cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Innate immunity modulates adipokines in humans.

Context: Chronic inflammation converges in type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis. Modulation of adipokine signaling by innate immunity in humans is of considerable interest given the role of adipokines in insulin resistance and atherosclerosis. Objective: The aim of the study was to examine effects of low-grade endotoxemia, a model of human inflammation, on adipokines in vivo. Design/Setting: An open-label, placebo-controlled, fixed-sequence clinical study was conducted at a General Clinical Research Center. Patients: There were 20 healthy male (50%) and female volunteers aged 18–40 yr. Intervention: Serial blood sampling and adipose biopsies were performed for 24 h before and after iv bolus endotoxin [lipopolysaccharide (LPS), 3 ng/kg]. Main Outcome Measures: We measured plasma leptin, adiponectin, resistin, soluble leptin receptor, cytokines, insulin, and glucose; distribution of adiponectin among multimeric complexes; whole blood, monocyte and adipose mRNA for adipokines and their receptors. Results: LPS...
Functional but not structural subgenual prefrontal cortex abnormalities in melancholia

Major depression is a heterogeneous condition, and the search for neural correlates specific to clinically defined subtypes has been inconclusive. Theoretical considerations implicate frontostriatal, particularly subgenual prefrontal cortex (PFC), dysfunction in the pathophysiology of melancholia--a subtype of depression characterized by anhedonia--but no empirical evidence has been found yet for such a link. To test the hypothesis that melancholic, but not nonmelancholic depression, is associated with the subgenual PFC impairment, concurrent measurement of brain electrical (electroencephalogram, EEG) and metabolic (positron emission tomography, PET) activity were obtained in 38 unmedicated subjects with DSM-IV major depressive disorder (20 melancholic, 18 nonmelancholic subjects), and 18 comparison subjects. EEG data were analyzed with a tomographic source localization method that computed the cortical three-dimensional distribution of current density for standard frequency bands, allowing voxelwise correlations between the EEG and PET data. Voxel-based morphometry analyses of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were performed to assess potential structural abnormalities in melancholia. Melancholia was associated with reduced activity in the subgenual PFC (Brodmann area 25), manifested by increased inhibitory delta activity (1.5-6.0 Hz) and decreased glucose metabolism, which themselves were inversely correlated. Following antidepressant treatment, depressed subjects with the largest reductions in depression severity showed the lowest post-treatment subgenual PFC delta activity. Analyses of structural MRI revealed no group differences in the subgenual PFC, but in melancholic subjects, a negative correlation between gray matter density and age emerged. Based on preclinical evidence, we suggest that subgenual PFC dysfunction in melancholia may be associated with blunted hedonic response and exaggerated stress responsiveness.
Polycrystalline CVD diamond in electronics: important cost factors

In the development of a given technology, the process costs must be understood if commercial scale production is to be successful. To achieve this goal, Technical Cost Modeling has evolved from traditional costing methodologies in order to estimate the dynamics of a system of manufacture, and to be used as a tool for determining optimal scale-up conditions. For the manufacture of thermal management chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond, cost models have been developed in older to estimate the appropriate scale-up conditions for different CVD diamond deposition and finishing technologies in order to fabricate diamond substrates for electronics packaging. Subsequent cost analysis is then undertaken to assess the viability of diamond as an electronics packaging material. With this ability to identify the cost of future manufacturing scenarios, the R&D pace of a promising technology can be quickened, or the investment schedule in an unfavorable technology can be phased out. >
Unternehmensleitung und Rechnungswesen

Die Geschaftsleitung hat das Bestreben, den Erfolg der Unternehmung zu optimieren. Dazu mus sie bei der verzweigten Struktur und der Dynamik eines Betriebes der heutigen Zeit vom Rechnungswesen neue Mittel und Wege des Zahlennachweises verlangen.
Lessons from social network analyses for behavioral medicine.

Purpose of review This study presents an overview of the rapidly expanding field of social network analysis, with an emphasis placed on work relevant to behavioral health clinicians and researchers. I outline how social network analysis is a distinct empirical methodology within the social sciences that has the potential to deepen our understanding of how mental health and addiction are influenced by social environmental factors. Recent findings Whereas there have been a number of recent studies in the mental health literature that discuss social influences on mental illness and addiction, and a number of studies looking at how social networks influence health and behaviors, there are still relatively few studies that combine the two. Those that have suggest that mood symptoms as well as alcohol consumption are clustered within, and may travel along, social networks. Summary Social networks appear to have an important influence on a variety of mental health conditions. This avenue of research has the potential to influence both clinical practice and public policy.
Making the Most of the First Day of Class in Geography

AbstractThe first day of a class or module sets the tone for the rest of the term. Most educators agree that students learn more when they actively discuss subjects and work together in groups. In order for these expectations to be met, it is essential to establish a classroom climate that not only allows, but promotes, participation and discussion. Use of techniques to promote active participation beginning with the first day of class can produce greater student participation throughout the semester. This article suggests three discipline-specific techniques for introducing course content and active learning from the first day.
Tc-99m MAA: A Model for Administering the Desired Number of Particles for Pulmonary Perfusion Studies

The use of tables derived from a computer program that insures conformity with certain quality control criteria is discussed in detail for Tc-99m labeled macroaggregated albumin (MAA). Conformity with designated criteria assures that a clinically optimal number of MAA-labeled particles will be administered for each radiopharmaceutical dose. Such ramifications as avoiding error, saving time, and reducing radiation exposure to the patient are discussed.
Research on the Weeds Control in Free-plowing and Direct-seeding Rice Field

In this paper,the weeds control trials have been put in practice in free-plowing and directly-seeding rice field,by using some weedicides before and after seeding.The results show that using suitable weedicides can control the weeds by reducing the density and the weight of weeds,and have no obvious affection on rice.Compared to the no using weedicides control,using weedicides control have a higher rice product.The further research will be going on.
Research: Routing in packet-switched communication networks

This paper addresses the problem of selecting a route for every pair of communicating nodes in a packet-switched communication network in order to minimize the average delay encountered by messages. A mathematical programming formulation of the problem is presented. An efficient solution procedure based on a Lagrangean relaxation of the problem is developed. Unlike most previous approaches where the best route for a communicating node pair is restricted to a set of prespecified candidate routes, our approach considers all possible routes for every communicating node pair. Our approach can also be used to generate good feasible routing schemes, whereas other approaches fail to generate feasible schemes beyond moderate levels of traffic. Extensive computational results across a variety of networks are reported. These results indicate that the solution procedure is effective for a wide range of traffic loads.
Statistic prosody structure prediction

Hierarchical prosody structure generation is a key component for a speech synthesis system. This paper presents a statistic method that predicts the prosody structure for the Chinese text-to-speech (TTS) system by combining a dynamic program method with the rules. The method is based on a manually annotated corpus extracted from the natural speech (IBM Mandarin TTS Corpus for Female 02). The experimental results show that an accuracy of 91.2% for predicting prosodic structure can be achieved. A state-of-the-art Mandarin TTS system is worked out based on the hierarchical prosody structure. Listening tests show that the prosody structure works pretty well.
Seedling Regeneration in the Alpine Treeline Ecotone: Comparison of Wood Microsites and Adjacent Soil Substrates

Although climate warming is generally expected to facilitate upward advance of forests, conifer seedling regeneration and survival may be hindered by low substrate moisture, high radiation, and both low and high snow accumulation. To better understand substrate-related factors promoting regeneration in the alpine treeline ecotone, this study compared 2 substrates supporting conifer seedlings: rotten downed wood and adjacent soil. Study locations, each with 3 levels of incoming radiation, were randomly selected at forest line–alpine meadow borders in Pacific Northwest wilderness areas extending along an east–west precipitation gradient. Associations among substrate type, seedling density, radiation, site moisture, site temperature, plant water potential, and plant stomatal conductance were assessed. Wood microsites, flush with the ground and supporting Abies spp conifer seedlings, extended up to 20 m into alpine meadows from the forest line. Although wood microsites thawed later in the spring and froze earlier in the fall, they had warmer summer temperatures, greater volumetric water content, and more growing degree hours, and seedlings growing on wood had higher water potentials than seedlings growing on adjacent soil. At drier eastern sites, there was a positive relationship between seedling density and volumetric water content. Further, there was a positive relationship between seedling stomatal conductance and volumetric water content. Our study indicates that in the Pacific Northwest. and likely elsewhere, seedlings benefit from wood microsites, which provide greater water content. Given predictions of increased summer drought in some locations globally, wood microsites at forest line–alpine meadows and forest line–grasslands borders may become increasingly important for successful conifer regeneration.
Chapter 1 – The Evolutionary Origins of Cancer and of Its Control by Immune Policing and Genetic Suppression

Cancer is a disease of multicellular animals that arises from conflicting effects of natural selection acting at the cellular and individual levels. Over the long term, this conflict can be resolved in favor of individuals through the evolution of cancer suppression (e.g., by tumor suppressor genes) and/or policing (by the immune system) as a result of lineage selection. Our understanding of the role of immune policing in cancer prevention is reviewed in light of the recent surge of interest in immunotherapy; however, it is argued that cancer suppression is likely to be the major mechanism limiting cancer in nature. Predictions regarding the evolution of cancer suppression, derived from a simple model of multistage carcinogenesis, are discussed. These predictions combined with the success of a recent study of rodents suggest that comparative analyses of animal clades differing in size and longevity may provide important insight into novel mechanisms of cancer suppression.
Palladium-copper membranes for hydrogen separation

Abstract This communication summarizes key elements and facts of PdCu alloy membranes for H2 separation by reviewing fundamentals and literature reports, such as the PdCu phase diagram and its implications toward membrane permeability and stability, the phase and composition segregation behavior, and the intricate phase structure-composition-stability-permeability relationship. The inconvenient challenges for applying PdCu alloy membranes due to its complex alloy phase diagram consisting of more than one phase structure are identified. The sulfur resistance and H2 permeation hysteresis will also be discussed accordingly. Previously reported permeation data will be revisited by using the insights outlined to explain some of the previous observations of instability for PdCu alloys operating in pure H2 atmosphere. We conclude the manuscript with a summary, as well as our perspective and outlook on this topic.
Comparison of methods for individualized astronaut organ dosimetry: Morphometry-based phantom library versus body contour autoscaling of a reference phantom

Abstract One of the hazards faced by space crew members in low-Earth orbit or in deep space is exposure to ionizing radiation. It has been shown previously that while differences in organ-specific and whole-body risk estimates due to body size variations are small for highly-penetrating galactic cosmic rays, large differences in these quantities can result from exposure to shorter-range trapped proton or solar particle event radiations. For this reason, it is desirable to use morphometrically accurate computational phantoms representing each astronaut for a risk analysis, especially in the case of a solar particle event. An algorithm was developed to automatically sculpt and scale the UF adult male and adult female hybrid reference phantom to the individual outer body contour of a given astronaut. This process begins with the creation of a laser-measured polygon mesh model of the astronaut's body contour. Using the auto-scaling program and selecting several anatomical landmarks, the UF adult male or female phantom is adjusted to match the laser-measured outer body contour of the astronaut. A dosimetry comparison study was conducted to compare the organ dose accuracy of both the autoscaled phantom and that based upon a height–weight matched phantom from the UF/NCI Computational Phantom Library. Monte Carlo methods were used to simulate the environment of the August 1972 and February 1956 solar particle events. Using a series of individual-specific voxel phantoms as a local benchmark standard, autoscaled phantom organ dose estimates were shown to provide a 1% and 10% improvement in organ dose accuracy for a population of females and males, respectively, as compared to organ doses derived from height–weight matched phantoms from the UF/NCI Computational Phantom Library. In addition, this slight improvement in organ dose accuracy from the autoscaled phantoms is accompanied by reduced computer storage requirements and a more rapid method for individualized phantom generation when compared to the UF/NCI Computational Phantom Library.
Janet Yellen: Navigating Uncharted Waters

In January 2016, Janet Yellen, finishing her second year as chair of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve, was navigating uncharted waters along a number of dimensions. She had inherited an unruly FOMC. Over the past year, some members had publicly called for more expansionary Fed policy; others called for an end to the expansionary Fed policy; and still others worried aloud that Fed policy might be creating bubbles and risks to financial stability. And Yellen faced at least three pressing questions: How, after the Fed's balance sheet had expanded fourfold in a few short years, should the Fed guide the public through the eventual unwinding of that balance sheet? Relatedly, when should it begin to sell some of its $2.46 trillion in Treasury holdings? And was the December 2015 increase of the federal funds rate—the start of the first tightening phase in more than a decade—the right decision, or would the U.S. economy falter and force the Fed to reverse course? This case also presents a brief history of Fed policy and asks the reader to consider the best course of action for the Fed to take. This case was written as an updated version of “Yellen, Guidance, and the Exit Strategy,” (GEM-0121) and may be used in its place. Excerpt UVA-GEM-0134 Rev. Mar. 6, 2017 Janet Yellen: Navigating Uncharted Waters [N]o central bank anywhere on the planet…has the experience of successfully navigating a return home from the place in which we now find ourselves. No central bank—not, at least, the Federal Reserve—has ever been on this cruise before. —Richard W. Fisher, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas In February 2017, Janet Yellen, entering her fourth and likely final year as chair of the Board of Governors of the U.S.Federal Reserve (the Fed), looked out at the Lincoln Memorial while reflecting on the Federal Open Market Committee's tentative tightening of U.S. monetary policy. For Yellen, the modest year-end tightenings in 2015 and 2016 were first steps toward a normalization of U.S. monetary policy. She knew that short rates had been too low for too long—the federal funds rate had been near 0% for seven years—perhaps sowing the seeds for future financial crises, and that some upward movement in the federal funds rate would, all else equal, be desirable. She also yearned for the day when the Fed, rather than being the single largest holder of U.S. Treasury bonds, would once again have a boring, inconsequential Treasury portfolio. . . .
Implementation of a Publish-Subscribe Protocol in Microgrid Islanding and Resynchronization With Self-Discovery

Communications systems and protocols are becoming second nature to utilities operating distribution systems. Traditionally, centralized communication approaches are often used, while recently in microgrid applications, distributed communication, and control schema emerge offering several advantages such as improved system reliability, plug-and-play operation, and distributed intelligence. Still, operation and control of microgrids including distributed communication schema have been less of a discussion in the literature. To address the challenge of multiple-inverter microgrid synchronization, a publish-subscribe protocol based, data distribution service, communication schema for microgrids is proposed. The communication schema is discussed in details for individual devices such as generators, photovoltaic systems, energy storage systems, microgrid point of common coupling switch, and supporting applications. Finally, islanding and resynchronization of a microgrid are demonstrated on a test-bed utilizing this schema.
Single vaginal ectopic ureter and the VATER syndrome.

Abstract We report on a 2-year-old girl with a nonfunctioning kidney, ureteral stricture and ectopic vaginal ureteral orifice associated with an imperforate anus and other congenital malformations. This case most likely represents a rare variant of the VATER syndrome. The literature is reviewed.
Vegetation and environmental conditions in recently restored wetlands in the prairie pothole region of the USA

How closely the vegetation of restored wetlands resembles that of comparable natural wetlands is a function of the probability of propagules of wetland species reaching reflooded wetlands and how similar environmental conditions in the restored wetland are those in the natural wetlands. Three years after reflooding, we examined the vegetation composition, water level fluctuations, soil organic carbon content, and soil bulk density as well as surface water pH, alkalinity, conductivity, and calcium and magnesium concentrations of 10 restored and 10 natural wetlands. In the restored wetlands, more species of submersed aquatics colonized than were found in natural wetlands, and they rapidly spread to form extensive beds that were larger than those found in natural wetlands. Emergent and wet meadow species in restored wetlands, however, were found in only sparse stands as were a variety of annuals. The vegetation of natural wetlands was predominantly large stands of emergent species. Fluctuations in water storage volume and basin surface area were similar for both restored and natural wetlands. The surface water in restored wetlands had higher pH and lower alkalinity, conductivity, and calcium and magnesium concentrations than that in natural wetlands. Soils of restored wetlands have a lower organic carbon content and higher bulk density than do those of natural wetlands. Our results suggest that for submersed aquatics, dispersal of propagules to restored wetlands is rapid and environmental conditions in restored wetlands are very suitable for their establishment. For other guilds of wetland species, e.g., sedges and other wet meadow species, dispersal to restored wetlands is likely much slower and may pose a serious problem for the re-establishment of these species in restored wetlands. Even if dispersal is not limiting, low surface organic carbon and high bulk density may prevent the establishment of these species in restored wetlands.
Determinants of prenatal exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) among urban, minority infants born between 1998 and 2006.

Abstract Polybrominated diphenyl ethers ( PBDEs) are environmentally persistent chemicals that structurally resemble legacy pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PBDEs were added to consumer products for over 30 years, before being phased out due to evidence of toxicity. We examined temporal changes in prenatal exposure to PBDEs, as well as other sources of variation. We measured PBDEs in umbilical cord plasma from 327 minority infants born in New York City between 1998 and 2006. We used linear regression to examine changes in concentrations over time and in relation to lifestyle characteristics collected during pregnancy. We detected BDE-47 in 80% of samples with a geometric mean concentration of 14.1 ng/g lipid. Ethnicity was the major determinant of PBDE exposure; African American infants had 58% higher geometric mean cord plasma concentrations of BDE-47 (p
WHOM YOU CONNECT WITH MATTERS: DIRECTOR NETWORKS AND FIRM LOCATION

We examine whether board members serve as a channel for remotely located firms to access the benefits from businessâ€ dense areas due to economies of agglomeration. We find that geographically remote firms benefit from connections to firms in top metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) for business density. After controlling for director compensation, we find connections to top MSA firms mitigate the negative effect of increased distance from businessâ€ dense areas. We address concerns of endogeneity by exploring a sample of firms whose directors gain board seats at top MSA firms and find a similar positive impact of connections to top MSA firms.
Where we dance (ecologically) together: reading Ananya Dance Theatre’s Roktim: Nurture Incarnadine

In September 2015, Ananya Dance Theatre premiered Roktim: Nature Incarnadine, an evening-length dance about women of color, seeds, food systems, and soil. Roktim weaves dancers’ biographies with myth, history, and science to form an epic narrative intersecting environment and social difference—an environmental justice biomythography. This work is an unconventional example of an environmental dance in both aesthetic and content. Through a year of ethnographic fieldwork and participation with the company, I explore aspects of Roktim and how my own body becomes implicated in the work. Using literature from eco-dramaturgy, eco-criticism, dance studies, and environmental justice, I consider how the performance and a reading of it contributes a corporeal perspective to critical sustainability.
Mitigating Multi-tenant Interference in Continuous Mobile Offloading

Offloading computation to resource-rich servers is effective in improving application performance on resource constrained mobile devices. Despite a rich body of research on mobile offloading frameworks, most previous works are evaluated in a single-tenant setting, i.e., a server is assigned to a single client. In this paper we consider that multiple clients offload various continuous mobile sensing applications with end-to-end delay constraints, to a cluster of machines as the server. Contention for shared computing resources on a server can unfortunately result in delays and application malfunctions. We present a two-phase Plan-Schedule approach to mitigate multi-tenant resource contention, thus to reduce offloading delays. The planning phase predicts future workloads from all clients, estimates contention, and devises offloading schedule to remove or reduce contention. The scheduling phase dispatches arriving offloaded workloads to the server machine that minimizes contention, according to the running workloads on each machine. We implement the methods into ATOMS (Accurate Timing prediction and Offloading for Mobile Systems), a framework that adopts prediction of workload computing times, estimation of network delays, and mobile-server clock synchronization techniques. Using several mobile vision applications, we evaluate ATOMS under diverse configurations and prove its effectiveness.
Electromagnetic Fields and Cellular Systems

This paper reviews some of the in vitro research conducted in our laboratory to identify cellular responses to ELF fields. Studies we have conducted support an interaction site involving ligand-receptor events such as antibody binding to its cell surface receptor since we have observed changes in receptor-initiated calcium influx in cells exposed to magnetic fields. These changes suggest that signal transduction (ST) which is initiated by ligand-receptor binding plays a role in this interaction. Others have also reported that ELF fields influence enzyme activation, gene expression, protein synthesis and cell proliferation, all of which are triggered by earlier ST events at the cell membrane.
Bayesian Estimation, Uncertainty Propagation and Design of Experiments for CO2 Adsorption on Amine Sorbents

Abstract Uncertainty quantification for CO2 adsorption on silica supported amine sorbents in a packed bed adsorber is performed using Bayesian inference. Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling is used to obtain the probability distributions of adsorption model parameters. The effect of parametric uncertainties on adsorbate breakthrough is quantified providing a measure of model reliability. Further, the value of an additional experimental data point in reducing the parametric uncertainties and thereby increasing the process throughput is also determined.
Measuring semantic relatedness using salient encyclopedic concepts

While pragmatics, through its integration of situational awareness and real world relevant knowledge, offers a high level of analysis that is suitable for real interpretation of natural dialogue, semantics, on the other end, represents a lower yet more tractable and affordable linguistic level of analysis using current technologies. Generally, the understanding of semantic meaning in literature has revolved around the famous quote “You shall know a word by the company it keeps”. In this thesis we investigate the role of context constituents in decoding the semantic meaning of the engulfing context; specifically we probe the role of salient concepts, defined as content-bearing expressions which afford encyclopedic definitions, as a suitable source of semantic clues to an unambiguous interpretation of context. Furthermore, we integrate this world knowledge in building a new and robust unsupervised semantic model and apply it to entail semantic relatedness between textual pairs, whether they are words, sentences or paragraphs. Moreover, we explore the abstraction of semantics across languages and utilize our findings into building a novel multilingual semantic relatedness model exploiting information acquired from various languages. We demonstrate the effectiveness and the superiority of our mono-lingual and multi-lingual models through a comprehensive set of evaluations on specialized synthetic datasets for semantic relatedness as well as real world applications such as paraphrase detection and short answer grading. Our work represents a novel approach to integrate world-knowledge into current semantic models and a means to cross the language boundary for a better and more robust semantic relatedness representation, thus opening the door for an improved abstraction of meaning that carries the potential of ultimately imparting understanding of natural language to machines.
On nonoscillation of canonical or noncanonical disconjugate functional equations

Qualitative comparison of the nonoscillatory behavior of the equations $$L_n y\left( t \right) + H\left( {t,\left( y \right)} \right) = 0$$ and $$L_n y\left( t \right) + H\left( {t,y\left( {g\left( t \right)} \right)} \right) = 0$$ is sought by way of finding different nonoscillation criteria for the above equations, Ln is a disconjugate operator of the form $$L_n = \frac{1}{{p_n \left( t \right)}}\frac{{\text{d}}}{{{\text{dt}}}}\frac{1}{{p_{n - 1} \left( t \right)}}\frac{{\text{d}}}{{{\text{dt}}}}...\frac{{\text{d}}}{{{\text{dt}}}}\frac{.}{{p_0 \left( t \right)}}.$$ Both canonical and noncanonical forms of Ln have been studied.
FROM CONTINUUM TO POROUS–CONTINUUM: THE VISUAL RESOLUTION IMPACT ON MODELING NATURAL CONVECTION IN HETEROGENEOUS MEDIA

Recent studies questioning the correctness of using a low-resolution, porous-continuum model for simulating natural convection within an enclosure saturated with fluid and having discrete solid blocks uniformly distributed within it, are reviewed and expanded here. The validation of the porous–continuum results, obtained with volume-averaged equations, is established by comparison to results obtained following a continuum model, in which balance equations are solved for each constituent together with compatibility conditions applied at their interfaces. Two configurations are considered, namely one in which the enclosure is heated horizontally by isothermal walls with the horizontal surfaces being adiabatic and the solid blocks conducting, and another in which the blocks are all at the same temperature (generating energy), lower than the temperature of the surfaces of the enclosure (all surfaces are at the same temperature). Although the porous–continuum model leads to a much simpler mathematical modeling, and corresponding less numerical effort, the validity of the model is restricted to cases in which the transport phenomenon at the continuum level allows the homogenization of the domain. General design criteria quantifying the accuracy of the porous–continuum results would require further investigation on the form-function relationship of heterogeneous structures.
Principles of Thalamic Organization

From the earliest developmental and comparative studies, it has been customary to divide the thalamus into three parts: epithalamus, dorsal thalamus, and ventral thalamus (Droogleever-Fortuyn, 1912; Herrick, 1918; Le Gros Clark, 1932a) (Fig. 3.1). Though these subdivisions were based in the first instance on the derivatives of three of the cellular masses of the developing diencephalic wall (see Chapter 6), coupled with a certain amount of phylogenetic speculation, as the years have passed, the tripartite division has been given an increasingly strong connectional basis.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) with a Mutation at Codon 148 of Prion Protein Gene: Relationship with Sporadic CJD

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the most common human prion disease, includes sporadic (s) and familial (f) forms. Regardless of etiology, both forms are thought to share the pathogenic mechanism whereby the cellular prion protein (PrP C ) converts into its pathogenic isoform (PrP Sc ). While PrP C conversion is thought to be random in sCJD, conversion in fCJD is facilitated by the congenital presence of mutated PrP. Differences in PrP genotype ( PRNP ) and in conversion circumstances lead to PrP Sc with distinct characteristics that elicit different disease phenotypes. Here, we describe a case of fCJD with a substitution of histidine (H) for arginine (R) at codon 148 (R148H) and heterozygosity of the methionine/valine (M/V) polymorphic codon 129, with the 129M allele coupled with the mutation. The disease phenotype and all major characteristics of PrP Sc of fCJD R148H were virtually indistinguishable from those of sCJDMV2, which has features different from those of any other sCJD. Therefore, despite the differences in etiology, PRNP , and conversion process, the two forms of PrP Sc had similar characteristics. Furthermore, comparison of fCJD R148H with a recently reported case carrying R148H and homozygosity at codon 129 suggests that codon 129 coupled with the mutation as well as that located on the normal allele can modify major phenotypic and PrP Sc features of fCJD R148H .
Derivative accounting and financial reporting quality: A review of the literature

Abstract The financial crisis of 2008 increased the call for standard setters and financial regulators to review the effectiveness of derivative regulation in improving financial reporting quality. Prior literature defines financial reporting quality as the extent to which financial statements provide information that is useful to investors and creditors in their investment decisions (Schipper, 2003; Schipper & Vincent, 2003). This review summarizes the empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of derivative regulation in achieving its stated objective. Extant literature shows that although derivative regulations have improved information provided to investors, there is still room for improvement. Recommendations from this stream of literature suggest that the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) require managers to provide more complete, transparent, and forward-looking disclosures surrounding their derivative positions (Campbell, 2015; Franco-Wong, 2000). This review may be useful to standard setters, practitioners, and accounting academics by providing a synthesis of extant academic literature on the effectiveness of current derivative regulation. As the FASB and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) continue to expand derivative accounting rules, this review may also be useful in identifying areas for future academic research.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in two different populations of northern cardinals.

Abstract The northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is a good indicator species for environmental contaminants because it does not migrate and its range covers a diversity of habitats, including metropolitan Atlanta, GA and the geographically isolated Hawaiian Islands. In addition, the cardinal is often found near people's homes, making it likely to be exposed to the same outdoor elements, including soil, groundwater, and air, that surrounding humans experience. In this study, blood serum concentrations of 12 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) were measured in 40 cardinals from Atlanta and 17 cardinals from the Big Island (Hawaii), HI. We observed significantly higher median concentrations of four PFASs and significantly higher detection frequencies of seven PFASs in the cardinals from Atlanta, relative to the PFAS median concentrations and detection frequencies observed in the cardinals from Hawaii (α = 0.05). Among the PFASs measured, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was observed in the highest concentrations. A linear regression model controlling for sex, age, and airport distance did not explain PFOS variation within the Atlanta samples, but a similar model explained 90% of PFOS variation within the Hawaii samples. To our knowledge, these are the first measurements of PFASs in northern cardinals.
Defining an Irish Military Elite

In the 1870s, the British officer corps was enveloped in an institutional crisis. Setbacks and inefficiencies during the Indian Rebellion and the Crimean War occasioned a number of reforms, notable among which was the abolition of the practice of purchasing officer commissions. From 1871 onwards, all officers would be promoted on merit—at least in theory. In Ireland, this provided an unprecedented opportunity for middle-class young men seeking to accumulate social capital by becoming military officers. The role of the British Army in Irish society is reviewed from a number of perspectives and difficulties relating to terminology are discussed—traditional histories of elites tend to conflate officers with the ‘Anglo-Irish’, which do not satisfactorily capture the surprising diversity of backgrounds in evidence in the officer corps and the subtle underlying class dynamics that directed the life of a British military officer. The case is made for the importance of class, empire, identity, and political and social context for arriving at a comprehensive understanding of Irish military elites in the complex and rapidly changing Ireland of the late nineteenth century.
Methodology for Identifying a Subset of Representative Storm Surge Hydrographs from a Coastal Storm Modeling Database

ABSTRACT Sanderson, D.R.; Gravens, M.B., and Permenter, R.L., 2019. Methodology for identifying a subset of representative storm surge hydrographs from a coastal storm modeling database. Journal of...
Arsenic Drinking Water Violations Decreased across the United States Following Revision of the Maximum Contaminant Level

Arsenic poses a threat to public health due to widespread environmental prevalence and known carcinogenic effects. In 2001, the US EPA published the Final Arsenic Rule (FAR) for public drinking wat...
Right Atrial Deformation in Predicting Outcomes in Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension.

Background— Elevated right atrial (RA) pressure is a risk factor for mortality, and RA size is prognostic of adverse outcomes in pulmonary hypertension (PH). There is limited data on phasic RA function (reservoir, conduit, and pump) in pediatric PH. We sought to evaluate (1) the RA function in pediatric PH patients compared with controls, (2) compare the RA deformation indices with Doppler indices of diastolic dysfunction, functional capacity, biomarkers, invasive hemodynamics, and right ventricular functional indices, and (3) evaluate the potential of RA deformation indices to predict clinical outcomes. Methods and Results— Sixty-six PH patients (mean age 7.9±4.7 years) were compared with 36 controls (7.7±4.4 years). RA and right ventricular deformation indices were obtained using 2-dimensional speckle tracking (2DCPA; TomTec, Germany). RA strain, strain rates, emptying fraction, and right ventricular longitudinal strain were measured. RA function was impaired in PH patients versus controls ( P P P P P P Conclusions— RA deformation properties are significantly altered in pediatric PH patients. Progressive worsening of RA reservoir and conduit functions is related to changes in right ventricular diastolic dysfunction. RA reservoir function, pump function, the rate of atrial filling, and atrial minimum volume emerged as outcome predictors in pediatric PH.
THE GENDER GAP IN THE PURSUIT OF CARDIAC ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY AS A SUBSPECIALTY AMONG CARDIOVASCULAR FELLOWS IN TRAINING

Despite the increase in the number of female physicians across most specialties within cardiology, less than 10% of cardiac electrophysiology (EP) fellows are women. The reasons behind this gender disparity are not known. We sought to determine the factors that influence fellows in training (FITs)
A Case of Extensive Debilitating Generalized Morphea.

Morphea, also known as localized scleroderma, is an uncommon idiopathic inflammatory disorder leading to the development of sclerotic plaques in the skin. The disorder preferentially affects females. The pathogenesis of morphea is not well-understood. The disorder is likely to have an autoimmune basis; environmental and genetic factors may also play a role in its etiology. Morphea has a variety of clinical presentations. Lesions of morphea typically begin as inflammatory plaques or patches that evolve into firm sclerotic lesions. Involvement may be limited to the dermis or may extend to underlying subcutaneous fat, muscle, or bone. The identification of characteristic clinical findings is often sufficient for the diagnosis of morphea. A biopsy can be a useful tool when the diagnosis is in question or to obtain information on the depth and intensity of the disease, and it should always extend at least into the subcutaneous fat. Morphea may cause joint contractures and other impairments secondary to tissue sclerosis and can be very debilitating cosmetically and functionally.
Deep Active Learning via Open Set Recognition.

In many applications, data is easy to acquire but expensive and time-consuming to label prominent examples include medical imaging and NLP. This disparity has only grown in recent years as our ability to collect data improves. Under these constraints, it makes sense to select only the most informative instances from the unlabeled pool and request an oracle (e.g., a human expert) to provide labels for those samples. The goal of active learning is to infer the informativeness of unlabeled samples so as to minimize the number of requests to the oracle. Here, we formulate active learning as an open-set recognition problem. In this paradigm, only some of the inputs belong to known classes; the classifier must identify the rest as unknown. More specifically, we leverage variational neural networks (VNNs), which produce high-confidence (i.e., low-entropy) predictions only for inputs that closely resemble the training data. We use the inverse of this confidence measure to select the samples that the oracle should label. Intuitively, unlabeled samples that the VNN is uncertain about are more informative for future training. We carried out an extensive evaluation of our novel, probabilistic formulation of active learning, achieving state-of-the-art results on MNIST, CIFAR-10, and CIFAR-100. Additionally, unlike current active learning methods, our algorithm can learn tasks without the need for task labels. As our experiments show, when the unlabeled pool consists of a mixture of samples from multiple datasets, our approach can automatically distinguish between samples from seen vs. unseen tasks.
What Liver Transplant Recipients Want in a Smartphone Intervention to Enhance Recovery: Prototype for the LiveRight Transplant App.

The recent surge in telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how imperative it is to understand: 1) how liver transplant (LT) recipients use smartphone technology, and 2) what they need in terms of remote support to assist with post-transplant recovery. Smartphone applications (i.e. apps) have been used in other chronic medical conditions to improve coordination of care, patient education, and medication adherence (1).
Is the incidence of depressive disorders increased following cerebral concussion

Jason W. Deck, MD; Thomas Kern, MD; LaMont Cavanagh, MD; Matthew Bartow, DO; Franklin T. Perkins III, MD (Department of Family and Community Medicine, OU-TU School of Community Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Tulsa); Toni Hoberecht, MA, MLIS, AHIP; Alyssa Migdalski, MLIS (Schusterman Library, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa)
Skin concerns in patients with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome): A Mayo Clinic 22-year retrospective review.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Trisomy 21 has known associated clinical phenotypes, including skin and soft tissue concerns. However, the overall prevalence and types of findings are largely unclear. METHODS A retrospective review of children with trisomy 21 and one or more dermatologic diagnoses, seen from 1/1/1994 to 7/1/2016, was performed to record dermatologic diagnoses. If one or more diagnoses were confirmed, further data were collected, including demographics, medical specialty, referrals to dermatology, treatment, complications, and follow-up. RESULTS One hundred and seventy-four patients with a diagnosis of trisomy 21 aged 18 years or younger were confirmed to have one or more dermatologic diagnoses. In a total of 479 dermatologic diagnoses, superficial mycoses (12%), skin and soft tissue infections (10%), dermatitis (8%), and folliculitis (8%) were most common. Diagnoses were most commonly made as an outpatient (91%) and by general pediatrics (45%) or dermatology (25%). A significant difference (P < .05) in the frequency of various diagnoses made by different specialties was observed. A significant difference (P < .05) in the treatments recommended by different specialties was also observed. Referrals to dermatology were infrequent (6%). However, a frequent change in diagnosis (61%) or treatment (68%) for patients referred to dermatology was observed. CONCLUSIONS Children with trisomy 21 are most commonly diagnosed with superficial mycoses, skin and soft tissue infections, dermatitis, and folliculitis. The majority of diagnoses were made by general pediatricians and although dermatology referral was rarely necessary, consultations often resulted in change of diagnosis and/or treatment, supporting consideration of early and frequent dermatology referral.
Serotonin 5-HT4 receptors play a critical role in the action of fenfluramine to block seizure-induced sudden death in a mouse model of SUDEP.

Abstract Rationale Our previous study showed that the recently approved anticonvulsant drug, fenfluramine, which enhances the release of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) in the brain, prevents seizure-induced respiratory arrest (S-IRA) in the DBA/1 mouse model of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). The present study examined the role of 5-HT receptor subtypes in mediating the effect of this agent by combined administration of fenfluramine with selective 5-HT receptor antagonists prior to seizure in DBA/1 mice. Methods Fenfluramine (15 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered to primed DBA/1 mice, and audiogenic seizure (Sz) was induced 16 h later. Thirty min prior to Sz induction a selective antagonist acting on 5-HT1A, 5-HT2, 5-HT3 5-HT4, 5-HT5A, 5-HT6 or 5-HT7 receptors at a sub-toxic dose was administered, and changes in seizure-induced behaviors were evaluated. Follow-up studies examined the effect of administration of a 5-HT4 receptor agonist, BIMU 8, as well as the effect of co-administration of ineffective doses of fenfluramine and BIMU-8 on Sz behaviors. Results The 5-HT4 antagonist (GR125487) was the only 5-HT receptor antagonist that was able to reverse the action of fenfluramine to block Sz and S-IRA. Treatment with the 5-HT4 receptor agonist (BIMU-8), or co-administration of ineffective doses of BIMU-8 and fenfluramine significantly reduced the incidence of S-IRA and tonic Sz in DBA/1 mice. The antagonists for 5-HT3, 5-HT5A 5-HT6, and 5-HT7 receptors did not significantly affect the action of fenfluramine. However, the 5-HT1A and the 5-HT2 antagonists enhanced the anticonvulsant effects of fenfluramine. Conclusions These findings suggest that the action of fenfluramine to prevent seizure-induced sudden death in DBA/1 mice is mediated primarily by activation of 5-HT4 receptors. These studies are the first to indicate the therapeutic potential of 5-HT4 receptor agonists either alone or in combination with fenfluramine for preventing SUDEP. Enhancement of the anticonvulsant effect of fenfluramine by 5-HT1A and 5-HT2 antagonists may involve presynaptic actions of these antagonists. Thus, the Sz and S-IRA blocking actions of fenfluramine involve complex interactions with several 5-HT receptor subtypes. These data also provide further support for the serotonin hypothesis of SUDEP.
2010s: EP and Pacing

In this last decade, with further maturity of catheter ablation for AF, the multicenter CABANA trial demonstrated AF ablation to be safe, more effective compared to drugs, and likely having an early role in the CHF patient. Newer energy sources for accomplishing ablation with enhanced precision and safety are in their formative stages: particle beam radiation and electroporation advancing rapidly.
Irrigation and Drainage Problems in Uruguay

Uruguay irrigates about 65,000 acres, mostly rice and sugar cane; study showed that irrigation can be increased by storage in small reservoirs on tributary streams by means of low earth dams; some areas will require flood control and drainage before intensive agriculture can be practiced.