cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Clinical and pathophysiological characteristics of the new experimental model of biliary sepsis in the rabbit

AIM The characteristics of a newly established experimental model of biliary sepsis in rabbits from the respects of clinical signs,bacteriology,hemodynamics,metabolism and pathology were analyzed.METHODS The biliary sepsis was induced by ligating the bile duct at a point just above the junction of the right lateral hepatic ductwith the common bile duct and then injecting live E.coli suspension containing 2×108 organisms into the proximal bile duct.RESULTS The resultant sepsis was characterized as a fulminant course of sepsis including persistent bactermia,high biliarypressure,marked intrahepatic inflammatory response,severe hepatic functional and morphological damage and multiple organdysfunction.The mortality rate of this model within 48 hours was 60.0 %.CONCLUSIONS The result indicates that this clinical relevant animal model of sepsis in rabbits simulates the progression of biliarysepsis in human.The model is well applicable for detail investigation in rabbits of the pathogensis as well as the new models of therapyfor biliary sepsis and its sequulae.
Do Lactation-Induced Changes in Ghrelin, Glucagon-Like Peptide-1, and Peptide YY Influence Appetite and Body Weight Regulation during the First Postpartum Year?

To determine whether fasting and meal-induced appetite-regulating hormones are altered during lactation and associated with body weight retention after childbearing, we studied 24 exclusively breastfeeding women (BMI = 25.2 ± 3.6 kg/m2) at 4-5 weeks postpartum and 20 never-pregnant controls (BMI = 24.0 ± 3.1 kg/m2). Ghrelin, PYY, GLP-1, and appetite ratings were measured before/and 150 minutes after a standardized breakfast and 60 minutes after an ad libitum lunch. Body weight/composition were measured at 6 and 12 months. Fasting and area under-the-curve responses for appetite-regulating hormones did not differ between lactating and control groups; , however, tended to track higher after the standardized breakfast in lactating women and was higher () after the ad libitum lunch despite a 24% higher energy intake ( 6.0 kg. The retainers had greater () postmeal ghrelin rebound responses following breakfast. Overall these studies do not support the hypothesis that appetite-regulating hormones are altered during lactation and associated with postpartum weight retention. Altered ghrelin responses, however, deserve further exploration.
Knowledge engineering in nuclear physics

Gamma ray activation spectra are used by nuclear physicists to identify the elemental composition of unknown substances. Neutron bombardment causes some of the atoms of the sample to change into unstable isotopes, which then decay, emitting gamma radiation at characteristic energies and intensities. By identifying the unstable isotopes, the composition of the original substance can be determined. Since the performance of such analysis relies on large amounts of various kinds of knowledge, the task seems appropriate for the techniques of knowledge engineering. An experimental system, GAMMA, has been developed, based on the generate-and-test paradigm. GAMMA's performance has been good enough that it is currently in use by practicing nuclear physicists.
Are you TED talk material? comparing prosody in professors and TED speakers.

TED talks are the pinnacle of public speaking. They combine compelling content with flawless delivery, and their popularity is attested by the millions of views they attract. In this work, we compare the prosodic voice characteristics of TED speakers and university professors. Our aim is to identify the characteristics that separate TED speakers from other public speakers. Based on a simple set of features derived from pitch and energy, we train a discriminative classifier to predict whether a 5 minute audio sample is from a TED talk or a university lecture. We are able to achieve < 10% equal error rate. We then investigate which features are most discriminative, and discuss conflating factors that might contribute to those features.
Biases in the durations and diversities of fossil taxa

The theoretical framework developed here delineates the biological and paleontological circumstances under which the observed durations and diversities of fossil taxa will be significantly affected by three time-dependent sampling biases. The pull of the Recent and the loss of fossiliferous sediments shorten the observed durations of ancient taxa, as compared to the observed durations of Recent taxa. By contrast, the duration truncation mechanism lengthens the observed durations of ancient, as compared to more recent, taxa. Both the pull of the Recent and loss of fossiliferous sediments decrease the observed diversity of ancient, as compared to contemporary, communities.This theoretical framework is built on four parameters: the extinction and origination rates q and p; the fossilization rate, v; and the fossil loss rate, h. I derive formulas for the observed durations and diversities of fossil taxa in terms of these parameters and develop a method of estimating these parameters. The estimation procedure is applied to the bivalve families, and I provide statistical evidence for the conclusion that q – p < 0 for bivalve families, and hence that bivalve diversity has been increasing through time. The theory predicts that a certain fraction of an extinct fauna will be represented by only one fossil, and hence will have an observed duration of zero. As the record becomes poorer, this fraction increases. For bivalves I assume that families known from only one stage have an observed duration of zero, and exploit this assumption to estimate h and v/p.To evaluate the errors made in applying the model to the bivalves, I estimate several parameters in two different ways and find the estimates to be consistent. Additionally, I argue that the errors caused by the simplifying assumptions of the model are less than the sampling errors inherent in estimating p, q, h, and v.
Materialism, Status Consumption, and Market Involved Consumers

Materialism has by all accounts an important impact on many aspects of consumer behavior. The psychological mechanisms through which materialism influences behavior, however, are not well studied. This paper describes a study of the influence of materialism on shopping intensity and amount of spending that takes into account the mediating influences of three important consumer characteristics: status consumption, brand engagement in self-concept, and market mavenism. The researchers fit a model of these relationships based on the Meta-theoretic Model of Motivation (3M) model to data from a sample of 351 adult U.S. consumers. The model fit the data well, and the results showed that indeed, status consumption, brand engagement, and market mavenism mediate at least partially the influence of materialism on shopping and spending.
A Distant Mirror: Articulating Indic Ideas in Sixth and Seventh Century Chinese Buddhism

A Distant Mirror is a fine collection of meticulous textual scholarship in Buddhist logic, epistemology, ontology, and soteriology, which examines medieval Chinese doctrinal exegesis in conversatio...
When Reciprocity Sometimes Fails

Studies in international relations point to the utility and importance of the concept of reciprocity allowing actors to mitigate and overcome some of the inherent difficulties in international interactions, including mistrust and uncertainty. Through the process of tit-for-tat (TFT) actors learn to trust and engage in a positive reciprocal cycle. Yet reciprocity could as easily evolve into a negative cycle. The concept of reciprocity and the two options of positive and negative cycles are examined here. Critical junctures, or key decision points, and the processes occurring during these times become crucial for understanding the direction of the reciprocal cycle. The questions of why such critical junctures are important and how to identify and define these are addressed and discussed
Armored scale (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) pests on Abies fraseri (Pinaceae) Christmas trees imported into Florida

Summary Adventive and potentially pestiferous species are a constant threat to the agriculture of Florida. Fiorinia externa Ferris (Hemiptera: Diaspididae), the elongate hemlock scale, is a recent but persistently intercepted pest of Fraser fir and related species grown out-of-state and imported annually into Florida as cut Christmas trees. Although this and a second species, Hemiberlesia ithacae (Ferris) (Hemiptera: Diaspididae), the hemlock scale, may not become established in Florida on native or cultivated hosts, the risk remains and illustrates the importance of continued vigilance against pest species incursion.
Hybrid Dynamic Radioactive Particle Tracking (RPT) Calibration Technique for Multiphase Flow Systems

The radioactive particle tracking (RPT) technique has been utilized to measure three-dimensional hydrodynamic parameters for multiphase flow systems. An analytical solution to the inverse problem of the RPT technique, i.e. finding the instantaneous tracer positions based upon instantaneous counts received in the detectors, is not possible. Therefore, a calibration to obtain a counts-distance map is needed. There are major shortcomings in the conventional RPT calibration method due to which it has limited applicability in practical applications. In this work, the design and development of a novel dynamic RPT calibration technique are carried out to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional RPT calibration method. The dynamic RPT calibration technique has been implemented around a test reactor with 1foot in diameter and 1 foot in height using Cobalt-60 as an isotopes tracer particle. Two sets of experiments have been carried out to test the capability of novel dynamic RPT calibration. In the first set of experiments, a manual calibration apparatus has been used to hold a tracer particle at known static locations. In the second set of experiments, the tracer particle was moved vertically downwards along a straight line path in a controlled manner. The obtained reconstruction results about the tracer particle position were compared with the actual known position and the reconstruction errors were estimated. The obtained results revealed that the dynamic RPT calibration technique is capable of identifying tracer particle positions with a reconstruction error between 1 to 5.9 mm for the conditions studied which could be improved depending on various factors outlined here.
Chemuniqué : dairy cattle lameness : supplement

South African Lameness The Veterinarian's Role In The Lameness Management Plan Winter Lameness In Central RSA The Ideal Footbath Heat Stress And Non-Infectious Lesions Lameness In Relation To Animal Welfare Dairy Claw Lesion Identification Locomotion Scoring of Dairy Cattle FirstStep®: Real Solutions For Dairy Lameness Quality Nutrition For Quality Feet Essential Trace Minerals, Exceptional Performance
Margins of the Archive: Torture, Heroism, and the Ordinary in Prison No. 5, Turkey

This article focuses on the court documents produced during the 1980 military court trials of Kurds charged with crimes against the Turkish state. Tracing the unauthorized movement of documents to a group of human rights advocates, Kurdish activists, and defense lawyers, it asks how an archive of criminal proceedings transformed into an alternative one bearing political aspirations of various kinds. Instead of reading the archive as a textual artifact whose hermeneutic interpretation is under the strict control of the sovereign, this piece approaches it within a framework of action and scrutinizes how the textual form and symbolic meaning of an archive was altered as Kurds defended themselves before the court, inscribed their own stories on the documents in prison, and circulated them outside for archiving. I argue that despite the kind of semantic violence inflicted by the 1980 coup d'etat, the material remainders of that period disclose that Kurds stitched together their world by construing a language of struggle that promises another form of social existence in the here and now. Thus, the archive-in-making is an archive of not only state violence, but also of revolutionary struggle and aspirations for the ordinary. This article views such archiving practices as a form of making that is conducive to new entanglements of life, violence, and law.
Longitudinal study of the impact of requiring training for students with initially weak spatial skills

ABSTRACTThree-dimensional spatial skills are a cognitive ability that have been shown to predict success in engineering. Michigan Tech has been offering a course to help students improve their 3-D spatial skills for more than two decades. In previous studies, students who failed a rotations test and enrolled in the course performed better on a number of measures when compared to those who failed the rotations test and did not enrol in the course. A valid criticism of these studies was that the two groups were self-selected. Beginning in 2009, the spatial skills course became a requirement for students who initially failed the rotations test. This paper reports on the results from a longitudinal study conducted to determine the impact of the spatial skills course when no self-selection is involved.
Function Approximation and Adaptive Control with Unstructured Uncertainty

This chapter presents the fundamental theories of least-squares function approximation and least-squares adaptive control of systems with unstructured uncertainty. The function approximation theory based on polynomials, in particular the Chebyshev orthogonal polynomials, and neural networks is presented. The Chebyshev orthogonal polynomials are generally considered to be optimal for function approximation of real-valued functions. The Chebyshev polynomial function approximation is therefore more accurate than function approximation with regular polynomials. The neural network function approximation theory for a two-layer neural network is presented for two types of activation functions: sigmoidal function and radial basis function. Model-reference adaptive control of systems with unstructured uncertainty is developed in connection with the function approximation theory. Least-squares direct adaptive control methods with polynomial approximation and neural network approximation are presented. Because the least-squares methods can guarantee the parameter convergence, the least-squares adaptive control methods are shown to achieve uniform ultimate boundedness of control signals in the presence of unstructured uncertainty. The standard model-reference adaptive control can be used for systems with unstructured uncertainty using polynomial or neural network approximation. Unlike the least-squares adaptive control methods, boundedness of tracking error is guaranteed but boundedness of adaptive parameters cannot be mathematically guaranteed. This can lead to robustness issues with model-reference adaptive control, such as the well-known parameter drift problem. In general, least-squares adaptive control achieves better performance and robustness than model-reference adaptive control.
Microchip gas chromatography columns, interfacing and performance

Almost four decades of investigations have opened up many avenues to explore the production and utilization of planar (i.e., microchip) gas chromatographic columns. However, there remain many practical constraints that limit their widespread commercialization and use. The main challenges arise from non-ideal column geometries, dead volume issues and inadequate interfacing technologies, which all affect both column performance and range of applications. This review reflects back over the years on the extensive developments in the field, with the goal to stimulate future creative approaches and increased efforts to accelerate microchip gas chromatography development toward reaching its full potential.
A relation between ablation area and outcome of ablation using 28‐mm cryoballon ablation: Importance of carina region

INTRODUCTION Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) with wide antral ablation leads to better outcomes in atrial fibrillation ablation therapy, but the ablation area is relatively small during cryoballoon ablation (CBA). The present study tested the hypothesis that wide ablation can lead to better outcomes in CBA. METHODS AND RESULTS Ninety-six patients with atrial fibrillation were enrolled (paroxysmal 76%, 64.1 ± 11.7 years). All patients underwent preprocedural computed tomography and the PV diameter at left atrial PV junction was measured. PV isolation was performed using a 28-mm CB for 3 minutes with single freezing. Sinus rhythm bipolar voltage amplitude maps with the NavX mapping system were generated after ablation. According to the voltage map, patients were divided into 3 subgroups (68 in the extensive isolation group, 17 in the individual isolation group, and 10 in the incomplete isolation group). Atrial tachyarrhythmias recurred in 9 patients of the extensive isolation group and 6 in the individual isolation group. The rate of 12-month freedom from tachyarrhythmia after a single ablation procedure was 84% (95% confidence interval [C.I.], 72%-91%) in the extensive group and 57% (95% C.I., 28%-78%) in the individual group (P = 0.048). Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that maximal PV diameter was the only predictor to achieve extensive PVI (odds ratio, 1.57; 95% C.I. 1.08-2.29 P = 0.018). CONCLUSION Extensive isolation is superior to individual isolation for achieving freedom from atrial arrhythmia in long term follow-up by CBA. Evaluating PV diameter at the left atrial PV junction is essential for applying CBA.
Visual Temporal Contrast Sensitivity in the Behaving Mouse Shares Fundamental Properties with Human Psychophysics.

Abstract The mammalian visual system has a remarkable capacity to detect differences in contrast across time, which is known as temporal contrast sensitivity (TCS). Details of the underlying neural mechanisms are rapidly emerging as a result of a series of elegant electrophysiological studies performed largely with the mouse as an experimental model. However, rigorous psychophysical methods are necessary to pair the electrophysiology with temporal visual behavior in mouse. The optomotor response is frequently used as a proxy for retinal temporal processing in rodents. However, subcortical reflexive pathways drive the optomotor response rather than cortical decision-making areas. To address this problem, we have developed an operant behavior assay that measures TCS in behaving mice. Mice were trained to perform a forced-choice visual task and were tested daily on their ability to distinguish flickering from nonflickering overhead lights. Correct responses (Hit and Correct Rejections) were rewarded. Contrast, temporal frequency, and mean illumination of the flicker were the independent variables. We validated and applied the theory of signal detection to estimate the discriminability factor (d´), a measure of performance that is independent of response bias and motivation. The empirical contrast threshold was defined as the contrast necessary to elicit d´ = 1 and TCS as the inverse of the contrast threshold. With this approach, we established in the mouse a model of human vision that shares fundamental properties of human temporal psychophysics such as Weber adaptation in response to low temporal frequency flicker and illumination-dependent increases in critical flicker frequency as predicted by the Ferry–Porter law.
Towards understanding the moral reasoning process of senior chemical engineering students in process safety contexts

Abstract Despite process safety and ethical decision making being recognized priorities in many chemical companies, process safety incidents continue to occur with unfortunate regularity. In order to understand why such incidents keep occurring, and to prevent future accidents from happening, it is important to study the decision-making habits of people employed at chemical companies, and to inform students of the difference between the influences of ethics and behavioral ethics in process safety decision making. This study seeks to determine how senior chemical engineering students approach reasoning through process safety scenarios through the use of a mixed methods study. This study found that four out of the five students who participated in the study demonstrated post-conventional reasoning, and the remaining student showed conventional reasoning based on the quantitative analysis of their responses. Students showed mostly post-conventional reasoning in their responses based on a qualitative analysis; however, through comparison of these results it was found that the moral schema students were classified as was not always truly representative of their moral reasoning.
Stoichiometric oxidations of σ-bonds : Radical and possible non-radical pathways

Abstract Many transition metal complexes accomplish or catalyze the oxidation of C H, O H, and other σ-bonds. Under aerobic conditions, metal complexes typically modulate an autoxidation radical chain. In anaerobic reactions, a metal complex can be the reactive species that attacks the σ-bond, in many cases by abstracting a hydrogen atom from the substrate. Examples described here include the oxidation of alkylaromatic compounds by ruthenium oxo complexes and reactions of deprotonated iron(III) complexes. In general, these reactions occur with addition of H + to a ligand and e − to the metal center. Rate constants for such hydrogen-atom transfer reactions can, in many cases, be predicted by the Marcus cross relation. Autoxidation and metal-mediated radical mechanisms are so prevalent that proposals of non-radical oxidations of C H bonds carry a higher burden of proof. It is argued here that the oxidation of H 2 by OsO 4 occurs by a non-radical, [3 + 2] mechanism. OsO 4 oxidizes alkanes under similar aqueous conditions. For example, isobutane is oxidized to tert -butanol, and cyclohexane to adipate and succinate. The alkane oxidations do not have the hallmarks of a radical mechanism but sufficient questions remain that a radical pathway cannot be excluded at this time.
Hepatitis C–Related Mortality Among American Indian/Alaska Native Persons in the Northwestern United States, 2006-2012:

Objective:American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons are commonly misclassified in epidemiologic and administrative data sets. The race-corrected hepatitis C virus (HCV)–related mortality ra...
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for HIV Prevention: Emerging Approaches to Ending the Epidemic

We review applications of artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning (ML), in the field of HIV prevention. ML approaches have been used to identify potential candidates for preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in healthcare settings in the USA and Denmark and in a population-based research setting in Eastern Africa. Although still in the proof-of-concept stage, other applications include ML with smartphone-collected and social media data to promote real-time HIV risk reduction, virtual reality tools to facilitate HIV serodisclosure, and chatbots for HIV education. ML has also been used for causal inference in HIV prevention studies. ML has strong potential to improve delivery of PrEP, with this approach moving from development to implementation. Development and evaluation of AI and ML strategies for HIV prevention may benefit from an implementation science approach, including qualitative assessments with end users, and should be developed and evaluated with attention to equity.
Treatment and etiology analysis of 782 cases of severe hand-foot and mouth disease

[Objective] To investigate the pathogens and summarize the clinical experiences of severe hand-foot and mouth disease(HFMD).[Methods] Seven hundred and eighty-two cases (59.97％)of sever HFMD(complicating with encephalitis)among the 1304 cases of HFMD admitted in our hospital from January 2010 to December 2010 were entrolled in this study.The clinical features,prognosis,treatment and pathogens of children with severe HFMD were retrospectively analyzed.[Results] Amplification by semi-nested RT-PCR(snRT-PCR)and sequence analysis were done,the genomic RNA was extracted from stool specimens from 754 cases,565 cases(74.93％)were positive,124 cases were negative,45 cases were not homologym.Amongst the positive samples,the predominant isolated was CoxA16(54.16％),the second was EV71(38.94％).By positive treatment,775 among the 782 cases were cured and left hospital,3 cases of acute flaccid paralysis and 1 case of frequent convulsions had improve and discharged from hospital,but 3 cases died of neurogenic pulmonary edema.[Conclusions] HFMD is a common intestinal infectious diseases in pediatrics,the main pathogen of severe HFMD were CoxA16,and the second was EV71.Clinical doctors should pay more attention to the cases of continuous fever,headache,vomiting,extremities tremble,neck resistance,and to observe condition closely for the children complicated with central nervous system infection during clinical therapy.Early diagnosis,early treatment and prevention of pulmonary edema and brainstem encephalitis is the key to minimize the fatality rate and disability rate of severe HFMD. Key words: Hand-foot and mouth disease; Severe case; Etiology; Neurogenic pulmonary edema
The psychosocial implications of COVID-19 for a neurology program in a pandemic epicenter.

Abstract Objective We discuss the psychosocial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic as self-reported by housestaff and faculty in the NYU Langone Health Department of Neurology, and summarize how our program is responding to these ongoing challenges. Methods During the period of May 1–4, 2020, we administered an anonymous electronic survey to all neurology faculty and housestaff to assess the potential psychosocial impacts of COVID-19. The survey also addressed how our institution and department are responding to these challenges. This report outlines the psychosocial concerns of neurology faculty and housestaff and the multifaceted support services that our department and institution are offering in response. Faculty and housestaff cohorts were compared with regard to frequencies of binary responses (yes/ no) using the Fisher's exact test. Results Among 130 total survey respondents (91/191 faculty [48%] and 37/62 housestaff [60%]), substantial proportions of both groups self-reported having increased fear (79%), anxiety (83%) and depression (38%) during the COVID-19 pandemic. These proportions were not significantly different between the faculty and housestaff groups. Most respondents reported that the institution had provided adequate counseling and support services (91%) and that the department had rendered adequate emotional support (92%). Participants offered helpful suggestions regarding additional resources that would be helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion COVID-19 has affected the lives and minds of faculty and housestaff in our neurology department at the epicenter of the pandemic. Efforts to support these providers during this evolving crisis are imperative for promoting the resilience necessary to care for our patients and colleagues.
Factor Structure of the J-SOAP-II Among Black and White Male Youth: A Confirmatory and Exploratory Factor Analysis

The Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol-II (J-SOAP-II) is a tool used to aid clinicians in assessing the sexual and criminal reoffense risk of male youths who have committed a sex offense. Despite its popularity, the factor structure has not been thoroughly assessed. The present study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the factor structure of the four subscales of the J-SOAP-II in a group of youths aged 12-18 who were confined for sexual offenses (N = 909), and whether the fit is affected by youth race. The results showed a poor fit to the data. An ad-hoc goal was added, to propose a new factor structure using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on one half of the data, and CFA on the second half of the data. The EFA identified three-factors: Sexual Offending and Victimization History, Risk for General Delinquency, and Antisocial Beliefs and Attitudes. This three-factor model, provided an improved, but not good, fit, indicating that further modifications to the J-SOAP-II are required to meaningfully capture risk-relevant latent constructs.
Foreword: Special Section on “The Reliability of Advanced Microelectronic Packaging—Part I: Management of Thermal Effects”

Modern technologies and devices ranging from smartphones, computers, cloud computing, industrial automation, and automobiles to the Internet of Things are enabled by integrated circuits (ICs) and their associated packages. The ICs have evolved from the early small-scale integration (SSI) to the later more complex very-large-scale integration (VLSI) and the subsequent ultra-large-scale integration (ULSI), in a continuous quest for improved functionality, higher performance, smaller form factors, and lower cost. The rate at which metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) counts on a chip have increased has generally followed Moore’s law, which states that the transistor count per chip doubles approximately every two years.
VITREOUS SEEDING OF CHOROIDAL MELANOMA.

PURPOSE To report a case of vitreous seeding in a medium-sized choroidal melanoma and review the literature. METHODS Observational case report and review of literature for pathogenesis, role of vitreous biopsy, and treatment outcomes. RESULTS A case of 57-year-old man diagnosed with vitreous seeding in the left eye 1 year after episcleral brachytherapy for medium-sized choroidal melanoma. The patient was initially diagnosed to have subretinal and vitreous hemorrhage due to rupture of a retinal artery macroaneurysm for which focal laser and intravitreal antivascular endothelial growth factor injections were administered. Over the next 9 months, the vitreous hemorrhage cleared and choroidal melanoma with retinal invasion became evident. One year after brachytherapy, the primary tumor regressed with resolution of surrounding subretinal fluid and hemorrhage. However, gradual decline in the visual acuity from 20/50 to 20/500 with increase of pigmented debris over the retinal surface and in the vitreous cavity was noted. A vitreous biopsy confirmed the presence of viable melanoma cells (epithelioid type), and the eye was enucleated. Histopathology showed microscopic persistence of primary tumor with diffuse vitreous seeding. CONCLUSION Vitreous seeding of choroidal melanoma poses a diagnostic and management challenge.
The Impact of App-Delivered Mindfulness Meditation on Functional Connectivity and Self-Reported Mindfulness Among Health Profession Trainees

Previous research indicates that mindfulness meditation reduces anxiety and depression and enhances well-being. We examined the impact of app-delivered mindfulness meditation on resting state functional MRI (fMRI) connectivity among physician assistant (PA) students and surgery residents. PA students and residents were randomized to receive a popular meditation app or to wait-list control group. Before and after the 8-week meditation period, we acquired fMRI scans of participants’ resting state, and participants completed a self-report measure of mindfulness. We used a 2 × 2, within- and between-group factorial design and leveraged a whole-brain connectome approach to examine changes in within- and between-network connectivity across the entire brain, and to examine whether changes in connectivity were associated with app use or to changes in self-reported mindfulness. Meditation practitioners exhibited significantly stronger connectivity between the frontoparietal network and the left and right nucleus accumbens and between the default mode (DMN) and salience networks, among other regions. Mindfulness practice time was correlated with increased connectivity between the lateral parietal cortex and the supramarginal gyrus, which were also positively correlated with increased scores on the “Describing” subscale of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire between baseline and post-meditation. These findings are consistent with previous research indicating that mindfulness-based interventions alter functional connectivity within the DMN and between the DMN and other networks both during meditation and at rest, as well as increased connectivity in systems important for emotion and reward. Recent commentaries call for healthcare provider and trainee wellness programs that are sustainable and preventive in nature rather than reactive; these data indicate that even brief sessions of app-delivered mindfulness practice are associated with functional connectivity changes in a dose-dependent manner.
The Nature of Partisan Conflict in Public Opinion: Asymmetric or Symmetric?:

What are the dynamics of partisan conflict in the mass public in the United States? Has this conflict been driven by Republicans moving to the right across a wide range of issues, or have Democrats...
Development of Pulsed High Power Lasers in the 50–2000 μm Band

Performance and scaling of our high-power narrow-line pulsed 496μm laser is under investigation [1]. In addition, the performance of other high-power lasers in the 50-2000μm band is being studied.
Kikuchi-Fujimoto Disease With Unusual Cutaneous Findings.

ABSTRACT We present a case of the rare Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease (KFD) in a 14-year-old patient admitted to UCLA Medical Center with fever, weight loss, and pancytopenia. Physical examination revealed tender subcutaneous nodules and cervical lymphadenopathy. A lymph node biopsy showed findings consistent with KFD. The skin biopsy showed mild superficial dermal edema with neutrophil-predominant inflammation. In addition, rare atypical monocytoid cells were seen. This histologic finding of a Sweet-like morphology has not been reported previously in the literature in association with KFD. The differential diagnosis included Sweet syndrome arising in association with KFD, underlying connective tissue, and an infectious etiology.
Post-Pandemic Activity Rebounds, but Many Remain Outside the Labor Force

Jobs are returning, but the pandemic has accelerated longtime trends by knocking millions of people out of the labor force.
Design and Development of Oligonucleotide Microarrays and their Application in Diagnostic and Prognostic Estimation of Human Gliomas

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF OLIGONUCLEOTIDE MICROARRAYS AND THEIR APPLICATION IN DIAGNOSTIC AND PROGNOSTIC ESTIMATION OF HUMAN GLIOMAS
The Isolation Technique

Counting is cumbersome and sometimes painful. Studying NP would indeed be far simpler if all NP languages were recognized by NP machines having at most one accepting computation path, that is, if NP = UP. The question of whether NP = UP is a nagging open issue in complexity theory. There is evidence that standard proof techniques can settle this question neither affirmatively nor negatively. However, surprisingly, with the aid of randomness we will relate NP to the problem of detecting unique solutions. In particular, we can reduce, with high probability, the entire collection of accepting computation paths of an NP machine to a single path, provided that initially there is at least one accepting computation path. We call such a reduction method an isolation technique.
Ecofeminism without Nature

The essay ‘Eco/Feminism, Non-Violence and the Future of Feminism’ takes on an important issue within ecofeminism and feminist theory generally – the relationship between maternalism, pacifism, ecofeminism, and essentialism – arguing for new ways of reading ‘eco/feminist’ activism as an engaged mode of theory. Ironically, even though the purpose of the peace camp in Clayoquot Sound was to protest the logging of the rainforest, this essay does not examine the meaning of nature or environmentalism for the protestors. Nature becomes a mere background for the gendered human drama that unfolds. It is crucial that we interrogate the grounds, purposes, and consequences of linking environmentalism and feminism, by analyzing specific articulations within particular places and contexts. Whether or not it is beneficial to merge feminism and environmentalism remains an open question.
Inmanencia y trascendencia de la praxis. Observaciones sobre la concepción de la historia en Vico y Marx

Nuestro articulo muestra como la nocion de praxis constituye el punto de partida de la proposicion cognitiva que encontramos tanto en la obra de Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) como en la de Karl Marx (1818–1883). La praxis, concebida como la forma especifica en que los seres humanos buscamos satisfacer nuestras necesidades materiales y espirituales, se transforma —dada esa misma especificidad— en el demiurgo de la historia, y va trazando los caminos por donde se desliza su acaecer. Pensada en estos terminos, la praxis se nos presenta como un fenomeno esencialmente inmanente. Nuestra indagacion muestra, sin embargo, que esta misma praxis pugna tambien por "recuperar" la infinitud, por trascender. A traves de la busqueda de la satisfaccion de esta necesidad, la praxis deviene portadora de la lucha por la trascendencia; mas aun, se transforma en el vehiculo por excelencia de su busqueda..
ICON: Where earth's weather meets space weather

The Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) is a NASA Heliophysics Explorer Mission designed to study the ionosphere, the boundary between Earth and space. This region, where ionized plasma and neutral gas collide and react, exhibits dramatic variability that affects space-based technological systems like GPS. The ionosphere has long been known to respond to space weather drivers from the sun, but recent NASA missions have shown this variability often occurs in concert with weather on our planet. This paper addresses the overall mission design and architecture of ICON, system design trades that have occurred through phase B of development, and challenges unique to the ICON mission. Set to launch in June 2017, ICON will perform a two-year mission to observe conditions in both the thermosphere and ionosphere. ICON's science objectives are to: 1) understand the source of strong ionospheric variability, 2) the transfer of energy and momentum from our atmosphere into space, and 3) how solar wind and magnetospheric effects modify the internally-driven atmosphere-space system. ICON will accomplish these 3 science objectives using a suite of 4 instruments mounted to a composite deck aboard an Orbital Sciences Corporation LEOstar-2 spacecraft bus. Dual Michelson Interferometers for Global High Resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) will measure neutral winds in the thermosphere, and temperatures at the boundary of space. Two Ion Velocity Meters (IVM) will measure in situ ion drifts in the ionosphere. Two ultraviolet spectrographic imagers, a Far Ultraviolet (FUV) and an Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV), will observe the airglow layers in the upper atmosphere in order to determine both the ionospheric and thermospheric density and composition. Finally, the current state of the program will be summarized and the project's plans for the future will be discussed.
The Effects of Melatonin on Brain Arginine Vasotocin: Relationship with Sex and Seasonal Differences in Melatonin Receptor Type 1 in Green Treefrogs (Hyla cinerea)

The neuroendocrine mechanisms by which animals synchronise their physiological state with environmental cues are vital to timing life-history events appropriately. One important endocrine transducer of environmental cues in vertebrates is the pineal hormone melatonin, the secretion of which is directly sensitive to photoperiod and temperature. Melatonin modulates arginine vasotocin (AVT)-immunoreactive (-IR) cell number in the brain of green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) during the summer breeding season, and this modulation is sexually dimorphic. In the present study, we investigated whether the influence of melatonin on vasotocin varies seasonally. We show that treatment of nonreproductive male green treefrogs with melatonin-filled silastic implants for 4 weeks during the winter does not alter vasotocin-IR cell number in any brain region (i.e. nucleus accumbens, amygdala, preoptic area, suprachiasmatic nucleus or ventral hypothalamus). Taken together, these results suggest that the influence of melatonin on AVT is associated with sex and seasonal variation in melatonin receptor expression. We tested this hypothesis by using immunohistochemistry to characterise the distribution of melatonin receptor type 1 (MT1, also known as Mel1a) in the brain of reproductive and nonreproductive male and female frogs. We quantified MT1-IR cell number in regions known to contain AVT cell populations. Reproductive males had significantly more MT1-IR cells than nonreproductive males in all brain regions, including the combined nucleus accumbens, diagonal band of Broca and septum, striatum, amygdala, combined preoptic area and suprachiasmatic nucleus, as well as the ventral hypothalamus. In the accumbens region, where the effect of melatonin on AVT is known to be sexually dimorphic, males had significantly more MT1-IR cells than females during the summer breeding season. Based on these findings, we suggest that MT1 plays a role in mediating the interactions between melatonin and vasotocin that regulate seasonal and sexually dimorphic changes in sociosexual behaviour.
The Human Sausage Factory: A Study of Post-War Rumour in Tartu

Book review of a monograph by Eda Kalmre, The Human Sausage Factory: A Study of Post-War Rumour in Tartu . Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013. 180 p.
Quantifying Synergistic Mutual Information

Synergy is a fundamental concept in complex systems that has received much attention in computational biology (Narayanan et al. 2005; Balduzzi and Tononi 2008). Several papers (Schneidman et al. 2003a; Bell 2003; Nirenberg et al. 2001;Williams and Beer 2010) have proposed measures for quantifying synergy, but there remains no consensus which measure is most valid.
Idiosyncratic Volatility Measures and Expected Return

We test whether expected idiosyncratic volatility is related to the cross section of asset returns. We find that, contrary to several recent papers, expected idiosyncratic volatility has no reliable relationship to expected returns. Further, realized contemporaneous idiosyncratic volatility does have a positive relationship with expected returns - this relationship is driven by unexpected idiosyncratic volatility. A look-ahead bias that has been present in recent papers has led to false conclusions about the relationship between expected idiosyncratic volatility and expected return. Our findings are robust to several choices of volatility forecasting models and systematic factor models.
Structural transitions in ion coordination driven by changes in competition for ligand binding.

Transferring Na+ and K+ ions from their preferred coordination states in water to states having different coordination numbers incurs a free energy cost. In several examples in nature, however, these ions readily partition from aqueous-phase coordination states into spatial regions having much higher coordination numbers. Here we utilize statistical theory of solutions, quantum chemical simulations, classical mechanics simulations, and structural informatics to understand this aspect of ion partitioning. Our studies lead to the identification of a specific role of the solvation environment in driving transitions in ion coordination structures. Although ion solvation in liquid media is an exergonic reaction overall, we find it is also associated with considerable free energy penalties for extracting ligands from their solvation environments to form coordinated ion complexes. Reducing these penalties increases the stabilities of higher-order coordinations and brings down the energetic cost to partition ions...
A novel method for monitoring functional lesion-specific recruitment of repair proteins in live cells.

Abstract DNA–protein relationships have been studied by numerous methods, but a particular gap in methodology lies in the study of DNA adduct-specific interactions with proteins in vivo, which particularly affects the field of DNA repair. Using the repair of a well-characterized and ubiquitous adduct, the abasic (AP) site, as a model, we have developed a comprehensive method of monitoring DNA lesion-specific recruitment of proteins in vivo over time. We utilized a surrogate system in which a Cy3-labeled plasmid containing a single AP-site was transfected into cells, and the interaction of the labeled DNA with BER enzymes, including APE1, Polβ, LIG1, and FEN1, was monitored by immunofluorescent staining of the enzymes by Alexafluor-488-conjugated secondary antibody. The recruitment of enzymes was characterized by quantification of Cy3-Alexafluor-488 co-localization. To validate the microscopy-based method, repair of the transfected AP-site DNA was also quantified at various time points post-transfection using a real time PCR-based method. Notably, the recruitment time kinetics for each enzyme were consistent with AP-site repair time kinetics. This microscopy-based methodology is reliable in detecting the recruitment of proteins to specific DNA substrates and can be extended to study other in vivo DNA–protein relationships in any DNA sequence and in the context of any DNA structure in transfectable proliferating or quiescent cells. The method may be applied to a variety of disciplines of nucleic acid transaction pathways, including repair, replication, transcription, and recombination.
A Specific Radioimmunoassay for Estrone Sulfate in Plasma and Urine without Hydrolysis

Estrone sulfate, quantitatively the most important estrogen in plasma, has previously been determined only after hydrolysis and chromatography. An antiserum raised against estrone glucosiduronate-bovine thyroglobulin was found to be suitable for the specific RIA of estrone sulfate both in plasma and urine. Plasma levels were measured after solvent extraction without hydrolysis or chromatography. The mean (+/-SE) was 972 +/- 79 pg/ml (range, 537-1581) in 15 women in the follicular phase, 1806 +/- 160 pg/ml (range, 814-3358) in 15 women in the luteal phase, and 922 +/- 62 pg/ml (range, 461-1238) in 13 men. The urinary excretion of estrone sulfate, measured after simple chromatographic separation, ranged from 0.8-7.9 micrograms/24 h in men and 5.1-18.7 micrograms/24h in nonpregnant women. This was generally one-seventh to one-half the simultaneous estrone glucosiduronate excretion rate. An approximate mean renal clearance of estrone sulfate calculated from the above values was 2.7 ml/min. The low clearance rate is taken to reflect extensive binding of estrone sulfate by plasma proteins. The splanchnic extraction of estrone sulfate measured in 6 patients undergoing hepatic vein catheterization for diagnostic purposes was 29.8 +/- 11.1%, indicating net uptake of this compound by the splanchnic area.
National planning in the United States

Abstract This paper is concerned with the relatively new interest in national planning in the United States. The effects of the Arab oil embargo and price increases, impending scarcities of minerals, inflation, unemployment, and other problems seem to be reversing the American public's negative views of planning by the Federal government. Assuming that negative sentiments are still strong and aware of the difficulty of institutional change, the authors submit a modest proposal for initiating a formal system of indicative national planning. The proposal is based upon an analysis of the economic challenges facing the United States and the apparent inability of the Federal government to respond effectively to change. The solution is seen as the need for an economic intelligence activity coupled to the formulation of ‘inventories of policy alternatives’, with a minimum of structural change or expansion in governmental structure. The recent Humphrey-Javits proposal for national planning is discussed briefly and critically.