cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Communication between cation environments in aluminosilicate frameworks: incommensurately modulated crystal structure of an e-plagioclase.

Despite being one of the most common minerals in the earth's crust the crystal structure of intermediate e-plagioclase remains only partially understood, due in a large part to its complex diffraction patterns including satellite reflections. In this article we present a detailed analysis of the structure of e-plagioclase (An44) using single-crystal X-ray diffraction measured at ambient and low temperature (T = 100 K), in which the full modulated structure is successfully refined. As in earlier studies, the diffraction pattern exhibits strong main a-reflections and weak e-satellite reflections. The average structure could be solved in terms of an albite-like basic cell with the triclinic centrosymmetric and non-centrosymmetric space groups P \bar 1 and P1 (treated in its C \bar 1 and C1 setting, respectively, to follow conventions in the literature), while the incommensurately modulated structure was modeled in (3 + 1)D superspace, employing both the centro- and non-centrosymmetric superspace groups X \bar 1(αβγ)0 and X1(αβγ)0, where X refers to a special (3 + 1)D lattice centering with centering vectors (0 0 ½ ½), (½ ½ 0 ½), and (½ ½ ½ 0). Individual positional and occupational modulations for Ca/Na were refined with deeper insights being revealed in the non-centrosymmetric structure model. Through the structural details emerging from this model, the origin of the modulation can be traced to the communication between Ca/Na site positions through their bridging aluminosilicate (Si/Al)O4 tetrahedra.
Line-field low coherence holography for ultra-fast assessment of tissue biomechanical properties

Changes in the biomechanical properties of tissues are often associated with disease etiology and can provide quantitative information for clinical diagnosis. Tissue elasticity is often assessed by analyzing the speed of an elastic wave, such as in supersonic shear wave imaging and magnetic resonance elastography techniques. However, insufficient spatial resolution and large stimulation forces limit their application in small samples (dimensions on the order of millimeters or micrometers). Optical coherence elastography (OCE) is an emerging technique that provides local biomechanical properties with micrometer scale resolution. However, conventional point-by-point scanning OCE methods require long acquisition times (tens of seconds) that are unfeasible for clinical use due to motion artifacts, and repeated external excitations. Here, we demonstrate a noncontact ultrafast line-field low coherent holography system (LF-LCH) integrated with spatial phase shifting algorithm for phase retrieval based on a single interferogram. The proposed method using the Hilbert transform outperforms the Fourier transform-based technique in LF-LCH. Spatio-temporal maps of elastic wave propagation were acquired using a single air-pulse excitation and the acquisition speed can be optimized to less than 10 ms. Results on homogenous, transversely heterogeneous agar phantoms and ex vivo chicken breast agreed well with mechanical testing, demonstrating that this method can accurately detect tissue stiffness with an ultrafast line imaging rate of 200 kHz using a robust phase retrieval algorithm, which is among the highest speed for lateral imaging of elastic wave propagation with optical elastography methods.
The West End (and Broadway) Head East: Tōhō International and Gekidan Shiki

Since introducing musicals such as My Fair Lady and Hello, Dolly! to Japan in the 1960s, Tōhō International, a film and theatre production company, now produces several musicals a year. A rival production company, Shiki, began producing musicals during the 1964 Olympics, opening West Side Story in Tokyo, and in the 1970s established itself as the sole producer of the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber. These productions through the 1980s contributed to the further development of musical theatre training and performance styles in Japan. Shiki has also established itself as a producer of original Japanese-language musicals.
A Competitive Binding Protein Assay for Juvenile Hormone

Despite the discovery of juvenile hormone (JH) four decades ago (Wigglesworth, 1934) and the structural identification of the molecule nearly a decade ago (Roller et al., 1967), the lack of a simple, rapid, and sensitive quantification procedure for JH has hindered progress in the field of insect endocrinology. The minute quantities of hormone, the paucity of insect tissue and the high potential for degradation contribute to the technical difficulties encountered when titering JH. At present, two methods are being used to determine JH titers, analytical chromatography (van Broekhoven et al. 1975; Dahm et al.this volume; Schooley et al., this volume) and bioassay (Staal, 1972; Bjerke and Roller, 1974).
Grassland connectivity in fragmented agricultural landscapes of the north-central United States

In the prairies of North America, remnant native grasslands are threatened by continuing agricultural extensification. Fragmentation of the remaining grassland isolates patches and limits the potential for dispersal of native species. We explored these impacts by analyzing the spatial pattern of native grassland habitats in the Prairie Coteau region of eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota, USA. Undisturbed grasslands were mapped using a GIS database of land use history combined with manual interpretation of high-resolution aerial photographs. Network analysis based on graph theory was used to examine how connectivity changed depending on the potential movement distances of organisms and to identify important patches that made large contributions to connectivity throughout the broader network. Interpatch movement was assessed using Euclidian distance as well as cost-weighted distance that assigned lower movement cost to grasslands than to human-modified land cover types. Much of the undisturbed grassland was concentrated in a single large cluster, which was connected to other habitat concentrations via corridors of “stepping stone” patches. A small number of “keystone patches”, whose loss would have a disproportionately large effect on overall connectivity, were also identified. The locations of the major corridors were relatively consistent across different movement distances. Information about patch-level importance for overall network connectivity should be taken into account when prioritizing conservation and restoration. Future studies can build on this research by conducting more detailed assessments focused on particular species of concern and portions of the study area where connectivity is most limited.
Brookhaven at its eleventh year

Brookhaven National Laboratory is now in its 11th year. One of the major research facilities, the graphite reactor, has supported many programs in the research since 1950. Under current construction is the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, which will accelerate protons to energies of 25 Bev. The past and present research activities of the Laboratory, and its organizational history, are reviewed in brief.
Bayesian Modeling of NMR Data: Quantifying Longitudinal Relaxation in Vivo, and in Vitro with a Tissue-Water-Relaxation Mimic (Crosslinked Bovine Serum Albumin)

Recently, a number of MRI protocols have been reported that seek to exploit the effect of dissolved oxygen (O2, paramagnetic) on the longitudinal 1H relaxation of tissue water, thus providing image contrast related to tissue oxygen content. However, tissue water relaxation is dependent on a number of mechanisms, and this raises the issue of how best to model the relaxation data. This problem, the model selection problem, occurs in many branches of science and is optimally addressed by Bayesian probability theory. High signal-to-noise, densely sampled, longitudinal 1H relaxation data were acquired from rat brain in vivo and from a cross-linked bovine serum albumin (xBSA) phantom, a sample that recapitulates the relaxation characteristics of tissue water in vivo. Bayesian-based model selection was applied to a cohort of five competing relaxation models: (i) monoexponential, (ii) stretched-exponential, (iii) biexponential, (iv) Gaussian (normal) R1-distribution, and (v) gamma R1-distribution. Bayesian joint analysis of multiple replicate datasets revealed that water relaxation of both the xBSA phantom and in vivo rat brain was best described by a biexponential model, while xBSA relaxation datasets truncated to remove evidence of the fast relaxation component were best modeled as a stretched exponential. In all cases, estimated model parameters were compared to the commonly used monoexponential model. Reducing the sampling density of the relaxation data and adding Gaussian-distributed noise served to simulate cases in which the data are acquisition-time or signal-to-noise restricted, respectively. As expected, reducing either the number of data points or the signal-to-noise increases the uncertainty in estimated parameters and, ultimately, reduces support for more complex relaxation models.
Oil Pollution of the Ocean

Oil pollution is the almost inevitable consequence of the dependence of a rapidly growing population on a largely oil-based technology. The oil reserves which have accumulated in the earth during the last 500 million years are being depleted rapidly and will be exhausted within a few hundred years. The use of oil or of other natural resources without losses is impossible; losses occur in production, transportation, refining and use. The immediate effects of large scale spills in coastal areas are well known but only through the recent introduction of marine surface sampling tools have we become aware of the degree of oil pollution of the open ocean. Thus, during a recent cruise of R/V CHAIN of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to the southern Sargasso Sea, many surface “Neuston” net hauls were made to collect surface marine organisms. These tows were made between 32°N – 23°N latitude (corresponding to a distance of 630 miles) at a longitude of 67°W. Inevitably, during each tow, quantities of oil-tar lumps, up to 3 inches in diameter were caught in the nets.
Strategic Decision Making as Improvisation

This commentary presents preliminary thoughts on improvisation as a new paradigm for strategic choice. The motivating argument is that the traditional rational actor (and its boundedly rational cousin), political, and garbage can models are mature paradigms that are not well-suited to the imperatives for high-quality, quick, and implemented decisions that most real strategic decision makers face. Rather, improvisation as in jazz, drama, or sports such as rugby provides a better metaphor and model. Based on my and colleagues’ field research on strategic choice, I argue that an improvisational model of strategic choice in which the top management team is the “jazz band”, the strategic decision is the “music”, and the performance is characterized by innovative, yet high quality execution may be the paradigm in which to explore the next generation of strategic decision making issues. Some astute readers may also note the reliance of the argument on the more basic notion of “edge of chaos” in complexity theory.
Editors’ Introduction: Why Clarifying Socrates’ Motives Matters for Platonic Philosophy

Diduch and Harding explain that the question of why Socrates pursues dialectical conversations with a range of interlocutors must be clarified if one is to fully understand Socrates’ way of life. To better help the reader survey the terrain of this problem, the editors then limn the two competing interpretive camps, showing how each major position on Socrates’ motive commits itself to questionable and potentially problematic assumptions.
Street-Level Spatiotemporal Crime Analysis: Examples from Bronx County, NY (2006–2010)

The objective of this chapter is to illustrate how different geographic scales of violent crime analyses vary and can benefit from spatiotemporal ­analyses within a geographic information science framework. Geographic clusters of violent crime, typically referred to as ‘hot spots’, can be very difficult to interpret and address at small geographic scales. Incorporating various temporal resolutions to small-scale crime analysis, such as ‘hot streets’ of violent crime, provides law enforcement with a much more robust understanding of small-scale crime patterns. These small-scale street patterns can assist police departments in developing improved geospatial models for targeted police patrols and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the complex relationships between crime and place.
Do consumers who have a choice of treatment have better outcomes

This study used a non-equivalent control group design to investigate the effect of consumer choice of treatment on both process and outcome variables. All study participants suffered from severe mental illness, were homeless at baseline, and were enrolled in a modified Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program. Consumers in the choice condition had selected the ACT program from a menu of five treatment programs; clients in the no-choice condition were simply assigned to the ACT program by an intake worker. Results found that consumers in the choice condition visited the ACT staff at their offices more than consumers in the no-choice condition, but there were no significant differences between groups on the other treatment process variables. Although consumers in the choice condition increased their income more than consumers in the no-choice condition, there were no significant differences between groups on the other outcome variables (stable housing, psychotic symptoms, depression, and substance abuse).
Stability of the Gyroid Phase in Rod-Coil Systems via Thermodynamic Integration with Molecular Dynamics.

The stability of the gyroid phase in a coarse-grained model of rod–coil block copolymers is ascertained by using a field-based thermodynamic integration method to calculate free-energy differences between competing phases. The scope of the original methodology is expanded in terms of both its implementation by designing guiding fields suitable for molecular dynamics simulations (besides Monte Carlo simulations) and its applications by describing the formation of bicontinuous phases with linear rod–coil amphiphilic chains and with bolaamphiphilic molecules. For both types of systems, results are presented that complement those from previous studies, providing a quantitative metric to pinpoint the conditions and molecular parameters that render the gyroid phase more stable than other competing morphologies.
Analyst rounding of EPS forecasts and stock recommendations

Abstract We examine the association between analysts' stock recommendations and their tendency to round annual EPS forecasts to nickel intervals (i.e. placing a zero or five in the penny location of the forecast). We find that prior to Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD), analysts were more likely to provide rounded EPS forecasts in association with unfavorable (underperform and sell) recommendations. However, after Reg FD, we find no significant association between rounded forecasts and unfavorable stock recommendations. Further, other regulations (NASD 2711, NYSE 472, and Global Research Analyst Settlement) have no impact on analyst rounding behavior. The findings in this study suggest that analyst rounding behavior is a particular form of forecasting optimism motivated, at least in part, by management relations incentives. Further, Reg FD appears partially successful at curbing the influence of management relations incentives on analysts' research.
Adaptive On-Time Control for High Efficiency Switched-Tank Converter

Switched-tank converter (STC) concept can leverage the advantages of wide bandgap devices. And it is especially suitable for GaN/SiC devices. This paper presents an improved STC with separate resonant branches and on-time control method to achieve efficiency improvement. Since the STC relies on resonant operation to reach high efficiency, the problems caused by unmatched resonant tanks in different resonant loops need to be studied and solved. The study shows that in most severe case, problems caused by the unmatched resonant tanks not only compromise the efficiency of STC, but also cause undesired damage to the STC. As a result, old simple control method that uses only two complementary control signals (50% duty cycle) is not good enough anymore. Hence, an improved STC as well as adaptive on-time control method have been proposed to ensure soft-switching and high efficiency operation of the STC. A 1.2kW prototype with 6:1 conversion ratio has been built to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method. The experimental results show that with the proposed control, efficiency of the improved 6x STC is increased by 0.5% at 900W, which means power loss is reduced by 16.77%. A peak efficiency of 98.71% has been achieved.
MCH Functions Framework: A Guide to the Role of Government in Maternal and Child Health in the 21st Century

Objectives: At the close of the 20th century, the government's role in maternal and child health is in a state of transition. What is needed is a framework defining roles and responsibilities and guidance on how to operationalize these functions. This article presents the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Functions Framework and discusses its value as an advocacy, planning, evaluation, and educational tool. Methods: The Johns Hopkins Child and Adolescent Health Policy Center developed the Framework in collaboration with leading public health organizations. The process entailed formulating a conceptual approach and facilitating consensus among the relevant organizations. Results: The Framework consists of three main components: (a) a list of ten essential public health services to promote maternal and child health, (b) an outline detailing program functions specific to MCH that apply to all levels of government and to all MCH populations, and (c) selected examples of local, state, and federal activities for implementing MCH program functions. Conclusions: The MCH Functions Framework can be used in advocacy, policy development, program planning, organizational assessment, education, and training. To date, it has been used by several state and local MCH agencies and in MCH education and training programs.
Reducing new-onset atrial fibrillation after coronary artery bypass graft surgery

Postoperative atrial fibrillation is the most common dysrhythmia to occur after coronary artery bypass graft surgery. It develops in 10% to 40% of patients and can lead to complications such as hemodynamic instability, heart failure, and stroke. Risk factors include hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and obesity. Patients who experience postoperative atrial fibrillation often have longer hospital stays, are at higher risk for readmission, and have increased mortality. Protocols designed to reduce the incidence of the condition can decrease hospital costs, improve patient outcomes, and increase overall quality of care. This quality improvement project took place in a tertiary care center located in southeastern Michigan and focused on the development and implementation of an evidence-based postoperative atrial fibrillation prophylaxis protocol using amiodarone. The outcomes of this project suggest that amiodarone prophylaxis can reduce the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation in patients with no previous history of atrial fibrillation undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
Technology of clinical genomic testing

Abstract Since the completion of the human reference genome in 2003, the focus within the broader genomics community has shifted to the identification of genetic variants that exist between individuals and populations. With the advent of next-generation sequencing, there is now a tractable method in terms of speed, accuracy, and cost, to sequence the DNA of many individuals to identify such variants. The availability of this technology has opened new doors for clinical translation of variant detection and the correlation of these changes with disease and therapeutic outcomes. New goals by the community envision whole-genome or whole-exome sequencing being available to all patients and the results of this testing seamlessly integrated into the clinical decision-making process.
Performance and stability of a bio-inspired soybean-based solvent for CO2 capture from flue gas

Abstract A novel bio-inspired soybean-based solvent (SBB solvent) was formulated for the capture of CO2 with the partial pressure less than 15 kPa in the flue gas. The performance of the SBB solvent was thoroughly characterized in terms of equilibrium solubility of CO2, the heat of CO2 absorption, vapor pressure of the SBB solvent, and the CO2 absorption flux under different operating conditions including CO2 partial pressure in the flue gas, initial CO2 loading in the SBB solvent, SBB solvent concentration, and temperature. The results showed that the equilibrium solubility of CO2 in the SBB solvent was much lower than that in the conventional amine-based solvent at the regeneration condition. The heat of CO2 absorption is only at half of the monoethanolamine (MEA). The near-zero vapor pressure made the SBB solvent as a promising and environmentally friendly solvent for CO2 capture. The optimized concentration of the SBB solvent was 1.0 M for the effective absorption of CO2 from the flue gas. The CO2 absorption performance can be further improved by integrating the use of high concentration SBB solvent with reduced CO2-gas mass transfer resistance. Both thermal stability and oxidative stability of the SBB solvent were evaluated through a 120 h CO2 absorption-desorption experiment. The SBB solvent showed high thermal stability at the regeneration temperature up to 200 °C, and also excellent oxidative stability with the O2 concentration up to 17% in the flue gas.
Parkinson’s Disease: Lesions

Targeted therapeutic surgical lesioning for Parkinson disease has a history extending over 100 years, involving almost every level of the central nervous system often with serendipitous discovery of therapeutic approaches. Despite a near abandonment of lesioning for Parkinson disease after the introduction of levodopa, a resurgence of interest in lesioning was appreciated after recognizing limitations of medications over time in some patients. While the introduction of deep brain stimulation has made lesioning second-line treatment in some parts of the world, unilateral stereotactic lesioning remains an effective and viable option for therapeutic intervention, particularly in an era with incisionless approaches for targeted lesioning.
Mechanisms of Uptake into Plant Protoplasts

Studies on membrane fusion performed using lipid vesicles as model membrane systems have proven a powerful tool in the investigation of the mechanism of membrane interaction at the molecular level. Phospholipid vesicles, called liposomes, are stable structures with a limited permeability to small ions and large molecules and have been described extensively in literature (1, 2, 3). Since the construction of liposomes can be varied from single component systems to mixtures of various lipids differing both in their head group and hydrocarbon chain configuration as well as their charge, questions relating to head group specificity, bilayer fluidity, phase transitions and separations, and temperature dependent phase changes of the lipids can be studied. It is also possible to insert into the membrane other components such as cholesterol, glycolipids and proteins, as well as antibodies. Another advantage of these artificial vesicles is that known membrane-active drugs and molecules which are known to effect membrane fusion can be incorporated into the membrane and their mode of action studied in detail.
Mesoscale informed parameter estimation through machine learning: A case-study in fracture modeling

Abstract Scale bridging is a critical need in computational sciences, where the modeling community has developed accurate physics models from first principles, of processes at lower length and time scales that influence the behavior at the higher scales of interest. However, it is not computationally feasible to incorporate all of the lower length scale physics directly into upscaled models. This is an area where machine learning has shown promise in building emulators of the lower length scale models, which incur a mere fraction of the computational cost of the original higher fidelity models. We demonstrate the use of machine learning using an example in materials science estimating continuum scale parameters by emulating, with uncertainties, complicated mesoscale physics. We describe a new framework to emulate the fine scale physics, especially in the presence of microstructures, using machine learning, and showcase its usefulness by providing an example from modeling fracture propagation. Our approach can be thought of as a data-driven dimension reduction technique that yields probabilistic emulators. Our results show well-calibrated predictions for the quantities of interests in a low-strain simulation of fracture propagation at the mesoscale level. On average, we achieve ∼10% relative errors on time-varying quantities like total damage and maximum stresses. Successfully replicating mesoscale scale physics within the continuum models is a crucial step towards predictive capability in multi-scale problems.
Back to the Basics--Recent Titles on Getting Started as a Library Manager

This issue's New and Noteworthy column review four recent titles on getting started in library leadership and management.
IL-12-Induced Immune Suppressive Deficit During CD8+ T-Cell Differentiation.

Autoimmune diseases are characterized by regulatory deficit in both the CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell compartments. We have shown that CD8+ T-cells associated with acute relapse of multiple sclerosis are significantly deficient in their immune suppressive ability. We hypothesized that distinct CD8+ cytotoxic T-cell (Tc) lineages, determined by cytokine milieu during naive T-cell differentiation, may harbor differential ability to suppress effector CD4+ T-cells. We differentiated purified human naive CD8+ T-cells in vitro toward Tc0 (media control), Tc1 and Tc17 lineages. Using in vitro flow cytometric suppression assays, we observed that Tc0 and Tc17 cells had similar suppressive ability. In contrast, Tc1 cells showed significant loss of suppressive ability against ex vivo CD4+ T-cells and in vitro-differentiated Th0, Th1 and Th17 cells. Of note, Tc1 cells were also suboptimal in suppressing CD4-induced acute xenogeneic graft versus host disease (xGVHD) in vivo. Tc subtypes derived under various cytokine combinations revealed that IL-12-containing conditions resulted in less suppressive cells exhibiting dysregulated cytotoxic degranulation. RNA sequencing transcriptome analyses indicated differential regulation of inflammatory genes and enrichment in GM-CSF-associated pathways. These studies provide insights into the role of T-cell differentiation in CD8 suppressive biology and may reveal therapeutically targetable pathways to reverse suppressive deficit during immune-mediated disease.
Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Patients With Congenital Heart Disease Across the Lifespan: The Experience of an Academic Congenital Heart Disease Center in New York City.

Background We sought to assess the impact and predictors of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and severity in a cohort of patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) at a large CHD center in New York City. Methods and Results We performed a retrospective review of all individuals with CHD followed at Columbia University Irving Medical Center who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 1, 2020 and July 1, 2020. The primary end point was moderate/severe response to COVID-19 infection defined as (1) death during COVID-19 infection; or (2) need for hospitalization and/or respiratory support secondary to COVID-19 infection. Among 53 COVID-19-positive patients with CHD, 10 (19%) were <18 years of age (median age 34 years of age). Thirty-one (58%) had complex congenital anatomy including 10 (19%) with a Fontan repair. Eight (15%) had a genetic syndrome, 6 (11%) had pulmonary hypertension, and 9 (17%) were obese. Among adults, 18 (41%) were physiologic class C or D. For the entire cohort, 9 (17%) had a moderate/severe infection, including 3 deaths (6%). After correcting for multiple comparisons, the presence of a genetic syndrome (odds ratio [OR], 35.82; P=0.0002), and in adults, physiological Stage C or D (OR, 19.38; P=0.002) were significantly associated with moderate/severe infection. Conclusions At our CHD center, the number of symptomatic patients with COVID-19 was relatively low. Patients with CHD with a genetic syndrome and adults at advanced physiological stage were at highest risk for moderate/severe infection.
Economy as Empire: Dutch Disease and the Decline of Imperial Spain

The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469 began the process of the eventual unification of Spain. Over the ensuing decades, Spain finally conquered the Muslims at Granada in 1492 and completed the Reconquista. Spain then began a period of imperial expansion with Christopher Columbus’s first voyage later that year. Beginning in the late 15th century and through the middle of the 17th century, Spain was the world’s dominant economic and military empire. But a series of factors combined to exert severe pressure on the empire and ultimately led to its decline beginning in the 1640s. While historians continue to debate the specific causes, a review of the Spanish historiography makes clear that economic forces have always been among the most important. The "Dutch Disease" was the name given by The Economist in 1977 and later developed by economists to the relationship between the discovery of massive deposits of natural gas in the Netherlands in the 1960s and the subsequent negative impact on the industrial sector of the country. It has also been described as a “resource curse” or a “paradox of plenty.” Since then, the Dutch Disease model has been applied to several historical circumstances, including the Spanish Empire of the 16th century. And while some historians have appraised the decline of Spain in terms of the Dutch Disease, there is a gap in the scholarly work regarding how this relationship impacted the protectionist and mercantilist economic policies unique to the Spanish economy. This paper seeks to fill that gap by examining the role of the large influx of American gold and silver into the Spanish economy and specifically its impact on Spain's manufacturing and agricultural base, with an emphasis on the contemporaneous writings of the School of Salamanca (often referred to as the Spanish Scholastics) and the arbitristas. The discovery of massive quantities of gold and silver in Spanish America caused a significant increase in the Spanish money supply. This in turn led to a rise in prices, known as the Spanish Price Revolution, and made the Spanish manufacturing industry less competitive on the global market. Finally, the effects of the Dutch Disease amplified the structural deficiencies in the Spanish economy: first, the special privileges granted to the Mesta, a collection of Spanish sheep ranchers; and second, demographic hollowing caused by the expulsion of so many Jews and Moriscos, which had the impact of removing many artisans, traders, and merchants that were the lifeblood of the Spanish economy.
Understanding timely STEMI treatment performance: A 3-year retrospective cohort study using diagnosis-to-balloon-time and care subintervals.

Objective From the perspective of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) centers, locations of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) diagnosis can include a referring facility, emergency medical services (EMS) transporting to a PCI center, or the PCI center's emergency department (ED). This challenges the use of door-to-balloon-time as the primary evaluative measure of STEMI treatment pathways. Our objective was to identify opportunities to improve care by quantifying differences in the timeliness of STEMI treatment mobilization based on the location of the diagnostic ECG. Methods This 3-year, single-center, retrospective cohort study classified patients by diagnostic ECG location: referring facility, EMS, or PCI center ED. We quantified door-to-balloon-time and diagnosis-to-balloon-time with its care subintervals. Results Of 207 ED STEMI patients, 180 (87%) received PCI. Median diagnosis-to-balloon-times were shortest among the ED-diagnosed (78 minutes [interquartile range (IQR), 61-92]), followed by EMS-identified patients (89 minutes [IQR, 78-122]), and longest among those referred (140 minutes [IQR, 119-160]), reflecting time for transport to the PCI center. Conversely, referred patients had the shortest median door-to-balloon-times (38 minutes [IQR, 34-43]), followed by the EMS-identified (64 minutes [IQR, 47-77]), whereas ED-diagnosed patients had the longest (89 minutes [IQR, 70-114]), reflecting diagnosis and catheterization lab activation frequently occurring before PCI center ED arrival for referred and EMS-identified patients. Conclusions Diagnosis-to-balloon-time and its care subintervals are complementary to the traditional door-to-balloon-times as measures of the STEMI treatment process. Together, they highlight opportunities to improve timely identification among ED-diagnosed patients, use of out-of-hospital cath lab activation for EMS-identified patients, and encourage pathways for referred patients to bypass PCI center EDs.
A Pilot Study of the Effects of Losartan Versus Placebo on Pneumoproteins in HIV: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Double Blind Study.

HIV is an independent risk factor for lung disease, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema. Angiotensin receptor blockers may be beneficial in COPD and emphysema through pathways that have been implicated in HIV-related lung disease. We performed a randomized comparison of the effects of losartan versus placebo on the plasma concentrations of the pneumoproteins, surfactant protein D (SPD) and club cell secretory protein (CCSP), in people living with HIV (PLWH). A total of 108 PLWH were included (52 assigned to losartan and 56 assigned to placebo). We found no difference in the change from baseline in log2 concentrations of CCSP or SPD over 1 year of follow-up. For SPD, we found a strong interaction by CD4+ counts, where those with CD4+ counts >350 cells/mm3 treated with losartan had more reduction (improvement) in SPD concentration than those treated with placebo (p value for interaction <.001). In conclusion, we did not find a beneficial effect of losartan on pneumoprotein concentrations in PLWH, but PLWH with higher CD4+ counts may have improvement in SPD when treated with losartan.
A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America: By Kirsten Fermaglich. New York: New York University Press. 2018. Pp. v + 245. $28.00. ISBN: 978-1-4798-6720-2

“What’s in a name?” asks Juliet, of Shakespeare fame, and then continues, “That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.” Juliet, unlike Kirsten Fermaglich, author of A Rosenber...
Racial Awareness and the Politics in Play: Preschoolers and Racially Diverse Dolls in a US Classroom

The development of racial awareness begins in infancy, continues throughout early childhood, and can shape play behaviors. The present study is a case study in a US pre-kindergarten classroom. The study aimed to examine the ways in which ideas about race and gender manifested within doll play. Participants included two 4-year-old Black girls, their peers, and teachers. The methodology included one researcher observing, taking field notes, conducting informal on-the-spot interviews, and using audio and video recordings as the children played in the dramatic play center with racially diverse dolls and salon props. Data processing included transcribing field notes and recordings and then summarizing these transcriptions. Data synthesis identified broad codes for overall interpretation. Findings revealed that the girls behaved in ways and made choices that displayed their awareness of race and societal ideas about race by how non-Black dolls had privileged status and awarded the child in possession of these dolls privilege. The present study provides more information about the ways in which young children are understanding and grappling with ideas about race. Early childhood educators armed with this knowledge should anticipate gendered and racialized play by their students and should be ready to intervene and utilize such play as teachable moments to counter misinformation about the value of certain groups.
The microbiota coordinates diurnal rhythms in innate immunity with the circadian clock

Environmental light cycles entrain circadian feeding behaviors in animals that produce rhythms in exposure to foodborne bacteria. Here, we show that the intestinal microbiota generates diurnal rhythms in innate immunity that synchronize with feeding rhythms to anticipate microbial exposure. Rhythmic expression of antimicrobial proteins was driven by daily rhythms in epithelial attachment by segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB), members of the mouse intestinal microbiota. Rhythmic SFB attachment was driven by the circadian clock through control of feeding rhythms. Mechanistically, rhythmic SFB attachment activated an immunological circuit involving group 3 innate lymphoid cells. This circuit triggered oscillations in epithelial STAT3 expression and activation that produced rhythmic antimicrobial protein expression and caused resistance to Salmonella Typhimurium infection to vary across the day-night cycle. Thus, host feeding rhythms synchronize with the microbiota to promote rhythms in intestinal innate immunity that anticipate exogenous microbial exposure.
Commercial Use of CdS/CdTe

The simple production technology and the relatively high stability of the CdS/CdTe solar cell has made it attractive for mass production. It has been one of the first thin-film solar cells. In combination with a thin layer of CdS it is attractive at about 16 % efficiency. Compared to other known solar cells it can be reliably produced in large areas with panel efficiency approaching 15 % and at a production cost of less than $1/Watt. Currently it is already deployed in many gigaWatt worldwide. Even though Cd is highly toxic, encapsulated it does not present an environmental hazard. Recent studies have confirmed that the terrestrial reserves of Te are sufficient to permit an explosive growth of the industry.
Tape recorded lectures in the college classroom

An experiment was carried out which contrasted the effectiveness of a conventional instructional methodversus a method based upon tape recorded lectures plus student-led discussions. Subjects for the pilot experiment were 36 students enrolled in a pre-service teacher education course at San Francisco State College. The conventionally-taught section was instructed by a standard lecturediscussion approach. The tape-taught section listened to hour-long taped lectures, and discussed the content of the lectures with the assistance of a student discussion leader. After the initial meeting of the semester, the instructor had no contact with the tape-taught class. On the basis of group performance on several criterion measures, no significant differences between the conventionallytaught and the tape-taught students were found. It was concluded that the instructional technique featuring taped lectures was effective.
Studies on free and membrane-bound ribosomes in rat liver: II. Interaction of ribosomes and membranes

Abstract Some evidence has been obtained that neither mRNA nor transfer RNA is the binding molecule between ribosomes and membranes. (1) In vivo treatment with actinomycin D, carbon tetrachloride or puromycin led to a conversion of heavy polysomes into light polysomes and single ribosomes without changing the distribution between free and bound ribosomes. (2) Amino acid incorporation in vitro converting polysomes into single ribosomes did not result in detachment of bound ribosomes from the membrane. (3) A 22% release of in vitro labeled peptidyl transfer RNA from membrane-bound ribosomes following puromycin treatment did not release bound ribosomes from the membrane. Ribosomes when bound to the membrane are resistant to pancreatic ribonuclease, whereas free ribosomes are converted into non-sedimentable products.
Genetics of gene expression responses to temperature stress in a sea urchin gene network

Stress responses play an important role in shaping species distributions and robustness to climate change. We investigated how stress responses alter the contribution of additive genetic variation to gene expression during development of the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, under increased temperatures that model realistic climate change scenarios. We first measured gene expression responses in the embryos by RNAseq to characterize molecular signatures of mild, chronic temperature stress in an unbiased manner. We found that an increase from 12 to 18 � C caused widespread alterations in gene expression including in genes involved in protein folding, RNA processing and development. To understand the quantitative genetic architecture of this response, we then focused on a well-characterized gene network involved in endomesoderm and ectoderm specification. Using a breeding design with wild-caught individuals, we measured genetic and gene–environment interaction effects on 72 genes within this network. We found genetic or maternal effects in 33 of these genes and that the genetic effects were correlated in the network. Fourteen network genes also responded to higher temperatures, but we found no significant genotype–environment interactions in any of the genes. This absence may be owing to an effective buffering of the temperature perturbations within the network. In support of this hypothesis, perturbations to regulatory genes did not affect the expression of the genes that they regulate. Together, these results provide novel insights into the relationship between environmental change and developmental evolution and suggest that climate change may not expose large amounts of cryptic genetic variation to selection in this species.
Risk of Transmission of Human T‐Lymphotropic Virus Through Transplant

Keywords: editorial / personal viewpoint; infectious disease; kidney transplantation / nephrology; infection and infectious agents; infection and infectious agents; viral: human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV); kidney transplantation: living donor
Pulmonary surfactant inhibits LPS-induced nitric oxide production by alveolar macrophages.

The objectives of this investigation were 1) to report that pulmonary surfactant inhibits lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (⋅ NO) production by rat alveolar macrophages,2) to study pos...
Phytobilin biosynthesis: the Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 heme oxygenase-encoding ho1 gene complements a phytochrome-deficient Arabidopsis thalianna hy1 mutant.

The phytobilin chromophores of phycobiliproteins and phytochromes are biosynthesized from heme in a pathway that begins with the opening of the tetrapyrrole macrocycle of protoheme to form biliverdin IXα, in a reaction catalyzed by heme oxygenase. An Arabidopsis thaliana hy1 mutant was previously shown to be deficient in phytochrome responses, and these responses were regained when the plants were administered biliverdin IXα. A heme oxygenase-encoding gene, ho1, was recently cloned from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. When ho1 was expressed in Escherichia coli, the cells produced active ferredoxin-dependent soluble heme oxygenase. The open reading frame of ho1 was fused in frame with a chloroplast transit peptide-encoding sequence from the oli gene of Antirrhinum majus. This construct was placed in a binary plasmid vector containing a kanamycin resistance marker and a cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter to control expression of the chimeric oli-ho1 gene and used to transform A. thaliana hy1 plants. Two independent transformed lines were obtained that had the phenotype of the parental Landsberg erecta line and expressed the chimeric gene, as indicated by detection of its mRNA by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. The results indicate that Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 heme oxygenase encoded by ho1 can substitute for the defective HY1 gene product and that the only required enzyme activity of the HY1 gene product is heme oxygenase.
Cross-age peer mentoring approach to impact the health outcomes of children and families.

Column Editor: Bonnie Gance-Cleveland Family-Centered Care provides a forum for sharing information about basic components of caring for children and families, including respect, information sharing, collaboration, family-to-family support, and confidence building.
Computation Slicing: Techniques and Theory

We generalize the notion of slice introduced in our earlier paper [6]. A slice of a distributed computation with respect to a global predicate is the smallest computation that contains all consistent cuts of the original computation that satisfy the predicate. We prove that slice exists for all global predicates. We also establish that it is, in general, NP-complete to compute the slice. An optimal algorithm to compute slices for special cases of predicates is provided. Further, we present an efficient algorithm to graft two slices, that is, given two slices, either compute the smallest slice that contains all consistent cuts that are common to both slices or compute the smallest slice that contains all consistent cuts that belong to at least one of the slices. We give application of slicing in general and grafting in particular to global property evaluation of distributed programs. Finally, we show that the results pertaining to consistent global checkpoints [14,18] can be derived as special cases of computation slicing.
Do Glucocorticoids Cause Spinal Epidural Lipomatosis? When Endocrinology and Spinal Surgery Meet

Here, we report pathogenetic aspects of spinal epidural lipomatosis (SEL) based on a literature review. SEL is a rare entity but can cause significant morbidity. Its symptoms can be identical to those of more common disorders such as vertebral and disc disease, and cord lesions (for example, transverse myelitis, multiple sclerosis and syringomyelia). Therefore, it often goes undiagnosed. In addition, SEL occurs in patients on glucocorticoid therapy, which can lead to myopathy, thereby mimicking the motor symptoms of SEL. Glucocorticoids seem to play a major role in the development of SEL, although idiopathic SEL has also been reported. The latter occurs almost exclusively in obese individuals who may have concurrent hypercortisolism. Once clinically suspected, SEL is best diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Treatment of SEL is directed at reducing body weight in patients with idiopathic SEL, and at decreasing glucocorticoid excess in patients with endogenous or exogenous hypercortisolism. In severe cases, decompressive laminectomy might become necessary to alleviate the neurological symptoms caused by spinal cord compression.
Association of Hepatic Necrosis With Trimethoprim Sulfonamide Administration in 4 Dogs

Hepatic necrosis in association with trimethoprim-sulfonamide (TMS) combination therapy was diagnosed in 4 dogs based on history, clinical presentation, and examination of histopathologic specimens collected postmortem. Duration of TMS therapy prior to onset of clinical signs ranged from 4 to 30 days. The dose of TMS ranged from 18 mg/kg to 53 mg/kg bid. Despite supportive medical therapy, all dogs died or were euthanized due to hepatic failure. This report highlights the potential for hepatotoxicity during TMS therapy. Duration of therapy, type of TMS combination, and dose did not appear related to the development of toxicity. The low number of dogs affected suggests an idiosyncratic drug reaction.