cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of herbaceous plant vegetation recovery of typical vegetation at its early recovery stage in moderate burned areas in Juci Mountain National Forest Park

In order to find the changing rules of vegetation restoration after fire disturbance,the effects of early herbal recovery characteristics of different vegetation types in Juci Mountain National Forest Park after moderate fire disturbance were studied through community surveying the burned area and unburned area of Platycladus orientalis forest and herbage.Results showed that the important values and species diversity indexes of the two types of burned area studied had the same changing trends.Species importance values of the two burned types declined significantly comparing with that of unburned area(P0.05).The number of herbaceous plant species of two burned types increased significantly comparing with that of unburned area(P0.05).The values of species diversity Simpson index(D),Shannon index(H)of the two burned types were significantly higher than that of unburned area(P0.05).Studying the niche of the two vegetation types before and after fire disturbance showed that the majority of Platycladus orientalis forest and herbage were the wide niche populations,and the narrow niche-type species was relatively smaller than that of wide niche-type species.The numbers of species-pairs with lower values of niche overlap increased.
Macrocyclic Envelope Glycoprotein Antagonists that Irreversibly Inactivate HIV-1 before Host Cell Encounter

We derived macrocyclic HIV-1 antagonists as a new class of peptidomimetic drug leads. Cyclic peptide triazoles (cPTs) retained the gp120 inhibitory and virus-inactivating signature of parent PTs, arguing that cyclization locked an active conformation. The six-residue cPT 9 (AAR029b) exhibited submicromolar antiviral potencies in inhibiting cell infection and triggering gp120 shedding that causes irreversible virion inactivation. Importantly, cPTs were stable to trypsin and chymotrypsin compared to substantial susceptibility of corresponding linear PTs.
Systematic Procedure of Analysis

It is understood that the technique of working must be adjusted to the amount of material available for investigation. It should be kept in mind that also the general approach is determined by the size of sample.
Development of Biomimetic Scaffolds with Both Intrafibrillar and Extrafibrillar Mineralization

Bone is an organic-inorganic hierarchical biocomposite. Its basic building block is mineralized collagen fibers with both intrafibrillar and extrafibrillar mineralization, which is believed to be regulated by noncollagenous proteins (NCPs) with polyanionic domains. In this study, collagen fibrils with both intrafibrillar and extrafibrillar mineralization were successfully prepared and the mechanism of biomineralization was proposed. Building on this success, a unique biomimetic lamellar scaffold composed of collagen fibrils with both intrafibrillar and extrafibrillar mineralization was fabricated using a combination of self-compression and unidirectional freeze-drying approach. To achieve intrafibrillar mineralization, we used poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) to sequester calcium and phosphate ions to form fluidic PAA-amorphous calcium phosphate (PAA-ACP) nanoprecursors. At the presence of sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP), PAA-ACP nanoprecursors were modulated to orderly deposit within the gap zone of collagen fibrils. The effect of PAA concentration on the intrafibrillar and extrafibrillar mineralization of reconstituted collagen fibrils was investigated. It was found that with the decrease in PAA concentration, the inhibitory effect of PAA on mineralization and the stability of ACP nanoprecursors decreased. As a result, more minerals were deposited both within and on the surface of the collagen fibrils. Moreover, with the ability to reproduce biomineralization of collagen fibrils, it allowed us to fabricate biomimetic hierarchical collagen/hydroxyapatite scaffolds composed of both intrafibrillar and extrafibrillar minerals using a bottom-up approach. This technique renders a promising biomimetic scaffold, which will be suitable for bone repair and regeneration.
Investigation into the Oxidation of CuATSM as a Mechanism for Copper Release

Copper delivery to superoxide dismutase (SOD) by copper transport agent CuATSM (diacetyl-bis(N4-methylthiosemi-carbazone) copper(II)) is protective in mouse models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). CuATSM is a neutral, hydrophobic compound, able to cross into the CNS without facilitated transport. Reduction of CuII has frequently been proposed as the mechanism of copper release from the ATSM ligand. However, with a reduction potential of -0.46V, CuII reduction will be difficult to accomplish in a cellular environment. In contrast to reduction, oxidation of the ATSM ligand could serve as a mechanism of copper release in a biological system. We investigated the oxidation of CuATSM ligand in an assay utilizing 10-9M horseradish peroxidase (HRP), 2-10 µM hydrogen peroxide, and 10 to 100 µM 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) as a competitive substrate to test for inhibition by CuATSM. Surprisingly, low micromolar concentrations of CuATSM accelerated the oxidation of ABTS by HRP. Our kinetic results suggest that CuATSM was efficiently oxidized by HRP and the CuATSM radical cation in turn oxidized ABTS, We conclude that oxidative reactions involving CuATSM are likely to occur in vivo and need to be further investigated as clinical trials are now underway in treating human ALS patients. This work is supported by funding from the DoD Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (AL140108) and by Ice Bucket donations made to the ALSA (Research Award ALSA 320).
“I Have a Hippopotamus!”: Preparing Effective Early Childhood Environmental Educators

ABSTRACTThis article describes an early childhood teacher-preparation program that infuses environmental education and nature experiences into courses, practicum, and student-teaching experiences. Program philosophy, pedagogy, materials, and methods are described and linked to the Early Childhood Environmental Education Programs: Guidelines for Excellence, the Guidelines for the Preparation and Professional Development of Environmental Educators, and state-level early learning guidelines that focus on connecting young children with nature. Preservice teachers build knowledge, skills, and dispositions for effective environmental education beginning from an awareness level and progressing to application and refinement. The value of nature is communicated explicitly and implicitly throughout the program. Preliminary analysis of student outcomes indicated that, over the course of the program, students’ ratings of the importance of nature and science experiences and outcomes increased, along with their confide...
Stakeholder Views on Children’s Mental Health Services

STAKEHOLDER VIEWS ON CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES By Adriana Rodriguez, B.A. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012 Major Director: Michael A. Southam-Gerow, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology Department of Psychology Identification of evidence-based treatments (EBTs) has been an important development; however recently, some shortcomings of the approach have been highlighted. These complexities have led to a surge in transportability research in mental health services science with goals of identifying needed strategies to encourage the adoption of innovations. The mental health system ecological (MHSE) model is an approach necessary to assist with closing this gap effectively as it integrates mental health contexts: client-level, provider-level, interventionspecific, service delivery, organizational, and service system characteristics. The aim of this study is to use the MHSE model to examine perspectives of mental health stakeholders on their needs. Data consists of qualitative transcripts from parent, therapist, and administrator interviews/focus groups. Mixed methods were used to develop and analyze codes according to the MHSE model. Results suggested that stakeholder groups mentioned needs relevant to the group of interest and thus have implications for future dissemination efforts.
Fetal baseline heart rate variability estimation

Baseline fetal heart rate variability is an important parameter in the evaluation of fetal status during the intrapartum period. Prior descriptions of variability have largely been either visual-subjective or stochastic in nature. Unfortunately, correlation between the two has not been substantiated. Sample heart rate tracings were evaluated for variability by a panel of nine experts. Interobserver agreement in the evaluation of variability was high; correlation between visual subjective and stochastic methods was low. The implications are discussed.
Working towards recalcitrance mechanisms: increased xylan and homogalacturonan production by overexpression of GAlactUronosylTransferase12 (GAUT12) causes increased recalcitrance and decreased growth in Populus.

The development of fast-growing hardwood trees as a source of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuel and biomaterial production requires a thorough understanding of the plant cell wall structure and function that underlie the inherent recalcitrance properties of woody biomass. Downregulation of GAUT12.1 in Populus deltoides was recently reported to result in improved biomass saccharification, plant growth, and biomass yield. To further understand GAUT12.1 function in biomass recalcitrance and plant growth, here we report the effects of P. trichocarpa GAUT12.1 overexpression in P. deltoides. Increasing GAUT12.1 transcript expression by 7–49% in P. deltoides PtGAUT12.1-overexpression (OE) lines resulted in a nearly complete opposite biomass saccharification and plant growth phenotype to that observed previously in PdGAUT12.1-knockdown (KD) lines. This included significantly reduced glucose, xylose, and total sugar release (12–13%), plant height (6–54%), stem diameter (8–40%), and overall total aerial biomass yield (48–61%) in 3-month-old, greenhouse-grown PtGAUT12.1-OE lines compared to controls. Total lignin content was unaffected by the gene overexpression. Importantly, selected PtGAUT12.1-OE lines retained the recalcitrance and growth phenotypes upon growth for 9 months in the greenhouse and 2.8 years in the field. PtGAUT12.1-OE plants had significantly smaller leaves with lower relative water content, and significantly reduced stem wood xylem cell numbers and size. At the cell wall level, xylose and galacturonic acid contents increased markedly in total cell walls as well as in soluble and insoluble cell wall extracts, consistent with increased amounts of xylan and homogalacturonan in the PtGAUT12.1-OE lines. This led to increased cell wall recalcitrance, as manifested by the 9–15% reduced amounts of recovered extractable wall materials and 8–15% greater amounts of final insoluble pellet in the PtGAUT12.1-OE lines compared to controls. The combined phenotype and chemotype data from P. deltoides PtGAUT12.1-OE and PdGAUT12.1-KD transgenics clearly establish GAUT12.1 as a recalcitrance- and growth-associated gene in poplar. Overall, the data support the hypothesis that GAUT12.1 synthesizes either an HG-containing primer for xylan synthesis or an HG glycan required for proper xylan deposition, anchoring, and/or architecture in the wall, and the possibility of HG and xylan glycans being connected to each other by a base-sensitive covalent linkage.
Bayesian Models for Product Size Recommendations

Lack of calibrated product sizing in popular categories such as apparel and shoes leads to customers purchasing incorrect sizes, which in turn results in high return rates due to fit issues. We address the problem of product size recommendations based on customer purchase and return data. We propose a novel approach based on Bayesian logit and probit regression models with ordinal categories Small, Fit, Largeto model size fits as a function of the difference between latent sizes of customers and products. We propose posterior computation based on mean-field variational inference, leveraging the Polya-Gamma augmentation for the logit prior, that results in simple updates, enabling our technique to efficiently handle large datasets. Our Bayesian approach effectively deals with issues arising from noise and sparsity in the data providing robust recommendations. Offline experiments with real-life shoe datasets show that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art in 5 of 6 datasets. and leads to an improvement of 17-26% in AUC over baselines when predicting size fit outcomes.
Retrieval of a permanent VenaTech LGM filter 18 years after implantation using a novel removal method.

The VenaTech LGM (B. Braun, Melsungen, Germany) inferior vena cava (IVC) filter was designed as a permanent IVC filter to prevent clot migration and pulmonary embolism. This filter has been discontinued, but thousands remain implanted within patients who incur the added long-term risks of an indwelling IVC filter. We present a case of successful removal of a permanent VenaTech LGM IVC filter using a novel technique in a patient in whom filter placement was no longer indicated. The conical portion of the filter was removed intact, and the vertical struts were intentionally left embedded extravascularly within the caval wall.
The Structure of Clathrin-Coated Membranes: Assembly and Disassembly

The clathrin-coated pit is the unique plasma membrane site at which ligand—receptor complexes, destined for endocytosis into the cell, are accumulated and concentrated. This morphologically unique structure, first recognized in the early 1960s, has been associated since then with macromolecule internalization. In a notable paper, Roth and Porter (1964) described the cytoplasmic surface of the mosquito oocyte plasma membrane as being almost entirely covered with a striking bristle coating. They suggested that this coated membrane was a specialized adaptation to accomplish large-scale internalization of yolk protein. Similar bristle-coated structures have been found in essentially all eukaryotic cells examined. When present on the cytoplasmic side of indentations in the plasma membrane, they have been termed coated pits. The hypothesis of the involvement of the coated pit in specific and concentrative uptake of extracellular molecules has been substantiated and extended by the many studies described in Chapter 1.
Neuroplasticity: evidence from aphasia.

Grafman, in this issue, discusses four forms of neuroplasticity that may account for development and recovery of functional neural networks in the human brain. These include homologous area adaptation, cross-modal reassignment, map extension, and compensatory masquerade. The following discussion focuses on these forms of neuroplasticity as they pertain to recovery of language function in aphasia. The first part of the paper presents data showing that two of the four forms, homologous area adaptation and map extension, are relevant to recovery from aphasia. The second part of the paper discusses factors related to neuroplastic activity during language recovery, including neurophysiological, subject, and environmental, that is, treatment variables. Data from animal studies as well as recent data from aphasia treatment studies will provide a basis for this discussion.
Access to mental health care: a civil rights issue.

Due to insurance company regulations, current restrictions on access to mental health care prevent many from obtaining needed care. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
Theological Education by Extension and the Significance of the Armenia, Columbia Meeting

This chapter examines the development and growth of Theological Education by Extension (TEE), as it was laid out in Columbia. The authors note that Columbia became a major pillar for the development of TEE. This chapter explains the nature and salience of a 1967 breakthrough in Columbia. This chapter explains the significance of TEE and why the meeting in Columbia to prepare, nurture, and develop TEE was so important.
Artibeus jamaicensis (Jamaican fruit-eating bat)

This is one of the several species in Phyllostomidae which possess XY1Y2 sex-determination system. Satellites are seen on short arms of some large subtelocentrics.
Response of low and high protein select lines of pigs to the feeding of the beta-adrenergic agonist ractopamine (phenethanolamine).

The effect of ractopamine, a phenethanolamine beta-adrenergic agonist, on growth, nutrient utilization and carcass composition was studied in two lines of pigs that were fed high (24%) or low (12%) protein diets. Of the two lines of pigs that had been selected for seven generations for rapid lean growth when fed either the higher (HS line) or low (LS line) protein diet, the HS line tended to exhibit a leaner carcass when fed either diet. Ractopamine, at 20 ppm in the diet, was fed from 60 kg live body weight until slaughter at 90 kg. When compared with their respective line-diet control group, the greatest response to ractopamine treatment was observed in the LS-12 group; at 90 kg, that group had 31% less carcass lipid (P less than .05) and 17% more carcass protein (P less than .05). Considering the change that took place only between 60 and 90 kg live body weight, this translated into 57% less lipid and 59% more protein deposited in the carcasses with ractopamine treatment. This group also was 73% more efficient (P less than .05) in converting dietary protein to carcass protein but 39% less efficient (P less than .05) in energy utilization. Response to ractopamine treatment was least by the LS-24 group, followed by the HS-12 and HS-24 groups. A line x diet x treatment interaction (P less than .05) was noted for whole-carcass lipid, backfat, longissimus muscle area and efficiency of protein utilization.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Lysostaphin lysibody leads to effective opsonization and killing of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a murine model.

The cell wall of Gram-positive bacteria contains abundant surface-exposed carbohydrate structures that are highly conserved. While these properties make surface carbohydrates ideal targets for immunotherapy, carbohydrates elicit a poor immune response that results primarily in low-affinity IgM antibodies. In a previous publication, we introduced the lysibody approach to address this shortcoming. Lysibodies are engineered molecules that combine a high-affinity carbohydrate-binding domain of bacterial or bacteriophage origin and an Fc effector portion of a human IgG antibody, thus directing effective immunity to conserved bacterial surface carbohydrates. Here, we describe the first example of a lysibody containing the binding domain from a bacteriocin, lysostaphin. We also describe the creation of five lysibodies with binding domains derived from phage lysins, directed against Staphylococcus aureus The lysostaphin and LysK lysibodies showed the most promise and were further characterized. Both lysibodies bound a range of clinically important staphylococcal strains, fixed complement on the staphylococcal surface, and induced phagocytosis of S. aureus by macrophages and human neutrophils. The lysostaphin lysibody had superior in vitro activity compared to that of the LysK lysibody, as well as that of the previously characterized ClyS lysibody, and it effectively protected mice in a kidney abscess/bacteremia model. These results further demonstrate that the lysibody approach is a reproducible means of creating antibacterial antibodies that cannot be produced by conventional means. Lysibodies therefore are a promising solution for opsonic antibodies that may be used passively to both treat and prevent infection by drug-resistant pathogens.
Application Example 2: Cockpit Voice Recorders

Commercial passenger airline accidents may involve total destruction of the aircraft, damage to structures on the ground, and terrible loss of life. Air safety experts need to determine the cause of the accident in order to reduce the likelihood of similar accidents in the future, but when the aircraft is broken apart and burned, the cause of the accident may be a mystery. Fortunately, aviation regulatory agencies can afford to spend substantial resources to investigate the cause of accidents when they do occur, because commercial aircraft accidents are so remarkably infrequent.
An approach for demand side management of non-flexible load in academic buildings

We propose an optimization mechanism for non-flexible load demand management in smart grid for academic buildings using a fuzzy controller and integer linear programming (ILP) technique. The proposed mechanism is able to make decisions on human like thinking to control the operation of non-flexible appliances on the basis of convenience level affected by individual appliances. Simulation results based on academic area scenarios have been presented to validate effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.
A Survey on Switching Oscillations in Power Converters

High-frequency power converters enabled by wide bandgap (WBG) and silicon semiconductor devices offer distinct advantages in power density and dynamic performance. However, switching oscillations are commonly observed in these circuits with undesirable consequences. This paper reviews the impacts, root causes, and mitigation techniques of switching oscillations through literature survey, modeling analysis, and experimental investigation. We categorize the following root causes for oscillations during switching transients: 1) damped oscillation triggered by high di/dt and/or dv/dt coupled with parasitic elements; 2) undamped oscillation of WBG devices as part of a negative resistance oscillator; and 3) semiconductor device physical mechanisms such as the negative capacitance phenomenon due to conductivity modulation in insulated gate bipolar transistors or impact ionization in MOSFETs, the plasma extraction transit-time effect in bipolar power devices, and the reverse conduction property of GaN HEMTs. Furthermore, this paper discusses various circuit techniques to suppress switching oscillations, and techniques of extracting parasitic inductances of power devices.
Phototoxicity of fluoranthene to two freshwater crustaceans, Hyalella azteca and Daphnia magna: measures of feeding inhibition as a toxicological endpoint

We investigated the effects of fluoranthene, a phototoxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), on the feeding inhibition of two aquatic crustaceans, the cladoceran Daphnia magna and the amphipod Hyalella azteca. We used two measures of feeding inhibition: beta-galactosidase enzyme activity levels in D. magna and H. azteca, and leaf disc processing in H. azteca. We also investigated the survival of D. magna in a 48 h toxicity assay, and the survival and growth of H. azteca over the 10 d leaf disc processing experiment. In UV-fluoranthene treatments, survival of H. azteca was greater than expected based on the results of previous experiments. Leaf disc processing of H. azteca was significantly reduced at 25 μg fluoranthene/L under UV light. Growth of H. azteca was not significantly affected in any treatments. In UV-fluoranthene treatments, beta-galactosidase activity levels of both D. magna and H. azteca were reduced. However, the response of H. azteca to the UV-fluoranthene treatments in the enzyme assay was more similar to the results of a standard toxicity test, than was the response of D. magna in the enzyme assay.
Healthy Planet, Healthy Youth: A Food Systems Education and Promotion Intervention to Improve Adolescent Diet Quality and Reduce Food Waste.

Emerging evidence suggests a link between young people’s interest in alternative food production practices and dietary quality. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a student-driven sustainable food systems education and promotion intervention on adolescent school lunch selection, consumption, and waste behaviors. Sixth grade science teachers at two middle schools (n = 268 students) implemented a standards-based curriculum on sustainable food systems, addressing the environmental impacts of food choices and food waste. The cumulating curriculum activity required the 6th grade students to share their food systems knowledge with their 7th and 8th grade counterparts (n = 426) through a cafeteria promotional campaign to discourage food waste. School-wide monthly plate waste assessments were used to evaluate changes in vegetable consumption and overall plate waste using a previously validated digital photography method. At baseline, the intervention students consumed significantly less vegetables relative to the control group (47.1% and 71.8% of vegetables selected, respectively (p = 0.006). This disparity was eliminated after the intervention with the intervention group consuming 69.4% and the control consuming 68.1% of selected vegetables (p = 0.848). At five months follow up, the intervention group wasted significantly less salad bar vegetables compared to the control group (24.2 g and 50.1 g respectively (p = 0.029). These findings suggest that food systems education can be used to promote improved dietary behaviors among adolescent youth.
Climate Change Health Impacts: A Role for the Family Physician.

Why is climate change a matter of such importance to us as health care professionals, and why must we act?
Dynamics of colloidal particles in microchannels under combined pressure and electric potential gradients

Dynamics of charged sub-micron or colloidal particles in a microfluidic device through cross-stream migration under combined pressure gradients and electric potential gradients was demonstrated using confocal microscopy. The microfluidic device was a rectangular cross-section poly(dimethylsiloxane) or PDMS microchannel sealed with a borosilicate glass lid to form a hybrid PDMS-glass device. We postulate that the reported particle migration may arise in response to electrophoretic particle slip, i.e., the difference between the particle and fluid velocities, due to the applied electric potential gradient across the microchannel. Colloidal particle migration was observed either towards or away from the microchannel walls depending on the relative directions for the applied potential and pressure gradients. When pressure gradient driving the fluid flow and potential gradient were applied in the same direction, colloidal particles migrate away from the microchannel walls. In the case of opposite directions for the pressure and potential gradients, colloidal particles migrate towards the microchannel walls and subsequently assemble into distinct bands next to both the bottom glass and top PDMS walls. The results reported here demonstrate that the particle dynamics due to electrophoresis in Poiseuille flow within a microchannel result in non-uniform spatial distributions of colloidal particles via cross-stream migration, with the ability to assemble particles into distinct band structures at channel walls. Such manipulation, once fully realized, could lead to several microfluidics applications in material synthesis, particle separation, and biosensing.
Bile salt-fatty acid mixed micelles as nasal absorption promoters of peptides. I. Effects of ionic strength, adjuvant composition, and lipid structure on the nasal absorption of [D-Arg2]kyotorphin.

Bile salts and synthetic surfactants have been used to promote nasal absorption of peptide drugs. Although a marked increase in nasal absorption has been achieved, this may not be adequate and the possibility of adjuvant-induced membrane toxicity exists. The present study employs a rat in situ nasal perfusion technique and mixed micelles between sodium glycocholate (NaGC) and various lipids as potential nasal absorption enhancers of a stable model dipeptide, [D-Arg2]kyotorphin. NaGC alone enhanced the nasal absorption of the dipeptide in a concentration-dependent manner. When linoleic acid was added to form mixed micelles with NaGC, the absorption was further enhanced (P < 0.01). The effect of mixed micelles was synergistic and much greater than with single adjuvants. Increasing ionic strength was found to increase the adjuvant activity of both NaGC and NaGC–lipid mixed micelles. Structure of the lipid component of the mixed micelles also affected the adjuvant potency. Oleic acid, a cis-unsaturated fatty acid, was more effective than elaidic acid, the trans-isomer, whereas cis-linoleic acid and trans-linolelaidic acid were equally effective (α = 0.05). Mixed micelles of mono-glycerides such as monoolein and monolinolein were also more effective than NaGC alone (α = 0.05). Micellar solubilization of these polar lipids by NaGC appears to be important for nasal absorption enhancement to occur. Reversal of the membrane permeability was also observed within approximately 20–40 min after removal of the adjuvants from the rat nasal cavity. These observations are similar to the effects of mixed micelles on the rectal mucosa and may involve the same mechanism.
A New Strategic Agenda for E&P

With crude oil prices down nearly 25% since June – when oil & gas companies were already strained by numerous industry challenges and increasingly active shareholders, conversations in the oil patch are converging on the same range of topics and with an increased sense of urgency.Conventional discovery volumes are in decline and there are fewer numbers of large fields. Moreover, the volumes are higher cost and lower value than in the past – more deep-water, more gas, and more unconventionals. The year 2013 marked the lowest level of conventional oil and gas discovered in decades, and conventional discovery volumes in 2014 look set to be about 30% lower again.A decline in conventional exploration accentuates the impact of other factors such as less quality and difficulty with access. Oil and gas companies are producing high quality, conventional barrels, but increasingly having to replace them with lower quality barrels (higher cost, more risk, poor reservoirs, heavy oil or harder to commercialize natural gas). Moreover, overspending in North American (NA) shale has driven down returns – the industry is pursuing higher cost resources globally.As prices continue to soften, oil and gas companies must respond to these trends and changes in the industry with a new strategic agenda, described herein.
BRU: Bandwidth Regulation Unit for Real-Time Multicore Processors

Poor time-predictability of the multicore processors is a well-known issue that hinders their adoption in the real-time systems due to contention in the shared memory resources. In this paper, we present the Bandwidth Regulation Unit (BRU), a drop-in hardware module that enables per-core memory bandwidth regulation at fine-grained time intervals. Additionally, BRU has the ability to regulate the memory access bandwidth of multiple cores collectively to improve bandwidth utilization. Besides eliminating the overhead of software regulation methods, our evaluation results using SD-VBS and synthetic benchmarks show that BRU improves time-predictability of real-time tasks, while it lets the best-effort tasks to better utilize the memory system bandwidth. In addition, we have synthesized our design for a 7nm technology node and show that the chip area overhead of BRU is negligible.
The usefulness of submaximal exercise gas exchange in pulmonary arterial hypertension: a case series.

Introduction: Submaximal exercise gas exchange may be a useful tool to track responses to therapy in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients. Methods: Three patients diagnosed with idiopathic PAH, on differing therapies, were included. Standard clinical tests (echocardiogra- phy; 6 minute walk) were performed pre and 3–5 months after treatment. Gas exchange was measured during 3 minutes of step exercise at both time points. Results: Gas exchange variables, end tidal CO2 (PET CO2) and the ratio of ventilation to CO2 production (VE/VCO2), during submaximal exercise were able to track patient responses to therapy over a 3–5 month period. Two patients demonstrated positive improvements, with an increased PETCO2 and decreased VE/VCO2 during light exercise, in response to an altered therapeutic regime. The third patient had a worsening of gas exchange (decreased PETCO2 and increased VE/VCO2) following no changes in the medical regime from the baseline visit. Conclusion: Gas exchange variables measured during light submaximal exercise, such as PETCO2 and VE/VCO2, may be able to better detect small changes in functional status following treatment and could, therefore, be a useful tool to track disease severity in PAH patients. Further study is required to determine the clinical usefulness of these gas exchange variables.
High-Speed Short-Reach O-Band Transmission Using Advanced DSP Techniques

Advanced digital-signal-processing techniques are demonstrated, in which an MLSE scheme based on nonlinear channel estimation and a spectral-shaping scheme based on nonlinear differential coding enhance the tolerance to severe bandwidth limitation. © 2020 The Author(s)
Beware the Nanny State: Neoliberal Ideology and American Health Law

Like other ideologies, neoliberalism offers a potentially inspiring normative vision and also employs a pointed rhetoric that tells us what to love and what to hate. When neoliberalism turns its attention to health law, it warns us that the nefarious “nanny state” will arrogantly treat us like children. In particular, according to neoliberal thought, laws restricting the size of sugary soft drinks, requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets, and mandating graphic warnings on cigarette packages will deny our freedom of choice. In each of these controversies neoliberalism has in fact played an important role in thwarting law reform, much to the detriment of the public’s health. The neoliberal position regarding health law is not so much “right” or “wrong” as it is disturbingly obtuse with regard to the social context and socioeconomic ramifications of contemporary health problems.
#Alcohol: Portrayals of Alcohol in Top Videos on TikTok.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to characterize the content and themes present in user-generated TikTok videos portraying alcohol. Method: We captured the 100 most popular videos including...
Rudra: Finding Memory Safety Bugs in Rust at the Ecosystem Scale

Rust is a promising system programming language that guarantees memory safety at compile time. To support diverse requirements for system software such as accessing low-level hardware, Rust allows programmers to perform operations that are not protected by the Rust compiler with the unsafe keyword. However, Rust's safety guarantee relies on the soundness of all unsafe code in the program as well as the standard and external libraries, making it hard to reason about their correctness. In other words, a single bug in any unsafe code breaks the whole program's safety guarantee. In this paper, we introduce RUDRA, a program that analyzes and reports potential memory safety bugs in unsafe Rust. Since a bug in unsafe code threatens the foundation of Rust's safety guarantee, our primary focus is to scale our analysis to all the packages hosted in the Rust package registry. RUDRA can scan the entire registry (43k packages) in 6.5 hours and identified 264 previously unknown memory safety bugs---leading to 76 CVEs and 112 RustSec advisories being filed, which represent 51.6% of memory safety bugs reported to RustSec since 2016. The new bugs RUDRA found are non-trivial, subtle, and often made by Rust experts: two in the Rust standard library, one in the official futures library, and one in the Rust compiler. RUDRA is open-source, and part of its algorithm is integrated into the official Rust linter.
High Intensity Particle Beams for a Muon-Catalyzed Fusion-Fission Reactor

We present two new ideas creating the possibility for the developing of a muon fusion-fission reactor concept. The first idea is to combine the target, the converter of pions into muons, and the synthesizer into one (the synergetic concept). This is accomplished by injecting a tritium or deuterium beam of 1 GeV/nucleon into the DT fuel contained in a magnetic mirror. The confined pions slow down and decay into muons, which are confined in the fuel with little muon losses. The second idea is that the beam passing through the target is collected for reuse and recirculated, while the strongly interacted portion of the beam is directed to electronuclear blankets. The present concepts are based on possible available technologies and on known physical processes and data.
Sinapine Leakage for Detection of Seed Quality in Brassica

Sinapine leakage has been developed as a rapid seed viability test in Brassica and other Cruciferous seeds on a single seed basis, in which non-viable seeds leak fluorescent sinapine while viable seeds do not leak. Sinapine leakage was used to predict germination for 11 lots, and the prediction was significantly correlated with the actual germination. The major source of errors in this test is false-negatives (F-), i.e. those seeds that do not leak and do not germinate. The sinapine leakage index (SLI) was calculated to assess F- for any seed lot by dividing the number of non-germinable seeds that leaked by the total number of non-germinable seeds. The SLI was found to be related to seed coat permeability. Chemical analysis of seed coats was conducted on 4 lots with different SLI values. Cutin content was negatively correlated with SLI, and cutin may restrict the diffusion of sinapine throughout the seed coat. Sinapine leakage provided the basis for the development of a novel seed coating system to detect and upgrade seed quality. Seeds were first imbibed and then coated with a cellulose filler to adsorb sinapine leakage. The coated seeds are then dried and sorted by UV colour sorting equipment to upgrade seed quality by removal of fluorescent coated seeds.
Food, Foam and Fermentation in Mesoamerica: Bubbles and the Sacred State of Inebriation

AbstractEdible foam is held in particularly high esteem in Mesoamerica, and in certain instances, even considered sacred. Based on “observational” rather than “cultural” logic, this paper suggests reasons for this high regard. It proposes that the relationship between bubbles and the sacred state of inebriation is a key factor contributing to the status of edible foam in Mesoamerica.
Compensation of cross-phase modulation in periodically amplified CPFSK optical communication systems

In long-distance periodically amplified systems, dispersion compensation is highly beneficial. In this paper, we show that compensating the dispersion in each segment (type-A systems) still leads to significant cross phase modulation (XPM) induced penalty even when high dispersion fiber is used, but the penalty is greatly reduced by concentrating the dispersion compensation at one place (type-B systems).
A framework for query capabilities and interface design of mediators on the Gulf of Mexico data sources

The integration of various data sources collected from the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) will become a valuable resource for the public, local government officials, scientists, natural resource managers, and educators. Due to the exclusive and distributive nature of these data, a new framework is developed to retrieve partial results from the underlying data sources to answer more user queries for the union operator. In addition, the user interface of mediators is considered when computing the query capabilities.
Effects of Spontaneous Eye Movements on Spatial Memory in Macaque Periarcuate Cortex

Persistent activity in prefrontal cortex during delayed response tasks is a putative neural correlate of spatial working memory. We tested whether this activity was sensitive to eye movements made during the memory interval by recording from prefrontal neurons while monkeys performed a delayed spatial matching saccade task in which they were allowed to make eye movements freely. We found that eye movements degraded the spatial tuning of persistent activity even as there was an improvement in behavioral performance. Although the strength of the memory signal decreased, delay activity continued to signal the location of cue. The results suggest that free eye movements reduce neuronal gain rather than add variability. The saccades performed during the delay suggest the existence of a rehearsal mechanism that could contribute to working memory maintenance. The results do not provide support for a segregation of storage and executive functions in the periarcuate cortex.
Neuregulin induces GABA(A) receptor subunit expression and neurite outgrowth in cerebellar granule cells.

Neuregulin (NRG), a growth and differentiation factor that signals via erbB receptor tyrosine kinases, has been shown to have biological effects in both the CNS and the peripheral nervous system. We report here that erbB4 is expressed in mature cerebellar granule cells, where it appears to be concentrated at the granule cell postsynaptic terminals. We also show that one form of NRG, Ig-NRG, plays a crucial role in aspects of cerebellar granule cell development in vitro . First, Ig-NRG treatment of granule cells in culture selectively induces the expression of the GABAA receptor β2 subunit. This increase in subunit expression is paralleled by an increase in functional GABAA receptors. In contrast to its effects on GABAA receptor subunit expression, Ig-NRG does not upregulate NMDA receptor N2B and N2C subunit expression. Second, we demonstrate that Ig-NRG also enhances neurite outgrowth from cultured granule cells. Ig-NRG does not, however, act as a survival factor for the granule cells. We have compared the effect of Ig-NRG with the effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a neurotrophin that exerts specific effects on granule cells in culture, and found that BDNF does not mimic the effects of Ig-NRG on GABAAreceptor subunit expression. Our results show that Ig-NRG has specific effects on granule cell development and maturation and may regulate these processes in vivo .
Evidence for Acute Central Sensitization to Prolonged Experimental Pain in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Author(s): Moeller-Bertram, Tobias; Strigo, Irina A; Simmons, Alan N; Schilling, Jan M; Patel, Piyush; Baker, Dewleen G | Abstract: BackgroundPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and pain have a well-documented high comorbidity; however, the underlying mechanisms of this comorbidity are currently poorly understood. The aim of this psychophysical study was to investigate the behavioral response to a prolonged suprathreshold pain stimulus in subjects with combat-related PTSD and combat controls (CC) for clinical evidence of central sensitization.MethodsTen male subjects with current PTSD related to combat and 11 CC male subjects underwent baseline quantitative sensory testing (QST), temporal pain summation, and psychological profiling followed by an intramuscular injection of capsaicin into the quadriceps muscle.ResultsThere was no significant between-group difference for the initial maximal pain response or an initial pain reduction for the first 15 minutes postinjection on QST or pain ratings. However, we observed significantly higher scores in the PTSD group for the second 15 minutes postinjection on both pain intensity and pain unpleasantness ratings. Assessment of temporal summation to repetitive pressure stimuli showed significantly higher subjective pain in the PTSD group.ConclusionThese findings are consistent with a significantly higher degree of acute central sensitization in individuals with PTSD. Increased acute central sensitization may underlie increased vulnerability for developing pain-related conditions following combat trauma.
Local Health Departments as Essential Community Providers for Health Benefits Exchange Plans

The Affordable Care Act requires health plans’ networks to include “essential community providers” (ECPs). Local health departments (LHDs) can be ECPs, typically for tuberculosis and sexually transmitted disease–related services or family planning. An ECP status may be controversial if it jeopardizes core population health services or competes with community partners. Some LHDs already bill for ECP services, but independent billing functions could exceed projected revenue. Thus, LHDs may wish to investigate contractual arrangements as alternatives to billing multiple issuers.
Exocortis viroid: alteration in the proteins of Gynura aurantiaca accompanying viroid infection.

Abstract Protein alterations following the onset of symptoms of the citrus exocortis disease in Gynura aurantiaca were detected in protein extracts of tissue as well as lysed protoplasts. The principal distinction occurred in low molecular weight proteins of about 15,000 MW (CEV-P 1 ) and an 18,000-MW (CEV-P 2 ) species following exposure to sodium dodecyl sulfate. Postribosomal preparations demonstrate the most marked differences between healthy and citrus exocortis viroid (CEV)-affected tissue, with the P 1 component comprising one of the most metabolically active proteins in this fraction, as determined by the incorporation of labeled amino acids. Since the alteration in the protein profiles appears to constitute a quantitative distinction in a host-specified protein, the functional role of the viroid-related protein may reflect a specific aberration in host regulation and development resulting from viroid infection.
Penetrating Keratoplasty After Placement of a Temporary Keratoprosthesis During Pars Plana Vitrectomy

Five eyes of five patients with opaque corneas underwent penetrating keratoplasty after pars plana vitrectomy. In each case, the Landers-Foulks temporary keratoprosthesis provided visualization of the vitreous cavity and retina, allowed successful removal of hemorrhagic vitreous, and permitted retinal reattachment. Corneal grafts remained clear in two eyes; three grafts developed stromal edema. Useful postoperative vision was achieved in two eyes. However, proliferative vitreoretinopathy, postoperative hypotony, atrophia bulbi, and corneal edema resulted in poor vision in three eyes.
Ethnic Cleavage as a Component of Global Military Expenditures

This study argues that countries which are characterized by ethnic cleavage allocate a larger percentage of their resources to military expenditures in order to maintain control over ethnically diverse and fragmented populaces. The results of the statistical analysis undertaken contradict two previous empirical studies that had produced counter-intuitive results suggesting that there was no ethnic dimension to global militarization. Both an historical and a statistical cross-sectional analysis (for the year 1979) are employed in order to demonstrate that the greater the degree a country is characterized by ethnic cleavages the greater the percentage of its Gross National Product that will be allocated to military resources even after controlling for alternative explanations.
Trilled movement: Phonetic realization and formal representation☆

Abstract Evidence from the distribution of ‘trilled movement’ (abbreviated TM) in specific kinds of polymorphemic and monomorphemic forms has been used to argue for a variety of analyses of phonological structure in sign languages. In this article, I begin with a descriptive typology of TM across mono- and polymorphemic forms, and then I propose an analysis of TM, which addresses the following three questions. Is TM a unified phonological property or must it be further sub-divided? To what extent is its distribution predictable in surface forms? What formal mechanisms are needed to capture the predictable aspects of its distribution? I conclude that all TM can be handled by a single distinctive feature in the phonology. Its pattern of distribution can be determined largely on the basis of the sonority values of the properties specified in the underlying structure of the sign in question. For the case of exceptions discussed in this article, where sonority is not capable of predicting TM distribution (namely, in the [protracted/inceptive] aspect forms), I propose a solution using a type of segmental structure. In so doing, I reaffirm the need for segmental structure in ASL representations, and I make specific proposal about the nature of this segmental structure. Further theoretical implications concerning the relationships among features, segments, and syllables are also discussed.