cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Electronic Textbooks and Data Mining (invited paper)

Education is known to be the key determinant of economic growth and prosperity [8,12]. While the issues in devising a high-quality educational system are multi-faceted and complex, textbooks are acknowledged to be the educational input most consistently associated with gains in student learning [11]. They are the primary conduits for delivering content knowledge to the students and the teachers base their lesson plans primarily on the material given in textbooks [7]. With the emergence of abundant online content, cloud computing, and electronic reading devices, textbooks are poised for transformative changes. Notwithstanding understandable misgivings (e.g. Gutenberg Elegies [6]), textbooks cannot escape what Walter Ong calls ‘the technologizing of the word’ [9]. The electronic format comes naturally to the current generation of ‘digital natives’ [10]. Inspired by the emergence of this new medium for “printing” and “distributing” textbooks, we present our early explorations into developing a data mining based approach for enhancing the quality of electronic textbooks. Speciﬁcally, we ﬁrst describe a diagnostic tool for authors and educators to algorithmically identify deﬁciencies in textbooks. We then discuss techniques for algorithmically augmenting different sections of a book with links to selective content mined from the Web. Our tool for diagnosing deﬁciencies consists of two components. Abstracting from the education literature, we identify the following properties of good textbooks: (1) Focus : Each section explains few concepts, (2) Unity: For every concept, there is a unique section that best explains the concept, and (3) Sequentiality: Concepts are discussed in a sequential fashion so that a concept is explained prior to occurrences of this concept or any related concept. Further, the tie for precedence in presentation between two mutually related concepts is broken in favor of the more signiﬁcant of the two. The ﬁrst component provides an assessment of the extent to which these properties are followed in a textbook and quantiﬁes the comprehension load that a textbook imposes on the reader due to non-sequential presentation of concepts [1,2]. The second component identiﬁes sections that are not written well and can beneﬁt from further exposition. We propose a probabilistic decision model for this purpose, which is based on the syntactic complexity of writing and the notion of the dispersion of key concepts mentioned in the section [4]. For augmenting a section of a textbook, we ﬁrstidentifythe set of key concept phrases contained in a section. Using these phrases, we ﬁnd web articles that represent the central concepts presented in the section and endow the section with links to them [5]. We also describe techniques for ﬁnding images that are most relevant toa section of the textbook, while respecting the constraint that the same image is not repeated indifferent sections of the same chapter. We pose this problem of matching images to sections in a textbook chapter as an optimization problem and present an efﬁcient algorithm for solving it [3].
Carbon Electrode Surface Chemistry

The utility of electroanalytical probes for in vivo monitoring of neurotransmitters is derived principally from the small size and high sensitivity of microelectrodes. The high sensitivity of voltammetry compared to optical or magnetic resonance techniques derives from the ability to measure small currents, since a relatively easily measured 1 pA corresponds to -lo-l7 mol/s of an electroactive molecule. An analytical probe with dimensions of a few micrometers has major advantages in spatial and temporal resolution over a technique requiring extraction or preconcentration of the target molecule from tissue. The ability of a microvoltammetric electrode to detect neurotransmitters in vivo depends not only on sensitivity (signal per unit of neurotransmitter concentration), but also on discrimination of a small analytical signal on top of an often large background from electrode capacitance and/or interfering species in the tissue. Although voltammetry is extraordinarily sensitive, it is not particularly selective and is often hampered by background currents. The success of techniques for in vivo voltammetry thus depends on methods for maintaining or enhancing sensitivity while suppressing interferences. These characteristics are in turn controlled by electrode surface chemistry, since the
Hemophilia: An Affinity for Blood

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was first reported in hemophiliacs in early 1982, and it was suspected that blood products were the source because of similarities to infection caused by blood-borne hepatitis viruses in the 1970s. In addition to those with AIDS, other apparently healthy hemophilic men and boys, especially those using concentrates, had decreases in their CD4 T cells. Because it was unclear if the disorder was more serious than hepatitis, the National Hemophilia Foundation encouraged hemophiliacs to continue infusing concentrates but advised manufacturers to exclude persons at high risk for AIDS from the pool of concentrate donors. However, as the number of people with AIDS increased, hemophiliacs attempted to obtain alternative blood products, such as cryoprecipitate. These efforts were mostly unsuccessful because blood banks considered cryoprecipitate inconvenient to prepare and store. At a meeting in 1983, the consensus of blood bankers and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was that there should be no mandatory recall of concentrate even if it had been prepared with plasma from a donor subsequently found to have AIDS.
Test-Retest Reliability of Common Behavioral Decision Making Tasks.

Objective To examine test-retest reliability of common behavioral decision making tasks. Method A total of 98 undergraduate students completed two administrations of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), Columbia Card Task (CCT), and Game of Dice Task (GDT), three weeks apart. Results The BART, CCT, and GDT showed moderately strong correlations across time. On the IGT, no correlations were seen between Time 1 Trials 1-40 and Time 2 performance; however, weak correlations were observed between Time 1 Trials 41-100 and Time 2 performance. Paired-samples t-tests indicated participants were riskier at Time 1 than Time 2 on the IGT and GDT, but riskier at Time 2 on the BART. Conclusions The BART, CCT, and GDT showed moderate test-retest reliability, with the IGT showing weak reliability during the decision making under risk trials only. Implications for repeated test administration in clinical and non-clinical settings are discussed.
A top box analysis of DinEX to optimize restaurant resources

ABSTRACTThis study examined the relative perceived importance of the various dimensions of the restaurant experience, as captured by DinEX. Over 1,000 U.S. restaurant patrons provided perceived importance ratings of six DinEX dimensions as they related to their most recent dining experience across a variety of meal periods and restaurant categories. To make comparisons, an innovative approach to analyzing top box data was utilized. The results indicate significant differences exist across each of the DinEX dimensions, with food quality emerging as the top concern of restaurant patrons. The results of the study offer valuable guidance to the restaurateur in terms of the distinct ordering of experience dimensions that were observed, as well as the straightforward methodology demonstrated for monitoring and evaluating customers’ importance perceptions.
Does Education Level Mitigate the Effect of Poverty on Total Knee Arthroplasty Outcomes

OBJECTIVE Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) outcomes are worse for patients from poor neighborhoods, but whether education mitigates the effect of poverty is not known. We assessed the interaction between education and poverty on 2-year Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain and function. METHODS Patient-level variables from an institutional registry were linked to US Census Bureau data (census tract [CT] level). Statistical models including patient and CT-level variables were constructed within multilevel frameworks. Linear mixed-effects models with separate random intercepts for each CT were used to assess the interaction between education and poverty at the individual and community level on WOMAC scores. RESULTS Of 3,970 TKA patients, 2,438 (61%) had some college or more. Having no college was associated with worse pain and function at baseline and 2 years (P = 0.0001). Living in a poor neighborhood (>20% below poverty line) was associated with worse 2-year pain (P = 0.02) and function (P = 0.006). There was a strong interaction between individual education and community poverty with WOMAC scores at 2 years. Patients without college living in poor communities had pain scores that were ~10 points worse than those with some college (83.4% versus 75.7%; P < 0.0001); in wealthy communities, college was associated with a 1-point difference in pain. Function was similar. CONCLUSION In poor communities, those without college attain 2-year WOMAC scores that are 10 points worse than those with some college; education has no impact on TKA outcomes in wealthy communities. How education protects those in impoverished communities warrants further study.
Longevity of visual improvements following transcorneal electrical stimulation and efficacy of retreatment in three individuals with retinitis pigmentosa

A small-scale randomized controlled trial conducted by our group found that four of seven retinitis pigmentosa (RP) subjects who received six weekly Transcorneal Electrical Stimulation (TES) sessions developed significant improvements in visual acuity (VA), quick contrast sensitivity function (qCSF), and/or Goldmann visual fields (GVF). We longitudinally monitored three of these participants for declining visual function due to natural RP progression to determine the duration of their responses and administered retreatments. Over a period of 29–35 months, repeated ETDRS VA, qCSF and/or GVF tests and three to six TES treatment courses consisting of six weekly sessions were administered in each eye of three RP participants every four to 16 months in an unmasked, prospective case series study. For two participants, there were significant VA improvements of 44–52 letters (0.88–1.04 logMAR) and 15–23 letters (0.3–0.46 logMAR) in the worse eye at baseline after each of three or four treatment courses of TES compared to initial baseline. They had no significant decreases from baseline for VA or qCSF over 29 to 35 months, The third participant had a significant mean improvement in VA in the eye with better baseline vision (p = 0.004) and binocularly (p < 0.001) following six treatment courses over the 29-month period. For the first two participants, mean annual rates of GVF change for each eye ranged from −5% to 0% with the V4e stimulus, and −26% to +33% the III4e stimulus. The third participant’s mean annual GVF changes were +14 to +35%, with a statistically significant improvement across 29 months for both the V4e and III4e stimuli in the right eye (p = 0.045; p = 0.015) and the V4e stimulus in the left eye (p = 0.047). Following encouraging visual improvements after TES that lasted for several months, it appears it may be possible to restore and prevent slowly diminishing vision over time with retreatments, which requires confirmation in a large-scale randomized controlled trial.
Trachea Mechanics for Tissue Engineering Design

Trachea replacement for nonoperable defects remains an unsolved problem due to complications with stenosis and mechanical insufficiency. While native trachea has anisotropic mechanical properties, the vast majority of engineered constructs focus on uniform cartilaginous-like conduits. These conduits often lack quantitative mechanical analysis at the construct level, which limits analysis of functional outcomes in vivo, as well as comparisons across studies. This review aims to present a clear picture of native tracheal mechanics at the tissue and organ level, as well as loading conditions to establish design criteria for trachea replacements. We further explore the implications of failing to match native properties with regards to implant collapse, stenosis, and infection.
An analytical approach to single scattering for anisotropic media and light distributions

Despite their numerous applications, efficiently rendering participating media remains a challenging task due to the intricacy of the radiative transport equation. While numerical techniques remain the method of choice for addressing complex problems, a closed-form solution to the air-light integral in optically thin isotropic media was recently derived. In this paper, we extend this work and present a novel analytical approach to single scattering from point light sources in homogeneous media. We propose a combined formulation of the air-light integral which allows both anisotropic phase functions and light distributions to be adequately handled. The technique relies neither on precomputation nor on storage, and we provide a robust and efficient implementation allowing for an explicit control on the accuracy of the results. Finally, the performance characteristics of the method on graphics hardware are evaluated and demonstrate its suitability to real-time applications.
Prediction of cotton lint yield from phenology of crop indices using artificial neural networks

Abstract A primary utility of satellite remote sensing technology is monitoring and assessment of agricultural lands for determining the area, amount, type, and quality of crop production. Since the mid-1970s agricultural scientists have sought to advance this utility through development of precision agriculture (PA) methods and technologies. Consequently, PA has taken advantage of freely available medium-spatial resolution remote sensing technology and instrumented fields to monitor crop biomass, phenology, and yield of crops at the sub-field to larger scales. The main goal of this study was to determine cotton lint yield in a 73-ha irrigated field in western Tennessee using remote sensing technology. We used two growing seasons (2013 and 2014) of Landsat 8 transformed to 8 input predictors including Red, near infra-red (NIR), the simple ratio (SR), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), green NDVI (GNDVI), and the tasselled cap transformation’s greenness, wetness, and soil brightness indices: GI, WI, and SBI, respectively, as proxies for cotton lint yield and crop phenology (in this study all input predictors are being referred to as crop indices, CIs). We used artificial neural network (ANN) approach to generate 61,200 models relating individual CIs and CI phenology to field estimates of lint yield to predict and map the field’s cotton lint yield in two cropping seasons. The correlation between cotton lint yield and CIs ranged from -0.20 to 0.60 in 2013 and from −0.79 to 0.84 in 2014. The best ANN models were in 2013 (r = 0.68 and the normalized MAE = 11%) and 2014 (r = 0.86 and the normalized MAE = 8%) growing seasons. The WI and GI were the best CI predictors of cotton lint yield, and overall for the early to mid-season prediction, CI phenologies had better performance than single date CI models. Consequently, we recommend the use of Landsat 8 derived WI or GI phenology to predict crop yields.
Remixing the classroom: toward an open philosophy of music education

New York Times. Snoop Dogg. Estelle Jorgensen. Thoreau. Dapper Dan. Harlem. Hip-hop. Kafka. Ethnography. Sushi. Charter schools. Robert Moses. Michael Jackson. We Are the World. Chicago Bulls. Cosb...
An effective integer program for a general assembly line balancing problem with parallel workers and additional assignment restrictions

Abstract The scope of the assembly line balancing problem in research is clear, with well-defined sets of assumptions, parameters, and objective functions. In application, these borders are frequently transgressed. Many of these deviations are internal to the assembly line balancing problem itself, arising from any of the physical or technological features in modern assembly lines. Other issues are founded in the tight coupling of assembly line balancing with external production planning and management problems, as assembly lines are at the intersection of multiple related problems in job sequencing, part flow logistics, worker safety, and quality. General assembly line balancing is devoted to studying the solution techniques necessary to model these applied line balancing problems. This article presents a complex line balancing problem based on the real production environment of our industrial partner, featuring several extensions for task-to-task relationships, station characteristics limiting assignment, and parallel worker zoning interactions. A heuristic, combining rank-position-weighting, last-fit-improvement and iterative blocking scheme, and an integer program that can manage multiple constraint types simultaneously, are developed. An experiment is conducted testing each of these new solution methods upon a battery of testbed problems, measuring solution quality, runtime, and achievement of feasibility. Results indicate that the integer programming model provides a viable solution method for those industries with access to commercial solvers.
One-Way Immersion and Mandarin Immersion in the United States

This chapter defines the terminologies key to this project, including one-way immersion, one-way foreign language immersion, and dual language immersion. In addition, it presents an updated analysis of one-way foreign immersion programs based on summaries documented in Lenke and Rhodes (2007) and CAL (2011). The analysis confirms the continued growth for Spanish and Mandarin immersion programs. Additionally, this chapter provides an analysis of the profiles of Mandarin immersion programs in the United States, and identifies that the majority of Mandarin programs nationwide are one-way programs at the elementary school level, offered as a strand within a traditional school, with instruction provided in English and Chinese each half of the time (50-50 model).
The Impact of Bike-Sharing Ridership on Air Quality: A Scalable Data Science Framework

This research explores the relationship between daily air quality indicator (AQI) values and the daily intensity of bike-share ridership in New York City. The authors designed and deployed a distributed data science framework on which to process and run Elastic Net, Random Forest Regression, and Gradient Boosted Regression Trees. Nine gigabytes of CitiBike ridership data, along with one gigabyte of air quality indicator (AQI) data were employed. All machine learning algorithms identified bike-share ridership intensity as either the most important or the second most important feature in predicting future daily AQIs. The authors also empirically demonstrated that although a distributed platform was necessary to ingest and pre-process the raw 10 gigabytes of data, the actual execution time of all three machine learning algorithms on cleaned, joined, and aggregated data was far faster on a local, commodity computer than on its distributed counterpart.
Is there a planet int he PSR 1620-26 triple system?

The unusually large eccentricity (e(sub 1) = 0.025) of the low-mass binary millisecond pular PSR B1620-26 can be explained naturally as arising from the secular perturbation of a second, more distant companion. Such a triple configuration has been proposed recently as the most likely cause of the anomalous second period derivative of the pulsar. The current timing data are consistent with a second-companion mass m(sub 2) as low as approximately 10(exp -3) solar mass, i.e., comparable to that of Jupiter. However, if the eccentricity is indeed produced by secular perturbations, then the second companion must be another star, most likely of mass m(sub 2) less than or approximately equal to 1 solar mass and in a very eccentric (e(sub 2) greater than or approximately equal to 0.5) orbit of period P(sub 2) approximately equal 10(exp 2) - 10(exp 3) yr. A second companion of planetary mass cannot induce the observed eccentricity. Independent of the mass of the second companion, small changes in the binary pulsar's orbit should become detectable with just a few additional years of timing data. This detection would provide direct confirmation of the triple nature of the system, and an accurate measurement of the effects would place important new constraints on the orbital parameters.
Critical factors in the recovery of pathogenic microorganisms in blood

Abstract Background The critical factors for optimal recovery of microbial pathogens from blood are not only the basis for how we perform blood cultures on a daily basis, but are also important for development of all current blood-culture systems. Because much of this research was conducted and published between 1975 and 2010 there is a general sense that many physicians and scientists may not be familiar with it, but it is critical for performing and interpreting blood cultures. Objectives To review the critical factors in the laboratory recovery and isolation of pathogenic microorganisms in blood. Sources Literature review of published papers, select reviews and updated guidelines. Content This review focuses on the critical factors that affect the recovery isolation of pathogenic microorganisms from individuals with bloodstream infections. Contemporary blood-culture systems, and current methods for blood-culture collection, have been designed to incorporate these critical factors so as to optimize recovery and isolation of pathogens while minimizing contamination. Implications It is important for microbiologists and practitioners to understand how and why these critical factors affect current blood-culture practices to improve patient management. Future research should emphasize which of these critical factors will still play a role in the era of molecular diagnostic tests, which will no longer be relevant, and which new critical factors have yet to be defined.
Business as Usual? A Social Capital Approach to Understanding Interactions with Journalists on Twitter

On the surface, it seems that journalists are more publicly accessible than ever before, largely thanks to the popular microblogging website/ app, Twitter. But determining who is interacting with j...
Impact of dual-eligible status on survival in Medicare patients with lung cancer.

149Background: Dual-eligible (DE) patients are insured by both Medicaid and Medicare and are known to have complex medical and social needs. While DE patients with cancer have been shown to be less...
Neuropathologic Correlates of White Matter Hyperintensities in a Community-Based Cohort of Older Adults.

BACKGROUND The association of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) with age-related vascular and neurodegenerative pathologies remains incompletely understood. OBJECTIVE The objective of this work was to elucidate the neuropathologic correlates of WMH in a large community-based cohort of older adults. METHODS Cerebral hemispheres from 603 community-based older adults were imaged with MRI ex vivo. All participants underwent annual clinical evaluation, cognitive assessment, and neuropathologic examination. WMH burden was assessed using a modified Fazekas rating scale. Multiple ordinal logistic regression was used to test the association of WMH burden with an array of age-related neuropathologies, adjusting for demographics. Mixed effects models of cognition controlling for neuropathologies and demographics were used to determine whether WMH burden contributes to cognitive decline beyond measured pathologies. RESULTS WMH burden in the whole group was associated with both vascular and Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathologies: arteriolosclerosis (p < 10-4), gross (p < 10-4), and microscopic infarcts (p = 0.04), and amyloid-β plaques (p = 0.028). In non-demented participants (mild or no cognitive impairment) (N = 332), WMH burden was related to gross infarcts (p = 10-4) and arteriolosclerosis (p < 10-4), but not to AD pathology. Similarly, in those with no cognitive impairment (N = 178), WMH burden was related to gross infarcts (p = 8×10-4) and arteriolosclerosis (p = 0.014). WMH burden was associated with faster decline in perceptual speed in both the whole (p = 0.038) and non-demented (p = 0.006) groups. CONCLUSION WMH burden has independent associations with vascular pathologies in older adults regardless of clinical status, and with AD pathology later in the progression of AD. Moreover, WMH burden may reflect additional tissue injury not captured with traditional neuropathologic indices.
An Investigation of Judges' Behaviors Within a Procedure for Setting Cut Scores for NOCTI Occupational Competency Examinations

Pennsylvania has maintained a nontraditional pathway for the certification of secondarylevel vocational teachers since the 1920s. The key that opens the door to that pathway is the verification of subject mastery via (a) documentation of a learning period in the occupation, (b) documentation of related paid work experience beyond the learning period, and (c) successful completion of an occupational competency examination. For many years, those examinations were developed by personnel of the universities engaged in vocational teacher preparation under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and a policy committee, the Pennsylvania Occupational Competency Assessment Consortium. The decision to deny or grant admission to a vocational teacher candidate rested upon a norm-referenced cut score. As specified within the Pennsylvania Policy Manual for Administration of The Occupational Competency Assessment Program (Bureau of Vocational Education, 1977):
Influence of crystalline order and defects on the absolute work functions and electron affinities of Ti O 2 - and SrO-terminated n − SrTi O 3 ( 001 )

We explore how the structure and composition of the terminal layer of $n\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{SrTi}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}(001)$ determine key surface electronic properties. We have measured and calculated from first principles the absolute work functions and electron affinities of bulk $\mathrm{SrN}{\mathrm{b}}_{0.01}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{i}}_{0.99}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}(001)$ terminated along the $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ and SrO planes. The match between theory and experiment is quite satisfactory for the $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ termination if an ideal, bulk-truncated surface structure is assumed. In contrast, the ideal SrO termination leads to a calculated work function considerably lower than the experimental value. We show that this discrepancy can be associated with defects on the SrO surface that act as electron scavengers. These defects deplete the concentration of itinerant electrons in the subsurface region and increase the negative charge density on the surface, thus increasing the work function. Several different surface defect configurations were modeled; the ones that yield the best agreement with experiment involve Sr vacancies in the terminal layer along with ${\mathrm{O}}^{2\ensuremath{-}}$, $\mathrm{O}{\mathrm{H}}^{\ensuremath{-}}/{\mathrm{H}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ pairs or ${{\mathrm{O}}_{2}}^{2\ensuremath{-}}$ occupying anion sites adjacent to the Sr vacancies.
Modulation of Renal Injury by Variable Expression of Myo-Inositol Oxygenase (MIOX) via Perturbation in Metabolic Sensors.

Obesity is associated with perturbations in cellular energy homeostasis and consequential renal injury leading to chronic renal disease (CKD). Myo-inositol oxygenase (MIOX), a tubular enzyme, alters redox balance and subsequent tubular injury in the settings of obesity. Mechanism(s) for such adverse changes remain enigmatic. Conceivably, MIOX accentuates renal injury via reducing expression/activity of metabolic sensors, which perturb mitochondrial dynamics and, if sustained, would ultimately contribute towards CKD. In this brief communication, we utilized MIOX-TG (Transgenic) and MIOXKO mice, and subjected them to high fat diet (HFD) administration. In addition, ob/ob and ob/MIOXKO mice of comparable age were used. Mice fed with HFD had increased MIOX expression and remarkable derangements in tubular injury biomarkers. Decreased expression of p-AMPKα (phospho AMP-activated protein kinase) in the tubules was also observed, and it was accentuated in MIOX-TG mice. Interestingly, ob/ob mice also had decreased p-AMPKα expression, which was restored in ob/MIOXKO mice. Parallel changes were observed in Sirt1/Sirt3 (silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog), and expression of other metabolic sensors, i.e., PGC-1α (Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha) and Yin Yang (YY-1). In vitro experiments with tubular cells subjected to palmitate-BSA and MIOX-siRNA had results in conformity with the in vivo observations. These findings link the biology of metabolic sensors to MIOX expression in impaired cellular energy homeostasis with exacerbation/amelioration of renal injury.
The KSHV ORF20 Protein Interacts With The Viral Processivity Factor ORF59 And Promote Viral Reactivation

Upon KSHV lytic reactivation, rapid and widespread amplification of viral DNA (vDNA) triggers significant nuclear reorganization. As part of this striking shift in nuclear architecture, viral replication compartments are formed as sites of lytic vDNA production along with remarkable spatial remodeling and relocalization of cellular and viral proteins. These viral replication compartments house several lytic gene products that coordinate viral gene expression, vDNA replication, and nucleocapsid assembly. The viral proteins and mechanisms that regulate this overhaul of the nuclear landscape during KSHV replication remain largely unknown. KSHV ORF20 is a widely conserved lytic gene among all herpesviruses suggesting it may have a fundamental contribution to the progression of herpesviral infection. Here, we utilized a promiscuous biotin ligase proximity labeling method to identify the proximal interactome of ORF20, which includes several replication-associated viral proteins, one of which is ORF59, the KSHV DNA processivity factor. Using co-immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence assays, we confirmed the interaction between ORF20 and ORF59 and tracked the localization of both proteins to KSHV replication compartments. To further characterize the function of ORF20, we generated an ORF20-deficient KSHV and compared its replicative fitness relative to wild type virus. Virion production was significantly diminished in the ORF20-deficient virus as observed by supernatant transfer assays. Additionally, we tied this defect in viable virion formation to a reduction in viral late gene expression. Lastly, we observed an overall reduction in vDNA replication in the ORF20-deficient virus implying a key role for ORF20 in the regulation of lytic replication. Taken together, these results capture the essential role of KSHV ORF20 in progressing viral lytic infection by regulating vDNA replication alongside other crucial lytic proteins within KSHV replication compartments.
Editorial commentary on special issue of COVID-19 pandemic

This special issue of The Journal of Biomedical Research presents rigorous empirical analysis related to COVID-19 research in responding to the current global COVID-19 pandemic. Selected articles from different disciplines not only offer broader perspectives on combating the outbreaks, but also disseminate the most updated findings on this new challenge for human being to the field.
Monoclonal Antibody-Based Immunotherapy and Its Role in the Development of Cardiac Toxicity

Immunotherapy is one of the most effective therapeutic options for cancer patients. Five specific classes of immunotherapies, which includes cell-based chimeric antigenic receptor T-cells, checkpoint inhibitors, cancer vaccines, antibody-based targeted therapies, and oncolytic viruses. Immunotherapies can improve survival rates among cancer patients. At the same time, however, they can cause inflammation and promote adverse cardiac immune modulation and cardiac failure among some cancer patients as late as five to ten years following immunotherapy. In this review, we discuss cardiotoxicity associated with immunotherapy. We also propose using human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes/ cardiac-stromal progenitor cells and cardiac organoid cultures as innovative experimental model systems to (1) mimic clinical treatment, resulting in reproducible data, and (2) promote the identification of immunotherapy-induced biomarkers of both early and late cardiotoxicity. Finally, we introduce the integration of omics-derived high-volume data and cardiac biology as a pathway toward the discovery of new and efficient non-toxic immunotherapy.
Characteristics, dimensions and methods of current assessment for urban resilience to climate-related disasters: A systematic review of the literature

Abstract As the frequency and severity of climate-related disasters increases, understanding how to improve urban resilience has become an important area of research. The first step in improving urban resilience to climate-related disasters is the assessment of current levels of resilience. Through a systematic review, this study aims to answer the following questions about current urban resilience assessment: 1) what are the most common characteristics of urban resilience; 2) what are the most commonly involved dimensions of urban ecosystems; and 3) what are most frequently applied methods. This study concludes by providing recommendations for future resilience assessments, including the employment of more holistic assessments for urban ecosystems as a whole and in parts and a unifying framing based on urban resilience characteristics for comparing resilience assessments across studies. This review of current resilience assessment literature can be a starting point for scholars and practitioners to optimize resilience assessments and, in turn, improve urban resilience.
Estudio de espacialidad del español rural de Santander (Colombia): contextualización teórica y conceptual

For decades the spatial-temporal relation was fundamental in theories that supported variability in historical linguistics, while downgrading the Euclidian, social, and perceptible spaces. By incorporating the concepts of space and spatiality to the study of language, the new human geography gave way to the development of geolinguistics, an interdisciplinary subject characterized by scientific eclecticism and the emphasis on processes and spatial structures of language. This paper examines the theoretical and conceptual referents of a study of the spatiality of Santander Spanish (Colombia), following the basic theoretical principles of geolinguistics. The theoretical and conceptual referents that constitute the focus of the present article include aspects related to the concepts of space and spatiality: the Euclidian, social, and perceptible space, as well as aspects related to the diffusion of linguistic phenomena: centers of articulation and dispersion, networks, and the nature and structure of the dispersion.
Comparative Milestones in Rodent and Human Postnatal Central Nervous System Development

Within the substantially different time scales characterizing human and rodent brain development, key developmental processes are remarkably preserved. Shared processes include neurogenesis, myelination, synaptogenesis, and neuronal and synaptic pruning. In general, altricial rodents experience greater central nervous system (CNS) immaturity at birth and accelerated postnatal development compared to humans, in which protracted development of certain processes such as neocortical myelination and synaptic maturation extend into adulthood. Within this generalization, differences in developmental rates of various structures must be understood to accurately model human neurodevelopmental toxicity in rodents. Examples include greater postnatal neurogenesis in rodents, particularly within the dentate gyrus of rats, ongoing generation of neurons in the rodent olfactory bulb, differing time lines of neurotransmitter maturation, and differing time lines of cerebellar development. Comparisons are made to the precocial guinea pig and the long-lived naked mole rat, which, like primates, experiences more advanced CNS development at birth, with more protracted postnatal development. Methods to study various developmental processes are summarized using examples of comparative postnatal injury in humans and rodents.
Kinetics of melting in peridotite from volume strain measurements

Abstract Partial melting in the Earth’s mantle involves a combination of processes such as ionic diffusion and solid–liquid transition. These processes yield an array of characteristic times for the melting kinetics. Both the magnitude and time constant of melt-induced volume strain affect seismic velocity, attenuation, and buoyancy. In situ monitoring of samples during melting are enabled by multi-anvil high-pressure devices coupled with synchrotron X-ray radiation. In this study, the volume strain induced in a sample from melting is measured as a function of time using X-ray images. We find a doubling of the effective thermal expansion for only 2% melt both from our data and from thermodynamic models of peridotite. The characteristic time of melting is determined to be less than one second. These findings have a direct impact on the effect of melting on seismic velocities.
Does Weather or Site Characteristics Influence the Ability of Scavengers to Locate Food

Olfactory predators and scavengers rely on odors to locate food, and they forage primarily at night. We hypothesized that weather (e.g. wind speed, humidity, and temperature), vegetation, and landscape features affect the dissipation of odors in the atmosphere and, thus, impact the foraging efficiency of olfactory predators. We tested this hypothesis by assessing what conditions were correlated with the persistence of bait along the dike surrounding Willard Bay Reservoir, Utah. We distributed 124 chicken eggs and 199 dead European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) as bait over 21 separate occasions spanning from May 21, 2009, to August 18, 2009. We used timers to record the time of consumption and cameras to identify which species ate the bait. Sixty-six eggs and 87 dead European starlings were consumed. The bait was consumed mostly at night (83%) and by striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), raccoons (Procyon lotor), and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). We used nest survival models in program MARK to determine which covariates influenced bait persistence. We tested nine variables and found that bait persistence was influenced by section of the dike, time since study initiation, temperature, humidity, and wind speed but not bait type (egg or dead European starling), terrain, or visual cover. How quickly scavengers were able to locate food, which was inversely related to rates of bait persistence, decreased with higher temperatures and wind speeds and increased with higher humidity. Our results support the hypothesis that weather and micro-habitat characteristics impact the ability of olfactory predators and scavengers to locate food.
A RT-PCR study of gene expression in a mechanical injury model.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method to study cytokine expression in astrocytes in response to exogenous agents and mechanical injury. By quantitative RT-PCR, it has been recently shown that TNFα/ interleukin (IL)-1β induced IL-6 in mouse results in astrocyte cultures. IL-6 belongs to a family of neuroactive cytokines including leukemia inhibitor factor (LIF) and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF). RT-PCR has been used to demonstrate that the cholinergic differentiation factor/leukemia inhibitory factor (CDFLIF) and CNTF induce mRNAs for choline acetyltransferase, somatostatin, substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide, cholecystokinin, and enkephalin in cultured sympathetic neurons. These data suggest that CDFLIF and CNTF may share receptor subunits and signal transduction pathways. Lipopolysaccharide, PMA, tumor necrosis factor (TNFα), and IL-lβ have also been found to induce LIF in cultured mouse astrocytes but not in the immortalized microglial cell line (BV-2) provided by Bocchini.
Market equilibrium using auctions for a class of gross-substitute utilities

In addition to useful Economic interpretation, auction based algorithms are generally found to be efficient. In this note, we observe that the auction-based mechanism can also be used to efficiently compute market equilibrium for a large class of utility functions satisfying gross substitutability, including a range of CES (constant elasticity of substitution) and Cobb-Douglas functions.
Transforming Growth Factor-β, Basement Membrane, and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transdifferentiation : Implications for Fibrosis in Kidney Disease

Interstitial fibrosis is characteristic of many clinical entities including diabetes, ureteral obstruction, transplant rejection, and glomerulonephritis. 1 The interstitial fibrosis that accompanies renal disease is a complex process involving derangements in both the synthesis and degradation of collagen and other extracellular matrix proteins. Cellular sources of the extracellular matrix laid down during the development of interstitial fibrosis include fibroblasts and infiltrating macrophages. 1 The fibroblasts may be resident renal fibroblasts, fibroblasts that migrate into the kidney from external sources, or a specialized population of fibroblasts known as myofibroblasts. 2 Furthermore, recent evidence suggests that during renal injury, renal epithelial cells may transform into fibroblasts in a process known as epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferentiation (EMT). 3,4 The synthesis and processing of extracellular matrix that malfunction in fibrosis are under the complex control of many cytokines and other factors. 1 One cytokine in particular that has been implicated in fibrotic disease, both in the kidney and in other tissues, is transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β). In the accompanying article “Renal Fibrosis: Collagen Composition and Assembly Regulates Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transdifferentiation,” by Zeisberg and colleagues 5 in this issue of The American Journal of Pathology, Zeisberg and co-workers use murine renal cell lines in culture to demonstrate that the integrity of basement membrane collagen has a significant effect on EMT in vitro. They further demonstrate that when basement membrane assembly is disrupted, the production of TGF-β is up-regulated. In this article we will discuss the emerging role of EMT in fibrosis and its regulation, both in vitro and in vivo, with emphasis on effects of TGF-β and collagen IV.
Trichromatic color vision with only two spectrally distinct photopigments.

Protanomaly is a common, X-linked abnormality of color vision. Like people with normal color vision, protanomalous observers are trichromatic, but their ability to discriminate colors in the red‐green part of the spectrum is reduced because the photopigments that mediate discrimination in this range are abnormally similar. Whereas normal subjects have pigments whose wavelengths of peak sensitivity differ by about 30 nm, the peak wavelengths for protanomalous observers are thought to differ by only a few nanometers. We found, however, that although this difference occurred in some protanomalous subjects, others had pigments whose peak wavelengths were identical. Genetic and psychophysical results from the latter class indicated that limited red‐green discrimination can be achieved with pigments that have the same peak wavelength sensitivity and that differ only in optical density. A single amino acid substitution was correlated with trichromacy in these subjects, suggesting that differences in pigment sequence may regulate the optical density of the cone.
Mechanism of photoinduced carotenoid synthesis. Further studies on the action spectrum and other aspects of carotenogenesis.

Abstract In order to identify the photoreceptor, an accurate action spectrum for photoinduced carotenoid synthesis in Mycobacterium sp. has been determined. This action spectrum shows maxima at 280–285, 365–370, 410–415, 443–448, and 465–470 nm. The energy needed to give half the maximum response at 445 nm was 5.3 × 104 ergs per square centimeter. This action spectrum suggests that either a flavin (or a flavoprotein) or a carotenoid-protein complex is the photoreceptor. Fractionation of the Mycobacterium sp. cells has resulted in a flavin-like fraction whose absorption spectrum is similar to the action spectrum. The absorption spectrum of carotenoids isolated from the dark-grown cells, on the other hand, is not similar to the action spectrum. In contrast to Mycobacterium sp., Mycobacterium marinum has an action spectrum which is suggestive of porphyrins. A porphyrin, tentatively identified either as mesoporphyrin or coproporphyrin, has been isolated from the M. marinum cells. It is possible that this porphyrin may function as the photoreceptor in this organism. Antimycin A and substituted mercuribenzoate (p-hydroxymercuribenzoate and p-chloromercuribenzoate), known to mimic light in M. marinum and Fusarium aquaeductuum, respectively, were not effective in inducing carotenogenesis in Mycobacterium sp.
Immunomodulation by neutrophil myeloperoxidase and hydrogen peroxide: differential susceptibility of human lymphocyte functions.

The coexistence of activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes and lymphocytes in tumor masses and inflammatory tissues suggests the possibility of interaction between secreted neutrophil products and nearby lymphocytes. To test this hypothesis, we examined the effects of neutrophil myeloperoxidase and H2O2 on lymphocytes. Human peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes were exposed to myeloperoxidase, an H2O2-generating system (glucose + glucose oxidase), and a halide, and were then tested for functional activities. Natural killer activity against K562 cells, lymphocyte proliferation in response to mitogens, and generation of immunoglobulin-secreting cells were all susceptible to oxidative injury by myeloperoxidase and H2O2. The degree as well as the mechanism of suppression was dependent on the glucose oxidase concentration (i.e., the rate of H2O2 delivery). At low H2O2 flux, myeloperoxidase was essential for induction of lymphocyte suppression; as the rate of H2O2 generation increased, suppression became myeloperoxidase-independent and was mediated by H2O2 alone. Various lymphocyte functions were differentially susceptible to oxidative injury by myeloperoxidase and H2O2. The proliferative response to poke-weed mitogen was the least sensitive, whereas antibody formation was the most sensitive. Proliferative responses to concanavalin A and phytohemagglutinin as well as natural killer activity displayed intermediate degrees of susceptibility. In all assays, lymphocyte viability was greater than 90%. Removal of monocytes from mononuclear leukocytes by adherence to glass increased susceptibility of lymphocytes to oxidative injury. Monocytes in proportions within the range present in peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes protected lymphocyte functions against oxidative injury by myeloperoxidase and H2O2. This study demonstrates a differential susceptibility of various immune functions to oxidative injury by the neutrophil products myeloperoxidase and H2O2, and shows, in addition, that monocytes can modulate these interactions.