cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Yeast-Growth-Promoting Effect of Diaminocarboxylic Acid Derived from Biotin.∗

SummaryThe diaminocarboxylie acid resulting from the hydrolysis of the urea ring of biotin is capable of stimulating the growth of yeast in a biotin-free medium. The compound possesses about 10% of the activity of biotin. The yeast-growth-promoting activity of the diaminocarboxylic acid is not inhibited by avidin.
Investigation of a pre-clinical mandibular bone notch defect model in miniature pigs: clinical computed tomography, micro-computed tomography, and histological evaluation.

OBJECTIVES To validate a critical-size mandibular bone defect model in miniature pigs. MATERIALS AND METHODS Bilateral notch defects were produced in the mandible of dentally mature miniature pigs. The right mandibular defect remained untreated while the left defect received an autograft. Bone healing was evaluated by computed tomography (CT) at 4 and 16 weeks, and by micro-CT and non-decalcified histology at 16 weeks. RESULTS In both the untreated and autograft treated groups, mineralized tissue volume was reduced significantly at 4 weeks post-surgery, but was comparable to the pre-surgery levels after 16 weeks. After 16 weeks, CT analysis indicated that significantly greater bone was regenerated in the autograft treated defect than in the untreated defect (P=0.013). Regardless of the treatment, the cortical bone was superior to the defect remodeled over 16 weeks to compensate for the notch defect. CONCLUSION The presence of considerable bone healing in both treated and untreated groups suggests that this model is inadequate as a critical-size defect. Despite healing and adaptation, the original bone geometry and quality of the pre-injured mandible was not obtained. On the other hand, this model is justified for evaluating accelerated healing and mitigating the bone remodeling response, which are both important considerations for dental implant restorations.
Evaluation and analysis of Mid-Depth currents of the equatorial pacific using ARGO float position information

The paper evaluated and analyzed the mid-depth currents of equatorial Pacific using the Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography (ARGO) float position information, which has been carried out a rigorous quality control scheme and error evaluation. We evaluated and analyzed the mid-depth currents form 2003 to 2005 to draw the following conclusions:(1) Mindalao eddy, North Equatorial Counter Current (NECC) and South Equatorial Current (SEC) in mid-depth currents can be identified clearly in most time, but North Equatorial Current (NEC) was week, sometime can not be identified. (2) Mindalao eddy, NECC and SEC were provided with obvious seasonal variation. Commonly, they were the weakest in February and March and the strongest in August and September in a year. (3) Mindalao eddy, NECC and SEC were provided with obvious annual variation. (4) NECC can be divided into two embranchments. One located in the eastern of equatorial Pacific, which principal axis was lied at about 7 ～ 8°N, another located in the western of equatorial Pacific, which principal axis was lied at about 3°N.
MINIMAL VARIATION OF DEFECT STRUCTURE DUE TO THE ORDER OF ROOM TEMPERATURE HYDROGEN ISOTOPE IMPLANTATION AND SELF-ION IRRADIATION IN NICKEL

The formation and stability of radiation-induced defects in structural materials in reactor environments significantly effects their integrity and performance. Hydrogen, which may be present in significant quantities in future reactors, may play an important role in defect evolution. To characterize the effect of hydrogen on cascade damage evolution, in-situ TEM self-ion irradiation and deuterium implantation was performed, both sequentially and concurrently, on nickel. This paper presents preliminary results characterizing dislocation loop formation and evolution during room temperature deuterium implantation and self-ion irradiation and the consequence of the sequence of irradiation. Hydrogen isotope implantation at room temperature appears to have little or no effect on the final dislocation loop structures that result from self-ion irradiation, regardless of the sequence of irradiation. Tilting experiments emphasize the importance of precise two-beam conditions for characterizing defect size and structure.
Community mental health and mental retardation services in the United States: a comparative study of resource allocation.

OBJECTIVE Preliminary studies suggest that during the 1980s, spending for community mental retardation services in the United States may have grown much more rapidly than spending for community mental health. The primary objective of this study was to test empirically the validity of this thesis on a national basis. An additional objective was to determine why such a distinction in community spending patterns might have evolved nationally. METHOD The study used states as the units of analysis and employed a five-factor hierarchical regression to predict variance in mental health and mental retardation spending. Factors were state size, state wealth, degree of federal assistance, state civil rights activity, and strength of consumer advocacy groups. Strong roles for the civil rights and consumer advocacy factors were hypothesized. A collateral opinion survey in the 10 states exhibiting the greatest within-state difference in community mental health and mental retardation spending was also completed. RESULTS Community mental retardation spending grew nearly four times more rapidly than community mental health spending in the 1980s. The consumer advocacy and civil rights factors were strongly associated with spending for community mental retardation services in the states, but these factors did not predict spending for community mental health services. CONCLUSIONS Study recommendations included strengthening mental health family and consumer advocacy groups in the states and promoting systematic exchange between the mental health and mental retardation fields through joint state planning initiatives, studies, and conferences. The need for Medicaid reform is a unifying theme in both the mental health and mental retardation fields.
Fam210b Is Required for Optimal Cellular and Mitochondrial Iron Uptake during Erythroid Differentiation

Abstract Red cells synthesize large quantities of heme during terminal differentiation. Central to erythropoiesis is the transport and trafficking of iron within the cell. Despite the importance of iron transport during erythroid heme synthesis, the molecules involved in intracellular trafficking of iron are largely unknown. In a screen for genes that are up-regulated during erythroid terminal differentiation, we identified FAM210B, a predicted multi-pass transmembrane mitochondrial protein as an essential component of mitochondrial iron transport during erythroid differentiation. In zebrafish and mice, Fam210b mRNA is enriched in differentiating erythroid cells and liver (fetal and adult), which are tissues that require large amounts of iron for heme synthesis. Here, we report that FAM210B facilitates mitochondrial iron import during erythroid differentiation and is essential for hemoglobin synthesis. Zebrafish are anemic when fam210b is silenced using anti-sense morpholinos (Fig. A). CRISPR knockout of Fam210b caused a heme synthesis defect in differentiating Friend murine erythroleukemia (MEL) cells. PPIX levels in Fam210b deficient cells are normal, demonstrating that Fam210b does not participate in synthesis of the heme tetrapyrrole ring. Consistent with this result, supplementation of Fam210b deficient MEL cells with either aminolevulinic acid, the first committed substrate of the heme synthesis pathway or a chemical analog of protoporphyrin IX failed to chemically complement the heme synthesis defect. While Fam210b was not required for basal housekeeping heme synthesis, Fam210b deficientcells showed defective total cellular and mitochondrial iron uptake during erythroid differentiation (Fig. B). As a result, Fam210b deficient cells had defective hemoglobinization. Supplementation of Fam210b-/- MEL cells with non-transferrin iron chelates restored erythroid differentiation and hemoglobin synthesis; whereas, similar chemical complementation could not be achieved in the Tmem14c-/- cells, which have a primary defect in tetrapyrrole transport. (Fig. C). Our findings reveal that FAM210B is required for optimal mitochondrial iron import during erythroid differentiation for hemoglobin synthesis. It may therefore function as a genetic modifier for mitochondriopathies, anemias or porphyrias. Download : Download high-res image (64KB) Download : Download full-size image Figure 1 . Disclosures Bauer: Biogen: Research Funding; Editas Medicine: Consultancy. Orkin: Editas Inc.: Consultancy.
Circumventing Diffusion in Kinetically Controlled Solid-State Metathesis Reactions.

Solid-state diffusion is often the primary limitation in the synthesis of crystalline inorganic materials and prevents the potential discovery and isolation of new materials that may not be the most stable with respect to the reaction conditions. Synthetic approaches that circumvent diffusion in solid-state reactions are rare and often allow the formation of metastable products. To this end, we present an in situ study of the solid-state metathesis reactions MCl2 + Na2S2 → MS2 + 2 NaCl (M = Fe, Co, Ni) using synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. Depending on the preparation method of the reaction, either combining the reactants in an air-free environment or grinding homogeneously in air before annealing, the barrier to product formation, and therefore reaction pathway, can be altered. In the air-free reactions, the product formation appears to be diffusion limited, with a number of intermediate phases observed before formation of the MS2 product. However, grinding the...
Twin studies in pharmacogenetics.

Since Galton introduced the twin method in 1875 to study the nature-nurture problem (Galton, 1875), the use of twins to identify the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to phenotypic variation among human beings has experienced marked shifts in popularity as a genetic instrument or tool. The initial successes of the twin technique in providing answers to questions concerning the role of genetic factors in the maintenance of large phenotypic variations, as well as the accessibility of twins and the ease of analyzing them rapidly for many traits, led to indiscriminate applications of the twin method. In the 1940’s this misuse caused population geneticists, such as Neel and Schull (1954), to condemn the twin approach entirely. Neel and Schull pointed to erroneous conclusions drawn from ill-conceived twin studies on Down’s syndrome and spina bifida, which indicated mainly genetic control of these disorders. Such mistakes arose due to ascertainment bias, i. e., preferential reporting in the medical literature of concordant rather than discordant twins. Furthermore, the advent of molecular biology in the late 1940’s produced our current theories on regulation of gene expression and these ideas seem to run counter to the underlying tenets of the twin method. Such theories require intimate participation by the cytoplasm or environment both in transcription, where, repressors derived from the cytoplasm regulate the rate of structural gene activity, and in translation of genetic information on the ribosome, where amino acid availability in the cytoplasm modulates rates of nascent polypeptide chain formation and release.
Technical Note: Improving the computational efficiency of sparse matrix multiplication in linear atmospheric inverse problems

Abstract. Matrix multiplication of two sparse matrices is a fundamental operation in linear Bayesian inverse problems for computing covariance matrices of observations and a posteriori uncertainties. Applications of sparse-sparse matrix multiplication algorithms for specific use-cases in such inverse problems remain unexplored. Here we present a hybrid-parallel sparse-sparse matrix multiplication approach that is more efficient by a third in terms of execution time and operation count relative to standard sparse matrix multiplication algorithms available in most libraries. Two modifications of this hybrid-parallel algorithm are also proposed for the types of operations typical of atmospheric inverse problems, which further reduce the cost of sparse matrix multiplication by yielding only upper triangular and/or dense matrices.
397. Correction of the Dystrophin Gene By the CRISPR/Cas9 System in a Mouse Model of Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a monogenic and fatal genetic disorder characterized by muscle wasting, loss of ambulation, and death by the age of 20 due to the loss of functional dystrophin – an essential musculoskeletal protein. Gene therapy has held promise for treating monogenetic diseases, however, delivery barriers and the requirements for costly repetitive treatments are a few of the challenges of technologies in the therapeutic pipeline. Recently, the CRISPR/Cas9 system has been adapted for genome editing to make specific modifications in the host genome. This technology would enable permanent genome corrections and a potentially curative approach to DMD.Previously we adapted CRISPR/Cas9 for targeted deletions of regions of the human dystrophin gene that restore expression of a functional protein (Ousterout et al., Nature Communications (in press)). The delivery of Cas9 with single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) targeting the introns surrounding exons 51 and 45-55 created double strand breaks which are repaired through non-homologous end joining to create genomic deletions of these regions. These deletions restored the reading frame and recovered dystrophin expression in cultured patient-derived myoblasts. Therapeutically, this approach could be used to convert the fatal DMD phenotype to the milder phenotype associated with partial dystrophin function characteristic of Becker muscular dystrophy.Here we utilize adeno-associated virus (AAV) to deliver the CRISPR/Cas9 system to the mdx mouse model of DMD. AAV vectors were designed to package and deliver genes encoding the Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 (SaCas9), due to its smaller size (3.2 kb) compared to the widely used Cas9 from Streptococcus pyogenes. Two single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) were designed to target sites flanking exon 23 of the dystrophin gene and validated to direct SaCas9-mediated deletion of this exon, which contains a premature stop codon in this model. Mice were anesthetized and AAV1 containing the SaCas9 and sgRNA expression cassettes was injected into the gastrocnemius muscle of 8 week old mice. At 4 and 8 weeks post-injection, the gastrocnemius was harvested and genomic DNA and mRNA were extracted. PCR of the genomic DNA demonstrated the expected ~1200 bp deletion of exon 23. Further, RT-PCR of the extracted mRNA showed removal of the 216 bp encoding exon 23. Furthermore, sgRNAs compatible with SaCas9 have been developed and validated for the deletion of human exon 51.This work demonstrates proof-of-principle of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing in skeletal muscle in an adult mammal, opening up new possibilities for gene therapy and the study of gene function. Optimization of delivery and activity is underway to improve the therapeutic potential of this approach. Additional work to characterize functional improvement in the mouse hind limb is also ongoing. This work establishes CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing as a potential therapeutic approach to DMD.
Outcome of Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma in the VA Health System: Do We Need To Do Better?.

Abstract Background: Diffuse Large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the commonest subtype of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL). Data on outcome of DLBCL in large cohorts of patients or community practices outside clinical trials are lacking. Treatment and outcomes of DLBCL among the VA patients have not been reported previously. We utilized the VA Central Cancer Registry to study cases of DLBCL in the VA system. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis. The VA Central Cancer Registry (VACCR) database was used to identify patients with DLBCL diagnosed between 1995 and 2005. There are approximately 120 VA medical centers diagnosing and/or treating patients with cancer. The VACCR aggregates the data collected by the medical centers' cancer registries. Data were extrapolated and analyzed using bio-statistical software SPSS. Variables included age, sex, stage of disease, histology subtype, date of diagnosis, date of last contact, date of relapse, vital status, whether patients received chemotherapy and or radiation. Results: There were 2792 patients with DLBCL at the VACCR between 1995 and 2005, 2402 were white, 323 black patients, and 67 patients from other racial groups. The mean age at diagnosis was to 65. Majority were males (2721 patients). More patients were diagnosed at advanced stage (stage III and IV) (40%), in 34% of cases stage was not known or missing. IPI score data were not available. Most patients received multi-agent chemotherapy 70%, and 20% of patients received radiation (31 % in early stage and 12% in late stage). The 5-year overall survival was 28%. 5 year OS was 41% for stage I, 32% for stage II, 25% for stage III and 17% for stage IV. Using Cox regression multivariable analysis age and use of mutli-agent chemotherapy were the only statistically significant independent variables affecting survival. Conclusions: Outcome of DLBCL in VA patients seems inferior to what is reported in clinical studies. The age of patients treated in the VA as well as sex could be factors affecting the outcome. There are no data available on outcome of DLBCL in such large cohort of patients outside context of clinical trials to make meaningful comparisons.
Classifying smartphone-based accelerometer data to obtain validated measures of subject activity status, step count, and gait speed

Background: The ubiquitous spread of smartphone technology throughout global societies offers an unprecedented opportunity to ethically obtain long-term, highly accurate measurements of individual physical activity. For example, the smartphone intrinsic 3-D accelerometer can be queried during normal phone operation to save time series of acceleration magnitudes (in each of the component directions) for near-real time or post processing. Objective: We describe simple, straightforward algorithms (based on windowed Fourier analysis) for accelerometer data quality control and behavioral classification. Methods: To maximize the clinical utility of our classifications, we focused on differentiating the following conditions: forgotten phone, subject resting, low physical activity, high physical activity. We further differentiated high physical activity into epochs of walking and climbing stairs, and further quantified walking to infer step count and gait speed. Results: We validated these algorithms in 75 individuals, in both laboratory (treadmill) and naturalistic settings. Our algorithm performance was quite satisfactory, with accuracies of 92-99% for all behavioral categories, and 87-90% for gait metrics in naturalistic settings. Conclusions: We conclude that smartphones are valid and accurate platforms for measuring day-to-day physical activity in ambulatory, community dwelling individuals.
Policy Implications and Research Recommendations: A Review of Hookah Use Among US College Students.

The rate of Hookah use among college students during the last decade is about 30%. Although college students perceive hookah use as a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes, hookah use increases the risk of disease and nicotine dependence, and therefore remains an area of concern. Presently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has little regulation for the manufacture, distribution, or sale of hookah. This review attempts to assess empirical literature relating to hookah use while focusing on the consequences for regulatory policy. PubMed (including MEDLINE 2010-2017), PsycINFO, EBSCO, Scopus (Elsevier) databases were examined to pinpoint articles published in English. The following terms were used in the searches: Hookah or Waterpipe or nargile or "arghile" or "shisha" or "hubble bubble" or "alternative tobacco product" or "flavored tobacco". Hookah use may initiate smoking among tobacconaive college students. College students who use hookah are generally not aware of the increased risks for tobacco related diseases as it relates to their behavior. In addition, few public health messages target college-age adults with anti-hookah messages. A lack of information regarding the dangers and potential harms of hookah use may be misinterpreted as a sign of "safety" which inadvertently may imply a suggestion of no need for safety measures. Hence, a research agenda that would inform about health policy actions has been proposed.
Life cycle costing with a discount rate

This article studies life cycle costing for a capability needed for the indefinite future, and specifically investigates the dependence of optimal policies on the discount rate chosen. The two costs considered are reprocurement cost and maintenance and operations (M and O) cost. The procurement price is assumed known, and the M and O costs are assumed to be a known function, in fact, a non-decreasing function, of the time since last reprocurement. The problem is to choose the optimum reprocurement time so as to minimize the quotient of the total cost over a reprocurement period divided by the period. Or one could assume a discount rate and try to minimize the total discounted costs into the indefinite future. It is shown that the optimum policy in the presence of a small discount rate hardly depends on the discount rate at all, and leads to essentially the same policy as in the case in which discounting is not considered.
Using Propensity Score Weighting to Reduce Selection Bias in Large-Scale Data Sets:

Data sets from large-scale longitudinal surveys involving young children and families have become available for secondary analysis by researchers in a variety of fields. Researchers in early interv...
The Evidence for and Against Parathyroid Cryopreservation: Should We Continue to Promote Parathyroid Cryopreservation?

Permanent hypoparathyroidism is a rare, yet life-altering complication of thyroid and parathyroid surgery. However, the advent of parathyroid cryopreservation, and subsequent autotransplantation of parathyroid tissue, revolutionized the management of this devastating complication. However, cryopreservation of parathyroid tissue is not widely performed due to the rarity of utilization, the potential high costs, and need for specialized expertise. Furthermore, studies have shown that the viability of the parathyroid tissue is diminished after 2 years, raising more debate about need for cryopreservation. In this chapter, we evaluate data justifying and contradicting the practice of parathyroid cryopreservation.
Geriatric comanagement and surgical outcomes of older cancer patients.

10035Background: Perioperative Geriatric Comanagement may improve surgical outcomes of older frail cancer patients. We present our 3 year experience with perioperative geriatric comanagement & the ...
Formalizing Hoare Logic in PVS

We formalize a Hoare logic for the partial correctness of while programs in PVS and prove its soundness and relative completeness. We use the PVS higher-order logic to define the syntax and semantics of a small imperative programming language, and describe a proof system for Hoare triples involving programs in this language. We prove the soundness of the proof system by demonstrating that only valid triples are provable. We also demonstrate the relative completeness of the proof system by defining the weakest liberal precondition operator and using it to prove that all valid Hoare triples are provable modulo the assertion logic. Finally, we verify a verification condition generator for Hoare logic Variants of Hoare logic have been formalized before in PVS and using other interactive proof assistants. We use Hoare logic as a tutorial exercise to illustrate the effective use of PVS in capturing the syntax and semantics of embedded logics. The embedding of Hoare logic is simple enough to be easily reproduced by the reader, but it also illustrates some of the nuances of formalization and proof using PVS, in particular, and higher-order logic, in general.
World Health Organization‐defined eosinophilic disorders: 2012 update on diagnosis, risk stratification, and management

Disease overview: The eosinophilias encompass a broad range of nonhematologic (secondary or reactive) and hematologic (primary, clonal) disorders with potential for end-organ damage. Diagnosis: Hypereosinophilia has generally been defined as a peripheral blood eosinophil count greater than 1,500/mm3 and may be associated with tissue damage. After exclusion of secondary causes of eosinophilia, diagnostic evaluation of primary eosinophilias relies on a combination of morphologic review of the blood and marrow, standard cytogenetics, fluorescent in situ-hybridization, flow immunocytometry, and T-cell clonality assessment to detect histopathologic or clonal evidence for an acute or chronic myeloid or lymphoproliferative disorder. Risk stratification: Disease prognosis relies on identifying the subtype of eosinophilia. After evaluation of secondary causes of eosinophilia, the 2008 World Health Organization establishes a semimolecular classification scheme of disease subtypes including “myeloid and lymphoid neoplasms with eosinophilia and abnormalities of PDGFRA, PDGFRB, or FGFR1,” chronic eosinophilic leukemia, not otherwise specified' (CEL, NOS), lymphocyte-variant hypereosinophilia, and idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES), which is a diagnosis of exclusion. Risk-adapted therapy: The goal of therapy is to mitigate eosinophil-mediated organ damage. For patients with milder forms of eosinophilia (e.g., <1,500/mm3) without symptoms or signs of organ involvement, a watch and wait approach with close-follow-up may be undertaken. Identification of rearranged PDGFRA or PDGFRB is critical because of the exquisite responsiveness of these diseases to imatinib. Corticosteroids are first-line therapy for patients with lymphocyte-variant hypereosinophilia and HES. Hydroxyurea and interferon-alpha have demonstrated efficacy as initial treatment and steroid-refractory cases of HES. In addition to hydroxyurea, second line cytotoxic chemotherapy agents and hematopoietic cell transplant have been used for aggressive forms of HES and CEL with outcomes reported for limited numbers of patients. Although clinical trials have been performed with anti IL-5 (mepolizumab) and anti-CD52 (alemtuzumab) antibodies, their therapeutic role in primary eosinophilic diseases and HES has yet to be established. Am. J. Hematol. 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
"Rational" Models and Values in Contentious Situations: A Case Study of a University Budgeting Process

This paper describes the value-laden and contentious budgeting process in a large university system in the southeastern US. Budgets are computed using the “Flying Horse Model,” based on historical enrollment in terms of semester credit hours, a “productivity factory” for faculty in each college and national average salary by college. The model is intended to make the process more “rational” and outcomes more equitable. A new version of this model is being developed following the knowledge management system design principles of Richardson, et al. (in press) which emphasize ethical issues. The model also illustrates new decision support software designed to enhance communication among stakeholders by better visualization of model results.
Validity Evidence Supporting Use of Anchoring Vignettes to Measure Teaching Practice

ABSTRACTHigh-quality measures of instructional practice are essential for research and evaluation of innovative instructional policies and programs. However, existing measures have generally proven...
Redox-active polymers (redoxmers) for electrochemical energy storage

Polymer redox-active materials (redoxmers) have numerous applications in the emerging electrochemical energy storage systems due to their structural versatility, fast-cycling ability, high theoretical capacity as electrode materials, sustainability, and recyclability. This review examines recent developments in improving the cycling performance of such materials and provides a vista on the future research directions.
Diverse dechlorinators and dechlorination genes enriched through amendment of chlorinated natural organic matter fractions

In uncontaminated environments, chlorinated natural organic matter (Cl-NOM) can act as an electron acceptor for organohalide-respiring bacteria. It is unknown, however, whether different types of Cl-NOM are preferentially dechlorinated or whether enrichment with Cl-NOM affects the ability of bacteria to dechlorinate contaminants. In this research NOM was extracted from sediment, fractionated based on hydrophobicity, and either amended to polychlorinated biphenyl-contaminated soil directly or chlorinated and then amended to soil. Amendments of the least hydrophobic Cl-NOM fraction were dechlorinated most rapidly, followed by the moderately hydrophobic Cl-NOM fraction. Soil that had been enriched on the moderately hydrophobic fraction of Cl-NOM was also capable of faster dechlorination of the contaminants trichloroethene and tetrachlorobenzene. Community analysis of the soil during enrichment showed that some known organohalide-respiring bacteria were present and may have played a role in dechlorination; nevertheless, many bacteria appeared to be enriched during both Cl-NOM and contaminant dechlorination. In addition, the quantities of two haloalkane dehalogenase genes increased during enrichment on Cl-NOM. These results show for the first time that Cl-NOM can prime contaminant dechlorination and also suggest that hydrolytic dechlorination processes were involved in both Cl-NOM and contaminant dechlorination.
Education Truly Matters: Key Lessons from Mexico’s Educational Reform for Educating the Whole Child

Mexico’s 2012–2018 federal administration launched an extensive educational reform whose main goal was to transform its large and complex education system, so as to prepare students to successfully face twenty first century challenges. The assumption being that, by providing them with the tools they need to succeed in this rapidly changing world, Mexico will in turn become prosperous, fair and free. It entailed rethinking the conceptualization and structure of the system, and involved profound transformations in its organizational, budgetary, technical, pedagogical and administrative spheres, with quality and equity as guiding principles. Two disruptive innovations –which steered the process– stand out: teachers’ appraisals and the new national curriculum. About this curriculum, three, of several salient features, discussed in this chapter, are: its learning outcomes’ structure, which effectively articulate twelve of the fifteen grades of compulsory education; the introduction, from PreK to12th grade, of socioemotional learning; and curricular autonomy as a means to achieving pedagogical innovations in schools. Unfortunately, this reform defied deeply rooted uses and habits of various stakeholders and treaded on many political interests, which resulted in a convoluted process that has threatened its consolidation. The new president campaigned against the reform. It is still uncertain what policies would continue.
Ghost imaging second harmonic generation microscopy

Second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy is useful for visualizing interfaces and sub-structures within a wide range of materials due to the propensity for SHG to occur in non-centrosymmetric environments. However, since SHG is a nonlinear process generally necessitating small focal sizes for higher peak powers, a raster scanning approach is usually needed to build an SHG image over a significant sample size. While raster scanning is effective, there is a cost in terms of the time needed to acquire the image and, also, some materials cannot withstand the higher optical intensities within the small focal volume. In order to address this, we describe a SHG microscopy approach based on ghost imaging (GI), which enables imaging data to be collected in parallel rather than sequentially as in raster scanning techniques. We experimentally demonstrate the approach and combine GI-SHG with compressive sensing to make further substantial gains in reducing the amount of sampling required for image reconstruction. Furthermore, GI-SHG is shown to have significant advantages for imaging in highly scattering environments, partly because GI is a background-free approach requiring spatial correlations between photons that travel two paths, with one path entirely devoid of sample interaction. This basic property of GI means that only the photons that travel unimpeded through the sample preserve the spatial correlations needed to reconstruct the image, while more scattered photons do not contribute to the overall GI signal. Finally, we compare the image quality and sampling properties of three different reconstruction algorithms used for compressive sensing.
Response to commentaries on ‘Expressivism at the beginning and end of life’

I appreciate all of the commentaries for their careful and thoughtful engagement with my article. Because of limited space, I can only focus on some criticisms and cannot develop my responses as fully as I would like. This is probably best for the reader anyway. John Keown worries about the ‘dualism’ of the third objection against expressivism. By this I think he means that critics of the expressivist argument at the beginning of life view a certain class of human beings as ‘non-persons’ and therefore not worthy of protection (‘dualism’ thus refers to two classes of human beings). Obviously, a pro-life stance will take issue with classifying the unborn as non-persons, as defenders of selective abortion and other biotechnologies do, but I did not think it relevant to get into the weeds on this issue. Keown claims that the worrisome dualism views those with intellectual disabilities, whether ‘newborns or adults’, as non-persons who lack a right not to be killed. However, I do not think defenders of either selective abortion or assisted suicide are committed to this. Many would insist (whether they are justified in doing this is another matter) that once you are born, you are a person and therefore cannot …
Dynamics of emotion, problem solving, and identity: Portraits of three girl coders

: Women are underrepresented in the field of computer science, a trend that in part can be traced to girls’ early experiences with the discipline. : Our aim is to show how three girls who became st...
Partners in Narrative: Empowering Patient-Physician Partnerships in the Electronic Health Record.

Amidst the chorus of valid laments about the electronic health record (EHR) are voices calling our attention to its potential to enhance transmission of information, patient communication, and deci...
“Others are more vulnerable to fake news than I Am”: Third-person effect of COVID-19 fake news on social media users

Abstract Fake news have pervaded the social media landscape during the COVID-19 outbreak. To further explore what contributed to fake news susceptibility of social media users, the research 1) integrated a widely-adopted mass communication theory of third-person perception (TPP) with digital disinformation; 2) examined users’ social media engagement and individual characteristics toward risk as antecedents of TPP; and lastly, 3) tested TPP of fake news under a context of COVID-19 outbreak, an uncertain situation flooded with baseless news and information. An online survey was conducted on 871 respondents via Amazon Mechanical Turk. As a result, we found that in the context of COVID-19, social media engagement 1) directly increased TPP; and 2) indirectly increased TPP via self-efficacy and perceived knowledge. However, negative affect failed to mediate a positive relationship between communal engagement and TPP, as the respondents rated themselves more attentive to fake news than are others. Therefore, the fact that social media directly and indirectly provoked higher TPP implicates that a potential harm of social media is not confined to a rumor mill that propagates false stories, as widely recognized, but can further extend to an echo chamber to cultivate a slanted belief that he or she is fake-news-proof.
Changing attitudes through interactive learning: The impact of teaching total quality management on students’ everyday lives

Education delivers concepts and principles to students over their course of study and positively impacts their personal development. This research explores student perceptions of the influence of a...
Obergefell, Masterpiece Cakeshop, Fulton, and Public-Private Partnerships: Unleashing v. Harnessing 'Armies of Compassion' 2.0?

Fulton v. City of Philadelphia presented a by-now familiar constitutional claim: recognizing civil marriage equality—the right of persons to marry regardless of gender—inevitably and sharply conflicts with the religious liberty of persons and religious institutions who sincerely believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. While the Supreme Court’s 9-0 unanimous judgment in favor of Catholic Social Services (CSS) surprised Court-watchers, Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion did not signal consensus on the Court over how best to resolve the evident conflicts raised by the contract between CSS and the City of Philadelphia. This article argues that it is productive and illuminating to compare such conflicts over public-private partnerships and the best understanding of pluralism in a constitutional democracy with controversies arising twenty years ago over the faith-based initiative launched by President George W. Bush with the blueprint, Rallying the Armies of Compassion. That initiative also rested on premises about the place of religion in the public square and the role of civil society in carrying out governmental purposes. In both contexts, concerns over “discrimination” took two forms: first, that religious entities who contract with government might be subject to governmental discrimination in not receiving funding and, second, that religious entities who contract with government might themselves engage in discrimination. This article evaluates how the parties and their amici in Fulton argued over these forms of discrimination. It highlights how, in doing so, they enlisted or rejected analogies between race and sexual orientation discrimination—and between objections to interracial marriage and same-sex marriage—that were powerful, pervasive, and contested in Obergefell v. Hodges and Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission but scarcely featured in Roberts’ Fulton opinion.
Cingulo-opercular and Cingulo-parietal Brain Networks Functional Connectivity in Pre-adolescents: Multiplicative Effects of Race, Ethnicity, and Parental Education

Introduction A growing body of research has shown a diminished association between socioeconomic status (SES) indicators and a wide range of neuroimaging indicators for racial and ethnic minorities compared to majority groups. However, less is known about these effects for resting-state functional connectivity between various brain networks. Purpose This study investigated racial and ethnic variation in the correlation between parental education and resting-state functional connectivity between the cingulo-opercular (CO) and cingulo-parietal (CP) networks in children. Methods This cross-sectional study used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study; we analyzed the resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rsfMRI) data of 8,464 American pre-adolescents between the ages of 9 and 10. The main outcome measured was resting-state functional connectivity between the CO and CP networks calculated using rsfMRI. The independent variable was parental education, which was treated as a nominal variable. Age, sex, and family marital status were the study covariates. Race and ethnicity were the moderators. Mixed-effects regression models were used for data analysis, with and without interaction terms between parental education and race and ethnicity. Results Higher parental education was associated with higher resting-state functional connectivity between the CO and CP networks. Race and ethnicity both showed statistically significant interactions with parental education on children's resting-state functional connectivity between CO and CP networks, suggesting that the correlation between parental education and the resting-state functional connectivity was significantly weaker for Black and Hispanic pre-adolescents compared to White and non-Hispanic pre-adolescents. Conclusions In line with the Minorities' Diminished Returns theory, the association between parental education and pre-adolescents resting-state functional connectivity between CO and CP networks may be weaker in Black and Hispanic children than in White and non-Hispanic children. The weaker link between parental education and brain functional connectivity for Blacks and Hispanics than for Whites and non-Hispanics may reflect racism, racialization, and social stratification that collectively minimize the returns of SES indicators, such as parental education for non-Whites, who become others in the US.
American Pipe Dreams: More on Class Action Tolling

This article analyzes the issues and arguments in the March 2018 Supreme Court appeal in China Agritech, Inc. v. Resh, on appeal from the Ninth Circuit. In the underlying class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that a fertilizer manufacturer and seller in China violated provisions of the Securities Exchange Act. The Supreme Court will decide whether an absent class member can bring a subsequent class action after the statute of limitations has expired. The Court will decide this in the context of the Court’s class action tolling provisions first articulated in American Pipe and Construction Co. v. Utah (1974).
Adaptive Control Strategies for Distillation Columns

The performance of a multivariable self-tuning controller (STC) has been evaluated via a simulation study of two distillation columns. The self-tuner is based on Koivo's approach (1980), but it can be applied to systems which contain multiple time delays and/or multirate sampling. The effects of important design parameters are illustrated by the simulation results.
Dual detection of Legionella pneumophila and Legionella species by real-time PCR targeting the 23S-5S rRNA gene spacer region.

Although the majority of cases of Legionnaires’ disease (LD) are caused by Legionella pneumophila, an increasing number of other Legionella species have been reported to cause human disease. There are no clinical presentations unique to LD and hence accurate laboratory tests are required for early diagnosis. Therefore, we designed a real-time PCR assay that targets the 23S-5S rRNA intergenic spacer region (23S-5S PCR) and allows for detection of all Legionella species and discrimination of L. pneumophila from other Legionella species. In total, 271 isolates representing 50 Legionella species were tested and the assay was validated using 39 culture-positive and 110 culture-negative patient specimens collected between 1989 and 2006. PCR-positive results were obtained with all 39 culture-positive samples (100% sensitivity). Specimens that tested positive according to 23S-5S PCR, but were culture-negative, were further analysed by DNA sequencing of the amplicon or the macrophage infectivity potentiator (mip) gene. In addition to L. pneumophila, Legionella longbeachae, Legionella cincinnatiensis and Legionella micdadei were identified in the specimens. The assay showed a 7-log dynamic range displaying a sensitivity of 7.5 CFU/mL or three genome equivalents per reaction. Sixty-one specimens containing viruses or bacteria other than Legionellae were negative according to 23S-5S PCR, demonstrating its specificity. Use of this assay should contribute to the earlier detection of respiratory disease caused by Legionella species, as well as to increased rates of detection.
High-efficiency heteroepitaxial InP solar cells

High-efficiency, thin-film one-sun and concentrator InP solar cells grown on GaAs substrates are discussed. A novel, compositionally graded heterostructure is used to grow high-quality InP layers. One-sun cells have AM0 efficiencies as high as 13.7% at 25 degrees C (equivalent to 15.7% under the global spectrum). For the concentrator cells at 25 degrees C a peak conversion efficiency of 18.9% under 71.8 AM0 suns has been achieved. Under the direct spectrum, the equivalent efficiency is 21.0% at 88.1 suns. At 80 degrees C, the peak AM0 efficiency is 15.7% at 75.6 suns. Temperature coefficient data for the concentrator cells are also presented. Approaches for further improving the cell performance are discussed. >
Personal Selling & Sales Management Abstracts

(1990). Personal Selling & Sales Management Abstracts. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management: Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 57-61.
Controlling a plant invader by targeted disruption of its life cycle

Summary 1. Pest management strategies should be informed by research on a broad suite of biotic and abiotic interactions. We used a life table response experiment (LTRE) to assess the reliability of ragwort Jacobaea vulgaris management recommendations based on interactions of (i) time of disturbance to initiate experimental units, (ii) herbivory from two biological control organisms, the cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae and ragwort flea beetle Longitarsus jacobaeae and (iii) interspecific competition by perennial grasses. 2. Our LTRE combines a factorial experiment with a linear, deterministic matrix model for ragwort populations representing transitions among three stages: 1st year juveniles, ≥2nd year juveniles and adults. Elasticity analysis identified potentially vulnerable ragwort transitions, and a contributions analysis confirmed which treatments influenced these transitions. Ultimate treatment effects were quantified as the reduction in population growth rates and time to local extinction. 3. Elasticity analyses found the ragwort’s biennial pathway, juvenile to adult transition and fertility transition were most influential and most amenable to manipulation across all community configurations. The flea beetle and perennial grass competition had negative effects on survival and fertility, whereas the cinnabar moth only reduced fertility and induced the perennial pathway. 4. All combinations of insects or increased plant competition reduced the growth rate of ragwort. Full interspecific competition and the flea beetle resulted in a significantly greater and faster decline in the ragwort populations than the cinnabar moth. Moreover, this pattern was consistent between two times of initial disturbance. 5.Synthesis and applications. Maximizing plant competition provides the fastest way to control ragwort. If this option is unavailable, for example, grazed or disturbed land, the ragwort flea beetle provides excellent management to lower ragwort densities without the potential nontarget effects of the cinnabar moth. Factorial experiments and matrix models help to evaluate interacting factors that influence invasive species’ vulnerabilities, inform how to intervene in a weed life cycle to reduce weed abundance and confirm recommendations that are robust to community variation.