cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Repetitive Electroacupuncture Attenuates Cold-Induced Hypertension through Enkephalin in the Rostral Ventral Lateral Medulla

Acupuncture lowers blood pressure (BP) in hypertension, but mechanisms underlying its action are unclear. To simulate clinical studies, we performed electroacupuncture (EA) in unanesthetized rats with cold-induced hypertension (CIH) induced by six weeks of cold exposure (6 °C). EA (0.1 – 0.4 mA, 2 Hz) was applied at ST36-37 acupoints overlying the deep peroneal nerve for 30 min twice weekly for five weeks while sham-EA was conducted with the same procedures as EA except for no electrical stimulation. Elevated BP was reduced after six sessions of EA treatment and remained low 72 hrs after EA in 18 CIH rats, but not in sham-EA (n = 12) and untreated (n = 6) CIH ones. The mRNA level of preproenkephalin in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (rVLM) 72 hr after EA was increased (n = 9), compared to the sham-EA (n = 6), untreated CIH rats (n = 6) and normotensive control animals (n = 6). Microinjection of ICI 174,864, a δ-opioid receptor antagonist, into the rVLM of EA-treated CIH rats partially reversed EA’s effect on elevated BP (n = 4). Stimulation of rVLM of CIH rats treated with sham-EA using a δ-opioid agonist, DADLE, decreased BP (n = 6). These data suggest that increased enkephalin in the rVLM induced by repetitive EA contributes to BP lowering action of EA.
Inhibition of proliferation of retinal vascular endothelial cells more effectively than choroidal vascular endothelial cell proliferation by bevacizumab.

AIM To evaluate the differential inhibitory effects of bevacizumab on cell proliferation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-stimulated choroidal vascular endothelial cells (CVECs) and retinal vascular endothelial cells (RVECs) in vitro. METHODS VEGF (400 ng/mL) enriched CVECs and RVECs were treated with escalating doses of bevacizumab (0.1, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 mg/mL). Cell proliferation changes were analyzed with WST-1 assay and trypan blue exclusion assay at 48, 72h and 1wk. Morphological changes were recorded with bright field microscopy. RESULTS VEGF enriched RVECs showed significantly more decline of cell viability than CVECs after bevacizumab treatment. One week after treatment, RVEC cell proliferation decreased by 29.7%, 37.5%, 52.8%, 35.9% and 45.6% at 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2 mg/mL bevacizumab respectively compared to CVEC proliferation decrease of 4.1%, 7.7%, 2.4%, 4.1% and 17.7% (P<0.05) by WST-1 assay. Trypan blue exclusion assay also revealed similar decrease in RVEC proliferation of 20%, 60%, 73.3%, 80% and 93.3% compared to CVEC proliferation decrease of 4%, 12%, 22.9%, 16.7% and 22.2% respectively (P<0.05). The maximum differential effect between the two cell types was observed at bevacizumab doses of 1.0 and 1.5 mg/mL at all time points. RVECs were 22 fold more sensitive (P<0.01) compared to CVECs (52.8% vs 2.4%) at concentration of 1.0 mg/mL, and 8.7 fold more at 1.5 mg/mL (35.9% vs 4.1%) 1wk after treatment (P<0.05 respectively). CONCLUSION VEGF-enriched RVECs are more susceptible to bevacizumab inhibition than CVECs at clinically used dosage of 1.25 mg and this differential sensitivity between two cell types should be taken into consideration in dosage selection.
Modification of the association between recreational physical activity and survival after breast cancer by promoter methylation in breast cancer-related genes.

Mechanisms underlying the inverse association between physical activity and survival after breast cancer are unresolved, but DNA methylation may play a role. We hypothesized that promoter methylation of breast cancer-related genes, as well as global methylation, may modify the association between prediagnostic recreational physical activity (RPA) and breast cancer mortality. Using a population-based sample of 1254 women diagnosed with first primary breast cancer, we examined modification of the RPA-mortality association by gene-specific promoter methylation and global methylation. Average lifetime RPA was assessed from menarche to diagnosis through structured in-home interviews. Promoter methylation of 13 breast cancer-related genes was evaluated in archived tumor by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction and MethyLight assay. Global methylation in white blood cell DNA was determined at long interspersed nucleotide element 1 and by the luminometric methylation assay. After approximately 15 years of follow-up, 486 patients had died, and 186 of the deaths were breast cancer-related. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate HRs and 95% CIs as well as likelihood ratio tests to assess multiplicative interactions. All-cause mortality was lower only among physically active women with methylated promoter of APC (HR 0.60, 95% CI 0.40–0.80), CCND2 (HR 0.56, 95% CI 0.32–0.99), HIN (HR 0.55, 95% CI 0.38–0.80), and TWIST1 (HR 0.28, 95% CI 0.14–0.56) in tumors, but not among those with unmethylated tumors (significant interaction p < 0.05). We found no interaction between RPA and global methylation. The improved survival after breast cancer that is associated with RPA may be more pronounced in women with promoter tumor methylation in biologically plausible genes.
Abstract 525: Morphological and Functional Characterization of Targeted Renal Gene Silencing via Medullary Interstitial vs. Subcapsular siRNA Infusion in Mice

Advances in gene knockout technology have enhanced gene function studies, paving the way for the development of mouse lines for the functional analysis of genes, such as those that are germane to blood pressure regulation. Classic gene knockout requires gene disruption at the embryonic stem cell level, which may allow for compensatory mechanisms to develop. The development of conditional knockouts allows tissue-specific gene manipulation and reversible gene silencing. However, this technology involves a substantial investment of time and resources, and is fraught with low success rate. To address these limitations, we compared two novel approaches for targeting renal genes against the classic tail vein delivery technique. These techniques involved the use of osmotic minipumps to infuse gene-specific siRNA directly into either the renal medullary parenchyma or subcapsular space and required only a fraction of the tail vein siRNA concentration. The dopamine D5 receptor (D5R) gene Drd5 was selected because Drd5 knockout mice have the highest blood pressure among all the dopamine receptor null mice. The D5R is distributed in the PCT, DCT CCT PST, TAL and OMCD. In vivo xenograph imaging studies using AAV9-luciferase conjugate showed the infusate distribution was restricted to the target kidney. The lack of extra-renal spillage of the infusate was confirmed by the restricted distribution of exogenous siRNA-Alexa488 in the kidney, but not in the liver of the same mouse. Subcapsular and intramedullary infusion of Drd5-specific siRNA (vs. non-silencing “mock” siRNA) resulted in decreased expression of D5R (subcapsular: mock, 100±2 vs. Drd5-siRNA, 72±6; intramedullary: 100±6 vs. 78±6); However, there was no difference in D5R expression after tail vein infusion. The reduction in D5R expression was accompanied by a markedly increased systolic blood pressure in both subcapsular and intramedullary approaches (subcapsular: mock, 94±2 mm Hg vs. Drd5-siRNA, 116±3; intramedullary: 103±1.5 vs. 109±0.9), but not in the tail vein approach. There was no significant difference in body weight, heart rate and 24-hr urine Na+/K+. Our novel alternative techniques offer an economical, efficient, and kidney-restricted targeted gene silencing.
Seniors’ Home Equity Extraction: Credit Constraints and Borrowing Channels

Households borrow against equity through different channels: closed end home equity loans or revolving lines of credit, cash-out refinancing, and — for senior homeowners — reverse mortgages. We jointly estimate the decision to extract equity through these channels, identifying the influence of credit constraints and house price dynamics on the proportion of seniors in a ZIP code extracting through a given channel from 2004 to 2012. As house prices increased, cash-out refinancing increased in credit-constrained areas, while HELOCs increased in less-credit-constrained areas. When house prices fell, reverse mortgage originations increased — particularly in credit-constrained areas.
Using direct and coda wave envelopes to resolve the scattering and intrinsic attenuation structure of Southern California

Characterizing scattering and absorbing properties and the power spectrum of crustal heterogeneity is a fundamental problem for informing strong ground motion estimates at high frequencies, where scattering and attenuation effects are critical. We perform a comprehensive study of local earthquake coda waves in southern California to constrain scattering and intrinsic attenuation structure. We analyze data from 1195 spatially distributed earthquakes from 1981–2013 at source depths of 10 to 15 km and epicentral distances from 0–250 km with magnitudes larger than 1.8. We stack envelope functions from 28,127 vertical-component and 27,521 transverse-component seismograms, filtered from 2 to 4 Hz. We model these observations using a particle-based Monte Carlo algorithm that includes intrinsic attenuation as well as both P- and S-wave scattering and both single and multiple scattering events. We find that spatially averaged coda-wave behavior for southern California can be explained only with models containing an increase in scattering strength and intrinsic attenuation within the uppermost crust, i.e., they are poorly fit with half-space models of constant scattering strength. A reasonable fit to our data is obtained with a two-layer model, composed of a shallow crustal layer with strong wide-angle scattering and high P and S intrinsic attenuation and a deeper layer with weaker scattering and lower intrinsic attenuation (top 5.5 km: αQI = 250, βQI = 125, heterogeneity correlation length a = 50 m, fractional velocity heterogeneity e= 0.4; lower crust: αQI= 900, βQI= 400, a = 2 km, e = 0.05).
Precision of regional wall motion estimates from ultra-low-dose cardiac CT using SQUEEZ

Resting regional wall motion abnormality (RWMA) has significant prognostic value beyond the findings of computed tomography (CT) coronary angiography. Stretch quantification of endocardial engraved zones (SQUEEZ) has been proposed as a measure of regional cardiac function. The purpose of the work reported here was to determine the effect of lowering the radiation dose on the precision of automatic SQUEEZ assessments of RWMA. Chronic myocardial infarction was created by a 2-h occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery in 10 swine (heart rates 80–100, ejection fraction 25–57%). CT was performed 5–11 months post infarct using first-pass contrast enhanced segmented cardiac function scans on a 320-detector row scanner at 80 kVp/500 mA. Images were reconstructed at end diastole and end systole with both filtered back projection and using the “standard” adaptive iterative dose reduction (AIDR) algorithm. For each acquisition, 9 lower dose acquisitions were created. End systolic myocardial function maps were calculated using SQUEEZ for all noise levels and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between the left ventricle blood and myocardium was calculated as a measure of image quality. For acquisitions with CNR > 4, SQUEEZ could be estimated with a precision of ± 0.04 (p < 0.001) or 5.7% of its dynamic range. The difference between SQUEEZ values calculated from AIDR and FBP images was not statistically significant. Regional wall motion abnormality can be quantified with good precision from low dose acquisitions, using SQUEEZ, as long as the blood-myocardium CNR stays above 4.
Dynamics of Uncertain and Conflicting Opinions in Social Networks

In this paper, we study the evolution of opinions where people are not sure of their own opinions and/or their opinions may be conflicting to others’ in social networks. We model two types of agents so-called informed agents (IAs) and uninformed agents (UIAs). The IAs have a strong opinion agreeing or disagreeing toward a proposition without being influenced by other agents’ opinions and have a high confidence (low uncertainty) toward its own opinion. The UIAs have a weak opinion without either agreeing or disagreeing toward a proposition and lack confidence with a high uncertainty. Based on subjective logic , we consider a binomial opinion to deal with an opinion with a degree of uncertainty. We develop two types of trust attitudes for agents to update their opinions upon their interactions with other agents: uncertainty-based trust (UT) and similarity-based trust (ST). In the UT, a UIA updates its opinion based on an interacting agent’s uncertainty toward a proposition. In the ST, a UIA updates its opinion based on the degree of similarity between its own opinion and the interacting agent’s opinion toward the proposition. Our results show that more IAs slow down the convergence of the opinions under the UT while they can quickly lead to opinion convergence under the ST. In addition, the ST leads uncertain opinions to two extremes, either 0 or 1, if consensus exists. On the other hand, the UT can make opinions converge to a certain point between two extreme opinions although the converged point is significantly affected by the dominant agents’ opinions. Furthermore, we observe that under the UT, more IAs with a high centrality increase dissonance of opinions, while more IAs with a low centrality offer better chances for opinion consensus in both the UT and the ST.
The initiation cascade for chromosome replication in wild-type and Dam methyltransferase deficient Escherichia coli cells.

'Newborn' Escherichia coli B/r cells, obtained by membrane elution, were used to study the cell cycles of wild-type and Dam methyltransferase mutants. In wild-type cells, initiation of chromosome replication was synchronous and tightly controlled. In dam mutants, initiation was altered, but not random. We propose that this is due to the absence of an initiation cascade caused by liberated DnaA molecules, and that this cascade normally synchronizes initiation. The dam- cells contained mainly two, three or four replication origins, and this affected nucleoid partitioning as well as cell division. In cultures growing with a 50 min doubling time, a variety of cell cycles were present and half the origins were used every 25 min. Some cells had a 25 min interdivision time, whereas others had an interdivision time longer than the generation time. Partitioning of nucleoids containing unequal numbers of replication origins could also be readily observed by fluorescence microscopy in the dam mutant. Based upon these observations we propose that the dam mutant is also an initiation cascade mutant.
What Is Most Important in Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment - Where You Are, Who You Are, or Where You Are Going?

The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been revolutionized by the expansion of conventional (c) and biologic (b) disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) choices and the early aggressive treatment of RA to a target of remission or low disease activity, an approach endorsed in major RA treatment guidelines1,2. But if you search these guidelines for the words sex, gender, man, woman, men, women, male, and female, you will find these words appear only twice — once in a figure legend describing hepatitis B risk factors and the other in the title of a reference. While sex is not influencing RA treatment recommendations, is it influencing RA treatment choices in the real-world setting? In this issue of The Journal , Bergstra and colleagues asked whether sex differences exist in the selection of initial RA treatments and whether sex influences treatment response3. Bergstra and colleagues used data from the Measurement of Efficacy of Treatment in the Era of Outcome in Rheumatology (METEOR) registry, an international observational registry that records data from routine clinical practice — truly a real-“world” study. The authors selected over 5000 patients with RA diagnosed in the last 3 months who were not in Disease Activity Score (DAS) remission and were initiating their first DMARD. The authors evaluated initial treatment patterns: both general approaches (e.g., monotherapy vs combination therapy ± glucocorticoids) and specific DMARD within these general approaches. Subsequently, they assessed the influence of sex on treatment response, measured by time to switching DMARD and trajectories of the DAS and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) scores. They found that general approaches in initial RA management were identical between the sexes, but they detected differences in the choice of specific DMARD. Men were more likely than women to start a regimen that contained methotrexate (MTX) or … Address correspondence to Dr. B.R. England, 983025 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198-3025, USA.
Visit-to-Visit Glycemic Variability and Risks of Cardiovascular Events and All-Cause Mortality: The ALLHAT Study

OBJECTIVE The prognostic value of long-term glycemic variability is incompletely understood. We evaluated the influence of visit-to-visit variability (VVV) of fasting blood glucose (FBG) on incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a prospective cohort analysis including 4,982 participants in the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) who attended the baseline, 24-month, and 48-month visits. VVV of FBG was defined as the SD or variability independent of the mean (VIM) across FBG measurements obtained at the three visits. Participants free of CVD during the first 48 months of the study were followed for incident CVD (coronary heart disease [CHD], stroke, and heart failure [HF]) and all-cause mortality. RESULTS Over a median follow-up of 5 years, there were 305 CVD events (189 CHD, 45 stroke, and 81 HF) and 154 deaths. The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) comparing participants in the highest versus lowest quartile of SD of FBG (≥26.4 vs. CONCLUSIONS Greater VVV of FBG is associated with increased mortality risk. Our data highlight the importance of achieving normal and consistent glycemic levels for improving clinical outcomes.
Paradoxical Impact of a Patient-Handling Intervention on Injury Rate Disparity Among Hospital Workers.

Objectives. To test whether a comprehensive safe patient-handling intervention, which successfully reduced overall injury rates among hospital workers in a prior study, was differentially effective...
Impact of Palliative Care on Resource Utilization and Quality in the Care of Patients Undergoing Therapeutic Hypothermia

Few studies have been done assessing the impact of palliative care on patients suffering cardiac arrest and requiring therapeutic hypothermia (TH). We conducted a retrospective cohort study to comp...
Comparison of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) to microsatellite markers for the study of avian hybrid zones: a test in Aphelocoma jays.

Hybrid zones are geographic regions where genetically distinct taxa interbreed, resulting in offspring of mixed ancestry. California Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma californica) and Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays (A. woodhouseii) come into secondary contact and hybridize in western Nevada. Although previous work investigated divergence and gene flow between these species using a handful of microsatellite markers, the hybrid zone has not been studied using genome-scale markers, providing an opportunity to assess genome-wide introgression, test for a genetic basis for ecomorphological traits, and compare these estimates to those derived from microsatellites. Using variant sites flanking ultraconserved elements (UCEs), we performed population assignment and quantified hybrid ancestry for 16 individuals across the zone of secondary contact. Our study included 2468 SNPs distributed throughout the genome, allowing discrimination of genetic affinities of hybrid individuals that were similar to estimates from microsatellites. We show a relationship between bill and wing length and the genetic composition of individuals that was not found in prior work using microsatellites, suggesting a genetic basis for these traits. Our analyses demonstrate the utility of UCEs for the analysis of hybrid zones and provide a basis for future studies to identify the genomic architecture of speciation and phenotypic differences between these incipient species.
Metal-Reductant-Free Electrochemical Nickel-CatalyzedCouplings of Aryl and Alkyl Bromides in Acetonitrile

While reductive cross-electrochemical coupling is an attractive approach for the synthesis of complex molecules at both small and large scale, two barriers for large-scale applications have remaine...
Understanding G Protein Selectivity of Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptors Using Computational Methods.

The neurotransmitter molecule acetylcholine is capable of activating five muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, M1 through M5, which belong to the superfamily of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). These five receptors share high sequence and structure homology; however, the M1, M3, and M5 receptor subtypes signal preferentially through the Gαq/11 subset of G proteins, whereas the M2 and M4 receptor subtypes signal through the Gαi/o subset of G proteins, resulting in very different intracellular signaling cascades and physiological effects. The structural basis for this innate ability of the M1/M3/M5 set of receptors and the highly homologous M2/M4 set of receptors to couple to different G proteins is poorly understood. In this study, we used molecular dynamics (MD) simulations coupled with thermodynamic analyses of M1 and M2 receptors coupled to both Gαi and Gαq to understand the structural basis of the M1 receptor’s preference for the Gαq protein and the M2 receptor’s preference for the Gαi protein. The MD studies showed that the M1 and M2 receptors can couple to both Gα proteins such that the M1 receptor engages with the two Gα proteins in slightly different orientations and the M2 receptor engages with the two Gα proteins in the same orientation. Thermodynamic studies of the free energy of binding of the receptors to the Gα proteins showed that the M1 and M2 receptors bind more strongly to their cognate Gα proteins compared to their non-cognate ones, which is in line with previous experimental studies on the M3 receptor. A detailed analysis of receptor–G protein interactions showed some cognate-complex-specific interactions for the M2:Gαi complex; however, G protein selectivity determinants are spread over a large overlapping subset of residues. Conserved interaction between transmembrane helices 5 and 6 far away from the G-protein-binding receptor interface was found only in the two cognate complexes and not in the non-cognate complexes. An analysis of residues implicated previously in G protein selectivity, in light of the cognate and non-cognate structures, shaded a more nuanced role of those residues in affecting G protein selectivity. The simulation of both cognate and non-cognate receptor–G protein complexes fills a structural gap due to difficulties in determining non-cognate complex structures and provides an enhanced framework to probe the mechanisms of G protein selectivity exhibited by most GPCRs.
9 – Parallel Processors

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of parallel processors. It discusses single instruction stream, multiple data streams (SIMD) computers, multiple instruction streams, multiple data streams (MIMD) computers, programming MIMDs, and MIMDs connected by a single bus and a network. The virtues of SIMD are that all the parallel execution units are synchronized, and they all respond to a single instruction that emanates from a single program counter (PC). SIMD works best when dealing with arrays in for loops. Hence, for massive parallelism to work in SIMD, there must be massive data or data parallelism. SIMD is at its weakest in case or switch statements, where each execution unit must perform a different operation on its data, depending on what data it has. The chapter highlights the characteristics of some well-known SIMD computers. Computer architects have always sought the El Dorado of computer design: to create powerful computers simply by connecting many existing smaller ones. This is the idea behind MIMDs. MIMDs define high performance as high throughput for independent tasks. The chapter also reviews future directions for parallel processors and highlights facts of life for large-scale parallel processors. A key characteristic of programs for parallel machines is frequency of synchronization and communication. Large-scale parallel machines have distributed physical memory; the higher bandwidth and lower overhead of local memory compared to nonlocal memory strongly rewards parallel processing programmers who utilize locality.
Analysis of the epidemic situation of inter-human brucellosis in Zhongwei City of Ningxia from 2005 to 2017

Objective To analyze the epidemic situation of inter-human brucellosis in Zhongwei City of Ningxia from 2005 to 2017, and to provide basis for making scientific and effective prevention and control measures of the disease. Methods Incidence data of brucellosis were collected in Zhongwei City from 2005 to 2017 and prevalence trends and distribution characteristics (place, time, and population distribution) were analyzed by descriptive epidemiological method. Results A total of 1 880 human brucellosis cases were reported in Zhongwei City from 2005 to 2017. The incidence of brucellosis in 2012 and 2015 was 5.03/100 000 and 61.80/100 000, which showed a dramatic and rapid ascent(χ2trend=681.40,P<0.05), while after 2016, it showed a downward trend(χ2trend=324.85, P < 0.05), and in 2017 the reported incidence dropped to 25.13/100 000. Zhongning and Haiyuan Counties showed a high incidence from 2005 to 2017, and the incidence was 39.79%(748/1 880) and 36.06% (678/1 880), respectively; April to September was the peak season; the sex ratio was 2.72:1.00 (1 375/505); 1 379 cases(73.35%) occurred between 30 and 64 years old, and 1 616 cases (85.96%) occurred among farmer. Conclusion After 2016, the incidence of human outbreaks in Zhongwei City has declined; Zhongning and Haiyuan Counties are the key areas of morbidity; the key population for prevention and control is farmer. Key words: Brucellosis; Epidemiologic studies; Surveillance
A Systematic Evaluation of Restorative Justice Practices: School Violence Prevention and Response

Despite its increasing recognition and use in U.S. schools, a limited amount of research has evaluated the effect of restorative justice (RJ) for school violence prevention and response. To date, t...
Differential Geometry of a Nonlinear Continuum Theory of Dislocations

The differential geometric aspects of the limited nonlinear continuum theory of crystal dislocations are developed in terms of a non-Riemannian geometry with vanishing Riemann-Christoffel curvature. The emphasis is on a general notation and a covariant formulation of the theory. Comparisons are made between the work of Kroner and classical continuum mechanics. The drawback of distant parallelism in passing to the general theory with non-vanishing curvature is discussed.
The AAHKS Clinical Research Award: Extended Oral Antibiotics Prevent Periprosthetic Joint Infection in High-Risk Cases: 3855 Patients With 1-Year Follow-Up.

Abstract Background Surgical and host factors predispose patients to periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) after primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). While surgical factors are modifiable, host factors can be challenging, and there are limited data demonstrating that preoperative patient optimization decreases risk of PJI. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether extended oral antibiotic prophylaxis reduces the one-year infection rate in high-risk patients. Methods A total of 3855 consecutive primary THAs and TKAs performed between 2011 and 2019 at a suburban academic hospital with modern perioperative and infection-prevention protocols were retrospectively reviewed. Beginning in January 2015, a 7-day oral antibiotic prophylaxis protocol was implemented after discharge for patients at high risk for PJI. The percentage of high-risk patients diagnosed with PJI within 1 year was compared between groups that did and did not receive extended antibiotic prophylaxis. Univariate and logistic regression analyses were performed, with P ≤ .05 denoting statistical significance. Results Overall 1-year infection rates were 2.26% and 0.85% after THA and TKA, respectively. High-risk patients with extended antibiotic prophylaxis had a significantly lower rate of PJI than high-risk patients without extended antibiotic prophylaxis (0.89% vs 2.64%, respectively; P Conclusion Extended postoperative oral antibiotic prophylaxis for 7 days led to a statistically significant and clinically meaningful reduction in 1-year infection rates of patients at high risk for infection. In fact, the PJI rate in high-risk patients who received antibiotics was less than the rate seen in low-risk patients. Thus, extended oral antibiotic prophylaxis may be a simple measure to effectively counteract poor host factors. Moreover, the findings of this study may mitigate the incentive to select healthier patients in outcome-based reimbursement models. Further study with a multicenter randomized control trial is needed to further validate this protocol. Level of Evidence Therapeutic level III.
Severe Hyperlipidemia With LDL Cholesterol of 393 Milligrams per Decilitre After 7 Months of High Fat Ketogenic Diet: A Rare Case Report

Introduction: Ketogenic diet (KD) is now a popular weight-loss diet with other proclaimed health benefits. KD is largely safe in the short-term especially if done under medical supervision to monitor for well-described side effects like hyperlipidemia among others. We report a case of KD-induced drastic elevation in LDL cholesterol. Clinical Case: An otherwise healthy 41-year-old male with obesity and a BMI of 35.8 kg/m2 followed KD to help with weight loss. His lipid panel 18 months prior to initiation of KD showed total cholesterol (TC) 171 mg/dL (reference 60 preferred), LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) 99 mg/dL (reference <100 optimal), and a triglyceride (TG) 145 mg/dL (reference <200). During his KD journey, he lost 40 pounds and his BMI became 29.5 kg/m2 after seven months. While on KD, he reported more mental clarity, improved sleep quality, higher energy level, and complete resolution of chronic cystic acne. Seven months after starting KD, his lipid panel showed TC 488.7 mg/dL, HDL-C 54.4 mg/dL, LDL-C 393 mg/dL, VLDL-C 41.5 mg/dL, and triglyceride 207.5 mg/dL. Lipid panel was repeated in 2 days to exclude a possible laboratory error but it confirmed the previous result and repeat LDL-C was 380 mg/dL. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) was 91 mg/dL. HbA1c was normal at 5.0%. Uric acid was elevated at 8.9 mg/dL (reference 3.4–7.0). High sensitivity C-reactive protein was not elevated at 0.13 mg/dL (reference <0.5). Total 25 hydroxy-vitamin D level was normal at 43.9 ng/mL (reference 30–100). CBC, renal function, and liver function tests were all normal. Since the patient declined statin therapy, he was counseled to decrease saturated fat (e.g. animal-based) intake and to liberalize his carbohydrate intake (i.e. 30% of total calorie intake instead of his baseline of 5–10%). Two weeks after doing so, lipid panel was remarkable for TC 371.2 mg/dL, HDL-C 49.7 mg/dL, LDL-C 279.0 mg/dL, VLDL-C 42.26 mg/dL and TG 211.3 mg/dL. Six weeks from the initial lipid panel, repeat testing showed TC 266.2 mg/dL, HDL-C 54.4 mg/dL, LDL-C 190.0 mg/dL, VLDL-C 21.64 mg/dL and TG 108.2 mg/dL. The patient remained without any major symptoms, namely no symptoms of cardiovascular disease. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, our patient had the highest reported KD-induced increase in LDL-C (297% increase) despite normal baseline and no history of familial hypercholesterolemia. Dietary modification alone resulted in 29% decrease in 2 weeks and 52% decrease in six weeks. A limitation to this case report is the lack of lipid panel subfractionation as previous studies showed KD to result in a decrease in small LDL particles (atherogenic) and an increase in large LDL particles (non-atherogenic). More research is needed on the long-term health consequences of KD. Despite guidelines on how to manage KD-induced hyperlipidemia are greatly needed, they are lacking.
Gonadal hormones and sex chromosome complement differentially contribute to ethanol intake, preference, and relapse-like behavior in Four Core Genotypes mice

Alcohol use and high-risk alcohol drinking behaviors among women are rapidly rising. In rodent models, females typically consume more ethanol (EtOH) than males. Here, we used the Four Core Genotypes (FCG) mouse model to investigate the influence of gonadal hormones and sex chromosome complement to EtOH drinking behaviors. FCG mice were given access to escalating concentrations of EtOH in a two-bottle, 24-h continuous access drinking paradigm to assess consumption and preference. Relapse-like behavior was measured by assessing escalated intake following repeated cycles of deprivation and re-exposure. Twenty-four hour EtOH consumption was greater in mice with ovaries (Sry-), relative to those with testes, and in mice with the XX chromosome complement, relative to those with XY sex chromosomes. EtOH preference was higher in XX vs. XY mice but not influenced by gonad type. Escalated intake following repeated cycles of deprivation and re-exposure emerged only in XX mice (vs. XY). These results demonstrate that aspects of EtOH drinking behavior may be independently regulated by sex hormones and chromosomes and inform our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms which contribute to EtOH dependence in male and female mice. Future investigation of the contribution of sex chromosomes to EtOH drinking behaviors is warranted.
Abstract P160: Associations Between Metabolic Syndrome Severity And Race/ethnicity, Socioeconomic, And Lifestyle Factors

Introduction/Purpose: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a disorder characterized by a cluster of cardiometabolic conditions that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. While MetS is t...
Anxiety, depressive, and trauma symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evaluating the role of disappointment with God.

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has led to pervasive social and economic disruptions. This cross-sectional investigation aimed to evaluate associations between religious/spiritual factors and mental health symptoms among community residents in a southern US state. In particular, we focused on perceptions of God's distance, a salient aspect of religious/spiritual struggle that has received little scrutiny in health research. Methods Participants included 551 respondents assessed during a period of gradual reopening but rising infection rates. Mental health outcomes were assessed using standardized measures of generalized anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms. Perceptions of an affirming relationship with God, anger at God, and disappointment at God's distance were evaluated using an adapted version of the Attitudes-Toward-God Scale-9. Results In multivariate analyses that accounted for pandemic-related and demographic factors, positive relationships with God were related to diminished symptoms on all three mental heatlh indices (all p's ≤.003), whereas disappointment with God's distance was associated with more pronounced difficulties (all p's ≤.014). Limtations The cross-sectional design precludes causal conclusions. Conclusions Findings suggest that perceived relationships with God are tied to clinically relevant mental health outcomes during periods of major upheaval. Disappointment with God's distance may be an important, understudied dimension of religious/spiritual struggle meriting further investigation.
Communicative Learning with Natural Gestures for Embodied Navigation Agents with Human-in-the-Scene

Human-robot collaboration is an essential research topic in artificial intelligence (AI), enabling researchers to devise cognitive AI systems and affords an intuitive means for users to interact with the robot. Of note, communication plays a central role. To date, prior studies in embodied agent navigation have only demonstrated that human languages facilitate communication by instructions in natural languages. Nevertheless, a plethora of other forms of communication is left unexplored. In fact, human communication originated in gestures and oftentimes is delivered through multimodal cues, e.g. "go there" with a pointing gesture. To bridge the gap and fill in the missing dimension of communication in embodied agent navigation, we propose investigating the effects of using gestures as the communicative interface instead of verbal cues. Specifically, we develop a VR-based 3D simulation environment, named Ges-THOR, based on AI2-THOR platform. In this virtual environment, a human player is placed in the same virtual scene and shepherds the artificial agent using only gestures. The agent is tasked to solve the navigation problem guided by natural gestures with unknown semantics; we do not use any predefined gestures due to the diversity and versatile nature of human gestures. We argue that learning the semantics of natural gestures is mutually beneficial to learning the navigation task--learn to communicate and communicate to learn. In a series of experiments, we demonstrate that human gesture cues, even without predefined semantics, improve the object-goal navigation for an embodied agent, outperforming various state-of-the-art methods.
Scattering in the atmosphere of Venus: II. Effect of varying the scale height of the scattering particles

Abstract We have made calculations for the variation of equivalent width with phase angle (for a Venus-like atmosphere except that the cloud particles scatter isotropically). The effect of temperature variations, within our model atmosphere, is shown to be small. The effect of changing the scale height of the cloud relative to the scale height of the gas is much larger.
An assessment of factors associated with damage to tree crowns from the 1987 wildfires in northern California

Relationships between (1) degree of damage caused by the 1987 fires in northern California and (2) prior management activities, fuelbed characteristics, and site/stand factors were studied on the Hayfork Ranger District of the Shasta-Trinity National Forests. Postfire aerial photography was used to assess scorch and consumption of tree crowns (the selected measure of fire damage), and other data were obtained from existing records. Data were collected and analyzed separately for (1) plantations and (2) uncut and partial-cut stands. Ordinal logistic regression was the primary analytical technique used. Factors significantly related to degree of fire damage in plantations were cover of grasses, cover of forbs, elevation, site preparation method, and level of damage in the adjacent stand. Damage to uncut and partial-cut stands depended on stand treatment, primary tree species, and aspect. The variables that most strongly influenced fire damage tended to be those most directly related to management activities--site preparation method and damage in adjacent stand for plantations, and stand treatment for uncut and partial-cut stands.
Society, Culture, and Global Consumer Culture

Consumer culture is a social system in which consumption is dominated by the consumption of commercial products. In consumer culture, the transmission of cultural values, norms, and customary ways of doing things between generations is largely carried out through the exercise of private, personal choice. Just as the consumer was theorized into existence by the economic philosophers of the eighteenth century, and turned into the linchpin of twentieth-century economies by economic policy makers and Madison Avenue advertisers, so the consumer continues to be recreated on the global stage. Even as international marketing capitalizes on the proliferation of “cultural difference,” it also demands that cultural difference be rendered manageable within globally reproducible forms and genres. This has led to the identification of what have been called global structures of common difference in global consumer culture such as market segments of consumer themselves, fast-food outlets, soap operas, beauty pageants, comics, and popular music. The spread of global consumer culture provokes backlash and resistance. Some antiglobal activists call for deconsumption; some dispute specific elements of global value chains such as brands, GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and sweatshop labor; some promote ethical consumption; and some promote local brands that are ideologically positioned as explicit competitors to their multinational counterparts. Keywords: consumer culture; global consumer culture; structures of common difference; brands; consumers; resistance
Design of nonlinear controls using structured representations

Point-wise eigenvalues and eigenvectors are defined and exploited as indicators of the local rate of change of the state of a nonlinear system represented in structured form. Pole-Placement design is used to achieve a desired time-scale decomposition of the dynamics and Singular Perturbation theory is applied to insure a desired region of attraction.
Low-distortion delta-sigma topologies for MASH architectures

This paper describes low-distortion delta-sigma topologies with significant system and circuit-level advantages over traditional delta-sigma topologies, especially for wideband (low oversampling ratio) applications. A comparison between traditional and low-distortion MASH topologies shows how the latter can achieve higher performance while requiring smaller silicon area and power consumption.
Synthesis of spatial parallel mechanisms with initial conditions using line geometry

In this paper we describe a coordinate-independent method for synthesis of a spatial parallel mechanism. The mechanism consists of a platform, a base, and five legs connecting the base and platform with spherical joints. The objective is to find the positions of the base anchor points and leg lengths for two arbitrary platform positions and their desired instantaneous motions. A unique solution will be presented that applies the linear line complex, a tool from line geometry. Potential applications that may benefit from this research include a five-link independent suspension system (wheel multilink suspension system for automobiles) and spatial mechanisms used in manufacturing. The algorithm and a numerical example will be discussed.
Kinetics and mechanism of the reaction of sodium azide with hypochlorite in aqueous solution

Production of toxic sodium azide (NaN(3)) surged worldwide over the past two decades to meet the demand for automobile air bag inflator propellant. Industrial activity and the return of millions of inflators to automobile recycling facilities are leading to increasing release of NaN(3) to the environment so there is considerable interest in learning more about its environmental fate. Water soluble NaN(3) could conceivably be found in drinking water supplies so here we describe the kinetics and mechanism of the reaction of azide with hypochlorite, which is often used in water treatment plants. The reaction stoichiometry is: HOCl + 2N(3)(-) = 3N(2) + Cl(-) + OH(-), and proceeds by a key intermediate chlorine azide, ClN(3), which subsequently decomposes by reaction with a second azide molecule in the rate determining step: ClN(3) + N(3)(-) --> 3N(2) + Cl(-) (k = 0.52+/-0.04 M(-1) s(-1), 25 degrees C, mu = 0.1 M). We estimate that the half-life of azide would be approximately 15 s at the point of chlorination in a water treatment plant and approximately 24 days at some point downstream where only residual chlorine remains. Hypochlorite is not recommended for treatment of concentrated azide waste due to formation of the toxic chlorine azide intermediate under acidic conditions and the slow kinetics under basic conditions.
Accuracy of formant measurement for synthesized vowels using the reassigned spectrogram and comparison with linear prediction.

This brief report describes a small study which was undertaken with nine synthetic vowel tokens, in an effort to demonstrate the validity of the reassigned spectrogram as a formant measurement tool. The reassigned spectrogram’s performance is also compared with that of a typical pitch-asynchronous linear predictive analysis and is found to be superior. In this study, reassigned spectrograms were further processed to highlight the formants and then were used to measure these synthetic vowel formants generally to within 0.5% of their known true values, far surpassing the accuracy of a typical linear predictive analysis procedure which was inaccurate by as much as 17%. The overall accuracy of reassigned spectrographic formant measurement is thus demonstrated in these cases.
Experimental Studies of Oil Withdrawal From Salt Cavities by Freshwater Injection

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) program coordinates storage of crude oil in underground salt caverns. Oil removed from these caverns by the injection of water into a brine volume located beneath the oil will be recovered through a production pipe near the top of the cavern. The critical question concerning this procedure was whether the crude oil would protect the salt walls from dissolution on exposure to unsaturated brine following oil/brine interface passage. Oil/brine/salt interactions were investigated experimentally. Cylindrical cavities were created by hollowing out salt cores from one end, leaving the circular wall and bottom as an integral piece. In four experiments, a salt cavity was placed vertically in a pressure vessel and was filled with crude oil overlying a saturated-brine ''pocket.'' The vessel was sealed and pressurized to actual SPR-cavern pressure. Fresh water was injected down a tube into the brine pocket, displacing the oil upward for recovery through a production tube. A traversable gamma-beam densitometer positioned above the initial saturated-brine/oil interface defined the presence or absence of salt dissolution (cavity shape change) during the transient oil-withdrawal process. Such measurements showed salt-wall recession immediately following interface passage in all tests; i.e., crude-oil adherence and/or penetration at themore » salt wall failed to protect the salt from dissolution when exposed to unsaturated brine. Measured post-test cavity shapes corroborated the transient results. Both transient and steady-state measurements were in good agreement with numerical predictions generated by SANSMIC (Sandia Solution-Mining Code) once ''no oil-layer protection'' was assumed.« less
Improving the serum stability of site-specific antibody conjugates with sulfone linkers.

Current routes for synthesizing antibody–drug conjugates commonly rely on maleimide linkers to react with cysteine thiols. However, thioether exchange with metabolites and serum proteins can compromise conjugate stability and diminish in vivo efficacy. We report the application of a phenyloxadiazole sulfone linker for the preparation of trastuzumab conjugates. This sulfone linker site-specifically labeled engineered cysteine residues in THIOMABs and improved antibody conjugate stability in human plasma at sites previously shown to be labile for maleimide conjugates. Similarly, sulfone conjugation with selenocysteine in an anti-ROR1 scFv-Fc improved human plasma stability relative to maleimide conjugation. Kinetically controlled labeling of a THIOMAB containing two cysteine substitutions was also achieved, offering a strategy for producing antibody conjugates with expanded valency.