dependent on medium composition. RAW264.7 macrophage-like cells internalized spores to the same extent in either germinating or non-germinating media. However, significantly more viable, intracellular B. anthracis were recovered from cells infected under non-germinating conditions compared to germinating conditions. At the same time, RAW264.7 cells demonstrated a significant loss in viability when infected under non-germinating conditions. These results suggest that the outcome of host cell infection is sensitive to the germination state of spores at the time of uptake. Moreover, this study demonstrates the efficacy of studying B. anthracis spore infection of host cells within a defined, non-germinating, in vitro environment.
Simplified analysis method for natural dispersion of highway storm water runoff in rural areas

Storm water quantity control has long been a challenge for highway designers. Traditionally, centralized best management practice designs are often cost prohibitive and inefficient in many rural highway applications. The use of existing vegetated rights-of-way as a method of treating storm water, a component of the broader storm water treatment concept more generally referred to as low-impact development, has become a primary focus of the Washington State Department of Transportation. To design and use such storm water management controls adequately, however, further research and correlation between numerical infiltrationrunoff models and field experiments were needed. This paper focuses on evaluating natural dispersion performance through the use of simulated rainfall runoff data collected with a field-scale rainfall simulator and a numerical model to study the effects of slope length, angle, and impervious contributory area on natural dispersion applications. A simple new equation was developed to analy...
Control of a dual stage actuator system for noncircular cam turning process

This paper presents a robust repetitive controller design for a dual stage actuator system for the noncircular cam turning process. The secondary actuator in this dual stage system is a piezoelectric actuator which is installed inside of the hollow piston of an electrohydraulic actuator. The controller is designed through a sequence of two SISO designs under the assumption that there is little interaction between two actuator systems. The error from the first stage electrohydraulic actuator is fed to the second stage piezoelectric actuator as reference. Therefore, the overall sensitivity function is effectively squared through two actuators and the total error is the same as the error coming from the piezoelectric actuator. Experimental results show the tracking performance improvement in noncircular cam turning application.
Familial Aggregation of Epilepsy and Clef ting Disorders: A Review of the Literature

Summary: Nine studies have attempted to address the issue of whether familial aggregation of epilepsy and clefting disorders exists. This is an important issue as a genetic predisposition to clefting among relatives of individuals with epilepsy could potentiate any teratogenic effects of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). The summary relative risk estimate derived from published studies does not show that epilepsy and clefting disorders aggregate in families. Rather, these studies suggest that the clefting abnormalities in offspring of women with epilepsy receiving AEDs are most likely related to a teratogenic effect of these medications. RESUME Neuf etudes ont essaye de traiter du probleme de l'eventuelle accumulation familiale d'epilepsie et des differentes formes de bees de lievre. II s'agit d'un sujet important, car une predisposition genetique aux dysraphies dans la famille de patients presentant une epilepsie pourrait constituer une potentialisation d'eventuels effets teratogenes des medicaments antiepileptiques. L'estimation du risque relatif que l'on peut faire a partir des etudes publiees ne montre pas que l'epilepsie et le bec de lievre s'accumulent dans les families. Ces etudes suggerent plutot que les anomalies a type de bee de lievre que presentent les enfants de femmes epileptiques traitees par medications antiepileptiques sont tres vraisemblablement liees a l'effet teratogene de ces medicaments. RESUMEN En nueve estudios se ha intentado aclarar el tema de si existe una agregacion familiar entre la epilepsia y el paladar hendido. El interes reside en el hecho de que una predispocision genetica a estos trastornos de “hendidura” entre los familiares de individuos con epilepsia podria potehciar el efecto teratogenico de algunas medicaciones antiepilepticas. El del riesgo relativo estimado y derivado de los estudios publicados no muestra que la epilepsia y los trastornos de consolidacion de las hendiduras se agregen en familias. Mas bien, estos estudios sugieren que las anormalidades de los cierres de hendiduras en los descendientes de mujeres con epilepsia que reciben medicaciones antiepilepticas estan mas relacionados con un efecto teratogenico de las mismas. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG In 9 Studien wurde versucht herauszufinden, ob es eine familiare Haufung von Epilepsie und Spaltkrankheiten gibt. Dies ist ein wichtiges Thema, da eine genetische Disposition fur Spalterkrankungen bei Verwandten von Epileptikern die teratogene Wirkung von Antiepileptika verstarken konnte. Die zusammengefasste Schatzung des relativen Risikos aus den veroffentlichten Studien zeigt keine familiare Haufung von Epilepsie und Spaltkrankheiten. Diese Studien legen im Gegenteil nabe, das Spalterkrankungen bei Kindern epileptischer Frauen, die Antiepileptika erhalten, sehr wahrscheinlich eine teratogene Wirkung dieser Medikamente sind.
Approaching the Diagnosis of Diffuse Malignant Mesothelioma

Diffuse malignant mesothelioma’s (DMM) rarity, histologic diversity, and significant medical–legal implications all are confounding factors for accurate diagnosis. However, because DMM has a dismal prognosis and very limited treatment options, accurate diagnosis is paramount. Adequate biopsy tissue is a prerequisite to accurate diagnosis. In order to avoid the numerous potential diagnostic pitfalls attendant with its diagnosis, cases of suspected DMM should frequently be clinical and radiologic findings. Pathologists must maintain the highest level of professionalism and diagnostic accuracy when considering DMM diagnosis, and judicious consultation with a pulmonary pathologist with expertise in DMM diagnosis is suggested.
Vacuum Stress between Conducting Plates: An Image Solution

The zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field give rise to an attractive force between two perfectly conducting parallel plates, the Casimir force. We discuss the structure of the electromagnetic stress-energy tensor in the region between the plates for finite temperatures as well as for the zero-temperature limit, and we describe the relationship of its components to the thermodynamic variables of the radiation field. The stress-energy tensor is defined so that infinite quantities never appear, and it is explicitly computed with the aid of an image-source construction of the Green's function. The finite-temperature case involves both an infinite set of spatial images and an infinite sum of temperature-dependent images.
A Brief Lament on Hamdan

This very brief working paper (8 pages, 20 footnotes) analyzes the form of the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, not the result in that case. It notes the extreme verbosity of the Justices' six opinions, collectively comprising 60,800 words or eight times the length of our entire Constitution. It describes the Justices' focus on technical nuances of statutory construction and their virtual neglect of constitutional values and long-term historical context. The paper then analyzes the practical and political effect of this hyper-technical approach, which was apparently intended to fend off criticism of the Justices as judicial activists. It concludes that the Hamdan Court's approach to decision making, in what may have been the most important case in a generation: (1) reduced the Justices' prestige as educators-in-chief in matters of law and their authority as leaders of an independent branch of government, (2) continued a pernicious modern trend in the legal profession, making the law more and more obscure, inaccessible and incomprehensible to ordinary people, and therefore (3) likely weakened, not strengthened, the Court's practical authority and the rule of law generally.
The Accuracy of Vitamin D Assays of Circulating 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Values: Influence of 25-Hydroxylated Ergocalciferol Concentration

Serum samples from 74 obese women were assayed for 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations using an automated immunoassay [Architect (Abbott)] and ELISA (Alpco Diagnostics), and results were compared with the LC/MS/MS reference method (Quest Diagnostics). The Architect values were significantly lower (mean difference: -13 nmol/L; 95% limits: -54; 28 nmol/L) and the ELISA values were significantly higher (mean difference: 24 nmol/L; 95% limits: -36; 84 nmol/L) than the LC/MSIMS values. The slope of the Passing-Bablok regression line relative to LC/MSIMS was 0.5 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.41; 0.60] and 1.17 (95% CI: 0.87; 1.56) for Architect and ELISA, respectively, with an intercept of approximately 16 for both assays. Using 50 nmol/L as the cut-point for deficiency, Architect and ELISA misclassified 20 and 27% of the subjects, respectively. In subjects with low circulating 25-hydroxylated ergocalciferol [25(OH)D2] ( or=10 nmol/L), Architect demonstrated poor agreement (Kappa = 0.40; 95% CI: 0.16-0.65). ELISA demonstrated a higher degree of overestimation in women with minimal 25(OH)D2 than those with high 25(OH)D2, suggesting that ELISA overestimates 25-hydroxylated cholecalciferol [25(OH)D3] but underestimates 25(OH)D2.
Single-Cell Behavioral Assays for Heterogeneity Studies

Cell heterogeneity is an emerging challenge in cell biology and cancer therapies. Each cell in heterogeneous populations has its own unique behavior, and thus responds differently to the same reagent or drug, making analysis or treatment difficult and complicated. Therefore, it is important to understand the heterogeneity characteristics of cells in phenotypic behavior assays. Although conventional fluorescence-activated cell sorting can separate cells based on markers, most assays simply present the average behavior in a batch of cells sorted by markers. It is important to have a capability to fully characterize individual cell behaviors in a miniaturized, high-throughput platform, distinguishing their heterogeneity and tracking their responses over time. This chapter introduces the technological innovations enabling these assays and the associated biological experiments, including (1) single-cell isolation and tracking schemes to investigate the cell proliferation, cell differentiation and lineage, (2) cell migration platforms to measure cell motility, deformation, and invasiveness, and (3) cell–cell interaction platforms to study the alteration of cell behaviors caused by reciprocal interactions among cells.
Management: Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections. Kate Theimer (Ed.): Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, 216 pp., $55.00 (paperback). ISBN: 978-0-8108-9095-4.

Most of us have likely forgotten that obligatory management course we had to take in library school, but I don't know of any archivists or special collections librarians who do not regularly make d...
Integrable equations and recursion operators in planar Klein geometries

Integrable equations with infinite hierarchies of symmetries are shown to arise in the context of the evolution of invariants of planar curves under geometric curve flows. A candidate for a recursion operator for these integrable equations arises naturally within the context of the computation of these evolution equations. The techniques of moving frames and the invariant variational bicomplex are used.
Grazing incidence reciprocal space mapping of partially relaxed SiGe films

Epitaxially grown lattice mismatched semiconductor structures are increasingly important for microelectronic and optoelectronic applications. Recently, a great deal of research has been carried out on strain relaxation mechanisms in lattice mismatched epitaxial films. Here, we describe triple-axis x-ray diffraction measurements that were performed to study strain relaxation mechanisms and dislocation formation in Si1−xGe x alloys grown on (0 0 1) Si substrates. At low growth temperature (Tg ≤ 600°C) and small lattice mismatch (>2%), two different mechanisms of strain relaxation are observed, depending on the growth temperature and the magnitude of the strain. At Higher growth temperatures or larger lattice mismatch, strain relaxation occurs initially by surface roughening. Subsequently, 60° misfit dislocations nucleate in regions of high strain. At smaller lattice mismatch or lower growth temperature, the surface of the film does not roughen and the 60° misfit dislocations are formed primarily by Frank–Read multiplication. Triple-axis x-ray diffraction reciprocal space maps taken at grazing incidence on very thin epitaxial films can easily distinguish between these two mechanisms. Here, the lattice planes perpendicular to the interface are measured, whereas conventional diffractometry looks either at the planes parallel to the wafer surface or at planes having components both parallel and perpendicular to the surface. In the grazing incidence geometry, thickness broadening of the x-ray peak is eliminated, since the film is essentially infinitely thick parallel to the surface.
“Climate Change” Frames Detection and Categorization Based on Generalized Concepts

The subliminal impact of framing of social, political and environmental issues such as climate change has been studied for a long time in political science and communications research. Media framing offers “interpretative package” for average citizens on how to make sense of climate change and its consequences to their livelihoods, how to deal with its negative impacts, and which mitigation or adaptation policies to support. A line of related work has used bag of words and word-level features to detect frames automatically in text. Such works face limitations since standard keyword based features may not generalize well to accommodate surface variations in text when different keywords are used for similar concepts. In this paper, we develop a new type of textual features that generalize (subject,verb,object) triplets extracted from text, by clustering them into high-level concepts. We utilize these concepts as features to detect frames in text. Our corpus comprises more than 45,000 climate change related sentences. Expert coders annotated those sentences as Frame/Non-Frame and framed sentences were mapped into one of four general frame categories: solution, problem threat, cause, and motivation. Compared to uni-gram and bi-gram based models, classification and clustering using our generalized concepts yielded better discriminating features and a higher accuracy classifier with a 12% boost (i.e. from 74% to 83% in f-measure) and 0.91 clustering purity for Frame/Non-Frame detection.
Neuroimaging Outcome Correlation of Brain Tumors

Serial analysis of imaging (thallium-201 [201TI) single-photon emission CT and MRI) examinations was correlated with clinical and histological characteristics of brain tumors in 75 patients monitored for 1 day to 3.9 years (mean, 1.39 years) at the Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston.
The Precipitation Stimulation Project of the City of New York, 1950

World War II upset New York City’s plans for water supply development, and by 1946 demand exceeded minimum safe yield. Through 3 years of normal rainfall the city stayed lucky. Then in 1949 drought struck. LIFE ran a photograph showing stone walls on the bottom of Croton Reseroir that had been covered since 1852. By Christmas, Cardinal Spellman had asked the faithful to pray for rain, Mayor O’Dwyer had outlawed car-washing, and Water Commissioner Steve Carney had launched Shaveless Fridays. Restaurants served water only on request. On January 25, 1950, when Irving Langmuir read a paper at a New York meeting of the American Meteerological Society, reporters were ready. Could cloud seeding help the city? "Highly probable," said Langmuir. "* * * ought to be consulted," said a New York Times editorial. In mid-February, Langmuir came to visit Carney. When they emerged from the Commissioner’s office to face the reporters, they were smiling. No, for liability reasons General Electric would not seed the city’s clouds, but they would recommend "a meteorologist of the new school of thinking." That day Vince Schaefer telephoned me. ."You might get a call from NewYork City," he said. I called Ken Spengler for advice, not knowing at the time that he had been in close touch with Dr. Reichelderfer, Chief of the Weather Bureau, about how to keep the city’s enthusiasm from going off the track. "It might as well be you," he told me, and added "It would benefit the profession if you asked a top fee, $100 a day." The LaGuardia terminal had just opened. When I got off the airplane there a few days later, I hurried through its cold, sagging arms where the fill was still settling, unaware that a red-carpet delegation with reporters in attendance was waiting to conduct me to the Mayor’s office. By bus and subway, I beat them to City Hall. On February 21st O’Dwyer announced my appointment as special rainmaking consultant, and by March 15th a plan of action had been agreed upon and funds appropriated. Weather modification turned over a new leaf. Exactly a week later, a process server handed O’Dwyer a summons a suit to keep the in city from spoiling the tourist season in the Catskills. No restraining order was issued, so the city would go ahead anyway. For once, justice moved swiftly. On May llth, Justice Pecora for the NewYork Appeals Court handed down the first weather modification decision in history. "This Court must balance the conflicting interests between a remote possibility of inconvenience to the plaintiffs’ resort and its guests with the problem of maintaining and supplying the inhabitants of the city of New York and surrounding areas, with a population of 10 million inhabitants, with an adequate supply of pure and wholesome water. The relief which the plaintiffs ask is opposed to the general welfare and the public good; and the dangers which plaintiffs apprehend are purely speculative. This Court will not prevent a possible private injury at the expense of a possible public advantage." Then the Palisades Amusement Park offered me $200 a day to quit.
Phase-space Modeling Of Respiratory Mechanics

A nonparametric method of modeling nonlinear physiological systems is presented and compared to existing parametric methods. The method uses information about the state variables of a system to express its dynamic characteristic in terms of an "operational surface" in a properly defined "phase-space". This method has been applied for analysis of experimental data collected in studies of respiratory mechanics in human subjects, and yield to a nonlinear dynamic model of this system in terms of iso-volume pressureflow curves. In the light of this model, a number of the commonly used indices of respiratory mechanics have been studied which indeed confirmed the previously obtained results. The developed model increases our knowledge about this system, and should provide a more accurate approach to clinical assessments.
Spin Probe Multi-Frequency EPR Study of Unprocessed Cotton Fibers

Known since the ancient times, cotton continues to be one of the essential materials for the human civilization. Cotton fibers are almost pure cellulose and contain both crystalline and amorphous nanodomains with different physicochemical properties. While understanding of interactions between the individual cellulose chains within the crystalline phase is important from a perspective of mechanical properties, studies of the amorphous phase lead to characterization of the essential transport parameters, such as solvent diffusion, dyeing, drug release, and toxin absorption, as well as more complex processes of enzymatic degradation. Here, we describe the use of spin probe electron paramagnetic resonance methods to study local polarity and heterogeneous viscosity of two types of unprocessed cotton fibers, G. hirsutum and G. barbadense, harvested in the State of North Carolina, USA. These fibers were loaded with two small molecule nitroxide probes that differ in polarity—Tempo and its more hydrophilic derivative Tempol—using a series of polar and non-polar solvents. The electron paramagnetic resonance spectra of the nitroxide-loaded cotton fibers were analyzed both semi-empirically and by least-squares simulations using a rigorous stochastic theory of electron paramagnetic resonance spectra developed by Freed and coworkers. A software package and least-squares fitting protocols were developed to carry out automatic simulations of multi-component electron paramagnetic resonance spectra in both first-derivative and the absorption forms at multiple resonance frequencies such as X-band (9.5 GHz) and W-band (94.3 GHz). The results are compared with the preceding electron paramagnetic resonance spin probe studies of a commercial bleached cotton sheeting carried out by Batchelor and coworkers. One of the results of this study is a demonstration of a co-existence of cellulose nanodomains with different physicochemical properties such as polarity and microviscosity that are affected by solvents and temperature. Spin labeling studies also revealed a macroscopic heterogeneity in the domain distribution along the cotton fibers and a critical role the cuticular layer is playing as a barrier for spin probe penetration. Finally but not lastly, the simultaneous multi-component least-squares simulation method of electron paramagnetic resonance spectra acquired at different resonant frequencies and the display forms (e.g., absorption and first-derivative displays) and the strategy of spectral parameter sharing could be potentially applicable to other heterogeneous biological systems in addition to the cotton fibers studies here.
Morphoproteomic-Guided Treatment of Chemotherapy Resistant Colon Cancer using Natural Based Therapies: A Case Study

Colorectal cancer was estimated to have the fourth newest incident rate and to have the second highest death rate in 2015 according to the American Cancer Society. There were an estimated 132,700 new diagnoses of colorectal cancer made and approximately 69,000 deaths in 2015 attributing to this form of cancer. 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or 5-FU with oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) continues to be the standard treatment protocol for patients presenting with colorectal cancer. However, treatment with FOLFOX and conventional chemotherapy has shown to lead to cancer recurrence and a number of toxic side effects. Alternative therapies based on natural ingredients show promise in combating cancer by inhibiting tumorigenic pathways, such as mTORC (mammalian target of rapamycin complex), c-MYC oncogene, and the COX-2 pathway. Using natural based agents and morphoproteomic-guided targeted therapy, the goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of such an approach in a chemotherapy resistant, colon cancer patient. This case report describes a 46-year old woman with a non-metastasizing colorectal cancer that showed "minimal treatment effect" with chemotherapy despite being compliant. As of May 2016, CT scans and colonoscopy confirmed that the cancer was in remission after that patient had been compliant with morphoproteomic-guided, natural therapies for nine months.
When Can Intelligent Helper Node Selection Improve the Performance of Distributed Storage Networks

The concept of distributed storage networks (DSNs) mostly follows two main modeling assumptions: Any $k$ out of $n$ surviving nodes should be able to reconstruct the protected file; and if one node fails, the replacement node can access $d$ helper nodes to repair its content either functionally or exactly. Two major existing approaches for DSNs are the so-called regenerating codes (RCs) and locally repairable codes (LRCs), which have different design philosophies and focus on distinct applications. Instead of being limited by the framework of either RCs or LRCs, this work answers a fundamental question for general DSNs: For an arbitrarily given $(n,k,d)$ value, whether there exists an intelligent helper node selection design that can strictly improve the storage-bandwidth tradeoff when compared with naive blind helper selection. Surprisingly, the answer is negative for a large set of $(n,k,d)$ values. Namely, for those $(n,k,d)$ values even the best helper selection design offers no gain over a blind solution. We call those $(n,k,d)$ values indifferent-to-helper-selection (ITHS). The main contribution of this work is a necessary and sufficient condition that characterizes whether an $(n,k,d)$ value is ITHS. As a fundamental study, this work assumes functional repair with unlimited computing power for encoding/decoding and focuses on the fundamental performance limits of intelligent helper selection. A new helper selection scheme, termed family helper selection , is proposed and used in the achievability analysis. For some scenarios, the proposed scheme is indeed optimal (as good as any helper selection one can design).
Induction of labor using one dose vs multiple doses of misoprostol: a randomized controlled trial.

Background Misoprostol is a common agent that is used to ripen the cervix and induce labor, yet there is no clear evidence of the optimal number of doses needed to achieve a higher rate of vaginal delivery. Objective Our primary objective was to compare the rate of vaginal delivery within 24 hours between a 1-dose and a multiple-dose regimen of misoprostol for the induction of labor. Study Design A randomized controlled trial was conducted from March 2016 to March 2017 that compared a single dose to up to 4 doses of misoprostol. Randomization was stratified by parity. Women with a singleton pregnancy ≥37 weeks gestation with intact membranes who had been admitted for labor induction with a Bishop score ≤6 were included. Our primary outcome was the rate of vaginal delivery within 24 hours. Secondary outcomes included time to vaginal delivery, cesarean delivery rate, and maternal and neonatal morbidity. Based on a power of 80%, an alpha of .05, and the assumption that 50% of women in the multiple-misoprostol group would deliver vaginally in 24 hours, a sample size of 220 patients was needed to detect a 20% increase in vaginal delivery rate within 24 hours in the 1-misoprostol group. Continuous variables were compared with the use of the Mann-Whitney test. Categoric variables were compared with the use of the Fisher’s exact test. Probability values Results Two hundred fifty women were assigned randomly. Demographics and clinical characteristics were similar between groups. In the univariate analysis, there was no difference in the rate of vaginal delivery within 24 hours between the 1-misoprostol group and the multiple-dose group (41.7% vs 44.7%, respectively; P=.698) or time to vaginal delivery (1187 min vs 1321 min, respectively; P=.202). The 1-misoprostol group had a greater cesarean delivery rate (35.8% vs 22.8%; P=.034). In a Poisson regression that controlled for Bishop score before the initiation of oxytocin, parity, gestational age, body mass index, estimated fetal weight, artificial rupture of membrane at Conclusion In this first randomized controlled trial in the literature to compare a single with a multiple dosing of misoprostol, we found that the 1-dose regimen is an acceptable alternative for the induction for labor, especially for multiparous women and for patients with a Bishop score >4 after the first dose.
A Half Century of Occupation: Israel, Palestine, and the World’s Most Intractable Conflict

The year 2017 was supposed to be the one in which the Arab–Palestinian–Israeli conflict would be a major headline on the global agenda, particularly for those whose main priority is to lambast Isra...
The epigenetic regulator SIRT7 guards against mammalian cellular senescence induced by ribosomal DNA instability

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, genomic instability in rDNA repeat sequences is an underlying cause of cell aging and is suppressed by the chromatin-silencing factor Sir2. In humans, rDNA instability is observed in cancers and premature aging syndromes, but its underlying mechanisms and functional consequences remain unclear. Here, we uncovered a pivotal role of sirtuin 7 (SIRT7), a mammalian Sir2 homolog, in guarding against rDNA instability and show that this function of SIRT7 protects against senescence in primary human cells. We found that, mechanistically, SIRT7 is required for association of SNF2H (also called SMARCA5, SWI/SNF-related matrix-associated actin-dependent regulator of chromatin, subfamily A, member 5), a component of the nucleolar heterochromatin-silencing complex NoRC, with rDNA sequences. Defective rDNA–heterochromatin silencing in SIRT7-deficient cells unleashed rDNA instability, with excision and loss of rDNA gene copies, which in turn induced acute senescence. Mounting evidence indicates that accumulation of senescent cells significantly contributes to tissue dysfunction in aging-related pathologies. Our findings identify rDNA instability as a driver of mammalian cellular senescence and implicate SIRT7-dependent heterochromatin silencing in protecting against this process.
The Arabic Versions

The corpus of sources for the study of the Arabic tradition of Euclidean optics is formed by a few genres of works. First there are the founding texts of the tradition, namely the Arabic versions of the Euclidean text, representing a major part of the original Greek as found in Heiberg’s Euclidis Optica. 1 Then there is a set of dependent texts, which together with the Arabic versions of the text, form the tradition as it developed in the four centuries between and occasionally beyond the Arabic versions of the 3rd/9th and 7th/13th centuries. And finally there is a series of related texts, reflective of or responsive to different aspects of Euclidean optics, through which the tradition may be further studied or its chronological and geographical boundaries further extended.
Engaging First-Year Students in Team-Oriented Research: The Terrascope Learning Community

Terrascope is a learning community for freshmen (first-year students) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that incorporates Earth system and environmental education into a problem-based, student-centered, team-oriented series of classes. In the fall semester, in the program’s core class, students are given a complex, “unsolvable” problem that they must propose solutions for as a group; deliverables include a comprehensive website and a defense of the solution before a panel of experts and the general public. In the spring, options include (a) a class in which students work in small groups on specific aspects of the solution, under the guidance of faculty; (b) a class in which students create a radio program, for general audiences, about the year’s topic; and (c) a field experience in which students come to understand the complexity of the problem on the ground, as well as the perspectives of people who would be directly affected by their proposed solution. A fundamental principle of the program is that despite being freshmen, students are treated as researchers, scientists, and engineers, who will take charge of their own learning process and will assume ownership of the problem and related tasks. Terrascope classes involve a minimum of structure and relatively few traditional teaching elements (e.g., lectures, problem sets, exams); students are provided with multiple resources (e.g., mentors, library liaisons, undergraduate teaching fellows) but are not told how best to make use of those resources. Students who have been through the program tend to have strongly developed leadership, project-management, and teamwork skills, and they credit Terrascope with being a formative part of their MIT experience and with shaping their approach to academics and employment. Our approach is scalable, one could accomplish a great deal with classes as short as a week.
Motion-triggered video cameras reveal spatial and temporal patterns of red fox foraging on carrion provided by mountain lions.

Carrion is a rich, ephemeral resource vital to biodiversity and ecosystem health. In temperate ecosystems in which cold temperatures and snowfall influence the accessibility and availability of small prey and seasonal mast crops, carrion may also be a limiting resource for mesocarnivores like red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), which are too small to predate ungulates. Using motion-triggered video cameras and generalized linear mixed models, we studied the spatial and temporal patterns of red fox scavenging at 232 mountain lion kills in the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) from 2012-2015. We found that red foxes scavenged mountain lion kills across all habitats throughout the year, however, red fox behaviors varied with season. In winter, we documented red foxes at a greater proportion of mountain lion kills (70.3% in winter vs. 48.9% in summer), and in greater numbers (1.83 foxes per kill in winter vs. 1.16 in summer). In winter, red foxes fed longer (= 102.7 ± 138.3 minutes feeding in winter vs. = 39.7 ± 74.0 in summer), and they more often scavenged while the mountain lion was nearby. We speculated that red foxes may have increased risk taking in winter due to hunger driven by resource scarcity. Our research highlighted an important ecological relationship between red foxes and mountain lions in the GYE. Mountain lions tolerate high levels of scavenging, so the frequency and intensity of red fox scavenging at their kills may not impact mountain lions, but instead facilitate the dispersion and benefits of resources created by this apex predator. Large carnivores, and mid-trophic felids like mountain lions in particular, are essential producers of carrion vital to biodiversity and ecosystem health. In turn, scavengers play critical roles in distributing these resources and increasing the heterogeneity of resources that support biodiversity and ecosystem structure, as well as ecological resilience.
Two new species of feather mites (Acarina: Psoroptidia) from the Oriental Magpie-Robin, Copsychus saularis (Passeriformes: Muscicapidae)

Two new feather mite species from the bird host Copsychus saularis (Linnaeus) collected in Indonesia (Kalimantan) are described: Dolichodectes latilobus n. sp. (Proctophyllodidae, Pterodectinae), and Trouessartia saularis n. sp. (Trouessartiidae). The new species, Dolichodectes latilobus, has the following distinctive characters: in males, the opisthosomal lobes are widened in the posterior half; the opisthoventral shields are fused, forming a single shield that covers ventrally the posterior quarter of the body; legs I have longitudinal crest-like processes ; and setae ra on these legs are spiculiform. In females of D. latilobus, the posterior margin of the hysteronotal shield has a deep median invagination, and epimerites II extend to the level of the anterior margin of epigynum. The males of T. saularis have the adanal apodemes with two narrow lateral membranes, and the females have the terminal cleft width smaller than the opisthosomal lobe width, and the collar of the spermatheca cover 1/2 from the length of secondary spermaduct.
1351. In vitro Activity of Cefiderocol (S-649266), a Siderophore Cephalosporin, Against Enterobacteriaceae With Defined Extended-Spectrum Β-Lactamases and Carbapenemases

Background Cefiderocol is a novel siderophore cephalosporin targeted for activity against carbapenem and multidrug-resistant Gram-negative species, including extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and carbapenemase-producing strains. The Consortium on Resistance Against Carbapenems in Klebsiella and other Enterobacteriaceae (CRACKLE) is a federally funded, prospective multi-center consortium of 20 hospitals from nine US healthcare systems to track carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae.
Multiple Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries Lead to Visual Dysfunction in a Mouse Model.

Visual dysfunction is a common occurrence after traumatic brain injury (TBI). We investigated in this study effects of single or multiple mild TBI on visual function in mice using a closed head inj...
X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopic study of (NH4)2ReF6

The (NH4)2ReX6 (X = F, Cl, Br, I) salts have been investigated by x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. The Re-F distance determined by EXAFS in (NH4)2ReF6 (i.e., 1.95 A) is in good agreement with the one determined by single crystal x-ray diffraction in A2ReF6 salts (A = K, Rb, Cs). The XANES studies of (NH4)2ReX6 (X = F, Cl, Br, I) indicates that the positions of the absorption edge and of the white line are shifted to higher energy when moving from I to F. These shifts have been explained in terms of the crystal field splitting parameter and covalent charge carried by the Re atoms. Calculations of the XANES spectra of the ReX62− (X = F, Cl, Br, I) anions at the Re-L3 edge have been performed and the calculated shifts and intensity of the white lines reproduce well the experimental observations.
Low sexually transmissible infection knowledge, risk perception and concern about infection among men who have sex with men and transgender women at high risk of infection.

Background Amidst an increase in STI rates among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW), there is little research on STI knowledge, risk perception and concern about infection in these populations. Methods: This mixed-methods study explored these constructs among 60 racially and ethnically diverse MSM and TGW who regularly engage in condomless anal intercourse with multiple partners. Results: Participants had a mean age of 40.63 years. Most (95%) identified as a man and as gay or homosexual (73%); 55% were college graduates. Almost half the respondents reported a prior STI. Participants correctly answered a mean of 55.36% and 76.90% STI and HIV knowledge items respectively. STI knowledge was positively correlated with education and prior HIV tests, and was higher among those with a prior STI. During in-depth interviews, some participants expressed concerns about limited knowledge of STIs and syphilis. Half reported low concern about syphilis infection, due to prior treatment that was perceived as relatively simple, lack of STI infection in the past, erroneous information about transmission routes or simply not thinking about it. Conclusions: Among this high-risk sample who perceived themselves to be at low risk of infection, knowledge was primarily gained through being diagnosed and treated for an STI rather than from acquiring knowledge to prevent STI infection. Participants expressed interest in increasing their STI knowledge and recognised the importance of regular STI testing. Dissemination of targeted information about STI prevention, routinising of STI testing and STI self-testing might contribute to decreasing STI infection rates among this population.