cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Native species dispersal reduces community invasibility by increasing species richness and biotic resistance

Recent studies indicate that diversity-invasibility relationships can depend on spatial scale, but the contributing role of native species dispersal among local communities in mediating these relationships remains unaddressed. Metacommunity ecology highlights the effects of species dispersal rates on local diversity, thereby suggesting that native species dispersal may influence local biotic resistance to invasion by non-native species. However, the effects of native species dispersal rates on local native diversity and invasibility could depend on any intraspecific differences of the invader that may alter establishment success. Here, I experimentally tested for the influence of native dispersal-diversity relationships on the invasibility of native communities by a non-native species represented by core, midrange and peripheral regions of the introduced geographic range. In mesocosms, native plankton communities were connected by low or moderate rates of dispersal to yield dispersal rate-driven differences in native species richness prior to invasion by a non-native zooplankter, Daphnia lumholtzi. After invasion, establishment success and effects of the non-native species on native community structure and ecosystem properties were evaluated as a function of dispersal rate and invader source region relative to a control without native species. Native species richness was greater at the moderate dispersal rate than the low dispersal rate and yielded a dispersal rate-dependent diversity-invasibility relationship that was robust to invader source region. There was almost no establishment success of the non-native species at moderate dispersal and reduced success at low dispersal relative to the control. Invader population growth rates were negative only at the moderate dispersal rate. Effects of species dispersal on native community and ecosystem response were more influential than effects of invasion and impacts associated with invader source region. The results demonstrate that dispersal-diversity relationships can influence diversity-invasibility relationships at the local spatial scale. These dispersal-driven responses of invasion were unaffected by any ecological differences associated with invasion history-related intraspecific variation of the non-native species. This study emphasizes that dispersal rates of native species in metacommunities can differentially alter local biotic resistance to invasion. Thus, native species dispersal rates have largely been an underappreciated local diversity maintenance mechanism that can confer insurance against biological invasions.
Ultraviolet B Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) Are More Efficient and Effective in Producing Vitamin D3 in Human Skin Compared to Natural Sunlight.

Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin is important for health. Those with fat malabsorption disorders malabsorb vitamin D and thus must rely on cutaneous production of vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 is generated secondary to exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation (whether from the sun or from an artificial source). Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been developed to emit ultraviolet radiation. Little is known about the efficiency of UVB emitting LEDs tuned to different wavelengths for producing vitamin D3 in human skin. Ampoules containing 7-dehydrocholesterol were exposed to a LED that emitted a peak wavelength at 293, 295, 298 or 305 nm to determine their efficiency to produce previtamin D3. The 293 nm LED was best suited for evaluating its effectiveness for producing vitamin D in human skin due to the shorter exposure time. This LED was found to be 2.4 times more efficient in producing vitamin D3 in human skin than the sun in less than 1/60th the time. This has significant health implications for medical device development in the future that can be used for providing vitamin D supplementation to patients with fat malabsorption syndromes as well as patients with other metabolic abnormalities including patients with chronic kidney disease.
Systems with Nonlinear Boundary Conditions

This chapter gives a treatment for coupled system of equations with nonlinear boundary conditions analogous to that for coupled systems with linear boundary conditions. The system under consideration can be coupled through the boundary conditions or through the differential equations. For systems of two equations coupled through the boundary conditions, a similar classification of the three types of quasimonotone functions is given. The monotone method is used to establish the corresponding existence-comparison theorems for both parabolic and elliptic boundary-value problems. These theorems are then extended to coupled system of an arbitrary finite number of parabolic and elliptic equations coupled through the equations as well as through the boundary conditions. Both quasimonotone and nonquasimonotone functions are considered, and for nonquasimonotone functions generalized upper and lower solutions are introduced. Similar treatment is given to finite coupled parabolic and elliptic systems with nonlocal boundary conditions. Existence-comparison results for positive solutions of parabolic and elliptic systems are also included in the discussion.
We All Agree: Strict Voter ID Laws Disproportionately Burden Minorities

Voter ID laws determine who can and who cannot vote. Given the recent propagation of these laws by Republican legislatures, efforts by the Trump administration and other state legislatures to expan...
Increasing World Average Yields of Cereal Crops: It's All About Water

Abstract Food demand of the growing and increasingly affluent world population may necessitate additional food grains production by the year 2100 by 1 billion Mg and meat production by 200 million Mg. However, of the 3 billion Mg food grains produced globally, ∼30% are wasted through postharvest losses in developing countries and an inefficient supply chain system in developed nations. Rather than increasing the area under production, an appropriate strategy is to reduce food waste and enhance productivity of drylands through adoption of an efficient irrigation system or use of conservation agriculture based on no-till, residue mulch, cover cropping, and integrated nutrient management. Grain yield (GY) is affected by the product of four factors: evapotranspiration (ET), transpiration: ET ratio (T/ET), 1/TR, and the harvest index (HI) [GY = ET × 1/TR × HI]. TR or transpiration ratio is the kg of water required to produce 1 kg of the aboveground biomass. The most impact determinant of GY is ET. Thus, conserving water in the root zone is essential to improving agronomic productivity of dryland agriculture. By narrowing the yield gap and conserving water in the root zone, it is technically feasible to produce the cereals needed to meet the global demand by the year 2100 on 0.5 billion ha of cropland. However, the importance of judicious governance for translating science of water management into action cannot be overemphasized. After all, it's all about water. Its judicious management is critical to enhance ET, improve GY, and advance food and nutritional security.
Geographical Hidden Markov Tree for Flood Extent Mapping

Flood extent mapping plays a crucial role in disaster management and national water forecasting. Unfortunately, traditional classification methods are often hampered by the existence of noise, obstacles and heterogeneity in spectral features as well as implicit anisotropic spatial dependency across class labels. In this paper, we propose geographical hidden Markov tree, a probabilistic graphical model that generalizes the common hidden Markov model from a one dimensional sequence to a two dimensional map. Partial order class dependency is incorporated in the hidden class layer with a reverse tree structure. We also investigate computational algorithms for reverse tree construction, model parameter learning and class inference. Extensive evaluations on both synthetic and real world datasets show that proposed model outperforms multiple baselines in flood mapping, and our algorithms are scalable on large data sizes.
The Role of Selective Balloon Occlusion in Preoperative Planning for Infant Pulmonary Lobar Hyperinflation

To describe balloon catheter occlusion of hyperinflated portions of lung. In six eligible infants, imaging showed severe air trapping from hyperinflated lobes of lung. To determine if surgical remo...
Fabrication of a Free Radical Scavenging Nanocomposite Scaffold for Bone Tissue Regeneration

Oxidative stresses have become a large influence on bone tissue regeneration. Increased by trauma and fracture, reactive oxygen species (ROS) negatively impact the remodeling function of osteoblasts by damaging DNA and cellular structures while triggering apoptosis. This greatly hinders the efficacy of bone grafts to facilitate bone remodeling. Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CNPs) have been utilized to reduce ROS and have made an impact in biological applications. In this study, we fabricated bioactive, nanocomposite scaffolds incorporating cerium oxide nanoparticles. The architectural, chemical, and mechanical properties of the scaffolds were characterized using techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and compression testing. Biological assessments were completed to gauge the pro-osteogenic nature of the scaffolds through the attachment, viability, and mineralization of a pre-osteoblast cell line. Finally, free radical scavenging (FRS) function of the scaffolds was tested by measuring the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide over time and quantifying the cytotoxicity of cells on scaffolds after inducing oxidative stress. Through these assessments, it was determined that the nanocomposites contained the desired porous architectural and chemical properties. Scaffolds exhibited biocompatibility by supporting cell attachment, viability, and initiation of mineralization in the absence of supplemental mineralization-promoting factors. FRS behavior was displayed via a statistically significant reduction in scaffold-mediated hydrogen peroxide concentration and functional protection of cells from induced oxidative stress. In this work, we show that the successful incorporation of CNPs into nanocomposite scaffolds was able to decrease free radical damage to cells while providing a suitable environment for pre-osteoblast cells. The function of bone-forming cells, osteoblasts, in the bone remodeling cycle is hindered by oxidative stress created by an increase of reactive oxygen species. This is often seen at sites of injury and surgery, where bone grafts are often utilized. Our group investigated incorporating cerium oxide nanoparticles into a bioactive polymer-ceramic nanocomposite scaffolds for bone grafting applications. By incorporating the nanoparticles into our system, we are able to create a bioactive scaffold that can reduce reactive oxygen species and support osteogenic cell growth, both requirements for bone tissue formation. After initial in vitro testing, we would like to expand our investigation of the nanocomposite system in various in vivo models. To begin, an ectopic study in mice to determine biocompatibility, immune response, and mineralization. Additional studies would follow including critical size defect models in larger animal models.
Protein Aggregation, Unfolded Protein Response and Delayed Neuronal Death after Brain Ischemia

It was first found in the 197O’s that neuronal death does not occur immediately but takes place over several days following an initial period of transient cerebral ischemia [31,33]. Such secondary neuronal damage following initial insult defines the maturation phenomenon, or delayed neuronal death [1, 33, 51]. In forebrain rat ischemia models, transient cerebral ischemia followed by reperfusion causes neuronal death selectively in hippocampal CAl pyramidal neurons after 48 to 72 h of reperfusion while leaving dentate gyrus (DG) granule cells largely intact [1, 33]. These models have been utilized to study delayed neuronal death, i.e., the maturation phenomenon in the CAl region and neuronal survival in the DG area after ischemia. During the 48 to 72 h maturation or delayed period, CA1 neurons destined to die appeared essentially normal under the light microscope [1, 33]. At the ultrastructural level, however, disaggregation of polyribosomes, deposition of dark substances, abnormalities in the Golgi apparatus and modification of synapses have been reported [6, 30, 33, 38, 47]. Secondary neuronal death after an initial insult also occurs after other brain injuries as for instance in the penumbra region after focal ischemia and in some brain regions after hypoglycemia [1]. Many hypotheses have been postulated to account for delayed neuronal death [51]. In this article, we will present evidence that ischemia induces a massive accumulation of abnormal proteins which is followed by their aggregation in neurons destined to die.We hypothesize that accumulation of abnormai proteins and their aggregates contributes to delayed neuronal degeneration after brain ischemia.
Viva in Silico: A position-based dynamics model for microcolony morphology simulation

We present a position-based dynamics model for microcolony growth. In addition to achieving fast and stable simulation of thousands of cells, this model allows for the computation of cell interacti...
Evaluation of a ketogenic diet for improvement of neurological recovery in individuals with acute spinal cord injury: a pilot, randomized safety and feasibility trial

Longitudinal, randomized study. (1) Test the safety and feasibility of a ketogenic diet (KD) intervention in the acute stages of spinal cord injury (SCI), (2) assess the effects of a KD on neurological recovery, and (3) identify potential serum biomarkers associated with KD-induced changes in neurological recovery. Acute care and rehabilitation facility. The KD is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that includes ≈70–80% total energy as fat. Seven participants with acute complete and incomplete SCI (AIS A–D) were randomly assigned to KD (n = 4) or standard diet (SD, n = 3). Neurological examinations, resting energy expenditure analysis, and collection of blood for evaluation of circulating ketone levels were performed within 72 h of injury and before discharge. Untargeted metabolomics analysis was performed on serum samples to identify potential serum biomarkers that may explain differential responses between groups. Our pilot findings primarily demonstrated that KD is safe and feasible to be administered in acute SCI. Furthermore, upper extremity motor scores were higher (p < 0.05) in the KD vs. SD group and an anti-inflammatory lysophospholipid, lysoPC 16:0, was present at higher levels, and an inflammatory blood protein, fibrinogen, was present at lower levels in the KD serum samples vs. SD serum samples. Taken together, these preliminary results suggest that a KD may have anti-inflammatory effects that may promote neuroprotection, resulting in improved neurological recovery in SCI. Future studies with larger sample size are warranted for demonstrating efficacy of KD for improving neurological recovery.
Evaluation of Lowering the P Value Threshold for Statistical Significance From .05 to .005 in Previously Published Randomized Clinical Trials in Major Medical Journals.

This study evaluates primary end points in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) published in 3 major general medical journals to determine how changing the P value threshold for statistical significance from .05 to .005 could affect the interpretation of previously published RCTs.
Disparities in length of goals of care conversations between oncologists and patients with advanced cancer.

19Background: Studies show minority patients have inadequate discussions about treatment, prognosis, and goals of care (GoC) which translate into substandard treatment, worse quality of life, and p...
GOOGLE'S Duplex: Pretending to be human

SUMMARY Google's Duplex is a computer‐based system with natural language capabilities that provides a human sounding conversation as it performs a set of tasks, such as making restaurant reservatio...
The Metencephalic Basis of the Conditioned Nictitating Membrane Response

The classically conditioned nictitating membrane response of the rabbit has evolved into a useful model system for neurobiological studies of associative learning. Converging methodologies from behavioral, physiological, and anatomical approaches indicate key roles in conditioning for the limbic system, especially the hippo-campus, and the brain stem. This article presents evidence that the metencephalon contains neural elements essential for generation and performance of conditioned responses in this preparation.
The Outcomes of Chronic Kidney Disease and Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction

Introduction Kidney disease and heart failure (HF) make a challenging duo. By sharing a neurohormonal interplay, these diseases are rarely seen in isolation. However, many of the pivotal HF trials excluded advanced kidney disease. This, combined with an apprehension to avoid some guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) for HF in chronic kidney disease (CKD), make cardiorenal management unclear and puzzling. Methods A retrospective cohort study of 1,041 patients admitted from 2005-2014 with acute HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Patients were divided into CKD and non-CKD groups. CKD included patients with stage III to ESRD. Non-CKD included normal function to stage II. We applied the primary outcomes of interest at 1 and 6 months, the length of hospital stay, readmission rates (RAR), and overall mortality. Results Out of the 1,041 HFrEF patients, 140 had CKD and 901 had non-CKD. Amongst the two groups, there was a difference in the medications. CKD patients were less likely to receive angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and digitalis, and more likely to receive torsemide than their counterparts. With readmissions, the CKD group had a higher 30-day RAR, with no difference in 6-month RAR or 1-yr RAR. Overall, there was no mortality difference between the two groups, in-hospital or mortality up to 180 days. Conclusion HFrEF patients with CKD are prescribed less GDMT for HF than non-CKD patients. There are consequences of this discrepancy and room for improvement to reduce HF RAR and improve quality of life.
Interfacial microrheology and tensiometry in a miniature, 3-d printed Langmuir trough.

Abstract We introduce a new approach for manipulating and studying complex fluid interfacial systems, that enables simultaneous tensiometry to measure surface pressure and high-performance interfacial shear microrheology. In contrast to existing techniques, we use a miniature Langmuir trough produced by 3-d printing methods, which fits on the stage of a conventional inverted microscope and which allows compression and stretching of the fluid-fluid interfaces at a constant bulk fluid volume. The tensiometry measurement relies on the quantitative imaging of a curved meniscus separate from the flat interface being imaged under the microscope. We first demonstrate that this approach can measure the interfacial tension of simple fluid-fluid and polymer-laden interfaces with an accuracy comparable to the pendant drop apparatus and Wilhelmy plates. We then study the mechanics of an adsorbed protein layer formed at an air-water (a-w) interface by simultaneously measuring its surface pressure and its interfacial viscosity. To perform two-point interfacial microrheology, micrometer-sized probes spread on the interface are tracked to 5 nm precision with very low drift, yielding measurements of interfacial viscosity having a wide dynamic range and high sensitivity ( 10 - 9 - 10 - 1 Nsm - 1 ) .
Hierarchical Mechanisms of Lateral Interactions in High-Performance Fibers.

The processing conditions used in the production of advanced polymer fibers facilitate the formation of an oriented fibrillar network that consists of structures spanning multiple length scales. Th...
Remote Sensing and Precision Agriculture Technologies for Crop Disease Detection and Management with a Practical Application Example

Abstract Remote sensing technology has long been used to detect and map crop diseases. Airborne and satellite imagery acquired during growing seasons can be used not only for early detection and within-season management of some crop diseases, but also for the control of recurring diseases in future seasons. With variable rate technology in precision agriculture, site-specific fungicide application can be made to infested areas if the disease is stable, although traditional uniform application is more appropriate for diseases that can spread rapidly across the field. This article provides a brief overview of remote sensing and precision agriculture technologies that have been used for crop disease detection and management. Specifically, the article illustrates how airborne and satellite imagery and variable rate technology have been used for detecting and mapping cotton root rot, a destructive soilborne fungal disease, in cotton fields and how site-specific fungicide application has been implemented using prescription maps derived from the imagery for effective control of the disease. The overview and methodologies presented in this article should provide researchers, extension personnel, growers, crop consultants, and farm equipment and chemical dealers with practical guidelines for remote sensing detection and effective management of some crop diseases.
Vulnerable and Resilient: Legal Status, Sources of Support, Maternal Knowledge, and the Family Routines of Mexican and Central American-origin Mothers in Los Angeles:

How do unauthorized immigrant parents promote family functioning to navigate challenging conditions and contexts in the United States? This article offers the first quantitative analyses contrastin...
The DOE E3SM v1.1 Biogeochemistry Configuration: Description and Simulated Ecosystem-Climate Responses to Historical Changes in Forcing

Author(s): Burrows, SM; Maltrud, M; Yang, X; Zhu, Q; Jeffery, N; Shi, X; Ricciuto, D; Wang, S; Bisht, G; Tang, J; Wolfe, J; Harrop, BE; Singh, B; Brent, L; Baldwin, S; Zhou, T; Cameron-Smith, P; Keen, N; Collier, N; Xu, M; Hunke, EC; Elliott, SM; Turner, AK; Li, H; Wang, H; Golaz, JC; Bond-Lamberty, B; Hoffman, FM; Riley, WJ; Thornton, PE; Calvin, K; Leung, LR | Abstract: This paper documents the biogeochemistry configuration of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), E3SMv1.1-BGC. The model simulates historical carbon cycle dynamics, including carbon losses predicted in response to land use and land cover change, and the responses of the carbon cycle to changes in climate. In addition, we introduce several innovations in the treatment of soil nutrient limitation mechanisms, including explicit dependence on phosphorus availability. The suite of simulations described here includes E3SM contributions to the Coupled Climate-Carbon Cycle Model Intercomparison Project and other projects, as well as simulations to explore the impacts of structural uncertainty in representations of nitrogen and phosphorus limitation. We describe the model spin-up and evaluation procedures, provide an overview of results from the simulation campaign, and highlight key features of the simulations. Cumulative warming over the twentieth century is similar to observations, with a midcentury cold bias offset by stronger warming in recent decades. Ocean biomass production and carbon uptake are underpredicted, likely due to biases in ocean transport leading to widespread anoxia and undersupply of nutrients to surface waters. The inclusion of nutrient limitations in the land biogeochemistry results in weaker carbon fertilization and carbon-climate feedbacks than exhibited by other Earth System Models that exclude those limitations. Finally, we compare with an alternative representation of terrestrial biogeochemistry, which differs in structure and in initialization of soil phosphorus. While both configurations agree well with observational benchmarks, they differ significantly in their distribution of carbon among different pools and in the strength of nutrient limitations.
Contrasting cumulative risk and multiple individual risk models of the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and adult health outcomes.

A very large body of research documents relationships between self-reported Adverse Childhood Experiences (srACEs) and adult health outcomes. Despite multiple assessment tools that use the same or similar questions, there is a great deal of inconsistency in the operationalization of self-reported childhood adversity for use as a predictor variable. Alternative conceptual models are rarely used and very limited evidence directly contrasts conceptual models to each other. Also, while a cumulative numeric ‘ACE Score’ is normative, there are differences in the way it is calculated and used in statistical models. We investigated differences in model fit and performance between the cumulative ACE Score and a ‘multiple individual risk’ (MIR) model that enters individual ACE events together into prediction models. We also investigated differences that arise from the use of different strategies for coding and calculating the ACE Score. We merged the 2011–2012 BRFSS data (N = 56,640) and analyzed 3 outcomes. We compared descriptive model fit metrics and used Vuong’s test for model selection to arrive at best fit models using the cumulative ACE Score (as both a continuous or categorical variable) and the MIR model, and then statistically compared the best fit models to each other. The multiple individual risk model was a better fit than the categorical ACE Score for the ‘lifetime history of depression’ outcome. For the outcomes of obesity and cardiac disease, the cumulative risk and multiple individual risks models were of comparable fit, but yield different and complementary inferences. Additional information-rich inferences about ACE-health relationships can be obtained from including a multiple individual risk modeling strategy. Results suggest that investigators working with large srACEs data sources could empirically derive the number of items, as well as the exposure coding strategy, that are a best fit for the outcome under study. A multiple individual risk model could also be considered in addition to the cumulative risk model, potentially in place of estimation of unadjusted ACE-outcome relationships.
Rejoinder to Sun et al. letter

We appreciate the thoughtful comments of Lejia Sun et al, who make three points related to our recently published article. First, they state, "the patients' baseline characteristics in the HCC group were very different from those in the control cohort." In our report, we highlighted that the identified markers were not diagnostic but prognostic markers. Our case-control details represented the study base from which cases were selected.
The Clinical Utility of Provocative Maneuvers at Esophageal High-resolution Manometry (HRM).

Esophageal high-resolution manometry (HRM) assesses esophageal motor function and is indicated both for evaluation of esophageal symptoms and before antireflux interventions. HRM studies are interpreted and esophageal motor diagnoses made according to the Chicago Classification, version 3.0 algorithm, which is based on ten 5 mL supine water swallows. However, this practice of single liquid swallows performed in the supine position does not reflect typical "real-life" swallowing, and may not reproduce the patient's presenting symptoms. Therefore, provocative maneuvers at HRM-beyond these 10 standard swallows-can afford additional insights into esophageal motor function with clinically significant implications, and represent areas of exciting investigation and innovation. Accordingly, the 2020 American College of Gastroenterology Guidelines on Esophageal Physiologic Testing conditionally recommend their inclusion in the HRM protocol. In this clinical review, we discuss the supporting data for and clinical utility of provocative maneuvers at HRM that include changes in body position or accessories (upright swallows, "bridge" position, straight leg raise, abdominal compression), bolus consistency (solid swallows, test meals, postprandial high-resolution impedance manometry), bolus frequency (multiple rapid swallows), the volume of bolus (rapid drink challenge/multiple water swallows), and the use of pharmacological agents.
Weaving DNA strands to control energy

Download : Download high-res image (358KB) Download : Download full-size image Dr. James L. Banal is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he works on engineering excitonic materials and molecular data storage using DNA. He obtained his PhD in 2016 at the University of Melbourne, where he studied the photophysics of molecular aggregates in luminescent solar concentrators. His research interests lie at the intersection of materials chemistry, optical spectroscopy, and engineering of optoelectronic devices.
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

The prevalence of GERD is estimated to be between 10% and 20% in the Western world, with a higher predilection in developed countries. Obesity itself has been shown to be an independent risk factor for GERD, with an observed dose-response relationship between frequency of heartburn or regurgitation and higher BMI. A report of the US National Health and Education Survey (NHANES) found that approximately 66% of the US adult population is either overweight or obese, with this number on the rise annually. Roughly 5% of the total global health-care cost is allocated toward treating obese patients, as there is clearly a rising economic burden associated with obesity. The direct health-care costs associated with GERD in all patient populations are estimated to be around $9–$10 billion annually. Indirect costs such as decrease in work productivity, disability, and absent workdays should also be considered. Given the limited effectiveness of lifestyle modifications and medications, bariatric surgery has been shown to be the only modality with long-term sustained weight loss, reduction in morbidity, and improvement in all-cause mortality.
We are in it together

Sherman and Rivers (this issue) summarize conceptual and definitional problems with the term “social priming” and identify potential characterizations that distinguish replicable and more questiona...
Localization of NVM Inter-Poly Defects using nanoprobing techniques

Abstract The continuous growth and advancements of semiconductor devices for automotive applications and internet-of-things drive the demand and scaling of embedded non-volatile memories (eNVM). Existing eNVM landscape in 40 nm and 28 nm advanced processes is dominated by split-gate flash memory devices (Do, 2016) where inter-poly oxide (IPO) defect is one of the most challenging types of defect to localize (Tan et al., 2019). IPO defects typically surface as full or partial row NVM failures due to globally shared polysilicon select gate, control gate or erase gate among thousands of NVM cells. Conventional NVM bitmap is not effective to isolate these failures. In this paper, a systematic 2 steps isolation approach using nanoprobing techniques is proposed to effectively localize IPO defects. The first step involves the inter-poly leakage characterization to isolate the smallest failure sub-block. The next step utilizes Electron Beam Absorbed Current (EBAC) analysis to effectively localize IPO defect in nanoscale resolution subsequent TEM analysis. Two case studies of split-gate automotive grade eNVM suffering from read/write cycling failure were described to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed techniques for accurate and precise localization on the NVM IPO defect.
Investigating the Role Intestinal-Specific FXR and SHP in Regulating Lipid Metabolism in Mice

Dysregulation of lipid metabolism is a causal factor that can lead to a variety of disorders, such as obesity and metabolic syndrome. Dietary fats are digested in the small intestine by the physiological detergents known as bile acids. They emulsify the fats and break them down into smaller molecules in order for the enterocytes to absorb the nutrients through simple diffusion or through the utilization of specific lipid transporters. Interestingly, the nuclear receptors farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and small heterodimer partner (SHP) not only regulates bile acid synthesis and circulation, but also lipid metabolism. Although many studies have examined the role of FXR in hepatic and intestinal lipid metabolism, studies investigating the role of SHP in the intestine are still lacking. Although FXR and SHP cooperate to regulate many metabolic pathways, FXR or SHP knockout models exhibit different lipid phenotypes. These data indicate there are FXR-dependent and -independent pathways of SHP that controls lipid metabolism. To delineate these two interconnecting yet separate pathways, we will utilize intestine-specific Shp knockout (IShpKO) and intestine-specific Fxr knockout (IFxrKO) mice model and place them on high fat diet to investigate their intestinal intestinal absorption and transportation of lipids. We will also monitor the bile acid pool in the intestine, serum, and liver in these knockouts to evaluate the consequence of intestinal deletion of Fxr as well as Shp on bile acid homeostasis and how this may affect lipid absorption. These experiments will identify how FXR and/or SHP regulates intestinal fat digestion and absorption and if this is secondary to the alterations in bile acid concentration and lipid transporters. In addition, we will also investigate the intestinal Fxr-Shp double knockout (IDKO) mice model to determine their combined contribution in intestinal lipid metabolism. Overall, the results obtained from this research will elucidate if intestinal FXR and SHP cooperate or can independently regulate lipid metabolism and homeostasis.
Central Nervous System Infections in Immunocompromised Patients

This article reviews current epidemiologic trends, clinical presentations, and diagnostic strategies for central nervous system (CNS) infections in human immunodeficiency virus-negative (HIV) patients immunocompromised by their underlying disease or by receipt of immunosuppressive or immunomodulating therapies. Three patient groups are considered: (1) cancer patients; (2) hematopoietic or solid organ transplantation recipients; and (3) patients with autoimmune or inflammatory conditions requiring therapies that alter the host immune response. Clinical presentations, associated neuroimaging, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) abnormalities differ between immunocompromised and immunocompetent patients. Infections can trigger the emergence of neurotropic antibodies or inflammatory conditions due to treatment with cancer immunotherapies. Unbiased metagenomic assays to identify obscure pathogens help clinicians navigate the increasing range of conditions affecting the growing population of patients with altered immunity. Awareness of clinical presentations and disease and drug-specific risks is important for early diagnosis and intervention in these often life-threatening infections and their noninfectious mimes.
Rural Telehealth Visits in the Management of Type 1 Diabetes.

Introduction Despite advances in and increased adoption of technology, glycemic outcomes for individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D) have not improved. Access to care is limited for many, in part due to a shortage of endocrinologists and their concentration in urban areas. Managing T1D via telehealth has potential to improve glycemic outcomes, as the barriers of travel-related time and cost are mitigated. Methods Our endocrine telehealth program started in 2013 and currently provides care to nine rural community hospitals in Nebraska and Iowa. A retrospective cohort study was performed to evaluate glycemic outcomes in people with T1D who received care at these telehealth clinics from 2013-2019. Data were collected on age, race, gender, prior diabetes provider, use of diabetes technology, and A1c values over time. Results One hundred thirty-nine individuals were followed for an average duration of 32 months (range 4-69 months). Sixty-six percent of people were previously under the care of an endocrinologist. The most common therapeutic action, in addition to insulin adjustment, was addition of a CGM (52%). Each year in telemedicine care was associated with a decline of 0.13% in A1c (95% CI: -0.20, -0.06). There was no association between A1c and age or gender. When stratifying by previous diabetes provider, all groups had a statistically significant decline in A1c, even those with a previous endocrine provider. There was no statistically significant decline in A1c based on addition of technology. Conclusion We have shown that traditional telehealth visits are an effective way to provide care for people with T1D long-term and may provide distinct advantages to home telehealth visits.
Stereometry and 3-D MRI reconstruction for kinematics of the rearfoot: a cadaver study

This study is a kinematic analysis of the joints of the rearfoot using two kinematic measurement techniques. An unembalmed cadaver foot and ankle was examined using external motion analysis and three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (3D MRI). The authors found a net of 30/spl deg/ of motion at the subtalar joint as the foot moved from 20/spl deg/ of pronation to 50/spl deg/ of supination. They also measured 30/spl deg/ of relative motion between the talus and navicular and 10/spl deg/ between the calcaneus and cuboid. >
Repaglinide, a novel, short-acting hypoglycemic agent for type 2 diabetes mellitus

Repaglinide is a new, short-acting, insulin-releasing agent recently approved for the monotherapy of type 2 diabetes mellitus, and in combination with metformin in patients failing repaglinide or metformin monotherapy. Repaglinide appears to trigger insulin release by regulating adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium channels on the surface of pancreatic beta cells, which in turn affect calcium influx, the principal mediator of insulin release. Repaglinide mainly affects postprandial plasma glucose concentrations. It reduces glycosylated hemoglobin concentrations by 1-2% U. The agent's short duration of action may lessen the risk of long-lasting hypoglycemia and of down-regulation of beta cell sensitivity (the latter promoting secondary drug failure), although data are sparse in this regard. Its major adverse effect is hypoglycemia. Its role in the therapy of type 2 diabetes is unclear at present, vis-a-vis its use instead of or in combination with other antidiabetic agents other than metformin. The need for multiple daily doses, based on its brief duration of action, may be a barrier to compliance.
Prenatal exposure to ethanol stimulates hypothalamic CCR2 chemokine receptor system: Possible relation to increased density of orexigenic peptide neurons and ethanol drinking in adolescent offspring

Clinical and animal studies indicate that maternal consumption of ethanol during pregnancy increases alcohol drinking in the offspring. Possible underlying mechanisms may involve orexigenic peptides, which are stimulated by prenatal ethanol exposure and themselves promote drinking. Building on evidence that ethanol stimulates neuroimmune factors such as the chemokine CCL2 that in adult rats is shown to colocalize with the orexigenic peptide, melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) in the lateral hypothalamus (LH), the present study sought to investigate the possibility that CCL2 or its receptor CCR2 in LH is stimulated by prenatal ethanol exposure, perhaps specifically within MCH neurons. Our paradigm of intraoral administration of ethanol to pregnant rats, at low-to-moderate doses (1 or 3g/kg/day) during peak hypothalamic neurogenesis, caused in adolescent male offspring twofold increase in drinking of and preference for ethanol and reinstatement of ethanol drinking in a two-bottle choice paradigm under an intermittent access schedule. This effect of prenatal ethanol exposure was associated with an increased expression of MCH and density of MCH(+) neurons in LH of preadolescent offspring. Whereas CCL2(+) cells at this age were low in density and unaffected by ethanol, CCR2(+) cells were dense in LH and increased by prenatal ethanol, with a large percentage (83-87%) identified as neurons and found to colocalize MCH. Prenatal ethanol also stimulated the genesis of CCR2(+) and MCH(+) neurons in the embryo, which co-labeled the proliferation marker, BrdU. Ethanol also increased the genesis and density of neurons that co-expressed CCR2 and MCH in LH, with triple-labeled CCR2(+)/MCH(+)/BrdU(+) neurons that were absent in control rats accounting for 35% of newly generated neurons in ethanol-exposed rats. With both the chemokine and MCH systems believed to promote ethanol consumption, this greater density of CCR2(+)/MCH(+) neurons in the LH of preadolescent rats suggests that these systems function together in promoting alcohol drinking during adolescence.
Identification of the estrogen product of extraglandular aromatization of plasma androstenedione

Abstract The purpose of these studies was (1) to determine the duration of urine collection needed for complete excretion of radiolabeled metabolites of estrone following the infusion of ( 3 H)-estrone and ( 14 C)-androstenedione; (2) to compare the transfer constant of conversion of plasma androstenedione to plasma estrone measured from the 3 H: 14 C ratio of plasma estrone [ ϱ ] BU AE1 after four hours of tracer infusion to the [ ϱ ] BU AE1 computed from the 3 H: 14 C ratio of urinary estrone; and (3) to determine the duration of tracer infusion required to achieve steady-state conditions in the 3 H: 14 C ratio of plasma estrone when ( 3 H)-estrone and ( 14 C)-androstenedione are infused into obese and nonobese women. We found that the 3 H: 14 C ratios of urinary estrone, estradiol, and estriol are very similar when urine collections are complete and obtained for a sufficient time to allow complete excretion of both ( 3 H)-estrone metabolites and ( 14 C)-estrone metabolites. The rate of urinary excretion of the estrone metabolites is slower in obese subjects than in nonobese subjects. Four-hour infusions of ( 3 H)-estrone and ( 14 C)-androstenedione are insufficient to obtain steady-state conditions in the concentrations of plasma ( 3 H)-estrone and plasma ( 14 C)-estrone derived from infused ( 14 C)-androstenedione. The time required to reach steady-state conditions varies directly with body weight. In thin individuals, seven hours of tracer infusion may be sufficient to reach steady-state conditions when ( 3 H)-estrone and ( 14 C)-androstenedione are infused; whereas, 48 hours of infusion may be necessary to achieve these same conditions in morbidly obese individuals. When the time of infusion required to reach an equilibrium between ( 14 C)-estrone derived from infused ( 14 C)-androstenedione and ( 3 H)-estrone in plasma is analyzed as a function of body weight, a highly significant correlation (p
Two Fallacies about Copyrighting Factual Compilations

In this essay, I identify two fallacies concerning the copyrightability of factual compilations. The first is that facts cannot be copyrighted because they are not independently created. I argue that once facts are properly understood as content, rather than reality, the independent creation requirement does not stand in the way of their copyrightability.The second is the fallacy of division. This occurs when one wrongly takes what is true of a whole to be true of some or all of its constituents. An example is the assumption that if we are conscious, some or all of our cells must be conscious as well. The fallacy of division expresses itself in copyright law in the assumption that if a factual compilation is copyrightable, there must be some constituents of the compilation that are copyrightable as well. Since the individual facts out of which the compilation is composed cannot be these copyrightable constituents, courts assume that they are instead the compilation's selection and arrangement of facts. I argue that such an approach to factual compilations is incoherent. Under the pressure of analysis, selections and arrangements themselves dissolve into uncopyrightable components - the submethods out of which selections and arrangements as a whole are composed. One can consider selections and arrangements to be copyrightable only if one sets aside the fallacy of division and looks at selections and arrangements in the aggregate to determine their copyrightability, without attempting to find some component of them that is copyrightable. But once one has set aside the fallacy of division with respect to a compilation's selection and arrangement, there is no reason not to do the same with respect to its factual content. I call an approach that determines the copyrightability of a compilation by looking to the collective factual content communicated by the compilation, rather than the compilation's selection and arrangement, the collective fact approach. The collective fact approach is in keeping with the way that fictional works are treated under copyright law. Although the individual elements out of which a novel's plot, scenes, and characters are composed are unprotected, no one would say that the copyrightable part of a novel is its selection and arrangement of these elements. One determines copyrightability by looking to the collective content of the novel itself - its plot, scenes, and characters. A factual compilation, I argue, should be assessed on the basis of whether its collective factual content is copyrightable.
A Mercury Orbiter Mission

By exploring and characterizing other planetary environments, we extend and generalize the knowledge gained from terrestrial studies. Mercury provides unique particles and fields features which are unobtainable at other planets due to the constraints of sampling times and the large dimensions of other magnetospheres relative to their planetary bodies. The highly variable interaction of the solar wind and the planetary surface with the Hermean magnetosphere is discussed in this paper. Of particular interest are substorm-like events occurring on very rapid time scales (tens of seconds) at Mercury. These bursts of activity can produce intensely energetic particle impacts upon the Hermean surface. Hermean magnetospheric and exospheric observations are considered which could provide essential data necessary to formulate the next generation of theories and models for terrestrial-type magnetospheric structure and dynamics. Critical issues necessary for the understanding of the surface history, atmospheric structure, and global magnetospheric dynamics of Mercury are presented and the elements of a Mercury Orbiter mission that can attain this understanding are described.