cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Time-resolved three-dimensional phase-contrast MRI.

Purpose To demonstrate the feasibility of a four-dimensional phase contrast (PC) technique that permits spatial and temporal coverage of an entire three-dimensional volume, to quantitatively validate its accuracy against an established time resolved two-dimensional PC technique to explore advantages of the approach with regard to the four-dimensional nature of the data. Materials and Methods Time-resolved, three-dimensional anatomical images were generated simultaneously with registered three-directional velocity vector fields. Improvements compared to prior methods include retrospectively gated and respiratory compensated image acquisition, interleaved flow encoding with freely selectable velocity encoding (venc) along each spatial direction, and flexible trade-off between temporal resolution and total acquisition time. Results The implementation was validated against established two-dimensional PC techniques using a well-defined phantom, and successfully applied in volunteer and patient examinations. Human studies were performed after contrast administration in order to compensate for loss of in-flow enhancement in the four-dimensional approach. Conclusion Advantages of the four-dimensional approach include the complete spatial and temporal coverage of the cardiovascular region of interest and the ability to obtain high spatial resolution in all three dimensions with higher signal-to-noise ratio compared to two-dimensional methods at the same resolution. In addition, the four-dimensional nature of the data offers a variety of image processing options, such as magnitude and velocity multi-planar reformation, three-directional vector field plots, and velocity profiles mapped onto selected planes of interest. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2003;17:499–506. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Biomarkers in lung cancer: from early detection to novel therapeutics and decision making

Lung cancer remains a significant cause of mortality worldwide. While advances in therapy continue to be made, the overall prognosis for patients diagnosed with lung cancer remains poor. Historically, markers such as age, performance status and disease stage have been used to risk-stratify patients and guide therapeutic decisions. These parameters provide some useful information, but more sensitive markers are clearly needed. Molecular and genetic studies have identified several such markers, which appear to play critical roles in carcinogenesis and affect patient outcomes. This article reviews a number of biomarkers that have been identified in lung cancer, and their prognostic and predictive roles.
Loneliness as a specific risk factor for depressive symptoms: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.

The extent to which loneliness is a unique risk factor for depressive symptoms was determined in 2 population-based studies of middle-aged to older adults, and the possible causal influences between loneliness and depressive symptoms were examined longitudinally in the 2nd study. In Study 1, a nationally representative sample of persons aged 54 and older completed a telephone interview as part of a study of health and aging. Higher levels of loneliness were associated with more depressive symptoms, net of the effects of age, gender, ethnicity, education, income, marital status, social support, and perceived stress. In Study 2, detailed measures of loneliness, social support, perceived stress, hostility, and demographic characteristics were collected over a 3-year period from a population-based sample of adults ages 50-67 years from Cook County, Illinois. Loneliness was again associated with more depressive symptoms, net of demographic covariates, marital status, social support, hostility, and perceived stress. Latent variable growth models revealed reciprocal influences over time between loneliness and depressive symptomatology. These data suggest that loneliness and depressive symptomatology can act in a synergistic effect to diminish well-being in middle-aged and older adults.
Dynamics of micelle–nanoparticle systems undergoing shear: a coarse-grained molecular dynamics approach

Recent work has shown that polymeric micelles can template nanoparticles via interstitial sites in shear-ordered micelle solutions. In this work, we report results based on a coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) model of a solvent/polymer/nanoparticle system. Our results demonstrate the importance of polymer concentration and the micelle corona length in 2D shear-ordering of neat polymer solutions. Although our results do not show strong 3D ordering during shear, we find that cessation of shear allows the system to relax into a 3D configuration of greater order than without shear. It is further shown that this post-shear relaxation is strongly dependent on the length of the micelle corona. For the first time, we demonstrate the presence and importance of a flow disturbance surrounding micelles in simple shear flow at moderate Peclet numbers. This disturbance is similar to what is observed around simulated star polymers and ellipsoids. The extent of the flow disturbance increases as expected with a longer micelle corona length. It is further suggested that without proper consideration of these dynamics, a stable nanoparticle configuration would be difficult to obtain.
Photovoltaic systems : An end-of-millennium review

The production of electricity from photovoltaics continues to attract worldwide interest, most recently as a power source for distributed energy generation. Today's photovoltaic systems are already being used effectively for smaller power needs in remote applications. For both of these applications, the issues of reliability, efficiency, safety, and low cost are the principal drivers of system technology. This review uses these design issues to provide a system perspective on the current status of the technology, the changes it has already experienced and the necessity for improvements, especially in tomorrow's systems. The discussion of remaining issues focuses on the reduction of area-related and collector costs, the accurate prediction of performance and lifetime, and the need for developing much better information on recurring costs for maintenance and component replacement. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper was produced under the auspices of the US Government and it is therefore not subject to copyright in the US.
Size dependence of concrete fracture energy determined by RILEM work-of-fracture method

The paper analyzes the size dependence of the fracture energy of concrete obtained according to the existing RILEM recommendation proposed by Hillerborg and based on the work-of-fracture method of Nakayama, Tattersal and Tappin, in which the energy dissipated at the fracture front is evaluated from the measured load-displacement curve. The analysis is based on the size effect law proposed by Bažant, which has been shown to be applicable to the size ranges up to about 1:20 and apply in the same form for all specimen geometries. The analysis utilizes the previously developed method for calculating the R-curve from the size effect, and the load-deflection curve from the R-curve. The R-curve is dependent on the geometry of the specimen. The results show that the fracture energy according to the existing RILEM recommendation is not size-independent, as desired, but depends strongly on the specimen size. This dependence is even stronger than that of the R-curve. When the specimen size is extrapolated to infinity, the fracture energy according to the RILEM recommendation coincides with the fracture energy obtained by the size effect method. It is also found that, in fracture specimens of usual sizes, the pre-peak contribution of the work of the load to the fracture energy is relatively small. Finally, as a by-product, the analysis also verifies the fact that, in three-point bend fracture specimens, the fracture energy according to the RILEM definition is dependent on the notch depth.
Quantitative Ambiguities in Matched versus Unmatched Analyses of the 2×2 Table for a Case-Control Study

When controls are individually matched to the cases in a case-control study, the subsequent data can be analysed in a matched or unmatched format. If done with careful attention to clinical variables that can produce important bias or confounding, the matching would have a scientific basis that warrants preservation of a matched analysis. If done, however, in the more common manner, as an act of demographic convenience, the matching is not based on a cogent 'correlation'; and an unmatched analysis may be preferred because it uses all the data and it is easier to understand. Regardless of the merits of the arguments, investigators can choose (and can often justify) either a matched or unmatched analysis. If the matched table is structured in the customary format of (a b/c d), the results for the odds ratio and chi-square test in the matched and unmatched analyses will be relatively similar if ad congruent to bc, but be strikingly disparate if ad is substantially higher or lower than bc. The same distinction can be noted by comparing a (or any value observed in the four cells) with the corresponding value that would be expected for that cell as calculated from the marginal totals. If the observed and expected values sharply disagree, the values of the odds ratio and chi-square will sharply disagree in the matched and unmatched formats. To avoid invidious choices when disparate results emerge from the matched and unmatched methods, investigators can routinely apply and routinely report what is found with both methods. Readers can then see both sets of results and can take their choice.
Effect of incentives on insecticide-treated bed net use in sub-Saharan Africa: a cluster randomized trial in Madagascar

Insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) have been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality due to malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Strategies using incentives to increase ITN use could be more efficient than traditional distribution campaigns. To date, behavioural incentives have been studied mostly in developed countries. No study has yet looked at the effect of incentives on the use of ITNs. Reported here are the results of a cluster randomized controlled trial testing household-level incentives for ITN use following a free ITN distribution campaign in Madagascar. The study took place from July 2007 until February 2008. Twenty-one villages were randomized to either intervention or control clusters. Households in both clusters received a coupon redeemable for one ITN. After one month, intervention households received a bonus for ITN use, determined by visual confirmation of a mounted ITN. Data were collected at baseline, one month and six months. Both unadjusted and adjusted results, using cluster specific methods, are presented. At baseline, 8.5% of households owned an ITN and 6% were observed to have a net mounted over a bed in the household. At one month, there were no differences in ownership between the intervention and control groups (99.5% vs. 99.4%), but net use was substantially higher in the intervention group (99% vs. 78%), with an adjusted risk ratio of 1.24 (95% CI: 1.10 to 1.40; p < 0.001). After six months, net ownership had decreased in the intervention compared to the control group (96.7% vs. 99.7%), with an adjusted risk ratio of 0.97 (p < 0.01). There was no difference between the groups in terms of ITN use at six months; however, intervention households were more likely to use a net that they owned (96% vs. 90%; p < 0.001). Household-level incentives have the potential to significantly increase the use of ITNs in target households in the immediate-term, but, over time, the use of ITNs is similar to households that did not receive incentives. Providing incentives for behaviour change is a promising tool that can complement traditional ITN distribution programmes and improve the effectiveness of ITN programmes in protecting vulnerable populations, especially in the short-term.
Interspecific exchange of avian influenza virus genes in Alaska: The influence of trans-hemispheric migratory tendency and breeding ground sympatry

The movement and transmission of avian influenza viral strains via wild migratory birds may vary by host species as a result of migratory tendency and sympatry with other infected individuals. To examine the roles of host migratory tendency and species sympatry on the movement of Eurasian low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) genes into North America, we characterized migratory patterns and LPAI viral genomic variation in mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) of Alaska in comparison with LPAI diversity of northern pintails (Anas acuta). A 50-year band-recovery data set suggests that unlike northern pintails, mallards rarely make trans-hemispheric migrations between Alaska and Eurasia. Concordantly, fewer (14.5%) of 62 LPAI isolates from mallards contained Eurasian gene segments compared to those from 97 northern pintails (35%), a species with greater inter-continental migratory tendency. Aerial survey and banding data suggest that mallards and northern pintails are largely sympatric throughout Alaska during the breeding season, promoting opportunities for interspecific transmission. Comparisons of full-genome isolates confirmed near-complete genetic homology (>99.5%) of seven viruses between mallards and northern pintails. This study found viral segments of Eurasian lineage at a higher frequency in mallards than previous studies, suggesting transmission from other avian species migrating inter-hemispherically or the common occurrence of endemic Alaskan viruses containing segments of Eurasian origin. We conclude that mallards are unlikely to transfer Asian-origin viruses directly to North America via Alaska but that they are likely infected with Asian-origin viruses via interspecific transfer from species with regular migrations to the Eastern Hemisphere.
Contribution of Fluorine to Protein−Ligand Affinity in the Binding of Fluoroaromatic Inhibitors to Carbonic Anhydrase II

Carbonic anhydrase II (CAII) is a zinc metalloenzyme that catalyzes the hydration of CO2 to yield bicarbonate and a proton. N-(4-Sulfamylbenzoyl)benzylamine (SBB) is a tight-binding inhibitor of hu...
The Natural History of the Arboreal Ant, Crematogaster ashmeadi

The arboreal ant, Crematogaster ashmeadi Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), is the most dominant arboreal ant in the pine forests of the coastal plain of northern Florida. The majority of pine trees harbor a colony of these ants. The colonies inhabit multiple chambers abandoned by bark-mining caterpillars, especially those of the family Cossidae, in the outer bark of living pines. They also inhabit ground level termite galleries in the bark, often locating the queen in galleries. The density of chambers and ants is highest in the base of the tree and drops sharply with height on the trunk. Because chambers are formed in the inner layer of bark, they gradually move outward as more bark layers are laid down, eventually sloughing off the tree’s outer surface. Chambers have a mean lifetime of about 25 yr. The abundant chambers in pine bark are excavated by a small population of caterpillars and accumulate over decades. Ant colonies also inhabit abandoned galleries of woodboring beetles in dead branches in the crowns of pines. Because newly mated queens found colonies in abandoned woodboring beetle galleries in the first dead branches that form on pine saplings, C. ashmeadi is dependent on cavities made by other insects throughout its life cycle, and does little if any excavation of its own. Mature colonies nest preferentially in chambers greater than 10 cm 2 in area, a relatively rare chamber size. In natural pine forests, this does not seem to limit the ant’s populations. Founding queens containabout 50% fat and lose about half of their dry weight during the claustral period, converting approximately half of this lost weight into progeny. The claustral period is about 40 to 50 days at 27 o C. Mature colonies contain several tens of thousands of workers (est. up to 80,000), and have a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years. Each colony occupies an entire tree, and sometimes two trees if they are close together. Within a colony, there is a single queen capable of laying up to 450 eggs/day during the warm season. Such queens weigh 12 to 18 mg, have 50 to 60 active ovarioles and 120 to 600 vitellogenic oocytes in their ovaries. Mature colonies begin producing sexual brood in late April or early May. Sexual adults are present from late May through June. Mating flights commence in June and most sexuals have left their natal nests by late July. Female sexuals are an especially large investment;the energetic content of a single, flight-ready female sexual is almost 20 times that of a worker. The newly mated queen sequesters a mean of 2.64 x 10 6 sperm in her spermatheca, a supply that should last her for 16 years at the observed reproductive rates.
Energy efficient data management for wireless sensor networks with data sink failure

This paper proposes an energy efficient protocol for sensor data management. The protocol employs replicated data sinks to achieve (1) resiliency to data sink failure, and (2) efficiency in storing and retrieving sensor data. A simple address assignment scheme is introduced that partitions the sensor field into cells, where each cell contains one data sink and all sensors that are closest to this data sink. It is shown that this scheme is scalable and resilient against data sink and sensor node failures. Furthermore, the scheme has a reasonably low message complexity and a high energy efficiency
Swarmer cell differentiation in Proteus mirabilis

Under the appropriate environmental conditions, the gram-negative bacterium Proteus mirabilis undergoes a remarkable differentiation to form a distinct cell type called a swarmer cell. The swarmer cell is characterized by a 20- to 40-fold increase in both cell length and the number of flagella per cell. Environmental conditions required for swarmer cell differentiation include: surface contact, inhibition of flagellar rotation, a sufficient cell density and cell-to-cell signalling. The differentiated swarmer cell is then able to carry out a highly ordered population migration termed swarming. Genetic analysis of the swarming process has revealed that a large variety of distinct loci are required for this differentiation including: genes involved in regulation, lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycan synthesis, cell division, ATP production, putrescine biosynthesis, proteolysis and cell shape determination. The process of swarming is important medically because the expression of virulence genes and the ability to invade cells are coupled to the differentiated swarmer cell. In this review, the genetic and environmental requirements for swarmer cell differentiation will be outlined. In addition, the role of the differentiated swarmer cell in virulence and its possible role in biofilm formation will be discussed.
Experimental determination of quantum-well lifetime effect on large-signal resonant tunneling diode switching time

An experimental determination is presented of the effect the quantum-well lifetime has on a large-signal resonant tunneling diode (RTD) switching time. Traditional vertical In0.53Ga0.47As/AlAs RTDs were grown, fabricated, and characterized. The switching time was measured with a high-speed oscilloscope and found to be close to the sum of the calculated RC-limited 10%–90% switching time and the quantum-well quasibound-state lifetime. This method displays experimental evidence that the two intrinsic resonant-tunneling characteristic times act independently, and that the quasibound-state lifetime then serves as a quantum-limit on the large-signal speed of RTDs.
Effects of Reduced Contrast on Young and Older Adults' Utilization of Context during Reading

People frequently read in sub-optimal conditions (Charness & Dijkstra, 1999). When text is difficult to perceive, readers can rely on sentential context as a compensatory strategy. Specifically, readers can develop expectations about which words will occur in a text based on the context in which words occur. The purpose of this study was to examine age differences in the use of contextual utilization, by comparing words that were highly predictable from their sentence context to words that were less predictable from their sentence context. Text was presented in three different levels of text/background contrast (high, medium, low) to explore the effects of contrast reduction. Eye tracking was used to measure fixation times to target words. Readers, particularly older adults, fixated low-predictability words longer than high-predictability words. Contrast reduction did not significantly influence reading times for either group, suggesting that readers are tolerant of some forms of stimulus quality degradation.
Identification and Further Characterization of a Locus Coding for a Hypothetical 33.6-kDa Protein Involved in Intrageneric Coaggregation of Oral Streptococci

Streptococci are the major early colonizers of the tooth surface. They are unusual among the oral bacteria in that they participate in extensive intrageneric coaggregation, a property also shared to a much lesser degree by some oral actinomyces and fusobacteria. Intrageneric coaggregation is likely to be important in the formation of early dental plaque. Streptococcus gordonii DL1 (Challis) has on its surface a heat- and protease-sensitive adhesin that recognizes galactoside-containing receptors on the surface of Streptococcus oralis 34, Streptococcus oralis C104, and Streptococcus SM PK509. The goal of our research is to identify the adhesins that mediate intrageneric coaggregation among oral streptococci.
Aneurysm of the membranous ventricular septum. Surgical consideration and experience in 29 cases.

Twenty-nine cases of aneurysm of the membranous septum in association with various cardiac abnormalities are described. These aneurysms are more common than has been previously thought (10 per cent of the total associated anomalies managed surgically). The patients' ages ranged from 3 months to 28 years. All of the 29 patients were divided into three groups. Group 1 consisted of 15 patients with ventricular septal defect (VSD), 5 of whom had associated atrial septal defect (ASD). Group II consisted of 5 patients with VSD and pulmonic obstruction, and Group III comprised 9 patients with transposition of the great arteries (TGA). Complete correction was performed in all the patients, and the aneurysm was imbricated in the suture line of the VSD in all cases but one. There was only one hospital death, the result of subpulmonic obstruction. This occurred in the first patient of this series, who had aneurysm of the membranous septum in TGA and VSD and in whom the aneurysm was not suspected preoperatively and was overlooked at surgery. There were no late deaths. In 5 patients a small residual VSD and in 3 patients a small recurrent aneurysm were found in a postoperative study. When these accompanying aneurysms are encountered during surgery or are previously diagnosed, resection or imbrication of the sac should be accomplished in order to prevent further enlargement or postoperative arrhythmias and, especially in TGA, to avoid fatal subpulmonic obstruction as occurred in our only death. According to the present data, in the presence of an aneurysm, even a small VSD should be closed by a patch and the aneurysm should perhaps be excised.
Stakeholder Participation in the Selection and Recruitment of Police: Democracy in Action

It is now widely accepted that much police misconduct and corruption stems from the institutional culture of the police organization itself. The impact of this assertion is that remedial measures once thought to address police misconduct and corruption-such as, the exclusionary rule, tort or criminal suits against police officers, the possibility of internal police investigations, and hearings before citizen complaint review boards-while still important, have a declining significance when discussing the long-term, sustainable reforms needed to address the organizational roots of police misconduct. The institutional nature of police misconduct coupled with the inadequacy of other measures to effectively address police misconduct has encouraged many policymakers to embrace a system of reforms aimed at changing that organizational culture. This Article offers a modest proposal for ways in which the federal government could encourage or incentivize the inclusion of the community in the hiring and selection process. Specifically, this Article advocates that the federal government should require police departments within its jurisdiction pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 14141 to implement such programs. Furthermore, for jurisdictions that have not come within the purview of the United States Department of Justice's ("DOJ") federal pattern or practice authority, the government should encourage and incentivize local community involvement in hiring police officers by making grants to departments that devise successful programs.
Calcium Release from Stores Inhibits GIRK.

Synaptic transmission is mediated by ionotropic and metabotropic receptors that together regulate the rate and pattern of action potential firing. Metabotropic receptors can activate ion channels and modulate other receptors and channels. The present paper examines the interaction between group 1 mGluR-mediated calcium release from stores and GABAB/D2-mediated GIRK currents in rat dopamine neurons of the Substantia Nigra. Transient activation of mGluRs decreased the GIRK current evoked by GABAB and D2 receptors, although less efficaciously for D2. The mGluR-induced inhibition of GIRK current peaked in 1 s and recovered to baseline after 5 s. The inhibition was dependent on release of calcium from stores, was larger for transient than for tonic currents, and was unaffected by inhibitors of PLC, PKC, PLA2, or calmodulin. This inhibition of GABAB IPSCs through release of calcium from stores is a postsynaptic mechanism that may broadly reduce GIRK-dependent inhibition of many central neurons.
Purchase Recommendations for Globalizing Online Collections at Community College Libraries.

Focused on community colleges in North Carolina participating in the Scholars of Global Distinction initiative, the goal of this article is to assist librarians in their efforts to thoughtfully inc...
Role of Conformational Entropy in Extremely High Affinity Protein Interactions

Interactions of extreme affinity (Kd ∼ fM) underlie many biochemical processes necessary to life. The physical determinants of such large binding energies are not well understood. Specific interactions at the interface (ΔHbinding) and the release of solvating water (TΔSsolvation) are usually assumed to dominate the binding energetics. The role of conformational entropy (TΔSconf) in determining binding affinity has remained elusive, in part due to the difficulties in measuring such changes in entropy experimentally. Recent developments in the Wand laboratory have bridged this gap by using solution NMR measurements of dynamics to empirically calibrate a “conformational entropy meter.” It has enabled quantitative measurements of the change in conformational entropy in protein-ligand binding. The toxin-antitoxin system studied here, barnase-barstar, forms a complex with fM affinity (ΔGbinding ∼ 19 kcal/mol) without undergoing any major structural changes and retaining a hydrated interface. To explore the role of conformational entropy, the fast (ps-ns time-scale) motions of backbone and side chains of the two proteins were measured in both the free (unbound) and the complexed (bound) states using NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, hydration dynamics were measured in water and in the confined space of a reverse micelle. The dynamic response observed leads to an unfavorable change in TΔSconf, with a more rigid, still hydrated interface. This comprehensive study of both protein and “ligand” (in this case, another protein) and the measured site-specific changes in dynamics and hydration sheds light on the thermodynamic contributions that enable fM affinities. Supported by grants from the NIH, The Mathers Foundation and NSF.
Inherently pre-strained elastomers with self-healing property: new generation of freestanding electroactuators (Conference Presentation)

Dielectric elastomers (DEs) are the leading technology for artificial muscles due to a favorable combination of large stroke, fast response, and high energy density. However, at large actuations, DEs are prone to spontaneous rupture from electromechanical instability. This shortcoming is currently circumvented by chemical or physical bracing, which increases bulk and rigidity of the total actuator assembly and leads to significant cutbacks in device efficiency and utility. Now, we present a molecular design platform for the creation of freestanding actuators that allow for large stroke (>300%) at low applied fields (<10 V μm-1) in unconstrained as cast shapes. This approach is based on bottlebrush architecture, which features inherently strained polymer networks that eliminate electromechanical instability and the need for bracing. Through accurate control of side-chain length and crosslink density, we obtained effective actuation properties on par with commercial actuators with the advantage of lighter weight, lower voltage operation, and ease of fabrication, which open new opportunities in soft-matter robotics. Furthermore, incorporation of dynamic reversible bonds ensures self-healing of rupture actuators.
Involuntary Commitment of the Mentally Ill: Some Moral Issues

In considering some of the distinctly moral issues raised by the treatment of the mentally ill, perhaps the most striking fact is the frequency with which coercion in one form or another is used on the patient and treatment is as a result involuntary. In this article I shall discuss several of the moral issues that this use of coercion creates, with particular emphasis on the justification of involuntary civil commitment. My aim will be to outline some of the underlying moral principles and distinctions on the basis of which such issues can be profitably discussed and clarified. Since involuntary commitment of the mentally ill has frequently come under attack, I will be particularly interested in whether certain of the common arguments against it are sound. Although laws governing civil commitment provide an obvious point of departure for much discussion in this area, I will be concerned here with the moral positions that ought to form the basis of legal policy. decision regarding involuntary commitment of persons believed mentally ill are commonly agonizing and troubling, with deep emotional involvement, conflicts, and impacts on all those a party to them. Because of the highly charged atmosphere in which these decisions must often be made, it is all the more important that the relevant moral issues and principles be clearly delineated.
Paroxysmal Movement Disorders

Paroxysmal movement disorders are heterogeneous groups of disorders, in which recurrent, sudden, short-lived attacks of involuntary movement occur, without loss of consciousness. It is usually divided into paroxysmal dyskinesias and episodic ataxias. Episodic ataxias are channelopathies, and paroxysmal dyskinesias are suspected to be channelopathies as well.
The tamoxifen controversy.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To conduct a comprehensive review of the controversies associated with tamoxifen, specifically the increased incidence of benign conditions of the uterus and endometrial cancer, tamoxifen's common side effects, the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial, and screening recommendations for endometrial cancer. DATA SOURCES Published articles, bulletins, books, and monographs. DATA SYNTHESIS Although tamoxifen works as an antiestrogen in breast tissue, it has estrogenic properties that affect bones, the cardiovascular system, the endometrium, and possibly the liver. Approximately 2 out of every 1,000 women with breast cancer receiving tamoxifen are at risk for developing endometrial cancer at a rate two to three times greater than the risk for the general population. This increased risk could have a physical and psychological impact on the thousands of women currently receiving the drug. CONCLUSIONS The net benefit of a 40% reduction in contralateral breast cancer outweighs the risk of developing endometrial cancer. Additional research should include a quality-of-life study of endometrial cancer risk versus emotional reaction to preventing breast cancer. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE Nurses are in an ideal position, as patient educators, to teach women receiving tamoxifen to recognize symptoms of endometrial cancer and report uterine abnormalities.
Real time implementation of PSO for artificial neural network fault detection

In this paper, ANN weights are trained to distinguish short-circuit winding faults from loading transients in a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) using offline and online implementation of Particle Swarm Optimization PSO. The detection technique presented is based on ANN weight configuration using PSO to improve speed of convergence. Online reconfiguration of monitoring systems can enable more responsive and accurate fault detection systems.
Reciprocal Regulation of AMPK/SNF1 and Protein Acetylation.

Adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase (AMPK) serves as an energy sensor and master regulator of metabolism. In general, AMPK inhibits anabolism to minimize energy consumption and activates catabolism to increase ATP production. One of the mechanisms employed by AMPK to regulate metabolism is protein acetylation. AMPK regulates protein acetylation by at least five distinct mechanisms. First, AMPK phosphorylates and inhibits acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and thus regulates acetyl-CoA homeostasis. Since acetyl-CoA is a substrate for all lysine acetyltransferases (KATs), AMPK affects the activity of KATs by regulating the cellular level of acetyl-CoA. Second, AMPK activates histone deacetylases (HDACs) sirtuins by increasing the cellular concentration of NAD+, a cofactor of sirtuins. Third, AMPK inhibits class I and II HDACs by upregulating hepatic synthesis of α-hydroxybutyrate, a natural inhibitor of HDACs. Fourth, AMPK induces translocation of HDACs 4 and 5 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and thus increases histone acetylation in the nucleus. Fifth, AMPK directly phosphorylates and downregulates p300 KAT. On the other hand, protein acetylation regulates AMPK activity. Sirtuin SIRT1-mediated deacetylation of liver kinase B1 (LKB1), an upstream kinase of AMPK, activates LKB1 and AMPK. AMPK phosphorylates and inactivates ACC, thus increasing acetyl-CoA level and promoting LKB1 acetylation and inhibition. In yeast cells, acetylation of Sip2p, one of the regulatory β-subunits of the SNF1 complex, results in inhibition of SNF1. This results in activation of ACC and reduced cellular level of acetyl-CoA, which promotes deacetylation of Sip2p and activation of SNF1. Thus, in both yeast and mammalian cells, AMPK/SNF1 regulate protein acetylation and are themselves regulated by protein acetylation.
Immersion Learning in Social Work Education: A Pedagogical Tool for Enriching Knowledge and Practice Skills among BSW Students

ABSTRACTImmersion learning is one form of experiential education and has great utility in social work education. However, there is limited research on student learning outcomes from immersion learn...
Cross-Plane Thermal Conductivity Measurements in Self-Assembled Nanodielectric Heterostructures

Hybrid inorganic and organic superlattices provide an opportunity to study the dependence of the thermal conductivity on phonon scattering at the boundaries of inorganic thin films and coupling to internal degrees of freedom in self-assembled molecular junctions. In this talk, I would present time domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) measurements of cross plane thermal transport in self assembled nanodielectric (SAND) heterostructures comprised of alternating layers of solution processed ZrO 2 films and a polarizable phosphonic π-electron molecule-PAE, fabricated with ultralow surface roughness. Through rational design of the SANDs, improved electronic transport properties such as charge carrier mobility and hysteresis, threshold voltage, and exceptional electrical capacitance, of field effect transistors (FETs) based on the SANDs have been demonstrated. The SANDs also provide excπellent mechanical flexibility making them suitable for flexible nanoelectronic applications. In our measurements, the ZrO 2 -SAND-n heterostructure (where n is the number of lattice unit cells) is metallized by electron beam lithography, and a two-temperature heat conduction model is fitted to the TDTR measurements obtained in the sample, from which the effective cross -plane thermal conductivity of the SANDs is obtained as a function of n. The best fit cross -plane thermal conductivity of the SANDs is observed to decrease with the number of unit cells, and for four unit cells, the thermal conductivity at room temperature is as low as 0.3 W/m-K. Our measurements suggest that understanding the origin of the ultra -low thermal conductivity of the SANDs and controlling against it may be crucial to realizing the functional performance and reliability of fl exible SAND based FETs in the future.
Neurodevelopmental outcomes at 9–14 months gestational age after treatment of neonatal seizures due to brain injury

Infants with brain injury are susceptible to developmental delays. Survivors of neonatal seizures are at risk for developmental delay, epilepsy, and further neurological comorbidities. Despite advances in neonatal critical care, the prevalence of adverse long-term outcomes and seizure recurrence remains unchanged. Our goal is to determine if early treatment of neonatal seizures with phenobarbital or levetiracetam is associated with worse neurodevelopmental outcomes in brain-injured infants. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 119 infants admitted between 2013 and 2017 who were at risk for developmental delay and assessed in our clinic. We compared brain injury infants with neonatal seizures to brain injury infants without neonatal seizures using Bayley scores (BSID III) at 9–14 months gestational age. A comparison of Bayley scores between those exposed to phenobarbital and levetiracetam was conducted. Twenty-two children with neonatal seizures scored lower than 53 children without seizures in all domains with significant values in composite scores for cognitive function (p = 0.003) and language (p = 0.031). We found no difference in scores at 9–14 months between infants exposed to phenobarbital versus levetiracetam. Our results suggest that in infants with brain injury, the occurrence of neonatal seizures has an adverse effect on neurodevelopmental outcomes. The choice of antiseizure medication may not play a significant role in their outcomes.
Community college field placement internships: supervisors’ perspectives and recommendations

Community College human services students represent the future social service workforce. The defining feature of their training is 250 h supervised field placement internship. Despite burgeoning re...
UDE-Based Robust Output Feedback Control With Applications to a Piezoelectric Stage

In this article, an uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE)-based robust output feedback control technique without using a state observer is proposed for a general class of nonlinear single-input single-output systems that are bounded-input bounded-output stable and subject to input and output disturbances. Instead of designing a controller for the original system directly, an equivalent system consisting of a first-order linear system plus a lumped uncertainty term is used to represent the input–output relationship. Then, a UDE-based robust controller is designed only using the system output feedback and the bandwidth of the open-loop system, making the design almost modeling-free. A prominent advantage of the proposed approach is that it has converted a challenging robust control problem into an intuitive filter design problem. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated on an experimental piezoelectric stage in the presence of hysteresis nonlinearity.
Effects of FGF14 and NaVβ4 deletion on transient and resurgent Na current in cerebellar Purkinje neurons

Voltage-gated Na channels of Purkinje cells are specialized to maintain high availability during high-frequency repetitive firing. They enter fast-inactivated states relatively slowly and undergo a voltage-dependent open-channel block by an intracellular protein (or proteins) that prevents stable fast inactivation and generates resurgent Na current. These properties depend on the pore-forming α subunits, as well as modulatory subunits within the Na channel complex. The identity of the factors responsible for open-channel block remains a question. Here we investigate the effects of genetic mutation of two Na channel auxiliary subunits highly expressed in Purkinje cells, NaVβ4 and FGF14, on modulating Na channel blocked as well as inactivated states. We find that although both NaVβ4 and the FGF14 splice variant FGF14-1a contain sequences that can generate resurgent-like currents when applied to Na channels in peptide form, deletion of either protein, or both proteins simultaneously, does not eliminate resurgent current in acutely dissociated Purkinje cell bodies. Loss of FGF14 expression does, however, reduce resurgent current amplitude and leads to an acceleration and stabilization of inactivation that is not reversed by application of the site-3 toxin, anemone toxin II (ATX). Tetrodotoxin (TTX) sensitivity is higher for resurgent than transient components of Na current, and loss of FGF14 preferentially affects a highly TTX-sensitive subset of Purkinje α subunits. The data suggest that NaV1.6 channels, which are known to generate the majority of Purkinje cell resurgent current, bind TTX with high affinity and are modulated by FGF14 to facilitate open-channel block.
A model-independent approach for efficient influence maximization in social networks

The well-known influence maximization problem (Kempe et al., in proceedings of the 9th SIGKDD international conference on knowledge discovery and data mining (KDD), pp 137–146, 2003) (or viral marketing through social networks) deals with selecting a few influential initial seeds to maximize the awareness of product(s) over the social network. As it is computationally hard (Kempe et al., in proceedings of the 9th SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), pp 137–146, 2003), a greedy approximation algorithm is designed to address the influence maximization problem. However, the major drawback of this greedy algorithm is that it runs extremely slow even on network datasets consisting of a few thousand nodes and edges (Leskovec et al., in proceedings of the 13th SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), pp 420–429, 2007; Checn et al., in proceedings of the 15th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), pp 937–944, 2009). Several efficient heuristics have been proposed in the literature (Checn et al., in proceedings of the 15th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), pp 937–944, 2009) to alleviate this computational difficulty; however, these heuristics are designed for specific influence propagation models such as linear threshold model and independent cascade model. This motivates the strong need to design an approach that not only works with any influence propagation model, but also efficiently solves the influence maximization problem. In this paper, we precisely address this problem by proposing a new framework which fuses both link and interaction data to come up with a backbone for a given social network, which can further be used for efficient influence maximization. We then conduct thorough experimentation with several real-life social network datasets such as DBLP, Epinions, Digg, and Slashdot and show that the proposed approach is efficient as well as scalable.
The Landsat Burned Area algorithm and products for the conterminous United States

Abstract Complete and accurate burned area map data are needed to document spatial and temporal patterns of fires, to quantify their drivers, and to assess the impacts on human and natural systems. In this study, we developed the Landsat Burned Area (BA) algorithm, an update from the Landsat Burned Area Essential Climate Variable (BAECV) algorithm. Here, we present the BA algorithm and products, changes relative to the BAECV algorithm and products, and updated validation metrics. We also present spatial and temporal patterns of burned area across the conterminous U.S., how burned area varies in relation to the number of operational Landsat sensors, and a comparison with other burned area datasets, including the BAECV, Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS), GeoMAC, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MCD64A1.006 data. The BA algorithm identifies burned areas in analysis ready data (ARD) time-series of Landsat imagery from 1984 through 2018 using machine learning, thresholding, and image segmentation. Validation with reference data from high-resolution commercial satellite imagery resulted in omission and commission error rates averaging 19% and 41%, respectively. In comparison, validation with Landsat reference data had omission and commission error rates averaging 40% and 28%, respectively when burned areas in cultivated crops and pasture/hay land-cover types were excluded. Both validation tests documented lower commission error rates relative to the BAECV products. The amount of burned area detected varies not only in response to climate but also with the number of operational sensors and scenes collected. The combined amount of burned area detected by multiple sensors was larger than from any individual sensor, but there was no significant difference between individual sensors. Therefore, we used BA products from individual sensors to assess trends over time and all available sensors to compare with other existing BA products. From 1984 through 2018, annual burned area averaged 30,000 km2, ranged between 14,000 km2 in 1991 and 46,500 km2 in 2012, and increased over time at a rate of 356 km2/year. Compared to existing burned area products, the new Landsat BA products identified 29% more burned area than the BAECV products (1984–2015), 183% more than the MTBS/GeoMAC products (1984–2018), and 56% more than the MCD64A1.006 products (2003–2018). The products had similar patterns of year-to-year variability; the R2 values of linear regressions between annual burned area were >0.70 with the BAECV products and the MTBS/GeoMAC products, but somewhat lower for the MCD64A1.006 product (R2 = 0.66). The BA products are routinely produced as new Landsat data are collected and provide a unique data source to monitor and assess the spatial and temporal patterns and the impacts of fire.
The influence of different sites of catheterization of PICC on the incidence of complications for the infants after catheterization

Objective To explore the influence of different sites of catheterization of PICC on the incidence of complications for the infants after catheterization. Methods A total of 130 cases of infant patients hospitalized in our hospital from April 2015 to April 2016 were selected and divided into experimental group and control group according to the sites of catheterization.The children of the experimental group were placed PICC through the venous, while the children of the control group were placed PICC through the upper extremity venous.The incidence of complications, the one-time success rate of puncture, the time for operation, the amount of bleeding and the time for catheterization of the two groups were compared. Results The one-time success rate and time for operation of the children of the experimental group was better than that of the control group, and the differences were statistically significant(P 0.05). Conclusion Placement of PICC through the venous can significantly improve the success rate and can reduce the time for operation, meanwhile it has less impact on the complications after catheterization.PICC placement through the venous can be choosen preferably. Key words: Peripherally inserted central catheter; Catheter site; Complication; Success rate of catheterization; Time for operation