cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Consider the children : is parenthood being devalued?

The study is a comparison of the motivations for having children among young adults in 1977 and in 1986. Nine advantages and disadvantages of having and raising children were assessed in both years. A 2 × 2 MANOVA was conducted to test for the effects of year and gender as well as the interaction of year and gender, with the nine parental motivations as dependent variables. Results of the MANOVA revealed significant effects for both year of testing and gender, but no interaction between year and gender. The results of this study provide support for sociohistorical change in motivations for parenthood. The study does not support the view of contemporary parents as egocentrically more concerned with their own needs than the needs of their children, but shows rather that the positive aspects of parenthood were more emphasized in 1986 than 1977. The current study also suggests support that young women have rejected the traditional view that women attain roles and status from being mothers. There was no interaction between year and gender.
Phonetics and Phonology

Phonological and phonetic studies of aphasia are evaluated with respect to issues of neural representation of speech and language. The traditional dichotomy between anterior and posterior syndromes has been challenged in recent years. In speech production, deficits at the phonological level are discussed in relation to psycholinguistic models of speech production, phonological features, underspecification, markedness, syllable structure, and sonority. Segmental deficits at the phonetic level are discussed primarily in relation to temporal parameters of consonants and vowels, segmental coarticulation, and speaking rate effects. The data challenge the traditional view that articulatory implementation deficits are circumscribed to anterior lesions, planning deficits to posterior lesions. Hemispheric specialization is assessed for linguistic aspects of prosody and brought to bear on a number of competing hypotheses. Production deficits are examined for phonemic stress, contrastive stress, lexical tones, tonal coarticulation, intonation, and foreign accent syndrome. The bulk of the evidence suggests minimal involvement of the right hemisphere in mediating linguistic prosody. In speech perception, the role of phonology in lexical access is highlighted as are breakdowns in stress, tone, and intonation.
Compelled to Share: Exploring Holocaust and Residential School Survivors’ Stories

Employing Erll’s concept of travelling memory and Rothberg’s concept of multidirectional memory, Anderson explores how European memory operates beyond European boundaries in her analysis of the unique memory event Compelled to Remember. Co-organized by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the event brought together Holocaust survivors and former Aboriginal students from the Canadian residential school system to discuss the parallels and differences between the various experiences of historical trauma, injustice, and recovery. Anderson details the developments that led to the event and the growing dialogue between Holocaust and residential school survivors and their post-generation. The chapter assesses where this intercultural dialogue falls on Rothberg’s “politics of memory” map to understand better how memories of the Holocaust and colonialism have travelled together.
Current Clinical Applications and Next Steps for Cardiac Innervation Imaging

Autonomic innervation is crucial for regulating cardiac function. Sympathetic innervation imaging with 123I-mIBG and analogous PET tracers assesses disease in ways that differ from customary methods. This review describes practical use in various clinical scenarios, discusses recent guidelines, presents new data confirming risk stratification power, describes an ongoing prospective study, and looks forward to wider use in patient management. ASNC 123I-mIBG guidelines are available, expanding on European guidelines. ADMIRE-HF patient follow-up increased to 2 years in ADMIRE HFX, demonstrating independent mortality risk reclassification. ADMIRE-HF findings were substantiated in a Japanese consortium study and in the PAREPET 11C-HED PET study. Exciting potential uses of adrenergic imaging are management of LVADs and VT ablation. CZT cameras provide advantages, but derived parameters differ from Anger camera values. Independent risk stratification utility of adrenergic imaging with 123I-mIBG and PET tracers is continuously being confirmed. An ongoing prospective randomized study promises to establish patient management utility. There is potential for wider use and improved images with newer cameras and PET.
Attending Radiologist Variability and Its Effect on Radiology Resident Discrepancy Rates.

Rationale and Objectives Discrepancy rates for interpretations produced in a call situation are one metric to evaluate residents during training. Current benchmarks, reported in previous studies, do not consider the effects of practice pattern variability among attending radiologists. This study aims to investigate the impact of attending variability on resident discrepancy rates to determine if the current benchmarks are an accurate measure of resident performance and, if necessary, update discrepancy benchmarks to accurately identify residents performing below expectations. Materials and Methods All chest radiographs, musculoskeletal (MSK) radiographs, chest computed tomographies (CTs), abdomen and pelvis CTs, and head CTs interpreted by postgraduate year-3 residents in a call situation over 5 years were reviewed for the presence of a significant discrepancy and composite results compared to prior findings. Simulations of the expected discrepancy distribution for an “average resident” were then performed using Gibbs sampling, and this distribution was compared to the actual resident distribution. Results A strong inverse correlation between resident volume and discrepancy rates was found. There was wide variability among attendings in both overread volume and propensity to issue a discrepancy, although there was no significant correlation. Simulations show that previous benchmarks match well for chest radiographs, abdomen and pelvis CTs, and head CTs but not for MSK radiographs and chest CTs. The simulations also demonstrate a large effect of attending practice patterns on resident discrepancy rates. Conclusions The large variability in attending practice patterns suggests direct comparison of residents using discrepancy rates is unlikely to reflect true performance. Current benchmarks for chest radiographs, abdomen and pelvis CTs, and head CTs are appropriate and correctly flag residents whose performance may benefit from additional attention, whereas those for MSK radiographs and chest CTs are likely too strict.
Step care treatment for smoking cessation

We compared the effectiveness of a ‘stepped care’ approach with increasing treatment intensity (‘Step Care’) to one with repeated treatments (‘Recycle’) among cigarette smokers interested in quitting smoking. Step 1 of the Step Care intervention consisted of a single counseling session, nicotine patch for six weeks and telephonic contact. For smokers not achieving tobacco abstinence 6 months after randomization with Step 1, the intensity of the intervention increased to four counseling sessions, bupropion sustained-release, nine telephone calls and three mailings (Step 2). For those not achieving tobacco abstinence 12 months after randomization, smokers received six behavioral counseling sessions, nicotine patch and nicotine gum, nine telephone calls and three mailings (Step 3). The Recycle participants received one session of health behavior counseling, six weeks of the nicotine patch and a telephone call at each step. 270 cigarette smokers were randomized. At 24 months after randomization using an intention to treat analysis, no statistically significant difference was observed in prolonged smoking abstinence between the Step Care and Recycle condition (16.9% versus 9.4%; adjusted OR = 1.88; 95% CI 0.88–4.01; P =0.10). Additional research is needed to explore whether a stepped care intervention increases long-term smoking abstinence rates compared with repeating the same intervention.
Christian (Re)Encounters with Jews in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean

This essay considers how the reencounter between Christians and Jews over the course of the sixteenth century shaped the evolution of European attitudes toward Jews. It notes that, while 1492 marked an end to a long-standing era of Christian-Jewish relations in Europe, it also signaled an important shift toward new thinking about the once-familiar Jews. The combined effects of the absence of Jewish communities from most of Western Europe, the failure of Christian society effectively to integrate the Conversos of Spain and Portugal, and the expanded cultural horizons engendered by the Age of Discovery helped challenge and alter popular images of the Jews that had been inherited from the Middle Ages. The lands of the Muslim Mediterranean operated as an important stage on which the Christian reencounter with Jews played out, and travelers’ accounts of the Jews in these lands came to exert a powerful influence on the way in which the image of the Jew was recast in the European imagination. The discussion here seeks to expand on recent work on sixteenth-century Christian ethnographies of the Jews and to complicate some of our notions of the nature and development of Christian attitudes toward the Jews during the transition from the medieval period to the early modern.
Super-resolution imaging with ultrafast ultrasound and laser-activated nanodroplets (Conference Presentation)

Super-resolution ultrasound imaging techniques have shown promising potential in non-invasive imaging of deep-lying tissue. However, these methods utilize microbubbles, limiting its utility to visualization of vasculature with moving bubbles. To resolve extravascular targets, our group previously introduced a method for super-resolution ultrasound imaging based on laser-activated nanodroplets (LANDs) that repeatedly vaporize and recondense in response to optical irradiation. The method resolves the location of LANDs from the difference between two imaging frames capturing vaporization and recondensation of individual LANDs. However, since only two neighboring frames are used to produce a difference frame, this method is sensitive to noise-related errors limiting the improvement in spatial resolution. In this study, we introduce a new approach to super-resolution imaging. In our approach, ultrafast imaging, which typically captures images at over several thousand frames per second, was used for spatio-temporal compounding. Specifically, multiple successive ultrasound frames were used to obtain the difference frame with improved reliability and repeatability thus enhanced spatial resolution. To evaluate our approach, we imaged a phantom containing uniformly-distributed LANDs using an ultrasound system equipped with a linear array transducer and interfaced with pulsed laser. An ultrafast plane-wave compounding approach was used to capture ultrasound images at 6 kHz frame rate. We achieved a four-fold improvement in spatial resolution over the previous approach. In addition, three-dimensional super-resolution imaging of a phantom with microcapillaries containing LANDs was performed illustrating the robustness of our method. These results suggest that our approach has the potential for high-resolution molecular imaging of intravascular and extravascular targets.
Intramyocellular lipid excess in the mitochondrial disorder MELAS MRS determination at 7T

Objective There is a paucity of objective, quantifiable indicators of mitochondrial disease available for clinical and scientific investigation. Methods To this end, we explore intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) accumulation noninvasively by 7T magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) as a reporter of metabolic dysfunction in MELAS (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes). We reasoned that mitochondrial dysfunction may impair muscle fat metabolism, resulting in lipid deposition (as is sometimes observed in biopsies), and that MRS is well suited to quantify these lipids. Results In 10 MELAS participants and relatives, IMCL abundance correlates with percent mitochondrial DNA mutation abundance and with disease severity. Conclusions These results indicate that IMCL accumulation is a novel potential disease hallmark in MELAS.
LEITURA EM TRANSFORMAÇÃO: DO PERGAMINHO AO FACEBOOK OU DO FOCO À DISPERSÃO

O texto propoe uma reflexao sobre as mudancas que a leitura sofreu ao longo dos anos, com foco nas transformacoes mais recentes, relacionadas ao crescimento da importância das redes sociais digitais na nossa vida. Traco um caminho das praticas de leitura tecendo tambem consideracoes sobre a escrita e sobre a forma como o ser humano se relacionou com ela ao longo de sua historia. Visito estudos de Alberto Manguel, Martyn Lyons e Roger Chartier, que me ajudam a apresentar um vies diacronico, e proponho uma reflexao sobre as praticas leitoras atuais, que com frequencia acontecem a partir de redes sociais na internet, e muitas vezes sao desconsideradas e ignoradas em sala de aula, apesar de fazerem parte da vida dos jovens e da maioria das pessoas adultas cotidianamente. E imprescindivel percebermos que, hoje, muito do conhecimento, da informacao, das interacoes humanas acontece nessas novas formas de ler (e escrever), e que elas tambem podem ser modos muito ricos de produzir sentidos e diferentes tipos de textos. Reconhecer como legitimas as praticas de leitura contemporâneas e essencial para que possamos refletir sobre elas, e pensar a que necessidades respondem, que sentidos constroem, e, como expressao humana, como podem nos ajudar a compreender o mundo em que vivemos.
Biochromy of the Mollusca

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses biochromy of the Mollusca. Among the strict schemochromes (nonpigmentary coloration), there are in the mollusks but few if any conspicuous instances of Tyndall-blue scattering. Indeed, it also occurs in facial, genital, and buttocks skin characteristic of some baboons and other primates, sometimes including humans, in whose pale skin there may appear purplish port-wine blemishes, or nevi, displaying such colors as a consequence of the superposition of blood-red vascular areas overlying dermal deposits of dark melanin; such deposits beneath white skin would permit the reflection of only the short-wave blue fraction of white incident light. Such a condition is to be found in the buttocks skin of some human babies of Oriental ancestry; thus, they are referred to as Mongolian spots. True biochromic or pigmentary compounds are nevertheless encountered in the periostracum and even in the skeletal material of many gastropods and bivalves, conferring on the conchiolin shell proteins various brownish, ruddy, pink, purple, yellow, orange, or green colors. Moreover, some red fluorescent pigments are found within the shell opening.
An Evaluation of Identical Twins with Strabismus

Twenty-eight pairs of identical twins with strabismus were evaluated. Esotropia was the most frequent type of strabismus, occurring in twenty-eight patients. Exotropia was present in twelve patient...
Steady-State Systems without Explicit Interactions

Beginning with the next chapter, the remainder of the book will be concerned with the explicit treatment of intermolecular interaction effects on equilibrium and steady-state systems. In this chapter we deal with several kinds of perturbation of steady-state enzyme activity, but we do not introduce intermolecular interaction free energies explicitly. In the models of Sections 17, 18, and 19, such interactions are present, but they are considered to be so strong that they can be handled by the complete omission of certain states or transitions from the kinetic diagram. These models are thus somewhat analogous to the A. V. Hill and Monod-Wyman-Changeux equilibrium models treated in Chapter 4. In contrast, other kinds of enzyme interaction or perturbation are considered in Sections 16, 20, and 21.
SULFONYLUREA HERBICIDE RESISTANT WEEDS: DISCOVERY, DISTRIBUTION, BIOLOGY, MECHANISM, AND MANAGEMENT

Sulfonylurea herbicide resistant Lactuca serriola L. (prickly lettuce) plants were discovered near Lewiston, Idaho in April 1987. This was the first confirmed occurrence of herbicide resistance resulting from the use of sulfonylurea. Kochia scoparia (L.) Schrad (kochia) plants from Liberal, Kansas were confirmed as resistant to chlorsulfuron and metsulfuron-methyl in 1988. Since then, sulfonylurea resistant K. scoparia has been identified in eight other States and one Canadian Province. Salsola iberica Sennen & Pau (russian thistle) plants from Kansas, Montana, North Dakota and Washington and Stellaria media (L.) Vill. (common chickweed) plants from Alberta, Canada have also been found to be resistant to sulfonylurea herbicides. Most resistant plants were collected from fields where dryland winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was grown either continuously or in rotation with summer fallow and where chlorsulfuron or chlorsulfuron plus metsulfuron-methyl had been applied at 7 to 14 month intervals for 3 to 5 years. Total sulfonylurea herbicide used ranged from 52 to 200 g a.i.ha-1. Resistant K. scoparia plants have also been collected from noncrop areas where sulfometuron-methyl was applied annually for 3 to 4 years. Total sulfometuron-methyl used ranged from 96 to 425 g ai ha-1. The mechanism of resistance is an altered site of action, acetohydroxyacid synthase enzyme, which is inhibited less in resistant than in susceptible biotypes by sulfonylurea and imidazolinone herbicides. Resistance is not due to differences in herbicide absorption, translocation, or metabolism. Chlorsulfuron-resistant K. scoparia and L. serriola are resistant to several other sulfonylurea and imidazolinone herbicides. However, resistant and susceptible biotypes are usually controlled equally by herbicides with different modes of action. Resistance in L. serriola is controlled by one nuclear gene with incomplete dominance.
Contrarian Concepts in the Progress of Radiotherapy

Radiobiology concepts relevant to radiotherapy have undergone continued revision, suggesting that a continuing skeptical if not completely contrarian view of current concepts is also warranted. Some such revisions are revisited, and some present applications of radiobiology to radiotherapy are discussed before they, too, require revision.
Game Theory, Sociodynamics, and Cultural Evolution

Since Neumann and Morgenstern’s theory of games, the debate among social scientists, economists, mathematicians, and social philosophers about what kind of theory it is has not ended. Some think that it is a new interdiscipline, some that it is a mere accumulation of gametheoretical models, such as utility theory, competitive, cooperative, collective choice models, and so on. Most of them agree that the models of game theory deal with isolated, single, and independent specific societal interactions between individuals who wish to maximize their gains and minimize their losses within prescribed constraining rules.
The meaning of 'good' and the possibility of value

Moore held that to call something good is to ascribe a property to it. But he denied that the property could be expressed in non-evaluative terms. Can one accept this view of the meaning of ‘good’ without falling into skepticism about whether anything can be, or be known to be, good? I suggest a way of doing this. The strategy combines the idea that ‘good’ is semantically entangled, as opposed to semantically isolated, with the idea that rational agents have a generic disposition to follow reasons.
Robotic Pelvic and Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection

Pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) and retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) remain critical components of many urologic disease processes and procedures. Dissection may provide accurate lymph node staging and confer potential therapeutic benefit. For prostate cancer management, lymph node dissection at prostatectomy provides an opportunity for staging and, when compared with other treatment options, has been shown to have a possible therapeutic benefit by lower cancer-specific death rates [1–3]. In the management of testicular cancer, RPLND is considered an established treatment option, depending on the histologic subtype and clinical stage of the disease. The robotic platform allows for a full therapeutic dissection with equivalent oncologic outcomes and shorter convalescence when compared with open RPLND [4, 5]. Finally, in the management of patients with locally advanced renal masses (T3–T4) or unfavorable clinical and/or pathologic features, a template lymph node dissection may offer improved survival [6–8].
Implementation of a Clinical Decision Support System for Children With Minor Blunt Head Trauma Who Are at Nonnegligible Risk for Traumatic Brain Injuries.

Study objective To determine the effect of providing risk estimates of clinically important traumatic brain injuries and management recommendations on emergency department (ED) outcomes for children with isolated intermediate Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network clinically important traumatic brain injury risk factors. Methods This was a secondary analysis of a nonrandomized clinical trial with concurrent controls, conducted at 5 pediatric and 8 general EDs between November 2011 and June 2014, enrolling patients younger than 18 years who had minor blunt head trauma. After a baseline period, intervention sites received electronic clinical decision support providing patient-level clinically important traumatic brain injury risk estimates and management recommendations. The following primary outcomes in patients with one intermediate Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network risk factor were compared before and after clinical decision support: proportion of ED computed tomography (CT) scans, adjusted for age, time trend, and site; and prevalence of clinically important traumatic brain injuries. Results The risk of clinically important traumatic brain injuries was known for 3,859 children with isolated findings (1,711 at intervention sites before clinical decision support, 1,702 at intervention sites after clinical decision support, and 446 at control sites). In this group, pooled CT proportion decreased from 24.2% to 21.6% after clinical decision support (odds ratio 0.86; 95% confidence interval 0.73 to 1.01). Decreases in CT use were noted across intervention EDs, but not in controls. The pooled adjusted odds ratio for CT use after clinical decision support was 0.73 (95% confidence interval 0.60 to 0.88). Among the entire cohort, clinically important traumatic brain injury was diagnosed at the index ED visit for 37 of 37 (100%) patients before clinical decision support and 32 of 33 patients (97.0%) after clinical decision support. Conclusion Providing specific risks of clinically important traumatic brain injury through electronic clinical decision support was associated with a modest and safe decrease in ED CT use for children at nonnegligible risk of clinically important traumatic brain injuries.
Meniscus-Derived Matrix Scaffolds Promote the Integrative Repair of Meniscal Defects

Meniscal tears have a poor healing capacity, and damage to the meniscus is associated with significant pain, disability, and progressive degenerative changes in the knee joint that lead to osteoarthritis. Therefore, strategies to promote meniscus repair and improve meniscus function are needed. The objective of this study was to generate porcine meniscus-derived matrix (MDM) scaffolds and test their effectiveness in promoting meniscus repair via migration of endogenous meniscus cells from the surrounding meniscus or exogenously seeded human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Both endogenous meniscal cells and MSCs infiltrated the MDM scaffolds. In the absence of exogenous cells, the 8% MDM scaffolds promoted the integrative repair of an in vitro meniscal defect. Dehydrothermal crosslinking and concentration of the MDM influenced the biochemical content and shear strength of repair, demonstrating that the MDM can be tailored to promote tissue repair. These findings indicate that native meniscus cells can enhance meniscus healing if a scaffold is provided that promotes cellular infiltration and tissue growth. The high affinity of cells for the MDM and the ability to remodel the scaffold reveals the potential of MDM to integrate with native meniscal tissue to promote long-term repair without necessarily requiring exogenous cells.
Empowering care in the inner-city: meeting standards with high expectations

This paper provides a narrative account describing how a first-year teacher’s empowering care in her mathematics classes in an inner-city high school in Southern California contributed to better st...
Scientific sensemaking supports science content learning across disciplines and instructional contexts

Abstract Science consists of a body of knowledge and a set of processes by which the knowledge is produced. Although these have traditionally been treated separately in science instruction, there has been a shift to an integration of knowledge and processes, or set of practices, in how science should be taught and assessed. We explore whether a general overall mastery of the processes drives learning in new science content areas and if this overall mastery can be improved through engaged science learning. Through a review of literature, the paper conceptualizes this general process mastery as scientific sensemaking, defines the sub-dimensions, and presents a new measure of the construct centered in scenarios of general interest to young adolescents. Using a dataset involving over 2500 6th and 8th grade students, the paper shows that scientific sensemaking scores can predict content learning gains and that this relationship is consistent across student characteristics, content of instruction, and classroom environment. Further, students who are behaviorally and cognitively engaged during science classroom activities show greater growth in scientific sensemaking, showing a reciprocal relationship between sensemaking ability and effective science instruction. Findings from this work support early instruction on sensemaking activities to better position students to learn new scientific content.
Managing networked landscapes: conservation in a fragmented, regionally connected world

Ecological fragmentation coupled with changes in climate affects the viability of species and is likely to pose a serious threat for maintaining biodiversity, especially as biodiversity often depends on species ability to migrate between different ecological areas spanning multiple sociopolitical jurisdictions. To reduce the risk to biodiversity, there is a need for connected, interjurisdictional landscape management plans at regional levels. It is a key to identify how decision-makers collaborate and share knowledge, learn, and ultimately make decisions affecting species coexistence. Here, we present a model that mimics multiple political jurisdictions making decisions affecting species migration across a landscape. This management and species movement can be between nations, between public and private landowners, or any other scale of interjurisdictional management in between. The model we present here has direct application to the decisions that managers make regularly and draws upon anecdotal evidence from real-world case studies such as the removal of fences in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in southern Africa, and cooperation to solve regional environmental dilemmas in Arizona between neighbors. Our results highlight the importance of social learning and networks and matching the scale of sociopolitical and ecological processes in order to reduce biodiversity loss. Further, we find that close-knit decision-makers, especially when learning/imitating management strategies the same way, are detrimental to countering biodiversity loss. Finally, our results indicate the importance of allowing decision-makers to have room for experimental, individual learning to broaden the set of management strategies existing within a system to reduce biodiversity loss.
Changes in nucleus accumbens gene expression accompany sex-specific suppression of spontaneous physical activity in aromatase knockout mice.

Abstract Aromatase catalyzes conversion of testosterone to estradiol and is expressed in a variety of tissues, including the brain. Suppression of aromatase adversely affects metabolism and physical activity behavior, but mechanisms remain uncertain. The hypothesis tested herein was that whole body aromatase deletion would cause gene expression changes in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain regulating motivated behaviors such as physical activity, which is suppressed with loss of estradiol. Metabolic and behavioral assessments were performed in male and female wild-type (WT) and aromatase knockout (ArKO) mice. NAc-specific differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified with RNAseq, and associations between the measured phenotypic traits were determined. Female ArKO mice had greater percent body fat, reduced spontaneous physical activity (SPA), consumed less energy, and had lower relative resting energy expenditure (REE) than WT females. Such differences were not observed in ArKO males. However, in both sexes, a top DEG was Pts, a gene encoding an enzyme necessary for catecholamine (e.g., dopamine) biosynthesis. In comparing male and female WT mice, top DEGs were related to sexual development/fertility, immune regulation, obesity, dopamine signaling, and circadian regulation. SPA correlated strongly with Per3, a gene regulating circadian function, thermoregulation, and metabolism (r = −0.64, P = .002), which also correlated with adiposity (r = 0.54, P = .01). In conclusion, aromatase ablation leads to gene expression changes in NAc, which may in turn result in reduced SPA and related metabolic abnormalities. These findings may have significance to post-menopausal women and those treated with an aromatase inhibitor.
Towards Personalized Dialog Policies for Conversational Skill Discovery

Many businesses and consumers are extending the capabilities of voice-based services such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Microsoft Cortana, and Apple Siri to create custom voice experiences (also known as skills). As the number of these experiences increases, a key problem is the discovery of skills that can be used to address a user's request. In this paper, we focus on conversational skill discovery and present a conversational agent which engages in a dialog with users to help them find the skills that fulfill their needs. To this end, we start with a rule-based agent and improve it by using reinforcement learning. In this way, we enable the agent to adapt to different user attributes and conversational styles as it interacts with users. We evaluate our approach in a real production setting by deploying the agent to interact with real users, and show the effectiveness of the conversational agent in helping users find the skills that serve their request.
Urbanization increases seed dispersal interaction diversity but decreases dispersal success in Toxicodendron radicans

Abstract Urbanization is increasing at a rapid pace with negative consequences for native biodiversity. While it is well-known that urbanization can lead to biotic homogenization (dominance of a few competitive species), effects of urbanization on ecological functions that rely on the frequency and efficiency of species interactions are less understood. Seed dispersal success depends on seed disperser feeding rate and diversity, which can affect the probability of fruit removal (i.e. seed dispersal) and germination rates. However, how these factors are affected by urbanization is unknown. In this study, we evaluate the effects of urbanization on factors that contribute to seed dispersal success (seed disperser diversity, frequency, probability of fruit removal and germination rate using Toxicodendron radicans and its seed disperser community as a model system. We found that urban sites had three times more disperser species and two times higher feeding rate compared to natural sites. However, the probability of individual fruit removal did not differ between natural and urban sites. Moreover, germination rate after dispersal was 20% lower in urban sites, leading to overall negative effects of urbanization on T. radicans seed dispersal. We propose differences in seed germination rate are driven by changes in seed disperser species composition and their differences in seed gut transit time. This in turn affects disperser species’ ability to successfully scarify seeds. Overall, our results highlight the need to evaluate urbanization’s effects on functional ecological processes, in addition to biotic homogenization effects, in order better understand and mitigate its negative impacts on biodiversity.
Medical management of endometriosis: what the radiologist needs to know

The role of the radiologist in the diagnosis and management of patients with endometriosis is increasing. Improvement in MRI imaging techniques has improved detection rate of subtle manifestations of endometriosis by radiologists. Therefore, the role of imaging in the diagnosis and follow-up after treatment is also likely to increase. Knowledge of new medical management pathways used in treating patients with endometriosis-related pain is important. The knowledge of various medication regimens will allow radiologists to continue to evaluate baseline disease, and to potentially assess for imaging response/stability to these medications. This article will review the current medical therapies in use in the management of endometriosis-related pain and describe potential imaging-related findings expected with these therapies.
Characteristics of Students Identified With Dyslexia Within the Context of State Legislation

All but seven U.S. states have laws that govern some aspects of dyslexia screening, intervention, or teacher training in public schools. However, in the three states that mandate child-level reporting, data indicate lower than expected rates of dyslexia identification when compared with commonly accepted dyslexia prevalence rates. To better understand this apparent mismatch, this study explores factors that might predict the school-assigned identification of individuals with dyslexia. Deidentified data on 7,947 second-grade students in 126 schools from one U.S. state included a universal screening measure of literacy skills indicative of dyslexia (i.e., reading and spelling), school-assigned dyslexia classification, and demographic characteristics. As expected, behavioral characteristics of dyslexia from universal screening were associated with school-assigned dyslexia classification. However, dyslexia classification was less likely for minority students and individuals attending schools with a higher percentage of minority students. Students who showed behavioral characteristics of dyslexia and attended schools with a higher proportion of other students with similar poor literacy skills were more likely not to receive a school-assigned dyslexia classification. The findings suggest systematic demographic differences in whether a student is identified with dyslexia by schools even when using universal screening.
Coralline hydroxyapatite bone graft substitutes in a canine metaphyseal defect model: radiographic-biomechanical correlation.

Radiographic and biomechanical assessment of a new type of bone graft substitute derived from reef-building sea coral was performed in a canine metaphyseal defect model. Blocks of this material and autogenous iliac crest graft were implanted, respectively, into the right and left proximal tibial metaphyses of eight dogs. Qualitative and quantitative radiographic evaluation was performed in the immediate postoperative period and at 6 months after surgery. Biomechanical testing was carried out on all grafts following harvest at 6 months, as well as on nonimplanted coralline hydroxyapatite and autogenous iliac cancellous bone. In contrast to autografts, incorporation of coralline implants was characterized by predictable osseous growth and apposition with preservation of intrinsic architecture. Greater percent increase in radiographic density, higher ultimate compressive strength, and lower stiffness with incorporation were documented advantages of coralline hydroxyapatite over autogenous graft. Densitometric measurements correlated moderately with strength for both types of graft material (r=-0.65). These promising results have important implications to the clinical application of coralline hydroxyapatite bone graft substitutes as an alternative to autogenous grafting.
God's Caesar: A Biblical Understanding of the Limits of Civil Government

This essay explains that civil government is limited to correcting wrongs against others. The explanation springs from the Bible.
KIM-1/TIM-1 is a Receptor for SARS-CoV-2 in Lung and Kidney

SARS-CoV-2 precipitates respiratory distress by infection of airway epithelial cells and is often accompanied by acute kidney injury. We report that Kidney Injury Molecule-1/T cell immunoglobulin mucin domain 1 (KIM-1/TIM-1) is expressed in lung and kidney epithelial cells in COVID-19 patients and is a receptor for SARS-CoV-2. Human and mouse lung and kidney epithelial cells express KIM-1 and endocytose nanoparticles displaying the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (virosomes). Uptake was inhibited both by anti-KIM-1 antibodies and by TW-37, our newly discovered inhibitor of KIM-1-mediated endocytosis. Enhanced KIM-1 expression by human kidney tubuloids increased uptake of virosomes. KIM-1 positive cells express less angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the well-known receptor for SARS-CoV-2. Using microscale thermophoresis, the EC50 for KIM-1-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and receptor binding domain (RBD) interactions, were 19 and 10 nM respectively. Thus KIM-1 is an alternative receptor to ACE2 for SARS-CoV-2. KIM-1 targeted therapeutics may prevent and/or treat COVID-19.
Misinformation Detection and Adversarial Attack Cost Analysis in Directional Social Networks

This paper develops a novel detection system of possibly fake accounts on public social media, called FADE, that uses features based on group behaviors to identify suspicious groups. The work is motivated by the prospect of mitigating misinformation campaigns on social media, where malicious entities on directional social networks pose as credible sources and coordinate the spreading of highly corroborated false information. Instead of account-level detection, this paper aims to detect the very group activity that underlies misinformation campaigns; namely, the coordinated spreading of messages to boost (misinformation) visibility. The existing group detection methods group users into two clusters (fake or not) and directly produce clusters of fake accounts. Conversely, we group users into many clusters based on information propagation patterns and user features and then classify them. The benefit of multiple clusters is that we can detect suspicious behavior more easily from cluster-wide statistics. In order to improve clustering accuracy, we analyze and select the most important features for clustering based on Bayesian optimization instead of using all the features. Accordingly, similarity metrics are defined that allow clustering of individually plausible accounts in a manner that enables one to detect suspicious clusters of activity. Cluster-level features are then used to decide if the cluster is benign. We further explore the cost of adversarial attacks on our detection model. Evaluation results on Twitter data sets demonstrate that our proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in detecting accounts created for information manipulation campaigns. In addition, we show that the cost of subverting detection (without reducing the effectiveness of the attacker’s campaign) is high.
School Shootings: No Longer Unexpected

School shootings are broadly defined as acts of violence carried out with firearms in which schools are deliberately chosen as the site of violence. Not only do school shootings claim the lives of students and school staff at the time, but they also lead to residual psychological trauma among survivors and global fear in the broader school community. School shootings are a new phenomenon in the past 50–60 years, with increasing frequency in the past two decades. Between 2013 and 2015, there was on average one school shooting per week in the United States. Though school shootings, especially mass school shootings, capture the world’s attention, the majority of firearm deaths in children in the United States are not due to mass school shootings. Despite a paucity of high-quality evidence due to underreporting of school shootings and general underfunding of firearm research, there are documented factors associated with school shootings. These include weaker state-level firearm legislation, increased state-level firearm ownership, recent school shootings contributing to a contagion effect in school shootings, and declines in federal and state funding for education. In contrast, stronger state-level firearm laws, safe firearm storage, and restriction of firearm access for unsupervised minors may reduce firearm-related deaths in schools. Only through comprehensive, multifaceted approaches employing rigorous research and meaningful legislation identifying risk factors and preventive strategies can the rise of school shootings in the US be curbed. Further research on survivors of school shootings is also warranted to identify those at risk for long-term adverse outcomes.
Tolerance to alcohol: A critical yet understudied factor in alcohol addiction

Alcohol tolerance refers to a lower effect of alcohol with repeated exposure. Although alcohol tolerance has been historically included in diagnostic manuals as one of the key criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (AUD), understanding its neurobiological mechanisms has been neglected in preclinical studies. In this mini-review, we provide a theoretical framework for alcohol tolerance. We then briefly describe chronic tolerance, followed by a longer discussion of behavioral and neurobiological aspects that underlie rapid tolerance in rodent models. Glutamate/nitric oxide, γ-aminobutyric acid, opioids, serotonin, dopamine, adenosine, cannabinoids, norepinephrine, vasopressin, neuropeptide Y, neurosteroids, and protein kinase C all modulate rapid tolerance. Most studies have evaluated the ability of pharmacological manipulations to block the development of rapid tolerance, but only a few studies have assessed their ability to reverse already established tolerance. Notably, only a few studies analyzed sex differences. Neglected areas of study include the incorporation of a key element of tolerance that involves opponent process-like neuroadaptations. Compared with alcohol drinking models, models of rapid tolerance are relatively shorter in duration and are temporally defined, which make them suitable for combining with a wide range of classic and modern research tools, such as pharmacology, optogenetics, calcium imaging, in vivo electrophysiology, and DREADDs, for in-depth studies of tolerance. We conclude that studies of the neurobiology of alcohol tolerance should be revisited with modern conceptualizations of addiction and modern neurobiological tools. This may contribute to our understanding of AUD and uncover potential targets that can attenuate hazardous alcohol drinking.
Participation of Networked Microgrids in Energy-as-a-Service Model for Enhancing Grid Resiliency

The power distribution system is undergoing a shift from centralized to decentralized operation due to the increasing integration of microgrids. The network of multiple microgrids can bring value to end-users through the combination of technology aggregation and promising business models such as energy-as-a-service (EaaS). The technology deployment of networked microgrids is feasible as more end users are willing to install in-house generation and storage either by owning or leasing the assets to reduce electricity costs and to secure critical loads. In this paper, we present the networked microgrids with dynamic boundaries, technology aggregation, and resiliency service offering through a layered architecture of the EaaS delivery model. We further develop a framework to offer resiliency-as-a-service to the end-users through resiliency metrics and emphasize the need for sustainable business model innovation by big players, new players, and utilities to position themselves in the market.
The Future of Reproductive Autonomy

In a project The Hastings Center is now running on the future of prenatal testing, we are encountering clear examples, both in established law and in the practices of individual providers, of failures to respect women's reproductive autonomy: when testing is not offered to certain demographics of women, for instance, or when the choices of women to terminate or continue pregnancies are prohibited or otherwise not supported. But this project also raises puzzles for reproductive autonomy. We have learned that some clinicians and patients do not discuss the fact that prenatal testing can lead to a decision about whether to terminate a pregnancy — they just don't talk about it. And while the decision whether to agree to prenatal screening and diagnostic testing is to be made with women's free and informed consent, many screening tests have been routinized in such a way that some women do not even recall agreeing to testing, while others feel that agreeing to testing is what their clinicians expect of them or that the testing is necessary to protect themselves and their families from the significant financial hardship of raising a child with a disability. In the face of these pressures, can one really say that women are freely choosing to undergo testing or are freely choosing to continue or terminate a pregnancy following receipt of test results? The reality of these pressures is requiring us to consider expanding the scope of our investigation beyond the clinical encounter to the broader context — to think harder about what reproductive autonomy means and how best to enhance it.