cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Fidaxomicin Therapy in Critically Ill Patients with Clostridium difficile Infection

Fidaxomicin use to treat proven Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) was compared between 20 patients receiving care in critical care units (CCUs) and 30 patients treated on general medical floors. At baseline, the CCU patients had more initial CDI episodes, more severe and complicated disease, and more concurrent broad-spectrum antibiotic coverage. On multivariate analysis, the response to fidaxomicin therapy among the critically ill patients was comparable to that among patients in the general medical wards.
Production of biocommodities and bioelectricity by cell-free synthetic enzymatic pathway biotransformations: challenges and opportunities.

Cell-free synthetic (enzymatic) pathway bio- transformation (SyPaB) is the assembly of a number of purified enzymes (usually more than 10) and coenzymes for the production of desired products through complicated biochemical reaction networks that a single enzyme cannot do. Cell-free SyPaB, as compared to microbial fermentation, has several distinctive advantages, such as high product yield, great engineering flexibility, high product titer, and fast reaction rate. Biocommodities (e.g., ethanol, hydrogen, and butanol) are low-value products where costs of feed- stock carbohydrates often account for � 30-70% of the prices of the products. Therefore, yield of biocommodities is the most important cost factor, and the lowest yields of profitable biofuels are estimated to be ca. 70% of the theoretical yields of sugar-to-biofuels based on sugar prices of ca. US$ 0.18 per kg. The opinion that SyPaB is too costly for producing low-value biocommodities are mainly attrib- uted to the lack of stable standardized building blocks (e.g., enzymes or their complexes), costly labile coenzymes, and replenishment of enzymes and coenzymes. In this perspec- tive, I propose design principles for SyPaB, present several SyPaB examples for generating hydrogen, alcohols, and electricity, and analyze the advantages and limitations of SyPaB. The economical analyses clearly suggest that devel- opments in stable enzymes or their complexes as standar- dized parts, efficient coenzyme recycling, and use oflow-cost and more stable biomimetic coenzyme analogs, would result in much lower production costs than do microbial fermen- tations because the stabilized enzymes have more than 3 orders of magnitude higher weight-based total turn-over numbers than microbial biocatalysts, although extra costs for enzyme purification and stabilization are spent. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010;105: 663-677.
210Po Radioactivity in Organs of Selected Tunas and Other Marine Fish

Polonium-210 radioactivities were measured in organs of 10 oceanic fish from three families. The highest activities were consistently found in the pyloric caecal masses or intestinal contents of these fish.
Equipopularity classes of 132-avoiding permutations

The popularity of a pattern p in a set of permutations is the sum of the number of copies of p in each permutation of the set. We study pattern popularity in the set of 132-avoiding permutations. Two patterns are equipopular if, for all n, they have the same popularity in the set of length-n 132-avoiding permutations. There is a well-known bijection between 132-avoiding permutations and binary plane trees. The spines of a binary plane tree are dened as the connected components when all edges connecting left children to their parents are deleted, and the spine structure is the sorted sequence of lengths of the spines. Rudolph shows that patterns of the same length are equipopular if their associated binary plane trees have the same spine structure. We prove the converse of this result using the method of generating functions, which gives a complete classication of 132-avoiding permutations into equipopularity classes.
Dietary curcumin prevents ocular toxicity of naphthalene in rats

Administration of naphthalene is known to cause cataract formation in rats and rabbits and naphthalene-initiated cataract is frequently used as a model for studies on senile cataract in humans. Oxidative stress has been implicated in the mechanism of naphthalene-induced cataract. Curcumin, a constituent of turmeric, a spice used in Indian curry dishes, is an effective antioxidant and is known to induce the enzymes of glutathione-linked detoxification pathways in rats. During the present studies, we have examined whether low levels of dietary curcumin could prevent naphthalene-induced opacification of rat lens. The presence of apoptotic cells in lens epithelial cells was also examined by catalytically incorporating labeled nucleotide to DNA with either Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase or by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT), which forms polymeric tail using the principle of TUNEL assay. The results of these studies demonstrated that the rats treated with naphthalene and kept on a diet supplemented with only 0.005% (w/w) curcumin had significantly less opacification of lenses as compared to that observed in rats treated only with naphthalene. Our studies also demonstrate, for the first time, that naphthalene-initiated cataract in lens is accompanied and perhaps preceded by apoptosis of lens epithelial cells and that curcumin attenuates this apoptotic effect of naphthalene.
Degree of woody encroachment into grasslands controls soil carbohydrate and amino compound changes during long term laboratory incubation

Up to 50% of organic C and 80% of organic N within soil can exist as amino acids, amino sugars and carbohydrates. To determine how potential microbial accessibility and turnover of these compounds is impacted by encroachment of woody plants into grasslands, we investigated changes in evolved CO2 during thermal analysis and in carbohydrate and amino compound chemistry after long term laboratory incubation of sandy loam grassland woodland soils from southern Texas, USA. Thermal analysis showed that incubation increased the amount of soil organic matter (SOM) released at higher temperatures and that evolved CO2 profiles correlated with increases in amino C. During incubation, total carbohydrate C decreased slightly faster than bulk soil C, with preferential loss of plant-derived carbohydrates and/or production of microbial carbohydrates most strongly expressed in grassland and younger woodland soils. Total N content did not change during incubation, so the reduction in extractable amino N in older woodland soils suggested that N became more resistant to extraction during incubation. These data, along with previous measurements of respired CO2, indicate that changes in carbohydrate C and amino C did not predict mineralized CO2 yields and that amino compounds and microbial carbohydrate C were not selectively lost during incubation. The differing response in SOM loss (or enrichment) during incubation of the older woodland soils revealed a system with altered SOM dynamics due to woody encroachment, confirming that the short term ‘lability’ or ‘recalcitrance’ of SOM components is dependent on a number of interacting variables.
MINERAL CYCLING AND EPIPHYTIC LICHENS: IMPLICATIONS AT THE ECOSYSTEM LEVEL

The nutrient contribution of lichens as litterfall in forests is discussed for a number of different ecosystems and it is hypothesized that lichens are important in capturing nutrients from wet deposition, occult precipitation, sedimentation, impaction and gaseous uptake. Most nutrients captured by these processes represent new nutrient inputs that would otherwise not be intercepted by the ecosystem. Part of these nutrients will be incorporated into lichen biomass and only become available upon death and decomposition, but a portion will be leached by precipitation and become deposited on the soil surface. Although quantifying nutrient sources, fluxes and pool sizes is a potentially complex task, we describe a simplified approach for determining whether lichens significantly affect the mineral cycling of a forest. Preliminary results for an oak woodland in California document that epiphytic lichens may reduce throughfall and alter throughfall chemistry.
End-user moderation of cognitive accessibility in online communities: case study of brain fog in the lyme community

With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, more and more online content is being generated by users. Even trained web developers often fail to take accessibility issues into consideration, so it is no surprise that users may fail to do so as well. In this paper, we examine two self-moderating communities of individuals with Lyme disease who are affected by ""brain fog"". Through qualitative analysis of over 100 discussion threads that deal with issues of accessibility, we explore how the individuals in these communities fail and succeed to establish and enforce, through moderation, the creation of cognitively accessible content.
“Becoming Somebody”: Central American Immigrants in U.S. Inner‐City Schools

Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group in the United States. Although research on the educational functioning of Hispanics has gained increasing attention in the last decades, some areas of the Hispanic experience are virtually unknown. This study explores the motivational dynamics of a group of recent arrivals from Central America. The specific issues facing this population are framed in the context of a psychosocial model for understanding minority status and educational functioning in plural society. ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION, PSYCHOCULTURAL THEORY, HISPANICS IN THE UNITED STATES
Radar backscatter from breaking waves in Gulf Stream current convergence fronts

Bright linear features have been observed in radar imagery taken near the Gulf Stream (GS) boundary on two separate occasions. In each case, these have been observed directly over strong current convergences. Progress has been made in understanding the origin of these signatures through simulations that incorporate environmental forcing from the winds and currents. These simulations significantly underestimate the backscatter unless wave-breaking (WB) effects are included at least approximately. Using a new, quasistatistical procedure that generalizes and quantifies earlier procedures for including WB effects, the authors have been able to successfully simulate the magnitude and behavior of these signatures. The approach combines the statistically based, composite model of radar backscatter with a deterministic feature model that relates backscatter from breaking waves to a particular geometrical model of a spilling breaker. This is accomplished using localized criteria, defined by local wave crest acceleration, to determine the probability of breaking, and by extending the feature model so that its unknown parameters may be evaluated directly from wave-current interaction calculations. The new approach provides an estimate of the critical crest acceleration of a potentially breaking wave, as a function of wind speed, that agrees with independent measurements.
A prospective evaluation of the utility of clinical data in distinguishing acute large vessel from lacunar cerebral infarctions.

A stroke registry of 290 patients was developed to determine the value of various clinical data in discriminating acute large vessel from lacunar infarctions. Clinical or computed tomography (CT) localization was achieved in 98% of patients with infarcts. Among 216 localizable supratentorial infarcts, CT demonstrated the responsible lesion in 22 of 54 lacunes (42%) and 109 of 162 large vessel infarcts (67%). History provided the basis for localization, i.e., distinction between large vessel and lacunar events, in 74% with 88% sensitivity and 59% specificity; higher cortical function examination in 88% with 96% sensitivity and 74% specificity; neurologic examination in 79% with 72% sensitivity and 75% specificity; graphes-thesia in 57% with 63% sensitivity and 89% specificity; and EEG in 76% with 71% sensitivity and 100% specificity.
Delayed herbivory and the assembly of marine benthic ecosystems

Phylogenetic analysis of the metazoan evolutionary tree as a whole, and of trees of component major clades, indicates that marine herbivores, defined here as macrophagous consumers of living multicellular attached marine plants, always occupy terminal positions at several scales of analysis. Nearly all living benthic marine herbivores are derived from microphages, detritivores, or predators, and most have post-Paleozoic origins. The derived nature of herbivory in the sea parallels the evolutionary situation among land animals. Pre-Mesozoic marine benthic ecosystems, characterized by relatively low rates of flow of energy and nutrients, may have relied even more heavily on decomposers for the transfer of carbon from primary producers to animals than do living marine ecosystems in the photic zone.
Velocity and Momentum Decay Characteristics of Submerged Yield-Pseudoplastic Jets

The velocity and momentum decay characteristics of submerged yield-pseudoplastic jets are studied. Numerical solutions to the governing mass and momentum conservation equations, along with the Herschel-Bulkley rheological model, are obtained using a finite-difference scheme. A parametric study is implemented to investigate the influence of flow inertia and rheology over the following range of parameters: Reynolds number, 50 ≤ Re ≤ 200, Yield number, 0 ≤ Y ≤ 1, and shear-thinning index, 0.6 ≤ n ≤ 1. A large recirculation region exists for Newtonian and pseudoplastic non-Newtonian jets. However, the extent and strength of the recirculation region substantially diminish with the yield number and, to a lesser extent, when the shear-thinning index is reduced from 1 to 0.6. Increasing the yield number beyond a critical value eliminates flow recirculation. The centerline velocity and momentum decay of yield-pseudoplastic jets, in general, increases with the yield number. Velocity and momentum based depths of penetration, DPU and DPM, respectively, are extracted and presented. A substantial decrease in DPU and DPM is observed when the shear-thinning index is reduced from 1 to 0.6 for Y = 0. The presence of yield stress significantly reduces both DPU and DPM of submerged jets. The impact of shear-thinning on the decay characteristics of the jet is more pronounced at low yield numbers.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
Myocardial protection with prostacyclin after lethal endotoxemia

A previous study of endotoxemia in dogs demonstrated that exogenous prostacyclin (PGI2), normally a product of vascular endothelium, restored the cardiac index to normal and improved survival. To account for these results, a study was undertaken to test whether PGI2 would alter isolated rat or dog cardiac mitochondrial function following incubation with plasma from endotoxemic animals. A group of five animals served as anesthetized controls. A second group of seven mongrel dogs was given 1.75 mg Escherichia coli endotoxin/kg and was observed for 5 hours without treatment. Anesthesia did not alter cardiopulmonary function; however, 30 minutes after endotoxin administration, the cardiac index decreased from 148 +/- 25 (mean +/- SD) to 111 +/- 12 ml/kg . min (P less than 0.05) and further decreased to 89 +/- 20 ml/kg . min after 4 hours. Dog plasma obtained 2 to 5 hours after endotoxin infusion, incubated with rat or dog myocardial mitochondria, decreased succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity (P less than 0.05) and depressed mitochondrial respiration in the presence of the substrate succinate and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) from 180 to 87 Natoms oxygen/mg protein . min (P less than 0.05). There was no change in oxygen consumption when substrate alone was present, nor did plasma alter the amount of ADP phosphorylation as a function of oxygen consumption. A third group of seven animals, 30 minutes after administration of 1.75 mg endotoxin/kg, was treated with 100 ng/kg . min PGI2 for 3 hours. PGI2 infusion in this group prevented the decrease in cardiac index. Plasma obtained during and after PGI2 infusion did not decrease mitochondrial SDH activity, which remained higher than that in controls (P less than 0.001); mitochondrial respiration was also not altered. A correlation was observed between cardiac index and SDH activity (r = 0.58, P less than 0.001) and between cardiac index and mitochondrial respiration (r = 0.61, P less than 0.001). In PGI2-treated dogs cardiac mitochondria were functionally and structurally normal in contrast to the depression and disruption produced by endotoxemia, as observed by enzymatic assay as well as electron microscopy. These results suggest that endotoxemia depresses cardiac mitochondrial respiration, an event related to the decrease in cardiac index. In contrast, cardiac function and mitochondrial respiration are maintained with PGI2 treatment.
A simple type theory with partial functions and subtypes

Farmer, W.M., A simple type theory with partial functions and subtypes, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 64 (1993) 21 l-240. Simple type theory is a higher-order predicate logic for reasoning about truth values, individuals, and simply typed total functions. We present in this paper a version of simple type theory, called PF*, in which functions may be partial and types may have subtypes. We define both a Henkin-style general models semantics and an axiomatic system for PF*, and we prove that the axiomatic system is complete with respect to the general models semantics. We also define a notion of an interpretation of one PF* theory in another. PF* is intended as a foundation for mechanized mathematics. It is the basis for the logic of IMPS, an Interactive Mathematical Proof System developed at The MITRE Corporation.
Rosy-like Mutant of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly, Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae), and Its Potential for Use in a Genetic Sexing Program

An autosomal, recessive eye color mutant, rosy (ry), is described in the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann). The homozygous rosy flies are killed or delayed in development by the presence of purine in the larval rearing medium at levels that have little effect on wild-type flies. A possible genetic sexing technique is outlined that uses male flies which contain a Y chromosome-autosome translocation and are heterozygous for rosy and female flies which are homozygous for rosy. The development of female flies would be prevented when the stock is reared on purine-containing medium.
Trusted Information Exchange Using Trusted Network Processors

Today's systems are increasingly complex consisting of many components designed by multiple competing vendors. Trust management relies heavily on situational awareness of the operating environment, and comprehensive knowledge of components and their relationship to others. Outsourcing and modularity are necessary to reduce cost and increase manageability, but can make it difficult to gather enough information for valid trust decisions. Invalid trust assumptions could lead to vulnerabilities in the future. Furthermore, when components are integrated with information systems these difficulties can increase greatly. This paper presents how trust is applied to information systems, a trust framework based on Trusted Network Processors and an implementation of a trusted information system which allows disjointed component systems to communicate while preserving trust assumptions in a dynamically changing environment.
Highly Fertile Intersectional Blueberry Hybrids of Vaccinium padifolium Section Hemimyrtillus and V. corymbosum Section Cyanococcus

The primary gene pool of Vaccinium species used by blueberry breeders has traditionally been the North American Vaccinium species of Section Cyanococcus. Blueberries in commercial production represent three primary Vaccinium species and two ploidy levels. Significant use has been made of the secondary gene pool of Vaccinium, especially in the development of southern highbush cultivars. Section Hemimyrtillus species are distantly related and are best considered part of the tertiary gene pool of Vaccinium. V. padifolium Smith, native to the Portuguese islands of Madeira, has features of notable value to conventional blueberry development, among these: upright structure, strong growth, abundant flowering and fruiting, good self-fertility, inflorescence structure suited to mechanical harvesting, and indeterminate/repeat flowering. We used V. padifolium as a female in crosses with V. corymbosum, and generated two highly fertile hybrids. These hybrids were intermediate in morphology, and their hybridity was additionally confirmed through DNA testing. These hybrids were used in further crosses to a variety of section Cyanococcus selections and have generated numerous secondary hybrids. We have also determined by flow cytometry, the ploidies of the hybrids and several previously unevaluated section Hemimyrtillus species.
The Thalamic Intralaminar Nuclei: A Role in Visual Awareness

We briefly review the anatomy and functional properties of the intralaminar nuclei (ILN) of the thalamus and the neurological disorders associated with their dysfunction. The ILN project over a wide range of cortical territories and are connected to several subcortical structures that place the ILN within the distributed networks underlying arousal, attention, working memory, and gaze control. The temporal structure of the spike discharges of ILN neurons can be controlled by levels of arousal and visuomotor behavior. Taken together, the anatomy, cellular physiology, and clinical data suggest that in the state of wakefulness, the ILN neurons promote the formation of an “event-holding” function in the cortex. In the prefrontal cortex, this function facilitates the storage of target location in working memory. In the frontal eye fields, the function produces sustained activation that anticipates the onset of intended eye movements. In the posterior parietal cortex, the sustained activation can be boosted at ...
Drug-resistant focal epilepsy in women of childbearing age: Reproduction and the effect of epilepsy surgery

Abstract Objective Women with epilepsy (WWE) have lower birth rates than expected. The reasons for this are multifactorial and involve a complex interaction between reproductive endocrine and psychosocial factors. The effect of epilepsy surgery on reproduction in women with drug-resistant focal epilepsy has not previously been studied. Methods Adult women of childbearing age (18–45 years old) with drug-resistant focal epilepsy who had undergone a focal cortical resection between 1997 and 2008 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN were included in the study. Patients who had a history of hysterectomy or tubal ligation or who were menopausal at the time of surgery were excluded. Data on prior pregnancies and births, epilepsy history, surgical treatment, hormonal dysfunction, and socioeconomic status were obtained using a retrospective chart review. Associations between various clinical and demographic variables with changes in pregnancies and births from pre- to postsurgery were assessed using Chi-square or Fisher's exact test for categorical variables and Wilcoxon rank sum test for continuous variables. All tests were 2-sided, and p-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. All analyses were performed using SAS software version 9.2 (SAS INC, Cary NC). Results One hundred and thirteen women (average age: 30.5 years) were included in the study. Average length of follow-up was 5.7 years (SD-3.90). Sixty-four patients (57.5%) were nulliparous at the time of surgery. Sixty-one patients (54%) had never been married. Average number of pregnancies per patient prior to surgery was 0.93, and average number of births prior to surgery was 0.73. After surgery, a total of 17 women had a total of 35 pregnancies and 25 births. The average number of pregnancies and births after surgery was 1.27 and 0.96, respectively. Infertility was reported in one patient postoperatively. Patients who were younger at the time of surgery experienced a greater change in the number of pregnancies and births after surgery (p = 0.0036 and 0.0060, respectively). Patients who received fewer antiepileptic drug medication trials by the time of surgery also had a greater change in the number of births after surgery (p = 0.0362). Seizure onset localization and lateralization, presurgical seizure frequency, age at seizure onset, duration of epilepsy, and postoperative seizure outcome were not statistically significant factors. Conclusion The present retrospective observational study provides additional evidence for the importance of early surgical treatment in women with drug-resistant focal epilepsy. Patients who had received fewer medications prior to surgery were more likely to experience an increase in births following surgery. The significance of these findings requires further investigation but may support a role for earlier surgical intervention in the management of drug-resistant focal epilepsy.
Fidelity and Promiscuity of a Mycobacterial Glycosyltransferase.

Members of the genus Mycobacterium cause devastating human diseases, including tuberculosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis can resist some antibiotics because of its durable and impermeable cell envelope. This barrier is assembled from saccharide building blocks not found in mammals, including galactofuranose (Galf). Within the cell envelope, Galf residues are linked together to afford an essential polysaccharide, termed the galactan. The formation of this polymer is catalyzed by the glycosyltransferase GlfT2, a processive carbohydrate polymerase, which generates a sequence-specific polysaccharide with alternating regioisomeric β(1–5) and β(1–6) Galf linkages. GlfT2 exhibits high fidelity in linkage formation, as it will terminate polymerization rather than deviate from its linkage pattern. These findings suggest that GlfT2 would prefer an acceptor with a canonical alternating β(1–5) and β(1–6) Galf sequence. To test this hypothesis, we devised a synthetic route to assemble oligosaccharides with natural and ...
Hannah Arendt: The Care of the World and of the Self

Hannah Arendt was born in 1906 in Kant’s city, then called Konigsberg, in East Prussia. (For her life, see Elizabeth Young-Bruehl’s 1982 biography, Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World). Whereas for her family and many of the five thousand Jews in Konigsberg Moses Mendelssohn was the exemplary social and cultural figure, the Social Democrat and Reform Rabbi Hermann Vogelstein was the religious and political leader. Arendt as a little girl had a crush on Vogelstein. After learning of some of the complexities of a secular Jewess marrying a Rabbi, this little girl was led to remark: “I will marry a rabbi with pork.” (When older she proclaimed to the rabbi that she no longer believed in God, and he replied, “And who asked you?”) In her teens she was fascinated with Kierkegaard and when sixteen she read Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and Karl Jasper’s Psychology of Worldviews.
The F-16 C Shop Maintenance Skills Tutor

The Air Force identified a need to improve troubleshooting skills for technicians performing flightline maintenance. These skills are normally taught through on-the-job training. This method is both time-consuming and manpower intensive, requiring years of apprenticeship training under experienced maintenance technicians. Today’s highly reliable systems fail less often and thus provide fewer opportunities to train technicians on the complex problems. At the same time, the Air Force is combining maintenance specialties and reducing the number of technicians per aircraft. Thus, technicians must have broader knowledge and more general skills. In response to this need, the Human Systems Center at Brooks Air Force Base performed research in Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) and Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). The CTA research developed techniques to capture troubleshooting strategies used by experts and novices. The ITS research took the results of the CTA to provide a practice environment for working authentic troubleshooting problems while coaching the student with hints and feedback. The results of this research were the Basic Job Skills (BJS) tutors. Prototype BJS tutors showed significant gains in proficiency by novice technicians. The Program Office at the Human Systems Center refined the BJS technology developed in the laboratory and then produced a tutor for teaching technicians troubleshooting skills on F-16 communications systems (C Shop). This tutor is currently being used at Air National Guard wings and will be used as part of an advanced troubleshooting class for the Air Force.
Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injury results from direct trauma to the cord itself or by indirect damage to the bones and soft tissues surrounding it. Motor vehicle accidents account for the greatest number of spinal cord injuries. Acute spinal cord injury is a two-step process involving primary and secondary mechanisms (combination of the initial impact and subsequent persisting compression as well as hypoperfusion leading to spinal shock). Spinal MRI is the modality of choice to image and classify the injury and allows to predict prognosis for functional recovery.
Study of weak corrections to Drell-Yan, top-quark pair, and dijet production at high energies with MCFM

Electroweak (EW) corrections can be enhanced at high energies due to the soft or collinear radiation of virtual and real $W$ and $Z$ bosons that result in Sudakov-like corrections of the form ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{W}^{l}{\mathrm{log}}^{n}({Q}^{2}/{M}_{W,Z}^{2})$, where ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{W}=\ensuremath{\alpha}/(4\ensuremath{\pi}{\mathrm{sin}}^{2}{\ensuremath{\theta}}_{W})$ and $n\ensuremath{\le}2l\ensuremath{-}1$. The inclusion of EW corrections in predictions for hadron colliders is, therefore, especially important when searching for signals of possible new physics in distributions probing the kinematic regime ${Q}^{2}\ensuremath{\gg}{M}_{V}^{2}$. Next-to-leading order (NLO) EW corrections should also be taken into account when their size [$\mathcal{O}(\ensuremath{\alpha})$] is comparable to that of QCD corrections at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) [$\mathcal{O}({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}^{2})$]. To this end, we have implemented the NLO weak corrections to the neutral-current Drell-Yan process, top-quark pair production and dijet production in the parton-level Monte Carlo program MCFM. This enables a combined study with the corresponding QCD corrections at NLO and NNLO. We provide both the full NLO weak corrections and their Sudakov approximation since the latter is often used for a fast evaluation of weak effects at high energies and can be extended to higher orders. With both the exact and approximate results at hand, the validity of the Sudakov approximation can be readily quantified.
Combined Patterns of Risk for Problem and Obesogenic Behaviors in Adolescents: A Latent Class Analysis Approach

BACKGROUND Several studies have used latent class analyses to explore obesogenic behaviors and substance use in adolescents independently. We explored a variety of health risks jointly to identify distinct patterns of risk behaviors among adolescents. METHODS Latent class models were estimated using Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) 2011 data. Behaviors in the models included substance use, physical fights, physical activity (PA), sedentary activity, sleep, fruit and vegetables (F&V) consumption, and weight-related variables. Models were estimated separately by sex. Constrained and unconstrained models were computed for race. Age and perceived and calculated weight status were compared among emergent latent classes using latent multinomial logistic regressions. RESULTS Four and 5 latent class solutions emerged for boys and girls, respectively. Healthy, sedentary, and physically active (PA) groups were common in both boys and girls. The sample of boys also included a health risk behavior (HRB)/PA group and the sample of girls included HRB and HRB/F&V groups. CONCLUSIONS The results confirm that obesogenic and HRBs should be conceptualized as combined patterns of risk. Health education programming in schools should adopt a multiple health behavior approach to target the continuum of risks adolescents engage in simultaneously.
20S immunoproteasomes remove formaldehyde-damaged cytoplasmic proteins suppressing caspase-independent cell death

Immunoproteasomes are known for their involvement in antigen presentation. However, their broad tissue presence and other evidence are indicative of nonimmune functions. We examined a role for immunoproteasomes in cellular responses to the endogenous and environmental carcinogen formaldehyde (FA) that binds to cytosolic and nuclear proteins producing proteotoxic stress and genotoxic DNA-histone crosslinks. We found that immunoproteasomes were important for suppression of a caspase-independent cell death and the long-term survival of FA-treated cells. All major genotoxic responses to FA, including replication inhibition and activation of the transcription factor p53 and the apical ATM and ATR kinases, were unaffected by immunoproteasome inactivity. Immunoproteasome inhibition enhanced activation of the cytosolic protein damage sensor HSF1, elevated levels of K48-polyubiquitinated cytoplasmic proteins and increased depletion of unconjugated ubiquitin. We further found that FA induced the disassembly of 26S immunoproteasomes, but not standard 26S proteasomes, releasing the 20S catalytic immunoproteasome. FA-treated cells also had higher amounts of small activators PA28αβ and PA28γ bound to 20S particles. Our findings highlight the significance of nonnuclear damage in FA injury and reveal a major role for immunoproteasomes in elimination of FA-damaged cytoplasmic proteins through ubiquitin-independent proteolysis.
Low-frequency blood pressure oscillations and inotrope treatment failure in premature infants.

In this study, we examine patterns of low-frequency oscillations in blood pressure variability across regulatory components of vascular tone in normotensive and hypotensive infants exposed to inotr...
The Effects on Personality-Impression Formation of the Cold-Warm Dimension, the Frown-Smile Dimension, and the Negro-White Dimension

Ss were asked to respond to 1 or more of 4 portraits (a portrait of a frowning Negro, of a smiling Negro, of a frowning white person, and of a smiling white person) by checking which trait in each of 18 pairs of bipolar traits (Asch’s 1946 list) was more characteristic of the person portrayed. The centrality or importance of the cold-warm dimension (as hypothesized by Asch) on personality-impression formation was verified. Also, it was discovered that a second variable, a frown-smile dimension, has significant Gestalt-like effects. A third variable, a Negro-white dimension, appears to have little effect. The number of Ss in each cell of each Latin-square design varied from 21 to 110.
Efficacy of antegrade and retrograde warm saline pyeloperfusion during renal cryoablation for ureteral preservation.

Objective Cryoablation of renal tumors adjacent to the ureter or pelvicalyceal system carries risks for thermal injury of the collecting system. Although cold antegrade perfusion has been described for radiofrequency ablation, warm saline perfusion for renal cryoablation has not been well-characterized. The purpose of this study was to determine the safety and feasibility of antegrade and retrograde warm saline perfusions during percutaneous renal cryoablation. Material and methods A retrospective review was performed on 136 patients treated with percutaneous renal cryoablation at a single academic institution between 2009 and 2015. Six patients undergoing antegrade (n=3) or retrograde (n=3) warm saline perfusion for protection of the collecting system were identified. Warm saline was perfused through a 4 French nephrostomy tube in the antegrade technique and through a 6 French end-hole catheter in the retrograde technique. Outcome measures were tumor recurrence rates, success of urothelial preservation, hospital stay, blood loss and procedural time. Results Four tumors were in the lower pole and two tumors in the middle pole. The mean distance from tumor to ureter was 6.8 mm (0.8-11.5 mm) and no patient developed ureteral stricture. There was no tumor recurrence at a median follow-up of 37.3 months (7-65). The median procedural time was 3 hours and 13 minutes. One patient in each group developed minor complications (Clavien I and II) and there were no major complications. Conclusion This study demonstrates the feasibility of antegrade and retrograde warm saline perfusion for ureteral preservation during cryoablation, without compromising oncologic outcomes.
Health Literacy and Adults with Low Basic Skills.

The purpose of this research was to analyze oral communication patterns between patients with varying degrees of individual health literacy (how patients access, understand, and use health informat...
Output Appearance Reliability Estimation

In the last chapter, rule-based arbitration was shown to be a useful technique for integrating multiple driving networks. However the technique was also shown to have significant limitations, including over-reliance on detailed map knowledge and an inability to smoothly combine the outputs from multiple networks. In this chapter I present a connectionist arbitration technique, called Output Appearance Reliability Estimation (OARE), which avoids these shortcomings.
SIGCSE 2019 department chairs roundtable

The SIGCSE Department Chairs Roundtable will feature small group discussions on challenges of being a Department Chair and finish with a panel of diverse and experienced Department Chairs. The group discussions will tackle topics such as the significant administrative and personnel issues that chairs must handle; leadership and management styles, time management, legal issues, establishing priorities, and communication.
The Effect of Urbanization and Western Foods on Infant and Maternal Nutrition in the South Pacific

Throughout the Pacific region, infant and maternal nutrition has been adversely affected by urbanization and the introduction of new foods. However, the process of urbanization is probably irrevers...
Longitudinal study of humoral immunity to bovine coronavirus, virus shedding, and treatment for bovine respiratory disease in pre-weaned beef calves

Bovine coronavirus (BCV) is associated with respiratory infections in cattle of all ages; however, a temporal study to evaluate the effect of BCV immunity on virus shedding and bovine respiratory disease (BRD) incidence in pre-weaned beef calves has not been reported. Thus, we report here a prospective study in three herds of crossbred beef calves (n = 817) with endemic BCV. Serial blood samples for measurement of serum anti-BCV antibody titers and nasal swabs for detection of BCV and other common viral and bacterial BRD pathogens were collected from all calves or subsets of calves at predetermined times from birth through weaning. The calves were monitored for BRD and those that developed signs of respiratory disease were sampled for diagnostic testing. To discover additional risk factors that could have influenced BRD development, sequence analysis of the BCV strain(s) circulating in each herd, and the prevalence of common opportunistic bacterial pathogens in the upper respiratory tract of sick and apparently healthy cattle were also evaluated. Two hundred forty-eight of the 817 study calves (30.4%) were treated for BRD prior to weaning; 246 of those were from a single herd involved in two outbreaks of BRD leading to mass treatment of all calves in that group. Molecular diagnostic testing found BCV and Histophilus somni in nasal swabs taken at the time of BRD treatment. Between herd analyses revealed anti-BCV serum antibody abundance did not associate with the incidence of BRD or BCV shedding, though these measurements may have been hindered by the long periods between sample collections. Analysis of the BCV spike gene hypervariable region revealed four polymorphisms in 15 isolates from the three herds, making strain variation unlikely to account for differences in treatment rates between herds. Persistent or recurrent shedding episodes of BCV occurred in some animals treated for BRD. Co-detection of BCV and H. somni at the time of the disease outbreak suggests that these pathogens contributed to disease pathogenesis. Developing appropriate control measures for respiratory BCV infections may help decrease the incidence of pre-weaning BRD. The role of antibodies in protection must still be further defined.
Evaluation of the regulatory model for Ni2+ sensing by Nur from Streptomyces coelicolor

Streptomyces coelicolor is a soil-dwelling bacterium that is medically important due to its ability to produce several antibiotics, and nickel accumulation within this organism has been shown to prevent the production of the antibiotic undecylprodigiosin. The transcriptional repressor important in regulation of nickel uptake is the homodimeric Nur, a member of the Fur family. Nur contains two metal-binding sites per monomer: the M-site and the Ni-site. The work described here seeks to determine the roles of each of the metal-binding sites to establish a model of Nur activity through mutational studies, metal titrations, and fluorescence anisotropy. Through these studies, a model of Nur activity is proposed in which femtomolar metal binding to one M-site of Nur prompts DNA-binding, and metal binding to the second M-site fully activates the protein. Evidence is provided that shows cooperative metal binding to the Ni-site, but this process dampens affinity for promoter DNA.
Start Where You Are

How can I teach students with little training in voice to go further in the work in the very short time I have them in class? How can I get them to not be fearful of making mistakes but rather to b...
Evidence a shared mechanism mediates ipsi- and contralesional compensatory saccades and gait after unilateral vestibular deafferentation.

After unilateral vestibular deafferentation, compensatory saccades (CS) have similar latencies regardless of the direction of head rotation, and those CS generated during contralesional head rotati...
Time-dependent effects of histone deacetylase inhibition in sepsis-associated acute kidney injury

Sepsis, a dysregulated host response to infection with results in organ dysfunction, has been a major challenge to the development of effective therapeutics. Sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (S-AKI) results in a 3–5-fold increase in the risk of hospital mortality compared to sepsis alone. The development of therapies to reverse S-AKI could therefore significantly affect sepsis outcomes. However, the translation of therapies from preclinical studies into humans requires model systems that recapitulate clinical scenarios and the development of renal fibrosis indicative of the transition from acute to chronic kidney disease. Here we characterized a murine model of S-AKI induced by abdominal sepsis developing into a chronic phenotype. We applied a small molecule histone deacetylase-8 inhibitor, UPHD186, and found that early treatment, beginning at 48 h post-sepsis, worsened renal outcome accompanied by decreasing mononuclear cell infiltration in the kidney, skewing cells into a pro-inflammatory phenotype, and increased pro-fibrotic gene expression, while delayed treatment, beginning at 96 h post-sepsis, after the acute inflammation in the kidney had subsided, resulted in improved survival and kidney histology presumably through promoting proliferation and inhibiting fibrosis. These findings not only present a clinically relevant S-AKI model, but also introduce a timing dimension into S-AKI therapeutic interventions that delayed treatment with UPHD186 may enhance renal histologic repair. Our results provide novel insights into successful repair of kidney injury and sepsis therapy.
Effects of trunk rehabilitation with kinesio and placebo taping on static and dynamic sitting postural control in individuals with chronic stroke: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Impaired trunk postural control is common after stroke. Combining kinesio taping with trunk rehabilitation has been shown to enhance the recovery of postural control ability in patients...
Load Aggregator Purchase Optimization Strategy Considering Renewable Energy Quota

The introduction of the renewable energy quota system has an impact on the benefits of all market players in the electricity market. This paper aimed at the decision making of load aggregators’ electricity purchase under the assessment of renewable energy quota. Firstly, the market subject, assessment method and strategy of renewable energy quota system were analyzed effectively. Then the scenario of electricity purchasing faced by load aggregators was described and the optimal decision-making model of electricity purchasing by load aggregators considering renewable energy quota was proposed. At last, the model proposed in this paper was verified by relevant examples, and the results show that the optimal purchasing strategy of load aggregator proposed in this paper had obvious economy.
An Unusual Cause of Neutropenic Fever: Spontaneous Pantoea agglomerans Bacteremia in an Adult.

Neutropenia is a serious complication found in immunocompromised patients, particularly those with cancer and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The etiology of neutropenia is multifactorial and can be caused by the direct effects of HIV infection, cytotoxic antineoplastic therapy, and malignancy. The main complication of neutropenia is a bloodstream infection caused by gram-positive bacteria (GPB) and gram-negative bacteria (GNB). GPB, specifically S. epidermidis, tend to affect cancer patients more often than GNB. However, GNB such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa have been associated with more serious infections. We report a case of neutropenic fever caused by a GNB, Pantoea agglomerans, in a 47-year-old Afro-Caribbean man with HIV and metastatic salivary adenocarcinoma. Pantoea agglomerans is a non-spore forming rod typically isolated from plants, fruits, and fecal matter, and is rarely pathogenic in humans. In the current literature, cases of P. agglomerans have been documented primarily in the pediatric population secondary to penetrating wound trauma. To our knowledge, this is the first case of spontaneous neutropenic fever secondary to P. agglomerans bacteremia in an Afro-Caribbean adult male.
The narcissistic experience of friendship: The roles of agentic and communal orientations toward friendship:

Narcissism is associated with a wide array of interpersonal problems. The present studies examined the connections between narcissistic personality features and the experience of friendship. We wer...
From Inclusion to Leadership: Disabled “Misfitting” in Congregational Ministry

Drawing on ethnographic research, Scripture, and theology, this article posits that Christian arguments for inclusion with people with disabilities often fail to undermine ideologies of normalcy lu...