cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Systems-Level Analysis of Waste Heat Recovery Opportunities from Natural Gas Compressor Stations in the United States

The Unites States natural gas (NG) pipeline system is a complex network that relies on about 1800 compressor stations (CS) to maintain the pressure in the network. Concurrently, about two-thirds of the fuel energy to CS is lost as waste heat mainly in the form of hot flue gases. However, to date, there has been little emphasis on quantifying available waste heat at NG CS. We determine the quantity, quality, and spatial distribution of waste heat available at existing NG CS using thermodynamic analysis, installed capacity of NG CS reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and load factors. The uncertainty in operating hours of CS is addressed by the concept of load factor and statistical Monte Carlo simulations. The analysis indicates that an average of 610 TJ/day is available in the U.S. at temperatures above 645 K. Recovering available waste heat from NG CS has the potential to avoid emissions of 47 000 metric tonnes of CO2-equiv/day at the national level. The large quantity of availa...
Prevention and treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis

Therapy recommended for preventing and treating drug-resistant tuberculosis is discussed. Drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be transmitted by an infected individual, or resistance can be acquired during therapy for drug-susceptible disease. At least until susceptibility test data are available, the recommended initial treatment for tuberculosis consists of isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and either ethambutol or streptomycin. Resistance has led to variations on this regimen that sometimes include more toxic alternative drugs, including ethionamide, aminosalicylic acid, cycloserine, and capreomycin, as well as ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin. Drug regimens used for retreatment usually include the alternative drugs. Success in treating drug-resistant tuberculosis varies. Therapy to prevent resistant tuberculosis is recommended for any individual with a positive skin-test result and any of the following: infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), close contact with a newly diagnosed patient, recent conversion to a positive skin-test result, or a predisposing medical condition. Although isoniazid is the only drug with FDA-approved labeling for use as prophylaxis in patients with latent tuberculosis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests several two-drug combinations. Fluoroquinolones are recommended for both treatment and prevention. Patient compliance and HIV infection are special issues in managing resistant tuberculosis. Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a growing problem that must be addressed through appropriate prophylactic and treatment measures.
Mycorrhizal roots in a temperate forest take up organic nitrogen from 13C- and 15N-labeled organic matter

The importance of the uptake of nitrogen in organic form by plants and mycorrhizal fungi has been demonstrated in various ecosystems including temperate forests. However, in previous experiments, isotopically labeled amino acids were often added to soils in concentrations that may be higher than those normally available to roots and mycorrhizal hyphae in situ, and these high concentrations could contribute to exaggerated uptake. We used an experimental approach in which we added 13C-labeled and 15N-labeled whole cells to root-ingrowth cores, allowing proteolytic enzymes to release labeled organic nitrogen at a natural rate, as roots and their associated mycorrhizal fungi grew into the cores. We employed this method in four forest types representing a gradient of soil pH, nitrogen mineralization rate, and mycorrhizal type. Intact uptake of organic nitrogen was detected in mycorrhizal roots, and accounted for at least of 1–14 % of labeled nitrogen uptake. Forest types did not differ significantly in the importance of organic uptake. The estimates of organic N uptake made here using 13C-labeled and 15N-labeled whole cells are less than those reported in other temperate forest studies using isotopically labelled amino acids, and likely represent a minimum estimate of organic N-use. The two approaches each have different assumptions, and when used in tandem should complement one another and provide upper and lower bounds of organic N use by plants.
Effect of free fatty acid concentration on the transport and utilization of other albumin-bound compounds: hydroxyphenylazobenzoic acid.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether changes in long-chain free fatty acid concentration would alter the transport and utilization of another organic ligand that was bound to human plasma albumin. Ehrlich ascites cells were incubated in medium containing human albumin, and the uptake of 2-(49-hydroxyphenylazo)benzoic acid was measured relative to the free fatty acid concentration of the medium. As the molar ratio of free fatty acid to albumin was raised from 1 to 4, hydroxyphenylazobenzoic acid uptake by the cells increased. In contrast, cells "loaded" with large quantities of fatty acid took up no more hydroxyphenylazobenzoic acid from an albumin-free medium than did cells loaded with only small amounts of fatty acid. Equilibrium dialysis binding measurements indicated that the binding capacity of human albumin for hydroxyphenylazobenzoic acid decreased as the molar ratio of free fatty acid to albumin was raised. Therefore, it is likely that the free fatty acid-induced increase in hydroxyphenylazobenzoic acid uptake by the Ehrlich cells was due to displacement of this compound from strong to weaker albumin binding sites rather than to a direct effect of fatty acids on the cells. These results suggest that variations in the molar ratio of free fatty acid to albumin may influence the transport and utilization of other albumin-bound metabolites or drugs.
Abstract 2418: Microenvironment-on-chip: Development of a microfluidics-based tumor ecosystem

Despite its limited clinical predictive capacity, conventional cell culture remains the most frequently used preclinical model in biomedical research. For many years, microfluidics-based organ-on-chips have been proposed to overcome conventional cell culture limitations but given their inability to provide reliable and reproducible data, their usage remains anecdotal. Immune, stromal and cancer cells constitute a complex adaptive system in each tumor microenvironment. To study the causes and consequences of tumor heterogeneity in these complex adaptive systems, we have developed a platform to model and investigate tumor microenvironments at primary and metastatic sites in which multiple nuclear-labelled cell types can be grown in a multi-welled, communicating habitat with controlled gradients for temperature, pH, nutrients, and oxygen tension. In conjunction with labelled-nuclei, genetically-engineered cell lines with fluorescence-based biosensors can be generated to detect specific genetic expression changes in response to cell to cell interactions as well as varying environmental conditions over time. One of the major caveats for microfluidics prototypes is reproducibility. The proposed design is easily adaptable to most of the commercially available incubation microscopy systems, allowing the experiments to be replicated by independent groups in an effort to provide reliable and reproducible data. The ability to establish dynamic gradients within individual habitats longitudinally over time and space provides the capacity to study the effect of chemokines and drugs on the tumor ecosystem in order to discover key interactions between host cells and cancer cells and to develop improved therapeutic strategies. In contrast to previous organ-on-chip models, our technology is not limited to a mere observational platform for automated cell counting and tracking but also provides flexibility for downstream capacities such as immunofluorescence, in situ hybridization or single-cell sequencing, as well as retrieval of single cells or specific subpopulations based on the fluorescent reporters and labelled nuclei. The presented engineered microenvironment allows continued in vitro quantitative studies of the interactions of multiple cell types as well as varying environmental conditions. Here we propose a cancer-on-chip platform that is able to recapitulate key components and interactions to mimic different tumor microenvironments in a comprehensive manner, yet simple enough to provide reliable and reproducible data. Citation Format: Gonzalo Torga, Ke-Chih Lin, Robert H. Austin, Kenneth J. Pienta. Microenvironment-on-chip: Development of a microfluidics-based tumor ecosystem. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2418.
Noble Metal Nanomaterials

In addition to carbon nanomaterials, noble metal-based nanostructures—such as gold and silver nanoparticles—are among the most widely used nanomaterials in technological and medical applications. Noble metal nanoclusters, nanorods, and nanocrystals exhibit great potential within the contexts of drug delivery, diagnostics, and therapeutics, in a wide range of biomedical fields [1, 2, 3]. The unique surface chemistries and topographical features of such nanomaterials dictate accompanying biological response mechanisms in relation to protein adsorption, cellular uptake, and cytotoxicity.
Models and Modelling Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Mathematics in the Twenty-First Century

Research based on models and modelling perspectives (MMP) has shown that, in order for mathematical concepts and abilities to be useful beyond school, new levels and types of understandings are needed beyond those that have been emphasized in even the most innovative and future-oriented statements of curriculum standards. Similarly, teacher-level knowledge and abilities consists of a great deal more than the kind of beliefs, dispositions, and pedagogical content knowledge that have been emphasized in most past research on teacher development.
THE LASER-PHASE TRANSITION ANALOGY - RECENT DEVELOPMENTS*

Considerations involving the analogies between phase transitions in ferromagnets, superfluids and superconductors have emphasized the similarities between these systems near their critical temperatures [1]. For example, the order parameter varies near the critical temperature as η ∿ eβ, where β is a simple number (1/2 for a mean field theory) while η and e are defined in table 1.
Symposium: Genetics in Entomology: Cytogenetic Studies of Screwworm (Diptera: Calliphoridae) Populations from Southern Mexico and Jamaica

Karyotypes of 23 lines of screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel), flies originating as isofemale lines collected in the Mexican states of Colima, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, and one line from the island of Jamaica were investigated. Detailed analysis of metaphase I meiotic chromosomes from male primary spermatocytes revealed differences between lines having the longest and shortest means for percentage of total chromosome length of the X and Y chromosomes, but no significant differences in the five autosomes. Comparison of mean arm ratios for the five autosomes among strains indicated no significant differences for autosomes II, III, IV, and VI. The F test for autosome V was significant. Analysis of karyotypes of 55 between-line hybrids to detect chromosome rearrangements showed that no isofemale lines possessed chromosome rearrangements. Results do not indicate existence of reproductive isolation between any of the lines, or differences indicative of more than intraspecific variation in karyotypes.
Polynomial fermionic forms for the branching functions of the rational coset conformal field theories su(2)M × su(2)N/su(2)M+N

General fermionic expressions for the branching functions of the rational coset conformal field theories su(2)M × su(2)N/su(2)M+N are given. The equality of the bosonic and fermionic representations for the branching functions is proven by introducing polynomial truncations of these branching functions which are the configuration sums of the RSOS models in regime III. The path space interpretation of the RSOS models provides recursion relations for the configuration sums. The proof of the recursion relations for the fermionic expressions is given by using telescopic expansion techniques. The configuration sums of the RSOS model in regime II which correspond to the branching functions of the ZM+N-parafennion conformal field theory are obtained by the duality transformation q →−1
Biogeographical evidence for common vicariance and rare dispersal in a southern Appalachian harvestman (Sabaconidae, Sabacon cavicolens)

Aim Species or higher taxa that are obviously dispersal-limited, but which occupy large geographical distributions, represent a biogeographical paradox. Dispersal must have happened, likely under special and infrequent environmental conditions, but details have been lost to history. The overarching goal of our research is to understand the details of a ‘common vicariance, rare dispersal’ biogeographical history in a widespread but habitat-specialized harvestman species (Sabacon cavicolens) with a southern Appalachian centre of distribution. Location Eastern North America, southern Appalachians. Methods We assessed cryptic speciation using mitochondrial and nuclear gene DNA sequence data, testing alternative delimitation hypotheses using multispecies coalescent analyses. We also tested whether riverine barriers are associated with mitochondrial genealogical structuring, focusing on multiple rivers in the southern Blue Ridge physiographical province. Finally, we conducted population genetic analyses to assess female-based range expansion out of the southern Blue Ridge. Results Genetic analyses suggest a large number of species-level lineages within S. cavicolens, although we prefer a more conservative three-species hypothesis. These putative species are geographically cohesive and allopatric (Ozarks, Cumberland Plateau, southern Blue Ridge), with the Blue Ridge species including multiple divergent mitochondrial haplogroups. Several genealogical breaks in the Blue Ridge species coincide with riverine barriers, separating mostly allopatric mitochondrial lineages. Contrasting with evidence for constrained gene flow and vicariance, two Blue Ridge haplogroups reveal extensive range expansion both northwards and westwards, resulting in the widespread distribution of closely related haplotypes, and occasional sympatry of dispersive haplotypes. Main Conclusions Hidden beneath the apparently widespread distribution of a single species is a history of old vicariance separating geographically disjunct cryptic species. How these lineages came to occupy such disparate geographies is illustrated by dynamics within the Blue Ridge species, where both in situ vicariance and long-distance dispersal have shaped a ‘common vicariance, rare dispersal’ biogeographical history.
Bioinformatics for middle school aged children: Activities for exposure to an interdisciplinary field

Recently, there has been a push for better exposure, recruitment, and training of United States adolescents to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) related fields. Educators are working to empower youths with early exposure to STEM topics to engage in the hard sciences in their futures. Among these topics is bioinformatics, an interdisciplinary focus with roots in computer science, molecular biology, genetics, and mathematics. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, bioinformatics requires a large learning curve. It is difficult to design programs for exposure and recruitment in bioinformatics for students below the college level, so much so that there are only a handful of activities appropriate for high school aged youths, and veritably none for middle school children. Despite this difficulty, we have created a program for bioinformatics exposure in middle school aged children and implemented a number of novel activities designed to teach basic bioinformatics concepts such as using biomedical databases, phylogeny, and sequence assembly. We implemented this program as part of a pilot program in iSTEM (Innovative, Interdisciplinary, Information Technology-Enhanced STEM), an after school program for middle school students (5th through 8th grade), and are encouraged to find that these young student participants found these activities fun, exciting, and enhanced their desire to perform similar activities in the future.
Eluxadoline in the treatment of diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome.

Eluxadoline is a novel drug approved for the management of diarrhea predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D). It has unique pharmacology and works on three different opioid receptors. Several Phase II and III clinical trials have demonstrated eluxadoline’s efficacy in reducing symptoms related to IBS-D. Clinical trial results and postmarketing reports show a risk of pancreatitis in patients without a gallbladder or those abusing alcohol. This review article will include information on clinical trial results related to IBS-D management as well as eluxadoline’s limitations.
Abstract 16703: Decompensated Heart Failure Patients with Preserved and Reduced Ejection Fraction who Require Ultrafiltration Therapy have Similar Morbidity and Mortality

Introduction: Ultrafiltration therapy (UF) has been increasingly used for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) patients who failed diuretic therapy. However little is known about the outcomes of UF in heart failure patients refractory to standard medical therapy with preserved ejection fraction (pEF). Hypothesis: Patients with pEF who require UF therapy experience morbidity and mortality similar to heart failure patients with reduced EF (rEF). Method: We retrospectively studied 57 consecutive ADHF patients who required UF at University of Minnesota Medical Center from 2006 to 2011. All patients had a trial of loop diuretics. Selection of UF as the treatment method was made by the attending cardiologist. Subjects were divided into two groups: pEF (EF>0.45) and rEF (EF Results: Of a total of 57 patients, mean age was 67±14 years. Seventeen (30%) had pEF. Mean EF was 0.57±0.06 in the pEF group versus 0.25±0.11 in the rEF group (p Conclusions: ADHF patients who are not responsive to conventional medical therapy have a high 90-day readmission rate and mortality despite improvement in weight and fluid removal with UF. Interestingly, these outcomes are similar among heart failure patients with pEF and rEF. Further studies are required to clarify the role of UF in patients refractory to conventional treatment since it is unlikely to change the natural history of ADHF.
Preclinical and clinical development of neoantigen vaccines

Cancer neoantigens are antigens that result from somatic mutations present in individual cancers. Neoantigens are considered important targets for cancer immunotherapy because of their immunogenicity and lack of expression in normal tissues. Next-generation sequencing technologies and computational analysis have recently made neoantigen discovery possible. Although neoantigens are important targets of checkpoint blockade therapy, neoantigen vaccines are currently being investigated in preclinical models and early-phase human clinical trials. Preliminary results from these clinical trials demonstrate that dendritic cell, synthetic long peptide, and RNA-based neoantigen vaccines are safe, and capable of inducing both CD8+ and CD4+ neoantigen-specific T-cell responses. We and others are testing neoantigen vaccines in melanoma, breast cancer, non-small-cell lung cancer and other cancer types. Since cancers have evolved mechanisms to escape immune control, it is particularly important to study the efficacy of neoantigen vaccines in combination with other immunotherapies including checkpoint blockade therapy, and immune therapies targeting the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.
Mortgage Modifications after the Great Recession: New Evidence and Implications for Policy

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, various mortgage modification programs were introduced to help homeowners struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments remain in their homes. We use mortgage data at the individual borrower level, joined to credit card spending and deposit account data, to investigate the relative importance of changes in monthly mortgage payments and long-term mortgage debt on default and consumption. We first quantify the variation in payment reduction offered by these modification programs and then use the variation in payment and principal reduction experienced by program recipients to estimate the impact of payment and principal reduction on default and consumption. First, we find that payment reduction for borrowers with similar payment burdens varied by two to three times across different modification programs. Borrowers with a high mortgage payment to- income (PTI) ratio received more than twice the payment reduction from HAMP compared to the GSE program. Borrowers with a low mortgage PTI ratio received three times the payment reduction from the GSE program compared to HAMP. Second, a 10 percent mortgage payment reduction reduced default rates by 22 percent. Third, for borrowers who remained underwater, mortgage principal reduction had no effect on default. This suggests that “strategic default” was not the primary driver of default decisions for these underwater borrowers. Fourth, for borrowers who remained underwater, mortgage principal reduction had no effect on consumption. Finally, default was correlated with income loss, regardless of debt-to-income ratio or home equity. Mortgage default closely followed a substantial drop in income. This pattern held regardless of pre-modification mortgage PTI or loan-to-value ratio, suggesting that it was an income shock rather than a high payment burden or negative home equity that triggered default. These findings suggest that mortgage modification programs that are designed to target substantial payment reduction will be most effective at reducing mortgage default rates. Modification programs designed to reach affordability targets based on debt-to-income measures without regard to payment reduction or target a specific LTV ratio while leaving borrowers underwater may be less effective at reducing defaults. Furthermore, policies that help borrowers establish and maintain a suitable cash buffer that can be used to offset an income shock could be an effective tool to prevent mortgage default. Both high and low mortgage PTI borrowers experienced a similar income drop just prior to default, suggesting that even among those borrowers with “unaffordable” mortgages, it was a drop in income rather than a high level of payment burden that triggered default.
Livability and Subjective Well-Being Across European Cities

This study documents for the first time the correlation between livability and subjective well-being (SWB) across European cities. Livability is measured with the popular Mercer Quality of Living Survey and correlates considerably with SWB, measured as place and life satisfactions. There are outliers, for instance: the “unlivable” but “happy” Belfast (fool’s paradise) and the “livable,” but “unhappy” Paris (fool’s hell). In addition, we find geographic patterns: while the Mercer index ranks higher Western cities, subjective well-being is higher in Northern cities. Smaller cities score higher on both livability and SWB, confirming thus the urban sociological theory of urban malaise while contradicting urban economic theory of city triumph.
The role of onset cues for lateralization of an auditory object in bilateral cochlear implant listeners

In bilateral cochlear implant (BiCI) listeners, a common strategy for improving sensitivity to interaural timing differences (ITDs) is to introduce low rate stimulation in some channels. Previous work showed that BiCI listeners can lateralize a single sound with a constant ITD at every pulse of a low rate stimulus. However, in reverberant environments, ITDs for a target sound can change over a short period of time. Previously we have shown that BiCI listeners had difficulty using the ITD in the first pulse of a low-rate pulse train to lateralize a stimulus when the subsequent pulses had ITDs that varied over time. Hence, we hypothesized that a more salient onset is needed in order to restore ITD sensitivity in BiCI listeners when using low rate stimulation. In this study, we measured the number of pulses with a consistent ITD that is needed at the onset in order for BiCI listeners to reliably perceive one sound in the correct location. Results suggest that BiCI listeners need at least five pulses with con...
Pregnant Adolescents in Chemical Dependency Treatment: Description and Outcomes

This study examines the treatment, maternal and infant outcomes of pregnant adolescents (16-19 years) enrolled in an adult perinatal chemical dependency treatment program. Twenty-one adolescent subjects were compared to 323 adult women (mean age, 27.4 years) after enrollment into a randomized treatment trial consisting of intensive outpatient or short-term residential conditions. The results show a similar treatment retention rate. Adolescents differed from adult women on marital status, drugs of choice (alcohol, marijuana vs. opiates and cocaine) and method of administration, with no injection drug users in the adolescent cohort. Tobacco use was high (> 85%) in both groups. Obstetric, maternal, and infant outcomes to 1 year were comparable. Older adolescents who are chemically dependent and pregnant have treatment needs similar to adult women and can benefit from programs designed to treat older women. Recruitment difficulties for adolescents in need of treatment is discussed.
An update on arsenic.

Arsenic poisoning is more than just a medical curiosity. Cases of acute and chronic intoxication continue to occur in the United States. Much is now known about the biochemical mechanisms of injury, which has led to a rational basis for therapy. Most importantly, however, the clinician must stay alert to correctly diagnose and treat cases of arsenic poisoning.23 references.
Experiments on Parity Non-Conservation in Nuclear Gamma Transitions

The existence of a strangeness conserving non-leptonic weak interaction has long been postulated.1 The resulting parity admixtures in nuclear states and nuclear gamma transitions have been the subject of several examinations2–6 of which the recent work of Lobashov3 has been the most outstanding. In this work the limitation due to counting statistics are overcome by the use of very strong sources and an ingeneous current-integrating detector scheme. We have been conducting experiments with a current integration technique whereby we integrate and digitize the signal-current from a germanium counter. While a full account of our work is in preparation we present here a brief description of our method and results.
What Archaeologists Want To Know

This chapter focuses on the research questions that lie at the heart of archaeology and archaeological chemistry. The questions we ask – what we want to know – determine where and how we look for answers. Archaeologists want to know about people in the past – what our ancestors were like, how they lived, what they ate, what sort of environment they inhabited, what kinds of things they did, their relationships with other people, religious beliefs and ceremonies, and more. These are really just who, what, where, when, and why questions about the past.
APIXABAN DISCONTINUATION PRIOR TO MAJOR SURGERY: RESULTS FROM A PROSPECTIVE SINGLE CENTER STUDY

The regulatory labeling for apixaban outlines discontinuing apixaban 24 to 48 hours prior to surgery depending on the bleeding risk. This is based upon the known pharmacokinetics of the drug derived from controlled populations. Data evaluating these recommendations in a preoperative care clinic have
Affirming Cultures, Communities and Experiences: Teaching for Social Justice in Teacher Education Literacy Courses.

In this article we share several activities we use in our teacher education literacy courses that incorporate a social justice lens. For each activity we suggest resources, offer examples we have c...
Hope, political imagination, and agency in Marxism and beyond: Explicating the transformative worldview and ethico-ontoepistemology

Given the sociopolitical crisis and turmoil in the world today, there is a great need for philosophical and sociocultural critiques that are not only concerned with deconstructing the present and t...
Growth and development in prefecture-level cities in China

Nowhere has the scale and scope of urbanization been larger than in China over the last few decades. We analyze Chinese city development between the years 1996 and 2014 using data for the urbanized components of prefecture-level cities. We show that, despite much variability and fast economic and demographic change, China is undergoing transformations similar to the historical trajectory of other urban systems. We also show that the distinguishing signs of urban economies—superlinear scaling of agglomeration effects in economic productivity and economies of scale in land use—also characterize Chinese cities. We then analyze the structure of economic change in Chinese cities using a variety of metrics, characterizing employment, firms and households. Population size estimates remain a major challenge for Chinese cities, as official numbers are often reported based on the Hukou registration system. We use the information in the residuals to scaling relations for economic quantities to predict actual resident population and show that these estimates agree well with data for a subset of cities for which counts of total resident population exist. We conclude with a list of issues that must be better understood and measured to make sense of present urban development trajectories in China.
Palaeoclimate: The rhythm of the rains

Deposits in a Chinese cave tell the story of the region's climate stretching back more than 200,000 years, well past the last interglacial warm period — an invaluable resource for understanding the Asian monsoon. Stalactites, stalagmites and the many other forms of mineral deposits found in caves are a mainstay of climate studies, recording oxygen isotope ratios in limestone laid down over time. That pattern links to the water temperature of ancient oceans, and thus to climate. A new oxygen isotope record from Sanbao Cave, central China, tells the story of the region's climate stretching back 200,000 years, filling gaps in the record of a particularly important climate event, the East Asian monsoon.
Combined Pulmonary Fibrosis and Emphysema: Pulmonary Function Testing and a Pathophysiology Perspective

Combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE) has been increasingly recognized over the past 10–15 years as a clinical entity characterized by rather severe imaging and gas exchange abnormalities, but often only mild impairment in spirometric and lung volume indices. In this review, we explore the gas exchange and mechanical pathophysiologic abnormalities of pulmonary emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, and combined emphysema and fibrosis with the goal of understanding how individual pathophysiologic observations in emphysema and fibrosis alone may impact clinical observations on pulmonary function testing (PFT) patterns in patients with CPFE. Lung elastance and lung compliance in patients with CPFE are likely intermediate between those of patients with emphysema and fibrosis alone, suggesting a counter-balancing effect of each individual process. The outcome of combined emphysema and fibrosis results in higher lung volumes overall on PFTs compared to patients with pulmonary fibrosis alone, and the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio in CPFE patients is generally preserved despite the presence of emphysema on chest computed tomography (CT) imaging. Conversely, there appears to be an additive deleterious effect on gas exchange properties of the lungs, reflecting a loss of normally functioning alveolar capillary units and effective surface area available for gas exchange, and manifested by a uniformly observed severe reduction in the diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO). Despite normal or only mildly impaired spirometric and lung volume indices, patients with CPFE are often severely functionally impaired with an overall rather poor prognosis. As chest CT imaging continues to be a frequent imaging modality in patients with cardiopulmonary disease, we expect that patients with a combination of pulmonary emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis will continue to be observed. Understanding the pathophysiology of this combined process and the abnormalities that manifest on PFT testing will likely be helpful to clinicians involved with the care of patients with CPFE.
Enhancing Efficacy, Performance, and Reliability of Cannabis Edibles: Insights from Lipid Bioavailability Studies

The legal sale of cannabis-enriched foods and beverages for medical or recreational purposes is increasing in many states and countries, especially in North America and Europe. These food-based can...
Establishing Vibration-Based Tactile Line Profiles for Use in Multimodal Graphics

Vibration plays a significant role in the way users interact with touchscreens. For many users, vibration affords tactile alerts and other enhancements. For eyes-free users and users with visual impairments, vibration can also serve a more primary role in the user interface, such as indicating streets on maps, conveying information about graphs, or even specifying basic graphics. However, vibration is rarely used in current user interfaces beyond basic cuing. Furthermore, designers and developers who do actually use vibration more extensively are often unable to determine the exact properties of the vibration signals they are implementing, due to out-of-the-box software and hardware limitations. We make two contributions in this work. First, we investigate the contextual properties of touchscreen vibrations and how vibrations can be used to effectively convey traditional, embossed elements, such as dashes and dots. To do so, we developed an open source, Android-based library to generate vibrations that are perceptually salient and intuitive, improving upon existing vibration libraries. Second, we conducted a user study with 26 blind or visually impaired users to evaluate and categorize the effects with respect to traditional tactile line profiles. We have established a range of vibration effects that can be reliably generated by our haptic library and are perceptible and distinguishable by users.
A Review of Landfill Microbiology and Ecology: A Call for Modernization With 'Next Generation' Technology.

Engineered and monitored sanitary landfills have been widespread in the United States since the passage of the Clean Water Act (1972) with additional controls under RCRA Subtitle D (1991) and the Clean Air Act Amendments (1996). Concurrently, many common perceptions regarding landfill biogeochemical and microbiological processes and estimated rates of gas production also date from 2 to 4 decades ago. Herein, we summarize the recent application of modern microbiological tools as well as recent metadata analysis using California, USEPA and international data to outline an evolving view of landfill biogeochemical/microbiological processes and rates. We focus on United States landfills because these are uniformly subject to stringent national and state requirements for design, operations, monitoring, and reporting. From a microbiological perspective, because anoxic conditions and methanogenesis are rapidly established after daily burial of waste and application of cover soil, the >1000 United States landfills with thicknesses up to >100 m form a large ubiquitous group of dispersed ‘dark’ ecosystems dominated by anaerobic microbial decomposition pathways for food, garden waste, and paper substrates. We review past findings of landfill ecosystem processes, and reflect on the potential impact that application of modern sequencing technologies (e.g., high throughput platforms) could have on this area of research. Moreover, due to the ever evolving composition of landfilled waste reflecting transient societal practices, we also consider unusual microbial processes known or suspected to occur in landfill settings, and posit areas of research that will be needed in coming decades. With growing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and controls, the increase of chemicals of emerging concern in the waste stream, and the potential resource that waste streams represent, application of modernized molecular and microbiological methods to landfill ecosystem research is of paramount importance.
Effects of feedbunk restrictions and push-up frequency on the growth performance of Holstein dairy heifers offered a forage-based diet with a limit-feeding strategy

Conceptually, there are 2 feeding strategies for avoiding over-conditioning, which can be problematic for gravid dairy heifers that have reduced dietary energy density requirements relative to younger animals: (1) diluting the ad libitum-fed diet with low-energy forages; or (2) offering a diet of greater nutrient density but intentionally restricting the DM available for consumption (limit-feeding). Our objectives for this study were to evaluate the effects of feedbunk restriction and feed push-up frequency on the growth performance of gravid Holstein dairy heifers. A total of 128 Holstein heifers (434 ± 46.7 kg) were enrolled in the trial. Heifers were blocked by weight, and assigned to 1 of 16 identical research pens (4 pens/weight block; 8 heifers/pen), where the mean initial body weight (BW; ± SD) for the 4 blocks were 491 ± 19.0, 450 ± 16.5, 419 ± 10.6, 374 ± 23.0 kg. Within each block, a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments was assigned; treatments consisted of feedbunk access [full (FUL) or restricted (RES] and feed push-up frequency [1.5- or 3.0-h intervals]. The RES treatment was applied by covering 2 of the 8 head-locking feed gates in assigned pens with plywood partitions, thereby creating a feedbunk-stocking rate of 133%. A total mixed ration diet composed of alfalfa haylage (60.5%), corn silage (38.0%), and mineral (1.5%) was offered once daily for 91 d; daily feed allotments (overall mean = 9.11 kg dry matter (DM)/d) were generally consumed entirely within 9 h of feeding. Nutrient intakes were not affected by push-up frequency or the interaction of main effects, but all intakes were affected by feedbunk access, except for DM and neutral detergent fiber expressed as a percentage of BW (overall means = 1.93 and 0.80%, respectively). In each case, intakes for FUL were greater than those observed for RES; for DM intake, this amounted to a difference of 0.20 kg/d between those main-effect treatments. After 91 d, heifers without feedbunk restriction exhibited greater final BW, but total gain and average daily gain differed only numerically between FUL and RES. Under the conditions of this trial, heifers were blocked by weight, such that BW were relatively uniform within each pen, and head-locking feed gates were used, which also provided some protection from adjacent aggressive heifers. These results suggest heifers can exhibit acceptable growth performance on high-forage diets in a limit-feeding program that includes moderate feedbunk restriction provided other forms of stress are minimized.
Viscoelastic properties of ring-linear DNA blends exhibit nonmonotonic dependence on blend composition

This paper presents linear and nonlinear optical tweezers microrheology measurements of entangled blends of ring and linear DNA. The authors observe a strong non-monotonic dependence of viscoelastic properties on the fraction of linear chains in the blend, arising from the threading of ring polymers by linear chains.
Validation of testicular germ cell tumor staging in nationwide cancer registries.

Abstract Introduction Nationwide cancer registries such as the National Cancer Database and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results rely on accurate data from tumor registries to formulate hypotheses and report outcomes and treatment patterns. We evaluated the accuracy of our institutional registry for testicular germ cell tumors by comparing data abstracted by urologists with data abstracted by registry. Methods We performed a retrospective review of patients receiving initial diagnosis and treatment for germ cell tumors at our hospital system from 2005 to 2016. We compared coding for American Joint Committee on Cancer TNMS staging, overall composite stage, and first-line treatment between urologists and tumor registry at the time of diagnosis. Results Paired staging from registry and urologist was available for 80 patients. T, N, M, and S-staging were accurate for 90%, 81%, 94%, and 54% of records, respectively. Composite staging and first-line treatment were concordant for 39% and 90% of patients, respectively. A separate review of 33 Stage IS patients per registry for composite staging revealed 15% concordance. Conclusion Our institutional tumor registry had substantial inconsistencies in accurately staging N stage, S stage, and thus, composite stage for testicular cancer. An educational intervention to improve abstraction by registry led to increased concordance. Assuming similar discrepancies may exist at other institutions and for other cancer types, caution should be used when interpreting staging data in nationwide cancer registries. This sheds light on the need for improved clarification of staging guidelines, dynamic institutional internal auditing, and training reform within cancer registries.
Chronic Disease Self-Management Education: Program Success and Future Directions

Self-management is recognized as a fundamental part of health care. This chapter provides an overview of Stanford’s suite of chronic disease self-management education (CDSME) programs with an emphasis on the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP). Several issues are addressed including (1) the philosophy behind CDSMP and the core elements designed to help patients deal with their chronic conditions; (2) the range of appropriate delivery settings; (3) patient targets for maximal benefit; (4) recommended metrics and demonstrated outcomes in terms of meeting the triple aims of better health, better health care, and better value; (5) strategies for maintaining fidelity and promoting scalability; (6) integration with current health care technologies (e.g., electronic medical records); and (7) applicability to current health care policies (e.g., the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act). Offering an excellent model for geriatric practice, the Stanford suite of CDSME has countless potential to help older patients manage their comorbidities. It can also serve as an important bridge between community and clinical care approaches.
Testing for Daily Susceptibility Cycles in Birds Exposed to Avicides

It has been shown that starlings exhibit daily susceptibility cycles to some avicides. A test procedure is outlined that can be used to determine whether daily susceptibility cycles exist for other bird species exposed toavicides.
Interest on Reserves and Monetary Policy

A paper presented at the April 2001 conference "Financial Innovation and Monetary Transmission," sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The Riddle of the One-Way Ratchet: Habeas Corpus and the District of Columbia

In his dissent in INS v. St. Cyr, Justice Scalia raised what remains perhaps the most perplexing question concerning Congress's power over the habeas corpus jurisdiction of the federal courts: if Congress never had to create a statutory cause of action for habeas corpus in the first place, how could a statute purporting to divest the federal courts of jurisdiction over certain habeas petitions violate the Constitution's Suspension Clause? As Scalia suggested, "[i]f . . . the writ could not be suspended within the meaning of the Suspension Clause until Congress affirmatively provided for habeas by statute, then surely Congress may subsequently alter what it had initially provided for, lest the Clause become a one-way ratchet." In drawing parallels between the Supreme Court's mandamus and habeas jurisprudence, this short essay explains how Justice Scalia's one-way ratchet is actually a misnomer, and is instead the result of a trap Congress unknowingly set for itself. To give away the punch-line, a series of early nineteenth-century cases concerning the common-law writ of mandamus illustrates a point lost on conventional courts and commentators alike: the constitutional problem raised by habeas-stripping statutes does not arise from their constriction of the jurisdiction of the Article III courts. The problem is that a separate (and completely neglected) Act of Congress constrains the power of the one court that would otherwise be left to hear a federal detainee's habeas petition absent Article III review: the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. And although the analysis contained herein might strike the reader as pedantic (if not entirely semantic), such a conclusion has significant implications for sorting out the competing viewpoints in the continuing debate over Congress's power to restrict access to the writ of habeas corpus.
Reduction Techniques for First-Order Reasoning

We have outlined a completion procedure for first-order clausal reasoning with inspiration from completion procedures for equational reasoning. We believe this to be a useful method for many practical applications involving clausal reasoning where the theory stays constant and is used repeatedly for proving many goals. Program synthesis (see [3]) is such an application. We have implemented a prototype completion procedure in Prolog and used it for simple examples. We are currently involved in integrating it with the Focus program derivation system.
Malignant Transformation in vitro by Carcinogenic Hydrocarbons

Pieces of ventral prostate from adult C3H mice were cultivated in organ culture for 3 weeks. One group served as a control; another was treated for I week with methylcholanthrene or 9,1O-dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene and for 2 additional weeks in normal medium. The pieces were pooled and dispersed with pronase into individual cells that were plated as cell cultures. The control cultures invariably died. The treated cells formed permanent lines that, on subcutaneous injection of from 1 to 2 X 10^6 cells into adult, unconditioned, male C3H mice, produced progressively growing, transplantable tumors. The tumors were mostly sarcomas, but included two anaplastic carcinomas. Malignant transformation in vitro has thus been achieved with carcinogenic hydrocarbons in this system.
Do N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors mediate synaptic responses in the mudpuppy retina?

Whole-cell recordings of amacrine and ganglion cells in the superfused retina-eyecup preparation of the mudpuppy were obtained in order to determine which excitatory amino acid receptor (EAAR) subtype mediates the synaptic responses of these neurons. All third-order retinal neurons tested were depolarized by kainic acid (KA, N-methyl-D- aspartate (NMDA), and quisqualate (QQ). The responses evoked by NMDA were blocked by the addition of D-2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (D- AP5) and D-2-amino-7 phosphonoheptonoic acid (D-AP7) to the perfusate. When the actions of exogenously applied NMDA were completely blocked by D-AP5 and D-AP7, the light-evoked responses of inner retinal neurons persisted without any apparent reduction or, alternatively, a slight enhancement of the response was observed. Light-evoked responses of bipolar, amacrine, and ganglion cells associated with the On pathway were attenuated by L-AP5 in a manner similar to its lower-order homolog L-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyrate (AP4); nevertheless, L-AP5 was not an effective NMDA antagonist. Although synaptic transmission between retinal second- and third-order neurons appears to be mediated by EAARs, the NMDA receptor does not appear to play a prominent role under our experimental conditions. Nevertheless, our results suggest that the racemic mixture of AP5 should not be used as an NMDA antagonist in retinal research, due to the AP4-like actions of its L-enantiomer.