cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
LESS WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE1

Stephen Jay Gould, remarkable paleontologist and revered popularizer of science, died of cancer on May 20, 2002. With his death, he passed into the history that he loved; a history, as he well knew, whose mills grind exceedingly fine. Those mills have started work on his writings, just as he ruminated memorably over books by Lamarck, Cuvier, Goethe, Geoffrey St. Hilaire, Darwin, Weismann, de Vries, Bateson, Fisher, Haldane, Wright, Goldschmidt, Simpson, Schindewolf, Dobzhansky, and many others. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, his intellectual last will and testament, was the first book he had written for a professional audience since 1977. He worked on it intermittently for twenty years and rushed to finish, so it seems, as he saw the end nearing. It summarizes, ties together, and places in historical context his major evolutionary interests: punctuated equilibria, especially stasis; hierarchical selection, especially species selection; internalist, as opposed to externalist, explanations of evolutionary patterns; exaptations and the exaptive pool; spandrels and other avatars of constraint; evo-devo and hoxology. It does so at great, needless, and self-defeating length: at about five pounds, it is heavy enough for a stewardess to have insisted that I store it in an overhead compartment for takeoff and landing lest it endanger the passengers. It will be bought more often than read and used as a bookend more often than as a book. Much of it deserves attention, some of it is exciting, and some of it is beautiful, but the gems are hard to locate amidst the sesquipedalian verbiage. Had you told me in 1970 that an evolutionary biologist would succeed in influencing the discourse of our field as much as Gould did for the last thirty years with so little use either of data or of equations, I would have laughed—but he did it, he did it well, and he did it primarily with rhetoric and historical analysis, tools deployed more often in the humanities than in the sciences. With those tools he helped to reinvigorate paleontology, launch macroevolution on a new course, and provide a context in which development could be integrated into evolution. Those are not minor accomplishments. But what was his contribution to evolutionary theory, the focus of this book? Here I argue that he deserves quite a bit more credit than his severest critics would grant (zero) but less than he has here attempted to award himself (a great deal indeed).2 To prepare that argument, I first consider an
Acute retinal necrosis in a monocular patient complicated by acyclovir-induced nephrotoxicity

A 40 year-old male with history of enucleation of the right eye OD) during childhood for a “benign tumor” developed sudden hotophobia in his left eye (OS). Over the ensuing week, his ondition progressed to floaters, blurry vision and injection. The atient was treated with sulfacetamide/prednisolone ophthalmic uspension, followed by fluorometholone. His condition did not mprove and he presented to our eye clinic. His exam OS revealed 0/30 acuity, anterior chamber inflammation, 360◦ peripheral etinal necrosis with hemorrhages, and vitreous haze. A diagnosis f acute retinal necrosis (ARN) was made, intravitreal foscarnet 2.4mg) was given and intravenous (IV) acyclovir (15mg/kg every h), topical moxifloxacin, prednisolone and cyclopentolate were tarted. On the day of admission, his serum creatinine (SCr) was .6mg/dL. On the next morning, he received his second dose of IV cyclovir and his SCr was 0.9mg/dL. He received one more dose
Influence of the Partitioning of Osmolytes by the Cytoplasm on the Passive Response of Cells to Osmotic Loading

Due to the dense organization of organelles, cytoskeletal elements, and protein complexes that make up the intracellular environment, it is likely that membrane-permeant solutes may be excluded from a fraction of the interstitial space of the cytoplasm via steric restrictions, electrostatic interactions, and other long-range intermolecular forces. This study investigates the hypothesis that the intracellular partitioning of membrane-permeant solutes manifests itself as a partial volume recovery in response to hyperosmotic loading, based on prior theoretical and biomimetic experimental studies. Osmotic loading experiments are performed on immature bovine chondrocytes using culture conditions where regulatory volume responses are shown to be insignificant. Osmotic loading with membrane-permeant glycerol (92 Da) and urea (60 Da) are observed to produce partial volume recoveries consistent with the proposed hypothesis, whereas loading with 1,2-propanediol (76 Da) produces complete volume recovery. Combining these experimental results with the previous theoretical framework produces a measure for the intracellular partition coefficient of each of these solutes. At 1000 mOsm, 1,2-propanediol is the only osmolyte to yield a partition coefficient not statistically different from unity, κpi = 1.00 ± 0.02. For glycerol, the partition coefficient increases with osmolarity from κpi = 0.48 ± 0.19 at 200 mOsm to κpi = 0.80 ± 0.07 at 1000 mOsm; urea exhibits no such dependence, with an average value of κpi = 0.87 ± 0.07 for all osmolarities from 200 to 1000 mOsm. The finding that intracellular partitioning of membrane-permeant solutes manifests itself as a partial volume recovery under osmotic loading offers a simple method for characterizing the partition coefficient. These measurements suggest that significant partitioning may occur even for small membrane-permeant osmolytes. Furthermore, a positive correlation is observed, suggesting that a solute's cytoplasmic partition coefficient increases with increasing hydrophobicity.
A new host-virus system.

SummaryA new host-virus system is described. The WS strain of Type A influenza virus was adapted to culture in the Ehrlich ascitic carcinoma of mice. This adapted strain of virus has been maintained through 38 serial passages in this tissue. The growth characteristics during a single passage have been described. Associated with the multiplication of this virus is a loss of viability of the host cell. The effect of this phenomenon on the course of development of an established ascitic tumor has been followed. The importance of this new host-virus system as a tool for the study of the mechanism of viral multiplication is discussed.
The utility of green fluorescent protein in transgenic plants

The green fluorescent protein (GFP) from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria has proven to be a powerful tool in plant genetic transformation studies. This paper reviews the history and the progression of the expression of GFP variants in transgenic plants. The distinguishing features of the most useful GFPs, such as those including the S65T chromophore mutation and those with dual excitation peaks, are discussed. The review also focuses on the utility of GFP as a visual selectable marker in aiding the plant transformation process; GFP has been more important in monocot transformation compared with dicot transformation. Finally, the potential utility of new fluorescent proteins is speculated upon.
An opportunistic relay protocol for vehicular road-side access with fading channels

In the drive-thru Internet access systems, vehicles connect to road-side access points (APs) to use IP-based services, such as web-browsing, e-mail, and file download, in addition to the customized vehicular applications. However, the mobility of vehicles and the limited coverage of APs result in the short connectivity duration and low throughput, thus leading to low availability of Internet to vehicle services. Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) relay support is an attractive backup solution that can address these limitations by extending the coverage. To fully realize the benefit of V2V relay support, however, the vehicle that gives the best performance must be selected as relay, yet the dynamic wireless channel conditions and the high speed of vehicles render relay selection a challenging problem. In this paper, we evaluate several relay strategies in an analytic framework to compute the resulting overall network capacity with fading channels. We then propose and devise an efficient opportunistic relay protocol that exploits multiuser diversity and effectively copes with the dynamic channel. Through both capacity analysis and Qualnet simulations, we show that the opportunistic relay scheme significantly outperforms others.
Whither Physical Geography

Worry about the place of physical geography seems to be a specifically American problem rather than a world-wide one. —(Ahnert 1962, 1) The one-hundreth anniversary of the Association of American G...
Transcatheter embolization facilitating surgical management of a giant inferior gluteal artery pseudoaneurysm

This article is a report on a case of a giant pseudoaneurysm of the inferior gluteal artery where important features of the diagnosis, with special mention of magnetic resonance imaging and arteriography, are discussed. Surgical therapy is the treatment of choice for these lesions. Historically, proximal arterial control has been the main dilemma in the management of gluteal artery pseudoaneurysm. We found transcatheter embolization to provide optimal control and eliminate the need for preperitoneal or intraabdominal dissection. Surgical repair can then be carried out without risk of intraoperative hemorrhage.
National Resources Inventory (NRI), US

The US National Resources Inventory (NRI) is a longitudinal panel survey conducted by the US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly the Soil Conservation Service) in cooperation with the Iowa State University Statistical Laboratory. In its current form, the NRI is designed to assess conditions and trends at five year intervals for soil, water, and related natural resources on nonfederal lands of the US. The survey has evolved over a period of several decades, with the specific goal of providing information to support agricultural and environmental policy development and program implementation.
USE OF SEISMIC PAVEMENT ANALYZER IN FORENSIC STUDIES IN TEXAS

Seismic nondestructive testing technology has been incorporated in two newly developed devices: the seismic pavement analyzer (SPA) and its portable version (PSPA). Shortly after a prototype of the SPA was built and tested under a SHRP contract, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) acquired a second prototype SPA and several PSPAs. Each of the two devices can rapidly carry out a suite of seismic tests to evaluate pavement condition. A few short term projects were conducted to learn when and where the use of seismic technology is feasible. The usefulness of the test methods involved in SPA and PSPA has been to some extent evaluated. In their present states, the SPA and PSPA seem to be emerging as valuable tools for forensic studies and the day to day operation of TxDOT.
Inferring gene ontologies from pairwise similarity data

Author(s): Kramer, Michael; Dutkowski, Janusz; Yu, Michael; Bafna, Vineet; Ideker, Trey | Abstract: MotivationWhile the manually curated Gene Ontology (GO) is widely used, inferring a GO directly from -omics data is a compelling new problem. Recognizing that ontologies are a directed acyclic graph (DAG) of terms and hierarchical relations, algorithms are needed that: analyze a full matrix of gene-gene pairwise similarities from -omics data; infer true hierarchical structure in these data rather than enforcing hierarchy as a computational artifact; and respect biological pleiotropy, by which a term in the hierarchy can relate to multiple higher level terms. Methods addressing these requirements are just beginning to emerge-none has been evaluated for GO inference.MethodsWe consider two algorithms [Clique Extracted Ontology (CliXO), LocalFitness] that uniquely satisfy these requirements, compared with methods including standard clustering. CliXO is a new approach that finds maximal cliques in a network induced by progressive thresholding of a similarity matrix. We evaluate each method's ability to reconstruct the GO biological process ontology from a similarity matrix based on (a) semantic similarities for GO itself or (b) three -omics datasets for yeast.ResultsFor task (a) using semantic similarity, CliXO accurately reconstructs GO (g99% precision, recall) and outperforms other approaches (l20% precision, l20% recall). For task (b) using -omics data, CliXO outperforms other methods using two -omics datasets and achieves ∼30% precision and recall using YeastNet v3, similar to an earlier approach (Network Extracted Ontology) and better than LocalFitness or standard clustering (20-25% precision, recall).ConclusionThis study provides algorithmic foundation for building gene ontologies by capturing hierarchical and pleiotropic structure embedded in biomolecular data.
On the future of carbonaceous aerosol emissions

[1] This paper presents the first model-based forecasts of future emissions of the primary carbonaceous aerosols, black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC). The forecasts build on a recent 1996 inventory of emissions that contains detailed fuel, technology, sector, and world-region specifications. The forecasts are driven by four IPCC scenarios, A1B, A2, B1, and B2, out to 2030 and 2050, incorporating not only changing patterns of fuel use but also technology development. Emissions from both energy generation and open biomass burning are included. We project that global BC emissions will decline from 8.0 Tg in 1996 to 5.3–7.3 Tg by 2030 and to 4.3–6.1 Tg by 2050, across the range of scenarios. We project that OC emissions will decline from 34 Tg in 1996 to 24–30 Tg by 2030 and to 21–28 Tg by 2050. The introduction of advanced technology with lower emission rates, as well as a shift away from the use of traditional solid fuels in the residential sector, more than offsets the increased combustion of fossil fuels worldwide. Environmental pressures and a diminishing demand for new agricultural land lead to a slow decline in the amount of open biomass burning. Although emissions of BC and OC are generally expected to decline around the world, some regions, particularly South America, northern Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, show increasing emissions in several scenarios. Particularly difficult to control are BC emissions from the transport sector, which increase under most scenarios. We expect that the BC/OC emission ratio for energy sources will rise from 0.5 to as much as 0.8, signifying a shift toward net warming of the climate system due to carbonaceous aerosols. When biomass burning is included, however, the BC/OC emission ratios are for the most part invariant across scenarios at about 0.2. INDEX TERMS: 0305 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801); 0322 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Constituent sources and sinks; 0365 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Troposphere—composition and chemistry; 0325 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Evolution of the atmosphere; KEYWORDS: aerosols, emissions, projections, global, black carbon, organic carbon
Sketching and streaming algorithms for processing massive data

The rate at which electronic information is generated in the world is exploding. In this article we explore techniques known as sketching and streaming for processing massive data both quickly and memory-efficiently.
Analytical Pathway Methodology: Simplifying Business Intelligence Consulting

The implementation and use of advanced analytics to identify patterns and discover the non-obvious from structured and unstructured data sources to improve business performance or establish a competitive advantage is becoming more commonplace in enterprises. Delivering complex advanced analytical systems to mine unstructured data sources requires a complex decision-making process by the business analytics user to perform an analysis. In general, analytics is a process that often times requires continual iteration of the content sources(s) to locate, examine and interpret information to address an issue or hypothesis. This problem led us to explore a method to communicate, and eventually automate, an analytical pathway to be implemented with an analytical services system. In this paper we describe some of the challenges in the use of complex advanced analytics for business intelligence, an initial breakdown of the process and an approach to bringing repeatability to the analysis process.
Population Status of the Endangered Laysan Finch

Abstract The Laysan Finch (Telespiza cantans) is an endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper that occurs on only a few small islands in the northwestern Hawaiian Island Archipelago. Twenty-two years of recent population estimates (1991–2012) from Laysan Island were analyzed to ascertain the current status of this endangered species; the entire 44 years of census data available were then used to identify long-term population trends. Laysan Finch population estimates have exhibited extreme fluctuations that can be attributed at least in part to spring rainfall patterns. The average population size has remained at ∼10,000 individuals. The Poisson regression analysis conducted for the last 22 years indicates a slightly deceasing annual population trend. However, when all 44 years of data were included in a comprehensive trend analysis, a stable population trend was documented. These results highlight the importance of long-term data sets when monitoring small closed populations - a situation commonly encountered with...
Cost-Based Heuristic Search Is Sensitive to the Ratio of Operator Costs

In many domains, different actions have different costs. In this paper, we show that various kinds of best-first search algorithms are sensitive to the ratio between the lowest and highest operator costs. First, we take common benchmark domains and show that when we increase the ratio of operator costs, the number of node expansions required to find a solution increases. Second, we provide a theoretical analysis showing one reason this phenomenon occurs. We also discuss additional domain features that can cause this increased difficulty. Third, we show that searching using distance-togo estimates can significantly ameliorate this problem. Our analysis takes an important step toward understanding algorithm performance in the presence of differing costs. This research direction will likely only grow in importance as heuristic search is deployed to solve real-world problems.
Obligatory and adaptive averaging in visual short-term memory

Visual memory can draw upon averaged perceptual representations, a dependence that could be both adaptive and obligatory. In support of this idea, we review a wide range of evidence, including findings from our own lab. This evidence shows that time- and space-averaged memory representations influence detection and recognition responses, and do so without instruction to compute or report an average. Some of the work reviewed exploits fine-grained measures of retrieval from visual short-term memory to closely track the influence of stored averages on recall and recognition of briefly presented visual textures. Results show that reliance on perceptual averages is greatest when memory resources are taxed or when subjects are uncertain about the fidelity of their memory representation. We relate these findings to models of how summary statistics impact visual short-term memory, and discuss a neural signature for contexts in which perceptual averaging exerts maximal influence.
Characterization of Turbulent Properties in the EPA Baffled Flask for Dispersion Effectiveness Testing.

AbstractThe baffled flask test (BFT) has been proposed by United States Environmental Protection Agency to be adopted as the official standard protocol for testing dispersant effectiveness. The mixing energy in the baffled flask is investigated in this paper. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure the water velocity in the flask placed at an orbital shaker that was rotated at seven rotation speeds: 100, 125, 150, 160, 170, 200, and 250 rpm. Two dimensional velocity fields in large and small vertical cross sections of the flask for each rotation speed were obtained. The one-dimensional (1D) energy spectra indicates the existence of inertial subrange. The estimated average energy dissipation rates were in the range 7.65×10−3 to 4 W/kg for rotation speeds of Ω=100–250 rpm, of which it is larger than the one estimated by prior studies using single-point velocity measurement techniques for Ω=100 and 200 rpm. Factors such as instruments used, velocity components measured, and different analysis ...
What is Crime

Since its emergence in the 19th century, orthodox criminology has suffered from the contradiction of claiming, on the one hand, to be a value-neutral, intellectual discipline, and on the other, operating as part of the ideological apparatus of the political state by taking state definitions of what is crime and who are its criminals as the starting points for criminological inquiry. This essay examines the ways in which criminology has suffered from this internal contradiction, with particular attention to how it has been constrained by political, economic, and professional forces to focus primarily on crimes whose collective harm to society falls well below the harms caused by the wrongful, but often legal acts of economic and political elites. It concludes with the recognition that the kind of critical inquiry emblematic of the work of Bill Chambliss is essential if criminology hopes to remain relevant to the challenges of the future.
Taking a Chance in the Classroom: The Real Secret to Genius? Reading Between the Lines

In October of 2012, Dr. Franz Messerli, a cardiologist, published “Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive Function, and Nobel Laureates” in the Occasional Notes section of The New England Journal of Medi...
Vasopressin and fetal cerebrovascular regulation

Vasopressin (AVP) may increase cerebral blood flow (CBF) during hypoxemia by selective dilatation of cerebral vessels via endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) release. To test whether this action is relevant in the fetus, we produced isocapnic hypoxemia in halothane-anesthetized pregnant ewes. Fetal infusion of a V1 AVP antagonist reduced by 55% the increase in CBF during fetal hypoxemia. To test the role of this response during development, we examined the response to AVP in intact and endothelium-denuded femoral and basilar arterial rings in vitro from fetal, newborn, and adult sheep. AVP constricted femoral rings in an endothelium-independent manner, with increased potency in newborn and fetal compared with adult rings. AVP relaxed basilar rings in an endothelium-dependent manner, which was unaffected by indomethacin treatment, with increased potency in newborn and adult compared with fetal rings. We conclude that fetal cerebral vascular endothelium is functional and responsive to AVP and that circulating AVP during fetal hypoxemia contributes to increased CBF via this effect.
Role of Hyperkalemia in Production of Ventricular Fibrillation Following Hypercapnia.

Summary and Conclusions1. Dogs regularly show an increase in plasma potassium concentration during breathing of 30% and 40% CO2 mixtures. Immediately following return to air breathing, there is a further sharp rise in this concentration. This secondary rise reaches a peak after 5 minutes of air breathing. 2. Concentration of plasma potassium following 4 hrs of high CO2 breathing is not as high as that which is necessary to produce fibrillation or arrest when KCl solution is administered as an intravenous drip to normal or acidotic dogs. 3. Rapid return to air breathing following 30 minutes of high CO2 breathing does not produce cardiac arrhythmias, ventricular fibrillation, or cardiac arrest in dogs. However, when this rapid elevation in blood pH and/or fall in pCO2 takes place in the presence of sub-lethal but elevated plasma potassium concentrations, cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation may occur. Although this does not provide an explanation of the mechanism involved, it appears that the combinat...
Bonding energy of Sylgard on fused quartz: an experimental investigation

The bonding energy between the polymer Sylgard and fused quartz is determined experimentally using a miniature bulge test combined with three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC). Based on the experimental observation, Mindlin plate theory is used to compute the bonding energy (adhesive energy or surface energy) between the Sylgard and the fused quartz. The experimental results demonstrate that the combination of the miniature bulge test and the 3D-DIC provides a viable tool to directly measure interfacial and bonding properties.
The Paperless Music Classroom

In an age where the world is becoming ever more aware of paper consumption, educators are turning toward technology to cut back on paper waste. Besides the environmental reasons, a paperless music ...
Correspondence Analysis of Active Smoking Cognition and Influencing Factors in Wenzhou

Objective To explore the applicability of correspondence analysis in smoke behavior risk factors research.Methods Multi-stage random sampling method was used to select 755 people aged from 15 to 69 years in typical countries of Wenzhou and questionnaire survey was conducted among them.Correspondence analysis was a descriptive multiple statistical analysis method,the core was that the vector point in high dimension space project to low dimension space,thus it could reveal the correlation relationship and degree between variables.Our objective was to analyze the relationship between population characteristics and adults' smoking behavior risk factors in Wenzhou by correspondence analysis,further to find out whether the correspondence analysis was suitable to health service study.Results Correspondence analysis on smoking showed that the cognition of smoking's harm was related toeducation level,occupation,the rule of prohibiting smoking in home and working place.Conclusion Correspondence analysis is more intuitive than Chi-square test in indicating relationships between factors and can be used in smoking behavior risk factor researches.
Statistical modelling for process control in the sawmill industry: Research Articles

Softwood logs are processed into green boards through a series of horizontal or vertical sawing operations that reduce lumber thickness. This paper uses physical understanding to model how systematic and random errors in board thickness accumulate during sequential resawing. The error model is validated on board thickness measurements gathered at a northern California sawmill. The analysisexplains previously puzzling patterns in the spatially averaged sample variances of board thickness measurements;enables estimating, from measured board thicknesses, the means and variances of the thickness errors introduced by each sawing operation in the observed sequence;generates stronger methods for sawmill quality control.Through submodelling of the mean vector and the covariance matrix of measured thicknesses, the paper finds slight ‘wedging’ in the mean thickness of certain boards and distance-based correlations among the random sawing errors on these boards. The one-way random effects model, used uncritically in earlier analyses of lumber thickness measurements, does not fit the study data. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Albuminuria, kidney function, and sudden cardiac death: Findings from The Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study.

Background Moderate-to-severe kidney disease increases risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD). Limited studies have evaluated how mild degrees of kidney dysfunction impact SCD risk. Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of albuminuria, which is one of the earliest biomarkers of kidney injury, and SCD. Methods The Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study is a prospective, population-based cohort of U.S. adults. Associations between albuminuria, which is categorized using urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and SCD were assessed independently and in combination. Results After median follow-up of 6.1 years, we identified 335 SCD events. Compared to participants with ACR 30 mg/g, HR 1.56, 95% CI 1.17–2.11). In contrast, compared to the group with eGFR >90 mL/min/1.73 m 2 , the adjusted risk of SCD was significantly elevated only among those with eGFR 2 (HR 1.66, 95% CI 1.06–2.58). The subgroup with eGFR 2 (n = 1003) comprised 3.7% of REGARDS, whereas ACR 15–30 mg/g (n = 3089 [11.3%]) and ACR >30 mg/g (n = 4040 [14.8%] were far more common. In the analysis that combined ACR and eGFR categories, albuminuria consistently identified individuals with eGFR ≥60 mLmin/1.73 m 2 who were at significantly increased SCD risk. Conclusion Low levels of kidney injury as measured by ACR predict an increase in SCD risk.
The Dynamic Interface of Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology

The disciplines of bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology pursue somewhat different goals but they share considerable methodology and basic scientific information. Experience and research in each of these endeavors enhances the practice of the other. The symbiotic and dynamic relationship of these academic areas greatly improves the quality of the applications of each. The shared information impacts in positive ways all areas of both fields, but is especially important in several key components. Within bioarchaeology, information from forensic practice is vital to the proper interpretation of traumatic and other alterations, especially in the assessment of the timing (antemortem, perimortem, postmortem) of the event producing the alteration. Within forensic anthropology, data gleaned from the practice of bioarchaeology augment techniques of detection, recovery and assessment of the postmortem interval and taphonomic factors that may be involved. Currently, both fields are experiencing a surge in professional activity and student interest, as well as a rapid increase in published research, casework and technology. While the volume of available information presents challenges, practitioners in each field need to remain cognizant of professional activity and research results in the other.
Delayed glial clearance of degenerating axons in aged Drosophila is due to reduced PI3K/Draper activity

Advanced age is the greatest risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders, but the mechanisms that render the senescent brain vulnerable to disease are unclear. Glial immune responses provide neuroprotection in a variety of contexts. Thus, we explored how glial responses to neurodegeneration are altered with age. Here we show that glia-axon phagocytic interactions change dramatically in the aged Drosophila brain. Aged glia clear degenerating axons slowly due to low phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) signalling and, subsequently, reduced expression of the conserved phagocytic receptor Draper/MEGF10. Importantly, boosting PI3K/Draper activity in aged glia significantly reverses slow phagocytic responses. Moreover, several hours post axotomy, early hallmarks of Wallerian degeneration (WD) are delayed in aged flies. We propose that slow clearance of degenerating axons is mechanistically twofold, resulting from deferred initiation of axonal WD and reduced PI3K/Draper-dependent glial phagocytic function. Interventions that boost glial engulfment activity, however, can substantially reverse delayed clearance of damaged neuronal debris.
539. Screening for Recombinant Adeno-Associated Viral Vectors That Selectively Transduce Hepatitis B Virus Infected Cells

Hepatitis B is a disease caused by infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), a small enveloped DNA virus which belongs to the Hepadnaviridae family. Even though a safe and effective vaccine is available, HBV represents the ninth most common cause of death worldwide with an estimated 350 million chronically infected individuals. HBV infection can cause cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma and currently there are 7 approved drugs for the treatment of HBV infection in the USA. These drugs decrease the risk of liver damage from HBV by slowing but not eliminating viral replication in most patients, possibly related to the persistence of integrated HBV genomes. Gene therapy using recombinant adeno-associated viral (rAAV) vectors constitute a promising tool to combat HBV infection as rAAV vectors have the ability to transduce and establish long-term and stable transgene expression in liver cells. Preclinical studies have successfully utilized rAAV vectors to combat viral infections after delivering short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) expression cassettes for knocking down viral coding or host genes required for viral replication and spread. Because promiscuous targeting of host cellular genes in the majority of non-infected cells may be detrimental, specific targeting of HBV-infected cells adds a new layer of potential therapeutic targets and safety. Thus we set out to identify new AAV capsids that selectively transduce HBV-infected cells. To do this, we created new AAV shuffled capsid libraries and used these for multiple rounds of infection in HBV-infected hepatoma cells. Each library is co-infected with wild-type Adenovirus-5 (helper virus) allowing the rAAV genomes to replicate in the HBV-infected cells. Isolation of replicating rAAV over successive passages in cultured cells allows for a more stringent selection as all steps in AAV transduction must occur. We have varied the screens using various multiplicity of infections (MOIs) of the library and/or utilized a pre-clearing step using a HBV negative hepatoma cell line. Several selected capsids derived from multiple parental capsids were vectorized. One capsid (AAV-GK4) was found to transduce the infected cells approximately 6 times more robustly than uninfected cells (using an MOI of 100 and 1,000). Interestingly, the same result was observed with AAV-DJ, a variant previously selected on human hepatoma cells. Additional screens and candidates are pending further evaluation. The possibility of finding new rAAV capsids with an increased transduction efficiency and selective tropism for HBV-infected cells will provide a reagent or therapeutic that can deliver a transgene that will allow one to selectively modify or potentially kill infected but not the uninfected cells contained within the liver.
Organizing The Ordinary City: How Labor Reform Strategies Travel to the US Heartland

In New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, formal alliances between labor unions and community organizations have spurred successful workplace and policy organizing campaigns. As a result, the institutional form of the community-labor coalition is travelling to smaller, less unionized and more politically conservative cities, where the replication of established organizing strategies must contend with political, economic and institutional differences that often go unnoted. Comparing community-labor alliances in Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago, this article identifies heretofore unobserved conditions of possibility for successful urban labor organizing in the US. Compared to smaller cities, Chicago and the large urban areas from which ideal practices are abstracted feature higher levels of union membership, significantly more funding of basic social and neighborhood services, and larger immigrant communities. Operating with minimal human services and limited recourse to the social and institutional networks of immigrant workers, labor coalitions in St. Louis and Indianapolis face recurrent barriers to identifying workplace problems, mobilizing low-wage workers and sustaining citywide reform campaigns. This indicates geographical limits to the current organizing model and highlights the limitations of urban scholarship derived from large cities unrepresentative of urbanity as a whole.
New Developments in Breast Cancer Screening and Treatment

Abstract The clinical update serves as a brief review of recently published, high-impact, and potentially practice-changing journal articles summarized for our readers. In this clinical update, we selected top recent articles regarding breast health that may change the clinical practice of women's health providers. We identified articles by reviewing high-impact medical and women's health journals as well as national practice guidelines. Three of our articles are dedicated to the rapid changes in breast cancer screening. With regard to breast cancer treatment, we focused on two articles that impact who we treat with traditional aggressive regimens.
Characterization of relationship between optical microangiography OMAG signal and blood flow (Conference Presentation)

Optical microangiography (OMAG) is a powerful optical angiographic tool to visualize micro-vascular flow in vivo. Despite numerous demonstrations for the past several years of the qualitative relationship between OMAG and flow, no convincing quantitative relationship has been proven. In this paper, we attempt to quantitatively correlate the OMAG signal with flow. Specifically, we develop a simplified analytical model of the complex OMAG, suggesting that the OMAG signal is a product of the number of particles in an imaging voxel and the decorrelation of OCT (optical coherence tomography) signal, determined by flow velocity, interframe time interval, and wavelength of the light source. Numerical simulation with the proposed model reveals that if the OCT amplitudes are correlated, the OMAG signal is related to a total number of particles across the imaging voxel cross-section per unit time (flux); otherwise it would be saturated but its strength is proportional to the number of particles in the imaging voxel (concentration). The relationship is validated using microfluidic flow phantoms with various preset flow metrics. This work suggests OMAG is a promising quantitative tool for the assessment of vascular flow.
Persistence of endophytic fungi in cultivars of Lolium perenne grown from seeds stored for 22 years.

Premise of the study Genetic resources for forage crops often consist of seeds of specific species and cultivars in cold storage for future use in breeding and selection programs. Temperate grasses such as Lolium perenne, used worldwide for forage and turf, produce seeds commonly infected by hyphae of an endophytic fungus (Epichloe festucae var. lolii). This research determined whether endophytes could persist and infect seedlings of L. perenne emerging from seeds stored for over two decades. Methods Endophyte-infected seeds (>90% infected) of four cultivars were obtained in 1994 and stored dry in plastic bags at 4°C. Seed germination was tested after 12 yr (for two cultivars) and after 18 and 22 yr (for all cultivars). Seedling leaf sheaths were excised, stained, and examined at 400× for endophytic hyphae to quantify infection frequency (% plants infected) and intensity (mean number of endophytic hyphae per field of view). Key results Seed germination after 22 yr depended on cultivar, ranging from 53 to 78%. Between 58 and 73% of plants grown from seeds stored for 22 yr still contained viable endophytic hyphae. Infection intensity remained at original levels for 18 yr in one cultivar; however, in all cultivars, infection intensity declined significantly between 18 and 22 yr. Conclusions Persistence of the grass seed-endophyte symbiosis for over 20 yr surpasses all prior records of endophyte longevity within stored seeds. Storage of germplasm of cool-season grass cultivars that contain potentially beneficial fungal endophytes should be possible for several decades under dry, cold conditions.
Mechanisms of acute mitral regurgitation in patients with takotsubo cardiomyopathy: an echocardiographic study.

Background— Recent studies have suggested acute mitral regurgitation (MR) as a potentially serious complication of takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC); however, the mechanism of acute MR in TTC remains unclear. The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms of acute MR in patients with TTC. Methods and Results— Echocardiography was used to assess the mitral valve and left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) pressure gradient in 47 patients with TTC confirmed by coronary angiography and left ventriculography. Mitral valve assessment included coaptation distance, tenting area at mid systole in the long-axis view, and systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve (SAM). Of the study patients, 12 (25.5%) had significant (moderate or severe) acute MR. In patients with acute MR versus those without acute MR, we found lower ejection fraction (31.3±6.2% versus 41.5±10.6%, P =0.001) and higher systolic pulmonary artery pressure (49.3±7.4 versus 35.5±8.9 mm Hg, P 20 mm Hg (average peak LVOT pressure gradient, 81.3±35.8 mm Hg). The remaining 6 patients with acute MR revealed significantly greater mitral valve coaptation distance (10.9±1.6 versus 7.8±1.4 mm, P <0.001) and tenting area (2.1±0.4 versus 0.95±0.25 cm2, P <0.001) than those without acute MR. A multivariate analysis revealed that SAM and tenting area were independent predictors of acute MR in patients with TTC (all P <0.001). Conclusions— SAM and tethering of the mitral valve are independent mechanisms with differing pathophysiology that can lead to acute MR in patients with TTC.
A methodology to reduce the computational cost of transient multiphysics simulations for waste vitrification

Abstract Legacy radioactive waste stored in tanks at the Hanford Site is scheduled to undergo vitrification in Joule-heated melters. A carefully calibrated computational fluid dynamics model has been developed to characterize fluid flow, chemistry and heat transfer in the melters. Bubbling is replaced by momentum source terms to approximate forced convection circulation patterns and reduce Courant number restrictions on the resolved liquid–air interface. Void zones in the electrical field compensate for the removal of bubbles. The efficiency of the radiation solver is improved by reducing the update frequency of the discrete ordinates and using lower quadrature. A simple polynomial fit captures the waste-to-glass reactions in the cold cap. These simplifications reduce the turnaround time such that it is possible to simulate hundreds of seconds of physical time per day with the calibrated model versus only several seconds of physical time with the original, higher-fidelity model.
Bridgemanian space constancy as a precursor to extended cognition.

Abstract A few decades ago, cognitive psychologists generally took for granted that the reason we perceive our visual environment as one contiguous stable whole (i.e., space constancy) is because we have an internal mental representation of the visual environment as one contiguous stable whole. They supposed that the non-contiguous visual images that are gathered during the brief fixations that intervene between pairs of saccadic eye movements (a few times every second) are somehow stitched together to construct this contiguous internal mental representation. Determining how exactly the brain does this proved to be a vexing puzzle for vision researchers. Bruce Bridgeman’s research career is the story of how meticulous psychophysical experimentation, and a genius theoretical insight, eventually solved this puzzle. The reason that it was so difficult for researchers to figure out how the brain stitches together these visual snapshots into one accurately-rendered mental representation of the visual environment is that it doesn’t do that. Bruce discovered that the brain couldn’t do that if it tried. The neural information that codes for saccade amplitude and direction is simply too inaccurate to determine exact relative locations of each fixation. Rather than the perception of space constancy being the result of an internal representation, Bruce determined that it is the result of a brain that simply assumes that external space remains constant, and it rarely checks to verify this assumption. In our extension of Bridgeman’s formulation, we suggest that objects in the world often serve as their own representations, and cognitive operations can be performed on those objects themselves, rather than on mental representations of them.
Engaging audiences on social media: Identifying relationships between message factors and user engagement on the American Cancer Society’s Facebook page

Abstract In this study, a content analysis was conducted with posts from American Cancer Society’s (ACS) Facebook page to explore the relationship between message relevance, source characteristics, and message features with the number of likes, comments, and shares received by them. Limited Capacity Model for Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP) was used as the theoretical foundation for the study. Findings showed that cancer-related posts received more likes, comments and shares than posts that were not related to cancer. Also, posts by the American Cancer Society received more likes, comments, and shares than other source categories. Findings also indicated that though message features were related to likes, comments, and shares, the nature of relationship and the role of different features varied with each measure. Overall, findings highlight the role of motivational activation through message factors in eliciting user response in social media environments.
Quantitative detection of individual cleaved DNA molecules on surfaces using gold nanoparticles and scanning electron microscope imaging.

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most frequent type of human genetic variation. Recent work has shown that it is possible to directly analyze SNPs in unamplified human genomic DNA samples using the surface-invasive cleavage reaction followed by rolling circle amplification (RCA) labeling of the cleavage products. The individual RCA amplicon molecules were counted on the surface using fluorescence microscopy. Two principal limitations of such single-molecule counting are the variability in the amplicon size, which results in a large variation in fluorescence signal intensity from the dye-labeled DNA molecules, and a high level of background fluorescence. It is shown here that an excellent alternative to RCA labeling is tagging with gold nanoparticles followed by imaging with a scanning electron microscope. Gold nanoparticles have a uniform diameter (15 ± 0.5 nm) and provide excellent contrast against the background of the silicon substrate employed. Individual gold nanoparticles are readily c...
The Zadeh Project – A Frame for Understanding the Generative Ideas, Formation, and Design

This book represents a unique contribution to the field of clinical ethics consultation. What might seem at first glance to be an anthology, that is, a collection of independent essays, is actually more akin to a conversation, a shared engagement, a mutual undertaking. At the center of this conversation is a steadfastness, abiding and serious in its orientation – exemplified in these voices and contributions collected from colleagues – to explore, identify, and examine the actual conduct of individuals who engage in ethics consultation practice. Although there is some helpful resemblance to an anthology, for example in the variety of ways these essays describe and depict a complex array of different standpoints regarding the practical and conceptual commitments in this growing field, more important to the Zadeh Project is the deliberate focus on explicating and probing the ways these commitments influence how a particular individual acting as an “ethics consultant” might understand and interpret the roles and prevalent expectations represented by those differing standpoints. In that light, and perhaps more urgently, this book is motivated by a mutual recognition that part and parcel with the responsibility of doing clinical ethics is an ongoing and clear need to describe and consider what clinical ethics consultants actually encounter when actively working with physicians, nurses, social workers, and other healthcare providers as well as with patients, families, and others who care about patients. As a contribution to that necessity of being accountable, this Project and the resulting book represent much more than merely collecting together the thoughts and perspectives of a group of colleagues from within a common field: this book is an attempt to display, to model through written text, a set of practices and what is at stake in these practices.