cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Khmer Krafts: A Case Study of Integrating Social Entrepreneurship in Cambodia with Entrepreneurship Education in America

Abstract Applied entrepreneurship education puts students in a real business situation, coupling academic training with actual, hands-on, experiential leazning. This case study describes a situation where students are challenged to help start and run a company in another country that helps to improve the lives of people in that country. Students learn about the poverty and social problems that exist in Cambodia following the Killing Fields and years of civil waz and aze challenged to invent a business solution that will provide a living for poverty-stricken girls in Cambodian villages who otherwise would be faced with a life of hardship and hunger or even prostitution. This case study offers hope and gives an example of social entrepreneurship at work, reaching across the boundaries of countries and cultures to give a “hand up” rather than a simple “hand out.”
Between banality and radicality: Arendt and Kant on evil and responsibility

The paper reads Kant’s notion of radical evil as anticipating and clarifying problematic aspects of what Arendt called ‘the banality of evil’. By reconstructing Arendt’s varied analyses of this not...
mRNA expression of Foxp3 and GATA3 genes in L02 cells treated with trichloroethylene

Objective:To Study mRNA expression of Foxp3 and GATA3 genes in L02 cells after treatment with trichloroethylene(TCE).Methods:L02 cells were treated with trichloroethylene at doses of 0.25,0.5 and 1.0 mmol/L for 12 h,the control was not treated with TCE.After treatment the total RNA of cells was extracted,and real-time fluorescent PCR was applied to detect mRNA expression of Foxp3 and GATA3 genes in L02 cells after treatment with trichloroethylene.Results:mRNA expression of Foxp3 in three groups treated with TCE was higher than that in control(P0.05,or P0.01),additionally,TCE also induced higher levels of GATA3 mRNA expression in the groups treated with 0.25,0.5 and 1.0 mmol/L in comparison with control.Conclusion:Trichloroethylene could bring about mRNA expression alteration of Foxp3 and GATA3 genes,which indicates that the adverse effects of trichloroethylene might be associated with immunological genes.
A clinical procedures curriculum for undergraduate medical students: the eight-year history of a third-year immersive experience

Background : Procedural skills training is a critical component of medical education, but is often lacking in standard clinical curricula. We describe a unique immersive procedural skills curriculum for medical students, designed and taught primarily by emergency medicine faculty at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Objectives : The primary educational objective of this program was to formally introduce medical students to clinical procedures thought to be important for success in residency. The immersion strategy (teaching numerous procedures over a 7-day period) was intended to complement the student’s education on third-year core clinical clerkships. Program design : The course introduced 27 skills over 7 days. Teaching and learning methods included lecture, prereading, videos, task trainers, peer teaching, and procedures practice on cadavers. In year 4 of the program, a peer-team teaching model was adopted. We analyzed program evaluation data over time. Impact : Students valued the selection of procedures covered by the course and felt that it helped prepare them for residency (97%). The highest rated activities were the cadaver lab and the advanced cardiac life support (97 and 93% positive endorsement, respectively). Lectures were less well received (73% positive endorsement), but improved over time. The transition to peer-team teaching resulted in improved student ratings of course activities ( p <0.001). Conclusion : A dedicated procedural skills curriculum successfully supplemented the training medical students received in the clinical setting. Students appreciated hands-on activities and practice. The peer-teaching model improved course evaluations by students, which implies that this was an effective teaching method for adult learners. This course was recently expanded and restructured to place the learning closer to the clinical settings in which skills are applied. Keywords: education, undergraduate medical; clinical competence; bloodless medical and surgical procedures; life support care; diagnostic techniques and procedures (Published: 23 May 2016) Citation: Med Educ Online 2016, 21: 29486 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v21.29486
Survival following salvage abdominoperineal resection for persistent and recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the anus: do these disease categories affect survival?

Aim This study aimed to investigate the results of salvage abdominoperineal resection (APR) in patients with persistent or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the anus (SCCA). Method Patients with anal neoplasia were identified from a prospective database. Patients with invasive SCCA with demonstrated failure of chemoradiation therapy (CRT) who underwent salvage APR for one of three disease categories (persistent: 24 months) were included. The primary outcome was overall survival after salvage APR. Tumour size, metastatic lymph nodes (LN), circumferential-resection margin positivity (CRM), and neurolymphovascular invasion (NLVI) were correlated with the outcome. Results Thirty-six patients with a median 3-year overall survival of 46% (median follow-up: 24 months) underwent salvage APR due to persistent or recurrent SCCA (14 male, mean age 59 years). Eleven (31%) patients were diagnosed with persistent disease, 17 (47%) with early and 8 (22%) with late recurrence. Two-year overall survival of stage 0/I/II and III/IV disease was 81.5% and 33.74% (p=0.022). Overall disease stage was associated with disease categorization (p=0.009): patients with persistent disease or early recurrence had a significantly higher disease stage than patients with late recurrence (OR = 20.9 and 17.2). Despite apparently improved survival in patients with late disease recurrence on live table analysis, no significant difference was identified in overall survival when stratified by disease category on log-rank test analysis. Conclusion Persistent and recurrent disease does not show any significant difference in survival, but patients with late recurrence may have a better prognosis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Pareto Optimal or Efficient Solutions

In this chapter we shall concentrate on Pareto preference and its induced nondominated solutions, both on Y and on X.
SU-F-J-01: Measurement of Blood Flow During PDT Using Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy

Purpose: To investigate the variation in blood flow during PDT and to determine the oxygen supplying rate, g, to refine the empirical macroscopic model. Methods: RIF tumors were propagated in female C3H mice by injecting cell suspension at a concentration of 1×106 cells/ml on the shoulder region. Photosensitizer(e.g., HPPH) was injected into the mice through tail vein at a concentration of 0.25 mg/kg when the tumors grew to ∼6 mm in diameter and depth. Temporal changes of tissue oxygen concentration were recorded prior, during and post PDT treatment using OxyLite single-channel tissue pO2 monitor(OXFORD OPTRONIX). [3O2] was approximated by multiplying the measured pO2 with 3O2 solubility in tissue(1.295 µM/mmHg). The experimental [3O2] profile were compared with those simulated with the macroscopic model with and without considering the blood flow changes. The dynamical change of blood flow during PDT was simulated by making parameter g to be time dependent, in which the g function was obtained from Photofrin-mediated PDT in RIF tumors. The relative blood flow changes in the tumors prior, during and post PDT treatment were measured using diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) in a non-contact configuration. Results: Both macroscopic models, with and without blood flow changes, show reasonably good agreement with the experimental [3O2] measurements. However, a rapid increase in the measured [3O2] between 700–1200s during PDT treatment could not be simulated with our empirical models. As blood flow is the direct measure of tissue oxygen supply and different photosensitizers might impact the blood flow differently, detailed studies are essential to investigate the variation in blood flow changes and the impact on the [3O2] consumption using different photosensitizers. Conclusion: DCS can be used to monitor relative blood flow noninvasively. The continuous input of oxygen supply rate is essential to refine our empirical macroscopic model to better predict PDT treatment outcome.
Chapter 21 – Hippocampal Neurophysiology in Humans

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses various aspects of hippocampal neurophysiology in humans. The human hippocampus occupies less than 1% of the forebrain, which is a significantly smaller fraction than in the basal insectivores or in monkeys. The hippocampus and amygdala may increase with phylogeny, only the olfactory bulbs actually decrease in absolute size in primates relative to lower mammals, suggesting that man does not depend much on olfaction. Large, postoperative quadranopsias and occasional partial hemianopsias following standard anterior temporal lobectomies have confirmed the findings that in man, there are variable asymmetric geniculocalcarine pathways in the Meyer's loop of the human temporal lobe. The hippocampus, although a relatively small cortex with fewer than six layers, is nevertheless anatomically well connected for feedback and feedforward excitation and inhibition. The local circuit neurons are interactive with such complexity that even a small simultaneous loss of recurrent inhibition may be sufficient to create hyperexcitability. It is suggested that interactive physiology of inhibition and excitation within the hippocampal network poses the major challenge for understanding the many crucial, unique functions of the hippocampal formation, which includes short-term memory and focal epileptogenesis.
Recognition, Hypothesis, HEARSAY

‘Each nerve fibre is a charged system’, according to Young; frequency-modulated messages propogate along it, by a ‘conduction without decrement’, as electrochemical impulses. ‘Differences of quality, such as different tones or visual contours, are encoded in the nervous system by having a different nerve cell and nerve fibre for each quality’, so that the brain is a ‘multichannel system’, a parallel processor — in that respect at least.1 The impulses animating this differential code are not individually meaningful to the mind; they must be combined, as the constituent actions of perception and cognition, to become so, just as letters must combine to become meaningful as words and words must combine to become meaningful as sentences.
Chemically mediated recognition by the stomatopod Gonodactylus bredini of its competitor, the octopus Octopus joubini

The stomatopod Gonodactylus bredini and the octopus Octopus joubini are found throughout the Caribbean frequenting similar habitats. In the laboratory they fight vigorously for living cavities. G. bredini do not avoid or show caution entering cavities containing the odour of O. joubini unless they have prior experience fighting with an O. joubini resident. Then they take longer to enter, are more hesitant in the entrance, and show more defensive behaviour. Thus the recognition of octopus odour is learned rather than innate. G. bredini employ different tactics entering cavities that might contain octopus rather than stomatopods. There is no evidence that G. bredini can recognize individual octopus by odour.
Applications of ultrasound stimulated vibro-acoustography

Vibro-acoustography is a method of imaging and measurement that uses ultrasound to produce radiation force to vibrate objects. The radiation force is concentrated laterally by focusing the ultrasound beam. The radiation force is limited in depth by intersecting two beams at different frequencies so that there is interference between the beams at the difference frequency only at their intersection. This results in a radiation stress of limited spatial extent on or within the object of interest. The resulting harmonic displacement of the object is detected by its acoustic emission, with ultrasound Doppler measurement, or with a laser interferometer. The displacement is a complicated function of the object material parameters. However, significant images and measurements can be made with this arrangement. Vibro-acoustography can produce images of biologically relevant objects such as breast micro-calcification and vessel calcifications, heart valves, and normal arteries. Several examples of these results will be described.
Handling uncertainty in trajectories of moving objects in unconstrained outdoor spaces

A trajectory is a polygonal line consisting of the positions that a moving object occupies as time passes, and as such, it can be derived by periodically sampling the positions of the object. In this manner, and due to the proliferation of location-sensing devices, it has been possible to create large datasets of trajectories. Using these datasets it is possible to derive much information about the movement patterns of the objects. However, trajectory data is uncertain, and this can negatively impact the accuracy of data mining algorithms used to obtain the movement patterns of objects. One of the sources of trajectory uncertainty is the error inherent to GPS measurements, and another source relates to the fact that in practice many trajectories have sampling points that are on average too far in time, so it is difficult to determine its movement between points. In this paper, we propose a technique called TrajEstU that estimates the trajectory of a moving object in an unconstrained space. The algorithm is applied when there is uncertainty in trajectories due to measurement errors and/or low sampling rates. Experiments show that TrajEstU achieves up to 98% accuracy on real life and synthetic trajectory datasets.
Wellbore stability analysis using strain hardening and/or softening plasticity models

Abstract In this paper, the general shear strain hardening and/or softening Drucker-Prager models based on the common triaxial compression test results have been introduced to model the mechanical behaviour of rock formations. These elastoplastic models are then adopted to develop rigorous analytical solutions for the drained wellbore drilling problem subjected to in-plane isotropic stress field, and to further predict the borehole collapse failure. The illustration numerical examples show the distributions of stress components and the progressive development of the plastic deviatoric strain, in addition to the effective stress trajectory for a rock point at the borehole surface due to the wellbore drilling. The advantage of the desired wellbore drilling curve presented lies in the fact that it can track the deformation responses of the borehole surface from elastic to elastoplastic states and down to the peak and ultimate/residual conditions, thus offering much more flexibility and more appropriate mud pressure design over the conventional elastic-brittle models. The critical (minimum) mud pressures, predicted by the current elastoplastic analysis based on different wellbore instability criteria, are compared with the value corresponding to the elastic theory. The solution procedure proposed can also be utilized for the tunnelling analysis and extended to the design of lining required to stabilize a tunnel.
New Intermediate Phenotype of Resistant Hypertension.

See related article, pp 827–835 Hypertension is the world’s leading risk factor for morbidity and mortality and ranks first in disability-adjusted life years at 7%.1–3 However, understanding the pathophysiology of primary (essential) hypertension has been confounded by its complex polygenic foundations and the variable interplay among multiple genetic and environmental factors, each providing small contributions to the development and maintenance of disease. Genome-wide association studies have collectively identified genes that influence only ≈2% of blood pressure variability.4 Aside from the rare monogenic forms of hypertension and the less common, relatively well-defined secondary causes of hypertension, the fundamental mechanisms of hypertension continue to be elusive. Because hypertension is a complex disease, identification and study of intermediate phenotypes characterizing genetic and environmental interactions in hypertensive subpopulations with specific disease characteristics might be expected to simplify the experimental approach. Hypertension phenotyping also might provide a more discrete basis for specific antihypertensive therapy than does the current trial-and-error approach. However, at present only a very limited number of hypertensive phenotypes …
Mucopolysaccharidoses - Clinical Spectrum and Frequency of Different Types.

Objective To determine the relative frequency and clinical features of different varieties of mucopolysaccharidosis. Study design Descriptive study. Place and duration of study Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, The Children's Hospital and The Institute of Child Health, Lahore, from January 2013 to December 2015. Methodology All patients who had any feature suggestive of mucopolysaccharidosis were screened with detailed history, clinical examination and skeletal survey. Urine samples for glycosaminoglycan (GAGs) levels and dried blood samples for enzyme analysis were sent. Patients who were confirmed to be suffering from mucopolysaccharidosis were included in the study. The data was analysed using SSPS version 20. Results A total of 90 confirmed MPS cases, 52 males and 38 females, median age 42 months, were included. Hurler/Hurler-Scheie syndrome was the most frequent (75, 83.33%) followed by Morquio (6, 6.67%), Sanfilippo (5, 5.56%), Maroteaux-Lamy (3, 3.33%) and Hunter (1, 1.11%) syndromes. Consanguinity was present in 79 (87.78%) cases. Common features were hepatomegaly (80, 88.89%), coarse facies (70, 77.78%), splenomegaly (67, 74.44%), and bone disease (48, 53.33%). Conclusion Most common variety of mucopolysaccharidosis was Hurler/Hurler Scheie followed by Morquio syndrome. Most of the patients were born to consanguineous parents. Common clinical features were coarse facies, hepatosplenomegaly and dysostosis multiplex.
Establishment of MHV-A59 S Protein Specific Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Clones

MHC class I-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) are suggested to play an important role in protection, virus elimination and establishment of demyelinating disease in mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) infections 1–3. Recent studies suggest that CTL with appropriate T cell receptor recognizes a complex between a peptide derived from viral gene (CTL epitope) and a class I molecule and then destroys viral infected cell 4. In this paper, we attempted to analyze CTL epitope of MHV-A59 in BALB/c mice (H-2d).
A growing field: The regulation of axonal regeneration by Wnt signaling

The canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway is a highly conserved signaling cascade that plays critical roles during embryogenesis. Wnt ligands regulate axonal extension, growth cone guidance and synaptogenesis throughout the developing central nervous system (CNS). Recently, studies in mammalian and fish model systems have demonstrated that Wnt/β-catenin signaling also promotes axonal regeneration in the adult optic nerve and spinal cord after injury, raising the possibility that Wnt could be developed as a therapeutic strategy. In this review, we summarize experimental evidence that reveals novel roles for Wnt signaling in the injured CNS, and discuss possible mechanisms by which Wnt ligands could overcome molecular barriers inhibiting axonal growth to promote regeneration. A central challenge in the neuroscience field is developing therapeutic strategies that induce robust axonal regeneration. Although adult axons have the capacity to respond to axonal guidance molecules after injury, there are several major obstacles for axonal growth, including extensive neuronal death, glial scars at the injury site, and lack of axonal guidance signals. Research in rodents demonstrated that activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in retinal neurons and radial glia induced neuronal survival and axonal growth, but that activation within reactive glia at the injury site promoted proliferation and glial scar formation. Studies in zebrafish spinal cord injury models confirm an axonal regenerative role for Wnt/β-catenin signaling and identified the cell types responsible. Additionally, in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that Wnt induces axonal and neurite growth through transcription-dependent effects of its central mediator β-catenin, potentially by inducing regeneration-promoting genes. Canonical Wnt signaling may also function through transcription-independent interactions of β-catenin with cytoskeletal elements, which could stabilize growing axons and control growth cone movement. Therefore, these studies suggest that Wnt-induced pathways responsible for regulating axonal growth during embryogenesis could be repurposed to promote axonal growth after injury.
Cranioplasty: Development and Clinical Use in Neurosurgery

Cranioplasty has evolved a great deal in the last few years. With the advent of newer technology, all aspects of cranioplasty - planning, materials, and production - have improved. Today, neurosurgeons can repair increasingly complex cranial defects. Recent studies have focused on both surgical-specific factors, such as procedure timing and materials, and patient-specific factors, like age and medical conditions, to reduce the complication rate. This chapter provides a brief overview of the history of cranioplasty, a variety of the common materials and technologies used today, a number of clinical considerations, and some of the exciting ongoing research.
Inhaled nitric oxide injures the pulmonary surfactant system of lambs in vivo.

Nitric oxide (.NO) is a free radical, and as such may damage the pulmonary surfactant system. To determine the potential toxicity of .NO in vivo, we exposed 35 newborn lambs to 0, 20, 80 or 200 ppm .NO in either 21 or 60% O2 for 6 h. At the end of the exposure, lambs had normal values of arterial Po2, Pco2, and pH; total protein concentration in the bronchoalveolar lavage was also at normal levels. There were no differences in the surface properties of surfactant among the air or 60% O2 groups. Pulmonary surfactant samples, isolated from the bronchoalveolar lavage of lambs breathing air or 20 ppm .NO and reconstituted at a lipid concentration of 3 mg/ml, reached a low minimum surface tension (Tmin < 3 mN/m) in a pulsating bubble surfactometer. On the other hand, abnormal surface properties were observed in 36 and 60% of surfactant samples isolated from lungs of lambs that breathed 80 or 200 ppm .NO, respectively. These findings were confirmed using a captive bubble surfactometer. Surfactant protein A, isolated from the lungs of lambs that breathed 200 ppm .NO, exhibited decreased ability to aggregate lipids in vitro. These data are consistent with injury to the surfactant apoproteins during inhalation of either 80 or 200 ppm .NO for 6 h.
Topics in Univariate Estimation

In Chapter 4, we presented two techniques for providing summary curves which tell us about the survival experience of a cohort of individuals. These two estimators were the Kaplan-Meier estimator, which provides an estimate of the survival function, and the Nelson-Aalan estimator, which provides an estimate of the cumulative hazard rate. These statistics are readily available in many statistical packages.
Gaps in Preexposure Prophylaxis Uptake for HIV Prevention in the Veterans Health Administration.

Objectives. To report demographics, regional variations, and indications for preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use for HIV prevention in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).Methods. We identified...
Cost aware Inference for IoT Devices

Networked embedded devices (IoTs) of limited CPU, memory and power resources are revolutionizing data gathering, remote monitoring and planning in many consumer and business applications. Nevertheless, resource limitations place a significant burden on their service life and operation, warranting cost-aware methods that are capable of distributively screening redundancies in device information and transmitting informative data. We propose to train a decentralized gated network that, given an observed instance at test-time, allows for activation of select devices to transmit information to a central node, which then performs inference. We analyze our proposed gradient descent algorithm for Gaussian features and establish convergence guarantees under good initialization. We conduct experiments on a number of real-world datasets arising in IoT applications and show that our model results in over 1.5X service life with negligible accuracy degradation relative to a performance achievable by a neural network.
Interlamination Insulation Design Considerations for Laminated Magnetics Operating at High Frequencies

A laminated magnetic core is comprised of alternating metallic magnetic layers and electrically insulating interlamination insulation layers, due to which eddy current losses in the core are suppressed. In practice, the nonzero conductivity of the interlamination insulation can lead to additional eddy current losses due to the electrical currents that travel across the layers. We present quantitative models which enable the determination of the necessary insulation quality of the interlamination insulation layers for various applications. For a given operating frequency range and given geometries/material properties of the magnetic material, the maximum tolerable conductivity of the interlamination material is calculated; this maximum is defined in such a way that the total eddy current losses, including the interlayer-induced losses, do not exceed the intrinsic material hysteresis losses. Understanding these maximum tolerable losses may open new design spaces for magnetic components; for example, allowing the use of interlamination insulation materials with finite conductivities may lead to a manufacturable, yet effective lamination approach for dc/dc converters based on integrated magnetics that can operate at RF switching frequencies (>3 MHz).
Virtual Environment Positioning Utilizing Play-Script Spatiotemporal Reasoning

Automatically staging characters in order to facilitate the performance and blocking of a scene in a virtual environment is a difficult task today. There is only a limited set of techniques used in practice. Some general methods include Behavior Markup Language (BML) and motion capture replay (the most popular); however they require either detailed technical knowledge or are not adaptable to different environmental configurations. In this work, we block and perform scenes with synthetic actors utilizing only a text-based, standard play-script as the primary input to the positioning of these characters in an environment. Using natural language processing techniques, we extract the annotated movements from the script, then add additional movements and adjustments from our rules engine built with theater, stage performance, and human interaction spatiotemporal relationships. In addition, we incorporate force-directed graph algorithms to adjust positions of the artificially intelligent (AI)-driven characters based on human-controlled character movements for interaction. These techniques have been quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated, revealing both similar blocking, and indistinguishably good performances from a human's perspective, when compared to an actual human performance.
Poly(A) Tails

Poly(A) tails are added posttranscriptionally, by a class of enzymes called poly(A) polymerases, to both prokaryotic and eukaryotic RNAs. In eukaryotes, poly(A) tail addition is primarily associated with messenger RNAs (mRNAs). These tails serve to help stabilize the mRNAs and improve their efficiency of translation. By contrast, poly(A) tails in prokaryotes can be added to mRNAs, ribosomal RNAs, transfer RNAs, and small RNAs. The presence of a poly(A) tail on a prokaryotic RNA serves as a targeting signal for its degradation. In addition, in many prokaryotic species tails containing all four nucleotides are generated by polynucleotide phosphorylase. The biological function of these polynucleotide tails is currently not well understood.
Naltrexone Treatment for Pregnant Women With Opioid Use Disorder Compared With Matched Buprenorphine Control Subjects

ABSTRACT Purpose The use of the opioid antagonist naltrexone (NTX) for pregnant women with opioid use disorder (OUD) remains understudied. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in a cohort of NTX-treated women. Methods This single-center, retrospective cohort study included 6 mother–infant dyads taking NTX compared with 13 taking buprenorphine (BUP) between 2017 and 2019. Maternal demographic characteristics, any unprescribed or illicit opioid use per urine toxicology or provider report during the pregnancy or 6 months’ postdelivery, delivery outcomes, gestational age, birth weight, Apgar scores, neonatal intensive care unit admission, and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) outcomes (NAS diagnosis, pharmacologic treatment, and total hospital length of stay) were compared. Findings Maternal and infant demographic characteristics were similar between the 2 groups, with the exception of cigarette smoking in the BUP group being more common (92% vs 33%; P = 0.02). None of the women on NTX versus 23% of the women on BUP had documented opioid misuse (P = 0.52). No infants in the NTX group had a NAS diagnosis versus 92% in the BUP group (P Implications Maintaining women on NTX during pregnancy was associated with favorable outcomes. These results support the need for larger multicenter studies sufficiently powered to detect possible differences between the medications on long-term maternal and child safety and efficacy outcomes.
Open-label pilot study: Non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation improves symptoms and gastric emptying in patients with idiopathic gastroparesis.

Background Gastroparesis, a chronic motility disorder characterized by delayed gastric emptying, abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting, remains largely unexplained. Medical therapy is limited, reflecting the complex physiology of gastric sensorimotor function. Vagus nerve stimulation is an attractive therapeutic modality for gastroparesis, but prior methods required invasive surgery. In this open-label pilot study, we aimed to assess the benefit of non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation in patients with mild to moderate idiopathic gastroparesis. Methods Patients self-administered the gammaCore vagal nerve stimulator for 4 weeks. The gastroparesis cardinal symptom index daily diary (GCSI-dd) was assessed during a two-week run-in period, ≥4 weeks of therapy, and 4 weeks after therapy was completed. Gastric emptying and autonomic function testing were also performed. The primary endpoint was an absolute reduction in CGSI-dd of 0.75 after nVNS. Results There was a total improvement in symptom scores (2.56 ± 0.76 to 1.87 ± 1.05; P = .01), with 6/15 (40%) participants meeting our primary endpoint. Therapy was associated with a reduction in gastric emptying (T1/2 155 vs 129 minutes; P = .053, CI -0.4 to 45). Therapy did not correct autonomic function abnormalities, but was associated with modulation of reflex parasympathetic activity. Conclusions Short-term non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation led to improved cardinal symptoms and accelerated gastric emptying in a subset of patients with idiopathic gastroparesis. Responders had more severe gastric delay at baseline and clinical improvement correlated with duration of therapy, but not with improvements in gastric emptying. Larger randomized sham-controlled trials of greater duration are needed to confirm the results of this pilot study.
A Brighter Future: The Effect of Social Class on Responses to Future Debt

The present study serves as an exploratory investigation of the role of social class in responses to the threat of future debt. Previous work has shown that individuals of high and low subjective social class differ in the ways that they respond to a broad range of threats and uncertainties about the future. Across three studies, we found that lower social class individuals expect more future debt and suffer greater attendant stress than higher class individuals (Study 1). We found that experimental manipulations of debt salience increased stress for lower class and not for higher class individuals (Studies 2-3). Likewise, we found that higher class individuals experienced higher affect balance and perceptions of personal control when the possibility of future debt was made salient, specifically as a function of decreased fatalism about future debt (Study 3). These three studies reveal yet another situation in which individuals of lower and higher social class respond differently to threat, and serve as an important step toward understanding the psychological ramifications of rising debt in the United States.
Neuroprotective and neuro-rehabilitative effects of acute purinergic receptor P2X4 (P2X4R) blockade after ischemic stroke

Abstract Stroke remains a leading cause of disability in the United States. Despite recent advances, interventions to reduce damage and enhance recovery after stroke are lacking. P2X4R, a receptor for adenosine triphosphate (ATP), regulates activation of myeloid immune cells (infiltrating monocytes/macrophages and brain-resident microglia) after stroke injury. However, over-stimulation of P2X4Rs due to excessive ATP release from dying or damaged neuronal cells can contribute to ischemic injury. Therefore, we pharmacologically inhibited P2X4R to limit the over-stimulated myeloid cell immune response and improve both acute and chronic stroke recovery. We subjected 8–12-week-old male and female wild type mice to a 60 min right middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) followed by 3 or 30 days of reperfusion. We performed histological, RNA sequencing, behavioral (sensorimotor, anxiety, and depressive), and biochemical (Evans blue dye extravasation, western blot, quantitative PCR, and flow cytometry) analyses to determine the acute (3 days after MCAo) and chronic (30 days after MCAo) effects of P2X4R antagonist 5-BDBD (1 mg/kg P.O. daily x 3 days post 4 h of MCAo) treatment. 5-BDBD treatment significantly (p
Perceptual effects of unequal saccadic adaptation produced by a dichoptic step

The binocular coordination of eye movements in a three-dimensional environment involves a combination of saccade and vergence movements. To maintain binocular accuracy and control in the face of sensory and motor changes (that occur with e.g., normal aging, surgery, corrective lenses), the oculomotor system must adapt in response to manifest visual errors. This may be achieved through a combination of binocular and monocular mechanisms, including the recalibration of saccade and vergence amplitudes in response to different visual errors induced in each eye (Maiello, Harrison, & Bex, 2016). This work has used a double-step paradigm to recalibrate eye movements in response to visual errors produced by dichoptic target steps (e.g., leftward in the left eye and rightward in the right eye). Here, we evaluated the immediate perceptual effects of this adaptation. Experiment 1 measured localization errors following adaptation by comparing the apparent locations of pre- and postsaccadic probes. Consistent with previous work showing localization errors following saccadic adaptation, our results demonstrated that adaptation to a dichoptic step produces different localization errors in the two eyes. Furthermore, in Experiment 2, this effect was reduced for a vergence shift in the absence of a saccade, indicating that saccade programming is responsible for a large component of this illusory shift. Experiment 3 measured postsaccadic stereopsis thresholds and indicated that, unlike localization judgments, adaptation did not influence stereoacuity. Together, these results demonstrate novel dichoptic visual errors following oculomotor adaptation and point to monocular and binocular mechanisms involved in the maintenance of binocular coordination.
Chapter 9 – Spectral Analysis

Publisher Summary This chapter explores the issues that are central to estimating spectral density functions from time series observations. It describes three classes of rational spectral density functions. The first two classes are the moving average (MA) and the autoregressive (AR) spectral models. These two classes of rational functions have the basic modeling tools in contemporary spectral estimation theory. The more general rational model is referred to as an ARMA model, which has a frequency characterization that is the composite of an MA model and an AR model. The chapter presents a schematic representation of the types of spectral estimation procedures to be developed. The chapter examines the theoretical autocorrelation characteristic of MA, AR, and ARMA random processes. It also reviews the classical problem of detection and frequency identification of the sinusoids in white noise time series to demonstrate the relative effectiveness of MA, AR, and ARMA modeling. The chapter describes a philosophy directed toward the rational modeling of wide-sense stationary (WSS) time series. The method is explicitly based on the Yule–Walker equations, which characterize the autocorrelation sequence associated with the rational time series being modeled. The chapter presents a procedure for extracting the prerequisite model order values that uses a singular value decomposition of an extended correlation matrix. An important by-product of this procedure is an adaptation of the ARMA modeling procedure, which improves spectral estimation. The chapter also describes an application of singular value decomposition (SVD) to ARMA modeling.
Invertebrates and Phytoplankton of Great Salt Lake: Is Salinity the Driving Factor?

Great Salt Lake (GSL) is a hypersaline terminal lake and has varied historically in salinity from 6 to 28%. Because the lake’s salinity is much greater than in marine environments (~3.5%), salinity is often assumed to be the driving factor for GSL benthic and pelagic food webs. Certainly, many species cannot live in a hypersaline environment (e.g., fish), and the diversity of species capable of coping with hypersaline conditions is limited. However, the GSL’s benthic and pelagic food webs are adapted to these extreme saline conditions, and their dynamics (primary and secondary production, species abundances, etc.) respond in a complex fashion to the interplay of salinity, temperature, and nutrient availability. Therefore, focusing solely on salinity is not appropriate. In this chapter, we first explore historically how GSL food webs have been reported to change and found salinity to have limited impact. We next demonstrate that in recent years (1994–2018) GSL food webs varied far less with salinity than might be expected, even though salinity varied by 8.2–17.5%, because temperatures and nutrient availability covaried with salinity and showed more impacts than salinity alone. Finally, we employ the observations on the interplay of salinity, temperature, and nutrients to project how future climatic changes in the GSL watershed will affect primary producers and consumers and impact GSL food webs. These future climatic changes will have profound effects on GSL food web dynamics.
Genetic population structure of the Dakota skipper (Lepidoptera: Hesperia dacotae): A North American native prairie obligate

A range-wide survey of Dakotaskipper (Hesperia dacotae) populationsassessed levels of genetic variability andgeographic scale of population structure inthis species of conservation concern. Thisspecies exists on isolated patches of nativetall- and mixed-grass prairie within a highlymodified landscape dominated by agriculture. It has been extirpated from the southernportion of its range and has sufferedrange-wide declines. Nine populations weresampled from western Minnesota, eastern SouthDakota, and southern Manitoba. Starch gelelectrophoresis was used to resolve 21 isozymeloci in 278 Dakota skippers. Dakota skipperpopulations were approximately as variable asother lepidopterans found in isolated habitats. Genetic distances indicated that Manitobapopulations were somewhat distinct from ones inMinnesota and South Dakota. Isolation-by-distance was detected range-wideand among the seven southern-most populations. Genetically effective immigration rates weresmall at both range-wide and regional scalesand effective populations sizes were lowsuggesting that Dakota skipper populations aregenetically isolated from one another, althoughthey were likely more connected in the recentpast. Genotype assignment tests revealed twoclusters of populations in Minnesota and SouthDakota that were not apparent from theisolation-by-distance results. Significantheterozygote deficiencies relative toHardy-Weinberg expectations and high inbreedingcoefficients suggest structure within samplelocations. Management recommendations includethe maximization of effective population sizein each Dakota skipper population to offset theeffects of drift and habitat corridors in somecases. Habitat management should consider thewithin-site population structure and possibletemporal population structure detected in thisstudy.
Coronin-1 is necessary for enteric pathogen-induced transcytosis across human ileal enteroid monolayers expressing M cells

ABSTRACT In the intestine, luminal sampling by microfold (M) cells is crucial for inducing protective mucosal immune responses but can also serve as an entry pathway for pathogens, including bacteria and viruses. Enteric pathogens can influence intestinal M cell function; however, the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of uptake and transcytosis of gut cargo by human M cells remain to be determined. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for regulating human M cell function requires a relevant human model. In this study, human ileal enteroids established from healthy donors were grown as confluent monolayers on permeable supports and differentiated to express mature M cells. Enteric pathogens including enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), adherent invasive E. coli (AIEC), and human rotavirus were apically exposed to M cell enteroid monolayers. M cell-mediated uptake and transcytosis was compared in enteroids infected by pathogenic or commensal bacteria (HS strain). EPEC and AIEC, but not HS, stimulated M cell uptake and transcytosis. We discovered that this pathogenspecific effect was dependent on expression of coronin 1a, a cytoskeletal remodeling protein. Using stable coronin 1a knockdown (KD) enteroids, we observed that EPEC-stimulated transcytosis of fluorescent beads was lost and associated with a significant decrease in the number of glycoprotein-2 positive (Gp-2+ve) M cells. The results of these studies demonstrate that coronin 1a is required for uptake and transcytosis of luminal cargo across human M cells and that coronin 1a is necessary for differentiation of mature M cells that actively transcytose luminal gut antigens in response to pathogenic, but not commensal, microbes.
“Down the Rabbit Hole” of Vaccine Misinformation on YouTube: Network Exposure Study

Background: Social media platforms such as YouTube are hotbeds for the spread of misinformation about vaccines. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore how individuals are exposed to antivaccine misinformation on YouTube based on whether they start their viewing from a keyword-based search or from antivaccine seed videos. Methods: Four networks of videos based on YouTube recommendations were collected in November 2019. Two search networks were created from provaccine and antivaccine keywords to resemble goal-oriented browsing. Two seed networks were constructed from conspiracy and antivaccine expert seed videos to resemble direct navigation. Video contents and network structures were analyzed using the network exposure model. Results: Viewers are more likely to encounter antivaccine videos through direct navigation starting from an antivaccine video than through goal-oriented browsing. In the two seed networks, provaccine videos, antivaccine videos, and videos containing health misinformation were all found to be more likely to lead to more antivaccine videos. Conclusions: YouTube has boosted the search rankings of provaccine videos to combat the influence of antivaccine information. However, when viewers are directed to antivaccine videos on YouTube from another site, the recommendation algorithm is still likely to expose them to additional antivaccine information.
Computational Scaling Relationships Predict Experimental Activity and Rate Limiting Behavior in Homogenous Water Oxidation

While computational screening with first-principles density functional theory (DFT) is essential for evaluating mechanisms of candidate catalysts, limitations in accuracy typically prevent prediction of experimentally relevant activities. Exemplary of these challenges are homogeneous water oxidation catalysts (WOCs) where differences in experimental conditions along with small changes in ligand structure can alter rate constants by over an order of magnitude. To leverage computational screening for homogeneous WOC design, a distinct approach is needed. Here, we compute mechanistically-relevant electronic and energetic properties for 19 mononuclear Ru transition metal complexes (TMCs) from three experimental water oxidation catalysis studies. We discover that 15 of these TMCs have experimental activities that can be correlated to a single property, the ionization potential of the Ru(II)-O2 catalytic intermediate. This scaling parameter is well correlated with experimentally-reported rate constants, allowing quantitative understanding activity trends and insight into rate-limiting behavior. We use this approach to rationalize differences in activity with differing experimental conditions, and we qualitatively analyze the source of distinct behavior for differing electronic states in the other four catalysts. Comparison to closely related single-atom catalysts and modified WOCs enables rationalization of the source of rate enhancement in these experimental WOC catalysts.
Constant-size tileset for solving an NP-complete problem in nondeterministic linear time

The tile assembly model, a formal model of crystal growth, is of special interest to computer scientists and mathematicians because it is universal [1]. Therefore, tile assembly model systems can compute all the functions that computers compute. In this paper, I formally define what it means for a system to nondeterministically decide a set, and present a system that solves an NP-complete problem called SubsetSum. Because of the nature of NP-complete problems, this system can be used to solve all NP problems in polynomial time, with high probability. While the proof that the tile assembly model is universal [2] implies the construction of such systems, those systems are in some sense "large" and "slow." The system presented here uses 49 = Θ(1) different tiles and computes in time linear in the input size. I also propose how such systems can be leveraged to program large distributed software systems.