cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Safety Inspection of Plant Products

The focus of this chapter is to ascertain the safety of plants and plant products intended for human and animal consumption by examining them for potential contaminants with the aid of hyperspectral imaging technology. Globally, the demand for fresh plant products is growing due to improved living standards and increased health awareness. This demand also increases the primary concerns of most food producers, food safety and the prevention of food-borne illness. Three major contaminants related to food safety are discussed, including food pathogens, chemical contaminants, and physical contaminants. Generally, the established techniques for food safety inspection are time-consuming and labor intensive. In the new millennium, advances in hyperspectral imaging technology have presented the opportunity for developing rapid and non-invasive methods for novel food safety inspection approaches. Many aspects of using this technology for plant product safety inspection are discussed. Hyperspectral images were acquired in reflectance, transmittance, and/or fluorescence mode. The application of the technology for safety inspection of major commodities such as grains (corn, wheat, barley, soybean), produce (fruits and vegetables), and tree nuts is also discussed in the present chapter. It seems evident that hyperspectral technology could offer a viable detection method to address the contamination issues related to plant products.
Launching low-energy surface plasmons in purple gold (AuAl2)

We confirm that the unusual purple color of the intermetallic compound AuAl2 is of a plasmonic origin by launching surface plasmons (SPs) in thin AuAl2 films. We measure the SP dispersion relation and also use the films to measure the index of refraction of sucrose solutions using standard SP resonance sensing. We find that the SP energy in planar AuAl2 is approximately 2.1 eV, about 0.4 eV lower than in gold, and the material is highly resistant to oxidation. This is close to what is expected from previously reported measurements of the dielectric function of AuAl2. On this basis, we predict that AuAl2 nanoparticles will a have very strong, spectrally nearly uniform light absorbance about an order of magnitude greater than standard carbon black. Such particles may therefore find applications as obscurants or as an alternative to more complex light-absorbing gold structures in areas such as photothermal therapy or solar steam generation, or in plasmonic catalysis.
The Coming Singularity in Media Regulation

The potential singularity identified in this paper is the cable-based internet service provider as the sole vendor capable of providing truly high speed broadband digital connectivity in the American context. The premise is that broadband IP replaces virtually all of its legacy competitors such as analog telephony and terrestrial broadcasting. This prospectively unchallenged chokepoint for political communication, advertising, entertainment and economic transactions could extract monopoly rents and distort otherwise open political processes. As minimally acceptable broadband throughputs escalate, the physical limitations of twisted-pair based digital subscriber loop technologies increasingly limit the incumbent telephone carrier as a meaningful competitor. Satellite-based IP service providers face equally if not even more daunting technical challenges in providing true broadband connectivity at scale. To avoid a return to the inflexibility of full tariff-based common carrier regulation of an inadvertent but potentially de facto monopolist, there remains one potential meaningful competitive technology for provision of broadband IP – terrestrial wireless, particularly the extension of uncapped cellular data into the marketplace for fixed provision. The particular advantage of such a model is the prospect of multiple carriers rather than a perpetuation of the present-day duopoly competition between cable and DSL service in the United States.The balance of the paper reviews the technical, economic, regulatory and political basis of this proposition in more detail. These issues include: the hard-to-predict evolving marketplace definition of minimally acceptable broadband throughput, the temporal spikiness of the demand curve, the potential spectral demands of wireless broadband provision at scale, increasingly efficient fourth and fifth generation high speed wireless modulation standards, the politics and economics of the current and prospective spectrum auctions, the possibility of driving fiber deeper into the cellular system, the special case of rural access, the shrinking distinction between fixed and mobile IP, and the ramifications of such market dynamics for network neutrality policy. The paper addresses two particular difficult impediments to a meaningful evolution of a marketplace for fixed wireless IP. The first is delicate market economics of wireless data caps. Most consumers consider cellular data and wireline-based Wi-Fi access as two different animals – one as billed by the bit and one by the month. The distinction, of course, is historical rather than technical and it may be hard to wean wireless providers from what are currently decidedly profitable schemes of data provision. The second is the realpolitik of incenting such major wireless players as Verizon and AT&T to, in effect, cannibalize their sunk-cost investments in wireline DSL.The paper concludes with a brief review of international experiments in competitive IP provision that might offer lessons for the American case and global regulatory models more generally.
Production of Pituitary Tumors in Mice by Chronic Administration of a Thiouracil Derivative.

Summary1. Data are presented on 4 mice treated for 18 months with a diet to which propylthiouracil had been added. 2. Three of 4 mice had chromophobe adenomata of the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland. 3. All 4 mice had carcinomas of the thyroid gland.
Fertile stromata of Camarops petersii in culture

Little is known about sexuality in Camarops (Sphaeriales; Boliniaeeae) due in part to the rarity of many species (10) and the inability to produce stromata in culture. The isolation of Camarops petersii (Berk. & Curt.) Nannfeldt [=Peridoxylon petersii (Berk. & Curt.) Shear] from germinating ascospores obtained from a stroma collected in Illinois led to attempts to produce stromata in culture. This paper deals with the successful production of fertile stromata of C petersii on an agar medium. Several stromata were collected from a decaying oak {Quercus sp.) log at Starved Rock State Park, near Utica, La Salle County, Illinois, 30-X-1982. The distinctive stromatal peridium, characteristic of C petersii (5, 11), had sloughed away following rupture, leaving only a ring around the periphery of the stromata where it had originally been attached. Camarops petersii has not been reported previously from Illinois, although it has been collected in other areas of the eastern half of the U.S. (2, 5, 6, 8, 11). A portion of the collection was deposited with ILLS. A section one cm2 was removed from the center of one of the stromata, crushed in sterile distilled water with a glass rod to remove ascospores, and filtered through glass wool. The suspension of ascospores was then diluted to 5 x 105 spores/ml, spread (0.1 ml/plate) on malt extract agar (MEA; 3) (malt extract, 20 g; peptone, 1 g; dextrose, 20 g; agar, 25 g; distilled water, 1 liter) containing streptomycin (25 mg/1) and tetracycline (1.25 mg/1), and incubated at 25 C. Asco? spore germination of approximately 5% occurred after 40-60 h. Germ tubes invariably originated from the minute germ pore present at the slightly acuminate end of the spore (Figs. 1-3). Young colonies were transferred to slants of MEA and later stored at 5 C.
Self-concepts of young handicapped children: an analysis of race and sex.

The effect of early experiences on human development is well documented (1 , 4) . Many individuals (2, 3 ) hold that an individual's self-concept develops early in life and that the nature and quality of the self-concept is dependent upon the nature and quality of early experiences. The need for positive experiences in the developmeor of the self-concept extends throughout the early years. The purpose of this study was ro examine the relation of race, sex, and nature of preschool experiences to the self-concept of mildly mentally retarded children upon entry into first grade. Three groups of 30 mildly mentally retarded children were randomly selected from larger populations of children with similar preschool experiences. The students were individually given the Martinek-Ziachkowsky Self-concept Scale for Children by their school counselor during the fall of the first grade year. An analysis of variance performed on the means yielded only one significant value (F1.61 = 8.36, p = .001). Boys had a significantly more positive mean self-concept than did girls, independent of any other variables. Girls obtained a mean score of 18.73 and boys a mean score of 22.97. The standard deviation for the total distribution was 3.61. This finding suggests teachers of young handicapped children must use self-concept development activities which do not differentiate on the basis of sex. As handicapped children are more rule-bound and inflexible than their nonhandicapped peers, this is critical. By providing intervention in a nonsexist manner teachers can increase the chances that both boys and girls may develop positive self-concept.
DNA Damage and Repair in γ- Glutamyltranspeptidase-Positive and Negative Hepatocytes in Primary Culture from Carcinogen-Treated Rats

Chemically induced DNA fragmentation and unscheduled DNA synthesis were determined in gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT)-positive and GGT-negative hepatocytes isolated from rat livers subjected to a multistage hepatocarcinogenesis regimen (Solt-Farber), which included 0.05% phenobarbital promotion for 6 weeks (early) or 6 months (late). The results indicated that there was DNA damage in untreated GGT-positive and GGT-negative hepatocytes with either period of promotion compared with normal hepatocytes; however, no statistical difference could be seen between GGT-positive and GGT-negative hepatocytes. DNA damage induced in vitro by the activation-dependent carcinogen dimethylnitrosamine was much less in GGT-positive hepatocytes than in GGT-negative hepatocytes or normal hepatocytes. No significant difference in DNA damage was seen in both GGT-positive and GGT-negative cell populations following treatment with the activation-independent carcinogen ethylnitrosourea (ENU), although DNA damage of GGT-positive hepatocytes was less than that of normal hepatocytes. The background of unscheduled DNA synthesis in both GGT-positive and GGT-negative hepatocytes at either time of promotion was higher than that of normal hepatocytes. The capacity for DNA repair in GGT-positive hepatocytes appeared to be lower than that in GGT-negative hepatocytes. GGT-negative hepatocytes exhibited a lower capacity for DNA repair than that of normal hepatocytes in terms of the rate of unscheduled DNA synthesis elicited by dimethylnitrosamine and ethylnitrosourea in vitro.
Chimeric Parasites as Tools to Study Plasmodium Immunology and Assess Malaria Vaccines

The study of pathogen immunity relies upon being able to track antigen specific immune responses and assess their protective capacity. To study immunity to Plasmodium antigens, chimeric rodent or human malaria parasites that express proteins from other Plasmodium species or unrelated species have been developed. Different types of chimeric parasites have been used to address a range of specific questions. Parasites expressing model T cell epitopes have been used to monitor cellular immune responses to the preerythrocytic and blood stages of malaria. Other parasites have been used to assess the functional significance of immune responses targeting particular proteins. Finally, a number of rodent malaria parasites that express vaccine-candidate antigens from P. falciparum and P. vivax have been used in functional assays of vaccine-induced antibody responses. Here, I review the experimental contributions that have been made using these parasites, and discuss the potential of these approaches to continue advancing our understanding of malaria immunology and vaccine research.
Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Equine Musculoskeletal Conditions

There is a growing interest in the use of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in equine orthopedic patients. It is well established that CT and MR imaging offer superior diagnostic information in a wide variety of musculoskeletal injuries in human beings and small animals. The highly detailed cross-sectional images obtained with these two modalities can often demonstrate pathologic changes undetected with other common imaging techniques. Based on their multiple applications in human beings and small animals, CT or MR imaging may prove to be the optimal diagnostic imaging technique for several types of musculoskeletal disorders of horses.
Infectious Complications of Penile Prosthesis Surgery

Penile prosthetic surgery has become an increasingly common procedure. However, infection of the prosthesis remains a significant complication that almost always results in loss of the device. We present our 10-year experience with 9 infected prostheses among 417 total penile implants, for an over-all incidence of infectious complications of 2.2 per cent. A strict, broad-spectrum antibiotic schedule was adhered to rigidly by all patients, beginning preoperatively and continuing for a total of 10 days of perioperative coverage. Staphylococcus species were cultured in 56 per cent of the infected patients and in 100 per cent of the patients with positive cultures. Spinal cord injury patients showed a particular predisposition to prosthetic infection, with a 15 per cent incidence of infectious complications. Two other patients became infected after dental procedures and the need for routine antibiotic prophylaxis in the penile prosthesis patient is emphasized. Urinary tract instrumentation at the time of prosthetic implantation, whether planned or incidental, also appears to add a potentially avoidable risk for subsequent infection.
Adversarial Data Mining: Big Data Meets Cyber Security

As more and more cyber security incident data ranging from systems logs to vulnerability scan results are collected, manually analyzing these collected data to detect important cyber security events become impossible. Hence, data mining techniques are becoming an essential tool for real-world cyber security applications. For example, a report from Gartner [gartner12] claims that "Information security is becoming a big data analytics problem, where massive amounts of data will be correlated, analyzed and mined for meaningful patterns". Of course, data mining/analytics is a means to an end where the ultimate goal is to provide cyber security analysts with prioritized actionable insights derived from big data. This raises the question, can we directly apply existing techniques to cyber security applications? One of the most important differences between data mining for cyber security and many other data mining applications is the existence of malicious adversaries that continuously adapt their behavior to hide their actions and to make the data mining models ineffective. Unfortunately, traditional data mining techniques are insufficient to handle such adversarial problems directly. The adversaries adapt to the data miner's reactions, and data mining algorithms constructed based on a training dataset degrades quickly. To address these concerns, over the last couple of years new and novel data mining techniques which is more resilient to such adversarial behavior are being developed in machine learning and data mining community. We believe that lessons learned as a part of this research direction would be beneficial for cyber security researchers who are increasingly applying machine learning and data mining techniques in practice. To give an overview of recent developments in adversarial data mining, in this three hour long tutorial, we introduce the foundations, the techniques, and the applications of adversarial data mining to cyber security applications. We first introduce various approaches proposed in the past to defend against active adversaries, such as a minimax approach to minimize the worst case error through a zero-sum game. We then discuss a game theoretic framework to model the sequential actions of the adversary and the data miner, while both parties try to maximize their utilities. We also introduce a modified support vector machine method and a relevance vector machine method to defend against active adversaries. Intrusion detection and malware detection are two important application areas for adversarial data mining models that will be discussed in details during the tutorial. Finally, we discuss some practical guidelines on how to use adversarial data mining ideas in generic cyber security applications and how to leverage existing big data management tools for building data mining algorithms for cyber security.
The Role of Mid-latitude Mountains in the Carbon Cycle: Global Perspective and a Western US Case Study

The International Geosphere Biosphere Program report on mountain ecosystems stresses the potential role of mountainous regions in the Earth’s geophysical cycles (Becker and Bugmann 2001). However, mountain environments have rarely been addressed specifically in studies of terrestrial carbon dynamics. Although it was first suggested that the US carbon sink was localized in eastern US forests (Fan et al. 1998), more recent studies that partition the US sink into specific regions suggest that a significant fraction is located in the western US (Schimel et al. 2000; Pacala et al. 2001 ; Schimel et al. 2002). As increasing development puts pressure on arable lands in North America and Temperate Asia, forests and other high carbon storage ecosystems are increasingly relegated to mountain landscapes. Inspection of recent land cover databases (e.g. IGBP or DeFries et al. 2000) shows clearly that in Temperate North America, Europe and China, a large fraction of forested landscapes is found in major and minor mountain ranges. Figure 1 shows an index of carbon uptake in forests based on forest cover from satellite observations (Defries et al. 2000) and growing season length (with longer growing seasons indicating a higher carbon uptake potential). Growing season lengths are scaled to eddy covariance estimates of carbon uptake per growing season day (Falge et al. 2002). Since the majority of current terrestrial sinks are found in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, montane forests have the potential to contribute significantly to current carbon sinks.
Power-Aware Program Resilience through Slicing

Resilience against soft errors in software is a growing research concern and the trend is expected to continue as the density of transistors increases. In this paper we propose a power-aware method to resilience, using program slicing as a mechanism to detect errors in running executables and to provide confidence in the result of program outputs. We present a model of program structure and fault propagation. Using the model we derive properties that show how slicing can be used to ensure that parts of a program ran without errors. From this we show how the overall resilience of a program can be improved. We test this method in a simulated environment and show that a small increase in power usage can lead to better resilience of programs.
Structural Interventions in HIV Prevention: A Taxonomy and Descriptive Systematic Review

One of the four national HIV prevention goals is to incorporate combinations of effective, evidence-based approaches to prevent HIV infection. In fields of public health, techniques that alter environment and affect choice options are effective. Structural approaches may be effective in preventing HIV infection. Existing frameworks for structural interventions were lacking in breadth and/or depth. We conducted a systematic review and searched CDC's HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Synthesis Project's database for relevant interventions during 1988-2013. We used an iterative process to develop the taxonomy. We identified 213 structural interventions: Access (65%), Policy/Procedure (32%), Mass Media (29%), Physical Structure (27%), Capacity Building (24%), Community Mobilization (9%), and Social Determinants of Health (8%). Forty percent targeted high-risk populations (e.g., people who inject drugs [12%]). This paper describes a comprehensive, well-defined taxonomy of structural interventions with 7 categories and 20 subcategories. The taxonomy accommodated all interventions identified.
Online Teaching and Learning: A Practical Guide for Librarians. Crane, Beverley E: Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017, Xix + 239pp., $65.00, ISBN 978-1-4422-6716-9.

As the educational landscape changes, librarians are now facing new challenges and opportunities in the context of the online learning environment, and therefore are confronted with the urgent need...
ENANTIOSELECTIVITY IN THE BINDING OF (+)- AND (−)-2-AMINO-6,7-DIHYDROXY-1,2,3,4-TETRAHYDRONAPHTHALENE AND RELATED AGONISTS TO DOPAMINE RECEPTORS

ABSTRACT The potent DA agonist 5 was resolved into enantiomers. The absolute configurations of the enantiomers of 3 and 5 were determined by chemical degradation. These compounds were tested as inhibitors of 3H-DA binding to membrane fragments from rat striatum. It was found that the configuration of the more potent enantiomer of 5 is opposite to that of 3 and APO. This is relevant to the mode of binding of such agonists to DA receptors.
A Detailed Annealing Study of NTD Silicon Utilizing Raman Scattering

The technique of Neutron Transmutation Doping (NTD) of a silicon crystal by an in-situ transmutation of the 30Si isotope into 31P via the reaction 30Si (n,γ) 31Si → 31P + β- has distinct advantages over conventional doping schemes. Among these are the precise ability to control doping concentrations and the overall uniformity of doping. The fast-neutron component of the reactor spectrum produces damage in the crystal which can be repaired by an annealing process.
A geodesy- and seismicity-based local earthquake likelihood model for central Los Angeles

We estimate time‐independent earthquake likelihoods in central Los Angeles using a model of interseismic strain accumulation and the 1932–2017 seismic catalog. We assume that on the long‐term average, earthquakes and aseismic deformation collectively release seismic moment at a rate balancing interseismic loading, mainshocks obey the Gutenberg‐Richter law (a log linear magnitude‐frequency distribution [MFD]) up to a maximum magnitude and a Poisson process, and aftershock sequences obey the Gutenberg‐Richter and “Bath” laws. We model a comprehensive suite of these long‐term systems, assess how likely each system would be to have produced the MFD of the instrumental catalog, and use these likelihoods to probabilistically estimate the long‐term MFD. We estimate M_(max) = 6.8 + 1.05/−0.4 (every ~300 years) or M_(max) = 7.05 + 0.95/−0.4 assuming a truncated or tapered Gutenberg‐Richter MFD, respectively. Our results imply that, for example, the (median) likelihood of one or more M_w ≥ 6.5 mainshocks is 0.2% in 1 year, 2% in 10 years, and 18–21% in 100 years.
Abstract P3-12-16: Five year outcomes of a prospective study of proton radiotherapy for breast cancer regional nodal irradiation

Purpose: Through improved nodal coverage and decreased dose to the heart and lung, proton therapy (PT) may improve the therapeutic ratio for treatment of breast cancer requiring regional nodal irradiation (RNI). The purpose of this study is to report 5 year disease control and toxicity. Methods: From May 2012 to February 2014, 18 women (stage IIA-IIIB) prospectively enrolled on a pilot study. Median age was 52 years (range, 42-73), with equal division between breast-conserving therapy (BCT) and mastectomy and right and left-sided cancers. Median number of positive nodes among the 16 node-positive patients was 2 (range, 1-14). Five patients had ≥ 10 nodes positive on axillary dissection (N3a). Treatment targets (CTVs for breast/chest wall, supraclavicular, axillary, internal mammary nodes (IMNs)) and organs at risk were delineated on CT scans. Double scatter PT alone was used for 10 patients (9 post-mastectomy, 1 after BCT) and combined proton-photon in 8 (all BCT). Toxicity was prospectively recorded using CTCAE v4.0. Results: Median follow-up was 4 years (range, 0.3 – 6). 5 year overall survival was 82% and locoregional control was 100%. 5 year distant metastases-free survival was 82%. No grade 4+ toxicity developed. Four patients developed grade 3 cellulitis, which was the only grade 3 toxicity. One patient had a reconstructive failure associated with a post-surgical cellulitis. A right-sided patient was diagnosed with CHF within 2 months of completion of PT, following diagnosis of a pulmonary embolus 1 month prior. She had an elevated BNP (1101) prior to PT following adriamycin-based chemotherapy. Mean heart dose was 0 Gy and cardiac V5 0%. Atrial fibrillation developed in two patients. One patient developed grade 2 pneumonitis (she received concurrent chemotherapy). One patient, with a history of rib fractures prior to PT, developed an ipsilateral rib fracture 7 months after PT. Conclusion: In a population of women with locally advanced breast cancer, PT for RNI has proven feasible after either mastectomy (with or without reconstruction) or BCT with excellent locoregional control. PT allows for highly conformal radiation delivery without compromise of target coverage or excess exposure of normal tissue. Documentation of the ultimate benefits of PT in this population, freedom from radiation induced cardiac disease and breast cancer recurrence will require prospective study of a larger numbers of patients. Citation Format: Bradley JA, Dagan R, Liang X, Ho MW, Rutenberg M, Mailhot R, Morris C, Mendenhall NP. Five year outcomes of a prospective study of proton radiotherapy for breast cancer regional nodal irradiation [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-12-16.
The Public Child

Like proper growth and nutrition, treatable conditions afflicting a child’s body became a focus of intense concern among child welfare advocates. By the close of the nineteenth century new standards for children’s physical care expected adults to align their therapeutic choices with the latest views promoted by physicians trained in scientific medicine. Seeking professional medical care now fell within an expanding rubric of duties that adults owed to children and failure to do so constituted medical neglect—an adult infraction that had not been conceivable when medical science had little to offer in the way of preventing and treating childhood disease and death. Increasingly, medical attendance came to be framed as a child’s right.
Nomenclature for cellular plasticity: are the terms as plastic as the cells themselves?

It is now recognized that cell identity is more fluid, and tissues more plastic, than previously thought. The plasticity of cells is relevant to diverse fields, most notably developmental and stem cell biology, regenerative medicine, and cancer biology. To date, a comprehensive and uniform nomenclature to define distinct cell states and their injury-induced interconversions has been elusive. The first Keystone Symposium devoted exclusively to cellular plasticity in regeneration and tumorigenesis was held on January 2019 in Keystone, Colorado, and featured a workshop on terminology in the cell plasticity field. Definitions for terms such as plasticity, de- and transdifferentiation, reversion, and paligenosis were discussed. Here, we summarize the content and tenor of the symposium and nomenclature-focused workshop with regard to terms in the field. We outline the challenges with current definitions and recommend best practices and approaches to developing an accurate and acceptable nomenclature in the future.
Biography of Karl Wolfgang Deutsch (1912–1992)

Karl Deutsch, one of the most insightful political scientists of the twentieth century, was born into a Sudeten German family on July 21, 1912 in the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While his father Moritz Deutsch served in the emperor’s army during the Great War of 1914–1918, Karl spent his youngest years alone with his mother Leopoldine Maria Scharf Deutsch. At the end of hostilities, Moritz Deutsch returned to Prague and his business as optician.
Stability of State Space Linear Systems

In this section, we introduce the fundamental definitions and results which lie at the core of stability theory for state space linear systems. We shall see that all of the stability results for state space systems are merely system-theoretic restatements of parallel results for differential equations and difference equations. The stability theory of differential equations is perhaps the most well -developed part of the theory of differential equations as a whole. Over the last century or so, it has occupied the attention of numerous physical scientists and mathematicians; in particular, a great many Soviet mathematicians have made seminal contributions. There is an enormous mathematical literature on stability theory; our attempt will be to provide a fleeting glimpse at the way the theory specializes to linear differential and difference equations.
Family Resources in Two Generations and School Readiness Among Children of Teen Parents

Overall, children born to teen parents experience disadvantaged cognitive achievement at school entry compared with children born to older parents. However, within this population, there is variation, with a significant fraction of teen parents’ children acquiring adequate preparation for school entry during early childhood. We ask whether the family background of teen parents explains this variation. We use data on children born to teen mothers from three waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (N ~ 700) to study the association of family background with children’s standardized reading and mathematics achievement scores at kindergarten entry. When neither maternal grandparent has completed high school, children’s scores on standardized assessments of math and reading achievement are one-quarter to one-third of a standard deviation lower compared with families where at least one grandparent finished high school. This association is net of teen mothers’ own socioeconomic status in the year prior to children’s school entry.
Fingerstick Glucose Monitoring in Veterans Affairs Nursing Home Residents with Diabetes Mellitus.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE Guidelines recommend less intensive glycemic treatment and less frequent glucose monitoring for nursing home (NH) residents. However, little is known about the frequency of fingerstick (FS) glucose monitoring in this population. Our objective was to examine the frequency of FS glucose monitoring in Veterans Affairs (VA) NH residents with diabetes mellitus, type II (T2DM). DESIGN AND SETTING National retrospective cohort study in 140 VA NHs. PARTICIPANTS NH residents with T2DM and older than 65 years admitted to VA NHs between 2013 and 2015 following discharge from a VA hospital. MEASUREMENTS NH residents were classified into five groups based on their highest hypoglycemia risk glucose-lowering medication (GLM) each day: no GLMs; metformin only; sulfonylureas; long-acting insulin; and any short-acting insulin. Our outcome was a daily count of FS measurements. RESULTS Among 17,474 VA NH residents, mean age was 76 (standard deviation (SD) = 8) years and mean hemoglobin A1c was 7.6% (SD = 1.5%). On day 1 after NH admission, 49% of NH residents were on short-acting insulin, decreasing slightly to 43% at day 90. Overall, NH residents had an average of 1.9 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.8-1.9) FS measurements on NH day 1, decreasing to 1.4 (95% CI = 1.3-1.4) by day 90. NH residents on short-acting insulin had the most frequent FS measurements, with 3.0 measurements (95% CI = 2.9-3.0) on day 1, decreasing to 2.6 measurements (95% CI = 2.5-2.7) by day 90. Less frequent FS measurements were seen for NH residents receiving long-acting insulin (2.1 (95% CI = 2.0-2.2) on day 1) and sulfonylureas (1.7 (95% CI = 1.5-1.8) on day 1). Even NH residents on metformin monotherapy had 1.1 (95% CI = 1.1-1.2) measurements on day 1, decreasing to 0.5 (95% CI = 0.4-0.6) measurements on day 90. CONCLUSION Although guidelines recommend less frequent glucose monitoring for NH residents, we found that many VA NH residents receive frequent FS monitoring. Given the uncertain benefits and potential for substantial patient burdens and harms, our results suggest decreasing FS monitoring may be warranted for many low hypoglycemia risk NH residents.
Molecular mechanism of ACAD9 in mitochondrial respiratory complex 1 assembly

ACAD9 belongs to the acyl-CoA dehydrogenase family, which catalyzes the α-β dehydrogenation of fatty acyl-CoA thioesters. Thus, it is involved in fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO). However, it is now known that the primary function of ACAD9 is as an essential chaperone for mitochondrial respiratory complex 1 assembly. ACAD9 interacts with ECSIT and NDUFAF1, forming the mitochondrial complex 1 assembly (MCIA) complex. Although the role of MCIA in the complex 1 assembly pathway is well studied, little is known about the molecular mechanism of the interactions among these three assembly factors. Our current studies reveal that when ECSIT interacts with ACAD9, the flavoenzyme loses the FAD cofactor and consequently loses its FAO activity, demonstrating that the two roles of ACAD9 are not compatible. ACAD9 binds to the carboxy-terminal half (C-ECSIT), and NDUFAF1 binds to the amino-terminal half of ECSIT. Although the binary complex of ACAD9 with ECSIT or with C-ECSIT is unstable and aggregates easily, the ternary complex of ACAD9-ECSIT-NDUFAF1 (i.e., the MCIA complex) is soluble and extremely stable. Molecular modeling and SAXS studies of the MCIA complex identified the possible interaction sites between the three assembly factors and binding sites for other assembly factors, including complex 1 subunits. Furthermore, we have mapped over 40 currently known pathogenic mutation sites onto the homology-modeled ACAD9 structure, giving us the structural basis for their involvement in diseases that result from complex 1 deficiency.
Humboldtian Writing for the Anthropocene

Humboldt embodies the wide-ranging curiosity and fascination with nature shared by eminent nature writers of the late eighteenth and nineteenth century. In fact, he much influenced British and North American writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Darwin, George Perkins Marsh, Clarence King, and John Muir, as Aaron (Sachs, The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism, Penguin, New York, 2006), Laura Dassow (Walls, Laura: The Passage to Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping of America, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2009), and Andrea (Wulf, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, Knopf, New York, 2015) have convincingly shown. Yet this essay argues that placing Humboldt in the tradition of Western and especially Anglo-American Nature Writing is ultimately problematic since it denies Humboldt’s connections to South and Central American intellectuals and scientists. Moreover, terming Humboldt a nature writer downplays his inherent concerns with human cultures and civilizations. The Nature Writing tradition originating in Europe and the United States delineated particular environments in romantic and nostalgic terms, denoting a position of privilege both in terms of its authors and settings described. In the Anthropocene, when the concept of “nature” as a whole has become increasingly tenuous, classifying Humboldt as a Nature Writer would be unjustifiable reductive.
Nano-enhanced Bioremediation for Oil Spills: A Review

Oil seepage and spills have lasting detrimental effects on the environment, especially on nearby marine ecosystems. Despite quick and safe removal of contaminating oil being of utmost importance, r...
Trends in Palliative Care Consultations in Critically Ill Patient Populations, 2013-2019.

Abstract Context Critically ill patients have important palliative care (PC) needs in the intensive care unit (ICU), but specialty PC is often underutilized. Objective To evaluate changes in utilization and reasons for PC consultation over time. Methods Data from a national multi-site network of inpatient PC visits were used to identify patients age ≥18 years admitted to an ICU between 2013 and 2019. Year of ICU admission was the exposure. Primary diagnosis and reason for referral were identified by standardized process measures within the dataset at the time of referral. Trends in primary diagnosis and reason for referral were modeled as a function of year of ICU admission. Results Across 39,515 ICU patients seen by a PC team, overall numbers of consultations from the ICU increased each year. Referrals for patients with cancer decreased from 17.6% (95% CI 13.7%–21.5%) to 14.3% (95% CI 13.2%–14.7%) and for patients with cardiovascular disease increased from 16.8% in (95% CI 16.8%–16.9%) to 18.8% (95% CI 18.8%–18.9%). Reasons for referrals were primarily for goals of care and advance care planning and increased from 74.0% (95% CI 70.0%–78.0%) in 2013 to 80.0% (95% CI 79.4%–80.0%) in 2019 (P Conclusion PC referrals in ICU patients with cancer are decreasing, while those for cardiovascular disease are increasing. Reasons for referrals in the ICU are commonly for goals of care; other reasons, like pain control are uncommon. Early goals of care conversations and further training in advance care planning should be emphasized in the ICU setting.
DNA Microarrays and Gene Expression: DNA array formats

Array technologies monitor the combinatorial interaction of a set of molecules, such as DNA fragments and proteins, with a predetermined library of molecular probes. The currently most advanced of these technologies is the use of DNA arrays, also called DNA chips, for simultaneously measuring the level of the mRNA gene products of a living cell. This method, gene expression profiling, is the major topic of this book. In its most simple sense, a DNA array is defined as an orderly arrangement of tens to hundreds of thousands of unique DNA molecules (probes) of known sequence. There are two basic sources for the DNA probes on an array. Either each unique probe is individually synthesized on a rigid surface (usually glass), or pre-synthesized probes (oligonucleotides or PCR products) are attached to the array platform (usually glass or nylon membranes). The various types of DNA arrays currently available for gene expression profiling, as well as some developing technologies, are summarized here. In situ synthesized oligonucleotide arrays The first in situ probe synthesis method for manufacturing DNA arrays was the photolithographic method developed by Fodor et al . [1] and commercialized by Affymetrix Inc. (Santa Clara, CA). First, a set of oligonucleotide DNA probes (each 25 or so nucleotides in length) is defined based on its ability to hybridize to complementary sequences in target genomic loci or genes of interest. With this information, computer algorithms are used to design photolithographic masks for use in manufacturing the probe arrays.
Massive Interminiband Transitions Triggered by Strong Static Electric Fields in Superlattices

The recent experimental observations of Bloch oscillations and the emission of electromagnetic radiation1 in the terahertz regime in semiconductor superlattices subject to static uniform electric fields, suggest that these systems may be developed as useful THz generators. The Bloch period is given by τB = h/(eFa), where e and F denote the magnitude of the electron charge and the electric field, h is Planck’s constant, and a is the spatial period of the superlattice. Modeling these systems in terms of independent electrons in an idealized one-dimensional superlattice potential in the effective mass approximation, and using high-accuracy numerical methods to solve the time-dependent Schrodinger equation, the electron wave function has been found2–4 to exhibit long-lived Bloch oscillations for electric fields in the range used in experiment. We here present results for this model, obtained using the methods of Ref 2–4, for the regime where the electrons are subject to very strong static electric fields, so that they exhibit characteristics of acceleration as well as some residual but faint signs of Bloch oscillations. Some preliminary results for this regime have been given in Sec. IIID of Ref 3, while a very detailed analysis is presented in Ref 4.
Lipid Membranes: Biological Inspiration for Micro and Nano Encapsulation Technologies, Especially Drug Delivery

Our approach to biologically inspired materials and materials systems recognizes biology (at all scale levels) as a series of products that fulfill particular functions. It then links material composition and structure to function through properties and therefore attempts to bring mechanism to processes and functions of biology. As an example of this approach we have focused on the lipid bilayer membranes of blood cells, like erythrocytes and neutrophils, as a bioinspired material system for drug delivery leading to the creation of waxy, nano capsules called liposomes that can be triggered to release their drug by hyperthermia. Thus, while Nature’s encapsulation technology provides the inspiration, the mechanism of drug release is non-natural. The necessary design parameters for the required functions of drug encapsulation, i.e. drug retention, circulation half life, and eventual thermally-triggered drug release, were obtained through extensive experimentation and modeling of artificial lipid vesicles by us and others, with much of the mechanical and thermomechanical properties, molecular exchange, and in vitro performance investigated by a direct micropipet manipulation technique. With respect to cancer chemotherapy, the unmet need for primary solid tumors is to deliver more drug to the tumor tissue thereby reducing the tumor size (debulking) while at the same time reducing toxic side effects. It is with these criteria in mind that we developed the temperature-triggered liposome for the treatment of solid tumors. This paper then, describes this liposome development and its performance in vivo, where, in some cases, the temperature-triggered release of drug directly in the blood stream and tumor resulted in complete tumor regression. What this example also shows is that through material property measurement and modeling, new insights into Nature’s functions and designs can be discovered in a reverse engineering process from which new products can then be forward engineered to solve engineering and product problems in health, technology, and the environment.
DNA Content Analysis on Microarrays

The genome sequencing of protozoan parasites has facilitated the development of powerful postgenomics tools such as DNA microarrays and revolutionized the study of parasite biology. Large-scale genomic comparisons are useful in identifying the extent of genomic variability among related strains and isolates. Identification of deletions between geographically diverse clinical isolates is important in understanding parasite biology and the "fitness" of a given strain in dissemination. Additionally, the development of reliable diagnostic tests or identification of potential vaccine candidates is predicated on the large-scale conservation of the candidate genes. Parasites with variable virulence phenotypes (vaccine strain vs virulent strain) can also be studied for their genomic variability and provide further insights into the potential role of genotypic variability and its relationship to virulence. This chapter outlines the utilization of DNA microarrays to study genomic content.
Computing Infinite Relations Using Finite Expressions: A New Approach To The Safety Issue In Relational Databases

Commonly used methods to deal with the safety issue in relational databases are based on “placing constraint of finiteness” on relational calculus. This paper describes how safety can be achieved using a novel approach. A new representation is created to denote the relations defined by relational calculus. An algorithm which can symbolically handle infinite relations is designed to efficiently compute all these relations. Therefore the constraint of finiteness on relational calculus can be removed.
The empirics of general equilibrium trade theory: What have we learned?

This paper provides a selective survey of over half a century of research linking the neoclassical trade model to the data. Three lessons stand out. First, competitive and new trade theory models are complementary rather than competing ways to look at many existing empirical regularities. Second, the Ricardian formulation has proved to be a useful framework for structural estimation regarding the pattern of international specialization. Third, empirical confirmations of the core predictions of the model provide scientific support for employing the competitive trade model in structural estimation.
Autothermal reactor with internal heat exchange—II: Numerical and preliminary experimental studies of transient behavior including startup in the multiple steady-state region

Abstract A radially-lumped pseudo-homogeneous mathematical simulation representing the dynamic behavior of an autothermal reactor with internal countercurrent h
Evaluating anti-viral drug selection and treatment duration in HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B: a cost-effectiveness analysis.

SUMMARYBackgroundSeveral anti-viral treatments are now available for HBeAg-negativechronic hepatitis B (CHB), but the clinical and economic outcomes ofpotential treatment strategies and durations are unclear.AimTo examine the clinical and economic outcomes of potential treatmentstrategies and durations for HBeAg-negative CHB.MethodsWe conducted a cost-utility analysis from a payer perspective over alifetime time horizon. Disease progression probabilities, costs and qual-ity of life data were derived from the literature. We evaluated 5-year,10-year, lifetime and 5 on–1 off treatment durations. For each of thesetreatment durations, we evaluated initial therapy with entecavir, lami-vudine or adefovir, with addition of adefovir or entecavir for patientswho developed virological breakthrough because of resistance (12 strat-egies total).ResultsIncreasing treatment duration improved quality-adjusted life-years (QA-LYs) and was generally cost-effective for all three drugs. However, a 5on–1 off strategy was the most cost-effective: lifetime vs. 5 on–1 offentecavir had an ICER of $148 200⁄QALY. In probabilistic sensitivityanalyses, entecavir 5 on–1 off was the preferred strategy over the rangeof commonly reimbursed cost-effectiveness thresholds. Lifetime treat-ment was preferred to a 5 on–1 off strategy, if treatment durability was<10%.ConclusionThe results of our analysis suggest that in HBeAg-negative CHB infec-tion, a 5 on–1 off treatment strategy with entecavir improves healthoutcomes in a cost-effective manner compared to alternative strategies.