cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A simple confined impingement jets mixer for flash nanoprecipitation

Johnson and Prudhomme (2003. AICHE J 49:2264-2282) introduced the con- fined impingement jets (CIJ) mixer to prepare nanoparticles loaded with hydrophobic com- pounds (e.g., drugs, inks, fragrances, or pheromones) via flash nanoprecipitation (FNP). We have modified the original CIJ design to allow hand operation, eliminating the need for a sy- ringe pump, and we added a second antisolvent dilution stage. Impingement mixing requires equal flow momentum from two opposing jets, one containing the drug in organic solvent and the other containing an antisolvent, typically water. The subsequent dilution step in the new design allows rapid quenching with high antisolvent concentration that enhances nanoparticle stability. This new CIJ with dilution (CIJ-D) mixer is a simple, cheap, and efficient device to produce nanoparticles. We have made 55 nm diameter $-carotene nanoparticles using the CIJ-D mixer. They are stable and reproducible in terms of particle size and distribution. We have also compared the performance of our CIJ-D mixer with the vortex mixer, which can operate at un- equal flow rates (Liu et al., 2008. Chem Eng Sci 63:2829-2842), to make $-carotene-containing particles over a series of turbulent conditions. On the basis of dynamic light scattering mea- surements, the new CIJ-D mixer produces stable particles of a size similar to the vortex mixer. Our CIJ-D design requires less volume and provides an easily operated and inexpensive tool to produce nanoparticles via FNP and to evaluate new nanoparticle formulation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 101:4018-4023, 2012
The rubber trade of the Gold Coast and Asante in the nineteenth century: African innovation and market responsiveness

The export trade in wild rubber occupies an important place in the nineteenth-century economic history of the Gold Coast and Asante, and the impetus which it gave to the future economic development of the country was greater than is commonly recognized. The timely development of this new product by African entrepreneurs and up-country producers in the 1880s enabled the colony to diversify its export bill at a time when flagging prices for palm products and dwindling supplies of ivory, monkey skins, and surface gold threatened economic stagnation. Between 1884 and 1898 Gold Coast rubber exports registered a twenty-five fold increase in volume, thereby placing the country among the top five rubber producers of the world. An analysis of the Gold Coast rubber trade contributes to the demolition of certain myths concerning the economically passive role of West Africans in the development of their own hinterlands. European agencies—whether mercantile or governmental—contributed only indirectly to the development of the local rubber trade. No doubt the general protection and opportunity for exercise of individual initiative which the British colonial government provided enabled the Gold Coast to escape the excesses of forced labour and expropriation which marred European concessionaire rubber operations in other parts of Africa. But it was chiefly the myriads of African merchants, middlemen and producers who supplied the driving force of the local trade during the nineteenth century. The rubber trade accelerated the pace of economic change in Asante and other interior states where the pull exerted by the sea-borne export sector previously had been minimal. It is clear that the number of people involved in trading generally—whether as middlemen or producers—increased greatly as a result of the lucrative returns to be gained from rubber tapping. With rubber trade expansion came a growing demand by producers for a wider range of European merchandise imports, plus the acceptance of a uniform metallic currency which facilitated market transactions throughout the interior. Finally, the profits saved from rubber tapping became an important source for indigenous capital investment in cocoa-farming, particularly in Asante.
An Integrate-and-fire Model of Prefrontal Cortex Neuronal Activity during Performance of Goal-directed Decision Making

The orbital frontal cortex appears to be involved in learning the rules of goal-directed behavior necessary to perform the correct actions based on perception to accomplish different tasks. The activity of orbitofrontal neurons changes dependent upon the specific task or goal involved, but the functional role of this activity in performance of specific tasks has not been fully determined. Here we present a model of prefrontal cortex function using networks of integrate-and-fire neurons arranged in minicolumns. This network model forms associations between representations of sensory input and motor actions, and uses these associations to guide goal-directed behavior. The selection of goal-directed actions involves convergence of the spread of activity from the goal representation with the spread of activity from the current state. This spiking network model provides a biological implementation of the action selection process used in reinforcement learning theory. The spiking activity shows properties similar to recordings of orbitofrontal neurons during task performance.
A systolic chip for LZ based data compression

The authors describe the design of a systolic VLSI chip which implements the LZ technique for data compression. The LZ-based compression method due to Lempel and Ziv (1977) is a very powerful technique and gives very high compression efficiency for text as well as image data. The architecture is systolic and uses the principles of pipelining and parallelism in order to obtain high speed and throughput. The order of complexity of the computations is reduced from n/sup 2/ to n. The chip can be integrated into real time systems so that data can be compressed and decompressed on-the-fly. A prototype CMOS compression chip implementing a systolic array of 9 processors has been designed and verified and currently, is being fabricated. The chip is expected to operate at 20 MHz and yield a compression rate of about 20 million characters per second. >
Ideal integration of observers with sinusoidal states by Sliding Mode - application to Direct Field Orientation of motor drives

Direct Field Orientation (DFO) is a well-established method for field-oriented control of induction motor (IM) or permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives. In DFO, the rotor position angle is computed using the tan−1 function of the stationary reference frame fluxes or EMFs. It is typical to estimate these quantities using an observer based on the respective motor model. The paper discusses the problem of integrating the equations of this observer: generally, pure integration cannot be implemented because of the offsets in the measured signals; integration is replaced with low pass filtering. This produces estimation errors that are significant when the drive operates at low speed; the errors propagate in the rotor position. The paper discusses an interesting property of Sliding Mode Observers: under the same offset conditions, because of the discontinuous feedback used, SM Observers allow ideal integration of the observer equations. Thus, low pass filtering is avoided, the estimates have no phase errors and the resulting rotor position is more accurate than in observers with continuous feedback. The paper analyzes the general case and studies the PMSM as an example. The theoretical claims are validated with simulations and experimental tests.
Effects of Neonicotinoids and Crop Rotation for Managing Wireworms in Wheat Crops.

ABSTRACT Soil-dwelling insects are severe pests in many agroecosystems. These pests have cryptic life cycles, making sampling difficult and damage hard to anticipate. The management of soil insects is therefore often based on preventative insecticides applied at planting or cultural practices. Wireworms, the subterranean larvae of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae), have re-emerged as problematic pests in cereal crops in the Pacific Northwestern United States. Here, we evaluated two management strategies for wireworms in long-term field experiments: 1) treating spring wheat seed with the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam and 2) replacing continuous spring wheat with a summer fallow and winter wheat rotation. Separate experiments were conducted for two wireworm species—Limonius californicus (Mannerheim) and Limonius infuscatus (Motschulsky). In the experiment with L. californicus, spring wheat yields and economic returns increased by 24–30% with neonicotinoid treatments. In contrast, in the experiment with L....
Floodplains and the Development of Complex Society: Comparative Perspectives from the West African Semi-arid Tropics

The diverse nature of iron-using societies in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa is illustrated by the very different sequences of growth and change in the floodplains of the Middle Senegal Valley and the Inland Niger Delta during the first millennium A.D. The Inland Delta is characterized by a pattern of rapid population growth over the course of centuries-long occupation in very large, high-density settlement mound clusters. The Middle Senegal Valley has low-density occupation in fairly regularly spaced small villages. These differences are due, in part, to differences in the size, distribution of critical resources, and nature of subsistence scheduling conflicts and opportunities in the two floodplains. Faced with similar risks to agriculture posed by chaotic variation in the timing and extent of annual flooding, societies on both floodplains have responded in broadly similar ways historically by developing subsistence specializations that are integrated through exchange. Despite the large scale and considerable integration of first millennium societies in the Inland Niger Delta, the clustered settlement pattern that persisted even through the period of maximum population density at around A.D. 1000 indicates that centralizing pressures did not succeed in producing an effective administrative hierarchy at that time. Rather, various models of heterarchical organization provide a better “fit” for the archaeological data currently available. In the Middle Senegal Valley, on the other hand, the small and relatively dispersed nature of settlement around A.D. 900 should not immediately be assumed to indicate simple, autonomous, village-level organization. Here, the possibility that complex territorial units composed of overlapping territories of subsistence specialists had already emerged in the first millennium deserves consideration. As archaeology works to counterbalance its long-standing focus on vertical hierarchies as the primary modality of complexity, the archaeological sequences in these two African floodplains offer insights into the various ways that specialization, trade, population heterogeneity, and even urban growth may have emerged and flourished relatively unconnected to the development of social stratification and centralized power.
Maltreatment and internal representations of relationships: core relationship themes in the narratives of abused and neglected preschoolers

This study examined whether the predominance of particular themes in maltreated pre-schoolers' stories about relationships is related to type of maltreatment they experienced. The MacArthur Story Stem Battery was administered to 49 maltreated and 22 non-maltreated children. Children's representations of self and other were extracted from the resulting stories using the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Method. Significant differences were found among the physically abused, sexually abused, neglected, and comparison subgroups with respect to the predominance of specific relationship themes in their stories. Both physically abused and neglected children represented the self as angry and opposing others more frequently than non-maltreated children. Neglected children represented others as hurt, sad, or anxious more frequently than both abused and non-maltreated children. Compared with all other children, sexually abused children represented others more frequently as liking them, and compared with physically abused children, expressed more frequent wishes to be close to others. This study supports the hypothesis that maltreated children's internal representations of relationships are related to their experiences of specific types of maltreatment. Language: en
Family of consecutive collision earth-to-moon trajectories.

Earth Moon trajectories with consecutive collisions treated, using Birkhoff transformation in planar restricted three-body problem
Research methodology in studies of assessor effort for information retrieval evaluation

As evaluation is an important but difficult part of information retrieval system design and experimentation, evaluation questions have been the subject of much research. An "evaluation study" is an investigation into some aspect of evaluation. These types of studies typically experiment on ranked results from actual retrieval systems, most often those that were submitted to TREC tracks. We argue that the standard of evidence in these types of studies should be increased to the level required of text retrieval studies, by testing on multiple data sets, multiple subsets of data, and comparison to baselines using hypothesis testing. We demonstrate that baseline performance on the standard data sets is quite high, necessitating strong evidence to support claims.
Post‐War Humor in the Upper‐Division German Literature Classroom

A motivational survey conducted in the De partment of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis in the fall of 2004 found that 60.5% of students in beginning, intermediate and advanced German dasses con sidered literature to be an important component of their German instruction.1 While this percentage has certainly fluctuated during the years in which this survey has been administered [2002-2006], the relative consistency of the student response to the inclusion of literature testifies to the value stu dents place on literature for language acquisition. But how this interest can best be nurtured and en couraged to develop and how it may best serve the related but unique goal of language acquisition is open to widespread interpretation in light of the various obstacles faced on all levels of foreign lan guage courses. In order to provide sufficient enter tainment value to maintain student engagement and tempt students to examine German cultural expression from a lighter angle, an upper-division German literature course was designed to focus on humor. Along with this heightened entertainment value unfortunately can come a heightened level of difficulty of comprehension, which often makes foreign-language humor appear too daunting, and therefore an undesirable task. Despite the difficulty of comprehending humor in second language literature, it was nonetheless selected as the organizing principle for an upper division course on German literature-German 4104-in the Spring semesters of 2003 and 2006, Studies in Genre: In Search of German Humor.2 Because it was felt that humor offers such unique insights into German history, culture and psychol ogy, it is too precious a resource to be rejected as a topic of discussion due to the level of difficulty, without adequate effort exerted toward its integra tion. Furthermore, humor has been attributed with the accomplishment of four main interactional tasks: "[creating] affiliation and [strengthening] bonds between people, [... providing] a means of expressing negative feelings indirectly, [... en abling the] display and [negotiation of] both indi vidual and group identity and [... serving] as a means of protecting one's positive face" (Bell 26-27). The goals for this course, which drew its numbers from advanced sophomores, juniors and seniors, were to investigate the nature, purposes and audiences of various genres of German hu mor, as well as to continue practice of the German language with special emphasis upon writing. Our area of study ranged from some of the earliest in carnations of humor in the Schwanke of der Stricker in the thirteenth century to the eth nic-comedy concept of 21st-century comedian, Kaya Yanar-a German of Turkish-Arabic descent -with every endeavor made to quash assertions of the Germans as a humorless people. The focus of this arficle is on the latter portion of the course
Astrocytes Regulate Microglial Phagocytosis of Senile Plaque Cores of Alzheimer's Disease ☆

We have developed an in vitro model in which isolated senile plaque (SP) cores are presented to rat microglial cells in culture. Microglia rapidly phagocytosed, broke apart, and cleared SP cores. However, when cocultured with astrocytes, microglial phagocytosis was markedly suppressed, allowing the SPs to persist. Suppression of phagocytosis by astrocytes appears to be a general phenomena since microglia in the presence of astrocytes showed reduced capacity to phagocytose latex beads as well. The astrocyte effect on microglia is related in part to a diffusible factor(s) since astrocyte- but not fibroblast-conditioned media also reduced phagocytosis. These results suggest that while microglia have the capacity to phagocytose and remove SPs, astrocytes which lie in close association to microglia may help prevent the efficient clearance of SP material allowing them to persist in Alzheimer's disease.
k-Space based summary motion detection for functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Functional MRI studies are very sensitive to motion; head movements of as little as 1-mm translations or 1° rotations may cause spurious signals. An algorithm was developed that uses k-space MRI data to monitor subject motion during functional MRI time series. A k-space weighted average of squared difference between the initial scan and subsequent scans is calculated, which summarizes subject motion in a single quality parameter; however, the quality parameter cannot be used for motion correction. The evolution of this quality parameter throughout a time series indicates whether head motion is within a predetermined limit. Fifty functional MRI studies were used to calibrate the sensitivity of the algorithm, using the six rigid-body registration parameters (three translations and three rotations) from the statistical parametric mapping (SPM99) package as a reference. The average correlation coefficient between the new quality parameter and the reference value from SPM was 0.84. The simple algorithm correctly classified acceptable or excessive motion with 90% accuracy, with the remaining 10% being borderline cases. This method makes it possible to evaluate brain motion within seconds after a scan and to decide whether a study needs to be repeated.
Weak lensing of the CMB: A harmonic approach

Weak lensing of CMB anisotropies and polarization for the power spectra and higher order statistics can be handled directly in harmonic-space without recourse to real-space correlation functions. For the power spectra, this approach not only simplifies the calculations but is also readily generalized from the usual flat-sky approximation to the exact all-sky form by replacing Fourier harmonics with spherical harmonics. Counterintuitively, because of the nonlinear nature of the effect, errors in the flat-sky approximation do not improve on smaller scales. They remain at the 10% level through the acoustic regime and are sufficiently large to merit adoption of the all-sky formalism. For the bispectra, a cosmic variance limited detection of the correlation with secondary anisotropies has an order of magnitude greater signal-to-noise for combinations involving magnetic parity polarization than those involving the temperature alone. Detection of these bispectra will, however, be severely noise and foreground limited even with the Planck satellite, leaving room for improvement with higher sensitivity experiments. We also provide a general study of the correspondence between flat and all sky potentials, deflection angles, convergence and shear for the power spectra and bispectra.
Vertical Velocities in a Thunderstorm Gust Front and Outflow

Abstract Continuous vertically pointing measurements of a thunderstorm outflow, including its gust front, were obtained with a Doppler radar near New Salem, North Dakota. The measurements provide a high-resolution depiction of the vertical structure of reflectivity and vertical velocity within the gust front, the outflow, and the parent storm. Earlier gust front remote sensing studies have used Doppler observations obtained with low-elevation-angle scans to accurately measure the horizontal flow pattern from which vertical velocities were subsequently estimated by integrating the continuity equation. In contrast, the New Salem case provides direct, rather than derived, Doppler measurement of vertical velocities with better vertical resolution and vastly superior temporal resolution. The gust front’s vertical structure is in general agreement with earlier observations and numerical simulations, except that the transition from strong upward to strong downward motion was more abrupt. The maximum updraft, of ...
Enhanced Persuasion in the Courtroom: Visually Dynamic Demonstrative Evidence and Juror Decision Making

Trial lawyers may benefit from the use of visually dynamic media to persuade jurors of their case. While this approach is not new, advances in computer technology have changed the methods available for trial lawyers to best present their arguments, making for more vivid and compelling persuasive appeals (FJC & NITA, 2001; Lederer, 2004). This chapter addresses the issues surrounding the uses of visually dynamic demonstrative evidence: video simulation/reenactments and computer animation. Although little direct empirical research on computer-animated displays has been conducted, basic research findings from cognitive and social psychology can shed light on the possible reasons why demonstrative evidence may enhance the persuasiveness of an attorney’s case. This chapter proceeds with an overview of visually dynamic demonstrative evidence, followed by an analysis of the empirical research on videotape and computer-animated demonstrative evidence. In light of the direct research on videotape and computer-animated demonstrative evidence, basic findings from cognitive and social psychology that may provide useful explanatory mechanisms are discussed. The chapter concludes with suggestions for the most effective use of demonstrative evidence.
Pre-surgical CT/FEA for craniofacial distraction: I.: Methodology, development, and validation of the cranial finite element model

Recently, surgeons have begun to treat serious congenital craniofacial deformities including craniosynostoses with mechanical devices that gradually distract the skull. As a prospective means of treatment planning for such complex deformities, FE models derived from routine preoperative CT scans (CT/FEA) would provide ideal patient specific engineering analyses. The purpose of this study was to assess the dimensional and predictive accuracy of the CT/FEA process through the development of a 3D model of a dry human calvarium subjected to two-point distraction ex vivo. Comparative skull measurements revealed that CT/FEA construction error did not exceed 1% for transcranial dimensions, and the thickness error did not exceed 8.66% or 0.31 mm. CT/FEA strain predictions for the central region of the skull, between the distraction posts, were not statistically different from homologous gage values at P < 0.05. Peripherally, however, the strain fields were less well behaved and the FE predictions showed only general qualitative agreement with gage recordings.
Speaking Truth to Power: The Obligation of the Courts to Enforce the Right to Counsel at Trial

Professor Metze takes a critical look at the historical and contemporary law on the right to counsel and the evolution of what measure the courts must use to review trial counsel’s performance. By the use of the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the courts have settled on the proper measure of counsel’s representation. Struggling with the new rights extended to former servants and slaves, the courts following the Civil War fought a slow but steady battle to implement the constitutional guarantees of the Bill of Rights to all citizens. After a century, the Supreme Court finally guaranteed the right to counsel to all facing the loss of life or liberty. During the twentieth century, it was determined that more than counsel’s mere presence was needed. This Article addresses the constitutional right to counsel, what standard of effectiveness a defendant may expect his counsel to perform, and the history of these concepts. Finally, it analyzes the practical applications of the right to counsel and the court’s application of its attorney competence standards, leading to the conclusion that those in power may think they do no harm resisting the temptations of change, but by their deeds, if only for their own political survival, the least among us survive, and the smell of systemic disease lingers.
An Examination of Selected Economic Development Outcomes from Consolidation

ciency, decrease costs, address regional issues, and promote economic development. Nine city-county governments have consolidated since 1990, and a total of 38 consolidated city-county governments exist in the United States. (See Leland andThurmaier [2006] for a list of referenda on city-county consolida tion through 2003.) Many studies of consoli dation focus on the process of achieving con solidation (e.g., Leland 2004; Durning 1995). Less research has focused on the outcomes of successful consolidation. As Carr (2004, 6) notes, "systematic analysis of the political, economic and fiscal effects of city-county consolidation are conspicuously absent." The purpose of this article is to add to the research in this area by evaluating the economic devel opment outcomes of consolidation in three cities and counties that implemented a new combined system of government in the mid 1990s. Total employment (number of jobs) and the total number of business establish
Science learning as the objectification of discourse

The study presented here seeks to contribute to the dialog of how students come to learn disciplinary knowledge. Students in a highly-interactive physics course were studied as they constructed a model of magnetism. Two focus students were video taped throughout the 7-hour unit. They transitioned through 7 different representations of their models and their discourse and model-building practices evolved. The findings of this study are framed in terms of Sfard and Laive's (2005) ideas about the objectification of discourse as a definition of learning. The findings from this study are used to demonstrate the power of this perspective and to illustrate that the learning of disciplinary knowledge resulted from the students objectifying their discourse away from the self and its communication with other people and toward the self in relation to the human-independent world of magnetic phenomena.
Development of an operating room pharmacy substation on a restricted budget

Pharmaceutical services implemented in an operating room (OR) pharmacy substation without addition of staff in a 764-bed teaching hospital with 22 operating rooms are described. In 1984 an interdepartmental task force recommended that pharmacy take control of responsibility for controlled drugs used in anesthesia. The anesthesia department contributed space for a pharmacy substation and some of the necessary equipment. Two technicians staff the substation (1.5 full-time equivalent positions); pharmacy contributed 0.5 FTE and the additional FTE was obtained through staffing adjustments in other departments. Anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists obtain controlled drugs directly from the technicians, and records of drug disposition are compared with inventory twice daily. The substation also handles exchange carts for noncontrolled drugs for anesthesia and for other drugs used in the operating rooms. Total cost (additional cost to pharmacy and other departments) for operating the substation for its first year was +2161, and there were no unresolved discrepancies in controlled drug accounting. Undocumented use of noncontrolled drugs has been reduced by 67%, and cooperation and communication between the pharmacy and anesthesia departments has improved. Substation personnel do not prepare intravenous admixtures or provide clinical services. An operating room substation staffed by technicians 10.5 hours daily Monday through Friday provided cost-effective pharmacy control of drugs used in the OR.
Screening and many-body effects in two-dimensional crystals: Monolayer MoS 2

We present a systematic study of the variables affecting the electronic and optical properties of two-dimensional (2D) crystals within ab initio $GW$ and $GW$ plus Bethe-Salpeter equation ($GW$-BSE) calculations. As a prototypical 2D transition metal dichalcogenide material, we focus our study on monolayer ${\mathrm{MoS}}_{2}$. We find that the reported variations in $GW$-BSE results in the literature for monolayer ${\mathrm{MoS}}_{2}$ and related systems arise from different treatments of the long-range Coulomb interaction in supercell calculations and convergence of $k$-grid sampling and cutoffs for various quantities such as the dielectric screening. In particular, the quasi-2D nature of the system gives rise to fast spatial variations in the screening environment, which are computationally challenging to resolve. We also show that common numerical treatments to remove the divergence in the Coulomb interaction can shift the exciton continuum leading to false convergence with respect to $k$-point sampling. Our findings apply to $GW$-BSE calculations on any low-dimensional semiconductors.
The effect of bromodeoxyuridine and dibutyryl cyclic AMP on the induction of placental alkaline phosphate in human choriocarcinoma cells.

The effect of 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdUrd) and dibutyryl cyclic AMP (Bt2cAMP) on the expression of the placental isoenzyme of human alkaline phosphatase was examined in BeWo choriocarcinoma cells. By using a combination of specific immunoprecipitation and polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis of cells labelled either metabolically with [35S]methionine or cell-surface-labelled with 125I, both BrdUrd (5 micrograms/ml) and 1 mM-Bt2cAMP were shown to result in the enhanced accumulation of a specific protein. This protein has immunochemical identity and co-electrophoreses with placental alkaline phosphatase in two-dimensional gels. These results clearly demonstrate that the induction of placental alkaline phosphatase activity in choriocarcinoma cells treated with these agents is a consequence of the accumulation of specific enzyme protein rather than of altered catalytic activity.
The immediate effect of different calf muscle stretching techniques on ankle dorsiflexion range of motion and dynamic balance in women workers wearing high-heeled shoes

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the immediate effect of different calf muscle stretching techniques on ankle dorsiflexion range of motion and dynamic balance in women workers wearing high-heeled shoes. Methods: Comparing the effects of dynamic stretching and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching (PNF stretching) in 28 volunteers aged 21-45 years who had worn high-heeled shoes of minimum 5 centimeters, 20 hours per week for at least 1 year. Ankle dorsiflexion range of motion in weight bearing lunge position and Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) were performed before and after each technique of stretching. Results: The results showed ankle dorsiflexion range of motion and SEBT score significantly increased after both stretching techniques ( p <0.01) with no significant difference of mean change between both stretching techniques. Conclusion: PNF stretching and dynamic stretching can increase ankle dorsiflexion range of motion and dynamic balance. Therefore, both techniques of stretching exercise program should be recommended to female wearing high-heeled shoes to increase ankle dorsiflexion range of motion and dynamic balance. Bull Chiang Mai Assoc Med Sci 2016; 49(1): 90-99
Sample Size and Relative Abundance

This chapter discusses a statistical artifact that can result from working with poorly controlled samples. It establishes a significant correlation between the size of samples and the relative abundances of the taxa that comprise those samples. Relative taxonomic abundances may be significantly correlated with the size of the samples from which they have been determined. As a result, interpretations of relative abundances may prove to be primarily the interpretation of the size of the samples from which the abundances have been derived. The presence of such a correlation does not necessarily mean that changing sample sizes have caused the changing relative abundances, but it mean that the cause of the correlation must be explored before further analyses of those abundances are conducted. In most cases that have been examined, the cause of the correlation can readily be attributed to the effects of assemblages with very small numbers of identified specimens. In other instances, the correlation is because of the fact that the relative abundances of a given taxon and the size of the samples from which those relative abundances are drawn are essentially the same thing. Sample size effects of the sort described in this chapter are extremely easy to detect. While there are many ways to search for them, it depends on the rank order correlation coefficients because of the belief that, on a single site basis, specimen counts and minimum numbers can usually be shown to provide ordinal scale measures at best.
Evaluation of Nitrosamide Formation in the Cytochrome P450-Mediated Metabolism of Tobacco-Specific Nitrosamines

N′-Nitrosonornicotine (NNN) and 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) are carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines believed to play a vital role in the initiation of tobacco-related cancers. For their carcinogenicities to be exhibited, both NNN and NNK must be metabolically activated by cytochrome P450s, specifically P450 2A6 and P450 2A13, respectively. Prior research has focused on α-hydroxylation, which leads to the formation of several DNA adducts that have been identified and quantified in vivo. However, some studies indicate that P450s can retain substrates within their active sites and perform processive oxidation. For nitrosamines, this would oxidize the highly unstable α-hydroxynitrosamines to potentially more stable nitrosamides, which could also alkylate DNA. Thus, we hypothesized that both NNN and NNK are processively oxidized in vitro to nitrosamides by P450 2A6 and P450 2A13, respectively. To test this hypothesis, we synthesized the NNN- and NNK-derived nitrosamides, determi...
Gap Junction Remodeling in a Novel Engineered Heart Tissue System Cultured under Point Stimulation

Recent advances have shown the importance of electrical stimulation in enhancing maturation and differentiation of engineered heart tissues (EHTs). Conventional electrical maturation protocols pace their EHTs with field stimulation - the tissues are paced simultaneously in a uniform electrical field. This method has been shown to improve cellular alignment, increase contractility, and increase gap junction (Cx43) production. While Cx43 production is increased, the anisotropic ratio is not fully preserved in these culture systems [Trantidou et al, PMID 4459200]. Native cardiac tissue demonstrates an anisotropic propagation of action potHential; in adult rat ventricles the conduction velocity (CV) is 3x faster in the longitudinal direction than the transverse direction [Zimmermann et al, PMID 16582915]. We hypothesize that the loss of anisotropy is due to field stimulation not accurately recapitulating the conditions caused by a depolarizing wave traveling through the tissue. In order to better reproduce native myocardium, we designed a bioreactor which applies a point stimulation at one end of our EHT and allows the wave to propagate down the tissue. We hypothesize that this propagating wave will provide the necessary signals to enhance Cx43 production as well as improve localization of gap junction proteins. Maturity was assessed by the measurement of twitch kinetics, peak force, and conduction velocity. We anticipate that establishing a more realistic expression and subcellular localization of gap junction proteins will improve the utility of future studies involving cell lines from patients with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathies.
An evaluation of distributed concurrency control

Increasing transaction volumes have led to a resurgence of interest in distributed transaction processing. In particular, partitioning data across several servers can improve throughput by allowing servers to process transactions in parallel. But executing transactions across servers limits the scalability and performance of these systems.In this paper, we quantify the effects of distribution on concurrency control protocols in a distributed environment. We evaluate six classic and modern protocols in an in-memory distributed database evaluation framework called Deneva, providing an apples-to-apples comparison between each. Our results expose severe limitations of distributed transaction processing engines. Moreover, in our analysis, we identify several protocol-specific scalability bottlenecks. We conclude that to achieve truly scalable operation, distributed concurrency control solutions must seek a tighter coupling with either novel network hardware (in the local area) or applications (via data modeling and semantically-aware execution), or both.
A Quiet Revolution: Communicating and Resolving Patient Harm

Good patient care includes not only avoiding error and injury but also acting honestly and constructively should it occur. Communication and Resolution Programs (CRPs) commit the sponsoring institution to vigilant detection of error, full disclosure to patients and families, and timely redress. CRPs also seek to incorporate the perspectives of patients and family members into safety improvement activities. This chapter explains the principles underlying CRPs, traces their history, and describes current best practices for physicians, provider organizations, and the legal and regulatory environment. Transparency about error and proactive response to injury lagged other professional commitments to patient self-determination because of the emotion and politics surrounding medical malpractice. However, recent generations of physicians, patients, and policymakers have engineered a “quiet” revolution. Silence and secrecy are no longer ethically acceptable responses to medical error. Although additional research is needed on how CRPs affect safety, patient and provider satisfaction, and cost, the American College of Surgeons in 2014 declared CRPs to be, on balance, the most promising approach to medical liability reform.
Outcomes and Explanations for Global Health Initiative Funding Trends in Relation to Maternal Health and Child Malnourishment in India

In the past several decades, globalization has given way to a fragmented network of institutions, initiatives, funds, and organizations to tackle disease on an international scale. Most international funding for health aid is for service delivery for specific diseases, and usually diseases that pose as a great short term threat to certain countries. There is a host of positive outcomes from these types of funding initiatives, as they can bring attention and services to disease prevention very quickly. However, the underlying cultural and social determinants of health in developing countries are often neglected by GHIs (Global Health Initiatives) and governments, and there is little investment in long-term changes. This paper aims to shed light on how and why international health funding trends can create debilitating outcomes for developing nations. First, the history surrounding the evolution of GHIs will be examined, along with a discussion of the extensive variables that are involved in global health research. Thirdly, the financing trends will be looked at, along with an overview of the positive and negative effects of those trends. And lastly, the explanations and theories surrounding the trends and effects of GHI funding will be discussed and examined further in the case for malnourishment in India.
A Systematic Review of the Biopsychosocial–Spiritual Health of Active Duty Women

Women make up approximately 15% of today’s active duty (AD) military. Not only are more women volunteering for military service now than ever before in America’s history, but due to recent policy c...
Adolescent Dating Violence and Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use.

* Abbreviations: DV — : dating violence NMUPD — : nonmedical use of prescription drugs In this issue of Pediatrics , Clayton et al1 report on the associations between adolescent dating violence (DV) victimization and the nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) using the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. Given our national focus on the opioid epidemic, studies on associations of NMUPD with other health risk exposures among adolescents, such as DV victimization, are timely. Because most researchers conducting studies on NMUPD among adolescents have relied on emergency department samples or limited geographic areas, researchers conducting a study using nationally representative data to estimate prevalence ratios add needed perspective. With a sample of 10 443 male- and female-identified US high school students who had dated in the past 12 months, Clayton et al1 provide sex-stratified analyses revealing that experiencing both physical and sexual DV victimization is associated with NMUPD for both sex categories. Stratifying by sex category identifies some subtle but important differences. Among boys, there is an association of lifetime NMUPD with sexual violence victimization, whereas among girls, lifetime NMUPD is associated with physical DV victimization. Among girls, NMUPD is associated with a higher frequency of sexual violence victimization … Address correspondence to Elizabeth Miller, MD, PhD, Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Oakland Medical Building, 3420 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. E-mail: elizabeth.miller{at}chp.edu
Heuristics To Guide the Development of Sustainable, Biomass-Derived, Platform Chemical Derivatives

Hundreds of catalytic routes to upgrade biomass-derived platform chemicals have been proposed. In this study, we developed process selection and development heuristics for these catalytic transformations from techno-economic analysis of catalytically upgrading furfural (a potential platform chemical) to eight derivatives that vary in chemical functionality and process complexity. These heuristics included simple cost equations based on catalyst performance as well as process complexity to predict the minimum selling price of platform chemical derivatives. Additionally, design rules were developed to guide the development of catalytic technologies for upgrading platform chemicals. The conversion of platform chemicals to hydrocarbons must be avoided. For commercial relevance, attaining catalyst yield of 60% and weight hourly space velocity of at least on the order of 0.1 h–1 are necessary. Precious metal catalysts, such as Pt, cannot be used if the desired platform chemical derivative is priced below 1.00 (...
Confronting Ethical Dilemmas in Managed Care

As managed care continues to alter the landscape of health and mental health services, so too does it affect social work education. In addition to changes in curricular emphases and the availability and selection of field education sites, managed care presents students with legal and ethical issues involving conflicts of interest, client confidentiality, informed consent, negligent care and client abandonment, and pressures to breach fiduciary responsibilities. This article examines each of these dilemmas and illustrates ways they are manifested under managed care. The authors describe resources for anticipating, avoiding, or addressing such difficulties. They conclude with recommendations for assisting students with this difficult content.
Predicting urinary tract infections in the emergency department with machine learning.

Background Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common emergency department (ED) diagnosis with reported high diagnostic error rates. Because a urine culture, part of the gold standard for diagnosis of UTI, is usually not available for 24–48 hours after an ED visit, diagnosis and treatment decisions are based on symptoms, physical findings, and other laboratory results, potentially leading to overutilization, antibiotic resistance, and delayed treatment. Previous research has demonstrated inadequate diagnostic performance for both individual laboratory tests and prediction tools. Objective Our aim, was to train, validate, and compare machine-learning based predictive models for UTI in a large diverse set of ED patients. Methods Single-center, multi-site, retrospective cohort analysis of 80,387 adult ED visits with urine culture results and UTI symptoms. We developed models for UTI prediction with six machine learning algorithms using demographic information, vitals, laboratory results, medications, past medical history, chief complaint, and structured historical and physical exam findings. Models were developed with both the full set of 211 variables and a reduced set of 10 variables. UTI predictions were compared between models and to proxies of provider judgment (documentation of UTI diagnosis and antibiotic administration). Results The machine learning models had an area under the curve ranging from 0.826–0.904, with extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) the top performing algorithm for both full and reduced models. The XGBoost full and reduced models demonstrated greatly improved specificity when compared to the provider judgment proxy of UTI diagnosis OR antibiotic administration with specificity differences of 33.3 (31.3–34.3) and 29.6 (28.5–30.6), while also demonstrating superior sensitivity when compared to documentation of UTI diagnosis with sensitivity differences of 38.7 (38.1–39.4) and 33.2 (32.5–33.9). In the admission and discharge cohorts using the full XGboost model, approximately 1 in 4 patients (4109/15855) would be re-categorized from a false positive to a true negative and approximately 1 in 11 patients (1372/15855) would be re-categorized from a false negative to a true positive. Conclusion The best performing machine learning algorithm, XGBoost, accurately diagnosed positive urine culture results, and outperformed previously developed models in the literature and several proxies for provider judgment. Future prospective validation is warranted.
A pilot study of vinorelbine safety and pharmacokinetics (PKs) in patients (pts) with varying degrees of liver dysfunction (LD).

432Background: Prospective data to support dosing guidelines for intravenous (IV) vinorelbine in pts with LD are limited. One study recommends standard 30 mg/m2 weekly for total bilirubin ≤2 mg/dL ...
Eugene Wigner and Nuclear Energy: A Reminiscence

I first met Eugene Wigner in his temporary office at the Metallurgical Laboratory on the University of Chicago campus. It was Winter of 1942. Wigner, who had been appointed by Arthur Compton to head the theoretical group at the Metallurgical Laboratory, was still commuting between his home in Princeton and Chicago. During these visits, he would meet with each of the fledgling group of theorists, go over our work, suggest improvements, offer criticisms.
Clinics, Technology, Ethics, and Humane Patient-Physician Relationships and Critical Care

Professor Gullo has given us a topic so broad that we can say almost anything about anything and that is exactly what we intend to do. First, let us join in the celebration of forty years of critical care medicine. Professor Gullo, you have gathered together the “Old Boys’ Club” in intensive care — Safar, Weil, Shoemaker, Gattinoni, and Vincent. They are pioneers, friends and colleagues.