cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Hepatocyte Toll-Like Receptor 5 Promotes Bacterial Clearance and Protects Mice Against High-Fat Diet–Induced Liver Disease

Background & Aims Innate immune dysfunction can promote chronic inflammatory diseases of the liver. For example, mice lacking the flagellin receptor Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) show microbial dysbiosis and predisposition to high-fat diet (HFD)-induced hepatic steatosis. The extent to which hepatocytes play a direct role in detecting bacterial products in general, or flagellin in particular, is poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated the role of hepatocyte TLR5 in recognizing flagellin, policing bacteria, and protecting against liver disease. Methods Mice were engineered to lack TLR5 specifically in hepatocytes (TLR5 ΔHep ) and analyzed relative to sibling controls (TLR5 fl/fl ). TLR5 messenger RNA levels, responses to exogenous flagellin, elimination of circulating motile bacteria, and susceptibility of liver injury (concanavalin A, carbon tetrachloride, methionine- and choline-deficient diet, and HFD) were measured. Results TLR5 ΔHep expressed similar levels of TLR5 as TLR5 fl/fl in all organs examined, except in the liver, which showed a 90% reduction in TLR5 levels, indicating that hepatocytes accounted for the major portion of TLR5 expression in this organ. TLR5 ΔHep showed impairment in responding to purified flagellin and clearing flagellated bacteria from the liver. Although TLR5 ΔHep mice did not differ markedly from sibling controls in concanavalin A or carbon tetrachloride–induced liver injury models, they showed exacerbated disease in response to a methionine- and choline-deficient diet and HFD. Such predisposition of TLR5 ΔHep to diet-induced liver pathology was associated with increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines, which was dependent on the Nod-like-receptor C4 inflammasome and rescued by microbiota ablation. Conclusions Hepatocyte TLR5 plays a critical role in protecting liver against circulating gut bacteria and against diet-induced liver disease.
Initiation and propagation behavior of fatigue crack in 2524-T34 alloy

The fatigue performance of 2524-T34 sheets was studied by four-point bend fatigue test.The fatigue crack initiation and propagation behavior were observed by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.The results indicate that 2524 alloy shows superior fatigue properties.The fatigue strength is up to 80% of the yield strength.The fatigue crack mainly initiates from the second phase particles and the interface between the second phase particles and matrix.The crack plane deflection in the process of crack propagation relates to the resistance of the grain boundary.The difference of crystallographic orientation between the two favoured slip planes within the two neighboring grains is an important factor to control crack propagation across a grain boundary.
Management of Initial Pyeloplasty Failure

AbstractEight children with 10 reobstructed renal pelves have been managed by reoperation. Successful relief of sepsis, leakage and continued progressive hydronephrosis has been accomplished by standard urological procedures, that is lack of tension, accurate approximation and gentleness in tissue handling.
Perioperative psychiatric considerations in the elderly

This article deals with common issues encountered in elderly persons who are medically ill. Agitation and delirium, including alcohol withdrawal syndrome, are frequently encountered problems, and useful intervention strategies are presented. Depression in this population is discussed, and a brief review of the use of antidepressants is given. Finally, the approach to and management of anxiety, with special focus on the intensive care unit setting, is summarized. Principles of pharmacotherapy in the elderly are reviewed.
Austin Chalk and Buda Limestone (Cretaceous) petroleum reservoirs in Caldwell County, Texas - a case history

The Austin Chalk and Buda Limestone are commercial oil reservoirs along a 250-mile trend extending from Dimmit to Burleson counties, Texas. This south Texas Cretaceous hydrocarbon trend has been the focus during the past six decades of several 'drilling booms' which have delimited numerous large oil fields in fractured carbonate reservoirs adjacent to major faults. Data from wells drilled near two newly mapped faults in Caldwell County, Texas, indicate that, despite its maturely drilled status, the Austin-Buda trend has some future exploratory potential. Representative well histories reveal drilling and completion problems and economic risks that characterize the Austin-Buda trend. 35 refs.
Learning in a Disruptive Customer Engagement Platform: An Empirical Analysis in the Banking Industry

The shift in enterprise applications to disruptive mobile platforms calls for research to better understand the mechanisms and factors behind success in these new platforms. In this paper, we empirically study the learning dynamics of sales officers and factors associated with business value, measured as account-opening efficiency in a tablet-based banking application at a large private bank in an emerging market. Our model allows us to study individual learning patterns, and our results show that although high performers in the traditional systems continue to maintain their edge in the new mobile platform, the gap between high and low performers is reduced significantly over time. Our results also reveal that customers’ awareness of the tablet banking service, their digital literacy, and external environmental factors such as mobile infrastructure and market maturity can affect sales officers’ account-opening performance in the tablet-based system.
Hierarchical Pattern Mining with the Automata Processor

Mining complex patterns with hierarchical structures becomes more and more important to understand the underlying information in large and unstructured databases. When compared with a set-mining problem or a string-mining problem, the computation complexity to recognize a pattern with hierarchical structure, and the large associated search space, make hierarchical pattern mining (HPM) extremely expensive on conventional processor architectures. We propose a flexible, hardware-accelerated framework for mining hierarchical patterns with Apriori-based algorithms, which leads to multi-pass pruning strategies but exposes massive parallelism. Under this framework, we implemented two widely used HPM techniques, sequential pattern mining (SPM) and disjunctive rule mining (DRM) on the Automata Processor (AP), a hardware implementation of non-deterministic finite automata (NFAs). Two automaton-design strategies for matching and counting different types of hierarchical patterns, called linear design and reduction design, are proposed in this paper. To generalize automaton structure for SPM, the linear design strategy is proposed by flattening sequential patterns to plain strings to produce automaton design space and to minimize the overhead of reconfiguration. Up to 90 $$\times $$ and 29 $$\times $$ speedups are achieved by the AP-accelerated algorithm on six real-world datasets, when compared with the optimized multicore CPU and GPU GSP implementations, respectively. The proposed CPU-AP solution also outperforms the state-of-the-art PrefixSpan and SPADE algorithms on a multicore CPU by up to 452 $$\times $$ and 49 $$\times $$ speedups. The AP advantage grows further with larger datasets. For DRM, the reduction design strategy is adopted by applying reduction operation of AND, with on-chip Boolean units, on several parallel sub-structures for recognizing disjunctive items. This strategy allows implicit OR reduction on alternative items within a disjunctive item by utilizing bit-wise parallelism feature of the on-chip state units. The experiments show up to 614 $$\times $$ speedups of the proposed CPU-AP DRM solution over a sequential CPU algorithm on two real-world datasets. The experiments also show significant increase of CPU matching-and-counting time when increasing d-rule size or the number of alternative items. However, in practical cases, the AP solution runs hundreds of times faster in matching and counting than the CPU solution, and keeps constant processing time despite the increasing complexity of disjunctive rules.
Independent, voluntary control of extra robotic limbs

Most of the wearable robots today assist their users by acting in parallel or in series to their natural limbs. We propose a different approach to wearable robotics, consisting of devices that provide users with additional, independent robotic limbs. We present a wearable robot prototype that can achieve these goals with an extremely light weight apparatus. In order to control additional robotic limbs as if they were part of the user's body, we need voluntary signals that are independent of natural limb motions and comfortable to measure. One suitable solution — explored in this study — is the use of muscle activation signals generated by the torso. We hypothesize that a human is competent to move the extra limbs voluntarily and independently without interfering with the natural arms and legs. We developed a wearable suit to measure these signals, and we tested three possible real-time control strategies linking torso muscle contraction to the motions of two simulated extra limbs. The experimental data show that the velocity control strategy yields the highest motion accuracy, minimum muscular effort, maximum independence from the natural limbs and the fastest learning rate. This control strategy has then been applied to the control of the physical robot prototype, worn by human subjects. All of the subjects achieved accurate (normalized tracking error < 0.5), independent (normalized natural arm motions < 0.15) control of the extra limbs.
The effects of state rules on opioid prescribing in Indiana.

Prescription opioids have been linked to over half of the 28,000 opioid overdose deaths in 2014. High rates of prescription opioid non-medical use have continued despite nearly all states implementing large-scale prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP), which points to the need to examine the impact of state PDMP’s on curbing inappropriate opioid prescribing. In the short-term, PDMPs have been associated with short-term prescribing declines. Yet little is known about how such policies differentially impact patient subgroups or are interpreted by prescribing providers. Our objective was to compare volumes of prescribed opioids before and after Indiana implemented opioid prescribing emergency rules and stratify the changes in opioid prescribing by patient and provider subgroups. An interrupted time series analysis was conducted using data obtained from the Indiana PDMP. Prescription level data was merged with census data to characterize patient socioeconomic status. Analyses were stratified by patients’ gender, age, opioid dosage, and payer. The primary outcome indicator was the total morphine equivalent dose (MED) of dispensed opioids per day in the state of Indiana. Also considered were number of unique patients, unique providers, and prescriptions; MED per transaction and per day; and number of days supplied. After controlling for time trends, we found that total MED for opioids decreased after implementing the new emergency rules, differing by patient gender, age, and payer. The effect was larger for males than females and almost 10 times larger for 0–20 year olds as compared to the 60+ age range. Medicare and Medicaid patients experienced more decline in prescribing than patients with private insurance. Patients with prescriptions paid for by workers’ comp experienced the most significant decline. The emergency rules were associated with decline in both the number of prescribers and the number of day supply. Although the Indiana opioid prescribing emergency rules impacted statewide prescribing behavior across all individual patient and provider characteristics, the emergency rules’ effect was not consistent across patient characteristics. Further studies are needed to assess how individual patient characteristics influence the interpretation and application of state policies on opioid prescribing.
Toward a single global market for assistive technology

Public and private sector programs in North America parallel programs underway in the European Communities. Pursuing a single global market for assistive technology will reduce duplication, leverage resources, and accelerate progress toward our shared goals. This paper presents a rationale, reviews relevant programs in North America and invites participation in a global effort.
Robots in an intelligent systems course

In the spring of 2005 our department offered a new course entitled “Intelligent Systems” (IS). This course, which will be required for future CS majors, provides an introduction to a number of AI topics including predicate logic, frames, rule-based systems, neural networks, Bayesian networks, decision trees, and fuzzy logic. The theme of agents is woven throughout the course. Each section of the course employs a different simulation tool or language so that students can apply and experiment with the techniques they learn about in the classroom. The culminating project for the course was a two week project where students were given a basic Lego MINDSTORMS robot to experiment with. Their task was to program the robot for a race to be held on the final day of class.
PW 0930 Evaluation of first impact—a missouri graduated driver license (GDL) traffic safety program for parents

Background First Impact is a 90 min evidence-based traffic safety program for parents of new drivers. The goal of the program is to reduce the number of motor vehicle fatalities, injuries and crashes among teen drivers by increasing parental awareness and enforcement of Missouri’s GDL law. The objectives of the program are to increase: 1) Awareness of teen driving risks, 2) Understanding of Missouri’s GDL law, 3) GDL monitoring and enforcement at home, and 4) Importance of being a positive role model. Trained facilitators who deliver the program statewide coach parents by presenting key facts and proven strategies to help parents lower their teens’ crash risk. First Impact is a program of ThinkFirst Missouri, an affiliate chapter of the ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation. Primary funding for First Impact is provided by the Missouri Department of Transportation, Highway Safety and Traffic Division. Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the understanding of the Missouri GDL law before and after receiving the First Impact GDL parent program. Methods Pre-and post-test surveys were conducted during the pilot year of the First Impact intervention (12 month period, May 1, 2016-April 30, 2017). Participants included parents and teens attending the First Impact program (n=690). The majority (60%) of attendees were parents. A chi-square analysis was used to evaluate whether frequency of responses in the pre- and post-test groups were significantly different. Results There was a significant (p Conclusion Based on the change in attendee responses, the First Impact intervention produced a highly significant improvement in understanding three vital components of the GDL law. Results of this study indicate that First Impact is a promising intervention to increase the understanding of Missouri’s GDL law.
On the feasibility of Epic electronic medical record system for tracking patient radiation doses following interventional fluoroscopy procedures

The purpose of this work was to investigate the feasibility of utilizing an electronic medical record system, Epic (Epic Systems Corporation, Madison, WI), for tracking patient radiation doses following interventional fluoroscopy procedures. Following an interventional procedure, before an examination is marked as completed, the new technologist workflow necessitated inputting cumulative air kerma and dose/kerma area product reported by the interventional system in Epic. Data reported by the technologists is stored in Epic’s production database, then converted and stored in Epic’s analytical database, and accessed via a customized SQL query. Selectrus was used as a report delivery tool for internal extracts. Patient-specific radiation dose audits are performed using Epic’s front facing graphical user interface called Hyperspace. Using this platform periodic monitoring and auditing of radiation dose data has been successfully implemented at our institution over a year. All cases where radiation dose estimates have exceeded recommended thresholds have been audited and followed up with the respective physicians. Limitations of this approach include manual data entry by the technologists following the procedure which may be subject to human error. Most common error (< 1% of reviewed cases) is switching of cumulative air kerma and kerma/dose area product values; this error is easily identifiable given kerma/dose area product is greater than cumulative air kerma. Tracking patient radiation doses following interventional fluoroscopy procedures using Epic electronic medical record system is feasible. This type of setup is configurable at other healthcare institutions that utilize Epic system as their electronic medical record system.
An approach to classifying four-part music in multidimensional space

Abstract Four-part classifier (FPC) is a system for classifying four-part music based on the known classifications of training pieces. Classification is performed using metrics that consider both chord structure and chord movement and techniques that score the metrics in different ways. While in principle classifiers are free to be anything of musical interest, this paper focuses on classification by composer. FPC was trained with music from three composers—J.S. Bach, John Bacchus Dykes, and Henry Thomas Smart—and then tasked with classifying test pieces written by the same composers. Using all two-or-more composer combinations (Bach and Dykes; Bach and Smart; Dykes and Smart; and Bach, Dykes, and Smart), FPC correctly identified the composer with well above 50% accuracy. In the cases of Bach and Dykes, and Bach and Smart, training piece data clustered around five metrics—four of them chord inversion percentages and the other one secondary chord percentages—suggesting these to be the most decisive metrics. The significance of these five metrics was supported by the substantial improvement in the Euclidean distance classification when only they were used. Later, a fourth composer, Lowell Mason, was added and three more metrics with similarities to the five that performed best were introduced. New classifications involving Mason further supported the significance of those five metrics, which the additional three metrics were unable to outperform on their own or improve in conjunction.
A facile method to introduce iron secondary metal centers into metal–organic frameworks

Abstract Herein, we report the successful incorporation of iron (0) species into a 2, 2′-bipyridine functionalized metal–organic framework (MOF) (UiO-67-bpydc). Considering the limited window size of the MOF, a small molecule, iron pentacarbonyl, was used to introduce iron (0) to coordinate to the backbone of the MOF. The newly generated material contains the iron coordinated linker, Fe(CO)3(bpydc), which was supported by a series of characterization techniques. DFT calculation was also used to help understand the structure of the formed complex inside the MOF. The MOF structure remained unchanged after the post-synthetic modification, and the resulted material is a great precursor to generate MOF supported catalyst.
Conclusion: War Legacy and New Strategic Concerns

Mao judged China’s intervention a victory because it saved North Korea, shaped China’s relations with the Soviet Union, and secured China’s northeastern border by preventing North Korea from being conquered or controlled by America. Chinese military involvements in Korea had promoted the CCP’s international status and projected a powerful image of China as the vanguard of the communist countries against the United States. Peng stated that the Korean War began the transformation of the Chinese military into a modern force. Meanwhile, Mao converted China into a single-party communist state, nationalized industry and business under state ownership, and carried out socialist reforms in all areas of the Chinese society. Even if forgotten in America, the war in Korea is by no means forgotten in China.
Whose Story? (Re)presentation, Rhizovocality, and Friendship

In this conceptual essay, I explore the issues surrounding speaking for, with, on behalf of, and to others in music education through narrative inquiry. As a researcher, I strive to be able to bring forth voices in music education that are not often heard, but I want to avoid essentializing participant experiences, fortifying stereotypes, and claiming representation. In my effort to confront these issues, I have turned to ‘post-’ theories and post-qualitative frames of inquiry (St. Pierre EA, Post-qualitative research: the critique and the coming after. In: Denzin NK, Lincoln YS (eds) Sage handbook of qualitative inquiry, 4th edn. Sage, Los Angeles, pp. 611–635, 2011) in a bricolage approach. I begin with an overview of the concept of representation as expressed by ‘post-’ scholars. I then engage with the ideas of G. Spivak (Can the subaltern speak? In: Nelson C, Grossberg L (eds) Marxism and the interpretation of culture. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, pp 271–316, 1988), who famously tackled the problem of (re)presenting the voices of marginalized people. Next, I turn to Deleuze and Guattari’s (1980/1987) concept of the rhizome and Jackson’s (Int J Qual Stud Educ 16:693–710, 2003) application of this concept within post-qualitative research, rhizovocality. Finally, I engage with Lugones and Spelman’s (Lugones MC, Spelman EV, Have we got a theory for you! Feminist theory, cultural imperialism, and the demand for the ‘woman’s voice’. In: Kolmer WK, Bartkowski F (eds) Feminist theory: a reader. Mayfield, Mountain View, pp 17–27, 2000) frame of friendship as a way to approach inquiry in a spirit of solidarity.
Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare: The Ethical Paradox of ‘Universal Diffidence’

In lieu of the present range of rival and only partial ethical accounts, this essay proposes an underlying interpretive framework for the cyber domain as a Hobbsean state of nature, with its current status of unrestricted conflict constituting a ‘war of all against all’. The fundamental ethical dilemma in Hobbes’s original account of this “original situation” was how to bring about the morally required transition to a more stable political arrangement, comprising a rule of law under which the interests of the various inhabitants in life, property and security would be more readily guaranteed. Hobbes described opposition to this morally requisite transition as arising from ‘universal diffidence’, the mutual mistrust between individuals, coupled with the misguided belief of each in his or her own superiority. His is thus a perfect moral framework from which to analyse agents in the cyber domain, where individual arrogance often seems to surpass any aspirations for moral excellence. With this framework in place, it is briefly noted that the chief moral questions pertain to whether we may already discern a gradual voluntary recognition and acceptance of general norms of responsible individual and state behaviour within the cyber domain, arising from experience and consequent enlightened self-interest (As, for example, in the account of emergent norms found in Lucas (The ethics of cyber warfare. Oxford University Press, New York, 2017)), or whether the interests of the responsible majority must eventually compel some sort of transition from the state of nature by forcibly overriding the wishes of presumably irresponsible or malevolent outliers in the interests of the general welfare (the moral paradox of universal diffidence).
A Legal Analysis of the Transfer of Public Lands Movement

Utah’s legal claims to federal land grow out of its statehood enabling act. Since similar statutory language is found throughout the Western states, a successful claim by Utah could fuel more claims and potentially end the public land system as we know it. Utah’s claims, like those of its neighbors, are doomed to failure, however. The federal government has absolute control over federal public lands, including the constitutional authority to retain lands in federal ownership. Statutes authorizing Western states to join the Union required those same states to disclaim the right to additional lands and that disclaimer cannot be spun into a federal duty to dispose. Statehood enabling acts’ guarantee of equal political rights also cannot be spun into a promise of equal land ownership. Furthermore, though statehood enabling acts guarantee states a share of the proceeds resulting from federal land sales, that guarantee is not an obligation to sell. As a BLM spokeswoman recently said with respect to confrontations over public land management and Utah’s antagonistic tone towards the federal government: “It is frustrating as we work to identify the best possible path forward for everyone when some of the entities we are trying to work with consistently feel the need to poke us in the eye and then complain we are not working with them.”99 This may be the larger lesson — that the Transfer Movement does more harm than good to the federal-state relationship needed for effective public land management.
Missing care: A framework to address the issue of frequent missing values;The case of a clinical decision support system for Parkinson's disease

Abstract In recent decades, the implementation of electronic health record (EHR) systems has been evolving worldwide, leading to the creation of immense data volume in healthcare. Moreover, there has been a call for research studies to enhance personalized medicine and develop clinical decision support systems (CDSS) by analyzing the available EHR data. In EHR data, usually, there are millions of patients records with hundreds of features collected over a long period of time. This enormity of EHR data poses significant challenges, one of which is dealing with many variables with very high degrees of missing values. In this study, the data quality issue of incompleteness in EHR data is discussed, and a framework called ‘Missing Care’ is introduced to address this issue. Using Missing Care, researchers will be able to select the most important variables at an acceptable missing values degree to develop predictive models with high predictive power. Moreover, Missing Care is applied to analyze a unique, large EHR data to develop a CDSS for detecting Parkinson's disease. Parkinson is a complex disease, and even a specialist's diagnosis is not without error. Besides, there is a lack of access to specialists in more remote areas, and as a result, about half of the patients with Parkinson's disease in the US remain undiagnosed. The developed CDSS can be integrated into EHR systems or utilized as an independent tool by healthcare practitioners who are not necessarily specialists; therefore, making up for the limited access to specialized care in remote areas.
CRAFT: Comprehensive Resilience Assessment Framework for Transportation Systems in Urban Areas

Abstract Urban areas in the US and around the globe are facing increasingly complex resilience challenges. Among the components of the “urban system,” transportation networks are among the most critical facilitators that support the lives, interactions, and dynamics of urban dwellers. They are essential to the well-being of the society not only under business-as-usual conditions, but also during times of disaster for the entire response and recovery timeline. This paper introduces CRAFT (Comprehensive Resilience Assessment Framework for Transportation Systems in Urban Areas), which is designed to achieve holistic analyses of transportation disruptions by addressing the many shortcomings and research gaps in this domain. The framework couples a novel structure-specific modeling methodology with a high-fidelity metropolis-scale travel demand model based on real socioeconomic data, and produces results, which, in turn, serve as input for a state-of-the-art socioeconomic impact analysis methodology that is based on computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis. By the virtues of its data-intensive, model-based, and cross-disciplinary nature, CRAFT aims to capture and incorporate many details that are usually neglected in traditional approaches, and generates resilience insights at 3 levels: (1) system component level (e.g., damages to bridges, tunnels and information on component recovery), (2) system level (e.g., road network disruptions, reconfiguration of traffic and network level functionality) and (3) regional economic level (e.g., impacts on regional GDP, employment, economic resilience). The objective of this paper is to introduce CRAFT and to demonstrate the workings of its first coupling between the hazard and transportation modules through a case study on the Greater Los Angeles Area.
Electron binding energies and Dyson orbitals of OnH2n+1+,0,- clusters: Double Rydberg anions, Rydberg radicals, and micro-solvated hydronium cations.

Ab initio electron propagator methods are employed to predict the vertical electron attachment energies (VEAEs) of OH3+(H2O)n clusters. The VEAEs decrease with increasing n, and the corresponding Dyson orbitals are diffused over exterior, non-hydrogen bonded protons. Clusters formed from OH3− double Rydberg anions (DRAs) and stabilized by hydrogen bonding or electrostatic interactions between ions and polar molecules are studied through calculations on OH3−(H2O)n complexes and are compared with more stable H−(H2O)n+1 isomers. Remarkable changes in the geometry of the anionic hydronium–water clusters with respect to their cationic counterparts occur. Rydberg electrons in the uncharged and anionic clusters are held near the exterior protons of the water network. For all values of n, the anion–water complex H−(H2O)n+1 is always the most stable, with large vertical electron detachment energies (VEDEs). OH3−(H2O)n DRA isomers have well separated VEDEs and may be visible in anion photoelectron spectra. Corresponding Dyson orbitals occupy regions beyond the peripheral O–H bonds and differ significantly from those obtained for the VEAEs of the cations.
Structure-elucidation of human CCL5 by integrating trapped ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry (TIMS-MS) with Structure Relaxation Approximation (SRA) analysis

Abstract Ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry offers the potential to characterize structures of transient protein assemblies and protein isoforms by means of their orientationally-averaged momentum transfer cross-sections. A commonly observed phenomenon is the compaction of a protein in the ion mobility measurement, that is, the cross section measured for the protein by ion mobility spectrometry is smaller than the cross section expected for its native structure. Consequently, this compaction means that at least some structural changes of the protein must have occurred during the ion mobility measurement. A major challenge is then to identify which aspects of the solution structure are retained in the ion mobility measurement and which ones are not. Here, we apply our recently developed Structure Relaxation Approximation (SRA) method in conjunction with trapped ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry (TIMS-MS) to probe compaction of the human protein chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 5 (also CCL5). Ion mobility spectra are recorded for various charge states and solution conditions of CCL5 under both “soft” and collisionally-activated conditions. Our data show that the SRA reproduces the overall trends in the experimental spectra: (1) the compaction of the CCL5 structure as seen in the experiments; (2) the general increase in the cross section for the various charge states; and (3) the increase in cross section after collisional-activation. The SRA attributes the compaction of the CCL5 structure mainly to the folding of the unstructured N-terminus onto the central Greek key motif of CCL5. By contrast, the SRA indicates that native residue-residue contacts present in the NMR structure are largely retained. Additionally, our analysis indicates that accurate treatment of proton transfer processes during the structural relaxation process would significantly improve the structural interpretation of ion mobility data by the SRA.
Comparative prediction accuracy of hyperspectral bands for different soybean crop variables: From leaf area to seed composition

Abstract Prediction of soybean seed yield and seed composition at a plot scale before harvesting has potential uses in breeding programs for early-season selection and harvesting decisions. Reflectance information from hyperspectral bands have been mainly used for predicting yield and other crop variables. However, an analysis comparing the prediction accuracy among different crop variables such as LAI, biomass, seed yield and seed protein and oil, when using hyperspectral bands as predictors, is lacking. Our objective is to rank the prediction accuracy among different crop variables using hyperspectral bands captured at different timepoints during the growing season. Our hypothesis is based on a physiological framework where crop variables that are closely associated with light interception (i.e., LAI) would be best predicted by the hyperspectral signal (350 nm–2500 nm) than variables that involve more physiological processes (i.e., biomass, seed yield and seed protein and oil) for their determination. The dataset used for testing this hypothesis involved different genotypes, environments, and management practices. We used Partial Least Squares regression with cross-validation to test the association between the observed variables and the hyperspectral bands. Our results showed that LAI can be best predicted using reflectance information, and suggest that hyperspectral bands are necessary but not sufficient to improve the prediction of other crop variables such as biomass, seed yield, and seed composition traits.
Risk Factors for 30-Day Mortality After Head and Neck Microsurgical Reconstruction for Cancer: NSQIP Analysis.

Objective To identify the incidence and risk factors for 30-day postoperative mortality after microsurgical head and neck reconstruction following oncological resection. Study Design Retrospective case-control study. Setting American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database. Methods Microsurgical head and neck reconstructive cases were identified from 2005 to 2018 using Current Procedural Terminology codes and oncologic procedures using the International Classification of Disease 9 and 10 codes. The outcome of interest was 30-day mortality. Results The 30-day postoperative mortality rate was 1.2%. Univariate logistic regression analysis identified the following associations: age >80 years, hypertension, poor functional status, preoperative wound infection, renal insufficiency, malnutrition, anemia, and prolonged operating time. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to stratify further by the degree of malnutrition and anemia. Hematocrit <30% was found to be an independent risk factor for 30-day postoperative mortality (odds ratio [OR] = 9.59, confidence interval [CI] 2.32-39.65, P < .1) with albumin <3.5 g/dL. This association was even stronger with albumin <2.5 g/dL (OR = 11.64, CI 3.06-44.25, P < .01). One-third of patients (36.6%) had preoperative anemia, of which less than 1% required preoperative transfusion, although one-quarter (24.6%) required intraoperative or 72 hours postoperative transfusion. Conclusions Preoperative anemia is a risk factor for 30-day postoperative mortality. This association seems to get stronger with worsening anemia. Identification and optimization of such patients preoperatively may mitigate the incidence of 30-day postoperative mortality.
Inclusion of genetic variants in an ensemble of gradient boosting decision trees does not improve the prediction of citalopram treatment response

Identifying in advance who is unlikely to respond to a specific antidepressant treatment is crucial to precision medicine efforts. The current work leverages genome-wide genetic variation and machine learning to predict response to the antidepressant citalopram using data from the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) trial (n = 1257 with both valid genomic and outcome data). A confirmatory approach selected 11 SNPs previously reported to predict response to escitalopram in a sample different from the current study. A novel exploratory approach selected SNPs from across the genome using nested cross-validation with elastic net logistic regression with a predominantly lasso penalty (alpha = 0.99). SNPs from each approach were combined with baseline clinical predictors and treatment response outcomes were predicted using a stacked ensemble of gradient boosting decision trees. Using pre-treatment clinical and symptom predictors only, out-of-fold prediction of a novel treatment response definition based on STAR*D treatment guidelines was acceptable, AUC = .659, 95% CI [0.629, 0.689]. The inclusion of SNPs using confirmatory or exploratory selection methods did not improve the out-of-fold prediction of treatment response (AUCs were .662, 95% CI [0.632, 0.692] and .655, 95% CI [0.625, 0.685], respectively). A similar pattern of results were observed for the secondary outcomes of the presence or absence of distressing side effects regardless of treatment response and achieving remission or satisfactory partial response, assuming medication tolerance. In the current study, incorporating SNP variation into prognostic models did not enhance the prediction of citalopram response in the STAR*D sample.
Elemental Analysis of Oil Paints

Painting works have a long history and significant cultural value. Digital image processing has been introduced to analyze and identify paintings. As an important characteristic of images, image histograms are used to distinguish basic pure and mixture pigments. In this paper, we have investigated the peak location of image histograms of 21 fundamental pigments containing pure pigments and mixture pigments. Whether pure pigments or mixture pigments, the pigments’ histograms have unique peak locations. Our research indicates that fundamental pigments can be effectively distinguished and separated according to their own pigments’ image histograms.
Messenger Ribonucleic Acid Expression of Kiss-1 and Serum Level of Kisspeptin in Rat at Different Developmental Stages

Purpose KiSS-1 and its product, kisspeptin is necessary for pubertal onset and proper adult gonadal function due to its stimulatory effect on the secretion of gonadotropinreleasing hormone (GnRH). Although the pathophysiological importance of KiSS-1 and kisspeptin is well known, the developmental patterns of expression of KiSS-1 genes and serum level of kisspeptin have not been explored to date. We report herein the expression profile of KiSS-1 genes and serum level of kisspeptin in the rat at different developmental stages.
Androgen Receptors in the Nonhistone Protein Fractions of Prostatic Chromatin

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the nonhistone proteins of prostate gland as nuclear androgen receptors or acceptors. Nonhistone proteins are involved in specific gene expression and activation. The chapter shows that prostate nonhistone proteins are the chromatin molecules with which the androgen-cytosol receptor complex interacts. Finally, such interaction is considered in view of androgen-induced alteration of gene activity. The Role of nonhistone chromosomal proteins in the control of gene activity is discussed. If nonhistone proteins contain regulatory molecules in control of gene expression, they should interact specifically with DNA. Since many proteins, for example, DNA polymerases and RNA polymerases, bind to DNA, the ability to bind DNA does not necessarily indicate a gene regulatory function. Further, in eukaryotes, gene activity is expressed by chromatin as a result of specific association of DNA with chromosomal proteins. Hence control of gene activity is also operative on the protein–protein interaction level. A comparison of the experimentally observed mechanisms of action of some steroid hormones within their receptor cell may help to elucidate the role that the nonhistone proteins of chromatin play in hormone activation of the genome. The mechanism of action of a steroid hormone within target tissue cells is studied with the help of experiments.
Teamwork efficacy and attitude differences between online and face-to-face students

Professional skills, such as teamwork, global awareness, creative problem solving, and ethics, are essential for the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The focus of this paper is teamwork. In particular, this paper discusses how efficacy and attitudes affect teamwork for the students majoring in Information Sciences and Technology programs, either virtual or face-to-face. Although online education has significantly grown, the literature discussing the incorporated online teamwork remains limited. Virtual and face-to-face teams have some similarities, but many key differences as well, such as communication, trust, and geographical boundaries. To gauge team efficacy and attitudes for virtual and face-to-face teams, we developed a survey and collected data. Our findings showed that online students had more negative attitudes toward teamwork than face-to-face students did, while both groups had a similar level of teamwork self-efficacy.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Reverse Transcriptase FUNCTIONAL MUTANTS OBTAINED BY RANDOM MUTAGENESIS COUPLED WITH GENETIC SELECTION IN ESCHERICHIA COLI

Abstract We describe catalytically active mutants of HIV RT (human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase) generated by random sequence mutagenesis and selected in Escherichia coli for ability to complement the temperature-sensitive phenotype of a DNA polymerase I (Pol I) mutant. We targeted amino acids Asp-67 through Arg-78 in HIV RT, which form part of the β3-β4 flexible loop and harbor many of the currently known mutations that confer resistance to nucleoside analogs. DNA sequencing of 109 selected mutants that complement the Pol I phenotype revealed substitutions at all 12 residues targeted, indicating that none of the wild-type amino acids is essential. However, single mutations were not observed at Trp-71, Arg-72, and Arg-78, consistent with evolutionary conservation of these residues among viral RTs and lack of variation at these positions among isolates from patients. The mutations we recovered included most of those associated with drug resistance as well as previously unidentified mutations. Purification and assay of 14 mutant proteins revealed correlation between their DNA-dependent DNA polymerize activity in vitro and ability to complement the Pol I phenotype. Activity of several mutants was resistant to 3′-azidothymidine triphosphate. We conclude that random sequence mutagenesis coupled with positive genetic selection in E. coli yields large numbers of functional HIV RT mutants. Among these are less active variants which are unlikely to be isolated from HIV-infected individuals and which will be informative of the roles of individual amino acids in the catalytic functions of the enzyme.
Genetic Polymorphism and Susceptibility to Pesticides

Publisher Summary This chapter appraises the gene–environment interactions that refer to phenotypic effects resulting from interactions between genes and the environment. Such interactions are often viewed in the context of disease, specifically how one's risk for an environmentally induced disease or condition is influenced by his/her genetic makeup. At the intersection of gene–environment interactions are biotransformation enzymes. The most well-known site of biotransformation is the liver, where biotransformation enzymes are found in abundance. Biotransformation enzymes act on endogenous compounds, such as steroid hormones, as well as exogenous compounds, including pesticides and other man-made chemicals, often serving to make them more polar and more suitable for excretion. Sometimes, however, biotransformation may generate more reactive products, which may be more toxic than their parent compounds. The Human Genome Project has generated an unprecedented opportunity, as well as the necessary tools and technologies, to explore how individual genetic variability can influence the chances of developing a pesticide-related disease. Technologies are now in hand to measure hundreds of thousands of specific genetic variants in an individual, although it remains costly to apply such extensive analyses to the thousands of samples needed for a statistically robust study. Future studies aimed at elucidating genetic risk factors for pesticide-related diseases should consider multiple potential genetic variants, rather than one or a handful of candidate genes and detailed consideration of pesticide exposures, including consideration of early life exposures, and specific pesticides.
Towards an historical sociology of World History

World History is becoming increasingly international as a field of study. However, this globalization of faculty and institutions requires more than just a shift in the geography of meetings and authorship. It also raises issues of inclusion and exclusivity as well as a need to revisit questions of theory, methods, and ethics in the publication of global histories. This article seeks to look at the domestic origins of World History as a field within the United States and to raise questions about the globalization of the field as it matures.
Continuous-spectrum frequency-domain simulation of nonlinear systems

This paper describes an algorithm for frequency-domain simulation of nonlinear systems that, unlike harmonic balance, can handle signals with continuous frequency spectra. The algorithm is based on an orthogonal series expansion of band-limited signals in the frequency domain. Thus it is, in a sense, the dual approach to frequency-domain simulation with respect to harmonic balance, which relies on a orthogonal series expansion of the signals in the time domain. Numerical results obtained on a number of circuits, including a second-order delta-sigma modulator, indicate that this algorithm offers a viable approach to frequency-domain simulation of nonlinear systems in the presence of signals with continuous frequency spectra.
Cardiovascular Mortality Associated With 5 Leading Risk Factors: National and State Preventable Fractions Estimated From Survey Data

The authors analyzed data from state and national health surveys from 2009 to 2010 to describe the preventable fractions of cardiovascular mortality associated with either complete elimination or r...
Bladder rupture after inguinal herniotomy

An 18-month-old male sustained an extensive bladder injury during a routine right inguinal herniotomy. Primary closure of the remaining detrusor was performed. Three months postoperatively he could void spontaneously, but with a small, contracted bladder and bilateral vesicoureteral reflux. He was stable throughout a 6-month follow-up period. Further surgical options will depend upon the bladder capacity and the grade of reflux.
A sample-drying technique for room-temperature phosphorescence

Abstract The sample-drying procedure described improves the precision, decreases the time needed and reduces the expense of the solid-surface room-temperature phosphorescence technique. Samples are dried in a glovebg apparatus interfaced to the sample compartment of the spectrophotophosphorimeter. The samples are treated with sodium citrate to prevent moisture quenching the phosphorescence emission The relative standard deviations of measurements are reduced to less than 2% for large sets of samples. The total time required for 37 samples is only 5.5 h compared to 20 h by a conventional technique.