cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Inheritance of 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase inhibitor herbicide resistance in an Amaranthus tuberculatus population from Iowa, USA

Waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) J.D. Sauer) is a weed prevalent in the Midwest United States and can cause yield losses up to 74% in maize (Zea mays L.) and 56% in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). An important adaptive trait commonly found in waterhemp is the ability to evolve herbicide resistance and waterhemp populations have evolved resistance to six herbicide sites of action. In 2011, two waterhemp populations were discovered resistant to p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate-dioxygenase (HPPD, EC 1.13.11.27) inhibitor herbicides. We reciprocally crossed a known HPPD-resistant waterhemp population with a known HPPD-susceptible waterhemp population and then intermated the F1 families to established a pseudo-F2 generation. We challenged the parent, F1 and pseudo-F2 generations against four HPPD-inhibiting herbicide rates (mesotrione). Our results suggest the HPPD-resistance trait is polygenic. Furthermore, the number of genes involved with the herbicide resistance increase at higher herbicide rates. These data indicated at least one dominant allele at each major locus is required to confer HPPD herbicide resistance in waterhemp. Using different waterhemp populations and methodologies, this study confirms the reported "complex" HPPD resistance inheritance while providing new information in the response of HPPD-resistant waterhemp to HPPD herbicides.
The Cultural Milieu of Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) and His “Musique De Tous Les Jours”

The cultural climate in France, particularly in Paris, from the turn of the century to the years surrounding World War I, has often been described as kaleidoscopic. The divergent trends present in every facet of the fine arts are difficult to classify and categorize, because of their mutual interconnections and influence as well as the constant fluctuations of style and purpose within themselves. The visual arts saw the development of such trends as Fauvism, Cubism and Dadaism, while in poetry, Symbolism was the most important style. In music, Wagner and his philosophies had exerted a strong influence over most of Europe in the late nineteenth century, and this force was still present in the early decades of the twentieth century. Bridging the gap between Wagner’s romantic legacy and the avant-gardists of the early twentieth century were those composers known as Impressionists, such as Claude Debussy (1862–1918) and Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). Concurrently in France, in the midst of all these “isms,” there existed a more stable and perhaps even more realistic institution: the world of French popular culture. In the early years of the twentieth century, certain younger composers began to react against some of the principles that the older generation of composers still clung to. There was a decided move away from the grandiose, blatantly romantic gestures associated with Wagner and his romantic legacy, and also a move away from the vagueness and dreaminess of the Impressionistic style.
Plasma Apolipoproteins and Lipoprotein Receptors

Developments over the past several years have made it possible to describe in considerable detail most of the steps involved in the metabolism of the plama lipoproteins. These developments have been principally in the understanding of the nature and role of the apolipoproteins and the discovery and characterization of the tissue receptors for lipoproteins. A number of excellent reviews of these subjects have recently appeared (Schaefer et al., 1978a; Scanu and Landsberger, 1980; Brown et al., 1981).
Toxicity Testing of Nanomaterials

The large-scale production and consumer exposure to a variety of nanotechnology innovations has stirred interest concerning the health consequences of human exposure to nanomaterials. In order to investigate these questions, in vitro systems are used to rapidly and inexpensively predict the effects of nanomaterials at the cellular level. Recent advances in the toxicity testing of nanomaterials are beginning to shed light on the characteristics, uptake and mechanisms of their toxicity in a variety of cell types. Once the nanomaterials have been satisfactorily characterized, the evaluation of their interactions with cells can be studied with microscopy and biochemical assays. The combination of viability testing, observation of morphology and the generation of oxidative stress provide clues to the mechanisms of nanomaterial toxicity. The results of these studies are used to better understand how the size, chemical composition, shape and functionalization may contribute to their toxicity. This chapter will introduce the reader to the impact of nanomaterials in the workplace and marketplace with an emphasis on carbon-based and metal-based nanomaterials, which are most commonly encountered. While most purified carbon nanomaterials were nontoxic to many cell lines, many metal nanoparticles (e.g., silver or manganese) were more toxic. Other side- effects of nanoparticle interactions with cells can also occur, such as increased branching and dopamine depletion. Further investigation into the characteristics, uptake and mechanisms of nanomaterial toxicity will continue to elucidate this fascinating and rapidly growing area of science.
Comparison of BMI, waist circumference, and waist-to-height ratio for identification of subclinical cardiovascular risk in pediatric kidney transplant recipients.

Background Kidney transplant recipients are at high risk for CV morbidity. However, the measure of obesity that best predicts CV risk has not been established. Objective A prospective, controlled study was conducted to compare the ability of BMI, WC, and WHr to identify CV risk in pediatric kidney transplant recipients. Methods Transplant recipients, aged 3-20 years, had echocardiogram, CIMT, BMI, WC, WHr, blood pressure, lipids, and leptin measured. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to compare the ability of BMI, WC, and WHr to detect a composite adverse CV outcome. Presence of the composite outcome was defined by ≥3 of the following five criteria: (a) LVH, (b) high CIMT, (c) impaired myocardial strain, (d) dyslipidemia, and/or (e) hypertension. Multivariate analysis was conducted by generalized estimating equation regression. Results We analyzed 108 visits of 42 transplant recipients. Prevalence of obesity by WHr (43.5%) was higher than BMI (24.1%) and WC (12.0%). Proportion of WHr-obese who met criteria for the adverse CV outcome was higher (62.2%) than BMI (34.6%) and WC-obese (33.3%). Leptin levels were higher in children with obesity. Area under the ROC curve for WHr-obese (0.77) was higher compared to BMI (0.47) and WC (0.48) to detect the CV outcome, P = 0.0006. WHr-obesity was associated with 5.72 increased odds of having the adverse CV outcome, P = 0.0001, while BMI and WC were not significant. Conclusion WHr is more sensitive than BMI or WC to detect subclinical CV risk and should be included in screening of pediatric kidney transplant recipients.
Release from intraspecific competition promotes dominance of a non-native invader

Species can coexist through equalizing (similar fitness abilities) and stabilizing (unique niche requirements) mechanisms—assuming that intraspecific competition imposes more limitation than interspecific competition. Non-native species often de-stabilize coexistence, suggesting that they bring either a fitness advantage or a distinct niche requirement. We tested whether greater fitness or unique niche requirements best explained a successful North American invasion by the European Myrmica rubra ant. North American invaded-range M. rubra aggressively sting and occur in enormous numbers (suggesting a fitness advantage), yet our study site has a history of anthropogenic disturbance that might favor M. rubra (suggesting a unique niche). We compared M. rubra to native ants, principally the dominant North American woodland ant Aphaenogaster picea, using physiological health (lipids and size), monthly bait station surveys and aggression assays to assess fitness abilities, and we used nest surveys and isotope analysis to assess niche characteristics. We confirmed the field observations with laboratory experiments that tested colony aggression (direct competition) and food retrieval (indirect competition). In both the observational and experimental investigations, we found little evidence of M. rubra interspecific competitive advantage (aggression or food retrieval) or niche differentiation. Instead, M. rubra violated the basic assumption of coexistence theory: intraspecific competition consistently was less than interspecific competition. Freed up from the costs and limitations of territorial competition, some non-native species may outcompete native species by not competing with themselves. This ‘friendly release’ from intraspecific competition provides an ecological mechanism for some successful invasions.
Multisensory Imbalance and Presbystasis

Presbystasis, akin to presbycusis (age-related hearing loss) and presbyopia (age-related vision loss), is simply age-related loss of balance function. As the US population ages (the first baby boomers turned 65 in 2011), dizziness in the elderly is becoming an increasingly common complaint seen in primary care and specialty clinics. Dizziness and imbalance can have profound effects on quality of life in the elderly – affecting cognitive function, mobility, independence, and overall general health (Popp et al., J Neurol 264(3):554–63, 2017; Mueller et al., Qual Life Res 23(8):2301–8, 2014;Mueller et al., Eur J Pub Health 24(5):802–7, 2014; Kannus et al., JAMA 281(20):1895–9, 1999; Ciorba et al. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 274(3):1245–50, 2017).
Direct numerical simulations of hypersonic boundary-layer transition for a flared cone: fundamental breakdown

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) were carried out to investigate the laminar–turbulent transition for a flared cone at Mach 6 at zero angle of attack. The cone geometry of the flared cone experiments in the Boeing/AFOSR Mach 6 Quiet Tunnel (BAM6QT) at Purdue University was used for the simulations. In the linear regime, the largest integrated spatial growth rates (. Low grid-resolution simulations were carried out in order to identify the azimuthal wavenumber that led to the strongest growth rates with respect to the secondary instability for a fundamental and subharmonic resonance scenario. It was found that for the BAM6QT conditions the fundamental resonance is much stronger compared to the subharmonic resonance. Subsequently, for the case which led to the strongest fundamental resonance onset, detailed investigations were carried out using high-resolution DNS. The simulation results exhibit streamwise streaks of very high skin friction and of high heat transfer at the cone surface. Streamwise ‘hot’ streaks on the flared cone surface were also observed in the experiments carried out at the BAM6QT facility using temperature sensitive paint. The presented findings provide strong evidence that the fundamental breakdown is a dominant and viable path to transition for the BAM6QT conditions.
The Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center at Duquesne University and Phenomenology in North America

Phenomenology has been an important movement of thought at Duquesne University for many decades, especially in the Psychology and Philosophy Departments, but also in the Departments of Theology and Communication and Rhetorical Studies. The Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center was founded in 1980 as an expression and embodiment of Duquesne’s commitment to phenomenology. This chapter thus focusses on the history of phenomenology at Duquesne and the Silverman Center and also looks to the future of phenomenology at Duquesne and the Silverman Center.
Customizing droplet contents and dynamic ranges via integrated programmable picodroplet assembler

Droplet microfluidic technology is becoming increasingly useful for high-throughput and high-sensitivity detection of biological and biochemical reactions. Most current droplet devices function by passively discretizing a single sample subject to a homogeneous or random reagent/reaction condition into tens of thousands of picoliter-volume droplets for analysis. Despite their apparent advantages in speed and throughput, these droplet devices inherently lack the capability to customize the contents of droplets in order to test a single sample against multiple reagent conditions or multiple samples against multiple reagents. In order to incorporate such combinatorial capability into droplet platforms, we have developed the fully Integrated Programmable Picodroplet Assembler. Our platform is capable of generating customized picoliter-volume droplet groups from nanoliter-volume plugs which are assembled in situ on demand. By employing a combination of microvalves and flow-focusing-based discretization, our platform can be used to precisely control the content and volume of generated nanoliter-volume plugs, and thereafter the content and the effective dynamic range of picoliter-volume droplets. Furthermore, we can use a single integrated device for continuously generating, incubating, and detecting multiple distinct droplet groups. The device successfully marries the precise control and on-demand capability of microvalve-based platforms with the sensitivity and throughput of picoliter droplet platforms in a fully automated monolithic device. The device ultimately will find important applications in single-cell and single-molecule analyses.
The System is Unfair

I saw that patient once in the clinic and took care of him for 4 days when he was admitted for community acquired pneumonia. Patient has been complaining of his PCP not willing to prescribe him stronger pain medication. The Tylenol he is taking doesn’t really relieve the pain. He has tried physical therapy multiple times which doesn’t help with the pain. Since the laminectomy, the low back pain has been worse. He thinks that his PCP has been refusing to give him stronger pain medication because he is black. He thinks that doesn’t make any sense because he doesn’t have a history of illicit drug abuse, not even a smoker. He would like to switch PCP, his actual PCP is white, and he thinks if he has a PCP of color, maybe she/he can treat him better.
A Survey of Privilege Escalation Detection in Android

Google’s Android operating system struggles to provide sufficient protection to its users from its applications. When applications are not restricted in what they can access, malicious activity becomes possible. One such activity occurs when an application uses permissions the user did not grant it, thereby leading to privilege escalation attacks. In this paper, we highlight various methods used to perform privilege escalation, and identify some unusual methods in which privilege escalation may occur. We also offer several options currently available for investigators to detect privilege escalation, or vulnerabilities that could lead to privilege escalation, on Android devices.
Toward a theoretical structure to characterize early probabilistic thinking

The role of probability in curricula for children has fluctuated greatly over the past several decades. Recently, some countries have removed probability from their preschool and primary curricula, and others have retained it. One reason for such lack of agreement is that theory about early probability learning is still relatively new and under development. The purpose of this report is to sketch a tentative theoretical structure with the potential to anchor curricular decisions and inform further research on early probability learning. Toward that end, we begin by reviewing existing literature. We attend, in particular, to the probabilistic thinking tendencies exhibited by children whom researchers consider to be in the earliest stages of learning the subject. We then use these tendencies to posit two different cycles for early probabilistic thinking. One of these cycles is compatible with disciplinary norms and supports normative thinking; thinking tendencies in this normative compatible cycle include attending to the position of objects in a container, forming images of random generators, attending to the operation of random generators, and thinking about past experiences playing games of chance. Thinking tendencies in the other posited cycle lead to belief systems that conflict with normative disciplinary practice; these belief systems include elements such as myths, superstitions, animism, and determinism. We illustrate the two cycles using empirical data from design-based research. We then reflect on how the two cycles comprising our structure of early probabilistic thinking (SEPT) framework can provide a basis for further curricular and theoretical work.
Trauma in Pregnancy

The pregnant woman is at risk of trauma throughout pregnancy, the most common causes being motor vehicle accidents, falls and physical abuse. Trauma complicates about 6 to 7% of pregnancies, and 0.3 to 0.4% of pregnant women sustain traumatic injuries sufficient to require hospitalisation [1]. The most common cause of traumatic maternal death is head injury and foetal demise usually occurs secondary to maternal hypotension or placental abruption. A review of pregnant women admitted to three Level 1 trauma centres revealed a maternal mortality of 3%, and a foetus death of 15% [1]. Care of the severely injured pregnant patient requires a multidisciplinary approach involving the emergency physician, trauma surgeon, obstetrician, intensivist and neonatologist.
Tying It All Together: A Theory of Collective Production of Innovation to Inspire Future Research

Since we are interested in progressing research, we present a scholarly version of our theory of collective production of innovation in which innovating crowds consist of some participants willing to use their scant two posts to disaggregate their knowledge into creative associations of knowledge batons and others willing to take those knowledge batons and co-mingle them to stimulate creative discoveries. The disaggregation occurs as people break down their causal models, their coherent perspectives, their proposals of need-solution pairs into factual assumptions, short statements of ideas, and creative associations. Since crowds spend so little time contributing to the wicked problem, the more effective the crowd can be at eliciting each other’s disaggregated knowledge in a way that stimulates creative thought in a virtuous cycle, the more likely that the crowd will successfully produce an innovative solution. The implications for a new direction for research on innovation and new organizational forms are discussed.
Obstructive sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease: It is not how much we know but rather how much more we need to learn.

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) comprise a heterogeneous group of conditions characterized by abnormal respiration during sleep either as a result of alterations in the structure or quality of sle...
Primary Care Comprehensiveness and Care Coordination in Robust Specialist Networks Results in Lower Emergency Department Utilization: A Network Analysis of Medicaid Physician Networks.

Background: Care coordination is an essential and difficult to measure function of primary care. Objective: Our objective was to assess the impact of network characteristics in primary/specialty ph...
Digital Asset Market Evolution

The market for digital assets has evolved since its inception in 2009. Its rapid proliferation in 2016-18 was followed by significant downward corrections in 2018-19. The article evaluates the central stages of the evolution of the market in digital assets and their effects on market participants. It presents and compares market data for initial coin offerings, equity offerings, and initial exchange offerings in blockchain and digital asset startups. The author examines data trends and their underlying causes in the evolution of the market for digital assets. Particular emphasis is placed on the emerging market for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and its role in the evolution of digital assets. The article examines data to evaluate the feasibility of a DeFi market evolution in the decentralized market infrastructure environment of the early 2020s.
LITIGATING THE FREEWAY REVOLT: KEITH V VOLPE

THIS ARTICLE ANALYZES THE PRINCIPAL ISSUES RAISED IN THE SUIT BROUGHT TO HALT WORK ON THE PROPOSED CENTURY FREEWAY. THE MAJOR ISSUES CONCERNED ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS CREATED BY THE FREEWAY, THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE CORRIDOR AND DESIGN PUBLIC HEARINGS, AND THE ADEQUACY OF STATE RELOCATION HOUSING ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS AND PAYMENTS. THIS CASE IS A VALUABLE EXPOSITION OF THE MAJOR GROUNDS ON WHICH HIGHWAY PROJECTS ARE VULNERABLE TO CHALLENGE AND AN AFFIRMATION OF THE INCREASED WILLINGNESS OF THE FEDERAL COURTS TO ATTEMPT TO DEAL WITH THESE ISSUES THOROUGHLY AND REALISTICALLY. /AUTHOR/
"Sobriety equals getting rid of hepatitis C": A qualitative study exploring the interplay of substance use disorder and hepatitis C among hospitalized adults.

Abstract Background People who use drugs (PWUD) commonly experience complex illness, psychosocial stressors, housing insecurity, and stigma, which may play key roles in their struggles with addiction. In a study of hospitalized PWUD with hepatitis C virus infection (HCV), participants described treating HCV as “part of recovery.” These findings led us to explore how hospitalization and acute illness altered patients' perceptions of substance use disorder (SUD) and HCV. Methods Researchers audio recorded in-depth semi-structured individual interviews of 27 hospitalized adults with SUD and HCV seen by an addiction consult service (ACS) at an urban academic medical center between June and November 2019. Research staff transcribed interviews and dual coded them deductively and inductively at the semantic level. Researchers used a matrix visualization to discern relationships among codes and conducted a thematic analysis. Results Many participants believed addictions treatment should precede an HCV cure for varying reasons. Some wanted to avoid reinfection; others believed “getting clean” afforded the mental clarity to address health issues, including HCV. Patients newly engaged in SUD treatment described HCV treatment as a “step towards recovery” and could serve as motivation to continue SUD treatment. Participants believed HCV cure could facilitate sobriety by “mentally putting drugs in the past” and was a future-oriented action toward “better health.” Many participants described the compounded stigma of having HCV infection and SUD by multiple groups, including friends/family who do not use drugs, other drug users, and health care workers. Conclusion Hospitalized adults with SUD and HCV believed addictions engagement should precede HCV treatment and HCV cure could play an important role in their “recovery” journey. Discussing HCV treatment during hospitalization may be an opportunity to support engagement in SUD treatment and targets an untreated patient population critical for achieving HCV elimination.
Seasonal changes in temperate woody plant phloem anatomy and physiology: implications for long-distance transport

Seasonal changes in climate are accompanied by shifts in carbon allocation and phenological changes in woody angiosperms, the timing of which can have broad implications for species distributions, interactions and ecosystem processes. During critical transitions from autumn to winter and winter to spring, physiological and anatomical changes within the phloem could impose a physical limit on the ability of woody angiosperms to transport carbon and signals. There is a paucity of the literature that addresses tree (floral or foliar) phenology, seasonal phloem anatomy and seasonal phloem physiology together, so our knowledge of how carbon transport could fluctuate seasonally, especially in temperate climates is limited. We review phloem phenology focussing on how sieve element anatomy and phloem sap flow could affect carbon availability throughout the year with a focus on winter. To investigate whether flow is possible in the winter, we construct a simple model of phloem sap flow and investigate how changes to the sap concentration, pressure gradient and sieve plate pores could influence flow during the winter. Our model suggests that phloem transport in some species could occur year-round, even in winter, but current methods for measuring all the parameters surrounding phloem sap flow make it difficult to test this hypothesis. We highlight outstanding questions that remain about phloem functionality in the winter and emphasize the need for new methods to address gaps in our knowledge about phloem function.
The Enduring Revolution: Law and Theology in the Secular State

At least since the millennium, the observation that religion is pivotal in a rightly-ordered polity has been the most resilient insight in Western thought. By "pivotal," I mean that political theorizing has invariably located religion's ontological status and social dimensions at its core. So long as all political theorists were confessing Christians in profoundly Christian societies, this was inevitable. But the "pivot" was not altered by any "separation" of church and state. Instead, the pivot engendered this separation. The uniquely Western notion of two jurisdictions, including an autonomous temporal order of civil regulation, was produced entirely by Christian theological reflection. Eleventh-century ecclesiastical reformers, who inhabited an undifferentiated realm of sacralized kingship and worldly prelates, sought a more authentic Christianity by separating church from empire. Medieval history, frequently depicted as beset by theocratic regimes, was instead one long struggle by the church to free itself of royal domination. Religion has continued its pivotal role in modern history. The origins of the modern Anglo-American state can be traced to the English Civil War and subsequent theorizing about its political resolution. According to historian William Haller, the issue, then arbitrated by force, was "how, by whom, and to what ends the spiritual life of the community . . . was henceforth to be constituted and directed." "Toleration" emerged first as a prudential means of controlling the bloody effects of ineradicable pluralism. John Locke transformed this notion of toleration into a principle of the rightly-ordered society. But Locke himself held only certain religious excesses responsible for the blood-letting, namely, the libido dominandi of clerics and the sectarians' failure to distinguish the essential from the frivolous. For Locke, pan-Protestant Christianity remained the polity's civil theology and its determinant, which is why he excluded Catholics from the ambit of toleration.
An unusual case of renal Ewing sarcoma: A case report and review of literature

Abstract In this report, we present a rare case of renal EWS in a 47-year- old man who presented with complaints of hematuria and flank pain. On CT imaging a 7 cm lobulated mass was discovered. Suspecting malignancy, a radical nephrectomy was performed. Microscopic evaluation showed features consistent with a small round blue cell sarcoma. Immunohistochemical stains and FISH with positive EWSR1 translocation confirmed the diagnosis. An extensive review of literature in English language returned under 150 reports of renal EWS making it a rare entity with many differentials like rhabdomyosarcoma, neuroblastoma and desmoplastic small round cell tumor.
Examining layer height effects on the flexural and fracture response of plain and fiber-reinforced 3D-printed beams

Abstract A significant amount of work has focused on the development of concrete mixtures for digital manufacturing (3D printing), and their rheological and mechanical properties. However, for extrusion-based layered manufacturing, it is also important to select the appropriate printing parameters that have the potential to impact the performance of 3D printed elements. Among the many such parameters, this paper places emphasis on layer height, which has a direct bearing on rheology requirements, print quality, overall printing time, and interlayer bonding. Specifically, this paper examines the effects of layer height (5, 10, and 15 mm layer heights corresponding to 25, 50, and 75% of the nozzle diameter, which is 20 mm) on the flexural strength and fracture properties of 3D printed beams. Flexural and fracture properties indicate that smaller layer heights are beneficial for unreinforced and fiber-reinforced 3D printed mortars, even though this results in greater number of interfaces and longer printing times. A small amount of steel fiber reinforcement is shown to be useful in eliminating the negative effects of weak interfaces on the measured bulk properties, with average flexural strengths higher by 30–40% and fracture toughness and crack tip opening displacement higher by almost 30% as compared to plain mixtures. Strain energy release rates, digital image correlation, and optical images/micrographs are used to explain crack propagation in layered 3D printed mortars under unnotched four-point, and notched three-point bending.
Identification of Occupations Susceptible to High Exposure and Risk Associated With Multiple Toxicants: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2014

Background: According to the World Health Organization, occupational exposures to hazardous chemicals are estimated to cause over 370,000 premature annual deaths. The risks due to multiple workplace chemical exposures, and those occupations most susceptible to the resulting health effects, remain poorly characterized. The aim of this study is to identify occupations with elevated toxicant biomarker concentrations and increased health risk associated with exposure to combinations of toxicants in a working US population from diverse categories of occupation. Methods: For this observational study of 51,008 participants, we used data from the 1999-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We characterized differences in chemical exposures by occupational group for 129 chemicals by applying a series of generalized linear models with the outcome as biomarker concentrations and the main predictor as the occupational groups, adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, poverty income ratio, study period, and biomarker of tobacco use. We identified groups of occupations with similar chemical exposure profiles via hierarchical clustering. For each occupational group, we calculated percentages of participants with chemical biomarker levels exceeding acceptable health-based guidelines. Findings: Blue collar workers from “Construction”, “Other Services”, “Professional, Scientific, Technical Services”, “Real Estate, Rental, Leasing”, “Manufacturing”, and “Wholesale Trade” along with several unemployed groups have higher biomarker levels of toxic chemicals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, acrylamide, glycideamide, xylenes, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, tetrachloroethane, methyl tert-butyl ether, and benzene compared to their white-collar counterparts. For these toxicants, 1-58% of blue collar workers from these industries have chemical biomarker concentrations exceeding acceptable levels. Interpretation: Blue collar workers and several unemployed groups have toxicant levels higher relative to their white-collar counterparts, often exceeding acceptable levels associated with noncancer effects. Our findings identify multiple occupations to prioritize for targeted interventions and health policies to monitor and reduce high toxicant exposures in susceptible individuals. Funding Information: Ravitz Family Foundation, University of Michigan Forbes Institute for Cancer Discovery, Harvard Data Science Initiative, University of Michigan Center for Occupational Health and Safety Engineering, and National Institutes of Health (R01 ES028802, P30 ES017885, P30 CA046592, UG3 CA267907). Declaration of Interests: Drs. Nguyen, Colacino, Sartor, and Jolliet has nothing to disclose. At the time of the writing of the manuscript, Dr. Patel was a consultant and shareholder of XY.health. Dr. Patel is also paid by J&J.
Shea butter: Properties and processing for use in food

Abstract Traditionally harvested by millions of women from parkland-managed trees, across swathes of African savannah, shea butter is one of the most ancient edible vegetable oils. Consumed for millennia, its food use has been documented by famous explorers for centuries; presented to Ibn Battuta, during his mid-fourteenth century Malian travels, and Mungo Park recorded trade while tracking the Niger River during the late eighteenth century. With 200–500 thousand shea nut equivalent tons now exported annually from West Africa, shea has become the second largest natural source of symmetrical stearic-rich triacylglycerols. This chapter describes the species nomenclature, agronomy, production, processing, properties, and utilization of shea butter as the healthiest saturated fat ingredient for cocoa butter equivalents, ice cream, baking, margarines, and other edible and nonedible products.
Corporate America Needs Help with Collecting Electronically Stored Information: ASCLD/LAB International Should be Their Guide

In December of 2006, several amendments and additions were made to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. These changes put companies on notice that electronically stored information is considered evidence and must be handled in a systematic and non-destructive manner. For corporate America these changes translated to significant legal and financial risks. This article examines the risks and provides guidelines corporations can use to mitigate their exposure.
Effectiveness of using laserotherapy in the treatment of autoimmune thyreoiditis

With the aim to find out mechanism of low-intensive laser radiation (LILR) effect on autoimmune thyreoiditis (AIT) pathogenesis we have done researches at 30 Shinshilla ralbits with experimental AIT (EAIT). Laser radiation was done by the Mustang-Bio apparatus (Russia), the wavelength 0,89 mum, the power 5 Wt in impulse, the frequency 80 Hz, the exposition on thyroid gland projection for 30 sec., subvenous transcutaneous radiation of blood - 2 min every day, during 7 days. Studying of morphofunctional state of TG rabbits with EAIT in 14 and 70 days after laser therapy (LT) showed normalisation of Klein index, height of follicular epithelium and coefficient of functional activity restrain, and also practically all figures of main TG structural components relative volumes (RV). By studying cellular and humoral immunity, we found normalization of T-supressors and T-helper lymphocites thyroid hormone against decreasing of anti-thyroid anti-bodies
Crowdsourced Databases: Query Processing with People

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (\MTurk") service allows users to post short tasks (\HITs") that other users can receive a small amount of money for completing. Common tasks on the system include labelling a collection of images, combining two sets of images to identify people which appear in both, or extracting sentiment from a corpus of text snippets. Designing a workow of various kinds of HITs for ltering, aggregating, sorting, and joining data sources together is common, and comes with a set of challenges in optimizing the cost per HIT, the overall time to task completion, and the accuracy of MTurk results. We propose Qurk, a novel query system for managing these workows, allowing crowdpowered processing of relational databases. We describe a number of query execution and optimization challenges, and discuss some potential solutions.
Analysis of routing in pyramid architectures

Pyramid machines are massively parallel systems motivated by image processing applications. The architecture consists of several layers of mesh connected nodes of decreasing dimensions. In this paper, we investigate general node-to-node routing in pyramids. We propose two routing algorithms neighbor-tree (NT) and neighbor-descedent-tree (NDT). For each routing algorithm, we find the average and maximum message latency for each of the three flow control schemes: packet switching, circuit switching, and wormhole routing. The performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated using a discrete event simulation library (SMPL) and is compared with pyramid mesh and tree routing. >
The upstream factor-binding site is not essential for activation of transcription from the adenovirus major late promoter.

Abstract An adenovirus major late promoter (MLP) has been constructed with a 4-bp alteration in the sequence which binds the transcription factor known as USF or MLTF. This upstream element has often been considered necessary and sufficient for maximal transcription of the MLP. A duplex oligonucleotide containing the mutant sequence was not capable of binding specific proteins in a band shift assay, nor was it capable of inhibiting such binding by the wild-type sequence. In an in vitro assay, the mutant sequence was incapable of inhibiting transcription from a duplex sequence containing the MLP, whereas the wild-type sequence could. These two pieces of evidence suggest that the sequence is functionally impaired. Surprisingly, a virus containing the mutant MLP had a normal replication phenotype. On more detailed examination however, we show that the mutant viral MLP was deficient in transcription at 9 h postinfection but that the rate of transcription was close to normal by 20 h postinfection. An inverted CAAT box located immediately upstream of the USF-binding element was not previously thought to be of importance to the functioning of the MLP. However, a single point mutation in the CAAT box, placed in the USF mutant background, had a marked effect upon transcription from the MLP. This result suggests that the MLP may exhibit functional redundancy in which either the USF-binding site or the CAAT box can serve as an upstream promoter element. Neither of the mutant viruses displayed any change in the levels of the divergent IVa2 transcription unit, suggesting that the levels of divergent transcription are not determined by competition for limiting transcription factors.
Profiling and modeling resource usage of virtualized applications

Next Generation Data Centers are transforming labor-intensive, hard-coded systems into shared, virtualized, automated, and fully managed adaptive infrastructures. Virtualization technologies promise great opportunities for reducing energy and hardware costs through server consolidation. However, to safely transition an application running natively on real hardware to a virtualized environment, one needs to estimate the additional resource requirements incurred by virtualization overheads.In this work, we design a general approach for estimating the resource requirements of applications when they are transferred to a virtual environment. Our approach has two key components: a set of microbench-marks to profile the different types of virtualization overhead on a given platform, and a regression-based model that maps the native system usage profile into a virtualized one. This derived model can be used for estimating resource requirements of any application to be virtualized on a given platform. Our approach aims to eliminate error-prone manual processes and presents a fully automated solution. We illustrate the effectiveness of our methodology using Xen virtual machine monitor. Our evaluation shows that our automated model generation procedure effectively characterizes the different virtualization overheads of two diverse hardware platforms and that the models have median prediction error of less than 5% for both the RUBiS and TPC-W benchmarks.
Geometric properties of root vectors for equation of nonhomogeneous damped string: transformation operators method

The spectral decomposition theorem for a class of nonselfadjoint operators in a Hilbert space is obtained in the paper. These operators are the dynamics generators for the systems governed by 1–dim hyperbolic equations with spatially nonhomogeneous coefficients containing first order damping terms and subject to linear nonselfadjoint boundary conditions. These equations and boundary conditions describe, in particular, a spatially nonhomogeneous string subject to a distributed viscous damping and also damped at the boundary points. The main result leading to the spectral decomposition is the fact that the generalized eigenvectors (root vectors) of the above operators form Riesz bases in the corresponding energy spaces. The proofs are based on the transformation operators method. The classical concept of transformation operators is extended to the equation of damped string. Originally, this concept was developed by I. M. Gelfand, B. M. Levitan and V. A. Marchenko for 1–dim Schrodinger equation in connection...
Influence of fabric on liquefaction and densification potential of cohesionless sand

Abstract For simple shearing under constant pressure, the effects of fabric on liquefaction and densification potentials of saturated cohensionless granular materials are examined theoretically and experimentally. The fabric is identified with the distribution of the dilatancy angles (the angle between the sliding and the macroscopic shearing directions), and the influence of prestraining on this distribution and hence on the macroscopic sample behavior is studied. It is shown that prestraining with zero residual stress can reduce resistance to liquefaction by one or even two orders of magnitude, although the sample density and other conditions are kept the same. The micromechanical features responsible for this and related behaviors are examined in some detail. Finally, some tentative results on the effect of the inherent anisotropy that is produced during sample preparation are reported, showing that a method which yields samples more resistive in triaxial cyclic tests may provide samples less resistive in cyclic shearing.
Water‐Binding Capacity of Ground Lamb‐Soy Mixtures with Different Levels of Water and Salt and Internal End‐Point Temperatures

Ground lamb and textured soy protein mixtures were prepared with and without sodium chloride (NaCl) and with different levels of water, and were cooked to different internal end-point temperatures. Mixtures with NaCl were more firm and contained more “bound-type” and less “free-type” water. Increasing the amount of water added to the mixture increased cooking loss, expressible fluid, “free-type” and “bound-type” water, freezable water, and moisture content; however, mixtures with 20% added water had the same amount of “free-type” water and expressible fluid as those with 30%. Increasing end-point temperature resulted in increases in cooking loss and decreases in “bound-type” and “free-type” water, but had no effect on firmness.
IN VITRO DETOXIFICATION OF BACTERIAL ENDOTOXIN BY MACROPHAGES

In the in vitro model described normal serum or plasma alone does not detoxify endotoxin, as determined by the response of the thorotrast-primed rabbit to the injection of the reaction mixture after 1 hour of incubation at 37 degrees C. Partial detoxification, however, is achieved by serum or plasma after 3 hours of incubation of the same reaction mixture, as determined by the chick embryo test. Macrophages in serum or plasma do detoxify endotoxin, as determined by both tests. Granulocytes, which are also able to detoxify endotoxin in the presence of serum, are less potent than macrophages. Immune serum alone is much more potent than normal serum alone. Macrophages in immune serum are more potent than immune serum alone. The relevance of the anti-endotoxic properties of these in vitro systems to the processes in the living animal are in doubt, and must await the results of comparable observations in the living animal.
A domain-specific validation of the core self-evaluations scale.

Core self-evaluations have been recently proposed as indicating positive self-concept and as being predictive of various forms of subjective well-being. In an effort to further validate the Core Self-Evaluations Scale (CSES), structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed in three independent samples of university students to examine the extent to which scores on the Core Self-Evaluations Scale predicted two measures of university satisfaction. Good fit was found for models that also controlled for status in college, student major, class satisfaction, life satisfaction, college grade point average, and overall grade fairness. Statistically significant relationships corrected for attenuation by SEM between scores on the Core Self-Evaluations Scale and university satisfaction range from .24 to .37.
Healthy Start Program and Feto-Infant Morbidity Outcomes: Evaluation of Program Effectiveness

OBJECTIVE: We evaluate the impact of the Healthy Start intervention program on feto-infant morbidity within a community setting. METHODS: Prospective data from 2002 to 2007 within the ongoing Federally funded Healthy Start intervention project in Central Hillsborough County were merged with corresponding birth outcomes data from the Florida Department of Health. The impact of the project on the following feto-infant morbidity indices was assessed among service recipients: low birth weight (LBW), very low birth weight (VLBW), preterm, very preterm, small for gestational age (SGA) and a composite feto-infant morbidity outcome. Program effectiveness and impact were measured using odds ratios from logistic regression models and number needed to treat (NNT). RESULTS: The risk for low birth weight (OR = 0.7; 95% CI = 0.5-1.0), preterm (OR = 0.7; 95% CI = 0.5-0.9) and the composite feto-infant morbidity outcome (OR = 0.8; 95% CI = 0.6-0.9) was reduced among service recipients (N = 536) as compared to non-recipients (N = 2,815). A clinically important level of risk reduction was also noted for very low birth weight (OR = 0.5; 95% CI = 0.2-1.1) and very preterm (OR = 0.6; 95% CI = 0.3-1.2) although these did not reach statistical significance. The adjusted NNT was lowest for the composite feto-infant morbidity outcome (18), preterm birth (21) and low birth weight (24), and highest for very preterm (86) and very low birth weight (74) events. CONCLUSIONS: In a disadvantaged community setting, the Healthy Start intervention program was found to reduce the risk for very low birth weight and preterm births by about one-third.
Reid's Foundation for the Primary/Secondary Quality Distinction

Reid offers an under-appreciated account of the primary/secondary quality distinction. He gives sound reasons for rejecting the views of Locke, Boyle, Galileo and others, and presents a better alternative, according to which the distinction is epistemic rather than metaphysical. Primary qualities, for Reid, are qualities whose intrinsic natures can be known through sensation. Secondary qualities, on the other hand, are unknown causes of sensations. Some may object that Reid's view is internally inconsistent, or unacceptably relativistic. However, a deeper understanding shows that it is consistent, and relative only to normal humans. To acquire this deeper understanding, one must also explore the nature of dispositions, Reid's rejection of the theory of ideas, his distinction between sensation and perception, and his distinction between natural and acquired perceptions.
Traveling-Wave Tube Amplifier Characteristics Study for Stochastic Beam Cooling Experiments

The characteristics of continuous-wave wideband traveling-wave tube amplifiers have been experimentally investigated over a frequency range of 1.5 to 4.5 GHz. We present measurements of characteristics important for stochastic beam cooling systems that are generally not available from manufacturers' data sheets. The amplifiers measured include models 1177 H01 and 1277 H01 having output power capabilities of 10 to 20 W, respectively, at frequencies of 2 to 4 GHz. The power transfer characteristics, the phase-shift characteristics as functions of frequency and the input power level, the voltage standing-wave ratio, harmonics and intermodulation products content were accurately measured and are discussed. Also several approaches are discussed for the reduction of harmonics and intermodulation products.