cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction to Predict Occurrence of Symptomatic Cytomegalovirus Infection and Assess Response to Ganciclovir Therapy in Renal Transplant Recipients

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA levels were measured by quantitative-competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in weekly leukocyte samples from 50 renal transplant recipients, including 23 with symptomatic and 27 with asymptomatic CMV infection. Peak and week 4 CMV DNA levels were higher in symptomatic subjects (P = .07 and .02, respectively). In a logistic regression model, the logarithm of the week 4 level independently predicted symptomatic infection (odds ratio, 1.78 for a 1 log10 increase; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-2.78; P = .01). All subjects whose week 4 level exceeded 1000 copies/100,000 leukocytes developed symptoms. In subjects with adequate samples for analysis, CMV levels declined exponentially with ganciclovir treatment, with an average half-life of 3.3 days. Levels exceeding 10,000 copies were associated with prolonged time to clearing of CMV DNA. Potential clinical applications of quantitative CMV PCR include predicting occurrence of symptomatic first episodes after transplantation and individualizing duration of antiviral therapy.
Managing flash crowds on the Internet

A flash crowd is a surge in traffic to a particular Web site that causes the site to be virtually unreachable. We present a model of flash crowd events and evaluate the performance of various multilevel caching techniques suitable for managing these events. By using well-dispersed caches and with judicious choice of replacement algorithms we show reductions in client response times by as much as a factor of 25. We also show that these caches eliminate the server and network hot spots by distributing the load over the entire network.
Tetraglycidyl epoxy resins and graphite fiber composites cured with flexibilized aromatic diamines

Studies were performed to synthesize new ether modified, flexibilized aromatic diamine hardeners for curing epoxy resins. The effect of moisture absorption on the glass transition temperatures of a tetraglycidyl epoxy, MY 720, cured with flexibilized hardeners and a conventional aromatic diamine was studied. Unidirectional composites, using epoxy-sized Celion 6000 graphite fiber as the reinforcement, were fabricated. The room temperature and 300 F mechanical properties of the composites, before and after moisture exposure, were determined. The Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness of the composites was characterized using a double cantilever beam technique to calculate the critical strain energy release rate.
Rejuvenation of human cardiac progenitor cells with pim-1 kinase

Rationale:Myocardial function is enhanced by adoptive transfer of human cardiac progenitor cells (hCPCs) into a pathologically challenged heart. However, advanced age, comorbidities, and myocardial injury in patients with heart failure constrain the proliferation, survival, and regenerative capacity of hCPCs. Rejuvenation of senescent hCPCs will improve the outcome of regenerative therapy for a substantial patient population possessing functionally impaired stem cells. Objective:Reverse phenotypic and functional senescence of hCPCs by ex vivo modification with Pim-1. Methods and Results:C-kit–positive hCPCs were isolated from heart biopsy samples of patients undergoing left ventricular assist device implantation. Growth kinetics, telomere lengths, and expression of cell cycle regulators showed significant variation between hCPC isolated from multiple patients. Telomere length was significantly decreased in hCPC with slow-growth kinetics concomitant with decreased proliferation and upregulation of senescen...
Observation of mass loading in the Io plasma torus

Ground‐based high‐resolution spectra of emission from the Io plasma torus obtained during 53 nights of observation over a seven month period are used to measure the torus rotation speed and discern regions of the torus that are slowed by mass loading of newly ionized materials. The amount of torus slowing implies that between 2000 and 3000 kg sec^(−1) are being ionized by the torus. The slowing is spread azimuthally throughout the orbit of Io, suggesting that neutral materials emanating from Io are distributed around Jupiter much more uniformly than currently believed.
NEUROMUSCULAR AND CARDIOVASCULAR EFFECTS OF MIVACURIUM CHLORIDE (BWB1090U) DURING NITROUS OXIDE-FENTANYL-THIOPENTONE AND NITROUS OXIDE-HALOTHANE ANAESTHESIA

Seventy-two adult surgical patients were studied to compare neuromuscular and cardiovascular effects of mivacurium chloride during nitrous oxide-fentanyl-thiopentone (BAL group) or nitrous oxide-halothane (HAL group) anaesthesia. Eighteen patients in the BAL group received an initial bolus of mivacurium, either the ED25 (n = 9) or the ED50 (n = 9) (0.03 and 0.05 mg kg–1). These doses were based on the assumption that the slope of the dose-response curve during nitrous oxide-opioid anaesthesia would be approximately the same as the slope of the neuromuscular response from the first human studies with mivacurium. Twenty-seven additional patients were allocated to subgroups of nine patients to receive mivacurium 0.04. 0.08 or 0.15 mg kg−1. Twenty-seven patients in the HAL group were allocated also to subgroups of nine patients to receive mivacurium 0.03, 0.04 or 0.15 mg kg−1. During stable anaesthesia, mean endtidal halothane concentrations were maintained at 0.49±0.01%. The estimated ED50, ED75 and ED95 for BAL and HAL groups were 0.039, 0.05 and 0.073 mg kg−1 and 0.040, 0.053 and 0.081 mg kg−1, respectively. Halothane did not potentiate maximum block or time to maximum block. Halothane did affect spontaneous recovery. With the 0.15-mg kg−1 dose, time to 95% recovery was prolonged significantly in the HAL group (30.0 (SEM 1.4) min) compared with the BAL group (24.1 (1.5) min). Recovery index from 25% to 75% recovery was also prolonged significantly in the HAL group (7.0 (0.4) min) compared with the BAL group (5.4 (0.4) min). There were no significant haemodynamic changes in groups given mivacurium doses up to and including 2 × ED95 by bolus i.v. administration
The anisotropic bond model of nonlinear optics

The anisotropic-bond model (ABM) of nonlinear optics (NLO) provides a simple means of calculating NLO properties of materials by factoring the problem into four parts: first, determination of the local field at a bond-charge site; second, solution of the anharmonic force equation of the bond charge; third, calculation of the radiation from the charge; and fourth, superposition of the radiation from all charges. Because this factorization is impossible in linear optics, this is one of the few cases where a nonlinear problem is simpler than its linear equivalent.
The chaotic QT interval variabilities on risk assessment trial designs

This study evaluates QT interval variabilities (VAR) in its chaotic (beat-to-beat), circadian (across minutes/hours), and occasional (across days/weeks) domains, and provides a reference for clinical trial designs for QT prolongation assessment. Bazette, Fredericia and individual heart rate corrected QTs (QTcb, QTcf and QTci) were from 57 healthy young male subjects at 3 time points (T) in 10-min intervals. QTs from 6 beats were recorded for each T. This was then repeated for 6 separate days, each 1 week apart. Standard deviations (SD) were indices for VAR. The impact of inter- and intra- subject VARs on sample size (N) were estimated statistically and/or via simulations. The overall mean QT, QTcb, QTcf and QTci were 390.4±26.0 (range 345-427), 390.2±18.4, 390.0±16.2 and 391.8±18.5 ms, respectively, showing the inter-subject VAR is lightly dependent on correction methods. The beat-to-beat QTcf ranged 9-49 (mean 24 ms); the chaotic SD is 6.3±2.9 ms (range 1.6-11.6); the circadian SD within the 20 min, based on the means of 6 replicates per T, is 3.1±1.9 ms (range 0.78-9.8); and the between period SD, using the means of all 18 measures for each day, is 7.71±2.3 ms (range 3.11–12.24). These VARs increased nonlinearly, up to more than doubled, as the number (n) of replicated QTs per T reduced. The N and n needed to detect given degrees of QT changes for various significant levels and power for both crossover and parallel designs will be presented. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2004) 75, P55–P55; doi: 10.1016/j.clpt.2003.11.210
Diet and Insectivory in the “Araneophagic” Spider, Mimetus notius (Araneae: Mimetidae)

Abstract Data on the diet of the web-invading spider Mimetus notius were collected to determine the diet of this araneophagic spider. Mimetus notius primarily invades Theridiidae and Aaraneidae webs and is capable of preying upon at least seven families of spiders, principally in the genus Theridion (Araneae: Theridiidae). Mimetus notius invades the webs of several species on which no successful predation was observed. These data provide the first field data showing significant insectivory by a web invading mimetid, constituting 29% of the prey in this study. The presence of insects in the diet provides a potential explanation for the invasion of webs where successful predation on the resident is unlikely.
Sex-Specific Effects of Stress on Oxytocin Neurons Correspond With Responses to Intranasal Oxytocin

Oxytocin (OT) is considered to be a stress-buffering hormone, dampening the physiologic effects of stress. However, OT can also be anxiogenic. We examined acute and long-lasting effects of social defeat on OT neurons in male and female California mice.We used immunohistochemistry for OT and c-fos cells to examine OT neuron activity immediately after defeat (n = 6-9) and 2 weeks (n = 6-9) and 10 weeks (n = 4-5) later. We quantified Oxt messenger RNA with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (n = 5-9). Intranasal OT was administered to naive and stressed mice tested in social interaction and resident-intruder tests (n = 8-14).Acute exposure to a third episode of defeat increased OT/c-fos colocalizations in the paraventricular nucleus of both sexes. In the medioventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, defeat increased Oxt messenger RNA, total OT neurons, and OT/c-fos colocalizations in female mice but not male mice. Intranasal OT failed to reverse stress-induced social withdrawal in female mice and reduced social interaction behavior in female mice naive to defeat. In contrast, intranasal OT increased social interaction in stressed male mice and reduced freezing in the resident-intruder test.Social defeat induces long-lasting increases in OT production and OT/c-fos cells in the medioventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis of female mice but not male mice. Intranasal OT largely reversed the effects of stress on behavior in male mice, but effects were mixed in female mice. These results suggest that changes in OT-sensitive networks contribute to sex differences in behavioral responses to stress.
Photobiological Hydrogen Production - Prospects and Challenges

Global energy demand is projected to increase 50% or more by the year 2030, with coal remaining the primary fuel for developing countries. Because of the deleterious effects of fossil fuels and the uncertainties of future sources, the development of alternative renewable energy supplies such as hydrogen is critical. Hydrogen, the simplest and most abundant element, can be produced as a gas (H2) from various resources and, when combusted, generates water as the only byproduct. Its enabling technology, the H2-based fuel cell, is twice as efficient as the traditional internal combustion engine currently used in automobiles. However, nearly all hydrogen gas being produced industrially comes from steam-reforming of natural gas, a fossil fuel. Thus the development of alternative and renewable pathways for producing hydrogen fuels is of utmost importance.
Can Technology Decrease Sexual Risk Behaviors among Young People? Results of a Pilot Study Examining the Effectiveness of a Mobile Application Intervention

ABSTRACTCollege students represent an important population for studying and understanding factors that influence sexual risk given the populations' high risk of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies. Using a quasi-experimental design, the efficacy of a brief and theory-driven mobile application intervention designed to decrease sexual risk behaviors among young college students (N = 118) was tested. Ninety-six percent (n = 114) of the participants showed an increase in contraceptive use knowledge from pretest to posttest (p = .013). Participants did not show a statistically significant change in intention to reduce sexual risk behaviors or actual risk reduction. This study supports the use of technology to educate college students about sexual health.
Identifying Desistance Pathways in a Higher Education Program for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals

The link between education and crime is a topic that requires special attention with respect to the converging influence of individual, social, and environmental factors. This article will investigate the educational pathways followed by students in a higher education program for formerly incarcerated individuals at a large state university in the northeastern United States. Specifically, it will explore the extent to which their postincarceration educational experiences served as a “hook for change” and also related impediments tied to street influences, financial constraints, stigma, academic and social development. Data were collected from a sample of 34 current and former students in the program, each of whom participated in a face-to-face interview. The higher education program played a key role in propelling the desistance process for research participants. This article will discuss how personal agency can be sustained through participation in higher education post release and the implications for f...
Spatial variation among counts of gypsy moths (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) in pheromone-baited traps at expanding population fronts

Geostatistics were used to quantify spatial variation in captures of adult male gypsy moths, Lymantria dispar (L.), in pheromone-baited traps in the central Appalachians. Spatial variation was analyzed in the infested zone, where yearly total capture was >300 moths per trap; the transition zone, where moth capture ranged from 1 to 300 moths per trap; and the uninfested zone, where moth capture was <1 moth per trap. The trend associated with gypsy moth spread was removed in each zone using linear and nonlinear regression. Spatial correlation among trap captures in the transition zone (correlogram sill, 0.544; range, 31.2 km) was much stronger than in the infested (sill, 0.269; range, 23.9 km) and uninfested (sill, 0.222; range, 19.7 km) zones. Additional short-range correlation (range, 1.4 km) was detected in the uninfested zone. Differences in the spatial distribution of male moth populations among the 3 zones may be caused by different dominating population processes in each zone. Other factors, such as trap saturation, also may contribute to the difference in the patterns of moth captures. Obtained zone-specific geostatistical parameters can be used for interpolation of moth captures at unsampled locations and for improving gypsy moth monitoring.
Developing grant writing skills to translate practice dreams into reality

In an era of health care reform and limited financial support, good ideas for changes in clinical practice may await the available time, resources, and attention that are required to test and implement them. Developing grant writing skills is a way to attract resources to explore the feasibility and potential efficacy of changes to improve patient outcomes or efficiencies of care. This article describes the purpose of grant writing by advanced practice nurses (APNs), discusses the needs for and benefits of grant writing, identifies types and sources of available grants, describes potential roles of APNs in grant writing, describes ways to overcome barriers to grant writing, and presents strategies for writing winning grants to develop and improve practice in acute and critical care settings. These strategies will help APNs get started and provide a guide to follow in writing their first grant or will refresh their existing grant writing skills.
An aged mouse model for RSV infection and diminished CD8(+) CTL responses.

Recent studies indicate that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), like influenza, causes significant morbidity and mortality among elderly persons. There are currently no animal models to study the e...
The absence of vesicoureteral reflux in the neonate with myelodysplasia.

AbstractUrologic evaluation of 21 newborns with myelomeningoceles revealed a rarity of infection and an absence of vesicoureteral reflux on cystourethrography. An hypothesis has been advanced to explain the absence of reflux and the high incidence of reflux reported in older children with myelomeningoceles. The absence of reflux in these neonates indicates that reflux in children with myelomeningoceles is not caused by a primary congenital ureterovesical junction abnormality but rather is secondary to infection and/or progressive bladder dysfunction.
Managing water-related risks in the West Bengal Sundarbans: policy alternatives and institutions

AbstractPersistent pressures from water-related threats – sea-level rise, soil and water salinization, and flooding due to embankment overtopping and failure – have made the West Bengal Sundarbans a challenging place to live, and effects of global climate change will only worsen conditions. Four alternative policy directions are examined: business as usual; intensive rural development; short-term out-migration of residents; and embankment realignment and facilitation of voluntary, permanent out-migration. The last of these is the recommended approach. Study findings have informed ongoing deliberations to build consensus on future policy directions for reducing the region’s vulnerability to natural disasters.
Semigroup Factorization and Reconstruction

In this chapter we shall continue our study of the theory of convolution equations and its applications to abstract kinetic equations. In the first section we will outline the classical method for solving Wiener-Hopf equations on a half line. This will reduce the half space problem to a factorization problem. In the second section we shall study the connection between the semigroups developed in Chapters II and III and the solution of convolution equations corresponding to abstract kinetic equations. In this way we will obtain an alternative way of defining these projections and semigroups. In the following section we will begin a study of explicit representations of the Wiener-Hopf factors of the symbol, which is important in the derivation of representations for the solutions of the half space and the finite slab problem, to be discussed in the next chapter. In the fourth section, we present some recent results on the treatment of nonregular collision operators. Finally, in the last section, we outline the extension of the previous theory to a Banach space setting.
Compiling C for Spatial Computing

Publisher Summary This chapter describes techniques for compiling from C or similar languages to reconfigurable architectures. It describes the benefits of this approach and the contexts where it is most useful. It describes in detail the algorithms and their technical limitations and challenges. The original C code is partitioned between the central processing unit (CPU) and the RF at several granularities, including procedures, compound loops, inner loops, and blocks. The appropriate granularity for a particular system depends on the hardware available and the particular costs involved in communication between the CPU and the RF. The source code, both before and after the designer's target-specific efforts to improve performance via hints in comments or pragmas, is legal C code as defined by the ISO standard. After a decade of research, C compilation for reconfigurable computers is now commercially available in many forms. While today's commercial compilers cannot generally compile arbitrary ISO C code or take arbitrary C code, and expect to fully extract the performance of the reconfigurable fabric, they have closed the gap so that nontrivial code acceleration is possible with minor programmer effort. A developer can use the C compiler to rapidly get applications running on a suitable reconfigurable platform. C code developed or tuned with an understanding of the reconfigurable platform and the capabilities of the compiler can achieve higher performance. C compilation and optimization remain an active area of research, and it is expected to see continuing improvements over time.
Limited Edition for Me and Best Seller for You: The Impact of Scarcity versus Popularity Cues on Self versus Other-Purchase Behavior

Abstract In the online retailing context, we explore the impact of the consumption target on the relative effectiveness of scarcity versus popularity cues. Purchasing for oneself often triggers a need for uniqueness while purchasing for someone else is more uncertain and risky. We propose that the consumption target moderates the relative effectiveness of scarcity versus popularity cues in marketing promotions. Specifically, we predict that when purchasing for oneself, scarcity cues outperform popularity cues in eliciting purchase intentions, whereas when purchasing for someone else, popularity cues are more effective. In addition, we propose the serial mediation effect of perceived product uniqueness → perceived product value to explain the “scarcity for me” effect and the serial mediation effect of perceived consumption risk → perceived product value to explain the “popularity for others” effect. Further, we propose self-other overlap as a moderator of the “popularity for others” effect. Last but not least, we examine price level as a moderating factor of the proposed theory. Evidence from Google Trends analysis and four experimental studies across a variety of scenarios confirm the theorization. Based on our findings, we discuss theoretical contributions and managerial implications and suggest directions for future research.
Bacteria-clay interactions investigated by light scattering and phase contrast microscopy

Light scattering experiments and phase contrast microscopy are used to evaluate the aggregate-forming characteristics of simple clay-bacteria mixtures. Colloidal suspensions of negatively charged Pseudomonas syringae (Ps) and Mg 2+ -, Li + - or Ca 2+ -exchanged smectite (and non-exchanged smectite) are flocculated in neutral (pH 7) aqueous media. Aggregate formation is monitored using changes in optical transmission. Clustering is observed in all the clay-bacteria preparations. The Li + -substituted clay aggregates average 50-300 microns in diameter, in contrast to the Ca 2+ - substituted clay that produces aggregates of 10-50 microns in diameter. Light scattering measurements indicate that aggregates begin forming 3 hours after mixing and that the (larger sized) aggregates exhibit less scattering than a mixture with an equivalent concentration of unattached Ps and clay particles.
Fluctuation effects on microphase separation in random copolymers

We study random copolymers consisting of two kinds of monomers with attraction between similar kinds. The mean-field analysis of this system indicates a continuous phase transition into a phase with periodic microdomain structure. It is shown that the inverse of the renormalized propagator has a minimum at non-zero wave numbers. Consequently, there is an anomalously large contribution of fluctuations that make the disordered phase locally stable. However, below a certain temperature, the ordered phase is shown to be locally stable and a weak first-order transition is possible, with qualitative differences from the weak crystallization theory developed by Brazovskii. These differences are due to the peculiar form of the fourth-order vertex of the effective Hamiltonian for the system. We calculated the temperature region for the validity of the mean-field estimates of the amplitude and the scale of microphase separation.
Increasing Patient-Clinician Concordance About Medical Error Disclosure Through the Patient TIPS Model.

OBJECTIVE To test whether an educational model involving patients and family members (P/F) in medical error disclosure training for interprofessional clinicians can narrow existing gaps between clinician and P/F views about disclosure. METHOD Parallel presurveys/postsurveys using Likert scale questions for clinicians and P/F. RESULTS Baseline surveys were completed by 91% (50/55) of clinicians who attended the workshops and 74% (65/88) of P/F from a hospital patient and family advisory council. P/F's baseline views about disclosure were significantly different from clinicians' in 70% (7/10) of the disclosure expectation items and 100% (3/3) of the disclosure vignette items. For example, compared with clinicians, P/F more strongly agreed that "patients want to know all the details of what happened" and more strongly disagreed that "patients find explanation(s) more confusing than helpful." In the medication error vignette, compared with clinicians, P/F more strongly agreed that the error should be disclosed and that the patient would want to know and more strongly disagreed that disclosure would do more harm than good (all P < 0.05). After the workshop, P/F and clinician views about information sharing, fallibility, truth telling, and threshold for disclosure showed greater concordance, with significant differences remaining in less than half of the expectation items and none of the vignette responses. DISCUSSION Even with self-selecting clinicians, collaborative learning with P/F highlights important differences in patient and clinician baseline perspectives about medical error disclosure and brings patient and clinicians views closer together.
Proteomic Profiling of Protein Kinase Inhibitor Targets by Mass Spectrometry

Identifying cellular targets of bioactive small molecules from large-scale screening campaigns can be a significant bottleneck in developing novel therapeutics. Our rapid small-molecule target profiling protocol combines affinity enrichment and SILAC for proteomic identification of small molecule-protein interactions. Selective interactions are easily discernable from nonspecific protein binding by quantitative ratios. Using kinase inhibitors as an example, we provide an optimized protocol featuring on-bead protein digestion and single nano-flow liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric (LC-MS) analyses, consequently increasing analytical throughput and sensitivity over gel-based sample preparation methods for rapid profiling of kinase inhibitor targets.
L1 Adaptive Controller in the Presence of Input Saturation

This paper presents a proof of stability and performance bounds of the L1 adaptive control architecture in the presence of input constraints. We prove that by appropriate modification of the state predictor, which is used for the definition of the error signal in the adaptive laws, the stability and the performance bounds of the L1 adaptive controller can be quantified within an appropriately defined domain of attraction. While for open-loop stable system the results are global, for open-loop unstable systems the domain of attraction is shown to depend upon the conservative knowledge of the uncertain parameters, the choice of the filter and the amplitude constraint of the actuator. The performance bounds can be systematically improved by increasing the rate of adaptation. Simulations verify the theoretical findings.
A Kinetic Model of Nonenzymatic RNA Polymerization by Cytidine-5′-phosphoro-2-aminoimidazolide

The nonenzymatic polymerization of RNA may have enabled copying of functional sequences during the origin of life. Recent progress utilizing 5′-phosphoro-2-aminoimidazole activation has reinvigorated the possibility of using nonenzymatic RNA polymerization for copying arbitrary sequences. However, the reasons why 2-aminoimidazole (AI) is a superior activation group remain unclear. Here we report that the predominant mechanism of polymerization using cytidine-5′-phosphoro-2-aminoimidazolide (Cp*) involves a 2-aminoimidazolium-bridged dinucleotide (Cp*pC) intermediate. To explore the role of this intermediate, we first identify and quantify four reactions involving the synthesis and breakdown of Cp*pC that occur in the absence of the primer–template duplex. We then analyze the dependence of the rate of polymerization on the concentration of the Cp*pC intermediate in the presence and absence of the competitive inhibitor Cp. We also show that the contribution of the monomer Cp* to the polymerization rate is n...
Report of the Initial Experience with the Palmaz-Schatz Coronary Stent Following Elective Angioplasty

Vascular stents have been proposed by multiple investigators as potential solutions to abrupt closure and restenosis following PTCA in man [1, 2]. Direct comparison of the various stent designs with regard to safety and efficacy is not possible due to the absence of side by side controlled studies. Since the techniques required to deliver these devices are rapidly evolving, such comparisons would be premature. The largest experience worldwide thus far has been with the Palmaz-Schatz coronary stent developed by Johnson & Johnson Interventional Systems (Warren, New Jersey) and thus will be the subject of this chapter.
Cytotoxicity of radiocontrast dyes in human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells.

Abstract Radiocontrast dyes are used for a wide range of diagnostic procedures for enhancing the image of anatomical structures, pain targets, and vascular uptake. While some of these dyes show toxicity to primary cells, their effect on stem cells, particularly mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), is unknown. This study investigates the cytotoxic effects of two clinically used radiocontrast dyes, iohexol and iopamidol, on bone marrow and human umbilical cord MSCs. Exposure to these dyes significantly affected morphology of MSCs from both sources, as treated cells appeared transparent and no longer fibroblastoid. Cell viability decreased as determined by trypan blue and Annexin-V/PI staining, in a dose dependent manner with simultaneous loss of CD90 and CD105 concurrent with spontaneous differentiation in MSCs treated with iohexol and iopamidol. In addition, significantly higher cell death was observed in MSCs exposed to iopamidol than iohexol. At a concentration of 1:1, iohexol and iopamidol induced apoptosis in 19% and 92% (
Calibration of Asphalt Concrete Cracking Models for California Mechanistic-Empirical Design (CalME)

Cracking is one of the major distress mechanisms for pavements with asphalt concrete surfaces. Given the composite nature of asphalt concrete, simulation methods such as the Discrete Element Method (DEM) that can incorporate material microstructure are required for properly describing the formation and progression of cracking in flexible pavements. These methods are however typically too time-consuming for use in routine design. As a trade off, a simplified approach based on continuum damage mechanics is taken in the California Mechanistic-Empirical method, called CalME, for practical considerations. The effect of cracking (broken contacts) is described as decreases in overall stiffness, which is indicated by damage. The rate of damage increase is in turn empirically related to peak strain energy endured by the material. The format and constants of this relationship are determined from laboratory fatigue testing of the asphalt concrete. Except for the first few loads, where temperature effects may be pronounced, all of the stiffness versus number of load applications curve are used. Once damage history is calculated, visual surface cracking history can be derived as an empirical function of damage and asphalt layer thickness. This paper presents the CalME fatigue and reflective cracking model and its calibration process using deflection data collected from various Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) tests and the WesTrack accelerated pavement testing experiment.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Neurobiology of*

Traumatic stress can lead to chronic symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which are mediated by changes in brain structure and function. Brain areas involved in memory, including the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala, mediate symptoms of PTSD and associated memory dysfunction.
Atoms, Ions, and Electrons

The decade from 1895 to 1905 may be termed the beginning of modern physics. During this period J. J. Thomson succeeded in demonstrating the existence of the electron, a fundamental unit of negative electricity with very small mass, Becquerel discovered the phenomenon of natural radioactivity, and Roentgen discovered x-rays. To these discoveries must be added the bold hypothesis put forth by Planck to explain the distribution of energy in the spectrum of the radiation from a blackbody, namely, that electromagnetic radiation, in its interaction with matter, is emitted or absorbed in whole units, called quanta of energy; each quantum has an energy e = hv, where v is the frequency of the radiation emitted or absorbed and h is a constant now called the Planck constant. Einstein (1905), in a treatment of the photoelectric effect, extended Planck’s hypothesis by showing that electromagnetic radiation, in its interaction with matter, behaves as though it consists of particles, called photons, each photon having an energy e = hv. N. Bohr (1913) used this concept in his very successful and beautiful theory of the hydrogen atom. All these ideas led to one of the most important developments of twentieth-century physics, the quantum theory; this theory includes quantum mechanics and the quantum theory of radiation. During this same period (1905–1913) an equally important change in the foundation of physics resulted from the development of the theory of relativity by Einstein: one part, which deals with systems in motion with uniform velocity relative to one another, is called the special or restricted theory of relativity and will be of major interest here; a second part, in which these restrictions are removed, is called the general theory of relativity and will be of less interest to us.
Randomized trial protocol of bridge intervention for patients with serious mental illness and cancer.

153Background: Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) diagnosed with cancer often have disruptions in treatment, leading to premature mortality compared to patients without SMI. To address s...
Ethics in Clinical Research

Historically, medical research was conducted without formal regulations, supervision informed consent, or recognition of patient rights and interests. Ethical oversight has been implemented through the development of international, federal, and institutional guidelines to protect human subjects in clinical research. When proposing and conducting experiments involving human subjects, researchers must comply with these guidelines. Clinical research on human subjects must consider the ethical representation of vulnerable and minority populations to avoid misrepresentation and improve generalizability. Responsibilities concerning the ethics of clinical research also fall to publishers and editors of medical journals. Conflict of interest disclosures as well as the awareness of self-citation and predatory journals contribute to the prevention of data fraud and misconduct.
Phonon Transport Across Coherent and Incoherent Interfaces

Phonon-mediated heat transport in two-dimensional superlattices with coherent and incoherent interfaces is simulated by using the concurrent atomistic-continuum method. The energy transmission across superlattices with incoherent interfaces is found to be an order of magnitude lower than that with coherent interfaces. The simulation results provide a direct visualization of the transient processes of phonon propagation and scatterings, which facilitates an improved mechanistic understanding of phonon transport across multiple interfaces. This work finds that heat conduction in superlattices with coherent interfaces is dominated by coherent phonons, while the existence of defects that comprise the incoherent interfaces destroys the wave interference and changes the phonon transport nature from coherent to diffusive. In addition, phonon scattering by interface defects becomes stronger with decreasing phonon wavelength, and the phonon coherence is destroyed for phonons with 5 nm wavelength.
Detection and removal of biologically active organic micropollutants from hospital wastewater.

The presence of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), such as antibiotics, antimicrobial disinfectants, nonprescription drugs, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and steroids, in water resources can impact aquatic and human health. A large portion of the CECs entering regional wastewater treatment plants originate from hospitals. The purposes of this study were to conduct exploratory analytical work to characterize two hospital wastewaters and to evaluate treatment of CECs at hospitals before dilution with domestic wastewater. A 24-h batch reaction with biogenic manganese oxides coated onto coir fiber was used to treat the wastewaters. Organic contaminants in the wastewaters were concentrated by both liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE). LLE extracts were analyzed by Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography/Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (GC × GC-TOFMS) while SPE extracts were analyzedby UltraHigh Performance Liquid Chromatography/Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-TOFMS). Fifty-two organic micropollutants were detected (26 by GC × GC-TOFMS, 25 by UHPLC-TOFMS, 1 by both) in the wastewaters, while 29 were removed by >90% and six were degraded by <50% after treatment. Control experiments revealed that sorption to coir fiber and oxidation by manganese oxides were the primary contaminant removal mechanisms. Both the LLE and SPE extracts were used to evaluate potential human toxicity of the hospital wastewaters before and after treatment. Twenty-eight human cell-based bioreceptor assays were used to screen the wastewaters, and secondary tests were run to quantify toxicity equivalents to activated receptors. The wastewaters initially contained organic micropollutants that strongly activated the Androgen Receptor, Estrogen Receptor β, and the Mineralocorticoid Receptor but no bioactive compounds were detected after treatment. Point-of-entry treatment of hospital wastewater should reduce bioactive compounds from entering the environment.
Self-Censorship and Associational Life in the Liberal Academy

Self-censorship is a well-documented phenomenon within the academy. Building from the works of Tocqueville, Mill, and Smith, this paper identifies sources of self-censorship within the academy, namely the values of intellectual abrasion and civility, that are associated with the liberal intellectual tradition. The resulting phenomenon of self-censorship, I argue, has both positive and negative effects on the quality of public and academic discourse. Given the dual nature of self-censorship, scholars seeking to make the morally upright choice of whether to self-censor or to speak up face both an epistemological and a moral challenge. I argue that in discussions of the “impartial spectator” and the virtue of self-command, Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments anticipates these challenges and lends guidance to the scholar who is sincerely committed to doing what is right when navigating associational life within the academy.
Usefulness of Castor Oil and Elobixibat and Lactulose for Bowel Preparation for Colon Capsule Endoscopy in the patients on Dialysis -Including examination of small intestinal lesions-

Colon capsule endoscopy was approved for reimbursement under the national health insurance system of Japan in 2014. Dialysis patients are potentially susceptible to bleeding because of the fragile intestine, impaired platelet function, or oral administration of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or anticoagulants. However, the capsule excretion rate after recommended bowel preparation reportedly ranges from 70% to 90%, and administration of boosters is also necessary. For dialysis patients, liquid loading is a problem. The patient on dialysis has moisture restrictions. The caster oil-based booster had an emission rate of 97%, but required a total water content of 3L. A study was conducted on dialysis patients using a protocol in which castor oil was supplemented with Elobixibat and Lactulose to determine whether booster volume could be reduced and elimination rates improved.
Ultrafast Dynamics at Lipid–Water Interfaces

Lipid membranes are more than just barriers between cell compartments; they provide molecular environments with a finely tuned balance between hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions that enable proteins to dynamically fold and self-assemble to regulate biological function. Characterizing dynamics at the lipid-water interface is essential to understanding molecular complexities from the thermodynamics of liquid-liquid phase separation down to picosecond-scale reorganization of interfacial hydrogen-bond networks.Ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy, including two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) and vibrational sum-frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopies, is a powerful tool to examine picosecond interfacial dynamics. Two-dimensional IR spectroscopy provides a bond-centered view of dynamics with subpicosecond time resolutions, as vibrational frequencies are highly sensitive to the local environment. Recently, 2D IR spectroscopy has been applied to carbonyl and phosphate vibrations intrinsically located at the lipid-water interface. Interface-specific VSFG spectroscopy probes the water vibrational modes directly, accessing H-bond strength and water organization at lipid headgroup positions. Signals in VSFG arise from the interfacial dipole contributions, directly probing headgroup ordering and water orientation to provide a structural view of the interface.In this Account we discuss novel applications of ultrafast spectroscopy to lipid membranes, a field that has experienced significant growth over the past decade. In particular, ultrafast experiments now offer a molecular perspective on increasingly complex membranes. The powerful combination of ultrafast, interface-selective spectroscopy and simulations opens up new routes to understanding multicomponent membranes and their function. This Account highlights key prevailing views that have emerged from recent experiments: (1) Water dynamics at the lipid-water interface are slow compared to those of bulk water as a result of disrupted H-bond networks near the headgroups. (2) Peptides, ions, osmolytes, and cosolvents perturb interfacial dynamics, indicating that dynamics at the interface are affected by bulk solvent dynamics and vice versa. (3) The interfacial environment is generally dictated by the headgroup structure and orientation, but hydrophobic interactions within the acyl chains also modulate interfacial dynamics. Ultrafast spectroscopy has been essential to characterizing the biophysical chemistry of the lipid-water interface; however, challenges remain in interpreting congested spectra as well as designing appropriate model systems to capture the complexity of a membrane environment.
Theory and the Replication Problem

Many refinements of statistical design have been offered to solve the replication problem identified by the Open Science Collaboration and Camerer and colleagues. There are, however, two distinct k...
The tangled web: is cyber participation still predictive of offline civic engagement?

Research examining cyber participation provide a preponderance of evidence that it has an independent effect on voting and other offline activities. However, most of the studies were conducted when...
Precession of the Orbit of a Planet around Stars Revolving along: Low-Eccentricity Orbits in a Binary System: Analytical Solution

Abstract In our previous paper (hereafter, paper I) we presented analytical results on the non-planar motion of a planet around a binary star for the cases of the circular orbits of the components of the binary. We found that the orbital plane of the planet (the plane containing the “unperturbed” elliptical orbit of the planet), in addition to precessing about the angular momentum of the binary, undergoes simultaneously the precession within the orbital plane. We demonstrated that the analytically calculated frequency of this additional precession is not the same as the frequency of the precession of the orbital plane about the angular momentum of the binary, though the frequencies of both precessions are of the same order of magnitude. In the present paper we extend the analytical results from paper I by relaxing the assumption that the binary is circular – by allowing for a relatively small eccentricity e of the stars orbits in the binary. We obtain an additional, e-dependent term in the effective potential for the motion of the planet. By analytical calculations we demonstrate that in the particular case of the planar geometry (where the planetary orbit is in the plane of the stars orbits), it leads to an additional contribution to the frequency of the precession of the planetary orbit. We show that this additional, e-dependent contribution to the precession frequency of the planetary orbit can reach the same order of magnitude as the primary, e-independent contribution to the precession frequency. Besides, we also obtain analytical results for another type of the non-planar configuration corresponding to the linear oscillatory motion of the planet along the axis of the symmetry of the circular orbits of the stars. We show that as the absolute value of the energy increases, the period of the oscillations decreases.
mTORC1 activation is not sufficient to suppress hepatic PPARα signaling or ketogenesis.

The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is often referred to as a master regulator of the cellular metabolism that can integrate the growth factor and nutrient signaling. Fasting suppresses hepatic mTORC1 activity via the activity of the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), a negative regulator of mTORC1, to suppress anabolic metabolism. The loss of TSC1 in the liver locks the liver in a constitutively anabolic state even during fasting, which was suggested to regulate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) signaling and ketogenesis, but the molecular determinants of this regulation are unknown. Here, we examined if the activation of the mTORC1 complex in mice by the liver-specific deletion of TSC1 (TSC1L−/−) is sufficient to suppress PPARα signaling and therefore ketogenesis in the fasted state. We found that the activation of mTORC1 in the fasted state is not sufficient to repress PPARα-responsive genes or ketogenesis. Furthermore, we examined whether the activation of the anabolic program mediated by mTORC1 complex activation in the fasted state could suppress the robust catabolic programming and enhanced PPARα transcriptional response of mice with a liver-specific defect in mitochondrial long-chain fatty acid oxidation using carnitine palmitoyltransferase 2 (Cpt2L−/−) mice. We generated Cpt2L−/−; Tsc1L−/− double-KO mice and showed that the activation of mTORC1 by deletion of TSC1 could not suppress the catabolic PPARα-mediated phenotype of Cpt2L−/− mice. These data demonstrate that the activation of mTORC1 by the deletion of TSC1 is not sufficient to suppress a PPARα transcriptional program or ketogenesis after fasting.
Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome Is Associated With Infant Foster Care Entry At The County Level.

Although the number of infants diagnosed with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) and the number of infants entering foster care have increased substantially in the US since 2009, analyses e...