cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
American mass media and the myth of libertarianism: Toward an “elite power group”; theory

This paper presents evidence of the demise of Libertarianism in the U.S. mass media system and proposes an “elite power group”; model as an alternative explanation of the workings of the mass media in the United States. In sharp contrast to the structural characteristics implied by the Libertarian model, the U.S. media industry is organized as an elite power group characterized by (a) growing concentration and conglomeration, (b) integration with other power elites, and (c) ability to exercise self‐serving control on the government even as it is controlled by it.
Biosensors and Biochips

This chapter provides an overview of the various types of biosensors and biochips that have been developed for biological and medical applications, along with significant advances and over the last several years in these technologies. Various classification schemes that can be used for categorizing the different biosensor and biochip systems are also discussed.
Non-invasive hemoglobin monitoring

Technology has transformed the practice of medicine and surgery in particular over the last several decades. This change in practice has allowed diagnostic and therapeutic tests to be performed less invasively. Hemoglobin monitoring remains one of the most commonly performed diagnostic tests in the United States. Recently, non-invasive hemoglobin monitoring technology has gained popularity. The aim of this article is to review the principles of how this technology works, pros and cons, and the implications of non-invasive hemoglobin technology particularly in trauma surgery.
Estrogen, NFκB, and the heat shock response

Estrogen has pleiotropic actions, among which are its anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory, and vasodilatory effects. Recently, an interaction between 17β-estradiol (E2) and the transcription factor nuclear factor κB (NFκB) has been identified. NFκB has a central role in the control of genes involved in inflammation, proliferation, and apoptosis. Prolonged activation of NFκB is associated with numerous inflammatory pathological conditions. An important facet of E2 is its ability to modulate activity of NFκB via both genomic and nongenomic actions. E2 can activate NFκB rapidly via nongenomic pathways, increase cellular resistance to injury, and induce expression of the protective class of proteins, heat shock proteins (HSPs). HSPs can bind to many of the pro-apoptotic and pro-inflammatory targets of NFκB and, thus, indirectly inhibit many of its deleterious effects. In addition, HSPs can block NFκB activation and binding directly. Similarly, genomic E2 signaling can inhibit NFκB, but does so through alternative mechanisms. This review focuses on the molecular mechanisms of cross-talk between E2, NFκB, and HSPs, and the biological relevance of this cross-talk.
Personal Growth Initiative: Relations With Acculturative Stress and International Student Adjustment

Personal growth initiative refers to the conscious pursuit of individual growth across multiple life domains. The construct was recently reconceptualized as a multidimensional trait and has attract...
Strive for barrier-free and fast information dissemination of environmental research

Thanks to the editorial board members, the managing team and the contributing authors, we are now putting forth the first issue of AIMS Environmental Science, a significant milestone accomplished for this newly launched open-access journal. When I was invited to serve as the editor of this journal about five months ago, I started to ask myself: Since there are already a few journals in this area, why do we bother to launch another one? In other words, what makes this new journal unique and differentiated from others? First of all, AIMS Environmental Science is an open-access journal. Here I would like to share a bit of my personal experience with open access publications. About a year ago, I had one paper published in an open-access book. To my surprise, the number of downloads of the paper over the last twelve months is well beyond what I can anticipate from any non-open access publications. Accessibility is an important factor affecting information dissemination in environmental research. I strongly believe that barrier-free information dissemination to both the scientific community and the public is critical for environmental research, because one noble goal of our research is to inform the public and to help them to reach their own objective decisions and opinions about specific environmental issues. In this sense, open-access publishing certainly has its own merit. Secondly, addressing environmental issues we are currently facing, such as global climate changes, requires our holistic understanding of complex systems involved, in which our human society is often an important component to be considered. The existing publications in environmental research are rather segmented and scattered, often leading to a situation of nine blind men and an elephant when referred to a specific issue. From the very beginning, this journal is intended to provide a needed platform for effective information dissemination across existing and extremely diverse knowledge domains in environmental research. We have intentionally made the scope of this journal as inclusive as possible:
Is there an empirical literature on rights

The empirical literature that attempts to study rights is at an impasse. It can demonstrate that big claims about how some rights structure politics are overblown, but it has struggled to go beyond this step. This is in large part because studying rights is much more difficult than is commonly appreciated. A study of rights promises implicitly to be a study of how rights politics differs from other kinds of politics. But rights are so ubiquitous and so diverse in form that it is often unclear what the excluded other is. We examine three books on rights that we admire: two by political scientists, Gerald Rosenberg's The Hollow Hope and Michael McCann's Rights at Work, and one by an anthropologist, Sally Merry's Human Rights and Gender Violence. These books conceptualize rights in diverse ways, in diverse settings, using diverse methodologies; yet they run up against similar difficulties in trying to think beyond the cases they study. At the conclusion, we make some humble suggestions for how researchers might try to overcome these problems.
Key roles of autophagy in regulating T-cell function

In the past 10 years, autophagy has emerged as a crucial regulator of T-cell homeostasis, activation, and differentiation. Through the ability to adjust the cell's proteome in response to different stimuli, different forms of autophagy have been shown to control T-cell homeostasis and survival. Autophagic processes can also determine the magnitude of the T-cell response to TCR engagement, by regulating the cellular levels of specific signaling intermediates and modulating the metabolic output in activated T cells. In this review we will examine the mechanisms that control autophagy activity in T cells, such as ROS signaling and signaling through common gamma-chain cytokine receptors, and the different aspect of T-cell biology, including T-cell survival, effector cell function, and generation of memory, which can be regulated by autophagy.
The growth of Treponema hyodysenteriae and other porcine intestinal spirochaetes in a liquid medium

A new simple method for the preparation of a liquid medium containing rabbit serum for the propagation of Treponema hyodysenteriae and other porcine intestinal spirochaetes is described. The medium, when dispensed in shallow layers and sealed under 10 per cent CO2 in nitrogen, had a redox potential not greater than -125mV and an initial pH of about 6.9 when buffered with bicarbonate. Growth of T hyodysenteriae developed more rapidly and viable counts reached higher levels at 42 degrees C than at 37 degrees C. Viable counts increased at least 10,000-fold after two to five days' incubation, depending on the temperature. Growth could be initiated from small inocula that failed to produce colonies on blood agar. Using a 1 per cent inoculum, the medium supported the growth of two strains of T hyodysenteriae through 10 serial passages.
Marxist, Neo-Marxist and Third-World Interpretations of Development

The present chapter will examine Marxist, neo-Marxist and Third World interpretations of development. Primary consideration will be given to the concept of development as interpreted by Third World leaders and intellectuals. It will explore how these leaders and intellectuals defined their national experiences in the light of colonialism and imperialism. Furthermore, if one examines some of the writings emanating from the Third World it is evident that both Marxist and neo-Marxist thought have significantly influenced Third World conceptions of national liberation and development. First, in this chapter discussion will briefly revolve around the general world political and economic conditions which facilitated the rise of decolonization. Second, I will examine the concept of development as it is reflected in the writings of Leopold Sedar Senghor, Frantz Fanon and Octavio Paz. Their attempts to link their conceptions of the Third World to the broader conception of development and underdevelopment will be considered. Third, it will examine the substantive concerns of dependency theories and their use of Marxist and neo-Marxist concepts in their analyses of the problem of Latin American development.
Separation Anxiety Disorder

Publisher Summary This chapter describes separation anxiety disorder (SAD). SAD is the only anxiety disorder identified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The defining feature of SAD is an unrealistic and excessive fear of separation from home or from major attachment figures. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for SAD is the most commonly utilized psychosocial intervention. Based in the tripartite conceptualization for anxiety, the child with SAD is seen as experiencing three sets of anxiety symptoms: behavioral, physiological, and cognitive. CBT targets each of these components by employing specific strategies for alleviating the distress and dysfunction associated with each component. The most beneficial therapeutic intervention for SAD at this time appears to involve using CBT for the child, while also involving members of the child's home and school systems to facilitate the child's acquisition of coping skills and approach behavior. Changes in economic aspects of clinical practice with an emphasis on reducing costs may not be consistent with this combined approach. Alternatively, the child and parents may both be present during certain portions of therapy to encourage efficiency and acquisition by instructing both the child and the parent at the same time. In this way, treatment would be more economical for the family, while allowing it to be comprehensive.
Syphilis and HIV: Is HAART at the heart of this epidemic?

Dramatic and concerning increases in syphilis have been reported in men who have sex with men (MSM) across Western Europe, the USA and China.1 ,2 A large proportion of these patients have been noted to be HIV co-infected.1 The article by Bissio et al published in this issue extends these findings to Argentina, noting a high rate of incident syphilis in HIV-infected MSM residing in Buenos Aires. In this retrospective cohort study, the authors reviewed records of HIV-positive MSM attending an HIV clinic in Buenos Aires for follow-up at least twice in the period from March 2015 to February 2016. Although limited by the lack of treponemal antibody confirmatory testing, they detected 171 new cases of syphilis during the study period, translating to an incidence of 14.9/100 patients/year. Why these significant increases in syphilis have been seen in MSM, and HIV-infected MSM in particular, is the subject of the paper by Rekart et al also published in this issue. Here, the authors put forth the novel hypothesis that antiretroviral therapy (ART) may have the potential to alter the innate and acquired immune responses in ways that enhance susceptibility to Treponema pallidum , and that this enhanced susceptibility could be a significant factor contributing to the rise in incident syphilis in HIV-positive MSM. It is critical to note that the authors are in no way suggesting that ART be reconsidered for the treatment and prevention of HIV. Rather, their aim is to put forth a hypothesis which may serve to stimulate discussion and inform research and (perhaps) future interventions to help …
Vitiligo blood transcriptomics provides new insights into disease mechanisms and identifies potential novel therapeutic targets

Significant gaps remain regarding the pathomechanisms underlying the autoimmune response in vitiligo (VL), where the loss of self-tolerance leads to the targeted killing of melanocytes. Specifically, there is incomplete information regarding alterations in the systemic environment that are relevant to the disease state. We undertook a genome-wide profiling approach to examine gene expression in the peripheral blood of VL patients and healthy controls in the context of our previously published VL-skin gene expression profile. We used several in silico bioinformatics-based analyses to provide new insights into disease mechanisms and suggest novel targets for future therapy. Unsupervised clustering methods of the VL-blood dataset demonstrate a “disease-state”-specific set of co-expressed genes. Ontology enrichment analysis of 99 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) uncovers a down-regulated immune/inflammatory response, B-Cell antigen receptor (BCR) pathways, apoptosis and catabolic processes in VL-blood. There is evidence for both type I and II interferon (IFN) playing a role in VL pathogenesis. We used interactome analysis to identify several key blood associated transcriptional factors (TFs) from within (STAT1, STAT6 and NF-kB), as well as “hidden” (CREB1, MYC, IRF4, IRF1, and TP53) from the dataset that potentially affect disease pathogenesis. The TFs overlap with our reported lesional-skin transcriptional circuitry, underscoring their potential importance to the disease. We also identify a shared VL-blood and -skin transcriptional “hot spot” that maps to chromosome 6, and includes three VL-blood dysregulated genes (PSMB8, PSMB9 and TAP1) described as potential VL-associated genetic susceptibility loci. Finally, we provide bioinformatics-based support for prioritizing dysregulated genes in VL-blood or skin as potential therapeutic targets. We examined the VL-blood transcriptome in context with our (previously published) VL-skin transcriptional profile to address a major gap in knowledge regarding the systemic changes underlying skin-specific manifestation of vitiligo. Several transcriptional “hot spots” observed in both environments offer prioritized targets for identifying disease risk genes. Finally, within the transcriptional framework of VL, we identify five novel molecules (STAT1, PRKCD, PTPN6, MYC and FGFR2) that lend themselves to being targeted by drugs for future potential VL-therapy.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy: Case Studies from Coachella Valley

Innovation and entrepreneurship are defined and contextualized through interviews with seven high level executives/owners of renewable energy firms and two important local city officials in the Coachella Valley. The firms are described, based on the interviews and other documentation. As a framework, the renewable energy manufacturing supply chain is presented, showing the progression of steps from raw materials to final product, with associated producers and end users. This framework is compared to the literature on renewables entrepreneurship, which includes consideration of the barriers to entrepreneurs for renewable manufacturing. The seven entrepreneurial firms are analyzed relative to their extent of risk-taking, proactiveness, and innovation. Although a modest start, the products and services being produced by this handful of innovative firms could become a larger and even prominent cluster of renewables manufacturing and services. Furthermore, based on the interviews of city officials, the two cities’ approaches to supporting renewable energy manufacturing are presented and contrasted. The findings point to the need for continued support for entrepreneurial activity. The results suggest benefits for the entrepreneurs in developing partnerships with other renewable companies in the supply-value chain to maximize opportunities.
TOUCHLESS THERMAL RESPIRATORY MONITOR

Climate change threatens pollinators and plants due to temperature-sensitive species traits that affect pollinator-plant interactions. For example, climate-warming is causing shifts in seasonal pollinator activity and flowering periods (i.e. phenologies) that are species-specific in magnitude and direction, which has uncoupled pollinator-plant interactions. Additionally, environmental temperature during development may affect pollinator body size and life span, with implications for pollinator-plant interactions and pollinator fecundity. Species-specific responses to climate-warming indicate that certain pollinator and plant species may be more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate-warming than others. The goal of this study was to help pinpoint species of concern by experimentally determining the role of solitary bee overwintering life stage (adult vs. prepupae) as a mediator of responses to climate-warming. Using multiple bee species and temperature-controlled chambers, I subjected bees to eight manipulations, i.e. factorial combinations of two temperatures (warm vs. cool) and two durations of fall and winter (i.e. short and long). Bee emergence date, weight (before and after manipulations), and longevity following emergence were recorded. Results suggest that increased temperature may cause bees that overwinter as prepupae to advance their phenology more than bees that overwinter as adults, while bees that overwinter as adults showed a greater reduction in body size and life span compared to bees that overwinter as prepupae. These results indicate the potential for overwintering life stage to mediate bee responses to climate-warming and suggests that certain species may be more prone to either phenological responses or altered body size and life span.
Visions of Civic Agency

The chapter examines the processes of civic engagement the organizations have developed to accomplish their objectives. Commitments from political theory are apparent in the visions of civic agency the organizations embrace—they reflect a commitment to the individual or the community.
Privacy and Security

Abstract Cybersecurity threats against healthcare institutions are increasing in numbers and severity. New risks include hacktivism and organized crime, targeting personal identified data stored in hospitals and doctors’ offices. New technologies and policies are needed to mitigate the risks of these threats. Formalized plans are increasingly required by government agencies and penalties for lack of action are increasingly severe. This chapter reviews the majority risks and tactics to protect data privacy.
Current research gaps: a global systematic review of HIV and sexually transmissible infections among transgender populations

Transgender populations are heavily burdened by HIV and other sexually transmissible infections (STIs). However, data on co-infection with HIV and STIs among transgender people are limited. A systematic review was conducted of peer-reviewed articles and conference abstracts between January 2010 and November 2015 that focussed on HIV and STI infections among transgender populations globally. The literature was synthesised and opportunities for improving health research were commented on. Few studies reported HIV-STI co-infection (n=4), while the majority of studies reported HIV and STI infections separately (n=23). Most studies were conducted outside of the USA (n=19), and all but one of these studies reported data on transgender women only. Among USA-based studies (n=8), several reported data on both transgender men and transgender women (n=3), whereas other studies reported exclusively on transgender men (n=1) or transgender women (n=4). Understanding HIV and STIs among transgender people requires research that simultaneously considers multilevel drivers of vulnerabilities. More data are needed on how the interaction of individual determinants, including biological risks of transmission, programmatic determinants such as service-delivery models and policy-level determinants including institutionalised stigma in healthcare settings, influence the HIV- and STI-related outcomes of transgender populations. Leveraging the knowledge of transgender-specific determinants of HIV and STIs should guide the content and approaches to future HIV and STI prevention and treatment efforts.
Cellular microRNA networks regulate host dependency of hepatitis C virus infection.

Cellular microRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to regulate hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication, yet a systematic interrogation of the repertoire of miRNAs impacting HCV life cycle is lacking. Here we apply integrative functional genomics strategies to elucidate global HCV–miRNA interactions. Through genome-wide miRNA mimic and hairpin inhibitor phenotypic screens, and miRNA–mRNA transcriptomics analyses, we identify three proviral and nine antiviral miRNAs that interact with HCV. These miRNAs are functionally linked to particular steps of HCV life cycle and related viral host dependencies. Further mechanistic studies demonstrate that miR-25, let-7, and miR-130 families repress essential HCV co-factors, thus restricting viral infection at multiple stages. HCV subverts the antiviral actions of these miRNAs by dampening their expression in cell culture models and HCV-infected human livers. This comprehensive HCV–miRNA interaction map provides fundamental insights into HCV-mediated pathogenesis and unveils molecular pathways linking RNA biology to viral infections.
A Simple Methodology for Discerning Item Construction Flaws in Health Professions Examinations

Abstract Purpose To introduce to health professions educators a simple methodology that can help discern item construction flaws and mitigate testwiseness effects. Method The methodology involved administering a veterinary medical school exam to medical school professional staff participants with no formal training in the medical and health sciences. Results The methodology was evidenced to be robust, as multiple items containing item construction flaws were identified by inflated success rates for a group of examinees who had no prior training in the subject matter. Discussion Health professions educators are encouraged to utilize the methodology presented in this paper, where appropriate, to discern item construction flaws, reduce measurement error, and increase score validity relating to their assessments.
Extended-release injectable naltrexone for opioid use disorder: a systematic review.

Aims To review systematically the published literature on extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX, Vivitrol® ), marketed as a once-per-month injection product to treat opioid use disorder. We addressed the following questions: (1) how successful is induction on XR-NTX; (2) what are adherence rates to XR-NTX; and (3) does XR-NTX decrease opioid use? Factors associated with these outcomes as well as overdose rates were examined. Methods We searched PubMed and used Google Scholar for forward citation searches of peer-reviewed papers from January 2006 to June 2017. Studies that included individuals seeking treatment for opioid use disorder who were offered XR-NTX were included. Results We identified and included 34 studies. Pooled estimates showed that XR-NTX induction success was lower in studies that included individuals that required opioid detoxification [62.6%, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 54.5-70.0%] compared with studies that included individuals already detoxified from opioids (85.0%, 95% CI = 78.0-90.1%); 44.2% (95% CI = 33.1-55.9%) of individuals took all scheduled injections of XR-NTX, which were usually six or fewer. Adherence was higher in prospective investigational studies (i.e. studies conducted in a research context according to a study protocol) compared to retrospective studies of medical records taken from routine care (6-month rates: 46.7%, 95% CI = 34.5-59.2% versus 10.5%, 95% CI = 4.6-22.4%, respectively). Compared with referral to treatment, XR-NTX reduced opioid use in adults under criminal justice supervision and when administered to inmates before release. XR-NTX reduced opioid use compared with placebo in Russian adults, but this effect was confounded by differential retention between study groups. XR-NTX showed similar efficacy to buprenorphine when randomization occurred after detoxification, but was inferior to buprenorphine when randomization occurred prior to detoxification. Conclusions Many individuals intending to start extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) do not and most who do start XR-NTX discontinue treatment prematurely, two factors that limit its clinical utility significantly. XR-NTX appears to decrease opioid use but there are few experimental demonstrations of this effect.
Sino-Western Cognitive Differences and Western Liberal Biases in Chinese Political Studies

Many scholarly publications in the field of Chinese political studies show a strong Western liberal bias. Very often we find their descriptions and predictions on China to be inaccurate or false. To probe the problem of Western liberal bias, this study uses a multidisciplinary approach to analyze the Sino-Western cognitive habits and the cultural and historical roots of these differences. We find that there are some important cognitive differences between Chinese and Western people. These differences may derive from their linguistic, psychological, and genetic variations, and are closely associated with their different political values, preferences, and behavior patterns. The implication of these finding suggests that some of the Western liberal ideas may not be congruent with Chinese culture which emphasizes social harmony, rule of ethics, and respect to authority. Effort to promote Western liberal democracy as a universal value does not take into consideration of these important cognitive and cultural differences.
Hetero-assembly of a dual β-amyloid variant peptide system

Self-assembly of amyloid polypeptides (1) imparts biological effects depending on the size in over 20 amyloid diseases and (2) produces useful yet relatively untapped biomaterials. Unfortunately, our understanding of amyloid polypeptides, as related to biomedical implications and biomaterial applications, is limited by their self-assembling nature. In this study, we report the creation of a dual peptide system, where a pair of β-amyloid (Aβ) variants are not self-assembled but hetero-assembled in the presence of their assembly partners. We provide evidence that the resulting hetero-assemblies share molecular, structural and morphological similarities with typical amyloid self-assemblies formed by a single polypeptide (e.g., Aβ). We anticipate that our dual peptide system may readily be adapted for precise control of amyloid assembly, for the study of size-dependent neurotoxicity and precise fabrication of amyloid biomaterials.
Ras Post-transcriptionally Enhances a Pre-malignantly Primed EMT to Promote Invasion

Summary Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is integral to cancer progression, with considerable evidence that EMT has multiple intermediary stages. Understanding the mechanisms of this stepwise activation is of great interest. We recreated a genetically defined model in which primary cells were immortalized, resulting in migratory capacity, and subsequently H-Ras-transformed, causing malignancy and invasion. To determine the mechanisms coordinating stepwise malignancy, we quantified the changes in messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein abundance. During immortalization, we found dramatic changes in mRNA, consistent with EMT, which correlated with protein abundance. Many of these same proteins also changed following Ras transformation, suggesting that pre-malignant cells were primed for malignant conversion. Unexpectedly, changes in protein abundance did not correlate with changes in mRNA following transformation. Importantly, proteins involved in cellular adhesion and cytoskeletal structure decreased during immortalization and decreased further following Ras transformation, whereas their encoding mRNAs only changed during the immortalization step. Thus, Ras induced EMT-associated invasion via post-transcriptional mechanisms in primed pre-malignant cells.
History of Tree Planting on the Aleutian Islands

Before the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the New World, native Americans planted fruit and nut trees near their settlements, but the first trees planted in North America for the purpose of wood production appear to have been Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) planted by the Russians at Unalaska Bay in the first decade of the 19th Century. Hardwoods planted in Rhode Island in 1820 on an old field were profitably harvested in the next 57 years (Anonymous, 1992). The live oak (Quercus virginiana Mill.) plantings on Santa Rosa Island in Florida were made after 1830. A few successful plantations on the Aleutian Islands and some natural regeneration at Unalaska suggest that getting trees to grow there is easy, but recent experience indicates this is not true. Interest continues in tree planting near Unalaska Bay where experience has shown that small-wood production is feasible. Farther west there is interest in plantings for amenity purposes.
Social-cognitive factors influencing success on college entrance exams in South Korea

We investigated the influence of social-cognitive factors on students' success on college entrance exams in South Korea. Subjects were 291 college freshmen attending either a prestigious or a less prestigious college. They completed a self-report questionnaire assessing perceived parental control, fear of failure, anxiety, self-efficacy, and time management skills. The results showed that parental psychological control had debilitating effects and self-efficacy had facilitating effects on the performance on the college entrance exam for all students. Fear of failure positively influenced the performance of the students in the less prestigious college but not in the more prestigious college. In addition, comparison of the two colleges revealed that students attending the prestigious college used better time management skills than students attending the less prestigious college. Further, students in the prestigious college tended to be from families with a higher SES level than students attending the less prestigious college. Information is provided to students, parents, and teachers regarding alternative methods for preparing for college entrance exams.
Deposition of Trace Metals in Urban and Rural Areas in the Lake Michigan Basin

Ambient concentrations measured in Chicago and in the rural area of Kankakee (Illinois) are presented for a wide range of trace metals associated with fine (
3397 Genetic variants in gestational diabetes mellitus

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: This study aims to identify genetic biomarkers of GDM and facilitate the understanding of its molecular underpinnings. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We identified a cohort of mothers diagnosed with GDM in our longitudinal birth study by mining Electronic Health Records of participants utilizing PheCode map with ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. We verified each case using ACOG’s GDM diagnosis criteria. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Whole genome sequencing (WGS) data were available for 111 confirmed cases (out of 205) and 706 controls (out of 1,429) from different ancestries (412 EUR, 256 AMR, 56 EAS, 26 SAS and 18 AFR; 49 OTHER). SAS had the highest incidence of GDM at 38.46% and EUR had the lowest at 6.55%. We performed logistic regression using computed ancestry, age and BMI as covariates to determine if any variants are associated with GDM. The top variant (rs139014401) was found in an intron of DFFB gene, which is p53-bound and regulates DNA fragmentation during apoptosis. We will investigate the robustness of 49 identified variants and will separate the cohort by ancestry to detect population-specific differences in the top loci. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Identification of molecular biomarkers in GDM across different ancestral backgrounds will address a gap in current GDM research. Findings may enhance screening and enable clinicians to identify those at risk for developing GDM earlier in the pregnancy. Early management of mothers at risk may lead to better health outcomes for mother and baby.
Religion: Mobilization and Power

This article is a revision of the previous edition article by M. Percy, volume 19, pp. 13077–13082, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd.
Elliptic flow, eccentricity and eccentricity fluctuations

Differential studies of elliptic flow are one of the most powerful tools in studying the initial conditions and dynamical evolution of heavy ion collisions. The comparison of data from Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions taken with the PHOBOS experiment at RHIC provides new information on the interplay between initial geometry and initial particle density in determining the observed final state flow pattern. Studies from PHOBOS point to the importance of fluctuations in the initial state geometry for understanding the Cu+Cu data. We relate the elliptic flow data to the results of our model studies on initial state geometry fluctuations and discuss how we will perform measurements of event-by-event fluctuations in elliptic flow in Au+Au collisions.
Structuring Your IB Course to Create a Foreign Market Entry Plan Using Active Learning Strategies as “Building Blocks”

This chapter introduces an innovative teaching approach that scaffolds 11 interconnected active learning strategies throughout the course to help students practice the required tasks and skills needed to formulate a foreign market entry plan for a real-life local business. This approach could work for all levels, abilities, and class sizes and ideally face-to-face because timely feedback is needed for all learning strategies.
Sex and the Single Chromosome

Gender identification and sex selection, we would be the first to agree, are not the most salient topics in the panoply of medical, legal, social, and ethical issues surrounding the uses of genetic technology. But, to paraphrase our clinician colleagues, they are “interesting” issues, ones that we have discussed often during the several years that we have examined the field of applied human genetics as social scientist researchers and as teachers of medical sociology and medical ethics. For, both in and of itself, and as a case study that raises more generic issues, the capability to detect prenatally the presence or absence of a single Y chromosome raises important ethical and social policy questions about the rights and obligations of those providing and utilizing the knowledge and techniques of applied human genetics.
The algebraic matroid of the finite unit norm tight frame (funtf) variety

Abstract A finite unit norm tight frame is a collection of r vectors in R n that generalizes the notion of orthonormal bases. The affine finite unit norm tight frame variety is the Zariski closure of the set of finite unit norm tight frames. Determining the fiber of a projection of this variety onto a set of coordinates is called the algebraic finite unit norm tight frame completion problem. Our techniques involve the algebraic matroid of an algebraic variety, which encodes the dimensions of fibers of coordinate projections. This work characterizes the bases of the algebraic matroid underlying the variety of finite unit norm tight frames in R 3 . Partial results towards similar characterizations for finite unit norm tight frames in R n with n ≥ 4 are also given. We provide a method to bound the degree of the projections based off of combinatorial data.
Multiparty Visual Co-Occurrences for Estimating Personality Traits in Group Meetings

Participants’ body language during interactions with others in a group meeting can reveal important information about their individual personalities, as well as their contribution to a team. Here, we focus on the automatic extraction of visual features from each person, including her/his facial activity, body movement, and hand position, and how these features co-occur among team members (e.g., howfre- quently a person moves her/his arms or makes eye contact when she/he is the focus of attention of the group). We correlate these features with user questionnaires to reveal relationships with the "Big Five" personality traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroti- cism), as well as with team judgements about the leader and dominant contributor in a conversation. We demonstrate that our algorithms achieve state-of-the-art accuracy with an average of 80% for Big-Five personality trait prediction, potentially enabling integration into automatic group meeting understanding systems.
A Chemo-poroelastic Analysis of Mechanically Induced Fluid and Solute Transport in an Osteonal Cortical Bone.

It is well known that transport of nutrients and wastes as solute in bone fluid plays an important role in bone remodeling and damage healing. This work presents a chemo-poroelastic model for fluid and solute transport in the lacunar-canalicular network of an osteonal cortical bone under cyclic axial mechanical loading or vascular pressure. Analytical solutions are obtained for the pore fluid pressure, and fluid and solute velocities. Numerical results for fluid and calcium transport indicate that under a cyclic stress of 20 MPa, the magnitudes of the fluid and calcium velocities increase with an increase in the loading frequency for the frequency range considered (≤ 3 Hz) and peak at the inner boundary. The peak magnitude of calcium velocity reaches 18.9 μm/s for an osteon with a permeability of 1.5 × 10−19 m2 under a 3 Hz loading frequency. The magnitude of calcium velocity under a vascular pressure of 50 mmHg is found to be two orders of magnitude smaller than that under the mechanical load. These results have the potential to be important in understanding fundamental aspects of cortical bone remodeling as transport characteristics of calcium and other nutrients at the osteon scale influence bone metabolism.
Epidemiology of gastroparesis: important answers and still more questions

Gastroparesis is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder characterised by symptoms of nausea, vomiting, early satiety, postprandial fullness, bloating and abdominal discomfort.1 Definitive diagnosis requires objective evidence of delayed gastric emptying (GE), typically assessed via scintigraphy or stable isotope breath tests with a standardised meal.2 The pathophysiological mechanisms and natural history of gastroparesis remain unclear, at least in part due to the paucity of a comprehensive, accurate and consistent description of the epidemiology. The recently published study by Ye et al in Gut partly addresses this need as the first population-based study to describe the epidemiology and outcomes of gastroparesis in Europe. The study has a number of epidemiological strengths that make it particularly noteworthy, the most significant of which is that data acquisition used the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) database in the UK. The CPRD is an anonymised data source of general practitioner records with 4.4 million active patients comprising 7% of the entire UK population. The CPRD is representative in terms of age, sex, ethnicity and body mass index.3 Over half of these individuals’ records also have linked data to secondary care and mortality records.3 After medical records review of these diverse electronic repositories, the authors identified over 1000 patients with a diagnosis of gastroparesis throughout the UK, facilitating prevalence estimates by …
Guidepost: The Evolution of Research on Industry Platforms

Industry platforms have become an increasingly popular topic. Scholars in fields ranging from economics and strategy to operations management, marketing, law, and computer science all are contribut...
Portrait Under Construction: Lotte Jacobi in Soviet Russia and Central Asia∗

Traveling in Russia and Central Asia in 1932–33, the German-Jewish portrait photographer Lotte Jacobi produced an extraordinary archive of several thousand photographs documenting Soviet industrial...
Estimating Transit Ridership Using Wi-Fi Signals: An Enhanced Rule-Based Approach

This paper focused on the estimation of bus ridership using Wi-Fi probes (i.e., signals) emitted by smartphones that bus passengers carried. Smart stations -- which consist of a Raspberry-Pi computer, a Wi-Fi adapter, and a GPS add-on-- were programmed to sniff Wi-Fi signals and transmit signal data through a cloud service to the research computer. These smart stations were mounted onboard a network of transit buses that serve the City of Bozeman, Montana, and its surrounding areas. Two rule-based methods were developed to estimate the number of passengers onboard a bus at any given time. In the first, standard method, a signal was labeled as a passenger if it met arbitrary cutoff values from six criteria pertinent to speed (how fast the signal/device was traveling relative to the bus), duration being detected (as a proxy for how long the device remained in close proximity of the bus), and signal strength (which may correlate with the distance between the device and the bus). The second method employed a cost-function minimization via grid-search to tune the cutoff values involved in those subjective rules (e.g., a valid passenger signal should be close enough to a bus stop when it is first and last detected, but how close is close?). Results suggest a strong linear relationship between model-estimates and ground-truth passenger counts -- on average, the model estimates were able to capture 67% of the observed passenger counts. As Wi-Fi enabled personal devices continue to saturate the market, a Wi-Fi based counting tool as studied here can serve as an efficient way to monitor passenger flows of transportation systems.
A retrospective epidemiological study of paediatric femoral fractures.

Background Femoral fracture is a significant major trauma in children and adolescents, sometimes resulting in serious complications. This study aimed to determine the epidemiology of femoral fractures and to define associated injuries and mortality incidence in a pediatric population below 16 years old. Methods The medical records of all patients with a femoral fracture treated in our hospital from 1997n2016 were reviewed retrospectively. Age, gender, mechanism of the trauma, month and season of fracture occurrence, fracture type, associated injuries, and mortality data were collected. Patients were divided into four age groups and compared. Results The study included 348 children with 353 femoral fractures. The mean annual prevalence of femoral fracture during the study period was 22.7 per 100,000 children. Except for children less than 1 year old, most fractures occurred in male patients (69%), with a male-to-female ratio of 2.2:1. Road accidents were the most common mechanism at all ages. Femoral fractures were mainly due to low-energy trauma in neonates and infants, to road accidents and low-energy trauma in preschool children, to sports accidents in school-age children, and to road traffic accidents in teenagers. February was the month with the most occurrences of femoral fractures. Winter was the peak season for femoral fractures in children aged l1 year and 6n11 years (37.8% and 46.4% of fractures respectively), whereas autumn was the most common season (29.5%) for preschool children and spring (31.1%) the most common in the teenagers group. Diaphyseal fractures were the most commonly reported lesions in all four age groups, representing 72.3% of all fractures. Only 18 fractures were open (5.1%). Eighty-eight patients (25.3%) presented with associated injuries at admission, 12 presented with Waddellrs triad of injuries, and the mortality rate was calculated to be 1.1% (four cases). Conclusion The circumstances of injury and the seasonality of femoral fractures differed significantly depending on the childrenrs ages. Moreover, the morbidity of femoral fractures in children was closely correlated with associated injuries. (Level of evidence: Level III).
New Faces, New Neighbors? How Latino Population Growth and Lending Expansion Shapes the Neighborhood Racial and Ethnic Composition for White and Latino Homebuyers

Fueled by increased socioeconomic status (SES), geographic mobility, and access to lending, Latino home buying expanded during the recent housing boom. However, less is known about the types of nei...
Doctoral Colloquium-Immersive Media in Remote Schooling: “I Was Surprised at How Engaged I Was”

With protracted school closures forcing young people to learn remotely, schools are in urgent need of innovative approaches that can keep students engaged in their education and support their learning. Immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree videos may increase motivation to learn and improve student focus, but little is known about their effectiveness in a remote schooling model. This doctoral colloquium paper describes work-in-progress using 360-videos and cardboard viewers in remote high school classes. Emergent themes from interviews and focus groups indicate students find 360-videos engaging through increasing focus, control, and interest, and useful for facilitating observational learning.
Species Tree Inference Methods Intended to Deal with Incomplete Lineage Sorting Are Robust to the Presence of Paralogs.

Many recent phylogenetic methods have focused on accurately inferring species trees when there is gene tree discordance due to incomplete lineage sorting (ILS). For almost all of these methods, and for phylogenetic methods in general, the data for each locus is assumed to consist of orthologous, single-copy sequences. Loci that are present in more than a single copy in any of the studied genomes are excluded from the data. These steps greatly reduce the number of loci available for analysis. The question we seek to answer in this study is: What happens if one runs such species tree inference methods on data where paralogy is present, in addition to or without ILS being present? Through simulation studies and analyses of two large biological data sets, we show that running such methods on data with paralogs can still provide accurate results. We use multiple different methods, some of which are based directly on the multispecies coalescent (MSC) model, and some of which have been proven to be statistically consistent under it. We also treat the paralogous loci in multiple ways: from explicitly denoting them as paralogs, to randomly selecting one copy per species. In all cases the inferred species trees are as accurate as equivalent analyses using single-copy orthologs. Our results have significant implications for the use of ILS-aware phylogenomic analyses, demonstrating that they do not have to be restricted to single-copy loci. This will greatly increase the amount of data that can be used for phylogenetic inference.