cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the timeliness of a system to report infectious diseases in the City of Jining from 2009 to 2011

Objective This study was conducted to analyze and evaluate the timeliness of web-based reporting of infectious diseases in the City of Jining from 2009 to 2011 in order to provide a basis to improve the quality of web-based reports.Methods Reports of notifiable infectious diseases were exported to an Excel database and their timeliness was analyzed using SPSS17 software.Results The median(P50) for the time taken for a web-based report of a notifiable infectious disease was 1.65h.The average timeliness of reports in 24 hours was 99.74% from 2009-2011 in the City of Jining,and this figure steadily increased each year.There were significant differences in report timeliness among different years,different counties,different types of medical and health facilities,and different types of infectious diseases according to a rank test.Conclusion The City of Jining has timely reports of notifiable infectious diseases.In order to improve the timeliness of reporting,the coverage of web-based reports should be expanded,reporting procedures should be regulated,and supervision and technical training should be enhanced.
Compressive light-field microscopy for 3D neural activity recording

Understanding the mechanisms of perception, cognition, and behavior requires instruments that are capable of recording and controlling the electrical activity of many neurons simultaneously and at high speeds. All-optical approaches are particularly promising since they are minimally invasive and potentially scalable to experiments interrogating thousands or millions of neurons. Conventional light-field microscopy provides a single-shot 3D fluorescence capture method with good light efficiency and fast speed, but suffers from low spatial resolution and significant image degradation due to scattering in deep layers of brain tissue. Here, we propose a new compressive light-field microscopy method to address both problems, offering a path toward measurement of individual neuron activity across large volumes of tissue. The technique relies on spatial and temporal sparsity of fluorescence signals, allowing one to identify and localize each neuron in a 3D volume, with scattering and aberration effects naturally included and without ever reconstructing a volume image. Experimental results on live zebrafish track the activity of an estimated 800+ neural structures at 100 Hz sampling rate.
AN INTEGRATION ALGORITHM FOR DRUCKER-PRAGER ELASTIC-PLASTIC MODEL WITH NON-ASSOCIATED FLOW RULE AND ISOTROPIC HARDENING

We present an analytical solution for the integration of Drucker-Prager(DP) elastic-plastic model considering non-associated flow rule and isotropic hardening using the Generalized Midpoint Method(GMM).GMM is an implicit algorithm with good accuracy and stability,of which the Closest Point Project Method(CPPM) is a special case with first-order accuracy and unconditional stability.This GMM solution is an explicit function of the initial stress state and the strain increment due to the special characteristic of DP plastic potential function.Without any iterative process,the computational efficiency is greatly promoted and the convergence problem is naturally avoided.Numerical examples show the advantage in accuracy of GMM(ξ=1/2) against CPPM when the deviation angle between the initial and incremental stress is large,but this advantage vanishes as the loading process approximates proportional.The theoretical solution of thick walled cylinder using DP yield criterion is derived to evaluate the accuracy of numerical solutions.The deformation localization effect of thick walled cylinder is simulated using DP model with non-associated flow rule and isotropic linear hardening.
How to approach the pediatric flatfoot

The most difficult aspect regarding treatment of the pediatric flatfoot is understanding who needs surgery, when it is necessary, and what procedure to be done. A thorough history, clinical examination, and imaging should be performed to guide the surgeon through an often complex treatment path. Surgical technique can be divided in three categories: Soft tissue, bony, and arthroereisis. This paper will describe the joint preserving techniques and their application to treat the pediatric flatfoot deformity.
Investigation on the source of infection regarding an avian influenza (H7N9) in Changxing, Zhejiang province.

2013年4月21日浙江省湖州市中心医院网络直报长兴县1名人感染H7N9禽流感实验室诊断病例,为此开展现场流行病学调查,追溯病例感染来源.1.对象与方法:调查对象包括患者及其发病前1周和病后同居住的家属、患者发病后就诊未采取有效防护的医护人员、同期就诊近距离接触的其他患者、接送患者就诊的出租车司机等;患者居住环境及其所在自然村(乡镇)候鸟栖息地、乡镇农贸市场、鸡贩及其家庭环境、同批次鸡销售的其他村庄、长兴县农贸市场售鸡摊及从业人员、同批次鸡销售的其他农贸市场等. 关键词：禽流感;感染源;流行病学调查
Low Temperature Flux Growth of 2H-SiC and Beta-Gallium Oxide

We present brief overview of our study on the low temperature flux growth of two very important novel wide bandgap materials 2H-SiC and Beta-gallium oxide (Beta-Ga2O3). We have synthesized and grown 5 millimeter to 1 centimeter size single crystals of Beta-gallium oxide (Beta-Ga2O3). We used a flux and semi wet method to grow transparent good quality crystals. In the semi-wet method Ga2O3 was synthesized with starting gallium nitrate solution and urea as a nucleation agent. In the flux method we used tin and other metallic flux. This crystal was placed in an alumina crucible and temperature was raised above 1050 degrees Centigrade. After a time period of thirty hours, we observed prismatic and needle shaped crystals of gallium oxide. Scanning electron microscopic studies showed step growth morphology. Crystal was polished to measure the properties. Bandgap was measured 4.7electronvolts using the optical absorption curve. Another wide bandgap hexagonal 2H-SiC was grown by using Si-Al eutectic flux in the graphite crucible. We used slight AlN also as the impurity in the flux. The temperature was raised up to 1050 degrees Centigrade and slowly cooled to 850 degrees Centigrade. Preliminary characterization results of this material are also reported.
The Journal of Investing, Brian Bruce, and Me—A Random Walk Down Memory Lane

This article offers a few notes on the margins of the 25th Anniversary Issue of The Journal of Investing , pertaining to my experience with the journal and its editor, Brian Bruce. It also includes some ruminations about the publication process and the writing style of papers.
Single currency and fiscal performance: the early Euro Area in perspective

We examine how exchange rate regimes affect fiscal discipline by investigating European countries as they transitioned from flexible to fully fixed exchange rates under the Euro. We apply the synthetic control method to estimate, for each Eurozone country, its counterfactual budget stance under flexible rates. Our evidence strongly suggests that fixing exchange rates negatively impacted negatively fiscal discipline. However, effects were not homogeneous, as they were mediated by political factors. For example, countries where policymakers faced a longer political horizon and operated within a more cohesive political environment, managed to perform better in terms of fiscal discipline.
Abstract 204: Inhibition of Histone Deacetylase Activity Represses Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Induction Through Regulation of Macrophage Polarization

Post myocardial infarction (MI) the extracellular matrix (ECM) undergoes massive remodeling in order to prevent dilation of the infarct area and maintain cardiac output. Integral players in this remodeling are matrix metalloproteinases (MMP). Post-MI macrophages are a significant source of MMP production and have been shown to have temporal expression of the two phenotypes (M1 and M2). Differential expressions of macrophage phenotypes correlate with the different phases of ECM remodeling, ECM composition and MMP expression. Increased expression of MMP-9 is associated with deleterious effects to the ECM and left ventricular (LV) dilation following MI. MMPs major mechanism of expression regulation is transcription. Histone deacetylases (HDAC) are a class of enzymes that can greatly affect transcriptional regulation of genes during pathological conditions. Therefore, we hypothesize that HDAC inhibition controls the post-MI expression of MMP-9 by mediating macrophage polarization to improve LV function. The post-MI change in LV end-diastolic volume is significantly lower with treatment of the class I and IIb HDAC inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) and ejection fraction is improved in mice. Immunohistochemical analysis and zymography revealed that MMP-9 expression at 7 days post-MI is attributable to infiltrating macrophages. Immunoblotting shows that TSA inhibits control levels and lipopolysacharide (LPS) stimulated upregulation of MMP-9 in cultured macrophages, while the class I specific inhibitor, PD106, only inhibits control. The HDAC 6 inhibitor, Tubastatin A (Tub A), partially inhibits LPS stimulated upregulation of MMP-9, but surprisingly appears to potentiate control levels of MMP-9. Immunofluorescence revealed that direct HDAC inhibition with PD106, Tub A, and TSA leads to M1 to M2 macrophage polarization and maintenance of anti-inflammatory, M2, phenotype even with LPS stimulation in culture. From these data we conclude that macrophage secretion of MMPs is an essential component in the promotion of adverse ECM remodeling post-MI. HDAC inhibition can attenuate this remodeling possibly through macrophage polarization, but HDAC inhibition mediated M2 polarization may not be sufficient to suppress MMP-9 expression.
Association of the Priority Review Voucher With Neglected Tropical Disease Drug and Vaccine Development

This study uses commercial pharmaceutical database data to evaluate the number of new drugs and vaccines for neglected tropical diseases entering phase 1 clinical trials before and after introduction in 2007 of a priority review voucher program to incentivize development.
Neural Causal Regularization under the Independence of Mechanisms Assumption

Neural networks provide a powerful framework for learning the association between input and response variables and making accurate predictions. However, in many applications such as healthcare, it is important to identify causal relationships between the inputs and the response variables to be able to change the response variables by intervention on the inputs. In pursuit of models whose predictive power comes maximally from causal variables, we propose a novel causal regularizer based on the independence of mechanisms assumption. We utilize the causal regularizer to steer deep neural network architectures towards causally-interpretable solutions. We perform a large-scale analysis of electronic health records. Employing expert's judgment as the causal ground-truth, we show that our causally-regularized algorithm outperforms its L1-regularized equivalence both in predictive performance as well as causal relevance. Finally, we show that the proposed causal regularizer can be used together with representation learning algorithms to yield up to 20% improvement in the causality score of the generated hypotheses.
Optimizing Cryptography in Energy Harvesting Applications

The Internet of Things will need to support ubiquitous and continuous connectivity to resource constrained and energy constrained devices. To this end, we consider the optimization of cryptographic protocols under energy harvesting conditions. Traditionally, computing using energy harvesting power sources is handled as a case of intermittent-computing: working towards the completion of a goal under uncertain energy supply. In our work we consider the often ignored case when there is harvested energy available but there are no useful operations to complete. In cryptographic protocols, this can occur while the protocol waits for the next message. To avoid waste, we partition cryptographic algorithms into an offline portion and an online portion, where only the online portion has a real-time dependency to the availability of data. The offline portion is precomputed with the result stored as a coupon for the remaining online operation. We show that this structure brings multiple benefits including decreased response latency, a smaller energy store requirement, and reduced energy waste in a harvester supported system. We present a case study of two canonical cryptographic applications: true random number generation and bulk-encryption. We analyze the precomputed implementations on an MSP430 with ferroelectric RAM and an ARM Cortex M4 with nonvolatile flash memory. Our solutions avoid energy waste during the offline phase, and they offer gains in energy efficiency during the online phase of up to 57 times for bulk-encryption and over 100 times for random number generation.
School liaison program supporting children with neurofibromatosis type 1: a model of care for children with chronic disease.

School liaison program supporting children with neurofibromatosis type 1: a model of care for children with chronic disease
Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging Is an Independent Predictor of Salvage Radiotherapy Outcomes After Radical Prostatectomy.

Abstract Background The Stephenson nomogram is widely used to estimate the success of salvage radiotherapy (sXRT) for prostate cancer (PCa) recurrence after radical prostatectomy (RP). Objective To determine whether multiparametric pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) performed for biochemical recurrence after RP improves prognostication of sXRT relative to the Stephenson nomogram. Design, setting, and participants Men undergoing RP at our institution from 2003 to 2012 who had biochemical recurrence evaluated by mpMRI within 12 mo of sXRT were retrospectively reviewed. Exclusion criteria included PCa treatment prior to RP, adjuvant XRT after RP, salvage cryotherapy before sXRT, and hormone refractory disease prior to sXRT. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis Multivariable Cox regression analyses (adjusting for Stephenson nomogram covariates) associated mpMRI findings with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) recurrence and metastasis after sXRT. The mpMR images were compared in a binary fashion: no lesion versus vesicourethral/seminal vesical bed/prostate fossa lesions. Results and limitations Among 473 sXRT patients, 57%(204) had lesions on mpMRI: 26%(124) vesicourethral, 28%(135) seminal vesical bed/prostatic fossa, 7%(34) nodal, and 1%(3) bone. Median PSA at mpMRI with lesions was 0.46 versus 0.40ng/ml without lesions. After excluding nodal/bone lesions, 29% of men developed PSA recurrence and 14% metastasis (median follow-up 45 mo after sXRT). For patients with a pre-sXRT PSA of ≤0.5ng/ml, negative mpMRI was associated with increased PSA recurrence (39% vs 12%, p p p p Conclusions Pre-sXRT mpMRI improves clinicopathologic variables to estimate sXRT success, particularly in the early sXRT setting. Patient summary Men who have biochemically recurrent prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy often receive salvage radiotherapy. In our study, multiparametric pelvic magnetic resonance imaging prior to salvage radiotherapy was a significant predictor of prostate-specific antigen failure and metastasis after radiotherapy.
THE MENTALLY ILL OFFENDER IN FEDERAL CRIMINAL LAW AND ADMINISTRATION

THE care and custody of the mentally ill has customarily been considered a state and local rather than a federal function. Certainly the major burden of performing this task of public assistance and police protection is carried by local government agencies, to the extent that it does not still rest on the shoulders of families and relatives. It is also customarily believed that the mentally ill or defective offender is infrequently encountered in federal law enforcement. For there have been fewer homicide trials in federal courts than in state courts, and it is in such cases that the defense of insanity is most often raised. Homicide apart, a conception of federal crime as typified by larger scale depredations and more complex schemes than the delinquencies popularly associated with mental cases has also been rather widespread and misleading.1 Although these two notions regarding the incidence of mental cases in the federal penal process once had a factual basis, they are increasingly invalid, both because of the progressive expansion of federal criminal legislation and the fact that we have only recently begun to learn to recognize mental illness readily. The purpose of this article is to reappraise the problem of the mentally ill offender against federal law, i.e., to examine the problem of the offender against accepted social interests, whose personality deviates, from a psychiatric viewpoint, from the norm or norms attributed to the group treated as "criminal". It is proposed also to evaluate the existing federal statutory provisions, together with current procedures and administrative arrangements for this class of offenders.2 The term "offender" is used advisedly to denote a larger category than "criminal". For when an offender's personality deviation is recognized as of a certain degree and quality, it is one of the tenets of our law that he may not, consonant with due process, be brought to trial or sentenced; if such was the state of his personality at the time of the offense, it is also
Of pools, oceans, and the Dead Sea

In a comprehensive study in this issue of Blood, Carden and colleagues describe the importance of the tonicity of IV fluids used in the treatment of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) during vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs). Hypertonic fluids decreased sickle red blood cell (sRBC) deformability, increased occlusion, and increased sRBC adhesion in microfluidic human microvasculature models. Hypotonic fluids decreased sRBC adhesion but prolonged sRBC transit time. Fluids with intermediate tonicities resulted in optimal changes that reduced the risk of vaso-occlusion.1
Locus-specific control of the de novo DNA methylation pathway in Arabidopsis by the CLASSY family

DNA methylation is essential for gene regulation, transposon silencing and imprinting. Although the generation of specific DNA methylation patterns is critical for these processes, how methylation is regulated at individual loci remains unclear. Here we show that a family of four putative chromatin remodeling factors, CLASSY (CLSY) 1-4, are required for both locus-specific and global regulation of DNA methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Mechanistically, these factors act in connection with RNA polymerase-IV (Pol-IV) to control the production of 24-nucleotide small interfering RNAs (24nt-siRNAs), which guide DNA methylation. Individually, the CLSYs regulate Pol-IV-chromatin association and 24nt-siRNA production at thousands of distinct loci, and together, they regulate essentially all 24nt-siRNAs. Depending on the CLSYs involved, this regulation relies on different repressive chromatin modifications to facilitate locus-specific control of DNA methylation. Given the conservation between methylation systems in plants and mammals, analogous pathways may operate in a broad range of organisms.
A Quasi-Experimental Design Analysis of the Effects of School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports on Discipline in Florida:

School discipline continues to be a challenge for schools, resulting in loss of instructional time for both teachers and students. With respect to discipline actions, school suspension is one of th...
Of Grammatolatry: Deconstruction as Rigorous Phenomenology?

We are here, according to our program, to discuss phenomenology and deconstruction. Before I do that, I would like to address a preliminary question: why discuss deconstruction at all? Deconstruction is, after all, a part of the “post-modernist contribution” that, according to an article in a recent academic journal, is itself nothing more that “a spectacular PR maneuver” that has “succeeded in repackaging and marketing—especially in English Departments all too well-known for intellectual under¬development—what had been previously bemoaned as ontological Angst into playfulness and joy: transcendental homelessness for the nie-generation”?1 Discussion of such a development might well have a place at meetings of the Modern Language Association, but we gather here under the auspices of the American Philosophical Association, and even if we cannot be certain that the APA contains no pockets of “intellectual underdevelopment,” it remains true that, as John Searle has reported, “deconstruction [has] found little appeal among professional philoso¬phers”—as opposed, of course, to literary critics.2
Cumulative effects assessment for the Northern River Basins Study

The primary objective of the Northern Rivers Basins Study (NRBS)was to advance the understanding of how anthropogenic developments haveimpacted the ecology of the Peace, Athabasca and Slave rivers, Canada.To investigate these multiple stressor impacts, the NRBS used acumulative effects assessment (CEA) based upon a weight of evidenceapproach. This CEA determined the exposure and effects of multiplestressors on these systems and included experimental verification ofcausality and linkage of this understanding to field data. Fish studiesconfirmed that dioxins and furans occur in the food web at low levelsacross the basins; detection frequencies for all2,3,7,8-substituted dioxin/furan congeners (2,3,7,8 TCDD/TCDF)were highest near bleached kraft pulp mills. PCDD/Fs, rather thanPCBs or organochlorine pesticides, were the chemicals of concern forhuman exposure. In addition, the recent decline in concentrations ofdioxins and furans in fish was commensurate with improvements in pulpmill treatment technologies. Throughout the basins, enrichment occurredbelow pulp mill and municipal discharges. Multiple stressor effects ofpulp mill effluent were separated from one another by using experimentsthat demonstrated that the primary impact of the mill effluent wasnutrient enrichment. River state was also greatly influenced byhydrologic impacts. In particularly, the Bennett Dam changed the ecologyof the Peace-Slave river-delta systems more than 1500~km downstream,while climate variability was an important contributing factor for thesedelta impacts. Notable contributions of the NRBS model were thecooperation among governments, aboriginal peoples, non-governmentorganizations, industry and other stakeholders, and the two-waycommunications flow among the scientific community and these groups.NRBS science was also deemed relevant because 16 questions forwarded bystakeholders focused the Study's CEA on specific issues of importancewithin the basin. In summary, the NRBS model of CEA included four keycomponents: (1) communication of stakeholder priorities to producerelevant science questions; (2) pursuit of the best availablescientific understanding of ecosystem impacts by engaginginterdisciplinary science teams; (3) assessment of futureenvironmental condition through monitoring and follow-upinvestigation; and (4) communication of results to managers toproduce appropriate regulatory change. This CEA model combines theseelements with scientific rigor to generate meaningful information tostakeholders while also improving regional assessments of riverbasins.
The effects of air bubbles, colorimeter flow rates, and circuit components on longitudinal mixing during continuous-flow analysis: practical considerations.

Specimen interaction can be predicted in AutoAnalyzer circuits by measuring the related parameter "half-wash time" (W½): interaction is low in circuits with short W½'s. Experimental models showed an air bubble was necessary between sample and wash water, and in long continuous-flow circuits multiple bubbles were required for short W½'s. The dialyzer had a shorter W½ than the other circuit components. When the colorimeter "pullthrough" rate was increased, a shorter W½ resulted; the shortest W½ was obtained when bubbles passed through the colorimeter flow cell. From these data, principles of circuit design which provide short W½'s and minimal interaction were derived.
Vitamin K and human nutrition

Vitamin K is a substrate for a liver microsomal enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of specific glutamyl residues to -γ-carboxyglutamyl residues in a limited number of proteins. These include the vitamin K-dependent clotting factors: prothrombin (factor II), factor VII, factor IX, and factor X. In the absence of vitamin K, nonfunctional clotting factors are synthesized and hemorrhage can result. A Recommended Dietary Allowance of 1 μg/kg body weight has been established for vitamin K. Advances in analytic techniques and more sensitive clotting factor assays will make it possible to define the human requirement for this vitamin more accurately. A limited amount of data on the vitamin K content of foods is now available and reasonable estimates of intake can be calculated. Green leafy vegetables constitute the major source of vitamin K in the diet.
Management of Non-clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Renal cell carcinoma comprises a large, heterogeneous group of tumors. Although clear cell renal cancer is the most common subtype, 20–25 % of renal malignancies are of variant histology. Papillary renal cell carcinoma represents the most common non-clear cell histology, with unclassified, chromophobe, collecting duct, and renal medullary carcinoma making up the majority of the remainder. With the exception of collecting duct and renal medullary carcinoma, non-clear cell renal cancers tend to be resistant to chemotherapy. All non-clear cell subtypes are resistant to immunotherapy. Their limited representation in large phase III randomized trials lends to uncertainty regarding the benefit of targeted therapy in this group.
TEXTURE MEASUREMENTS IN VEGETABLES

Texture is one of the principal quality characteristics for most vegetables. In some vegetables (such as sweet corn and celery) it is the most important quality characteristic while in other vegetables it takes second place behind color, (as in tomatoes and beets) or flavor, but even in these cases it is still a very important quality characteristic. In this chapter the measurement of texture of fresh vegetables will be discussed, but texture measurement of processed vegetable products will not be included. Chapter VI discusses the instrumentation for the determination of mechanical properties of food and complement and supplement this chapter.
Prioritizing morality in the self and consistent moral responses despite encouragement to behave immorally

When morality is important and central to individuals’ identities (moral identity), it may heighten their sense of responsibility to behave in moral ways. Although research has linked moral identit...
The Use of Retinoids as Differentiation Agents Against Medulloblastoma

Medulloblastoma (MB) therapy—resection, chemotherapy, and radiation—results in admirable survival rates (70–85% 5-year survival of medium- to high-risk cases) but unacceptable chronic toxicities, including endocrine dysfunction and cognitive impairment. The limited efficacy of the current therapeutic regimen may be linked to the recently discovered MB cancer stem cells, which may regenerate tumors after bulk mass reduction. Nonetheless, the discovery of tumor stem cells as a new target has suggested a potential new approach for improving upon conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy. Differentiation agents that would specifically target tumor stem cells without being universally cytotoxic to proliferating cells could reduce systemic toxicity as well as deplete cell populations responsible for tumor maintenance. All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is the first and only differentiation agent that has proven effective in the clinical setting, inducing a 90% remission rate of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) when used as adjuvant to chemotherapy. Retinoids have also proven effective against a large fraction of MB cell lines and primary tumors. MB is an embryonal tumor that, like APL, relies upon the circumvention of endogenous differentiation pathways for tumorigenesis. Retinoid resistance in some MB cell lines has hindered its development as a universally applicable therapeutic. It has been shown that retinoid-resistant cell lines can be responsive to downstream targets of retinoid activity, suggesting that retinoid resistance occurs via disruption of upstream components of the pathway. Functional intermediates of retinoid activity have been identified; however, the ultimate targets of such intermediates remain elusive. Some studies have shown that retinoids exert their antitumor effect against MB in part by inducing Bmp2 production and subsequent activation of the TGFβ pathway. Other studies have demonstrated that ATRA silences the OTX2 oncogene, whose expression correlates with ATRA responsiveness of MB cell lines. Alternative pathways accounting for the full effect of retinoids against MB (independent of Bmp2 and OTX2) as well as final targets of known pathways have yet to be identified. Delineation of the pathways through which ATRA exerts its pleiotropic effects could reveal potential therapeutic targets that recapitulate differentiation or apoptosis in both retinoid-sensitive and retinoid-resistant cell lines and thus serve as a more broadly applicable therapy.
Chronic calmodulin-kinase II activation drives disease progression in mutation-specific hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Background: Although the genetic causes of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are widely recognized, considerable lag in the development of targeted therapeutics has limited interventions to symptom...
How to Decide Which DLBCL Patients Should Receive CNS Prophylaxis

Secondary central nervous system (CNS) relapse in aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is a dismal diagnosis with poor outcomes. While prophylaxis against secondary CNS disease is recommended in patients with highly aggressive NHLs, such as Burkitt lymphoma, patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) present a challenging clinical dilemma due to an inherently lower risk of CNS relapse. Current guidelines suggest that prophylaxis may benefit DLBCL patients at high risk for CNS relapse; however, it has been difficult to define which patients are truly at high risk. Many studies have attempted to clarify the issue, with conflicting results. Here we review current prognostic models, risk factors, and prophylaxis methods to provide a practical approach to preventing CNS relapse in patients with DLBCL.
Skyborn: in-flight emergency births on commercial airlines.

Background This study reports the global occurrence of in-flight emergency births on commercial airlines. To date, no existing research investigating in-flight emergency births has been published. Methods A retrospective study was conducted of all known in-flight births on commercial airlines between 1929 and 2018. Results Between 1929 and 2018, there were 74 infants born on 73 commercial flights. Seventy-one of the infants survived delivery, two died shortly after delivery and the status of one is unknown. Seventy-seven percent of the flights were designated international flights, and 26% of all flights were diverted due to the in-flight emergency births. The gestational age at delivery ranged from 25 to 38 weeks with 10% of the infants born at 37-38 weeks, 16% born at 34-36 weeks, 19% born at 31-33 weeks and 12% born prior to 32 weeks. Physicians, nurses, the flight crew and other medical personnel provided medical assistance in 45% of the births. Conclusion In-flight emergency births are infrequent but not trivial. Commercial airlines are dependent on physicians and other medically trained passengers to help with in-flight deliveries.Despite US Federal Aviation Authority and Joint Aviation Authority standards, on-board medical and first aid kits are depleted and inadequate for in-flight deliveries.
Risks of Insertional Mutagenesis by DNA Transposons in Cancer Gene Therapy

Recently the Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon/transposase system has been applied in clinical trials to redirect T-cell specificity through the addition of a transgenic cassette that drives expression of a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). We have focused on issues relating to insertional mutagenesis in the context of the plasticity of human genomes, the unexpected variability in human genomes elucidated by recent high-throughput, wholegenome sequencing projects of hundreds of individuals and cells therein, and the recently discovered high rates of remobilization of endogenous transposable elements. These findings are put into the context of the use of SB transposons in the treatment of human disease and suggest that integration by SB transposons is not likely to induce adverse events in the clinic.
Service manufacturing: Basic concepts and technologies

Abstract Manufacturing is undergoing transformation driven the developments in process technology, information technology, and data science. The incoming changes are disruptive and will likely result in manufacturing solutions unimaginable in the recent past. A future manufacturing corporation will be highly digital, and it will function in new modes discussed in this paper. After decades of integration of engineering design and manufacturing, the design-for-dedicated manufacturing will gradually transform in the design-for-open manufacturing. In many instances, manufacturing processes will become manufacturing-as-service (service manufacturing) systems. An enterprise will be gradually dominated by formation of services in a cloud. The emerging service manufacturing will be open, shared, easy to configurable, efficient, and democratic. Designing a manufacturing system of the past will reduce to formulating and solving an enterprise configuration problem. The presence of services in the cloud will be facilitated by the autonomously generated models. A formal modeling approach to configuration of manufacturing enterprises is discussed. The computational complexity of the configuration problem calls for different modeling and solution approaches ranging from mathematical programming and data science to quantum computing.
Organogold drug Auranofin exhibits anti-melanogenic activity in B16F10 and MNT-1 melanoma cells.

Auranofin (AF) is an organogold FDA-approved drug for treating rheumatism and has been repurposed for several pharmacological applications based on its anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory activities. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no study on effects of AF on melanogenesis yet. Hence, in this work, we studied the effect of AF on melanogenesis using B16F10 mouse melanoma cells and validated results in MNT-1 human melanoma cells. Melanogenesis assay was conducted with concentrations of AF determined to be nontoxic in B16F10 cells as well as HaCaT human epidermal cell line for a duration of 48 h, followed by various assays to delineate mechanisms of melanogenesis inhibition. Ultrastructural analysis was conducted to study further if AF affected melanosome maturation and protein levels of a key melanogenic protein, tyrosinase, and the maturation signaling molecule, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), was estimated. Our results demonstrate that AF at nontoxic concentrations of 0.25–1 µM significantly inhibited melanin synthesis in a dose-dependent manner with significant inhibition of 32.85% at 1 µM. The study of mechanisms of melanogenesis inhibition revealed that AF inhibited tyrosinase activity in lysates of B16F10 cells but did not show a direct effect on purified mushroom tyrosinase activity or on copper chelation in a cell-free system, nor did it affect levels of B16F10 tyrosinase protein levels. However, AF significantly down-regulated cAMP levels, inhibited cellular ROS and increased number of melanosomes in immature stages, and also exhibited anti-melanogenic activity in B16F10–HaCaT cocultures. Furthermore, AF showed anti-melanogenic efficacy in MNT-1 cell monocultures and cocultures with an inhibition of intracellular tyrosinase activity. In summary, our results demonstrate a proof-of-principle for AF as a depigmenting agent for hyperpigmentation disorders and adjuvant for melanoma therapeutics.
Forecasting bus ridership using a “Blended Approach”

As sources of “Big Data” continue to grow, transportation planners and researchers seek to utilize these new resources. Given the current dependency on traditional transportation data sources and conventional tools (e.g., spreadsheets and propriety models), how can these new resources be used? This research examines a “blended data” approach, using a web-based, open source platform to assist transit agencies to forecast bus ridership. The platform is capable of incorporating new Big Data sources and traditional data sources, using modern processing techniques and tools, particularly Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This research demonstrates the use of APIs in a transit demand methodology that yields a robust model for bus ridership. The approach uses the Census Transportation Planning Products data, modified with American Community Survey data, to generate origin–destination tables for bus trips in a designated market area. Microsimulation models us a transit scheduling specification (General Transit Feed Specification) and an open source routing engine (OpenTripPlanner). Local farebox data validates the microsimulation models. Analyses of model output and farebox data for the Atlantic City transit market area, and a scenario analysis of service reduction in the Princeton/Trenton transit market area, illustrate the use a “blended approach” for bus ridership forecasting.
Analysis and forecasting of infant mortality rate in Guangzhou, 2001-2010

婴儿死亡率(IMR)是衡量一个国家或地区国民健康和经济发展水平的重要指标.本文通过趋势分析探讨广州市2001 -2010年IMR的变化趋势并预测未来10年的水平,旨在为制定进一步降低IMR的政策措施提供依据. 关键词：婴儿死亡率;曲线拟合;预测
Hormones in the Pineal Other Than Melatonin

Personal notes and views on the isolation of biologically active agents from endocrine organs are given.
Patient-Tailored Mouse Genome Editing Recapitulates Hematopoietic and Systemic Manifestations of Barth Syndrome

Abstract Barth syndrome (BTHS; OMIM# 302060) is an X-linked disorder of neutropenia, cardiomyopathy and muscular weakness due to mitochondrial dysfunction secondary to inherited tafazzin (TAZ) mutations. Neutropenia occurs in the majority of BTHS patients, leading to high risk of recurrent life-threatening bacterial infections. The etiology of the G-CSF-responsive neutropenia in BTHS is incompletely understood and appears to reflect impaired granulopoiesis. Long-term risk of myelodysplasia (MDS) in BTHS individuals requiring chronic G-CSF therapy is unknown due to the rarity of the disorder; further, genotype-phenotype correlations between the severity of neutropenia and TAZ mutations remain to be elucidated. Genetic Taz knockout is embryonic lethal in the mouse. Therefore, a genetic BTHS mouse model is urgently needed to improve our mechanistic understanding of this disease and develop clinical studies based on preclinical evidence. We employed CRISPR/Cas system to edit our BTHS patient's tafazzin point mutation (D75H) into the endogenous murine Taz gene. The resulting mice recapitulated hematopoietic and systemic manifestations of Barth syndrome. TazD75H males are born at less than expected Mendelian frequencies (p Given the role of tafazzin in mitochondrial cardiolipin metabolism, we examined the structure and function of mitochondria in TazD75H mice. Strikingly, transmission electron microscopy revealed accumulation of swollen mitochondria with fractured cristae in TazD75H hematopoietic cells, cardiomyocytes and skeletal muscle, reflecting the mitochondrial phenotype of BTHS patients. Total mitochondrial mass quantified by MitoTracker flow was unchanged in TazD75H hematopoietic cells, but flow cytometry using the JC-1 mitochondrial membrane potential probe revealed disrupted mitochondrial potential during live TazD75H hematopoiesis in multi-potential progenitors (MPPs, p=0.0025), Lin- Sca-1+ c-kit+ cells (p In summary, our work demonstrates that impaired hematopoiesis in Barth syndrome, which is embryonic lethal in the mouse, can be recapitulated in vivo through editing a patient-specific hypomorphic tafazzin mutation into the murine genome. The precision-medicine TazD75H mouse model recapitulates clinical hallmarks of BTHS in hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic tissues, accompanied by structural and functional mitochondrial defects. This work enables in vivo studies to enhance our mechanistic understanding and treatment of hematopoetic and other defects in Barth syndrome. Download : Download high-res image (239KB) Download : Download full-size image Figure . Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Warmer Weather and the Risk of Urinary Tract Infections in Women.

Purpose:The incidence of urinary tract infections is seasonal, peaking in summer months. One possible mechanism for the observed seasonality of urinary tract infections is warmer weather.Materials ...
Ensemble size judgments account for size constancy

The natural environment is full of redundant information that the visual system compresses into an ensemble representation by averaging features of groups of items. Ensemble perception has been shown to operate with remarkable flexibility, efficiently integrating information across a variety of visual domains. In the current set of experiments, we tested whether average size representations reflect the physical size of objects displayed on a screen or perceptual transformations due to size constancy. We induced a perceptual change by presenting sets of triangles with linear perspective cues – lines converging at the horizon. Assuming a constant size, these cues cause individual objects “in the distance” to appear larger than objects without distance cues, due to size constancy heuristics. Observers viewed sets of triangles with and without linear perspective cues and judged whether a subsequently presented test triangle was larger or smaller than the average size of the preceding set. Results revealed ensemble size representations took size constancy into account, reflecting the perceived size of the triangles rather than their absolute size. Interestingly, the amount of bias exhibited was well characterized by the summed bias associated with each of the three triangles presented individually. Other pictorial cues to depth, such as occlusion and height-in-field, did not elicit the same bias when those were the only depth cues available. Overall, our results complement and extend other work showing that average size reflects the perceptual size of individual items in a set.
The organization of production for Inka Polychrome pottery from Pachacamac, Peru

Abstract This study investigates the organization of production for Inka Polychrome pottery used at the Temple of the Sun, Pachacamac. Inka Polychrome pottery was critical to imperial strategies for managing state power in the provinces. It was highly standardized in appearance yet is known to have been produced at many locations throughout the empire by Inka and subject potters. Pachacamac was an important political and ideological location on the central coast that was transformed by the Inka after C.E. 1470 into a major imperial center. To evaluate the production and source of pottery at Pachacamac, a sample of 149 ceramics in local, Inka Polychrome, and Regional Inka styles were evaluated using neutron activation analysis to identify compositional groups. Attributes related to the production and decoration of these ceramic artifacts were recorded and statistically compared between groups. Compositional data from this analysis was also compared to compositional data from ceramics excavated from other South American sites and analyzed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Results found that multiple groups of potters at multiple places (some of which are local) produced this pottery, and small amounts of pottery are being imported.
Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 moderates the relationship between c-reactive protein, cognitive functioning, and white matter integrity.

Abstract Elevated serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and possessing an APOE e4 allele are two of the most prominent risk factors for cognitive and neurological dysfunction in older adults, but little is known about the unique or cumulative effects of these risk factors in young-to-middle-aged adults. To further characterize these potential relationships, measures of cognition and microstructural white matter integrity were examined using data from a sample of 329 post-9/11 war veterans that was collected as part of a comprehensive evaluation that included assessment of neuropsychological functioning, MRI scanning, psychiatric diagnoses, health screening, markers of inflammation, and APOE genotypes. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed the CRP and APOE e4 interaction was associated with global cognition (β = -0.633), executive functioning (β = -0.566), and global fractional anisotropy (β = -0.470), such that elevated CRP was associated with worse cognition and white matter integrity in APOE e4 carriers. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to determine if CRP × APOE e4 presence was associated with regionally specific fractional anisotropy in white matter tracts. Tract-based spatial statistics revealed CRP × APOE e4 presence was associated with fractional anisotropy in the corpus callosum, right superior longitudinal fasciculus, right posterior corona radiata, as well as the bilateral anterior and superior corona radiatas. This suggests that APOE e4 carriers may be uniquely vulnerable to the potentially negative impact of elevated systematic inflammation to cognition and microstructural white matter integrity.
Experimental Evidence Pointing to Rain as a Reservoir of Tomato Phyllosphere Microbiota

Plant microbiota play essential roles in plant health and crop productivity. Comparisons of community composition have suggested seed, soil, and the atmosphere as reservoirs of phyllosphere microbi...
Improving Broadband Emission-Based Soot Pyrometry Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Broadband Emission (BEMI) pyrometry is a low-cost technique for indirect characterization of soot temperature fields in laboratory flames using images captured with an RGB camera. However, retrieving temperature from color images through classical deconvolution techniques requires solving ill-posed inverse problems, producing results that are highly sensitive to signal noise and the choice of regularization parameters. This paper proposes using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to improve the accuracy of estimated 2D soot temperature fields from images of canonical axisymmetric laminar flames. Using a dataset of physically-grounded simulated images of temperature fields in the flame and their corresponding convoluted projections in the camera plane, we trained a CNN to learn the relationship between the reference temperature and the measured signals. Experiments over simulated and experimental images show that the trained CNN outperforms classical inversion methods when retrieving temperature from noisy images, especially in areas of interest such as the center of the flame. Resilience to noise makes CNNs attractive for implementing low-cost techniques for soot pyrometry using equipment of different quality.
Restitution or Retribution? Detainee Payments and Insurgent Violence

Counterinsurgents frequently rely on mass arrests to impede rebel operations, but in so doing, risk detaining innocent civilians. Wrongful detention can backfire, fueling insurgent violence by alienating detainees and their kin. Can counterinsurgents mitigate wrongful detention through targeted compensation? I study this question using declassified micro-data on U.S. payments to individuals deemed innocent and released from Coalition custody in Iraq between 2004 and 2008. Leveraging plausibly exogenous sources of variation in the allocation of detainee release payments, I document a robust, negative association between counterinsurgent compensation for wrongful detention and insurgent violence. The violence-reducing effects of detainee release payments were greatest in mixed and Sunni areas; for the types of insurgent attacks most prone to civilian informing; and when detainee release was complemented by other population-centric reforms to detention. These results suggest that post-harm mitigation helps shift civilian perceptions, inducing civilians to share more information with counterinsurgent forces.