cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Emergency Department Attending Physician Variation in Opioid Prescribing in Low Acuity Back Pain.

Author(s): Hoppe, Jason A.; McStay, Christopher; Sun, Benjamin; Capp, Roberta | Abstract: Introduction: Despite treatment guidelines suggesting alternatives, as well as evidence of a lackof benefit and evidence of poor long-term outcomes, opioid analgesics are commonly prescribedfor back pain from the emergency department (ED). Variability in opioid prescribing suggests a lackof consensus and an opportunity to standardize and improve care. We evaluated the variation inattending emergency physician (EP) opioid prescribing for patients with uncomplicated, low acuityback pain (LABP).Methods: This retrospective study evaluated the provider-specific proportion of LABP patientsdischarged from an urban academic ED over a seven-month period with a prescription for opioids.LABP was strictly defined as (1) back pain chief complaint, (2) discharged from ED with nointerventions, and (3) predefined discharge diagnosis of back pain. We excluded providers if theyhad less than 25 LABP patients in the study period. The primary outcome was the physician-specificproportion of LABP patients discharged with an opioid analgesic prescription. We performed adescriptive analysis and then risk standardized prescribing proportion by adjusting for patient andclinical characteristics using hierarchical logistic regression.Results: During the seven-month study period, 23 EPs treated and discharged at least 25 LABPpatients and were included. Eight (34.8%) were female, and six (26.1%) were junior attendings (l 5years after residency graduation). There were 943 LABP patients included in the analysis. Providerspecificproportions ranged from 3.7% to 88.1% (mean 58.4% [SD +/- 22.2]), and we found a 22-foldvariation in prescribing proportions. There was a six-fold variation in the adjusted, risk-standardizedprescribing proportion with a range from 12.0% to 78.2% [mean 50.4% (SD +/-16.4)].Conclusion: We found large variability in opioid prescribing practices for LABP that persistedafter adjustment for patient and clinical characteristics. Our findings support the need to furtherstandardize and improve adherence to treatment guidelines and evidence suggesting alternatives toopioids.
Culture, Intelligence, and ETI

This chapter raises questions about how we might communicate with ETI should contact occur and also explores some of the difficulties with communication related to both the biological and cultural aspects of humans and any extraterrestrial other we might meet. The chapter focuses on the centrality of culture in allowing for understanding and the manner in which culture and biology are interconnected and also limit our capacity to communicate.
Thyroid Hormones (T 4 , T 3 )

Thyroid hormone is produced by all vertebrate. In mammals, the thyroid gland is derived embryologically from endoderm at the base of the tongue and develops into a bilobed structure lying anterior to the trachea. The structure and arrangement of thyroid tissue, however, vary significantly among species. The thyroid gland receives a rich blood supply, as well as sympathetic innervation, and is specialized to synthesize and secrete thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) into the circulation (Fig. 1). This process is regulated by thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) secreted from the pituitary, which is in turn stimulated by thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) from the hypothalamus. Both TSH and TRH are regulated in a negative-feedback loop by circulating T4 and T3. Iodine and the trace element selenium are essential for normal thyroid hormone metabolism. Regulatory mechanisms within the thyroid gland allow for continuous production of thyroid hormone despite variation in the supply of dietary iodine. Thyroid hormone regulates a wide range of processes, including amphibian metamorphosis, development, reproduction, growth, and metabolism. The specific processes that are regulated differ among species, tissues, and developmental phase.
Towards a versatile brain-machine interface: Neural decoding of multiple behavioral variables and delivering sensory feedback versatile brain-machine interface

While brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) strive to provide neural prosthetic solutions to people with sensory, motor and cognitive disabilities, they have been typically tested in strictly controlled laboratory settings. Making BMIs versatile and applicable to real life situations is a significant challenge. For example, in real life we can flexibly and independently control multiple behavioral variables, such as programming motor goals, orienting attention in space, fixating objects with the eyes, and remembering relevant information. Several neurophysiological experiments, conducted in monkeys, manipulated multiple behavioral variables in a controlled way; these multiple variables were decoded from the activity of same neuronal ensembles. Additionally, in the other monkey experiments, multiple motor variables were extracted from cortical ensembles in real time, such as controlling two virtual arms using a BMI. The next improvement has been achieved using brain-machine-brain interfaces (BMBIs) that simultaneously extract motor intentions from brain activity and generate artificial sensations using intracortical microstimulation (ICMS). For example, a BMBI can perform active tactile exploration of virtual objects. Such versatile BMIs bring us closer to the development of clinical neural prostheses for restoration and rehabilitation of neural function.
Angle-multiplexed metasurfaces

We introduce angle-multiplexed metasurfaces for encoding independent wavefronts in a single metasurface under different illumination angles. As proof of concept, we demonstrate an angle-multiplexed hologram, which projects different images under normal and oblique illumination angles.
Requirements in cosmetics for black skin.

Black consumers are interested in products designed with their specific skin and hair care needs in mind. The most common problems with these products include the inability to find appropriate shades of cosmetics, "black" make-up that is greasy or irritating, allergic reactions to fragrance or other nonessential ingredients, acne from "oil-free" products, and a paucity of effective products to treat very dry skin. Many hair products are made specifically for black hair. Hair breakage is often a result of using the products inappropriately.
Perspectives on General Aging

In February 1905, in his farewell address to The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, William Osier offered two “fixed” ideas regarding the uselessness of old age (1). The first idea was that men more than 40 years of age were comparatively useless: Take the sum of human achievement in action, in science, in art, in literatur—subtract the work of the men above 40, and, while we should miss great treasures, even priceless treasures, we would practically be where we are today.
Librarians as Members of Integrated Institutional Information Programs: Management and Organizational Issues.

This article describes some of the roles and relationships developing in IAIMS (Integrated Academic Information Management System) environments, primarily, but not exclusively, in academic health sciences settings, which have been funded by the National Library of Medicine program. It discusses several organizational and management issues and related implications which are emerging as librarians become integral parts of faculty teaching and research efforts and as the library assumes broader administrative responsibilities
Volunteer-Based Online Studies With Older Adults and People with Disabilities

There are few large-scale empirical studies with people with disabilities or older adults, mainly because recruiting partici­pants with specific characteristics is even harder than recruit­ing young and/or non-disabled populations. Analyzing four online experiments on LabintheWild with a total of 355,656 participants, we show that volunteer-based online experiments that provide personalized feedback attract large numbers of participants with diverse disabilities and ages and allow ro­bust studies with these populations that replicate and extend the findings of prior laboratory studies. To find out what mo­tivates people with disabilities to take part, we additionally analyzed participants' feedback and forum entries that discuss LabintheWild experiments. The results show that participants use the studies to diagnose themselves, compare their abilities to others, quantify potential impairments, self-experiment, and share their own stories -- findings that we use to inform design guidelines for online experiment platforms that adequately support and engage people with disabilities.
Evaluating theory of structured experience propositions: effects of service quality and experience industry techniques on quality of immediate leisure experiences

ABSTRACTWe tested two propositions of the Theory of Structured Experience: first, strategies used to structure experiences in the leisure industries elevate experience quality only when a threshold...
Severe hypocalcemia during surgery for placenta accreta spectrum: The case for empiric replacement

Introduction We aimed to determine predictive factors for severe hypocalcemia in women with placenta accreta spectrum. Material and methods Study of 123 women with histology-proven placenta accreta spectrum with cesarean hysterectomy between 2011 and 2017. Two groups were selected: Cases: critically low ("panic value") serum total calcium (≤7 mg/dL) and Controls: normal serum total calcium (≥8.5 mg/dL). Regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed to evaluate the potential associations. Results There were 13 women with critically low (cases) and 18 with normal calcium (controls). Baseline characteristics were not statistically different. The median estimated blood loss, units of red blood cells (RBCs) transfused and volume of crystalloid transfused, were higher in the low calcium group. Six out of 13 (46.2%) cases had received ≥4 units of RBCs during surgery vs 2 of 18 (11.1%) controls (P = 0.04). ROC analysis showed that estimated blood loss, units of RBCs transfused, and crystalloid transfused were associated with severe hypocalcemia and univariate regression analysis confirmed that estimated blood loss ≥1500 mL, RBC transfusion ≥4 units, and crystalloid transfused ≥4L were associated with severe hypocalcemia. Conclusions Intraoperative transfusion of ≥4 units RBCs is predictive of the development of severe hypocalcemia in placenta accreta spectrum patients experiencing active bleeding. Empiric replacement of 1 g CaCL2 is recommended for every 4 U RBC transfused.
Patterns and correlates of racial/ethnic disparities in posttraumatic stress disorder screening among recently separated veterans.

Abstract Background Despite the high prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among military veterans, there is a lack of knowledge about racial/ethnic differences. The current study describes patterns and correlates of PTSD screening across race/ethnicity and gender in a sample of 9420 veterans recently separated from the military. Veterans who identified as White (n = 6222), Hispanic/Latinx (n = 1313), Black (n = 1027), Asian/Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (n = 420) and multiracial (n = 438) were included. Method Trauma exposure and PTSD were assessed with the Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5. Contextual factors examined included the intensity of ongoing stressful events, perceived social support, and sociodemographic variables (e.g., income). Weighted analyses were conducted to account for differential sample response rates. Regression analyses examining correlates of racial/ethnic differences in PTSD screening were stratified by gender. Results Among men and women, positive PTSD screening rates were significantly elevated among Black, multiracial, and Hispanic/Latinx veterans compared with White veterans. Sociodemographics, trauma exposure, stress and social support accounted for elevated positive screening rates among all racial/ethnic groups except Black men and multiracial women. Conclusions Findings suggest that Black, Hispanic/Latinx and multiracial veterans may be at higher risk for PTSD shortly following separation from the military. Contextual factors examined explain the excess risk among some, but not all, subgroups. Further specifying disparities in PTSD diagnostic rates and risk factors will enable targeted and tailored intervention among veteran subgroups.
Pre-, Intra-, and Post-Operative Evaluation of Extraocular Muscle Insertions Using Optical Coherence Tomography: A Comparison of Four Devices

OCT (optical coherence tomography) is widely used in ophthalmology and pediatric ophthalmology, but limited research has been done on the use of OCT in strabismus. This study investigates the use of different OCT machines to image rectus muscle insertions pre-, intra-, and post-operatively in pediatric strabismus patients. The OCT machines used in the study were a Bioptigen (Leica Microsystems Inc., Buffalo Grove, IL, USA), Spectralis HRA+OCT with Anterior Segment Module (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany), Visante (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany), and Zeiss Rescan 700 (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany). Measurements from the machines were compared with the caliper distance measured during the strabismus surgery before disinsertion or after reattachment. The OCT machines had moderate (Bioptigen: 0.62) to good intraclass correlation coefficients (Rescan: 0.83, Spectralis: 0.85, Visante: 0.88) with intra-operative measurements. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use an operating microscope with integrated intra-operative OCT to image rectus muscle insertions. OCT is a useful tool in strabismus surgical patients in the pre-, intra-, and post-operative settings, particularly in patients who have had previous surgery, when the muscle insertion is unknown. The ability to accurately image rectus muscle insertions has significant implications for the management of strabismus patients.
“My Mom Always Tells that Story to Friends and Relatives”: Exploring the Phenomenon of Other-Presentation

ABSTRACTTo examine the phenomenon of other-presentation, we framed our study in communicated narrative sense-making theory (CNSM) and employed grounded theory to develop two typologies. Specificall...
Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Induces the Appearance of New Copy Number Aberrations in Breast Tumor and is Associated with Metastasis

Background In this study, we examined the CNA-genetic landscape (CNA - copy number aberration) of breast cancer prior to and following neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and correlated changes in the tumor landscape with chemotherapy efficiency as well as metastasis-free survival. Objective Breast cancer patients (n = 30) with luminal B molecular subtypes were treated with anthracycline- based therapy. Methods To study CNAs in breast tumors, microarray analysis was performed. Results Three effects of NAC on tumor CNA landscape were identified: 1 - the number of CNAbearing tumor clones decreased following NAC; 2 - there were no alterations in the number of CNAcontaining clones after NAC; 3 - the treatment with NAC increased the number of CNA-bearing clones (new clones appeared). All NAC-treated patients who had new tumor clones with amplification (20%) had a 100% likelihood of metastasis formation. In these cases, NAC contributed to the emergence of potential metastatic clones. Our study identified the following loci - 5p, 6p, 7q, 8q, 9p, 10p, 10q22.1, 13q, 16p, 18Chr and 19p - that were amplified during the treatment with NAC and maybe the markers of potential metastatic clones. In other patients who showed total or partial elimination of CNA-bearing cell clones, no new amplification clones were observed after NAC, and no evidence of metastases was found with follow-up for 5 years (р = 0.00000). Conclusion Our data suggest that the main therapeutic result from NAC is the elimination of potential metastatic clones present in the tumor before treatment. The results showed the necessity of an intelligent approach to NAC to avoid metastasis stimulation.
Theory and intervention equivalence and bias: New constructs and adaptation of the systematic test of equivalence procedure

The importance of cross-cultural validity, equivalence, and bias when engaged in cross-cultural and cultural activities (e.g., research, practice, training, supervision, consultation, teaching) are discussed. Two new forms of equivalence (Theory; Intervention) and bias (Theory; Intervention) also are introduced, as is an adaptation of the Systematic Test of Equivalence Procedure (STEP; Gerstein, L.H. 2018. Systematic test of equivalence procedure: New method to investigate cross-cultural validity. Revista de Cercetare si Interventie Sociala, 62, 278–293), which was originally created to enhance equivalence and reduce bias when conducting cross-cultural or cultural studies. Assuming future research supports the validity and relevance of the modified STEP approach, this strategy could offer researchers, clinicians, and others a tool to examine theory and intervention equivalence and bias in their professional activities. Recommendations for conducting projects to investigate the validity of employing STEP when examining the equivalence or bias of existing and future theories and intervention strategies are presented as well.
Growth and form of giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in a plantation spacing trial after 28 years

Abstract Giant sequoia is a famously massive and long-lived tree endemic to the Sierra Nevada of California, whose persistence is threatened by a changing climate and an altered disturbance regime. One approach for protecting threatened species is to incorporate them into working landscapes. In a forestry context, the objectives of a working landscape include the production of timber and the storage of carbon. Given its potential for rapid growth, an understanding of the growth-density relationships for giant sequoia is a necessity for planning future management for these common management objectives. To investigate the effect of initial planting density on both individual tree and stand level characteristics, we used repeated measures data from a 28-year-old giant sequoia spacing trial. After 28 years, survival among all spacing treatments was high (>98%). Individual bole volume increased with greater growing space allocated per tree. Although initial relative growth rates based on bole volume differed among spacing treatments, relative growth rates were similar after 21 years. At the stand level, total stand volume was similar across all spacing treatments after 28 years. However, wider spacing treatments exhibited higher amounts of merchantable volume. After 28 years, stands of giant sequoia sequestered approximately 92.2 Mg ha−1 across all spacing treatments. Our results show that giant sequoias are able to produce merchantable timber at a young age and sequester large amounts of carbon in a relatively short amount of time, supporting that giant sequoia is a promising candidate species for planting for timber production as well as carbon sequestration.
Identification of critical chemical modifications by size exclusion chromatography of stressed antibody-target complexes with competitive binding.

Chemical modifications (attributes) in the binding regions of stressed therapeutic proteins may affect binding to target and efficacy of therapeutic proteins. The method presented here describes th...
LES study on the influence of the diffuser inlet angle of a centrifugal pump on pressure fluctuations

Abstract Large-Eddy Simulations are conducted on a centrifugal pump at design and reduced flow-rates for three diffuser geometries, to investigate the effect of changing the diffuser inlet angle on the overall performance and the pressure fields. In particular, pressure fluctuations are investigated, which affect the unsteady loads acting on the pump, as well as vibrations, noise and cavitation phenomena. The considered modification of the diffuser geometry is targeted at decreasing the incidence angle at the off-design flow-rate by rotating the stationary blades of the pump around their leading edge. Results are compared against those of an earlier study, where the same modification of the diffuser inlet angle was achieved by increasing also the radial gap between impeller and diffuser, whose blades were rotated relative to their mid camber location. The comparisons across cases demonstrate that the radial gap between the trailing edge of the impeller blades and the leading edge of the diffuser blades has a more profound influence on pressure fluctuations, compared to the angle of incidence on the diffuser blades of the flow coming from the impeller.
Water, Health, and Environmental Justice in California: Geospatial Analysis of Nitrate Contamination and Thyroid Cancer.

Environmental health hazards are known to disproportionately burden marginalized communities. Agriculture, wastewater, and industrial waste contaminate surface and groundwater, used for drinking, w...
The zone of proximal creativity: What dynamic assessment of divergent thinking reveals about students’ latent class membership

Abstract Divergent Thinking is a domain-general mental attribute closely associated with creativity that can be quantified through the use of text-mining algorithms. Past research has shown that students’ Divergent Thinking is malleable in response to relatively simple contextual prompts. In addition, there is substantial variance in the degree to which individual students’ Divergent Thinking is malleable, suggesting the presence of a student-specific zone-of-proximal-development in relation to creativity. Here, we adopted a dynamic assessment paradigm that included multiple conditions under which student Divergent Thinking was measured and fit a latent profile analysis model to that dynamic assessment data. We found that, although on average the Originality of student responses can be augmented through a prompt to generate surprising or unusual ideas, three latent classes emerged that differed significantly on their patterns of augmentation. These three latent classes were termed: (a) Conventional Thinkers (7.80% of the sample), whose response to the Divergent Thinking task were highly constrained and unoriginal across all conditions (b) Prompted Shifters (66.56%), whose Originality significantly increased across conditions, and (c) Idea Generators (25.64%), whose responses were highly original across all conditions. These latent profiles were validated in regard to personality characteristics and domain-specific creative activities, with Idea Generators reporting significantly more Openness and Intellect, less Industriousness, and more creative activities across the domains of Literature, Music, Sports, Visual Art, Science, and Cooking than did the other latent classes.
Cancer Immunotherapy Strategies: Basic Principles

Cancer immunotherapy encompasses a variety of therapeutic modalities that aim to harness and/or enhance a patient’s own immune system to elicit anti-tumor responses. Promising outcomes from several clinical trials have led to recent FDA approvals and rendered immunotherapy as a standard of care for various types of cancer, including melanoma and lung cancers. In this chapter, we summarize the most recent therapeutic advances to various cancer immunotherapeutic modalities, including vaccines, viral-based therapies, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, and checkpoint blockade. Additionally, we recap the challenges faced by cancer immunotherapy, including limitations to tumor immune access, tumor heterogeneity, and tumor-induced local and systemic immune-suppression. We also introduce the roles that nanotechnologies might play in enhancing the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.
Osteogenic changes in kidneys of hyperoxaluric rats

Abstract Many calcium oxalate (CaOx) kidney stones develop attached to renal papillary sub-epithelial deposits of calcium phosphate (CaP), called Randall's plaque (RP). Pathogenesis of the plaques is not fully understood. We hypothesize that abnormal urinary environment in stone forming kidneys leads to epithelial cells losing their identity and becoming osteogenic. To test our hypothesis male rats were made hyperoxaluric by administration of hydroxy- l -proline (HLP). After 28 days, rat kidneys were extracted. We performed genome wide analyses of differentially expressed genes and determined changes consistent with dedifferentiation of epithelial cells into osteogenic phenotype. Selected molecules were further analyzed using quantitative-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Genes for runt related transcription factors (RUNX1 and 2), zinc finger protein Osterix, bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP2 and 7), bone morphogenetic protein receptor (BMPR2), collagen, osteocalcin, osteonectin, osteopontin (OPN), matrix-gla-protein (MGP), osteoprotegrin (OPG), cadherins, fibronectin (FN) and vimentin (VIM) were upregulated while those for alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and cytokeratins 10 and 18 were downregulated. In conclusion, epithelial cells of hyperoxaluric kidneys acquire a number of osteoblastic features but without CaP deposition, perhaps a result of downregulation of ALP and upregulation of OPN and MGP. Plaque formation may additionally require localized increases in calcium and phosphate and decrease in mineralization inhibitory potential.
QCD: Hard Collisions are Easy and Soft Collisions are Hard

Now, are hard collisions really all that easy? To be sure, calculation (not to mention measurement) of hard-collision processes is far from simple, and I mean no disrespect by the title. It is meant in the physicists’ sense that “what is possible to do is easy; the impossible is merely hard.”
Chapter 14 Antineoplastic Agents

Publisher Summary This chapter summarizes the researches and discoveries of different antineoplastic agents regarding the treatment of cancer. Several naturally occurring compounds or their derivatives have received considerable attention in recent years because of their clinical potential. Some structural requirements for another class of naturally occurring antineoplastics, the quassinoids, have been studied, and it has been determined that the epoxymethano bridge and C-1 and C-12 hydroxyls are necessary for biological activity. Adriamycin has continued to be the dominant force in the expanding use of chemotherapeutic agents. Its wide spectrum of activity coupled with its dose-limiting cardiac toxicity continues to stimulate the search for structurally modified agents with improved biological profiles. The 14-diethoxyacetoxy derivative of daunorubicin also showed superior antitumor activity with a greater than two-fold increase in therapeutic index. High dose methotrexate (MTX) followed by folinic acid rescue has found application in a wide variety of tumors. Thymidine (TdR) has also recently been reported to be effective as a rescue agent for high dose MTX. Gallium nitrate, a heavy metal compound active in animal tumor systems and shown to be nonmyelosuppressive, has provided responses in initial clinical studies in Hodgkin's disease lymphoma, ovarian cancer, and osteogenic sarcoma. Aspirin and Indomethacin, inhibitors of PG biosynthesis, have been reported to inhibit the growth of a 3-methylcholanthrene (Meth A)-induced fibrosarcoma. Another inhibitor, Flurbiprofen, enhanced the activity of chlorambucil on a chemo-resistant line of Walker tumor. The most widely studied method of reducing toxicity of antitumor agents has continued to be encapsulation in liposomes. The mechanism of drug toxicity reduction and pharmacokinetics of liposome encapsulated drugs has been reviewed in this chapter. A great deal of research has continued toward the goal of inhibiting carcinogenesis.
Halogenated Analogues of Products of the Arachidonic Acid Cascade: Prostaglandins, Thromboxanes, and Leukotrienes

The eicosanoids are a group of C-20 unsaturated acids that have important roles in the regulation of such physiological functions as fertility control and induction of labor, regulation of blood platelet aggregation, gastric acid secretion, stimulation of smooth muscle activity, and inflammation response. Since the initial isolation and identification of prostaglandins from sheep seminal vesicle glands and from human semen (PGF2α and PGE, respectively) in the 1950s by Bergstrom and Sjovall [Bergstrom et al., 1963; reviewed by von Euler and Eliasson (1963)], a diverse series of acids have been identified. These include the primary prostaglandins and prostacyclins, thromboxanes, and unsaturated eicosanoic acids having perhydroxyl and hydroxyl substitution (leukotrienes). These compounds, collectively named eicosanoids, are derived enzymatically from C-20 acids, most notably arachidonic acid, as shown in Fig. 4-1 (the “arachidonic acid cascade”). A recent review of the biosynthesis, nomenclature, and physiological role of eicosanoids is provided by Moore (1985).
How Did It All Begin

Professor Berman's book tells a story within a story. His central theme is the emergence of Western legal culture, but he places his narrative within the framework of a visionary scheme about the destiny of Western civilization. This larger story is merely adumbrated in the book and not ripe for serious critical examination.' But because Berman's larger story intersects with his fully developed narrower one, the all-encompassing scheme of the larger narrative must quickly be summarized before we turn to the proper subject matter of this review-Professor Berman's interpretation of the origins of Western legal culture. Berman's thesis is that distinctively Western legal institutions came to life about nine centuries ago in a violent upheaval, or revolution, in which the Church of Rome established its independence from domination by em-
The nuclear receptor Nur77 suppresses CNS autoimmunity by limiting myeloid catecholamine production (BA3P.134)

In multiple sclerosis (MS) and its mouse model, experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE), recruitment of peripheral autoreactive leukocytes to the central nervous system (CNS) is central for pathogenesis. Although sympathetic norepinephrine (NE) has been described as a key driving force of leukocyte recruitment, molecular mechanisms that control this process have not been fully elucidated. Macrophages can also produce NE, but the importance of this activity has not been addressed in the MS context. Nur77, an orphan nuclear receptor involved in differentiation of monocytes, can be activated by both inflammatory and sympathetic stimuli. Here we show that in macrophages, Nur77 is essential to regulate expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), a rate-limiting enzyme in catecholamine biosynthesis. Mice with global or myeloid-specific Nur77 deletion exhibited enhanced TH expression and elevated blood NE levels, which triggered excessive production of IL-6, CXCL1, CCL2 and CCL5, ultimately leading to accelerated and exacerbated EAE. Live cell imaging of the spinal cord revealed enhanced infiltration of encephalitogenic 2D2 T cells and monocytes, and hastened activation of microglia in Nur77-deficient mice. Consistently, exacerbated EAE in Nur77-deficient mice was ameliorated by TH inhibition or by α1 adrenergic receptor blockade. Our data identify Nur77 as a key nuclear receptor regulating myeloid catecholamine production and CNS autoimmunity.
Ordered water structure around a B-DNA dodecamer: A quantitative study

Abstract The crystal structure of the double-helical B-DNA dodecamer of sequence C-G-C-G-A-A-T-T-C-G-C-G has been solved and refined independently in three forms: (1) the parent sequence at room temperature; (2) the same sequence at 16 K; and (3) the 9-bromo variant C-G-C-G-A-A-T-TBrC-G-C-G at 7 °C in 60% (v/v) 2-methyl-2.4-pentanediol. The latter two structures show extensive hydration along the phosphate backbone, a feature that was invisible in the native structure because of high temperature factors (indicating thermal or static disorder) of the backbone atoms. Sixty-five solvent peaks are associated with the phosphate backbone, or an average of three per phosphate group. Nineteen other molecules form a first shell of hydration to base edge N and O atoms within the major groove, and 36 more are found in upper hydration layers. The latter tend to occur in strings or clusters spanning the major groove from one phosphate group to another. A single spermine molecule also spans the major groove. In the minor groove, the zig-zag spine of hydration that we believe to be principally responsible for stabilizing the B form of DNA is found in all three structures. Upper level hydration in the minor groove is relatively sparse, and consists mainly of strings of water molecules extending across the groove, with few contacts to the spine below. Sugar O-1′ atoms are closely associated with water molecules, but these are chiefly molecules in the spine, so the association may reflect the geometry of the minor groove rather than any intrinsic attraction of O-1′ atoms for hydration. The phosphate O-3′ and O-5′ atoms within the backbone chain are least hydrated of all, although no physical or steric impediment seems to exist that would deny access to these oxygen atoms by water molecules.
The Imperfect is the Enemy of the Good: Anticircumvention Versus Open Innovation

Digital Rights Management, law-backed technological control of usage of copyrighted works, is clearly imperfect: It often fails to stop piracy and frequently blocks non-infringing uses. Yet the drive to correct these imperfections masks a deeper conflict, between the DRM system of anticircumvention and open development in the entire surrounding media environment. This conflict, at the heart of the DRM schema, will only deepen, even if other aspects of DRM can be improved. This paper takes a systemic look at the legal, technical, and business environment of DRM to highlight this openness conflict and its effects. Scholars have described DRM’s failures to protect copyright exceptions, its failures to stop unauthorized copying, and its impact on complementary innovation. This paper takes those debates as background to focus on the foreclosure of an entire mode of development and its opportunities for user innovation. Under an anticircumvention regime, the producers of media content can authorize or deny authorization to technologies for playing their works. Open source technologies and their developers cannot logically be authorized. “Open-source DRM” is a contradiction in terms, for open source encourages user modification (and copyleft requires its availability), while DRM compels “robustness” against those same user modifications. Since DRM aims to control use of content while permitting the user to see or hear it, it can be implemented only in software or hardware that is able to override its user’s wishes - and can’t be hacked to do otherwise. For a DRM implementation to make any sense, therefore, its barriers against user modification of the rights management must be at least as strong as those against user access to its protected content. I characterize a “DRM imperative” and explore the technical incompatibilities between regulation by code and exploration of code. We see DRM centralizing development and forcing the black-boxing of complementary media technology, in a widening zone as it mandates that protected media be played only on compliant devices, that those may output media content only to other compliant devices, etc. The home media network is thus progressively closed to open-source development. Foreclosing open development costs us technically, economically, and socially. We lose predicted technological improvements, those of user-innovators (von Hippel) or disruptive technologies (Christensen) from outside the incumbent-authorized set, that could offer new options for content creators and audiences (such as better playback, library, mixing, and commerce options). We lose social and cultural opportunities for commons-based peer production. In the full cost-benefit analysis of anticircumvention, the loss to open innovation would outweigh the gains from this imperfect mechanism of copyright enforcement. Treating code literally as law leaves the law with too many harmful side effects.
Working Memory and Sentence Comprehension

This chapter reviews studies of the memory processes that are used to support comprehension of sentences; more specifically, the assignment and interpretation of syntactic structure. Theories of the memory system and retrieval operations that are used in this process are outlined and considered critically. It is argued that the memory system that supports these processes is a specialization within procedural memory. Aspects of the neural basis for this system are briefly discussed.
Stress-induced polymer waveguides operating at both 1.31 and 1.55 [micro sign]m wavelengths

Metal-defined polymer optical waveguides have been demonstrated for the first time. A metal strip patterned on top of a polymer slab waveguide causes a stress-induced refractive index change, providing lateral optical mode confinement within the core layer. Fabricated waveguides exhibit low propagation loss values of 1.1 dB/cm at 1.31 µm and 1.3 dB/cm at 1.55 µm for both TE and TM polarisations.
A new axiomatization of the shapley value

Abstract We consider values for transferable utility coalitional form games. We impose on values the requirements of efficiency, triviality, coalitional strategic equivalence, and fair ranking. Efficiency requires that the payoffs to players exhaust all benefits generated by forming the grand coalition. Triviality requires that all players receive nothing if the game is trivial. Coalitional strategic equivalence requires that an improvement in the technology available to some coalition would not affect the payoffs of the players that do not belong to the coalition. Fair ranking requires that the relative payoffs of players belonging to some coalition be determined by their contributions to other coalitions. We show that these four axioms uniquely characterize the Shapley value.
On Analyzing Large Graphs Using GPUs

Studying properties of graphs is essential to various applications, and recent growth of online social networks has spurred interests in analyzing their structures using Graphical Processing Units (GPUs). Utilizing the faster available shared memory on GPUs have provided tremendous speed-up for solving many general-purpose problems. However, when data required for processing is large and needs to be stored in the global memory instead of the shared memory, simultaneous memory accesses by threads in execution becomes the bottleneck for achieving higher throughput. In this paper, for storing large graphs, we propose and evaluate techniques to efficiently utilize the different levels of the memory hierarchy of GPUs, with the focus being on the larger global memory. Given a graph G = (V, E), we provide an algorithm to count the number of triangles in G, while storing the adjacency information on the global memory. Our computation techniques and data structure for retrieving the adjacency information is derived from processing the breadth-first-search tree of the input graph. Also, techniques to generate combinations of nodes for testing the properties of graphs induced by the same are discussed in detail. Our methods can be extended to solve other combinatorial counting problems on graphs, such as finding the number of connected sub graphs of size k, number of cliques (resp. independent sets) of size k, and related problems for large data sets. In the context of the triangle counting algorithm, we analyze and utilize primitives such as memory access coalescing and avoiding partition camping that offset the increase in access latency of using a slower but larger global memory. Our experimental results for the GPU implementation show at least 10 times speedup for triangle counting over the CPU counterpart. Another 6 - 8% increase in performance is obtained by utilizing the above mentioned primitives as compared to the naive implementation of the program on the GPU.
Evolutionarily stable oviposition and sex ratio in parasitoid wasps with single-sex broods

1. The flexibility of hymenopteran sex ratios is well documented, particularly in structured populations featuring sib mating. 2. Using game theoretic models, the present study examines species producing single-sex broods in which sib mating is unlikely, and focuses on the role of population density in determining evolutionarily stable oviposition strategies. 3. Since only mated females can produce offspring of both sexes while unmated females produce only male offspring, mated females are under selection to produce more females overall to balance the primary sex ratio. 4. As the proportion of all females that are mated should increase with density, offspring sex ratio of mated females is strongly linked to density at low to moderate densities. The present study shows that when density becomes low enough for fewer than half of all females to have mated, then female offspring generate higher fitness. 5. In this low density situation, females may gain a fitness benefit from waiting at their emergence site or from using other costly means to find and mate with males before ovipositing. 6. The predicted correspondence between females waiting at the emergence site and fewer than half of females in the population containing sperm, can be tested empirically, as can the somewhat counter-intuitive prediction that greater access to males should yield a more male-biased sex ratio in the offspring of mated females. 7. The present study also indicates how measuring the variance in giving up times by females waiting for males at low density, can provide insight into mechanisms determining waiting times.
A Review on Extraction and Identification of Crude Oil and Related Products Using Supercritical Fluid Technology

Crude oil, shale oil, and sand oil are all sources of petroleum and contain hundreds of compounds whose components can be grouped into four main classes such as (1) saturates (alkanes and cycloparaffins), (2) aromatics (mono-, di-, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with alkyl side chains), (3) resins (aggregates with a multitude of building blocks such as sulfoxides, amides, thiophenes, pyridines, quinolines, and carbazoles), and (4) asphaltenes (aggregates of extended polyaromatics, naphthenic acids, sulfides, polyhydric phenols, fatty acids, and metalloporhyrins). The latter two classes contain many species that are nonvolatile and are therefore difficult to analyze. Currently, most analyses of petroleum compounds determine species with no more than six fused rings, a paucity of polar groups, and a molecular mass of less than 600. The volatility and stability of the compounds determine whether they are amenable to analysis using standard gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Hence, to...
Electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations of the Kerr metric

For the Kerr metric, we calculate all of the NP components of a test electromagnetic field and all of the NP components of the curvature tensor for gravitational perturbations, using formulae derived by Cohen and Kegeles. We express these NP components in terms of known functions. We also give a new derivation of the Teukolsky-Press identities for electromagnetism and gravitation, using the formalism of Geroch, Held and Penrose.
Mineral Retention and Rheological Properties of Mozzarella Cheese Made by Direct Acidification

Abstract Mozzarella cheese was made by acidifying milk containing 2% fat with phosphoric, acetic, hydrochloric, malic, or citric acids to pH of 5.6, 5.4, or 5.2 before rennet coagulation and processing of the curd. Moisture content, mineral retention, and rheological properties of cheese were affected significantly by the type of acid and pH at coagulation. Direct relationships existed between calcium, phosphate, viscosity, and modulus of elasticity. Relationships were inverse between moisture content of cheese, meltability, and other factors mentioned above. Cheese was mild in flavor, but bitterness was in high-moisture cheese made at low pH.
Blunt Trauma to the High Cervical Carotid Artery

Closed injuries to the neck, occasionally associated with mandibular fractures, can result in trauma to the internal carotid artery at the high cervical level opposite the uppermost cervical vertebrae. Such arterial injuries range from spasm to intimal tear with thrombus formation, medial tear, and aneurysm formation. These types of lesions may overlap. Ten patients are presented, five with traumatic carotid occlusions and five with traumatic aneurysms. The clinical diagnosis of traumatic cervical carotid occlusion may be difficult because of the absence of physical trauma to the neck. The diagnosis of aneurysm poses fewer problems. Oculopneumoplethysmography, computerized tomographic head scanning, and carotid arteriography with cross compression are the most useful diagnostic techniques. Thrombectomy should be carried out early, particularly in the presence of fluctuating neurological signs. Aneurysms that cannot be approached directly may necessitate carotid ligation.
Simulated polarization diversity lidar returns from water and precipitating mixed phase clouds

The dependence of polarization lidar returns on basic microphysical and thermodynamic variables is assessed by using a cloud model to simulate the growth of water and mixed (water and ice) phase clouds. Cloud contents that evolve with height in updrafts are converted, by using Mie theory, into cloud droplet single and double backscattering and attenuation coefficients. The lidar equation includes forward multiple scattering attenuation corrections based on diffraction theory for droplets and ice crystals, whose relative scattering contributions are treated empirically. Lidar depolarization is computed from droplet and crystal single scattering and an analytical treatment of droplet double scattering. Water cloud results reveal the expected increases in linear depolarization ratios (delta) with increasing lidar field of view and distance to cloud but also show that depolarization is a function of cloud liquid water content, which depends primarily on temperature. Ice crystals modulate mixed phase cloud liquid water contents through water vapor competition effects, thereby affecting multiple scattering delta values as functions of updraft velocity, temperature, and crystal size and concentration. Although the minimum delta at cloud base increases with increasing ice content, the peak measurable delta in the cloud decreases. Comparison with field data demonstrate that this modeling approach is a valuable supplement to cloud measurements.
Avoidance response of the estuarine amphipod Eohaustorius estuarius to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-contaminated, field-collected sediments

Amphipods (Eohaustorius estuarius) were placed in two-chamber containers with different combinations of three contaminated sediments and a control sediment, and their distribution was determined after 2 or 3 d. Amphipods avoided the sediment with the highest PAH contamination and one of two sediments with moderate PAH concentrations. In the moderately contaminated sediment avoided by amphipods, the (avoidance) response was more sensitive than mortality as a biological indicator of unacceptable sediment contamination (over the 2–3-d exposure). The avoidance response in this case likely represents an early indication of potential mortality from sediment exposure. Population levels of amphipods in moderately to heavily PAH-contaminated sediments may be influenced by a combination of avoidance behavior and toxicity/lethality.
No evidence of association of heterozygous NTF4 mutations in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.

To the Editor: Pasutto et al. recently reported that heterozygous NTF4 (MIM 162662) sequence variants confer an increased risk of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG [MIM 137760]).1 In an effort to replicate these findings, we sequenced the complete NTF4 coding region in a large dataset of European ancestry. The research was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC) and was in accordance with the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. Our dataset contained 443 POAG cases and 533 controls.