cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Agglutinins for Brucella Abortus in the Blood of Man

Larson and Sedgwick3 observed that in complement fixation tests of the serums from women who had aborted, the percentage containing abortus antibodies was greater than that giving positive Wassermann reactions. In studying the blood serums of 425 children they found by the agglutinin absorption test, specific abortus agglutinins in 17%. They showed that children who had drunk milk from a herd where infectious abortion did not exist, did not harbor any of these agglutinins, Nicoll and Pratt,4 Cooledge,5 and others have shown that specific abortus agglutinins were present in the serum of persons who had drunk raw milk containing Brucella abortus, while Nicolle, Burnett and ConseilG have demonstrated their presence in the serum of men injected with this organism. Evans7 examined the blood serum of 500 patients suffering from various diseases and found that 59 contained specific agglutinins for Brucella abortus. Keefer8 reported the first case of Brucella abortus infection in America. The titer of the serum from this case was 1: 3,200. Evans 7 reported finding abortus agglutinins in three serums, one of which had a titer of 1: 160, while the other two had a titer ^ of 1:320. Duncan9 reported an abortus agglutinin titer of 1:2,400 with the serum of a patient suffering from undulant fever. Orpen,10 DeKorte,11 Ficai and Alessandrini12 and Viviani13 have reported similar cases which were undoubtedly due to Br. abortus. In these cases evidence pointed to infection from cattle. The blood serum from these patients had a fairly high titer.
Selective inhibition of adrenal and thyroid stimulating effect of amphenone B by cortisone and thyroxine.

SummaryAmphenone “B” induces a marked hypertrophy of both the thyroid and adrenal in the rat. Simultaneous administration of thyroxin and Amphenone “B” prevents the thyroid hypertrophy without reducing the adrenal enlargement. Combined cortisone and Amphenone “B” administration prevents the adrenal enlargement without altering the thyroid hypertrophy. Thus, Amphenone “B” exerts its adrenal and thyroid effect by acting through two distinct end—points in the anterior pituitary.
Propulsion education and the role of engine performance laboratories

Today's aerospace/mechanical engineers are required to be able to work in multi-disciplinary environments. Many engineering schools lack propulsion laboratories leaving the students with wage imagination about real engines. This is not only true for gas turbine engines but more so for aircraft reciprocating engines. Our graduates have consistently commented on the importance of the propulsion laboratories, and the tremendous experience they have gained by actually running full scale engines. The purpose of this paper is to describe a typical propulsion laboratory set-up which has been successfully used in the past 15 years at the University of Kansas. Sample engine performance data from this laboratory will also be presented.
Results of targeted surveillance of nosocomial infections from 2009 to 2011 and the changing trends

OBJECTIVE To analyze the results of targeted surveillance of nosocomial infections in Jiangxi and evaluate the changing trends of the results of the targeted surveillance.METHODS The targeted surveillance was carried out for three types of nosocomial infections in member hospitals of monitoring network from 2009 to 2011,including the surgical site infections(SSIs),neonatal nosocomial infections,and ventilator-associated pneumonia(VAP).RESULTS The total incidence of SSIs was 0.61%,while the incidence of type Ⅲ incision infections was the highest(2.58%),there was no significant change in the infection rate among three types of incision surgeries;the incidence of neonatal nosocomial infections was 3.79%,and was highest(7.38%) in the neonates who born at the weight between 1501 g and 2500 g,there was no significant change during the 3 years of surveillance;the incidence of VAP and the daily infection rates were 10.01% and 22.58‰,respectively,the incidence was dropped.CONCLUSION The incidence of neonatal infection,SSIs,and VAP are relatively high,thus it is necessary to strengthen the surveillance and the intervention.
Reconstruction of the burned hand.

Survival statistics of burn victims have continued to improve in recent years; however, mistakes in follow-up care continue to be made. Lack of education and sensitivity to the needs of the burned hand during the acute period, competing treatment priorities during rehabilitation, and greed are among reasons for mistakes that can jeopardize patient recovery. The author addresses these concerns by documenting problems and suggesting planning.
Virtual Teams in Massive Open Online Courses

Previous work on MOOCs highlights both that the current MOOCs fail to provide the kind of social environment that is desired and that social interaction and exchange of support is important for slowing down attrition over time. However, little is known about how to support virtual teams in a MOOC context. In this paper, we demonstrate what factors distinguish successful and nonsuccessful virtual teams in NovoEd MOOCs, where team collaboration is an integral part of the course design. In particular, we find team leaders play a central role in determining team performance. We discuss implications for continued work towards intelligent support for team leaders in MOOCs.
Treatment of Temporal Bone Fractures

Traumatic injury to the temporal bone can lead to significant morbidity or mortality and knowledge of the pertinent anatomy, pathophysiology of injury, and appropriate management strategies is critical for successful recovery and rehabilitation of such injured patients. Most temporal bone fractures are caused by motor vehicle accidents. Temporal bone fractures are best classified as either otic capsule sparing or otic capsule disrupting-type fractures, as such classification correlates well with risk of concomitant functional complications. The most common complications of temporal bone fractures are facial nerve injury, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, and hearing loss. Assessment of facial nerve function as soon as possible following injury greatly facilitates clinical decision making. Use of prophylactic antibiotics in the setting of CSF leak is controversial; however, following critical analysis and interpretation of the existing classic and contemporary literature, we believe its use is absolutely warranted.
Cathelicidin Antimicrobial Peptides with Reduced Activation of Toll-Like Receptor Signaling Have Potent Bactericidal Activity against Colistin-Resistant Bacteria

ABSTRACT The world is at the precipice of a postantibiotic era in which medical procedures and minor injuries can result in bacterial infections that are no longer effectively treated by antibiotics. Cathelicidins are peptides produced by animals to combat bacterial infections and to regulate innate immune responses. However, cathelicidins are potent activators of the inflammatory response. Cathelicidins with reduced proinflammatory activity and potent bactericidal activity in the low micromolar range against Gram-negative bacteria have been identified. Motifs in cathelicidins that impact bactericidal activity and cytotoxicity to human cells have been elucidated and used to generate peptides that have reduced activation of proinflammatory cytokine production and reduced cytotoxicity to human cells. The resultant peptides have bactericidal activities comparable to that of colistin and can kill colistin-resistant bacteria. IMPORTANCE Cathelicidins are antimicrobial peptides that can also increase inflammatory responses. This combination of activities can cause complications in the treatment of bacterial infections despite the pressing need for new antimicrobials. We have identified cathelicidins with decreased activation of inflammatory responses. The peptides kill Gram-negative bacteria at low micromolar concentrations by binding to and perturbing the integrity of the bacterial membrane. The peptides were also engineered to further decrease lysis of human red blood cells. The peptides have activities comparable to those of the polymyxins, a class of antibiotics to which plasmid-borne resistance is rapidly spreading and can kill colistin-resistant bacteria. These peptides are promising candidates for the development of novel antibacterial agents.
ALBIOS: A Comparison of Aluminum Biogeochemistry in Forested Watersheds Exposed to Acidic Deposition

This chapter presents a case study of the broad interregional patterns of aluminum biogeochemistry and aluminum toxicity in the forest landscapes of North America and northern Europe. Sulfur deposition at the 14 ALBIOS study catchments ranged 20-fold from approximately 4 kg S ha-1yr-1 at the Experimental Lakes Area, Ontario, to >80 kg S ha-1yr-1 at Soiling, West Germany. On a regional basis, the lowest total monomelic aluminum (MAL) concentrations (0–10 μM) were found in watersheds of the southeastern and midwestern USA, which contain soils characterized by high soil percent base saturation and/or a large sulfate adsorption capacity. Intermediate MAL concentrations (15–80 (μM) were found in soil solutions of northeastern North America and northern Europe, where soils are characterized by low percent base saturation and low sulfate adsorption capacity. The highest MAL concentrations (up to 240 (μM) were observed in the soil solutions of a West German spruce stand. Headwater streams in the study catchments contained MAL concentrations that ranged from less than 1 μM to peak values of approximately 55 μM in one West German stream.
Analysis of chitosan/tripolyphosphate micro- and nanogel yields is key to understanding their protein uptake performance

Chitosan/tripolyphosphate (TPP) micro- and nanogels are widely explored as vehicles for protein drug and vaccine delivery. Yet, aside from the consensus that protein uptake into these particles is enhanced by stronger protein/particle binding, factors that control their uptake performance, such as differences in the chitosan, TPP and protein concentrations, remain poorly understood. Here, we show that many of the differences in the reported association efficiencies (AE-values) for protein uptake likely reflect the largely-ignored variability in the particle yield (XAgg), which is the fraction of the added chitosan that self-assembles into particles and (like the AE) varies with the chitosan, TPP and protein concentrations. Factors affecting XAgg are first systematically explored. The AE is then shown to scale almost linearly with the XAgg (which increases with the TPP and protein-to-chitosan ratios) until all chitosan aggregates into particles. Remarkably, the data collected at variable TPP and protein concentrations collapses onto a single AE∝XAgg curve for each protein type. Further analysis of protein/particle binding reveals this rise in AE with XAgg to reflect: (1) an increase in binding sites within the particles; and (2) a decrease in soluble (non-particulate) chitosan molecules, which form soluble protein/chitosan complexes and compete with the chitosan/TPP particles for the unassociated protein. These findings highlight the need to carefully analyze the effects of formulation parameters on chitosan/TPP particle yields and can likely be extended to other ionically crosslinked colloidal drug carriers.
Prominent voices and prevalent discourses: A corporate social responsibility application

In this study we develop a simplified technique for identifying prominent voices (and characterizing prevalent discourses) using Text Data Mining around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues or topics. We do this by analyzing a corpus of CSR reports produced by 7 US firms (Citi, Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil, General Motors, Intel, McDonald's and Microsoft) in 2004, 2008 and 2012, and focusing on a reduced set of vectors — or Singular Vector Decompositions (SVDs)-derived from these CSR reports while exploring term associations (Text Topics or Term Clusters). Specifically, we use centroid clustering on these SVDs to identify centroid-guiding-CSR-report-components (or firms with prominent voices and prevalent discourses around a CSR topic). The analysis is performed by year in order to discern the way in which prominent voices and prevalent discourses (around CSR topics) have evolved through time. Results indicate that it is difficult for firms to maintain a prominent voice around CSR issues through time, and that when they manage to do so it is because the prevalent discourse has direct business implications.
Gene delivery to mammalian cells using a graphene nanoribbon platform

We have developed a novel oxidized graphene nanoribbon-based platform (O-GNR) for gene delivery of double-stranded DNA into mammalian cells. O-GNRs, synthesized via longitudinal unzipping of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), exhibited efficient DNA loading of small dsDNA fragments. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy identified stretching peaks in the O-P-O and DNA sugar phosphate backbone that were consistent with DNA loading onto O-GNRs. The presence of salts in the loading buffer promoted DNA loading and effective dispersion of O-GNRs. DNA:O-GNR complexes were stable upon treatment with surfactants Tween 20 and Triton-X100. O-GNRs did not impact the viability of mammalian cells. Last, the detection of GFP expression upon transfection of the DNA:O-GNR complex indicated that the cargo DNA is expressed in the nucleus. Taken together, O-GNRs function as a platform for gene delivery to mammalian cells.
A Casualty of Peace? Lessons on De-militarizing Conservation in the Cordillera del Condor Corridor

The resolution in 1998 of the armed conflict between Peru and Ecuador through environmental peace-building negotiations, creating a transboundary conservation area, have been heralded as an exemplar of how ecological factors can foster collaboration between adversaries (Ali SH, Peace parks: conservation and conflict resolution. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007; Simmons B, Territorial disputes and their resolution: the case of Ecuador and Peru. United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC, 1999; Herz M, Nogueira JP, Ecuador vs. Peru: Peacemaking amid rivalry, International Peace Academy, occasional paper series. Rienner Publishers, Boulder: L, 2002). This was also a rare case of US mediation resolving a territorial conflict alongside Brazilian diplomacy. However, 20 years later the peace between the two countries has not reaped the conservation dividends expected as other extractive industry interests and drug gangs have found their way into this region. Some of the lessons from earlier peace settlements that went awry need to be considered (Hampson FO, Nurturing peace: why peace settlements succeed or fail. United States Institute of Peace Press, Washington, DC, 1996). This chapter explores the lessons of public-private partnerships for conservation in a post-conflict demilitarized hinterland. It argues that “collateral values” of natural conservation that may be generated through conflict are vulnerable when peace is achieved without proper monitoring and enforcement mechanisms in place. The importance of finding better ways of not just attaining peace but sustaining conservation after peace is addressed through interviews with key stakeholders in a detailed retrospective of this extraordinary case.
Lateral-torsional dynamic instability of uniform and double-tapered rectangular beams under harmonic shear deformation

Abstract This paper analyzes lateral-torsional dynamic instability of elastic beams with rectangular cross section having constant thickness, with the depth symmetric with respect to the midpoint and either uniform or tapered linearly in each half. Free vibrations are also investigated. The ends of the beam are prevented from twisting and are pinned with respect to bending in the weak direction. In the strong direction, one end of the beam is fixed and the other is subjected to transverse harmonic motion. This problem was motivated by “butterfly-shaped links” proposed for use in seismic mitigation. Uniform torsion is assumed. Frequencies of free vibration are computed, critical excitation frequencies for lateral-torsional instability are determined, and critical combinations of excitation amplitude and frequency are obtained. The effects of geometric parameters of double-tapered beams on instability are presented. Lateral-torsional instability may occur for very small amplitudes of the moving end of the beam, as is typical for such problems involving parametric resonance.
Understanding Immunosuppression after Sepsis.

Following a severe primary infection or trauma, the risk of developing pneumonia increases due to acquired immune defects collectively known as sepsis-induced immunosuppression. In this issue of Immunity, Roquilly et al. (2017) show that dendritic cells and macrophages developing in the lung after the resolution of a severe infection acquire tolerogenic properties that contribute to persistent immunosuppression and susceptibility to secondary infections.
Potential Medication-Related Problems in Older Breast, Colon, and Lung Cancer Patients in the United States

Background: Older adults are often exposed to multiple medications, some of which could be inappropriate or have the potential to interact with each other. Older cancer patients may be at increased risk for medication-related problems due to exposure to cancer-directed treatment.Methods: We described patterns of potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) use and potential drug-chemotherapy interactions among adults age 66+ years diagnosed with stage I-III breast, stage II-III colon, and stage I to II lung cancer. Within the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database, patients had to have Medicare Part D coverage with 1+ prescription in the diagnosis month and Medicare Parts A/B coverage in the prior 12 months. We estimated monthly prevalence of any and cancer-related PIM from 6 months pre- to 23 months postcancer diagnosis and 12-month period prevalence of potential drug-chemotherapy interactions.Results: Overall, 19,318 breast, 7,283 colon, and 7,237 lung cancer patients were evaluated. Monthly PIM prevalence was stable prediagnosis (37%-40%), but increased in the year following a colon or lung cancer diagnosis, and decreased following a breast cancer diagnosis. Changes in PIM prevalence were driven primarily by cancer-related PIM in patients on chemotherapy. Potential drug-chemotherapy interactions were observed in all cohorts, with prevalent interactions involving hydrochlorothiazide, warfarin, and proton-pump inhibitors.Conclusions: There was a high burden of potential medication-related problems among older cancer patients; future research to evaluate outcomes of these exposures is warranted.Impact: Older adults diagnosed with cancer have unique medication management needs. Thus, pharmacy specialists should be integrated into multidisciplinary teams caring for these patients. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 27(1); 41-49. ©2017 AACR.
Validation of a touchscreen psychomotor vigilance task

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to compare a psychomotor vigilance task developed for use on touchscreen devices with the original PVT-192 in conditions of acute sleep loss and circadian desynchronization. Background The Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) is considered the gold standard fatigue detection test and is used frequently in fatigue research. With the rapid development of new technologies it is essential to develop a PVT available on different platforms such as touchscreen devices. The advantage of such PVT is that it can be implemented on small devices and can be easily used in field studies. Methods Ten participants completed a 5-min PVT (NASA-PVT) on a touchscreen device and a 5-min PVT on the original PVT-192. On the day of the experiment, participants arrived in the lab approximately two hours after their habitual wake time. Participants completed a constant routine protocol under dim lighting, while maintaining a constant posture. The 5-min PVT-192 and NASA-PVT were taken every two hours for at least 24 h. Results The NASA-PVT and PVT-192 were sensitive to extended wakefulness in the same manner. The reaction times were slower and the lapses were higher as time progressed on both NASA-PVT and PVT-192 ( p 0.001). Overall, there was a sharp decline in performance after 16 h of being awake which coincided with the time the participants were usually going to bed and the worst performance occurred after 24 h of wakefulness for both PVTs ( p Conclusions Overall, our data suggest that the NASA-PVT is a valid tool for assessing fatigue in field studies.
Design and Testing of a Supercritical Helium Beamline Cryopump for a Neutral Particle Beam in Space

As part of the BEAR Project (Beam Experiments Aboard a Rocket), being conducted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and sponsored by the SDIO, the first ever flight qualified beamline cryopump for a neutral particle beam in space, has been designed, fabricated and tested.
A Reliability Assessment Model for Online Laboratories Systems

Online laboratories are a broad field that includes virtual laboratories, remote laboratories and hybrid configurations. The assessment of the reliability for these systems requires the identification of the laboratory components or human actions that can lead to a possible failure in the online laboratory normal operation. Having now bigger online laboratories implementations that provide access to hundreds or even thousands of users, the identification and evaluation of failures, causes and developing countermeasures, such as recovery mechanisms or alerts, is becoming increasingly important in order to provide more reliable systems. The paper presents a model for the assessment of failures, causes and countermeasures (actions, alerts or practices) that mitigate or eliminate failures. The model was created based on common failures reported by online laboratories users and based on the testing of a remote laboratory prototype implemented specifically for this purpose. The model for the assessment of the reliability of the online laboratory systems can be used to support reliability in implementations that are based on software components, such as virtual laboratories; and also in implementations that combine hardware and software components such as remote and hybrid laboratories. The model proposes a classification of the failures and its causes in a scale of low, medium and high frequency of occurrence. A definition of a rule based system based on the laboratories constrains is presented. Finally a definition of the integration of the model with the Remote Laboratory Management System (RLMS) is presented.
Differential evolution and Markov chain Monte Carlo analyses of layer disorder in nanosheet ensembles using total scattering

Assemblies of nanosheets are often characterized by extensive layer-position disorder. Coupled with the often minute coherent scattering domain size and relaxation of the nanosheet structure itself, unambiguous interpretation of X-ray and neutron scattering data from such materials is non-trivial. This work demonstrates a general approach towards refinement of layer-disorder information from atomic pair distribution function (PDF) data for materials that span the gap between turbostratism and ordered stacking arrangements. X-ray total scattering data typical of a modern rapid-acquisition PDF instrument are simulated for a hypothetical graphene-like structure using the program DIFFaX, from which atomic PDFs are extracted. Small 1 × 1 × 20 supercell models representing the stacking of discrete layer types are combined to model a continuous distribution of layer-position disorder. Models optimized using the differential evolution algorithm demonstrate improved fit quality over 75 A when a single mean layer-type model is replaced with a constrained 31-layer-type model. Posterior distribution analyses using the Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm demonstrate that the influence of layer disorder and finite particle size are correlated. However, the refined mean stacking vectors match well with the generative parameter set.
Transport of Vancomycin and Cefepime Into Human Intervertebral Discs: Quantitative Analyses

Study design Simulation of antibiotics transport into human intervertebral disc with intravenous infusion. Objective The objective of this study was to quantitatively investigate antibiotic concentrations in the disc. Summary of background data Intravenous infusion of antibiotics is typically used to treat intervertebral disc infection in clinics. However, it is difficult to evaluate the drug concentrations within discs in vivo. Methods A computational model was used in this study. The variation of drug charge with pH was considered in the model. Thirty-minute infusions of two commonly used antibiotics in clinic-vancomycin and cefepime-were numerically investigated. Spatial and temporal concentration distributions of these drugs in both nondegenerated and moderately degenerated discs were calculated. Results For intravenous infusion of 1 g vancomycin and 2 g cefepime in 30 minutes repeated every 12 hours, it was predicted that vancomycin concentration in the disc fluctuated between 17.0 and 31.0 times of its minimum inhibitory concentration (1 ug/mL) and cefepime concentration fluctuated between 1.1 and 4.2 times of its minimum inhibitory concentration (i.e., 8 ug/mL) in about 2 days. It was also found that vancomycin concentration in moderately degenerated disc was lower than that in the nondegenerated disc. Conclusion This study provides quantitative guidance on selecting proper dosage for treating disc infection. The method used in this study could be used to provide quantitative information on transport of other antibiotics and drugs in discs as well. Level of evidence N/A.
Narrowing performance gap between rural and urban hospitals for acute myocardial infarction care.

Abstract Background Rural communities experience significant barriers to quality healthcare, including disparities in medical care following acute myocardial infarctions (AMI). This study sought to determine if the population density of the county where Medicare patients were hospitalized following AMI predicted short-term outcomes and to quantify longitudinal changes in hospital performance on quality of care metrics. Methods Hospital-level data was queried from the 2012 and 2018 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services archives. Each hospital was classified based on residing county using the National Center for Health Statistics Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC). Variations and longitudinal changes in risk-adjusted outcomes and quality of care metrics were stratified by RUCC classification and analyzed. Results Among the 4798 hospitals identified, rural hospitals had significantly higher risk-adjusted 30-day mortality (rs = 0.095, p Conclusions In the United States, only modest variations currently exist between rural and urban hospitals in the medical care of AMI. Although the performance gap has narrowed, new strategies to improve timely and effective care are necessary to alleviate residual cardiovascular healthcare disparities in rural communities.
Leadership and Leadership Intelligence.

In recent years, leadership training for school administrators has become equated with knowledge of or the learning of a set of hard skills or competencies and an internship period that may or may ...
Gaining Free or Low-Cost Transparency with Interpretable Partial Substitute

This work addresses the situation where a black-box model with good predictive performance is chosen over its interpretable competitors, and we show interpretability is still achievable in this case. Our solution is to find an interpretable substitute on a subset of data where the black-box model is overkill or nearly overkill while leaving the rest to the black-box. This transparency is obtained at minimal cost or no cost of the predictive performance. Under this framework, we develop a Hybrid Rule Sets (HyRS) model that uses decision rules to capture the subspace of data where the rules are as accurate or almost as accurate as the black-box provided. To train a HyRS, we devise an efficient search algorithm that iteratively finds the optimal model and exploits theoretically grounded strategies to reduce computation. Our framework is agnostic to the black-box during training. Experiments on structured and text data show that HyRS obtains an effective trade-off between transparency and interpretability.
The Cost of Defection: The Consequences of Quitting Al-Shabaab

This study investigates defections from the Al-Shabaab insurgency in Somalia. Thirty-two disengaged Al-Shabaab combatants were interviewed about their motivations, grievances, needs, and challenges in relation to the recruitment, defection, and post-defection phases. This paper focuses on post-defection challenges, where we found the primary concern to be lack of personal security. Without adequate security, disengaged combatants are vulnerable to being hunted and killed by Al-Shabaab. This significant threat discourages further mass and individual defections. We also found that disengaged combatants joined and defected out of religious zeal, to fight for what they believed to be a holy Islamic cause. This same zeal led them to defect, as they came to believe Al-Shabaab was not obeying the true Islamic faith. Indiscriminate killing by Al-Shabaab disenchants its religiously pious members, creating an opportunity to encourage mass and individual defections. However, if disengaged combatants are not protected from retribution, defection will lose its appeal.
Evolving together, evolving apart: measuring the fitness of rhizobial bacteria in and out of symbiosis with leguminous plants

Most plant-microbe interactions are facultative, with microbes experiencing temporally and spatially variable selection. How this variation affects microbial evolution is poorly understood. Given its tractability and ecological and agricultural importance, the legume-rhizobia nitrogen-fixing symbiosis is a powerful model for identifying traits and genes underlying bacterial fitness. New technologies allow high-throughput measurement of the relative fitness of bacterial mutants, strains and species in mixed inocula in the host, rhizosphere and soil environments. I consider how host genetic variation (G × G), other environmental factors (G × E), and host life-cycle variation may contribute to the maintenance of genetic variation and adaptive trajectories of rhizobia - and, potentially, other facultative symbionts. Lastly, I place these findings in the context of developing beneficial inoculants in a changing climate.
Assessment of Patient Knowledge and Perceptions of Pharmacogenomics Before and After Using a Mock Results Patient Web Portal

Our objective was to build a mock pharmacogenomic (PGx) patient portal and assess its ability to disseminate test results and information to patients. The YourPGx Portal delivered four sample PGx results (omeprazole, simvastatin, clopidogrel, and codeine). We hosted two study groups to assess patient knowledge and perceptions of PGx before and after accessing the portal. Ten PGx-tested and 10 traditional care participants were included (average 61 years, 60% women, 50% African American, and 55% had a bachelor's/advanced degree). Participants scored significantly higher on the post-test compared with the pre-test, with no significant differences between baseline scores or score change between the groups. Patient perceptions also improved after accessing the portal-more patients wanted their providers to have access to test results, and more patients would encourage family/friends to get PGx testing. Patients would share their test results with their healthcare providers, spouse/partner, and family; none would share results with their friends or social media. Almost all patients (95%) said the portal was easy to use and 65% said it was easy to understand. In this pilot study, patients' knowledge and perceptions of PGx improved after accessing the YourPGx Portal.
Protein kinase C‐delta inhibition is organ‐protective, enhances pathogen clearance, and improves survival in sepsis

Sepsis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in intensive care units. Previously, we identified Protein Kinase C-delta (PKCδ) as an important regulator of the inflammatory response in sepsis. An important issue in development of anti-inflammatory therapeutics is the risk of immunosuppression and inability to effectively clear pathogens. In this study, we investigated whether PKCδ inhibition prevented organ dysfunction and improved survival without compromising pathogen clearance. Sprague Dawley rats underwent sham surgery or cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) to induce sepsis. Post-surgery, PBS or a PKCδ inhibitor (200µg/kg) was administered intra-tracheally (IT). At 24 hours post-CLP, there was evidence of lung and kidney dysfunction. PKCδ inhibition decreased leukocyte influx in these organs, decreased endothelial permeability, improved gas exchange, and reduced blood urea nitrogen/creatinine ratios indicating organ protection. PKCδ inhibition significantly decreased bacterial levels in the peritoneal cavity, spleen and blood but did not exhibit direct bactericidal properties. Peritoneal chemokine levels, neutrophil numbers, or macrophage phenotypes were not altered by PKCδ inhibition. Peritoneal macrophages isolated from PKCδ inhibitor-treated septic rats demonstrated increased bacterial phagocytosis. Importantly, PKCδ inhibition increased survival. Thus, PKCδ inhibition improved survival and improved survival was associated with increased phagocytic activity, enhanced pathogen clearance, and decreased organ injury.
10 Propositions for peace: a review of Braithwaite and D’Costa’s Cascades of Violence: War, Crime and Peacebuilding Across South Asia

Braithwaite and D’Costa’s Cascades of Violence: War, Crime and Peacebuilding in South Asia delves into the impact and violent legacies of war and violence in South Asia, and selected other areas ar...
Sequential algorithms for moving anomaly detection in networks

The problem of quickest moving anomaly detection in networks is studied. Initially, the observations are generated according to a prechange distribution. At some unknown but deterministic time, an ...
Personality Traits Predict Long-Term Physical Health via Affect Reactivity to Daily Stressors:

Researchers hypothesize that how people react to daily stressful events partly explains the relationship between personality and health, yet no study has examined longitudinal associations between these factors. The current study focused on the role of negative affect reactivity to daily stressful events as a mediating pathway between personality and physical health outcomes using three waves of data spanning 20 years from a nationwide probability sample of 1,176 adults. Results indicated that negative affect reactivity partially mediated personality and physical health. Wave 1 neuroticism was associated with greater negative affect reactivity at Wave 2, which predicted the development of chronic conditions and functional limitations at Wave 3. Higher conscientiousness at Wave 1 was associated with less negative affect reactivity at Wave 2, which predicted better physical health at Wave 3. These findings highlight the usefulness of using a daily-stress framework for understanding how personality impacts health over time, which has important implications for stress management and disease prevention.
A graph placement methodology for fast chip design

Chip floorplanning is the engineering task of designing the physical layout of a computer chip. Despite five decades of research1, chip floorplanning has defied automation, requiring months of intense effort by physical design engineers to produce manufacturable layouts. Here we present a deep reinforcement learning approach to chip floorplanning. In under six hours, our method automatically generates chip floorplans that are superior or comparable to those produced by humans in all key metrics, including power consumption, performance and chip area. To achieve this, we pose chip floorplanning as a reinforcement learning problem, and develop an edge-based graph convolutional neural network architecture capable of learning rich and transferable representations of the chip. As a result, our method utilizes past experience to become better and faster at solving new instances of the problem, allowing chip design to be performed by artificial agents with more experience than any human designer. Our method was used to design the next generation of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators, and has the potential to save thousands of hours of human effort for each new generation. Finally, we believe that more powerful AI-designed hardware will fuel advances in AI, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two fields. Machine learning tools are used to greatly accelerate chip layout design, by posing chip floorplanning as a reinforcement learning problem and using neural networks to generate high-performance chip layouts.
197-LB: The Regulation of HSL by Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (MIF) Contributes to Adipocyte Hypertrophy and Development of Obesity

Inflammation is associated with lipolysis in adipose tissue. HSL is a key enzyme in mediating lipolysis through augmenting hydrolysis of triglycerides and diacylglycerides. Our study found that the procytokine MIF has both transcriptional and non-transcriptional effects on mediating HSL through activating AMPK signaling pathway. The activated AMPK downregulates HSL gene expression in adipocytes. It also upregulates a phosphorylation of HSL Ser565, an inhibitory phosphorylation site, leading to the reduction of HSL active site, Ser563 phosphorylation. These mechanisms are operative in either transgenic overexpressed MIF mouse models or WT mice with high circulating MIF levels following a high caloric diet feeding (HFD). The MIF/AMPK/HSL axis regulates the development of adipocyte hypertrophy and obesity. We also confirm that high plasma MIF levels are associated with decreased adipose HSL gene expression in human obesity. Interestingly, in Mif-/-mice, HSL gene expression is also inhibited, suggesting that MIF genotype is important to maintain adipose HSL expression. Following HFD feeding, Mif-/-mice demonstrates higher Akt and lower PKA phosphorylation, which further decrease HSL activation and exacerbate obesity compared to WT. Thus, HSL regulation by MIF may be an important molecular mechanism in the development of obesity. Disclosure L. Chen: None. Y. Huang: None. L. Li: None. H. Zabihi: None. Y. Qi: None. L. Leng: None. G. Sun: None. R. Bucala: None. D. Qi: None. Funding National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2017-04542); Canadian Institutes of Health Research (PJT-156116)
Responsibility and Collaboration in the Health Team Care

This essay explains the role of advance practice nurses and physician assistants in health care and explores the importance of trust and self-regulation in interprofessional collaboration in health care delivery.
Variant innervation of the mylohyoid muscle by the lingual nerve

The nerve to mylohyoid muscle supplies the mylohyoid and the anterior belly of the digastric muscles, with terminal sensory branches that might innervate the submental skin and mandibular teeth. The nerve to mylohyoid muscle typically originates from the posterior surface of the inferior alveolar nerve right before entering the mandibular foramen. In rare cases, the nerve to mylohyoid muscle arises from the lingual nerve. The variations of the nerve to mylohyoid muscle might have led to failure of an inferior alveolar nerve blockade. During the routine dissection of a cadaveric head, a rare case was identified where the nerve to mylohyoid muscle had origins from both the inferior alveolar and lingual nerves. This case is reviewed and salient literature reviewed.
Loop extrusion promotes an alternate pathway for isotype switching

Class-switch recombination (CSR) involves replacement of the Cμ constant region with another downstream CH region. CSR is initiated by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID)-mediated DNA breaks that are targeted to transcriptionally active switch (S) regions. S region promoters (Prs) direct synapsis by associating with the Eμ and 3'Eα enhancers that jointly anchor a chromatin loop. We report that asymmetric loop extrusion allows 3'Eα to track along the locus and form Pr-Pr-E interactions that mediate CSR between downstream S regions, followed by switching to donor Sμ. This alternative pathway bypasses sequential switching and creates immunoglobulin (Ig)E+ B cells in the absence of IgG1 expression. Based on the analysis of diagnostic CSR products in B cell subsets, we identify a BCR-negative cell intermediate that is pivotal to efficient CSR.
Community Engagement Strategies for Implementation of a Policy Supporting Evidence-Based Practices: A Case Study of Washington State

After nearly two decades of cultivating an evidence based practice milieu in Washington State, the 2012 legislature passed House Bill 2536 (HB 2536) to promote the increased uptake and use of evidence based practices in the child welfare, juvenile justice and child behavioral health systems. The current paper examines stakeholder participation and engagement in HB 2536 during the first year of its implementation. The current paper describes the community response, influence, and engagement during the drafting of the bill language. It then describes initial policy implementation and community engagement efforts within a framework of implementation strategies (Powell et al. in Medical Care Research and Review 69:123–57, 2012). Analysis includes common concerns, statements of support, and suggestions from diverse stakeholder groups. Discussion reviews the lessons learned and future directions, including opportunities for additional collaborations with community stakeholders in the subsequent years of HB 2536 implementation.
Interested Experts and Policy Advice: Multiple Referrals under Open Rule

Abstract This paper examines a simple model of multiple referrals under open rule. In the model, an uninformed House multiply refers legislation to two specialist committees (experts) who have policy preferences. Under open rule, committees′ proposals are analytically equivalent to speeches giving advice to the House about what policy to choose. Two different forums for giving advice, or making proposals, are examined: multiple joint referral and multiple sequential referral. The informational properties of these forums are compared to each other and to single referral.
Multimedia content-based indexing and search: challenges and research directions

New digital multimedia content is being generated at a tremendous rate. At the same time, the growing variety of distributions channels, e.g., Web, wireless/mobile, cable, IPTV, satellite, is increasing users' expectations for accessibility and searchability of digital multimedia content. However, users are still finding it difficult to find relevant content and indexing & search are not keeping up with the explosion of content. Recent advances in multimedia content analysis are helping to more effectively tag multimedia content to improve searching, retrieval, repurposing and delivering of relevant content. We are currently developing a system called Marvel that uses statistical machine learning techniques and semantic concept ontologies to model, index and search content using audio, speech and visual content. The benefit is a reduction in manual processing for tagging multimedia content and enhanced ability to unlock the value of large multimedia repositories.
Seshat collects MPI traces: extended abstract

Traces collected at the MPI level can help understand the behavior of applications by using these traces to visualize the communication patterns of an application. The traces can also be used for debugging and as input to system simulators. These trace driven simulators can help with learning how an application makes use of the communication fabric and how an application will perform on a next-generation machine.
Adjustments to Traditional Procedures for Identifying Underserved Students: Successes and Failures:

Thirty-nine school districts were surveyed in a study to examine the success or failure of alternative strategies for identifying gifted students in school districts serving large numbers of culturally diverse students. Many districts listed ethnic/linguistic minorities and economically disadvantaged students as important underserved populations. Alternative identification procedures were primarily intended to expand the assessment basis. Factors most associated with success of procedures included school personnel and assessment practices. Factors causing problems included testing and policies at state and local levels, as well as a lack of recognition of giftedness as it is manifested in diverse cultural populations.
Treatment of Lung Cancer in the Elderly Patient

The median age of presentation with lung cancer is 71, making the elderly the dominant subgroup. Although some elderly patients are frail, others have great physiological reserve. Geriatric assessment can clarify the specific strengths and weaknesses of older patients, improving management. This assessment should, at the minimum, encompass performance status, comorbidity, medications, level of independence in activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living, cognitive assessment, nutrition assessment, and assessment of social support. The fit elderly with localized disease should be offered curative resection; video-assisted thoracic surgery may be preferred over thoracotomy. Fit septuagenarians with node positive or > 4 cm primary tumors should then be considered for adjuvant chemotherapy. For less fit patients, the data on stereotactic radiosurgery indicate that it presents a viable treatment option. Data on stage III disease are limited but suggest that chemoradiotherapy, particularly when the chemotherapy is administered on a weekly schedule, is feasible in fit older patients. For the older patients with metastatic cancer, abundant tissue should be obtained at diagnosis to allow for comprehensive molecular characterization with the hopes of rendering the patient eligible for targeted therapy. When such a targeted therapy is not available, there is duration of life and quality of life benefit to the administration of cytotoxic chemotherapy. The standard of care for older patients with Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0 to 2 is a platinum-based doublet. Prospective data on second-line therapy after failure of first-line therapy are limited but suggest a benefit to treatment.