cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparisons of arthropod and avian assemblages in insecticide-treated and untreated eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis [L.] Carr) stands in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is using systemic imidacloprid to treat eastern hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis [L.] Carr.) infested with the exotic insect, hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand). This study investigated effects of these treatments on insectivorous birds and hemlock canopy arthropod assemblages in the context of food availability for insectivorous birds. Six pairs of treated and untreated hemlock sites were studied in 2007. Territories of three hemlock-associated Neotropical migratory foliage-gleaning bird species were mapped in these six sites, and relationships between bird territory density and hemlock foliar density were examined. Canopy arthropods were sampled by clipping mid-canopy hemlock branches in each paired site. Arthropods were identified to order or suborder and categorized into bird prey guilds and non-target herbivorous insect guilds. Despite being treated within the previous two years, there were no differences in hemlock woolly adelgid infestation between treated and untreated sites. This may reflect recovery or because the imidacloprid is slow-acting. Bird densities also did not differ between treated and untreated sites but were positively related to branch foliage mass, implying a preference in these birds for well-foliated hemlocks. A total of 10,219 hemlock woolly adelgids, and a total of 906 other arthropods from 16 orders were collected. There were no differences in species richness, abundance, or species composition between treated and untreated sites for total arthropods, or for immature arthropods ≥ 3 mm. In contrast, non-target herbivorous Hemiptera and larval Lepidoptera were significantly reduced in treated hemlocks. Although larval Lepidoptera are primary prey for insectivorous foliage-gleaning birds, the similarity in bird densities between treated and untreated sites suggests the birds are able to find other food resources in the mixed hemlock-deciduous stands where the study sites were located. Therefore, controlling hemlock woolly adelgid-induced defoliation through use of imidacloprid may have short-term benefits for hemlock-associated birds. While imidacloprid treatments did not appear to be currently affecting most arthropods, primary prey guilds should be monitored for long-term declines that could impact hemlock-associated birds.
An architecture for safe and efficient multi-threaded robot software

This paper describes the application of component-based software engineering concepts to the development of a C++ software library for multi-threaded robot control. The components in this design are tasks; each task encapsulates a thread and contains a state table and message queues for efficient thread-safe data exchange. A task can provide multiple interfaces, which is useful when the underlying hardware offers diverse capabilities. Communication between tasks is loosely coupled and relies on command objects that can implement both commands and events. The system is dynamically configurable because all components are self-describing. This enables an effective Interactive Research Environment (IRE), which provides a Python shell to configure and interact with the executing software. This library is part of the open source cisst software package for computer-assisted surgery systems and can be obtained from www.cisst.org/cisst.
Alphavirus nsP3 functions to form replication complexes transcribing negative-strand RNA.

Abstract The alphavirus mutant Sindbis virus HR ts4, which has been assigned to the A complementation group, possessed a selective defect in negative-strand synthesis that was similar although not identical to that observed for the B complementation group mutant ts11 (Y.-F. Wang, S. G. Sawicki, and D. L. Sawicki, J. Virol. 65:985-988, 1991). The causal mutation was identified as a change of a C to a U residue at nucleotide 4903 in the nsP3 open reading frame that predicted a change of Ala-268 to Val. Thus, both nsP3 and nsP1 play a role selectively in the transcription of negative strands early in infection. The assignment of the mutation carried by an A complementation group mutant of Sindbis virus HR to nsP3 was unexpected, as mutations in other A complementation group mutants studied to date mapped to nsP2. Another mutant with a conditionally lethal mutation, ts7 of the G complementation group, also possessed a causal mutation resulting from a single-residue change in nsP3. Negative-strand synthesis ceased more slowly after a shift to the nonpermissive temperature in ts7-than in ts4-infected cells, and ts7 complemented ts11, but ts4 did not. However, the nsP3 of both ts4 and ts7 allowed reactivation of negative-strand synthesis by stable replication complexes containing nsP4 from ts24. Therefore, mutations in nsP3 affected only early events in replication and probably prevent the formation and/or function of the initial replication complex that synthesizes its negative-strand template. Because neither ts4 nor ts7 complemented 10A complementation group mutants, the genes for nsP2 and nsP3 function initially as a single cistron. We interpret these findings and present a model to suggest that the initial alphavirus replication complex is formed from tightly associated nsP2 and nsP3, perhaps in the form of P23, and proteolytically processed and trans-active nsP4 and nsP1.
A new approach to improve RCS patterns of trihedral corner reflectors

Discusses a plane wave incident on either rectangular or square trihedral corner reflectors. Physical optics and geometrical optics studies are carried out.
Anti-cariogenic effect of a cetylpyridinium chloride-containing nanoemulsion.

Objectives The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the anticaries activity of a nanoemulsion composed of soybean oil, water, Triton X-100 and cetylpyridinium chloride.
Donor MHC class II antigen is essential for induction of transplantation tolerance by bone marrow cells.

Posttransplant infusion of donor bone marrow cells (BMC) induces tolerance to allografts in adult mice, dogs, nonhuman primates, and probably humans. Here we used a mouse skin allograft model and an allogeneic radiation chimera model to examine the role of MHC Ags in tolerance induction. Infusion of MHC class II Ag-deficient (CIID) BMC failed to prolong C57BL/6 (B6) skin grafts in ALS- and rapamycin-treated B10.A mice, whereas wild-type B6 or MHC class I Ag-deficient BMC induced prolongation. Removal of class II Ag-bearing cells from donor BMC markedly reduced the tolerogenic effect compared with untreated BMC, although graft survival was significantly longer in mice given depleted BMC than that in control mice given no BMC. Infusion of CIID BMC into irradiated syngeneic B6 or allogeneic B10.A mice produced normal lymphoid cell reconstitution including CD4+ T cells except for the absence of class II Ag-positive cells. However, irradiated B10.A mice reconstituted with CIID BMC rejected all B6 and a majority of CIID skin grafts despite continued maintenance of high degree chimerism. B10.A mice reconstituted with B6 BMC maintained chimerism and accepted both B6 and CIID skin grafts. Thus, expression of MHC class II Ag on BMC is essential for allograft tolerance induction and peripheral chimerism with cells deficient in class II Ag does not guarantee allograft acceptance.
Emotional behaviour during the learning of a contingency in early infancy

Sixty infants divided equally among three age groups (10, 16 and 24 weeks) participated in a contingency learning task. After an initial baseline period, half of the subjects received an audio-visual stimulus contingent upon arm movement while the remaining infants, matched for age and sex, served as a control group. Session length was controlled by the infant and served as an index of task involvement. Amount of visual fixation per minute, fussing and frequency of smiling were also examined. There were consistent condition effects for each of the arm movement measures analysed but age and age × condition effects were obtained only for average rate and peak rate of response. With respect to affective measures, subjects in the contingent condition spent more time in the experiment irrespective of age and fussed proportionally less compared with control subjects. These subjects at 16 and 24 weeks also smiled more than non-contingent controls at the same ages, although the overall rate of smiling was low.
Nasal Cavity and Paranasal Sinus Cancer

Maxillary cancers are most common (70%). Incidence higher in Japan and South Africa. More common in males (4:1). Ohngren’s line runs from the medial canthus to the angle of the mandible. Histology: most common is SCC. Adenoid cystic, esthesioneuroblastoma, plasmacytoma, lymphoma, melanoma, and sarcoma also seen. Lymphatic drainage of maxillary antrum to submandibular, parotid, jugulodigastric, retropharyngeal, and jugular nodes. See Chap. 12 for more information on esthesioneuroblastoma.
We Can Build the Future

Merging storytelling and making, Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination is encouraging people to build the future by assembling and reimagining the pieces of the future already surrounding us.
Population Control and the Black Community

(1974). Population Control and the Black Community. The Black Scholar: Vol. 5, Black Health, pp. 45-51.
The Paradox of New Traditional Confucian Economics in the Two Koreas

This paper considers Confucian influence in the economic systems of North and South Korea within the context of the context of the new traditional economy, introduced by the authors initially in 1996. Such an economy seeks to be modern technologically and in other ways, but also is embedded to some extent within a traditional socio-cultural tradition, usually tried to a traditional religion. In the case of the two Koreas, they both come from a strong Confucian tradition even though their current systems are very different, with the North Korean the purest remaining command socialist system in the world, while the much better performing South Korean one is mostly market capitalist, although with a history of considerable amounts of indicative planning. Both officially reject Confucianism as an official ideology, but both show substantial Confucian influence, particularly emphasis on the importance of education and the role of the family, although in South Korea this is more through family leadership in the chaebol corporations whereas in North Korea it is through the dynastic leadership. However, they differ on other aspects, with North Korea emphasizing certain aspects not aiding economic growth such as an anti-mercantile attitude and isolationism with its juche policy of self-reliance.
Intestinal lumen and mucosal microclimate H+ and NH3 concentrations as factors in the etiology of experimental amebiasis.

Abstract Axenically cultivated Entamoeba histolytica, trophozoites, strains HM-1:IMSS and HM-38, were suspended in solutions of NaCl, 330 mOsm, of varying pH and ammonium concentrations. Short-term viability was inversely proportional to the ammonia concentration of the medium and was independent of the ammonium concentration and pH. The NH3-induced ameba killing was associated with a cellular alkalosis and cell swelling. While short-term trophozoite viability was unaffected by changes in the medium pH over the range 5.5–8.0, long-term viability was reduced by high pH, and of three pH values tested (6.27, 7.27, and 8.27), trophozoite growth was greatest at the lower value. Chemotaxis was observed in media over the pH range 5.5–8.0, and attenuated chemotaxis was observed in trophozoites in media containing NH3 (0.1 mM). The cecal content total ammonia concentration and pH and the in vivo mucosal microclimate pH were measured in young adult male rats, hamsters, and gerbils. Ceca of the three rodent species were also inoculated with HM-38 trophozoites and 7 days later the cecal contents were studied for signs of amebic infection. Infections were absent in the rat, the species with highest luminal total ammonia concentration and mucosal microclimate pH. All gerbils were infected. This species had the lowest mucosal microclimate pH. The hamster, with the intermediate microclimate pH, had a low infection rate (1 of 5). It is proposed that when ammonium diffuses from the large intestinal lumen into a more basic mucosal microclimate, it is converted to ammonia, and the combination of this ammonia and the high microclimate pH threatens Entamoeba trophozoite viability and reduces the probability of a given ameba penetrating the mucus blanket and invading the mucosal epithelium.
Cryoplane fluorescence microscopy

There is an urgent need for rapid 3D imaging methods to characterize transgenic lines of experimental animals. The novel instrument described here, a cryoplane fluorescence microscope, meets that need. It offers the required speed, high spatial resolution, and support for imaging of reporter genes. The instrument is a large horizontal cryostat equipped with macro- and microimaging facilities. It accomodates both brightfield imaging of systemically delivered counter stains and fluorescence imaging of probes introduced either by genetic manipulation or by direct injection. Spatial distortion in the resulting 3D datasets is quite low, less than 2%. We demonstrate here application of the instrument for mapping the expression pattern of the gene reporter GFP and for anatomical characterization using the nonfluorescent crystal violet.
Functional PDF Signaling in the Drosophila Circadian Neural Circuit Is Gated by Ral A-Dependent Modulation

The neuropeptide PDF promotes the normal sequencing of circadian behavioral rhythms in Drosophila, but its signaling mechanisms are not well understood. We report daily rhythmicity in responsiveness to PDF in critical pacemakers called small LNvs. There is a daily change in potency, as great as 10-fold higher, around dawn. The rhythm persists in constant darkness and does not require endogenous ligand (PDF) signaling or rhythmic receptor gene transcription. Furthermore, rhythmic responsiveness reflects the properties of the pacemaker cell type, not the receptor. Dopamine responsiveness also cycles, in phase with that of PDF, in the same pacemakers, but does not cycle in large LNv. The activity of RalA GTPase in s-LNv regulates PDF responsiveness and behavioral locomotor rhythms. Additionally, cell-autonomous PDF signaling reversed the circadian behavioral effects of lowered RalA activity. Thus, RalA activity confers high PDF responsiveness, providing a daily gate around the dawn hours to promote functional PDF signaling.
DETERMINATION OF CHLORINATION DISINFECTION BYPRODUCT IN DRINKING WATER BY ION CHROMATOGRAPHY

Objective To study the method of determination of chlorination hyproduct in drinking water by ion chromatography.Methods Anion exchange column and gradient elution were used to measure concentration of chlorides in water.Results The lower limit of the chlorination disinfection byproducts in water detetegd by ion chromatography was 5μg/L;the linear relative coefficient r was 0.999.Recovery rates of high,medium and low concentrations of dichloroacetic acid were 97.3%-101% and those of trichloroacetic acid were 100.3%-102.4%.Measurement of tap water from different districts indicated that chloride content in water lower than 50 mg/L could be measured directly.Conclusion Ion chromatography can directly measure chlorination disinfection byproduct content in water and various technical indexes can fulfil the requirements of sanitary standards.
Circulating Sex Steroids and Vascular Calcification in Community-Dwelling Men: The Framingham Heart Study.

Context: The relationship between sex steroids and atherosclerosis is poorly understood. Objective: To describe the association of serum total T (TT), calculated free T (cFT), estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), and SHBG to vascular calcification in adult men. Design: Observational study (Framingham Heart Study). Analyses are cross-sectional. TT, E1, and E2 were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, and SHBG by immunofluorometric assay. Estimates of association were obtained by Tobit regression, which acknowledges the influence of floor effects on outcomes. Setting: General community. Participants: A total of 1654 community-dwelling men from the Offspring and Third Generation cohorts of the Framingham Heart Study. Main Outcome Measures: Coronary artery calcification (CAC), abdominal aortic calcification, and thoracic aortic calcification were measured by computed tomography. Results: Mean (standard deviation [SD]) age was 49 (10) years. Mean (SD) TT, cFT, and SHBG were: 616 (224) ng/dL, 11...
Barcelona as urban palimpsest: Architectonic memory and structural violence in José Luis Guerin's En construcción (2001)

ABSTRACTThis article presents an analysis of the Spanish director Jose Luis Guerin's “documental ficticio” titled En construccion (2001). In particular, I will examine the filmic representation of urban and architectonic spaces within post-industrial Barcelona, as well as the relationship of space and place to the construction of historical (post)memory in post-Francoist Spain, as “lieux de memoire.” While contemporary Spanish film has tended toward the engagement of Franco's lingering specters, I contend that Guerin's filmic discourse rather focuses on the new totalitarian state imposed by the emergence of social democracy and free-market capitalism in post-Francoist Spain, as inscribed via the urban architecture within Barcelona's public spaces.
Spectral analysis of corticomotor evoked potentials in spinal cord injury. Part 2. Chronic studies

Corticomotor evoked potentials (CMEPs) have been suggested to accurately reflect neurological function, particularly with regard to the integrity of the spinal cord. However, the utility of these potentials to evaluate graded, chronic injury has received little attention. Frequency analysis has been suggested by the authors to be a method of simplifying interpretation of these complex signals. Ischaemic spinal cord injuries were produced in rabbits causing mild, moderate, or severe neurological deficits. CMEPs were recorded before, during, immediately following, and three days after injury. Alterations in the features of the power spectra reflected the degree of neurological injury. CMEP power spectra may predict neurological outcome and augment currently used electrodiagnostic tests.
Hume’s Naturalistic Internalism

This chapter has four major sections. In the first section I provide a brief initial account of the internalist/externalist debate and highlight how some of Hume’s inferences seem to rely on internalist presuppositions. As we have seen, because naturalism is oftentimes associated with externalism (and most believe that Hume is obviously committed to a form of naturalism that is incompatible with scepticism), some might instead be enticed by an externalist reading of Hume, as Loeb suggests: “… [it is] tempting to develop Hume in the [externalist] direction of a reliability, adaptivist, or proper function account of justification” (Loeb 2004, 371; see also Loeb 2006, 334–5 and Loeb 2008, 116–17). Despite the initial plausibility of such a reading, in the second section I give a more precise characterization of the internalist/externalist distinction to show why an internalist reading of key features of Hume’s epistemology is virtually unavoidable. In the third and fourth sections I expand my argument to show how Hume’s general views about causal inferences also provide a forceful case against reading Hume as an externalist.
The definite article in Indo-European: Emergence of a new grammatical category?

The development of the definite article in Indo-European is a complex innovation, because if most modern languages have defi nite articles, there are important exceptions. In addition, within the Indo-European dialect groups the development of the definite article may not always seem consistent. Moreover, the definite article may trace back to different elements in the individual languages and its functions may vary cross-linguistically within a subgroup, possibly reflecting different degrees of grammaticalization. On the basis of patterns in early uses of definite articles in Greek and article-like uses of demonstratives in Latin, I will trace the change in question, evaluate the possible role of language contact and the possible connection with other phenomena, among them devices to express defi niteness in Indo-European languages that do not have defi nite articles. The aim of the paper is to establish whether or not the definite article is a truly innovative feature in Indo-European or whether it is merely a formal innovation of a category that existed already.
Methods of the Study

This study had three guiding questions: first, how do preservice teachers respond when required to use Twitter professionally for a teacher education course? Second, how do these participants use tweets to construct identities, if at all? And third, how do preservice teachers respond to the idea of using Twitter to develop identities based on seeking and sharing professional knowledge?
OCR as a Service: An Experimental Evaluation of Google Docs OCR, Tesseract, ABBYY FineReader, and Transym

Optical character recognition (OCR) as a classic machine learning challenge has been a longstanding topic in a variety of applications in healthcare, education, insurance, and legal industries to convert different types of electronic documents, such as scanned documents, digital images, and PDF files into fully editable and searchable text data. The rapid generation of digital images on a daily basis prioritizes OCR as an imperative and foundational tool for data analysis. With the help of OCR systems, we have been able to save a reasonable amount of effort in creating, processing, and saving electronic documents, adapting them to different purposes. A set of different OCR platforms are now available which, aside from lending theoretical contributions to other practical fields, have demonstrated successful applications in real-world problems. In this work, several qualitative and quantitative experimental evaluations have been performed using four well-know OCR services, including Google Docs OCR, Tesseract, ABBYY FineReader, and Transym. We analyze the accuracy and reliability of the OCR packages employing a dataset including 1227 images from 15 different categories. Furthermore, we review the state-of-the-art OCR applications in healtcare informatics. The present evaluation is expected to advance OCR research, providing new insights and consideration to the research area, and assist researchers to determine which service is ideal for optical character recognition in an accurate and efficient manner.
Convince Me: The Effects of Persuasive Writing on Event Centrality

Summary Recent research has demonstrated that event centrality, the degree to which an event has become part of one's identity, predicts post-event distress. However, little research has examined factors or situations which may increase centrality. The aim of the current study was to examine how the instructions in a writing task may impact event centrality. Participants identified their ‘worst’ event and then either wrote persuasively about the impact of the event or wrote a factual account of the event and completed self-report measures pre-writing and post-writing. We found no group differences when examining all participants; however, we did find significantly higher centrality in the persuasive group for those participants who had experienced a traumatic event as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition. Our results demonstrate that event centrality is amenable to change in response to written interventions, and these results may have significant implications for situations in which individuals are required to convincingly describe their traumatic experiences. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Object recognition with hidden attributes

Attribute based object recognition performs object recognition using the semantic properties of the object. Unlike the existing approaches that treat attributes as a middle level representation and require to estimate the attributes during testing, we propose to incorporate the hidden attributes, which are the attributes used only during training to improve model learning and are not needed during testing. To achieve this goal, we develop two different approaches to incorporate hidden attributes. The first approach utilizes hidden attributes as additional information to improve the object classification model. The second approach further exploits the semantic relationships between the objects and the hidden attributes. Experiments on benchmark data sets demonstrate that both approaches can effectively improve the learning of the object classifiers over the baseline models that do not use attributes, and their combination reaches the best performance. Experiments also show that the proposed approaches outperform both state of the art methods that use attributes as middle level representation and the approaches that learn the classifiers with hidden information.
Exaptation Revisited: Changes Imposed by Evolutionary Psychologists and Behavioral Biologists

Some methodological adaptationists (perhaps unconsciously) hijacked the term “exaptation,” and took an occasion of Stephen Jay Gould’s misspeaking as confirmation that it possessed an evolutionarily “designed” function and was a version of an adaptation, something it was decidedly not. Others provided a standard of evidence for exaptation that was inappropriate, and based on an adaptationist worldview. This article is intended to serve as both an analysis of and correction to those situations. Gould and Elisabeth Vrba’s terms, “exaptation” and “aptation,” as originally introduced, are very useful, unlike the faded adaptationist echo of “exaptation” devised by the methodological adaptationists, which has made the term incoherent. We will discuss how exaptation relates to function, to aptation, and to adaptation, both primary and secondary. These ideas have been rendered practically useless through their mistaken definitions and misapplications by evolutionary psychologists.
Voter Turnout, Felon Disenfranchisement and Partisan Outcomes in Presidential Elections, 1988–2012

States vary in their treatment of the voting rights of convicted felons through incarceration, probation, parole, and beyond. A few states permit even incarcerated felons to vote, while others rescind the right permanently, with most states’ policies located between those extremes. This paper analyzes the relationship among voter turnout, election outcomes, and levels of felon disenfranchisement by state. The results show a pattern of divergence around the 2000 election before which turnout, disenfranchisement, crime rates, and Republican or Democratic success in elections were unrelated and since which strong correlations are found. Disenfranchisement rates no longer bear a significant relationship to crime rates, and states won by Republicans have both lower overall turnout and higher levels of ineligible felons in the voting-age population. Partisan control of state legislatures does not predict these patterns, but there is a strong regional component to the data with disenfranchisement notably higher in Southern states regardless of partisan control. Overall the data support a need for further research on the disparate treatment of felon voting rights among states which may be contributing to broader trends emerging in political science research of a growing relationship between lower voter turnout and Republican electoral success.
Zinc and Wound Healing: A Review of Zinc Physiology and Clinical Applications

Our understanding of the role of zinc in normal human physiology is constantly expanding, yet there are major gaps in our knowledge with regard to the function of zinc in wound healing. This review aims to provide the clinician with sufficient understanding of zinc biology and an up-to-date perspective on the role of zinc in wound healing. Zinc is an essential ion that is crucial for maintenance of normal physiology, and zinc deficiency has many manifestations ranging from delayed wound healing to immune dysfunction and impairment of multiple sensory systems. While consensus has been reached regarding the detrimental effects of zinc deficiency on wound healing, there is considerable discord in the literature on the optimal methods and true benefits of zinc supplementation.
Ion Binding to Transport Proteins using Isothermal Titration Calorimetry

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is an emerging, label-free technology used to measure ligand binding to membrane proteins. This technology utilizes a titration calorimeter to measure the heat exchange upon ligands binding to proteins, the magnitude of which is based on the overall enthalpy of the reaction. In this protocol, the steps we and others use to measure ion binding to ion transport proteins are described.
Boundary Value Problems for Perturbed Differential Equations

This chapter describes the boundary value problems for perturbed differential equations. It describes the existence of a solution of the boundary value problem y = F ( t, y ) , My ( a ) + Ny ( b ) =V , where F is a function from [ a, b ] × R n into R n , M and N are n × n matrices, and V is in R n. The chapter presents a theorem that states that if condition H 1 is valid and 1 Q i d i 1, there is a p > 0 such that T has a fixed point y in S p . The proof of this theorem uses Schauder's fixed-point theorem and is adapted from the work of Fennell and Waltman.
FURTHER STUDIES ON ALCOHOL DEHYDROGENASE POLYMORPHISM IN MEXICAN STRAINS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

ABSTRACT . Further studies have shown that the abrupt change from polymorphism of alcohol dehydrogenase variants in Mexican populations of D. melanogaster at Cardel and westward to near monomorphism at Coatzocoalcos and eastward must depend on previous isolation of these strains during their evolutionary history. Synthetic lethality results when an eastern strain chromosome 2, carrying the Adh locus, is made homozygous in a fly in which the X and 3rd chromosomes have been replaced from laboratory stocks. That a limited gene exchange between eastern and western strains is taking place in nature is indicated by.(l) an eagerness on the part of eastern males to mate with western females in multiple choice tests, although eastern females are reluctant to mate with western males; (2) disorganization of a polygenic character, the mating song of eastern males; (3) the presence of a short cline of the esterase 6 s allele from monomorphism at Coatzocoalcos to 0.07 at Tuxpan, 300 miles northwest; (4) the finding of an excess of homozygotes for three different aldehyde oxidase alleles and a deficiency of two kinds of heterozygotes at Villahermosa, east of Coatzocoalcos. Since ADH can use substrates involved in the metabolism of juvenile hormone (Ursprung and Madhaven, 1971), it is suggested that Adh I , specifying the enzymatically more active protein, bestows a selective advantage on diapausing larvae in cold regions.
The hazardous nature of dusts

The natural atmosphere that we breathe contains not only its gaseous constituents but also large numbers of liquid and solid particles. These are known by the generic name aerosols. They arise from a combination of natural and industrial sources including condensation, smokes, volcanic activity, soils and sands, and microflora. Most of the particles are small enough to be invisible to the naked eye. Dust is the term we use in reference to the solid particles. The physiologies of air-breathing creatures have evolved to be able to deal efficiently with most of the aerosols that occur naturally. However, within closed industrial environments, concentrations of airborne particulates may reach levels that exceed the ability of the human respiratory system to expel them in a timely manner. In particular, mineral dusts are formed whenever rock is broken by impact, abrasion, crushing, cutting, grinding or explosives. The fragments that are formed are usually irregular in shape. The large total surface area of dust particles may render them more active physically, chemically and biologically than the parent material. This has an important bearing on the ability of certain dusts to produce lung diseases.
A Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database review of epidemiology and outcome of ampullary cancer compared to cholangiocarcinoma.

e15147 Background: Ampullary adenocarcinoma (AC) is a rare form of cancer with sparse epidemiological and survival data in literature. We aimed to study the epidemiology and survival outcome of AC ...
Immediate Carotid Endarterectomy Is Associated with Higher Risk in Symptomatic Patients.

Background Guidelines recommend that patients with carotid artery stenosis ≥50% (Sx-CAS) undergo carotid endarterectomy (CEA) within 14 days of symptoms. However, perioperative risks, especially stroke, may be increased when CEA is performed within 48 hours. This study seeks to more fully evaluate the effect of timing of surgery on outcomes for Sx-CAS. Methods All CEAs in the Southern California Vascular Outcomes Improvement Collaborative (SoCal VOICe) from 2012 to 18 were reviewed. Ipsilateral cortical or visual symptoms within 6 months defined Sx-CAS. Timing from symptom occurrence to CEA was classified as immediate (0–2 days), early (3–14 days), or delayed (>14 days). Perioperative stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), and 30-day mortality rates were compared by time to surgery. Results Of 2203 CEAs, 436 (20%) were for Sx-CAS (52% stroke, 48% transient ischemic attack). Mean time from symptoms to CEA was 28.3 days (range, 0–172; median, 14 days). Sixty-one cases (14%) were immediate, 166 (38%) early, and 209 (48%) delayed. Perioperative stroke occurred in 2.8% and stroke/MI/30-day mortality in 5.7%. Stroke rate was significantly higher in the immediate group (vs. early and delayed): 8.2%, versus 3.0%, and 0.96%, respectively (P = 0.009). Stroke/MI/30-day mortality was also higher in the immediate group: 13.1%, versus 6.0%, and 3.3%, respectively (P = 0.001). Immediate surgery was associated with greater postoperative events (P = 0.009), and logistic regression confirmed decreased risk of postoperative stroke and stroke/MI/30-day mortality in delayed surgery using immediate surgery as a reference. Wide variability existed among centers in the timing of CEA (immediate–range, 0–50%; delayed–range, 41–83%; P = 0.01). Conclusions In the SoCal VOICe, 52% of patients undergo CEA within 2 weeks of symptoms. Increased stroke rates occur when CEA is performed within 2 days, whereas stroke and death rates are decreased at 3–14 days and beyond. These data support avoidance of immediate CEA. Opportunity exists to standardize timing of CEA for Sx-CAS among SoCal VOICe participants. Further study is required to define the role of immediate CEA.
Mesoscopic Modeling of Train Operations: Application to the MBTA Red Line

In this paper, we introduce a train following model which can efficiently capture the effects of train interactions in an urban rail line. The train following model is based on the estimation of induced delay for a train closely following a lead train, and is derived from empirical analysis based on historical track circuit data. Based on an analysis of sequential train delays, a mesoscopic train state prediction model is developed which can be used to predict the behavior of the system with respect to changes in initial conditions (e.g. scheduled headway, headway variation or dwell time) and disruptions. The performance analysis using this train following model is richer and more accurate than that from analytical macroscopic models while not being as time- and resource- intensive as a detailed simulation model. The development and potential application of this model is demonstrated for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Red Line. The model can be used for both real-time control strategy evaluation and offline operational strategy analyses.
Mining an "anti-knowledge base" from Wikipedia updates with applications to fact checking and beyond

We introduce the problem of anti-knowledge mining. Our goal is to create an "anti-knowledge base" that contains factual mistakes. The resulting data can be used for analysis, training, and benchmarking in the research domain of automated fact checking. Prior data sets feature manually generated fact checks of famous misclaims. Instead, we focus on the long tail of factual mistakes made by Web authors, ranging from erroneous sports results to incorrect capitals.We mine mistakes automatically, by an unsupervised approach, from Wikipedia updates that correct factual mistakes. Identifying such updates (only a small fraction of the total number of updates) is one of the primary challenges. We mine anti-knowledge by a multi-step pipeline. First, we filter out candidate updates via several simple heuristics. Next, we correlate Wikipedia updates with other statements made on the Web. Using claim occurrence frequencies as input to a probabilistic model, we infer the likelihood of corrections via an iterative expectation-maximization approach. Finally, we extract mistakes in the form of subject-predicate-object triples and rank them according to several criteria. Our end result is a data set containing over 110,000 ranked mistakes with a precision of 85% in the top 1% and a precision of over 60% in the top 25%. We demonstrate that baselines achieve significantly lower precision. Also, we exploit our data to verify several hypothesis on why users make mistakes. We finally show that the AKB can be used to find mistakes on the entire Web.
Right Heart Failure and Cardiorenal Syndrome

Cardiorenal syndrome is a complex interplay of dysregulated heart and kidney interaction that leads to multiorgan system dysfunction, which is not an uncommon occurrence in the setting of right heart failure. The traditional concept of impaired perfusion and forward flow recently has been modified to include the recognition of systemic venous congestion as a contributor, with direct and indirect mechanisms, including elevated renal venous pressure, reduced renal perfusion pressure, increased renal interstitial pressure, tubular dysfunction, splanchnic congestion, and neurohormonal and inflammatory activation. Treatment options beyond diuretics and vasoactive drugs remain limited and lack supportive evidence.
Therapy-Induced Marrow Changes

Bone marrow biopsies performed on patients previously treated for hematological diseases and other malignancies often show therapy-induced changes. We have broadly grouped these pleiotropic effects into the following six categories: (a) Cytopenias or marked marrow hypocellularity from cytotoxic/cytolytic agents (b) Cytoses or marrow hypercellularity from growth factor therapies including granulocyte colony stimulating factor, erythropoietin, and thrombopoietin (c) Differentiation of malignant hematologic cells from agents such as all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) or IDH 1/2 inhibitors (d) Dysplasia: therapy-associated dysmorphology (e) Secondary neoplasms: therapy-associated myeloid neoplasms and immunodeficiency-associated lymphoproliferative disorders. (f) Miscellaneous: Therapy-associated immunophenotypic shifts/drifts, clonal hematopoiesis, etc.
Gamma-Ray and Radio-Frequency Radiation from Thunderstorms Observed from Space and Ground.

Terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) are a class of enigmatic electrical discharges in the Earth’s atmosphere. In this study, we analyze an unprecedentedly large dataset comprised of 2188 TGFs whose signatures were simultaneously measured using space- and ground-based detectors over a five-year period. The Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on board the Fermi spacecraft provided the energetic radiation measurements. Radio frequency (RF) measurements were obtained from the Global Lightning Dataset (GLD360). Here we show the existence of two categories of TGFs − those that were accompanied by quasi-simultaneous electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) detected by the GLD360 and those without such simultaneous EMPs. We examined, for the first time, the dependence of the TGF-associated EMP-peak-amplitude on the horizontal offset distance between the Fermi spacecraft and the TGF source. TGFs detected by the GBM with sources at farther horizontal distances are expected to be intrinsically brighter and were found to be associated with EMPs having larger median peak-amplitudes. This provides independent evidence that the EMPs and TGFs are produced by the same phenomenon, rather than the EMPs being from “regular” lightning in TGF-producing thunderstorms.
Altered States or Much to Do About Nothing? A Study of When Cannabis Is Used in Relation to the Impact It Has on Performance:

As more local, state, and national governments change laws regarding the legality of cannabis use, it is essential for organizations to understand how the workplace may be influenced by these chang...
RNA-Seq data analysis of a rodent model of adolescent binge drinking reveals pathways and candidate genes involved in neuronal remodeling and neuroimmune activation

ABSTRACT Introduction Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a complex, chronic psychiatric disease. AUD manifests as having uncontrollable drinking patterns with detrimental effects. Excessive alcohol intake in the form of binge drinking, which is common among adolescents and young adults, is associated with increased risk of developing AUD. Here, we analyze RNA-seq data from hippocampi of Sprague Dawley rats to investigate temporal changes in gene expression. We used a rodent model of binge drinking, i.e., adolescent intermittent ethanol (AIE), to identify candidate genes that may play a role in the chronic changes in brain function and contribute to the development of AUD. Methods At postnatal day (PND) 30 (adolescence), rats received chronic intermittent ethanol (5g/kg intragastrically (i.g.) 10 times across 16 days). We extracted total RNA from rat hippocampal tissue that was collected at three time points. RNA was sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. We processed RNA-seq data (TrimGalore), compiled gene counts (HTSeq), and performed differential expression analysis (DESeq2). The full rank list of genes and the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with nominal p Results Based on GSEA, the most impacted differential gene expression occurs within the potassium channels and receptor function but is heavily dependent on the time point at which the analysis occurs. Across both GSEA and Cytoscape pathway analyses, the most striking changes occur in genes that regulate neuroinflammatory processes and neuronal/synaptic remodeling and coincide with the enrichment of pathways involved in addiction processes. Conclusion Identification of genes dysregulated by AIE may be useful in determining the underlying mechanism for acute and chronic effects of AIE exposure that contribute to neuronal remodeling and increased risk of developing AUD.
Bortezomib for treatment of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis in a pediatric patient refractory to conventional therapy.

Purpose The case of a pediatric patient with treatment refractory anti-N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor encephalitis treated with the plasma cell-depleting therapy bortezomib is reported. Summary A 5-year-old female presented to the hospital with a 1-week history of altered mental status, agitation, and possible seizure-like activity. She was admitted to the hospital for suspected meningitis or meningoencephalitis and an extensive workup was completed, including sending blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for testing for NMDA receptor antibodies. While test results were pending, the patient was treated initially with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) for 4 days followed by high-dose methylprednisolone for 5 days. The patient's serum and CSF studies were positive for NMDA receptor antibodies, confirming the diagnosis of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. She was then treated with plasmapheresis therapy every other day for 5 treatments, without any clinical improvement. The patient then received rituximab once weekly for 6 weeks. Three weeks after completion of rituximab therapy, the patient was started on her first cycle of bortezomib therapy. She received a total of 6 cycles, with improvement in her clinical status beginning with the third cycle. Upon completion of 6 cycles, the patient's mental status and level of functioning had greatly improved. She was discharged to an inpatient rehabilitation facility and ultimately able to return home to her family. Conclusion A 5-year-old female with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis was successfully treated with bortezomib after having shown no clinical improvement during treatment with IVIG, high-dose methylprednisolone, plasmapheresis, and rituximab.
Column technology: packed columns

Abstract Frequently used stationary phases [hydrocarbon, highly fluorinated, poly(siloxane), ethers and esters, and poly(ethylene glycol)] and supports [diatomaceous earths, fluorocarbon powders, and glass beads] for the preparation of packed columns for gas chromatography are described. Classification methods are discussed for stationary-phase selection with an emphasis on the solvation parameter model. The basic theory of band broadening and its effect on column design and the contribution of interfacial adsorption to the general retention mechanism are outlined. Common adsorbents for gas–solid chromatography [inorganic oxides, carbon, molecular sieves, and porous organic polymers] and their typical applications are discussed. The chapter contains all the material required to select, prepare, and characterize packed columns for gas chromatography together with the theory required to understand band broadening and retention.
Influence of floating plant density on potential herbicide spray loss.

BACKGROUND Mesocosm experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of floating plant density on over-the-top spray solution loss to the column using a tracer dye. Experiments quantified in-water rhodamine water tracer (RWT) dye concentration after foliar treatment at 935 L ha-1 to waterhyacinth [Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms], waterlettuce (Pistia stratiotes L.) and giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta D.S. Mitchell) at 0, 25, 50 and 100% area covered (PAC). RESULTS As expected, spray loss to the water surface decreased with increasing plant density in all species. However, each species exhibited an unique relationship between density and percentage spray loss. The plant material required to result in 50% spray loss (ED50 ) was 32, 62 and 55 PAC for waterhyacinth, waterlettuce and giant salvinia, respectively. Greater ED50 estimates in waterlettuce and giant salvinia were attributed to plant architecture and leaf orientation compared to waterhyacinth, which grows more vertically and has a greater overall surface area to intercept and retain spray solution. However, when treated at 100 PAC, waterhyacinth and waterlettuce resulted in 20-25% spray loss, whereas giant salvinia resulted in only 10% loss. Consequently, giant salvinia exhibited a near 1:1 relationship between spray loss and PAC (slope = -0.93). CONCLUSION These data suggest that potential herbicide spray loss, as affected by plant density, is largely species-specific and dependent on leaf morphology and plant architecture. Further research will confirm these findings under field conditions as well as to identify other parameters that might affect spray loss when treating floating and emergent plants. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. This article has been contributed to by US Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.