cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A targeted problem and its solution: An improved stent method for choanal atresia repair

Short intranasal stents secured sublabially have a number of advantages. They provide secure fixation without an external ligature across the columella. The short length of the stents allows them to sit only in the operative area where the atretic plate had been removed. This lessens the chance of intranasal syechiae formation and eliminates the possibility of erosion in the anterior septal and nasal alar region from pressure exerted by a stent. Since the stents do not protrude from the nose, they cannot be grasped by infants or young children and are not visible externally. School-aged children who have undergone repair of a unilateral choanal atresia can attend school without having to suffer the embarrassment of being teased about a tube protruding from the nose. When compared with other stenting methods, the posterior stent is more secure and less likely to become dislodged.
Babywalker-related Injuries Continue Despite Warning Labels and Public Education

Objective . To describe the epidemiology of babywalker-related injuries to children treated in a pediatric emergency department despite current prevention efforts, and to investigate the beliefs of parents regarding babywalker use. Design . A descriptive study of a consecutive series of patients. Setting . The emergency department of a large, academic children9s hospital. Participants . Children treated for babywalker-related injuries during the 3-year period of March 1993 through February 1996. Results . There were 271 children treated for babywalker-related injuries. The mean age was 9.2 months, and 62% of patients were boys. Ninety-six percent of children were injured when they fell down stairs in their babywalker. The number of stairs that a child fell down was significantly associated with skull fracture and admission to the hospital, and a fall down more than 10 stairs had a relative risk (RR) of skull fracture = 3.28 (95% confidence interval, 1.35 Conclusion . Despite the currently used prevention strategies, including adult supervision, warning labels, care giver education programs, and stairway gates, serious injuries associated with babywalkers continue to occur to young children. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission should promulgate a rule, similar to the voluntary standard adopted in Canada, regarding design requirements for babywalkers that will prevent their passage through household doorways at the head of stairs. The manufacture and sale of mobile babywalkers that do not meet this new standard should be banned in the US. A recall or trade-in campaign should be conducted nationally to decrease the number of existing babywalkers.
Centralizers of Generic Elements of Newton Strata in the Adjoint Quotients of Reductive Groups

We study the Newton stratification of the adjoint quotient of a connected split reductive group G with simply connected derived group over the field F = C(( )) of formal Laurent series. Our main result describes the centralizer of a regular semisimple element in G(F) whose image in the adjoint quotient lies in a certain generic subset of a given Newton stratum. Other noteworthy results include analogues of some results of Springer on regular elements of finite reflection groups, as well as a geometric construction of a well known homomorphism ψ : P(R)/Q(R) → W(R) defined for every reduced and irreducible root system R.
In vivo intravascular MR imaging: transvenous technique for arterial wall imaging.

PURPOSE To determine, in vivo, the potential for transvenous magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the arterial wall and to assess appropriate MR pulse sequences for this method. MATERIALS AND METHODS MR imaging was performed on 19 vessels (right renal artery, N = 9; left renal artery N = 2; external iliac artery, N = 4; abdominal aorta, N = 4) in nine swine. The animals were either low-density lipoprotein receptor knockout ( N = 5) or Yucatan mini-pigs fed an atherogenic diet for 6 to 11 weeks ( N = 4). The intravascular MR coil/guide wire (IVMRG) (Surgi-Vision, Gaithersburg, MD) was introduced via the external iliac vein into the inferior vena cava (IVC). The following electrocardiograph-gated MR pulse sequences were obtained: T1-weighted precontrast with and without fat saturation and T1-weighted postcontrast with fat saturation. Two observers scored wall signal and conspicuity and classified the vessel as normal, abnormal, or stented. Images were compared with histopathologic findings. RESULTS The T1-weighted precontrast without fat saturation, T1-weighted precontrast with fat saturation, and T1-weighted postcontrast images correlated with histopathologic findings in 12 of 15 vessels, eight of 10 vessels, and 14 of 16 vessels, respectively. Abnormal histopathologic findings included: arterial wall thickening ( N = 3), arterial dissection ( N = 2), focal fibrous plaque ( N = 2), adherent thrombus ( N = 1). The T1-weighted postcontrast images were not compromised by artifacts and had the highest score for vessel wall signal and conspicuity. T1-weighted precontrast images were compromised by chemical shift artifact and poor blood suppression. Negligible artifacts were created by the platinum stent. CONCLUSION The T1-weighted fat saturated postcontrast pulse sequence was superior to other sequences for transvenous MR imaging of the arterial wall.
An Investigation of Children’s Concept of Self-Responsibility For Their School Learning

This study was designed to investigate the development of young children’s self-responsibility for their school learning as influenced by the Self-Schedule System, a learning-management program. A student interview questionnaire, the Self-Responsibility Interview Schedule (SRIS), was constructed to assess children’s knowledge about what they do in school, and whether they perceive that they, rather than the teacher, are responsible for managing their own learning. The results indicate that the Self-Schedule System significantly affected children’s perception of self-responsibility for their school learning as well as their rate of task completion.
On Implicit Forms of Multiproduct-Multifactor Production Functions

A quest for generality in economic analysis appears to underlie the long tradition of the use of implicit functions. However, insufficient attention is given to weaknesses and limitations of implicit functions as they are traditionally used (e.g., Cohen and Cyert, Hadar, Henderson and Quandt, Malinvaud, Naylor, Naylor and Vernon, and Samuelson, among others). Careless use of implicit functions can result in faulty analysis. In particular, clarification of these limitations is needed, especially as they pertain to the study of multiproduct-multifactor (MP-MF) production processes.' This paper is a rigorous examination of certain issues regarding implicit functions and MP-MF production processes. Because any relation that explicitly determines one argument as a function of the remaining arguments can be written in implicit function form, our results also apply to explicit function representations of MP-MF production. The functions examined here are continuously differentiable and can be used as production feasibility constraints in a Lagrangian or Kuhn-Tucker analysis of the MP-MF firm. The theory of MP-MF production is relevant in the conceptualization of resource allocation problems throughout agriculture. For example, few important real-world analyses of agricultural production or marketing operations are single product in nature. In fact, in his extensive literature review on production efficiency in agricultural processing and marketing, French states "multiple outputs are effectively the rule rather than the exception." Similarly, MP-MF theory is prominent in the study of environmental and natural resource problems involving technological externalities. Despite the importance of the theory, it appears that work to date is a collection of special cases of a potentially more general theory. It is our hope that this paper will stimulate a reexamination of MP-MF production theory.
Genetic algorithm optimization and its application to antenna design

Synthesis of antenna patterns employing iterative optimization techniques has been studied by many authors. However, successful application of these approaches to pattern synthesis has usually been limited to relatively simple arrays or has required careful, intelligent selection of the optimization starting points dictated by the nature of the optimization techniques used and the functions being optimized. This is because conventional functional optimization techniques are either based on greedy, local optimization methods such as gradient methods or consist of random walk solution space searches. In either case, these conventional techniques are often poorly suited to the task of arbitrary pattern synthesis in 1D and 2D antenna arrays due to the high dimensional, multimodal functional domains involved. In addition, traditional optimization techniques usually require the object function to be, at the very least, continuous and, in many cases to be differentiable, placing severe limitations on the form and content of the object function. This paper presents a radically different and relatively new functional optimization methodology known as genetic algorithm (GA) optimization that overcomes the above-mentioned problems of the traditional techniques and discusses how GA optimization is applied to 1D and 2D antenna design. >
Measuring symptoms as a critical component of drug development and evaluation in hematological diseases.

With the rapid development of new therapies for patients with hematological malignancies, there is an increasing need for patient report of symptom status during all phases of drug testing. The patient’s perspective on new treatments reflects treatment tolerability as well as symptom benefit, and may assist patients and clinicians in choosing treatments. Inclusion of patient-reported outcomes, more common in solid-tumor than hematological trials, provides early information about symptoms to guide decisions about appropriate dosing and supportive care needs. We provide a historical overview of the use of patient-reported outcomes and symptom assessment in solid-tumor and hematological drug development, and offer recommendations about methodological issues in the monitoring of symptoms in the drug development process in hematological clinical trials.
ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE CLUSTERING AT THE NEUROMUSCULAR JUNCTION INVOLVES PERLECAN AND DYSTROGLYCAN

Formation of the synaptic basal lamina at vertebrate neuromuscular junction involves the accumulation of numerous specialized extracellular matrix molecules including a specific form of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), the collagenic-tailed form. The mechanisms responsible for its localization at sites of nerve– muscle contact are not well understood. To understand synaptic AChE localization, we synthesized a fluorescent conjugate of fasciculin 2, a snake α-neurotoxin that tightly binds to the catalytic subunit. Prelabeling AChE on the surface of Xenopus muscle cells revealed that preexisting AChE molecules could be recruited to form clusters that colocalize with acetylcholine receptors at sites of nerve–muscle contact. Likewise, purified avian AChE with collagen-like tail, when transplanted to Xenopus muscle cells before the addition of nerves, also accumulated at sites of nerve–muscle contact. Using exogenous avian AChE as a marker, we show that the collagenic-tailed form of the enzyme binds to the heparan-sulfate proteoglycan perlecan, which in turn binds to the dystroglycan complex through α-dystroglycan. Therefore, the dystroglycan–perlecan complex serves as a cell surface acceptor for AChE, enabling it to be clustered at the synapse by lateral migration within the plane of the membrane. A similar mechanism may underlie the initial formation of all specialized basal lamina interposed between other cell types.
Visual responses in crayfish. III. Further studies on transmission through the brain

Responses to illumination of the eyes of the crayfish were studied by gross recording from one of the circumesophageal connectives. Two-thirds of the spontaneous activity at this level of the CNS consists of ascending activity, which is eliminated by cutting a connective posterior to the recording electrode. An average of about eight fibers in a connective responded to 1 sec illumination of the homolateral eye. The fibers were of four types: pure-on units, on-sustained units, on-and-off units and pure-off units. The average latency was 74 msec for the on-response and 26 msec for the off-response. The latency of responses to 10 μsec flashes of increasing intensity shortened from 72 to 52 msec. This was demonstrated to be mainly a peripheral effect since ERG latency showed a parallel reduction while the ERG-connective response interval remained more nearly constant at 40–50 msec. ERG amplitude, frequency, and usually the duration of the connective spike discharge increased at greater stimulus intensities, yet the average number of responding fibers was greatest at intermediate intensities. The results indicate minimal processing of response patterns by the brain.
Body dissatisfaction: an overlooked public health concern

Purpose – In contrast to the attention it has received in related fields of research, body image has remained understudied within the field of public health. This is highly problematic, given a growing body of evidence implicating body dissatisfaction in a range of other public health concerns. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This commentary is based on a review of the public health, body image, eating disorder, and mental health literatures. Findings – Body dissatisfaction is implicated in a range of public health concerns, including impaired psychological health (e.g. depression) and eating- and weight-related problems (e.g. eating disorders, obesity). Originality/value – Given these associations, as well as the high levels of body dissatisfaction in the population, the authors argue for a critical need to address the prevalence of body image concerns as a public health issue worthy of greater consideration within programs and policies; dedicated funding for researc...
Evaluating Bayesian Networks via Data Streams

Consider a stream of n-tuples that empirically define the joint distribution of n discrete random variables \(X_1, \ldots , X_n\). Previous work of Indyk and McGregor [6] and Braverman et al. [1, 2] addresses the problem of determining whether these variables are n-wise independent by measuring the \(\ell _p\) distance between the joint distribution and the product distribution of the marginals. An open problem in this line of work is to answer more general questions about the dependencies between the variables. One powerful way to express such dependencies is via Bayesian networks where nodes correspond to variables and directed edges encode dependencies. We consider the problem of testing such dependencies in the streaming setting. Our main results are: 1. A tight upper and lower bound of \(\tilde{\Theta }(nk^{d})\) on the space required to test whether the data is consistent with a given Bayesian network where k is the size of the range of each \(X_i\) and d is the max in-degree of the network. 2. A tight upper and lower bound of \(\tilde{\Theta }(k^d)\) on the space required to compute any 2-approximation of the log-likelihood of the network. 3. Finally, we show space/accuracy trade-offs for the problem of independence testing using \(\ell _1\) and \(\ell _2\) distances.
An Exploratory Study of Community Pharmacy Practice Change

Abstract Objectives (1) To compare the resources and practitioner activities in community pharmacies that have changed practice with those in pharmacies that have not changed; and (2) in pharmacies that have changed practice, to identify factors affecting a pharmacy's ability to support pharmacy practice change. Design Multiple-case design, in which six pharmacies were studied in depth. Setting Six independent community pharmacies in Iowa. Participants Pharmacy owners. Intervention A mail survey and an on-site personal interview were used to collect information about the pharmacy's practice changes and influences on the practice change process. Main Outcome Measures 14 criteria of pharmacy practice change and 5 types of influences on change (environmental variables, organizational variables, owner/manager characteristics, strategy-making features, attributes of change). Results Three pharmacies had made considerable change, one had made some change, and two had made little or no change. After a broad set of initial changes, subsequent changes tended to be made incrementally. A variety of factors were identified that support pharmacy practice change. Most of the factors were associated with improving resources, such as upgraded staff skills, involvement in demonstration projects, regular environmental scanning, and regular interaction with advocates for pharmacy practice change (e.g., college of pharmacy, pharmacy associations, innovative practitioners). Also, experienced owners who looked to the future and actively addressed constraints were associated with making pharmacy practice change. Conclusion Practitioners and other interested parties should consider a broad array of activities when trying to facilitate pharmacy practice change. Researchers can use these findings to develop studies that will provide stronger scientific evidence that can contribute to a model of pharmacy practice change. The continued study of pharmacy practice change can assist pharmacists working to translate a philosophy of pharmaceutical care into daily practice.
A Dual Functional Layer for Block Copolymer Self-Assembly and the Growth of Nanopatterned Polymer Brushes

We present a versatile method for fabricating nanopatterned polymer brushes using a cross-linked thin film made from a random copolymer consisting of an inimer (p-(2-bromoisobutyloylmethyl)styrene), styrene, and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). The amount of inimer was held constant at 20 or 30% while the relative amount of styrene to GMA was varied to induce perpendicular domain orientation in an overlying P(S-b-MMA) block copolymer (BCP) film for lamellar and cylindrical morphologies. A cylinder forming BCP blend with PMMA homopolymer was assembled to create a perpendicular hexagonal array of cylinders, which allowed access to a nanoporous template without the loss of initiator functionality. Surface-initiated ATRP of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate was conducted through the pores to generate a dense array of nanopatterned brushes. Alternatively, gold was deposited into the nanopores, and brushes were grown around the dots after removal of the template. This is the first example of combining the chemistry of no...
Microcrystalline Silicon n-i-p Solar Cells Deposited Entirely by the Hot-Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition Technique

We describe a series of microcrystalline (μc) silicon n-i-p solar cell devices fabricated entirely by the hot-wire chemical vapor deposition technique. These devices are deposited on flat stainless-steel at a substrate temperature below 250°C, and are evaluated using solar-cell performance and quantum-efficiency (QE) measurements. We explore the effect of crystallite size, as examined by X-ray diffraction, by varying the hydrogen-to-silane ratio from 5 to 40, while keeping the μc-n and the μc-p layers the same. We find a significant blue shift of the QE peak and an enhancement of red response compared with a standard a-Si:H solar cell. The blue shift increases with increasing hydrogen-to-silane ratio. We attribute this shift to the i-layer becoming more n-type with increasing hydrogen dilution. We also use a hydrogen gas purifier and find a large improvement in device performance.
Rechoreographing intercultural encounters: the power and limits of dramatic play in segregated communities

ABSTRACTThis article examines an Applied Theatre project that was jointly launched by a black Baptist church and a reform synagogue in a US suburb to foster relationships among their members. The suburban community is quite segregated, so the emotional intimacy that develops between the members is striking. Equally significant, however, is the fact that the relationships that emerge do not outlast the programme itself. By investigating one encounter from the theatre project alongside participant interviews and other ethnographic observations from the community in which the project took place, this article argues that play theory can elucidate both the strengths and shortcomings of the project, and that Applied Theatre scholarship would benefit from greater attention to play theory.
Research progress on influence of city reclaimed water irrigation on health

The city reclaimed water is an effective use form of water resource.At present,the study results of influence of city reclaimed water irrigation on human health are drastically different.This paper reviews the study results of city reclaimed water irrigation at home and abroad,which includes the quality of crops and microbial contamination,influence of city reclaimed water irrigation on heavy metal,organic pollutant,pathogenic microorganisms and medicine in soil,evaluation methods for self-safety of city reclaimed water in irrigation process and safety of irrigation farmland,as well as existing problems and research prospects.
Peer Teaching in a Flipped Teacher Education Classroom

More and more school administrators are expecting new teachers to flip their classrooms prior to completing their teacher certification. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of preservice teachers who facilitated learning in a flipped classroom, to identify the benefits and challenges of flipped instruction on preservice teachers, and to explore the impact of the course design on students’ understanding of the course content. Results indicate that flipped lessons taught by students were interactive and fun, and students reported being more productive and enthusiastic about class. Students, however, were unable to develop meaningful, engaging activities and reap the benefits of facilitating collaborative activities in a flipped classroom. Viable solutions and recommendations to guide the successful implementation of flipped learning are provided.
Relationship between grade and stage of adenocarcinoma of the prostate and regional pelvic lymph node metastases.

AbstractThe relationship of grade and local tumor extent to pelvic nodal involvement was assessed surgically in 469 patients who underwent pelvic lymphadenectomy and radical retropubic prostatectomy for adenocarcinoma of the prostate. Grade and local stage alone and combined score were associated in a linear fashion with nodal involvement. Gleason sum and Mayo grade alone were not predictive of nodal metastases. Some patients with a Gleason score of 4 had positive nodes and some with a score of 8 to 10 had negative nodes. Mayo sum (grade plus stage) consistently was related to negative nodal involvement.
Routine measurement of IgM, IgG, and IgA rheumatoid factors : High sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value for rheumatoid arthritis

Objective. To determine the isotype specificity and clinical utility of routine testing by ELISA of IgM, IgG, and IgA rheumatoid factors (RF). Methods. The test was performed on 619 individual specimens: blood bank donors (n = 130); rheumatoid arthritis (RA, n = 139); connective tissue diseases (CTD, n = 71); miscellaneous rheumatic disorders (MRD, n = 91); and 188 consecutive clinical laboratory specimens that tested positive by latex agglutination. Rabbit IgG was used as the antigen attached to the solid phase. and rabbit IgG antibody-enzyme conjugates against IgM (Fc 5μ ), IgG[F(ab') 2 ], and IgA (α chain) were used, respectively, to detect IgM, IgG, and IgA RF. The serum was digested with pepsin to facilitate the measurement of IgG RF. Results. All 3 isotypes were specifically identified; IgM RF was destroyed by pepsin and IgG RF was specifically measured. without interference from IgA RF. Using data obtained from 98 RA specimens and 162 disease controls, the 3 main clinical variables-sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value-were stratified according to 3 combinations of RF isotypes: IgM only (91, 76, and 62%); IgM+IgA (79, 89, and 80%), and IgM+IgG+IgA (53, 99, and 96%). For patients with the 3 isotypes plus > 150 U of IgM and/or IgA the clinical variables were 70, 97, and 93%. In patients with RA the IgG RF was found only in association with IgM RF, i.e., there was no hidden RF, and IgA RF was always accompanied by IgM RF. There was a continuous decline in all 3 RF isotypes during treatment with gold salts. The sensitivity of ELISA for IgM RF exceeded that of nephelometry or latex agglutination. Conclusion. Routine measurement of IgM, IgG, and IgA RF by ELISA with rabbit IgG as the antigen and pepsin digestion for the detection of IgG RF provides useful information in the differential diagnosis of patients with arthritis.
Infiltration experiments demonstrate an explicit connection between heterogeneity and anomalous diffusion behavior

Transport in systems containing heterogeneity distributed over multiple length scales can exhibit anomalous diffusion behaviors, where the time exponent, determining the spreading length scale of the transported scalar, differs from the expected value of n=12. Here we present experimental measurements of the infiltration of glycerin, under a fixed pressure head, into a Hele-Shaw cell containing a 3-D printed distribution of flow obstacles; a system that is an analog for infiltration into a porous medium. In support of previously presented direct simulation results, we experimentally demonstrate that, when the obstacles are distributed as a fractal carpet with fractal dimension H < 2, the averaged progress of infiltration exhibits a subdiffusive behavior n<12. We further show that observed values of the subdiffusion time exponent appear to be quadratically related to the fractal dimension of the carpet.
The Future of College Athlete Players Unions: Lessons Learned from Northwestern University, and Potential Next Steps in the College Athletes Rights Movement

On January 28, 2014, the Northwestern University football players filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to become the first group of college athletes to form a union. Although the National Labor Relations Board’s Thirteenth Region concluded that Northwestern University grant-in-aid college football players constituted “employees” under the National Labor Relations Act, the National Labor Relations Board Commissioners nevertheless declined to assert jurisdiction because they believed the proposed bargaining unit would not “promote stability in labor relations.”This article explores the future prospects for organizing Football Bowl Series football and Division I men’s basketball players after the National Labor Relations Board’s decision in Northwestern University. Part I of this article provides a brief overview of U.S. labor law and introduces the unique labor dynamics of big-time college sports. Part II explores labor organizers’ recent attempts to unionize the grant-in-aid football players on the Northwestern University college football team. Part III describes potential strategies for unionizing alternative bargaining units of elite college athletes. Finally, Part IV analyzes the interplay between unionizing college athletes and challenging the NCAA’s restraints on college athlete pay under Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
Differential Heat of Adsorption and Isosteres

Heat of adsorption is a basic thermodynamic property extensively used not only for understanding thermal effects and heat management in industrial gas storage and separation processes but also for development and validation of adsorption models and materials force fields. Despite a long history of theoretical studies and a vast experimental literature, controversies often arise in the thermodynamic analysis of heat effects due to various assumptions used to describe gas adsorption and inconsistencies between direct calorimetric measurements and isosteric heat obtained from various adsorption isotherms. Here we present a rigorous theoretical procedure for predicting isosteric heat without any assumption about the geometry of porous adsorbents or operating conditions. Quantitative relations between the differential heat and various isosteres have been established with the grand-canonical Monte Carlo simulation for gas adsorption in amorphous as well as crystalline porous materials. The inconsistencies and p...
User Requirements for a Chronic Kidney Disease Clinical Decision Support Tool to Promote Timely Referral.

Background Timely referral of patients with CKD has been associated with cost and mortality benefits, but referrals are often done too late in the course of the disease. Clinical decision support (CDS) offers a potential solution, but interventions have failed because they were not designed to support the physician workflow. We sought to identify user requirements for a chronic kidney disease (CKD) CDS system to promote timely referral.
Is It Possible to Develop a “Universal” Influenza Virus Vaccine? Potential Target Antigens and Critical Aspects for a Universal Influenza Vaccine

Influenza viruses cause seasonal epidemics as well as pandemics and are a significant concern for human health. Current influenza virus vaccines show efficacy when they are antigenically well matched to circulating strains. Seasonal influenza viruses undergo antigenic drift at a high rate and, therefore, current vaccines have to be reformulated and readministered on an annual basis. Mismatches between vaccine strains and circulating strains frequently occur, significantly decreasing vaccine efficacy. In addition, current seasonal influenza virus vaccines have limited efficacy against newly emerging pandemic viruses. A universal influenza virus vaccine that induces long-term protection against all influenza virus strains would abolish the need for annual readministration of seasonal influenza virus vaccines and would significantly enhance our pandemic preparedness. Here we discuss the characteristics of universal influenza virus vaccines, their potential target antigens, and critical aspects to consider on the path to successfully developing such vaccines.
Covering our world with sensors

Information technology has had profound impacts on our lives. The problem is that, so far, technology has required our explicit attention to provide services. This limits the scenarios in which it can or we would like it to take action. On the other hand, perceptive systems aim to understand our activities and intentions to proactively, collaboratively, and adaptively provide services. This requires systems to form projections of the world, but also construct models for how to respond. This talk starts by looking at how deploying large numbers of form-fitting sensors, which are explicitly associated with the physical objects we interact with (including each other), can provide contextually-relevant and structured data for enabling the construction of such models. Then, a possible platform technology for creating such sensors is examined, namely Large-Area Electronics (LAE). The challenges of realizing full systems from this are explored. In particular, perceptive systems present demanding functional requirements, but, through emerging algorithms from statistical signal processing and machine learning, also open up new opportunities for addressing technological limitations. Several LAE systems for human monitoring are presented, demonstrating the potentials.
Expanding Antimicrobial Stewardship to Urgent Care Centers Through a Pharmacist-Led Culture Follow-up Program

Urgent care centers represent a high-volume outpatient setting where antibiotics are prescribed frequently but resources for antimicrobial stewardship may be scarce. In 2015, our pharmacist-led Emergency Department (ED) culture follow-up program was expanded to include two urgent care (UC) sites within the same health system. The UC program is conducted by ED and infectious diseases clinical pharmacists as well as PGY1 pharmacy residents using a collaborative practice agreement (CPA). The purpose of this study was to describe the pharmacist-led UC culture follow-up program and its impact on pharmacist workload. This retrospective, descriptive study included all patients discharged to home from UC with a positive culture from any site resulting between 1 January and 31 December 2016. Data collected included the culture type, presence of intervention, and proportion of interventions made under the CPA. Additionally, pharmacist workload was reported as the number of call attempts made, new prescriptions written, and median time to complete follow-up per patient. Data were reported using descriptive statistics. A total of 1461 positive cultures were reviewed for antibiotic appropriateness as part of the UC culture follow-up program, with 320 (22%) requiring follow-up intervention. Culture types most commonly requiring intervention were urine cultures (25%) and sexually transmitted diseases (25%). A median of 15 min was spent per intervention, with a median of one call (range 1–6 calls) needed to reach each patient. Less than half of patients required a new antimicrobial prescription at follow-up. A pharmacist-led culture follow-up program conducted using a CPA was able to be expanded to UC sites within the same health system using existing clinical pharmacy staff along with PGY1 pharmacy residents. Service expansion resulted in minimal increase in pharmacist workload. Adding UC culture follow-up services to an existing ED program can allow health systems to expand antimicrobial stewardship initiatives to satellite locations.
Disabilities and Adult and Lifelong Education

In this chapter, Ross-Gordon examines evolving perspectives on disability within adult and lifelong education. First, the chapter looks at perspectives that have traditionally been reflected in literature with the field of adult and lifelong education. Next, the chapter acquaints the reader with perspectives on disability that have emerged within the interdisciplinary field of disability studies, and how these have influenced recent work within adult and lifelong education. Finally, it discusses the evolution of the author’s perspectives, ending with a framework representing her current thinking about this important domain of adult and lifelong education.
Multi-band multi-beam performance evaluation of on-site coding digital beamformer using ultra-wideband antenna array

Cognitive and software defined radios require ultrawideband (UWB) antennas with digital beamforming. Recently, a novel on-site coding receiver (OSCR) architecture was proposed to significantly reduce hardware requirement for digital beamforming. At the receiver side, we propose to code several antenna outputs in the analog domain prior to digitizing them using a single analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Decoding will be done using field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) in the digital domain to perform beamforming. Doing so, hardware requirements are drastically reduced. In this paper, we demonstrate the validation of the OSCR concept by building and testing a multi-band multi-beam receiver. Measurements are performed in an anechoic chamber using an UWB antenna array operating from 200MHz–2.5 GHz, for two transmit signals modulated at f 1 and f 2 , and incident on the receiver from various angles. Results show an accurate estimate of the angle of arrival, proving that on-site coding can perform with minimal or no degradation in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in a multi-beam and multi-band environment.
Perfectly Secure and Efficient Two-Party Electronic-Health-Record Linkage

Patient health data are often found spread across various sources. However, precision medicine and personalized care require access to the complete medical records. The first step toward this is to enable the linkage of health records spread across different sites. Existing record linkage solutions assume that data are centralized with no privacy or security concerns restricting sharing. However, that is often untrue. Therefore, we have designed and implemented a portable method for privacy-preserving record linkage based on garbled circuits to accurately and securely match records. We have also developed a novel approximate-matching mechanism that significantly improves efficiency.
Physiology of Water Balance and Pathophysiology of Hyponatremia

The understanding of hyponatremic disorders requires a knowledge of normal water balance and how this relates to the maintenance of normal sodium concentrations despite large variations of water intake. This chapter thus reviews the physiology of water homeostasis and describes the components of the normal renal diluting and concentrating mechanisms. The quantitation of water excretion is also reviewed in order to more appropriately approach the pathogenesis and treatment of disorders of water excretion. Emphasis is placed on the central role of vasopressin in the maintenance of water balance. Finally an overall approach to hyponatremic patients is put forth to be discussed in greater detail in forthcoming chapters.
Conducting the Proposal Review Process and Presenting the Results

The importance of all prior preparation notwithstanding, no amount of careful groundwork will be profitable if the actual review process is conducted in a haphazard fashion. Procedures and considerations important to assure a smooth, effective, and objective review process are discussed briefly in this chapter.
Image features and learning algorithms for biological, generic and social object recognition

Automated recognition of object categories in images is a critical step for many real-world computer vision applications. Interest region detectors and region descriptors have been widely employed to tackle the variability of objects in pose, scale, lighting, texture, color, and so on. Different types of object recognition problems usually require different image features and corresponding learning algorithms. This dissertation focuses on the design, evaluation and application of new image features and learning algorithms for the recognition of biological, generic and social objects. The first part of the dissertation introduces a new structure-based interest region detector called the principal curvature-based region detector (PCBR) which detects stable watershed regions that are robust to local intensity perturbations. This detector is specifically designed for region detection for biological objects. Several recognition architectures are then developed that fuse visual information from disparate types of image features for the categorization of complex objects. The described image features and learning algorithms achieve excellent performance on the difficult stonefly larvae dataset. The second part of the dissertation presents studies of methods for visual codebook learning and their application to object recognition. The dissertation first introduces the methodology and application of generative visual codebooks for stonefly recognition and introduces a discriminative evaluation methodology based on a maximum mutual information criterion. Then a new generative/discriminative visual codebook learning algorithm, called iterative discriminative clustering (IDC), is presented that refines the centers and the shapes of the generative codewords for improved discriminative power. It is followed by a novel codebook learning algorithm that builds multiple codebooks that are non-redundant in discriminative power. All these visual codebook learning algorithms achieve high performance on both biological and generic object recognition tasks. The final part of the dissertation describes a socially-driven clothes recognition system for an intelligent fitting-room system. The dissertation presents the results of a user study to identify the key factors for clothes recognition. It then describes learning algorithms for recognizing these key factors from clothes images using various image features. The clothes recognition system successfully enables automated social fashion information retrieval for an enhanced clothes shopping experience.
Quantum Lower Bound for Approximate Counting Via Laurent Polynomials

We consider the following problem: estimate the size of a nonempty set $S\subseteq\left[ N\right] $, given both quantum queries to a membership oracle for $S$, and a device that generates equal superpositions $\left\vert S\right\rangle $ over $S$ elements. We show that, if $\left\vert S\right\vert $ is neither too large nor too small, then approximate counting with these resources is still quantumly hard. More precisely, any quantum algorithm needs either $\Omega\left( \sqrt{N/\left\vert S\right\vert}\right) $ queries or else $\Omega\left( \min\left\{ \left\vert S\right\vert ^{1/4},\sqrt{N/\left\vert S\right\vert }\right\} \right)$ copies of $\left\vert S\right\rangle $. This means that, in the black-box setting, quantum sampling does not imply approximate counting. The proof uses a novel generalization of the polynomial method of Beals et al. to Laurent polynomials, which can have negative exponents.
Transport phenomena and thermodynamics: Multicomponent mixtures

In Swaney and Bird [Chem. Eng. Educ. 51, 83 (2017)], the authors discussed some heretofore unappreciated relations between the equations of transport phenomena and those of thermodynamics for the case of pure fluids. Here we extend the discussion to multicomponent mixtures and open systems with the associated convective terms, and show how several key equations in thermodynamics may be derived by using the equations of energy, mechanical energy, and entropy from transport phenomena. These derivations point out some features of the thermodynamic equations that are not often recognized, and elucidate the meaning of phrases such as “quasi-steady-state processes.” We show how one can obtain our version of the first law dU=dQ−p¯¯dV+∫Vt−τ:∇v+∑α=1Njα⋅gαdVdt−∫A(t)(n⋅ρĤv)dAdt,our version of the second law T¯¯dS=dQ+∫Vt−τ:∇v+∑α=1Njα⋅gαdVdt−∑α=1Nμ¯¯αdnα−∫A(t)(n⋅ρĤv)dAdt, and Gibbs’ fundamental relation dU=T¯¯dS−p¯¯dV+∑αμ¯¯αdnα. The double overbars indicate suitably averaged values and extend the familiar results to systems that are not uniform and not in equilibrium macroscopically. At various places in the development, we make use of the equations of conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, as well as the equation of change for entropy, from transport phenomena.
The Motivation of Chinese Disordered Gamblers: A Cultural Perspective

In a recent prevalence study conducted on Macao, gambling researchers Wu et al. (2014) concluded that “materialism may continually promote people’s gambling motive to win money in order to satisfy their materialistic need, thus making them vulnerable to gambling disorder” (p. 1196). Here, the authors argued that the major motivation of gambling for the majority of Chinese gamblers is winning money. Materialistic concerns are the basic reasons for Chinese to participate in gambling activities. This assertion negates the psychodynamic explanation of gambling to displace inferiority in childhood (Rosenthal 1986) and the behaviorist view of gambling to escape from personal problems (Brown 2002; Jacobs 1986). Is winning money the principal motivation among the majority of Chinese disordered gamblers? What are the factors that make gambling the favorite pastime in Chinese communities? Before we can realistically approach this question, we need to have an understanding of the particular cultural aspects of Chinese heritage that contribute to the development of gambling. The present chapter will address the list of questions from a cultural perspective.
1892 Laparoscopic Removal of Large Submucous Myomas

Video Objective This video demonstrates the laparoscopic approach in the management of large submucous myomas and minimal damage on the endometrium. Setting The patient is a 45 year old, G2 P2 woman with the complaint of heavy menstrual bleeding. Ultrasonography revealed a 5 × 4 cm submucous myoma with 10-20 % of intramural extension. Interventions Following serosal incision with bipolar energy instrument and entering the endometrial cavity, submucous myoma is extracted, the endometrial defect is closed submucosally with 2-0 V - lock suture. Myometrial defect is closed in double layer closure. Integrity of the endometrial cavity and the sutured line are assessed by an office hysteroscopy at the end of the procedure. Conclusion Given the fact that the complication risks increase with size and intramyometrial extension of submucous myomas during hysteroscopic surgery; laparoscopic myomectomy may be a better treatment option especially for patients with submucous fibroids more than 4 cm in size and/or with an intrauterine extension of more than 50%. A concomitant control hysteroscopy thereafter is useful to identify if the endometrial cavity remains intact after the procedure.
Erythrocyte-Coated Nanoparticles Block Cytotoxic Effects of Group B Streptococcus β-Hemolysin/Cytolysin

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) emerged as a leading cause of invasive infectious disease in neonates in the 1970s, but has recently been identified as an escalating public health threat in non-pregnant adults, particularly those of advanced aged or underlying medical conditions. GBS infection can rapidly develop into life-threatening disease despite prompt administration of effective antibiotics and initiation of state-of-the-art intensive care protocols and technologies due to deleterious bacterial virulence factors, such as the GBS pore-forming toxin β-hemolysin/cytolysin (β-H/C). β-H/C is known to have noxious effects on a wide range of host cells and tissues, including lung epithelial cell injury, blood brain barrier weakening, and immune cell apoptosis. Neonatal and adult survivors of GBS infection are at a high risk for substantial long-term health issues and neurologic disabilities due to perturbations in organ systems caused by bacterial- and host- mediated inflammatory stressors. Previously engineered anti-virulence inhibitors, such as monoclonal antibodies and small molecular inhibitors, generally require customized design for each different pathogenic toxin and do not target deleterious host pro-inflammatory responses that may cause organ injury, septic shock, or death. By simply wrapping donor red blood cells (RBCs) around polymeric cores, we have created biomimetic "nanosponges." Because nanoparticles retain the same repertoire of cell membrane receptors as their host cell, they offer non-specific and all-purpose toxin decoy strategies with a broad ability to sequester and neutralize various bacterial toxins and host pro-inflammatory chemokines and cytokines to attenuate the course of infectious disease. This proof-of-concept study successfully demonstrated that intervention with nanosponges reduced the hemolytic activity of live GBS and stabilized β-H/C in a dose-dependent manner. Nanosponge treatment also decreased lung epithelial and macrophage cell death following exposure to live GBS bacteria and stabilized β-H/C, improved neutrophil killing of GBS, and diminished GBS-induced macrophage IL-1β production. Our results, therefore, suggest biomimetic nanosponges provide a titratable detoxification therapy that may provide a first-in-class treatment option for GBS infection by sequestering and inhibiting β-H/C activity.