cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Processing of Functionally Gradient Ceramic Membrane Substrates for Enhanced Porosity

A method to cast functionally gradient porous ceramics was conceived and established. A previous initial study had established viability of the technique: samples were shown to have a functionally gradient cross section with a continuously increasing mean particle size from top to bottom. This article reports on a modified two-level factorial experimental design that was undertaken to determine the interdependent effects of pH, polyelectrolyte additive concentration, sintering temperature, and powder blend on the sintered microstructure. Ceramic disks ∼45 mm in diameter and 3.3 mm thick were cast by sedimentation. The green bodies were dried prior to sintering. For each point in the experimental space, mercury porosimetry was used to obtain the porosity and pore-size distribution in the solid sample. From metastable suspensions, it was possible to form functionally gradient porous structures. Porosimetric data obtained in this study corroborated previous observations. Structures were produced with a wide pore-size range and high porosity (up to 0.68). These structures, formed from a one-step process, could be used as-is for ultrafiltration applications, but they also had a sufficiently fine top layer for facilitating subsequent thin-coating operations.
South Sudan, Globalization, and the New Regionalism in Africa (and East Africa)

Paper Abstract / The Republic of South Sudan (ROSS) was born, as a sovereign state, in July 2011, into a world layered with regional and sub-regional economic and political organizations, especially in the post-cold war period (in Africa, and consequently in East Africa). This paper attempts to situate the ROSS, conceptually and theoretically, into a particular regional organization, the East African Community (EAC) which is both an economic and political regional organization. Conceived by the British colonial rulers in their British East African Empire, the EAC originally consisted of three colonies: Kenya, Tanzania (Tanganyika and Zanzibar, formed in 1965), and Uganda. The imperatives of globalization, in the post-cold war era, have led to its expansion, under the post-colonial rulers. The EAC now includes the original three members, Burundi, Rwanda, and the Republic of South Sudan on the waiting list.The political economic perspectives of globalization compel the paper to draw heavily from the literature of “new regionalism”. A discussion of the new regionalism is characterized essentially by its political economic and security architecture that has taken roots in almost all the world political regions. For ROSS, the new regionalism represents its external relations, particularly in the context of the development of regional structures in the global political economy of the twenty-first century. Secondly, the EAC is a new form of regionalism which can play certain roles in South Sudan’s development and security structures. Undoubtedly, the new regionalism has developed to represent serious implications for global development and international security arrangements. The paper concludes that South Sudan has no options but to entangle itself in a network of regional organizations, in spite of some possible challenging problems.
Growth and metabolism of fucosylated plasma-membrane glycoproteins in mouse neuroblastoma N2a cells

The presence of 1.0mm-dibutyryl cyclic AMP (N6,O2′-dibutyryladenosine 3′:5′-cyclic monophosphate) and 1.5mm-theophylline completely inhibits the growth of mouse neuroblastoma N2a cells by 24–36h. When compared with N2a cultures without inhibitors (controls), the proportion of cells in S phase, measured by radioautography with [3H]-thymidine, was decreased from 55 to 12%. In addition, the presence of the inhibitors decreased apparent [3H]fucose incorporation into glycoproteins by 50%, and removing the inhibitors resulted in a rapid recovery of both DNA synthesis and glycoprotein metabolism. Measurement of intracellular acid-soluble radioactive fucose revealed that decreased fucose uptake could account for the apparent change in incorporation. Removing dibutyryl cyclic AMP and theophylline from the medium resulted in a rapid uptake of radioactive fucose to within control values, which illustrated that the inhibitors decreased transport of the carbohydrate, although the cells remained viable. Treatment with dibutyryl cyclic AMP and theophylline also reversibly inhibited glycoprotein degradation. Plasma membranes isolated from growing cells and from growth-inhibited cells labelled with [14C]fucose and [3H]fucose respectively were co-electrophoresed on sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gels. These displayed no apparent differences in synthesis of specific membrane glycoproteins. Electrophoresis of plasma membranes isolated from cultures pulse–chased with [14C]fucose and [3H]fucose was used to discern turnover patterns of specific plasma-membrane glycoproteins. High-molecular-weight glycoproteins exhibited rapid rates of turnover in membranes from growing cells, but moderate turnover rates in growth-inhibited cells and cells reversed from growth inhibition. These data indicate that growth arrest of N2a cells results in alterations in the metabolic turnover of plasma-membrane glycoproteins.
Engineering broad-spectrum digestion of polyuronides from an exolytic polysaccharide lyase

Macroalgae represents a promising source of fermentable carbohydrates for use in the production of energy efficient biofuel. The primary carbohydrate in brown algae is the uronic acid-containing alginate, whereas green algae contains a significant amount of glucuronan. A necessary step in the conversion of these polyuronides to bioethanol is saccharification, which can be achieved by enzymatic or chemical degradation. Polysaccharide lyases are a class of enzymes which cleave uronic acid-containing glycans via a β-elimination mechanism, acting both endo- and exolytically on their substrates. In the present work, we characterize a putative alginate lyase from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia K279a (Smlt2602) and describe a H208F mutant that, in addition to cleaving alginate-based substrates, displays significant, exolytic glucuronan activity. To our knowledge this is the first polysaccharide lyase to act exolytically on glucuronan and is an attractive candidate for the broad-spectrum digestion of polyuronides into fermentable monomers.
Cardiac Lesions in a Patient with Familial Neurovisceral Lipidosis (Generalized Gangliosidosis)

Opacification, thickening, nodularity, and infiltration by histiocytes and changes in the mitral valve and myocardium in the heart from a 15-month-old infant with familial neurovisceral lipidosis are described. The clinical diagnosis was confirmed by biochemical analyses.
Special Clinical Considerations of Beta-Blocker Treatment

Outcomes for heart failure have improved considerably with the implementation of neurohormonal antagonism that includes angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and beta-blockers. Despite the robust benefit of beta-blockers for heart failure, it is not clear that the benefit can be extended to all patient groups. Special clinical consideration thus needs to be given to the elderly, women, and African Americans. A retrospective review of available data suggests that despite differences in the natural history of heart failure for these groups, significant benefit can still be expected from the use of beta-blockers for heart failure. Future trials will address these groups in a prospective manner.
An unusual H2 sorption mechanism in PCN-14: insights from molecular simulation

Simulations of H2 sorption were performed in PCN-14, a metal–organic framework (MOF) that consists of Cu2+ ions coordinated to 5,5′-(9,10-anthracenediyl)diisophthalate (adip) linkers. This MOF displays an excess H2 uptake of 2.70 wt% at 77 K and 1.0 atm and an initial H2Qst value of 8.6 kJ mol−1 according to previous experimental measurements. The experimental H2 sorption isotherms and Qst values in PCN-14 were reproduced in simulations using well-known H2 potentials that have been widely used for MOF–H2 theoretical studies. H2 sorption in PCN-14 was dominated by repulsion/dispersion energetics; this allowed the experimental observables to be reproduced by a model that includes only Lennard-Jones parameters. The most energetically favorable H2 sorption site in PCN-14 corresponds to sorption within a small cage that is enclosed by three [Cu2(O2CR)4] units and three adip linkers. The anthracenyl rings of the adip linkers represent the secondary sorption sites within the MOF. In contrast to expectations, sorption of H2 onto the Cu2+ ions of the copper paddlewheels was not observed within the simulations at low loading. The simulations revealed that the open-metal sites in PCN-14 were occupied at high loading. Control simulations of H2 sorption in PCN-14 for different cases in which the partial positive charge of one of the paddlewheel Cu2+ ions was increased relative to the other revealed that sorption onto the open-metal sites can be captured if there is a very high positive charge on the metal. Otherwise, the calculated partial charge for the Cu2+ ions in PCN-14 in this work was not high enough in magnitude to facilitate strong H2–metal interactions in simulation. This study shows the power of using molecular simulations to elucidate an unusual H2 sorption behavior in a MOF.
Innovator Organizations in New Drug Development: Assessing the Sustainability of the Biopharmaceutical Industry

The way new medicines are discovered and brought to market has fundamentally changed over the last 30 years. Our previous analysis showed that biotechnology companies had contributed significantly to the US Food and Drug Administration approval of new molecular entities up to the mid-1980s, when the trends started to decline. Although intriguing, the focus on biotechnology necessarily precluded the wider question of how the biopharmaceutical industry has been delivering on its goals to develop new drugs. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of all biopharmaceutical innovators and uncover unexpected findings. The present biopharmaceutical industry grew steadily from 1800 to 1950 and then stagnated for two decades, before a burst of growth attributable to the biotechnology revolution took place; but consolidation has reduced the number of active and independent innovators to a level not experienced since 1945. The trajectories and trends we observe raise fundamental questions about biopharmaceutical innovators and the sustainability of the drug-development enterprise.
Sustainable Bioenergy Feedstock Production Systems: Integrating Carbon Dynamics, Erosion, Water Quality, and Greenhouse Gas Production

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is one of several rationales for developing renewable biomass energy. Overzealous biomass harvest may accelerate mineralization of soil organic matter (SOM); thus, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and increasing the risk of erosion and degrading water quality. Sustainable biomass feedstock harvest strategies are needed. Management options such as reducing or eliminating tillage, adding cover and including or expanding the presence of perennials on the landscape are established conservation practices for promoting soil and water quality, and likely valuable with regards to feedstock harvest as well. Model results based on Iowa yields suggested that maximum harvest rates could be sustained while still protecting the soil from erosion and soil loss. Also in the Midwest, double or relay cropping food and a short-season energy crop could improve land-use efficiency. Changing from row crops to perennial energy grasses can sequester 0.49 to 0.75 Mg C ha −1 , as well as reducing erosion risk dramatically. Amending soil with biochar is an emerging practice for mitigating GHG emission. No simple solution is available for all regions, but several strategies are available, such as efficient land use that coincidently produces food and fuel, strategic placement of dedicated perennial biofuels to optimize land use and application of nutrient infused biochars. These strategies can lessen competition between food and fuel, and safeguard and improve soil and water quality; thereby, resulting in sustainable bioenergy systems.
Rupture in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

Ability to predict the growth of abdominal aortic aneurysm and the rupture event is important for prognostics and treatment for this life-threatening cardiovascular disease. Uniaxial stress–strain testing of healthy and collagen-degraded aortic specimens from pigs was performed in order to study the biomechanical properties of the aortic tissue. A mathematical model for the stress–strain relationship suitable for describing the behaviour of abdominal aortic tissue was used to derive tissue properties as a function of specimen orientation and collagen degradation . The resultant properties varied significantly between healthy tissue and collagen-degraded tissue and were found to be orientation dependent. Maximum stress, maximum strain and critical strain values were significantly higher for healthy tissue group than for collagen-degraded tissue group. Finite element modelling of healthy and collagen-degraded abdominal aortas was performed using the measured properties. It is shown that this approach can potentially lead to the development of an analytical tool for assisting in prognostics and treatment of the disease.
Spine surgery in Nepal: the 2015 earthquake.

At noon on Saturday, 25 April 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal. It was centered in the Himalaya northwest of Kathmandu, the capital of over 1 million people. The violent tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi, India 1,000 km from the epicenter, but the worst of its destructive force was experienced in the heavily populated Kathmandu valley and in the remote mountainous villages of the Himalaya. Ancient temples crumbled; poorly constructed buildings collapsed; men, women, and children were trapped and injured, sometimes fatally. Avalanches killed mountain climbers, Sherpa guides, and porters at Everest base camp (EBC). The death toll to date exceeds 8,600 with as many as 20,000 injured. Spinal Health International (SHI), a nonprofit volunteer organization, has been active in Nepal in past years and responded to requests by Nepali spine surgeons for assistance with traumatic spine injury victims following the earthquake. SHI volunteers were present during the 2nd major earthquake of magnitude 7.3 on 12 May 2015. Past and current experiences in Nepal will be presented.
Characterization and Proteomic Analysis of Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA under Long-Term Electron-Donor Starvation

ABSTRACTThe natural environment of Geobacter sulfurreducens is oligotrophic and described as limiting in both electron donors and terminal electron acceptors (TEA). In previous studies we examined the effects of long-term TEA (fumarate) limitation, and in this study we examine long-term batch cultures under limiting electron donor. The microorganism survived under long-term electron donor (acetate) starvation, maintaining a stable population of ∼1–2× 108 cells mL−1for >650 days. Proteins that varied in abundance with a high level of statistical significance (p < 0.05) for stages between mid-log to survival phase (acetate starved) were identified using iTRAQ based mass spectroscopy. The most highly represented proteins that significantly increased in level in the survival phase cells are generally membrane-associated and are involved in energy metabolism and protein fate. These results document that changes in the outer and cytoplasmic membranes may help G. sulfurreducens survive during starvation through ...
Adding Protective Genetic Variants to Clinical Reporting of Genomic Screening Results: Restoring Balance.

Most clinical genetic testing is limited to diagnostic testing for monogenic diseases, such as hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and focused on a limited number of genes among individuals with a high pretest probability for the genetic condition. The key clinical question has been whether a causal pathogenic variant is present, which has represented a pragmatic approach because DNA sequencing was expensive and interpretive knowledge limited. Medicine is now entering the era of sequencing-based screening of healthy populations like the MyCode Community Health Initiative cohort1 and the All of Us cohort.2 This means that assessment of a broader spectrum of genetic contribution to risk, including both pathogenic and protective variants,3 will be important to answer clinical questions about penetrance4 and prognosis.5 For example, loss-of-function alleles in the PCSK9 gene are known to be protective against coronary artery disease (CAD).4
Abstract 024: Public Access Defibrillation State Law Assessment: Do Current Laws Align With Best Available Evidence?

I. Introduction: Cardiac arrest (CA) is a leading cause of death in the U.S. An estimated 70-90% of people experiencing out-of-hospital CA die before reaching the hospital. Applying cardiopulmonary...
Progression Trend of Scientific Reasoning from Elementary School to University: a Large-Scale Cross-Grade Survey Among Chinese Students

This study examines progression trends of Chinese students’ scientific reasoning skills across grade levels from elementary school to university. A large-scale survey using the Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (CTSR) was conducted with 2669 Chinese students at 13 grade levels (grades 4–16). The construct validity of the CTSR was first examined using Rasch analysis to verify that the various reasoning sub-skills targeted by the test (hypothetical-deductive reasoning, proportional reasoning, correlation reasoning, probabilistic reasoning, and control of variables) form a cohesive cognitive construct. Based on an affirmative result, we proceeded to fit grade-level averages to the best-fit logistic regression model and generated trend lines for the reasoning sub-skills measured by the CTSR. Results show that the cross-grade progression trends generally follow continuous paths through increasingly greater levels of improvement. While all sub-skills display a noticeable growth during middle and high school years, they progress across the grades with different rates. Specifically, the development of proportional reasoning is fast-paced and large, but the progression of hypothetical-deductive reasoning and control of variables is markedly tardy and small. Formal science instruction, particularly the emergence of multiple domain-specific science courses in middle and high school, can influence the cross-grade progression trends. Possible causes and future improvement in science education are proposed. This study contributes to our understanding about the development of scientific reasoning and offers important implications for science instruction and research at different grades.
The performance of an Ultra-wideband elliptical ring monopole antenna with a humanoid breast phantom

An elliptical planar ultra-wideband (UWB) ring antenna in the presence of a humanoid breast phantom is presented in this paper. The antenna is designed for breast imaging. Therefore, it is modeled in front of a humanoid cubic breast phantom and its performances are studied. The antenna operates in a wide frequency band from about 1.5 GHz to 7 GHz. The impedance bandwidth is about 126%. This Antenna can be used in a breast imaging system for radar based microwave imaging system for cancer detection, where wide bandwidth is required.
Transcriptional and Microenvironmental Regulation of Lineage Ambiguity in Leukemia

Leukemia is characterized by the uncontrolled production of leukemic cells and impaired normal hematopoiesis. Although the combination of chemotherapies and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has significantly improved the outcome of leukemia patients, a proportion of patients still suffer from relapse after treatment. Upon relapse, a phenomenon termed "lineage switch" is observed in a subset of leukemia patients, in which conversion of lymphoblastic leukemia to myeloid leukemia or vice versa is observed. A rare entity of leukemia called mixed-phenotype acute leukemia exhibits co-expression of markers representing two or three lineages. These two phenotypes regarding the lineage ambiguity suggest that the fate of some leukemia retain or acquire a certain degree of plasticity. Studies using animal models provide insight into how lineage specifying transcription factors can enforce or convert a fate in hematopoietic cells. Modeling lineage conversion in normal hematopoietic progenitor cells may improve our current understanding of how lineage switch occurs in leukemia. In this review, we will summarize the role of transcription factors and microenvironmental signals that confer fate plasticity to normal hematopoietic progenitor cells, and their potential to regulate lineage switching in leukemias. Future efforts to uncover the mechanisms contributing to lineage conversion in both normal hematopoiesis and leukemia may pave the way to improve current therapeutic strategies.
Mining Patterns of Cyberbullying on Twitter

Cyberbullying refers to the use of text, images, audio and video to harass or harm individuals or groups on a repetitive and non–stop basis in online social networks. The phenomenon has emerged as a serious societal and public health problem that demands accurate methods for the detection of cyberbullying instances to mitigate the consequences. We perform a detailed analysis of a large–scale real–world dataset to identify online social network topology structure features that are the most prominent in enhancing the accuracy of state–of–the–art classification methods for cyberbullying detection. We derive a small subset of features that are fast to compute while differentiating between "normal" users, cyberbullies and victims. Our findings have important implications for the design of future cyberbullying detection schemes.
Reviewing the Progress of School Discipline Reform

In the 1990s and early 2000s, schools across the United States employed exclusionary discipline at increasing rates as a response to student infractions. Researchers studying school discipline repo...
Nanoparticle-Assisted Metabolomics

Understanding and harnessing the interactions between nanoparticles and biological molecules is at the forefront of applications of nanotechnology to modern biology. Metabolomics has emerged as a prominent player in systems biology as a complement to genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. Its focus is the systematic study of metabolite identities and concentration changes in living systems. Despite significant progress over the recent past, important challenges in metabolomics remain, such as the deconvolution of the spectra of complex mixtures with strong overlaps, the sensitive detection of metabolites at low abundance, unambiguous identification of known metabolites, structure determination of unknown metabolites and standardized sample preparation for quantitative comparisons. Recent research has demonstrated that some of these challenges can be substantially alleviated with the help of nanoscience. Nanoparticles in particular have found applications in various areas of bioanalytical chemistry and metabolomics. Their chemical surface properties and increased surface-to-volume ratio endows them with a broad range of binding affinities to biomacromolecules and metabolites. The specific interactions of nanoparticles with metabolites or biomacromolecules help, for example, simplify metabolomics spectra, improve the ionization efficiency for mass spectrometry or reveal relationships between spectral signals that belong to the same molecule. Lessons learned from nanoparticle-assisted metabolomics may also benefit other emerging areas, such as nanotoxicity and nanopharmaceutics.
Systematics and Phylogeny of the Zygodactylidae (Aves, Neognathae) With Description of a New Species From the Early Eocene of Wyoming, USA

Zygodactylidae are an extinct lineage of perching birds characterized by distinct morphologies of the foot and wing elements. Although the clade has a complex taxonomic history, current hypotheses place Zygodactylidae as the sister taxon to Passeriformes (i.e., songbirds). Given the rather sparse fossil record of early passeriforms, the description of zygodactylid taxa is important for inferring potentially ancestral states in the largest radiation of living birds (i.e., the ∼6,000 species of extant passeriforms). Despite the exceptional preservation of many specimens and considerable species diversity in Zygodactylidae, the relationships among species have not been previously evaluated in a phylogenetic context. Herein, we review the fossil record of Zygodactylidae from North America and describe five new well-preserved fossils from the early Eocene Green River Formation of Wyoming. Two specimens are identified as representing a new species and the first records of the taxon Zygodactylus outside Europe. Anatomical comparisons with previously named taxa and the results of phylogenetic analysis including newly described specimens and previously named zygodactylid taxa provide the first hypothesis of the species-level relationships among zygodactylids. The monophyly of Zygodactylidae is supported in these new analyses. However, the monophyly of Primozygodactylus and the taxonomic distinction between Zygodactylus and Eozygodactylus remain unresolved and would likely benefit from the description of additional specimens.
Calculating Project Management's Return on Investment:

This paper describes a procedure that can help managers measure their return on investment for project management (PM/ROI). Current PM processes and practices of 38 different companies and governme...
Essential Tremor: Animal Models

Animal models of essential tremor with variable degrees of face, predictive, and etiological validity have been generated with neurotoxins, pharmacological agents, and genetic engineering. The harmaline tremor model which is based on activation of the climbing fiber pathway from the inferior olive to cerebellar Purkinje cells has demonstrated utility as a therapeutic screening tool.
An elastic-plastic analysis of a crack in a plate of finite size

Two great complexities are involved in determining the stress and strain fields in a body containing a crack. These arise in treating the plastically deformed regions at the ends of the crack and in accounting for the boundary conditions on the periphery of the body. Progress has been made in treating these complexities individually. A large number of completely elastic solutions for finite and semi-finite cracked plates (see, for example, the compilation by Feddersen [1]) and of elastic-plastic solutions for infinite cracked plates are available. Few elastic-plastic solutions for finite regions have been reported, however. Of these the anti-planestrain solutions of Bilby et al [2] and Koskinen [3] are particularly noteworthy.
MCDM: From ‘Stand-Alone’ Methods to Integrated and Intelligent DSS

Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) methods have been developed and implemented as ‘stand-alone’ systems, with no support for information exchange and sharing. Using an integrated decision support system (DSS) architecture, MCDM model builders can be relieved from concerns about data management and dialogue generation. Moreover, if the multiple criteria decision support system (MCDSS) contains a “model bank” then a rule-based expert system plays an advisory role in selecting for ‘novice’ users the most appropriate MCDM method for the decision problem. This paper distinguishes five generations in the development of MCDSS based on software structure and system capabilities. It discusses these generations and presents the benefits gained from the evolution of computerized MCDM.
Why is co-infection with influenza virus and bacteria so difficult to control?

Influenza viruses are genetically labile pathogens which avoid immune detection by constantly changing their coat proteins. Most human infections are caused by mildly pathogenic viruses which rarely cause life-threatening disease in healthy people, but some individuals with a weakened immune system can experience severe complications. Widespread infections with highly pathogenic strains of influenza virus are less common, but have the potential to cause enormous death tolls among healthy adults if infection rates reach pandemic proportions. Increased virulence has been attributed to a variety of factors, including enhanced susceptibility to coinfection with common strains of bacteria. The mechanisms that facilitate dual infection are a major focus of current research, as preventative measures are needed to avert future pandemics.
John of Damascus and Islam: Christian Heresiology and the Intellectual Background to Earliest Christian-Muslim Relations

If the explosive growth of the study of early Islam in the past few decades can be summarized, it is that there has been a confluence of the study of Late Antiquity and the accepted artefacts of th...
Is CRISPR Different? Considering Exclusivity for ResearchTools, Therapeutics, and Everything In Between

Feeney and colleagues (2018) identify an issue that has been widely discussed in the literature: the potential impact of patents on the dissemination and use of CRISPR gene editing technology (Cont...
Thermodynamics, Microstructures, and Solubilization of Block Copolymer Micelles by Density Functional Theory.

Block copolymer micelle is one of the most versatile self-assembled structures with applications in drug delivery, cosmetic products, and micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration. The key to design an eff...
Outline of Revelation: Defining Integration Points Throughout the Epistle

The book of Revelation provides a structural emphasis the prophetic unveiling of God’s eternal plan for humankind. A section analysis was conducted to determine the integration points between the Old and New Testament books. The findings of the research concluded that the book of Revelation is categorized into three sections, which align across scripture that all points to the crescendo of God’s plan to provide salvation through Christ.
Using the Xenopus Developmental Eye Regrowth System to Distinguish the Role of Developmental Versus Regenerative Mechanisms.

A longstanding challenge in regeneration biology is to understand the role of developmental mechanisms in restoring lost or damaged tissues and organs. As these body structures were built during embryogenesis, it is not surprising that a number of developmental mechanisms are also active during regeneration. However, it remains unclear whether developmental mechanisms act similarly or differently during regeneration as compared to development. Since regeneration is studied in the context of mature, differentiated tissues, it is difficult to evaluate comparative studies with developmental processes due to the latter’s highly proliferative environment. We have taken a more direct approach to study regeneration in a developmental context (regrowth). Xenopus laevis, the African clawed frog, is a well-established model for both embryology and regeneration studies, especially for the eye. Xenopus eye development is well-defined. Xenopus is also an established model for retinal and lens regeneration studies. Previously, we demonstrated that Xenopus tailbud embryo can successfully regrow a functional eye that is morphologically indistinguishable from an age-matched control eye. In this study, we assessed the temporal regulation of retinal differentiation and patterning restoration during eye regrowth. Our findings showed that during regrowth, cellular patterning and retinal layer formation was delayed by approximately one day but was restored by three days when compared to eye development. An assessment of the differentiation of ganglion cells, rod photoreceptor cells, and Muller glia indicated that the retinal birth order generated during regrowth was consistent with that observed for eye development. Thus, retina differentiation and patterning during regrowth is similar to endogenous eye development. We used this eye regrowth model to assess the role of known mechanisms in development versus regrowth. Loss-of-function studies showed that Pax6 was required for both eye development and regrowth whereas apoptosis was only required for regrowth. Together, these results revealed that the mechanisms required for both development and regrowth can be distinguished from regrowth-specific ones. Our study highlights this developmental model of eye regrowth as a robust platform to systematically and efficiently define the molecular mechanisms that are required for regeneration versus development.
Endophthalmitis Following Intravitreal Injections Performed in the Office Versus Operating Room Setting

To review the safety of performing intravitreal injections in the office compared with the operating room setting. Few studies directly compare outcomes, including endophthalmitis rate, following intravitreal injections performed in the office versus operating room setting. Instead, the literature on post-injection endophthalmitis consists mostly of retrospective series separately assessing outcomes of injections performed in either the office or in the operating room. These studies consistently show that the rates of endophthalmitis are low in each setting. Of the studies reviewed, 1,220,479 unique intravitreal injections were performed in the office and 285,653 were performed in the operating room. The rate of endophthalmitis was low and similar for each (0.027%). The current data suggests that it is safe to perform intravitreal injections in either the office or the operating room.
Ballistic Metamaterials

Ballistic metamaterials, metal-dielectric composites with the unit cell size smaller than electron mean free path, represent a new class of composite media with many unique properties, such as hyperbolic response above the plasma frequency. © 2019 The Author(s)
A Design and Experiment of Automation Management System for Platform as a Service

Security [11] and quality [4] of cloud computing (CC) services represent significant factors that affect the adoption by consumers. Platform as a Service (PaaS) is one of CC service models [14]. Management of database systems, middleware and application runtime environments is automated in PaaS [2]. PaaS automation management issues and requirements were collected in three rounds from information technology experts using Delphi technique. In this paper, PaaS automation quality and security management system (MS) layered model is proposed and validated. The aim of the MS is enabling PaaS model for mission critical platforms. Validation of the MS was based on experiment in a private cloud for an organization undergoing a transformation toward PaaS computing.
Outcomes of out-of-hospital extracorporeal membrane oxygenation transfers: significance of initiation site and personnel.

Background:Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is an accepted therapy option for refractory cardiac or respiratory failure. The outcomes of cases initiated at non–extracorporeal membrane oxygenatio...
What benefits do healthcare organisations receive from leadership and management development programmes? A systematic review of the evidence

Introduction Leadership and management training/development programmes have gained increasing institutional attention in healthcare organisations, and they have a wide variety of formats and approaches. However, limited evidence exists about effects of these programmes for the organisations that sponsor them. A minority of healthcare systems in the USA measure the impact of these programmes on organisational metrics such as staff turnover or cost savings. This systematic review sought to answer the question, ‘What evidence exists that leadership and/or management development and training programs yield benefits for health care organizations?’ These benefits could include return on investment, improved productivity/cohesion/teaming, or increased use of specific management skills (eg, strategic planning) that would directly benefit the organisation. Methods We followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines to conduct a systematic review of the relevant literature. We conducted two searches in PubMed and one in ABI/Inform, a business literature database. All articles included for the study were further categorised according to their relevance for answering the research questions, using predefined criteria based on their methodology and reported findings. Results Our search included 2462 studies, of which 55 met criteria for inclusion. We identified four potential organisation-level benefits to leadership and management training programmes: benefits to other staff (besides those who participate in the programmes), improved patient safety and satisfaction, tangible benefits from projects that were part of the programme and improved ability/confidence using leadership-related skills by programme participants. However, the research base on this topic is limited. Conclusion Although this research identified potential benefits of leadership and management programmes at the organisation level, additional research is needed to make definitive conclusions about their impact.
Simulated Increases in Fire Activity Reinforce Shrub Conversion in a Southwestern US Forest

Fire exclusion in historically frequent-fire forests of the southwestern United States has altered forest structure and increased the probability of high-severity fire. Warmer and drier conditions, coupled with dispersal distance limitations, are impeding tree seedling establishment and survival following high-severity fire. High-severity patches are commonly dominated by non-forest vegetation, a state that can be reinforced by subsequent fire events. We sought to determine the influence of fire probability on post-fire vegetation development in a severely burned landscape in New Mexico, USA. We used LANDIS-II to simulate three fire probability scenarios—historical fire probability, contemporary fire probability, and the mean of the two—with contemporary climate. As fire probability increased, the mean size of the largest fires and the mean landscape fire severity increased. These changes in fire characteristics resulted in decreased total aboveground biomass and photosynthetic capacity on the landscape after 50 years. Additionally, the distribution of individual species biomass shifted, with early successional species, especially those that resprout after fire, increasing as a fraction of total biomass with increasing fire occurrence. Counter to empirical data, our simulations did not show a conifer establishment limitation, suggesting a source of uncertainty that will need to be addressed to improve projections of forest dynamics under future climate. Even without limited conifer regeneration, continued increases in fire frequency are likely to favor resprouting species and result in a loss of forest biomass and ecosystem productivity in this southwestern forest landscape.
The Relationship between Subjective and Physiological Sexual Arousal in Women with and without Arousal Concerns.

Whereas laboratory studies frequently report low correlations between women’s physiological and subjective sexual arousal (i.e., concordance), research employing advanced statistical techniques rev...
Effective Velopharyngeal Ratio: A More Clinically Relevant Measure of Velopharyngeal Function.

Purpose Velopharyngeal (VP) ratios are commonly used to study normal VP anatomy and normal VP function. An effective VP (EVP) ratio may be a more appropriate indicator of normal parameters for spee...
Unplanned Emergency Visits and Admissions After Orthopaedic Ambulatory Surgery in the First 2 Years of Operation of a University Ambulatory Surgery Center.

Background:Ambulatory surgeries have increased in recent decades to help improve efficiency and cost; however, there is a potential need for unplanned postoperative admission, clinic visits, or eva...
A national analysis of trends in COVID-19 infection and clinical management in Veterans Health Administration medical facilities

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE We explored longitudinal trends in sociodemographic characteristics, reported symptoms, laboratory findings, pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment, comorbidities, and 30-day in-hospital mortality among hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS This retrospective cohort study included 43,267 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in the Veterans Health Administration between 03/01/20 and 08/31/20 and followed until 09/30/20. We focused our analysis on patients that were subsequently hospitalized, and categorized them into groups based on the month of hospitalization. We summarized our findings through descriptive statistics. We used a nonparametric rank-sum test for trend to examine any differences in the distribution of our study variables across the six months. RESULTS During our study period, 8,240 patients were hospitalized, and 1,081 (13.1%) died within 30 days of admission. Hospitalizations increased over time, but the proportion of patients that died consistently declined from March (N=221/890, 24.8%) to August (N=111/1,396, 8.0%). Patients hospitalized in March compared to August were younger on average, mostly black, and symptomatic. They also had a higher frequency of baseline comorbidities, including hypertension and diabetes, and were more likely to present with abnormal laboratory findings including low lymphocyte counts and elevated creatinine. Lastly, receipt of mechanical ventilation and Hydroxychloroquine declined from March to August, while treatment with Dexamethasone and Remdesivir increased. CONCLUSION We found evidence of declining COVID-19 severity and fatality over time within a national health care system.
Cloud Computing in Education

The increased use of public cloud computing for business, government, and education now seems inevitable. Primarily due to lower cost and greater ease of access and use, wikis, social learning sites, and free or low-cost hosted services on such sites as Facebook or Google are now competing with traditional proprietary course management systems such as Blackboard and Angel. Of particular concern is the merging of social media and virtual learning environments and the personally identifiable data that are stored on off-site computers. Internal abuse (misuse or sale of personal user data by vendors) and insufficient protection against hacking and identity theft are additional concerns because of the large amounts of personally identifiable information (PII) that cloud vendors are storing. Also, loss of management control or intellectual property rights over materials uploaded to “free” cloud services is a potential barrier for creators of learning objects. This chapter, designed for educational administrators and educators in the e-learning community, looks at the pros and cons of the use of current cloud services in education, with a focus on privacy and security issues. The United States context will be studied specifically because its exported cloud services exert an international impact. The primarily self-regulatory approach to Internet privacy in the USA means that international educational users of cloud services must carefully examine terms of service (ToS) agreements to insure that their national data protection laws are not being violated. The chapter concludes with suggestions for safe and sensible use of cloud computing in education.
Capturing talk and proximity in the classroom: Advances in measuring features of young children's friendships

Abstract Young children's friendships fuel essential developmental outcomes (e.g., social-emotional competence) and are thought to provide even greater benefits to children with or at-risk for disabilities. Teacher and parent report and sociometric measures are commonly used to measure friendships, and ecobehavioral assessment has been used to capture its features on a momentary basis. In this proof-of-concept study, we use Ubisense, the Language ENvironmental Analysis (LENA) recorder, and advanced speech processing algorithms to capture features of friendship – child-peer speech and proximity within activity areas. We collected 12,332 1-second speech and location data points. Our preliminary results indicate the focal child at-risk for a disability and each playmate spent time vocalizing near one another across 4 activity areas. Additionally, compared to the Blocks activity area, the children had significantly lower odds of talking while in proximity during Manipulatives and Science. This suggests that the activity areas children occupy may affect their engagement with peers and, in turn, the friendships they development. The proposed approach is a groundbreaking advance to understanding and supporting children's friendships.
A preliminary investigation of umbellate inflorescences in Vallisneria americana populations of Central Florida

Abstract Vallisneria americana typically produces solitary pistillate inflorescences; however, unusual umbellate flowers have been observed in sub-tropical populations and are reported as rare. There are multiple hypotheses regarding the origin or cause of umbellate inflorescences—they may be relics of ancestral stocks surviving through asexual reproduction, heritable traits worthy of taxonomic recognition, or teratological specimens resulting from injury during flower formation. Through surveys of Vallisneria populations in four lakes in Central Florida, USA, we show these umbellate flowers are broadly distributed and we document their physical and reproductive traits, contrasted with solitary capsules (capsule number, capsule length and width, seed number, germination). Umbellate inflorescences were found frequently across space and time—capsules were found in three of four lakes, 40–80 % of the times flowering was observed. Umbellate inflorescences produced fewer seeds than solitary capsules, despite having 2–33 capsules per inflorescence. Seeds from umbellate capsules were viable, but germination occurred more slowly and at a lower percentage than seeds from solitary capsules. Nematodes were not detected within sampled inflorescences. Chironomid larvae were detected at a high rate (75–80 %) in umbellate capsules from two of three lakes but were not found on solitary capsules, suggesting they may be a possible cause for teratological growth. We conclude umbellate inflorescences are broadly distributed in Central Florida lakes and, while not sterile, they may have reproductive costs. Further study is needed to fully evaluate the cause of umbellate formation, population-level effects, and their range within Vallisneria americana.
A systems biology approach to heat stress, heat injury, and heat stroke

Heat illness is a major source of injury for military populations in both deployed and training settings. Developing tools to help leaders enhance unit performance while reducing the risk of injury is of paramount importance to the military. Here, we review our recent systems biology approaches to heat stress in order to develop a 3-dimensional (3D) realistic thermoregulation model, identify the molecular basis and mediators of injury, and characterize associated biomarkers. We discuss the implications of our work, future directions, and the type of tools necessary to enhance force health protection in the future.
GLULAM DESIGN CRITERIA FOR TEMPORARY STRUCTURES

If temporary structures having lives of 2-5 years are designed using criteria for permanent structures with lives of 50-75 years, overly conservative designs can result. This paper presents a systematic, rational basis for developing criteria for glue laminated timber temporary bridges and buildings. Second moment reliability theory, which requires estimates of the mean and coefficient of variation of resistance and load, is used to compute measures of safety, called safety index values. These index values are computed for permanent and temporary structural elements. Allowable stresses for temporary structures are determined by choosing corresponding safety index values which will provide adequate safety relative to the safety of permanent structures, while reflecting the temporary nature of the structures. Examples of how allowable flexural stresses are developed for bridges and buildings are given.