cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Detailed methods of two home-based vegetable gardening intervention trials to improve diet, physical activity, and quality of life in two different populations of cancer survivors.

Abstract Background Cancer survivors suffer from long-term adverse effects that reduce health-related quality of life (QOL) and physical functioning, creating an urgent need to develop effective, durable, and disseminable interventions. Harvest for Health, a home-based vegetable gardening intervention, holds promise for these domains. Methods This report describes the methods and recruitment experiences from two randomized controlled feasibility trials that employ a waitlist-controlled design. Delivered in partnership with Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners, this intervention provides one-on-one mentorship of cancer survivors in planning and maintaining three seasonal vegetable gardens over 12 months. The primary aim is to determine intervention feasibility and acceptability; secondary aims are to explore effects on objective and subjective measures of diet, physical activity and function, and QOL and examine participant factors associated with potential effects. One trial is conducted exclusively among 82 female breast cancer survivors residing in the Birmingham, AL metropolitan area (BBCS); another broadly throughout Alabama among 46 older cancer survivors aged > 60 (ASCS). Results Response rates were 32.6% (BBCS) and 52.3% (ASCS). Both trials exceeded 80% of their accrual target. Leading reasons for ineligibility were removal of > 10 lymph nodes (lymphedema risk factor), lack of physician approval, and unwillingness to be randomized to the waitlist. Conclusion To date, recruitment and implementation of Harvest for Health appears feasible. Discussion Although both studies encountered recruitment challenges, lessons learned can inform future larger-scale studies. Vegetable gardening interventions are of interest to cancer survivors and may provide opportunities to gain life skills leading to improvements in overall health and QOL.
From OpenACC to OpenMP 4: Toward Automatic Translation

For the past few years, OpenACC has been the primary directive-based API for programming accelerator devices like GPUs. OpenMP 4.0 is now a competitor in this space, with support from different vendors. In this paper, we describe an algorithm to convert (a subset of) OpenACC to OpenMP 4; we implemented this algorithm in a prototype tool and evaluated it by translating the EPCC Level 1 OpenACC benchmarks. We discuss some of the challenges in the conversion process and propose what parts of the process should be automated, what should be done manually by the programmer, and what future research and development is necessary in this area.
Treatment of Benign Tracheal Stenosis Using Endoluminal Spray Cryotherapy.

Importance Tracheal stenosis is a debilitating disorder with heterogeneity in terms of disease characteristics and management. Repeated recurrences substantially alter patients’ quality of life. There is limited evidence for the use of spray cryotherapy (SCT) in the management of benign airway disease. Objective To report our early results for the use of SCT in patients with benign tracheal stenosis. Design, Setting, and Participants Data were extracted from the medical records of a consecutive series of patients with benign airway stenosis secondary to granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) (n = 13), prior tracheotomy or tracheal intubation (n = 8), and idiopathic strictures (n = 5) treated from September 1, 2013, to September 30, 2015, at a tertiary care hospital. Main Outcomes and Measures Airway narrowing was quantified on a standard quartile grading scale. Response to treatment was assessed by improvement in airway caliber and the time interval for reintervention. Exposures Delivery of 4 5-second SCT cycles and 2 balloon dilatations. Results Twenty-six patients (median [range] age, 53 [16-83] years; 20 [77%] female) underwent 48 SCT sessions. Spray cryotherapy was successfully used without any substantial intraoperative or postoperative complications in all patients. In a median (range) follow-up of 11 (1-26) months, all patients had improvement in symptoms. Before the institution of SCT, 23 patients (88%) had grade III or IV stenosis. At the last evaluation after induction of SCT, 4 (15%) had grade III or IV stenosis, with a mean (SD) change of 1.39 (0.51) ( P P = .03) during the study period. Conclusions and Relevance Spray cryotherapy was a safe adjunct modality to accomplish airway patency in patients with benign tracheal stenosis. Although efficacy evidence is limited for SCT, it may be useful for patients who have experienced treatment failure with conventional modalities. Further analysis of this cohort will determine the physiologic durability of the reported short-term changes. Additional trials are warranted for further evaluation of this modality.
Controlling uncertainty in aptamer selection

The search for high-affinity aptamers for targets such as proteins, small molecules, or cancer cells remains a formidable endeavor. Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential Enrichment (SELEX) offers an iterative process to discover these aptamers through evolutionary selection of high-affinity candidates from a highly diverse random pool. This randomness dictates an unknown population distribution of fitness parameters, encoded by the binding affinities, toward SELEX targets. Adding to this uncertainty, repeating SELEX under identical conditions may lead to variable outcomes. These uncertainties pose a challenge when tuning selection pressures to isolate high-affinity ligands. Here, we present a stochastic hybrid model that describes the evolutionary selection of aptamers to explore the impact of these unknowns. To our surprise, we find that even single copies of high-affinity ligands in a pool of billions can strongly influence population dynamics, yet their survival is highly dependent on chance. We perform Monte Carlo simulations to explore the impact of environmental parameters, such as the target concentration, on selection efficiency in SELEX and identify strategies to control these uncertainties to ultimately improve the outcome and speed of this time- and resource-intensive process.
Imaging HIV-1 genomic DNA from entry through productive infection

In order to track the fate of HIV-1 particles from early entry events through productive infection, we developed a method to visualize HIV-1 DNA reverse transcription complexes by the incorporation and fluorescent labeling of the thymidine analog 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) into nascent viral DNA during cellular entry. Monocyte-derived macrophages were chosen as natural targets of HIV-1, as they do not divide and therefore do not incorporate EdU into chromosomal DNA, which would obscure the detection of intranuclear HIV-1 genomes. Using this approach, we observed distinct EdU puncta in the cytoplasm of infected cells within 12 h postinfection and subsequent accumulation of puncta in the nucleus, which remained stable through 5 days. The depletion of the restriction factor SAMHD1 resulted in a markedly increased number of EdU puncta, allowing efficient quantification of HIV-1 reverse transcription events. Analysis of HIV-1 isolates bearing defined mutations in the capsid protein revealed differences in their cytoplasmic and nuclear accumulation, and data from quantitative PCR analysis closely recapitulated the EdU results. RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization identified actively transcribing, EdU-labeled HIV-1 genomes in productively infected cells, and immunofluorescence analysis confirmed that CDK9, phosphorylated at serine 175, was recruited to RNA-positive HIV-1 DNA, providing a means to directly observe transcriptionally active HIV-1 genomes in productively infected cells. Overall, this system allows stable labeling and monitoring of HIV genomic DNA within infected cells during cytoplasmic transit, nuclear import, and mRNA synthesis.IMPORTANCE The fates of HIV-1 reverse transcription products within infected cells are not well understood. Although previous imaging approaches identified HIV-1 intermediates during early stages of infection, few have connected these events with the later stages that ultimately lead to proviral transcription and the production of progeny virus. Here we developed a technique to label HIV-1 genomes using modified nucleosides, allowing subsequent imaging of cytoplasmic and nuclear HIV-1 DNA in infected monocyte-derived macrophages. We used this technique to track the efficiency of nuclear entry as well as the fates of HIV-1 genomes in productively and nonproductively infected macrophages. We visualized transcriptionally active HIV-1 DNA, revealing that transcription occurs in a subset of HIV-1 genomes in productively infected cells. Collectively, this approach provides new insights into the nature of transcribing HIV-1 genomes and allows us to track the entire course of infection in macrophages, a key target of HIV-1 in infected individuals.
Capturing Human Naïve Pluripotency in the Embryo and in the Dish.

Although human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) were first derived almost 20 years ago, it was only recently acknowledged that they share closer molecular and functional identity to postimplantation lineage-primed murine epiblast stem cells than to naive preimplantation inner cell mass-derived mouse ESCs (mESCs). A myriad of transcriptional, epigenetic, biochemical, and metabolic attributes have now been described that distinguish naive and primed pluripotent states in both rodents and humans. Conventional hESCs and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) appear to lack many of the defining hallmarks of naive mESCs. These include important features of the naive ground state murine epiblast, such as an open epigenetic architecture, reduced lineage-primed gene expression, and chimera and germline competence following injection into a recipient blastocyst-stage embryo. Several transgenic and chemical methods were recently reported that appear to revert conventional human PSCs to mESC-like ground states. However, it remains unclear if subtle deviations in global transcription, cell signaling dependencies, and extent of epigenetic/metabolic shifts in these various human naive-reverted pluripotent states represent true functional differences or alternatively the existence of distinct human pluripotent states along a spectrum. In this study, we review the current understanding and developmental features of various human pluripotency-associated phenotypes and discuss potential biological mechanisms that may support stable maintenance of an authentic epiblast-like ground state of human pluripotency.
The Effects of Stoichiometry on Cladding Attack in UO2-PuO2

A significant reduction in and a change in the character of fuel-cladding chemical interaction (FCCI) due to a reduction in the oxygen-to-metal ratio (O/M) was established for uranium-plutonium mix...
James Landis and the Dilemmas of Administrative Government

In the late 1930s, the American administrative state was becoming an increasingly important component of American national government as the country recovered from the Depression and emerged as a preeminent geopolitical power. Amidst these changes, James Landis had a distinctive perspective borne from his experience as a public official, institutional architect, scholar, and Harvard Law School Dean. Often provocative, Landis blindsided his former Roosevelt administration colleagues with his espousal of independent agencies. Later, as a consultant to President-elect John F. Kennedy, Landis wrote the report that served as a major impetus for the creation of the Administrative Conference of the United States (“ACUS”). This Article explains how the themes in Landis’s work and career foreshadowed persistent dilemmas in the modern administrative state — dilemmas that often tend to define as well as constrain the agenda of ACUS. Landis once sought to bolster the legitimacy of the administrative state by celebrating technocratic forms of decisionmaking that could take root in heavily-insulated independent agencies. Though he later embraced a more expansive conception of presidential power, Landis did not fully recognize the tensions that arise between technocratic forms of decisionmaking — whether assisted by agency scientists or modern, adaptive computer algorithms — and the political pressures that simultaneously help make democracy messy while enhancing its legitimacy. Nor did Landis fully explore the implications arising from growing awareness of a convergence, and the blurring divide, between foreign affairs and administrative government — even if some of his own work ironically anticipated this situation. Landis’s reformist ambition found a worthy expression in the idea that coalesced into ACUS. But the conference continues to face some indelible trade-offs that define the modern administrative state even more in the early twenty-first century than during the middle of the twentieth century.
The National Gleaning Project: The Importance of Gleaning and Fresh Food Recovery in a Sustainable and Just Food System

Although agricultural gleaning is an ancient practice, there are numerous legal issues that need to be addressed at the state and federal level in order for gleaning operations and the farms they work with to thrive in our modern food system. Today, gleaning is part of a larger movement intended to confront issues of food waste and food insecurity. Nonprofit organizations now engage in gleaning and fresh food recovery in a wide variety of settings including farms, backyard fruit trees, farmer’s markets, and grocery stores. Gleaning needs support from many sectors, particularly the legal sector, as food donors and charitable organizations seek assistance with liability, tax, infrastructure, and labor issues. The National Gleaning Project (NGP—an initiative of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School, sponsored by the National Agricultural Library, a part of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service) is a multi-year endeavor that seeks to address gleaning issues and provide resources to farmers, advocates, organizations, and individuals involved in gleaning or fresh food recovery, or those seeking to develop such a program. To accomplish these goals, the NGP has developed an online gleaning resources hub, the first of its kind in the nation. By creating a resource clearinghouse and elevating the gleaning model of food waste reduction, community development, and social justice for the food insecure, the NGP will assist in the growth of the gleaning movement by reducing the information and resource barriers to organizing and implementing gleaning programs.
Depression and fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Abstract Background Previous research has examined the components of depression and fatigue in multiple sclerosis (MS), but the findings have been inconsistent. The aim of this study was to explore the associations between overall and subscale scores of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS) as well as the longitudinal changes in scores in a large cohort of MS patients. Methods MS subjects who completed a battery of patient reported outcome (PRO) measures including the CES-D and MFIS ( N = 435) were included in our analysis. At the first available MFIS measurement, Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to estimate the association between the CES-D and MFIS in terms of both total scores and subscale scores. In addition, the longitudinal change in each total score and subscale score was estimated using a linear mixed model, and the association between the measures in terms of longitudinal change was estimated using Pearson's correlation coefficient and linear mixed models. Results At baseline, 15% of subjects were classified as high on both depression and fatigue scales, 16% were classified as high on the fatigue scale only, and 9% were classified as high on the depression scale only. There was a high correlation between CES-D and MFIS total scores ( r = 0.62). High correlations were also observed between the somatic and retarded activity subscales of the CES-D and each of the MFIS subscales ( r ≥ 0.60). In terms of longitudinal change, the change over the first year between the CES-D and MFIS total scores showed a moderate correlation ( r = 0.49). Subjects with high fatigue scores but low depression scores at baseline were more likely than subjects with low baseline fatigue and depression scores to develop high depression scores at follow-up. Conclusions Our study demonstrated that depression and fatigue in MS share several features and have a similar longitudinal course. But using cut-off scores to define depression and fatigue, our study also found that non-depressed subjects with high fatigue may be at a greater risk for developing depression.
Prevalence and characteristics of sleep-disordered breathing in familial dysautonomia.

Abstract Objective Familial dysautonomia (FD) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by impaired development of sensory and afferent autonomic nerves. Untreated sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) has been reported to increase the risk of sudden unexpected death in FD. We aimed to describe the prevalence and characteristics of SDB in FD. Patients/Methods Seventy-five patients with FD (20 adults and 55 children) underwent in-lab polysomnography, including peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2) and end-tidal capnography (EtCO2) measurements. A t-test and Spearman's correlation analysis were performed to evaluate the impact of age on sleep, occurrence of apneas, SpO2 and EtCO2 levels; and to determine the relationship between apneas and SpO2/EtCO2 measurements during different sleep stages. Results Overall, 85% of adults and 91% of pediatric patients had some degree of SDB. Obstructive sleep apneas were more severe in adults (8.5 events/h in adults vs. 3.5 events/h in children, p = 0.04), whereas central apneas were more severe (10.8 vs. 2.8 events/h, p = 0.04) and frequent (61.8% vs. 45%, p = 0.017) in children. Overall, a higher apnea–hypopnea index was associated with increased severity of hypoxia and hypoventilation, although in a significant fraction of patients (67% and 46%), hypoxemia and hypoventilation occurred independent of apneas. Conclusion Most adult and pediatric patients with FD suffer from some degree of SDB. There was a differential effect of age in the pattern of SDB observed. In some FD patients, hypoventilation and hypoxia occurred independently of apneas. Therefore, we recommend including EtCO2 monitoring during polysomnography in all patients with FD to detect SDB.
Liver transplantation in a hemophilia patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

To the Editor: Recent progress in the treatment of AIDS, specifically protease inhibitor combination antiretroviral therapy, has delayed disease progression, improved immune function, and reduced mortality.[1][1] [2][2] These advances prompted us to undertake liver transplantation in a 38-year-old
Dimensional overlap and dimensional relevance in stimulus-response and stimulus-stimulus compatibility.

Stimulus response coding is treated in the framework of compatibility. A taxonomy is presented based on the dimensional overlap model (Kornblum et al., 1990) that includes eight different types of S-R ensembles. Some of the literature on human performance with these ensembles is reviewed and new data are presented
The Price They Pay: Protecting the Mother-Child Relationship Through the Use of Prison Nurseries and Residential Parenting Programs

Over the past century, while advocates of prison nurseries have applauded their individual and societal benefits, opponents have criticized their touchy-feely undertones, arguing that children do not belong behind bars. New York instituted the first modern prison nursery program in 1901 at its Bedford Hills facility, and the nursery has existed ever since. The federal government and a number of other states have followed suit in developing programs that, to varying degrees, give mothers and infants an opportunity to remain together until the infant reaches a particular age. The requirements for such programs vary by state but generally only permit women with nonviolent criminal histories to take part. Some states have instituted alternative community-based residential parenting programs that fall between halfway houses and prisons; others have segmented off the prison to build a nursery that will hold both mothers and babies. These institutions recognize the emotional value of allowing mother and child to bond, while simultaneously giving incarcerated mothers an opportunity to learn about the basics of being a parent, both from a practical and an emotional standpoint. On the other hand, many onlookers take offense at the thought of young children being imprisoned for their mothers’ crimes. Why are women allowed to reside with their children, despite committing a punishable act? State governments, along with the federal government, have weighed these issues when creating such programs, and, in the process, have ultimately concluded that keeping families together outweighs the retributive value of incarceration. While nontraditional, this approach to imprisonment is useful for both its deterrent and rehabilitative aspects and may even create multigenerational benefits. As the female prison population continues to grow, many have argued for increasing the number of facilities that offer alternative prison programs for
Organotypic models of metastasis: A three-dimensional culture mimicking the human peritoneum and omentum for the study of the early steps of ovarian cancer metastasis.

Since most ovarian cancer (OvCa) patients present at a late stage, when metastasis has already occurred, the study of early events in peritoneal dissemination is difficult. One problem has been the lack of adequate model systems for the study of ovarian tumor transformation and metastasis1, 2. Current models in use include co-cultures, whole tissue cultures, immunocompromised and genetic mouse models. All of these have unique advantages; however none of them replicates the human in vivo situation. The development and use of a 3D organotypic model of OvCa has the potential to bridge the gap between the current models of OvCa and the human disease.
Chromatin Looping and Long Distance Regulation by Androgen Receptor

The importance of the androgen signaling axis to the development and progression of prostate cancer (PCa) is central to our understanding of the disease and the therapeutic strategies currently utilized against it. The androgen receptor (AR) is known to transform the hormone stimulatory signal into an oncogenic gene transcription program required for PCa initiation and progression. Bound by AR primarily at their distal enhancer elements, AR target gene transcription relies on a mechanism known as chromatin looping. Increasingly abundant evidence suggests that changing patterns in AR-mediated chromatin loop formation underlie alterations in gene expression profiles among PCa cases and throughout PCa progression. Defining the role of additional loop-facilitating activities and the impact of genome organization on the patterns of AR-mediated chromatin interactions remains an obstacle to full understanding of transcription regulation by AR.
Robust Hybrid Control Systems: An Overview of Some Recent Results

This paper gives an overview of a framework for analyzing hybrid dynamical systems. The emphasis is on modeling assumptions that guarantee robustness. These conditions lead to a general invariance principle and to results on the existence of smooth Lyapunov functions (converse theorems) for hybrid systems. In turn, the stability analysis tools motivate novel hybrid control algorithms for nonlinear systems.
Prelaunch Performance of the 118.75 GHZ Polarcube 3U Cubesat Temperature Sounding Radiometer

The low cost PolarCube 3U CubeSat supports a 118.75 GHz imaging spectrometer for temperature profiling of the troposphere and surface temperature. It is a demonstrator for a constellation of LEO passive microwave imaging and sounding satellites at V and G bands using 3U/6U CubeSats. Such a constellation of ~40 satellites for weather forecasting will provide data at high spatial and temporal resolution to observe rapidly evolving mesoscale weather. The satellite payload is an eight channel, double sideband passive microwave temperature sounder with cross-track scanning and will provide 17.3 km surface resolution from a 450 km orbit. It's antenna system consists of a gold-plated offset paraboloidal reflector scanning at 1 Hz and a 3D printed corrugated feed with a 17.28° waveguide transition. This paper provides an overview of the radiometer including procedures used to determine optimum feed horn/reflector dimensions, phase center and antenna efficiencies. A brief description of the design and functionality of the eight channel intermediate frequency module is also provided. Initial performance results obtained from airborne measurements over Antarctica on the NASA DC-8 in November 2016 indicate a well-functioning radiometer and scanning antenna subsystem. The measured radiometer sensitivity varies from 1.3 to 2.6 K across the eight channels for an integration time of 4.096 ms. Gain stability of the various channels with ambient temperature variations were also measured.
The Tomato Endo-β-1,4-Glucanase Gene Family: Regulation by Both Ethylene and Auxin

The primary cell wall of plants is a complex polymeric network that provides a rigid constraint to cell turgor, a resistant barrier to pathogen attack and yet be sufficiently compliant to allow controlled cell elongation. The cell wall has been described as a network of cellulose microfibrils embedded in a hemicellulosic polysaccharide matrix, consisting primarily of the polymer xyloglucan in dicots. The hemicellulose component interacts to some degree with an additional co-extensive matrix of pectin and some less abundant components including structural proteins [4]. It is thought that the cellulose microfibrils are tethered by xyloglucan polymers [22, 34] and in a turgid cell, cleavage of these potentially load-bearing xyloglucan chains could provide a rate limiting step to cell wall loosening during expansive growth. Several studies linking xyloglucan metabolism with cell expansion include the release of xyloglucan fragments from the wall during elongation growth induced by the plant hormone auxin [16, 10], a decrease in the molecular weight of the remaining polymeric xyloglucan [2, 19] and partial dissolution of the wall-bound xyloglucan [30]. Metabolism of xyloglucan has also been strongly correlated with fruit ripening in a wide range of species [8, 17]. Furthermore, fruit of the rin (ripening inhibitor) tomato mutant, which soften extremely slowly, do not exhibit any decrease in xyloglucan molecular weight during ripening, unlike wild type where substantial depolymerization occurs [20]. Modification of xyloglucan structure, abundance, distribution and interaction with other cell wall components may therefore be integral to both cell expansion and fruit ripening.
Intravenous Regional Anesthesia

Intravenous regional anesthesia (IVRA) was first described in 1908 by Bier, who used procaine injected intravenously between two forearm tourniquets [1]. Holmes is credited with reintroducing the technique in 1963 [2]. More than 100 years after the original description, with some modifications, Bier’s technique is still used in modern anesthesia practice.
Adolescent Presentation of Posterior Urethral Valves

Abstract Posterior urethral valves (PUVs) present clinically across a varied spectrum, ranging from severe obstruction with massive distension of the bladder and upper urinary tracts in the fetus, to a much more indolent course with minor secondary changes in the young or older child. Type III (diaphragm) PUVs are relatively uncommon, and are associated with difficulty in passing a transurethral catheter into the bladder as well as smooth dilation of the bladder. The following case examines the unusual experiences of both diagnosing PUVs in a teenager, and capturing visual evidence of type III valves during cystourethroscopy.
Bacterial vaginosis diagnosis and treatment in postmenopausal women: a survey of clinician practices.

OBJECTIVE Some diagnostic features of the genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM) and bacterial vaginosis (BV) overlap, such as low levels of vaginal Lactobacillus and pH > 5. We sought to determine clinicians' diagnostic and treatment practices for postmenopausal women presenting with BV and GSM scenarios and how commercial molecular screening tests are utilized. METHODS Anonymous surveys were sent to practicing women's health clinicians to evaluate assessment and treatment strategies for postmenopausal women presenting with BV and GSM scenarios. RESULTS When given a scenario of a postmenopausal woman with symptoms overtly positive for BV, a majority of providers (73%) would conduct a wet mount, though only 35% would evaluate full Amsel's criteria. A majority (89%) recommended treatment with antibiotics, 28.2% recommended vaginal estrogen in addition to antibiotics, and 11.8% recommended vaginal estrogen alone. Of providers who would use a molecular swab, 30% would wait for results before treating the patient's symptoms. When given a scenario of a postmenopausal woman presenting with GSM, a majority (80%) recommended vaginal estrogen, and only 4.6% recommended antibiotics. Few (16%) responders would evaluate with a molecular swab, half of whom would wait for results before prescribing treatment. Clinicians in practice for less than 10 years were more likely to rely on molecular swabs than those who had been practicing longer (P < 0.0003). CONCLUSIONS Methods used to evaluate postmenopausal women with vaginal symptoms vary. Future studies of postmenopausal women that differentiate diagnostic criteria between BV and GSM, and validate commercial molecular testing for BV in women over age 50 are needed.
Scalable bridge health monitoring using drive-by vehicles: PhD forum abstract

The objective of my thesis work is to develop physics-guided data-driven approaches for drive-by bridge health monitoring (BHM) that are scalable and eliminate the need of acquiring training data from every bridge. BHM allows us to detect bridge damage in earlier stages, which is essential for preventing more severe damage and collapses that may lead to significant business and human losses. Using vibrations from drive-by vehicles for BHM has various advantages, such as: economical and no need for on-site maintenance of equipment on bridges. However, many such approaches face analysis challenges for monitoring multiple bridges because 1) they either require labeled data from each bridge, which is expensive and time-consuming to collect, or 2) if we directly apply the supervised model trained for one bridge to other bridges, damage diagnostic accuracy could significantly reduce because of distribution mismatch between different bridges' data. In this work, I overcome the first challenge by leveraging physical insights about the vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) to guide the data-driven approach and diagnose damage in a semi-supervised way. Also, I overcome the second challenge through a domain adversarial training and multi-task learning framework. The framework extracts features that are sensitive to damages and invariant across bridges to monitor multiple bridges without the need for training data from every bridge.
Fixational Eye Movement Waveforms in Amblyopia: Characteristics of Fast and Slow Eye Movements

Fixational eye movements comprise of fast microsaccades alternating with slow intersaccadic drifts. These physiologic eye movements play an important role in visual perception. Amblyopic patients are known to have fixation instability, particularly of the amblyopic eye. We examined eye movement abnormalities that contribute to this instability. We found that fixation stability is affected by the presence of fusion maldevelopment nystagmus (FMN). However, some amblyopes can have nystagmus without nasally directed slow phases and reversal in direction of the quick phase on ocular occlusion, features seen in FMN. In patients without nystagmus, we found increased amplitude of fixational saccades and inter-saccadic drifts. We categorized amblyopia patients by type (anisometropic, strabismic, or mixed) and eye movement waveform (no nystagmus, nystagmus without FMN, and FMN). We found specific fast and slow eye movement abnormalities of the fellow and amblyopic eye during fellow, amblyopic and both eyes viewing conditions across eye movement waveforms and types of amblyopia. These eye movement abnormalities can serve as biomarkers that can predict the impact of amblyopia as measured by visual acuity and stereopsis. Evaluation of fixational eye movements in amblyopia could be important to diagnose these common eye diseases and predict treatment effectiveness.
Integration of Lung Point-of-care Ultrasound into Clinical Decision Making for Medical Students in Simulated Cases.

Author(s): Lum, Michelle; Sheehy, Lauren; Lai, Jason; Tillman, David; Damewood, Sara; Schmidt, Jessica | Abstract: Background: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has an emerging presence in medical student education; however, there is limited evidence that this translates into appropriate clinical care. We aimed to evaluate the ability of medical students to integrate newly obtained POCUS knowledge into simulated clinical cases.Methods: We conducted an observational study of medical students participating in a mandatory rotation during their clinical years. Students in small groups underwent formalized lung POCUS lectures and hands-on training. Students participated in simulated “dyspnea” cases focused on either congestive heart failure (CHF) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). They were observed for critical actions including elements related to medical decision-making and ultrasound use and interpretation. Ultrasound-specific written knowledge was gauged with a short assessment after the first lecture and at week 4.Results: A total of 62 students participated and were observed during simulations. All groups correctly identified and treated CHF in the simulated case. Most groups (7 out of 9) attempted to use ultrasound in the CHF case; five groups correctly recognized B-lines; and four groups correctly interpreted B-lines as pulmonary edema. No groups used ultrasound in the COPD case.Conclusion: Most students attempted to use ultrasound during simulated CHF cases after a brief didactic intervention; however, many students struggled with clinical application. Interestingly, no students recognized the need to apply ultrasound for diagnosis and management of COPD. Future studies are needed to better understand how to optimize teaching for medical students to improve translation into POCUS skills and improved clinical practice.
Suicide attempts among adults denying active suicidal ideation: An examination of the relationship between suicidal thought content and suicidal behavior.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of the current study was to examine the possibility that there are multiple pathways to suicidal behavior by conducting a fine-grained investigation of the relationship between suicidal thought content and suicidal behavior. METHODS Six thousand two hundred US adults completed self-report measures of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to examine the relationship between suicidal thoughts and behaviors. RESULTS About 36.0% of participants with a lifetime suicide attempt denied ever experiencing any active suicidal thoughts and 11.0% denied ever experiencing any suicidal thoughts; 53.8% of recent attempters denied recent active suicidal thoughts and 22.6% denied any recent suicidal thoughts. Additionally, the sole presence of passive suicidal ideation was associated with increased odds of lifetime and past-month suicide attempts. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that there are likely multiple pathways to suicide, some of which do not involve progressively worsening suicidal thoughts.
Risk Assessment of Autonomous Vehicles across Diverse Driving Contexts

Traffic crashes are a leading cause of death in the US, claiming more than 36,000 lives each year. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) promise a future without crashes. At the same time, permitting deployment of AVs without an adequate safety assessment might actually increase rather than reduce crashes. Extensive on-road testing is needed to ensure that AVs bring about the intended safety benefits. However, testing AVs across all possible driving contexts is impractical. Moreover, since crashes are rare events, AV safety assessment requires comprehensive approaches that account for diversity in driving contexts without testing in all possible scenarios. In this paper, we present a risk assessment framework that leverages human driving data, in addition to on-road testing data, to provide insights into the safety capabilities of AVs. Using our framework, we show that crash risk varies substantially across diverse maneuvers and environments. For instance, we estimate the crash probability for a left turn to be about 30 times that for a lane change in our region of study. Finally, we discuss specific use cases of our risk assessment framework for AV companies and regulators.
Evaluation of Adjuvant Radiation Therapy for Resected Gallbladder Carcinoma: A Multi-institutional Experience

The role of adjuvant radiation for gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is uncertain. We combine the experience of six National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers to explore the impact of adjuvant radiation following oncologic resection of GBC. Patients who underwent extended surgery for GBC at Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, Duke University, Oregon Health & Science University, University of Michigan, and University of Texas MD Anderson between 1985 and 2008 were reviewed. Patients with metastatic disease at surgery, gross residual disease, or missing pathologic information were excluded. Of the 112 patients identified, 61 % received adjuvant radiation, 93 % of whom received concurrent chemotherapy. Median follow-up of surviving patients was 47.3 (range 2.2–167.7) months. Patients who received adjuvant radiation had a higher rate of advanced T-stage (57 vs. 16 %, p < 0.01), lymph node involvement (63 vs. 18 %, p < 0.01), and positive microscopic margins (37 vs. 9 %, p < 0.01) compared with patients managed with surgery alone, but overall survival (OS) was comparable between the two cohorts (5-year OS: 49.7 vs. 52.5 %, p = 0.20). Lymph node involvement had the strongest association with poor OS (p < 0.01). Adjuvant radiation was associated with decreased isolated local failure (hazard ratio 0.17, 95 % confidence interval 0.05–0.63, p = 0.01). However, 71 % of recurrences included distant failure. Following oncologic resection for GBC, adjuvant radiation may offer improved local control compared with observation. The benefit of adjuvant radiation beyond chemotherapy alone should therefore be explored. Certainly, the high rate of distant failure highlights the need for more effective systemic therapy.
CHAPTER 1 – The cytokines: an overview

This chapter provides an overview of cytokines, which evolved from four originally independent sources. The first source is immunology and, more specifically, the field of lymphokine research. The second source of cytokine research derives from the study of the interferons. The third source of cytokine research is the field of hematopoietic growth factors: colony-stimulating factors. In addition to promoting the growth and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells, colony stimulating factors have shown to regulate some functions of fully differentiated hematopoietic cells, thus blurring the dividing line between these agents and lymphokines / monokines, and the fourth source of cytokine research derives from the study of growth factors acting on nonhematopoietic cells. The beginnings of lymphokine research are usually traced to the demonstration that migration of normal macrophages is inhibited by material released from sensitized lymphocytes upon exposure to antigen. The putative factor responsible for this action was termed macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). Among the lymphokines a central role in the regulation of T cell growth and function is played by interleukin- 2 (IL-2). The first monocyte/macrophage-derived cytokine described were tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and lymphocyte activation factor (LAF), now known as interleukin-1 (IL- 1). Many proteins that can stimulate the growth of non-hematopoietic cells have been identified. Best known among these are epidermal growth factor (EGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), fibroblast growth factors (FGF), and vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF).
A synthetic predator odor (TMT) enhances conditioned analgesia and fear when paired with a benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonist (FG-7142)

Benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonists, such as B-carboline-3-carboxylic acid n-methylamide (FG-7142), induce a state of fear and analgesia. These reactions can be conditioned to novel stimuli during drug administration. The present experiment was conducted to determine if FG-7142 is similar to other Stressors such that certain ethologically relevant stimuli are more likely to become conditioned to a state of fear than are others. 2,5-Dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), a compound previously isolated from the feces of the predator fox, and butyric acid (BA) were presented to male rats as novel odors after administration of FG-7142 or vehicle. A method of ensuring that equal amounts of these odors were presented to the subjects was employed. Six hours after one conditioning trial with drug or vehicle, the same nonodor or chemical odors were present during formalin tests for analgesia and fear-induced freezing. Compared with no-odor and BA groups, the TMT group showed significantly enhanced conditioned analgesia and fear when FG-7142 was administered during the conditioning session. However, relative to the other odor conditions, the TMT condition produced significantly higher levels of analgesia and freezing in the absence of the benzodiazepine inverse agonist, suggesting that this odor acts as an unconditioned Stressor by itself.
Potential pitfalls of needle tract effects on repeat thyroid fine-needle aspiration.

BACKGROUND: Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is a screening and diagnostic tool used in the evaluation of thyroid nodules. Its use has resulted in an increase in the ratio of malignant versus benign thyroid nodules undergoing surgical excision. However, the FNA procedure produces some histological and cytologic alterations, which may lead to misinterpretation on repeat FNA. The goal of the current study was to characterize FNA-induced morphological alterations and their potential influence on interpretations in repeat FNA specimens. METHOD: Thyroidectomy specimens that had benign histological diagnoses and for which previous FNA specimens were available were retrieved. The FNA-induced histological alterations were evaluated and grouped based on the interval between the FNA procedure and surgical excision. Repeat thyroid FNA specimens with a cytologic diagnosis of “atypical cells/follicular lesion” were reviewed. Worrisome cytologic features that might occur after the previous FNA procedure were discussed. RESULTS: Needle tracts were identified in 68 of the 96 thyroidectomy specimens studied. FNA-induced histological alterations included hemorrhage, granulation, exuberant fibroblastic reaction, reactive follicular cells, infarction, and scarring. The presence of plump endothelial cells, myofibroblasts, and, particularly, reactive follicular cells with nuclear grooving and nuclear clearing are potential pitfalls in repeat FNA and these changes are reported to peak within 20 to 40 days after the FNA procedure. Sixteen of 152 repeat FNA cases were diagnosed as atypical cells/follicular lesion, and FNA-induced changes might have contributed to the diagnosis in 2 of these 16 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Cytologists should be aware of atypical cellular changes caused by previous FNA procedures. Although uncommon, these changes may become potential pitfalls in the cytologic diagnosis of repeat thyroid FNA specimens. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) 2013. © 2012 American Cancer Society.
Mining approximate top-k subspace anomalies in multi-dimensional time-series data

Market analysis is a representative data analysis process with many applications. In such an analysis, critical numerical measures, such as profit and sales, fluctuate over time and form time-series data. Moreover, the time series data correspond to market segments, which are described by a set of attributes, such as age, gender, education, income level, and product-category, that form a multi-dimensional structure. To better understand market dynamics and predict future trends, it is crucial to study the dynamics of time-series in multi-dimensional market segments. This is a topic that has been largely ignored in time series and data cube research. In this study, we examine the issues of anomaly detection in multi-dimensional time-series data. We propose time-series data cube to capture the multi-dimensional space formed by the attribute structure. This facilitates the detection of anomalies based on expected values derived from higher level, "more general" time-series. Anomaly detection in a time-series data cube poses computational challenges, especially for high-dimensional, large data sets. To this end, we also propose an efficient search algorithm to iteratively select subspaces in the original high-dimensional space and detect anomalies within each one. Our experiments with both synthetic and real-world data demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed solution.
Empathy—What One Hand Giveth, the Other Taketh Away: Commentary on Paper by Lynne Layton

In this commentary I support Layton's vision of psychotherapy as an unavoidably political practice. However, I caution against a belief in empathy as a primary means of motivating political activity. By sketching a brief history of the concept of empathy, I argue that it is a problematic concept that ultimately will not lead the profession to the type of progressive political practice Layton encourages it to undertake. Empathy preoccupies therapists and patients with inwardness, self-absorption, a modified but sometimes still present objectivism, and an apolitical vision trapped in the Cartesianism from which it originated. I suggest alternative terms to describe what therapists do when they believe they are acting empathically; offer philosophical, political, and socioeconomic reasons why therapists are reluctant to think in alternative terms; and make a link between those terms and a more effective, hermeneutic way of attending to the social realm. I conclude that empathy is not a natural, instinctive p...
Alpha-1 fetoprotein in pregnancy.

Abstract Assay of alpha-1 fetoprotein (AFP) by counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIEP) is proposed as a simple rapid screening test for fetal distress or death. A study of 298 maternal sera prior to term showed that 291 had less than 250 ng. AFP. Seven sera had over 250 ng. of AFP per milliliter and all 7 were associated with either fetal morbidity or fetal death. Anti-AFP was not detected in any of the maternal sera.