cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gastrointestinal toxicity biomarkers

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract serves as the normal entry and absorption route for dietary products, which makes it prone to direct exposure to toxicants. This organ presents a high degree of structural complexity with varied tissue types serving different functions, which essentially renders it sensitive to a multitude of natural, chemical, and radiation assaults at all times. Traditionally, the occurrence of GI toxicity has been monitored using histopathological examination, presence of occult blood in feces, evaluation of GI content, and prediction of effects on GI absorption and contractility using in vitro/ex vivo systems. However, there has been a constant search for clinically relevant minimally invasive/noninvasive biomarkers to better achieve prediction and prognosis of GI damage. This chapter presents the most commonly encountered forms of GI toxicity and injury, and discusses a number of GI toxicity biomarkers that have been tested to investigate their usefulness in tracking adverse events, including blood and fecal biomarkers. Discussion of the shortcomings of current GI toxicity biomarkers knowledge and usage is presented and the way is pointed toward metabolome-based biomarkers, which may bring potential for improvement.
Crash course in weeding library collections

For years, libraries were assessed and valued based on the number of volumes housed in their buildings. Many library positions and duties revolved around building collections of lasting value. Much...
Efficient implementation of the multistage Wiener filter for multiple beam applications

A new implementation of the multistage Wiener filter (MWF) is developed for constrained filtering applications, such as radar surveillance, that require the formation of many filter vectors. The MWF is a "signal-dependent" reduced rank adaptive filter, which means that it uses the steering vector to form its basis for rank reduction. Signal-dependent processing provides a performance improvement, but typically causes computer operations to grow linearly with the number of filters. The algorithm introduced in this paper uses a single SVD in order to impose a diagonal structure on the data matrix. By using Householder reflections for the MWF blocking matrix the diagonal structure is preserved and exploited during subsequent calculations. The new algorithm takes advantage of the recently discovered connection between the MWF and the method of conjugate gradients. Timing results demonstrate more than an order of magnitude speed improvement over the conventional MWF.
The Future of National Security Letters

It was Benjamin Franklin who famously wrote, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Unfortunately, history establishes that in times of threats to national safety, the country seems willing to give up some amount of liberty. From Lincoln’s suspension of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War, to the Sedition Act of 1918 during World War I, to the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, the U.S. has regularly restricted civil liberties during times of the greatest national crisis. The war on terrorism has been no exception. The USA PATRIOT Act, enacted within weeks of the 9/11 attacks included a number of provisions that impacted civil liberties. These included expansion of secret, warrant-less searches during intelligence investigations and widened the range of records that could be obtained without a search warrant. As the war on terrorism lingers, many of the USA PATRIOT Act’s provisions have been renewed and remain in force.
The Roles of Anxious Rearing, Negative Affect, and Effortful Control in a Model of Risk for Child Perfectionism

Perfectionism has been linked with psychopathology and other difficulties in children. As such, research has begun to focus on those factors that predict perfectionism in children. Separate lines of research have identified temperament and parenting as two specific areas that are associated with perfectionism in children. Yet, few studies have investigated these two areas within a single study and none have examined whether effortful control reduces perfectionism. The current study sought to examine the roles of negative affect, effortful control, and parental anxious rearing on child perfectionism using a single path model. Participants were 59 parent-child dyads recruited from the community. Children were between the ages of 7.5 and 13 years (55% female; 75% Caucasian; 16.7% African American). The model fit the data well. Results indicated that anxious rearing predicted increased perfectionism, whereas effortful control predicted decreased perfectionism. Additionally, there was a significant indirect effect of anxious rearing on the association between negative affect and perfectionism. However, contrary to expectations, negative affect did not significantly predict increased perfectionism, and effortful control did not moderate these effects. Results suggest that negative affect may be indirectly related to child perfectionism, through anxious rearing, and that effortful control may help protect children from developing high levels of perfectionism. Additionally, the results are consistent with theoretical models of perfectionism development and suggest multiple domains contribute to perfectionism.
Basics of Stochastic Calculus

In this chapter we introduce the Brownian motion and present the basic martingale theory. The materials here can be viewed as the linear theory for the nonlinear counterparts in Chapters 3 and 4 A financial application is also included.
Two sample inference for regression kernels

In Chapter 5, we studied two sample procedures for the mean function and the covariance operator. This chapter is devoted to testing the equality of the regression operators in two functional linear models.We are concerned with the following problem: We observe two samples: sample 1: \((X_i, Y_i), 1 \leq i \leq N\) and sample 2: \((X_{i}^{\ast}, Y_{i}^{\ast}), 1 \leq j \leq M\).
How discrimination and perspective-taking influence adolescents' attitudes about justice.

Abstract Little is known about factors influencing adolescents' justice attitudes. This online study investigates perspective-taking and experiences with discrimination for their associations with adolescents' beliefs about how justice is best served. Participants included 179 ethnically/racially diverse high school students (Mage = 16.67 years; SD = 1.02). Higher perspective-taking was associated with less punitive and more restorative attitudes. Youth reporting more personal and ethnic/racial discrimination experiences endorsed more restorative justice attitudes. Perspective-taking also moderated the associations between reports of family, personal, and religious discrimination and punitive justice attitudes: adolescents reporting higher discrimination showed a stronger inverse relationship between perspective-taking and punitive attitudes. Findings have implications for school and community programs aiming to implement restorative policies, and for adolescents' civic participation.
As a New Nurse Myself, How Can I Become a Mentor to New Nurse Colleagues?

I recently earned my baccalaureate nursing degree and passed the nursing boards. Soon, I hope to practice as a clinical oncology nurse. As a new RN, I frequently reflect on the people and situations that have influenced my growth so far as a nurse. I have been fortunate to work with many clinical mentors who have been pivotal in this regard. I realize that many small gestures from my mentors have been instrumental in helping me develop my competencies and build my confidence in practice. .
A Principled and Legal Approach to Title IX Reporting

Institutions of higher education identify “responsible employees” to further their compliance with Title IX. Responsible employees typically report instances of campus gender-based violence to the institution, usually to the Title IX coordinator. Unfortunately, most colleges and universities make virtually every employee a responsible employee. This “wide-net” approach to reporting, sometimes referred to as universal mandatory reporting, produces two categories of related unintended consequences: (1) it weakens the autonomy of victims when they need their autonomy most, thereby undermining their sense of institutional support and aggravating their psychological and physical harm from the assault; and (2) because of these negative consequences, it deters some victims from accessing the help they need and from invoking university processes designed to hold their perpetrators accountable. After describing the drawbacks of wide-net reporting policies, this Article examines whether current law and guidance permits colleges and universities to limit the number of responsible employees. It argues that recent guidance from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) increases institutional discretion beyond what existed even under Obama-era guidance and allows institutions to move away from wide-net reporting policies. Nonetheless, because some troubling language still remains in OCR guidance, this Article urges the Trump administration to inform colleges and universities expressly that they can narrow the number of responsible employees. The Article then describes in detail the components of a legally sufficient and principled reporting policy. The Article identifies key principles that should guide an institution’s formulation of policy, discusses which employees should be made responsible employees, and analyzes several tricky categories of employees. To facilitate reporting and to support survivors, the Article recommends that all employees be obligated to report for a survivor if the survivor wants to report and to offer the survivor access to confidential support services. Several other aspects of reporting policies that deserve consideration are also highlighted. Finally, the Article argues that institutions cannot credibly justify their wide-net policies by invoking concerns about liability. No reliable estimates exist about the relative liability risks attending different types of policies. The purported institutional advantages of wide-net reporting policies, including the simplification of matters for employees and the removal of perpetrators from campus, appear overstated. Moreover, the liability risks associated with wide-net policies, including the increased institutional vulnerability when employees do not report or when students do not want them to report, are typically ignored. The Article concludes by urging colleges and universities to revise their reporting policies to better advance the goals of Title IX.
Reactivity of Enveloped Virus Genome, Proteins, and Lipids with Free Chlorine and UV254

The survivability of viruses in natural and engineered systems impacts public health. Inactivation mechanisms in the environment have been described for nonenveloped viruses, but it remains unclear how the membrane layer of enveloped viruses influences inactivation. We applied molecular tools and high-resolution mass spectrometry to measure reactions in the genome, proteins, and lipids of enveloped Pseudomonas phage Phi6 during inactivation by free chlorine and UV254. Free chlorine readily penetrated the lipid membrane to react with proteins in the nucleocapsid and polymerase complex. The most reactive Phi6 peptides were approximately 150 times more reactive with free chlorine than the most reactive peptides reported in nonenveloped coliphage MS2. The inactivation kinetics of Phi6 by UV254 was comparable with those of nonenveloped adenovirus and coliphage MS2 and were driven by UV254 reactions with viral genomes. Our research identifies molecular features of an enveloped virus that are susceptible to chem...
Siskin: Leveraging the Browser to Share Web Content in Disconnected Environments

Schools in the developing world frequently do not have high bandwidth or reliable connections, limiting their access to web content. As a result, schools are increasingly turning to Offline Educational Resources (OERs), employing purpose-built local hardware to serve content. These approaches can be expensive and difficult to maintain in resource-constrained settings. We present Siskin, an alternative approach that leverages the ubiquity of web browsers to provide a distributed content access cache between user devices on the local network. We demonstrate that this system allows access to web pages offline by identifying the browser as a ubiquitous platform. We build and evaluate a prototype, showing that existing web protocols and infrastructure can be leveraged to create a powerful content cache over a local network.
An experimental investigation concerning yield surfaces and loading surfaces

This paper presents the results of experiments concerning the motion of the yield and the loading surfaces and the interrelation between these two motions. It is shown that the yield surface tends to become tangent to the loading surface, and that the plastic strain vector is normal to the yield surface.
The Security Implications of Synthetic Biology

Advances in synthetic biology hold great promise, but to minimise security threats, national and international regulation will need to keep pace.
Chrysotile and Chrysophosphate Chemical Modification of the Chrysotile Surface and Its Effect on Biological Behavior

Chrysotile asbestos was reacted with phosphorus oxychloride (POC) gas to produce a chemically modified fiber referred to as chrysophosphate. The presence of phosphorus and chlorine on the fiber surface and in small fiber bundles was verified by means of energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry and laser mass spectrometry. The altered fiber exhibits different physical-chemical properties when compared with the unaltered precursor material. In addition to marked surface changes, fibrils of the reacted material appear to be cross-linked increasing the size of particulates, fiber bundles and increasing their mechanical stability. The reacted specimens exhibit fewer fibrils reducing their surface area. In vitro testing using the human erythrocyte model showed the membranolytic activity of the reacted fiber to be substantially reduced to the background level measured for mechanical membrane breakage during manipulation. Membranolytic activity of unreacted chrysotile displayed values reported previously in the literature. These data support the observation made in other studies that fiber surface modification by means of an industrial process may be a method for reducing the biological potential of mineral particles. The membrane model is considered a useful and preliminary examination. These materials will require further testing in more complex in vivo systems. Some in vivo assays were performed on chrysophosphate with results that appeared to differ from our membrane tests. These differences are described and the variation of batch chemistry, stability of the reacted surface, and the resulting surface chemistry, are discussed.
How Do I Approach Pain or Bleeding After Colonoscopy

Colonoscopy utilization has increased significantly over the last 10 years; therefore, acute care providers must be prepared to evaluate and manage complications from this procedure. Major complications include perforation, post-polypectomy syndrome, and bleeding. Perforation, while rare, is a potentially serious complication. It can present with pain (local or generalized), peritonitis, or even frank sepsis/shock. Pain without findings of perforation is the hallmark of post-polypectomy syndrome. Bleeding after colonoscopy is frequently minor and self-limited, but because severe bleeding can occur, patients often require admission for monitoring and repeat colonoscopy for hemostasis.
A western-type dietary pattern and atorvastatin induce epicardial adipose tissue interferon signaling in the Ossabaw pig.

Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) inflammation is thought to potentiate the development of coronary artery disease (CAD). Overall diet quality and statin therapy are important modulators of inflammation and CAD progression. Our objective was to examine the effects and interaction of dietary patterns and statin therapy on EAT gene expression in the Ossabaw pig. Pigs were randomized to 1 of 4 groups; Heart Healthy diet (high in unsaturated fat, unrefined grain, fruits/vegetables [HHD]) or Western diet (high in saturated fat, cholesterol, refined grain [WD]), with or without atorvastatin. Diets were fed in isocaloric amounts for 6 months. A two-factor edge R analysis identified the differential expression of 21 genes. Relative to the HHD, the WD resulted in a significant 12-fold increase of radical s-adenosyl methionine domain containing 2 (RSAD2), a gene induced by interferon signaling. Atorvastatin led to the significant differential expression of 17 genes predominately involved in interferon signaling. Results were similar using the Porcine Translational Research Database. Pathway analysis confirmed the up-regulation of interferon signaling in response to the WD and atorvastatin independently. An expression signature of the largely interferon related differentially expressed genes had no predictive capability on a histological assessment of atherosclerosis in the underlying coronary artery. These results suggest that a WD and atorvastatin evoke an interferon mediated immune response in EAT of the Ossabaw pig, which is not associated with the presence of atherosclerosis.
P138 Increasing Access to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants & Children Through Discount Variety Stores

Background The Special Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) increases access to nutritious foods for low-income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women and their children under five. Participation in WIC has declined for the past six years. Discount variety stores (DVS) can be useful points of food access for low-income communities. Objective To identify facilitators and barriers to WIC implementation in multiple DVS locations. Identifying the facilitators and barriers associated with WIC implementation may lead to more successful program adoption, allowing more families to benefit from WIC and increase DVS revenues. Study Design, Settings, Participants We conducted in-depth interviews with 30 staff at corporate (n = 6), managerial (n = 22), and store clerk (n = 8) levels at ten DVSs in low-income communities in North Carolina. These stores implemented WIC over a 10-month pilot study to access WIC feasibility; nine stores were located in food deserts. Measurable Outcome/Analysis Interviews were coded, and an inductive approach was used to identify qualitative themes. Results All except one participant provided positive feedback about being involved in the WIC program. Many DVSs store employees had previous experience participating in the WIC program which gave them a good understanding of the WIC shopping experience. Previous WIC experience and proximity to store location for DVS customers were facilitators of WIC implementation. The primary barriers included limited choice in store products for customers, complicated or unclear labeling for WIC-eligible products, and difficulty training store employees to process WIC payments. Conclusion Most employees have a positive view of WIC but barriers related to product selection and training must be addressed to improve future WIC implementation. Notably, WIC's new electronic benefit transfer system (eWIC), which does not require as much detailed and manual employee training, should address several barriers to implementation. Future studies should evaluate implementation of eWIC in DVSs.
The Contribution of Prescribed and Illicit Opioids to Fatal Overdoses in Massachusetts, 2013-2015.

Objectives:Opioid-related overdoses are commonly attributed to prescription opioids. We examined data on opioid-related overdose decedents in Massachusetts. For each decedent, we determined which o...
Addressing data resiliency for staging based scientific workflows

As applications move towards extreme scales, data-related challenges are becoming significant concerns, and in-situ workflows based on data staging and in-situ/in-transit data processing have been proposed to address these challenges. Increasing scale is also expected to result in an increase in the rate of silent data corruption errors, which will impact both the correctness and performance of applications. Furthermore, this impact is amplified in the case of in-situ workflows due to the dataflow between the component applications of the workflow. While existing research has explored silent error detection at the application level, silent error detection for workflows remains an open challenge. This paper addresses silent error detection for extreme scale in-situ workflows. The presented approach leverages idle computation resource in data staging to enable timely detection and recovery from silent data corruption, effectively reducing the propagation of corrupted data and end-to-end workflow execution time in the presence of silent errors. As an illustration of this approach, we use a spatial outlier detection approach in staging to detect errors introduced in data transfer and storage. We also provide a CPU-GPU hybrid staging framework for error detection in order to achieve faster error identification. We have implemented our approach within the DataSpaces staging service, and evaluated it using both synthetic and real workflows on a Cray XK7 system (Titan) at different scales. We demonstrate that, in the presence of silent errors, enabling error detection on staged data alongside a checkpoint/restart scheme improves the total in-situ workflow execution time by up to 22% in comparison with using checkpoint/restart alone.
Gene expression profiling reveals a lingering effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on inflammatory-related genes during adolescence and adulthood

Prenatal Alcohol Exposure (PAE) exerts devastating effects on the Central Nervous System (CNS), which vary as a function of both ethanol load and gestational age of exposure. A growing body of evidence suggests that alcohol exposure profoundly impacts a wide range of cytokines and other inflammation-related genes in the CNS. The olfactory system serves as a critical interface between infectious/inflammatory signals and other aspects of CNS function, and demonstrates long-lasting plasticity in response to alcohol exposure. We therefore utilized transcriptome profiling to identify gene expression patterns for immune-related gene families in the olfactory bulb of Long Evans rats. Pregnant dams received either an ad libitum liquid diet containing 35% daily calories from ethanol (ET), a pair-fed diet (PF) matched for caloric content, or free choice (FCL) access to the liquid diet and water from Gestational Day (GD) 11-20. Offspring were fostered to dams fed the FCL diet, weaned on P21, and then housed with same-sex littermates until mid-adolescence (P40) or young adulthood (P90). At the target ages of P40 or P90, offspring were euthanized via brief CO2 exposure and brains/blood were collected. Gene expression analysis was performed using a Rat Gene 1.0 ST Array (Affymetrix), and preliminary analyses focused on two moderately overlapping gene clusters, including all immune-related genes and those related to neuroinflammation. A total of 146 genes were significantly affected by prenatal Diet condition, whereas the factor of Age (P40 vs P90) revealed 998 genes significantly changed, and the interaction between Diet and Age yielded 162 significant genes. From this dataset, we applied a threshold of 1.3-fold change (30% increase or decrease in expression) for inclusion in later analyses. Findings indicated that in adolescents, few genes were altered by PAE, whereas adults displayed an increase of a wide range of gene upregulation as a result of PAE. Pathway analysis predicted an increase in Nf-κB activation in adolescence and a decrease in adulthood due to prenatal ethanol exposure, indicating age-specific and long-lasting alterations to immune signaling. These data may provide important insight into the relationship between immune-related signaling cascades and long-term changes in olfactory bulb function after PAE.
Genome-wide association analysis of opioid use disorder: A novel approach using clinical data.

Abstract Background Opioid use disorder (OUD) represents a large and pervasive global public health challenge. Previous genetic studies have demonstrated the significant heritability of OUD and identified several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with its prevalence. Methods In this paper, we conducted a genome-wide association analysis on opioid use disorder that leveraged genetic and clinical data contained in a biobank of 21,310 patients of European ancestry. We identified 1039 cases of opioid use disorder based on diagnostic codes from nearly 16 million encounters in electronic health records (EHRs). Results We discovered one novel OUD-associated locus on chromosome 4 that was significant at a genome-wide threshold (p = 2.40 × 10−8). Heritability analysis suggested that common SNPs explained 0.06 (se 0.02, p = 0.0065) of the phenotypic variation in OUD. When we restricted controls to those with previous opioid prescriptions, we were able to further strengthen the original signal and discovered another significant locus on chromosome 16. Pair-wise genetic correlation analysis yielded strong positive correlations between OUD and two other major substance use disorders, alcohol and nicotine, with the strongest correlation between nicotine and opioid use disorder (genetic correlation 0.65, se = 0.19, p = 0.00048), suggesting a significant shared genetic component across different substance disorders. Conclusions This pragmatic, clinically-focused approach may supplement more traditional methods to facilitate identification of new genetic underpinnings of OUD and related disorders.
Incorporating 3D Printing Into Your Practice: Lessons Learned:

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has greatly benefited medicine, manufacturing vital organs like skin, hearts, kidneys, and livers. Early studies on 3D printing in surgery have consistently reported decreased operative time and improved precision. This technology has gained popularity with orthopaedic surgeons in knee, hip, and shoulder surgeries because 3D printing is associated with enhancing osseointegration. However, this innovation is still not commonly used among foot and ankle surgeons; one reason is that whereas the literature on 3D printing-assisted surgery is populated with studies on operative techniques and clinical outcomes, there exists an ambiguity on how to incorporate this feature into the clinic. Thus, the aim of this technology column is to consolidate and standardize a workflow to guide foot and ankle surgeons on integrating 3D printing into one's practice. We describe a model developed by a single surgeon at one institution who directs a large caseload of 3D-printed foot and ankle surgeries. From the initial patient visit to the interaction between the surgeon and the implant engineering team, to documentation of data adding to the preliminary literature, this work has great implications on streamlining the assimilation of a highly successful technology to improve foot and ankle surgery for both surgeons and patients.Level of Evidence: Level V.
Overview of Tick‐Borne Infections of Humans

Tick-borne diseases, long known but historically underappreciated, are increasingly recognized as important threats to public health. Tick-borne infections of humans are zooanthroponoses, or diseases of animals transmissible to humans in which humans are incidental, dead-end hosts. Tick bites are the sole or principal means by which most of these diseases are acquired by humans. Usually, persons become infected with tick-borne diseases when they intrude into an established natural focus (biocenose) where the disease agent is quietly cycling between vertebrate reservoir hosts and their tick vectors. This intersection is increasingly frequent as human populations grow in number and mobility; as more persons reside, work, or recreate in tick-infested habitats; and as changing environments favor ticks and increase their range, density, and likelihood of human interaction. Further, evolving socioeconomic factors and human behaviors can increase the risk that humans will come into contact with ticks and the disease agents they carry. Although students of medicine and public health are usually taught the basics of the more important tick-borne diseases, the emphasis is on clinical diagnosis and management, with less attention paid to epidemiology and to ticks’ fascinating but sometimes complex biology and ecology. Very little, if anything, is taught about tick vectors themselves. Biologists, on the other hand, may learn little about the medical and epidemiological aspects of vector-borne pathogens. This overview of the tick-borne diseases attempts to give a more balanced view and to provide key information in an easy access format.
Why Aluminum Alloy A-5083 Tubes Leak in Nitrogen/Oxygen Production Plants

During routine inspection, unusual pits/holes in aluminum pipes inside the cold box associated with a cryogenic column (Air Separation Unit) from a liquid nitrogen and oxygen production plant were reported. The purpose of this study was to understand the reason for failure, particularly the most probable mechanism of the observed localized corrosion. These tubes suffered from localized alkali corrosion at high pH caused by the presence of moisture/water. Corrosion occurred in areas where electrolyte accumulated under specific conditions.
Iterative Exponential Growth of Oxygen-Linked Aromatic Polymers Driven by Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution Reactions.

This work presents the first transition metal-free synthesis of oxygen-linked aromatic polymers by integrating iterative exponential polymer growth (IEG) with nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SNAr) reactions. Our approach applies methyl sulfones as the leaving groups, which eliminates the need for a transition-metal catalyst, while also providing flexibility in functionality and configuration of the building blocks used. As indicated by (i) 1H-1H NOESY NMR spectroscopy, (ii) single crystal X-ray crystallography, and (iii) density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the unimolecular polymers obtained are folded by non-classical hydrogen bonds formed between the oxygens of the electron rich aromatic rings and the positively-polarized C–H bonds of the electron poor pyrimidine functions. Our results not only introduce a transition metal-free synthetic methodology to access precision polymers, but also demonstrate how interactions between relatively small, neutral aromatic units in the polymers can be utilized as a new supramolecular interaction pairs to control the folding of precision macromolecules.
State-level structural sexism and cesarean sections in the United States

Abstract The United States (U.S.) has one of the highest cesarean rates in the world yet little research considers structural factors, like racism and sexism, associated with the higher than recommended cesarean rate. New research operationalizes and quantifies structural sexism across U.S. states, which allows for consideration of how social norms and values around women and their bodies relate to the overmedicalization of birth through cesarean sections. We obtained restricted natality data for 2018 from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. In 2018, among people 15–49 years, 987,187 births fit the criteria for low-risk of cesarean section. Structural sexism scores were derived from 6 elements covering economic, political, cultural, and physical arenas that were totaled and standardized to create an aggregate index for each state and DC (scores range from −1.06 to 1.4). Using multivariable logistic and multilevel mixed effects logistic regression models, we examined the associations between structural sexism and low-risk cesarean section for all fifty states and the District of Columbia, controlling for relevant confounders. We found that structural sexism in 2018 was highest in historically religious mountain states and the South. Nationally, the low-risk cesarean rate was 25.1%. Multilevel models show that people living in states with higher structural sexism scores were more likely to have a cesarean section (OR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.07–1.39). Structural sexism is related to low-risk cesarean rates in U.S., providing evidence that social ideas and norms about women and their bodies are related to overmedicalization of birth. Health policymakers, providers and scholars should pay attention to structural drivers, including structural sexism, as a factor that affects overmedicalization of birth and subsequent health outcomes for pregnant people and their infants.
Unraveling the Origins and History of the Outer Halo Cluster System

The nucleosynthetic histories of the outer halo globular clusters, as inferred by their chemical abundance patterns, are crucial tracers of the early formation of the Galactic halo and subsequent evolution of the Galaxy. Some outer halo clusters have been purported to be associated with galactic merger events such as the present-day merger with the Sgr dwarf galaxy. Reported here are preliminary abundance results for a sub-sample of the data acquired for this investigation.
Building Communities of Practice for Foreign Language Teachers

The author of the article discusses her experiences with communities of practice (COPs) for foreign language teachers and her advocacy for the establishment of COPs in schools. The author cites the work of educational theorist Etienne Wenger. The Native Speaker Model (NSM) of teaching in COPs and its predominance in the U.S. is examined including the effect on nonnative teachers who conclude that they are ineligible for COPs. The author argues that COPs contribute to the professional development of teachers, as does teaching higher level classes to help prevent nonnative Spanish teachers from plateauing at a certain level of the language. It is argued that COPs should be created at the preservice level, take into account mutual learning, and include native and nonnative teachers.
Metal ion-binding properties of avian thymic hormone.

Abstract Lanthanide ion luminescence studies and 45Ca2(+)-binding measurements were used to study the metal ion-binding properties of avian thymic hormone. The procedure used to isolate the protein--involving heat-treatment at 80 degrees C, trichloroacetic acid precipitation, DEAE-agarose chromatography, and gel filtration--affords material that is deemed homogeneous by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis as well as the absence of a detectable tryptophan signal in the fluorescence emission spectrum. Avian thymic hormone exhibits a pI = 4.35 when subjected to isoelectric focusing through polyacrylamide gels. The two ion-binding sites are indistinguishable in their interactions with Ca2+ and Mg2+, displaying KCa = 8 nM and KMg = 68 microM. The Eu3+ 7Fo----5Do excitation spectrum at pH 6 displays a peak at 5795.4 A, with a shoulder at 5792.8 A and is replaced at higher pH values by a broader spectrum with a maximum at 5784.8 A and a shoulder at 5777.1 A. The pKa governing this spectral interconversion is 8.21. All of these properties are very similar to those observed with other parvalbumins. However, polyclonal antibodies to avian thymic hormone do not cross-react with the parvalbumin from chicken leg muscle, as judged by Western blot analysis-further evidence that avian thymic hormone and the muscle-associated chicken parvalbumin are indeed distinct proteins.
Layering predictions: flexible use of dialog expectation in speech recognition

When computer speech recognition is used for problem solving or any plan based task, predictable features of the user's behavior may be inferred and used to aid the recognition of the speech input. The MINDS system generates expectations of what will be said next and uses them to assist speech recognition. Since a user does not always conform to system expectations, MINDS handles violated expectations. We use pragmatic knowledge to dynamically derive constraints about what the user is likely to say next. Then we loosen the constraints in a principled manner to generate layered sets of predictions which range from very specific to very general. To enable the speech system to give priority to recognizing what a user is most likely to say, each prediction set dynamically generates a grammar which is used by the speech recognizer. A different set of grammars is created after each user utterance. The grammars are tried in order of most specific first, until an acceptable parse is found. This allows optimal performance when users behave predictably, and displays graceful degradation when they do not.
GPR18 in microglia: implications for the CNS and endocannabinoid system signalling

A review of what is presently known about the G protein coupled receptor GPR18 in terms of its expression and distribution, pharmacology and potential implications for central nervous system and endocannabinoid system signalling. LINKED ARTICLES This article is part of a themed section on Cannabinoids. To view the other articles in this section visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bph.2012.167.issue-8.
Nucleotide Sequence Databases

There are internationally available databases containing nucleotide data. These resources are useful for investigating basic and advanced research problems. Keywords: GenBank; EMBL; DDBJ; sequence data; nucleotides
Refinement of Primary and Eutectic Silicon Phases in Shape Casting of Hyper‐Eutectic Al‐Si Alloys

Hyper-eutectic Al-Si alloys composed of low-density materials with excellent castablity are good candidates for aerospace and automobile applications. Our efforts over the last few years have demonstrated that such hyper-eutectic Al-Si alloys with no primary silicon phase but with a eutectic microstructure that assumes nano-fibrous morphology for the eutectic silicon phase can be grown by directional solidification. In pursuit of this effort, more hyper-eutectic Al-Si alloys containing ultra-refined primary and eutectic silicon phases have been grown by an alternate casting method known as shape casting. The process of this fabrication and the microstructure of the resulting alloys are presented here.
Efficacy of maropitant in the prevention of delayed vomiting associated with administration of doxorubicin to dogs.

Background: Vomiting, nausea, inappetence, and diarrhea are common delayed adverse effects of doxorubicin. Maropitant, a neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist, is known to prevent acute vomiting in dogs receiving cisplatin. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of maropitant in preventing delayed vomiting after administration of doxorubicin to dogs. Animals: Fifty-nine dogs with cancer. Methods: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study used a cross-over design. Dogs were randomized into 1 of 2 treatment groups. Group A received maropitant after the 1st doxorubicin, and placebo after the 2nd. Group B received placebo first, and maropitant second. Maropitant (2 mg/kg) or placebo tablets were administered PO for 5 days after doxorubicin treatment. Owners completed visual analog scales based on Veterinary Cooperative Oncology Group-Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events to grade their pet's clinical signs during the week after administration of doxorubicin. Statistical differences in gastrointestinal toxicosis and myelosuppression between maropitant and placebo treatments were evaluated. Results: Significantly fewer dogs had vomiting (P= .001) or diarrhea (P= .041), and the severity of vomiting (P < .001) and diarrhea (P= .024) was less the week after doxorubicin when receiving maropitant compared with placebo. No differences were found between maropitant and placebo for other gastrointestinal and bone marrow toxicoses. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Maropitant is effective in preventing delayed vomiting induced by doxorubicin. Its prophylactic use might improve quality of life and decrease the need for dose reductions in certain dogs.
The Effect of Cognitive Load on Decision Making with Graphically Displayed Uncertainty Information

An experiment examined the ability of five graphical displays to communicate uncertainty information when end users were under cognitive load (i.e., remembering an eight-digit number). The extent to which people could accurately derive information from the graphs and the adequacy of decisions about optimal behaviors based on the graphs were assessed across eight scenarios in which probabilistic outcomes were described. Results indicated that the load manipulation did not have an overall effect on derivation of information from the graphs (i.e., mean and probability estimation) but did suppress the ability to optimize behavioral choices based on the graph. Cognitive load affected people's use of some graphical displays (basic probability distribution function) more than others. Overall, the research suggests that interpreting basic characteristics of uncertainty data is unharmed under conditions of limited cognitive resources, whereas more deliberative processing is negatively affected.
The Archaeology of Early Rome and Latium

The Archaeology of Early Rome and Latium. R. Ross Holloway. London: Routledge, 1996, 203 pp,
The American Marketing Association's 2004 Definition of Marketing: Perspectives on Its Implications for Scholarship and the Role and Responsibility of Marketing in Society

Abstract In 2004, the American Marketing Association announced a new definition of marketing. This special section examines the implications of this definition for (1) scholarship—in particular, scholarship that addresses “marketing and society”—and (2) the role and responsibility of marketing in society.
Formation constants of RuII(hedta)− complexes of olefins and η2-coordinated pyrimidines related to cytidine and uridine

The association constants for the formation of RuII(hedta)L−, where L=an olefin or an η2-coordinated pyrimidine nucleobase derivative of C or U, were determined for 16 ligand structures. The formation constants Kf are a sensitive function of the substituent of the α-carbon of the olefin unit. Effective Kfs range over 5 orders of magnitude (from Kf=7.51, L=3-deazauracil; Kf=6.33×103, L=3-cyclohexen-1-methanol; to Kf=2.04×106, L= methyl vinyl ketone) depending on the electronic influence of the α substituents. π-Withdrawing groups such as a keto functionality increase Kf by 102 to 103 in magnitude. π-Donating units (RNH2, OH) reduce Kf by 10 to 102 in magnitude. Steric factors are of less importance for determining the overall Kf value. The sensitivity to electronic versus steric factors places RuII mid-range on a scale deduced previously by Tolman from low-oxidation state complexes of lower coordination number than RuII(hedta): Ni0>Pt0>RhI>RuII>PtII>CuI>AgI. (The position of RuII is defined by the current study.) The combined influence of substituents and functionalities of uracil/uridine rings cancel each other; the net affinity (Kf=1.2×103, L=uridine) is virtually the same as a simple olefin without electronically active α substituents. This promotes η2 coordination of uridine nucleobases to RuII(hedta)−. The largest value of Kf for an olefin was found for methyl vinyl ketone, MVK. This olefin coordinates in the η2 mode to all three stereochemical isomers of RuII(hedta)− as shown by the 1H NMR spectrum. Two forms with the olefinic unit trans to the nitrogen, either the one substituted by the N-hydroxyethyl functionality or the nitrogen doubly substituted by glycinate units, provide unhindered coordination to MVK. The third isomer of Ru(hedta)(MVK)− is structurally more hindered and the coordinated ligand exhibits distinguishable Ha and Hb terminal MVK protons. Protons of the olefin region and the methyl group of MVK all exhibit large upfield 1H resonance shifts upon coordination. The highest measured binding constant for Ru(hedta)(MVK)− parallels the highest stability for η2 olefin complexes of RuII as determined by the E12 values of RuIII/III(hedta)L0/−; (E12=0.80 V versus NHE for the MVK complex). It is shown, however, that Kf is not simply related to the E12 values and Kf may be a function of changing solvation of olefins upon coordination.
Collagen, proteoglycan and hyaluronidase activity in cultures from normal and scoliotic chicken fibroblasts.

Abstract Connective tissue matrix components were investigated using skin fibroblasts from normal or inbred scoliotic lines of chickens. Specifically, the fibroblasts were obtained from either an isogenic line or a backcross, derived by crossing the isogenic line with a pure line of scoliotic birds. From the backcross, both affected (35–45%) and non-affected (55–65%) progeny were produced. The affected birds had spinal curves greater than 20°. Several abnormalities of connective tissue were observed when cells from scoliotic chicks were grown in culture: increased collagen extractability, decreased aggregatability of proteoglycans under associative conditions and lower than normal levels of hyaluronic acid. There was also less colagen deposited in the cell layer with proportionately increased amounts of collagen secreted into the culture media by cells from scoliotic versus normal chick fibroblasts. Values for collagen matrix stability, as estimated by extractability and net deposition, were intermediate for cells from the backcrossed, but non-affected, birds. Moreover, hyaluronidase, an enzyme that degrades hyaluronic acid, was abnormally elevated in the fibroblast cultures from scoliotic chicks. It is proposed that the increase in hyaluronidase contributes to the abnormalities observed in extracellular matrix components and may be a factor in the expression of scoliosis in susceptible birds.
An electrolyte droplet-based low frequency accelerometer based on molecular electronic transducer

This paper reports a liquid-state low frequency micro-accelerometer based on molecular electronic transducer (MET) which senses movement of liquid electrolyte relative to fixed electrodes. The device employs a sub-microliter electrolyte droplet encapsulated in oil as the sensing body and MET electrodes as read-out mechanism. Silicon-based planar micro-fabrication technology is applied to simplify the fabrication and enable mass production. The device achieves sensitivity of 10.8 V/G (G = 9.81 m/s2) at 20 Hz with nearly flat response over the frequency range of 1-40 Hz and a low noise floor of 100 μG/√(Hz) at 20 Hz.
Preoperative regimens of magnesium facilitate recovery of function and prevent subcortical atrophy following lesions of the rat sensorimotor cortex.

Abstract Following brain injury, there is a reduction of intra- and extracellular levels of magnesium (Mg ++ ), which may contribute to the severity of the lesion-induced behavioral impairments. Injections of magnesium prior to or after brain injury attenuate these behavioral impairments. The present study extends these findings by manipulating the number of injections and the time period between the injections and the time of injury. Rats were given either two or five daily preoperative injections of MgCl 2 (1 mmol/kg, ip), or saline (1 ml/kg, ip) with the final injection given 24 h prior to electrolytic lesions of the somatic sensorimotor cortex (SMC). Following SMC lesions the rats exhibited contralateral deficits in forelimb placing and locomotor placing. Rats treated with either two or five preoperative injections of MgCl 2 showed a reduction in the initial magnitude of the contralateral deficits and an accelerated rate of recovery compared to saline-treated rats. In addition, analysis of striatal atrophy revealed that MgCl 2 treatment prevented atrophy in the ipsilateral posterior striatum compared to rats treated with saline. These data suggest that preoperative injections of MgCl 2 produce facilitation of sensorimotor recovery and reduce subcortical atrophy. Moreover, to observe the beneficial effects of MgCl 2 , the timing of injections need not be tied to the period immediately around the brain injury. The present data may indicate that daily supplements of magnesium may partially protect against some of the deleterious effects of brain injury.