cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Growth and maturation of a mid- to shallow-crustal intrusive complex, North Cascades, Washington

Studies of plutons indicate that they are the result of a complex interplay of magmatic processes occurring during magma generation, ascent, and emplacement. A critical tool for deciphering these processes is high-precision geochronology, which can help determine the timing and rates of magmatism in the crust. We conducted a field and U-Pb geochronological study of the Cretaceous Black Peak intrusive complex in the North Cascades of Washington State to investigate magmatism at a detailed scale and to refine estimates of plutonic construction rates. High-precision chemical abrasion–thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA-TIMS) U-Pb geochronology was carried out on 31 samples from five mapped intrusive phases. Field relations in the Black Peak intrusive complex show intrusive contacts that vary from sharp to gradational. Whole-rock Sm/Nd, zircon oxygen isotopes, and zircon trace elements were obtained on subsets of representative samples. The U-Pb geochronology from the Black Peak intrusive complex documents batholith intrusion over 4.5 m.y. and suggests that magmatism was semicontinuous for a minimum of 3.5 m.y. Individual samples display age dispersion in single-zircon dates that ranges from ∼105 yr to several 106 yr, with a general increase in the age range for younger samples. Whole-rock eNd and zircon δ18O for all Black Peak intrusive complex samples indicate that magmas were derived from mantle and crustal sources and that all magmas were isotopically homogenized prior to zircon saturation. Ti-in-zircon temperatures from zircon cores are generally above calculated zircon saturation temperatures, which suggests that most Black Peak intrusive complex magmas were zircon undersaturated in the melt source region. A range of thicknesses was considered, and a thickness of ∼10 km for the Black Peak intrusive complex gives an average intrusion rate of ∼1.1 ×10–3 km3/yr, which is high enough to sustain a magma reservoir in the shallow crust. The field evidence and long overall duration of intrusion are incompatible with the entire Black Peak intrusive complex being molten at any one time, but the larger, more compositionally homogeneous domains in the Black Peak intrusive complex are likely the solidified remnants of mushy magma bodies with ∼105 yr durations. These data suggest that the Black Peak intrusive complex may have remained “mushy” for long periods of time (105 yr) and may indicate that the spread in dates within individual samples is best interpreted as either antecrystic recycling and/or protracted autocrystic growth.
Law as a Means to an End: Instrumentalism of cause litigation

Cause litigation involves lawyers instigating legal actions to obtain decisions that further the particular agenda they support. It represents a “commitment to litigation as a tool for social change.” As one cause lawyer put it, “The law has always been an instrument of change, of course, but in recent decades it has become, through the deliberate, indeed passionate, efforts of a new breed of lawyer-activists, a favored engine of change.” “Since the early 1950s, the courts have been the most accessible and, often, the most effective instrument of government for bringing about the changes in public policy sought by social protest movements.” The attempt to change society through court rulings is among the most ambitious forms of legal instrumentalism. It utilizes litigation in a manner that was actually prohibited a century ago. The standard paradigm of litigation envisions an unresolved dispute between parties. An injury or harm has occurred and the injured person seeks the assistance of a lawyer to obtain redress against the purported wrongdoer. Litigation is a last resort. The 1908 Canons declared firmly that “It is unprofessional for a lawyer to volunteer advice to bring a lawsuit. … Stirring up strife and litigation is not only unprofessional, but it is also indictable at common law.” Stirring up strife and litigation, then known as “barratry,” is precisely what public interest litigators do in pursuit of a cause.
Shift of the Mediastinum

Shift of the mediastinum indicates an imbalance of intrathoracic pressures. The mass effect of a large pleural effusion, pneumothorax, or intrathoracic mass will shift the mediastinum away from the primary abnormality whereas collapse of a lung caused by bronchial obstruction will shift the mediastinum toward the primary abnormality.
Novel Molecular Diodes Developed by Chemical Conjugation of Carbon Nanotubes with Peptide Nucleic Acid

In this work single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)-peptide nucleic acid (PNA) conjugates are synthesized and their electrical properties are characterized. Metal contacts to SWNT-PNA-SWNT conjugates, used for current–voltage (I–V ) measurements, are fabricated by two different methods: direct placement on pre-patterned gold electrodes and metal deposition using focused ion beam (FIB). Back-gated I–V measurements are used to determine the electronic properties of these conjugates. Additionally, conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) is used to characterize the intrinsic charge transport characteristics of individual PNA clusters.
Exploratory analysis of osteoarthritis progression among medication users: data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative:

Background:We conducted an exploratory analysis of osteoarthritis progression among medication users in the Osteoarthritis Initiative to identify interventions or pathways that may be associated wi...
Synthesizing Results from Empirical Research on Computer-Based Scaffolding in STEM Education: A Meta-Analysis.

Computer-based scaffolding assists students as they generate solutions to complex problems, goals, or tasks, helping increase and integrate their higher order skills in the process. However, despite decades of research on scaffolding in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, no existing comprehensive meta-analysis has synthesized the results of these studies. This review addresses that need by synthesizing the results of 144 experimental studies (333 outcomes) on the effects of computer-based scaffolding designed to assist the full range of STEM learners (primary through adult education) as they navigated ill-structured, problem-centered curricula. Results of our random effect meta-analysis (a) indicate that computer-based scaffolding showed a consistently positive (ḡ = 0.46) effect on cognitive outcomes across various contexts of use, scaffolding characteristics, and levels of assessment and (b) shed light on many scaffolding debates, including the roles of customization (i.e., fading and adding) and context-specific support. Specifically, scaffolding's influence on cognitive outcomes did not vary on the basis of context-specificity, presence or absence of scaffolding change, and logic by which scaffolding change is implemented. Scaffolding's influence was greatest when measured at the principles level and among adult learners. Still scaffolding's effect was substantial and significantly greater than zero across all age groups and assessment levels. These results suggest that scaffolding is a highly effective intervention across levels of different characteristics and can largely be designed in many different ways while still being highly effective.
Cultural capital and habitus in context: the importance of high school college-going culture

While an extensive body of research has examined the role of cultural capital in reproducing social class inequality in educational outcomes, the role of habitus and school context has received les...
Tissue organization alters gene expression in equine induced trophectoderm cells

Rapid morphological and gene expression changes occur during the early formation of a mammalian blastocyst. Critical to successful retention of the blastocyst and pregnancy is a functional trophectoderm (TE) that supplies the developing embryo with paracrine factors and hormones. The contribution of TE conformational changes to gene expression was examined in equine induced trophoblast (iTr) cells. Equine iTr cells were cultured as monolayers or in suspension to form spheres. The spheres are hollow and structurally reminiscent of native equine blastocysts. Total RNA was isolated from iTr monolayers and spheres and analyzed by RNA sequencing. An average of 32.2 and 31million aligned reads were analyzed for the spheres and monolayers, respectively. Forty-four genes were unique to monolayers and 45 genes were expressed only in spheres. Conformation did not affect expression of CDX2, POU5F1, TEAD4, ETS2, ELF3, GATA2 or TFAP2A, the core gene network of native TE. Bioinformatic analysis was used to identify classes of genes differentially expressed in response to changes in tissue shape. In both iTr spheres and monolayers, the majority of the differentially expressed genes were associated with binding activity in cellular, developmental and metabolic processes. Inherent to protein:protein interactions, several receptor-ligand families were identified in iTr cells with enrichment of genes coding for PI3-kinase and MAPK signaling intermediates. Our results provide evidence for ligand initiated kinase signaling pathways that underlie early trophectoderm structural changes.
Behavioral comparisons in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Coordination Disorder: A systematic literature review.

Abstract Background Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) are developmental disorders that, since the DSM-5, can be diagnosed as co-occurring conditions. While some recent studies suggest that ASD and DCD have similar traits, others show clear behavioral distinctions between the two conditions. By gathering all studies that included (1) an ASD group and a DCD group, (2) an ASD + DCD group and a DCD group, or (3) ASD, ASD + DCD, and DCD groups, we aimed to identify similarities and differences in behaviors between the two disorders. Method We used a systematic search of PubMed (1946 –), Scopus (1970 –), PsycINFO (via EBSCO, 1600 –), CINAHL (via EBSCO, 1937 –), SportDiscus (via EBSCO, 1985 –), and WorldCat (via FirstSearch) in addition to reference list and author name searching PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, CINAHL, SportDiscus, and WorldCat to identify original studies that met the following criteria: (1) an ASD group and a DCD group, (2) an ASD + DCD group and a DCD group, or (3) ASD, ASD + DCD, and DCD groups. Results From the 1598 articles screened, 11 were included in the qualitative analysis. The articles included reported more differences than similarities in individuals with ASD and DCD, with clear distinctions for working memory ability, gestural performance, grip selection, and cortical thickness. Only two studies reported similarities in face processing abilities and perceived competence, and the interventional studies showed group similarities in behavior improvement, such as intelligence and attention. Conclusions Based on the articles reviewed, we conclude that while DCD and ASD share some behavioral symptoms, the symptom profiles of each disorder are unique and separable. We recommend that the evaluation of potential DCD in individuals with ASD be performed systematically and thoroughly, so as to distinguish this co-occurring condition from sensorimotor symptoms associated with ASD.
Reactivity Comparison of Primary Aromatic Amines and Thiols in E–H Insertion Reactions with Diazoacetates Catalyzed by Iridium(III) Tetratolylporphyrin

A detailed kinetic study is described for the insertion of carbenes from methyl diazoacetate into the N–H bond of aniline, using Ir(TTP)CH3 (TTP = tetratolylporphyrinato) as a catalyst. Aniline strongly coordinates to the Ir center with a binding constant of K = (2.5 ± 0.5) × 104 at 296 K, forming an inactive hexacoordinate complex, (aniline)Ir(TTP)CH3. The rate of N–H insertion is first order in both diazo ester and catalyst. When the true amount of active, five-coordinate Ir(TTP)CH3 is taken into account, the insertion rate is found to be independent of the aniline concentration. This indicates that the rate-limiting step in the catalytic cycle occurs prior to the nucleophilic attack of aniline on an Ir carbene complex to generate a coordinated ylide. Thus, with N–H insertion catalyzed by Ir(TTP)CH3, aniline is both a strong ligand and a potent nucleophile. This is in contrast to the analogous catalytic insertion of carbenes into S–H bonds. p-Toluenethiol is a more weakly binding ligand toward Ir(TTP)CH...
Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia cells devoid of BTK C481S or CXCR4 WHIM-like mutations acquire resistance to ibrutinib through upregulation of Bcl-2 and AKT resulting in vulnerability towards venetoclax or MK2206 treatment

Although ibrutinib is highly effective in Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM), no complete remissions in WM patients treated with ibrutinib have been reported to date. Moreover, ibrutinib-resistant disease is being steadily reported and is associated with dismal clinical outcome (overall survival of 2.9–3.1 months). To understand mechanisms of ibrutinib resistance in WM, we established ibrutinib-resistant in vitro models using validated WM cell lines. Characterization of these models revealed the absence of BTKC481S and CXCR4WHIM-like mutations. BTK-mediated signaling was found to be highly attenuated accompanied by a shift in PI3K/AKT and apoptosis regulation-associated genes/proteins. Cytotoxicity studies using the AKT inhibitor, MK2206±ibrutinib, and the Bcl-2-specific inhibitor, venetoclax±ibrutinib, demonstrated synergistic loss of cell viability when either MK22016 or venetoclax were used in combination with ibrutinib. Our findings demonstrate that induction of ibrutinib resistance in WM cells can arise independent of BTKC481S and CXCR4WHIM-like mutations and sustained pressure from ibrutinib appears to activate compensatory AKT signaling as well as reshuffling of Bcl-2 family proteins for maintenance of cell survival. Combination treatment demonstrated greater (and synergistic) antitumor effect and provides rationale for development of therapeutic strategies encompassing venetoclax+ibrutinib or PI3K/AKT inhibitors+ibrutinib in ibrutinib-resistant WM.
Plasma exchange for the management of refractory pruritus of cholestasis: A report of three cases and review of literature

Background Intractable pruritus of cholestasis leads to significant morbidity. Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) has been shown to be an effective alternative in the setting of refractory pruritus associated with cholestatic liver disease based on several individual reports. Due to rarity of this approach to intractable pruritus, the literature is sparse and therefore TPE, as a treatment for refractory pruritus is currently not in the apheresis guidelines. We present three additional patients with severe intractable pruritus of cholestasis successfully treated with plasma exchange to add to the mounting literature showing this as an effective and safe adjunctive therapy. Methods Three patients underwent serial plasma exchange procedures to control pruritus. Frequency of plasma exchange was three times a week, with slow taper upon improvement of pruritus. Total bile acid levels were assessed before procedures. Results All three patients had an intractable pruritus with different underlying etiologies of cholestasis. All three patients showed significant improvement in pruritus, with none or minimal pruritus in one patient with primary biliary cirrhosis. Pre procedure bile acids levels were decreased initially, but showed rebound increase upon tapering of plasma exchange, without increased pruritus. No serious side effects or complications were observed. Conclusion Our results in conjunction with the published literature show that severe and intractable pruritus associated with cholestasis could be successfully treated with TPE, irrespective of the underlying disease, and can be done safely.
Confirmatory Factor Analyses of the WISC-IV Spanish Core and Supplemental Subtests: Validation Evidence of the Wechsler and CHC Models.

ABSTRACTThe present study examined the factor structure of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition, Spanish (WISC–IV Spanish, Wechsler, 2005a) with normative sample participants...
Neuromyelitis Optica Presenting with Bilateral Optic Neuritis

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) can present in pediatric patients as isolated optic neuritis. This chapter reviews the case of a 7-year-old girl with sequential vision loss in her left and right eye, respectively, over a 3-month period. Her cerebrospinal fluid tested positive for aquaporin-4 (AQP4)-IgG antibody, and she was diagnosed with NMOSD. Current NMOSD therapies include rituximab, azathioprine, and mycophenolate mofetil. The majority of patients with NMOSD with optic neuritis experience some long-term vision loss.
Functional Impact of Congenital Hand Differences: Early Results From the Congenital Upper Limb Differences (CoULD) Registry

Purpose To characterize the functional, emotional, and social impact of congenital upper limb differences on affected children and families before treatment, using validated functional outcome instruments. Methods From June 2014 to March 2016, 586 children with congenital upper limb differences from 2 pediatric hospitals were enrolled in the Congenital Upper Limb Differences registry. Demographic, clinical, and radiographic data were collected, and diagnoses categorized according to the Oberg-Manske-Tonkin classification. Functional outcomes were assessed in 301 patients using the Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI) and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) upper extremity (UE) function, pain, anxiety, depression, and peer relationships modules. Results The cohort had high median PODCI scores in all domains, ranging from 83 to 100 in children and adolescents. Patients had decreased PROMIS UE scores compared with population norms; however, they showed low scores for pain, anxiety, depression and higher scores in the peer relationship domain, respectively. Patients with entire limb involvement had higher PROMIS pain scores and lower PODCI UE and global functioning than those with differences limited only to the hand. Compared with those with bilateral involvement, patients with unilateral differences reported higher scores for PODCI sports global functioning, better PROMIS UE function, and lower pain scores. Additional orthopedic conditions and medical comorbidities negatively influenced all PODCI scores and PROMIS pain and UE function domains. Conclusions Children with congenital hand differences report decreased upper limb function but better peer relationships and positive emotional states compared with population norms. Clinical relevance The Congenital Upper Limb Differences registry is a valid source of information related to congenital upper limb differences in clinical practice. With continuous enrollment and longitudinal follow-up, the registry will increase the understanding of UE function and psychosocial aspects of health in pediatric population.
Early Childhood Teachers Finding Voice among Peers: A Reflection on Practice

This reflective narrative explores the voices of two participants in the Early Childhood Professional Mentoring Group (ECPMG), created in response to our graduates’ concerns about their lack of sup...
Treatment of the Repetitive Criminal Sex Offender: United States

Designation of a specific subclass of sex offenders as ‘repetitive’ derives from sexual psychopath legislation that has sought, over the past half of the twentieth century, to confine sex offenders for indeterminate periods under civil commitment. In response to horrendous crimes committed by a few sex offenders recently released from prison, states passed a series of laws providing for the involuntary, civil commitment of individuals identified as ‘sexually dangerous persons,’ ‘sexual psychopaths,’ or ‘mentally disordered sex offenders.’ Thirty states passed such laws, but over time they fell into disuse or were successfully challenged in court and most were legislatively repealed. In 1990, however, a sex offender recently released from a prison in Washington state abducted, raped, and castrated a 7 year old boy. An outraged public demanded a response, and involuntary commitment was resurrected. The legality of the Washington statute, as well as other similar laws, were immediately challenged, and a Kansas statute, identical to Washington's statute, reached the United States Supreme Court.
Democratic skepticism and support for terrorism in the Palestinian Territories

Research has found that, among other factors, skepticism about democracy and its suitability as a form of government helps to drive public support for violent extremism in the Muslim World. According to scholars, Muslim skeptics of democracy resent it as the product of Western political and cultural intrusion and reflexively support violent extremism as an expression of cultural resistance. Using public opinion data on support for various forms of terrorism among survey respondents in the Palestinian Territories, I find evidence for a more complex explanation. Respondents that support terrorism are indeed more likely to be skeptical of democracy because they regard it to be incompatible with Islam. However, terrorism supporters also reject democratic rule because they associate it with poor economic performance. The results suggest that democratic skepticism is associated with support for terrorism in Muslim societies, but point to both religious-cultural and socioeconomic factors as important components of the relationship.
Human Factors and Ergonomics in Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice Research

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Diversity Committee is entering its second year and continuing to explore ways to increase the diversity of the society. Following last year’s panel on “Cha...
Recent invasion of P transposable element into Drosophila yakuba

ABSTRACT Transposable elements (TEs) are self-replicating genetic units that are common across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. They have been implicated in the origin of new molecular functions and in some cases, new phenotypes. Yet, the processes that lead to their evolution and how they enter the genome of their hosts remain largely underexplored. The P-element is one of the most well-known TEs in Eukaryotes, due to its rapid expansion in Drosophila melanogaster in the 1960s and its faster invasion of D. simulans, despite its fitness consequences in both species. Here, we describe a recent invasion of P-elements into Drosophila yakuba. Overall, PEs were found in D. yakuba with no PEs detected across its sister species, D. teissieri and D. santomea. These findings are surprising due the lack of a genetic bridge between D. yakuba and other Drosophila that harbor PEs, implicating a horizontal gene transfer mechanism similar to the one that gave rise to the invasion of PEs in D. melanogaster and D. simulans. We also report that the presence of these PEs causes a mild hybrid dysgenesis phenomenon; namely they cause a reduction in female reproductive potential (lower number of ovaries and ovarioles), but only at 29°C and not at 23°C. Given the ability of PEs to cross species boundaries and the fact that both D. santomea and D. teissieri have the ability to produce fertile progeny with D. yakuba, the yakuba species complex provides an opportunity to study PE spread through vertical transmission. ARTICLE SUMMARY P-elements (PEs) are transposons found in Neotropical Drosophila species. PEs have previously invaded two African Drosophila species where they rapidly increased in population frequency and fixed. We found that PEs invaded the genome of D. yakuba, an African species. In just 8 years, the frequency of the PEs increased from 0% to 18% but then decreased to 2%. This turnover shows that PE invasions can be transient. We found no evidence of full PEs in D. yakuba’ sister species, D. santomea and D. teissieri. PEs in this species complex can reveal the interplay between transposable elements and hybridization in nature.
Disability and World Religions: An Introduction By Darla Y. Schumm and Michael Stoltzfus 2016 Baylor University Press Waco, Texas 258 pp. Hardcover, ISBN: 9781481305211

Featuring essays based on nine rather dramatically different religious belief systems and/or denominations by nine different specialists, Disability and World Religions gathers an impressive array ...
Looking closely and listening carefully: A sociocultural approach to understanding the complexity of Latina/o/x students’ everyday language

ABSTRACTThe definitions of “academic language” available to teachers and teacher educators often invoke generalized assumptions about the supposed gap between complex, discipline-specific forms of ...
History and Theoretical Understanding of Bystander Intervention

This chapter begins with a brief history of sexual violence prevention and how this history has paved the way for bystander intervention as a method for the prevention of sexual violence. As bystander intervention gains traction, especially among prevention programs for college students, there is increasing evaluation of these programs. This chapter explores the efficacy of bystander intervention as well as examining the limitations. Studies examining bystander intervention programs and research evaluating these programs will be used to identify the efficacy and limitations. Lastly, this chapter recommends ideas for how the field of bystander intervention can become more effective through integration of multidisciplinary theory.
Investigation of Error Simulation Techniques for Learning Dialog Policies for Conversational Error Recovery

Training dialog policies for speech-based virtual assistants requires a plethora of conversational data. The data collection phase is often expensive and time consuming due to human involvement. To address this issue, a common solution is to build user simulators for data generation. For the successful deployment of the trained policies into real world domains, it is vital that the user simulator mimics realistic conditions. In particular, speech-based assistants are heavily affected by automatic speech recognition and language understanding errors, hence the user simulator should be able to simulate similar errors. In this paper, we review the existing error simulation methods that induce errors at audio, phoneme, text, or semantic level; and conduct detailed comparisons between the audio-level and text-level methods. In the process, we improve the existing text-level method by introducing confidence score prediction and out-of-vocabulary word mapping. We also explore the impact of audio-level and text-level methods on learning a simple clarification dialog policy to recover from errors to provide insight on future improvement for both approaches.
Cellular Proto-Oncogene Expression Following Exposure of Mice to γ Rays

Many studies have shown the importance of altered cellular proto-oncogene expression in contributing to changes in cell survival, cell transformation, and cell cycle progression. In these experiments we examined the effects of total-body exposure of BCF1 mice to gamma rays (3 Gy) in modulating expression of cellular oncogenes in both gut and liver tissues. We selected specific cellular oncogenes (c-fos, c-myc, c-src, and c-H-ras), based on their normal expression in liver and gut tissues from untreated mice. As early as 5 min following whole-body exposure of BCF1 mice to gamma rays we detected induction of mRNA specific for c-src and c-H-ras in both liver and gut tissues. Accumulation of c-fos-RNA was slightly decreased in gut but was unaffected in liver tissue from irradiated mice relative to untreated controls. Accumulation of c-myc mRNA was unaffected in all tissues examined. These experiments document that modulation of cellular proto-oncogene expression can occur as an early event in tissues following irradiation and suggest that this modulation may play a role in radiation-induced cellular changes.
Mergers and Acquisitions, Local Labor Market Concentration, and Worker Outcomes

Thousands of establishments employing millions of workers change ownership each year, sometimes leading to large changes in local labor market concentration that potentially increase labor market power. Using matched employer-employee data from the U.S., this paper estimates the direct and indirect effects of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and resulting local labor market concentration changes on worker outcomes. To measure local concentration, I derive an index of concentration that uses job-to-job mobility patterns to incorporate information on substitutability across industries. Causal effects are estimated using a matched difference-in-differences design and cross-sectional variation in the predicted impacts of M&As on local concentration. In mergers that have little impact on local labor market concentration, annual earnings for workers in M&A firms remain stable after the ownership change. In sharp contrast, earnings fall by 2 percent for M&A workers in mergers that increase local labor market concentration, with the largest effects in already concentrated markets. These patterns are similar in tradable industries, suggesting the effects are not driven by changes in product market power. Mergers generating the largest concentration changes also generate negative spillovers on other firms in the same labor market, with an implied elasticity of earnings with respect to local concentration equal to -0.22. Viewed through the lens of a standard Cournot model, the results imply local concentration depresses wages by about 4-5 percent relative to a fully competitive benchmark.
Information Sources, Early-Career Worker Activities, and Workplace Learning in Large Technology Organizations: Developing a New Framework for the Future of Work.

This paper introduces an initial stage of theory-building on information sources and how people navigate the evolving workplace. The purpose of this research is two-fold. First, this work aims to build a useful theoretical framework needed to better understand how workers navigate in an environment where new sets of information sources and materials produce new kinds of worker activities. Second, information behavior has been understood in isolation from its workplace landscape, and relevant theories have contributed very little to the growing research domain around the future of work. By empirically testing a designed framework, this study aims to provide a useful theory. The author uses Lloyd’s [1] conceptualization of information sources in the workplace, and Marsick’s [2] workplace learning theory to construct a combined framework. This framework is being tested through an initial set of data gathered from interviews with eight young, early-career workers from marketing sectors in media and technology companies. By analyzing how early-career professionals navigate their information landscape, this initial study seeks to understand how the increasingly nuanced variations of information sources may interact with workplace activities. This paper shares initial preliminary findings and presents a plan to move forward with its research agenda.
A software tool for human-robot shared-workspace collaboration with task precedence constraints

Abstract A key challenge in human-robot shared workspace is defining the decision criterion to select the next task for a fluent, efficient and safe collaboration. While working with robots in an industrial environment, tasks may comply with precedence constraints to be executed. A typical example of precedence constraint in industry occurs at an assembly station when the human cannot perform a task before the robot ends on its own. This paper presents a methodology based on the Maximum Entropy Inverse Optimal Control for the identification of a probability distribution over the human goals, packed into a software tool for human-robot shared-workspace collaboration. The software analyzes the human goal and the goal precedence constraints, and it is able to identify the best robot goal along with the relative motion plan. The approach used is, an algorithm for the management of goal precedence constraints and the Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) for the selection of the next robot action. A comparison study with 15 participants was carried out in a real world assembly station. The experiment focused on evaluating the task fluency, the task efficiency and the human satisfaction. The presented model displayed reduction in robot idle time and increased human satisfaction.
Multiple decrement life tables of Cephus cinctus Norton (Hymenoptera: Cephidae) across a set of barley cultivars: The importance of plant defense versus cannibalism

Accurately estimating cause-specific mortality for immature insect herbivores is usually difficult. The insects are exposed to abiotic and biotic mortality factors, causing cadavers to simply disappear before cause of mortality can be recorded. Also, insect herbivores are often highly mobile on hosts, making it difficult to follow patterns for individuals through time. In contrast, the wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Norton, spends its entire egg, larval, and pupal period inside a host stem. Therefore, with periodic sampling stage-specific causes of mortality can be ascertained. Consequently, we examined C. cinctus mortality in eight barley, Hordeum vulgare L., cultivars in two locations in Montana from 2016 to 2018 by collecting stem samples from stem elongation to crop maturity at weekly intervals, and collecting overwintered barley stubs the following spring and summer from the same plots. If larvae were present, we examined larval status—dead or alive—and categorized dead individuals into one of 5 mortality categories: plant defense, cannibalism, parasitism, pathogens, and unknown factors. We used multiple decrement life tables to estimate cause-specific mortality and irreplaceable mortality (the proportion of mortality from a given cause that cannot be replaced by other causes of mortality). Plant defense (antibiosis) caused 85.7 ± 3.6%, cannibalism (governed by antixenosis) caused 70.1 ± 7.6%, parasitism caused 13.8 ± 5.9%, unknown factors caused 38.5 ± 7.6%, and pathogens caused 14.7 ± 8.5% mortality in the presence of all causes of mortality. Similarly, irreplaceable mortality due to plant defense was 22.3 ± 6.4%, cannibalism was 29.1± 4.2%, unknown factors was 6.2 ± 1.8%, pathogens was 0.9 ± 0.5%, and parasitism was 1. 5 ± 0. 6%. Antibiosis traits primarily killed newly emerged larvae, while other traits supported more favorable oviposition decisions by females, increasing mortality by obligate cannibalism. Our results suggest that breeding barley for resistance to C. cinctus targeting both categories of traits (antibiosis and antixenosis) is a highly valuable tactic for management of this important pest.
Transit-amplifying cells coordinate changes in intestinal epithelial cell-type composition

Abstract Renewing tissues have the remarkable ability to continually produce both proliferative progenitor and specialized differentiated cell-types. How are complex milieus of microenvironmental signals interpreted to coordinate tissue cell-type composition? Here, we develop a high-throughput approach that combines organoid technology and quantitative imaging to address this question in the context of the intestinal epithelium. Using this approach, we comprehensively survey enteroid responses to individual and paired perturbations to eight epithelial signaling pathways. We uncover culture conditions that enrich for specific cell-types, including Lgr5+ stem and enteroendocrine cells. We analyze interactions between perturbations and dissect mechanisms underlying an unexpected mutual antagonism between EGFR and IL-4 signals. Finally, we show that, across diverse perturbations, modulating proliferation of transit-amplifying cells also consistently changes the composition of differentiated secretory and absorptive cell-types. This property is conserved in vivo and can arise from differential amplification of secretory and absorptive progenitor cells. Taken together, the observations highlight an underappreciated role for transit-amplifying cells in which proliferation of these short-lived progenitors provides a lineage-based mechanism for tuning differentiated cell-type composition.
The periodontal senior case clinical challenge: Students' opinions of a formative virtual assessment during the COVID-19 emergency.

INTRODUCTION: Due to COVID-19, innovative, virtual educational methods are being developed to provide students with learning experiences comparable to established clinical practices. Our objective was to produce the Periodontal Senior Case Clinical Challenge (PSCCC) that would provide fourth-year students an alternative for senior case presentations and would be a formative assessment for which student opinions would be provided and analysed. The PSCCC would utilise an online, case-based, written, clinical assessment and follow-up, structured discussion to challenge students to demonstrate ability to apply didactic periodontal knowledge to patient-based experiences. We hypothesised the PSCCC would provide effective learning and a formative assessment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Relevant didactic resources were distributed to 48 students for independent review. The PSCCC was delivered in two sections, (1) a case-based assessment via a virtual classroom with written student responses, and (2) oral discussions conducted via virtual meetings that were moderated and assessed by ten periodontists, with the collaboration of nine residents. A voluntary six-statement survey was used to evaluate the students' opinions of the PSCCC. The scores for 75% (36/48) of students who participated were evaluated for statistical and clinical importance. RESULTS: The value of our PSCCC was supported by 91.7% (33/36) of the analyses (p < .0008). DISCUSSION: The PSCCC was a successful alternative pathway to assess students' clinical and didactic integrated knowledge in periodontics. It provided a unified vision of treatment of the selected case, building on all aspects of the students' periodontal education whilst allowing interaction in a simultaneous, three-tiered educational approach, involving dental students, periodontal residents and faculty. CONCLUSION: In support of our hypothesis, for each of the 6 statements, ≥94.44% (34/36) of the scores given by the students were considered exceptionally strong clinical support for our pedagogical strategy that combines educational resources and can be successfully implemented in other programmes.
The dark side of daylight: photoaging and the tumor microenvironment in melanoma progression

Continued thinning of the atmospheric ozone, which protects the earth from damaging ultraviolet radiation (UVR), will result in elevated levels of UVR reaching the earth's surface, leading to a drastic increase in the incidence of skin cancer. In addition to promoting carcinogenesis in skin cells, UVR is a potent extrinsic driver of age-related changes in the skin known as "photoaging." We are in the preliminary stages of understanding of the role of intrinsic aging in melanoma, and the tumor-permissive effects of photoaging on the skin microenvironment remain largely unexplored. In this Review, we provide an overview of the impact of UVR on the skin microenvironment, addressing changes that converge or diverge with those observed in intrinsic aging. Intrinsic and extrinsic aging promote phenotypic changes to skin cell populations that alter fundamental processes such as melanogenesis, extracellular matrix deposition, inflammation, and immune response. Given the relevance of these processes in cancer, we discuss how photoaging might render the skin microenvironment permissive to melanoma progression.
A Bayesian model to estimate land surface phenology parameters with harmonized Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 images

Abstract We develop a Bayesian Land Surface Phenology (LSP) model and examine its performance using Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) observations derived from the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) dataset. Building on previous work, we propose a double logistic function that, once couched within a Bayesian model, yields posterior distributions for all LSP parameters. We assess the efficacy of the Normal, Truncated Normal, and Beta likelihoods to deliver robust LSP parameter estimates. Three case studies are presented and used to explore aspects of the proposed model. The first case study, conducted over forested pixels within an HLS tile, explores choice of likelihood and space-time varying HLS data availability for long-term average LSP parameter point and uncertainty estimation. The second case study, conducted over the same pixels using only 2018 data, compares annual LSP parameter estimates from our proposed models with those generated using methods described in Bolton et al. (2020). The third case study, conducted on a small area of interest within the HLS tile on an annual time-step (2014–2019), further examines the impact of sample size and choice of likelihood on annual LSP parameter estimates in addition to assessing potential for the proposed models to inform LSP change detection analysis. Results indicate that while the Truncated Normal and Beta likelihoods are theoretically preferable when the vegetation index is bounded, all three likelihoods performed similarly when the number of index observations is sufficiently large and values are not near the index bounds. The case studies demonstrate how pixel-level LSP parameter posterior distributions can be used to propagate uncertainty through subsequent analysis. As a companion to this article, we provide an open-source R package rsBayes and supplementary data and code used to reproduce the analysis results. The proposed model specification and software implementation delivers computationally efficient, statistically robust, and inferentially rich LSP parameter posterior distributions at the pixel-level across massive raster time series datasets. Modeling functions in the rsBayes package and supplementary code sections are threaded, allowing for the use of multiple processing cores to further speed up model fitting for massive datasets. Using a 64 CPU workstation, the first case study analysis took ~3 days to run using the Beta likelihood model. However, processing time decreases linearly as the number of CPU cores increases. We expect that run times for this LSP modeling approach will decrease substantially as the power of new computing systems increases over time.
Effect of collagen and EPS components on the viscoelasticity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes thousands of deaths every year in part due to its ability to form biofilms composed of bacteria embedded in a matrix of self-secreted extracellular polysaccharides (EPS), e-DNA, and proteins. In chronic wounds, biofilms are exposed to the host extracellular matrix, of which collagen is a major component. How bacterial EPS interacts with host collagen and whether this interaction affects biofilm viscoelasticity is not well understood. Since physical disruption of biofilms is often used in their removal, knowledge of collagen's effects on biofilm viscoelasticity may enable new treatment strategies that are better tuned to biofilms growing in host environments. In this work, biofilms are grown in the presence of different concentrations of collagen that mimic in vivo conditions. In order to explore collagen's interaction with EPS, nine strains of P. aeruginosa with different patterns of EPS production were used to grow biofilms. Particle tracking microrheology was used to characterize the mechanical development of biofilms over two days. Collagen is found to decrease biofilm compliance and increase relative elasticity regardless of the EPS present in the system. However, this effect is minimized when biofilms overproduce EPS. Collagen appears to become a de facto component of the EPS, through binding to bacteria or physical entanglement.
The cognitive, affective and somatic empathy scales for adults

Abstract The Cognitive, Affective and Somatic Empathy Scales (CASES) assess three forms of empathy, each with subscales for positive and negative empathy. The present study extends this child instrument to adults and examines its factor structure and construct validity. A secondary aim is to investigate the under-researched area of positive empathy. Community samples totaling 2604 adults completed the CASES for adults, together with scales assessing construct validity. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor cognitive-affective-somatic model and a two-factor positive-negative empathy model. Findings were replicated in a second independent sample. Internal reliabilities ranged from 0.80 to 0.92. Individuals with higher psychopathy and stimulation-seeking scores were less impaired in their empathic reactions to positive relative to negative valence events, suggesting that they are relatively capable of responding emotionally to rewarding events. Somatic empathy was most strongly associated with pleasure in affective touch and with female > male gender differences in empathy. While proactive aggression was associated with reduced cognitive and affective empathy, reactive aggression was associated with increased empathy. Findings provide initial support for the utility of CASES for assessing different forms of empathy and suggest that the balance between positive and negative empathy could provide new insights into psychological traits.
Amnis: Optimized stream processing for edge computing

Abstract The proliferation of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices is rapidly increasing the demands for efficient processing of low latency stream data generated close to the edge of the network. Edge computing-based stream processing techniques that carefully consider the heterogeneity of the computational and network resources available in the infrastructure provide significant benefits in optimizing the throughput and end-to-end latency of the data streams. In this paper, we propose a novel stream query processing framework called Amnis that optimizes the performance of the stream processing applications through a careful allocation of computational and network resources available at the edge. The Amnis approach differentiates itself through its consideration of data locality and resource constraints during physical plan generation and operator placement for the stream queries. Additionally, Amnis considers the coflow dependencies to optimize the network resource allocation through an application-level rate control mechanism. We implement a prototype of Amnis in Apache Storm. Our performance evaluation carried out in a real testbed shows that the proposed techniques achieve as much as 200X improvement on the end-to-end latency and 10X improvement on the overall throughput compared to the default resource aware scheduler in Storm.
Duodenal Stump Blowout

Duodenal stump blowout, while much less common than in previous decades due to a marked reduction in the number of gastrectomies performed, continues to be one of the most dreaded complications following gastric resection. Although mortality following stump blowout has improved substantially since the dismal rates of the 1950s, this devastating complication remains a contemporary concern. In situations where stump blowout nonetheless occurs, rapid diagnosis and intervention are essential in minimizing associated morbidity for the patient. Because of this, prevention and management of stump blowout remains a clinically important consideration for the general surgeon and surgical oncologist performing gastrointestinal surgery.
Joint Problem Solving

In their book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981) Roger Fisher and William Ury contend that effective negotiators are those who can convert competitive bargaining into joint problem solving. The search for mutually beneficial outcomes is, in their view, the key to success.