cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Polo-Like Kinase Is Expressed in S/G2/M Phase and Associated with the Flagellum Attachment Zone in both Procyclic and Bloodstream Forms of Trypanosoma brucei

Trypanosoma brucei, the etiologic agent of African sleeping sickness, divides into insect (procyclic) and bloodstream forms. These two forms are subject to distinct cell cycle regulations, with cytokinesis controlled primarily by basal body/kinetoplast segregation in the procyclic form but by mitosis in the bloodstream form. Polo-like kinases (PLKs), known to play essential roles in regulating both mitosis and cytokinesis among eukaryotes, have a homologue in T. brucei, TbPLK, which regulates only cytokinesis. In our previous study, overexpressed triply hemagglutinin-tagged TbPLK (TbPLK-3HA) in the procyclic form localized to a mid-dorsal point and the anterior tip of the cell along the flagellum attachment zone (FAZ). In our current study, TbPLK-3HA expressed at the endogenous level was identified at the same dorsal location of both procyclic and bloodstream forms, albeit it was no longer detectable at the anterior tip of the cell. Endogenously expressed TbPLK fused with an enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP) localized to the same dorsal location along the FAZs in living procyclic and bloodstream cells. Fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis of hydroxyurea-synchronized procyclic cells revealed that TbPLK-EYFP emerges during S phase, persists through G2/M phase, and vanishes in G1 phase. An indicated TbPLK-EYFP association with the FAZs of G2/M cells may thus represent a timely localization to a potential initiation site of cytokinesis, which agrees with the recognized role of TbPLK in cytokinetic initiation.
Congenital Conditions that Lead to Osteoarthritis in the Dog

Congenital arthropathies have become a common cause of osteoarthritis in dogs. Current concepts of the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of these diseases are discussed. In all cases, early diagnosis and treatment are considered essential to achieve the best possible. prognosis for the patient. Treatment options may include medical management, but most of these conditions currently are thought to be treated best by surgical intervention. There still is great need for the development of studies to investigate the long-term efficacy of current treatment protocols and to develop new therapies that will either minimize or prevent the development of osteoarthritis in affected joints following treatment of the patient with a congenital arthropathy.
Male and female testosterone—is one sex made in the image of the other? A comment on Goymann and Wingfield

Goymann and Wingfield (2014) provide a welcome review of the relationships between circulating testosterone, sexual dimorphism, and social systems in female birds. They conclude that earlier comparative studies were inconclusive because they failed to incorporate phylogeny (Ketterson et al. 2005). I agree. Goymann and Wingfield also criticize experimental studies that rely on implants to elevate circulating levels of testosterone. Here, I disagree. The distinction between pharmacological versus physiological levels of hormones can be informative rather than problematic; if a novel phenotype were to arise, would it spread? Further, evolutionary endocrinology has advanced substantially beyond its earlier focus on circulating levels of hormones to investigations of local steroid production, tissue-specific sensitivity, and hormone-induced patterns of gene expression. The current challenge is not to replace one approach with the others but to integrate them. When Maria Sandell, Val Nolan, and I were writing about female–female competition and female testosterone a decade ago (Ketterson et al. 2005), we considered both cross-species data on male and female testosterone and experimental studies in males. In the dark-eyed junco, we had found that males with experimentally elevated circulating testosterone differed phenotypically from controls in ways that resulted in greater offspring production via extrapair fertilizations, reduced survival, but higher net fitness. Seeking an explanation for why males did not naturally produce these higher levels of testosterone, we proposed that if male and female levels of testosterone were correlated, and higher levels in females were disadvantageous, then correlated responses to selection might constrain male testosterone. Today, the logic for sexual conflict over testosterone remains sound, but the case is far from made. Research on the junco provides conflicting evidence. Females treated with testosterone implants do become more aggressive (Zysling et al. 2006), but
Visual Metaphor as Method in Interviews with Children

A challenge to child-centered anthropology is to develop methods of exploring children's worlds that accommodate children's own ways of communicating meaning, including nonverbal, visual means. The article proposes an approach, the Metaphor Sort Technique, and illustrates this method based on an ethnographic study of childhood diabetes and asthma. The Metaphor Sort Technique employs pictures selected by children as metaphors for their impressions of illness and its treatment. The Metaphor Sort Technique, as a feature of discourse, stimulated, complemented, and supported children's verbal utterances. The study demonstrates that when modes of discourse include visual, nonliteral tasks, this can activate a child's discursive power, reducing deference and enhancing the child's authority in an adult–child encounter.
A performance and manufacturability evaluation of bump chip carrier packages

Bump chip carrier [(BCC) registered trademark of Fujitsu Ltd.] is an attractive solution to the demand of high packaging density of low input/output (I/O)-count packages. In this paper, an extensive finite element thermomechanical analysis has been conducted to evaluate the reliability of BCC packages, both with and without heat slugs, during thermal cycling. The effect of a variety of parameters on package reliability has been evaluated, including board thickness, package size mold material, solder paste thickness, and terminal height. The solder reliability of corner leads versus inner leads, as well as square leads versus rectangular leads has also been investigated. During manufacturing, molded panels for BCC packages undergo significant warpage. Two types of mold designs are compared through three-dimensional finite element analysis. A variety of mold compound materials have been evaluated. The most effective ways to reduce manufacturing-induced warpage have been suggested.
FA-STAC: An Algorithmic Framework for Fast and Accurate Coupling Aware Static Timing Analysis

This paper presents an algorithmic framework for fast and accurate static timing analysis considering coupling. With technology scaling to smaller dimensions, the impact of coupling induced delay variations can no longer be ignored. Timing analysis considering coupling is iterative, and can have considerably larger run-times than a single pass approach. We propose two different classes of coupling delay models: heuristic-based coupling model and current source-based coupling model, and present techniques to increase the convergence rate of timing analysis when such coupling models are employed. Our proposed coupling model show promising accuracy improvements compared to SPICE. Experimental results on ISCAS85 benchmarks validates the effec tiveness of our efficient iteration scheme. Our iteration algorithm obtained speedups of up to 62.1 % using a heuristic coupling model while 2.7 x using a current-based coupling model in comparison to traditional approaches.
Applications of conducting polymers: robotic fins and other devices

Conducting polymers are becoming viable engineering materials and are gradually being integrated into a wide range of devices. Parallel efforts conducted to characterize their electromechanical behavior, understand the factors that affect actuation performance, mechanically process films, and address the engineering obstacles that must be overcome to generate the forces and displacements required in real-world applications have made it possible to begin using conducting polymers in devices that cannot be made optimal using traditional actuators and materials. The use of conducting polymers has allowed us to take better advantage of biological architectures for robotic applications and has enabled us to pursue the development of novel sensors, motors, and medical diagnostic technologies. This paper uses the application of conducting polymer actuators to a biorobotic fin for unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) as a vehicle for discussing the efforts in our laboratory to develop conducting polymers into a suite of useful actuators and engineering components.
Isolation of a Bisulfite Reductase Activity from Desulfotomaculum nigrificans and Its Identification as the Carbon Monoxide-Binding Pigment P582

Crude preparations of Desulfotomaculum nigrificans were found to reduce bisulfite to trithionate, thiosulfate, and sulfide. The bisulfite reductase of this organism was partially purified and observed to reduce bisulfite to trithionate as the major product and with thiosulfate and sulfide as minor products. The enzyme exhibited spectral properties identical to the carbon monoxide-reacting pigment (P582) isolated from this organism. It is concluded that the bisulfite reductase of D. nigrificans is P582 and that this organism utilizes a pathway which involves trithionate during the reduction of bisulfite to sulfide.
Precision-to-Tolerance Capability: An Important Consideration in Tight Glucose Control

OBJECTIVE To assess clinical implications of bias and variance of point-of-care glucometric measurements in cardiac surgery patients with wide variations in postoperative hematocrit. METHODS Point-of-care glucose measurements were compared with values from laboratory analysis of the same sample of whole blood obtained from cardiac patients early on postoperative days 1 and 2. Twenty nurses collected 89 arterial blood samples from 58 patients during a 4-month period. Bias was measured by using difference scores between paired measurements. Patients were grouped within 5% increments according to hematocrit, and analysis of variance was used to test for differences. Variation was analyzed by precision-to-tolerance analysis within 3 euglycemic tolerance ranges. RESULTS Laboratory glucose values were 62 to 224 mg/dL; point-of-care measures were 83 to 253 mg/dL. Bias was 10.85 mg/dL across all hematocrit groups. Pairs of laboratory and point-of-care glucose values differed significantly (t(174) = 10.03; P < .001). Bias increased from -2.83 mg/dL for patients with hematocrits exceeding 39% to +16.71 mg/dL for patients with hematocrits between 20% and 24%. The standard deviation of difference scores was 11.59 mg/dL overall. The difference between 5% hematocrit groups was significant (F(4) = 4.11; P = .004). Precision-to-tolerance capability ratios for specification limits of 70 to 300, 90 to 140, and 80 to 110 mg/dL were 0.30, 1.39, and 2.32, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The direction of bias change between hematocrit groupings was the direction predicted in the manufacturer's information. Precision-to-tolerance measures indicated that the point-of-care equipment was not suitable for testing glucose within the planned "tighter" glycemic standards.
Retinal pigment epithelial cell proliferation.

The human retinal pigment epithelium forms early in development and subsequently remains dormant, undergoing minimal proliferation throughout normal life. Retinal pigment epithelium proliferation, ...
Code search with input/output queries

Generalize a semantic code search approach using input/output examples as queries.Approach extension utilizes symbolic execution to find relevant code with many paths.Rank source code results based on match strength between a specification and the code.Evaluate search results against state-of-the-practice approaches, Google and Merobase.Based on opinions of 30 programmers, our search returns the most relevant results. In this work we generalize, improve, and extensively assess our semantic source code search engine through which developers use an input/output query model to specify what behavior they want instead of how it may be implemented. Under this approach a code repository contains programs encoded as constraints and an SMT solver finds encoded programs that match an input/output query. The search engine returns a list of source code snippets that match the specification.The initial instantiation of this approach showed potential but was limited. It only encoded single-path programs, reported just complete matches, did not rank the results, and was only partly assessed. In this work, we explore the use of symbolic execution to address some of these technical shortcomings. We implemented a tool, Satsy, that uses symbolic execution to encode multi-path programs as constraints and a novel ranking algorithm based on the strength of the match between an input/output query and the program paths traversed by symbolic execution. An assessment about the relevance of Satsy's results versus other search engines, Merobase and Google, on eight novice-level programming tasks gathered from StackOverflow, using the opinions of 30 study participants, reveals that Satsy often out-performs the competition in terms of precision, and that matches are found in seconds.
Recreational marijuana use and acute ischemic stroke: A population-based analysis of hospitalized patients in the United States.

Abstract Background Recreational marijuana use is considered to have few adverse effects. However, recent evidence has suggested that it precipitates cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. Here, we investigated the relationship between marijuana use and hospitalization for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) using data from the largest inpatient database in the United States. Methods The Nationwide Inpatient Sample was queried from 2004 to 2011 for all patients (age 15–54) with a primary diagnosis of AIS. The incidence of AIS hospitalization in marijuana users and non-marijuana users was determined. We utilized multivariable logistic regression analyses to study the independent association between marijuana use and AIS. Results Overall, the incidence of AIS was significantly greater among marijuana users compared to non-users (Relative Risk [RR]: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.11–1.15, P P P P Conclusion Among younger adults, recreational marijuana use is independently associated with 17% increased likelihood of AIS hospitalization.
Impact of Nitrification on the Formation of N-Nitrosamines and Halogenated Disinfection Byproducts within Distribution System Storage Facilities

Distribution system storage facilities are a critical, yet often overlooked, component of the urban water infrastructure. This study showed elevated concentrations of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), total N-nitrosamines (TONO), regulated trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs), 1,1-dichloropropanone (1,1-DCP), trichloroacetaldehyde (TCAL), haloacetonitriles (HANs), and haloacetamides (HAMs) in waters with ongoing nitrification as compared to non-nitrifying waters in storage facilities within five different chloraminated drinking water distribution systems. The concentrations of NDMA, TONO, HANs, and HAMs in the nitrifying waters further increased upon application of simulated distribution system chloramination. The addition of a nitrifying biofilm sample collected from a nitrifying facility to its non-nitrifying influent water led to increases in N-nitrosamine and halogenated DBP formation, suggesting the release of precursors from nitrifying biofilms. Periodic treatment of two nitrifying facili...
Zoosporic fungi of Oceania. II. Two saprophytic species of Aphanomycopsis.

Two new saprophytic species of Aphanomycopsis, A. saprophyticusand A. punctatus, from Oceania soils are characterized by extensive, branched, occasionally septate mycelia, undifferentiated cylindri...
Automatic dimensioning

Examples of algorithms that will accomplish automatic storage reservation without the need for explicit array declarations are described.
The assessment of learning infrastructure (ALI): the theory, practice, and scalability of automated assessment

Researchers invested in K-12 education struggle not just to enhance pedagogy, curriculum, and student engagement, but also to harness the power of technology in ways that will optimize learning. Online learning platforms offer a powerful environment for educational research at scale. The present work details the creation of an automated system designed to provide researchers with insights regarding data logged from randomized controlled experiments conducted within the ASSISTments TestBed. The Assessment of Learning Infrastructure (ALI) builds upon existing technologies to foster a symbiotic relationship beneficial to students, researchers, the platform and its content, and the learning analytics community. ALI is a sophisticated automated reporting system that provides an overview of sample distributions and basic analyses for researchers to consider when assessing their data. ALI's benefits can also be felt at scale through analyses that crosscut multiple studies to drive iterative platform improvements while promoting personalized learning.
Memory-based Reinforcement Learning: Converging with Less Data and Less Real Time

Prioritized Sweeping is a new algorithm for efficient prediction and control of stochastic Markov systems. Incremental learning methods such as Temporal Differencing and Q-learning have fast real time performance. Classical methods are slower, but more accurate, because they make full use of the observations. Prioritized Sweeping aims for the best of both worlds. It uses all previous experiences both to prioritize important dynamic programming sweeps and to guide the exploration of state-space. We compare Prioritized Sweeping with other reinforcement learning schemes for a number of different stochastic optimal control problems. It successfully solves large state-space real time problems with which other methods have difficulty.
The Influence of Contextual Cues in Judgment Formation: An Ecologically Valid Test.

An ecologically valid experiment investigated the propositions that (a) people’s judgments are influenced by contextual cues, (b) that they are often unaware that those cues influenced them, and (c) that even when they know the cues should influence them, they do not readily incorporate those cues into their judgment formation. After participating in a realistic simulation of a shopping experience, 405 consumers made judgments about whether the product they examined contained fresh or preserved grapefruit sections. Our findings show that despite being aware that contextual cues (such as the location within a store where the product is sold, the type of container it is sold in, and whether the container is chilled or not) generally influence the judgment at hand, people generally fail to realize that their specific judgments were influenced at all. These findings replicate prior studies, thereby extending the generalizability and robustness of prior research.
Multifactor Analysis of TB Knowledge Among People in Muli County

Objective To learn the TB related knowledge level among citizens in Muli country of Sichuan province,and analyze the influential factors.Method One village was selected by random cluster sampling and field questionnaire survey was conducted among the villagers who were over.Results The average score of knowledge level was 2.78±1.33.Influential factors include gender,and age,race,and medical history.Conclusion The knowledge level on TB far from sufficiency amony residents in Muli county.TB health education should be implemented among them in a timely manner.
Regulation of Race Day Bute and Lasix in New York State

The paper examined equine drug testing in New York State horse racing with an emphasis on how the drugs Lasix and Butazolidin have been treated.
The metabolism of 75Se-selenomethionine in sheep given supplementary copper and molybdenum.

Four groups of three ram lambs were fed, in group pens, the following diets from 4 to 19 wk of age: 1) control (6 mg Cu/kg and 1 mg Mo/kg); 2) control plus 10 mg Cu/kg; 3) control plus 10 mg Mo/kg and 4) control plus 10 mg/kg of both Cu and Mo. Copper and Mo were added to the diet as copper sulfate and sodium molybdate. The main ingredients of the diets were alfalfa hay (20%), oats (20%) and corn (59%). At 19 wk, the animals were allocated randomly to individual metabolism cages and received a single oral dose of 75Se-selenomethionine. Liver Cu concentrations at slaughter (22 wk) were 77, 259, 68 and 316 mg/kg fresh weight for treatments 1 through 4. There was clinical evidence of Cu poisoning in lambs on treatment 2. Sheep given Cu supplements without additional Mo had reduced (P less than .05) levels of 75Se activity in muscle compared with control animals. This decrease in muscle 75Se in Cu-supplemented lambs was associated with a nonsignificant increase in 75Se content of other tissues and a nonsignificant increase in fecal excretion of 75Se. Apparent absorption and net retention of 75Se was 80% and 74%, respectively. Long-term ingestion of moderate levels of Cu influenced the metabolism of Se fed as selenomethionine, possibly through effects of chronic Cu toxicity on liver function.
Signal Processing Aspects of Real-Time DNA Microarrays

Data acquisition in conventional fluorescent-based microarrays takes place after the completion of a hybridization phase. During the hybridization phase, target analytes bind to their corresponding capturing probes on the array. The conventional microarrays attempt to detect presence and quantify amounts of the targets by collecting a single data point, supposedly taken after the hybridization process has reached its steady-state. Recently, so-called real-time microarrays capable of acquiring not only the steady-state data but the entire kinetics of hybridization have been proposed in [1]. The richness of the information obtained by the real-time microarrays promises higher signal-to-noise ratio, smaller estimation error, and broader assay detection dynamic range compared to the conventional microarrays. In the current paper, we study the signal processing aspects of the real-time microarray data acquisition.
Data provenance hybridization supporting extreme-scale scientific workflow applications

As high performance computing (HPC) infrastructures continue to grow in capability and complexity, so do the applications that they serve. HPC and distributed-area computing (DAC) (e.g. grid and cloud) users are looking increasingly toward workflow solutions to orchestrate their complex application coupling, pre- and post-processing needs. To that end, the US Department of Energy Integrated end-to-end Performance Prediction and Diagnosis for Extreme Scientific Workflows (IPPD) project is currently investigating an integrated approach to prediction and diagnosis of these extreme-scale scientific workflows. To gain insight and a more quantitative understanding of a workflow's performance our method includes not only the capture of traditional provenance information, but also the capture and integration of system environment metrics helping to give context and explanation for a workflow's execution. In this paper, we describe IPPD's provenance management solution (ProvEn) and its hybrid data store combining both of these data provenance perspectives. We discuss design and implementation details that include provenance disclosure, scalability, data integration, and a discussion on query and analysis capabilities. We also present use case examples for climate modeling and thermal modeling application domains.
Rigorous Simulation-Based Analysis of Linear Hybrid Systems

Design analysis of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) with complex continuous and discrete behaviors, in-practice, relies heavily on numerical simulations. While useful for evaluation and debugging, such analysis is often incomplete owing to the nondeterminism in the discrete transitions and the uncountability of the continuous space. In this paper, we present a precise notion of simulations for CPS called simulation-equivalent reachability, which includes all the states that can be reached by any simulation. While this notion is weaker than traditional reachability, we present a technique that performs simulation-equivalent reachability in an efficient, scalable, and theoretically sound and complete manner. For achieving this, we describe two improvements, namely invariant constraint propagation for handling invariants and on-demand successor deaggregation for handling discrete transitions. We use our tool implementation of the approach, HyLAA (Hybrid Linear Automata Analyzer), to evaluate the improvements, and demonstrate computing the simulation-equivalent reachable set for a replicated helicopter systems with over 1000 dimensions in about 10 min.
Conservation Reserve Program: Status and Trends

Now over 25 years old, as of June 2012 the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) removes over 29 million acres of environmentally sensitive farmland from crop production under 10- to 15-year contracts. Over time, the program’s size and goals have changed, from its early emphasis on limiting crop production and soil erosion to one that now considers a broad set of conservation goals including wildlife, soil, water, and air quality. Driven by improvements in conservation practices and changes in legislative mandates, commodity markets, and environmental concerns, the CRP continues to evolve.
Stress-testing the affect misattribution procedure: Heterogeneous control of affect misattribution procedure effects under incentives.

The affect misattribution procedure (AMP) is widely used to measure sensitive attitudes towards classes of stimuli, by estimating the effect that affectively charged prime images have on subsequent judgements of neutral target images. We test its resistance to efforts to conceal one's attitudes, by replicating the standard AMP design while offering small incentives to conceal attitudes towards the prime images. We find that although the average AMP effect remains positive, it decreases significantly in magnitude. Moreover, this reduction in the mean AMP effect under incentives masks large heterogeneity: one subset of individuals continues to experience the ‘full’ AMP effect, while another reduces their effect to approximately zero. The AMP thus appears to be resistant to efforts to conceal one's attitudes for some individuals but is highly controllable for others. We further find that those individuals with high self-reported effort to avoid the influence of the prime are more often able to eliminate their AMP effect. We conclude by discussing possible mechanisms.
Positive Change in Feedback Perceptions and Behavior: A 10-Year Follow-up Study

BACKGROUND: Providing and learning from feedback are essential components of medical education, and typically described as resistant to change. But given a decade of change in the clinical context in which feedback occurs, the authors asked if, and how, perceptions of feedback and feedback behaviors might have changed in response to contextual affordances. METHODS: In 2017, the authors conducted a follow-up, ethnographic study on 2 general pediatric floors at the same children’s hospital where another ethnographic study on a general pediatric floor was conducted in 2007. Data sources included (1) 21 and 34 hours of observation in 2007 and 2017, respectively, (2) 35 and 25 interviews with general pediatric attending physicians and residents in 2007 and 2017, respectively, and (3) a review of 120 program documents spanning 2007 to 2017. Data were coded and organized around 3 recommendations for feedback that were derived from 2007 data and served as standards for assessing change in 2017. RESULTS: Data revealed progress in achieving each recommendation. Compared with 2007, participants in 2017 more clearly distinguished between feedback and evaluation; residents were more aware of in-the-moment feedback, and they had shifted their orientation from evaluation and grades to feedback and learning. Explanations for progress in achieving recommendations, which were derived from the data, pointed to institutional and national influences, namely, the pediatric milestones. CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of follow-up, ethnographic data, changes in the clinical context of pediatric education may afford positive change in perceptions of feedback and feedback behavior and point to influences within and beyond the institution.
Rock-Fabric, Petrophysical Parameters, and Classification

The goal of reservoir characterization is to describe the spatial distribution of petrophysical parameters such as porosity, permeability, and saturation. Wireline logs, core analyses, production data, pressure buildups, and tracer tests provide quantitative measurements of petrophysical parameters in the vicinity of the wellbore. This wellbore data must be integrated with a geologic model to display the petrophysical properties in three-dimensional space. Studies that relate rock fabric to pore-size distribution, and thus to petrophysical properties, are key to quantification of geologic models in numerical terms for input into computer simulators (Fig. 1).
The meaning of desert color in earth orbital photographs

The color of desert surfaces as seen in earth orbital photographs is indicative of soil composition. Apollo-Soyuz photographs of the Sturt and Simpson Deserts of Australia confirm that sand grains become redder as the distance from the source increases. Reddening is caused by a thin iron-oxide coating on individual sand grains and can be used, in some cases, to map relative-age zones. Photographs of the Western (Libyan) Desert of Egypt indicate three distinct and nearly parallel color zones that have been correlated in the field with: (1) arable soil composed of quartz, clay, and calcium carbonate particles; (2) relatively active sand with or without sparse vegetation; and (3) relatively inactive sand mixed with dark (desert-varnished) pebbles. The youngest sands are in the form of longitudinal dunes, which are migrating to the south-southeast along the prevailing wind direction. Some of the young dune fields are encroaching on the western boundary of the fertile Nile Valley.
Individual innovation adoption and the role of organizational culture

Technological innovations are generally considered to contribute positively to the organization, but there are gaps in our understanding of how benefits can be realized. In particular, studies of technological innovation adoption in organizations tend to focus on structural aspects of adoption and top-down, organization-wide implementation. Building on this work, we examine the relationship between organizational culture and individuals’ extent of adoption (frequency of using technology features). Using a survey of 1000 physicians in the USA, we studied the association between perceived organizational innovativeness and cohesiveness and the extent to which physicians adopt electronic health records. We found that organizational innovativeness was positively associated with individuals’ extent of adoption, and that this relationship was mediated by going to others for advice regarding the technology. Our findings were supported by interview data.
CRISPR and the Future of Genome Engineering: A Bold New World

The field of genome engineering has grown rapidly in the past decades, culminating in the discovery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in 2012. The method has proven to be revolutionary, displaying immense potential for research and medicine. It exhibits incredible precision for reading and editing the genome and has lowered the price of gene editing technologies drastically. Possible applications of the system generally lie in either gene therapy, the treatment of diseases, or gene enhancements, the selection/augmentation of embryotic genes in so-called “designer babies.” Currently, many reason against the adoption of the CRISPR system, citing the myriad ethical issues associated with the ability to manipulate genes. In this paper, I argue that CRISPR, and more generally genome engineering, are necessary technologies for the future. I aim to show that, with the necessary precautions, the system can, and should, be safely embraced for the betterment of society.
Brain activity in struggling readers before intervention relates to future reading gains

Abstract Neural markers for reading-related changes in response to intervention could inform intervention plans by serving as a potential index of the malleability of the reading network in struggling readers. Of particular interest is the role of brain activation outside the reading network, especially in executive control networks important for reading comprehension. However, it is unclear whether any intervention-related executive control changes in the brain are specific to reading tasks or reflect more domain general changes. Brain changes associated with reading gains over time were compared for a sentence comprehension task as well as for a non-lexical executive control task (a behavioral inhibition task) in upper-elementary struggling readers, and in grade-matched non-struggling readers. Functional MRI scans were conducted before and after 16 weeks of reading intervention. Participants were grouped as improvers and non-improvers based on the consistency and size of post-intervention gains across multiple post-test measures. Engagement of the right fusiform during the reading task, both before and after intervention, was related to gains from remediation. Additionally, pre-intervention activation in regions that are part of the default-mode network (precuneus) and the fronto-parietal network (right posterior middle temporal gyrus) separated improvers and non-improvers from non-struggling readers. None of these differences were observed during the non-lexical inhibitory control task, indicating that the brain changes seen related to intervention outcome in struggling readers were specific to the reading process.
Demonstration of a length limited parametric array.

Abstract We describe a series of measurements to assess the practicality of a length limited parametric array in air. This study shows that the length limited effect is a measurable phenomenon that can be produced using pairs of commercial off the shelf parametric array speakers. We generated the effect using parametric arrays mounted so that two directional audio beams were simultaneously co-propagating through the open air. Parametric arrays work such that after the ultrasound frequencies have attenuated, the remaining audio range acoustic frequency is linear. We used this principle to propagate 2 kHz signals from two parametric array speakers, adjusting the relative phase of the resulting audio-range signals to produce varying amounts of constructive or destructive interference in the resulting linear sound beams. We demonstrated that increasing the overlap of the audible sound beams increased the effectiveness of the length limited phenomenon. We also found that changing the magnitude of the sound projected through one of the speakers did not have significant impact on the length limited effect.
Anzaldúa, Space Theorist: Mapping Ancient Hagiographies

This chapter situates Anzaldua’s work among the works of other Chicana writers, and explores Anzaldua as a literary and spatial theorist and cultural critic. I explain how these ideas can relevantly illuminate ancient Christian history.
Where Is “the South”? Assessing the Meaning of Geography in Politics:

The use of geographic classifications to make empirical or theoretical generalizations is common in political science research. Yet, in most cases, these groupings, in and of themselves, lack broad...
SLE clinical trials: impact of missing data on estimating treatment effects.

Objective A common problem in clinical trials is missing data due to participant dropout and loss to follow-up, an issue which continues to receive considerable attention in the clinical research community. Our objective was to examine and compare current and alternative methods for handling missing data in SLE trials with a particular focus on multiple imputation, a flexible technique that has been applied in different disease settings but not to address missing data in the primary outcome of an SLE trial. Methods Data on 279 patients with SLE randomised to standard of care (SoC) and also receiving mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), azathioprine or methotrexate were obtained from the Lupus Foundation of America-Collective Data Analysis Initiative Database. Complete case analysis (CC), last observation carried forward (LOCF), non-responder imputation (NRI) and multiple imputation (MI) were applied to handle missing data in an analysis to assess differences in SLE Responder Index-5 (SRI-5) response rates at 52 weeks between patients on SoC treated with MMF versus other immunosuppressants (non-MMF). Results The rates of missing data were 32% in the MMF and 23% in the non-MMF groups. As expected, the NRI missing data approach yielded the lowest estimated response rates. The smallest and least significant estimates of differences between groups were observed with LOCF, and precision was lowest with the CC method. Estimated between-group differences were magnified with the MI approach, and imputing SRI-5 directly versus deriving SRI-5 after separately imputing its individual components yielded similar results. Conclusion The potential advantages of applying MI to address missing data in an SLE trial include reduced bias when estimating treatment effects, and measures of precision that properly reflect uncertainty in the imputations. However, results can vary depending on the imputation model used, and the underlying assumptions should be plausible. Sensitivity analysis should be conducted to demonstrate robustness of results, especially when missing data proportions are high.
Distributed Sequential Hypothesis Testing With Quantized Message-Exchange

This work considers the cooperative sequential hypothesis testing problem in a distributed network with quantized communication channels. The sensors observe independent sequences of samples and in the meantime, exchange their local information in the form of quantized statistics at every sampling interval. The communication links are represented as an undirected graph. In this distributed setup, every sensor performs its own sequential test based on the local samples and the messages from the neighbour sensors. Our goal is to devise the distributed sequential test that comprises the quantization scheme, the message-exchange protocol and the test procedure such that every sensor in the network fully exploits the network diversity and achieves the (asymptotically) optimal performance in terms of the stopping time. In particular, two distributed sequential tests are proposed based on different quantization schemes and a quantized message-exchange protocol that satisfies certain conditions. The first quantization scheme uniformly quantizes the local statistic at each sensor and at every sampling interval; the second one hinges on a modified level-triggered quantization technique, and resembles the Lebesgue sampling of the running local statistic. Our analyses show that the uniform quantization based distributed sequential test yields sub-optimal performance, while the one based on level-triggered quantization achieves the order-2 asymptotically optimal performance at every sensor for any fixed quantization step-size. Furthermore, we generalize the proposed sequential tests to the cluster-based network. Numerical results are provided to corroborate our analyses and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed sequential tests.
Pediatric Thyroidectomy: NSQIP-P Analysis of Adverse Perioperative Outcomes.

Background:This study identifies risk factors and 30-day adverse outcomes of pediatric patients undergoing thyroidectomy.Methods:Retrospective analysis utilizing the American College of Surgeons Na...
Successful treatment of hemorrhagic brainstem cavernous malformation with hematoma evacuation and postoperative propranolol.

In this case, we describe an evident hemorrhagic brainstem cavernous malformation successfully treated with a planned sequence of surgical evacuation of the hematoma followed by postoperative propranolol therapy. In contrast to common practice, the cavernoma itself was not resected. A nearly 3-year-old male presented with altered mental status, gait disturbance, and facial palsy. CT and MRI demonstrated a large acute pontine hematoma. A large nearby vein suggested cavernous malformation. He was initially treated conservatively but a repeat CT scan demonstrated further expansion of hematoma and he was taken emergently to the OR. Due to the sensitive location of the hematoma in the pons, we planned to evacuate the hematoma without resecting any of the presumed cavernoma. Instead, we planned to treat the cavernoma with propranolol. Postoperatively, the patient’s condition improved and was still improving at hospital discharge 2 weeks later. Six-month follow-up MRI showed no cavernoma with only hemosiderin at the site of the evacuated hematoma. This is the first reported case of a hemorrhagic brainstem cavernous malformation treated with a planned sequence of hematoma evacuation followed by propranolol without an attempt to resect the cavernoma.
Indirect Costs of Government Aid and Intermediary Supply Effects: Lessons from the Paycheck Protection Program

The $669 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) provides highly subsidized financing to small businesses. The PPP is a positive shock in financing supply to the small, highly constrained publicly listed firms in our sample and has average positive treatment effects. Yet, uptake is not universal. In fact, several firms return PPP funds before use, and curiously, experience positive valuation effects when they do so. These firms desire and the markets value the release from government oversight even if it means giving up cheap funding. The PPP is also a demand shock to the banks making PPP loans. Intermediary supply effects shape PPP delivery. Larger borrowers enjoy earlier PPP access, an effect that is more pronounced in big banks. The results have implications for policy design, the costs of being public, and bank-firm relationships.
National Report on Early-Stage Entrepreneurship in the United States: 2020

The Kauffman Indicators of Early-Stage Entrepreneurship is a set of measures that represents new business creation in the United States, integrating several high-quality, timely sources of information on early-stage entrepreneurship. This report presents four indicators that track early-stage entrepreneurship for the years 1996–2020: rate of new entrepreneurs reflects the number of new entrepreneurs in a given month, opportunity share of new entrepreneurs is the percentage of new entrepreneurs who created their businesses out of opportunity instead of necessity, startup early job creation is the total number of jobs created by startups per capita, and startup early survival rate is the one-year average survival rate for new firms. National trends are reported for the four indicators as well as some demographic trends for the rate of new entrepreneurs and opportunity share of new entrepreneurs. The rate of new entrepreneurs was substantially higher in 2020 than in 2019 or in previous years, reflecting more transitions into entrepreneurial activity, broadly defined, among the population during pandemic conditions. At the same time, the opportunity share of this activity plummeted to the lowest share in 25 years, indicating that many of these transitions were undertaken by people with few other options for economic engagement.
Characterizing Genetic Mechanisms Involved in Measuring Day-length in Drosophila melanogaster

Many organisms are known to regulate seasonal behaviors and physiological processes in response to day length changes through photoperiodism. Extreme changes in photoperiods have detrimental effects on human health, which can impair development and serve as the origin of adult diseases. Since the seminal work by Bnning in 1936, there are studies supporting the view that organisms can measure the day length through an endogenous 24-hour cellular circadian clock. However, the mechanisms involved in measuring seasonal or day-length changes are not understood. In the current study, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on photoperiodism using the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel. The GWAS identified 32 candidate genes responsible for photoperiodic regulations. The knockout mutants of the top four candidate genes (Protein Kinase C delta (Pkcdelta), Glucuronyltransferase-P (GlcAT-P), Brain-specific homeobox (Bsh), and Diuretic hormone 31 Receptor (Dh31-R1)) were analyzed for their photoperiod and circadian period phenotypes. PKCdelta and GlcAT-P mutants show a significantly different photoperiod response compared to that of the wild type strain, and also had an altered circadian period phenotype. Further molecular characterization revealed that the mutant two independent mutant alleles of PKCdelta with a defective catalytic domain had distinct photoperiod responses. Taken these data together, we concluded that there is overlap between the circadian clock and photoperiodic regulations in Drosophila, and PKCdelta is a component that is involved in both circadian and photoperiodic regulations. By identifying novel molecular components of photoperiod, the current study provides new insights into the genetic mechanisms of determining the seasonal changes.
Effects of four CSCL strategies for enhancing online discussion forums: Social interdependence, summarizing, scripts, and synchronicity

Abstract In computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL), optimizing outcomes requires specific strategies to structure and support peer interaction. This study examines four CSCL strategies thought to enhance students’ cooperative perceptions in online discussion forums: social interdependence, summarizing, scripts, and synchronicity. Using an experimental-control design, 617 nursing students were randomly assigned to conditions in a semester-length online graduate-level course. As expected, summarizing and scripts had additive effects on motivation (academic efficacy, value), peer relations (epistemic conflict regulation), and academic achievement. Unexpectedly, students working alone had higher achievement scores than students in asynchronous cooperative conditions, at least in the short-term. Results were inconclusive as to whether students’ cooperative perceptions or other unmeasured factors underlied these findings. Results inform theory by demonstrating further evidence that asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) represents a boundary condition for social interdependence. Results also inform practice by showing that summarizing and scripts have additive effects on motivation, peer relations, and achievement.
Chapter XVI Fungi Pathogenic for Man and Animals: 2. The Subcutaneous and Deep-seated Mycoses

Publisher Summary Diseases caused by fungi may be superficial, subcutaneous or deep-seated in nature. This chapter focuses on the organisms responsible for the subcutaneous and deep-seated mycoses, techniques for their isolation, and problems encountered in their identification. Utmost care should be taken in the handling of Histoplasma capsulatum, H. duboisii, Blastomyces dermatitidis, and Coccidioides immitis. Inhalation of spores from these fungi can be lethal to the laboratory worker. When dealing with these fungi an inoculating cabinet should always be used. Direct mounts from the pathological material often reveal the causative agent. This is done by mounting a portion of the specimen in 10-20% NaOH or KOH teasing out and placing a cover slip on top of the preparation and gently heating over a bunsen burner. Tissues for mycological examination are examined macroscopically for the presence of granules or grains. The specimen should be divided, one-half for cultural studies and the other fixed for histology. Stains used routinely in medical mycology include haematoxylin and eosin and the periodic acid-Schiff. The use of a particular stain is often dependent upon the personal choice of the investigator. It must be emphasized that the crucial confirmatory evidence of a mycotic infection is the demonstration of the organism within the affected tissue.