cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
mSphere of Influence: Redefining an Influenza Virus-How Different Are Influenza Viruses and Extracellular Vesicles?

ABSTRACT Seema Lakdawala works in the field of influenza virology. In this mSphere of Influence article, she reflects on how the article “Conserved and host-specific features of influenza virion architecture” by Edward C. Hutchinson et al. (Nat Commun 5:4816, 2014, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5816) made an impact on her thinking about what constitutes an infectious virus and how influenza viruses can spread within and among hosts.
Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy Use After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for breast cancer increases breast-conserving surgery (BCS) rates, but many women opt for mastectomy with contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM). Here we evaluate factors associated with CPM use in women undergoing mastectomy post-NAC. A retrospective institutional NAC database review identified women with clinical stage I-III, unilateral invasive breast cancer undergoing unilateral mastectomy (UM) or CPM mastectomy from 9/2013 to 12/2017. Clinical/pathologic characteristics, imaging, and presence of contraindications to BCS post-NAC were compared, with subset analysis of BCS candidates. The multivariable analysis was adjusted for potential confounders. Five hundred sixty-nine women underwent mastectomy after NAC, 297 (52%) UM and 272 (48%) CPM. On univariable analysis, younger age, BRCA+, lower pre-NAC clinical stage, pathologic complete response, and axillary surgery extent were associated with CPM (all p < 0.01). Favorable post-NAC clinical factors of no residual palpable disease, clinically negative nodes, complete response on breast imaging, and no post-NAC contraindication to BCS were also associated with CPM (all p < 0.01). On multivariable analysis, young age (odds ratio [OR] 0.93, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.91–0.95), lower pre-NAC stage (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.34–0.77), and no contraindication to BCS (OR 3.12, 95% CI 2.02–4.82) were significantly associated with CPM. Among the 203 (35%) women who had no contraindications to BCS post-NAC, 145 (71%) underwent CPM. BRCA+ and family history were reasons more frequently cited for mastectomy among CPM than UM (p < 0.001). CPM was performed in 48% of women undergoing mastectomy after NAC; younger women with earlier-stage cancers were more likely to undergo CPM. While increased use of CPM in women with more favorable disease is medically appropriate, our findings indicate a lost opportunity for use of BCS.
CXCL12-CXCL4 heterodimerization prevents CXCL12-driven breast cancer cell migration.

Abstract Despite improvements in cancer early detection and treatment, metastatic breast cancer remains deadly. Current therapeutic approaches have very limited efficacy in patients with triple negative breast cancer. Among the many mechanisms associated that contribute to cancer progression, signaling through the CXCL12-CXCR4 is an essential step in cancer cell migration. We previously demonstrated the formation of CXCL12-CXCL4 heterodimers (Carlson et al., 2013). Here, we investigated whether CXCL12-CXCL4 heterodimers alter tumor cell migration. CXCL12 alone dose-dependently promoted the MDA-MB 231 cell migration (p
Bypassing Phase Variation of Lipooligosaccharide (LOS): Using Heptose 1 Glycan Mutants To Establish Widespread Efficacy of Gonococcal Anti-LOS Monoclonal Antibody 2C7.

ABSTRACT The sialylatable lacto-N-neotetraose (LNnT; Gal-GlcNAc-Gal-Glc) moiety from heptose I (HepI) of the lipooligosaccharide (LOS) of Neisseria gonorrhoeae undergoes positive selection during human infection. Lactose (Gal-Glc) from HepII, although phase variable, is commonly expressed in humans; loss of HepII lactose compromises gonococcal fitness in mice. Anti-LOS monoclonal antibody (MAb) 2C7, a promising antigonococcal immunotherapeutic that elicits complement-dependent bactericidal activity and attenuates gonococcal colonization in mice, recognizes an epitope comprised of lactoses expressed simultaneously from HepI and HepII. Glycan extensions beyond lactose on HepI modulate binding and function of MAb 2C7 in vitro. Here, four gonococcal LOS mutants, each with lactose from HepII but fixed (unable to phase-vary) LOS HepI glycans extended beyond the lactose substitution of HepI (lactose alone, Gal-lactose, LNnT, or GalNAc-LNnT), were used to define how HepI glycan extensions affect (i) mouse vaginal colonization and (ii) efficacy in vitro and in vivo of a human IgG1 chimeric derivative of MAb 2C7 (2C7-Ximab) with a complement-enhancing E-to-G Fc mutation at position 430 (2C7-Ximab-E430G). About 10-fold lower 2C7-Ximab-E430G concentrations achieved similar complement-dependent killing of three gonococcal mutants with glycan extensions beyond lactose-substituted HepI (lactose alone, LNnT, or GalNAc-LNnT) as 2C7-Ximab (unmodified Fc). The fourth mutant (Gal-lactose) resisted direct complement-dependent killing but was killed approximately 70% by 2C7-Ximab-E430G in the presence of polymorphonuclear leukocytes and complement. Only mutants with (sialylatable) LNnT from HepI colonized mice for >3 days, reiterating the importance of LNnT sialylation for infection. 2C7-Ximab-E430G significantly attenuated colonization caused by the virulent mutants.
Reading Instruction for Secondary Grade Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: A Focus on Comprehension.

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) in secondary school settings often have deficient reading skills. Secondary school teachers who serve this population of students may need add...
An odyssey too far

Games are great if you want to leapfrog a building, grow to a giant size or outpace a bullet. But their superpowers evaporate when tackling the epic story of evolution, finds Jacob Aron
Distribution and frequency of patient-reported symptomatic adverse events at a comprehensive cancer center.

e19117Background: Systematic review of electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) has been shown to improve quality of life and overall survival in clinical trial. We previously demonstrated feasi...
The Administrative Presidency and the Degradation of the United States Civil Service through Political Time

The study of the administrative presidency is one that more obviously, though not uniquely, overlaps the research interests of both self-identifying public management and political science scholars. How a president’s managerial strategies are applied has profound implications on how one thinks about the role of federal public administrators in the United States’ polity and constitutional design. However, those strategies are not merely a function of the preferences and agency of a given president or presidential administration. Time presents a critical, if overlooked, macro-level embeddedness attribute in which individual decisions and behavior are nested. The timing in which a president operates within a political epoch and his ideological positioning vis-a-vis the dominant ideology within that epoch will have a vast influence on the alternative sets that are allowed for that president, his proxies, and career bureaucrats to consider. In this essay, I seek to bridge this macro-perspective of public administration with the micro-level foundations of behavioralism by providing an example of how these secular, historical trends can produce observable and predictable patterns by which we can assess variation of executive and bureaucratic behaviors across temporal contexts.
Earth: The Cradle of the Anthropocene

This first and introductory chapter explores the historical, scientific, and theoretical contexts of the early Anthropocene, with particular focus on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theories of Earth in geology and astronomy. After an introductory section that outlines the development of Anthropocene studies in contemporary scholarship, the chapter traces the emergence of geology, astronomy, and climatology alongside literature and art, establishing the central role these writings play in documenting and theorizing the second scientific revolution, British colonialism, the British Agricultural Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. Through close readings of works by scientists, poets, novelists, and explorers, the chapter establishes parallels between scientific and literary imaginings of Earth and its climate. What emerges is a pattern of writers using scientific language and imagery to depict industrialization and its effects as a geological force of nature, implicitly collapsing human and geological histories.
Abstract 15684: Discordance Between Severity of Heart Failure as Determined by Patient Report versus Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing

Introduction: Although patient-reported outcomes are increasingly emphasized, symptoms may be discordant to objective parameters of heart failure severity. The frequency of such discordance, associ...
A Review of the Tolerance and Adequacy of Enteral Nutrition Administered in the Prone Position in Critically Ill Patients Receiving Mechanical Ventilation

Objectives During the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, more patients require enteral nutrition (EN) while mechanically ventilated in the prone position (PP). Prone positioning may improve oxygenation in patients receiving mechanical ventilation; however, it is unclear how it affects EN adequacy and tolerance. This review explored how EN delivered in the PP impacts EN tolerance (vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal distention, or aspiration pneumonia) and adequacy (meeting estimated energy and protein requirements) in critically ill adults receiving mechanical ventilation.
Return Migration in African Contexts

Return migration is an increasing phenomenon in different African contexts, and consequently has been receiving greater attention from scholars in different fields, such as academia, policy makers and intergovernmental agencies. Even though comprehensive large scale quantitative data is lacking, a growing array of smaller scale research supply an understanding of this subfield of migration. This paper will present a comparative analysis of return migrants in several contexts, namely Ghana and Ethiopia. I will analyze how return migrants apprehend, negotiate and transform the social, political and economic structures in their home nations. Despite the heterogeneity of return migrants as a group, they nonetheless have a great potential for becoming economic and socio-political actors of change in their home nations. This paper argues that return migration in Africa, although not a new phenomenon, deserves greater attention in contemporary migration and African studies.
Acquired Esophageal Strictures in Children: Morphometric and Immunohistochemical Analyses.

BackgroundEsophageal strictures (ES) in children are not well characterized pathologically. We report unique histopathologic analyses of resected acquired ES and control esophagi (CE).MethodsMuscle...
Competition Between Public and Private Education: Evidence from the Great Recession

This paper asks whether funding for public schools affects parents' decision to send their children to private schools. In the wake of the Great Recession, funding for public K-12 education fell precipitously in the United States and stayed low for several years. Critically, states with greater historical reliance on state appropriations (rather than local or federal appropriations) and states with no income tax experienced larger cuts. These two features were set decades before the Great Recession, changed little over time, and do not predict other impacts of the Recession, such as unemployment, providing plausibly exogenous sources for variation in public school funding. I combine these two sources with the timing of the Great Recession in an event study framework to instrument for local public school funding. I find that students exposed to a $1,000 (9.0 percent) decrease in per-pupil funding are more likely to enroll in private schools by 0.48 to 0.59 percentage points (4.5 to 5.6 percent). I show further that the effect is strongest among high socioeconomic status students living in disadvantaged areas. These findings suggest that reductions in public school resources lead to greater inequality in education through school choice.
The metamodal organization of the brain.

Publisher Summary To extract information derived from one sensory modality and used in another, shape can be known by touch and then can be identified correctly by sight. The chapter discusses the issue of internal versus experiential influences in the organization of the brain. The impressions generated by different sensory modalities can be integrated into a richer percept. The ventriloquism effect broadly refers to this phenomenon on which much of the knowledge of the world and an entire entertainment industry is based. Multimodal association areas that contain multisensory neurons are thought to provide a neural substrate for integrating sensory experiences, modulating the saliency of stimuli, assigning experiential and affective relevance, and providing the substrate for the true perceptual experience of the rich world. The chapter presents the hypothesis that the brain might actually represent a metamodal structure organized as operators that execute a given function or computation regardless of sensory input modality. Such operators might have a predilection for a given sensory input based on its relative suitability for the assigned computation. Such predilection might lead to operator-specific selective reinforcement of certain sensory inputs, eventually generating the impression of a brain structured in parallel, segregated systems processing different sensory signals.
Differences in the Methylation of Transfer Ribonucleic Acid in Vitro by the Mitochondrial and Cytoplasmic Transfer Ribonucleic Acid Methylases of HeLa Cells

The methylation of Escherichia coli B transfer RNA in vitro by HeLa mitochondrial and cytoplasmic extracts was examined. The following differences were found. (a) The cytoplasmic extract methylated E. coli B tRNA to a much greater extent than did the mitochondrial extract. (b) The two extracts methylated different sites on E. coli B tRNA, thereby generating different methylated oligonucleotide sequences. (c) The methylated base composition of E. coli B tRNA methylated in vitro indicated that 2-methyladenine tRNA methylase activity was uniquely associated with the mitochondria, while N2-dimethylguanine tRNA methylase activity was uniquely associated with the cytoplasm. The presence of 2-methyladenine tRNA methylase activity in HeLa mitochondria and its absence in HeLa cytoplasm was taken as evidence for the existence of at least one mitochondrial-specific methylase. In addition, since 2-methyladenine is commonly found in prokaryote tRNA but not in eukaryote cytoplasmic tRNA, it was suggested that the presence of 2-methyladenine tRNA methylase activity in mitochondria was evidence that mitochondria might have evolved from prokaryote cells.
On the Anonymity of Home/Work Location Pairs

Many applications benefit from user location data, but location data raises privacy concerns. Anonymization can protect privacy, but identities can sometimes be inferred from supposedly anonymous data. This paper studies a new attack on the anonymity of location data. We show that if the approximate locations of an individual's home and workplace can both be deduced from a location trace, then the median size of the individual's anonymity set in the U.S. working population is 1, 21 and 34,980, for locations known at the granularity of a census block, census track and county respectively. The location data of people who live and work in different regions can be re-identified even more easily. Our results show that the threat of re-identification for location data is much greater when the individual's home and work locations can both be deduced from the data. To preserve anonymity, we offer guidance for obfuscating location traces before they are disclosed.
To Life: Golems, Monsters and the Biotechnology Future

While some would like to present Jewish legends of the golem as a pro-biotechnology answer to the cautionary tale of Frankenstein’s monster, examination of Shelley’s Frankenstein and Rosenberg’s The Golem and the Wondrous Deeds of the Maharal of Prague identifies some common issues with respect to the power to create an artificial anthropoid: the responsibility of the creator, secrecy of the creation, and the relationship between the creator and the larger social/political world. Rosenberg’s treatment of these issues suggests solutions to the problem of Victor Frankenstein’s antinomianism, which leads to Frankenstein’s bad outcomes. But they are not solutions that are liable to sit well with contemporary biotechnology advocates.
Hamilton-jacobi equation for relativistic charged fluid flow

Representing the viscous and heat-injection 4-forces acting on a charged fluid in terms of the thermal 4-potential introduced in the preceding paper makes possible the derivation of a scalar equation of motion for the fluid that has the form of a generalization of the relativistic Hamilton-Jacobi equation for a charged particle in the presence of gravitational and electromagnetic fields. In this generalized Hamilton-Jacobi equation the specific enthalpy and the thermal 4-potential play roles that are analogous to the scalar gravitational potential and to the electromagnetic 4-potential respectively. The formalism employs a generalization of the canonical particle momentum that includes the thermal 4-potential as well as the electromagnetic 4-potential. This generalized canonical momentum can be represented in terms of three scalar functions by means of the Clebsch transformation. One of these scalar functions is Hamilton’s characteristic function, which is the unknown in the generalized Hamilton-Jacobi equation. The other two functions, which are called the vorticity invariants, determine the intrinsic vorticity of the fluid, which is defined as the curl of the generalized canonical momentum and which, according to the generalized Larmor theorem derived in the preceding paper, is to be associated with that part of the fluid rotation that is a residual of the initial conditions of the fluid. The vorticity invariants are both constants of motion of the fluid. In the case of adiabatic flow, it is possible to express the thermal 4-potential in terms of the specific entropy and the temperature integral, which is defined as the scalar function whose substantial time derivative is equal to the temperature. This allows a simple interpretation of the generalized canonical momentum in terms of the moving heat reservoir model introduced in a previous paper.
Cytotoxicity of HBD3 for dendritic cells, normal human epidermal keratinocytes, hTERT keratinocytes, and primary oral gingival epithelial keratinocytes in cell culture conditions

Human β-defensin 3 (HBD3) is a prominent host defense peptide. In our recent work, we observed that HBD3 modulates pro-inflammatory agonist-induced chemokine and cytokine responses in human myeloid dendritic cells (DCs), often at 20.0 μM concentrations. Since HBD3 can be cytotoxic in some circumstances, it is necessary to assess its cytotoxicity for DCs, normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs), human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) keratinocytes, and primary oral gingival epithelial (GE) keratinocytes in different cell culture conditions. Cells, in serum free media with resazurin and in complete media with 10% fetal bovine serum and resazurin, were incubated with 5, 10, 20, and 40 μM HBD3. Cytotoxicity was determined by measuring metabolic conversion of resazurin to resorufin. The lethal dose 50 (LD50, mean μM±Std Err) values were determined from the median fluorescent intensities of test concentrations compared to live and killed cell controls. The LD50 value range of HBD3 was 18.2-35.9 μM in serum-free media for DCs, NHEKs, hTERT keratinocytes, and GE keratinocytes, and >40.0 μM in complete media. Thus, HBD3 was cytotoxic at higher concentrations, which must be considered in future studies of HBD3-modulated chemokine and cytokine responses in vitro.
Pilot symbol assisted schemes: a better alternative to systematic unitary constellations for the non-coherent fast fading channel

This work deals with the design of coding/modulation and demodulation/decoding schemes for multiple-antenna systems. We focus on fast fading channels where channel state information is not available at the transmitter and receiver. It is shown that when turbo-like outer codes are considered, the optimized unitary constellations previously investigated are inferior to constellations that utilize simple inner space-time block codes. More importantly, the latter schemes have a rich structure that can be exploited at the receiver to design very low complexity iterative decoding algorithms. We provide examples for which the proposed scheme results in a performance improvement simultaneously with a complexity reduction.
Spatial Ability as a Mediator of Gender Differences on Mathematics Tests: A Biological–Environmental Framework

It is well known that there is a gender difference on a number of standardized mathematics tests, with males outperforming females (Hyde, Fennema, & Lamon, 1990; Willingham & Cole, 1997). In addition, a relationship has been found between spatial abilities and mathematics test scores (Burnett, Lane, & Dratt, 1979; Casey, Nuttall, Pezaris, & Benbow, 1995; Casey, Nuttall, & Pezaris, 1997; Geary, Saults, Liu, & Hoard, 2000; Robinson, Abbott, Berninger, & Busse, 1996). This relationship may be key for understanding gender differences in mathematics because one of the best-known and largest gender differences is the male advantage on some types of spatial skills (Linn & Petersen, 1985). In fact, evidence has begun to accumulate that shows a connection between gender differences in mathematics achievement and gender differences in spatial skills (Casey et al., 1995; Casey et al., 1997; Casey, Nuttall, & Pezaris, 2001). In this chapter, we review our research findings, which were designed to address a series of questions to better understand gender differences in math achievement. We propose that gender differences in spatial skills are the key to understanding gender differences in math achievement. After presenting findings on this connection, the conclusion of the chapter provides a biological/environmental framework to help understand how variations in spatial abilities might arise. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN MATH ACHIEVEMENT The observed gender differences in mathematics performance are not universal (Hedges & Nowell, 1995; Hyde et al., 1990).
Dichlorooxo(2,2,2‐trifluoroethanolato‐O)vanadium

(CF3CH2O)VOCl2 (MW 236.84) InChI = 1S/C2H2F3O.2ClH.O.V/c3-2(4,5)1-6;;;;/h1H2;2*1H;;/q-1;;;;+3/p-2 InChIKey = XMJCRIJONPQYCL-UHFFFAOYSA-L (reagent used as a versatile one-electron oxidant for effecting coupling reactions1) Physical Data: bp 135–138 °C. Solubility: soluble in most common noncoordinating organic solvents (CH2Cl2, toluene, hexane, etc.). Due to its hydrolytic instability and Lewis acidity, protic solvents and coordinating solvents are unsuitable. Preparative Methods: readily prepared in 82% isolated yield by the treatment of VOCl3 with CF3CH2OH in hexane.1 A 250 mL round-bottomed flask equipped with a magnetic stirring bar, reflux condenser and septum was flamed under a stream of nitrogen. The flask was then charged with hexane (120 mL) and vanadium oxychloride (9.42 mL, 0.1 mol). The solution was stirred at 23 °C and 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (7.28 mL, 0.1 mol) was added dropwise via syringe with a constant gentle flow of nitrogen being passed through the apparatus to remove the gaseous HCl. Upon completion of the addition, the reaction mixture was heated at reflux for 60 min and then the solvent was removed by distillation at atmospheric pressure. The residue was then distilled at atmospheric pressure to provide (CF3CH2O)VOCl2 (19.4 g, 82%, bp 135–138 °C) as a light yellow liquid. 1H NMR (C6D6, 300 mHz) Δ 4.4 (br s); 13C NMR (C6D6, 75 mHz) Δ 127.7 (d, J = 925 Hz), 84.1–83.2 (m); 51V NMR (C6D6, 250 mHz) Δ −281.6 (s) from 51VOCl3. Purification: fractional distillation at atmospheric pressure. Handling, Storage, and Precautions: the pure substance is extremely sensitive to atmospheric moisture and, although not sensitive to oxygen, should be stored in tightly sealed bottles under dry nitrogen. All samples are corrosive and are vigorously hydrolyzed to HCl, V2O5 and trifluoroethanol.
Glutamate induces the production of reactive oxygen species in cultured forebrain neurons following NMDA receptor activation

Using the fluorescent dye 2′,7′-dichlorodihydrofluorescein (DCF-H2) we investigated the role of glutamate in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cultured neurons from fetal rat forebrain. The addition of an excitotoxic concentration of glutamate (100 microM) produced a generalized decrease in cellular DCF fluorescence accompanied by local areas of increased fluorescence around the margins of the cell body that could be observed within 2–4 min of glutamate exposure. Increases in fluorescence were dependent on NMDA receptor activation and Ca2+ entry and were blocked by the mitochondrial proton ionophore carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP). Additional studies suggested that the generalized decrease in fluorescence was due to intracellular acidification. These studies suggest a critical role for mitochondria in the production of ROS in association with glutamate excitotoxicity, and additionally demonstrate the feasibility of measuring the production of ROS at the level of the single cell.
Can disorganized and positive schizotypy be discriminated from dissociation

Schizotypy is thought to reflect liability for schizophrenia and involves at least 3 facets: disorganized, positive, and negative. However, it is unclear whether disorganized and positive facets can be discriminated from dissociation. In the current study with college students (N=325), the best-fitting confirmatory factor model included 3 factors: (a) disorganization, (b) positive-dissociation, and (c) negative. In addition, the pattern of associations with the disorganization and the positive-dissociation factors with individual difference variables was very different. Disorganization was associated with (a) poor cognitive estimation and increased ADHD symptoms, (b) increased emotional confusion, and (c) increased neuroticism and decreased conscientiousness. In contrast, the positive-dissociation factor was associated with (a) an increased influence of emotion on thinking, (b) self-reported childhood abuse, and (c) increased openness to experience. Overall, these results suggest that disorganized schizotypy can be discriminated from dissociation but that positive schizotypy may not be easily discriminated from dissociation.
Chemoattraction inPellioditis pellio (Nematoda: Secernentia) in the presence and absence of barriers

Pellioditis pellio (Nematoda) adults showed heterosexual chemoattraction and female homosexual chemoattraction in an in vitro bioassay without barriers. Male-to-female heterosexual, but no homosexual chemoattraction, was observed whenM r 25,000 pore size dialysis tube chimneys (barriers) were used to restrain female attractor worms. Less attraction was seen whenM r 12,000 pore size barriers were used. The results suggest the presence of at least two types of chemoattractant for this species and that at least one heterosexual chemoattractant is betweenM r 12,000 and 25,000.
Mechanistic Study of Samarium Diiodide-HMPA Initiated 5-exo-trig Ketyl-Olefin Coupling : The Role of HMPA in Post-Electron Transfer Steps

The mechanistic importance of HMPA and proton donors (methanol, 2-methyl-2-propanol, and 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol) on SmI2-initiated 5-exo-trig ketyl-olefin cyclizations has been examined using stopped-flow spectrophotometric studies. In the presence of HMPA, the rate order of proton donors was zero and product studies showed that they had no impact on the diastereoselectivity of the reaction. Conversely, reactions were first-order in HMPA, and the additive displayed saturation kinetics at high concentrations. These results were consistent with HMPA being involved in a rate-limiting step before cyclization, where coordination of the intermediate ketyl to the sterically congested Sm(III)HMPA both stabilizes the intermediate and inhibits cyclization. Liberation of the contact ion pair through displacement by an equivalent of HMPA provides a solvent-separated ion pair releasing the steric constraint to ketyl-olefin cyclization. The mechanism derived from rate studies shows that HMPA is important not only in increasing the reduction potential of Sm(II) but also in enhancing the inherent reactivity of the radical anion intermediate formed after electron transfer through conversion of a sterically congested contact ion pair to a solvent-separated ion pair. The mechanistic complexity of the SmI2-HMPA-initiated ketyl-olefin cyclization is driven by the high affinity of HMPA for Sm(III), and these results suggest that simple empirical models describing the role of HMPA in more complex systems are likely to be fraught with a high degree of uncertainty.
Iterative Viterbi algorithm: implementation issues

We address several issues for implementing the iterative Viterbi decoder. We show that 3-bit branch metric quantization, 7- or 8-bit state metric precision, and a survivor length of five times the constraint length yields little degradation for the iterative Viterbi algorithm (IVA). Our results show that without changing the VA hardware (except adding some additional circuits), the error performance of several standard systems can be significantly improved.
The study of atropoisomers of meso-tetrakis[2.2]paracyclophanylporphyrin

Theoretical considerations of atropoisomers of the title compound have revealed the existence of a large number of stable isomeric species. Syntheses, carried out according to two procedures at widely separated temperatures, resulted in the formation of mixtures of atropoisomers in good yield. Two isomeric fractions have been separated and characterized. Some analytical methods have been worked out and have proved useful in separational techniques.
Asymptotics of unit Burger number rotating and stratified flows for small aspect ratio

Abstract Rotating and stably stratified Boussinesq flow is investigated for Burger number unity in domain aspect ratio (height/horizontal length) δ 1 and δ = 1 . To achieve Burger number unity, the non-dimensional rotation and stratification frequencies (Rossby and Froude numbers, respectively) are both set equal to a second small parameter ϵ 1 . Non-dimensionalization of potential vorticity distinguishes contributions proportional to ( ϵ δ ) − 1 , δ − 1 and O ( 1 ) . The ( ϵ δ ) − 1 terms are the linear terms associated with the pseudo-potential vorticity of the quasi-geostrophic limit. For fixed δ = 1 / 4 and a series of decreasing ϵ , numerical simulations are used to assess the importance of the δ − 1 contribution of potential vorticity to the potential enstrophy. The change in the energy spectral scalings is studied as ϵ is decreased. For intermediate values of ϵ , as the flow transitions to the ( δ ϵ ) − 1 regime in potential vorticity, both the wave and vortical components of the energy spectrum undergo changes in their scaling behavior. For sufficiently small ϵ , the ( δ ϵ ) − 1 contributions dominate the potential vorticity, and the vortical mode spectrum recovers k − 3 quasi-geostrophic scaling. However, the wave mode spectrum shows scaling that is very different from the well-known k − 1 scaling observed for the same asymptotics at δ = 1 . Visualization of the wave component of the horizontal velocity at δ = 1 / 4 reveals a tendency toward a layered structure while there is no evidence of layering in the δ = 1 case. The investigation makes progress toward quantifying the effects of aspect ratio δ on the ϵ → 0 asymptotics for the wave component of unit Burger number flows. At the lowest value of ϵ = 0.002 , it is shown that the horizontal kinetic energy spectral scalings are consistent with phenomenology that explains how linear potential vorticity constrains energy in the limit ϵ → 0 for fixed δ .
An efficient heuristic method for active feature acquisition and its application to protein-protein interaction prediction.

Background Machine learning approaches for classification learn the pattern of the feature space of different classes, or learn a boundary that separates the feature space into different classes. The features of the data instances are usually available, and it is only the class-labels of the instances that are unavailable. For example, to classify text documents into different topic categories, the words in the documents are features and they are readily available, whereas the topic is what is predicted. However, in some domains obtaining features may be resource-intensive because of which not all features may be available. An example is that of protein-protein interaction prediction, where not only are the labels ('interacting' or 'non-interacting') unavailable, but so are some of the features. It may be possible to obtain at least some of the missing features by carrying out a few experiments as permitted by the available resources. If only a few experiments can be carried out to acquire missing features, which proteins should be studied and which features of those proteins should be determined? From the perspective of machine learning for PPI prediction, it would be desirable that those features be acquired which when used in training the classifier, the accuracy of the classifier is improved the most. That is, the utility of the feature-acquisition is measured in terms of how much acquired features contribute to improving the accuracy of the classifier. Active feature acquisition (AFA) is a strategy to preselect such instance-feature combinations (i.e. protein and experiment combinations) for maximum utility. The goal of AFA is the creation of optimal training set that would result in the best classifier, and not in determining the best classification model itself.
Detection and phylogenetic analysis of Coccidioides posadasii in Arizona soil samples

Reports of coccidioidomycosis are on the rise in the southwestern US. However, the ecology of the pathogen, Coccidioides, remains obscure and there is limited knowledge of the environmental antecedents of disease outbreaks. Detection of the fungus in the environment remains a critical challenge to modeling the source of disease. Using BALB/c mice as a biosensor, 8.9 % of soils analyzed from the Tucson area (Pima County, Arizona) were found to contain the pathogen. The genotypes of 66 Coccidioides strains, recovered from 11 soils, were determined with diagnostic microsatellite loci. Comparison of these genotypes to clinical isolates revealed all were Coccidioides posadasii and they grouped with Arizona isolates. Among sites where multiple strains were recovered, two indicated a clonal population, while others yielded a diversity of genotypes. A secondary goal of this research was to assess applicability of PCR, with its potential for high-throughput screening, as a method for identifying Coccidioides-containing soils.
Fostering and Assessing Critical Listening Skills in the Speech Course

In this article we present the results of two listening assessments conducted in spring 2013 and fall 2013. Our primary goal is of a pedagogical nature and is concerned with the design and the testing of a tool that could measure students’ critical listening skill improvement during the span of a semester. A total of N = 370 students participated in two quasi-experimental studies in which we developed a program to foster and measure critical listening skills. Results show that students’ listening skills improved in specific aspects of critical listening at both times. Effects were larger in the second round due to adjustments to both the course curriculum and the assessment tool. Results support the impact of the intervention by modest to high effect sizes and the construct validity of the assessment tool. We consider the improvement that was found in the current study an important beginning and recommend that the practice of listening skills becomes an integral part of the curriculum at the undergraduate...
Diminished frontostriatal activity during processing of monetary rewards and losses in pathological gambling.

Background Mesocorticolimbic neurocircuitry and impulsivity have both been implicated in pathological gambling (PG) and in reward processing. However, the neural underpinnings of specific phases of reward and loss processing in PG and their relationships to impulsivity remain only partially understood. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined brain activity associated with different phases of reward and loss processing in PG. Given an inverse relationship between ventral striatal recruitment during anticipation of monetary rewards and impulsivity in alcohol dependence, the current study explored whether a similar association might also be present in PG. Methods Fourteen adults with PG and 14 control comparison participants performed the Monetary Incentive Delay Task to identify brain activation changes associated with reward/loss prospect, reward/loss anticipation, and reward/loss notification. Impulsivity was assessed separately using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Results Relative to the control comparison group, the PG group exhibited significantly reduced activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, insula, and ventral striatum during several phases, including the prospect and anticipation phases of both gains and losses. Activity in the ventral striatum correlated inversely with levels of impulsivity in PG participants, consistent with prior findings in alcohol dependence. Conclusions Relatively decreased activity in corticostriatal neurocircuitry during multiple phases of reward processing suggests consistent alterations in neurocircuitry underlying incentive valuation and loss prediction. Together with findings in alcohol dependence, these results suggest that impulsive tendencies in addictions may be reflected in diminished ventral striatal activations to reward anticipation and may represent targets for treatment development in addictions.
Facilitation and disruption by mescaline and 3,4-dimethoxyphenylethylamine of shock avoidance in rats.

The effects of mescaline hydrochloride (4.95–79.2 mg/kg i.p.) and its non-hallucinogenic analogue 3,4-dimethoxyphenylethylamine hydrochloride (DMPEA) (12.5–100 mg/kg i.p.) on shock avoidance in a shuttlebox were studied in male Long-Evans rats trained to high (above 88%, good performers) or low (below 6%, poor performers) stable base-line avoidance rates. In good performers, mescaline and DMPEA caused a dose-dependent decrease in avoidance rate (ED 50's 44.6 and 39.2 mg/kg, respectively) without affecting presession (5-min adaptation peroid) or intertrial shuttlebox crossings. In poor performers, mescaline caused a dose-dependent increase in avoidance rate (ED 50=24.8 mg/kg) and intertrial crossings, without affecting presession crossings. The results suggest that mescaline, but not DMPEA, has dual facilitative and disruptive effects on avoidance behavior at similar dose ranges. The facilitative, but not the disruptive, effect may be related to changes in motor activity.
Viewdata—a product in search of a market?

Abstract One of the classic marketing fiascos of the pasr decade was the $200 million boondoggle project hatched at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, known as Picturephone® service. Heralded as the new telephone of the 1980s, rosy sales projections suggested that as many as 1 000 000 Americans would have Picturephone® sets in their homes and offices by the mid 1980s. Wile these figures look delightfully quaint today, the shareholds of AT&T must not have felt so amused by that $200 million expenditure on engineering a system that no one wanted. Through the year 2000, MBA students at Harvard will be able to rediscover in case study form just how dangerous it can be for an organization to allow its engineering department to dictate new product development to the marketing staff. Of course in the Picturephone® case, AT&T could proffer a legitimate excuse: the Vice President of Marketing position at Bell had lain dormant and abandoned for almost a quarter of the century. After all, who needs to sell telephone service?
Theories of Upper Eyelid Blepharoplasty

This article provides an overview of upper eyelid anatomy and racial variations, functional indications in upper lid blepharoplasty, and various surgical techniques.
Simulation of open channel network flows using finite element approach

Abstract This paper presents a finite element method (FEM) for simulating open channel network flows. Using a recursive formula derived from element equations, a relationship for channel junctions is established and a system equation is obtained. The system equation is much smaller in size in comparison with the simultaneous solution approach and its solution provides boundary conditions for single channels. The FEM is applied to solve individual channels, and a double sweep method is employed to save computation time. To demonstrate the potential of the approach, two channel networks were computed. It is shown that the results obtained with the proposed FEM are very close to those given by the widely used Preissmann scheme, indicating that it is an effective method to model flows in open channels.
Duodenal switch for morbid obesity: is it safe?

� The duodenal switch (DS) procedure is associated with the highest short-term and long- term morbidity of any contemporary bariatric procedure. � More than one-third of DS patients require readmission for a procedure-related complication which is 50% more than associated with the gold standard laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). � Nutritional abnormalities from malabsorption after the DS are 2.5 times more likely to occur compared with after a laparoscopic RYGB. � Liver abnormalities after DS are 7 times more likely to develop than after a laparoscopic RYGB.
Soil phosphorus pools for Histosols under sugarcane and pasture in the Everglades, USA

ARTICLE I NFO Land use changes in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) in southern Florida may influence the distribution and availability of P. Cultivated soils in the EAA are being converted back to their historic use as seasonally- flooded prairies as part of Everglades restoration projects. The objectives of this study were to determine the distribution of P in soil chemical fractions in relation to long-term land management to predict P cycling and transformations for future land uses. Soil under pasture (100 yr) and planted to sugarcane (Saccharum sp.) for 50 yr were amended with P (0,10, 50,150 kg P ha �1 ), and its distribution in labile, Fe-Al bound P, Ca-bound P, humic-fulvic acid P, and residual P pools determined for surface soil (0-15 cm). Most P fertilizer entered Fe-Al and Ca-bound fractions. Cultivation contributed to higher pH and increased the Ca content in soil compared to pasture due to incorporation of bedrock limestone into soil by tillage. The land uses were differentiated by P storage in different pools. Subsequently, long-term fertilization increased soil total P for cultivated soil relative to pasture, but plant-available P constituted less than 1% of the total P. Labile P increased with increasing P application rate, ranging from 1.3 to 7.2 mg kg �1 for cultivated soil and 1.4 to 10.7 mg kg �1 for pasture. Most of theapplied Pwas recovered intheFe-AlfractionforpastureandtheCa-bound Pfractionforcultivatedsoil.The Ca-bound Pfractionrepresentedthegreatestproportionof totalPforsugarcane(41%),butonly12%forpasture. The majority of P in the pasture was present in the humic-fulvic acid fraction (45%), compared to only 23% for sugarcane. The higher pH of the cultivated soil (6.8) favored retention in Ca fractions while the lower pH of pasture (5.3) favored P retention in the humic-fulvic acid fraction. The proportion of total P as organic P was greater for pasture (78%) than cultivated soil (52%). Higher P levels in more recalcitrant fractions for cultivated soils indicated that more of the applied fertilizer P was sequestered in stable fractions, which decreased P availability to crops and may subsequently increase P fertilizer requirements necessary to maintain optimal plant-available nutrient levels. Subsequently, continuation of current farming practices and tillage regimes promotes the redistribution of Ca from subsurface to surface soil, which leads to greater P sequestration in the Ca-bound fraction. However, P in inorganic fractions may be released upon onset of changes in land use. Thus, conversion to seasonally-flooded prairies may have a more dramatic effect on P release from cultivated than pasture soils since cultivated soils have more P in inorganic pools.
Cohomological obstructions to the equivariant extension of closed invariant forms

Abstract We study under what condition a closed invariant form on a manifold with a group action admits an equivariant extension. We derive a sequence of obstructions in the cohomology groups of the Lie algebra with coefficients in appropriate modules. We illustrate the result with two specific examples. We then discuss when such cohomological obstructions vanish. Finally, we compare our analysis with the spectral sequence point of view.
The egg revealed

"Problem Solving" needs either a brief and summary appraisal or an extended one--too long for the space likely to be allotted. Written lucidly and persuasively, it demonstrates that Dr. Skinner can define and analyze a broad set of behaviors using a limited set of behavioral terms and concepts. Believers will find it convincing, even brilliant. Behaviorists who have worked on problem solving, who have observed their subjects carefully, and who have collected data analytically--especially those who have also labored to clarify the technical terminology of behaviorism operationally--will find it a good deal less than persuasive. Glib, superficial and misleading are more appropriate terms. Closely argued and exemplified points are followed by one liners, such as: "But to speak of the purpose of an act is simply to refer to its characteristic consequences." That cannot survive critical examination.
Emotion regulation, language ability, and the stability of preschool children's peer play behavior

Research Findings: This study examined the stability of preschoolers' peer play behavior across the school year and the relations between emotion regulation, receptive vocabulary, and the trajectory of social competence deficits. Participants were 331 preschool children attending Head Start; they were primarily African American and from a low-SES background. Peer play behavior was moderately stable from fall to spring. Analyses revealed that emotional lability in the fall was associated with consistently maladaptive and declining social competence. Furthermore, children who exhibited stable maladaptive behavior had lower receptive language skills and emotion regulation in the fall than children who exhibited consistently adaptive behavior. Preschool children with comorbid externalizing and internalizing behaviors during peer play were at the greatest risk for consistent peer play difficulties or declining social competence over the course of the year compared to their peers. Practice: The present study in...
Localization Studies of Bioactive Cyclic Peptides in the Ascidian Lissoclinum patella

A Palauan specimen of the ascidian Lissoclinum patella contained the cyclic peptides patellamides A-C. In contrast to previous reports concerning the location of cyclic peptides in L. patella and L. bistratum, it has been demonstrated that these cyclic peptides were not located in the symbiotic cyanobacterium Prochloron sp. but were instead distributed throughout the ascidian tunic. The relevance of these results with respect to the biosynthetic origins of the patellamides is discussed.