cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Jellyfish envenomation in an ocean swimmer.

A healthy 28-year-old man presented to the Emergency Department (ED) one hour after the sudden onset of sharp, right-sided leg pain that occurred while swimming in the North Atlantic Ocean. He also reported shooting pains radiating toward the groin, worsened by weight-bearing and walking. On examination, he was afebrile with a mild tachycardia and hypertension. Several curvilinear, urticarial lesions, surrounded by a 3 cm by 15 cm region of erythema, were seen on the right lower extremity (Fig. 1). The clinical picture was consistent with a jellyfish sting. Cnidariae, which include jellyfish, possess specialized stinging apparatus called nematocysts, which are concentrated on the tentacles, and which rapidly deliver venom. Cnidarian envenomation should be suspected and treated in patients with painful pruritus after sea-bathing, even if the organism is not directly observed. When left untreated, jellyfish stings may result in scarring, anaphylaxis, or even death in some cases due to a syndrome of systemic pain, hypertension, cardiotoxicity, and pulmonary edema [1]. Species with the most potent venoms largely inhabit IndoPacific waters, but this potentially fatal reaction has been reported on the US coast [2]. Current evidence supports treating jellyfish stings by mechanically scraping the lesions to remove embedded nematocysts, and irrigating the area involved with hot water to deactivate heat-labile venoms [3, 4]. Acetic acid is thought to inactivate the nematocysts of diverse species, and to inhibit the discharge of venom, but its clinical effectiveness has been contested [5]. Because most jellyfish envenomation cases occur in remote locations, emergency personnel should recognize local marine fauna, and direct empiric treatment to these species after suspected stings. The patient did not recall seeing the organism. Scrapings of the wound contained numerous visible nematocysts. The wound was irrigated with an 8 % acetic acid solution, and a topical steroid was applied for symptomatic relief. At 10-day follow-up, the lesions had resolved with moderate post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and the radiating pain had subsided.
A cloud-oriented cross-domain security architecture

The Monterey Security Architecture addresses the need to share high-value data across multiple domains of different classification levels while enforcing information flow policies. The architecture allows users with different security authorizations to securely collaborate and exchange information using commodity computers and familiar commercial client software that generally lack the prerequisite assurance and functional security protections. MYSEA seeks to meet two compelling requirements, often assumed to be at odds: enforcing critical, mandatory security policies, and allowing access and collaboration in a familiar work environment. Recent additions to the MYSEA design expand the architecture to support a cloud of cross-domain services, hosted within a federation of multilevel secure (MLS) MYSEA servers. The MYSEA cloud supports single-sign on, service replication, and network-layer quality of security service. This new cross-domain, distributed architecture follows the consumption and delivery model for cloud services, while maintaining the federated control model necessary to support and protect cross-domain collaboration within the enterprise. The resulting architecture shows the feasibility of high-assurance, cross-domain services hosted within a community cloud suitable for inter-agency, or joint, collaboration. This paper summarizes the MYSEA architecture and discusses MYSEA's approach to provide an MLS-constrained cloud computing environment.
Hardware-compatible vertex compression using quantization and simplification

We present a vertex compression technique suitable for efficient decompression on graphics hardware. Given a user-specified number of bits per vertex, we automatically allocate bits to vertex attributes for quantization to maximize quality, guided by an image-space error metric. This allocation accounts for the constraints of graphics hardware by packing the quantized attributes into bins associated with the hardware's vectorized vertex data elements. We show that this general approach is also applicable if the user specifies a total desired model size. We present an algorithm that integrally combines vertex decimation and attribute quantization to produce the best quality model for a user-specified data size. Such models have an appropriate balance between the number of vertices and the number of bits per vertex.Vertex data is transmitted to and optionally stored in video memory in the compressed form. The vertices are decompressed on-the-fly using a vertex program at rendering time. Our algorithms not only work well within the constraints of current graphics hardware but also generalize to a setting where these constraints are relaxed. They apply to models with a wide variety of vertex attributes, providing new tools for optimizing space and bandwidth constraints of interactive graphics applications.
THE EVALUATION OF HEMORRHAGE IN CARDIAC PATIENTS WHO HAVE UNDERGONE EXTRACORPOREAL CIRCULATION

The present study defines excessive bleeding in patients who undergo cardiopulmonary bypass, and evaluates the use of coagulation testing to predict those patients that bleed excessively. Evaluation of 774 consecutive patients undergoing aortocoronary bypass surgery was carried out. Cardiopulmonary bypass consisted of a bloodless prime and a Harvey bubble oxygenator. In the postoperative period, excessive hemorrhage was defined as that exceeding 600 ml chest tube drainage in the first eight hours. One hundred and sixty-three patients (21%) were noted to be in this category. Excessive bleeding postoperatively was best predicted by a PTT greater than 45 seconds, a PT greater than 19 seconds, a fibrinogen level less than 225 mg/dl and a TFT equal to or less than 1:32. These laboratory findings occur singly or in combination. The assessment of platelet, numbers or function and fibrin(ogen) split products were of no prognostic value. Using these criteria, the re-exploration rate for excessive hemorrhage and/or tamponade was 0.6 per cent (5 out of 774 patients). No preoperative laboratory test of hemostatic function was useful in predicting coagulopathies resulting from cardiopulmonary bypass.
Antibiotic Resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae: What Does the Future Hold?

The recent emergence of strains of drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (DRSP) is a serious clinical and public health problem. Several interventions have been proposed to limit the further emergence and spread of DRSP, including campaigns for appropriate antibiotic use and the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Whether the current epidemic of drug resistance in S. pneumoniae is sustainable or will succumb to current efforts to limit its spread will be decided by an interaction of factors related to the pathogen (i.e., the relative fitness of the resistant strains), to the prescription of antibiotic treatment (i.e., changes in selection pressure), and to the host (i.e., the ability to slow the transmission of DRSP). Much investigation is still needed to better ascertain how maintenance of DRSP strains in the community at large is influenced by each factor and affected by current interventions that are based on these factors.
Sulfur Polymer Cement as a Low-Level Waste Glass Matrix Encapsulant, Part I: Thermal Processing

Sulfur polymer cement (SPC) is a candidate material to encapsulate low-level waste (LLW) glass. Molten SPC will be poured into a LLW glass cullet-filled canister, surrounding the glass to act as an additional barrier to groundwater intrusion. This paper covers the first part of a study performed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory concerned with the fundamental aspects of embedding LLW glass in SPC. Part one is a study of the SPC itself. Variations in SPC properties are discussed, especially in relation to long-term stability and controlling crystallization in a cooling canister.
Interference enhancement of the internal fields at structural scattering resonances of a coated sphere

We examine the interior electromagnetic energy density of a coated nonabsorbing sphere at a number of scattering resonances. As is the case for an uncoated sphere, the interior energy density becomes large at the a(p)(l) and b(p)(l) resonances. It becomes especially large for p - 1 values of the coating thickness at resonance. These p - 1 enhancements are analogous to the interference maxima that occur in the intensity reflectance of two thin films in contact.
Trends in smoking among adults with serious psychological distress during comprehensive tobacco control in New York City, 2003-2012.

Adults with mental illness in the USA suffer excess smoking-related morbidity and mortality.1 Recent studies examining trends from 2001–2005 and 2004–2011 have shown consistently higher smoking prevalence and less successful quitting among those with mental illness, across an array of diagnoses.2 ,3 However, national data may mask changes in jurisdictions such as New York City (NYC), where comprehensive tobacco control (CTC) including taxation, legislation, education and access to cessation medications has operated for a decade (see Kilgore et al for details).4 We analysed data from the NYC Community Health Survey (CHS),5 to assess whether declines in the citywide smoking prevalence between 2003 and 20124 extend to those with serious psychological distress (SPD), measured using the …
An iterative algorithm for optimal style conscious field classification

Modeling consistency of style in isogenous fields of patterns (such as character patterns in a word from the same font or writer) can improve classification accuracy. Since such patterns are interdependent, the Bayes classifier requires maximization of a probability score over all field-labels, which are exponentially more numerous with increasing field length. The iterative field classification algorithm prioritizes field-labels, for computation of probability scores, according to an upper bound on the score. Factorizability of the upper bound score allows dynamic prioritization of field-labels. Experiments on classification of numeral field patterns demonstrate computational efficiency of the algorithm.
Capillary pericytes: Perspectives and future trends

A complete understanding of the microcirculation requires full knowledge of the structure and function of each of the constituent cells, including pericytes. Vascular endothelium and smooth muscle cells have been investigated intensively during the last two decades, but much less is known about the metabolism and function of capillary pericytes. However, the development of new electron microscopy techniques and the application of new cell culture and molecular biology techniques should allow for the rapid elucidation of the cellular biochemistry and the microvascular function and pathology of this ubiquitous capillary cell.
Single and tunable dual-wavelength operation of an InGaAs-GaAs ridge waveguide distributed Bragg reflector laser

The design and operation of an InGaAs-GaAs asymmetric cladding ridge waveguide (RW) distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser that can be operated in both a single-wavelength mode and a stable, dual-wavelength mode with tunable mode pair separation are reported. The asymmetric cladding RW-DBR laser consists of a conventional DBR laser with an additional, separate tuning contact pad over a part of the grating. The laser operates on a single-wavelength with no current applied to the tuning DBR pad, and dual-wavelength operation is achieved when current is applied to the tuning DBR pad. Tunable mode pair separations as small as /spl sim/13 nm and as large as /spl sim/17 nm can be achieved in various tuning conditions.
A practical approach to re-engineering software

Software is being recognized as a critical constraint in the realization of industrial and commercial systems, but the cost of labor intensive activity of developing software is still high. This situation is encouraging organizations to investigate re-engineering existing software. Re-engineering existing software may help control the high cost of software maintenance and better the understanding of existing systems. Nonetheless current state of software engineering tools and technology make re-engineering software a complex and difficult process[6].A simple approach to re-engineering, especially when translating the code from a proprietary language to a commercial language, is to use programmable program transformation tools to partially translate the code to a standard commercial language. Such partially translated code can be used to extract design information and refined further, and the translation can be completed with the help of commercially available tools.
Visual beams: tools for statics and solid mechanics

A team of faculty and students in the College of Engineering at Rowan University are developing hands-on and visualization tools for use in mechanics courses. The developed tools consist of physical simply-supported and cantilever beams that are instrumented with load cells to which students can apply various loading conditions. Measurements from the load cells and displacement transducers are used in a Labview graphical user interface allows the user to find reaction loads and plot deflections, stresses, and shear and bending diagrams. The tools are designed to help students overcome difficulties in working with forces, moments, displacements and stresses in courses the mechanical and civil engineering courses as well as benefit students with various learning styles.
SOI by CVD: An Overview of Material Aspects and Implications of Device Properties

Two CVD techniques producing monocrystalline SOI films, silicon-on sapphire (SOS) and Epitaxial Lateral Overgrowth (ELO), are described and the nature of the crystallographic defects in the films is discussed. The geometrical structure of SOI devices, device properties, dynamic characteristics, capacitance, and radiation hardness are then examined with emphasis on evaluating the potential of SOI technologies in future applications.
Analysis and Design of Struts with Tension Ties

A general solution is obtained for determining the buckling load of struts with tension ties. The ties, extending in length from one to the other end of the strut and bearing on several intermediate points along the column through hogging frames, are pretensioned. The tension ties precompress the column and at the same time furnish elastic supports to the column. Under the applied load, relationships between forces acting in the ties and the column and those between the lateral displacement and the reactions exerted by the ties were first developed. Then the general equation for buckling was derived and its application was shown by an example. A few models of a strut with tension ties were tested and the test results agree reasonably well with the analytical solution. Formulas were also derived for determining the initial tension and cross-sectional area of the ties in order to obtain maximum strength of a strut.
Precollegiate Knee Surgery Predicts Subsequent Injury Requiring Surgery in NCAA Athletes

Background:The effect of precollegiate orthopaedic surgery on injury risk in the elite collegiate athlete is unknown.Purpose:To (1) assess the relationship between precollegiate surgery and subsequent injury requiring surgery in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletes at a single institution and (2) compare the risk of subsequent surgery in the ipsilateral versus contralateral extremity in those with a history of precollegiate surgery.Study Design:Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.Methods:A retrospective chart review was performed of all athletes who began participation from 2003 to 2009 until completion of eligibility. Athletes who received orthopaedic surgery in college were identified through the Sports Injury Monitoring System and were cross-referenced with medical records. The risk of orthopaedic surgery was evaluated using multivariate Cox and Poisson regression models, with sex and sport as additional covariates. Risk of subsequent surgery in the ipsilateral versus cont...
Abstract 4807: FOXD3 regulates Rnd3 and invasion in mutant BRAF melanoma cells

Melanoma occurs due to the transformation of melanocytes and is the deadliest form of skin cancer with an estimated 68,720 new cases and 8,650 deaths in 2009. During radial growth phase (RGP) that is confined to the epidermis and papillary dermis, melanoma is treatable by surgical excision. However, dermal invasion during the vertical growth phase (VGP) is associated with a worse prognosis. The mechanisms contributing to aberrant melanoma invasion are poorly elucidated. Activating mutations in BRAF (a serine kinase) are found in approximately 60% of melanoma cases. Mutant BRAF is required for the invasion and changes in actin cytoskeleton associated with invasion are in part controlled by Rnd3, a BRAF regulated Rho family GTPase. Melanocytes derive from the neural crest, a multipotent population of migratory cells. Pluripotency and self-renewal of neural crest cells is regulated by the transcription factor FOXD3. Since we have previously shown that BRAF inhibition results in up-regulation of FOXD3 and down-regulation of Rnd3, we examined the role of FOXD3 in regulation of Rnd3 in cellular migration and invasion. We used inducible lentiviral-based expression of FoxD3 in various mutant BRAF melanoma cell lines (WM793 and A375). Inducible expression of FoxD3 in WM793mFoxD3 and A375mFoxD3 was confirmed by western blot. Boyden chamber with or without matrigel coating and 3D tumor spheroid collagen assays were used to study cellular migration and invasion in a dermal mimetic microenvironment. We observed a significant decrease in the migration and invasion in WM793 (VGP) and A375 (metastatic) melanoma cell lines and a decreased spheroids formation in the soft agar colony formation assay after FoxD3 induction. This inhibition of migratory/ invasive properties correlated with a FOXD3-dependent down-regulation of Rnd3 both at protein and mRNA level. Our study for the first time showed that FoxD3 expression down-regulates Rnd3 that increased actin stress fiber formation and decreases migration, invasion and spheroids formation in the metastatic melanoma cells. This study is relevant to the current challenge of understanding mechanism of BRAF regulation of invasion and provides additional targets for therapeutic intervention for the effective treatment of melanoma. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4807.
( Z )-7-Tetradecenal, a Seasonally Dependent Sex Pheromone of the w-Marked Cutworm, Spaelotis clandestina (Harris) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

(Z)-7-Tetradecenal appears to be the sole attractive component of the sex pheromone of Spaelotis clandestina , from which it was identified by gas chromatography, mass spectroscopy, electrophysiological analyses, synthesis, and field trapping tests. Synthetic material was unattractive during June and July (before and during the aestivation period of the moths) but became attractive during August and September, at which time it was a potent and specific lure. None of thirty tested analogs enhanced attraction; the (Z)-9-isomer was a powerful trapping inhibitor.
Worsening preoperative heart failure is associated with mortality and noncardiac complications, but not myocardial infarction after noncardiac surgery: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND:Heart failure (HF) is an important risk factor for perioperative morbidity and mortality. While these patients are at high risk for cardiac adverse events, there are few current data describing the types of noncardiac complications that occur in this population.METHODS:We performed a mult
Client-initiated HTTP covert channels using relays

This paper proposes a new covert channel utilizing open web relays. While the channel described is very straightforward, the addition of a trusted relay dramatically increases the anonymity and efficacy of this channel. Indirect, relayed communications disguise the actual endpoints of the communication making analysis, detection, and prevention more difficult.
Platelet-rich plasma increases transforming growth factor-beta1 expression at graft-host interface following autologous osteochondral transplantation in a rabbit model

Platelet-rich plasma increases transforming growth factor-beta1 expression at graft-host interface following autologous osteochondral transplantation in a rabbit model
Openness, specialization, and the external vulnerability of developing countries

Deepening real and financial integration of developing countries into the world economy has prompted renewed interest in the contribution of external shocks to their macroeconomic fluctuations. This paper revisits the issue using four decades of annual data for a large sample of developing countries. The paper implements a conditionally-homogeneous panel vector autoregression with exogenous variables to model GDP fluctuations in these countries. It uses sign restrictions to identify four external structural shocks -– demand, supply, monetary, and commodity shocks -– and analyzes how their impact on growth is shaped by countries' policy and structural framework. External shocks are found to account for a small share of the forecast error variance of GDP, especially at short horizons. However, their contribution has been on the rise in recent decades. Further, global monetary shocks have become the leading external source of GDP volatility in developing countries. The paper presents a quantitative assessment of the effects of real and financial opening up, as well as those of commodity specialization, on the impact of external shocks on GDP. The results suggest that increasing openness can account for the increasing trend in the volatility attributable to external shocks, as well as the changing roles of different shocks. Moreover, commodity-intensive developing countries are found to be more vulnerable than the rest to all types of external shocks, not just commodity shocks.
The influence of watershed characteristics on spatial patterns of trends in annual scale streamflow variability in the continental U.S.

Abstract As human activity and climate variability alter the movement of water through the environment the need to better understand hydrologic cycle responses to these changes has grown. A reasonable starting point for gaining such insight is studying changes in streamflow given the importance of streamflow as a source of renewable freshwater. Using a wavelet assisted method we analyzed trends in the magnitude of annual scale streamflow variability from 967 watersheds in the continental U.S. (CONUS) over a 70 year period (1940–2009). Decreased annual variability was the dominant pattern at the CONUS scale. Ecoregion scale results agreed with the CONUS pattern with the exception of two ecoregions closely divided between increases and decreases and one where increases dominated. A comparison of trends in reference and non-reference watersheds indicated that trend magnitudes in non-reference watersheds were significantly larger than those in reference watersheds. Boosted regression tree (BRT) models were used to study the relationship between watershed characteristics and the magnitude of trends in streamflow. At the CONUS scale, the balance between precipitation and evaporative demand, and measures of geographic location were of high relative importance. Relationships between the magnitude of trends and watershed characteristics at the ecoregion scale exhibited differences from the CONUS results and substantial variability was observed among ecoregions. Additionally, the methodology used here has the potential to serve as a robust framework for top-down, data driven analyses of the relationships between changes in the hydrologic cycle and the spatial context within which those changes occur.
High-frequency side-scan sonar fish reconnaissance by autonomous underwater vehicles

A dichotomy between depth penetration and resolution as a function of sonar frequency, draw resolution, and beam spread challenges fish target classification from sonar. Moving high-frequency sourc...
Understanding the Relationship between Parental Education and STEM Course Taking through Identity-Based and Expectancy-Value Theories of Motivation.

High school students from lower–socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are less likely to enroll in advanced mathematics and science courses compared to students from higher-SES backgrounds. The cu...
Correlation between inflammatory markers in blood and expression of costimulatory molecules on tumor-infiltrating CD8+ lymphocytes in renal cell carcinoma.

508Background: Loss of co-stimulatory molecules by CD8 T-cells is associated with reduced proliferative and cytotoxic function in chronic viral infections, aging, and cancer. Several lines of evidence suggest that a more functional immune system is associated with better patient outcomes, and improved response to immunotherapy in a range of different cancers. For this reason, understanding the features of a patient that predict the loss of T-cell function is important. In this study we characterized how co-stimulatory molecules are expressed by T-cells in the tumors of RCC patients. Additionally, we characterized how distant sites of metastasis differ from the primary tumor, and finally, we evaluated levels of blood inflammatory markers (BIMs) to predict how co-stimulatory on CD8+ TILs change. Methods: Patients that underwent resection of primary and/or metastatic RCC at Emory University Hospital were prospectively enrolled in the study. Levels of pre-op BIMs were retrieved from medical records. A portion...
SuperJam: Participatory Design for Accessible Games

This paper describes the design of a participatory design project being planned with specific goals around a central mission: to build a more inclusive community through gaming. To improve the quality of life of those with paralysis, we are planning a game jam to increase the number of games that are playable for this community. The theme for this game jam, called SuperJam, is alternatively controlled games. We have already designed an alternative controller that is manipulated by electromyography (EMG) sensors, which detect electric impulses from the player’s muscles. This specific controller has been utilized in the past by amputees to play simple prosthetic training games, and the same EMG technology operates hands-free wheelchairs by flexing muscles on the face or jaw. The teams at SuperJam will be challenged to create enjoyable games that can be played using this hands-free controller.
Synchronizing Gait with Cardiac Cycle Phase Alters Heart Rate Response during Running.

ABSTRACTTiming foot strike to occur in synchrony with cardiac diastole may reduce left ventricular afterload and promote coronary and skeletal muscle perfusion.PurposeThis study aimed to assess heart rate (HR) and metabolic responses to running when foot strikes are timed to occur exclusively during
Detecting chromosomal structural variation using jaccard distance and parallel architecture

Understanding the nature of many diseases, including cancer, requires locating somatically acquired rearrangements corresponding to large-scale chromosomal aberrations. Computational methods to detect inter-chromosomal rearrangements based on next-generation sequencing platforms face the big challenge of accurately predicting the location of sites spanned by a typically small number of reads, while the entire sample contains hundreds of millions of reads. In this work, we propose a method called TDJD that identifies the location of interchromosomal breakpoints corresponding to a large scale structural variations, in particular translocations and insertions. To reduce the huge dimension of the search space, we split candidate reads that can be potential break points into windows, and represent the windows as a sequence of binary fingerprints. We then search for the location of the breakpoint in the reference genome using Jaccard distance. We use a combination of parallel computing, search using Jaccard distance to solve the exact nearest neighbor problem. The dimensionality reduction takes advantage of an SSE multi-thread architecture to achieve efficient search. We applied our algorithm to identify several reads with breakpoints, including those characterizing the PAX8-PPARγ rearrangement, a frequent modification occurring in follicular thyroid cancer. Our results show that we could identify the breakpoints much faster than the previous method. We also compared our results to several recently published methods, and found that our method is faster than all other compared methods with high accuracy.
Psychological Predictors of Sexual Intimate Partner Violence against Black and Hispanic Women

Background: Although various types of intimate partner violence (IPV) tend to co-occur, risk factors of each type of IPV may differ. At the same time, most of the existing literature on risk factors of IPV among minorities has used a cross-sectional design and has focused on physical rather than sexual IPV. We conducted the current study to compare Black and Hispanic women for psychological predictors of change in sexual IPV over time. Methods: Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), this study followed 561 Black and 475 Hispanic women with their male partners for four years. Independent variables included male partners’ depression, anxiety, problem alcohol use, and male-to-female physical and psychological IPV perpetration. The dependent variable was sexual IPV reported by female partners, measured at baseline, two years, and four years later. Covariates included age, income, marital status and educational level. We used a multi-group latent growth curve model (LGCM) to explain intercept, linear, and quadratic slopes, which represent the baseline, and linear and curvilinear trajectories of male-to-female sexual IPV, where groups were defined based on ethnicity. Results: Psychological IPV was associated with sexual IPV at baseline among both ethnic groups. The male partner’s depression was a risk factor for an increase in sexual IPV over time among Black but not Hispanic women. Anxiety, problem alcohol use and physical IPV did not have an effect on the baseline or change in sexual IPV over time. Psychological IPV was not associated with an increase in sexual IPV over time in either ethnic groups. Conclusions: There is a need for screening of sexual IPV in the presence of psychological IPV among minority women. There is also a need for screening and treatment of male partners’ depression as a strategy to reduce sexual IPV among Black women.
A Kind of Reformation in Miniature: The Paradoxical Impact of Humanae Vitae in Italy

Italy was a crucial battleground for the teaching of the Catholic church on sexual morality in the late 1960s, and Humanae Vitae had a key role in the development of a new kind of relationship between the Vatican, the Catholic Church in Italy, and Italian public opinion, both Catholic and secular. The chapter analyses a spectrum of reactions, from opinion pieces and letters in secular newspapers, theological explorations in Catholic journals, and published critiques of the encyclical by the Catholic faithful. The encyclical constituted a pivotal moment in perceptions of the secularization of Italy, and this event was particularly momentous in a country with a history so intimately tied to the Catholic Church and the Vatican.
CCC-NHC Pincer Complexes: Synthesis, Applications, and Catalysis

Abstract The synthesis of organometallic CCC-NHC pincer complexes is discussed along with their applications. Such complexes span the transition metals of the periodic table with examples including group 4, 5, 8, 9, and 10 metals. Lanthanide, group 3, Ir, and Pd complexes of C^C^C-NHC pincer ligands are also reported. Such a variety highlights the broadly applicable nature of the CCC-NHC ligand set. Organometallic CCC-NHC pincer complexes are employed as efficient catalysts and emitters. Such complexes are achieved via three major routes: metalation with amido regents, transmetalation from early to late metals, or by direct metalation of a suitable proligand. Yields of these syntheses vary greatly, depending upon the metal and the reaction conditions. Researchers have used the modular nature of the ligand precursors to engineer around unwanted side products.
Displacement of occluder as a rare complication of transcatheter closure of ventricular septal defect: A case report.

Rationale Ventricular septal defects are the most common congenital heart defect in children. As this method avoids sternotomy, the post-procedural morbidity is lower. However, transcatheter closure of perimembranous ventricular septal defects are still associated with complications such as arrhythmia (particularly, Atrioventricular Block), device embolization, atrioventricularvalve and/or aortic valves regurgitation, residual shunts. Some complications can be life threatening and require urgent surgical intervention. Patient concerns An 32-months-old boy was admitted for a significant precordial systolic murmur. The patient underwent transcatheter perimembranous ventricular septal defects closure. 12 months later, Transthoracic echocardiography revealed the device displaced, 4 mm shunt acrocss the ventricular septum and moderate tricuspid regurgitation detected. Diagnosis According to the echocardiography result, the patient was diagnosed with displacement of the ventricular septal defect occluder and tricuspid regurgitation. Interventions After the diagnosis, the patient underwent removal of the ventricular septal defect occluder and closure of the perimembranous ventricular septal defect. Outcomes The post-operative recovery was uneventful. One year post-procedural follow-up transthoracic echocardiography showed there was no residual shunt and no tricuspid regurgitation. Lessons Transcatheter closure of Ventricular septal defects is an attractive alternative to surgery in simple perimembranous ventricular septal defects. Proper follow-up should be emphasized to the patient.
INTERLEUKINS | IL-12

Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is a heterodimeric cytokine with broad immunoregulatory properties that belongs to a larger family of proteins, termed the IL-12 related cytokines. The IL-12 related cytokines are generated from five independently regulated genes that homodimerize and heterodimerize to form seven secreted family members. These proteins have overlapping as well as distinct biologic properties and this article focuses specifically on IL-12, p80, and p40. IL-12, a disulfide-linked heterodimer composed of a p40 and p35 subunit, has been identified as an immune cell stimulator that promotes differentiation and proliferation of T cells and enhances the production of interferon gamma. Human studies and murine experimental models have implicated IL-12 in the regulation of multiple immunologic processes including regulation of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell differentiation, host defense, autoimmunity, tumor cell immune recognition, alloimmunity, and host response to vaccine administration. p80 is a disulfide-linked p40 homodimer that can function as a competitive antagonist of IL-12 and a macrophage chemoattractant. Specific topics discussed in this article include the structure, regulation, function, receptor utilization, and role of IL-12 related cytokines in respiratory disease.
NCI's anticancer drug screening program may not be selecting for clinically active compounds.

To discover new anticancer drugs the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) currently screens roughly 10,000 compounds annually against a panel of 60 human tumor cell lines. Drug activity is determined using a 2-day growth inhibition assay with the cells maintained in contact with the drugs for the 2-day period. Analyses of the more than 60,000 compounds screened to date against this panel of cell lines have revealed surprisingly detailed correlations between drug activities and the molecular genotypes and phenotypes of the cells. For example, most of the drugs, particularly those active in the clinic, are most active against p53 wild-type cells. This commentary points out, however, that these patterns of activity, and by implication the compounds identified as active, may not be relevant to tumor response in vivo. This is because tumor response is determined by tumor cell kill, and there is no reason to suppose that drug-induced short-term growth inhibition should correlate with drug-induced cell kill, usually measured by the ability of the cell to divide indefinitely to form a colony. We have tested a subset of the panel of NCI cell lines for cell kill by clonogenic assay using cisplatin and mitomycin C and have found only a weak and nonsignificant correlation between cell kill and activity determined by the NCI using the growth inhibition assay. It is concluded that a more extensive comparison of the 2-day growth inhibition and clonogenic assays should be made, as well as a test of which is more relevant to the response of human tumor xenografts.
Rubber-Toughened Plastics

One of the oldest, and certainly one of the most important, methods of preparing polymer mixtures involves blending techniques. This chapter will discuss mechanical blending, graft-type blending, and related schemes for producing compositions that have a rubber phase dispersed within a plastic matrix. Some of these materials have become famous for their impact resistance, while others, although interesting morphologically, exhibit little if any toughening.
Development of GABAergic neurons in the mammalian retina.

Publisher Summary The anatomical and functional diversity of gamma-aminobutyric acid–releasing (GABAergic) cells in the retina precludes simple schemes for describing the way GABA circuitry is arranged in an adult and provides an even greater challenge in discerning the way circuitry might be established during development. In addition to the limitations caused by complexity in adult circuitry, another complication further confounds interpretations drawn from the developmental studies of GABAergic neurons in the retina—neonatal GABAergic systems are even more complex than in the adult. GABAergic markers appear early in pre-natal development and are localized in larger numbers and in more diverse types of cells than in the adult. Thus, it appears that post-natal maturation of the GABA system involves a process of selective pruning rather than simple addition. The developmental decrease in anatomical diversity may also be reflected in a decrease in functional diversity because functions other than synaptic transmission have been ascribed to GABA early in development. To examine the development of GABAergic retinal neurons, it is necessary to review the maturational processes responsible for overall retinal development. Most of the information regarding mammalian development is based on rodent models, although similar information exists for primate retina as well.
New Specimens of the Late Cretaceous Metatherian Eodelphis and the Evolution of Hard-Object Feeding in the Stagodontidae

The Stagodontidae include the largest metatherians known from the Cretaceous of North America. Of the recognized species of the stagodontid genus Eodelphis, E. cutleri is larger and has a more robust dentary, more inflated premolars, and third premolars specialized for crushing, as opposed to the more gracile E. browni. These differences have led to the hypothesis that an E. cutleri-like ancestor gave rise to Didelphodon—another, mostly younger, stagodontid, which has been interpreted as a durophagous predator-scavenger. If correct, E. cutleri would be expected to show more morphological adaptation toward durophagy than E. browni does. Here, we describe two new dentary fossils referable to E. browni and test the evolutionary hypothesis by applying beam theory to estimate bending force capabilities of 22 dentaries of Cretaceous stagodontids and other metatherians. The resulting diversity of bending force profiles of the sampled dentaries implies that Cretaceous metatherians had a wide range of feeding behaviors. Among the stagodontids, E. cutleri has a mediolateral bending force profile of the dentary that is more similar to that of Didelphodon than it is to that of E. browni; whereas its dorsoventral bending force profile is more similar to that of E. browni. These results indicate that anteriorly the dentary of E. cutleri was capable of resisting high torsional stresses from hard-object feeding but lacked other dorsoventral buttressing associated with exceptionally high bite forces of Didelphodon. Our results imply that some morphological changes associated with durophagy evolved twice within this clade, independently in E. cutleri and Didelphodon.
Light-Matter interactions in topological semimetals: novel physics to devices (Conference Presentation)

We will also discuss our efforts to explore the optoelectronic properties of MoxW1-xTe2, which are type-II Weyl semimetals, i.e., gapless topological states of matter with broken inversion and/or time reversal symmetry, which exhibit unconventional responses to externally applied fields. We have observed spatially dispersive circular photogalvanic effect (s-CPGE) over a wide spectral range from mid-IR to visible region in these materials. This effect shows exclusively in the Weyl phase and vanishes upon temperature induced topological phase change. Since the photon energy in our experiments leads to interband transitions between different electronic bands, we use the density matrix formalism to describe the photocurrent response under chiral optical excitation and obtain microscopic insights into the observed phenomena. We will discuss how spatially inhomogeneous optical excitation and unique symmetry and band structure of Weyl semimetals produces CPGE in these systems. Implications for studying band topologies in these class of materials via photogalvanic effects will also be discussed. These results provide a new approach to controlling photoresponse by patterning optical fields in certain class of broken-symmetry materials to store, manipulate and transmit information over a wide spectral range.
Lumbar spinal fusion in the outpatient setting: an update on management, surgical approaches and planning

Outpatient lumbar spinal fusion surgery has the potential for improved patient satisfaction, speed of recovery, and economic advantages when compared to inpatient surgery. Despite the rise in the number of these procedures performed annually, the literature on this topic remains scarce. As such, there is a need for a comprehensive review of current concepts in indications and management. The current review will present the most recent literature regarding pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative considerations when performing outpatient lumbar spinal fusion surgery.
k-Involutions of SL(n,k) over fields of characteristic 2

Symmetric k-varieties generalize Riemannian symmetric spaces to reductive groups defined over arbitrary fields. For most perfect fields, it is known that symmetric k-varieties are in one-to-one cor...
Evaluating the Clinical Implications of an Innovative Anatomy Lab Suturing Curriculum for Physician Assistant Students.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of a new suturing curriculum incorporated throughout the anatomy lab for Yale Physician Associate (YPA) students. METHODS This controlled before-and-after study evaluated the class of 2017 (n = 39) as the control group and the class of 2018 (n = 37) as the intervention group. Suturing competency data were collected on all students from their clinical preceptor evaluations. Students completed surveys to measure perceived confidence in suturing skills. RESULTS Preceptor evaluations showed a 14.98% increase in suturing competence between the control and intervention groups (P < .05). Student surveys showed no significant difference in self-perceived confidence in suturing skills between the 2 cohorts. CONCLUSIONS After initiation of an innovative anatomy lab suturing curriculum, YPA students demonstrated improvement in preceptor-perceived suturing competency during clinical rotations.
Sex Behaviours and Family Sexuality Communication among Hispanic Adolescents.

This study compared the extent to which Hispanic teenagers talk with mothers, fathers and extended family members about risks of sex, protection and relational sex, as well as the role of teenagers...
Reproductive Health Awareness of College Students of Selected Private Colleges in Olongapo City.

This descriptive study examines the reproductive health awareness of 100 randomly selected college students in selected private colleges in Olongapo City. The survey covered six basic and common reproductive health issues: maternal and child health, family planning, promotion of breastfeeding, adolescent reproductive health, prevention and management of abortion, prevention and management of reproductive tract infections. The data were subjected using weighted mean, and Pearson–r. The following information was generated: student-respondents were aware of the six basic and common reproductive health issues. On the sources of students' information, which included socio-economic conditions, the status of women, social and gender issues, culture, and psycho-social issues, the respondents perceived all of these factors as important. The correlational analysis also revealed a moderate to strong relationship values in all six health issues. The sources of students’ information significantly affected the levels of awareness in the different issues about reproductive health. Moreover, the sources of reproductive health information come from the following according to ranked by the respondents: parents, nurse/ doctor, television, friends, and the internet.
Nonthermal ion acceleration by the kink instability in nonrelativistic jets

We investigate the self-consistent particle acceleration physics associated with the development of the kink instability (KI) in nonrelativistic, electron-ion plasma jets. Using 3D fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we show that the KI efficiently converts the initial toroidal magnetic field energy into energetic ions. The accelerated ions form a nonthermal power-law tail in the energy spectrum, containing ≃10% of the initial magnetic field energy, with the maximum ion energy extending to the confinement energy of the jet. We find that the ions are efficiently accelerated by the concerted action of the motional electric field and the highly tangled magnetic field that develop in the nonlinear phase of the KI: fast curvature drift motions of ions across magnetic field lines enable their acceleration along the electric field. We further investigate the role of Coulomb collisions in the ion acceleration efficiency and identify the collisional threshold above which nonthermal ion acceleration is suppressed. Our results reveal how energetic ions may result from unstable nonrelativistic plasma jets in space and astrophysics and provide constraints on the plasma conditions required to reproduce this acceleration mechanism in laboratory experiments.
LCI Data and Design

LCA gathers and presents facts that can appeal to both those who aspire to save the planet while not materially impacting the financial bottom line.
Levelling the Lake: Transboundary Resource Management in the Lake of the Woods Watershed

Most of Ontario’s border with the United States is liquid. Given that the international demarcation was drawn right through watersheds, the borderlands territory in both nations has many visual sim...