cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Diabetes and Sleep Disorders

The increasing incidence of both diabetes and sleep apnea coincides with the epidemic of obesity. An increasing body of evidence suggests that the connections between diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAH) are not simply due to the common risk factor of obesity. Physiologic derangements that result from OSAH appear to lead to impaired glucose metabolism, increasing the likelihood of diabetes and impairing the efficacy of its treatment.
Archaeological Evidence of Anthropogenically Induced Twentieth-Century Diminution of North American Wapiti (Cervus elaphus)

Abstract Translocated Rocky Mountain wapiti (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) released in the southern Cascade Range of Washington State in the early twentieth century hybridized with resident Roosevelt wapiti (C. e. roosevelti). Archaeological remains of wapiti from this area dating between 1400 A.D. and 1835 A.D. are significantly larger than both subspecies, but bones of descendant hybrid wapiti killed by the 18 May 1980 volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens are intermediate in size between the two subspecies. Deer (Odocoileus sp.) remains from the same archaeological sites as the wapiti remains are no different in size than bones of modern deer, indicating size change in wapiti was not environmentally driven. Anthropogenically facilitated hybridization supplemented and likely saved the local population from extirpation but resulted in smaller individual animals.
Molecular Imaging of Pancreatic Cancer with Antibodies

Development of novel imaging probes for cancer diagnostics remains critical for early detection of disease, yet most imaging agents are hindered by suboptimal tumor accumulation. To overcome these limitations, researchers have adapted antibodies for imaging purposes. As cancerous malignancies express atypical patterns of cell surface proteins in comparison to noncancerous tissues, novel antibody-based imaging agents can be constructed to target individual cancer cells or surrounding vasculature. Using molecular imaging techniques, these agents may be utilized for detection of malignancies and monitoring of therapeutic response. Currently, there are several imaging modalities commonly employed for molecular imaging. These imaging modalities include positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, optical imaging (fluorescence and bioluminescence), and photoacoustic (PA) imaging. While antibody-based imaging agents may be employed for a broad range of diseases, this review focuses on the molecular imaging of pancreatic cancer, as there are limited resources for imaging and treatment of pancreatic malignancies. Additionally, pancreatic cancer remains the most lethal cancer with an overall 5-year survival rate of approximately 7%, despite significant advances in the imaging and treatment of many other cancers. In this review, we discuss recent advances in molecular imaging of pancreatic cancer using antibody-based imaging agents. This task is accomplished by summarizing the current progress in each type of molecular imaging modality described above. Also, several considerations for designing and synthesizing novel antibody-based imaging agents are discussed. Lastly, the future directions of antibody-based imaging agents are discussed, emphasizing the potential applications for personalized medicine.
Preconditioned Eigensolver LOBPCG in hypre and PETSc

We present preliminary results of an ongoing project to develop codes of the Locally Optimal Block Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (LOBPCG) method for symmetric eigenvalue problems for hypre and PETSc software packages. hypre and PETSc provide high quality domain decomposition and multigrid preconditioning for parallel computers. Our LOBPCG implementation for hypre is publicly available in hypre 1.8.2b and later releases and in PETSc. We describe the current state of the LOBPCG software for hypre and PETSc and demonstrate scalability results on distributed memory parallel clusters using domain decomposition and multigrid preconditioning. This work is partially supported by the Center for Applied Scientific Computing, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation DMS 0208773.
Can We Bootstrap Even if CLT Fails

It is shown that in some cases the bootstrap in probability holds under conditions weaker than necessary for the original empirical Central Limit Theorem.
The Artificial Cognitive Neural Framework (ACNF).

In order to understand the world we live in, humans synthesize models that enable us to reason about what we perceive. Intelligence information available for analysis is collected from diverse sources, rendering it fuzzy. These diverse sources often do not have consistent contextual bases and this introduces ambiguity into the correlation and inference processes applied to the combined information. This is why intelligence operatives very often have a challenging task finding related events and inferring likely outcomes from such data.
RTD-1mimic containing γPNA scaffold exhibits broad-spectrum antibacterial activities.

Macrocyclic peptides with multiple disulfide cross-linkages, such as those produced by plants and those found in nonhuman primates, as components of the innate immunity, hold great promise for molecular therapy because of their broad biological activities, and high chemical, thermal and enzymatic stability. However, for some, because of their intricate spatial arrangement and elaborate interstrand cross-linkages, they are difficult to prepare de novo in large quantities and high purity, due to the nonselective nature of disulfide-bond formation. We show that the disulfide bridges of RTD-1, a member of the θ-defensin subfamily, could be replaced with noncovalent Watson-Crick hydrogen-bonds without significantly affecting its biological activities. The work provides a general strategy for engineering conformationally-rigid, cyclic peptides without the need for disulfide-bond reinforcement.
Communicating more than diversity: The effect of institutional diversity statements on expectations and performance as a function of race and gender

The present studies examined whether colorblind diversity messages, relative to multicultural diversity messages, serve as an identity threat that undermines performance-related outcomes for individuals at the intersections of race and gender. We exposed racial/ethnic majority and minority women and men to either a colorblind or multicultural diversity statement and then measured their expectations about overall diversity, anticipated bias, and group task performance (Study 1, N = 211), as well as their expectations about distinct race and gender diversity and their actual performance on a math test (Study 2, N = 328). Participants expected more bias (Study 1) and less race and gender diversity (Study 2) after exposure to a colorblind versus a multicultural message. However, the colorblind message was particularly damaging for women of color, prompting them to expect the least diversity overall and to perform worse (Study 1), as well as to actually perform worse on a math test (Study 2) than the multicultural message. White women demonstrated the opposite pattern, performing better on the math test in the colorblind versus the multicultural condition, whereas racial minority and majority men's performances were not affected by different messages about diversity. We discuss the importance of examining psychological processes that underscore performance-related outcomes at the junction of race and gender.
Airway emergency from spontaneous haemorrhagic thyroid cancer.

SUMMARY Spontaneous thyroid haemorrhages are rare. There are reported cases occurring in thyroid nodules and cysts but none in thyroid malignancies. We describe a 48 year old who presented to the on-call ENT team with a rapidly progressing neck swelling that was interfering with his airway. After resuscitation, the patient underwent a right lobectomy to stop the bleeding. Histology showed a thyroid follicular carcinoma. As per the regional multidisciplinary team discussion, he underwent a completion thyroidectomy followed by radioactive iodine treatment. We conclude that spontaneous haemorrhages of the thyroid gland can occur in malignancies and stress the importance of early histological diagnosis.
Altered Co-Translational Processing Plays a Role in Huntington's Pathogenesis-A Hypothesis.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion of a CAG codon repeat region in the HTT gene’s first exon that results in huntingtin protein aggregation and neuronal cell death. The development of therapeutic treatments for HD is hindered by the fact that while the etiology and symptoms of HD are understood, the molecular processes connecting this genotype to its phenotype remain unclear. Here, we propose the novel hypothesis that the perturbation of a co-translational process affects mutant huntingtin due to altered translation-elongation kinetics. These altered kinetics arise from the shift of a proline-induced translational pause site away from Htt’s localization sequence due to the expansion of the CAG-repeat segment between the poly-proline and localization sequences. Motivation for this hypothesis comes from recent experiments in the field of protein biogenesis that illustrate the critical role that temporal coordination of co-translational processes plays in determining the function, localization, and fate of proteins in cells. We show that our hypothesis is consistent with various experimental observations concerning HD pathology, including the dependence of the age of symptom onset on CAG repeat number. Finally, we suggest three experiments to test our hypothesis.
Labour Dynamics in Sugar and Rice Production: Coercion, Contract and Free Labour

The expansion of industrial raw materials coincided with the transformation of sugar production and rice cultivation in the region. There were other export crops, for example, tobacco (especially in Sumatra, Sabah and the Philippines), abaca (the Philippines), and coconuts. None of these were as fundamentally altered as sugar in so far as production methods and structures and labour relations were concerned. Sugar was also singularly important because it was produced under plantation conditions, required large amounts of capital and technology, and relied on peasant rather than imported labour. In the case of rice, peasants in Burma, Thailand and Indochina expanded production in response to opportunities in the world economy and were either dependent on migrant labour and/or capital to sustain production and distribution.
Neighborhood Segregation and Business Outcomes: Mexican Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Los Angeles County

With original survey data, we contribute to a discussion of how segregation and poverty affect the performance of Mexican immigrant-owned storefronts in Los Angeles. We find that though both neighb...
The American Revolution in Indian Country: New worlds for all: Indian America by 1775

In the summer of 1775, as news of the opening conflicts in the American Revolution spread west, a young Englishman recently arrived from Derbyshire in search of good land traveled to the “Indian country” of the Ohio Valley. Nicholas Cresswell went with a party that consisted of two Englishmen, two Irishmen, a Welshman, two Dutchmen, two Virginians, two Mary landers, a Swede, an African, and a mulatto. On August 27, Cresswell visited a mission town of Moravian Delawares at Wal-hack-tap-poke or Schonbrunn, a settlement of sixty log houses covered with clapboards, arranged along neatly laidout streets, and a meeting house with a bell and glass windows. The parson preached through an interpreter, the Indian congregation sang hymns in Delaware, and the service was conducted with “the greatest regularity, order, and decorum, I ever saw in any place of Worship in my life.” Four days later, Cresswell was at the Delaware town of Coshocton, where he participated in an Indian dance. The beating of drums, the gourd rattles, the rattling of deer hooves on the knees and ankles of the male dancers, and the jingling of the women's bells struck Cresswell's ears as “the most unharmonious concert that human idea can possibly conceive,” and the sight of an “Indian Conjuror” in a mask and bear skin was “frightful enough to scare the Devil.” Indian America by 1775 was a landscape of cultural polyphony, or more accurately perhaps, cultural cacophony, a country of mixed and mixing peoples. Cresswell's brief sojourn among the Delawares exposed him to some of Indian country's diversity and to its mixture of change and continuity. He saw Indians who wore European clothes but retained traditional loincloths and nose rings. He noted that they had learned to curse from Europeans, observed that white traders cheated them blind whenever they could, lamented the destructive effects of alcohol, and learned that smallpox had “made terrible havoc.”
In Vivo Parathyroid Hormone Treatment Expands All Multipotent Primitive Hematopoietic Cell Subsets.

Abstract 1449 Poster Board I-472 Osteoblastic cells have been identified as a component of the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niche. This identification provides a novel strategy for in vivo expansion of HSCs by stimulating their regulatory microenvironment. This therapeutic approach could potentially expand the clinical use of HSCs in conditions where their number limits use. Activation of osteoblastic cells by Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) increases bone, osteoblastic and osteoclastic cell number and expands the HSC pool. Since HSCs do not express the PTH receptor, and genetic activation of PTH receptors in osteoblastic cells is sufficient to expand HSCs, the HSC increase must be initiated by PTH-dependent activation of osteoblastic cells. The HSC-enriched lineage-, sca-1+, and c-kit+ (LSK) compartment is heterogeneous and contains at least three subpopulations of cells with multilineage potential, but with progressively decreased quiescence and more limited self-renewal. In the initial evaluation of PTH effects on the HSC niche, the effects of osteoblastic activation on HSC subsets were not characterized in detail. The effect of PTH and osteoblastic activation on individual HSC subsets could suggest additional therapeutic uses if PTH increases not only Long Term-HSC (LT-HSC) but also the more proliferative Short-Term HSCs/ Multi Potent Progenitors (ST-HSCs/MPPs). In this study, our goal was to identify changes in the proportion of LT-HSC vs ST-HSC and MPPs after PTH treatment by utilizing flow cytometric analysis and competitive repopulation assays (primary, secondary and tertiary reconstitution). We developed an accelerated PTH treatment regimen in mice (40μg/kg body weight ip three times daily for 10 days), which minimizes the effects of normal aging on bone and hematopoiesis. We first analyzed the effect of this PTH regimen on bone. PTH-treated mice had increased trabecular bone volume (% BV/TV VEH 25±2 vs PTH 43±4 p + Thy1.1 low cells, LSK Flt3 − Thy1.1 int (VEH 0.056±0.005 vs PTH 0.077±0.004 p − Thy1.1 int subset (VEH 0.042±0.004 vs PTH 0.054±0.002 p Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Charles Lindbergh, Caryl Chessman, and the Exception Proving the (Potentially Waning) Rule of Broad Prosecutorial Discretion

Broad prosecutorial discretion is generally accepted by courts and legislatures and is widely blamed by academics for the explosion in the American prison population. Statutory revisions and judicial interpretations of kidnapping law, however, provide an exception to the deference generally given to prosecutors. The very high-profile execution of Caryl Chessman quite publicly raised the question of whether kidnapping, then a capital crime in California, was defined so broadly as to permit a prosecutor to obtain the death penalty for a number of non-capital crimes, such as robbery and rape. Chessman’s case raised widespread concern about the unchecked power of prosecutors and prompted reform of the specific law that led to his execution – kidnapping. For roughly the past two decades, academics have renewed concerns about unlimited prosecutorial discretion, but no single case has drawn attention to the cause. The more generalized problem in our prison system, however, has not escaped the public’s notice. This country’s epidemic of incarceration has raised considerable alarm, something academics attribute to the broad scope of criminal laws empowering prosecutors to seek prison sentences of ever-increasing lengths. This last term, in two virtually unnoticed cases, the Supreme Court appeared to take up the invitation of the academy to rein in the power of prosecutors by limiting the scope of traditional forms of criminal liability. Whether the Supreme Court’s recent incursion into traditionally state doctrines of criminal liability is a bell weather event or not remains to be seen, but the Court has traditionally avoided considering long-existing doctrines of criminal law and the academic criticism of criminal law’s broad scope extends far beyond the aspects of complicity and felony murder the Court considered last term.
Roughening and destructive effects of sintering on micron-sized ZnO features

Abstract Microfabrication of ceramic features has become a critical issue in realizing the miniaturization of devices. Micron-sized ZnO features attract much attention because of their unique properties of direct wide bandgap, high exciton binding energy, good piezoelectrics, and easy doping for devices. However, limited effort has been devoted to understanding the sintering behaviors of micron-sized ZnO features. In this study, micron-sized ZnO ridges were prepared via centrifuge-aided micromolding and sintered at 950 °C for different time in air atmosphere. The sintering process destructs the ZnO ridges via abnormal grain growth and surface roughening. The relationship difference in grain growth vs. densification between the bulk and the features is elucidated, and gas evaporation during sintering is the major contributor to grain growth. Destruction prediction of ridge features using sintering time and bulk relative density is established based on grain growth and densification. Feature surface roughening is further analyzed with respect to thermodynamic fundamentals.
‘All good stories’: historical fiction in pedagogy, theory, and scholarship

Academics have long had a fraught, complex relationship with popular culture, frequently scoffing at, dismissing, or chiding producers and consumers for their choices to sanitize, exoticize, or rom...
Majorana fermions and representations of the artin braid group

In this paper we study unitary braid group representations associated with Majorana Fermions. Majorana Fermions are represented by Majorana operators, elements of a Clifford algebra. The paper recalls and proves a general result about braid group representations associated with Clifford algebras, and compares this result with the Ivanov braiding associated with Majorana operators. The paper generalizes observations of Kauffman and Lomonaco and of Mo-Lin Ge to show that certain strings of Majorana operators give rise to extraspecial 2-groups and to braiding representations of the Ivanov type.
‘Dr Google’: trends in online interest in prostate cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment

OBJECTIVES To examine trends in online search behaviours related to prostate cancer on a national and regional scale using a dominant major search engine. MATERIALS AND METHODS Google Trends was queried using the terms 'prostate cancer', 'prostate-specific antigen' (PSA), and 'prostate biopsy' between January 2004 and January 2019. Search volume index (SVI), a measure of relative search volume on Google, was obtained for all terms and examined by region and time period: pre-US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Grade D draft recommendation on PSA screening; during the active Grade D recommendation; and after publication of the recent Grade C draft recommendation. RESULTS Online interest in PSA screening differed by time period (P < 0.01). The SVI for PSA screening was greater pre-Grade D draft recommendation (82.7) compared to during the recommendation (74.5), while the SVI for PSA screening was higher post-Grade C draft recommendation (90.4) compared to both prior time periods. Similar results were observed for prostate biopsy and prostate cancer searches. At the US state level, online interest in prostate cancer was highest in South Carolina (SVI 100) and lowest in Hawaii (SVI 64). For prostate cancer treatment options, online interest in cryotherapy, prostatectomy and prostate cancer surgery overall increased, while searches for active surveillance, external beam radiation, brachytherapy and high-intensity focused ultrasonography remained stable. CONCLUSION Online interest in prostate cancer has changed over time, particularly in accordance with USPSTF screening guidelines. Google Trends may be a useful tool in tracking public interest in prostate cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment, especially as it relates to major shifts in practice guidelines.
19 Ablation of isolated ventricular arrhythmias from the left ventricular apex in patients without ischemic heart disease

Introduction The left ventricular apex (LVA) is an uncommon isolated source of ventricular arrhythmias (VA), in patients without coronary artery disease (CAD).We aimed to characterize the incidence, clinical and ECG features of this type of VA in a tertiary referral ablation center. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of ablation cases from 1999 to 2016 at our center. We identified VA cases and then identified those with isolated VA from LVA in the absence of CAD. We recorded patient demographics, clinical features and ECG morphology for each of these cases. Results 2779 VA ablations were performed between 1999 and 2016. 20 (0.7%) of these were performed for isolated LVA VA in the absence of CAD. 3 distinct groups with isolated LVA VA were identified: idiopathic (ID), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) Isolated LV VA accounted for 9/19 (47%) of HCM, 4/566 (0.7%) of DCM and 7/1371 (0.5%) of ID VA ablations. The patient demographics, clinical and characteristic ECG features are summarized in table 1. An example of the VA morphology with LV voltage map and cardiac MRI in an ID case are shown in figure 1. Conclusions The LVA in the absence of CAD is a rare source of VA. LVA VA has a characteristic ECG morphology, that facilitates localization. The presence of associated LV apical aneurysm is common in those with HCM and DCM. An epicardial origin may be present, with patchy, isolated, apical epicardial scar rarely identified.
On the Reconstruction of Geodesic Subspaces of $\mathbb{R}^N$

We consider the topological and geometric reconstruction of a geodesic subspace of $\mathbb{R}^N$ both from the Cech and Vietoris-Rips filtrations on a finite, Hausdorff-close, Euclidean sample. Our reconstruction technique leverages the intrinsic length metric induced by the geodesics on the subspace. We consider the distortion and convexity radius as our sampling parameters for a successful reconstruction. For a geodesic subspace with finite distortion and positive convexity radius, we guarantee a correct computation of its homotopy and homology groups from the sample. For geodesic subspaces of $\mathbb{R}^2$, we also devise an algorithm to output a homotopy equivalent geometric complex that has a very small Hausdorff distance to the unknown shape of interest.
4D Flow Vorticity Visualization Predicts Regions of Quantitative Flow Inconsistency for Optimal Blood Flow Measurement.

Visualization of flow vorticity can highlight regions of flow inconsistency, which may help determine optimal locations for quantification of blood flow with 4D flow MRI.
Fire Frontline Monitoring by Enabling UAV-Based Virtual Reality with Adaptive Imaging Rate

Recently, using drones for forest fire management has gained a lot of attention from the research community due to their advantages such as low operation and deployment cost, flexible mobility, and high-quality imaging. It also minimizes human intervention, especially in hard-to-reach areas where the use of ground-based infrastructure is troublesome. Drones can provide virtual reality to firefighters by collecting on-demand high-resolution images with adjustable zoom, focus, and perspective to improve fire control and eliminate human hazards. In this paper, we propose a novel model for fire expansion as well as a distributed algorithm for drones to relocate themselves towards the front-line of an expanding fire field. The proposed algorithm comprises a light-weight image processing for fire edge detection that is highly desirable over computational expensive deep learning methods for resource-constrained drones. The positioning algorithm includes motions tangential and normal to fire frontline to follow the fire expansion while keeping minimum pairwise distances for collision avoidance and non-overlapping imaging. We proposed an action-reward mechanism to adjust the drones’ speed and processing rate based on the fire expansion rate and the available onboard processing power. Simulations results are provided to support the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.
Effects of radiopaque double antibiotic pastes on the proliferation, alkaline phosphatase activity and mineral deposition of dental pulp stem cells

Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of two radiopaque agents, barium sulfate (BaSO4) or zirconium oxide (ZrO2) in double antibiotic paste (DAP), on the proliferation and mineral deposition of human dental pulp stem cells (DPSC). Materials and methods Radiopaque antimicrobial medicaments composed of methylcellulose (MC) thickening polymer with BaSO4 or ZrO2 and either 1 or 5 mg/mL DAP (equal portions of metronidazole and ciprofloxacin) were used to investigate DPSC proliferation after 3 days, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and mineral deposition after 7 and 14 days. Radiopaque agents without DAP and Ca(OH)2 were used as controls. Results MC-BaSO4 DAP and MC-ZrO2 DAP at 1 or 5 mg/mL had no adverse effect on DPSC proliferation, compared to the media and MC controls. MC-ZrO2 (DAP-free) greatly increased ALP activity after 7 days. DPSC mineral deposition was modestly reduced at 7 days by MC-BaSO4 DAP and MC-ZrO2 DAP, but not by DAP-free radiopaque agents, and was most reduced by 5 mg/mL DAP in the 14-day cultures. Conclusions MC-BaSO4 or MC-ZrO2 medicaments containing up to 5 mg/mL of DAP supported the proliferation and early osteogenic differentiation of DPSC. Low DAP concentrations and short culture times led to more favorable effects on ALP activity and mineral deposition by DPSC. The findings suggest that radiopaque agents added for the purpose of detecting whether medicaments occupy the full extent of the root canal may have clinical applications. Radiopaque antibiotic medicaments containing low DAP concentrations may be an alternative to Ca(OH)2 for regenerative endodontic procedures.
Expanding and Enhancing Food and Nutrition Education in New York City Public Schools: An Examination of Program Characteristics and Distribution.

To expand their capacity, many schools partner with food and nutrition education programs (FNPs). Public policies and funding can support FNPs, but comprehensive data on the organizations that run FNPs, their program characteristics, or distribution across schools did not exist in NYC. This study aims to help local education and health agencies assess the characteristics of food and nutrition education in schools, as well as to measure progress implementing school policies and practices. A cross-sectional study on NYC FNPs was conducted during the 2016–2017 school year. Survey data on organizations and the FNPs they operate were collected. Data on schools in which FNPs operate were gathered. To determine distribution of FNPs across schools and by school demographics, the database of FNPs in schools was combined with a publicly available database of NYC schools. In 2016–2017, 40 organizations operated 101 FNPs in 56% of NYC public schools. These FNPs varied by goals, content, activities, location, and populations served. Information on these variations can help policymakers, advocates, funders, and schools expand school-based food and nutrition education. To ensure equitable access, more coordination, investment, and collaboration are needed.
Air Should Not be There: A Case of Pneumomediastinum and Pneumopericardium in COVID-19

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus identified after widespread pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019. This virus has been deemed a global pandemic and there remain many unknowns regarding the pathogenesis, management, treatment, and outcomes. This case report highlights a rare condition that possibly developed from the novel virus. A 68-year-old Hispanic male with hypertension and gastroesophageal reflux disease, presented with two weeks history of fevers, chills, cough, and progressive shortness of breath. He was found to be positive for the novel SARS-CoV-2 upon admission. He rapidly developed severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to his coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia requiring intubation and full ventilator support associated with acute anuric renal failure requiring emergent hemodialysis catheter placement and continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). Two weeks after being on mechanical ventilation and CRRT, he developed episodes of hypotension and tachycardia. A chest radiograph and computed tomography (CT) scan diagnosed pneumopericardium. In the case presented, the patient's CT of his thorax demonstrated bilateral ground-glass opacities and bilateral reticulations consistent with intraparenchymal injuries, most likely from his ARDS secondary to his initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. To date, there remains an unknown association between COVID-19 and causation of pneumomediastinum and pneumopericardium. There continues to be reports of clinically significant findings of pneumomediastinum and pneumopericardium in COVID-19 patients. It is known that COVID-19 causes dysregulated inflammation leading to diffuse alveolar damage and rupture, as well as myocarditis which may be the precipitant to the development of pneumomediastinum and pneumopericardium. This case highlights the findings of pneumopericardium and pneumomediastinum in the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus. Given the multiple reported cases with similar time frames to the development of spontaneous pneumomediastinum in COVID-19 patients, an association between COVID-19 and spontaneous pneumomediastinum should be further studied.
Foucault and the Rhetoric of Exemplarity

Political theology announces a relationship between religion and politics, but what structures this relationship and how do the related terms show up as objects of knowledge in the first place? Con...
Lung Cancer and Heart Disease Risks Associated with Low-Dose Pulmonary Radiotherapy to COVID-19 Patients with Different Background Risks.

Purpose The respiratory disease COVID-19 reached global pandemic status in 2020. Excessive inflammation is believed to result in the most severe symptoms and death from this disease. Because treatment options for patients with severe COVID-19 related pulmonary symptoms remain limited, whole-lung low-dose radiation therapy is being evaluated as an anti-inflammatory modality. However, there is concern about the long-term risks associated with low-dose pulmonary irradiation. To help quantify the benefit-risk balance of low-dose radiation therapy for COVID-19, we estimated radiation-induced lifetime risks of both lung cancer and heart disease (major coronary events) for patients of different sexes, treated at ages 50 to 85, with and without other relevant risk factors (cigarette smoking and baseline heart disease risk). Methods and Materials These estimates were generated by combining state-of-the-art radiation risk models for lung cancer and for heart disease together with background lung cancer and heart disease risks and age/sex-dependent survival probabilities for the U.S. population. Results Estimated absolute radiation-induced risks were generally higher for lung cancer compared with major coronary events. The highest estimated lifetime radiation-induced lung cancer risks were approximately 6% for female smokers treated between ages 50 and 60. The highest estimated radiation-induced heart disease risks were approximately 3% for males or females with high heart disease risk factors and treated between ages 50 and 60. Conclusions The estimated summed lifetime risk of lung cancer and major coronary events reached up to 9% in patients with high baseline risk factors. Predicted lung cancer and heart disease risks were lowest in older nonsmoking patients and patients with few cardiac risk factors. These long-term risk estimates, along with consideration of possible acute reactions, should be useful in assessing the benefit-risk balance for low-dose radiation therapy to treat severe COVID-19 pulmonary symptoms, and suggest that background risk factors, particularly smoking, should be taken into account in such assessments.
Integrating Engineering With Nature® strategies and landscape architecture techniques into the Sabine-to-Galveston Coastal Storm Risk Management Project

Damaging storm events frequently impact the Texas coast. In response, the US Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District (SWG) has undertaken the Sabine-to-Galveston (S2G) Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) Project. This approximately $3.9B project includes numerous measures across several counties of the upper Texas coast, including levees, floodwalls, and pump stations. In June 2019, SWG leadership enlisted a team including the paper authors to integrate Engineering With Nature (EWN) strategies into this infrastructure project. EWN strategies intentionally align natural and engineering processes to efficiently and sustainably deliver economic, environmental, and social benefits through collaboration. The first step in this process was to develop potentially relevant EWN strategies. A collaborative workshop included visits to project sites and working sessions where the project team reviewed challenges associated with each site, generated an array of EWN strategies, and began to test design concepts based on those strategies through collaborative drawing sessions. Afterward, prioritized ideas were refined and evaluated in terms of property acquisition, estimated cost, logistics, stakeholder and sponsor interest, constructability, aesthetics, recreational opportunities, and ecological benefit. Design concepts considered feasible for integration into the broader S2G project included horizontal levees, inland floodwater storage areas that double as wildlife habitat, and strategic placement of sediment berms to reduce storm impacts and provide marsh substrate. All these concepts should achieve intended CSRM outcomes while enhancing environmental and social benefits. This assimilation of EWN strategies and landscape architecture techniques into a large CSRM study illustrates a method for expanding overall project value and producing infrastructure that benefits coastal communities. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;00:1-11. © 2021 SETAC.
Books about the Sea

Who has known the ocean? Neither you nor I, with our Earth-bound senses know the foam and surge of the tide… Or the lilt of the long, slow swells of mid-ocean, where shoals of wandering fish prey and are preyed upon.… Nor can we know the vicissitudes of life on the ocean floor, where the sunlight, filtering through a hundred feet of water, makes but a fleeting, bluish twilight, where swarms of diminutive fish twinkle through the dusk like a silver rain of meteors (Rachel Carson “Undersea”).
Investigation of the fuel injection, mixing and combustion processes in an SIDI engine using Quasi-3D LIF imaging

The influence of the bulk in-cylinder flow on the spray evolution, evaporation, fuel-air mixing and subsequent flame propagation has been studied in an optical SIDI engine. Quantitative LIF imaging of equivalence ratios was used to characterize the mixture formation and the influence of the local equivalence ratio at the time of spark on the flame propagation. Two extreme bulk flow conditions - high and low swirl - were investigated and pronounced differences in mixture homogeneity and flame propagation were found and characterized.
Chitobiase, A New Reporter Enzyme

N,N′-diacetylchitobiase (chitobiase) from the marine organism Vibrio harveyi is a highly stable reporter enzyme for gene fusions. This enzyme hydrolyzes the disaccharide chitobiose to N-acetyl gluc...
Proposed Uniform Child Witness Testimony Act: An Impermissible Abridgement of Criminal Defendants' Rights

The judicial system is struggling to accommodate the special needs of a rapidly growing number of child witnesses hi its courtrooms. An increasingly popular approach to obtaining children's testimony is the use of "shielding methods," which allow child witnesses to testify outside the presence of the defendant. When courts use these methods, the judicial system's obligation to protect children arguably conflicts with its duty to ensure criminal defendants' right to confront their accusers as mandated by the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause. This Note examines the most recent development in child witness shielding, the Uniform Child Witness Testimony by Alternative Methods Act, drafted in 2002 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. This Note argues that states should not enact the proposed Act for several reasons. The Act violates the Federal Confrontation Clause as well as many state constitutions. Additionally, empirical evidence reveals harmful effects of shielded testimony not only on criminal defendants, but. also on the child witnesses themselves and on the judicial system as a whole. This Note concludes that pretrial education and counseling would better serve child witnesses without sacrificing defendants' constitutional rights.
Evaluation of a murine model of hepatic candidiasis.

Abstract A murine model of focal hepatic candidiasis which we suggest simulates certain conditions of this clinical variant of systemic candidiasis in leukemic patients is described. We have shown that outbred mice inoculated with Candida albicans by the oral-intragastric route as infants (6 days old) and then immunocompromised by cyclophosphamide and cortisone acetate treatment 2 weeks later demonstrate systemic spread of the opportunistic pathogen to the liver, lungs, spleen, and kidneys. Treatment with the immunosuppressive drugs cyclophosphamide and cortisone acetate resulted in alteration of the normal integrity of the mucosal epithelium of the gut as well as in granulocytopenia. Approximately 55% of the animals with C. albicans infections in the liver demonstrated hepatic abscesses. After these same infected, immunocompromised animals were treated with suboptimal dosages of antifungal agents (cilofungin or amphotericin B), either by intraperitoneal or subcutaneous (s.c.) routes, persistent hepatic abscesses were fewer in number and delimited by a distinct outer layer of host tissue but still contained large numbers of the viable pathogen. Blood cell counts indicated that these antifungal drug-treated animals had reestablished approximately the same number of leukocytes per microliter of blood as estimated prior to the immunocompromising drug treatment. Similar conditions in leukemic patients who were in remission and who were undergoing antifungal drug therapy for systemic candidiasis have been reported. Clearance of hepatic infections in mice was accomplished by using appropriate concentrations of amphotericin B administered by daily intraperitoneal or s.c. injection for 5 to 7 days or cilofungin by continuous s.c. infusion for 7 days. However, systemic antifungal therapy did not significantly reduce numbers of C. albicans cells in the stomach and esophagus. Persistent foci of gastrointestinal colonization by C. albicans, especially in the region of the cardial-atrium fold of the stomach of these mice, are reservoirs of the opportunistic pathogen from which reinfection may occur, leading to relapse of systemic candidiasis.
Bridge Strengthening Using Load Relieving Techniques

The paper describes several new techniques for strengthening existing bridges to withstand increased loading by imposing dead load relief or load sharing. The techniques cover external prestressing, the installation of extra shear connectors and the use of shock transmission units. They all benefit from requiring minimum, if any, traffic disruption.
K+‐N, K+*‐N channel coupling in a quark potential model

The K+‐N interaction was calculated with a quark potential model using the resonating group method (RGM). For the central interaction the 2ℏω components of the nucleon and kaon wave functions were included in the RGM kernels. The total isospin I=0 s‐wave phase shifts are in good agreement with experimental results. The I=1 interaction does not exhibit enough repulsion. The K+‐N channel was coupled to the K+‐N channel via quark exchange. The channel coupling gives effectively a more repulsive interaction for both I=1 and I=0.
Model compound studies related to peroxidases-II: The chemical reactivity of a high valent protohemin compound

Abstract The chemical reactivity of the model analog to compound I of the peroxidases resulting from the reaction of “chelated protohemin” and m-chloroperbenzoic acid is examined. The model intermediate shows no H-atom abstraction or O insertion activity and substrate reactivity depends only on the E 1 2 value of the substrate. A Marcus theory treatment of the available kinetic data for HRP suggests that the oxidative pathway for substrate oxidations is an outer-sphere electron transfer. From the results of the model catalyzed oxidation of 1,4-cyclohexadiene to benzene, an alternate mechanism for cytochrome P-450 catalyzed hydroxylations is suggested.
Planning for Optimal Liquidity Execution

Lately liquidity risk has received attention from regulators and banks - having witnessed how a credit crisis evolved into a major liquidity funding problem for many banks. Following the crisis regulators has put forward a new regulation, headed under Basel III, for liquidity risk focusing on testing the short- and long-term solvency of banks. One of the most challenging aspects of the new regulation is that banks now need to continuously manage a dedicated liquidity portfolio and that the adequacy of this portfolio in hedging liquidity outflows needs to be frequently tested. Given a sufficient liquidity hedging portfolio banks also need to consider strategizing its response to liquidity crisis in advance. Most notably, this includes having a strategy for liquidity execution. In this paper we propose a multi-stage linear program optimization for resource allocation to optimize the liquidity execution across stages. The optimization not only provides a solution at the time of liquidity execution i.e., in a distress period but also helps build an a priori practical liquidity plan consistent with Basel III required contingency funding plans. The model scenario of non-sufficient counterbalancing capacity allows banks to get prepared by acquiring further liquid funds. In our analysis we find that highly liquid sources, which remain liquid with low execution cost and haircut even in further distress, are optimal to hold until further distress stages and then execute at a still low cost. This is because their values do not diminish as stress increase across stages. Liquidity raising assets with an execution cost and haircut that is significantly worsening across stages are optimal to execute in the beginning of distress. This is because their liquidity values are higher in the initial phases of the distress when execution costs and haircuts are not as severe.
Genetic mechanisms of susceptibility to ozone‐induced lung disease

Environmental oxidants remain a major public health concern in industrialized cities throughout the world. Population and epidemiological studies have associated oxidant air pollutants with morbidity and mortality outcomes, and underscore the important detrimental effects of these pollutants on the lung. Interindividual variation in pulmonary responses to air pollutants suggests that some subpopulations are at increased risk to detrimental effects of pollutant exposure, and it has become clear that genetic background is an important susceptibility factor. A number of genetics and genomics tools have recently emerged to enable identification of genes that contribute to differential responsiveness to oxidants, including ozone (O(3)). Integrative omics approaches have been applied in inbred mice to identify genes that determine differential responsiveness to O(3)-induced injury and inflammation, including Tnf, Tlr4, and MHC Class II genes. Combined investigations across cell models, inbred mice, and humans have provided, and will continue to provide, important insight to understanding genetic factors that contribute to differential susceptibility to oxidants.
A handheld data terminal for industrial applications

Summary form only given, as follows. In the area of embedded computer systems there is often a need for a simple and rugged operator interface in order to allow the user to communicate with the system. This paper describes the design and manufacture of a hand-held data terminal capable of sending and receiving data from an embedded host computer using serial communications. The intended result of this project was to create a product with features that would make it attractive to customers in a competitive market. All aspects of the design will be discussed including hardware, software, testing, and production details. The final product is currently being sold successfully to many customers across the United States.
Sacral tuberculosis: a case report and review of the literature.

Abstract Background We present a patient with a heterogeneously enhancing lesion within the body of the sacrum and the sacral canal. Sacral tuberculosis (TB) was suspected because of a history of familial exposure. Few cases isolated to the sacrum have been reported in the literature. The characteristic histopathologic and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings are also presented. Case description A 31-year-old African-American male presented with an 8-month history of lower back pain radiating into his legs as well as numbness and weakness of the right foot. His history revealed PPD conversion following an exposure to active pulmonary TB 3 years prior for which he received 6 months of isoniazid prophylaxis. An MRI scan revealed a large heterogeneously enhancing lesion involving the sacrum with extension into the sacral canal. The patient underwent computed tomography (CT)- guided needle biopsy of the sacral lesion. Cytopathologic examination revealed caseating granulomas. Acid-fast bacilli cultures were positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. He was placed on a 6-month course of isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol. At 3-month follow-up, his examination and symptoms had improved. Conclusions Sacral TB is an extremely rare cause of lower back pain with radiation into the lower extremities. TB should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of isolated sacral masses, especially in light of today’s increasing multidrug resistance and immunosuppressed population.