cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pediatric normative data for the KayPENTAX phonatory aerodynamic system model 6600.

Summary Objectives The objectives of this study were to (1) establish a preliminary pediatric normative database for the KayPENTAX Phonatory Aerodynamic System (PAS) Model 6600 (KayPENTAX Corp, Montvale, NJ) and (2) identify whether the data obtained were age- and/or gender-dependent. Study Design Prospective data collection across groups. Methods A sample of 60 children (30 females and 30 males) with normal voices was divided into three age groups (6.0–9.11, 10.0–13.11, 14.0–17.11 years) with equal distribution of males and females within each group. Five PAS protocols (vital capacity, maximum sustained phonation, comfortable sustained phonation, variation in sound pressure level, voicing efficiency) were used to collect 45 phonatory aerodynamic measures. Results Measurements for the 45 PAS parameters examined revealed 13 parameters to have a difference that was statistically significant by age and/or gender. There was a significant age×gender interaction for mean pitch in the four protocols that reported this measure. Males in the oldest group had significantly lower mean pitch values than the middle and young groups. Statistically significant main effect differences were noted for seven parameters across three age groups ( expiratory volume, expiratory airflow duration, phonation time, pitch range (in 2 protocols), aerodynamic resistance, acoustic ohms ). Significant main effect differences for genders (males > females) were found for expiratory volume and peak expiratory airflow . Conclusions The age- and gender-related differences found for some parameters within each of the five protocols are important for the interpretation of data obtained from PAS. These results could be explained by developmental changes that occur in the male and female respiratory and laryngeal systems.
Neuronal transplantation for motor stroke: from the laboratory to the clinic

Laboratory studies have established the potential for neuronal transplantation to be of benefit to patients. Experimental studies in normal animals indicate that brain implantation of neurons seems safe. Implanted neurons integrated with the host brain, sent out axonal processes to communicate with other nerve cells, released transmitters (the chemical messengers of nerve cell communication), and demonstrated typical neuronal proteins. This article discusses phase I and II trials of neuronal transplantation in humans with small strokes in critical brain locations such as the basal ganglia region. More work is needed to confirm safety and to identify optimal measures of efficacy in this setting.
Social Facilitation of Human Performance: Mere Presence Effects

Summary An experiment was conducted (N = 60 college women) to test the proposition that the “mere presence” of another human being, as opposed to the presence of a potentially evaluative audience, is a sufficient condition for the social facilitation of performance on a simple task. Mere presence was defined as the physical proximity of a blindfolded peer, and performance was evaluated on a bidirectional choice maze. When compared to a control group that traversed the maze in isolation, Ss in the mere presence of a peer both completed experimental trials faster (p < .01) and made fewer errors while doing so (p < .02), thus providing support for the mere presence hypothesis. On the other hand, while Ss who traversed the maze in the presence of an observing (nonblindfolded) peer also worked faster than controls (p < .05), they were not superior to controls in terms of error rate. It was noteworthy that still other Ss who worked in the company of a blindfolded or nonblindfolded mannikin produced results exac...
Distributed Turbo-BLAST for Cooperative Wireless Networks

The turbo-BLAST scheme is considered as a spectrum-effective structure to construct multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems. In this paper, we extend the turbo-BLAST structure to cooperative networks, and a novel distributed turbo-BLAST scheme is proposed. Unlike most cooperative MIMO network methods that focus on achieving cooperative diversity gain, the proposed method achieves reliable high-rate data communication with reduced rate in the relay nodes through cooperative spatial multiplexing (C-SM). In the relay nodes, the amplify-and-forward algorithm is adopted which allows simplified implementations and requires no knowledge of the channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter and the relay nodes. The use of multi-hop turbo-BLAST structure further improves the energy efficiency and overall performance
Selenite-induced protection of bromobenzene hepatotoxicity in male rats.

Abstract Acute treatment with sodium selenite effectively reduces bromobenzene hepatotoxicity in male, Sprague-Dawley rats. Hepatocellular damage was ameliorated as shown by marked decreases in plasma alanine and aspartate aminotransferase (ALT and AST) activities. A single dose of selenite (12.5 or 30 μmol Se/kg, ip) was administered to rats at 4, 24, 48, or 72 hr before injection of bromobenzene (7.5 mmol/kg, ip). Plasma ALT and AST activities and hepatic glutathione (GSH) content were measured 24 hr after bromobenzene treatment. As the length of time of selenite pretreatment increased, the extent of reduction of bromobenzene-induced elevation in plasma enzyme activities by selenite was enhanced, and generally, in a dose-related manner with optimal protection occurring in rats pretreated 72 hr prior with selenite. However, depletion of liver GSH by bromobenzene was not affected by selenite treatment. Hepatic GSH levels and GSH detoxication enzyme activities were measured at various intervals in rats treated with selenite alone. Selenite increased hepatic GSH content 20 to 25% at both 24 and 48 hr after injection, with a return to GSH control levels at 72 hr. Selenite treatment produced slight decreases in GSH peroxidase activity but did not alter GSH S -transferase activity. These studies suggest that the reduction of bromobenzene hepatotoxicity by selenite does not involve alterations in the activity of hepatic GSH detoxication enzymes; however, the data suggest that factors in addition to selenite-induced changes in hepatic glutathione levels are also involved.
A general class of stepped frequency trains

For uniform frequency stepped pulse trains, there can be undesirable peaks of the autocorrelation function, known as "grating lobes". In this paper, we address this issue, using an approach, which allows us to suppress grating lobes below a desired threshold level in the case of appropriately chosen stepped frequency waveforms, i.e., sequences of narrowband pulses that span the desired bandwidth. We will introduce a multiparametric generalization of a stepped frequency train, and by exploiting a factorization of the autocorrelation function, will be able to effect a useful tradeoff between competing properties of the factors by careful choices of relevant parameters. We provide a detailed description of the method applied to a representative data set.
Optimal targeting of seasonal influenza vaccination toward younger ages is robust to parameter uncertainty

Identification of the optimal vaccine allocation for the control of influenza requires consideration of uncertainty arising from numerous unpredictable factors, including viral evolution and diversity within the human population's immunity as well as variation in vaccine efficacy. The best policy must account for diverse potential outcomes based on these uncertainties. Here we used a mathematical model parametrized with survey-based contact data, demographic, and epidemiological data from seasonal influenza in the United States to determine the optimal vaccine allocation for five outcome measures: infections, hospitalizations, deaths, years of life loss, and contingent valuation. We incorporated uncertainty of epidemiological parameters and derive probability distributions of optimal age- and risk-specific allocation of vaccine. Our analysis demonstrated that previous recommendations of targeting schoolchildren (ages 5-17 years) and young adults (18-44 years) are generally robust in the face of uncertainty. However, when the outcome measure is to minimize deaths, years of life loss, or contingent valuation, uncertainty analysis identified scenarios under which it is optimal to target people at high risk for complications, even when vaccine are in abundance.
Stable isotope evidence for changes in dietary niche partitioning among hadrosaurian and ceratopsian dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation, North Dakota

Abstract Questions related to dinosaur behavior can be difficult to answer conclusively by using morphological studies alone. As a complement to these approaches, carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of tooth enamel can provide insight into habitat and dietary preferences of herbivorous dinosaurs. This approach is based on the isotopic variability in plant material and in surface waters of the past, which is in turn reflected by carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of animals that ingested the organic matter or drank the water. Thus, it has the potential to identify and characterize dietary and habitat preferences for coexisting taxa. In this study, stable isotope ratios from coexisting hadrosaurian and ceratopsian dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota are compared for four different stratigraphic levels. Isotopic offsets between tooth enamel and tooth dentine, as well as taxonomic differences in means and in patterns of isotopic data among taxa, indicate that primary paleoecological information i...
Formulation Tactics and the Success of Organizational Decision Making

One hundred and seventy-seven cases profiling organizational decisions were analyzed to determine how managers carry out formulation as they initiate a decision-making process. Analysis revealed that formulation was carried out by applying problem, idea, target, and reframing tactics. Decision adoption rates, decision value, and time to carry out the decision-making process were used to determine the success of these tactics, controlling for situational effects of importance, urgency, resources, and management level. Reframing was found to be the most successful tactic under all conditions, but was the least frequently used by decision makers. Problem and idea tactics were the least successful and success did not improve with additional resources, but these tactics were used more often than the other tactics. Problem tactics were even less successful when applied to urgent and important decisions. Target tactics were surprisingly effective for crises and important decisions. Decision makers seem prone to use ineffective formulation tactics and give little consideration to the opportunities or constraints imposed by the situation as a tactic is selected.
Smokefree legislation: a review of health and economic outcomes research.

Context: Smokefree legislation is a powerful public health intervention. Despite progress in smoke- free legislation, over half of U.S. adults remain unprotected by comprehensive smokefree legislation. Evidence acquisition: This paper reviews the scientific literature on health and economic out- come studies of smokefree legislation from the past decade, 2000 to early 2010, using MEDLINE and key search terms: smoking, smoking cessation, smoking/legislation and jurisprudence, smoking cessa- tion/legislation and jurisprudence, and health policy. Evidence synthesis: There is a wealth of research showing the health benefits to entire popula- tions when communities implement comprehensive smokefree laws and/or regulations. These laws improve the health of hospitality workers and the general population by improving indoor air quality, reducing acute myocardial infarctions and asthma exacerbations, and improving infant and birth outcomes. Some studies report reduced smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption and improved cessation outcomes after smokefree legislation. In addition to the health benefits, eco- nomic studies confirm that smokefree laws do not adversely affect business revenues or operating costs. Conclusions: While there is an abundance of smokefree policy outcomes research showing both the health and economic impacts of smokefree legislation, these outcomes may have more to do with implementation effectiveness than adoption, especially among subpopulations. An emerging body of literature documents not only that disparities in health protections remain among subpopulations, but that health outcomes of smokefree legislation may vary by gender, race/ethnicity, SES, and age. Further research is needed on implementation effectiveness of smokefree legislation and differential effects on subpopulations. (Am J Prev Med 2010;39(6S1):S66 -S76) © 2010 American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Altruism and Prosocial Behavior, Sociology of

The history of the concept of altruism and current definitions of altruism, egoism, and prosocial behavior are presented. The evidence for an evolutionary basis for altruism is presented as is current research that supports the existence of altruism as a human motive. Research and theory on helping in emergencies, the development of helping orientations, volunteering, and charitable giving are reviewed. Finally, an overview of cross-cultural differences in helping and altruism is presented.
Solid-State NMR Studies Of Ultramarine Pigments Discoloration

Ultramarines are a family of pigments widely used as colorants in artists' paints, coatings, plastics, cosmetics, and various industrial materials. They are aluminosilicates characterized by a sodalite cage framework which enclarthrates paramagnetic (S 3 -. , S 2 -. ) and diamagnetic (S 4 or S 3 Cl) chromophores responsible for the color of these pigments. Solid-state 27 Al MAS NMR studies showed that the fading mechanisms in ultramarine pigments, both in acidic and alkaline environments, is initiated via de-alumination leading to framework destruction which in turn triggers the release of the chromophores. This results in color loss and in the emergence of extra-framework aluminum. 29 Si MAS studies provide new insight into these processes and suggest that acidic attack leads to the formation of Q 1 -Q 3 silicates and possibly to the emergence of Si(3Al), Si(2Al), Si(1Al) and Si(0Al) fragments indicative of the formation of secondary pores through which the guest chomophores can leave the cage. These findings are important for the design of proper conservation treatments and preservation procedures for artwork containing ultramarine pigments.
Exploiting Proactive Interaction to Improve Retail Experiences

Relationship marketing is increasingly recognized by both practitioners and academics as an effective means for retailers to attract and retain customers and gain a competitive advantage in the competitive retail environment (e.g., Bagozzi, 1995; Berry, 1995; De Wulf, Odekerken-Schroder, & Iacobucci, 2001; Palmatier et al., 2009; Sheth & Parvatiyar, 1995). While various relationship investment strategies have been identified and shown to affect firm relational performance outcomes, there has been a dearth of studies on the value of proactive interaction and the issues related to implementing it, leading to calls for research in this area (Challagalla, Venkatesh, & Kohli, 2009; DeWitt & Brady, 2003; Palmatier et al., 2006). This study addresses this gap by examining whether it is better to “get to customers before they get to you” through an investigation of the relative effect of proactive and reactive interaction in retail settings. This study also investigates the mechanism by which a proactive interaction may achieve higher levels of firm performance. Several authors stress that relationship marketing practices are not effective in every situation (Challagalla et al., 2009; De Wulf et al., 2001; Kalwani & Narayandas, 1995). Therefore, moderating roles of firm- and customer-related factors on relationship interaction effectiveness are also proposed and investigated to better understand the specific situations in which proactive interactions may be most effective. The proposed hypotheses are tested using two scenario-based experiments in a retail context. This study is important for theory because it adds to the relationship investment literature by proposing and empirically assessing why and how proactive and reactive interaction strategies differ in their efficacy and by examining boundary conditions under which proactive interactions may be more effective. It is equally important for practice because it provides retail organizations with actionable strategies for building better relationships with their customers and developing a decision tree based on which moderators are useful and viable for which customers and situations.
Coarse Word-Sense Disambiguation Using Common Sense.

Coarse word sense disambiguation (WSD) is an NLP task that is both important and practical: it aims to distinguish senses of a word that have very different meanings, while avoiding the complexity that comes from trying to finely distinguish every possible word sense. Reasoning techniques that make use of common sense information can help to solve the WSD problem by taking word meaning and context into account. We have created a system for coarse word sense disambiguation using blending, a common sense reasoning technique, to combine information from SemCor, WordNet, ConceptNet and Extended WordNet. Within that space, a correct sense is suggested based on the similarity of the ambiguous word to each of its possible word senses. The general blending-based system performed well at the task, achieving an f-score of 80.8\% on the 2007 SemEval Coarse Word Sense Disambiguation task.
Clinical presentation and management of patients with uncontrolled, severe hypertension : results from a public teaching hospital

Clinical presentation and management of patients with uncontrolled, severe hypertension: results from a public teaching hospital
Transport in supported polyelectrolyte brushes.

Functional polymers have a wide variety of applications ranging from energy storage to drug delivery. For energy storage applications, desirable material properties include low cost, high charge storage and/or mobility, and low rates of degradation. Isotropic thin films have been used for many of these types of applications, but research suggests that different structures such as polymer brushes can improve charge transport by an order of magnitude. Supported polymer brush structures produced by “grafting-from” polymerization methods offer a framework for a controlled study of these materials on the molecular scale. Using these materials, researchers can study the basis of hindered diffusion because they contain a relatively homogeneous polyelectrolyte membrane. In addition, researchers can use fluorescent molecular probes with different charges to examine steric and Coulombic contributions to transport near and within polymer brushes.In this Account, we discuss recent progress in using fluorescence corre...
Size Effects in Sputtered PZT Thin Films

The ferroelectric properties and switching characteristics of rf sputtered PZT thin films were investigated as a function of film thickness (30–300 nm) and grain size. Electron microscopy was used to characterize the film microstructure. The film thickness was measured by ellipsometer. The results were analyzed for the individual contributions of film thickness and crystallite dimension to the size effects on the properties of ferroelectric thin films. A critical discussion of several different models describing the size effects was also presented.
Satellite and Radar Measurement of CT2, Cn2, and Cv2

Paper describes novel method to obtain temperature and wind using satellite-based data. Structure functions of temperature, CT2, refractive index, Cn2, and wind velocity, Cv2, are derived over large volumes and compared to radar-derived data.
Ethnomethodology: Foundational insights on the nature and meaning of documents in everyday life

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that researchers in the information disciplines should embrace ethnomethodology as a way of forming deeper insights into the relationship between people and recorded knowledge. Design/methodology/approach – The paper introduces the core concepts of ethnomethodology as a means of articulating what this perspective brings to the understanding of the way that society is accomplished. A selection of key studies are then examined to highlight important ethnomethodological findings about the particular relationship of documents to human actions and interactions. Findings – Ethnomethodology highlights the fact that people transform their experiences, and the experiences of others, into documents whose status as an objective object help to justify people’s actions and inferences. Documents, as written accounts, also serve to make peoples’ actions meaningful to themselves and to others. At the same time, ethnomethodology draws attention to the fact that any correct reading of these documents relies partly on an understanding of the tacit ideologies that undergird people’s sense-making and that are used in order to make decisions and get work done. Originality/value – This conceptual framework contributes to the information disciplines by bringing to the fore certain understandings about the social organization of document work, and the attendant social arrangements they reveal. The paper also outlines, from a methodological perspective, how information science researchers can use ethnomethodology as an investigative stance to further their knowledge of the role of documents in everyday life.
Recent diagnostic advances in obstructive jaundice.

Distinguishing between jaundice caused by hepatocellular disease and that caused by obstruction of the biliary tract is important, becauce treatment of the former is medical while that of the latter is surgical. Percutaneous cholangiography and liver scanning are being used in an attempt to improve diagnostic acumen.
Permanent cardiac pacing at a regional medical center.

In our experience with 98 patients, cardiac pacing has proved to be a low risk procedure with an acceptably low incidence of serious complications. Battery depletion requiring pulse generator replacement continues to be the major limitation of this technique. Placement of the pacing catheter within the coronary sinus has not been saisfactory, and measures are routinely taken to avoid this catheter position.
Educational functioning of children of parents with chronic physical illness: A systematic review:

A systematic review of the literature was performed to answer the question: What are the effects of parental chronic physical illness on children’s educational functioning? Thirteen studies that met the inclusion criteria for the purpose of this review were identified, indicating the paucity of research on the topic. The results found that children and adolescents of chronically ill parents missed more school days than their peers of healthy parents and were at a higher risk for lower academic performance. Parent’s physical impairments due to chronic illness and demands of parental illness impinging on parenting and social and financial resources in the family may indirectly affect children’s educational functioning. Implications for school psychology practice and research are provided.
The Role and Implications of “Do It Yourself” Tooth Movement

“Do It Yourself” (DIY) tooth movement has gained widespread attention recently in the United States. Options ranging from kits that consumers can purchase online to straighten their teeth without stepping a foot out of their homes to online instructional videos are readily available. These options offer the consumer convenience as well as a way to save a significant amount of money while promising to provide the desired end product of a beautiful smile. Unfortunately, most of the general population is unaware of the implications of such methods of orthodontic tooth movement. It is the responsibility of dental professionals to put their educational background to use and uphold the ethical principles of clinical practice by educating the public regarding the consequences of using these methods to straighten their teeth. DIY orthodontics is undoubtedly a threat and an opportunity for the orthodontic community, and its potential to impact the field should not be underestimated.
A Comparison of Mazur’s k and Area Under the Curve for Describing Steep Discounters

Delay discounting describes how a reward loses value as a function of increasing delay to its receipt and has been reliably associated with a variety of vulnerable populations including those with substance use disorders (SUDs). Two commonly used models to assess delay discounting in the field of SUDs include log k derived from Mazur’s hyperbolic equation and area under the curve (AUC). In the current study, we compared log k with AUC on delay discounting data obtained from non-treatment seeking, cocaine- and methamphetamine-dependent volunteers. We specifically chose this population in order to obtain a distribution of relatively steep discounters. The results show that the relationship between AUC and log k is better described by a quadratic rather than a linear function. In other words, changes in discounting, as measured by AUC and log k, are reflected differently across a range of obtained responses. Additionally, the distribution of AUC values was skewed, which appears to be more likely among populations exhibiting greater discounting. Finally, closer examination of indifference points revealed that AUC was almost perfectly predicted by the area from the two longest delays, with relatively less input from shorter delays. Given these results, researchers should exercise additional caution when deciding which method to use to assess discounting data and how final results are to be interpreted, particularly when dealing with relatively high rates of discounting. High rates of discounting are likely in populations with impulsive disorders such as those with SUDs.
Self-Control in Work Organizations

This chapter reviews foundational research on self-control and ego depletion theory, and how this work has informed investigations of employee self-control and depletion at work. It discusses some of the challenges facing the line of research and fruitful directions. Continuing to work on such an intractable problem requires self-control to overcome negative feelings and the desire to quit, so people who worked longer on the problem were assumed to have greater self-control capacity. Long-term patterns data are already being collected, as field studies within organizations have shown that the effects of depletion occur within the same workday. When self-control strength is depleted through acts of volition, research has shown that people exhibit diminished performance on subsequent self-control efforts. Reductions in effort and performance following activities with high self-control and resource demands may be attributable to ego depletion, yet there are other explanations for such effects.
Guidelines for Developing and Presenting Estimates

In assembling our guidelines, we examined ideas in the area of population estimation and also in two areas related to population estimation: (1) sample (statistical) surveys; and (2) population forecasting. In regard to the two related fields, we found ideas that can be applied directly as guidelines for developing and presenting estimates and others that can be easily adapted for this purpose. While, as this book attests, there are substantial areas of overlap among sample surveys, population forecasting, and population estimation, there are important distinctions. And these distinctions lead to different guidelines.
Antibiotic administration in the drinking water of mice.

Although antibiotics frequently are added to the drinking water of mice, this practice has not been tested to confirm that antibiotics reach therapeutic concentrations in the plasma of treated mice. In the current investigation, we 1) tested the stability of enrofloxacin and doxycycline in the drinking water of adult, female C57BL/6 mice; 2) measured the mice's consumption of water treated with enrofloxacin, doxycycline, amoxicillin, or trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole; and 3) used HPLC to measure plasma antibiotic concentrations in mice that had ingested treated water for 1 wk. Plasma concentrations of antibiotic were measured 1 h after the start of both the light and dark cycle. The main findings of the study were that both enrofloxacin and nonpharmaceutical, chemical-grade doxycycline remained relatively stable in water for 1 wk. In addition, mice consumed similar volumes of antibiotic-treated and untreated water. The highest plasma antibiotic concentrations measured were: enrofloxacin, 140.1 ± 10.4 ng/mL; doxycycline, 56.6 ± 12.5 ng/mL; amoxicillin, 299.2 ± 64.1 ng/mL; and trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole, 5.9 ± 1.2 ng/mL. Despite the stability of the antibiotics in the water and predictable water consumption by mice, the plasma antibiotic concentrations were well below the concentrations required for efficacy against bacterial pathogens, except for those pathogens that are exquisitely sensitive to the antibiotic. The findings of this investigation prompt questions regarding the rationale of the contemporary practice of adding antibiotics to the drinking water of mice for systemic antibacterial treatments.
From Single to Serious: Relationships, Gender, and Sexuality on American Evangelical Campuses

Dana M. Malone’s From Single to Serious serves as a field guide for anyone who has witnessed and been flummoxed by the intricate, confusing, and at times illogical methods students employ in naviga...
On the Complexity Reduction of Dense Layers from O(N 2 ) to O(NlogN) with Cyclic Sparsely Connected Layers

In deep neural networks (DNNs), model size is an important factor affecting performance, energy efficiency and scalability. Recent works on weight pruning have shown significant reduction in model size at the expense of irregularity in the DNN architecture, which necessitates additional indexing memory to address non-zero weights, thereby increasing chip size, energy consumption and delays. In this paper, we propose cyclic sparsely connected (CSC) layers, with a memory/computation complexity of O(NlogN), that can be used as an overlay for fully connected (FC) layers whose number of parameters,O(N2), can dominate the parameters of the entire DNN model. The CSC layers are composed of a few sequential layers, referred to as support layers, which result in full connectivity between the Inputs and Outputs of each CSC layer. We introduce an algorithm to train models with FC layers replaced with CSC layers in a bottom-up approach by incrementally increasing the CSC layers characteristics such as connectivity and number of synapses, to achieve the desired accuracy given a compression rate. One advantage of the CSC layers is that there will be no requirement for indexing the non-zero weights. Our experimental results using AlexNet on ImageNet and LeNet300100 on MNIST indicate that by substituting FC layers with CSC layers, we can achieve $10\times to~46\times$ compression within a margin of 2% accuracy loss, which is comparable to non-structural pruning methods. A scalable parallel hardware architecture to implement CSC layers, and an equivalent scalable parallel architecture to efficiently implement non-structurally pruned FC layers are designed and fully placed and routed on Artix -7 FPGA and ASIC 65nm CMOS technology for LeNet300100 model. The results indicate that the proposed CSC hardware outperforms the conventional non-structurally pruned architecture with an equal compression rate by $\sim2\times$ in power, energy, area and resource utilization when running at the same frequency.
Voluntades anticipadas: satisfacer una necesidad vital

Resumen Objetivo Mejorar la comodidad y la eficacia del equipo sanitario en las conversaciones sobre el proceso terminal en un hospital de agudos de la comunidad con una autorizacion para 474 camas a traves de la formacion en voluntades anticipadas (VA). Metodos En este programa educativo hubo sesiones de formacion, incluidas pruebas previas y posteriores, para acreditar la mejora de los conocimientos y la confianza al abordar las VA entre profesionales sanitarios que entablan conversaciones sobre el proceso terminal con los pacientes y sus familias. Resultados Hubo 138 participantes incluidos en el programa. Los asistentes realizaron una prueba previa y una prueba posterior al principio y al final de la formacion, respectivamente. Los datos indicaron que la preparacion para las conversaciones al final de la vida despues de las sesiones de formacion habia mejorado. Conclusion La formacion especifica en VA aumenta la confianza en las conversaciones sobre el proceso terminal. Con el conocimiento y los recursos adecuados, el personal sanitario puede fomentar estas conversaciones dificiles. Aunque el programa supero las expectativas, la muestra se considera pequena y se necesita mas investigacion.
Docker Container Security in Cloud Computing

Docker is popular within the software development community due to the versatility, portability, and scalability of containers. However, concerns over vulnerabilities have grown as the security of applications become increasingly dependent on the security of the images that serve as the applications' building blocks. As more development processes migrate to the cloud, validating the security of images that are pulled from various repositories is paramount. In this paper, we describe a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) system that validates the security of Docker images throughout the software development life cycle. We introduce images with vulnerabilities and measure the effectiveness of our approach at identifying the vulnerabilities. In addition, we use dynamic analysis to assess the security of Docker containers based on their behavior and show that it complements the static analyses typically used for security assessments.
Variance of Reliability Estimate for k-out-of-n Systems with Cold Standby Units

Reliability estimates often suffer from measurement uncertainty due to limited testing time or small failure data. The variance of the reliability estimate can be used to evaluate the estimation uncertainty for both components and systems. This paper proposes a Taylor series expansion method to estimate the variance of reliability estimate for k-out-of-n systems with cold standby units. When component lifetime is exponential, the variance of the system reliability estimate can be analytically expressed as the summation of the moments of component reliability estimates using Taylor series. The proposed variance estimation model is also applicable to systems where component reliability estimates are statistically and mutually dependent. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the performance and application of the model and the results are compared with Monte Carlo simulation.
A cross-category analysis of dispositional drivers of technology adoption

Abstract Using the Technology Adoption Propensity (TAP) index, a psychometric scale that measures four dimensions of consumers’ technological predispositions, we examine the relative influence of contributing (optimism and proficiency) and inhibiting (dependence and vulnerability) dispositional attitudes on the adoption of a varied range of 19 technologies. Our results indicate considerable differences in the relation between technology usage and the attitudes of respondents across the technologies. We show that individuals can be grouped into three technology clusters based on technological dispositions: high proficiency/low vulnerability; low proficiency & optimism/high vulnerability; high optimism/low vulnerability. Each cluster may indicate a need for a particular sales strategy given differences in consumer attitudes.
Geographical variation in infant mortality due to congenital heart disease in the USA: a population-based cohort study.

Summary Background Little is known about geographical variation in infant mortality due to congenital heart disease (CHD) and the social determinants of health that might mediate such variation. We aimed to examine US county-level estimates of infant mortality due to CHD to understand geographical patterns and factors that might influence variation in mortality. Methods This US population-based cohort study used linked livebirth–infant death cohort files from the US National Center for Health Statistics from Jan 1, 2006, to Dec 31, 2015. All deaths attributable to congenital heart disease in infants in a given year were included. We used hierarchical Bayesian models to estimate rates of infant mortality due to congenital heart disease for all US counties. We mapped model-based estimates to explore geographical patterns. Covariates included infant sex, gestational age, maternal race and ethnicity, percentage of the county population below the poverty level, and proximity of the county to a US News & World Report 2015 top-50 ranked paediatric cardiac centre. Findings From 2006 to 2015, 40 847 089 livebirths occurred, of which there were 13 988 infant deaths attributed to congenital heart disease, with an unadjusted infant mortality rate due to CHD of 0·34 per 1000 livebirths (95% CI 0·34–0·35). Kentucky and Mississippi had the greatest proportions of counties with a predicted rate of infant mortality due to CHD above the 95th percentile. All counties in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island had a predicted rate below the fifth percentile. In the model, lower mortality risk correlated with closer proximity to a top-50 ranked paediatric cardiac centre (odds ratio [OR] 0·890, 95% credible interval [CrI] 0·840–0·942), whereas higher mortality risk correlated with higher levels of poverty (OR 1·181, 95% CrI 1·125–1·239). Interpretation Substantial geographical variation exists in infant mortality due to CHD in the USA, highlighting the potential importance of bolstering care delivery for infants from economically deprived communities and areas remote from top-performing paediatric cardiac centres. Funding None.
Public satisfaction with health care system in 30 countries: The effects of individual characteristics and social contexts.

Abstract In this article, the associations among individual socio-economic characteristics, the institutional set-up of health care systems, and satisfaction with the health care system are investigated. Data from the 2011 International Social Survey Program (30 countries, 34,212 respondents) is used. Multilevel analyses across countries have shown how the state financing context affects satisfaction at the individual level. Consistent with previous research, at individual level, personal experiences with medical providers, age, gender as well as income are significant predictors of satisfaction with the health care system. At the country level, real input indicators such as density of physicians and density of hospital beds are negative predictors of satisfaction with the health care system whereas the percentage of total health expenditures comprised by public sources is a positive predictor of satisfaction with the health care system. However, findings from the cross-level interactions indicate that the negative effect of lower income is more prominent in predominantly publicly-funded health care systems. Specifically, in primarily publicly-funded health care systems, the model-predicted probability of satisfaction with the health care system is higher, but the gap in the probability of satisfaction with the health care system between individuals with lower income and those with higher income is greater than that in mostly privately-financed health care systems. The findings in this study suggest that the future direction of health care system reform should be focused on balancing the distribution of resources between private and public sectors.
Potemkin Protections: Assessing Provider Directory Accuracy and Timely Access for Four Specialties in California.

CONTEXT Accurate provider directories and whether consumers can schedule timely appointments are crucial determinants of health access and outcomes. We assessed whether consumers can rely on provider directories to find in-network primary care providers, cardiologists, endocrinologists, and gastroenterologists for 2018 and 2019 for all managed care plans in California and whether they can access these providers in a timely manner. METHOD We used large, random, and representative surveys of provider directories for all managed care plans in California for four specialties obtained from the California Department of Managed Health Care with a total of 657,012 observations (290,711 for 2018 and 475,524 for 2019). FINDINGS Surveys were able to verify provider directory entries for the four specialties for 59% to 76% of listings or 78% to 88% of providers reached. Moreover, we found that consumers were able to schedule urgent care appointments for 28% to 54% of listings or 44% to 72% of appropriately listed providers. For general care appointments, the percentages ranged from 35% to 64% of listed providers or 51% to 87% of appropriately listed providers. Differences across markets were generally small related to accuracy. Medi-Cal plans outperformed other markets with regards to timely access. Primary care consistently outperformed all other specialties. Timely access rates were higher for general appointments than for urgent care appointments. CONCLUSIONS Despite the fact that California is one of the most active and well-resourced regulators in the nation, we found concerning results for consumers when it comes to locating in-network providers and gaining timely access. This raises questions about the regulatory regime as well as consumer access and health outcomes.
Density Gradient Centrifugation And its Application to Plant Viruses

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the density gradient centrifugation and its application to plant viruses. The chapter discusses the numerous possible modifications of this method that are classified in three categories. The term “isopycnic gradient centrifugation” is used for methods in which centrifugation is continued until each particle has reached a point where the suspending medium has a density equal to that of the particle. The other two categories of methods are called “rate zonal centrifugation” and “equilibrium zonal centrifugation.” Density gradient centrifugation is a zonal separation procedure that is applicable to many problems requiring separations of particles according to size or density. It provides an efficient separation of comparatively small quantities of virus. There is no lower limit to the concentration of virus that may be used because the superimposed density gradient prevents convection. The requirement for small quantities is a disadvantage if it is desired to purify a quantity of virus. Fortunately, large quantities of purified virus are not necessary for electron microscopy, serology, or microchemical tests. The ability to separate low concentrations may be an advantage if the separation is a prelude to analyses or determination of sedimentation coefficients, particularly in systems where interactions and deviations from the ideal become pronounced at higher concentrations. In general, density gradient centrifugation is most useful if it is considered not as a substitute for other methods of purification and centrifugation, but rather as an additional method to complement other techniques.
Dietary fat saturation and chain length modulate guinea pig hepatic cholesterol metabolism

The effects of dietary fat saturation and saturated fatty acid composition on plasma lipoprotein concentrations and hepatic cholesterol metabolism were investigated in guinea pigs. Animals were fed semipurified diets containing 15 g fat/100 g diet, as palm kernel, palm oil, beef tallow, lard, olive oil or corn oil. Plasma lipoprotein concentrations were significantly altered by the type of dietary fat. The LDL cholesterol concentration was highest in animals fed the diet with palm kernel and lowest in animals fed the diet with corn oil, whereas HDL cholesterol was lowest in beef tallow-fed guinea pigs (P < 0.01). Hepatic cholesteryl ester concentrations were 100% higher in animals fed diets containing polyunsaturated corn oil and monounsaturated olive oil compared with animals fed any of the saturated fat diets (P < 0.01). Hepatic 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase activity varied in the different dietary fat groups independent of hepatic cholesterol pools or plasma LDL concentrations. In contrast, hepatic acyl-CoA: cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) activity was significantly correlated with plasma LDL cholesterol across all dietary groups (r = 0.63, P < 0.001). These data demonstrate that regulation of hepatic HMG-CoA reductase activity is relatively independent of changes in plasma lipoprotein levels, whereas hepatic ACAT activity exhibits a positive correlation with plasma LDL cholesterol concentrations.
Microbial TRP Channels and Their Mechanosensitivity

Publisher Summary The pioneering phenotype‐to‐gene approach that dissects biological pathways has led to transient receptor potential (TRP) channels. Follow‐up examinations of these TRPs and their homologues constitute the bulk of current research on this superfamily of fascinating channels that are central to many aspects of animal physiology. Beyond animals, TRP genes can be found in Paramecium, Tetrahymena, Dictyostelium, Trypanosoma, Leishmania, and other protists, as well as most species of fungi. Thus, these channels and their basic mechanisms have evolved long before the appearance of multicellular animals. The similarities of the invisible molecules have evolved to distinguish only visible size, shape, and movement. Man, chimp, redwood, and Escherichia coli, though different in size shape, and movement, are made of the same clay. Very few macromolecules were invented since the appearance of multicellular animals, relative new comers in evolutionary history. The chapter summarizes the presence of TRP channels in protists and fungi. If all TRPs have the same origin and the conserved TM5–TM6 region holds the secret, then any TRP channel should be equally appealing as the subject of investigation.
Statistical, collective, and critical phenomena of classical one-dimensional disordered Wigner lattices

We explore various properties of classical one-dimensional Wigner solids in the presence of weak disorder at $T=0$ in the context of a recently discovered Anderson transition of plasma modes in a random potential system. The extent to which the Wigner lattice is really a ``crystal'' rather than an amorphous solid is discussed for two types of disorder. The probability density of particle spacings is examined analytically within a weak disorder approximation and compared to numerical calculations for two different realizations of disorder. Regarding the plasma oscillations, the exact plasmon dispersion relations for the ordered Wigner crystal is derived analytically from the real space equations of motion. The methods introduced for performing the necessary lattice sums can be extended to tight-binding models of noninteracting electrons with power law hopping. We also discuss other quantities that follow from plasma oscillations such as the multifractal eigenfunctions, the compressibility of the electrons, and the ac conductivity.
Deep mesoscale eddies in the Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean

[1] Numerous eddies have been identified in a seven year time series of mooring observations in the Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean. We focus on a series of deep eddies centered at ∼1200 m depth, and occupying up to 1500 m of the water column. The deep eddies are found to be spatially localized, only ever being observed at one of four mooring sites of the Beaufort Gyre Observing System in the Canada Basin. However, despite only a few previously reported observations of deep eddies in the Arctic Ocean, we find that they are the most prevalent eddy-type at this location. Based on this observation, together with an analysis of the temperature-salinity structure, and the exclusively anticyclonic rotation of the deep eddies, we hypothesize that they are formed by a density-driven outflow from the Chukchi Borderland region. We also describe a simple analytical model to explain the observed vertical scales of the eddies.