New Estimates of US Civil War mortality from full-census records.

The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in US history. However, incomplete records have made it difficult to estimate the exact death toll both nationally, and especially, at the state level. In this article, we leverage the recently released full count of individual census returns and a sample of linked records across multiple censuses to provide i) the most precise national estimate of excess mortality to date and ii) reliable state-level estimates of excess mortality among native-born white males.

Harmonizing government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Public health and safety measures (PHSM) made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been singular, rapid, and profuse compared to the content, speed, and volume of normal policy-making. Not only can they have a profound effect on the spread of the disease, but they may also have multitudinous secondary effects, in both the social and natural worlds. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts by numerous research groups, existing data on COVID-19 PHSM only partially captures their full geographical scale and policy scope for any significant duration of time.

A General Primer for Data Harmonization.

Data harmonization is an important method for combining or transforming data. To date however, articles about data harmonization are field-specific and highly technical, making it difficult for researchers to derive general principles for how to engage in and contextualize data harmonization efforts. This commentary provides a primer on the tradeoffs inherent in data harmonization for researchers who are considering undertaking such efforts or seek to evaluate the quality of existing ones.

How to do and evaluate DWI and DCE-MRI sequences for diabetic foot assessment.

MRI evaluation of the diabetic foot is still a challenge not only from an interpretative but also from a technical point of view. The incorporation of advanced sequences such as diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI into standard protocols for diabetic foot assessment could aid radiologists in differentiating between neuropathic osteoarthropathy (Charcot's foot) and osteomyelitis. This distinction is crucial as both conditions can coexist in diabetic patients, and they require markedly different clinical management and have distinct prognoses.

Need for affect, need for cognition, and the desire for independence.

The last decade has witnessed a significant rise in European secessionist movements leading to considerable political turmoil (e.g., protest, repression, imprisonment of political leaders).

Usefulness of balanced SSFP sequence in robot-assisted MRI-guided prostate biopsy: Beyond scouting.

Objectives: To determine whether bSSFP images are useful for visualizing prostatic lesionsin MRI-guided in-bore transrectal biopsy.

Methods: This retrospective studyincluded 67 men witha single suspected cancer on MRI (PI-RADS 2.1 category ≥ 3) who underwent in-bore transrectal MRI-guided biopsy.

Preclinical to clinical utility of ROCK inhibitors in cancer.

ROCK belongs to the AGC family of Ser/Thr protein kinases that are involved in many cellular processes. ROCK-driven actomyosin contractility regulates cytoskeletal dynamics underpinning cell migration, proliferation, and survival in many cancer types. ROCK1/2 play key protumorigenic roles in several subtypes and stages of cancer development.

Exploring the role of ecology and social organisation in agropastoral societies: A Bayesian network approach.

The present contribution focuses on investigating the interaction of people and environment in small-scale farming societies. Our study is centred on the particular way settlement location constraints economic strategy when technology is limited, and social division of work is not fully developed. Our intention is to investigate prehistoric socioeconomic organisation when farming began in the Old World along the Levant shores of Iberian Peninsula, the Neolithic phenomenon.

Applications of Probiotic-Based Multi-Components to Human, Animal and Ecosystem Health: Concepts, Methodologies, and Action Mechanisms.

Probiotics and related preparations, including synbiotics and postbiotics, are living and non-living microbial-based multi-components, which are now among the most popular bioactive agents. Such interests mainly arise from the wide range and numerous beneficial effects of their use for various hosts. The current minireview article attempts to provide an overview and discuss in a holistic way the concepts, methodologies, action mechanisms, and applications of probiotic-based multi-components in human, animal, plant, soil, and environment health.

Vaccine nationalism among the public: A cross-country experimental evidence of own-country bias towards COVID-19 vaccination.

What types of vaccines are citizens most likely to accept? We argue that citizens' identification with their nation may lead them to prefer vaccines developed and produced within their national borders, to the exclusion and/or detriment of vaccines from other nations. We administered a conjoint experiment requesting 15,000 adult citizens across 14 individual countries from around the world to assess 450,000 profiles of vaccines that randomly varied on seven attributes. Beyond vaccine fundamentals such as efficacy rate, number of doses, and duration of the protection, we find that citizens systematically favor vaccines developed and produced in their own country of residence.

Long-term outcomes of percutaneous tricuspid annuloplasty with Cardioband device.

Aims: Severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR) has adverse effects on outcomes, with limited therapeutic options. We report the outcomes of patients undergoing percutaneous annuloplasty as a treatment of  ≥severe functional TR in a single centre.

Methods And Results: Prospective, single-arm, single-centre study that enrolled 24 consecutive patients with at least severe functional TR undergoing percutaneous annuloplasty with Cardioband system between 2019 and 2021.

Rho GTPase signaling in cancer progression and dissemination.

Rho GTPases are a family of small G proteins that regulate a wide array of cellular processes related to their key roles controlling the cytoskeleton. Cancer is a multistep disease caused by the accumulation of genetic mutations and epigenetic alterations, from the initial stages of cancer development when cells in normal tissues undergo transformation, to the acquisition of invasive and metastatic traits, responsible for a large number of cancer related deaths. In this review, we discuss the role of Rho GTPase signaling in cancer in every step of disease progression.

Luxury zinc supply acts as antiaging agent and enhances reproductive fitness in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Developmental senescence in plants is an age dependent process affected by phytohormones, nutrient status, and environmental factors, while the antiaging effects of zinc are recognized in humans. This study explores the possible influence of a high, non-toxic Zn-supply (12 μM) on senescence and reproductive fitness in A. thaliana.

The long-term effects of war exposure on civic engagement.

What are the legacies of war exposure on civic engagement? Recent evidence suggests that domestic war may have short-term effects on participation in social organizations. Yet, it is unclear whether these effects will be present in internationalized conflicts and persist over long periods of time. Further, the pathways of persistence by which war exposure leads to greater civic engagement in the long term are even less understood.

Voluntary adoption of social welfare-enhancing behavior: Mask-wearing in Spain during the COVID-19 outbreak.

With the spread of COVID-19, more countries now recommend their citizens to wear facemasks in public. The uptake of facemasks, however, remains far from universal in countries where this practice lacks cultural roots. In this paper, we aim to identify the barriers to mask-wearing in Spain, a country with no mask-wearing culture.

Percutaneous closure of an atrial septal defect in a patient with Ebstein anomaly and right-to-left shunt.

Ebstein anomaly is a congenital disease frequently associated with atrial septal defects, which can generate a right-to-left shunt, leading to systemic desaturation and right ventricular failure. We describe the case of a 68-year-old man with central cyanosis due to Ebstein anomaly and a patent foramen ovale. An atrial septal occluder was initially implanted after having performed prolonged test occlusion of the interatrial communication.

Robotic-assisted transrectal MRI-guided biopsy. Technical feasibility and role in the current diagnosis of prostate cancer: an initial single-center experience.

Objectives: To evaluate the potential clinical and technical utility to manage in practice the use of a robotic MRI in-bore-targeted prostate biopsies in the current work-up of prostate cancer diagnosis.

Methods: Thirty patients with a single cancer suspicious lesion interpreted on MRI using PI-RADSv2.1 category ≥ 3 underwent in-bore robotic transrectal MRI remote-controlled-guided biopsy.

COVID-19 Government Response Event Dataset (CoronaNet v.1.0).

Governments worldwide have implemented countless policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We present an initial public release of a large hand-coded dataset of over 13,000 such policy announcements across more than 195 countries. The dataset is updated daily, with a 5-day lag for validity checking.

Contrasting allocation of magnesium, calcium and manganese in leaves of tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) plants may explain their different extraction efficiency into tea.

During tea preparation mineral elements are extracted from the dried leaves of tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) plants into the solution. Micro-particle induced X-ray emission was employed to investigate the spatial distribution of magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca) and manganese (Mn) in the young and old leaves of tea plants grown in the absence and presence of aluminium (Al) in the substrate.

How Plants Handle Trivalent (+3) Elements.

Plant development and fitness largely depend on the adequate availability of mineral elements in the soil. Most essential nutrients are available and can be membrane transported either as mono or divalent cations or as mono- or divalent anions. Trivalent cations are highly toxic to membranes, and plants have evolved different mechanisms to handle +3 elements in a safe way.

Marijuana, tobacco, alcohol and cocaine use during pregnancy in 2013 and 2016. A self-report study in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Background: Uruguay passed Law 19.172 on December 20, 2013, thus enabling the State to regulate the production, distribution, sale, and consumption of cannabis.

Objectives: to determine the change in maternal self-report of marijuana, tobacco, alcohol, and cocaine use during pregnancy between 2013 and 2016.

A 0.35-μm CMOS-MEMS Oscillator for High-Resolution Distributed Mass Detection.

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and electrical characterization of an electrostatically actuated and capacitive sensed 2-MHz plate resonator structure that exhibits a predicted mass sensitivity of ~250 pg·cm·Hz. The resonator is embedded in a fully on-chip Pierce oscillator scheme, thus obtaining a quasi-digital output sensor with a short-term frequency stability of 1.2 Hz (0.