cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Movements of benzo[a]pyrene across the hemochorial placenta of the guinea pig.

In an effort to determine fetal exposure resulting from maternally administered benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), the clearance of radiolabeled BaP from mother to fetus was measured across the hemochorial placenta of the guinea pig at 60 days of gestation. Using techniques previously reported for other toxic materials, the fetal circulation of the placenta was isolated. BaP injected into the maternal circulation, and the concentration of BaP determined in the perfusate. The clearance of BaP from mother to fetus was high following intravenous injection. Clearances appeared to be a function of umbilical blood flow, and ranged from 0.59 to 2.40 ml/min at an umbilical flow of 2.5 ml/min. Since clearances of BaP approximated those obtained for tritiated water, it is apparent that circulating BaP gains easy access to the fetus.
The Ontological Problem with Sovereignty: Indigenous Nations, Territoriality, and the Making of Natural Resources in Alaska

Congressional resolution of Alaska Native land claims in the 1970s, driven by a discursive collusion of carbon crisis and neocolonial urgency to build the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, has created a substantively different legal and economic relationship between Alaskan indigenous nations and the state than that which exists for Lower 48 tribes. It has also resulted in increasingly intense inter-tribal and intra-organizational conflict over environmental governance, development, and energy, most recently culminating in a January 2009 heating oil crisis in rural villages throughout the state. In this paper, cultural conceptions of fossil energy held by young indigenous anti-development activists from Gwich’in and Koyukon tribal villages are contrasted with those held by energy analysts in Doyon, Ltd, interior Alaska’s largest regional Native corporation. The villages rejected the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and their citizen activists now provide counter-narratives of sovereignty and ‘natural resources’ that not only diverge from those held by Doyon members, but also illuminate indigenous diversity in conceptions of energy as category. Narratives of last winter’s rural crisis demonstrate how fossil energy is conceived of in culturally distinctive ways by Alaska Native environmental activists, policy makers, and energy analysts. Further, their evaluations of energy covary with diverse legal relationships between village governments, the corporations, and the state. By investigating fossil energy as a total social fact, critical ethnography can illuminate the multiple cultural understandings of relational sovereignty and energy that inform indigenous conflict in Alaska.
Immunologic and allergic properties of cows' milk proteins in humans

Cows' milk is an important component of the diet especially during infancy. Yet, cows' milk can elicit allergic and other sensitivity reactions in some individuals. Cows' milk allergy (CMA) results from an abnormal immunologic reaction to cows' milk proteins. IgE responses are definitely involved in CMA. Immune complexes and tissue lymphocytes may also play a role in some forms of CMA, but further evidence is needed to firmly establish this possibility. The presence of circulating antibodies to cows' milk proteins of the IgG, IgA and IgM classes is not clinically significant. Such antibodies are found in both normal and allergic individuals. (β-Lactoglobulin and casein are the most common cows' milk allergens, although other cows' milk proteins may play important roles in some cases. Partial digestion of cows' milk proteins may enhance their allergenicity, whereas complete hydrolysis abolishes their allergenicity. Heating can also alter the allergenicity of the cows' milk proteins, but rather severe heating is required. More research will be necessary to develop hypoallergenic processing methods for cows' milk.
Health Houses in MS: Alternative Care for the Needy

In this study, we examine the effectiveness of health houses in rural communities. Our case study is Bolivar County, MS; the only health house in the state. Using a model derived from Iran, we will summarize the recent application of this model to similar demographics (i.e., high levels of poverty…). Using the current health house as a baseline, we will investigate the plausibility of creating health houses in similar counties, such as Holmes County. We hypothesize that health houses will lower the medical costs of low-income or impoverished individuals and hospitals. We expect our findings to aid in the overall discussion of the Affordable Health Care Act and how alternative methods could be used to attend to those in need.
Abstract 4153: Short term opioid receptor blockade inhibits cancer cell proliferation independent of immune function by upregulation of the OGF-OGFr axis: A tissue culture model of low dose naltrexone (LDN)

Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC The opioid growth factor (OGF) is an autocrine produced and constitutively expressed peptide that interacts with the OGF receptor (OGFr) and subsequently targets the cyclin dependent kinase inhibitory (CKI) pathways to inhibit proliferation at the G1/S phase of the cell cycle. Naltrexone (NTX) is a nonselective opioid receptor antagonist that blocks this interaction. In vivo administration of a low dosage of NTX (LDN, 0.1 mg/kg) blocks opioid receptors for 4-6 h, resulting in a compensatory upregulation of OGF and OGFr. Following clearance of NTX, the elevated levels of OGF and OGFr interact to decrease cell proliferation. To investigate whether LDN inhibits cancer cell proliferation independent of immune function, a tissue culture model using short term NTX in human ovarian cancer cell lines (SKOV-3, OVCAR-3) was established. Cell replication and cell number were determined over 96 h in cultures treated with a single 6 h application of NTX (10−6 M). In SKOV-3 and OVCAR-3 cultures, cell number was decreased by 21-28% and 27-32%, respectively, between 48 and 96 h; DNA synthesis was inhibited ∼ 33% at 72 h. Peptide specificity studies using a variety of classical μ, δ, or κ opioid receptor agonists confirmed that only OGF inhibited cell number. Antibody neutralization of OGF in cultures revealed that endogenous OGF invoked the inhibitory growth effects of short term NTX. To evaluate which opioid receptor mediated the inhibitory action of short term NTX on growth, cultures were treated with siRNAs against the μ, δ, κ, and OGFr receptors; only OGFr was associated with short term NTX treatment. Immunocytochemical studies and semiquantitative analyses documented an upregulation of OGF and OGFr expression following short term NTX exposure in cancer cells; western blot analysis and receptor binding for OGFr revealed 2-fold increases of receptors 48 h after a brief exposure to NTX. NTX's inhibitory action was not related to apoptosis (TUNEL) or necrosis (trypan blue staining). To investigate whether short term NTX's action on cell proliferation was transduced by the p16 and/or p21 CKI pathways, siRNAs for p16 and p21 were utilized in combination with short term NTX. Silencing of p16 and/or p21 blocked the inhibitory action of short term NTX, indicating a mechanism directed toward the CKI pathways. Independent of immune function, short term opioid receptor antagonism has been demonstrated to inhibit cancer cell proliferation by upregulation of the OGF-OGFr axis. Upregulation of the OGF-OGFr axis by a brief opioid receptor blockade may provide a novel target for biotherapy of cancers. 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 4153.
Dual-camera infrared PLIF imaging of CO and CO2

bands of CO and CO2 using typically 12 mJ of tunable output near 2.0-2.3 pm; fluorescence resulting from excited vibrational states is collected near 4.3-4.7 pm using an InSb focal plane array. The theoretical framework for modeling absorption and fluorescence is presented, with most attention paid to the distinct characteristics stemming from the use of vibrational (III) transitions as compared to electronic (UV) transitions. Slow quenching processes following IR excitation allow for acceptable fluorescence quantum yield despite relatively small Einstein A coefficients, and the high dynamic range afforded by the IR cameras allows for effective imaging despite the presence of background luminosity. Use of two cameras facilitates imaging of multiple species simultaneously and/or subtraction of luminous background, enabling PLIF imaging in high-T, unsteady flows. PLIF imaging of gas-phase CO and COz is demonstrated both at room temperature and in a laminar coflowing CO/Hz flame at 10 Ha acquisition rate with SNR=l detection limits near 1000 ppm at 300 K.
Sari suasion: migrant economies of care in Shailja Patel’s Migritude

AbstractThis essay examines Shailja Patel’s 2010 book, Migritude, and its framing of human value in feminist terms and from the vantage point of nonwestern migrants rather than Western human rights activists and investors. I argue that, through the material and affective legacy of the sari, Patel takes up neoliberal rhetorics of globalization and market-based forms of human value in order to reveal their violence, divest them of meaning and power, and imagine an alternative model of worth based in what she calls “care economies,” the work of repair and regeneration undertaken (often invisibly) by those most affected by violence and abuses of power.
Measuring the Effect of Digital Technology on the Sales of Copyrighted Goods: Evidence from Napster

This paper measures the eect of file sharing on equilibrium record sales. Previous research has suered from little direct information on who downloaded music and how much their music expenditures changed. This paper uses the introduction of Napster and exploits two household-level data sets. I begin with a dierence-in-dierences approach, treating the presence of Napster as a technological event that only Internet users experienced. To account for compositional changes in Internet users as well as the likely relationship between music expenditure and the propensity to adopt the Internet, I improve upon nonparametric matching methods. Because of confounding factors due to other new online activities, I additionally combine two datasets. Taken together, the results suggest that file sharing explains 20% of total sales decline, which is driven by households with children aged 6-17.
Defense of High-Speed Rail With an Evolutionary Algorithm Guided by Game Theory

High-speed rail (HSR) holds promise as an investment to modernize the transportation infrastructure of the United States of America and support its national economy. The half trillion dollar price tag necessitates thorough analysis and planning to ensure long-term success, including a well formulated vulnerability analysis to identify an optimal or near-optimal strategy for deploying protective technologies and infrastructure that will render the HSR network resilient to disruptions induced by natural disasters and terrorist threats. This paper embeds a game-theoretic vulnerability assessment technique that considers the impact of defending network links into a genetic algorithm, which searches for a near-optimal assignment of finite defensive resources to the links of the network. The terms link and edge are used interchangeably in this paper. The approach is applied to the incremental HSR network deployment map given by the U.S. High-Speed Rail Association, describing network construction over a 15-year period from 2015 to 2030. Our results suggest that, over the life of the HSR network, a strategy utilizing relocatable defenses could achieve significant savings compared to less flexible strategies that rely solely on static defenses.
FRAUDAR: Bounding Graph Fraud in the Face of Camouflage

Given a bipartite graph of users and the products that they review, or followers and followees, how can we detect fake reviews or follows? Existing fraud detection methods (spectral, etc.) try to identify dense subgraphs of nodes that are sparsely connected to the remaining graph. Fraudsters can evade these methods using camouflage, by adding reviews or follows with honest targets so that they look "normal". Even worse, some fraudsters use hijacked accounts from honest users, and then the camouflage is indeed organic. Our focus is to spot fraudsters in the presence of camouflage or hijacked accounts. We propose FRAUDAR, an algorithm that (a) is camouflage-resistant, (b) provides upper bounds on the effectiveness of fraudsters, and (c) is effective in real-world data. Experimental results under various attacks show that FRAUDAR outperforms the top competitor in accuracy of detecting both camouflaged and non-camouflaged fraud. Additionally, in real-world experiments with a Twitter follower-followee graph of 1.47 billion edges, FRAUDAR successfully detected a subgraph of more than 4000 detected accounts, of which a majority had tweets showing that they used follower-buying services.
Clinical analysis of 70 cases of the treatment of hemabate conbined with intrauterine balloon for postpartum haemorrhage

Objective To study the treatment of effect of hemabate conbined with intrauterine balloon for postpartum haemorrhage hapenning during the opration of cesarean section. Methods Looked into 70 cases of postpartum haemorrhage that received treatment in Yanbian Women and Children's Hospitail during the period from January 2003 to January 2009. Results Out of the total inpatient cases of the hospital,there were 25 cases of complete privia postpatum haemorrhage volume from 1 000 to 1 700 mL,45 cases of pastial placenta praevia haemorrhage volume from 700~900 mL.The inpatiens treated by this way succesfully. Conclusion Postpartum haemorrhage treated with hemabate and intrauterine balloon section not only decrease bleeding during the opration of cesarean,but decrease bleeding after opration.
The Gender Matters

While there is converging evidence suggesting gender differences in the rates of suicidal behaviors, substantially less is known about the mechanisms underlying these differences. What follows is a review of the evidence supporting gender differences in suicidal behaviors, including epidemiology, age trends, methods, risk and protective factors, treatment, and the effects of sexual orientation and culture.
Combined Efforts: Holts and the Conference System

Shipping conferences have loomed large in the history of Alfred Holt and Co. From the latter part of the nineteenth century conference affairs have been an enduring and integral part of Holts’ prosperity and management responsibilities. The Holt story must be concerned with shipping conferences for several interconnected reasons. First, Alfred and Philip Holt were closely, though often reluctantly, involved with John Swire in the foundation of the first and ultimately one of the most important and long-lasting conferences in 1879, the China and Japan Conference (termed the Straits, China and Japan Conference in 1911 and the Far Eastern Freight Conference from 1941). Second, membership of various conferences has played a significant role determining the structure of freight rates, the routes operated, and the ports of loading and discharging. Thus both the prosperity and shape of Blue Funnel services have evolved for most of the company’s history within the framework of the conference system. Moreover from the days of Richard Holt the Company’s Managers have always been staunch upholders of the conference system and have devoted a great deal of time to its affairs. Richard Holt himself, Leonard Cripps, John Hobhouse, Herbert McDavid, Roland Thornton, John Nicholson, Lindsay Alexander, and others have made notable contributions to the management of the company’s conference affairs.
Comprehensive and quantifiable granularity: A novel model to measure agro-food traceability

Recent developments in the legal establishment and the market have motivated more agro-food companies to implement traceability systems (TS). TS play an important role not only for planning system implementation before development, but also for analyzing system performance after using the system. A novel agro-food TS model is presented here, based on comprehensive and quantifiable granularity concepts. A 2-layer index system was established; the first layer was mainly factors such as precision, breadth, and depth, and the second layer included seven indicator sub-factors: external trace units, internal flow units, IU conversion, information collection content, information update frequency, forward tracking distance, and backward tracing distance. An indicator’s overall score was scaled with five contributing scores that graded the assignment method. Indicator weight was confirmed with the AHP method. The weight values of the seven indicators were 0.1985, 0.1141, 0.0872, 0.1870, 0.1248, 0.1442, and 0.1442, respectively. A weighted sum model was adopted to calculate the evaluation value. A high evaluation value indicated high granularity. The granularity model was applied in two enterprises, here identified as WPF and WFPE, which were located at different stages in wheat-flour supply chain. The survey results showed that WFPE should invest more in tracing equivalent granularity than WPF should because it involves multi-stage processing, a complicated supply chain structure, it is a large enterprise, and operates in a strict regulatory environment. Furthermore, WFPE was motivated to implement a high granularity level because of benefits in supply chain management, market and customer response, and recall and risk management. In the future, an updated granularity evaluation model that could combine enterprise characteristics and uncover hidden costs and benefits will be studied further.
Critical Error 11 Drawing Words from the Wrong Well

Toward the end of World War II, Niels Bohr set up a meeting with Winston Churchill to warn him about an atomic arms race that Bohr correctly predicted would occur after the war. Bohr wanted all countries to establish guidelines to contain these weapons. A few months earlier, Churchill had diminished hopes for such guidelines by signing away British rights to nuclear development. Because Bohr, who had recently fled Denmark, did not speak English very well, he decided to write out the presentation in his best English and have a friend, R.V. Jones, go over the draft and polish the language.
New Evidence on the Holiday Effect in the Chinese Stock Market

This paper investigates the holiday effect in the Chinese stock market using the GARCH (1,1) and GARCH (1,1)-M models for the period of January 2006 to February 2017. The findings reveal that most of the broad market indices exhibit the holiday effect. At the industry level, the holiday effect is consistently observed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, while the results are mixed in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The change in the risk premium provides a mixed result in explaining the holiday anomalies, and the holiday effect is dominated by the non-culturally-based holidays, which fall on the turn of the month.
Multivariate Sampling and the Estimation Problem for Exchangeable Arrays

We consider random arrays and the associated empirical distributions obtained by multivariate sampling from a stationary process. Under suitable conditions, one gets convergence toward a separately exchangeable array and its ergodic distribution. The result is related to the statistical problem of estimating the representing function of an exchangeable array. The latter problem is well-posed only for shell-measurable arrays, where the grid processes based on finite sub-arrays form consistent estimates with respect to a suitable norm. In general, the required consistency holds only in the distributional sense for the generated arrays.
Integrin α7: a major driver and therapeutic target for glioblastoma malignancy.

Glioblastomas, or glioblastoma multiforme tumors (GBM), are aggressive high-grade malignant gliomas. They are the most frequent brain tumors in adults, corresponding to 12% to 15% of all intracranial tumors and 50% to 60% of astrocytic tumors (1). GBM are heterogeneous tumors caused by mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR ), isocitrate dehydrogenase ( IDH ) and platelet derived growth factor receptor alpha ( PDGFRA ) genes (1). Recent reports support the notion that GBM growth is mediated by stem cells [GBM stem cells (GSCs)] (2-4) that express neural stem cell markers (2) and can differentiate into pericytes and endothelial cells to support tumor vascularization (3,4). Different markers have been described for specific GSC sub-populations (2-4), but no common stem cell marker has been defined yet. Identification of GSC stem cell markers is critical for the development of new therapeutic targets for GBM.
MCU-integrated PGA in 65nm CMOS with sub-1% gain error, 180ns acquisition window, and programmable output filter for motor control

A high performance, low area (0.12mm2), MCU-integrated PGA, with gain range {3,6,12,24}, targeting a complete on-chip motor control solution in 65nm CMOS process is described. Its interpolation based analog gain trim allows design of resistor array with small parasitic, enabling fast settling of PGA (180ns for 12bit acquisition window and 400ns for 0.1 % step response to drive 12bit SAR ADC) across PVT. This design meets gain error of 0.5% for gain 3, 6, 12 and 0.75% for gain 24 across PVT. Additionally, switching noise, which is a nuisance in motor control world, is mitigated by providing an on-chip programmable R-bank which, along with on-board C, can deliver necessary noise filtering. Challenges for linear switch designs for R-programmability are solved with novel circuit approaches that made this PGA really usable.
On the use of pitch-based features for fear emotion detection from speech

In this paper, we present a study that aims to evaluate the effect of pitch-related features on fear emotion detection from speech signal. In this context, several features have been tested. Only relevant ones are selected thanks to ANOVA tests. Next, they were decorrelated using principal component analysis. To select fear, emotion classification based on machine learning methods is used to extract fear from other emotions. Many classification tools are used and compared. We considered two types of emotion classification which highlights the fear emotion state, a simple classification as well as an hierarchical one. Results show that selected pitch-based features have a relatively great power in fear recognition. In fact, the highest accuracy rate reaches 78.7% using k-nearest neighbors algorithm.
Convergencias teórico-metodológicas en el análisis del desarrollo de la morfología verbal de tiempo y aspecto en una L2

El presente comentario general expone; en primer lugar; un breve resumen de los postulados teoricos principales que han guiado la investigacion de tiempo y aspecto presentada en los articulos de este volumen (ELA 44); y; en segundo lugar; un analisis de aspectos metodologicos de los estudios a efectos de ofrecer una interpretacion propia del autor de los resultados generales.
The Impact of Gender on Negotiation Performance

Individuals occasionally assume that women cannot negotiate as effectively as men, and when persons in positions of authority have such thoughts, it may induce them to discriminate against women when making employment decisions. In this article we explore the way in which men and women interact with others and the possible impact of behaviorial differences on negotiation performance. I describe how my Legal Negotiation course is taught, and compare the results achieved by men and women on the negotiation exercises assigned in my course. Over the past sixteen years, I have not had a single year in which there has been a statistically significant difference with respect to the average results or standard deviations pertaining to the male and female students.
Herbivorous protist growth and grazing rates at in situ and artificially elevated temperatures during an Arctic phytoplankton spring bloom

To assess protistan grazing impact and temperature sensitivity on plankton population dynamics, we measured bulk and species-specific phytoplankton growth and herbivorous protist grazing rates in Disko Bay, West Greenland in April-May 2011. Rate estimates were made at three different temperatures in situ (0 °C), +3 °C and +6 °C over ambient. In situ Chlorophyll a (Chl a) doubled during the observation period to ∼12 µg Chl a L-1, with 60-97% of Chl a in the >20 µm size-fraction dominated by the diatom genus Chaetoceros. Herbivorous dinoflagellates comprised 60-80% of microplankton grazer biomass. At in situ temperatures, phytoplankton growth or grazing by herbivorous predators <200 µm was not measurable until 11 days after observations commenced. Thereafter, phytoplankton growth was on average 0.25 d-1. Phytoplankton mortality due to herbivorous grazing was only measured on three occasions but the magnitude was substantial, up to 0.58 d-1. Grazing of this magnitude removed ∼100% of primary production. In short-term temperature-shift incubation experiments, phytoplankton growth rate increased significantly (20%) at elevated temperatures. In contrast, herbivorous protist grazing and species-specific growth rates decreased significantly (50%) at +6 °C. This differential response in phytoplankton and herbivores to temperature increases resulted in a decrease of primary production removed with increasing temperature. Phaeocystis spp. abundance was negatively correlated with bulk grazing rate. Growth and grazing rates were variable but showed no evidence of an inherent, low temperature limitation. Herbivorous protist growth rates in this study and in a literature review were comparable to rates from temperate waters. Thus, an inherent physiological inhibition of protistan growth or grazing rates in polar waters is not supported by the data. The large variability between lack of grazing and high rates of primary production removal observed here and confirmed in the literature for polar waters implies larger amplitude fluctuations in phytoplankton biomass than slower, steady grazing losses of primary production.
In situ observation of cross-grain twin pair formation in pure magnesium

ABSTRACTCross-grain twin pairing was studied utilising in situ optical microscopy and ex situ electron backscatter diffraction in extruded pure magnesium subjected to tension in the direction perpendicular to the extrusion direction. A twin chain spanning over seven grains was rapidly developed through twin propagation and conjoining. Formation of cross-grain twin pair by twin thickening was in/ex situ observed for the first time. It was confirmed that variant selection of the cross-grain twins that carry high Schmid factors, formed either by twin propagation or by twin thickening, was dominated by the strain compatibility between the neighbouring grains.
A Graph-Theoretic Approach for Identifying Bacterial Inter-correlations and Functional Pathways in Microbiome Data

Recent studies have shown that the composition of bacteria inside our bodies and in our environments play a significant role in our health. However, the interaction between the compositions of bacteria and our health remains mysterious, where research efforts are needed to reveal this relationship with proper analysis. In this study, we propose a new systems biology approach using split graphs to analyze inter-correlations among microbiome components and their corresponding impact on health and growth of organisms living in associated environments. The proposed model allows us to explore features of the bacteria in a given ecosystem, including their inter-correlations as well as how an active cluster of bacteria impact phenotypes of organisms in such an ecosystem. Further, the proposed model is flexible enough to allow the analysis of bacterial features and the impact on host phenotype together as well as individually. Extensive analytical work has been conducted, where the proposed model was tested using several case studies to elucidate impacts of composition of the microbiome on various host phenotypes, in particular, bacterial metabolic pathway. In the reported study, we used metagenomes from Crohn’s disease patients in Korean populations and utilize an integrated bioinformatics pipeline to characterize the taxonomic and metabolic pathway composition. The results show that different groups of bacteria are significantly associated with various phenotypes related to metabolic pathways in patient samples as compared to healthy samples. This proposed split graph model has a great potential in assisting researchers to unravel mechanisms underlying complex biological systems and understand how various components in microbiomes affect the growth and health of organisms in such microbiomes.
Factors Influencing Engineering Identity Development of Latinx Students

Contribution: This paper explores the factors contributing to the development of engineering identity in Latinx students at two institutions. A better understanding of these factors will support the development of more inclusive engineering education environments and experiences. Background: Persistence of Latinx engineering students is of particular interest due to their underrepresentation in the field. Identity is a lens for understanding student persistence, but Latinx students are underrepresented in prior engineering identity studies. This paper seeks to identify the unique factors, academic and professional, that contribute to engineering identity development, and potential means for supporting the persistence of Latinx engineers. Research Questions: 1) What academic and professional affect factors predict engineering identity development of Latinx students? and 2) What role does the institution play in Latinx students’ engineering identity development? Methodology: A mixed-methods approach was used to measure engineering identity based on a framework incorporating both academic and professional affect elements. Regression analyses were conducted on 892 responses to an online survey from Latinx engineering students, with additional insight from interviews with ten Latinx engineering students. Findings: Six of the nine factors analyzed (performance/competence, interest, recognition, analysis, framing and solving problems, and tinkering) were significant predictors of Latinx students’ engineering identity, as were institution, gender, and having a parent with an engineering degree. Engineering identity was higher for Latinx students at the Hispanic Serving Institution, but none of the interaction terms were significant, so the relationship between these factors and engineering identity is similar at each institution.
Promoting Thermodynamically Unfavorable [3,3] Rearrangements by Chemoselective Reduction

Herein described is a strategy for promoting thermodynamically unfavorable [3,3] Cope rearrangements. 3,3-Dicyano-1,5-dienes that are resistant to the thermal rearrangement can be promoted under reductive conditions. The reduced Cope products are versatile, bifunctional building blocks.
Robust low-overlap 3-D point cloud registration for outlier rejection

When registering 3-D point clouds it is expected that some points in one cloud do not have corresponding points in the other cloud. These non-correspondences are likely to occur near one another, as surface regions visible from one sensor pose are obscured or out of frame for another. In this work, a hidden Markov random field model is used to capture this prior within the framework of the iterative closest point algorithm. The EM algorithm is used to estimate the distribution parameters and learn the hidden component memberships. Experiments are presented demonstrating that this method outperforms several other outlier rejection methods when the point clouds have low or moderate overlap.
Multilevel legal approaches to obesity prevention: A conceptual and methodological toolkit.

Introduction State lawmakers have explored numerous policy alternatives to reduce overweight and obesity. Evaluating effects of these laws is important but presents substantial methodological challenges. We present a conceptual framework that allows for classification of obesity prevention laws based on ecological level of influence and the underlying legal mechanism involved to guide analysis of the relationship between a substantial range of obesity prevention laws and BMI. Methods Obesity prevention laws (OPLs) for all 50 states and DC were obtained via primary legal research using the LexisNexis Advanced Legislative Services (ALS) database. For legal provisions that met inclusion criteria, reviewers abstracted information on bill state, citation, passage and effective dates, target population, and obesity prevention mechanism. Laws were categorized by ecological level of influence on weight-related behaviors and the legal mechanism utilized to change behavioral determinants of BMI. Results Laws designed to increase community-level opportunities for physical activity were the most frequently enacted OPL while laws designed to alter nutrition standards for school meals or competitive foods were comparatively less common, appearing in only 16% and 34% of states, respectively. Conclusion Prior studies of obesity policies have focused on specific interventions. We identified and categorized state-level laws that operate at all ecological levels and found that laws passed during the initial burst of lawmaking were largely confined to measures aimed at increasing opportunities for physical activity. Creating public spaces for recreation is an important step to promoting healthier lifestyles to reduce obesity risk; more comprehensive, multilevel legal approaches should also be pursued.
Living Arrangement: a Contributor to Vascular Disease in Asymptomatic African American Women.

Background Diminished social support lias shown to lead to worse cardiovascular outcomes and since cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States (U.S.), it is critical to non-invasively study its precursor- vascular disease (VD). Assessing the impact social support lias on vascular outcomes can unveil potential CVD susceptibilities in at-risk populations. African American women exhibit the greatest burden of CVD morbidity and mortality; therefore, the purpose of tins study is to examine the association between living arrangement/social support and impaired vascular function in asymptomatic African American women. Methods Vascular function was assessed by a non-invasive screening tool, HDI/PulseWave CR-2000, during screenings at community outreach events on participants clinically free of CVD. Vascular disease was defined as abnormal/impaired vascular function. Living arrangement, a binary variable (living with someone/living alone), was determined by survey responses (N=67) and represented social support. Multivariable analyses were used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) to determine the association between living arrangement and vascular disease after controlling for confounders. Analyses were conducted using SAS 9.2. Results Of those who lived alone, 82% had vascular disease (p=0.03). After adjusting for family CVD, and other CVD risk factors, those who lived with a spouse/partner or relative were 78% (p=0.04) less likely to develop vascular disease (AOR=0.22; 95% 0=0.05, 0.98). Conclusions Our study provides preliminary evidence to suggest that among African American women, clinically free of CVD, living arrangement is associated with vascular disease. While living alone may place individuals at an increased risk of CVD because of the association, living with a spouse/partner or relative may act as a protective factor against vascular disease and reduce the risk of CVD. Public health practitioners may use individuals' living arrangement as preventive measure for CVD risk.
Current Management of Trigger Digit in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Survey of ASSH Members:

BackgroundTraditional dogma regarding management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with trigger digit symptoms holds that A1 pulley release should be avoided. Surgical release was thought to fu...
StableFees: A Predictable Fee Market for Cryptocurrencie

Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies must solve the problem of assigning priorities to competing transactions. The most widely used mechanism involves each transaction offering a fee to be paid once the transaction is processed, but this first-price mechanism fails to yield stable equilibria with predictable prices. We propose an alternate fee setting mechanism, StableFees, that is based on second-price auctions. We prove that our proposed protocol is free from manipulation by users and miners as the number of users and miners increases and show empirically that gains from manipulation are small in practice. We show that StableFees reduces the fees paid by users and reduces the variance of fee income to miners. Data from December 2017 shows that, if implemented, StableFees could have saved Bitcoin users \$272,528,000 USD in transaction fees while reducing the variance of miner's fee income, on average, by a factor of $7.4$. We argue that our fee protocol also has important social welfare and environmental benefits.
Delayed Localized Hypersensitivity Reactions to the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine: A Case Series.

Importance In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, 2 mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) received emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration in December 2020. Some patients in the US have developed delayed localized cutaneous vaccine reactions that have been dubbed “COVID arm.” Objective To describe the course of localized cutaneous injection-site reactions to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, subsequent reactions to the second vaccine dose, and to characterize the findings of histopathologic examination of the reaction. Design, Setting, and Participants This retrospective case series study was performed at Yale New Haven Hospital, a tertiary medical center in New Haven, Connecticut, with 16 patients referred with localized cutaneous injection-site reactions from January 20 through February 12, 2021. Main Outcomes and Measures We collected each patient’s demographic information, a brief relevant medical history, clinical course, and treatment (if any); and considered the findings of a histopathologic examination of 1 skin biopsy specimen. Results Of 16 patients (median [range] age, 38 [25-89] years; 13 [81%] women), 14 patients self-identified as White and 2 as Asian. The delayed localized cutaneous reactions developed in a median (range) of 7 (2-12) days after receiving the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. These reactions occurred at or near the injection site and were described as pruritic, painful, and edematous pink plaques. None of the participants had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Results of a skin biopsy specimen demonstrated a mild predominantly perivascular mixed infiltrate with lymphocytes and eosinophils, consistent with a dermal hypersensitivity reaction. Of participants who had a reaction to first vaccine dose (15 of 16 patients), most (11 patients) developed a similar localized injection-site reaction to the second vaccine dose; most (10 patients) also developed the second reaction sooner as compared with the first-dose reaction. Conclusions and Relevance Clinical and histopathologic findings of this case series study indicate that the localized injection-site reactions to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are a delayed hypersensitivity reaction. These reactions may occur sooner after the second dose, but they are self-limited and not associated with serious vaccine adverse effects. In contrast to immediate hypersensitivity reactions (eg, anaphylaxis, urticaria), these delayed reactions (dubbed “COVID arm”) are not a contraindication to subsequent vaccination.
Surface water with more natural temperatures promotes physiological and endocrine changes in landlocked Atlantic salmon smolts

Hatchery salmonid smolts are often reared using groundwater with elevated temperatures to maximize growth. Previous work has shown that rearing hatchery smolts in surface water with a more natural ...
Temporal permeability: Socio-historical influences on mothering occupations

Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, this study explored the decision-making processes mothers employ to negotiate everyday interactions with their young children. Twelve mothers of typ...
CAR-Induced Cytopenia

Abstract Cytopenias after chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy for hematological malignancies are common and poorly understood. The duration and degree of cytopenias vary significantly, while the reasons for delayed recovery remain unclear. In pivotal trials, over 50% patients had anemia and thrombocytopenia, while over 70% patients had neutropenia and leukopenia amongst those receiving axicabtagene ciloleucel or tisagenlecleucel for B cell lymphoma. While lymphodepletion chemotherapy was thought to be the cause of cytopenias, subsequent studies have suggested correlation with degree of inflammation. In an 83-patient study from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in patients with relapsed/refractory B cell lymphoma or multiple myeloma, the majority patients had “recovered” (defined as hemoglobin >8 g/dL, platelets >50×103/µL, and absolute neutrophil count >1000/µL (without transfusion or growth factor support) at 3 months.1 Specifically, hemoglobin, platelet, neutrophil and white blood cell counts had “recovered” in 61%, 51%, 33%, and 28% patients, respectively, at 1 months, and 93%, 90%, 80%, and 59% patients at 3 months, respectively following CAR T cell infusion. To avoid confounding from marrow involvement with disease, only patients in remission were included in this analysis. In a univariate analysis, the following were statistically significantly associated with lower incidence of count recovery at 1 month: (1) higher grade of immune effector cell-associated neurological syndrome (ICANS), (2) pre-existing cytopenias at the time of CAR T infusion, (3) axicabtagene ciloleucel (versus tisagenlecleucel), and (4) higher peak C-reactive protein or ferritin levels.
Targeting the Cx26/NANOG/Focal Adhesion Kinase Complex via Cell Penetrating Peptides in Triple Negative Breast Cancers

Abstract Purpose Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents the most lethal and treatment-resistant breast cancer subtype and has limited treatment options. We previously identified a protein complex unique to TNBC cancer stem cells composed of the gap junction protein connexin 26 (Cx26), the pluripotency transcription factor NANOG, and focal adhesion kinase (FAK). We sought to determine whether a peptide mimetic of Cx26 designed to target the complex could attenuate tumor growth in pre-clinical models. Experimental Design Histological assessment was employed to verify expression of complex members. We designed peptides based on Cx26 juxtamembrane domains and performed binding experiments with NANOG and FAK using surface plasmon resonance. Peptides with high affinity were engineered with a cell-penetrating sequence and assessed in functional assays including cell proliferation, self-renewal, and in vivo tumor growth, and downstream signaling changes were measured. Results Binding studies revealed that the Cx26 cytoplasmic C-terminal tail and intracellular loop bound to NANOG and FAK with submicromolar to micromolar affinity and that a 5-amino acid sequence in the C-terminal tail of Cx26 (RYCSG) was sufficient for binding. An antennapedia cell penetrating peptide sequence was engineered to the Cx26 C-terminal tail and confirmed intracellular localization. The cell-penetrating Cx26 C-terminal tail peptide (aCx26-pep) disrupted self-renewal as assessed by the tumorsphere formation assay and inhibited NANOG target gene expression in TNBC cells but not in luminal mammary epithelial cells. In a pre-clinical setting, aCx26-pep reduced tumor growth and proliferation and induced cell death. Conclusions We provide proof-of-concept that a Cx26 peptide-based strategy can inhibit TNBC growth. Translational Relevance Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most treatment-refractory breast cancer subtype and has limited targeted therapy options. TNBC contains a cancer stem cell (CSC) population that underlies growth and therapeutic resistance. We leveraged an aberrant intracellular protein complex in TNBC CSCs containing the gap junction subunit connexin 26 (Cx26), focal adhesion kinase (FAK), and NANOG to develop a peptide-based therapeutic strategy. We show that TNBC can be selectively targeted using this approach. Our findings provide a new strategy for treatment of this patient population by disrupting intracellular Cx26 signaling, which is linked to the CSC and epithelial-to-mesenchymal programs. Our results support the development of therapeutics targeting the Cx26/NANOG/FAK complex via peptide- and small molecule-based approaches, and future efforts will also focus on the development of a combinatorial treatment strategy with FDA-approved chemotherapeutics. One Sentence Summary A peptide-based targeting strategy for triple-negative breast cancer was developed by targeting connexin 26-associated signaling partners.
A Simulation Study of Just-in-time Knowledge Management (JITKM)

The problem of “information overload” often results in wasted time and resources and inefficient and unproductive knowledge discovery. In theory, the concept of Just in time knowledge management (JITKM) can help resolve this problem. This chapter tests the theory empirically, and this test supports the theory.
Medulloblastoma Initiation and Growth: Role of Hepatocyte Growth Factor

Hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) is a polypeptide growth factor that drives cell cycle progression, blocks apoptosis, stimulates cell motility, and promotes angiogenesis in many tissues, especially during embryonic development. These diverse physiologic effects of HGF/SF are all mediated by a single cell surface receptor, the transmembrane tyrosine kinase encoded by the proto-oncogene c-Met. When pathologically overdriven, HGF/SF:c-Met signaling promotes tumor initiation and growth in many human cancers, including medulloblastoma, a pediatric brain tumor that originates from neural stem cells in the cerebellum. HGF/SF:c-Met signaling has emerged as a promising target for medulloblastoma therapy because the pathway is actively firing in tumor cells and because HGF/SF stimulates multiple oncogenic signaling molecules, against which specific molecular inhibitors have been designed.
Chapter 3 Hydrogenation of Defects in Crystalline Silicon

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the hydrogenation of defects in crystalline silicon. It describes the structural defects in crystalline silicon, the most obvious being the discontinuity of the crystal at the surface. Such a surface is covered with dangling bonds that can be terminated by monatomic hydrogen, with the dramatic consequence of a greatly reduced surface recombination. Internal surfaces that contain dangling bonds, such as grain boundaries, microvoids, and dislocations, are also affected by hydrogenation. Because dangling bonds are sites for generation–recombination processes, their removal by hydrogenation is very beneficial to silicon devices, in particular to polycrystalline Si solar cells. The chapter describes the passivation of surface states and of bulk dangling bonds, including grain boundaries, dislocations, and point defects. A grain boundary, the interface between two adjacent crystallites, is the site of many dangling bonds. These dangling bonds pin the Fermi level near midgap at the interface.