cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Polymerase Chain Reaction for Definitive Identification of Yersinia Ruckeri

Yersinia ruckeri causes enteric red mouth (ERM) disease in salmonids. Serologic identification of Y. ruckeri is hampered by cross-reactivity with other bacterial isolates of fish origin. Oligonucleotide primers incorporating Y. ruckeri unique sequences were designed to amplify a 409 bp fragment of Y. ruckeri 16S rDNA. The primers did not amplify other genetically related Yersinia or a wide variety of other aquatic or piscine bacteria. This assay provides a rapid, definitive identification of Y. ruckeri that is not subject to the variability inherent in serologic methods.
Genetic and phenotypic characterization of cop1 mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana

Summary Ten Arabidopsis lines that carry recessive mutations in the cop1 (constitutively photomorphogenic) locus have been isolated. These lines define at least four different alleles. All of the mutant lines produce dark-grown seedlings that mimic wild-type seedlings grown in the light. The phenotype of the dark-grown mutant seedlings includes: short hypocotyls, open and enlarged cotyledons, accumulation of anthocyanin, cell-type differentiation and chloroplast-like plastid differentiation in cotyledons. Moreover, in more prolonged dark-growth periods the mutants exhibit true leaf development that parallels that in light-grown siblings. The four mutant alleles represent two types of mutations: three alleles (cop 1-1, cop 1-2, and cop 1-3) have severely affected phenotypes whereas one allele (cop 1-4) has a less severe phenotype. Compared to the severe alleles, the cop 1-4 mutant has slightly longer hypocotyls in dark-grown seedlings and does not accumulate abnormal levels of anthocyanin. The cop1–1/cop1-4 hybrid seedlings are intermediate in many physiological properties under both dark- and light-growth conditions, relative to the two parents. These results may suggest that the extent of residual cop1 gene activity in the mutants dictates the degree to which the aberrant plant phenotype is expressed. Analysis of plants carrying both cop1 and hy, a mutation that results in a deficiency of active phyto-chrome, suggests that the cop1 gene product acts downstream of phytochrome. The differentiation of chloroplasts in the roots of light-grown cop1 plants but not in wild-type plants suggests that the wild-type cop1 gene product also normally plays a role in suppressing chloroplast development in the roots of light-grown plants. To aid the eventual molecular cloning of the cop1 locus, its chromosomal location has been mapped and a molecular marker that is located about 1 centimorgan away from the cop1 locus obtained.
Misleading Learners: Co-opting Your Spam Filter

Using statistical machine learning for making security decisions intro- duces new vulnerabilities in large scale systems. We show how an adversary can exploit statistical machine learning, as used in the SpamBayes spam filter, to ren- der it useless—even if the adversary's access is limited to only 1% of the spam training messages. We demonstrate three new attacks that successfully make the filter unusable, prevent victims from receiving specific email messages, and cause spam emails to arrive in the victim's inbox.
Localized doxorubicin chemotherapy with a biopolymeric nanocarrier improves survival and reduces toxicity in xenografts of human breast cancer

Patients with metastatic breast cancer have a five-year survival rate of 27% compared to 98% for localized cancer, and the presence of even a few cancer cells in lymph nodes, known as isolated tumor cells or nanometastases, significantly increases the risk of relapse in the absence of aggressive treatment. Therefore, diagnosis and treatment of lymphatic metastases in early breast cancer plays an important role in patient survival. Here, we demonstrate the first description of a delivery system for localized doxorubicin chemotherapy to the breast tissue. The hyaluronan-doxorubicin nanoconjugate exhibits a sustained release characteristic in vitro and in vivo in the breast tissues of rodents bearing human breast cancer xenografts. In addition, the conjugate reduces dose-limiting cardiac toxicity with minimal toxicity observed in normal tissues. Finally, the conjugate dramatically inhibits breast cancer progression in vivo, leading to an increased survival rate. Thus, localized chemotherapy to the breast lymphatics with a nanocarrier may represent an improved strategy for treatment of early stage breast cancers.
Visit to Tsingtao

In June 1977, Philip Handler, president of the National Academy of Sciences, led an interdisciplinary delegation of the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China to the People's Republic of China (PRC) to discuss with their Chinese counterparts the exchange program in the physical and social sciences. Our mission to Peking had been to replace the ‘scientific tourism’ of the last two years of the exchange program with something more substantial. It may be some time before we see the fruits of this mission, since we were told that cooperative scientific ventures would have to wait for ‘normalization.’
Game theory and plant ecology

The fixed and plastic traits possessed by a plant, which may be collectively thought of as its strategy, are commonly modelled as density-independent adaptations to its environment. However, plant strategies may also represent density- or frequency-dependent adaptations to the strategies used by neighbours. Game theory provides the tools to characterise such density- and frequency-dependent interactions. Here, we review the contributions of game theory to plant ecology. After briefly reviewing game theory from the perspective of plant ecology, we divide our review into three sections. First, game theoretical models of allocation to shoots and roots often predict investment in those organs beyond what would be optimal in the absence of competition. Second, game theoretical models of enemy defence suggest that an individual's investment in defence is not only a means of reducing its own tissue damage but also a means of deflecting enemies onto competitors. Finally, game theoretical models of trade with mutualistic partners suggest that the optimal trade may reflect competition for access to mutualistic partners among plants. In short, our review provides an accessible entrance to game theory that will help plant ecologists enrich their research with its worldview and existing predictions.
The centre and the localities: state formation and parish government in England, circa 1640–1740

Recent studies have challenged older views that the British state of the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was rather powerless. However, such studies have focused largely on the executive, and particularly on the development of centralized revenue departments, or on the role of county elites in implementing state policies in the localities. This essay considers state formation as it was manifested at the base of the governmental system, and examines the extent of, and reasons for, support of national policies at the parish level. It argues that state power derived in part from institutional changes and innovations in procedure which made government in the localities more uniform, more professional, and more accountable; but that initiatives by parish vestries and a willingness on the part of such local elites to implement national policies also help to explain the strength of the state.
Heterogeneous Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation as an Effective Pathway in Biomass Upgrading

Reducing oxygen content in biomass-derived feedstocks via hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is a key step in their upgrading to fuels and valuable chemicals. Organic molecules, e.g., alcohols and formic acid, can donate hydrogen to reduce the substrate in a process called catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH). Although it is practiced far less frequently than molecular-hydrogen-based HDO processes, CTH has been proven to be an efficient and selective strategy in biomass upgrading in the last two decades. In this paper, we present a selective review of recent progress made in the upgrade of biomass-derived feedstocks through heterogeneous CTH, with a focus on the mechanistic interpretation. Hydrogenation and cleavage of C═O and C–O bonds, respectively, are the two main categories of reactions discussed, owing to their importance in the HDO of biomass-derived feedstocks. On acid–base catalysts, Lewis acid–base pair sites, rather than a single acid or base site, mediate hydrogenation of carbonyl groups with alcohols...
Neural pathfinding on uni- and multidirectional photopolymerized micropatterns.

Overcoming signal resolution barriers of neural prostheses, such as the commercially available cochlear impant (CI) or the developing retinal implant, will likely require spatial control of regenerative neural elements. To rationally design materials that direct nerve growth, it is first necessary to determine pathfinding behavior of de novo neurite growth from prosthesis-relevant cells such as spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) in the inner ear. Accordingly, in this work, repeating 90° turns were fabricated as multidirectional micropatterns to determine SGN neurite turning capability and pathfinding. Unidirectional micropatterns and unpatterned substrates are used as comparisons. Spiral ganglion Schwann cell alignment (SGSC) is also examined on each surface type. Micropatterns are fabricated using the spatial reaction control inherent to photopolymerization with photomasks that have either parallel line spacing gratings for unidirectional patterns or repeating 90° angle steps for multidirectional patterns. F...
Characterization of Various Organic Coatings on Glasses

Organic compounds such as oleic acid, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polyacrylate (PAA) were coated on slide and silica glass powders. The resulting interaction mechanism was determined by the leaching properties of the glass, and the bond strength of each ion on the glass with coated organics. Soluble components such as sodium and calcium play important roles in the interaction properties of the organics with glass surfaces. The effects of solvent are also discussed.
Preservation of metabolic reserves and function after storage of myocytes in hypothermic UW solution

Isolated rat myocytes cold stored anaerobically up to 24 h in University of Wisconsin solution lost 95% of their ATP and 100% of their glycogen. They underwent contracture when rewarmed in a Krebs-...
Discussion on the Management Measures on Greening and Maintenance of Forest Park in Taiyuan

In this paper,we gave a brief introduction of Taiyuan forest park.Based on the status quo of greenbelt,we proposed that bidding for the responsible companies was not enough,we should also meet the functional requirement of greenbelt,and perfect the technology standards of maintenance and management.Also we needed strict monitoring and evalu-ation system to promote the quality of maintenance and management.
A new way up from empirical foundations

Much of what we believe is justified by what we perceive. There are, no doubt, various ways in which a perception may justify a belief, depending on the perception and subsequent belief. This justificatory network is the joint concern of philosophy and cognitive psychology, each borrowing concepts from the other to serve its theoretical needs. (See [9], [10], and [26]). I propose a new philosophical model for perception, framed in the context of a version of direct realism, according to which the justificatory relation between perceptions of objects' sensible attributes and beliefs about their kinds is essentially cognitive. It is predicated on the assumption that inference is not the only justificatory cognitive process suitable for generating beliefs from perceptions. Accordingly, the present theory is an alternative to those of Stich [25] and Harman [12], while in league with the views of Clark [4], [5], [6], and [7] and Gibson [8]. Perception, I argue, can be construed as a kind of reading, and the model of the connection tethering a perception and a belief it justifies is the relation between a text and what the text represents. To defend this thesis it is necessary first to characterize several features of perception, second to construct in detail a model revealing the isomorphisms between perception and reading, and finally to show that the model applies to various philosophically important perceptual phenomena.
Active linewidth narrowing of diode-laser-pumped monolithic nonplanar ring oscillators

Narrow linewidth operation of solid state lasers is becoming increasingly important for uses ranging from coherent communication to the search for gravity waves.
The nucleotide excision repair pathway protects Borrelia burgdorferi from nitrosative stress in Ixodes scapularis ticks

The Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi encounters a wide range of environmental conditions as it cycles between ticks of the genus Ixodes and its various mammalian hosts. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) are potent antimicrobial molecules generated during the innate immune response to infection, however, it is unclear whether ROS and RNS pose a significant challenge to B. burgdorferi in vivo. In this study, we screened a library of B. burgdorferi strains with mutations in DNA repair genes for increased susceptibility to ROS or RNS in vitro. Strains with mutations in the methyl-directed mismatch repair (MMR) gene mutS1 are hypersensitive to killing by ROS, while strains lacking the nucleotide excision repair (NER) gene uvrB show increased susceptibility to both ROS and RNS. Therefore, mutS1-deficient and uvrB-deficient strains were compared for their ability to complete their infectious cycle in Swiss Webster mice and I. scapularis ticks to help identify sites of oxidative and nitrosative stresses encountered by B. burgdorferi in vivo. Both mutS1¬ and uvrB were dispensable for infection of mice, while uvrB promoted the survival of spirochetes in I. scapularis ticks. The decreased survival of uvrB-deficient B. burgdorferi was associated with the generation of RNS in I. scapularis midguts and salivary glands during feeding. Collectively, these data suggest that B. burgdorferi must withstand cytotoxic levels of RNS produced during infection of I. scapularis ticks.
A Novel Model for Acute Peripheral Nerve Injury in the Horse and Evaluation of the Effect of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Applied In Situ on Nerve Regeneration: A Preliminary Study

Transplantation of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to sites of experimentally-created nerve injury in laboratory animals has shown promising results in restoring nerve function. This approach for nerve regeneration has not been reported in horses. In this study, we first evaluated the in vitro ability of equine, bone marrow-derived MSCs (EBM-MSCs) to trans-differentiate into Schwann-like cells (SLCs) and subsequently tested the MSCs, in vivo for their potential to regenerate a transected nerve after implantation. The EBM-MSCs from 3 equine donors were differentiated into SCLs for 7 days, in vitro, in the presence of specialized differentiation medium and evaluated for morphological characteristics, by using confocal microscopy, and for protein characteristics, by using selected Schwann-cell markers (GFAP and S100b). The EBM-MSCs were then implanted into the fascia surrounding the ramus communicans of one fore limb of 3 healthy horses after a portion of this nerve was excised. The excised portion of the nerve was examined histologically at the time of transection, and stumps of the nerve were examined histologically at day 45 after transplantation. The EBM-MSCs from all donors demonstrated morphological and protein characteristics of those of Schwann cells 7 days after differentiation. Nerves implanted with EBM-MSCs after nerve transection did not show evidence of nerve regeneration at day 45. Examination of peripheral nerves collected 45 days after injury and stem cell treatment revealed no histological differences between nerves treated with MSCs and those treated with isotonic saline solution (controls). The optimal delivery of MSCs and the model suitable to study the efficacy of MSCs in nerve regeneration should be investigated.
Novel Approach Targeting the Complex Pathophysiology of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy The Impact of Late Sodium Current Inhibition on Exercise Capacity in Subjects with Symptomatic Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (LIBERTY-HCM) Trial

Abstract—Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common inherited cardiac disorder, with an overall prevalence of at least 1:500 in the adult population although only a fraction of affected patients come to clinical recognition. It is also the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in young adults and a major cause of morbidity caused by chronic heart failure symptoms. However, more than half a century since the original description of the disease, there is no currently approved therapy for the treatment of patients with HCM, and to date there have been only 5 randomized studies of medical therapies in HCM. As such, unmet medical need in HCM has been highlighted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) as a research priority. Encouragingly, the infrastructure needed to conduct rigorous clinical trials in HCM has recently emerged because of the heightened awareness and understanding of the disease, development of clinical centers of excellence, and advances in diagnostic imaging. I...
Abstract 56: The Effects of Obesity on CPR Quality and Survival after Cardiac Arrest

Background The prevalence of obesity has risen drastically over the past two decades yet cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) remains a “one size fits all” therapy. The recent AHA resuscitation guidelines have placed increased emphasis on CPR quality, and especially decreasing time without compressions, although the guidelines do not specify tailoring CPR for individual patient characteristics such as body habitus. Objectives To determine whether outcomes from cardiac arrest are affected by body mass index (BMI) and whether obesity affects CPR quality. Methods A prospective, observational study of adult in-hospital cardiac resuscitations was conducted between December 2002 and December 2005. An investigational monitor/defibrillator equipped to measure compression characteristics during CPR was used. All patients for whom body mass index (BMI) data was available were included in this analysis. Results Data were analyzed from 76 patients. Of those, 41 (54%) were average in size (BMI < 30 kg/m2), 25 (33%) were obese (BMI ≥30, <40) and 10 (13%) were morbidly obese (BMI ≥40). There was no difference in rates of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) between average and obese patients but morbidly obese patients trended toward worse outcomes than patients with lower BMIs (20% vs 39% ROSC; p=0.24). The fraction of cardiac arrest time during which no compressions were being administered was significantly higher in average-sized patients compared with patients whose BMI was ≥30 (27% vs 17%; p=0.005). However, morbidly obese patients trended towards receiving shallower chest compressions than smaller patients (42 mm vs 45 mm, p=0.44). Conclusions Morbid obesity may be associated with worse outcomes from cardiac arrest, yet in our cohort these patients received less time without chest compressions. This suggests that other CPR characteristics, such as chest compression depth, may be important determinants of survival.
Sexual Function and Quality of Life Before and After Penile Prosthesis Implantation Following Radial Forearm Flap Phalloplasty.

Objective To provide sexual function and quality of life outcomes in patients with severe penile deficiency who underwent radial forearm flap phalloplasty with and without penile prosthesis implantation. Patients and Methods Patients with history of severe penile deficiency who underwent microsurgical radial forearm flap phalloplasty with and without penile prosthesis implantation between 2007 and 2014 were identified. They completed a set of web-based validated questionnaires including the International Index of Erectile Function, the Pediatric Penile Perception Score, the Sexual Quality of Life for Men, and several items addressing general quality of life. Outcomes were compared between groups. Results Nine of the 12 identified patients who had prosthesis after phalloplasty and 4 out of the 7 phalloplasty-only patients completed the survey, resulting in an overall response rate of 68%. Among the phalloplasty-prosthesis patients, 66% reported current sexual activity and 78% reported regular masturbation, whereas 1 of the 4 phalloplasty-only patients reported both. Prosthesis patients scored notably higher in all domains of the International Index of Erectile Function except for sexual desire. In contrast, they demonstrated similar scores of penile perception, as well as general and sexual quality of life. Conclusion Among patients who have undergone flap phalloplasty, the subsequent placement of penile prosthesis appears to effectively allow for both intercourse and masturbation, resulting in measurable improvements in orgasmic function, intercourse satisfaction, and overall sexual satisfaction. Despite these important benefits, prosthesis placement does not appear to result in improvements in penile perception scores, or general or sexual quality of life.
Association Between Hospital Volume and 30-Day Readmissions Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement

Importance With the approval of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis at intermediate surgical risk, TAVR volume is projected to increase exponentially in the United States. The 30-day readmission rate for TAVR was recently reported at 17.9%. The association between institutional TAVR volume and the 30-day readmission metric has not been examined. Objective To assess the association between hospital TAVR volume and 30-day readmission. Design, Setting, and Participants In this observational study, we used the 2014 Nationwide Readmissions Database to identify hospitals with established TAVR programs (performing at least 5 TAVRs in the first quarter of 2014). Based on annual TAVR volume, hospitals were classified as low ( Exposure Transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Main Outcomes and Measures Thirty-day readmissions. Results Of 129 hospitals included in this study, 20 (15.5%) were categorized as low volume, 47 (36.4%) as medium volume, and 62 (48.1%) as high volume. Of 16 252 index TAVR procedures, 663 (4.1%), 3067 (18.9%), and 12 522 (77.0%) were performed at low-, medium-, and high-volume hospitals, respectively. Thirty-day readmission rates were significantly lower in high-volume compared with medium-volume (adjusted odds ratio, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.68-0.85; P P = .007) hospitals. Noncardiac readmissions were more common in low-volume hospitals (65.6% vs 60.6% in high-volume hospitals), whereas cardiac readmissions were more common in high-volume hospitals (39.4% vs 34.4% in low-volume hospitals). There were no significant differences in length of stay and costs per readmission among the 3 groups (mean [SD], 5.5 [5.0] days vs 5.9 [7.5] days vs 6.0 [5.8] days; P = .74, and $13 886 [18 333] vs $14 135 [17 939] vs $13 432 [15 725]; P = .63, respectively). Conclusions and Relevance We report for the first time, to our knowledge, an inverse association between hospital TAVR volume and 30-day readmissions. Lower readmission at higher-volume hospitals was associated with significantly lower cost to the health care system.
Theorizing managerial perceptions, enabling IT, and the social inclusion of workers with disabilities

Theorize the role of enabling IT in workplace inclusion of people with disabilitiesIntroduce the managerial perspective and its impact on workplace inclusionEstablish the impact of education on disability stereotypes held by managers
Familial Myelodysplastic Syndrome/Acute Myeloid Leukemia

A growing number of inherited genetic loci that contribute to myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myeloid leukemia (MDS/AML) development in both children as well as adults are rapidly being identified. In recognition of the clinical impact of this emerging field, the World Health Organization, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and European LeukemiaNet have all added consideration of inherited predisposition to MDS/AML classification and management. Study of these disorders is providing unique insight into the biology of both sporadic and familial MDS/AML. International collaborative efforts to store germline tissue, document family histories, and pool data are essential to progress in diagnosing and treating both hereditary and sporadic forms of MDS/AML.
Generating LG modes with aperture or array

This paper presents a method to determine continuous aperture sources or efficient arrays to accurately produce Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) modes traveling towards a target. The method is based on numerical filtering that solves an inverse source problem. The resulting continuous source distribution is then discretized into a minimized equivalent array by constructing a generalized Gaussian quadrature. Because LG modes are widely known for their well-defined orbital angular momentum (OAM) characteristics, the ability to generate pure LG modes is of great importance to OAM-based wireless communications.
Interaction of Personality and Persuasion Tactics in Email Phishing Attacks

Phishing is a social engineering tactic where a malicious actor impersonates a trustworthy third party with the intention of tricking the user into divulging sensitive information. Previous social ...
The effects of subconjunctival bupivacaine, lidocaine, and mepivacaine on corneal sensitivity in healthy horses.

OBJECTIVE To compare the efficacy and duration of effect of three local anesthetics on corneal sensitivity when administered subconjunctivally in horses. ANIMALS STUDIED Eight healthy adult horses. PROCEDURE A randomized, masked, crossover study design was used, with a two-week washout period between trials. The subconjunctival space of the randomly selected eye was injected with 0.2 mLs of bupivacaine (0.5%), lidocaine (2%), mepivacaine (2%), or saline. All horses received each medication once. The contralateral eye served as a control. The corneal touch threshold (CTT) was measured in both eyes with a Cochet-Bonnet esthesiometer prior to sedation with xylazine, after sedation, and at 10-min intervals after subconjunctival injection until corneal sensitivity returned to baseline. The total time of decreased CTT and the maximum decrease in CTT were compared for each medication using a general linear mixed model (P < 0.05). RESULTS Total time of decreased CTT was 105.0 min for bupivacaine, 103.8 min for lidocaine, 138.8 min for mepivacaine, and 7.5 min for saline. All local anesthetics decreased CTT longer than saline (P < 0.001) and mepivacaine decreased CTT longer than lidocaine (P = 0.04). The mean minimum CTT was 1.67 cm for bupivacaine, 1.42 cm for lidocaine, and 0.73 cm for mepivacaine, which were all significantly less (P < 0.001) than saline (4.73 cm). No evidence of corneal toxicity was noted with any treatment. CONCLUSION Subconjunctival injections of lidocaine, bupivacaine, and mepivacaine effectively and safely reduce corneal sensitivity in eyes of healthy horses for 1.5-2 h, and may be useful for providing perioperative analgesia for equine corneal procedures.
Age at Menarche, Depression, and Antisocial Behavior in Adulthood

BACKGROUND: Early pubertal timing in girls is one of the best-replicated antecedents of a range of mental health problems during adolescence, but few researchers have examined the duration of these effects. METHODS: We leverage a nationally representative sample (N = 7802 women) managed prospectively from adolescence over a period of ∼14 years to examine associations of age at menarche with depressive symptoms and antisocial behaviors in adulthood. RESULTS: Earlier ages at menarche were associated with higher rates of both depressive symptoms and antisocial behaviors in early-middle adulthood largely because difficulties that started in adolescence did not attenuate over time. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that the emotional sequelae of puberty extend further than documented in previous research, and suggest that earlier development may place girls on a life path from which it may be difficult to deviate. The American Academy of Pediatrics already provides guidelines for identifying and working with patients with early pubertal timing. Pediatricians and adolescent health care providers should also be attuned to early maturers’ elevated mental health risk and sensitive to the potential duration of changes in mental health that begin at puberty.
Dual Role of Humic Substances As Electron Donor and Shuttle for Dissimilatory Iron Reduction.

Dissimilatory iron-reducing bacteria (DIRB) are known to use humic substances (HS) as electron shuttles for dissimilatory iron reduction (DIR) by transferring electrons to HS-quinone moieties, which in turn rapidly reduce Fe(III) oxides. However, the potential for HS to serve as a source of organic carbon (OC) that can donate electrons for DIR is unknown. We studied whether humic acids (HA) and humins (HM) recovered from peat soil by sodium pyrophosphate extraction could serve as both electron shuttles and electron donors for DIR by freshwater sediment microorganisms. Both HA and HM served as electron shuttles in cultures amended with glucose. However, only HA served as an electron donor for DIR. Metagenomes from HA-containing cultures had an overrepresentation of genes involved in polysaccharide and to a lesser extent aromatic compound degradation, suggesting complex OC metabolism. Genomic searches for the porin-cytochrome complex involved in DIR resulted in matches to Ignavibacterium/Melioribacter, DIRB...
Psychology of the Informed Consent Process: A Commentary on Three Recent Articles

In conducting research on humans, respect for human dignity requires investigators to obtain informed consent. Institutional pressures, however, often reduce the informed consent form to a signatur...
Sensory and descending motor circuitry during development and injury

Proprioceptive sensory input and descending supraspinal projections are two major inputs that feed into and influence spinal circuitry and locomotor behaviors. Here we review their influence on each other during development and after spinal cord injury. We highlight developmental mechanisms of circuit formation as they relate to the sensory–motor circuit and its reciprocal interactions with local spinal interneurons, as well as competitive interactions between proprioceptive and descending supraspinal inputs in the setting of spinal cord injury.
Surgical myotomy in patients with high-amplitude peristaltic esophageal contractions. Manometric and clinical effects.

High-amplitude peristaltic esophageal contractions, or the nutcracker esophagus, may be associated with chest pain or dysphagia. Medical treatment for this disorder is sometimes not satisfactory. We report the manometric and clinical effects of myotomy in four patients with high-amplitude peristaltic contractions who underwent surgery because of the severity of their symptoms and recalcitrance to various medical treatments. Manometry 1–5 years after surgery showed a reduction in amplitude, duration, and percent bipeaked waves at 5 and 10 cm above the lower esophageal sphincter. Peristalsis was abolished or decreased in the distal 10 cm of the esophageal body but was not affected more proximally. Lower esophageal sphincter pressure was decreased in all patients. The manometric changes were least marked in one patient, who was the only one who had some chest pain when last seen five years after myotomy. We conclude that in severely symptomatic patients with high-amplitude peristaltic contractions, myotomy results in marked manometric changes and marked clinical improvement. Patients with this disorder and whose chest pain is recalcitrant to extensive medical therapy may be successfully treated by surgical myotomy.
Augment-Reinforce-Merge Policy Gradient for Binary Stochastic Policy

Due to the high variance of policy gradients, on-policy optimization algorithms are plagued with low sample efficiency. In this work, we propose Augment-Reinforce-Merge (ARM) policy gradient estimator as an unbiased low-variance alternative to previous baseline estimators on tasks with binary action space, inspired by the recent ARM gradient estimator for discrete random variable models. We show that the ARM policy gradient estimator achieves variance reduction with theoretical guarantees, and leads to significantly more stable and faster convergence of policies parameterized by neural networks.
Review Articles: Eminent Domain: A Review of the Issues

This paper surveys the literature on eminent domain, particularly as it pertains to economic development projects. This survey is timely because of the recent Supreme Court decision in the case of ...
Can Web-Based Preenrollment Alcohol Brief Interventions Be Effective Screening Tools? Precollege Drinking Behavior Predicts College Retention and Alcohol Violations.

Objective: To test if precollege drinking data gathered during an online brief intervention are associated with problems and could inform screening for campus alcohol prevention efforts. Participan...
Xenobiotic Bioactivation-Mediated Cellular Damages

Besides natural toxins, many toxicities are resulted from metabolic activation of foreign compounds that leads to the formation of reactive intermediate species and metabolites. Oxidative stresses generated from xenobiotic metabolism are potentially capable of interacting with endogenous targets, triggering perturbation in cellular functions and resulting in cellular damages. Covalent binding of reactive intermediates to cellular components results in forming protein and DNA adducts and causing lipid peroxidation. The extent of foreign compound toxicities depends on its nature, metabolic enzymes, and environmental factors and includes natural toxicity, bioactivation-mediated toxicity, and induced toxicity. Xenobiotic bioactivation-mediated cellular damages also include mitochondrial function intervention, interference with ion transporters and enzymatic functions, and immune suppression and stimulation effects. Due to the generation of toxic reactive intermediate in the course of drug metabolism, adverse drug reactions are an important research area.
Quantum Coherence Preservation in Extremely Dispersive Plasmonic Media

Quantum plasmonics experiments have on multiple occasions resulted in the observation of quantum coherence of discrete plasmons, which exhibit remarkable preservation of quantum interference visibility, a seemingly surprising feature for systems mixing light and matter with high Ohmic losses during propagation. However, most experiments to date used essentially weakly confined plasmons, which experience limited light-matter hybridization, thus limiting the potential for decoherence. In this paper, we investigate experimentally the robustness of coherence preservation in a plasmonic system: our setup is based on a hole-array chip supporting plasmons near the surface plasma frequency, where plasmonic dispersion and confinement are much stronger than in previous experiments, making the plasmons much more susceptible for decoherence processes. We, however, report preservation of quantum coherence even in these extreme conditions. We generate polarization-entangled pairs of photons using type-I spontaneous parametric down-conversion and transmit one of the photons through a plasmonic hole array that is numerically designed to convert incident single photons into highly dispersive single surface-plasmon polaritons. Our results show that the quality of photon entanglement after the plasmonic channel is unperturbed by the introduction of a highly dispersive plasmonic element. Our findings provide a lower bound of 100 fs for the pure dephasing time for dispersive plasmons in gold, and show that even in a highly dispersive regime surface plasmons preserve quantum mechanical correlations, making possible harnessing of the power of extreme light confinement for integrated quantum photonics.
Title: BILATERAL UVEITIS AND HYPOTONY FOLLOWING TREATMENT WITH TOPICAL CIDOFOVIR.

PURPOSE To report a case of bilateral uveitis and hypotony associated with topical cidofovir treatment. METHODS Case report. RESULTS A 59-year-old diabetic male with HIV/AIDS presented with photophobia, ocular pain, and decreased vision. He was found to have bilateral hypotony, anterior uveitis, and serous choroidal detachments. Infectious disease workup, patient-reported history, and review of the patient's electronic medication list did not identify the etiology. Treatment with intensive topical corticosteroids led to resolution of uveitis and choroidal effusions within 3 months and resolution of hypotony within 9 months. Two years after his initial presentation, the patient developed acute recurrence of bilateral hypotony, anterior uveitis, and serous choroidal detachments shortly after intravenous cidofovir treatment. Careful re-evaluation of the patient's outside medical records revealed that he had initiated treatment for rectal herpes simplex virus with compounded topical cidofovir one month prior to his initial presentation. CONCLUSION To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of topical cidofovir causing ocular toxicity. Compounded and topical medications, like cidofovir in this case, may not appear on a patient's electronic medication list, so a focused review of outside medical records may be beneficial when a particular medication toxicity is suspected.
La crueldad como instrumento de la tragedia en Los olvidados de Luis Buñuel

This paper analyses the film The Young and the Damned (1950) by Luis Bunuel according to the tragic philosophy of Clement Rosset. My research focusses on discussing the concept of ‘cruelty’ and its connection with the tragic, as well as to spell out the elements that make it possible to read the film as a tragedy in the classical sense. The paper argues that Bunuel’s realistic portrait of the children’s life in the slums of Mexico City follows the principle of cruelty coined by the aforementioned philosopher, according to which an artistic (or philosophical) work must be cruel and represent the truth without minimising it, without taking sides or any kind of moral perspective. The paper undertakes an analysis of cruelty as an aesthetic category in the realisation of tragedy, and key concepts of what is considered tragic are associated with the film.
Spatially Mediated Peer Effects in the Adoption of Conservation Agriculture Practices

This study uses location-specific data to investigate the role of spatially mediated peer effects in farmers’ adoption of conservation agriculture practices. The literature has shown that farmers trust other farmers and one way to increase conservation practice adoption is through identifying feasible conservation practices in neighboring fields. Estimating this effect can help improve our understanding of what influences the adoption and could play a role in improving federal and local conservation program design. The study finds that although spatial peer effects are important in the adoption of conservation tillage and diverse crop rotation, the scale of peer effects are not substantial.
Minoan and Finno-Ugric Regular Sound Changes Discovered by Data Mining

Cognate words within language families derive from common protowords and are transformed by regular sound changes. The demonstration of regular sound changes between pairs of languages is a major tool in proving that they belong to the same language family. This paper applies association rule data mining to identify regular sound changes between Finno-Ugric languages and Pre-Greek, which Robert Beekes identified to be a single language, which can be called the Minoan language.
Nursing Knowledge in the Doctor of Nursing Practice Curriculum.

The goal of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) education is to prepare advanced practice nurse leaders for the practice setting. Accordingly, it is imperative that DNP education is grounded in nursin...
A Smartphone-Based Virtual Reality Plotting System for STEM Education

We present a free student-facing tool for creating 3D plots and smartphone-based virtual reality (VR) visualizations for STEM courses. Visualizations are created through an in-browser interface usi...
Understanding Insulin Pump Therapy

It is estimated that 375,000 Americans are utilizing insulin pump therapy to manage their diabetes. This article will educate community health care nurses regarding use of the insulin pump, and how to operate special settings for more effective glycemic control. Complications of pump therapy, as well as hyperglycemia, are not always avoidable; however, interventions are in place to prevent and treat complications. Furthermore, important assessment questions are employed to assist community health nurses in evaluating the patient knowledge base and management skills of their disease process in hyperglycemic episodes and emergency situations.
Some continuity properties of polyhedral multifunctions

A multifunction is polyhedral if its graph is the union of finitely many polyhedral convex sets. This paper points out some fairly strong continuity properties that such multifunctions satisfy, and it shows how these may be applied to such areas as linear complementarity and parametric programming.
In Defense of Informal Logic

I want to defend informal logic. Unlike the philosophers quoted above, I do not compare it unfavorably with formal logic. For them the comparison is unfavorable because, by contrast with informal logic, formal logic does have a theory. This theory defines an ‘argument’, and by reducing questions about argument correctness to questions about argument form, it provides a model of argument correctness. However, formal logic can boast about having such a theory only by not being overly concerned with practice. Not only is the theory illustrated and supported by contrived examples, but applications of it to arguments in their natural habitat are cited almost as an after-thought, as though the theory does not really depend on the existence of these applications. I side with informal logic even if it does not have a theory because it is about arguments in actual discourse. Moreover, I’m not sure why any theory is needed to appreciate the practical value of informal logic in providing resources for critical thinking.
Two-point functions and renormalized observables

This is a victory declaration in the theory of a quantized field propagating in a given curved background space-time. We now have an unambiguous, internally consistent quantum theory of such a system, in which any physical quantity can in principle be calculated. Whether this kind of model is relevant to the real world is a separate question. I shall present the theory rather dogmatically. Doctrine i: The physical interpretation of a quantum field theory in curved space must be sought in the stress-energy-momentum tensor and other local field observables. (Particle observables are not meaningful, in general.) As a concrete example, let's keep in mind the minimally coupled neutral scalar field, whose stress tensor is
Resource relatedness, redeployability, and firm value

Our paper elaborates the effects of resource relatedness on value of a multibusiness firm. We emphasize that value results from interplay of benefits of synergy and redeployability. This view, considering how synergy and redeployability interact in determining value, extends prior separate considerations of the two benefits. We also diagnose that the value effect of resource relatedness is contingent on uncertainty and specify this contingent relationship. We use the real option valuation approach and formally evaluate the impacts of the two effects of relatedness. This explication enables us to demonstrate how redeployability contributes to value beyond synergy, and how they contribute in tandem. In this sense, we illuminate previously undiagnosed value in multibusiness firms. Beyond theoretical implications, our results have important empirical and managerial implications.
“A Textbook Case Revisited”: Visual Rhetoric and Series Patterning in the American Museum of Natural History's Horse Evolution Displays

This article describes the development of visual rhetoric in a historically significant museum exhibit. The study documents rhetorical change in the museum's displays, specifically in visual series depicting the horse's evolutionary development. The study also exposes the purpose of series patterning in the renovated display and the multiple views on scientific visualization this display implies. Such an analysis suggests the broad range of strategies in visual rhetoric available to science communicators working in the area of science popularization.
Patterns of fasting plasma amino acid levels in chronic renal insufficiency: results from the feasibility phase of the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease Study.

Fasting plasma amino acid levels were measured in 78 patients with chronic renal insufficiency (glomerular filtration rate [GFR], 8.0 to 56.0 mL/min), who had been enrolled in phase II of the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease study, prior to their beginning the experimental portion of the protocol. Alterations in many plasma amino acid levels were observed in the patients with the mildest degrees of renal insufficiency, and the number and severity of abnormalities tended to be greater in the patients with more severe renal failure. In patients with GFRs greater than 24.5 mL/min,15 to 24.5 mL/min, and less than 15 mL/min, statistically significant abnormalities were observed in the concentrations or ratios of 9, 14, and 18 amino acids, respectively. The following correlations of amino acid levels or ratios with GFR were observed (all P r = -0.41; citrulline to arginine ratio, r = -0.42; glycine to serine ratio, r = -0.37; N- τ methylhistidine, r = -0.65; and cystine, r = -0.37. Other weaker correlations observed were valine, r = 0.26 ( P r = 0.32 ( P = 0.004); and sum of isoleucine, leucine, and valine, r = 0.21 ( P = 0.061). N- π methylhistidine and the essential to nonessential amino acid ratio became altered with declining GFR in a nonlinear fashion. Thus, many of the characteristic alterations in the plasma amino acid profile that are observed in chronic end-stage renal disease are already ptesent in mild renal insufficiency. Progressive loss of renal function generally results in increasing abnormalities; these changes in plasma amino acid concentrations with reduction in GFR were usually linear.
Quantization of Asymmetric Shapes in Nuclei

We propose a description of asymmetric shapes in nuclei in terms of a bosonic U(16) group, and discuss some properties of rotation-vibration spectra in the SU(3) limit of the model.
Mobile health technology and the use of health-related mobile applications.

Abstract Medical mobile applications (apps) are prevalent in society. Healthcare providers use them to obtain clinical information more efficiently, and healthcare consumers use them to gain greater personal control over their health management. With the increasing number of health-related mobile apps available, people in the oncology community now have many relevant apps at their fingertips. These apps are targeted to the oncology healthcare provider as well as the patient. This article will review a few popular apps and discuss the potential benefits of accessing information using apps and the possible risks associated with them.