cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
IL-23 dampens the allergic response to Cryptococcus neoformans through IL-17-independent and -dependent mechanisms.

The cytokines IL-23 and IL-17 have been implicated in resistance to cryptococcal disease, but it is not clear whether IL-23–mediated production of IL-17 promotes fungal containment following pulmonary challenge with Cryptococcus neoformans. We used mice lacking IL-23 (IL-23p19−/−) or IL-17RA (IL-17RA−/−), and wild type (WT) C57BL/6 mice to examine the IL-23/IL-17 axis after intranasal infection with the C. neoformans strain 52D. The absence of IL-23 or IL-17RA had no effect on pulmonary or brain fungal burden at 1 or 6 weeks after infection. However, survival of IL-23p19−/− mice was reduced compared to IL-17RA−/− mice. IL-I7 production by CD4 T cells and natural killer T (NKT) cells was impaired in IL-23p19−/− lungs, but was not completely abolished. Both IL-23p19−/− and IL-17RA−/− mice exhibited impaired neutrophil recruitment, increased serum levels of IgE and IgG2b, and increased deposition of YM1/YM2 crystals in the lung, but only IL-23p19−/− mice developed persistent lung eosinophilia. Although survival of IL-17RA−/− and WT mice was similar after 17 weeks of infection, only surviving IL-17RA−/− mice exhibited cryptococcal dissemination to the blood. These data demonstrate that IL-23 dampens the allergic response to cryptococcal infection through IL-17–independent suppression of eosinophil recruitment and IL-17–dependent regulation of antibody production and crystal deposition. Furthermore, IL-23, and to a lesser extent IL-17, contribute to disease resistance.
The association of diabetes complications with physical activity in a representative sample of older adults in the United States.

ObjectiveMost adults with diabetes do not engage in the level of physical activity recommended for optimal disease management. Diabetes complications are not generally considered a clinical contraindication to exercise. No prior national studies have examined the associations of these complications with physical activity.MethodsData are from the 2003 Diabetes Supplement to the nationally representative US Health and Retirement Study (n = 1811; age >50 years). Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the association between diabetes complications and the odds of meeting physical activity guidelines.ResultsForty-three percent of the sample met physical activity guidelines. Adjusting for sociodemographic variables, retinopathy (odds ratios (OR) OR = 0.54, 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 0.36–0.81), nephropathy (OR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.50–0.99), neuropathy (OR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.59–0.95), and heart disease (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.51–0.94) were all independently associated with reduced odds of meeting gui...
Dissipation in Implicit Turbulence Models: A Computational Study

We describe a series of computational experiments that employ nonoscillatory finite volume methods to simulate the decay of high Reynolds number turbulence. These experiments cover a broad range of physical viscosities and numerical resolutions. We have extracted a data set from these experiments detailing the energy dissipation by physical viscosity and by the numerical algorithm. We offer a preliminary analysis of this data, including new insights into the (computational) transition between direct numerical simulation and large eddy simulation.© 2003 ASME
Challenging Balance Between Productivity and Environmental Quality: Tillage Impacts

Challenging balance between productivity and environmental quality: Tillage impacts 1 2 By D.C. Reicosky 1 , T.J. Sauer 2 , and J.L. Hatfield 2 3 4 1 D.C. Reicosky, USDA-Agricultural Research Service, North Central Soil Conservation 5 Research Lab, 803 Iowa Ave., Morris, MN 56267; 2 USDA-ARS National Laboratory for 6 Agriculture and the Environment, 2110 University Boulevard, Ames, IA 50011. The USDA is an 7 equal opportunity provider and employer. Corresponding author (e-mail: 8 don.reicosky@ars.usda.gov). 9 10
Annealing and Residual Damage

This chapter describes aspects of ion implantation damage which are important for Si process technology. Primary damage consists of atomic displacements and amorphization of Si (except for B implantation). Annealing restores crystallinity and induces electrical activation of implanted dopant ions. It can also cause the formation of residual defects with well-defined crystallographic nature, for example stacking faults and dislocation loops. During prolonged annealing these defects change their sizes and configurations in response to climb forces. The climb forces are related to indiffusion of the implanted profile and to surface oxidation. Residual dislocations also respond to mechanical stresses which arise from the geometries of masking patterns used for defining active device areas.
Direct visualization of solute locations in laboratory ice samples

Abstract. Many important chemical reactions occur in polar snow, where solutes may be present in several reservoirs, including at the air–ice interface and in liquid-like regions within the ice matrix. Some recent laboratory studies suggest chemical reaction rates may differ in these two reservoirs. While investigations have examined where solutes are found in natural snow and ice, few studies have examined either solute locations in laboratory samples or the possible factors controlling solute segregation. To address this, we used micro-computed tomography (microCT) to examine solute locations in ice samples prepared from either aqueous cesium chloride (CsCl) or rose bengal solutions that were frozen using several different methods. Samples frozen in a laboratory freezer had the largest liquid-like inclusions and air bubbles, while samples frozen in a custom freeze chamber had somewhat smaller air bubbles and inclusions; in contrast, samples frozen in liquid nitrogen showed much smaller concentrated inclusions and air bubbles, only slightly larger than the resolution limit of our images (∼ 2 µm). Freezing solutions in plastic vs. glass vials had significant impacts on the sample structure, perhaps because the poor heat conductivity of plastic vials changes how heat is removed from the sample as it cools. Similarly, the choice of solute had a significant impact on sample structure, with rose bengal solutions yielding smaller inclusions and air bubbles compared to CsCl solutions frozen using the same method. Additional experiments using higher-resolution imaging of an ice sample show that CsCl moves in a thermal gradient, supporting the idea that the solutes in ice are present in mobile liquid-like regions. Our work shows that the structure of laboratory ice samples, including the location of solutes, is sensitive to the freezing method, sample container, and solute characteristics, requiring careful experimental design and interpretation of results.
Multi-Objective Model Selection (MOMS)-based Semi-Supervised Framework for Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis has emerged as an active research field due to the rapid growth of user-generated content on the Internet. This research area analyzes the opinions and attitudes of masses toward products, movies, topics, individuals, and services. Various machine learning and text mining algorithms have been used for sentiment analysis and classification. The recent research concludes that domain-specific lexicons perform significantly better as compared to domain-independent lexicons. The proposed research aims at improving the performance of general-purpose lexicons utilizing machine learning algorithms. A semi-supervised framework based on “MOMS” is introduced in order to determine the feature weight by incorporating SentiWordNet, a well-known general-purpose sentiment lexicon. The feature weights are learned by support vector machine, and the classification performance is enhanced by using Multi-Objective Model Selection procedure. Subjectivity criterion is used to select the desired features, and the effects of feature selection with respect to their part-of-speech information are studied comprehensively. Experimental evaluation is performed on seven different benchmark datasets which includes Large movie review dataset, Multi-domain sentiment dataset, and Cornell movie review dataset. The comparison of the proposed approach is performed with state-of-the-art techniques, lexicon-based approaches, and other methods for sentiment analysis. The proposed framework results in high performance when compared to other research in this field.
Forecast study of the supply curve of solar and wind technologies in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico

Abstract This paper forecasts the supply curve of non-conventional renewable technologies such as wind and solar generating stations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico using technological and economic parameters. It also estimates the additional investment costs in solar and wind generation for reaching the renewable energy target in each of these countries. To assess the power supply profile from 1 axis tracking PV and horizontal axis wind turbine (three blade) stations, two different scenarios are developed for 2014 and 2025. Scenario 1 estimates the PV and wind annual electricity yield by using polycrystalline silicon (cSi poly) as semiconductor material for PV cells and a Vestas 90–3.0 MW turbine for the wind for 2014. Scenario 2 assumes a more efficient technology, such as CPV. In fact, the model employs 45% efficiency triple junction cells using ∼3500 m2 for each 1 MW installed capacity in 2025. Moreover, this scenario also assumes a more powerful type of turbine, i.e. Vestas 112–3.075 MW. The biggest potential for wind power is found to be in Argentina, followed by Brazil, Mexico and Chile. In addition, a 550 MW installed capacity CPV power station, using triple junction cells could generate up to 4 TWh in Chile in 2025.
A Bacteriologic Study of Secondary Invaders in Hog-Cholera

work of De Schweinitz, Dorset, and McBryde1 appeared that the etiology was cleared up. These investigations, followed by those of Hutyra,2 Uhlenhuth, Haendel, and others,3 established the feature of secondary invasion. As yet, attempts to differentiate the organisms found in hogcholera have not met with success. Apart from B. suisepticus, which is placed in the hemorrhagic septicemia group, none of the others can be separated sharply from B. paratyphosus B and from bacilli associated with meat poisoning. The morphologic, cultural, and serologic behavior of B. suipestifer places it in such close relation to these that a definite separation is not possible with the differential-diagnostic methods now available. The significance of this organism in hogcholera has long been recognized. It is possible by means of B. suipestifer to produce an experimental infection giving rise to pathologic changes which apparently correspond to natural hog-cholera. The bacillus of hog-cholera (B. suipestifer), altho present in a number of cases, is not found invariably in the organs of animals with the disease. In several outbreaks of hog-cholera studied by Smith in America, no such organisms were isolated. Preiss, in a systematic examination of 80 cases from different sources, found B. suipestifer
Effects of acute administration of dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate on adipose tissue mass and cellularity in male rats.

Effects of acute administration of dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate on adipose tissue mass and cellularity in male rats
A Proposal for Certification in Nursing Theory

The author proposes the development of different levels of certification in the knowledge of nursing theory that would be based on the level of formal education attained. At present, nurses are being required to obtain higher levels of formal education in order to serve patients safely in a technologically complex health care system. Although evidence-based practice is strongly desired in contemporary health care, less consideration has been given to the value of theory-based nursing practice or the relationship between theory and research. The author explains multiple background issues and then highlights several questions that are important for disciplinary discussion at this point in time.Doi: 10.5294/aqui.2016.16.1.2
A typology for health care teams.

Background Effective interdisciplinary health care teamwork improves clinical and financial outcomes, and training and assessment of team competencies are central to establishing high-functioning health care teams. The roles that team members assume in the provision of patient care are important contributors to effective health care team performance; however, variability among health care practitioners can lead to philosophical, political, social, and clinical differences in perceptions and recommendations for patient care as well as expected communication patterns and protocols. Purpose The purpose of this study was to describe the roles and behaviors within variable health care teams in the provision of patient care across multiple clinical practice areas to inform a model for team development strategies. Methodology Interdisciplinary health care teams were observed in vivo during the routine course of their work in multiple patient care contexts. Data were collected and analyzed using qualitative methods of observation and categorization, with supplemental interviews to substantiate, to clarify, and to verify observations. The constant comparative method of data analyses was used to derive a compositional typology for health care teams. Findings A compositional typology for health care teams emerged from the data specifying four types of health care teams: stable role, stable personnel (Type SRSP); stable role, variable personnel (Type SRVP); variable role, stable personnel (Type VRSP); and variable role, variable personnel (Type VRVP). Implications Results suggest that health care teams may be more complicated than non-health care teams, and team models with associated derived competencies from other professions may not wholly transfer to health care. A singular model to inform best practices for health care team development may not adequately address the specific performance challenges of each team type. Adaptable development strategies for each type of team and its associated role membership may be required to optimize team performance. The health care team typology derived from this study may help inform the selection of appropriate team development strategies and define associated team competencies.
New Aspects of Nanocrystal Lasing

In this talk, I will review our recent spectroscopic studies of specially engineered core-shell nanocrystals that exhibit a significant suppression of Auger recombination. This property greatly simplifies real-life applications of colloidal nanoparticles in lasing technologies.
Safety and feasibility of near-infrared image-guided lymphatic mapping of regional lymph nodes in esophageal cancer.

Abstract Objective To assess safety and feasibility of an intraoperative, minimally invasive near-infrared (NIR) image-guided approach to lymphatic mapping in patients with esophageal cancer. Methods Although local lymph nodes (LNs) are removed with the esophageal specimen, no techniques are available to identify the regional LNs (separate from the esophagus) during esophagectomy. We hypothesize that NIR imaging can identify regional LNs with the potential to improve staging and guide the extent of lymphadenectomy. Nine of the 10 patients enrolled had resectable esophageal adenocarcinoma and underwent NIR mapping following peritumoral submucosal injection of indocyanine green (ICG) alone or premixed in human serum albumin (ICG:HSA) before resection. NIR imaging was performed in situ and ex vivo. Results In 6 of the 10 patients, intraoperative NIR imaging demonstrated an NIR signal at all tumors and in 2 to 6 NIR + regional LNs. NIR + LNs were not identified in 4 patients: 1 patient with occult stage IV disease, for whom further imaging was not performed and thus was excluded from analysis, and 3 patients in whom ICG was used without HSA. Identification of local LNs on the esophagus was obscured by a peritumoral background. Importantly, the pathological status of NIR + regional LNs reflected overall regional nodal status. Conclusions NIR lymphatic mapping is safe and feasible in patients with esophageal cancer and can identify regional LNs when ICG:HSA is used. Although more work is needed to improve background signals and local LN identification, intraoperative detection of regional NIR + LNs allows an in-depth histological analysis of LN basins not commonly scrutinized as part of the specimen and may improve the detection of occult nodal disease.
Analysis of the malnutrition status and changing trend of children and adolescents from 1989 to 2011 in Guangxi

Objectives To understand malnutrition status and changing trend of youth and child,and to provide reference of develop related nutrition improvement strategy in Guangxi. Methods Survey data of 2 913 children and adolescents aged 2~18years were collected of the " China Health and Nutrition Survey" from 1989 to 2011.Reference standard of Z score method of CDC(2002)was used to evaluate the children's malnutrition status. Results The rates of children and adolescence's stunted growth,low body weight and wasting were gradual decrease,from 38.1%,31.0%,16.1%in 1989,to8.0%,21.5%,9.0%in 2011 respectively.In 23 years,the downward trend of wasting rate of boys,rural children and 2~6years old group was not statistically significant(χ2=1.26,0.02,3.59,Pall0.05). Conclusion The malnutrition have been greatly improved among children and adolescents in Guangxi,but the low body weight rate is still relatively high level,the malnutrition should further improved among rural children and preschoolers.
Requirement for LVRT Capability of Wind Turbine Generator in Power System

The authors present the low voltage ride-though (LVRT) characteristic and the control strategy of wind turbine with LVRT in detail. The model and the control strategy of doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) with LVRT are implemented in power system simulation tool DIgSILENT/ PowerFactory. The simulation of a certain domestic 220kV power grid is implemented and a method to decide the LVRT parameters of wind turbine generator and requirement is proposed. By means of calculating the terminal voltages of wind turbine generators at the short circuit moment while short circuit takes place in all buses in the power grid one after another, the impact extents of short circuits occurred in different buses of the grid to terminal voltages of wind turbine generators are marked up in geographical wiring diagram, then on this basis the voltage limit of LVRT of wind farm is given. Analysis results show that it may be somewhat unrealistic that under certain conditions to make a claim to wind turbines with very trenchant LVRT ability; and yet under other conditions it is required that the wind turbines possess more strict LVRT ability, otherwise the stable operation of power grid may be endangered. Thus, the voltage limit of LVRT of wind farm should be calculated according to actual wiring scheme.
Isolated amyloidosis of the penile urethra and corpus spongiosum: A case report

AbstractLocalized amyloidosis of the penile urethra and corpus spongiosum is rare. The pathogenesis is obscure and optimal management of such patients has not been defined. We report a case that was treated with transurethral removal of amyloid tissue, which was obstructing the urethral outlet. Previously, the patient had been treated with dilation with temporary relief of the symptoms. He was disease-free 1½ years postoperatively.
Restoring sanity through comic relief: Parody television viewers and political outlook

ABSTRACTParody news programs regale viewers with satirical, witty, and humorous exposes of the political world and news coverage, but they have also been criticized for creating cynicism and political disengagement. This study found that parody news viewers are self-efficacious and more politically active than viewers of CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, or broadcast television news. Moreover, reliance on parody news shows does not lead to political polarization or government distrust.
Effects of ambient water vapor pressure and temperature on evaporative water loss inPeromyscus maniculatus andMus musculus

The effects of ambient water vapor pressure (VP) and temperature on evaporative water loss (EWL) from the head and trunk ofPeromyscus maniculatus andMus musculus were measured with dew point hygrometry. At a given ambient temperature both head and trunk EWL were directly proportional to the water vapor pressure deficit. Cutaneous EWL in both species was directly related to the difference between saturated VP at skin temperature and ambient VP which is consistent with a simple diffusion process. In both species EWL from the head was independent of ambient temperature between 20 and 35 °C while the rate of cutaneous EWL more than doubled at 35 °C indicating a change in the water permeability of the skin. Possible mechanisms for this increase are discussed.
Allyl 3,4,6-tri-O-acetyl-2-de­oxy-2-phthalimido-β-d-gluco­pyran­oside

The protected glycoside of 2-amino-2-de­oxy­glucose (glucosa­mine), namely allyl 3,4,6-tri-O-acetyl-2-de­oxy-2-phthalimido-β-d-gluco­pyran­oside, C23H25NO10, was synthesized from the glycosyl bromide. Crystallographic analysis confirmed the β-anomeric configuration and showed an approximately orthogonal orientation of the phthalimido group with respect to the pyran­ose ring. The absolute configuration of the mol­ecule was known from the synthetic route and assigned accordingly.
Recollections of P.R. Halmos at Chicago

During the period 1944–1947 I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan. It was there that I first heard of P.R. Halmos. He became known to me as an author through his excellent book Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces (recommended to me as the best source from which to learn linear algebra). He became a living mathematician to me when I learned in 1946 that he was accepting a position at the University of Chicago as Assistant Professor with a salary of $5,000 (reputed to be the highest salary of any Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the country at the time).
Topobathymetric Elevation Model Development using a New Methodology: Coastal National Elevation Database

ABSTRACT Danielson, J.J.; Poppenga, S.K.; Brock, J.C.; Evans, G.A.; Tyler, D.J.; Gesch, D.B.; Thatcher, C.A., and Barras, J.A., 2016. Topobathymetric elevation model development using a new methodology: Coastal National Elevation Database. In: Brock, J.C.; Gesch, D.B.; Parrish, C.E.; Rogers, J.N., and Wright, C.W. (eds.), Advances in Topobathymetric Mapping, Models, and Applications. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 76, pp. 75–89. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. During the coming decades, coastlines will respond to widely predicted sea-level rise, storm surge, and coastal inundation flooding from disastrous events. Because physical processes in coastal environments are controlled by the geomorphology of over-the-land topography and underwater bathymetry, many applications of geospatial data in coastal environments require detailed knowledge of the near-shore topography and bathymetry. In this paper, an updated methodology used by the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal National Elevatio...
Probabilistic Computations for Attention, Eye Movements, and Search

The term visual attention immediately evokes the idea of limited resources, serial processing, or a zoom metaphor. But evidence has slowly accumulated that computations that take into account probabilistic relationships among visual forms and the target contribute to optimizing decisions in biological and artificial organisms, even without considering these limited-capacity processes in covert attention or even foveation. The benefits from such computations can be formalized within the framework of an ideal Bayesian observer and can be related to the classic theory of sensory cue combination in vision science and context-driven approaches to object detection in computer vision. The framework can account for a large range of behavioral findings across distinct experimental paradigms, including visual search, cueing, and scene context. I argue that these forms of probabilistic computations might be fundamental to optimizing decisions in many species and review human experiments trying to identify scene properties that serve as cues to guide eye movements and facilitate search. I conclude by discussing contributions of attention beyond probabilistic computations but argue that the framework's merit is to unify many basic paradigms to study attention under a single theory.
Breaking the Rules the Right Way: Resisting Parole Logics and Asserting Autonomy in the USA

Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this chapter explores how individuals experience the complex socio-legal position of ‘the parolee’ and navigate parole regulation. It traces a seeming paradox wherein individuals frequently violated rules and sometimes committed crimes, yet perceived themselves as ‘doing parole the right way’ and as embodying virtuous citizenship. This reflects the ways in which individuals challenged the logics of parole, in particular, the construction of the paroled subject as dangerous and incapable of ethical self-governance. Individuals rejected these assumptions and called for—and exercised—autonomy vis-a-vis parole, even if this meant subverting formal rules. While reflecting resistance to penality, this dynamic was at the same time undergirded by the productivity of penal and social power writ large.
Shoulder Dystocia Delivery by Emergency Medicine Residents: A High-fidelity versus a Novel Low-fidelity Simulation Model-A Pilot Study.

Background Shoulder dystocia (SD) requires emergent intervention to prevent maternal and fetal harm, and simulation models for training can be expensive. We developed a novel, cheap and easily transportable low-fidelity simulation (LFS) model to compare to a commercially available high-fidelity simulation (HFS) model. Methods Emergency medicine residents were randomized to training on the HFS or novel LFS model. Subjects completed a pretest and a 1-week and 6-month posttest including a self-assessment and a simulated SD delivery. Results Twenty-seven of the 43 residents completed the study (63%). The number of individuals performing dangerous maneuvers at baseline was similar, 1 week after training was five in HFS and 11 in LFS (p = 0.08) groups and at 6 months was again similar between groups. Mean checklist scores for appropriate actions increased 1 week after training but returned to baseline by 6 months and were similar between groups. The rate of successful delivery, median time to successful delivery, and maximum force applied improved at 1 week and was sustained at 6 months in both groups. Conclusion Within our limited study population, we did not find a large difference in the occurrence of dangerous actions during simulated SD delivery following HFS and LFS training. Our novel and easily transportable LFS trainer, assembled for less than US$10 each, may be a useful tool to train inexperienced providers on the steps of this procedure. However, this requires further study, as does whether HFS models with force monitoring capabilities may be helpful to train providers to minimize dangerous maneuvers such as the application of excessive force.
Ventilator auto-triggering by cardiac electrical activity during noninvasive ventilation with neurally adjusted ventilatory assist

Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA), by capturing the electrical activity of the diaphragm, improves patient-ventilator synchrony. It is, however, not completely immune from auto-triggering by cardiac electrical activity as illustrated in this case. Stringent observation of respiratory rate and vigilance for this phenomenon is warranted when using NAVA.
Primordial black holes as seeds of magnetic fields in the universe

Although it is assumed that magnetic fields in accretion discs are dragged from the interstellar medium, the idea is likely not applicable to primordial black holes (PBHs) formed in the early universe. Here we show that magnetic fields can be generated in initially unmagnetized accretion discs around PBHs through the Biermann battery mechanism and therefore provide the small-scale seeds of magnetic field in the universe. The radial temperature and vertical density profiles of these discs provide the necessary conditions for the battery to operate naturally. The generated seed fields have a toroidal structure with opposite sign in the upper and lower half of the disc. In the case of a thin accretion disc around a rotating PBH, the field generation rate increases with increasing PBH spin. At a fixed r/r_isco, where r is the radial distance from the PBH and r_isco is the radius of the innermost stable circular orbit, the battery scales as M^−9/4, where M is the PBH’s mass. The very weak dependence of the battery on accretion rate makes this mechanism a viable candidate to provide seed fields in an initially unmagnetized accretion disc, following which the magnetorotational instability could take over.
Clinical experience in nerve grafting.

The microsurgical techniques developed over the past 30 years have enabled nerve grafting techniques to become standardized to a large extent. Although some variations exist, there is agreement on the basic principles. In fact, it has been said that the surgical technique may have reached an optimal level, even though the results often remain disappointing.
Simultaneous Determination of Tiopronin and its Primary Metabolite in Plasma and Ocular Tissues by HPLC

Tiopronin, formally 2-mercaptopropionylglycine (MPG), is currently prescribed to treat cystinuria and rheumatoid arthritis, and its antioxidant properties have led to its investigation as a treatment for cataracts, a condition in which oxidative stress is strongly implicated. To study its accumulation in the eye, a reliable, isocratic HPLC method was developed for the determination of MPG and its primary metabolite 2-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) in plasma and relevant ocular tissues. This method utilizes pre-column derivatization and fluorescence detection. The 3.5 min separation enables high-throughput analysis, and validation experiments demonstrated that this method is suitable for evaluating ocular accumulation of MPG and MPA at concentrations as low as 66 and 33 nm, respectively. Excellent linearity was achieved over the working concentration range with R2 > 0.997. Extraction recovery was reproducible within each matrix and exceeded 97%. Accuracy was within 13.3% relative error, and intra- and inter-day precisions were within 6% CV and 7% CV, respectively. Sample stability was demonstrated under various storage conditions, and the use of an internal standard conferred exceptional ruggedness. This method has been successfully applied for the determination of MPG and MPA in plasma, cornea, lens and retina following intraperitoneal administration of the drug in Wistar rats.
Accurate detection of chimeric contigs via Bionano optical maps.

Summary A chimeric contig is contig that has been incorrectly assembled, i.e. a contig that contains one or more mis-joins. The detection of chimeric contigs can be carried out either by aligning assembled contigs to genome-wide maps (e.g. genetic, physical or optical maps) or by mapping sequenced reads to the assembled contigs. Here, we introduce a software tool called Chimericognizer that takes advantage of one or more Bionano Genomics optical maps to accurately detect and correct chimeric contigs. Experimental results show that Chimericognizer is very accurate, and significantly better than the chimeric detection method offered by the Bionano Hybrid Scaffold pipeline. Chimericognizer can also detect and correct chimeric optical molecules. Availability and implementation https://github.com/ucrbioinfo/Chimericognizer. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Role of Positron Emission Tomography in Imaging of Non-neurologic Disorders of the Head, Neck, and Teeth in Veterinary Medicine

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is an imaging technique that provides functional information, in addition to structural information obtained with computed tomography (CT). The most common application is cancer staging, using 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG), a radioactive analog of glucose. Although limited data are available in the veterinary literature, human studies have demonstrated benefit with the addition of PET both for assessment of the primary tumor and for detection of metastatic disease. 18F-FDG PET appears to be more accurate at detecting the margin of oral neoplasia, in particular for tumors arising from highly vascularized tissue, such as the lingual and laryngeal areas. 18F-FDG PET has a high sensitivity for the detection of lymph node metastasis, however the specificity is variable between studies. Tracers beyond 18F-FDG can also be used for oncology imaging. 18F-Fluoride (18F-NaF) is an excellent osseous tracer, useful in assessing bone involvement of primary tumors or osseous metastasis. Other specific tracers can be used to assess cell proliferation or hypoxia for tumor characterization. 18F-FDG is also an excellent tracer for detection of inflammation. Human studies have demonstrated its value for the assessment of periodontitis and dental implant infection. 18F-NaF has been used to assess disorders of the temporomandibular joint in the human literature, demonstrating good correlation with arthralgia and therapeutic outcome. Both 18F-NaF and 18F-FDG had good concordance with localization of cervical pain in people. PET will likely have a growing role in veterinary medicine not only for oncologic imaging but also for assessment of inflammation and pain.
Modern Wavefront Control for Space-Based Exoplanet Coronagraph Imaging

Direct imaging of earth-like exoplanets is one of the most timely and important scientific endeavours for future large space telescopes. Typically, an earth-like exoplanet is roughly a billion times dimmer than its host star, so the key for exoplanet imaging is to create extremely high contrast observation regions in the telescope's image plane. One approach to achieving this goal is a cornagraph together with wavefront control, where the coronagraph is used to suppress the diffracted starlight and the wavefront control is used to cancel the wavefront aberrations. In this paper, we present a brief survey of the modern wavefront control techniques for a space-based coronagraph instrument, from the speckle nulling feedback controller to newly developed learning-based controllers. We also describe our implementation of all these controllers on NASA's next large space telescope, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), to compare their advantages and limitations.
The State and Federal Response: Probing the Possibilities

This chapter examines the range of policy options available to both the state governments in the region, and the federal government concerning the protection of water rights and the response to unauthorized water use. While not all policy options are viable for successfully addressing the core issues facing water scarcity in the region, there are many steps both state and federal agencies could take to demonstrate capacity in dealing with unauthorized water use and in general the protection of water rights.
A Modular Adversarial Approach to Social Recommendation

This paper proposes a novel framework to incorporate social regularization for item recommendation. Social regularization grounded in ideas of homophily and influence appears to capture latent user preferences. However, there are two key challenges: first, the importance of a specific social link depends on the context and second, a fundamental result states that we cannot disentangle homophily and influence from observational data to determine the effect of social inference. Thus we view the attribution problem as inherently adversarial where we examine two competing hypothesis---social influence and latent interests---to explain each purchase decision. We make two contributions. First, we propose a modular, adversarial framework that decouples the architectural choices for the recommender and social representation models, for social regularization. Second, we overcome degenerate solutions through an intuitive contextual weighting strategy, that supports an expressive attribution, to ensure informative social associations play a larger role in regularizing the learned user interest space. Our results indicate significant gains (5-10% relative Recall@K) over state-of-the-art baselines across multiple publicly available datasets.
An integrative review of nurse practitioner practice and its relationship to the core competencies.

Abstract Background Competency based education (CBE) has been suggested for nurse practitioner (NP) education reform. For this to occur, competencies should reflect the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that NPs need for independent practice. Purpose This integrative review examined the general practice activities of NPs across all population foci to determine the extent to which these activities are reflected in current NP competencies. Method Using the Whittemore and Knafl (2005) integrative review method, 17 studies that focused on NP practice between 2008 and 2018 were retrieved from three electronic databases. These studies were evaluated, analyzed and synthesized for themes. Afterwards the themes were compared with seven sets of current NP core competencies. Results The themes for NP practice activities were direct and indirect patient care activities with a majority of NP time spent performing direct patient care activities. However, only 14% of the NP core competencies reflected these direct care activities. Conclusion In order to successfully implement CBE, a need exists for the NP core competencies to reflect current NP practice.
Analysis of the polycystin complex (PCC) in human urinary exosome-like vesicles (ELVs)

The polycystin–1 (PC1), polycystin–2 (PC2) and fibrocystin proteins, the respective products of the PKD1, PKD2 and PKHD1 genes, are abundant in urinary exosome–like vesicles (ELVs) where they form the polycystin complex (PCC). ELVs are 100 nm diameter membrane vesicles shed into the urine by the cells lining the nephron. Using MS/MS analysis of ELVs from individuals with PKD1 mutations and controls, we show that in addition to the well-described GPS/GAIN cleavage event in PC1 at 3048 aa and the proprotein convertase cleavage (PPC) event in fibrocystin at 3616 aa, there are multiple other cleavage events in these proteins. The C–terminal 11 transmembrane portion of PC1 undergoes three cleavage events in vivo. The absence of peptides from the C–terminal cytoplasmic tail of fibrocystin implies a cleavage event close to its single TM domain prior to loading onto the ELVs. There is also evidence that the C–terminal tail of PC2 is also cleaved in ELVs. Native gel analysis of the PCC shows that the entire complex is > 2 MDa in size and that N–terminal GPS/GAIN cleaved PC1 and PPC cleaved fibrocystin ectodomains can be released under non-reducing conditions and resolve at 300 kDa. This paper shows that the three major human cystogene proteins are detectable in human urinary ELVs and that all three undergo post-translational proteolytic processing. Human urinary ELVs may be a useful source of material in the search for proteins that interact with the PCC.
Abstract B26: Comparative analysis of breast tumor microbiome in Black non-Hispanic (BNH) and White non-Hispanic (WNH) women

African American women are approximately twice as likely to be diagnosed with highly aggressive estrogen receptor-negative (ER-) and TNBC subtypes of breast cancer than Caucasian women. Among biologic factors, microbiota has been implicated in the etiology of several kinds of cancer including breast cancer. Few recent studies have shown that the breast niche-specific microbiota may have a major influence on breast tumorigenesis as shown by a decreased abundance of bacterial species with known immunomodulatory and probiotic effect in paired tumor tissue as compared to normal tissue derived from healthy patients, including different microbiota profiles in different subtypes of breast cancer. To understand whether the breast tissue harbors microbiota profiles that are uniquely race-specific we have analyzed tumor and matched normal and tumor tissue using 16S rRNA targeted sequencing strategy. Two distinct breast tumor types derived from women were included in this study: triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and triple-positive breast cancer (TPBC) derived from BNH and WNH women. The data were analyzed for microbiota composition, abundance, and diversity parameters, alpha diversity and beta diversity. The preliminary microbiome analysis revealed specific differences in abundance both at the phylum and genus levels between WNH and BNH women breast tissues; the alpha diversity matric, Shannon index measuring both richness and evenness of microbiota diversity showed differences in microbial diversity between normal breast tumor tissue and the matched normal adjacent to tumor tissue. The microbiota richness was relatively lower in BNH TNBC tumor tissue as compared to its matched normal adjacent to tumor zone as defined by pathologic analysis. In contrast, the microbiota richness was higher in WNH TNBC tumor tissue as compared to its matched normal breast tissue. The multivariate analysis of beta diversity revealed a distinct clustering in BNH and WNH TNBC microbiota between both tumors as compared to normal tissue and BNH as compared to WNH racial groups. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers S21MD012472 and U54MD006882. Note: This abstract was not presented at the conference. Citation Format: Srikantha Thyagarajan, Yan Zhang, Santosh Thapa, Michael S. Allen, Nicole Phillips, Jamboor K. Vishwanatha. Comparative analysis of breast tumor microbiome in Black non-Hispanic (BNH) and White non-Hispanic (WNH) women [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on the Microbiome, Viruses, and Cancer; 2020 Feb 21-24; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(8 Suppl):Abstract nr B26.
sdtlu: An R package for the signal detection analysis of eyewitness lineup data

In a standard eyewitness lineup scenario, a witness observes a culprit commit a crime and is later asked to identify the culprit from a set of faces, the lineup. Signal detection theory (SDT), a powerful modeling framework for analyzing data, has recently become a common way to analyze lineup data. The goal of this paper is to introduce a new R package, sdtlu (Signal Detection Theory – LineUp), that streamlines and automates the SDT analysis of lineup data. sdtlu provides functions to process lineup data, determine the best-fitting SDT parameters, compute model-based performance measures such as area under the curve (AUC) and diagnosticity, use bootstrapping to determine uncertainty intervals around these parameters and measures, and compare parameters across two different data sets. The package incorporates closed-form solutions for both simultaneous and sequential lineups that allow for model-based analyses without Monte Carlo simulation. Show-ups are also supported. The package can estimate the base-rate of lineups that include a guilty suspect when the guilt or innocence of each suspect in the data set is unknown, as in “real-world” lineups. The package can also produce a full set of graphs, including data and model-based ROC curves and the underlying SDT model.
Of Masks and Men? Gender, Sex, and Protective Measures during COVID-19

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, men have been consistently less likely to report wearing a protective face mask. There are several possible reasons for this difference, including partisanship and gender identity. Using a national live-caller telephone survey that measures gender identity, we show that men's gender identities are strongly related to their views of mask wearing, especially when gender identity is highly salient to the individual. The effects of this interaction of sex and gender are shown to be separate from the effects of partisanship. While partisanship is a significant driver of attitudes about face masks, within partisan groups, men who report “completely” masculine gender identities are very different from their fellow partisans.
Metal-Free Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization: From Concept to Creation.

ConspectusRing-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), which is derived from transition-metal-based olefin metathesis, has evolved into one of the most prevalent technologies for making functiona...
Underwater versus conventional EMR for colorectal polyps: systematic review and meta-analysis

Background and Aims Underwater EMR (UEMR) has emerged as an attractive alternative to conventional EMR (CEMR) for the resection of colorectal polyps. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to compare UEMR and CEMR for the resection of colorectal polyps with respect to efficacy and safety. Methods A literature search was performed across multiple databases, including MEDLINE/PubMed, The Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Google Scholar, and Scopus, for studies that were published until May 2020. Only studies that compared the resection of colorectal polyps using UEMR with CEMR were included. Outcomes examined included rates of en bloc resection, recurrence, postprocedure bleeding, perforation, and resection time. Results Seven studies totaling 1237 polyps were included: 614 polyps were resected with UEMR and 623 polyps with CEMR. UEMR was associated with a significant increase in the rate of overall en bloc resection (odds ratio [OR], 1.84; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.42-2.39; P Conclusions The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrate that UEMR is a safe and efficacious alternative to CEMR. With appropriate training, UEMR may be strongly considered as a first-line option for resection of colorectal polyps.
Hypertensive Urgency: An Emergency Department Pipeline to Primary Care Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND Optimal triage of patients with hypertensive urgency (HU) in the emergency department (ED) is not well established. 2017 ACC/AHA hypertension (HTN) guidelines recommend treatment initiation and follow-up within 1 week. Objectives of our pilot study were to evaluate feasibility and impact of directly connecting ED patients with HU to outpatient HTN management on blood pressure (BP) control and ED utilization. METHODS ED patients with HU and no primary care physician were scheduled by a referral coordinator for an initial appointment in a HTN clinic embedded within a primary care practice. BP control and ED utilization over the subsequent 90 days were tracked and compared with BP at time of the referral ED visit, and ED utilization in the 90 days preceding referral. RESULTS Data are reported for the first 40 referred patients. Average time to first visit was 7.8 days. Mean age was 51 years (range 28-76), 75% were African-American, and mean pooled 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk was 20.8%. Mean BP declined from 198/116 mm Hg at ED visit to 167/98 mm Hg at HTN clinic visit 1 to 136/83 by 6 weeks and was sustained at 90 days. Total ED visits for the group decreased from 61 in the 90 days prior to referral, to 18 in the 90 days after the first HTN clinic visit. CONCLUSIONS In this pilot study, coordinated referral between the ED and primary care provides safe, timely care for this high ASCVD risk population and leads to sustained reductions in BP and ED utilization.