cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Trace element deficiencies in man

Trace elements have had a role, albeit an unwitting one, in medicine since the ancient Egyptians used calamine (a zinc preparation) for skin disorders and the Greeks used burnt sponges to treat goiter. However, it is only in the last 50 years that the nutritional importance of trace elements has been recognized. The list of elements known to be essential for mammals now includes zinc, copper, manganese, iodine, cobalt, molybdenum, chromium, selenium, vanadium, nickel, and silicon; fluorine, tin, and arsenic may also be essential. Of these 14 elements, at present there are only 3 with well-recognized human deficiency syndromes—copper, zinc, and iodine, which are all relatively abundant and easy to measure in biological specimens. There is evidence that poor chromium nutrition may also be widespread, but analytical difficulties make interpretation of data difficult. Deficiencies of selenium, manganese, and cobalt are of economic importance in animal husbandry but do not appear to be a problem in normal human nutrition (except selenium in some geographical areas). Nutritional iodine deficiency is a recognized problem in some areas of the world and is the object of many public health projects. This topic has been well documented (National Research Council, 1970; Wayne et al., 1964) and will not be included in this review. Of the other elements, overt deficiencies have only been seen in the carefully controlled laboratory environment (Schwarz, 1974).
Multiresolution-signal direction-of-arrival estimation: a wavelets approach

This paper presents a general framework for the application of wavelets in array signal processing, including an understanding of the scale. A multiresolution-signal direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation scheme is proposed based on the wavelet decomposition. Simulations show that the new approach improves the DOA estimation performance, particularly for sources near the broadside direction.
Evaluating the Development of Culturally Relevant Teaching

This study investigates changes in beliefs about culturally relevant teaching in a re-designed early childhood program. Efficacy and beliefs favorable toward culturally relevant teaching increased, but students' prior experience with diverse others remained important. Greater programmatic support for practicing culturally relevant teaching is suggested to build upon students' apparent understanding of culturally relevant teaching.
The contraceptive needs of incarcerated women.

Abstract Objectives: We assessed the contraceptive needs of women incarcerated in jails in the southeastern United States to determine feasible and effective birth control interventions based on the needs of this population. Methods: Participants were recruited from local jails around a medium-sized metro area. Participants completed a survey of demographics, sexual health, contraceptive use, and preferred method of contraception. Results: The survey was completed by 188 women in jail. Participants reported high rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) (50.5%), inconsistent use of birth control (36.5%), and use of unreliable and user-dependent methods of birth control. The majority did not desire to become pregnant in the future (61.5%) but intended to have sex after release from jail (76.9%). Women who were able to bear children were more likely to report intentions to use birth control or STD protection after release (77.9%). Additionally, significant racial differences were found. Specifically, no...
Using the Bandera Tool Set to Model-Check Properties of Concurrent Java Software

The Bandera Tool Set is an integrated collection of program analysis, transformation, and visualization components designed to facilitate experimentation with model-checking Java source code. Bandera takes as input Java source code and a software requirement formalized in Bandera's temporal specification language, and it generates a program model and specification in the input language of one of several existing model-checking tools (including Spin [16], dSpin [6], SMV [3], and JPF [2]). Both program slicing and user extensible abstract interpretation components are applied to customize the program model to the property being checked. When a model-checker produces an error trail, Bandera renders the error trail at the source code level and allows the user to step through the code along the path of the trail while displaying values of variables and internal states of Java lock objects. In this tutorial paper, we use a simple concurrent Java program to illustrate the functionality of the main components of Bandera and how to interact the tool set using its graphical user interface.
On the solution of the Chini—Painlevé equation with application to the theory of planar tumbling of vehicles and meteorites in atmospheric entry†

Abstract A class of nonlinear ordinary differential equations describing the oscillatory behaviour of vehicles and meteorites entering planetary atmospheres is named as ‘Chini—Painleve's equation’ in this paper. A series solution which may be termed as ‘Painleve's fifth transcendental series’ is given and the stability of solutions is also determined.
Psychiatric Consultation in a Medical Setting for Adolescents Description of One Modus Operandi

The authors describe and summarize a two-year experience with psy chiatric consultation for emotionally disturbed adolescents whose primary care was provided by an adolescent clinic or inpatient unit within the Cincinnati General Hospital. Many adolescents with psychiatric problems can be effectively managed by nonpsychiatric physicians and other health professionals if adequate psychiatric consultation is available.
Dynamic Model of Fresh Fruit Promotion: A Household Production Approach

Many studies consider the dynamic effects of commodity promotion on demand, but few derive the theoretical basis for these effects in a model of optimal consumer behavior. This study develops a dynamic household production model of U.S. fresh fruit consumption, which it uses to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising and promotion expenditures by the Washington Apple Commission. Estimates from a dynamic-dual Generalized Leontief system show direct advertising to be marginally more effective than retail promotion in increasing apple sales, but advertising has positive spillover effects to sales of other fruits, whereas promotion reduces sales of competing products.
Methotrexate as a Corticosteroid-Sparing Agent in Complicated Neurocysticercosis

BACKGROUND A subset of patients with neurocysticercosis developed chronic or recurrent perilesional inflammation and required long-term and high-dose corticosteroid therapy. Such therapy frequently results in severe adverse effects. The purpose of this study was to determine whether methotrexate can be used as an effective corticosteroid-sparing or replacement agent in patients with complicated neurocysticercosis. METHODS This study was a nonblinded, prospective, observational trial. Patients with neurocysticercosis who required prednisone (15 mg/day) or its equivalent for > or =2 months, were likely to require long-term corticosteroid therapy by nature of their disease, developed serious complications due to corticosteroid use, or presented with a long-term history of corticosteroid use and had continued evidence of ongoing inflammation were eligible for methotrexate treatment. RESULTS Four patients are described in this study: 2 with subarachnoid neurocysticercosis, 1 with severe intraventricular and parenchymal disease, and 1 with recurrent perilesional edema around calcified lesions. Chronic inflammation due to neurocysticercosis resulted in lacunar infarcts, visual impairment, hydrocephalus, and seizures in these patients and necessitated long-term treatment with corticosteroids, which resulted in multiple adverse effects. The addition of methotrexate, prescribed at < or =20 mg/week, allowed for the successful reduction of corticosteroid use in all 4 patients and resulted in the improvement of many corticosteroid-associated adverse effects. CONCLUSIONS Methotrexate is a beneficial corticosteroid-sparing or replacement agent for patients with neurocysticercosis who develop chronic or recurrent perilesional inflammation.
Pulmonary Sporotrichosis Treated With Itraconazole

A 62-year-old woman had chronic cavitary pulmonary sporotrichosis refractory to medical management over an 8-year period. She was treated with oral itraconazole and had an apparent microbiologic and clinical response; however, the patient succumbed to progressive pulmonary hypertension. The early use of oral itraconazole for treatment of pulmonary sporotrichosis is advocated.
Martial's Ovid / Ovid's Martial

This paper allows Ovid to shape a reading of Martial, and Martial to shape a reading of Ovid. It proceeds through close readings of some 40 epigrams, and is organized into three large sections respectively addressing receptions in Martial of Ovid's poetry of elegiac love (I), of exile (II), and of myth (III). The final section offers sustained discussion of Martial's early Apophoreta (Book 14) and Liber Spectaculorum. Issues addressed include genre, intertextuality, sexual vocabulary and euphemism, exile as a figure for status anxiety, the metapoetics of book production, ecphrastic movement between art and epigrammatic text, and the aesthetics of myth in the Roman arena.
Electrical Measurements at Ultra-High Frequencies

Part I. A modified form of the long-line equations for use at ultra-high frequencies is given. A complete solution is obtained for a pair of parallel wires bridged at each end by a general impedance. The solution is in the form of expressions giving the voltage across, and the current through one of these impedances. Conditions are given under which the current or voltage becomes a maximum, as well as formulas for these maximum amplitudes. Special cases are discussed and expressions are derived for use in the measurement of reactance and resistance. Part II. A convenient form of parallel wire system for ultra-high-frequency measurements is briefly described, and its constants are listed. The use of a tandem bridge is explained. The general problem of measuring current and voltage at ultra-high frequencies is considered. A method is mathematically derived for obtaining the calibration characteristics of current and voltage indicators; the method is applied experimentally to determine such characteristics for a thermal milliammeter and for the symmetrical screen-grid voltmeter. The scale factor is discussed. Part III. The mathematical theory of Part I is applied to obtain two methods for measuring respectively high and low reactances. These are used to measure the reactances of various wires, coils, condensers, thermal milliammeters, vacuum thermocouples, etc., and to study series and parallel resonance circuits at ultra-high frequencies. Part IV. The general problem of resistance at ultra-highfrequencies is discussed. The mathematical theory of Part I is applied to the measurement of resistance.
Use of black polyethylene packaging to compensate for shrinkage distortion during the visible light-polymerization of Triad materials.

Polymerization shrinkage results in the distortion of many dental resin prostheses and ancillary intermediate devices such as denture bases, trial bases, and impression trays.1 When complete maxillary denture trial bases fabricated from visible light-polymerizing (VLP) material are processed, the posterior palatal seal region of the denture base tends to rise off the stone cast as a result of the setting shrinkage. Figure 1 shows a typical maxillary cast with a VLP resin trial base that was polymerized conventionally in bulk (Triad 1000; Dentsply International Inc, York, Pa.). Figure 2 shows the same maxillary cast with a VLP trial base that was polymerized incrementally, with initial blocking of polymerization in the central region. The posterior of the trial base is in intimate contact with the cast.
An optimal design of the LLC resonant converter based on peak gain estimation

The LLC resonant converter topology is widely used in DC-DC converter applications for its advantage in achieving high efficiency and high power density. However, due to the complexity in the analysis, the converter lacks a clear design method to help selecting the optimal circuit parameters. In this paper, an optimal design method is developed based on the operation mode analysis and peak gain estimation. With the optimal design, the converter can minimize the conduction loss while maintaining the required gain range. A 400W, 400V output and 25V–38V input LLC converter is built using the proposed method, which achieves above 98% peak efficiency. As a comparison, the conventional searching method is used to reselect the LLC components for the same specifications, and the experiments show that the optimal design has better performance.
Defining human mesenchymal stem cell efficacy in vivo

Allogeneic human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) can suppress graft versus host disease (GvHD) and have profound anti-inflammatory and regenerative capacity in stroke, infarct, spinal cord injury, meniscus regeneration, tendinitis, acute renal failure, and heart disease in human and animal models of disease. There is significant clinical hMSC variability in efficacy and the ultimate response in vivo. The challenge in hMSC based therapy is defining the efficacy of hMSC in vivo. Models which may provide insight into hMSC bioactivity in vivo would provide a means to distinguish hMSCs for clinical utility. hMSC function has been described as both regenerative and trophic through the production of bioactive factors. The regenerative component involves the multi-potentiality of hMSC progenitor differentiation. The secreted factors generated by the hMSCs are milieu and injury specific providing unique niches for responses in vivo. These bioactive factors are anti-scarring, angiogenic, anti-apoptotic as well as regenerative. Further, from an immunological standpoint, hMSC's can avoid host immune response, providing xenographic applications. To study the in vivo immuno-regulatory effectiveness of hMSCs, we used the ovalbumin challenge model of acute asthma. This is a quick 3 week in vivo pulmonary inflammation model with readily accessible ways of measuring effectiveness of hMSCs. Our data show that there is a direct correlation between the traditional ceramic cube score to hMSCs attenuation of cellular recruitment due to ovalbumin challenge. The results from these studies verify the in vivo immuno-modulator effectiveness of hMSCs and support the potential use of the ovalbumin model as an in vivo model of hMSC potency and efficacy. Our data also support future directions toward exploring hMSCs as an alternative therapeutic for the treatment of airway inflammation associated with asthma.
Discretization of continuous features in clinical datasets.

Background The increasing availability of clinical data from electronic medical records (EMRs) has created opportunities for secondary uses of health information. When used in machine learning classification, many data features must first be transformed by discretization. Objective To evaluate six discretization strategies, both supervised and unsupervised, using EMR data. Materials and methods We classified laboratory data (arterial blood gas (ABG) measurements) and physiologic data (cardiac output (CO) measurements) derived from adult patients in the intensive care unit using decision trees and naive Bayes classifiers. Continuous features were partitioned using two supervised, and four unsupervised discretization strategies. The resulting classification accuracy was compared with that obtained with the original, continuous data. Results Supervised methods were more accurate and consistent than unsupervised, but tended to produce larger decision trees. Among the unsupervised methods, equal frequency and k-means performed well overall, while equal width was significantly less accurate. Discussion This is, we believe, the first dedicated evaluation of discretization strategies using EMR data. It is unlikely that any one discretization method applies universally to EMR data. Performance was influenced by the choice of class labels and, in the case of unsupervised methods, the number of intervals. In selecting the number of intervals there is generally a trade-off between greater accuracy and greater consistency. Conclusions In general, supervised methods yield higher accuracy, but are constrained to a single specific application. Unsupervised methods do not require class labels and can produce discretized data that can be used for multiple purposes.
Research Article: Homeopathic alterna to conventional antibiotics

As the number of drug-resistant strains of microorganisms increases, scientists are in search of new ways to treat resistant infections. Essential oils have been used for centuries in homeopathic medicine and many are claimed to have antibacterial and antiviral properties. Several homeopathic substances were tested first using the disc diffusion method to determine activity against selected bacterial and fungal species. Microorganisms used for the study were Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida kejyr, Rhodotorula rubra and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Substances with the most consistent action against microorganisms were tested further using a broth microdilution method to determine a minimum inhibitory concentration for each substance. Rhodotorula rubra was eliminated from the broth microdilution assay due to the difficulty in culturing the microorganism and its low incidence of infection. Homeopathic substances tested were garlic, honey, tea tree oil, oregano oil, thyme oil, olive leaf extract, wintergreen oil, and lemon oil. The most effective were tea tree oil, oregano oil, thyme oil, wintergreen oil, and lemon oil. Oregano oil was determined to have the greatest antimicrobial activity with a mean minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.56 (%v/v) followed by thyme oil with a mean MIC of 2.47 (%v/v).
Improved Moser-Trudinger Inequality Involving Lp Norm in n Dimensions

The paper is concerned about an improvement of Moser-Trudinger inequality involving L p norm for a bounded domain in n dimensions. Let ¯ ( ) = inf w2H 1;n 0 ( );w.0 krwk n kwkn
RNA mis-splicing in disease

Complex and intricate RNA splicing mechanisms are crucial for gene regulation and for maximizing proteomic diversity. This Review discusses how alterations to splicing mechanisms — such as mutations in pre-mRNAs, or mutations and dysregulation of core spliceosome proteins and other RNA-binding proteins — results in diverse molecular consequences and various diseases. Opportunities for therapeutic correction of these defects are also explored.
Autonomous taxis could greatly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions of US light-duty vehicles

Autonomous vehicles move passengers without human intervention. Modelling suggests that autonomous taxis could reduce transport emissions by 87–94% per mile in 2030 and save approximately 7 billion barrels of oil.
Olanzapine reduces delirium symptoms in the critically ill pediatric patient.

Delirium is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by acute disturbances in attention, consciousness, cognitive processing, perception, and the sleep-wake cycle. The few studies investigating treatment of delirium in critically ill children and adolescents have used differing diagnostic criteria, and have not employed control groups or procedures to blind observations. The objective of this study was to examine the efficacy of olanzapine for the treatment of delirium in the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) using methodological procedures to reduce bias and allow greater generalization. Psychiatric records of 59 patients admitted to the pediatric ICU or cardiothoracic ICU over a 4 yr period with the diagnosis of delirium were examined. The delirium rating scale was used to assess delirium severity at the time of initial psychiatric evaluation and five days later. Raters were blinded to medication administration. Patients who were diagnosed with delirium, but did not receive olanzapine, or any other antipsychotic medication, served as the control group. Greater improvement of delirium symptoms was found for the olanzapine group (n = 31) than the control group (n = 28) (F (1,40) = 4.86, r = 0.33, 95% confidence interval = 0.020–0.58). This finding remained statistically significant after controlling for initial delirium severity (F (1, 20) = 28.62, r = 0.77, 95% confidence interval = 0.50–0.90). This study demonstrates patients with delirium administered olanzapine had greater reduction of delirium symptom severity than controls. It supplements the existing literature by using a study design that reduces expectancy effects and allows examination of the natural history of delirium symptoms without medication administration.
Cortical Hormone-Like Action of Progesterone and Non-Effect of Sex Hormones on “Water Intoxication.”∗:

SummaryProgesterone in doses of 1-2 mg per day extended the lives of young adrenalectomized rats in half of the cases throughout a 20-day treatment period. On the basis of equivalent dosage, it was...
Philosophical Comments on Ahmed’s Proposal

Arif Ahmed’s paper claims moral neutrality for game theory. This is not true, however, of much of classical game theory, for example Ken Binmore’s Game Theory and the Social Contract (1994). The field has changed comparatively recently. With respect to his own version, he claims that evolutionary explanation of cooperation is incompatible with theism, but this is because he thinks just about anything is compatible with it. It is important to see that this critique is the same as the logical positivists’ critique in the 1950s, for example in Antony Flew’s parable of the invisible gardener. The logical positivists thought that a statement could only be meaningful if it is either a tautology or empirically verifiable or falsifiable. But a claim that God exists is not subject to empirical confirmation, because God is not that kind of being. To dismiss the claim on that basis is just to beg the question.
State-Level Cooperative Extension Spending and Farmer Exits

Numerous studies have evaluated the impact of Extension on farm productivity and related outcomes. Here we use annual data from 1983 to 2010 covering the 50 U.S. states to examine the impact of Extension on net changes in the number of farmers. The historical transition of farmers out of U.S. agriculture raises the question of whether Cooperative Extension and underlying Hatch-funded research spending keeps farmers in agriculture or accelerates their exit. On balance, nearly 500,000 more farmers left than entered agriculture over the period studied. We estimate that without Extension, as many as 137,700 (or 28%) additional farmers would have disappeared on net. Overall, Extension programs are a remarkably cost effective way of keeping farmers in agriculture. Alternatively, shifting just 1.5% of federal farm program payments to Extension would have reduced net exits over this period by an estimated 11%, or 55,000 farmers.
Maternal IgG and IgA Antibodies Dampen Mucosal T Helper Cell Responses in Early Life

To maintain a symbiotic relationship between the host and its resident intestinal microbiota, appropriate mucosal T cell responses to commensal antigens must be established. Mice acquire both IgG and IgA maternally; the former has primarily been implicated in passive immunity to pathogens while the latter mediates host-commensal mutualism. Here, we report the surprising observation that mice generate T cell-independent and largely Toll-like receptor (TLR)-dependent IgG2b and IgG3 antibody responses against their gut microbiota. We demonstrate that maternal acquisition of these antibodies dampens mucosal T follicular helper responses and subsequent germinal center B cell responses following birth. This work reveals a feedback loop whereby T cell-independent, TLR-dependent antibodies limit mucosal adaptive immune responses to newly acquired commensal antigens and uncovers a broader function for maternal IgG.
Forty-Year Follow-up of Full-Thickness Skin Graft After Thermal Burn Injury to the Volar Hand.

Background The hands are commonly affected in severe thermal burn injuries. Resulting contractures lead to significant loss of function. Burn contracture release and skin grafting are necessary to restore hand function. We report a case in which surgical reconstruction of a volar hand burn was performed with full-thickness skin grafting. The patient had a 40-year follow-up to assess the function and cosmesis of the repaired hand. Methods We report a case in which a 15-month-old boy presented after receiving third-degree burns to the left volar hand, including the flexural aspects of the index, long, and ring fingers by placing it on a hot kitchen stove burner. The patient subsequently underwent scar contracture release and full-thickness skin grafting. Results Eleven years after reconstruction, further contractures developed associated with the patient's growth, which were reconstructed with repeat full-thickness skin graft from the inguinal region. No recurrence was witnessed afterward and 40 years after initial injury, the patient maintains full activities of daily living and use of his hand in his occupation. Conclusions There is debate regarding the superiority of split-thickness versus full-thickness grafts during reconstruction. Our case strengthens the argument for durability of a full-thickness skin graft following thermal burn injury.
Gender Equity and the Enacted Science Curriculum

At the beginning of the 20th century, the world was on the brink of technological revolution. Science and technology were partners in a process of change that rapidly would transform the way in which people lived their lives and shaped their dreams. Today, as we approach the onset of the 21 st century, the world is transformed radically from that world of 100 years ago. The computer has found its way into every imaginable facet of human life and has enabled an information revolution to accelerate its way through the latter years of the present decade. This revolution has the capacity to transform the way in which science education proceeds. In the privacy of the home, potential learners can ‘surf’ cyberspace, capture evocative images of comets colliding with Jupiter, examine data of all forms at an enormous number of sites, communicate with others through the computer on an eye to eye basis, participate in discussions between teachers on how science ought to be taught and learned, and read exchanges on virtually any topic associated with myriad news groups. Although the internet has found its way into only a handful of schools and its use is limited by the availability of computers and networking software, an explosion in the ownership of personal computers has brought the internet into many homes in the USA and around the world. Widespread availability has increased the accessibility of learning resources for science education in a manner that is potentially blind to colour and gender, although not to social class. The advent of the information revolution promises to permeate the conservative boundaries of schooling and science education. It is within this context, one of a possible revolution in the nature of schooling, that it is critical to consider issues of gender equity in science education.
The nature of fictional characters and the referential fallacy

In this paper I wish to make a philosophical suggestion concerning the nature of fictional characters. The usual strategy for making a philosophical claim might be called a "topdown" strategy where the thesis is argued at an abstract level, and concrete examples come into play only as illustrations or practical applications of the separately established thesis. In this paper I wish to pursue a "bottom-up" strategy by engaging in the concrete problem of gauging the fictional character played by Charlie Chaplin in his silent films. In particular, I shall start by urging that Walter Kerr is mistaken in his analysis of that character in his otherwise admirable book, The Silent Clowns.' In an almost complete about-face, I shall then argue that taken in a certain way, Kerr is right in what he says. The attempt to resolve these conflicting results will allow us to say something philosophical about the nature of fictional characters and to isolate a confusion or fallacy Kerr may well have fallen prey to. By following this "bottom-up" strategy I hope to arrive at a philosophical conclusion whose plausibility and relevance derive from the concrete problems of film criticism it resolves.
The Business of Amateurs: Suffering Student-Athletes and a Thriving NCAA

The NCAA frequently lauds amateurism and the ideal of the "student athlete." But in contrast to this idyllic conception, college football is big business. And it is built on the backs of gladiators, football (and basketball) players who are often forgotten, disposable cogs in big-time college sports.Such is the story Bob DeMars masterfully weaves in "The Business of Amateurs." This short essay reviews DeMars's documentary. It contrasts the excesses of college football's gold-plated facilities with players' poverty and health issues, particularly in former athletes suffering from dementia and depression.In the past few years, stories about student-athletes as impoverished cogs in the NCAA's billion-dollar big business machine have spread. DeMars adds to these stories. And he offers a particularly sobering perspective by focusing on the former players whose lives have been upended — if not ended — by injuries.
Hydraulic evaluation of the design and operation of Ancient Rome’s Anio Novus aqueduct

This paper evaluates conveyance and flow characteristics for the Anio Novus, the aqueduct bringing water from the greatest distance to ancient Rome. Travertine accumulations, deposited from water on floor and walls, were used to reconstruct the flow rate and associated spatial and temporal variations. Hydraulic quantities (e.g., flow depth and velocity) markedly varied over the course of the aqueduct, implying that constraints such as topography and construction techniques were combined with hydraulic considerations to determine the aqueduct layout. Design practices differed along the aqueduct and channel size design was not based exclusively on anticipated carrying capacity, tending towards larger-than-necessary design based on experience.
Echocardiographic Assessment of Right Ventricular Size and Function in Cats With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Background Studies evaluating right ventricular (RV) structural and functional abnormalities in feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are limited. Hypothesis Right ventricular structural and functional abnormalities are present in cats with HCM and are associated with clinical severity. Animals Eighty-one client-owned cats. Methods Retrospective 2-dimensional (2D) echocardiographic study. Right atrial diameter (RAD), RV free wall thickness (RVFWd), RV internal dimension (RVIDd), RV fractional area change (FAC), and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) were measured in control cats (n = 26), cats with subclinical HCM (subclinical HCM; n = 31), and cats with HCM and congestive heart failure (HCM + CHF; n = 24). Results Right heart size (RAD, RVFWd, and RVIDd) and RV function (FAC and TAPSE) significantly (all P < .05) increased and decreased, respectively, in the HCM + CHF group compared with controls. In the subclinical HCM group, only RVFWd was significantly (P < .05) higher than in controls. Compared with reference intervals derived from controls, 29% of cats with HCM had increased RVFWd. Increased left ventricular free wall thickness, increased RVIDd and decreased TAPSE independently correlated with increased left atrial size. Cats with HCM and pleural effusion were significantly more likely to have increased RVFWd and had increased RAD and decreased TAPSE compared with cats without pleural effusion. Conclusions and Clinical Importance Right ventricular remodeling and dysfunction occur in some cats with HCM and may be associated with clinical severity. Our results support involvement of RV in the pathophysiology of HCM in some cats and support echocardiographic assessment of the RV in cats with HCM.
Elucidating and engineering thiopeptide biosynthesis

Initially discovered in the mid-twentieth century, thiopeptides constitute a diverse family of bacterially produced natural products exhibiting a remarkable array of biological properties. Only in the last several years have the details of thiopeptide biosynthesis been uncovered by a combination of genomic, genetic, and biochemical approaches. Thiopeptides are now known to be ribosomally synthesized and subsequently densely modified to carry azol(in)es, dehydro amino acids, and various other pathway-specific decorations. The defining feature of thiopeptides is a central six-membered nitrogenous ring that constrains peptide macrocycles of varying sequences and sizes. Recent landmark studies have defined the precisely orchestrated posttranslational modification cascade culminating in thiopeptide product formation. Because diverse thiopeptides are processed by a relatively small number of well-conserved enzymes, it has been suggested that artificial diversification of the precursor peptide could allow a vast new chemical space to be explored for clinically important activities. The success of this strategy depends on the plasticity of thiopeptide processing machinery, an open question that warrants further investigation. There is an urgent need therefore to leverage established thiopeptide research platforms to investigate substrate-enzyme specificity and devise intelligent diversification strategies for library generation. Meanwhile, the distinct genomic signatures of conserved thiopeptide-associated genes will enable the continued mining of nature for novel compounds and processing enzymes.
Sex and the Developing Brain: Second Edition

Abstract The brains of males and females, men and women, are different, that is a fact. What is debated is how different and how important are those differences. Sex differences in the brain are determined by genetics, hormones, and experience, which in humans includes culture, society, and parental and peer expectations. The importance of nonbiological variables to sex differences in humans is paramount, making it difficult if not impossible to parse out those contributions that are truly biological. The study of animals provides us the opportunity to understand the magnitude and scope of biologically based sex differences in the brain, and understanding the cellular mechanisms provides us insight into novel sources of brain plasticity. Many sex differences are established during a developmental sensitive window by differences in the hormonal milieu of males versus females. The neonatal testis produces large amounts of testosterone which gains access to the brain and is further metabolized into active an...
Title: Academic Performance in Online versus Blended Classes in Principles of Economics and Statistics Courses

This study compares the academic performance of students in online principles of microeconomics and business statistics classes with their peers taking the same courses in a blended classroom setting. The data used in this study comes from courses taught by the same instructors utilizing the same course content and student performance assessments. Both the online and blended courses utilized the same learning management system (LMS) and the same publisher provided coursework management system (CMS). After controlling for demographic and pre-college ability factors, the results indicate students in online courses perform better when compared to their blended class counterparts in the business statistics courses.
Did Post-9/11 Wiretap Legislation Increase Law Enforcement Productivity?

The effect of law changes on public sector productivity is a growing, yet underresearched, area in economics. Nineteen states enacted state wiretapping legislation following the 9/11 terror attacks, the provisions of which mirror the provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act that relaxed the use of wiretap surveillance. Using a proxy variable approach, we estimate wiretap productivity in terms of producing arrests and convictions originating from wiretap orders issued on narcotics offenses from 1998 to 2005. We find that the post-9/11 state wiretap law changes increased the unobserved total factor productivity, a measure of productive efficiency.
Functional Quantitative and Qualitative Models for Quality Modeling in a Fused Deposition Modeling Process

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables flexible part geometry and functionality, and reduces product development life cycle by direct layer-wise fabrication from CAD files. In the last decade, great achievements are made on AM materials, machines, processes, etc. However, the quality of the AM parts is still questionable for industrial specifications. On the one hand, AM part quality variables can be either quantitative, such as dimensional accuracy, or qualitative, such as binary indicators for voids, missing features, or surface roughness. On the other hand, both offline process setting variables and functional in situ process variables can be measured and modeled with both quantitative and qualitative (QQ) quality response variables. In this paper, the QQ quality response variables are modeled by offline process setting variables and in situ process variables via functional QQ models. The modeling of these in situ process variables provides the basis for real-time monitoring and control for AM processes. Simulation studies and experimental data from a fused deposition modeling process are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Note to Practitioners —Additive manufacturing (AM) processes have attracted much attention and showed many advantages over the traditional subtractive manufacturing processes. However, the product quality issues make AM intractable for high-quality parts in industrial applications. This paper aims to address the quality issues by modeling both quantitative quality variables, such as dimensional accuracy, and qualitative quality variables, such as the binary (go/no-go) indicator for surface conditions. Both offline process setting variables and in situ process variables are used in the model as predictors. Such a model is important for systematically quality evaluation of AM parts, and provides the basis for future process monitoring and control. The merits of the proposed method are demonstrated with simulation studies and a case study in a fused deposition modeling process.
No Accounting for Taste

Since the contributions to this Special Issue consist of relatively brief statements, the Editorial Board of Konturen has decided to forego abstracts this time around. Please click on "html" or "pdf" below for the full document of this essay.
Segmentation of skin lesions in chronic graft versus host disease photographs with fully convolutional networks

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a frequent and potentially life-threatening complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) and commonly affects the skin, resulting in distressing patient morbidity. The percentage of involved body surface area (BSA) is commonly used for diagnosing and scoring the severity of cGVHD. However, the segmentation of the involved BSA from patient whole body serial photography is challenging because (1) it is difficult to design traditional segmentation method that rely on hand crafted features as the appearance of cGVHD lesions can be drastically different from patient to patient; (2) to the best of our knowledge, currently there is no publicavailable labelled image set of cGVHD skin for training deep networks to segment the involved BSA. In this preliminary study we create a small labelled image set of skin cGVHD, and we explore the possibility to use a fully convolutional neural network (FCN) to segment the skin lesion in the images. We use a commercial stereoscopic Vectra H1 camera (Canfield Scientific) to acquire ~400 3D photographs of 17 cGVHD patients aged between 22 and 72. A rotational data augmentation process is then applied, which rotates the 3D photos through 10 predefined angles, producing one 2D projection image at each position. This results in ~4000 2D images that constitute our cGVHD image set. A FCN model is trained and tested using our images. We show that our method achieves encouraging results for segmenting cGVHD skin lesion in photographic images.
Interventional bronchoscopy in adults.

ABSTRACTIntroduction: The field of interventional pulmonology (IP) is a rapidly maturing subspecialty of pulmonary medicine, which emphasizes advanced diagnostic and therapeutic bronchoscopy for the evaluation and management of central airway obstruction, mediastinal/hilar adenopathy and lung nodules/masses, as well as minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic pleural procedures.Areas covered: This review describes advances in diagnostic and therapeutic bronchoscopic techniques.Expert commentary: In the past decade, there has been a remarkable growth in available technology and equipment, as well as clinical and translational research efforts focused on patient-centered outcomes. Furthermore, the recent establishment of a uniform accreditation standard for all IP fellowship programs in the United States was an important step in the continued evolution of this subspecialty of pulmonary medicine.
Human Lacrimal Production Rates from Modified Schirmer-Tear Test.

Author(s): Li, Songhao; Kim, Young Hyun; Li, Wing; Lin, Meng C; Radke, Clayton J | Abstract: SIGNIFICANCE:A simple methodology is presented to quantify basal tear production with a modified Schirmer-tear test. PURPOSE:We introduce a simple clinical procedure to measure quantitative basal tear-production flowrates, QL, from a modified Schirmer-tear test (STT). METHODS:Eight healthy subjects aged at least 18 years underwent modified STTs on both eyes for two visits each. Schirmer strips were sheathed with transparent tape before insertion. Topical anesthetic minimized reflex tearing. Wetting lengths were measured every 30 s for 5 min; QL was calculated from the linear slope of wetting length versus time. Determination of QL requires mass-balance equations on the tear prism and Schirmer strip with strip imbibition kinetics obeying Darcy and Young-Laplace laws. RESULTS:Basal tear production rates varied from essentially 0 to about 2 μl/min. With some exceptions, right and left eyes showed similar tear production rates. CONCLUSIONS:By following the modified STT, QL is established with minimal additional effort over a standard Schirmer test. We predict and observe four different subtypes of imbibition kinetics depending on how short or long the time is for first appearance of the wetting front and on how fast or slow is tear production. For slow lacrimal production rates, the standard 5-min wetting length does not correlate with basal tear production.
Learning Joint Embedding with Multimodal Cues for Cross-Modal Video-Text Retrieval

Constructing a joint representation invariant across different modalities (e.g., video, language) is of significant importance in many multimedia applications. While there are a number of recent successes in developing effective image-text retrieval methods by learning joint representations, the video-text retrieval task, however, has not been explored to its fullest extent. In this paper, we study how to effectively utilize available multimodal cues from videos for the cross-modal video-text retrieval task. Based on our analysis, we propose a novel framework that simultaneously utilizes multi-modal features (different visual characteristics, audio inputs, and text) by a fusion strategy for efficient retrieval. Furthermore, we explore several loss functions in training the embedding and propose a modified pairwise ranking loss for the task. Experiments on MSVD and MSR-VTT datasets demonstrate that our method achieves significant performance gain compared to the state-of-the-art approaches.
Frequency Domain Analysis

So far, we have mostly examined the response of dynamic systems to relatively simple inputs: impulses, steps, and ramps. While we have used Matlab ® to calculate the response of systems to more complex inputs numerically, there are also analytical methods that can be used to identify the response of systems to inputs of a general form. The most common analytical method is frequency domain analysis: the analysis of the steady state response for a linear system to sinusoidal (harmonic) inputs.
Assessment Tools in Pediatric Chronic Pain: Reliability and Validity

Pediatric chronic pain is a very individual and diverse human experience (Graumlich et al. 2001; Malaty et al. 2005; Schechter et al. 2003). Chronic pain has a substantial and broad adverse impact on the daily lives of children and adolescents, resulting in significantly worse physical functioning, psychological functioning, social functioning, as well as lower satisfaction with life and decreased self-perceived health status (Merlijn et al. 2006; Palermo 2000). These detrimental effects of pediatric chronic pain frequently also adversely impact parents and other family members (Eccleston et al. 2004; Jordan 2005; Palermo 2000).
Relating estuarine geology to groundwater discharge at an oyster reef in Copano Bay, TX

Abstract Coastal bays with fresh submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) have been found to provide a favorable environment to shellfish (e.g., oysters). Significant variability in the spatial distribution and magnitude of SGD may occur because of subsurface heterogeneity. We investigated the relationship between stratigraphic controls (i.e. paleovalley systems) and the spatial distribution of SGD in relation to oyster reefs. In Copano Bay, South Texas, major oyster reefs have been shown to be oriented perpendicular to shore, along interfluves, and near paleovalley margins. A novel combination approach of radioactive geochemical tracers, stable isotopes, geophysical and petrophysical techniques were used to identify estuarine depositional environments for individual hydrogeologic characterization and evaluation of SGD distribution with implications to ecological features such as oyster reefs. A 1-km2 area within a paleovalley system, in Copano Bay, yielded discernible differences in sediment type, apparent resistivity, and SGD rates among four different depositional environments: paleovalley, paleovalley margin, oyster reef and interfluve. Electrical resistivity tomography revealed a direct connection between the oyster reef and the underlying, more permeable interfluve, and the presence of a fresher SGD component in the subsurface. Measurements of SGD from stationary and mobile continuous radon-222 surveys across each depositional environment showed that, by and large, areas in proximity to reefs have larger SGD rates (62.6 ± 11.3 cm/d in January and 28.7 ± 10.8 cm/d in July) when compared to paleovalleys (31.9 ± 8.9 cm/d in January and 19.5 ± 7.2 cm/d in July). The role of depositional environments as hydrologic controls on SGD to oyster reefs revealed in this study is further confirmed by significant differences in stable and radioactive isotopes observed over small spatial scales offshore when compared to the entire estuary. Although constant mixing and radon-222 degassing of bay waters are likely altering the relationships between the different depositional environments and magnitude of SGD, this study provides an improved understanding of possible pathways of freshwater and solute inputs to oyster reefs for more informed decisions on reef restoration efforts.