cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reexamining the Germination Phenotypes of Several Clostridium difficile Strains Suggests Another Role for the CspC Germinant Receptor

Clostridium difficile spore germination is essential for colonization and disease. The signals that initiate C. difficile spore germination are a combination of taurocholic acid (a bile acid) and glycine. Interestingly, the chenodeoxycholic acid class (CDCA) bile acids competitively inhibit taurocholic acid-mediated germination, suggesting that compounds that inhibit spore germination could be developed into drugs that prophylactically prevent C. difficile infection or reduce recurring disease. However, a recent report called into question the utility of such a strategy to prevent infection by describing C. difficile strains that germinated in the apparent absence of bile acids or germinated in the presence of the CDCA inhibitor. Because the mechanisms of C. difficile spore germination are beginning to be elucidated, the mechanism of germination in these particular strains could yield important information on how C. difficile spores initiate germination. Therefore, we quantified the interaction of these strains with taurocholic acid and CDCA, the rates of spore germination, the release of DPA from the spore core, and the abundance of the germinant receptor complex (CspC, CspB, and SleC). We found that strains previously observed to germinate in the absence of taurocholic acid correspond to more potent 50% effective concentrations (EC50 values; the concentrations that achieve a half-maximum germination rate) of the germinant and are still inhibited by CDCA, possibly explaining the previous observations. By comparing the germination kinetics and the abundance of proteins in the germinant receptor complex, we revised our original model for CspC-mediated activation of spore germination and propose that CspC may activate spore germination and then inhibit downstream processes. IMPORTANCE Clostridium difficile forms metabolically dormant spores that persist in the health care environment. In susceptible hosts, C. difficile spores germinate in response to certain bile acids and glycine. Blocking germination by C. difficile spores is an attractive strategy to prevent the initiation of disease or to block recurring infection. However, certain C. difficile strains have been identified whose spores germinate in the absence of bile acids or are not blocked by known inhibitors of C. difficile spore germination (calling into question the utility of such strategies). Here, we further investigate these strains and reestablish that bile acid activators and inhibitors of germination affect these strains and use these data to suggest another role for the C. difficile bile acid germinant receptor.
Role of ethanol as a cofactor in HAART induced hepatic steatosis and injury.

Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) has led to a significant increase in the life expectancy of HIV patients; however, there are significant side effects including lipodystrophy and hepatotoxicity. Alcohol abuse is highly prevalent in HIV infected individuals and hence may be a significant negative cofactor in HAART induced hepatotoxicity. The present study examines the mechanisms underlying HAART and alcohol induced hepatotoxicity. The effects of HAART drugs (azidothymidine, and Indinavir sulphate) in combination with alcohol were examined in in vivo animal model. Alcohol and HAART drug interactions and hepatotoxicity were also assessed in-vivo using an animal model of chronic alcohol feeding. Mice were pair-fed liquid diets (Lieber DeCarli) containing 35% of calories as alcohol (alcohol-fed, AF) or as isocaloric maltose-dextrin (pair-fed, PF) for four weeks. In addition, HAART treatment groups received AZT (30mg/kg BW) and IDV (50mg/kg BW) by oral gavage for 2 weeks. Animals exposed to both alcohol and HAART developed increased visceral adiposity compared to pair-fed animal suggesting disturbances in lipid metabolism in these mice. Lipodystrophy was also evidenced by macro and microvesicular steatosis in the livers; elevated liver triglycerides and free fatty acids. Additionally, animals receiving combinations of alcohol and HAART exhibited increased inflammation and greater hepatic neutrophil infiltration. Overall, our data demonstrate that alcohol exacerbates HAART hepatotoxicity, and is a significant cofactor in the development of hepatic steatosis and liver injury.
Influence of zinc on bacterial populations and their proteolytic enzyme activities in freshwater environments: a cross-site comparison

Temporal responses of indigenous bacterial populations and proteolytic enzyme (i.e., aminopeptidase) activities in the bacterioplankton assemblages from 3 separate freshwater environments were examined after exposure to various zinc (Zn) concentrations under controlled microcosm conditions. Zn concentrations (ranging from 0 to 10 μmol/L) were added to water samples collected from the Kalamazoo River, Rice Creek, and Huron River and examined for bacterial abundance and aminopeptidase activities at various time intervals over a 48 h incubation period in the dark. The results showed that the Zn concentrations did not significantly influence total bacterial counts directly; however, aminopeptidase activities varied significantly to increasing zinc treatments over time. Also, analysis of variance and linear regression analyses revealed significant positive relationships between bacterial numbers and their hydrolytic enzyme activities, suggesting that both probably co-vary with increasing Zn concentrations in aquatic systems. The results from this study serve as additional evidence of the ecological role of Zn as an extracellular peptidase cofactor on the dynamics of bacterial assemblages in aquatic environments.
Opioid Prescribing After Nonfatal Overdose and Association With Repeated Overdose: A Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Nonfatal opioid overdose is an opportunity to identify and treat substance use disorders, but treatment patterns after the overdose are unknown.OBJECTIVE: To determine prescribed opioid dosage after an opioid overdose and its association with repeated overdose.DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study.Setting: A large U.S. health insurer.Participants: 2848 commercially insured patients aged 18 to 64 years who had a nonfatal opioid overdose during long-term opioid therapy for noncancer pain between May 2000 and December 2012.Measurements: Nonfatal opioid overdose was identified using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, codes from emergency department or inpatient claims. The primary outcome was daily morphine-equivalent dosage (MED) of opioids dispensed from 60 days before to up to 730 days after the index overdose. We categorized dosages as large (≥100 mg MED), moderate (50 to RESULTS: Over a median follow-up of 299 days, opioids were dispensed to 91% of patients after an overdose. Seven percent of patients (n = 212) had a repeated opioid overdose. At 2 years, the cumulative incidence of repeated overdose was 17% (95% CI, 14% to 20%) for patients receiving high dosages of opioids after the index overdose, 15% (CI, 10% to 21%) for those receiving moderate dosages, 9% (CI, 6% to 14%) for those receiving low dosages, and 8% (CI, 6% to 11%) for those receiving no opioids.Limitation: The cohort was limited to commercially insured adults.CONCLUSION: Almost all patients continue to receive prescription opioids after an overdose. Opioid discontinuation after overdose is associated with lower risk for repeated overdose.Primary Funding Source: Health Resources and Services Administration. Language: en
Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) Of Deep Foundations Using a Performance-Based Design Approach

The Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) methodology is being widely adopted for deep foundation design. The LRFD methodology can take many different forms depending upon the extent of the available data and the type of static capacity prediction models. This paper introduces a new performance-based design approach that incorporates the LRFD methodology. The application of this design approach is demonstrated for drilled displacement piles. Field load test data from drilled displacement piles installed at a single site is integrated within the developed approach to demonstrate a site specific reliability-based design methodology that satisfies performance-based requirements at both the strength and serviceability limit states. The t-z method is utilized along with Latin Hypercube sampling to calibrate LRFD resistance factors. The developed method reveals that design efficiency can be achieved simultaneously with safety in the design of deep foundation systems.
Control with side information

This paper develops an information-theoretic understanding of side information in control systems. We build on the notion of "control capacity" — the rate at which a controller can dissipate uncertainty in a system over an actuation channel — and quantify the change in control capacity due to side information. The results build on the bit-level carry-free models that are widely used to understand information flows in wireless network information theory. These models motivate our definitions and theorems. We show that we are able to compute the value of side information for real i.i.d. actuation channels using a simple conditional expectation. Finally, we give an example of how side information affects the control capacity of an actuation channel with a uniform distribution.
Cystic fibrosis : pathogenesis, pulmonary infection, and treatment

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common serious recessively inherited genetic disease among whites. There are an estimated 30,000 persons with CF in the United States, and an estimated 7 million persons are asymptomatic heterozygous carriers. Clinical recognition (in the absence of a family history of the disease) has long been codified by the triad of chronic sinopulmonary disease, pancreatic insufficiency, and elevated sweat chloride values. With powerful contemporary management based upon treatment of secondary manifestations of the disease such as pulmonary infection and malnutrition, the median length of survival has increased dramatically over the past 2 decades from early childhood to >29 years. As a result, about one-third of patients with CF are adults. The history of CF, which began with its recognition as a discrete fatal disease of infants in the late 1930s, can be divided into several eras, but no divide has been as dramatic and profound as that before and since 1989, when the gene that causes CF was finally cloned and its molecular basis began to be deciphered. In this review, I shall try to briefly place our current understanding of the pathogenesis and treatment of pulmonary infection-which causes most morbidity and ultimately >90% of CF-related deaths-in the context of recent developments in molecular genetics and cell biology. The insights provided from research in the past 5 years have placed CF front and center in the molecular medicine revolution that is transforming health care as we near the millennium.
HIV-1-specific cytolytic T-lymphocyte activity correlates with lower viral load, higher CD4 count, and CD8+CD38-DR- phenotype: comparison of statistical methods for measurement.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to use novel statistical methods to determine the correlation between HIV-1-specific cytolytic T-lymphocyte (CTL) activity and HIV-1 plasma viral load, in a blinded study of HIV-infected patients at various stages of clinical disease. METHODS Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were collected and stored at enrollment and 2 weeks later, from 15 HIV-infected individuals who were receiving stable antiretroviral therapy for the previous 6 weeks and during the study period. HIV-1-specific CTL activity was measured using an antigen-specific PBMC in vitro stimulation method. Measurements of plasma viral load, as well as CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes expressing T-cell activation markers (DR and CD38) were also performed at each time point. CTL activity was quantified using three separate statistical methods: area under the net HIV-specific lysis curve (AUC), lytic units (LU20), and linear regression (LR) of net HIV-specific lysis. RESULTS HIV-1 nef-, pol- and gag-specific CTL activity (AUC method) was significantly higher in subjects with a plasma viral load 30,000 RNA copies/ml. When plasma viral load was analyzed as a continuous variable, there was a strong correlation between higher CTL activity and lower viral load for nef (r2 = .77; p < .001), pol (r2 = .63; p < .001) and gag (r2 = 0.75; p < .001) targets by the AUC, but not for the LU20 analysis. Using the LR analysis, which is less dependent on in vitro PBMC growth than the AUC analysis, an independent association was demonstrated between nef- and gag-specific CTL activity and lower viral load. Measurement of CTL activity was also significantly correlated with a higher percentage of circulating CD8+DR-CD38- T lymphocytes. CONCLUSIONS In this blinded study using an in vitro stimulation of frozen PBMC, higher HIV-1 nef-, pol-, and gag-specific CTL activity correlated with lower plasma viral load, particularly in patients with a CD4 count <500 cells/mm3. Two new statistical methods for estimating CTL activity, AUC and LR analyses, were superior to the standard lytic unit (LU20) method for demonstrating this correlation. These data also demonstrated that higher circulating CD8+ T lymphocytes with a DR-CD38-phenotype, correlate with a lower plasma viral and load and higher HIV-specific CTL activity. This suggests that lymphocytes with this double-negative phenotype may include circulating HIV-specific CD8+ CTL.
The Effect of Profile Contouring on Secondary Flow Structures in Low Pressure Turbines

Research aimed at reducing weight and improving efficiency of low pressure turbines has led to the design of highly loaded blades. These blades typically have higher endwall losses due to increased blade spacing and higher pressure gradients that strengthen secondary vortex structures. The present study focuses on the effects of profile contouring spanwise blade shape variations used to manipulate dominant vortex structures such as the passage vortex and suction side horseshoe vortex. With the goal of improved efficiency from reducing total pressure loss across the passage, the study aims to determine the effect of various profile contours on the secondary flow field and underlying physics. Experiments were conducted in the Air Force Research Laboratory Low Speed Wind Tunnel Facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Data includes surveys of total pressure, velocity, and surface flow visualizations through the passage. Measurements are focused on the aft portion of the passage where the passage vortex interacts with the blade suction surface. These measurements confirmed correlations between losses and Reynolds shear stress components. Deformation work is also seen to correlate well with total pressure loss.
Twenty years of lower extremity venous stenting experience

eight patients (n1⁄428), mean age 57.1 years (25-84), were included. IRB approved retrospective chart review was conducted. Primary patency interval is defined as time from BMS placement to first intervention (stenosis or occlusion) involving the BMS. Assisted patency is defined as patency following one or more interventions. Assisted patency interval is defined as time from BMS placement to last known radiographic follow-up. Mean follow-up was 40 months with a median follow-up was 34.8 months (5.1–105.2 mo). Patency rates were calculated with Kaplan Meier time-dependent survival analyses were performed using MedCalc software. Results: CVOs were encountered in the brachiocephalic vein in 20 patients (71%) and the subclavian vein in 7 patients (25%). One obstruction (4%) required extensive stenting involving portions of the SCV, BCV, and SVC. Median interval from BMS placement to first follow-up was 3.0 months (0.2-17.8 mo). Mean number of follow-up studies per patient year was 4.2 with a median of 3.2 (1.0-11.3). Kaplan Meier survival analysis demonstrates primary patency rates at 6 and 12 months of 56% and 22%, respectively, with median patency of 6.0 months. Assisted patency rates at 6, 12, 24, 36, and 48 months are 96%, 89%, 68%, 64%, and 48%, with median patency of 47 months. Mean number of endovascular interventions per patient year was 1.84 (0-4.2). No procedural complications were reported. Conclusions: Long term patency after BMS placement for symptomatic central venous obstructions for hemodialysis access salvage can be achieved with adequate follow-up and maintenance. Limitations include retrospective study design and loss of some patients to follow up.
Intestinal methane production is associated with decreased weight loss following bariatric surgery

To determine whether methane and hydrogen on breath test affects weight loss after bariatric surgery, 156 subjects (pre-surgery BMI ≥33) were recruited ≥4 months after surgery. Pre- and post-surgery weights and BMIs were recorded. Post-surgery methane and hydrogen levels were determined. % total weight loss and % change in BMI were prorated to six months after surgery. M+/H+ subjects (N=13) exhibited lower prorated % change in BMI vs. all other subjects (N=144) (p=0.13), and significantly lower prorated % total weight loss (p=0.036). These findings may suggest that subjects with positive breath methane and hydrogen lose less weight following bariatric surgery.
Chaboche-based cyclic material hardening models for 316 SS–316 SS weld under in-air and pressurized water reactor water conditions ☆ ☆☆

Abstract This paper discusses a material hardening models for welds made from 316 stainless steel (SS) to 316 SS. The model parameters were estimated from the strain-versus-stress curves obtained from tensile and fatigue tests conducted under different conditions (air at room temperature, air at 300 °C, and primary loop water conditions for a pressurized water reactor). These data were used to check the fatigue cycle dependency of the material hardening parameters (yield stress, parameters related to Chaboche-based linear and nonlinear kinematic hardening models, etc.). The details of the experimental results, material hardening models, and associated calculated results are published in an Argonne report (ANL/LWRS-15/2). This paper summarizes the reported material parameters for 316 SS–316 SS welds and their dependency on fatigue cycles and other test conditions.
Notes on Indigenous Feminism Post-Testimonial

Chapter 2 contextualizes Indigenous women’s expression through a comparative lens between Latin American Indigenous and Native American feminism of recent years. The chapter begins with a conceptualization of the theoretical framework and practices espoused by the protagonists and members of the feminist community in both regions. Based on their words, we hear their views on identity formation, the process of becoming conscious of self in relation to one’s social, ethnic, gender, and economic affiliation. Asserting their gendered cultural identity, they emerge as subjects in their own narrative plots and history.
Thinking in Education: Introduction to the Second Edition

If there is any institution that can legitimately claim to be worldwide, it is probably the school. However different the cultures may be, the schools resemble one another remarkably. The system of education they provide is founded on the presupposition that children go to school to learn. They learn basic skills, like reading, writing, and arithmetic proficiencies. And they learn content, like geography, history, and literature. A cynical commentator once observed that human beings invented speech in order to conceal their thoughts. The same observer might have added that they send their children to school to learn in order to keep them from thinking. If so, it is a tactic that has had only limited success. Children are not easily prevented from thinking. Indeed, it is often the case that our most cherished recollections of our school years are of those moments when we thought for ourselves – not, of course, because of the educational system, but in spite of it. Yet there has always been a strand of educational thought that held that the strengthening of the child's thinking should be the chief business of the schools and not just an incidental outcome – if it happened at all. Some have argued in this way because they thought that the schooling of future citizens in democracy entailed getting them to be reasonable and that this could be done by fostering children's reasoning and judgment.
Hierarchical Clustering of Tractography Streamlines Based on Anatomical Similarity

Diffusion MRI tractography produces massive sets of streamlines that contain a wealth of information on brain connections. The size of these datasets creates a need for automated clustering methods to group the streamlines into anatomically meaningful bundles. Conventional clustering techniques group streamlines based on their spatial coordinates. Neuroanatomists, however, define white-matter bundles based on the anatomical structures that they go through or next to, rather than their spatial coordinates. Thus we propose a similarity metric for clustering streamlines based on their position relative to cortical and subcortical brain regions. We incorporate this metric into a hierarchical clustering algorithm and compare it to a metric that relies on Euclidean distance, using data from the Human Connectome Project. We show that the anatomical similarity metric leads to a \(20\,\%\) improvement in the agreement of clustering results with manually labeled tracts, without introducing prior information from a tract atlas into the clustering.
Discussion: Archaeologists as storytellers

When Mary and Adrian Praetzellis asked if I would be the discussant for their Storytellers ses sion, I must admit that I had certain doubts whether they could pull it off. After all, few of us have been taught creative writing, although we write at times in certain "creative" ways, but that is a different matter. But by the time the session ended, any reservations I may have held had completely vanished. The papers were uniformly excellent, and did no violence to the data on which they were based. I can honestly say that this was the first session that I have ever at tended at any conference during which I did not look at my watch at least once or twice. The concluding presentation, "A Connecticut Merchant in Chinadom," authored by Adrian and Mary, was the crowning touch. Not only was it enter taining as well as informative, it raised in my mind questions that I think we all might give some thought to as we go about our business. In short, what is it that we do, and why do we do it? Simply put, archaeologists are storytellers. It is our responsibility to communicate to as wide an audience as possible the results and signifi cance of our findings. Now any account of the past, whether based on excavated materials or documents, is a construction. When it comes to understanding life as it was in the 17th-century Chesapeake, I would give equal credence to John Barm's (1987) The Sot-Weed Factor as to any site report. Barth did his homework: "[my] ear lier novels had taken me a half year each to write. I reckoned this one [The Sot-Weed Factor] might take as long as two years. It took four, of immersion in The Archives of Maryland and other documents and studies of American Colo nial history" (Barth 1987:vi). The same may be said for other works of fiction of a similar genre; certain novels by Andre Brink and T. Coraghessan Boyle come immediately to mind. Even a work as outrageous as Roy Lewis's (1994[1960]) The Evolution Man, described by one reviewer as a cross between Kafka and Monty Python, can inform us about the past. When I cotaught introductory archaeology with the late Glyn Isaac, he would regularly read aloud passages from Lewis's book, and I have used it very recently in my introductory anthro pology course. The Storytellers session sent a clear message, that it is possible to convey our findings in an engaging fashion, and that there is ample room for us to change our style of writing. In a way, by having the courage to craft their presentations as they did, the participants demonstrated just that. I have made timid use of a narrative style both in Flowerdew Hundred and in In Small Things Forgotten, but only in introductory pas sages; Noel Hume is a master of this kind of writing, and it probably is not coincidental that he also has authored works of fiction.
SAR based sea current estimation in the Naples coastal area

Feasibility of derivation of sea surface currents from SAR images has been already shown in several experiments. To our knowledge no examples are provided with reference to sites such as Mediterranean coastal areas where the sea surface currents are characterized by lower intensities. In this work we investigate the possibility to exploit SAR data in the coastal area around Naples where archives of regularly acquired data are available.
Abstract A011: Tissue profiling reveals lifelong specialization of dendritic cell subsets in humans

Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) are a rare population of cells that sense the environment and whose major role is in initiating and controlling T cell immunity. The purpose of this study was to generate a map of cDC subset distribution and function over human life, which could serve as a framework for understanding and manipulating adaptive immunity. Current DC-based cancer therapies utilize DCs derived from blood monocytes, whose function may differ from tissue cDCs. We hypothesized that analysis of cDC dynamics in human tissues could uncover a hitherto uncharacterized division of labor between cDC subsets that could facilitate the development of more refined DC-based immunotherapies. To achieve this goal, we used flow cytometry and fluorescence imaging to investigate cDC frequency, maturation, migration and clustering in human peripheral and lymphoid tissues obtained from 60 healthy organ donors aged 3 months to 93 years. Utilizing a robust phenotyping scheme that combines well-established (CD1c, CD141) and tissue-optimized (CD13, CD64) markers, we were able to distinguish plasmacytoid DCs, CD14+ monocytic cells, and two cDC subsets in 14 different tissues. Frequency analysis revealed that anatomical (e.g. vascularization) and functional (e.g. antigen presentation) factors influenced tissue DC profiles, with blood-rich tissues such as lung and bone marrow dominated by CD14+ cells, and lymphoid tissues including lymph nodes (LNs) and gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT) enriched for CD13hi CD141+ cDC1. Parallel analysis of mucosal tissues and their draining LNs revealed that CD1c+ Sirp-α+ cDC2 displayed a propensity to undergo maturation, accumulating in T cell-rich clusters near LN B cell follicles. In contrast, cDC1 were mostly immature, and sporadically dispersed in LN T cell zones. cDC2 maturation varied between tissues, with the lung-draining LNs containing a higher proportion of mature cDC2 and larger cDC2 clusters. While cDC1 maturation was also slightly higher in the lung-draining LN, this was not associated with significant changes in cDC1 clustering. Remarkably, these maturation and migration patterns were sustained over at least 8 decades of life, shedding new light on the dynamic foundations of adaptive immunity in humans. Together, these results reveal a lifelong division of labor between human cDC subsets, with cDC1 continuously surveying T cell zones, and cDC2 patrolling peripheral tissues, dynamically maturing and aggregating in draining LN T cell-B cell border zones, where they are uniquely poised to coordinate adaptive immunity. Citation Format: Tomer Granot, Takashi Senda, Dustin Carpenter, Donna L. Farber. Tissue profiling reveals lifelong specialization of dendritic cell subsets in humans [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; 2016 Sept 25-28; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A011.
The effect of aldehyde structure on pyrolysis reactions

Abstract The thermal decomposition of gas-phase isovaleraldehyde, (CH3)2CHCH2CHO, and pivaldehyde, (CH3)3CCHO, was studied in the 1270–1470 K range to determine the effect of alkyl chain structure on the decomposition mechanism of aliphatic aldehydes. Pyrolysis was performed with a pulsed hyperthermal nozzle and the products were identified via matrix-isolation Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The products of isovaleraldehyde pyrolysis were carbon monoxide, isobutene, water, 3-methyl-1-butyne, isopropylketene, vinyl alcohol, propene, acetaldehyde, acetylene, propyne, methane, ethylene, and ketene. The products of pivaldehyde pyrolysis were carbon monoxide, isobutene, propene, acetaldehyde, acetylene, propyne, methane, ethylene, and ketene. The reduced number of products from pivaldehyde, as compared to isovaleraldehyde, is due to the fully branched chain structure of the pivaldehyde backbone. The differences between the results for isovaleraldehyde and pivaldehyde lend support to the proposed reactions occurring early in the pyrolysis mechanism. However, the presence of acetylene, propyne, methane, ethylene, and ketene cannot easily be explained and points to the need for further exploration of the mechanisms.
Cortical Spreading Depression Promotes Persistent Mechanical Sensitization of Intracranial Meningeal Afferents: Implications for the Intracranial Mechanosensitivity of Migraine

Migraine is one of the most common and disabling diseases in the world. A major feature of migraine headache is its aggravation by maneuvers that momentarily increase intracranial pressure. A key hypothesis implicates mechanical sensitization of trigeminal afferents that innervate the intracranial meninges in mediating this feature of migraine. However, whether such pain-related neural response actually develops under endogenous conditions that are linked specifically to migraine remains to be established. Single-unit recordings in the trigeminal ganglion of anesthetized male rats were combined with quantitative mechanical stimulation of the cranial dura mater to determine whether cortical spreading depression (CSD), an endogenous migraine-triggering event, affects the mechanosensitivity of meningeal afferents. CSD gave rise to an almost threefold increase in the magnitude of the responses to mechanical stimuli in 17 of 23 of the afferents tested. CSD-evoked meningeal afferent mechanosensitization occurred with a delay of 23.1 ± 2.2 min and lasted 64.1 ± 6.8 min in recording sessions that lasted for 90 min and for 177.5 ± 22.1 min in recording sessions that were extended for 240 min. Some of the sensitized afferents also developed a shorter-lasting increase in their ongoing discharge rate that was not correlated with the increase in their mechanosensitivity, suggesting that CSD-evoked meningeal afferent sensitization and increase in ongoing activity are independent phenomena. These novel findings support the notion that mechanical sensitization of meningeal afferents serves as a key nociceptive process that underlies the worsening of migraine headache during conditions that momentarily increase intracranial pressure.
How cryptology went commercial

The "arms race" between code-makers and code-breakers has existed for thousands of years, dating back to the Babylonians. Legend has it, for example, that Julius Caesar used a simple cipher that shifted each letter in the alphabet by three places: A was replaced by D, B was replaced by E and so on. Over the next two millennia, various advances in code-making and code-breaking techniques shifted the balance of power back and forth between code-makers and code-breakers. Nearly every major advance in code-making led to the belief that the new code was "unbreakable". Eventually, however, an ingenious way of breaking the code would be devised – with disastrous consequences for those who refused to contemplate the possibility that their codes were, in fact, breakable.
Inducible pluripotent stem cells and pulmonary arterial hypertension: the future is now!

The pulmonary circulation is responsible for directing venous (low-oxygen) blood to the gas exchange regions of the lung, where oxygen uptake takes place before arterial (oxygen-rich) blood leaves the heart via the systemic circulation. Compared to the systemic circulation, the pulmonary circulation is a low-pressure/low resistance system that maximizes the amount of venous blood entering the lungs through the pumping action of the right ventricle. However, disorders associated with abnormal increase in pressure and/or resistance can adversely affect the capacity of the right ventricle to pump blood into the lungs and reduce the oxygen content in arterial blood. This is the case with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a rare but life-threatening disorder associated with abnormally increased pulmonary pressures and right heart failure (1). Despite the availability of 14 FDA approved therapies, none are capable of curing PAH, likely due to their inability to prevent progression and/or reverse vascular pathology. Therefore, there is an unmet need to understand the pathological mechanism involved in pulmonary vascular remodeling and use this knowledge to test novel approaches to treat the disease.
Abstract TMP66: Sex Disparity in Stroke Quality of Care in a Community-Based Study

Introduction: Studies have suggested that women may receive lower quality of care (QOC) than men, although population-based studies are lacking. We investigated sex disparities in QOC in the Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi Project. Methods: All ischemic stroke patients admitted to one of six Nueces County community hospitals between Feb 2009 and Jun 2012 were prospectively identified. Data regarding compliance with seven performance measures (PMs) were extracted from the medical records. A composite score of QOC representing the number of achieved PMs over all patient-appropriate PMs was calculated. Multivariable models with generalized estimating equations assessed the association between sex and the composite score and between sex and individual PMs. Models were adjusted for hospital clustering, age, and ethnicity, while the model assessing composite score was also adjusted for insurance status, education, pre-stroke functional status (Rankin 0-2), initial NIH stroke scale score, and comorbidity index. Results: Compared to men, women were older (median age 72 vs 65), less likely to have a pre-stroke Rankin 0-2 (69% vs 83%), and less likely to identify as married/living together (38% vs 61%). Results for the association of sex with individual PMs are shown below. Women were less likely to receive DVT prophylaxis at 48 hours, an antithrombotic at 48 hours, and to be discharged on an antithrombotic. Women were less likely to be discharged on a cholesterol medication, although this finding was of borderline significance. Women had a lower composite score (mean difference -0.030, 95% CI -0.057 to -0.003). Conclusions: In this population-based study, women had a lower overall stroke QOC, although absolute differences in most individual PMs were small. Further investigation into the factors contributing to the gender disparity in guideline-concordant stroke therapy should be pursued.
Infrequent Non-speech Gestural Activity Recognition Using Smart Jewelry: Challenges and Opportunities for Large-Scale Adaptation

Wearable Body Area Network (BAN) based activity recognition is one of the fastest growing research areas in activity recognition and context reasoning. However, wearable physical sensor based Infrequent Non-Speech Gestural Activity (IGA) recognition is not well studied problem because IGAs are not directly observable from BAN sensor devices. Due to the recent proliferation of smart jewelries capable of monitoring locomotive and physiological signals from certain specific human body positions which are currently hitherto impossible to measure by traditional fitness and smart wristwatch devices opens up unprecedented research and development opportunities in anatomical gestural activity recognition. Inspired by this, we propose a new wearable smart earring based framework which is capable of differentiating IGAs in a daily environment with a single integrated accelerometer sensor. The natural gestures associated with the first portion of the human alimentary canal, i.e., human mouth can broadly be categorized in two types; frequent (talking, silence etc.) or infrequent (coughing, deglutition, yawning) gestures. Infrequent Gestural Activities (IGAs) help create an abrupt but distinct change in accelerometer sensor signal streams of an earring pertaining to specific activities. Mining and classifying the abrupt changes in sensor signal streams require high sampling frequency which in turn depletes the limited battery life of any smart ornaments. Extending the battery life of smartened designer jewelry requires probing those devices less which in turn prohibits of achieving high precision and recall for non-frequent gestural activity discovery and recognition. In this book chapter, we propose a novel data segmentation technique that harnesses the power of change-point detection algorithm to detect and quantify any abrupt changes in sensor data streams of smart earrings. This helps to distinguish between frequent and infrequent gestural acclivities at a high precision with a low sampling frequency, energy, and computational overhead. Experimental evaluation on one real-time and two publicly available benchmark datasets attests the scalability and adaptation of our techniques for both IGAs and postural activities in large-scale participatory sensing health applications.
Telomere-Mediated Chromosomal Truncation for Generating Engineered Minichromosomes in Maize

Minichromosomes have been generated in maize using telomere-mediated truncation. Telomere DNA, because of its repetitive nature, can be difficult to manipulate. The protocols in this unit describe two methods for generating the telomere DNA required for the initiation of telomere-mediated truncation. The resulting DNA can then be used with truncation cassettes for introduction into maize via transformation. © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Keywords: minichromosomes; telomere-mediated truncation; telomere cloning
An Adaptable and Secure Intelligent Smart Card Framework for Internet of Things and Cloud Computing

Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing paradigm is a next wave in the era of digital life and in the field of Information and Communication Technology. It has been understood from the literature that integration of IoT and cloud is in its infantile phase that has not been extended to all application domains due to its inadequate security architecture. Hence, in this paper, a novel, adaptable, and secure intelligent smart card framework for integrating IoT and cloud computing is proposed. Elliptic Curve Cryptography is used to ensure complete protection against the security risks. This model ensures security and realizes the vision of “one intelligent smart card for any applications and transactions” anywhere, anytime with one unique ID. The performance of the proposed framework is tested in a simulated environment and the results are presented.
Automatic boundary evolution tracking via a combined level set method and mesh warping technique: application to hydrocephalus

Hydrocephalus is a neurological disease which causes ventricular dilation due to abnormalities in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation. Although treatment via a CSF shunt in the brain ventricles has been performed, poor rates of patient responses continue. Thus, to aid surgeons in hydrocephalus treatment planning, we propose a geometric computational approach for tracking hydrocephalus ventricular boundary evolution via the level set method and a mesh warping technique. In our previous work [1], we evolved the ventricular boundary in 2D CT images which required a backtracking line search for obtaining valid intermediate meshes. In this paper, we automatically detect the ventricular boundary evolution for 2D CT images. To help surgeons determine where to implant the shunt, we also compute the brain ventricle volume evolution for 3D MR images using our approach.
Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity at the Bedside

However much the history of the relationship between physician and patient has been that of the “silent world” that Jay Katz describes [2], that world is increasingly being impacted by a cacophony of voices in the present day. Whether basic communication and mutual understanding is actually increasing remains debatable. But endless discussions and reflections, in the clinical and bioethics literature, in the popular media, in courses and seminars for students and practitioners of health care, in rooms where team members or ethics committees meet, and at the bedside, are occurring, particularly concerning the appropriate response to chronic, terminal and devastating disease. And such discussions are not just between physicians as in the past; all members of the health care team, ethics consultants and committees, as well as patients and their families, are increasingly attempting to have their voices heard.
Using a half-implicit integration scheme for the SPH-based solution of fluid–solid interaction problems

Abstract A Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics (SPH) method for fluid dynamics is coupled with a rigid and deformable body dynamics solution to yield a framework for solving fluid–solid interaction (FSI) problems. The two-way, force–displacement, coupling of the fluid and solid phases is captured via boundary condition enforcing (BCE) markers. The partial differential equations governing each phase are discretized in space separately and the resulting ordinary and/or algebraic differential equations are integrated in time independently with coupling enforced via fluid–solid boundary conditions. Particular attention is paid to enforcing fluid incompressibility via a projection step that computes the pressure field as the solution of a linear system. The numerical solution leverages hybrid parallel computing: the rigid and flexible body dynamics is handled on the CPU using multiple cores; at the same time, the fluid phase is handled on the graphics processing unit (GPU). The methodology is validated against experimental data and numerical results obtained using two open-source solvers. Several case studies are reported to gauge the accuracy, efficiency, and scalability of the solver. The highlights of the proposed solution are: tight enforcement of fluid incompressibility; ability to handle coupled physics that combines fluid, rigid, and deformable bodies; ability to handle friction and contact; and, scalable implementation that simultaneously employs CPU and GPU computing.
When (and When Not) to Make Exceptions: Links among Age, Precedent Setting Decisions, and Argument Evaluation.

AbstractNegative precedents are set when, in the absence of mitigating conditions, social rules are not enforced by relevant authorities. This study examined the effects of normative (i.e., to enfo...
Dynamical charge susceptibility in the Hubbard model

We compute the dynamical charge susceptibility in the two-dimensional Hubbard model within the dynamical cluster approximation. In order to understand the connection between charge susceptibility and pseudogap, we investigate the momentum, doping, and temperature dependence. We find that as a function of frequency, the dynamical charge susceptibility is well represented by a single peak at a characteristic frequency. It shows little momentum or temperature dependence, while the doping dependence is more evident, and no clear signature of the pseudogap is observed. Data for the doping evolution of the static susceptibility and for fluctuation diagnostics are presented. Our susceptibilities should be directly measurable in future Momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy experiments.
Discharge Modes Observed in Plasmas Sustained in Focused Microwave Beams

Plasma discharges are sustained in the focus of a continuous, high-power microwave beam. The experimental design minimizes interactions between the chamber walls and both the microwave beam and the resulting discharges so as to approximate free-space conditions. Discharges were generated by a multikilowatt, 4.7-GHz CW microwave beam at pressures ranging from 100 to 200 mtorr. The CW source enabled the evolution of the plasma-beam system to be observed over time scales ranging from seconds to hours. A variety of discharge behaviors are observed depending on the conditions (power, pressure, and gas composition) within the chamber. The observed discharges can be classified into three discharge modes: unstable, stable, and quasi-stable. Here, we present observations and a preliminary analysis of the various discharge modes observed in the experiment.
Accurately weighing neutrinos with cosmological surveys

A promising avenue to measure the total, and potentially individual, mass of neutrinos consists of leveraging cosmological datasets, such as the cosmic microwave background and surveys of the large-scale structure of the Universe. In order to obtain unbiased estimates of the neutrino mass, however, many effects ought to be included. Here we forecast, via a Markov chain Monte Carlo likelihood analysis, whether measurements by two galaxy surveys, DESI and Euclid, when added to the CMB-S4 experiment, are sensitive to two effects that can alter neutrino-mass measurements. The first is the slight difference in the suppression of matter fluctuations that each neutrino-mass hierarchy generates at fixed total mass. The second is the growth-induced scale-dependent bias of haloes produced by massive neutrinos. We find that near-future surveys can distinguish hierarchies with the same total mass only at the $1\ensuremath{\sigma}$ level; thus, while these are poised to deliver a measurement of the sum of neutrino masses, they cannot significantly discern the mass of each individual neutrino in the foreseeable future. We further find that neglecting the growth-induced scale-dependent bias induces up to a $1\ensuremath{\sigma}$ overestimation of the total neutrino mass, and we show how to absorb this effect via a redshift-dependent parametrization of the scale-independent bias.
Coronavirus-Related Anxiety, Social Isolation, and Loneliness in Older Adults in Northern California during the Stay-at-Home Order

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of and associations between anxiety, social isolation, and loneliness in a sample of older adults in Northern California during the stay-at-home order enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. 514 older adults completed a 24-item survey. Perceived isolation and loneliness were reported in 56.4% and 36.0% of participants, respectively. Loneliness was found to be associated with both social isolation and COVID-19-related anxiety; however, social isolation and coronavirus-related anxiety were unrelated. Healthcare providers, social service providers, and families are encouraged to maintain or increase contact with older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.