cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A description of a new method of quantifying the regurgitant flow in patients with an incompetent mitral valve

BACKGROUND: It has been shown previously that using color Doppler flow mapping, simple measurements of apparent jet size do not correlate closely with regurgitant flow rate and regurgitant fraction. Recently the proximal flow convergence method has been proposed to quantify valvular regurgitation by analysis of the converging flow field proximal to a regurgitant lesion. Flow rate Q can be calculated as Q = 2 pi r2va where va is the aliasing velocity at a distance r from the orifice. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In 54 patients (43 in sinus rhythm, 11 with atrial fibrillation) with at least mild mitral regurgitation by semi-quantitative assessment, regurgitant stroke volume, regurgitant flow rate, and regurgitant fraction were calculated using the proximal flow convergence method and compared with values obtained by the Doppler/two-dimensional echocardiographic method. RESULTS: Regurgitant stroke volumes (VL) calculated by the proximal flow convergence method correlated very closely with values obtained by the Doppler-2D method with r = 0.93 (y = 0.95x + 0.55) and delta VL = -0.3 +/- 4.0 cm3. Regurgitant flow rates (Q) calculated by both methods showed a similar correlation: r = 0.93 (y = 0.95x + 54) and delta Q = -34 +/- 284 cm3/min. The correlation for regurgitant fraction (RF) calculated by both techniques showed r = 0.89 (y = 0.98x + 0.006) and delta RF = -0.005 +/- 0.06. All correlations were slightly better for the group of patients in sinus rhythm compared with the study group in atrial fibrillation. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that the proximal flow convergence method is an accurate and reproducible technique to quantify mitral regurgitation. This approach is easy and less time-consuming than the Doppler-echocardiographic method. While future improvements of this method are to be expected, flow calculations based on the assumption of simple hemispheric symmetry of the proximal flow field appear suitable for clinical application at the present time.
Comparative Effect of Some Neurotropic Agents on Balance Compensation After Unilateral and Bilateral (Two-Staged) Labyrinthectomy in Squirrel Monkeys

The dynamic repair process of body equilibrium after vestibular injury is a typical representation of nervous system plasticity. The body equilibrium system needs to re-establish a coordinated sensorimotor balance. For this purpose, the input from the remaining vestibular organs is believed to carry the primacy for balance compensation with its receptor characteristics. In addition, afferents from other sensory modalities are mobilized, modulated, and efficiently integrated at many levels of the central nervous system, particularly after the total vestibular loss; during the Bechterew’s compensation. Thus, the global and behavioral measurements in animal models is advantageous, for it can assess the integrated function of the entire neural system.
Isolation of growth suppressors from a cDNA expression library

We describe an experimental procedure for the isolation of growth inhibitory sequences from a complex cDNA library. This approach first takes advantage of the SETGAP technique (selectable expression of transient growth arrest phenotype) to enrich for growth inhibitory sequences, followed by a screening procedure to identify individual cDNAs that inhibit cell proliferation. Here we provide a detailed description of the experimental protocol and report the characterization of two cDNA sequences isolated in our initial screen of a mouse cDNA library. One of these cDNAs encodes the mouse ubiquitin-conjugation enzyme UbcM2. The other encodes a truncated form of a novel WD40 repeat protein, named Bopl, which is conserved from yeast to human. Together, these results demonstrate a new approach for the isolation of growth suppressors from cDNA libraries, and identify a previously unknown gene likely to be involved in growth control.
Visual representation of the kinematics of the continuum

The purpose of this paper is to present some experimentally determined properties of the continuum. The development starts with the illustration of deformed shapes, or metamorphoses, and the introduction of the concept of displacement. From there on, the development follows the classic mechanics-of-continuum presentation, spatial and time derivatives of displacement, strains, stresses and rigid rotations. To unify the presentation, all considerations are applied to the case of a circular ring subjected to diametral compression. Particular advantage is taken of grids, moire, brittle-coatings and photoelasticity methods to obtain the physical representations of the properties. The following loci are considered: isokinetics, isothetics, isogonics, isoclinics of displacement, displacement trajectories, loci of partial derivative, isogyros, isotenics, isochromatics, isoclinics of strain and stress, isostatics, isopachics, isobars, isostrophics and isoentatics. The understanding of the properties of these fields helps in the visualization of the mechanics of the continuum, in general, and may prove to be particularly useful in the fields of plasticity and finite strain.
An Alternative to Reduce the Physical Stress of VDT Operators

A Study has been conducted to compare the effectiveness between improvement of furniture design (ergonomic design) and physical exercise in reducing musculoskeletal stress of the VDT (Video Display Terminal) operators. As an objective measurement, electromyograms (EMG) were measured from the neck, the left and right trapezius, L2/L3 region of back, triceps, flexor carp radialis and extensor carpi ulnaris. Subiective questionnaires were also used. Each of the five subjects was tested for two days (8 hours/day) in two different work stations which are an ergonomically designed work station and a traditionally designed work station using non-ergonomic devices. It was found that the physical exercises could reduce musculoskeletal stress as effectively as the ergonomic design.
Dynamic Analysis of Complex Composite Rotor Systems With Substructure Transfer Matrix Method

A substructure transfer matrix method for the dynamic analysis of multi-Rotor systems and complex composite systems is presented. When calculating, the rotor system should be decomposed into several single rotor shafts (substructures). Corresponding unknown external loads and deflections are applied to the separated surfaces, rigid support sections and ball joint sections respectively to replace the original connections. According to the connective and boundary conditions of the whole rotor system, a system of equations is established, from which the frequency equation results. The calculating formulas of vibration modes and of unbalanced response will be easily formed by linear combination method. All computations are performed with the transfer matrix method. This method is intelligible, readily programmed and much simpler than the current transfer matrix method and modal synthesis method.Copyright © 1985 by ASME
Feed-Forward Propagation of Temporal and Rate Information between Cortical Populations during Coherent Activation in Engineered In Vitro Networks.

Transient propagation of information across neuronal assembles is thought to underlie many cognitive processes. However, the nature of the neural code that is embedded within these transmissions remains uncertain. Much of our understanding of how information is transmitted among these assemblies has been derived from computational models. While these models have been instrumental in understanding these processes they often make simplifying assumptions about the biophysical properties of neurons that may influence the nature and properties expressed. To address this issue we created an in vitro analogue of a feed-forward network composed of two small populations (also referred to as assemblies or layers) of living dissociated rat cortical neurons. The populations were separated by, and communicated through, a MEMS device containing a strip of microscale tunnels. Delayed culturing of one population in the first layer followed by the second a few days later induced the unidirectional growth of axons through the microtunnels resulting in a primarily feed-forward communication between these two small neural populations. In this study we systematically manipulated the number of tunnels that connected each layer and hence, the number of axons providing communication between those populations. We then assess the effect of reducing the number of tunnels has upon the properties of between-layer communication capacity and fidelity of neural transmission among spike trains transmitted across and within layers. We show evidence based on Victor-Purpura’s and van Rossum’s spike train similarity metrics supporting the presence of both rate and temporal information embedded within these transmissions whose fidelity increased during communication both between and within layers when the number of tunnels are increased. We also provide evidence reinforcing the role of synchronized activity upon transmission fidelity during the spontaneous synchronized network burst events that propagated between layers and highlight the potential applications of these MEMs devices as a tool for further investigation of structure and functional dynamics among neural populations.
Bile Pigment Metabolism and Its Disorders

Bilirubin is the degradation product of the heme moiety of hemoglobin and other hemoproteins. Bilirubin is potentially toxic, requiring a multistep detoxification and excretion process, which can be affected by a multitude of inherited and acquired diseases. This chapter discusses these physiological processes, focusing on inherited disorders that can cause hyperbilirubinemia through perturbation of one or more of these steps.
Does use of an electronic health record with dental diagnostic system terminology promote dental students' critical thinking?

The Consortium for Oral Health Research and Informatics (COHRI) is leading the way in use of the Dental Diagnostic System (DDS) terminology in the axiUm electronic health record (EHR). This collaborative pilot study had two aims: 1) to investigate whether use of the DDS terms positively impacted predoctoral dental students’ critical thinking skills measured by the Health Sciences Reasoning Test (HSRT), and 2) to refine study protocols. The study design was a natural experiment with cross-sectional data collection using the HSRT for 15 classes (2013–17) of students at three dental schools. Characteristics of students who had been exposed to the DDS terms were compared with students who had not, and the differences were tested by t-tests or chi-square tests. Generalized linear models were used to evaluate the relationship between exposure and outcome on the overall critical thinking score. The results showed that exposure was significantly related to overall score (p=0.01), with not-exposed students having lower mean overall scores. This study thus demonstrated a positive impact of using the DDS terminology in an EHR on the critical thinking skills of predoctoral dental students in three COHRI schools as measured by their overall score on the HSRT. These preliminary findings support future research to further evaluate a proposed model of critical thinking in clinical dentistry.
Transfer of learning between related and less related tasks using content specific and content general learning strategies

TRANSFER OF LEARNING BETWEEN RELATED AND LESS RELATED TASKS USING CONTENT SPECIFIC AND CONTENT GENERAL LEARNING STRATEGIES
Polarization-assisted amplitude gating as a route to tunable, high-contrast attosecond pulses

Attosecond spectroscopy is a powerful technique for probing electron dynamics in fundamental systems. However, extending this method to cover a wide range of element-specific, core-hole transitions requires the availability of broadly tunable attosecond pulses. In this Letter, we present a new method for generating high-flux, high-contrast single attosecond pulses tunable across the range of 50–120 eV. The method is referred to as a Polarization ASSisted Amplitude GatE (PASSAGE) and uses a few-cycle driving pulse along with a partial polarization gate to extend the bandwidth of high harmonic emission in the temporally isolated, cut-off portion of the spectrum. The simplicity of this technique will help pave the way for implementing attosecond core–hole spectroscopy to probe more complex reactions and bring attosecond science into a multidisciplinary setting.
Analysis and detection of labeled cyberbullying instances in Vine, a video-based social network

The last decade has experienced an exponential growth of popularity in online social networks. This growth in popularity has also paved the way for the threat of cyberbullying to grow to an extent that was never seen before. Online social network users are now constantly under the threat of cyberbullying from predators and stalkers. In our research paper, we perform a thorough investigation of cyberbullying instances in Vine, a video-based online social network. We collect a set of media sessions (shared videos with their associated meta-data) and then label those using CrowdFlower, a crowd-sourced website for cyberaggression and cyberbullying. We also perform a second survey that labels the videos’ contents and emotions exhibited. After the labeling of the media sessions, we provide a detailed analysis of the media sessions to investigate the cyberbullying and cyberaggression behavior in Vine. After the analysis, we train different classifiers based upon the labeled media sessions. We then investigate, evaluate and compare the classifers’ performances to detect instances of cyberbullying.
Las acciones como transformaciones de estado en G. H. von Wright

G. H. von Wright developed in several publications deontic logics of action in which he analyzed actions as world-state transformations. This paper is a discussion of von Wright’s state transformation model and its variants developed by other philosophers.
ADDSMART: Address digitization and smart mailbox with RFID technology

ADDSMART is a research project focused on digitizing addresses of locations and building a smart mailbox by combining wireless sensors, cameras, locks, and RFID readers and tags into a system controlled by an Arduino microcontroller board. We explored the idea of address digitization (using RFID tags to store addresses) and incorporated it into a mailbox that can communicate wirelessly with the homeowner to provide mail status updates and home security footage through digital photographs. This paper demonstrates our proposed ideas, describes the design of a smart mailbox, the technology we have used to build a prototype, and the current results of work along with future research ideas.
Abstract TP320: Fluoroscopy Time: an Early Predictor of Outcome After Thrombectomy for Acute Ischemic Stroke

Introduction: Endovascular thrombectomy for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is time sensitive and faster intervention can lead to better patient outcomes. Quality improvement (QI) measures typically focus on door to needle and groin puncture times. Increased fluoroscopy time (FT) has been associated with increased cerebral angiography complication rates. We aimed to understand the predictors of lower FT and its effect on 3-month clinical outcomes. Methods: We performed a retrospective study of AIS patients with large vessel occlusion who underwent mechanical thrombectomy at our center from 2008 to 2014. We performed univariate analysis between FT (dichotomized in ≤ 50 minutes (lower) and >50 minutes (higher) based on the 75th percentile) and patients demographics, stroke severity, procedural data and outcomes measured including TICI recanalization scores and 90-day modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Significant predictors (p Results: Out of 98 patients, 77 (79%) patients had FT ≤50 minutes. Significant predictors of lower FT were men (56% vs 44%, p=0.01), no congestive heart failure (87%% vs 13%. P=0.0005), no atrial fibrillation (74% vs 26%, p=0.01), no ICA occlusion (83% vs 17%, p=0.01), and non-aspiration device (81% vs 20%,p=0.01). In a multivariate logistic regression model, only non-aspiration device was an independent predictor of lower FT (OR 3.19, 95% CI 1.001-10.43). Lower FT was associated with lower total procedure time (80 vs 149 minutes, p Conclusions: FT is an early predictor of 3 month clinical outcomes. The use of non-aspiration devices predicted lower FT and may reflect the complexity of using different devices. Occlusion at the ICA and cardiovascular comorbidities were also associated with prolonged FT. These results suggest that FT should be considered in the evaluation of device performance and followed as a measure of QI as this field rapidly evolves.
Percutaneous Treatment of Mitral Regurgitation: Present and Future

ABSTRACT Mitral valve regurgitation poses a significant public health burden, with more than 3 million people in the US alone suffering from moderate or severe mitral valve regurgitation. Surgical correction with mitral valve repair or replacement is the mainstay of therapy. However, a significant proportion of elderly patients are not eligible for mitral valve repair or replacement due to prohibitive surgical risk from increased age, poor ventricular function, or associated comorbidities. Percutaneous mitral valve repair/replacement techniques have been developed to fill this void. The most advanced percutaneous technique with the highest safety and efficacy to date is the edge-to-edge MitraClip repair system. The majority of other catheter-based mitral valve repair/replacement devices are at early developmental stages, but have shown encouraging initial results in feasibility trials. Transcatheter mitral valve replacement holds promise to emerge as the leading transcatheter treatment of choice in the fu...
Improved soil water deficit estimation through the integration of canopy temperature measurements into a soil water balance model

The total available water in the soil root zone (TAWr), which regulates the plant transpiration, is a critical parameter for irrigation management and hydrologic modeling studies. However, the TAWr was not well-investigated in current hydrologic or agricultural research for two reasons: (1) there is no direct measurement method of this parameter; and (2) there is, in general, a large spatial and temporal variability of TAWr. In this study, we propose a framework to improve TAWr estimation by incorporating the crop water stress index (CWSI) from canopy temperature into the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) paper 56 water balance model. Field experiments of irrigation management were conducted for maize during the 2012, 2013 and 2015 growing seasons near Greeley, Colorado, USA. The performance of the FAO water balance model with CWSI-determined TAWr was validated using measured soil water deficit. The statistical analyses between modeled and observed soil water deficit indicated that the CWSI-determined TAWr significantly improved the performance of the soil water balance model, with reduction of the mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean squared error (RMSE) by 17 and 20%, respectively, compared with the standard FAO model (with experience estimated TAWr). The proposed procedure may not work under well-watered conditions, because TAWr may not influence the crop transpiration or crop water stress in both daily and seasonal scales under such conditions. The proposed procedure potentially could be applied in other ecosystems and with other crop water stress related measurements, such as surface evapotranspiration from remote sensing methodology.
Tolerability and clinical efficacy of inhaled treprostinil in patients with group 1 pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Background:Treprostinil is a prostacyclin analogue that directly vasodilates pulmonary and systemic arterial vascular beds. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved inhaled treprosti...
Altered Regulation of Adenylate Cyclase after Toxin-Catalyzed ADP-Ribosylation

Publisher Summary This chapter presents an analysis of three types of ADP-Ribosylation, namely, ADP-ribosylation of Gs by choleragen, ADP-ribosylation of Gi by pertussis toxin, and ADP-ribosylation of transducin. The other known ADP-ribosyltransferases are bacteriophage products or bacterial toxins whose functions should probably be described as misregulation or deregulation, rather than regulation. Choleragen, an exotoxin of Vibrio cholerae , activates adenylate cyclase in many types of cells and has effects similar to those produced by agonist occupancy of a stimulatory receptor. The toxin is composed of one A and five B subunits. NAD is required for choleragen activation of adenylate cyclase. Choleragen increased adenylate cyclase activity by inhibiting the hydrolysis of GTP at a regulatory site. Pertussis toxin, one of several biologically active substances produced by Bordetella pertussis , is an oligomeric protein of ∼ 117,000 Da made up of five different subunits. All of the effects of the toxin, on opiate inhibition of adenylate cyclase and stimulation of GTPase activity, and agonist binding to the receptor, could be explained by failure of the ADP-ribosylated Gi to interact effectively with the inhibitory receptor. The light-activated cGMP phosphodiesterase system of the retinal rod outer segments is analogous in many ways to the hormone-regulated adenylate cyclase system. Activation of the phosphodiesterase by the photon receptor rhodopsin is mediated by transducin, a protein with GTPase activity that is composed of a GTP binding a subunit. The search for enzymes in animal cells that catalyze similar reactions has led to the purification and characterization of two such ADP-ribosyltransferases.
Effect of aldose reductase inhibitors on naphthalene cataract formation in the rat.

Naphthalene feeding can result in cataract formation in rats and rabbits due to specific metabolites of naphthalene. The concomitant administration of the aldose reductase inhibitor All 576 to naphthalenefed rats was proven to prevent cataract formation. To determine whether this effect was directly linked to the ability of All576 to inhibit enzyme aldose reductase, a variety of structurally diverse aldose reductase inhibitors, including the carboxylic acids tolrcstat, l*onalrcstat, and FK366, and the spirohydantoins, sorbinil and All576, were investigated for their ability to inhibit naphthalene-induced cataracts. Brown Norway rats, administered naphthalene by gavagc, were fed normal rat chow containing these aldose reductase inhibitors at levels known to inhibit sugar cataract formation. The lens changes in these rats were monitored over a 90-day period by portable slit-lamp microscopy and histologic study. All576 showed a dose-dependent reduction in naphthalene-induced cataract formation, with no naphthalene-associated deposits seen in toluidinc blue-stained lens sections. Sorbinil also reduced lens changes, whereas tolrcstat, Ponalrestat, and FK366 had no effect. These results suggest that inhibition of naphthalene-induced cataract formation by structurally diverse aldose reductase inhibitors was not linked to the inhibition of aldose reductase. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 32:1630-1637, 1991
Ultrasonic Imaging of the Neck in Patients with Thyroid Cancer

This chapter discusses the clinical relevance of ultrasonic imaging of the neck in patients in whom thyroid cancer is suspected or in those with a history of thyroid cancer and ultrasound-guided percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy.
BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF A UNIQUE ENDOGENOUS VASODILATOR PROSTAGLANDIN PRODUCED IN ISOLATED CORONARY ARTERY AND IN INTACT PERFUSED HEART

Arachidonic acid (AA) decreases coronary arterial resistance in the isolated perfused rabbit heart and relaxes bovine and human coronary artery strips. PGE 2 or PGF 2α contracts these coronary strips and does not affect coronary arterial resistance in the isolated rabbit heart. This suggested that a different arachidonate metabolite may be responsible for these responses. The endogenous phospholipids of the isolated rabbit heart and the coronary artery strips were labelled with [ 14 C ] AA. The primary metabolite of AA released by the heart and the coronary strips was a novel prostaglandin, and some PGE 2 ; no free PGH 2 could be demonstrated. The novel PG was resistant to base hydrolysis and sodium borohydoride reduction. The mobility of this metabolite in multiple chromatography systems was similar to that of 6-keto-PGF 1α . This metabolite demonstrated essentially no biologic activity. The precursor of 6-keto-PGF 1α , PGH 2 , relaxes bovine coronary artery strips, but the endoperoxide itself is rapidly degraded. A potent coronary relaxant is produced by incubating PGH 2 with microsomes from bovine coronary arteries and is present in the cardiac venous effluent following hormone or AA stimulation. The coronary relaxant degraded to the stable end-product 6-keto-PGF 1α . The biologically active component of this novel pathway of arachidonate metabolism appears to be an intermediate (PGX) between PGH 2 and the final 6-keto-PGF 1α -like-product. This intermediate proves to be a potent coronary vasodilator and a probable endogenous determinant of local vascular tone.
Commentary by Victor M. Panaretos

David began working on this paper while he held appointments at Princeton and Bell Labs, and completed it at the London School of Economics. He recalls (Panaretos [16]) that his motivation to consider this problem came from Don Fraser's program of structural probability, and in particular from the issue of formalising aspects of Fisher's fiducial probability. A particular example that David had in mind was that of the correlation coefficient: could Fraser's results be used to show that Fisher's fiducial distribution (Fisher [7]) can be obtained as a Bayesian posterior for some prior - as is often the case when a unique sufficient statistic exists? Lindley [15] had proved that, in the real case, a fiducial distribution would arise as a posterior if and only if the statistical problem were invariant, and so David set out to find conditions for invariance.
The life-cycle of merge conflicts: processes, barriers, and strategies

Merge conflicts occur when developers make concurrent changes to the same part of the code. They are an inevitable and disruptive aspect of collaborative software development. Thus tool builders and researchers have focused on the prevention and automatic resolution of merge conflicts. However, there is little empirical knowledge about how developers actually monitor for merge conflicts and plan, perform, and evaluate resolutions. Without such knowledge, tool builders might be building on the wrong assumptions and researchers might miss opportunities for improving the state of the art. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 software developers across 7 organizations, including both open-source and commercial projects. We identify key processes, techniques, and perceptions from developers, which we extend and validate via two surveys, a Barriers Survey and a Processes Survey, of 162 and 102 developers, respectively. Among others, we find that developers rely on reactive strategies of monitoring for merge conflicts. We find that developers defer responding to conflicts based on their perception of the complexity of the conflicting code and that deferring affects the workflow of the entire team. Developers also rely on this perception to visually evaluate their merge conflict resolutions for correctness. Finally, developers’ perceptions alter the impact of tools and processes designed to preemptively and efficiently resolve merge conflicts. Understanding their processes and perceptions can help design human-oriented tools that better support their individual development processes.
Read-Once Certification of Linear Infeasibility in UTVPI Constraints

In this paper, we discuss the design and analysis of a polynomial time algorithm for a problem associated with a linearly infeasible system of Unit Two Variable Per Inequality (UTVPI) constraints, viz., the read-once refutation (ROR) problem. Recall that a UTVPI constraint is a linear relationship of the form: \(a_{i}\cdot x_{i}+a_{j} \cdot x_{j} \le b_{ij}\), where \(a_{i},a_{j} \in \{0,1,-1\}\). A conjunction of such constraints is called a UTVPI constraint system (UCS) and can be represented in matrix form as: \(\mathbf{A \cdot x \le c}\). These constraint find applications in a host of domains including but not limited to operations research and program verification. For the linear system \(\mathbf{A\cdot x \le b}\), a refutation is a collection of m variables \(\mathbf{y}=[y_{1},y_{2},\ldots , y_{m}]^{T} \in \mathbb {R}^{m}_{+}\), such that \(\mathbf{y\cdot A =0}\), \(\mathbf{y \cdot b } < 0\). Such a refutation is guaranteed to exist for any infeasible linear program, as per Farkas’ lemma. The refutation is said to be read-once, if each \(y_{i} \in \{0,1\}\). Read-once refutations are incomplete in that their existence is not guaranteed for infeasible linear programs, in general. Indeed they are not complete, even for UCSs. Hence, the question of whether an arbitrary UCS has an ROR is both interesting and non-trivial. In this paper, we reduce this problem to the problem of computing a minimum weight perfect matching (MWPM) in an undirected graph. This results in an algorithm that runs in time polynomial in the size of the input UCS.
Storywork in STEM-Art: Making, Materiality and Robotics within Everyday Acts of Indigenous Presence and Resurgence

This article presents findings from TechTales, a participatory design research (PDR) project where learning scientists, public library staff members, informal science educators, and staff members f...
Heart Transplantation with Older Donors: Should There Be an Age Cutoff

Purpose Heart transplantation (HTx) remains limited by donor availability. Although the traditional cutoff age for heart transplant donors is 55 years, only a few programs accept older donors (≥55 yrs) in an effort to broaden the donor pool. The ISHLT registry has reported that older donor age is a risk factor for recipient mortality following HTx. The use of these older donor hearts remains contentious. We assessed our HTx recipients who received donors ≥55 years and compared them to those who received donors Methods Between 2010 and 2018, we assessed 815 HTx recipients and divided them into those who received donors ≥ 55 years (n=65) and those who received donors Results There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of 1, 3 and 5 year survival. The donor ≥55 group also had a significantly lower freedom from CAV and NF-MACE at 1 year. There was no difference in any type of rejection between the two groups. Conclusion Heart transplant recipients receiving donor hearts ≥55 years appear to have acceptable early and mid-term survival. Despite the lower freedom from CAV, the older donors can be considered for a selected group of recipients with acceptable outcome. Larger numbers are warranted to confirm these findings.
Validation of Vision-Based State Estimation for Localization of Agents and Swarm Formation

In this paper, the feasibility of using a vision-based fiducial system is evaluated to provide state estimation for agents within a swarm. We used ArUco markers for relative pose estimation and conducted an experiment for validation of the performance, the accuracy of estimations, and reliability of the method. The ultimate goal is to develop an approach for guidance, control, and navigation of a swarm of CubeSat agents in the space where GPS positioning is unreliable (e.g., proximity formation flying missions in low earth orbit). We demonstrated the feasibility of the method for a three-agent swarm and validated the results obtained for relative position and attitude estimation.
Extending the Marcus μ-Scale of Solvent Softness Using Conceptual Density Functional Theory and the Orbital Overlap Distance: Method and Application to Ionic Liquids

The chemical hardness of a solvent can play a decisive role in solubility and reactivity in solution. Several empirical scales quantifying solvent softness have been proposed. We explore whether computed properties of solvent molecules can reproduce these experimental scales. Our “orbital overlap distance” quantifying the size of orbitals at a molecule’s surface effectively reproduces the Marcus μ-scale of solvent softness. The orbital overlap distance predicts that the surface of chemically hard solvent molecules is dominated by compact orbitals possessing a small orbital overlap distance. In contrast, the surface of chemically soft solvent molecules has a larger contribution from diffuse orbitals and a larger orbital overlap distance. Other conceptual density functional theory descriptors, including the global hardness and electronegativity, can also reproduce the Marcus scale. We further introduce a “solvent versatility” RMSD Dsurf scale quantifying variations in the surface orbital overlap distance. “Good” solvents such as DMSO, which combine chemically “hard” and “soft” sites within a single molecule, possess a large RMSD Dsurf. We conclude by applying this approach to predict the Marcus μ-parameters for widely-used ionic liquids and ionic liquid–cosolvent systems.
"It Has Changed Completely": How Local Sports Broadcasters Adapted to No Sports

When COVID-19 shut down the sports world, local sports broadcasters were without the games and events that traditionally fill the content of their shows While national media outlets could dive deep into the archives to play old games and classic content, local sports broadcasters traditionally do not have that option Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how the jobs and daily routines of local sports broadcasters changed in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak A cross-section of local sports broadcasters from a variety of markets was surveyed, and, based on the responses, several themes emerged: (a) an emphasis on creativity, (b) a shift in daily responsibility, (c) and an uncertain future
Cognition and Political Ideology in Aging.

Objective The impact of cognitive function and decline on political ideology is unknown. We studied the relationship between cognition and both political orientation and political policy choices in a population of older persons. Design Longitudinal investigation. Setting A retirement community and its surroundings in Southern California. Participants 151 members of a longitudinal investigation of aging and dementia in the oldest-old (the 90+ Study), mean age 95 years. Measurements Participants self-reported their political ideology (7-point scale from extremely liberal to extremely conservative) and policy preferences for federal spending on public schooling, aid to the poor, and protecting the environment, as well as on preferences on immigration rates, death penalty, and university admission. The same political survey was mailed to participants twice: at time one and 6-months later. Cognitive function based on neurological examination and cognitive testing was classified as normal (55%), cognitive impairment/not dementia (CIND) (33%), or dementia (12%). We calculated rank correlations between ideology and policy choices, stratified by cognitive status, and agreement between Surveys 1 and 2. Results Political ideology/orientation was highly consistent over a six-month period (84% agreement) among the 122 who returned the second survey, with no significant relationship to cognitive status. Among cognitively impaired (CIND and dementia), however, there was significant loss of consistency between an individual's political orientation and their policy choices. Level of political engagement was high for participants, with more than 90% voting in the 2016 presidential election. Conclusion In this population of older persons, political identification on the liberal-conservative spectrum was resilient despite cognitive decline, but its meaning and function were changed. For the cognitively impaired it remained a self-defining label, but no longer operated as a higher order framework for orienting specific policy preferences. There appeared to be loss of coherence between the political orientation and political policy choices of cognitively impaired individuals. Given the high level of political engagement of these individuals, these results have substantial public policy implications.
Extreme events in wall turbulence

The mechanics of extreme intensity events in the buffer and logarithmic layers of a turbulent channel at is investigated. The 99.9th percentile of the most intense events in the dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy is analysed by means of conditional space–time proper orthogonal decomposition. The computed spatio-temporal modes are coherent in space and over the considered time frame, and optimally capture the energy of the ensemble. The most energetic mode with transverse symmetric structure describes a turbulent burst event. The underlying mechanism is a varicose instability which generates localized extrema in the dissipation and production of turbulent kinetic energy and drives the formation of a hairpin vortex. The most energetic anti-symmetric mode is related to a sinuous-type instability that is situated in the shear layer between two very-large-scale streaks. Statistical results show the energy in the symmetric mode to exceed that in the anti-symmetric mode by a near constant factor for the considered wall distances. Both mechanisms occur throughout the range of wall distances in an effectively self-similar manner that is consistent with the attached-eddy hypothesis. By analogy with transitional flows, the results suggest that the events are induced by an exponential growth mechanism.
Glioblastoma cell-induced immunosuppression causing chemoresistance

Abstract Glioblastomas (GBMs) secrete hundreds of molecules that facilitate their growth and invasiveness. GBMs also release numerous pro- and antiinflammatory cytokines, checkpoint molecules and other molecules in order to cause profound, local and systemic, immunosuppression, a mechanism by which they can resist chemotherapy, radiation therapy, vaccines, and other treatments. This is thought to be a major factor responsible for the extremely poor prognosis of patients with GBM. In this chapter, we look closely at some of the most important of these immunosuppressive mechanisms, as well as at potential ways of increasing GBM patient survival by reversing this immunosuppression.
Hematometrocolpos following Low Transverse Cesarean Delivery Complicated by Uterine Dehiscence.

Background. Hematometrocolpos is a rare complication following procedures performed on the female genital tract. While usually seen in adolescents with congenital anomalies including imperforate hymen and vaginal stenosis, it has also been described following obstetric vaginal lacerations. The incidence following cesarean delivery is unknown. Case. This is a 43-year-old multigravida who underwent a low transverse cesarean delivery complicated by uterine dehiscence, as well as cervical and vaginal lacerations. The repair resulted in lower genital tract obstruction. She presented seven months afterwards with severe abdominopelvic pain and secondary amenorrhea, which resolved after vaginal dilation and excision of the vaginal scar. Conclusion. Systematic inspection of the upper vagina should be undertaken following complicated cesarean delivery with vaginal extension. Hematometrocolpos after cesarean delivery should be managed similar to a transverse vaginal septum.
Molecular dynamics of the viral life cycle: progress and prospects.

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations across spatiotemporal resolutions are widely applied to study viruses and represent the central technique uniting the field of computational virology. We discuss the progress of MD in elucidating the dynamics of the viral life cycle, including the status of modeling intact extracellular virions and leveraging advanced simulations to mimic active life cycle processes. We further remark on the prospects of MD for continued contributions to the basic science characterization of viruses, especially given the increasing availability of high-quality experimental data and supercomputing power. Overall, integrative computational methods that are closely guided by experiments are unmatched in the level of detail they provide, enabling — now and in the future — new discoveries relevant to thwarting viral infection.
Optimal non-pharmaceutical intervention policy for Covid-19 epidemic via neuroevolution algorithm

National responses to the Covid-19 pandemic varied markedly across countries, from business-as-usual to complete shutdowns. Policies aimed at disrupting the viral transmission cycle and preventing the healthcare system from being overwhelmed, simultaneously exact an economic toll. We developed a intervention policy model that comprised the relative human, economic and healthcare costs of non-pharmaceutical epidemic intervention and arrived at the optimal strategy using the neuroevolution algorithm. The proposed model finds the minimum required reduction in contact rates to maintain the burden on the healthcare system below the maximum capacity. We find that such a policy renders a sharp increase in the control strength at the early stages of the epidemic, followed by a steady increase in the subsequent ten weeks as the epidemic approaches its peak, and finally control strength is gradually decreased as the population moves towards herd immunity. We have also shown how such a model can provide an efficient adaptive intervention policy at different stages of the epidemic without having access to the entire history of its progression in the population. This work emphasizes the importance of imposing intervention measures early and provides insights into adaptive intervention policies to minimize the economic impacts of the epidemic without putting an extra burden on the healthcare system.
Improving the Comprehensive Performance of Na0.7MnO2 for Sodium Ion Batteries by ZrO2 Atomic Layer Deposition.

Sodium ion batteries with Na–Mn–O compounds as cathodes have been widely studied as substitutes for lithium ion batteries due to their abundant resources. However, the relatively poor cycling stabi...
Stochastic Fields and their Digital Simulation

A stochastic process is said to be n-dimensional and m-variate if it is a random function of n variables x = [x1 x2.... xn]T and consists of m component random functions fj(x) (j=1,2,...,m): $$ \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{f} (\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{x} ) = [f_1 (\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{x} )f_2 (\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{x} ).....f_m (\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{x} )]^T $$ (3.1) where the component functions are in general statistically dependent. A special case of Eq. 3.1 emerges as a one-dimensional and uni-variate stochastic field f(x) if both n and m are set equal to unity.
Dry powders based on mucus-penetrating nanocomposite microparticles for pulmonary delivery of antibiotics

Pulmonary antibiotic delivery is increasingly recommended as maintenance therapy for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. However, the abnormally thick and sticky mucus present in the respiratory tract of CF patients impairs efficient mucus penetration and limits the range of antibiotics for inhalation treatment. To overcome the obstacles of pulmonary antibiotic delivery, we have developed nanocomposite microparticles (nCmP) for inhalation of antibiotics in the form of dry powder aerosols, which will achieve targeted delivery, rapid mucus penetration, and controlled drug release. Azithromycin and rapamycin loaded nanoparticles were prepared via nanoprecipitation. nCmPs based on mannitol carrier were fabricated by spray drying. Scanning electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering showed 200 nm diameter nanoparticles entrapped in 1 – 2 µm sized microparticles with smooth morphology. In vitro release testing showed that both drug loaded particles have sustained drug release over 12 hours. Redispersity testing indicated that nanoparticles can be well redispersed after being released from mannitol carriers.
Stem cells find their niche

The concept that stem cells are controlled by particular microenvironments known as 'niches' has been widely invoked. But niches have remained largely a theoretical construct because of the difficulty of identifying and manipulating individual stem cells and their surroundings. Technical advances now make it possible to characterize small zones that maintain and control stem cell activity in several organs, including gonads, skin and gut. These studies are beginning to unify our understanding of stem cell regulation at the cellular and molecular levels, and promise to advance efforts to use stem cells therapeutically.
The short esophagus-recognition and management.

Esophageal shortening is a real and clinically important issue for surgeons performing antireflux surgery. The ability to identify these patients preoperatively is based predominantly on experience; however, particular awareness and appropriate preparations should be made for patients demonstrating esophageal strictures and large fixed hiatal hernias. Management should include extensive mobilization of the esophagus to facilitate a tension-free reduction of the esophagogastric junction into the abdominal cavity with subsequent meticulous closure of the esophageal hiatus and anchoring of the repair within the abdomen. If tension-free reduction cannot be achieved, surgeons should be prepared to proceed with a procedure involving Collis gastroplasty or an operation such as the Hill procedure, which involves reliable anchoring within the abdominal cavity. It is currently estimated that approximately 1.5% of patients presenting for antireflux surgery will have some degree of esophageal shortening, and various estimates indicate that 20% to 70% of this population will require specialized surgery because of the inability to establish a tension-free reduction of esophagogastric junction. Based on projections that 20,000 to 40,000 antireflux procedures will be performed in the United States in the year 2000, calculations would show that between 1200 and 2500 patients will require specialized operations for esophageal shortening. Surgeons should be making every attempt to identify these patients preoperatively and have the flexibility to manage them appropriately at the time of antireflux repair.
Graph services for program understanding tools

Many types of problems are more easily understood when represented with graphs. This paper presents an organization of graph theoretical functions for use by an application program. The paper covers a unified set of generalized routines and data structures for graph reductions, path analysis, and data flow problems. Some suggestions for user interfaces are provided. Examples of problems in which these functions might be used are program understanding, software testing, software design, scheduling, and network management. >
Transmission of Salmonella montevideo in Wheat by Stored-Product Insects

Sitophilus oryzae (L.), S. granarius (L.), Tribolium castaneum (Hbst.), Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.), Rhyzopertha dominica (F.), Tenebroides mauritanicus (L.), and Cryptolestes pusillus (Schon.) transmitted Salmonella montevideo from wheat contaminated with 106 organisms/g to clean wheat. The insects were fed on the contaminated grain for 21 days and were then transferred to clean grain and allowed to feed for 21 days. They were subsequently transferred to two more samples of clean wheat. All species carried S. montevideo into the initial sample of clean wheat but not into a second or third sample. Progeny of the original insects that developed in the contaminated wheat exhibited less ability than the original adults to contaminate clean wheat. Data indicated that few S. montevideo could be carried by the stored-product insects in large masses of grain.