cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
SURFACE TENSION OF SERUM : III. RECOVERY AFTER LOWERING BY SURFACE-ACTIVE SUBSTANCES.

1. The equilibrium of the serum corresponding to its normal minimal surface tension is as stable and difficult to break, under ordinary conditions, as the osmotic tension equilibrium. The addition of a strong surface-active substance (sodium oleate, glycocholate, or taurocholate), will not lower it definitely, unless the substance is present in large amounts and in solution. After the first rapid drop has occurred, a process of recovery takes place, which brings back the normal surface tension in a short time (from 2 to 6 minutes in the case of pure serum). As a drop in the surface tension of the serum of animals may be very injurious to the red cells, this process of recovery is a normal one of defense in all cases in which surface-active substances (bile) are set free in the blood. 2. When diluted, the serum shows the same phenomenon to a smaller extent; the time of recovery is very much longer and the final surface tension is always lower than the original value. At a dilution of 1/10,000, no recovery takes place, the dilution being too high to overcome the lowering action of 1/10,000 of sodium oleate. 3. The recovery is stronger when the surface-active substance is added powdered or in a highly concentrated solution, and not stirred. 4. The recovery does not seem to be inversely proportional to the concentration of sodium oleate, when added superficially. Doubling the concentration at 1/2,000, for example, gives the same curve of recovery. This happens under certain conditions; namely, when the liquid is not stirred after the addition of sodium oleate. 5. This recovery is due to a purely physical phenomenon, namely adsorption, and is not specific for the serum. Other colloidal solutions, such as gum arabic, egg albumin, gelatin, and silver and gold sols, show it, only to a smaller degree. The process of recovery follows a logarithmic law in all cases, expressed by an equation of the form See PDF for Equation 6. Temperature affects this phenomenon. At first it enhances it, but finally decreases it. This would seem to connect the loss of the property of the serum known as complement in a serum with a modification of the physical properties of this serum. This phenomenon is being investigated further.
Intervalley Scattering as a Function of Temperature in Gaas Using Time-Resolved Visible Pump - IR Probe Absorption Spectroscopy

Understanding the detailed physics underlying intervalley scattering in multi-valley semiconductors is crucial for the efficient design of high-speed electronic and microwave devices and has been the subject of intense study over the past decade. Several experimental and theoretical studies based on ultrafast spectroscopy have been performed to obtain the scattering times for hot electrons going between the central, Γ6, valley and the satellite, X6 and L6, conduction band valleys in GaAs under various conditions.1,2 The techniques previously used involved investigations of the hot electron distribution only in the central, i.e., k=0, conduction band valley.
Infrared Schottky barrier diode response: Constant field profile

Abstract In previous papers van der Ziel calculated the infrared response of a heavily doped Schottky barrier diode operating in the thermionic mode for a linear field profile in the space charge region. We here repeat the calculation for a constant field profile, which may be somewhat more accurate for heavy doping. There is little difference between the two models, except that the constant field profile gives somewhat lower input conductance at intermediate frequencies.
Increasing African American Teachers' Presence in American Schools: Voices of Students Who Care.

Educational reformers have drawn national attention to the African American teacher shortage by providing demographic and empirical data that illustrate the racial imbalance within the teaching profession. Notably absent from the data, however, are the voices of the students for whom reforms are intended. This article presents the narratives of a group of African American students to illustrate the impact on students of having or not having African American teachers. Listening to students’ descriptions of their interaction with their teachers and their praise of their African American teachers illuminates why recruiting more teachers of color is important not only to the profession but also, crucially, to the students themselves.
Current Illusions and Delusions about Conflict Management—In Africa and Elsewhere

This paper provides a critical perspective on the use of U. S. alternative dispute resolution (ADR) approaches for managing conflict in African and other communities. It argues that imposition of American ADR as a condition for foreign aid or capital investment is deeply problematic, and urges a more sophisticated analysis of the power dimensions and ideological basis of ADR. When viewed as an ideologically laden paradigm for how conflict should be resolved (i. e., a conflict paradigm), ADR can be seen as carrying troubling baggage. For example, ADR approaches imported from the United States deal with dispute resolution simply in terms of mechanisms or techniques, ignoring substantive issues central to conflict management in African and other communities. The entire discourse surrounding ADR pays insuficient attention to problems with terms such as modern or traditional, and encourages an ingenuous denial of the effects of inequality in power and money on conflict resolution. This ideological baggage renders unreflective imposition of ADR incompatible with the best interests of African communities. The authors urge a more complete and objective analysis of the global ADR revolution-one that takes a broader perspective.
Parallel machine replacement

We consider the parallel replacement problem in which there are both fixed and variable costs associated with replacing machines. Increasing maintenance costs motivate replacements, and the fixed replacement cost provides incentive for replacing machines of different ages together in “clusters.” We prove two intuitive results for this problem. First, it is never optimal to split a cluster of like-aged machines, and second, it is never optimal to replace newer clusters before older clusters. By incorporating these two results into an algorithmic approach, we vastly reduce the amount of computation required to identify an optimal replacement policy.
A hybrid communication architecture for intelligent shared vehicle systems

There has been a large degree of activity in the communications arena of intelligent transportation systems. Various communication linkages are being developed for a variety of ITS applications for different purposes. Shared vehicle systems, as a relatively new transportation paradigm, are very well suited for the application of ITS technology, including advanced communication techniques. In general, a shared vehicle system typically consists of a fleet of vehicles that are used several times each day by different users. They offer the convenience of the private automobile and more flexibility than public transportation alone. There are many potential advantages to shared vehicle systems, including improved transportation efficiency, lower transportation cost, an energy/emission benefit, and increased use of existing transit systems. In this paper, we focus on the application of wireless communications to shared vehicle systems. In particular, we describe the design and development of a unique hybrid data communication architecture for a multiple-station shared vehicle system. This hybrid architecture is composed of vehicle-to-system communications using both DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) and CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) methods. Based on the communication needs within a multiple-station shared vehicle system, the hybrid communication system has been designed and optimized in terms of data packet loss, message latency, and system cost. Several experiments have been carried out, examining these measures of performance.
Is all red rice found in commercial rice really Oryza sativa

Abstract All red rice found in commercial rice in the United States has traditionally been classified as Oryza sativa ssp. indica. This assumption was tested by analyzing red rice samples collected from across the southern United States rice belt with 18 simple sequence length polymorphism (SSLP) markers distributed across all 12 chromosomes. The results clearly demonstrate that the traditional classification of red rice is inadequate. Some red rice is closely related to O. sativa ssp. indica cultivated rice. However, other red rice is more closely related to O. sativa ssp. japonica. Most importantly, some red rice samples collected from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas form a distinct group that includes a number of Oryza nivara and Oryza rufipogon accessions from the National Small Grains Center. In particular, red rice samples from three states were identified that for all 18 markers are identical to the O. rufipogon accession IRGC 105491. These different classes of red rice are intermingled...
Debate: The verdict of history: The inexpungeable tie of primordiality ‐ a response to Eller and Coughlan

(1994). Debate: The verdict of history: The inexpungeable tie of primordiality ‐ a response to Eller and Coughlan. Ethnic and Racial Studies: Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 164-171.
ELECTRIC POWER QUALITY

▪ Abstract The quality of electric power depends on the power network topology, the amount of harmonic pollution injected in the network by nonlinear loads, and the severity of switching transients. Many of the loads encountered in modern power electronics, such as arc and induction furnaces, welders, motor drives, and many types of converters, cause a significant level of harmonic pollution and/or recurrent voltage transients. This paper describes the major sources of disturbances that affect electric service quality and explains the indices that help quantify the severity of disturbances. The loads that are most sensitive to power quality are discussed, and techniques intended to avoid or mitigate power quality problems are detailed. Finally, a brief survey of the cost of harmonic pollution and consumer outages is presented.
The primary structure of a PYY-related peptide from chicken intestine suggests an anomalous site of cleavage of the signal peptide in preproPYY.

Although the amino acid sequence of members of the pancreatic polypeptide (PP)-family of regulatory peptides has been poorly conserved during vertebrate evolution, the overall length of the peptides (36 amino acid residues) has remained constant. Nucleotide sequence analysis of cloned cDNAs and/or genomic fragments has shown the PP-related sequence immediately follows the signal peptide in the prepropeptides. A peptide tyrosine—tyrosine (PYY)-related peptide with 37 residues has been isolated from the chicken intestine, and its primary structure was established as: Ala-Tyr-Pro-Pro-Lys-Pro-Glu-Ser-Pro-Gly10-Asp-Ala-Ala-Ser-P ro-Glu-Glu-Ile-Ala-Gln20-Tyr-Phe-Ser-Ala-Leu-Arg-His-Tyr-Il e-Asn30-Leu-Val-Thr-Arg-Gln-Arg-Tyr,CONH2. The presence of an additional alanine residue at the NH2-terminus of the peptide suggests that the site of cleavage of the signal peptide in chicken preproPYY is different from the site of cleavage in other PP-family prepropeptides.
Motor neuron disease: inherited and acquired.

The term motor neuron disease is used in veterinary medicine to describe degenerative diseases of the aor lower motor neuron. Lower motor neurons have their cell body in the ventral horn of the spinal cord gray matter (Fig. 1) or the motor nucleus of a cranial nerve. Their axon extends via the ventral root to the peripheral nerve and from there to the target muscle via a cholinergic (nicotonic) neuromuscular junction. Diseases that affect motor neurons, also known as motor neuronopathies, are rare but devastating disorders. They cause degeneration of the neuron cell body in addition to its axon; as such, they are clinically and pathophysiologically distinct from diseases that affect the axon or neuromuscular junction of the lower motor neuron (peripheral neuropathies and disorders of neuromuscular transmission, respectively). In human beings, motor neuron diseases are, unfortunately, a wellestablished entity. Although they are a complex and varied group of diseases, they can be divided roughly into three categories [1]. Adult-onset motor neuronopathies, the most common of which is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), are late-onset diseases of the upper (eg, corticospinal tract) and lower motor neuron. Infantile and juvenile motor neuronopathies, also called infantile spinomuscular atrophy (SMA, also known as spinal muscular atrophy), are early-onset diseases of the lower motor neuron that are inherited by an autosomal recessive trait. There are three different forms of infantile SMA divided according to severity of signs; together, these account for 1 in 6000 new births. Finally, there is an X-linked, recessive, adult-onset bulbo-SMA (Kennedy’s disease) that causes facial fasciculations and twitching, tongue weakness and atrophy, and limb girdle weakness.
Camels for Meat and Milk Production in Sub-Sahara Africa

This review is of literature relevant to meat and milk production from the dromedary, or one-humped, camel. Recommendations are for further research and potential use by ranchers and pastoralist tribes in Sub-Sahara Africa. The anatomical, physiological, and behavioral advantages of camels for meat and milk production are summarized and discussed. Milk yields and carcass information for dromedary camels are reported and summarized. Research efforts by institutions involved in planning livestock development projects in Sub-Sahara Africa, where arid or semiarid conditions prevail, should include the dromedary camel. Research studies should provide basic information on the feeding, breeding, health care, and economics of the camel and of multispecies herd systems that include camels. The use of the dromedary camel as food ~tnd revenue should permit the pastoralist and rancher in arid Africa to reduce their dependence on higher risk livestock enterprises.
An Analysis of Single Clutch Paternity in the Burrower Bug Sehirus cinctus Using Microsatellites

Recent studies of the burrower bug, Sehirus cinctus, have examined the genetic basis of parental care. An understanding of the burrower bug mating system, and the subsequent pattern of offspring relatedness that this system generates, is critical to further interpret genetic data. To this end, we developed three consistently amplifiable highly polymorphic microsatellite loci and used them to determine genotypic patterns at the level of both the population and the single clutch. We found that all clutches were sired by single males. Further, we find no evidence for inbreeding. We hypothesize that single paternity within a clutch may play an important role in reducing the potential for sibling rivalry, by increasing the relatedness among clutchmates.
Research note: Anatomy of UDP and M-VIA for cluster communication

High interprocess communication latency is detrimental to parallel and grid computing. Over the years, the network bandwidth has increased rapidly while the end-to-end latency has not decreased much. This is because the latency is dominated by the protocol software execution time in the kernel instead of the raw transmission time over the link. In this paper, we perform an anatomical analysis of the complete communication path between a sender and a receiver through measurements. We present an in-depth evaluation of various components of the UDP protocol over Fast Ethernet. Virtual Interface Architecture (VIA) protocol has been recently proposed to overcome the software overhead of the TCP/UDP/IP protocol. We analyze M-VIA, a modular VIA implementation for Linux over Ethernet, and compare its performance with UDP. The aim of our experiments is to present the protocol overheads in details rather than to suggest new techniques to reduce overheads.
A systematic literature review of modular product design (MPD) from the perspective of sustainability

Modular product design (MPD), as its name implies, subdivides complicated products and systems into components and considers them individually instead of as an amalgamated whole. Because of its merit in reducing complexity, MPD is widely used in engineering fields, especially in design engineering. Over the last decade, increasing concerns about environmental impact have driven manufacturers to reconsider their product design processes from the view of sustainability. The blending of these concepts—modularity and sustainability—has attracted significant attention from both academia and industry. The ways in which sustainability influences MPD are not fully understood, evidencing a gap that needs to be further researched. This review examines more than 100 studies addressing ways MPD is associated with sustainability factors and classifies these studies based on major sustainability themes. The initial review and analysis were conducted using literature summarization tables and a maturity index. Our search emphasized not only the performance of MPD methodologies with respect to sustainability factors but also the relationship between MPD and sustainability categories. Our review results indicate that from an academic perspective, research over the last 15 years has seen a significant increase in studies involving MPD and product life cycles, MPD and product innovation, and MPD and environmental management. Secondarily, our findings reveal that from an industry perspective, the literature shows that modularity has a positive impact on sustainability and identifies several social sustainability-related areas in MPD that could benefit from further investigation.
Remote Monitoring of Volumetric Discharge Employing Bathymetry Determined from Surface Turbulence Metrics

Current methods employed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to measure river discharge are manpower intensive, expensive, and during high flow events require field personnel to work in dangerous conditions. Indirect methods of estimating river discharge, which involve the use of extrapolated rating curves, can result in gross error during high flow conditions due to extrapolation error and/or bathymetric change. Our goal is to develop a remote method of monitoring volumetric discharge that reduces costs at the same or improved accuracy compared with current methods, while minimizing risk to field technicians. We report the results of Large-Scale Particle Image Velocimetry (LSPIV) and Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry (ADV) measurements conducted in a wide-open channel under a range of flow conditions, i.e., channel aspect ratio (B/H = 6.6–31.9), Reynolds number (ReH = 4,950–73,800), and Froude number (Fr = 0.04–0.46). Experiments were carried out for two different channel cross sections (rectangular and asymmetric compound) and two bathymetric roughness conditions (smooth glass and rough gravel bed). The results show that the mean surface velocity normalized by the depth-averaged velocity (the velocity index) decreases with increasing δ*/H, where δ* is the boundary layer displacement thickness and that the integral length scales, L11,1 and L22,1, calculated on the free-surface vary predictably with the local flow depth. Remote determination of local depth-averaged velocity and flow depth over a channel cross section yields an estimate of volumetric discharge.
Conformational Changes in Complement Component 3 Upon Activation or Thrombomodulin Binding

The complement system is a major component of innate immunity and its activation depends on component C3. Complement component C3 is a multidomain protein which can be activated to C3b via any of three activation pathways as the third step in a proteolytic cascade. Once active, C3b continues the activation cascade which eventually leads to creation of a membrane attack complex (MAC) that is able to lyse bacteria and damage host cells. When misregulated, MAC can also attack healthy cells. Due to the complex nature of the activation of the complement system, the more intricate molecular details have not yet been elucidated, but several regulators are known. One of these regulators is thrombomodulin (TM) which is better known for its role in regulating blood clotting. Several in vivo studies have shown that the lectin-like domain of TM interferes with complement activation. Our in vitro work has shown that TM can bind to C3, and we have used hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDXMS) and fluorescence assays to begin to understand the effect of TM binding on C3.
Ministerial Responsibility versus the Separation of Powers

Formerly political scientists were inclined to criticize the American theory and practice of the separation of powers in the federal and state governments and to commend instead the cabinet or parliamentary form of organization. Thus Walter Bagehot, Sir Henry Maine, Woodrow Wilson, Frank J. Goodnow, along with many others, pointed to the advantages of cabinet or parliamentary government over presidential government as developed in the United States. A consensus of opinion was expressed by Wilson who said, "As at present constituted, the federal government lacks strength because its powers are divided, lacks promptness because its authorities are multiplied, lacks wieldiness because its processes are roundabout, lacks efficiency because its responsibility is indistinct and its action is without competent direction."' At one time the American plan of separation of powers was compared unfavorably with the French system in which governmental powers were divided into two branches-a policy-forming branch or " Politics" and a policy executing branch or " Administration."2 On another occasion the tripartite system of the separation of powers was charged with responsibility for much of the political corruption prevalent in American politics.3 The same theory of separation has often been condemned as requiring too many checks and balances and as involving a do-nothing policy for legislative and executive officers.4 It has been not uncommon for practical statesmen, for teachers of government and others inter-
Behavioral Comparability of Wild and Domesticated Rats

The oft-repeated concern for the lack of behavioral comparability of domestic rats with wild forms ofRattus norvegicus is unfounded. Laboratory rats appear to show the potential for all wild-type behaviors, including the most dramatic social postures. Moreover, domestics are capable of assuming a feral existence without difficulty, one where they readily behave in a fashion indistinguishable from wild rats. The one behavioral difference that is clearly established concerns performance in laboratory learning paradigms. The superiority of domestics in these laboratory tasks speaks more to quieting the concerns of degeneracy theorists than to problems of using domestic Norway rats as subjects representative of their species.
Multiplying and Dividing Polynomials Using Geloxia

(1999). Multiplying and Dividing Polynomials Using Geloxia. The College Mathematics Journal: Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 50-53.
Bakri Balloon Displacement in the Uterus: Sonographic Demonstration

Bakri balloons are minimally invasive devices placed in the uterus and inflated with saline to apply extrinsic pressure to stop postpartum hemorrhage. Sonography is an ideal imaging modality to con...
Let a thousand flowers bloom: integrating proprietary and open access content

Multiple stakeholders in the scholarly publication and bibliographic lifecycle contribute to a complex network of complementary resources and services. Together, they provide a range of high-value products and services to researchers in our field. Increasingly however, the bibliographic record fails to include emergent forms and formats of scholarship, as well as relevant content beyond the traditionally circumscribed art historical domain. As a community, we need not only to develop strategies to expand and enhance the bibliographic boundary, but also to develop systems and toolkits that allow researchers to more dynamically contribute to the bibliographic enterprise.
How efficacious are patient education interventions to improve bowel preparation for colonoscopy? A systematic review

Background Bowel preparation is inadequate in a large proportion of colonoscopies, leading to multiple clinical and economic harms. While most patients receive some form of education before colonoscopy, there is no consensus on the best approach. Aims This systematic review aimed to evaluate the efficacy of patient education interventions to improve bowel preparation. Methods We searched the Cochrane Database, CINAHL, EMBASE, Ovid, and Web of Science. Inclusion criteria were: (1) a patient education intervention; (2) a primary aim of improving bowel preparation; (3) a validated bowel preparation scale; (4) a prospective design; (5) a concurrent control group; and, (6) adult participants. Study validity was assessed using a modified Downs and Black scale. Results 1,080 abstracts were screened. Seven full text studies met inclusion criteria, including 2,660 patients. These studies evaluated multiple delivery platforms, including paper-based interventions (three studies), videos (two studies), re-education telephone calls the day before colonoscopy (one study), and in-person education by physicians (one study). Bowel preparation significantly improved with the intervention in all but one study. All but one study were done in a single center. Validity scores ranged from 13 to 24 (maximum 27). Four of five abstracts and research letters that met inclusion criteria also showed improvements in bowel preparation. Statistical and clinical heterogeneity precluded meta-analysis. Conclusion Compared to usual care, patient education interventions appear efficacious in improving the quality of bowel preparation. However, because of the small scale of the studies and individualized nature of the interventions, results of these studies may not be generalizable to other settings. Healthcare practices should consider systematically evaluating their current bowel preparation education methods before undertaking new interventions.
Processor-in-memory support for artificial neural networks

Hardware acceleration of artificial neural network (ANN) processing has potential for supporting applications benefiting from real time and low power operation, such as autonomous vehicles, robotics, recognition and data mining. Most interest in ANNs targets acceleration of deep multi-layered ANNs that can require days of offline training to converge on a desired network behavior. Interest has grown in ANNs capable of supporting unsupervised training, where networks can learn new information from unlabeled data dynamically without the need for offline training. These ANNs require large memories with bandwidths much higher than supported in modern GPGPUs. Custom hardware acceleration and memory co-design holds the potential to provide real-time performance in cases where the performance requirements cannot be met by modern GPGPUs. This work presents a custom processor solution to accelerate two hetero-associative memories (Sparsey and HTM) capable of unsupervised and one-hot learning. This custom processor is implemented as an expandable ASIP built upon a configurable SIMD engine for exploiting parallelism. Functional specialization is implemented utilizing processor-in-memory techniques, which results in up to a 20× speedup and a 2000× reduction in energy per frame compared to a software implementation operating on a dataset for recognition of human actions.
Ungewöhnliche Komplikation nach Anlage eines Periduralkatheters

Wir berichten uber eine ungewohnliche Komplikation nach der Anlage eines thorakalen Periduralkatheters (PDK) bei einem Patienten, der wegen Metastasen eines malignen Melanoms in der Lunge operiert wurde. Intra- und postoperativ war der Verlauf zunachst unauffallig. Beim Entfernen des PDK am 4. Tag fiel auf, dass sich aus der Einstichstelle eine eitrig wirkende Flussigkeit entleerte. In der darauffolgenden Magnetresonanztomographie (MRT) wurden 2 epidermale Zysten nachgewiesen; durch eine dieser Zysten war der PDK gelegt worden. Aus dem Sekret konnte Facklamia hominis nachgewiesen werden. Der Patient mit progredienter maligner Grunderkrankung wurde fur 7 Tage antibiotisch behandelt. Der klinische Verlauf war ohne weitere Auffalligkeiten.
Monte Carlo grain growth modeling with local temperature gradients

This work investigated the development of a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation approach to modeling grain growth in the presence of non-uniform temperature field that may vary with time. We first scale the MC model to physical growth processes by fitting experimental data. Based on the scaling relationship, we derive a grid site selection probability (SSP) function to consider the effect of a spatially varying temperature field. The SSP function is based on the differential MC step, which allows it to naturally consider time varying temperature fields too. We verify the model and compare the predictions to other existing formulations (Godfrey and Martin 1995 Phil. Mag. A 72 737–49; Radhakrishnan and Zacharia 1995 Metall. Mater. Trans. A 26 2123–30) in simple two-dimensional cases with only spatially varying temperature fields, where the predicted grain growth in regions of constant temperature are expected to be the same as for the isothermal case. We also test the model in a more realistic three-dimensional case with a temperature field varying in both space and time, modeling grain growth in the heat affected zone of a weld. We believe the newly proposed approach is promising for modeling grain growth in material manufacturing processes that involves time-dependent local temperature gradient.
Working memory capacity and addiction treatment outcomes in adolescents

Background: Brief addiction treatments including motivational interviewing (MI) have shown promise with adolescents, but the factors that influence treatment efficacy in this population remain unkn...
A Whole-Brain Reconstruction Approach for FOD Modeling from Multi-Shell Diffusion MRI

With the advance of connectome imaging techniques, there is a great need of robust methods for modeling the distribution of fiber orientations from multi-shell diffusion imaging. Existing tools for fiber orientation distribution (FOD) reconstruction, however, predominantly solves this problem on a voxel-by-voxel basis, disregarding the spatial regularity in brain anatomy. In this work, we propose a novel computational framework for the joint reconstruction of FODs over the whole brain volume. Our framework takes into account compartment modeling from multi-shell imaging data and uses an operator splitting scheme to decouple the whole-brain reconstruction problem into a series of local computations. Within this framework, we can investigate both isotropic and anisotropic regularizations. In the experiments, we conduct extensive simulations to compare the performance of both types of regularizations and show that anisotropic regularization produces more robust results across various fiber configurations. We also apply our method to in vivo data from 80 HCP subjects and evaluate the impact of FOD modeling methods on the reconstruction of the challenging fiber bundles from the locus coeruleus (LC) nuclei. Our results indicate that the proposed whole-brain approach for FOD modeling leads to more robust LC fiber bundle reconstruction than results from voxel-wise modeling.
Risk of Subsequent Sepsis Within 90 Days After a Hospital Stay by Type of Antibiotic Exposure

Background We examined the risk of sepsis within 90 days after discharge from a previous hospital stay by type of antibiotic received during the previous stay. Methods We retrospectively identified a cohort of hospitalized patients from the Truven Health MarketScan Hospital Drug Database. We examined the association between the use of certain antibiotics during the initial hospital stay, determined a priori, and the risk of postdischarge sepsis controlling for potential confounding factors in a multivariable logistic regression model. Our primary exposure was receipt of antibiotics more strongly associated with clinically important microbiome disruption. Our primary outcome was a hospital stay within 90 days of the index stay that included an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) discharge diagnosis of severe sepsis (ICD-9-CM code 995.92) or septic shock (785.52). Results Among 516 hospitals, we randomly selected a single stay for eligible patients. In 0.17% of these patients, severe sepsis/septic shock developed within 90 days after discharge. The risk of sepsis associated with exposure to our high-risk antibiotics was 65% higher than in those without antibiotic exposure. Conclusions Our study identified an increased risk of sepsis within 90 days of discharge among patients with exposure to high-risk antibiotics or increased quantities of antibiotics during hospitalization. Given that a significant proportion of inpatient antimicrobial use may be unnecessary, this study builds on previous evidence suggesting that increased stewardship efforts in hospitals may not only prevent antimicrobial resistance, Clostridium difficile infection, and other adverse effects, but may also reduce unwanted outcomes potentially related to disruption of the microbiota, including sepsis.
Osteonecrosis: Historical Perspective

Osteonecrosis, also known as avascular necrosis, ischemic necrosis, and aseptic necrosis, is not a specific disease entity. It is rather a condition in which a circumscribed area of bone becomes necrotic as a result of the loss of its blood supply. The most common cause is trauma, a displaced fracture or dislocation which results in a mechanical injury to the local vessels. However, many etiologic factors unrelated to trauma have also been identified. The femoral head is the region most often affected, but the proximal humerus, femoral condyles, and small bones of the hands and feet may also be involved. Despite considerable progress in the study of this condition, there is still much to be learned about its etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment.
Medical Imaging for Persons with Mobility Limitations

Mobility disabilities may be permanent, temporary, or relieved with therapy or medication. They can range from a spinal cord injury, amputation, back disorder, cerebral palsy, or neuromuscular disorder to multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and fibromyalgia. Many disabilities lead to the use of mobility devices (i.e., canes, crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, motorized aids, and stretchers). A team of dedicated professionals and their tools are able to assist in meeting those challenges. Although each imaging modality is unique, their unified goal is to improve healthcare results and provide a safe patient experience.
ranacapa: An R package and Shiny web app to explore environmental DNA data with exploratory statistics and interactive visualizations

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is becoming a core tool in ecology and conservation biology, and is being used in a growing number of education, biodiversity monitoring, and public outreach programs in which professional research scientists engage community partners in primary research. Results from eDNA analyses can engage and educate natural resource managers, students, community scientists, and naturalists, but without significant training in bioinformatics, it can be difficult for this diverse audience to interact with eDNA results. Here we present the R package ranacapa, at the core of which is a Shiny web app that helps perform exploratory biodiversity analyses and visualizations of eDNA results. The app requires a taxonomy-by-sample matrix and a simple metadata file with descriptive information about each sample. The app enables users to explore the data with interactive figures and presents results from simple community ecology analyses. We demonstrate the value of ranacapa to two groups of community partners engaging with eDNA metabarcoding results.
Effects of APOC3 Heterozygous Deficiency on Plasma Lipid and Lipoprotein Metabolism.

Objective— Apo (apolipoprotein) CIII inhibits lipoprotein lipase (LpL)-mediated lipolysis of VLDL (very-low-density lipoprotein) triglyceride (TG) and decreases hepatic uptake of VLDL remnants. The...
Covariance selection quality through detection problem and AUC bounds

Graphical models are increasingly being used in many complex engineering problems to model the dynamics between states of the graph. These graphs are often very large and approximation models are needed to reduce the computational complexity. This paper considers the problem of quantifying the quality of an approximation model for a graphical model (model selection problem). The model selection often uses a distance measure such as the Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence between the original distribution and the model distribution to quantify the quality of the model approximation. We extend and broaden the body of research by formulating the model approximation as a detection problem between the original distribution and the model distribution. We focus on Gaussian random vectors and introduce the Correlation Approximation Matrix (CAM) and use the Area Under the Curve (AUC) for the formulated detection problem. The closeness measures such as the KL divergence, the log-likelihood ratio, and the AUC are functions of the eigenvalues of the CAM. Easily computable upper and lower bounds are found for the AUC. The paper concludes by computing these measures for real and synthetic simulation data. Tree approximations and more complex graphical models are considered for approximation models.
The homeless as urban immigrants

Examining the homeless in U. S. cities as “urban immigrants” reveals several commonalities between this population and “aspirational immigrants”—the foreign-born who seek economic opportunity, and/...
Numerical modeling of essential work of fracture on ductile polymeric films

Abstract Essential work of fracture method has been successfully used to characterize the fracture behavior of ductile polymeric films. The observed essential and non-essential fracture process zones are related to the toughness of the films. Three-dimensional finite element method (FEM) modeling has been carried out in this study to elucidate the film fracture process based on the essential work of fracture concept. Experimental observation on a model linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) blown film was used to validate the FEM model. The numerical model facilitates an in-depth understanding of the development of stress and strain fields and the fracture process zones at different loading steps. The FEM findings show that film thickness and ligament length have significant influence on the development of stress and strain fields at and around the ligament area. Furthermore, the numerical analysis reveals how various material properties, such as yield stress and strain hardening slope, can influence the development of fracture process zones. Usefulness of FEM modeling for developing tough polymeric films is discussed.
Energy-Aware Capacity Provisioning and Resource Allocation in Edge Computing Systems.

Energy consumption plays a key role in determining the cost of services in edge computing systems and has a significant environmental impact. Therefore, minimizing the energy consumption in such systems is of critical importance. In this paper, we address the problem of energy-aware optimization of capacity provisioning and resource allocation in edge computing systems. The main goal is to provision and allocate resources such that the net profit of the service provider is maximized, where the profit is the difference between the aggregated users’ payments and the total operating cost due to energy consumption. We formulate the problem as a mixed integer linear program and prove that the problem is NP-hard. We develop a heuristic algorithm to solve the problem efficiently. We evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm by conducting an extensive experimental analysis on problem instances of various sizes. The results show that the proposed algorithm has a very low execution time and is scalable with respect to the number of users in the system.
Do fitness test performances predict students’ attitudes and emotions toward physical education?

Background: The use of fitness tests in physical education (PE) receives extensive scrutiny and represents one of the most fiercely debated topics in PE research. Fitness test proponents often prov...
A description of approachable nurses: An exploratory study, the voice of the hospitalized child

Abstract Purpose The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child drew international attention to the right of a child to be heard. Researchers have enhanced the child’s voice in many settings, albeit few in the hospital. Nurse researchers investigating the hospital experiences of children have identified positive and negative patterns of communication. Potential characteristics of an approachable nurse were hinted at, although none explored the concept of approachability. Design and methods A qualitative, descriptive research design, including semi-structured interviews with seven school age children (ages 8‐12, four girls and three boys) in a pediatric oncology service, was used to gain children’s perceptions and descriptions of approachable nurses. Drawings were used to supplement and glean a greater understanding of descriptive characteristics. All but one child had endured multiple hospitalizations related to their diagnosis of cancer. Interviews were recorded and data were content analyzed using immersion/crystallization and editing organizational styles. Results The children had experiences with more than one approachable nurse and described approachable nurses as smiling and happy, playful, creative, competent and willing to talk and listen to them. Conclusion and practice implications The school age children in this study were able to describe their perceptions of an approachable nurse. The voices of these children illuminate the importance of nurses’ words and behaviors and provide exemplars of approachable nurses. It can be argued that the responsibility remains with nurses to create an environment where in hospitalized children feel their voices are heard, they are understood and respected with unprecedented dignity.
Thermal varicose treatment under hypnosis

Hypnosis has undergone great developments throughout the history of mankind. Medical hypnosis is a much more recent medical discipline that has been slow to be recognized as such. Today it has a well-defined place and there is no longer any doubt as to its effectiveness, as evidenced by its establishment in our services and the number of publications about it. The management of varicose veins of the lower limbs by thermal ablation is a very good indication for hypnosis, then called hypnoanalgesia. Practitioners who are well trained and experienced in hypnosis can use it during these procedures and bring undeniable comfort to their patients. A protocol is presented here adapted to the practice of this ablation procedure while meticulously following the principles of Ericksonian hypnosis.
Evaluating the precision of EBF1 SNP x stress interaction association: sex, race, and age differences in a big harmonized data set of 28,026 participants.

In prior work, we identified a novel gene-by-stress association of EBF1’s common variation (SNP rs4704963) with obesity (i.e., hip, waist) in Whites, which was further strengthened through multiple replications using our synthetic stress measure. We now extend this prior work in a precision medicine framework to find the risk group using harmonized data from 28,026 participants by evaluating the following: (a) EBF1 SNPxSTRESS interaction in Blacks; (b) 3-way interaction of EBF1 SNPxSTRESS with sex, race, and age; and (c) a race and sex-specific path linking EBF1 and stress to obesity to fasting glucose to the development of cardiometabolic disease risk. Our findings provided additional confirmation that genetic variation in EBF1 may contribute to stress-induced human obesity, including in Blacks (P = 0.022) that mainly resulted from race-specific stress due to “racism/discrimination” (P = 0.036) and “not meeting basic needs” (P = 0.053). The EBF1 gene-by-stress interaction differed significantly (P = 1.01e−03) depending on the sex of participants in Whites. Race and age also showed tentative associations (Ps = 0.103, 0.093, respectively) with this interaction. There was a significant and substantially larger path linking EBF1 and stress to obesity to fasting glucose to type 2 diabetes for the EBF1 minor allele group (coefficient = 0.28, P = 0.009, 95% CI = 0.07-0.49) compared with the same path for the EBF1 major allele homozygotes in White females and also a similar pattern of the path in Black females. Underscoring the race-specific key life-stress indicators (e.g., racism/discrimination) and also the utility of our synthetic stress, we identified the potential risk group of EBF1 and stress-induced human obesity and cardiometabolic disease.
Clinical context for cancer risk of immunosuppressive agents used in dermatology

Dermatologic care of inflammatory skin conditions has been transformed over recent decades through the use of small molecules disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and targeted biologic therapies. Alongside the tremendous benefit of these agents, concerns remain regarding possible side effects, particularly cancer risk. To improve guidance and counseling of patients with skin diseases who are considering treatment with such agents, this article reviews available information on the risk of malignancies in patients treated with these agents. When possible, this article adds clinical context to risk through a number needed to harm that estimates the number of patients a provider would need to treat with a given agent in 1 year to cause a single adverse outcome over time.
The Relationship between Financial Knowledge, Financial Management, and Financial Self-Efficacy Among African-American Students

The personal finance literature has documented the positive effects of financial knowledge, financial management, and financial self-efficacy on the lives of college students. However, there is a need for a more nuanced examination of how these factors shape financial decision making among African American college students. Using data obtained from the 2014 National Student Financial Wellness Study and structural equation modeling, results indicated that financial knowledge is not directly or indirectly associated with financial self-efficacy for African American students. Only financial management is significantly associated with increased financial self-efficacy. Findings indicate that financial education based on experiential learning may be effective for the well-being of African American students. Further, as the personal finance profession seeks to increase diversity in the field, experiential learning may be the vehicle to attract more African American professionals pursuing financial counseling, planning, and education professions in the future.