cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Modifications of the Artificial Diet for Codling Moths to Improve Larval Acceptance and Production of Moths

Acceptance (larval entry) of an artificial diet by neonate larvae of Laspeyresia pomonella (L.) was not improved by incorporation of apple products or flavors, citric acid, or green coloring into the standard wheat germ diet. Physically altering the surface of the diet by punching holes in the surface, by using foaming agents (gelatin and egg albumin) and particulates such as vermiculite or alfafa meal to make the diet porous or rough, did not result in increased larval entry. Apple juice. malic acid, and citric acid caused some fermentation and syneresis of the diet which spoiled it for larval use. Any procedure or material used that made the diet porous resulted in a rapid dehydration of that diet. Although larval acceptance may have been good on these porous diets, the gradual loss of moisture over the 15- to 20-day larval maturation period eventually made the diet unpalatable, and the larvae starved before they matured.
Judges’ views on evidence of genetic contributions to mental disorders in court

This preliminary analysis assesses how judges view the use of behavioral genetics evidence on genetic influences to mental disorders in court. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews, analyzed using constant comparative analysis, were conducted with California trial court judges. Most judges reported the beneficial effects of this evidence being presented in court, particularly as a mitigating factor for sentencing. Yet some judges viewed it as an aggravating factor and expressed concerns about genetic privacy. Judges described initial reactions to being potentially presented with evidence on genetic influences to mental disorders as apprehension, curiosity, and sympathy. Judges also reported putting significant trust in experts on these issues. Findings suggest some judges are skeptical of this evidence, but largely open to its presentation. Sympathetic reactions may result in mitigating attitudes of some judges. As judges significantly trust experts, some judges could also be overly trusting of genetic evidence and expert opinion on these issues.
Propagation Effects in Strong Pump-Weak Probe Interactions

Analytic and numerical calculations for the propagational dependence of Rabi split resulting from a strong resonant pump and a weak probe are presented. A semi-classical formulism was adopted for both the perturbational (using stationary phase and steepest descent asymptotic techniques) and the rigorous computational treatments. This calculation can be considered as a double self-induced transparency where the strong pump (2π on-axis area) experiences coherent pulse break up and depletion as the weak probe (0.02π area) cooperatively builds up. Different transition gain ratios (i.e., oscillator strength: μ2ω) are considered to insure that the weak probe does not get (a) delayed with respect to the pump or (b) get out of synchronization, and cease to overlap. The probe detuning can be as large as the input on-axis pump Rabi frequency. The interplay of nonlinear Raman gain action, dispersion and diffraction give rise concomittantly to a number of effects previously studied independently such as self-phase modulation, wave front encoding, transverse ring formation, self-focusing, quasi-trapping (when pump detuning is also allowed), and asymptotic three-level solitary waves.
What the Clinical Event Committee Does Not See When It Comes to Stent Thrombosis

In this issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions , Popma et al report important results from the Trial to Assess the Effects of Vorapaxar in Preventing Heart Attack and Stroke in Participants With Acute Coronary Syndrome (TRACER) trial that highlight the variability of stent thrombosis ascertainment between local investigators, the independent clinical event committee (CEC), and an angiographic core laboratory (ACL).1 Reported stent thrombosis rates in this cohort of patients with non–ST-segment–elevation acute coronary syndrome varied from 1.42% to 2.38% in the placebo arm and 1.53% to 2.24% in the treatment arm depending on how the ascertainment was made. Relative to the ACL (32.8%), local investigators over-reported (55.3%) stent thrombosis, whereas the CEC under-reported (21.6%) the stent thrombosis rate. The 3 groups agreed in just over half (53%) of cases, with only fair overall agreement (κ=0.32). Agreement was poor between local investigators and both CEC-adjudicated Academic Research Consortium (ARC)–definite stent thrombosis (κ=0.25) and ACL-identified stent thrombosis (κ=0.25). Of the comparisons, CEC-adjudicated ARC-definite stent thrombosis and ACL-identified stent thrombosis had the highest level of agreement, albeit still modest (κ=0.57). Although these inconsistencies in stent thrombosis reporting did not impact the overall results of the TRACER trial, these findings clearly have important implications for the safety reporting of novel pharmacological and device therapies and emphasize the need for standardized ascertainment methods in clinical trials. See Article by Popma et al …
The Thoratec® CentriMag® for Pediatric Right Ventricular Failure

The Thoratec® CentriMag® and PediMag® (Thoratec Corporation, Pleasanton, CA) blood pumps provide an option available to physicians treating pediatric patients with ventricular failure. These magnetically levitated centrifugal pumps offer low prime volumes, minimal hemolysis, and are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for 30 days’ use. However, these devices carry inherent risk with regard to their need for concomitant anticoagulation management. We describe the decision process, anticoagulation regimen, and management of a pediatric patient at the Medical University of South Carolina post-heart transplantation with acute right ventricular failure.
RETRACTED ARTICLE: A higher education learning profile in the Asia-Pacific

The purpose of this article is to expand knowledge beyond quality and assessment practices in the Asia-Pacific region to develop a profile about the nature of learning domains and degree qualifications. Using a policy research and analysis framework, data were collected from 16 of the 21 APEC economies about higher education systems and learning outcomes. This article evaluates the learning outcomes used throughout the region for a focus on workforce development and capacity building and addresses the regional landscape across Asia-Pacific economies for higher education learning domains or outcomes, student mobility, and regional cooperation.
Efficient Wire Formats for High Performance Computing

High performance computing is being increasingly utilized in non-traditional circumstances where it must interoperate with other applications. For example, online visualization is being used to monitor the progress of applications, and real-world sensors are used as inputs to simulations. Whenever these situations arise, there is a question of what communications infrastructure should be used to link the different components. Traditional HPC-style communications systems such as MPI offer relatively high performance, but are poorly suited for developing these less tightly-coupled cooperating applications. Object-based systems and meta-data formats like XML offer substantial plug-and-play flexibility, but with substantially lower performance. We observe that the flexibility and baseline performance of all these systems is strongly determined by their "wire format," or how they represent data for transmission in a heterogeneous environment. We examine the performance implications of different wire formats and present an alternative with significant advantages in terms of both performance and flexibility.
Particle swarm optimization for numerical bifurcation analysis in computational inelasticity

Summary An efficient and robust algorithm to numerically detect material instability or bifurcation is of great importance to the understanding and simulation of material failure in computational and applied mechanics. In this work, an intelligence optimizer, termed the particle swarm optimization, is introduced to the numerical solution of material bifurcation problem consisting of finding the bifurcation time as well as the corresponding bifurcation directions. The detection of material bifurcation is approached as a constrained minimization problem where the determinant of the acoustic tensor is minimized. The performance of the particle swarm optimization method is tested through numerical bifurcation analysis on both small and finite deformation material models in computational inelasticity with increasing complexity. Compared with conventional numerical approaches to detect material bifurcation, the proposed method demonstrates superior performance in terms of both computational efficiency and robustness. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Background Signal as an in Situ Predictor of Dopamine Oxidation Potential: Improving Interpretation of Fast-Scan Cyclic Voltammetry Data.

Background-subtracted fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) has emerged as a powerful analytical technique for monitoring subsecond molecular fluctuations in live brain tissue. Despite increasing utilization of FSCV, efforts to improve the accuracy of quantification have been limited due to the complexity of the technique and the dynamic recording environment. It is clear that variable electrode performance renders calibration necessary for accurate quantification; however, the nature of in vivo measurements can make conventional postcalibration difficult, or even impossible. Analyte-specific voltammograms and scaling factors that are critical for quantification can shift or fluctuate in vivo. This is largely due to impedance changes, and the effects of impedance on these measurements have not been characterized. We have previously reported that the background current can be used to predict electrode-specific scaling factors in situ. In this work, we employ model circuits to investigate the impact of impeda...
DNA damage in 3D constricted migration or after lamin-A depletion in 2D: shared mechanisms of repair factor mis-localization under nuclear stress

Cells that migrate through small, rigid pores and that have normal levels of the nuclear structure protein lamin-A exhibit an increase in DNA damage, which is also observed with lamin-A depletion in diseases such as cancer and with many lamin-A mutations. Here we show nuclear envelope rupture is a shared feature that increases in standard culture after lamin-A knockdown, which causes nuclear loss of multiple DNA repair factors and increased DNA damage. Some repair factors are merely mis-localized to cytoplasm whereas others are partially depleted unless rescued by lamin-A expression. Compared to standard cultures on rigid glass coverslips, the growth of lamin-A low cells on soft matrix relaxes cytoskeletal stress on the nucleus, suppresses the mis-localization of DNA repair factors, and minimizes DNA damage nearly to wildtype levels. Conversely, constricted migration of the lamin-A low cells causes abnormally high levels of DNA damage, consistent with sustained loss of repair factors. The findings add insight into why monogenic progeroid syndromes that often associate with increased DNA damage and predominantly impact cells in stiff tissues result from mutations only in lamin-A or DNA repair factors.
Kinetics of G Protein-Coupled Receptor Dimerization from Markov State Model Analysis of Coarse-Grained Simulations

Experimental and computational studies published over the past decade have mostly focused on the structural and thermodynamic properties of putative G Protein-Coupled Receptor(GPCR) dimers. Although equally crucial for addressing the role of dimerization in GPCR function, a thorough description of the timescales required to form different dimeric interfaces has yet to be provided. In this study, we approach this question by applying Markov State Model analysis to coarse grained simulations of a prototypic GPCR, the mu-opioid receptor (MOR), carried out in a 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine/cholesterol membrane model using an adaptive sampling strategy. We identify several dimerization interfaces of MOR grouped in four macrostates with significantly different dimerization rates, and characterize the role of lipid dynamics, protein-lipid and specific protein-protein interactions in modulating the kinetic properties of receptor dimerization. Furthermore, we discuss the interplay between receptor activation and dimer formation by comparing the results obtained for the activated and inactive receptor conformations of MOR, and observe substantial differences in the dimerization kinetics for the two conformations.
Aerosol Deposition Impacts on Land and Ocean Carbon Cycles

Atmospheric aerosol deposition is an important source of nutrients and pollution to many continental and marine ecosystems. Humans have heavily perturbed the cycles of several important aerosol species, potentially affecting terrestrial and marine carbon budgets and consequently climate. The most ecologically important aerosol elements impacted by humans are nitrogen, sulfur, iron, phosphorus, and base cations. Here, we review the latest research on the modification of the atmospheric cycles of these aerosols and their resulting effects on continental and marine ecosystems. Recent studies have improved our understanding of how humans have perturbed atmospheric aerosol cycles and how they may continue to evolve in the future. Research in both aquatic and terrestrial environments has highlighted the role of atmospheric deposition as a nutrient subsidy, with effects on ecosystem productivity. These studies further emphasize the importance of local biogeochemical conditions and biota species composition to the regional responses to aerosol deposition. The size of the impact of anthropogenic aerosol deposition on the carbon cycle and the resulting climate forcing is at present not well understood. It is estimated that increases in nutrient subsidies from atmospheric deposition across all ecosystems are causing an increase in carbon dioxide uptake between 0.2 and 1.5 PgC/year. As aerosol emissions from industrial sources are reduced to improve air quality, these enhancements in carbon uptake may be reduced in the future leading to reduced carbon dioxide emission offsets. However, large uncertainties remain, not only because of limited information on how humans have modified and will modify aerosol emissions, but also because of a lack of quantitative understanding of how aerosol deposition impacts carbon cycling in many ecosystems.
Telomere elongation and telomerase expression in regenerating arms of the starfish Luidia clathrata (Asteroidea: Echinodermata)

Regeneration in echinoderms has been extensively characterized physiologically, but fewer studies have addressed the genetic mechanisms underlying the process. Telomeres, genetic sequences on the ends of chromosomes that shorten with cell division, are associated with cell senescence, and thus genetic age after cell growth. Relative telomere lengths in the starfish Luidia clathrata were measured in arms of juveniles, adults prior to injury, and adults after injury during initial regeneration. Additionally, relative telomerase expression was measured in arms of adults prior to injury, at wound closure, and during initial regeneration. Telomeres were longer in juveniles than uninjured adults, indicating genetic aging. Telomeres elongated in adults after injury. Telomerase was detected before and after injury. The combination of genetic aging and telomerase expression both before and after injury suggests possible post-transcriptional regulation of telomerase. Additionally, as previous studies did not detect elongated telomeres in regenerated arms, it is possible that telomere elongation occurs early in the regenerative process as a mechanism to permit cellular division for growth without aging the final regenerated arm.
Modeling of honeycombs with laminated composite cell walls

Abstract Honeycombs are versatile structures. They have been widely employed in industries where the characteristics of high stiffness, high buckling resistance, large shock absorption and light weight are required. To explore the potential of honeycombs in various mechanical applications, this paper proposes a novel honeycomb with composite laminate cell walls in order to provide wider selection of constituent materials, improved specific stiffness and distinct cell wall surfaces. Analytical homogenization model of this special type of honeycombs is established by modeling the locally heterogeneous honeycomb as a homogeneous orthotropic bulk. Both full-detailed and homogenized models are built and tested using finite element analysis, and the results showed that the analytical model has excellent accuracy in property prediction at a relatively small computational cost. Parametric studies are also conducted to investigate the effect of thickness and elastic moduli of the cell wall plies on the structure’s overall mechanical response. Based on the results, suggestions on property optimizations are discussed.
Vitamin D intake and survival and recurrence in head and neck cancer patients.

Objectives/hypothesis With an unacceptably low 5-year survival rate and few identified modifiable factors that affect head and neck cancer (HNC) outcomes, HNC survival remains an important public health problem. Vitamin D has been shown to be associated with immune reactivity and improved outcomes for some cancer sites, but findings are mixed, and few studies have examined vitamin D in relation to HNC. This study aimed to assess the association between vitamin D intake and survival outcomes in HNC patients. Study design Prospective cohort study. Methods This study utilized data on 434 HNC patients with valid pretreatment food frequency questionnaire data who participated in the University of Michigan Head and Neck Specialized Program of Research Excellence epidemiology project. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the associations between total, dietary, and supplemental vitamin D intake and HNC outcomes, while adjusting for other known prognostic factors. Results After multivariable adjustment, we found a statistically significant inverse trend between total vitamin D intake and recurrence (Q4 vs. Q1 hazard ratio: 0.47, 95% confidence interval: 0.20-1.10, P trend = .048). We observed no association with dietary or supplemental intake separately, and no association was observed with all-cause or HNC-specific mortality. Conclusions These findings suggest that HNC patients with lower levels of vitamin D intake are at higher risk of recurrence. If borne out in future studies, our results suggest that increased vitamin D intake through dietary intervention or the use of supplements may be a feasible intervention for prevention of recurrence in HNC patients. Level of evidence 2b. Laryngoscope, E371-E376, 2018.
Effects of Cosolvent Addition on Surfactant Enhanced Recovery of Tetrachloroethene (PCE) from a Heterogeneous Porous Medium

The ability of surfactant formulations containing ethanol (EtOH) to enhance the recovery of a representative dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL), tetrachloroethene (PCE), was evaluated in batch, column, and heterogeneous, two-dimensional (2-D) systems. The experimental studies were designed to investigate the influence of EtOH addition, rate-limited mass transfer and subsurface layering on the micellar solubilization of PCE by aqueous solutions (4% wt.) of polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monooleate (Tween 80). In completely mixed batch reactors, the solubility of PCE in Tween 80 solutions (0.5 to 4% wt.) increased incrementally as the EtOH concentration was raised from 0% to 5% and 10%. Results of one-dimensional column studies demonstrated that solubilization of residual PCE was rate-limited regardless of the EtOH concentration. Effluent data were used to develop effective PCE mass transfer coefficients (Ke) as a function of EtOH concentration, Darcy velocity, and duration of flow interruption. For the heterogeneous 2-D system, solutions containing 4% Tween 80 or 4% Tween 80+5% EtOH were injected into rectangular boxes packed with 20–30 mesh Ottawa sand and three low permeability layers. Visual observation of surfactant fronts and effluent concentration data demonstrated that the addition of 5% EtOH resulted in density over ride of the injected solution, and failed to enhance PCE recovery compared to the 4% Tween 80 solution alone. The results of this work indicate that although relatively small additions of EtOH can improve the solubilization capacity of surfactant formulations, differences between flushing and resident solution density must be carefully accounted for when utilizing cosolvent-amended surfactant formulations for DNAPL remediation.
38 Distinctive Properties of Speech Motor Control

Language has a dualistic structure: a meaning level formed by morphemes, words and syntactic rules, and a sound level, at which concatenations of a limited number of basic sounds (segments, phonemes) are used to form the lexical items of our mental dictionary. This dualistic structure constrains speech motor control theories. They must account for: 1. effects of segmental context on movements for a given segment, and; 2. semantic, syntactic and lexical effects, such as semantic focus, signalled by sentence stress, intonation, syntactic boundary effects, signalled by segment duration, and lexical stress effects. Additional constraints arise from nonlinguistic factors such as variations of speaking style and speaking rate, ‘compression’ effects of utterance size on segment duration and the great ability of the production mechanism to adapt to postural variations, either self imposed or experimenter imposed. Consideration of these constraints plus speech errors suggests a tripartite structure to the speech production process consisting of 1. establishment of semantic and syntactic structure and choice of lexical items, 2. serial arrangement of a set of segments in short term store, and 3. implementation of motor control algorithms responding to segmental specification and current linguistic and nonlinguistic constraints. Theoretical approaches to speech motor control have consisted primarily of unsatisfactory attempts to use the concepts of spatial or auditory target, a spring analogy, and the concept of coordinative structure to account for the maintainence of invariance in segment production. The main general hypothesis pertaining to control of segment durations–that there is a mechanism tending to produce equal intervals between stressed syllables in English (Stress Timing) is also unsatisfactory.
Media and Communication

This book chapter discusses media and communication. As core features of humanity, communication and media clearly predate academic disciplines. They are in this sense non-disciplinary. Yet, they have for centuries been the subject of inquiry by those concerned to understand and improve human correspondence. This chapter surveys the historical development and present form of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary studies of media and communication.
The role of cytokine responses during influenza virus pathogenesis and potential therapeutic options.

Aberrant pulmonary immune responses are linked to the pathogenesis of multiple human respiratory viral infections. Elevated cytokine and chemokine production “cytokine storm” has been continuously associated with poor clinical outcome and pathogenesis during influenza virus infection in humans and animal models. Initial trials using global immune suppression with corticosteroids or targeted neutralization of single inflammatory mediators proved ineffective to ameliorate pathology during pathogenic influenza virus infection. Thus, it was believed that cytokine storm was either chemically intractable or not causal in the pathology observed. During this review, we will discuss the history of research assessing the roles various cytokines, chemokines, and innate immune cells play in promoting pathology or protection during influenza virus infection. Several promising new strategies modulating lipid signaling have been recently uncovered for global blunting, but not ablation, of innate immune responses following influenza virus infection. Importantly, modulating lipid signaling through various means has proven effective at curbing morbidity and mortality in animal models and may be useful for curbing influenza virus induced pathology in humans. Finally, we highlight future research directions for mechanistically dissecting how modulation of lipid signaling pathways results in favorable outcomes following influenza virus infection.
Give Me Your Entrepreneurs, Your Innovators: Estimating Employment Impact of a Startup Visa

One proposed version of a Startup Visa would make 75,000 visas available for current holders of H-1B and F-1 visas. To remain eligible, Startup Visa companies must employ two full-time, non-family employees after one year, and raise or invest $100,000. After three subsequent years, Startup Visa companies must employ five full-time, non-family employees. At the end of four years, Startup Visa holders may apply for permanent residence. A Startup Visa would release considerable pent-up entrepreneurial energy in the United States. Consider the following scenarios: • Using the legislative minimum requirements, and applying company and employment survival rates from Census data, we estimate that four-year- old Startup Visa companies would create nearly 500,000 new jobs after ten years. • Using Census data on average employment per firm, we estimate that four-year-old Startup Visa companies would create nearly 900,000 new jobs after ten years. • Assuming that half of the Startup Visa companies would be technology and engineering companies, we use data on immigrant-founded technology companies in the United States. We estimate that, in this scenario, Startup Visa companies would create nearly 1.6 million new jobs after ten years. For various reasons, we consider these three scenarios to be conservative, low-end estimates. None of these estimates take into account potential high-growth and scale firms or the continued growth of Startup Visa companies after they age out of the program. Nor do they account for a Startup Visa’s impact on innovation, GDP, and productivity. The current proposed design has two potential shortcomings. First, the 75,000 Startup Visas it would create are a fixed number, so new slots become available only as companies fail. Second, the Startup Visa may actually penalize failure, and care should be taken to build tolerance for failure into the design and execution.
Foreign exchange market intervention and asymmetric preferences

Abstract Central banks in many emerging market economies intervene in currency markets to mitigate volatility and counter appreciation/depreciation pressure. This paper investigates whether central banks in twenty four emerging economies are “leaning against the wind” in their intervention strategies, whether they have an asymmetric response to exchange rate movements, and whether the response changes after the Global Financial Crisis. Our empirical investigation finds solid evidence that they prefer to dampen appreciation pressures more substantially than depreciation pressures, even after the crisis.
Taxi Dispatch Planning via Demand and Destination Modeling

In this paper, we focus on a taxi dispatch system with the help of auxiliary models that predict future demand and destination. We build two different neural networks for learning taxi demand and destination distribution patterns based on historical data. The trained models can predict taxi demand and destination for any area in a city at a future time. Our proposed dispatch system relies on the predictions of the previous models and is designed not only to minimize the waiting time of passengers, but also to assign the taxis to passengers in a way to minimize the idle driving distances of taxis. In order to achieve this, we balance future taxi supply-demand over the city by solving a mixed-integer program (MIP). We validate our dispatch system as well as the prediction models using a dataset of taxi trips in the New York City.
Predictors of never having a mammogram among Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean immigrant women in the U.S.

Background Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Asian women in the U.S. The first objective was to investigate predictors (including ethnicity) of never having a mammogram in middle-aged and older Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean immigrant women (main effects). The second objective was to explore whether relationships between predictors and never having a mammogram varied across the three groups (moderation effects of ethnicity). Methods Merged (2005-2007-2009-2011) California Health Interview Survey data were utilized. Unweighted sample was 3,710 Asian women ages 40 years and older (Chinese = 1,389; Vietnamese = 1,094; Korean = 1,227). Replicate weighted total sample size was 1,710,233 (Chinese = 940,000; Vietnamese = 410,000; Korean = 360,000). Replicate-weighted multivariate logistic regression was applied. Interaction effects (moderator role of ethnicity) were also examined, using multivariate logistic regression, for the second objective. Results For the first objective, odds of never having a mammogram were higher for women who were Korean (Ref = Vietnamese), unmarried, or a non-U.S. citizen. Odds were lower in women ages 50–59 or 60–69 (Ref = 70–85). Regarding the second objective, only for Chinese women, odds of never having a mammogram were lower as the number of physician visits got higher. Conclusion Culturally-sensitive outreach and services should be developed to target higher-risk groups. Patient-centered healthcare strategies tailored for the three groups could be effective. For Chinese women, in particular, regular information sessions or education programs could be provided for enhancing their physician visits.
An integrated approach of measuring permeability of naturally fractured shale

Abstract During the past decade, despite the rapid development of shale resources, it is still facing a great challenge of determining reliable petrophysical properties of both nonfractured and fractured shales. In this study, we innovatively combine a discrete fracture network model and a single-porosity model to simulate the pulse-decay experiments using one fractured Barnett shale plug to obtain accurate properties for both matrix and fracture. The workflow consists of two stages: 1) estimate roughly porosity and permeability for the matrix and fracture by history-matching pressure curves in the single-porosity model and 2) simulate the fracture geometry more realistically considering fracture roughness based on the discrete fracture network model. The fracture geometry is depicted explicitly in two dimensions. The effect of fracture roughness on flow behavior is explored in terms of different values of Dykstra–Parsons coefficients (Vdp): 0, 0.06, 0.29, and 0.47. Our simulated results match the experimental data excellently, with a global average absolute relative deviation (AARD) being within the order of 1E-4. The fracture permeability estimated from the pulse-decay experiment will be underestimated if fracture roughness is ignored. Therefore, the fracture permeability should be adjusted to compensate for the effect of fracture roughness.
Effects of ruminal administration of supplemental degradable intake protein and starch on utilization of low-quality warm-season grass hay by beef steers.

Hereford x Angus steers were used in a 13-treatment, four-period, incomplete Latin square design to examine the effects of starch and degradable intake protein (DIP) supplements on forage utilization and ruminal function. Steers were given ad libitum access to low-quality hay (4.9% CP) and were not supplemented (NS) or received different amounts of starch (cornstarch grits; 0, .15, and .3% of initial BW) and DIP (Na-caseinate; .03, .06, .09, and .12% of initial BW) administered via ruminal fistulae in a 3 x 4 factorial arrangement of treatments. Supplemented steers consumed more (P < .01) forage OM, total OM, NDF, and digestible OM (DOM) than NS steers. Forage OM, total OM, NDF, and DOM intakes increased linearly (P < .01) as the amount of supplemental DIP increased. The addition of starch to supplements linearly decreased ( P < .01) the intake of forage OM, NDF, and DOM. The digestion of DM, OM, and NDF increased linearly (P < .01) with supplemental DIP and decreased linearly (P < or = .06) with supplemental starch. Particulate and liquid passages generally increased with DIP; however, starch level influenced the nature of the response (P = .03 and .06, respectively). Similarly, ruminal acid detergent-insoluble ash content generally decreased as starch increased, but the effect was dependent on DIP level (P < .01). Supplementation increased (P < .01) ruminal NH3 and total VFA and decreased (P < .01) ruminal pH relative to NS. All treatments supported average pH values in a range (6.3 to 6.7) unlikely to inhibit fibrolytic bacteria. Ruminal NH3 concentration increased quadratically (P = .03) with DIP and decreased linearly (P = .02) with starch. As DIP increased, total VFA concentration increased linearly (P = .02). Providing supplemental DIP to steers fed low-quality forage increased OM intake and digestion, whereas addition of starch to supplements decreased forage intake and digestion.
Structural trends in the dehydrogenation selectivity of palladium alloys

Alloying is well-known to improve the dehydrogenation selectivity of pure metals, but there remains considerable debate about the structural and electronic features of alloy surfaces that give rise to this behavior. To provide molecular-level insights into these effects, a series of Pd intermetallic alloy catalysts with Zn, Ga, In, Fe and Mn promoter elements was synthesized, and the structures were determined using in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD). The alloys all showed propane dehydrogenation turnover rates 5-8 times higher than monometallic Pd and selectivity to propylene of over 90%. Moreover, among the synthesized alloys, Pd3M alloy structures were less olefin selective than PdM alloys which were, in turn, almost 100% selective to propylene. This selectivity improvement was interpreted by changes in the DFT-calculated binding energies and activation energies for C-C and C-H bond activation, which are ultimately influenced by perturbation of the most stable adsorption site and changes to the d-band density of states. Furthermore, transition state analysis showed that the C-C bond breaking reactions require 4-fold ensemble sites, which are suggested to be required for non-selective, alkane hydrogenolysis reactions. These sites, which are not present on alloys with PdM structures, could be formed in the Pd3M alloy through substitution of one M atom with Pd, and this effect is suggested to be partially responsible for their slightly lower selectivity.
Ventilated Upper Airway Endoscopic Endonasal Procedure Mask: Surgical Safety in the COVID-19 Era.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 poses a risk to the endoscopic skull base surgeon. Significant efforts to improving safety have been employed, including the use of personal protective equipment, preoperative COVID-19 testing, and recently the use of a modified surgical mask barrier. OBJECTIVE: To reduce the risks of pathogen transmission during endoscopic skull base surgery. METHODS: This study was exempt from Institutional Review Board approval. Our study utilizes a 3-dimensional (3D)-printed mask with an anterior aperture fitted with a surgical glove with ports designed to allow for surgical instrumentation and side ports to accommodate suction ventilation and an endotracheal tube. As an alternative, a modified laparoscopic surgery trocar served as a port for instruments, and, on the contralateral side, rubber tubing was used over the endoscrub endosheath to create an airtight seal. Surgical freedom and aerosolization were tested in both modalities. RESULTS: The ventilated mask allowed for excellent surgical maneuverability and freedom. The trocar system was effective for posterior surgical procedures, allowing access to critical paramedian structures, and afforded a superior surgical seal, but was limited in terms of visualization and maneuverability during anterior approaches. Aerosolization was reduced using both the mask and nasal trocar. CONCLUSION: The ventilated upper airway endoscopic procedure mask allows for a sealed surgical barrier during endoscopic skull base surgery and may play a critical role in advancing skull base surgery in the COVID-19 era. The nasal trocar may be a useful alternative in instances where 3D printing is not available. Additional studies are needed to validate these preliminary findings.
The CAD-Compatible VHP-Male Computational Phantom

Anatomically accurate and numerically efficient computational phantoms of humans are essential to characterizing the response of a body to a variety of electromagnetic, acoustic and other types of external stimuli. In conjunction with advances in numerical simulation techniques and computational hardware, these computational phantoms enable exploration of innovative and exciting applications, from medical diagnostic techniques and therapeutic treatments to new ways of on- and in-body communications. However, in order to provide realistic estimates through simulation, the model must represent the subject as closely as possible, necessitating that all relevant anatomical features are captured. If this is not accomplished, the model will misrepresent the true physical environment, and critical information will not be captured during the simulation. This work presents a model of a male subject based on the Visible Human Project dataset. Each component of the model is constructed of triangular surface elements, making it compatible with CAD packages and facilitating its use in simulations based on major numerical methodologies. A description of the model, the procedure used for its construction and a baseline simulation are presented together with future integration and augmentation ideas.
First Records of Xylocopa virginica (Linnaeus) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Montana and Idaho

A species of large carpenter bee, Xylocopa virginica virginica (Linnaeus, 1771), is reported from Montana and Idaho, USA for the first time. This new Montana distribution record adds to a growing list of bee species found in the state and contributes to an ongoing inventory of the bees of Montana. The Montana collection likely does not represent an established population but a transient accidental introduction resulting from human transportation since Montana is considerably geographically separated from the published distribution of this species and no additional adults have been found. The Idaho collections may represent an established local population as there are several specimens and online records in or near Boise on multiple dates and years. An online record of a specimen of X. californica arizonensis Cresson, 1879 from Montana proved to be erroneous. The distribution of X. virginica is reviewed and the economic, social, and ecological implications of the occurrence or establishment of this species in Montana and Idaho are discussed.
Pollicization of Long Finger After Traumatic Amputation of Thumb and Index Finger

We present a 51-year-old male who sustained a traumatic amputation with a saw of the right thumb, index finger, and carpal bones back to the radius. The amputated digits were mangled and not suitable for replantation. We performed pollicization of the long finger which helped restore a more functional hand. In select situations, this reconstructive option has the advantages of being a single-stage procedure with limited donor site morbidity and no need for microsurgical anastomosis.
Media literacy lessons for American children in the Kids’ Antiracist Bookclub

Police killed George Floyd in May 2020. In the wake of this injustice, thousands of people took to the streets in the midst of a pandemic, with voices joined in solidarity demanding justice and ask...
Transcription of macromolecular N degrading genes provides a window into organic nitrogen decomposition in soil

Abstract Background Nitrogen (N) is commonly limiting in soil in part because most N is present in macromolecular organic compounds and not directly available to plants. Using extracellular enzymes, the soil microbial community present near roots (rhizosphere) is largely responsible for transforming organic substrates, which yields nitrogen in forms that are plant-available. Microbial genetic potential (genes) and the cycling of inorganic nitrogen pools have been extensively documented and widely explored in rhizospere soil. But there is scarce information on microbial gene expression for macromolecular nitrogen decomposition and how it relates in space and time to life stages of plant roots. Here we use a suite of time-resolved metatranscriptomes from rhizosphere and bulk soil to follow bacterial and fungal extracellular protease and chitinase expression during rhizosphere aging. We also explore the effect of adding plant root litter as a distinct source of macromolecular carbon and nitrogen. Results Expression of extracellular proteases in rhizosphere soil increased with plant growth in the absence of litter, whereas chitinase (chit1) was highly upregulated in the detritusphere. Structural groups of proteases were dominated by serineproteases, despite the higher abundance of metalloproteases previously observed in soil and aquatic systems. Extracellular proteases of Betaprotebacteria were more highly expressed in the rhizosphere, whereas those of Deltaroteobacteria and Fungi responded strongly to the presence of litter. We identified distinct functional guilds of taxa specializing in decomposition of proteins in the rhizosphere, detritusphere and in the vicinity of aging roots. We also identify a sub-guild that appears to specialize in protein decomposition in the presence of growing roots as well as litter that increases its activity in aging rhizosphere soil, which may be particularly N limited. Taxonomic membership of these guilds partially overlapped with functional guilds identified by carbon decomposing enzymes, making up multifunctional guilds. Conclusions We found organic N decomposers have distinct spatiotemporal preferences that are selected during plant growth. Rhizosphere microbes which could potentially benefit plants by degrading macromolecular nitrogen were not comparatively active in bulk soil, even in the presence of root litter, implying that they are enhanced near plant roots and less competitive in bulk soils.
Holding People Responsible for Ethical Violations: The Trust Benefits of Accusing Others

Individuals who accuse others of unethical behavior can derive significant benefits. Compared to individuals who do not make accusations, accusers engender greater trust and are perceived to have higher ethical standards. We found this to be true even when the accuser had a conflict of interest when making the accusation. However, both moral hypocrisy and the veracity of the accusation moderated the relationship between accusations and trust in the accuser. Accusers who had acted unethically themselves failed to signal high ethical standards when they accused others, and accusers who had made false accusations lost, rather than gained, trust. Overall, accusations have significant interpersonal consequences. In addition to harming accused targets, accusations can substantially benefit accusers.
Spray: Sparse Reductions of Arrays in OPENMP

We present SPRAY, an open-source header-only C++ library for sparse reductions of arrays. SPRAY is meant for applications in which a large array is collaboratively updated by multiple threads using an associative and commutative operation such as +=. Especially when each thread accesses only parts of the array, SPRAY can perform significantly better than OPENMP’s built-in reduction clause or atomic updates, while also using less memory than the former. SPRAY provides both an easy-to-use interface that can serve as a drop-in replacement for OPENMP reductions and a selection of reducer objects that accumulate the final result in different thread-safe ways. We demonstrate SPRAY through multiple test cases including the LULESH shock hydrodynamics code and a transpose-matrix-vector multiplication for sparse matrices stored in CSR format. SPRAY reductions outperform built-in OPENMP reductions consistently, in some cases improving run time and memory overhead by 20X, and even beating domain-specific approaches such as Intel MKL by over 2X in some cases. Furthermore, SPRAY reductions have a minimal impact on the code base, requiring only a few lines of source code changes. Once in place, SPRAY reduction schemes can be switched easily, allowing performance portability and tuning opportunities by separating performance-critical implementation details from application code.
On the politics of judicial selection: Lawyers and state campaigns for the merit plan

This article investigates the supportof lawyers' groups for the merit plan, a form ofselecting and retaining state judges. Although thatsupport is justified on the grounds of improvedadministration of justice, this analysis links it tothe self-interest of lawyers. First, merit planprocedures involve lawyers and bar associationsprominently in the selection process. Second, byreducing a judge's susceptibility to politicalpressure, the procedures increase the amount oflitigation in the state. This article finds thatmerit plan procedures are associated with betweeneighteen and thirty-two percent more filings in statesupreme courts between 1985 and 1994.
A comprehensive OWA-based framework for result merging in metasearch

When a query is passed to multiple search engines, each search engine returns a ranked list of documents. The problem of result merging is to fuse these ranked lists such that optimal performance is achieved as a result of the combination. In this paper, our primary contribution is a result merging method, based on fuzzy set theory that adapts the quantifier-guided, Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) operators introduced by Yager. The proposed framework is more comprehensive than the existing OWA operator based method, as our investigation evaluates alternative heuristics for missing documents (those existing exist in some, but not all, ranked lists) in order to place such documents into the ranked lists before merging. It shows that the effectiveness of the merging process is improved over the based strategy known as Borda-fuse.
Economic evaluation of energy storage options in a microgrid with Flexible Distribution of Energy and Storage resources

In this paper, an economic evaluation is carried out for energy storage options in an industrial microgrid comprising four distributed energy resources (DERs). It is assumed that each DER unit is accompanied by Li-ion battery and/or supercapacitor for load following under islanded mode of operation. Cost estimates are made for different energy storage options based on present value of life cycle cost. The cost calculations use published information from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Sandia National Laboratories, and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Two different scenarios of project life, viz., 20 and 30 years, are covered. The economic advantage of using the Flexible Distribution of EneRgy and Storage resources (FDERS) framework in microgrid operation is analyzed.