cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Courting Wisdom: Silence, Solitude and Friendship in Eighteenth-Century Spain

Friendship as an ideal and a social institution has long been associated with the eighteenth century, and viewed as essential to the betterment of society since it promoted sociability and relationships. This essay explores how the notions of silence and solitude, seemingly antithetical to friendship and sociability, were in fact complimentary activities which interfaced with the idea of amistad. In Spanish authors such as Forner, Moratin, Jovellanos and Melendez Valdes, silence and solitude were represented as positive, necessary components, alongside friendship, in the acquisition of wisdom. I argue that these works articulate a brand of neo-Pythagoreanism, which romanticizes the archetype of the silent master and the contemplative ideal of the solitary thinker.
Branding like a State: Establishing Catalan Singularity at the Frankfurt Book Fair

AbstractThe designation of Catalan culture as guest of honor at the 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair raised controversy over whether Catalan culture is expressed in one language or two. This was an opportunity for elites to promote Catalan industry internationally but also to compete over visions of Catalonia for domestic political purposes. An analysis of media texts from the controversy shows that national branding emerged as a key trope in the official defense of emphasizing Catalan over Castilian-medium literature. As a discourse sanctioned in the global political economy, branding was strategically revoiced by Catalan officials to parry Castilian critics’ free-marketeer accusations of illiberal essentialist protectionism. This analysis uses Silverstein’s concept of indexical order to argue that branding functioned not only as a sign of Catalonia’s distinctiveness in the global marketplace but also at a higher order as a brand in itself to index the Catalan administration’s cosmopolitan, contemporary, and rat...
Issues in Marketing's use of Multi-Attribute Attitude Models:

The simplistic form of linear compensatory attitude modeling includes a number of significant research questions involving concepts, measurement, and analysis. Results and conclusions of marketing ...
Analysis on characters of 216 smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients

Objective To determine the characters of smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis to provide scientific basis on treatment and control of the disease.Method The data of 216 patients during 2004 to September 2005 were analyzed.Results The cases had the following characteristics:(1)Most of patients had the education background below junior high school and most of them were peasants.(2)The ratio of male to female was 2.13.(3)The most frequent age groups were 25 and 35 in male and 15 and 25 in female;(4)44.9% of patients were confirmed that they had contact history with TB patients.(5)76.4% patients had X-ray shadows in more than two fields of lungs.21.3%of patients had cavitive in their X-ray film.12.5% of the patients had also diabetes,12% had heart diseases and 7.4% had other types of chronic diseases.(6)216 smear positive cases were treated according to the standard and met the targets of sputum conversion and cure rates.Conclusion It is helpful to strengthen the TB control work among rural and young adult population.
Pathogenicity Islands: Origins, Structure, and Roles in Bacterial Pathogenesis

Bacterial pathogens possess virulence factors that distinguish them from their non-pathogenic counterparts, and enable them to induce pathogenesis. Typically, these unique genes are encoded on specialized regions of the bacterial chromosome termed pathogenicity islands. Acquired through horizontal transmission, pathogenicity islands are large sections of the chromosome that differ in nucleotide content and in the presence of genetic elements compared to the core genome, and contain genes that promote pathogenesis. Pathogenicity islands were first discovered in bacteria belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family, but are now known to exist in various animal and plant pathogens. As pathogenicity islands are unique to pathogenic bacteria, it is likely their presence permitted the emergence of bacterial pathogens and continues to shape their evolution. This chapter highlights the genetic organization and content of pathogenicity islands, their regulation, and their impact on the evolution of pathogenic bacteria.
Abstract 2796: Regulation of HIF-1α by hnRNP A18 contributes to tumor promotion under hypoxic conditions

The RNA-binding protein heterogenous ribonucleoprotein A18 (hnRNP A18) is a new protein translation regulator found to be elevated in many cancers. Previous work from our lab has shown that hnRNP A18 is able to bind and regulate the translation of a group of mRNAs under stress conditions, including hypoxia. Hypoxia has largely been recognized as an innate characteristic of solid tumors and plays numerous cellular and physiologic roles such as cell proliferation, invasion, migration, metastasis, and angiogenesis. Given its extensive function in solid tumors, combined with computational results showing a possible hnRNP A18 signature motif in the 3’UTR of HIF-1α, we sought to determine if hnRNP A18 binds HIF-1α mRNA and how this affects tumor promotion and growth. Results: Our data indicates that hnRNP A18 protein is able to bind HIF-1α mRNA. Under hypoxic conditions, down-regulation of hnRNP A18 significantly decreases HIF-1α mRNA stability, leading to reduced amounts of HIF-1α protein levels in melanoma cells. Treatment with CoCl2 increases hnRNP A18 protein levels in melanoma cells, but not in normal melanocytes. Additionally, colony survival assay demonstrates that down-regulation of hnRNP A18 decreases cells’ survival rates under a hypoxic environment. The functional significance of this effect was observed in a mouse xenograft model where down-regulation of hnRNP A18 significantly reduced melanoma and breast tumor growth. Immunohistochemistry staining of xenograft specimens showed overlapping localization of hnRNP A18 to the tumor hypoxic regions. Lastly, proteome profiling of the xenograft tumors showed a significant decrease of key angiogenic-related factors (e.g., angiogenin, endoglin, VEGF) when hnRNP A18 is reduced. Conclusion: Heterogenous ribonucleoprotein A18 is able to regulate HIF-1α mRNA and modulate its protein levels under hypoxic conditions. The oxygen-deprived regions generated in the central core of a solid tumor leads to up-regulation of hnRNP A18 and consequently HIF-1α, resulting in tumor growth and promotion. New therapeutics targeting hnRNP A18 would therefore be a logical next-step in developing a novel mechanism-based therapy for cancer treatment. Citation Format: Elizabeth T. Chang, Palak Parekh, Qingyuan Yang, France Carrier. Regulation of HIF-1α by hnRNP A18 contributes to tumor promotion under hypoxic conditions. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2796.
T Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Originates from a Differentiation Block in T Cell Development Due to Aberrant Expression of LMO2 and SCL(TAL1).

T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is frequently associated with overexpression of the oncogenes LMO2 and SCL(TAL1) which are normally down regulated following the double negative stage of T cell development. Our goal is to decipher the molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to the onset of LMO2 associated T-ALL. We were able to isolate a complex containing the transcription factors LMO2, SCL(TAL1) and E47 from primary human T-ALL cells with proven aberrant expression of LMO2 and SCL(TAL1) by applying immunoprecipitation and Western blotting techniques. This protein complex regulates the transcription of a truncated form of RALDH2 (retinaldehyde dehydrogenase) in T-ALL cells as shown by gene transcription profiling in conjunction with RT-PCR and siRNA approaches. To monitor the effect of LMO2 expression on T cell development and leukemogenesis, lethally irradiated mice (C57BL/6) were transplanted with bone marrow cells that had been transduced with a retrovirus carrying LMO2 as the transgene. One year later, 88% of the cells in the thymus expressed LMO2 and a shift towards CD3 − /CD44 + /CD25 + cells was observed (an 88% increase compared to normal thymocytes), suggesting a differentiation block caused by LMO2 leading to an accumulation of immature T cells. To test and identify cooperating genes in T-ALL development, bone marrow cells of LMO2 double transgenic mice in which tet-inducible LMO2 is controlled by a thymic specific promoter, were retrovirally transduced with SCL(TAL1). So far, none of the control animals, transplanted with bone marrow cells transduced with a vector only containing EGFP, developed T-ALL. However, six out of the seven test animals developed T-ALL exhibiting enlargement of the spleen, liver and thymus between seven and nine months after transplantation. Organs and blood of the diseased animals were infiltrated with T-ALL cells of the immature phenotype CD8 + /CD4 + in five cases and of the CD3 − /CD44 + /CD25 + phenotype in one case. This indicates that the differentiation block caused by a lack of down-regulation of LMO2 and SCL(TAL1) in maturing T cells leads to a block in T cell differentiation and precedes T-ALL. These models will be used to examine the involvement of other cooperating genes in T-ALL development as well as downstream target genes of LMO2/SCL(TAL1), such as RALDH2, in the onset of T-ALL. We conclude that aberrant expression of LMO2 in T cells leads to a block in T cell maturation and, in conjunction with up-regulation of secondary genes like SCL(TAL1), triggers deregulation of genes in immature T cells leading to impaired T cell development and the onset of T-ALL. The described model will help to identify cooperating genes in LMO2 associated T-ALL as well as the chain of events leading to malignancy.
Quantitative measurements of light scattering in decomposing 3He4He liquid mixtures

Abstract Measurements are presented of the angular distribution of light scattering by decomposing 3 He 4 He mixtures. It is found that the structure factor has scaling form S( κ , t) = κ −3 m F( κ / κ m ) where κ m −1 is related to the size of a growing domain and F (x) is time independent during the early stages of phase separation.
A new lower bound for van der Waerden numbers

Abstract In this paper we prove a new recurrence relation on the van der Waerden numbers, w ( r , k ) . In particular, if p is a prime and p ≤ k then w ( r , k ) > p ⋅ w r − r p , k − 1 . This recurrence gives the lower bound w ( r , p + 1 ) > p r − 1 2 p when r ≤ p , which generalizes Berlekamp’s theorem on 2-colorings, and gives the best known bound for a large interval of r . The recurrence can also be used to construct explicit valid colorings, and it improves known lower bounds on small van der Waerden numbers.
Multi-channel correction of distorted reflector antennas

This paper describes an adaptive multi-channel technique for correcting antenna pattern errors. Specifically, we consider an antenna comprising 3 parts: a large primary reflector, a small reflectarray and an radio-frequency feed. First, adaptive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) techniques are used to estimate (in situ) the reflectarray's response to signals from known locations. Then, an adaptive optimization algorithm is used to reshape the beam response. Electromagnetic simulations are used to quantify performance as a function of the spatial degrees of freedom. The approach is shown to be effective for many types of reflector distortions. Furthermore, while the analysis is performed for a system with a reflectarray subreflector, the approach is alo applicable to phased-array fed reflector antennas
The History of MNI in North American Zooarchaeology

North American zooarchaeologists’ use of the minimum number of individuals (MNI) quantitative unit began early in the twentieth century, prior to the discipline’s received wisdom that Theodore White introduced it. Frequencies of publications indicate that MNI’s popularity grew in the 1960s as a result of White’s innovative technique for estimating meat weight and his demonstration (if not explanation) of how to determine MNI values from tallies of particular skeletal parts (e.g., left distal humerus) in order to infer butchering practices. Use of MNI also increased as a result of a desire to measure taxonomic abundances with a quantitative unit that accounted for intertaxonomic variation in the number of identifiable skeletal elements per carcass and in fragmentation intensity. Knowing zooarchaeology’s history is critical to avoiding disciplinary amnesia and previously noted analytical pitfalls. Further, historical knowledge reveals target variables early zooarchaeologists sought to measure and why they chose particular measured variables—in this case, MNI—to monitor those target variables.
Dynamic Changes in Peer Victimization and Adjustment Across Middle School: Does Friends’ Victimization Alleviate Distress?

Although some adolescents are chronically bullied throughout middle school, others may only experience peer victimization temporarily. This study examined the effects of time-invariant (average level) and time-varying (year-to-year) victimization experiences across middle school on adolescents' depressive symptoms, somatic complaints, and self-blame. A key question was whether friends' victimization buffered students from their victimization-related distress. The diverse sample (n = 5,991) was surveyed four times between sixth and eighth grade (Mage at sixth grade = 11.54 years). Three-level multilevel models revealed both time-invariant and time-varying effects of victimization on adjustment, but these maladaptive associations were attenuated when adolescents' friends experienced more victimization across middle school. The results suggest that even temporarily victimized youth may have unmet mental health needs, and sharing social plight with friends can protect victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
On digital passages and borders: refugees and the new infrastructure for movement and control

Since 2014, millions of refugees and migrants have arrived at the borders of Europe. This article argues that, in making their way to safe spaces, refugees rely not only on a physical but increasin...
Reforming Entity Taxation: A Role for Subchapter S?

The article asks whether a role remains for subchapter S in reforming the taxation of corporations. It considers whether all three approaches to taxing entities — subchapters C, K, and S — remain necessary and whether as part of reform, some simplification is possible or desirable. The conclusions are summarized as follows: (1) Corporate tax reform for large publicly held corporations cannot be divorced from individual tax reform — the relationship of rates matters. (2) In the absence of corporate integration (that is, two levels of tax are retained), conduit taxation for some business entities is desirable. (3) While ideally, one uniform system of conduit taxation for entities not subject to subchapter C might be highly attractive, any uniform system complex enough to deal with complicated business arrangements is too complex for simple arrangements. Thus, a two-track conduit system is appropriate. (4) While subchapter S might not have been the design choice ex ante, it has become a coherent and administrable version of a simpler conduit system. (5) Subchapter S should not be turned into subchapter K.
Local Height Functions

The canonical height function $$ \hat{h}:E\left( {\bar{K}} \right) \to \left[ {0,\infty } \right) $$ is a quadratic form whose value at a point P measures the arithmetic complexity of P. The importance of the canonical height stems from the fact that it relates the geometrically defined group law to the arithmetic properties of the algebraic points on E. See [AEC VIII, §91 for details].
Who's counting? Assessing the effects of a simulation-based training intervention on the accuracy of neonatal heart rate auscultation.

To determine if simulation-based medical education could improve pediatric residents’ ability to accurately assess neonatal heart rate via auscultation. Primary outcomes included heart rate accuracy and Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) group accuracy, defined as whether a heart rate estimation fell in the appropriate NRP algorithm group. Pediatric residents completed a pre-assessment and then participated in a simulation training intervention on high-fidelity manikins. Residents completed a post-assessment 1 month later. Heart rate estimates from 21 pediatric residents showed improved overall heart rate accuracy and NRP group accuracy from 53.6 to 78.7% (p < 0.0001) and 68.3 to 80% (p = 0.0002), respectively. Residents were more likely to overestimate low heart rates and underestimate high heart rates. Heart rate simulation-based training significantly improved residents’ ability to assess heart rate on high-fidelity neonatal manikins. Providers participating in NRP may benefit by receiving heart rate skills assessment-focused training during an NRP provider course.
Use of mean platelet volume in the assessment of intrauterine infection in newborns with combined thrombocytopenia and leukopenia at birth

Objective: Intrauterine stress can be reflected on hematological disturbance at birth. Thrombocytopenia and leukopenia may be a result of exposure to maternal hypertensive disorders but may also in...
Predictors of Healing Ligament Size and Magnetic Resonance Signal Intensity at 6 Months After Bridge-Enhanced Anterior Cruciate Ligament Repair

Background:Primary repair of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) augmented with a tissue engineered scaffold to facilitate ligament healing is a technique under development for patients with ACL i...
Cassandra Rios e a lésbica genuína em Eu sou uma lésbica (1980)

In this article, I analyze the novel, Eu sou uma lesbica (1980), by Brazilian author Cassandra Rios (1932-2002). I examine how Rios's text discusses the lesbianism and sexuality of Flavia, the protagonist of the novel, as well as the sexual and love relationship that the seven-year-old Flavia has with an adult woman. The work of authors such as Judith Butler, Marilyn R. Farwell, Teresa De Lauretis, Adrianne Rich, Gayle Rubin, and Jeffrey Weeks informs my theoretical framework. I propose that the novel presents Flavia's sexuality as natural and genuine in order to challenge traditional discourses surrounding lesbianism and children’s sexuality. While the representation of lesbian sexuality in children is transgressive and empowering, as it establishes same-sex desire among women as natural and dating back to infancy, I contend however that the novel’s treatment of adult lesbian sexuality perpetuates traditional corporal, racial, and class hierarchies.
Transposition Of The Great Arteries

Transposition of the great arteries (TGA) is a pediatric cardiac congenital defect arising from an embryological discordance between the aorta and pulmonary trunk. During cardiac development, the conotruncal septum spirals toward the aortic sac thus dividing the truncus arteriosus into the pulmonary and aortic channels. These channels then become the pulmonary arteries and aorta, respectively. TGA occurs when the conotruncal septum fails to follow its spiral course and instead forms in a linear orientation. Consequently, the aorta arises from the right ventricle and the pulmonary trunk arises from the left ventricle. The most common form of TGA is referred to as dextro-TGA (D-TGA) which is characterized by the right ventricle being positioned to the right of the left ventricle and the aorta arising anterior and rightward to the pulmonary artery thus forming two parallel circuits. In the systemic circuit, deoxygenated blood returns to the right atrium pass through the tricuspid valve and is then forced back into systemic circulation by contraction of the right ventricle and passage into the aberrantly developed aorta. The second circuit is a pulmonary circuit in which oxygenated blood from the pulmonary veins drains into the left atrium, passes through the mitral valve, and is then forced back into the lungs via contraction of the left ventricle and through the pulmonary arteries. Patients typically present with cyanosis during the first 30 days of life. Complete parallel circuits are incompatible with life and thus require a patent ductus arteriosus and ventriculoseptal defect that allows mixing of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood.
SURF: Self-aware Unified Runtime Framework for Parallel Programs on Heterogeneous Mobile Architectures

Modern mobile SoCs are typically integrated with multiple heterogeneous hardware accelerators such as GPU and DSP. Resource heavy applications such as object detection and image recognition based on convolutional neural networks are accelerated by offloading these computation-intensive algorithms to the accelerators to meet their stringent performance constraints. Conventionally there are device-specific runtime and programming languages supported for programming each accelerator, and these offloading tasks are typically pre-mapped to a specific compute unit at compile time, missing the opportunity to exploit other underutilized compute resources to gain better performance. To address this shortcoming, we present SURF: a Self-aware Unified Runtime Framework for Parallel Programs on Heterogeneous Mobile Architectures. SURF supports several heterogeneous parallel programming languages (including OpenMP and OpenCL), and enables dynamic task-mapping to heterogeneous resources based on runtime measurement and prediction. The measurement and monitoring loop enables self-aware adaptation of run-time mapping to exploit the best available resource dynamically. Our SURF framework has been implemented on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 development board and evaluated on a mix of image recognition (CNN), image filtering applications and synthetic benchmarks to demonstrate the versatility and efficacy of our unified runtime framework.
Chemerin reactivates PTEN and suppresses PD-L1 in tumor cells via modulation of a novel CMKLR1-mediated signaling cascade

Purpose: Chemerin (retinoic acid receptor responder 2, RARRES2) is an endogenous leukocyte chemoattractant that recruits innate immune cells through its receptor, ChemR23. RARRES2 is widely expressed in nonhematopoietic tissues and often downregulated across multiple tumor types compared with normal tissue. Recent studies show that augmenting chemerin in the tumor microenvironment significantly suppresses tumor growth, in part, by immune effector cells recruitment. However, as tumor cells express functional chemokine/chemoattractant receptors that impact their phenotype, we hypothesized that chemerin may have additional, tumor-intrinsic effects. Experimental Design: We investigated the effect of exogenous chemerin on human prostate and sarcoma tumor lines. Key signaling pathway components were elucidated using qPCR, Western blotting, siRNA knockdown, and specific inhibitors. Functional consequences of chemerin treatment were evaluated using in vitro and in vivo studies. Results: We show for the first time that human tumors exposed to exogenous chemerin significantly upregulate PTEN expression/activity, and concomitantly suppress programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression. CMKLR1 knockdown abrogated chemerin-induced PTEN and PD-L1 modulation, exposing a novel CMKLR1/PTEN/PD-L1 signaling cascade. Targeted inhibitors suggested signaling was occurring through the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Chemerin treatment significantly reduced tumor migration, while significantly increasing T-cell–mediated cytotoxicity. Chemerin treatment was as effective as both PD-L1 knockdown and the anti–PD-L1 antibody, atezolizumab, in augmenting T-cell–mediated tumor lysis. Forced expression of chemerin in human DU145 tumors significantly suppressed in vivo tumor growth, and significantly increased PTEN and decreased PD-L1 expression. Conclusions: Collectively, our data show a novel link between chemerin, PTEN, and PD-L1 in human tumor lines, which may have a role in improving T-cell–mediated immunotherapies.
Scaffolding Carbon Nanotubes into Single-Molecule Circuitry

Scaffolding Carbon Nanotubes into Single-Molecule Circuitry Brett R. Goldsmith 1 , John G. Coroneus 2 , Gregory A. Weiss 2,3 , and Philip G. Collins 1 Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697 Dept. of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, Dept. of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697 ABSTRACT While nanowires and nanotubes have been shown to be electrically sensitive to various chemicals, not enough is known about the underlying mechanisms to control or tailor this sensitivity. By limiting the chemically sensitive region of a nanostructure to a single binding site, single molecule precision can be obtained in order to study the chemoresistive response. We have developed techniques using single-walled-carbon-nanotube (SWCNT) circuits that enable single-site experimentation and illuminate the dynamics of chemical interactions. Discrete changes in the circuit conductance reveal chemical processes happening in real-time and allow SWCNT sidewalls to be deterministically broken, reformed, and conjugated to target species. INTRODUCTION Chemical, biological, and even mechanical sensor prototypes are all currently explored as possible applications for carbon nanotube (CNT) devices (1). In each case, researchers attempt to exploit the exquisite sensitivity of carbon nanotubes while directing this sensitivity towards a particular target. Because pristine CNTs and as-fabricated devices have cross sensitivities to a wide range of adsorbates including air and water, control over selectivity is a critical research problem. CNT functionalization techniques, in which sensitizing groups are added to a CNT, provide promising solutions to both enhancing sensitivity and directing selectivity. Both noncovalent coatings and covalent sidewall modifications have been used to engineer the electronic properties and environmental sensitivities of CNTs, at least in bulk or on films of networked CNTs (2). While additions of chemical groups along a CNT certainly do lead to sensitivity enhancements, they also result in an ensemble measurement of the environment and do not take advantage of a CNT’s dimensionality. In principle, the response of a 1-D system may be dominated by a single scattering site (3). In this limit, a CNT circuit can be used to directly transduce single-molecule interactions such as recognition and docking with useful dynamic information. Fig. 1 depicts the two architectures and the type of electronic signals which might be obtained from them. The ensemble device (Fig. 1A) may be advantageous as a commercial sensor demanding calibrated concentration dependence. The single-site sensor (Fig. 1B) is a more useful tool for understanding the transduction mechanism and for studying single-molecule chemistry, and it can be further parallelized to provide the same reliability and calibration as the ensemble device. Here we describe the fabrication and testing of the single-site CNT architecture and provide a proof of principle of its transduction capabilities.
Protein and DNA Biosynthesis Demonstrated in Host Cell-Free Phagosomes Containing Anaplasma phagocytophilum or Ehrlichia chaffeensis in Axenic Media

Rickettsials belong to the Anaplasmataceae family include mostly tick-transmitted pathogens causing human, canine, and ruminant diseases. Biochemical characterization of the pathogens remains a major challenge because of their obligate parasitism. We investigated the use of an axenic medium growth of two important pathogens; Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Ehrlichia chaffeensis in host cell-free phagosomes. We recently reported that the axenic media promotes protein and DNA biosynthesis in host cell-free replicating form of E. chaffeensis, although the bacterial replication is limited. We now tested the hypothesis that axenic media growth can be improved if host cell-free rickettsia-containing phagosomes are used. Purification of phagosomes from A. phagocytophilum- and E. chaffeensis-infected host cells was accomplished by density gradient centrifugation combined with magnet assisted cell sorting. Protein and DNA synthesis was observed for both the organisms in cell-free phagosomes with glucose-6-phosphate or/and adenosine triphosphate. The levels of protein and DNA synthesis were the highest for the medium pH 7. The data demonstrate bacterial DNA and protein synthesis for the first time in host cell-free phagosomes for two rickettsial pathogens. The host cell support-free axenic growth of obligate pathogenic rickettsials will be critical in advancing research goals in many important tick-borne diseases impacting human and animal health.
Resilience to acute musculoskeletal pain: resting-state functional connectivity of regions associated with gray matter density differences following induction of low-back pain

Musculoskeletal pain is an aversive experience that exists within a variety of conditions and can result in significant impairment for individuals. Gaining greater understanding of the factors related to pain vulnerability and resilience to musculoskeletal pain may help target at-risk individuals for early intervention. This analysis builds on our previous work identifying regions where lower gray matter density (GMD) was associated with individuals who report pain following standardized, exercise induced musculoskeletal injury. Here we sought to examine the relationship between baseline resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) in a priori regions and networks, and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) pain intensity following a single session of eccentric exercise. The present study is a secondary analysis from a portion of a larger, blinded, randomized experimental trial. All participants were healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 40 years recruited from the university and surrounding community. The primary outcome measure was functional connectivity assessed by using T2 rest image. Participants completed a baseline functional MRI scan and a high intensity trunk exercise protocol to induce DOMS in the erector spinae. Pain intensity ratings were collected 48-hours later. rsFC from four seed regions and three networks were separately regressed on pain intensity scores. Our results revealed that connectivity between left middle frontal gyrus, the left occipital gyrus and cerebellar network seeds and clusters associated with discriminative, emotional, and cognitive aspects of pain were associated with lower post-DOMS pain. Our results provide key support for the role of structural and functional coherence in regional and network connectivity in adaptive pain response and represent an important step in clarifying neural mechanisms of resilience to clinically relevant pain. Resilience to clinically relevant pain is associated with aspects of regional and network neural coherence. Investigations of pain modulatory capacity that integrate multimodal neuroimaging metrics are called for. R01AT006334, PI Dr. Mark Bishop.
The development and implementation of teleneuropsychology in an academic lifespan neuropsychology center: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: Teleneuropsychology (TNP) became a critical means for providing care during the COVID-19 pandemic and may continue as an option for delivery of neuropsychological services. To understand how patient characteristics impact clinician decisions and service models, this study examines practice patterns within a lifespan outpatient neuropsychology center before, during and post-pandemic. METHODS: Patient volume, demographics, and characteristics were compared across four, 3-month time intervals in 2019-2020. Two baseline intervals when the center was physically open (PO) were compared to one interval when the center was physically closed (PC) (all evaluations were conducted via direct-to-home TNP) and a fourth interval when the center was physically reopened (RO) and evaluations were conducted in one of the three modalities: in-person, virtual only or hybrid (both virtual/in-person). RESULTS: A total of 1,459 total neuropsychological evaluations were conducted with a 64.6% reduction during PC. At RO, the number of evaluations returned to pre-COVID baseline during which in-person (72.4%) evaluations were conducted at a higher rate than hybrid (7.1%) or virtual only (20.4%). Across the lifespan, mean number of appointments to complete evaluations was significantly greater during PC (p< .001) than at other time intervals, and during RO, hybrid evaluations required significantly more appointments (p < .001) than in-person and virtual. The majority of evaluations were conducted with adult patients (71.4%). For adult patients, neurodegenerative/memory disorders received TNP evaluations at a higher rate during PC and RO. Pediatric patients were significantly older during PC (p < .001); neurodevelopmental referrals received more hybrid and virtual evaluations. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that patient characteristics, especially age and referral categories, impact the feasibility of TNP. Data from the RO period suggest that in-person evaluations not surprisingly remain the mainstay; however, for adult patients, and especially older adults with neurodegenerative/memory disorders, TNP may provide an important option for delivery of neuropsychological evaluations.
Methods for Minimizing Bleeding in Facelift Surgery: An Evidence-based Review.

Introduction Bleeding and hematoma remain leading causes of postoperative complications and unsatisfactory patient outcomes in facelift surgery. Several methods have been implemented, and continue to be developed, to minimize bleeding in facelift surgery. These methods include perioperative blood pressure management, compression dressings, drains, tissue sealants, wetting solution infiltrate, and tranexamic acid. Methods An evidence-based review of methods used to minimize bleeding in facelift surgery was conducted using the PubMed database according to PRISMA guidelines. Included studies were evaluated for the effects of implemented methods on bleeding outcomes in facelift surgery. Recommendations for each method evaluated were determined based on the amount, level, and heterogeneity of included studies. Results Thirty-six studies were included in the evidence-based review. Effective strategies to reduce the time to hemostasis, postoperative drainage volume, and hematoma rate included perioperative blood pressure management, tissue sealants, and tranexamic acid. While the use of drains or wetting solution infiltrate did not demonstrate to significantly influence bleeding outcome measures, these methods may provide other advantages to facelift surgery. Compression dressings have not demonstrated a significant effect on facelift outcome measures. Conclusions Perioperative medical management of blood pressure, tissue sealants, and tranexamic acid are most effective in facilitating hemostasis and preventing postoperative hematoma in facelift surgery.
Designing Everyday Assessment in the Science Classroom

This book describes how middle school science teachers, in collaboration with a team of researchers, tried to improve their everyday assessment practices to enhance student learning. It describes the challenges they faced, the differences among the teachers, and the personal nature of deep educational change. A product of CAPITAL (Classroom Assessment Project to Improve Teaching and Learning), a research effort supported by the National Science Foundation, this book: uses classroom stories to show how teachers can use a variety of formative assessment techniques to answer questions they have about their teaching; provides real-life examples of teachers grappling with new practices at a personal level, in their own settings and in light of their own values and beliefs; offers suggestions for designing professional development efforts that recognize the significant variation among teachers in how they go about changing their assessment practices; and, outlines principles and practices that must accompany change in the classroom if it is to be more than superficial.
Stratified Default Theories

Default logic is a nonstandard formal system, especially suitable for knowledge representation and commonsense reasoning. In this paper we study a class of propositional default theories for which computation of extensions simplifies. We introduce the notions of stratification and strong stratification. We investigate properties of stratified default theories. We show how to determine whether a given default theory is stratified or strongly stratified and how to find the finest partition into strata. We present algorithms for computing extensions for stratified default theories and analyze their complexity.
Is There Evidence That Providing Home Interventions for Obese Children Ages Seven to Seventeen Is an Effective Method for Creating Lifestyle Changes

Obesity is increasingly becoming an issue for many children with and without disabilities. Occupational therapists treating children who are obese may want to consider potential intervention strategies for a child and family that improve healthy habits and routines within the home. This critical appraisal of the topic explores whether occupational therapy intervention may result in a lifestyle change for children who are obese.
Time Matters: Effectiveness of Steaming Times on Forage for Animal Consumption

The goal of this research is to determine the effectiveness of portable hay steamer equipment for horse owners averaging 1-15 head. Hay is a large portion of horses’ diets, but it has a short shelf life. Dust from hay also becomes a problem due to respiratory diseases. There is a need for a healthier alternative for storing and feeding hay in order to promote optimum animal health. This study tests the effectiveness of four steaming times on the cleanliness of high-quality, Bermuda hay in the portable steamer. Swabs were taken from pre and post steaming hay samples and incubated on nutrient agar plates at 37 degrees Celsius for 24 hours. After incubation, bacterial colonies were counted to compare the change in bacteria present from before and after the steaming process. Using two-sample mean differences tests, we found steaming time had a significant impact on the cleanliness of hay.
Three-dimensional computations of solution hydrodynamics during the growth of potassium dihydrogen phosphate. II. Spin down

Abstract Three-dimensional, time-dependent flows that occur in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory system for rapid growth of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals from solution are studied using massively parallel finite element computations. The simulation reveals that excellent global mixing occurs during the spin-down phase of a time-dependent stirring cycle. The large scale fluid motions in the radial and axial directions that promote mixing are caused primarily by effects of platform geometry, but are augmented to some degree by the intrinsic tendency of a decelerating rotational flow to reverse direction within Ekman layers that form at the boundaries. Along with Part I of this work [Y. Zhou and J.J. Derby, J. Crystal Growth 180 (1997) 497], which emphasized spin up and steady rotation, significant advances have been made in our understanding of hydrodynamic phenomena in this system.
Social Life of PKI: Sociotechnical Development of Korean Public-Key Infrastructure

Until the late 1990s, technology analysts expected public-key infrastructure (PKI) technology to be an essential element of online security systems. Today however, South Korea represents a unique example of widespread PKI use. This article traces the development of the Korean PKI and analyzes the social and cultural factors that contributed to the implementation and social adoption of the technology.
Homoclinic orbits in self-mappings of a space of fuzzy sets

This paper summarizes and gives new examples of the results in Pederson. Fuzzy homoclinic orbits are defined and studied for self-mappings of a particular metric space of fuzzy sets. Sufficient conditions are given, involving commuting fuzzifications, under which a crisp homoclinic orbit is preserved after fuzzification. It is noted that the usual fuzzification is commuting and therefore preserves homoclinic orbits. Several examples are given regarding fuzzy homoclinic orbits and commuting fuzzifications.
How Embedded Knowledge Structures Affect Judicial Decision Making: A Rhetorical Analysis of Metaphor, Narrative, and Imagination in Child Custody Disputes

We live in a time of radically changing conceptions of family and of the relationships possible between children and parents. Though undergoing "a sea-change," family law remains tethered to culturally embedded stories and symbols. While so bound, family law will fail to serve individual families and a society whose family structures diverge sharply by education, race, class, and income. This article advances a critical rhetorical analysis of the interaction of metaphor and narrative within the specific context of child custody disputes. Its goal is to begin to examine how these embedded knowledge structures affect judicial decision making generally; more specifically, the article's aim is to help advocates make room for difference and diversity in the lives of families. The rhetorical analysis indicates that the best interests of the child standard fails to explain child custody outcomes, and it suggests that the cognitive setting for custody disputes - cluttered with outmoded metaphors, simplistic images, and unexamined narratives - interferes with the ability of judges to attend to complex and radical transformations of parent and child relationships. The article proposes that practicing lawyers and scholars use rhetorical analysis first to uncover the symbols and stories that affect judicial decision making and then to construct arguments that may overcome deeply rooted constraints, help individual clients, and persuade policy makers.
Compact design of a 30 kV rapid capacitor charger

This paper describes the downsizing potential of a power supply for charging a 7.2 /spl mu/F capacitor to a voltage of 30 kV, which represents 3.24 kJ of energy, in approximately 40 ms. This process should be repeatable 10-20 times in a short burst mode within a time frame of a few minutes. The primary supply is a DC source with approximately 650 V. A previous design achieved all these goals using 4 Semikron half-bridge IGBTs rated at 1200 V/1200 A each. From the operational experience with the previous charger we concluded, that the weight and volume of the inverter, which is the core of the system, can be reduced to half of the previous size. This can be achieved by using advancements in IGBT modules as well as state of the art capacitors and optimum packaging. Due to the increased capabilities of the new IGBT modules, the number of required modules can be reduced from 4 to 2. In addition, the 15 V/10 A auxiliary power supply, which was previously required, is no longer needed, since the new modules derive their auxiliary power from the main DC bus. The new IGBT modules will be connected to form an H-Bridge. A step-up transformer and a rectifier bank will be connected to the output of the H-Bridge. For compactness, the cooling fins on the old modules have been removed, which was permissible due to the fact that the supply is only operated in short term burst mode. There are no cooling fins to remove on the new module since we are using the water-cooled version. This also gives us the option to water cool if needed. With these modifications, the original charger, which took up a standard 19 inch equipment rack, could be reduced to the size of an oversized suitcase.
Contrast effects in the evaluation of the male sex role

Female subject's personal evaluations of a traditional sex-typed male and a male expressing masculine and feminine interests and activities were influenced by the social context in which information from the two males was received. The subjects listened to the males' prerecorded responses to 10 questions on such topics as car repairs, career opportunities, and romantic interests, and then rated the stimulus persons on several personality dimensions. Subjects listened to the traditional and nontraditional male presented in context, or the traditional male alone or the nontraditional male alone. Consistent with previously reported results, the nontraditional male was frequently rated more favorably than his traditional counterpart. Contrast effects were also observed. That is, the nontraditional male presented in context was frequently rated more favorably than the nontraditional male presented alone. Implications of these findings for research on female therapist-male client relations were discussed.
Patterns of Structural Reorganization of the Corticospinal Tract in Children With Sturge-Weber Syndrome

Abstract Background Reorganization of the corticospinal tract after early damage can limit motor deficit. In this study, we explored patterns of structural corticospinal tract reorganization in children with Sturge-Weber syndrome. Methods Five children (age 1.5-7 years) with motor deficit resulting from unilateral Sturge-Weber syndrome were studied prospectively and longitudinally (1-2 years follow-up). Corticospinal tract segments belonging to hand and leg movements were separated and their volume was measured by diffusion tensor imaging tractography using a recently validated method. Corticospinal tract segmental volumes were normalized and compared between the Sturge-Weber syndrome children and age-matched healthy controls. Volume changes during follow-up were also compared with clinical motor symptoms. Results In the Sturge-Weber syndrome children, hand-related (but not leg-related) corticospinal tract volumes were consistently decreased in the affected cerebral hemisphere at baseline. At follow-up, two distinct patterns of hand corticospinal tract volume changes emerged. (1) Two children with extensive frontal lobe damage showed a corticospinal tract volume decrease in the lesional hemisphere and a concomitant increase in the nonlesional (contralateral) hemisphere. These children developed good hand grasp but no fine motor skills. (2) The three other children, with relative sparing of the frontal lobe, showed an interval increase of the normalized hand corticospinal tract volume in the affected hemisphere; these children showed no gross motor deficit at follow-up. Conclusions Diffusion tensor imaging tractography can detect differential abnormalities in the hand corticospinal tract segment both ipsi- and contralateral to the lesion. Interval increase in the corticospinal tract hand segment suggests structural reorganization, whose pattern may determine clinical motor outcome and could guide strategies for early motor intervention.