cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Changes in otoacoustic emissions and auditory brain stem response after cis-platinum exposure in gerbils.

Ototoxicity associated with cis-platinum administration commonly presents as hearing loss and tinnitus. The hearing loss is usually an irreversible, high-frequency sensorineural loss. Histologic studies in humans and animals suggest that the outer hair cells (OHCs) are most susceptible to cis-platinum. Evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAE), as a measure of outer hair cell function, are potentially useful in following ototoxic insults involving OHCs. Distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) test frequency-specific regions of the cochlea and therefore may be particularly well suited for monitoring ototoxic injuries. We measured distortion product otoacoustic emissions, at f2 = 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 kHz, in gerbils after a single large dose of cis-platinum. Animals treated with saline served as controls. The findings were compared to auditory brain stem evoked response (ABR) thresholds, using tone pips of the same frequencies. The DPOAE and ABR thresholds were measured before treatment and again 2, 5, and 14 days after drug administration. The changes in DPOAE were compared with the changes in ABR. No treatment effect was noted in the 2-day group. Animals treated with c/s-platinum demonstrated significant elevation of DPOAE and ABR thresholds compared with control animals at 5 and 14 days. There was no significant difference between the threshold changes in the 5-and 14-day groups.
Rural versus nonrural differences in BMC, volumetric BMD, and bone size: a population-based cross-sectional study

Despite reports of lower fracture risk among rural versus urban populations, few studies have investigated rural versus urban differences in bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD). Population differences in cross-sectional bone geometry and understanding lifestyle factors responsible for these differences may reveal insights into the reason for differences in fracture risk. We hypothesized that if lifestyle differences in bone mass, size, and geometry are a result of muscle strength, activity, or dietary differences, Hutterite and rural populations should have greater bone mass compared to nonrural populations. The study population consisted of 1189 individuals: 504 rural Hutterites (188 men), 349 rural individuals (>75% life farming, 184 men), and 336 nonrural individuals (never lived on farm, 134 men) aged 20 to 66 years. BMC, bone area, and areal BMD (aBMD) of the total body (TB), hip, femoral neck (FN), and spine by DXA; volumetric BMD (vBMD) and bone geometry at the 4% and 20% radius; polar stress strain index (pSSI), a measure of bone strength, at the 20% pQCT site; and strength, 7-day activity recall, and 24-h diet recall were collected and compared among groups. Hutterite women and men had greater grip strength compared to rural and nonrural populations (both, P <0.001). Rural women had greater activity versus Hutterite and nonrural (P <0.001), while both Hutterite and rural men had greater activity than nonrural (P <0.001). Hutterite and rural populations tended to have greater BMC and areal size than the nonrural population, while Hutterites had greater BMC and areal size than rural population at some (TB, FN for females only), but not all (proximal hip), sites. Cortical vBMD was inversely associated with periosteal circumference at the 20% radius in women (r=-0.25, P <0.001) and men (r=-0.28, P <0.001) and was higher in nonrural versus Hutterite and rural men. Hutterite and rural women and men had greater pSSI at the 20% radius compared to nonrural; inclusion of strength measurements explained population differences among women, but not men. Lifestyle differences did not explain population differences in BMC, aBMD, vBMD, or bone size.
The Quest of the Historical Muhammad

Writing in 1962 Stephen Neill listed twelve of what he regarded as “positive achievements of New Testament studies” over the past century.1 As an affirmation of progress in a notoriously difficult field of investigation, they make satisfying and even cheerful reading for the historian. Who was Jesus of Nazareth? What was his message? Why was he put to death? Why did his few followers become, in effect, the nucleus of the powerful and widespread community called Christianity? These were the enormously difficult questions that had begun to be posed in a critical-historical way in the mid-19th century, and some of the answers Bishop Neill discerned, though by no means final, represented ground gained and truths won. Neill's widely read book was revised in 1988, and though his optimism was here and there tempered by what had been said and thought in the twenty-five years since the first edition,2 there was still good reason to think that historians were by and large on the right track in pursuing what Albert Schweitzer described in 1906 as “the quest of the historical Jesus.”3
Development and Characterization of Novel Complex Hydrides Synthesized via Molten State Processing

This study developed novel hydrides for hydrogen storage through a novel synthesis technique utilizing high hydrogen overpressure at elevated temperatures denoted as Molten State Processing, MSP. The ultimate goal is to produce materials that have high hydrogen capacity, are stable after cycling and possess favorable thermodynamic and kinetic characteristics compatible with onboard hydrogen storage for automotive applications. In order to achieve these goals the MSP Process was developed and used to modify and form new complex hydride compounds with desired characteristics. This synthesis technique holds the potential of fusing different known complex hydrides at elevated temperatures and pressures to form new complexes having different sorption and thermodynamic properties. The new complex hydrides produced by this method were identified through structural determination and thermodynamic characterization in order to achieve a more fundamental understanding of their formation and dissociation mechanisms.
The Life Attitudes Schedule–Short Form: Psychometric Properties and Correlates of Adolescent Suicide Proneness

The goals of the present study were to describe the psychometric properties of the Life Attitudes Schedule-Short Form (LAS-SF) in adolescents and provide criterion and construct validity data, including bivariate and multivariate associations with related risk behaviors. Anonymous questionnaires containing the LAS-SF and related measures were administered to 1,742 high school students in three states. Psychometric properties for LAS-SF items and total score were very good, and the LAS-SF was correlated with almost all of the examined risk behaviors, illustrating the broad range of problems measured by the instrument. LAS-SF total scores were associated with past suicide attempt, even after controlling for the impact of current depression. Clinical and research uses for the LAS-SF are discussed.
Call it cancer: letting the histopathology determine the diagnosis.

I read with interest the wise counsel provided by Drs. Chabner and Smith to the National Institutes of Health Consensus Panel on low-grade prostate cancer [1]. The language of cancer is muddled by quasisynonymous terms such as cancer, tumor, neoplasm, growth, mass; the distinction between benign and malignant is, also, often blurred. A profound error was made of the sort that Drs. Chabner and Smith are trying to help us avoid when the clonal cytopenias and oligoblastic myelogenous leukemia were designated myelodysplasia. By using such anachronisms (and euphemisms) as refractory anemia, and illogical terms as “excess blasts”—as if one can have an excess of malignant cells akin to excess fat cells—a neoplasia is thereby mislabeled a dysplasia, thus setting back thinking about the disorders by 50 years [2, 3]. Indeed, it was approximately 75 years from the early descriptions of these syndromes in the 1930s that the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program of the National Cancer Institute realized that clonal cytopenias and oligoblastic myelogenous leukemia were neoplasms that should be tracked by the program. The omission greatly underestimated the incidence and prevalence of hematological malignancies. The confusion of students trying to understand why a disease with leukemic blast cells in blood and marrow is not called leukemia and of basic scientists thinking they were studying a preneoplastic condition was entirely unnecessary, if the correct language had been chosen. We are inching our way there by the frequent designation MDS/AML but it should be clarified unequivocally. A decision not to call low-grade prostatic cancer a cancer would be a very unfortunate step. The act of having a neoplasm diagnosed by biopsy and calling it something else would be a profound mistake. The information available to physicians and patients regarding the matter of low-grade prostate cancer is easily accessible on the World Wide Web and from other sources. The patient given the diagnosis will almost always be in the hands of a physician familiar with the matter and capable of providing understanding and guidance. Of course, it is possible that a patient may not deal with the matter with confidence, but that is likely to be an uncommon event and we should not turn cancer pathobiology upside down on that basis. In addition, one of the problems with modern medicine is the difficulty patients have understanding their disease and making intelligent and informed decisions. We should help them do so, not hide the truth from them with circumlocutions or neologisms. Compassionate care can be delivered with valid information. See the accompanying editorial in The Oncologist, volume 17, number 2, 2012 .
Crack growth-based fatigue life prediction using an equivalent initial flaw model. Part I: Uniaxial loading

A general methodology is proposed in this paper for fatigue-life prediction using crack growth analysis. This is the part II of the paper and focuses on the fatigue-life prediction under proportional and nonproportional multiaxial loading. The proposed multiaxial fatigue-life prediction is based on a critical plane-based multiaxial fatigue damage model and the Equivalent Initial Flaw Size (EIFS) concept. An equivalent stress intensity factor under general multiaxial proportional and nonproportional loading is defined. The fatigue life is predicted by integration of the crack growth rate curve from the EIFS to the critical crack length. The proposed model can automatically adapt for different materials experiencing different local failure modes. The numerical fatigue-life prediction results calculated by the proposed approach are validated with experimental data for a wide range of metallic materials available in the literature. Reasonable agreements are observed between the model predictions and the experimental observations under proportional and nonproportional loading.
Towards energy proportionality for large-scale latency-critical workloads

Reducing the energy footprint of warehouse-scale computer (WSC) systems is key to their affordability, yet difficult to achieve in practice. The lack of energy proportionality of typical WSC hardware and the fact that important workloads (such as search) require all servers to remain up regardless of traffic intensity renders existing power management techniques ineffective at reducing WSC energy use.We present PEGASUS, a feedback-based controller that significantly improves the energy proportionality of WSC systems, as demonstrated by a real implementation in a Google search cluster. PEGASUS uses request latency statistics to dynamically adjust server power management limits in a fine-grain manner, running each server just fast enough to meet global service-level latency objectives. In large cluster experiments, PEGASUS reduces power consumption by up to 20%. We also estimate that a distributed version of PEGASUS can nearly double these savings
Which Does More to Determine the Quality of Corporate Governance in Emerging Economies, Firms or Countries?

Scholars of corporate governance have debated the relative importance of country and firm characteristics in understanding corporate governance variation across emerging economies. Using panel data and a number of model specifications, we shed new light on this debate. We find that firm characteristics are as important as and often meaningfully more important than country characteristics in explaining governance ratings variance. These results suggest that over recent years firms in emerging economies had more capability to rise above home-country peer firms in corporate governance ratings than has been previously suggested. In fact, 16.8% percent of firms in emerging economies have been able to exceed the 75th percentile of corporate governance ratings in developed economies and 45.5% of firms in emerging economies have been able to exceed the 50th percentile of corporate governance ratings in developed economies.
Structural and electrochemical analysis of layered compounds from Li2MnO3

Abstract Layered lithium-manganese-oxide electrodes with the general formula Li2−xMnO3−x/2 (0
Racial comparison of outcomes of male Department of Veterans Affairs patients with lung and colon cancer

Background: A study was performed to distinguish between genetic vs socioeconomic factors or artifacts inherent in retrospective studies to discover explanations for the apparent shorter survival of blacks than whites with lung and colon cancer. Methods: Detailed biological and socioeconomic data were collected prospectively from a large cohort of patients with advanced lung and colon cancer who had not previously received chemotherapy and who consented to be entered in the clinical trial. Twelve medical centers within the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital system (Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study 188) entered patients between May 1981 and May 1986. These patients were evaluated and treated in a uniform manner within this hospital system and followed up to death. Outcome measures included time to tumor progression, tumor response, and survival. Results: A total of 719 patients were entered in the study, 704 of whom were either black or white men. Blacks were found to have a significantly lower socioeconomic status than whites as measured by marital and educational status, occupation, income, housing, and number of individuals residing in household. Blacks had a significantly lower frequency of prior tumor resection and a significantly increased frequency of mediastinal lymph node involvement and of metastasis than whites. Trends existed toward a shorter time interval from original diagnosis to entry and a lower frequency of prior radiation therapy among blacks in comparison with whites at the time of entry to the study. However, no differences in intensity of treatment or follow-up, time to progression, response to treatment, or overall survival (measured from entry to the study to death) were observed for blacks vs whites. Conclusions: Lung and colon cancer are not necessarily more aggressive diseases in blacks than in whites. Based on a comparison of these data with those reported from other practice settings, we postulate that lung and colon cancer outcomes may be similar among black and white patients who receive equal access to comparable medical care in spite of socioeconomic differences. Findings suggest that future studies might focus profitably on racial factors that may exist at the time of patient entry to the health care system. (Arch Intern Med. 1993;153:1681-1688)
Flow over heated terrain. Part I. Linear theory and idealized numerical simulations

Abstract The flow past heated topography is examined with both linear and nonlinear models. It is first shown that the forcing of an obstacle with horizontally homogenous surface heating can be approximated by the forcing of an obstacle with surface heating isolated over the obstacle. The small-amplitude flow past an obstacle with isolated heating is then examined with a linear model. Under the linear approximation, the flow response to heated topography is simply the addition of the separate responses to thermal and orographic forcing. These separate responses are first considered individually and then the combined response is examined. Nondimensional parameters are developed that measure the relative importance of thermal and orographic forcing. Nonaxisymmetric forcing is then considered by examining the flow along and across a heated elliptically shaped obstacle. It is shown that the low-level lifting is maximized when the flow is along the major axis of the obstacle. The linear solutions are then test...
Catastrophe and Contention in Rural China: THE ESCAPE FROM FAMINE AND DEATH

Between the autumn harvest of 1959 and the spring hunger of 1960, the existential situation of Da Fo's inhabitants deteriorated sharply. Reduced to one-fourth jin (4.2 ounces) of food per day – the equivalent of about two cups of rice or a few slices of bread – in the spring hunger of 1960, the public dining hall grain ration in Da Fo was a quarter of the daily ration during the killer Madras Famine in India of 1877. Yet most people in Da Fo survived the ensuing terrible year of the Great Leap Forward Famine. If grain concealment, the black market, and gleaning rights were all but eliminated and if the Liangmen People's Commune and Da Fo party leaders had usurped the household entitlements of the past, such as selling off family land and property to purchase food or seeking hunger loans from landlord patrons, how did villagers escape death? China's rural people, including the tillers of Da Fo, avoided losing all of their crops to state procurement during the Great Leap famine by eating the crops of the collective before the harvest. People from all three of Da Fo's harvest companies say that 90 percent of their members survived primarily by relying on chi qing , as villagers call the practice of eating immature or unripe crops. This means that if we focus mainly on the amount of the harvest taken by commune officials after the harvest was reaped rather than the struggle over the harvest within the fields of the collective, we cannot grasp the most effective survival strategy when starvation threatened in 1960 and 1961.
Definition Rhetoric in the Amiri Baraka Controversy

The words “poetry” and “politics” resonate in the audible, alliterative sense. But, as New Jersey Governor James McGreevey and his six-member poet laureate selection committee recently discovered, this is the only occasion in which the two words necessarily cohere. This is true, at least, following September of 2002, when New Jersey’s elected poet laureate Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) performed his poem “Somebody Blew UpAmerica,” shocking and appalling his audience at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival at Waterloo Village in Stanhope. It was not this specific performance or reaction that instantaneously converted Gov. McGreevey and Co. into poetry-fearing conservatives but rather the torrent of social and political backlash that followed, including a public reaction from the politically influential Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The title “poet laureate” carries heavy political implications, as it is an appointed position and represents the literary and artistic interests of the state. Additionally, the established compensation for the title includes $10,000 in tax dollars. The trouble is that Baraka’s poem is tremendously offensive to many Americans, especially Jewish-Americans and those who lost relatives and
Blastic natural killer (NK) cell leukemia (agranular CD4+CD56+ leukemia)

Blastic NK cell lymphoma is a rare hematolymphoid neoplasm. This report illustrates an unusual presentation of this entity, namely as a primary leukemia, but without skin lesions.
Effect of hepatectomy upon the analgetic action of 1 methadone.

SummaryA comparison of the analgetic response of 1.5 mg/kg intraperitoneally of 1 Methadone in normal, sham-operated and partially hepatectomized rats was carried out 5 days postoperatively, and 15 days postoperatively.These experiments suggest that the liver is the chief site for the destruction of 1 Methadone.
The concept of urban intensity and China's townization policy: Cases from Zhejiang Province

Urban intensity, in this paper, is measured by four related concepts: compactness, diversity, density, and connectivity. Together they lead to a single idea when considering spatial distributions potentially in a virtuous manner with regard to resource consumption, economic opportunity, social integration and environmental performance. The methodologies applied here included Moran's I, Shannon's index entropy, and accessibility isotimelines, which were then applied to real case scenarios in 20 towns in Zhejiang Province, selected based on their economic performances, population sizes, and geographical locations. Further inspection discovered that density, an outcome of urban form, is highly correlated to compactness, leading to its elimination. The results showed that among the varying spatial arrangements of urban activities, building footprints and infrastructural elements characterized by monocentric centers of use inscribed with well-defined and relatively uniform grids of streets and related networks, alongside of relatively integrated zones of use, seemed to perform best with regard to urban intensity. At the other end of the morphological spectrum, towns with sharp separations of uses and zones of development, often resulting in overall bifurcation of a town's spatial layout, performed less well. Also, linear forms for small towns were less favorable.
Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitor Therapy for Locally Advanced and Metastatic Basal Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Pooled Analysis of Interventional Studies.

Importance Hedgehog pathway inhibitors (HPIs) were made available by US Food and Drug Administration approval in 2012 for vismodegib and 2015 for sonidegib. Both target the Smoothened molecule and are indicated for locally advanced basal cell carcinoma (laBCC) and metastatic basal cell carcinoma (mBCC). Objective To evaluate clinical experience with HPIs, including efficacy and adverse effects. Data Sources We conducted a systematic review in concordance with the PRISMA guidelines of PubMed, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ClinicalTrials.gov, and EMBASE, using search terms “vismodegib,” “sonidegib,” “Erivedge,” “Odomza,” “basal cell carcinoma,” and “BCC.” Study Selection We included clinical trials, retrospective medical record reviews, and prospective case series that used HPIs for the treatment of laBCC or mBCC in human subjects. Individual case reports and limited, retrospective case series were excluded from our review. Data Extraction and Synthesis Data were extracted independently by 2 reviewers on a predesigned, standardized form. Main Outcomes and Measures The following data were recorded: number of patients with laBCC or mBCC, dose and frequency of drug administration, median duration of treatment, clearance and recurrence rates, and adverse effects. Results Eleven vismodegib articles (published between 2009 and 2015) met criteria for inclusion, and 8 articles were able to be pooled for analysis. The 8 pooled articles included 744 total patients with 704 patients clinically evaluable. Sonidegib did not yield enough publications for a formal analysis. Objective response to vismodegib for laBCC had a weighted average of 64.7% (95% CI, 63.7%-65.6%); complete response averaged 31.1% (95% CI, 30.4%-31.8%). Objective response for mBCC was 33.6% (95% CI, 33.1%-34.2%); complete response averaged 3.9% (95% CI, 3.3%-4.4%). Median duration of therapy was 35.8 weeks (95% CI, 35.1-36.5 weeks). Conclusions and Relevance In a systematic review of HPIs for laBCC and mBCC, vismodegib, but not sonidegib, had enough studies to warrant a pooled analysis. Vismodegib was identified to have a significant, consistent effect on the median duration of therapy of laBCC and mBCC. While mBCC responses are superior to any traditional approach, the response rate for laBCC might be considered in the context of other standard treatment options including surgery and radiation therapy.
Research on Security Access Control Method of Power Intranet Terminal

With the acceleration of power information construction, the need of intranet security construction is increasing. How to build a credible and controllable information intranet becomes a hot topic. This paper focuses on the source of security problem—terminal and proposes a new method for security access control of power intranet terminal, utilizing terminal security protection measures including assessment, terminal security monitoring, terminal security reinforce and etc., and network access control means such as access control and authentication to achieve a better credible and controllable intranet.
Analysis of Blind Sample Quality Appraisal Results of Foodborne Pathogens

[Objective] To join in the comparison tests between microbiology testing laboratories, for guaranteeing the reliability of national monitoring and test results of foodborne pathogens, and improving the testing capacity.[Methods]The tests were based on the "National Standard of The People's Republic of China Food Hygiene Microbiology Examination" (GB/T 4789.4.7.9.10.30.36.40-2008) and "Henan Foodborne Pathogenic Bacteria Monitoring Network Operating Instructions(2010)".[Results]Salmonella Dublin, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter sakazakii were detected in HNIII 3 examination sample.[Conclusion]PCR detection techniques can be used as auxiliary tools. VITEK automatic biochemistry system can accurately determine Enterobacter sakazakii.
Disposable Labor, Repurposed: Outsourcing Deportees in the Call Center Industry

In this article, I draw on ethnographic research with deportees in the Dominican Republic who work in call centers that serve U.S. businesses, exploring the relationship between deportation from the United States and U.S. labor practices abroad. I argue that the globalized call center industry harnesses the labor of long-term U.S. residents expelled from the country—people deemed unfit to live within the borders of the United States, but whose labor is desired by U.S. companies abroad—to cultivate a flexible and culturally suitable labor pool. I also show how deportees, who are stigmatized and considered unemployable in most industries, rely on the call centers for both employment and cultural connections to their long-term home—the United States. This research contributes to anthropological understandings of criminalization and the role of displaced labor in the globalized economy. Specifically, I offer an alternative to the popular idea of “disposability” of the marginalized and argue that, under the circumstances of deportation, the labor of many deportees is more accurately characterized as “repurposed.”
Advanced Fractional Taylor’s Formulae

Here are presented five new advanced fractional Taylor’s formulae under as weak as possible assumptions.
Prenatal DHA supplementation and infant attention

Results of randomized trials on the effects of prenatal docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on infant cognition are mixed, but most trials have used global standardized outcomes, which may not be sensitive to effects of DHA on specific cognitive domains. Women were randomized to 600 mg/d DHA or a placebo for the last two trimesters of pregnancy. Infants of these mothers were then followed on tests of visual habituation at 4, 6, and 9 mo of age. DHA supplementation did not affect look duration or habituation parameters but infants of supplemented mothers maintained high levels of sustained attention (SA) across the first year; SA declined for the placebo group. The supplemented group also showed significantly reduced attrition on habituation tasks, especially at 6 and 9 mo. The findings support with the suggestion that prenatal DHA may positively affect infants’ attention and regulation of state.
The power of the patient question: A secret shopper study.

Abstract Objectives To examine the effect of one standardized patient question on the length, number and type of new topics pharmacists addressed. To explore how community pharmacists counsel secret shoppers on two types of over-the-counter (OTC) medications—ibuprofen (IB) and emergency contraceptives (EC). Methods 25 pharmacists from 7 independent, midwestern community pharmacies consented to have secret shoppers purchase an OTC medication and to have their consultations audio-recorded. Following standardized scenarios, 5 secret shoppers audio-recorded 73 encounters. At the end of 36 encounters secret shoppers asked one standard question, "What else should I know before taking this product?" Role Theory informed the study design with apriori hypotheses that topics assessed, topics discussed, and consultation length would vary by the OTC medication (IB or EC) and whether secret shoppers asked a question. Audio-recording coding had high inter-rater reliability (kappa=0.94). Results Length of encounter was significantly associated with patients asking the question (p Conclusion Results highlight the importance of encouraging patients to ask pharmacists their questions about OTC products for safe use and thorough consultations.
IBM's service journey: A summary sketch

Abstract IBM is an iconic corporation, whose history of innovation and growth has been told many times in many ways. In this short retelling, the focus is from the perspective of service and service growth. In the early 1990s, during what was arguably IBM's darkest days, it was a return to service and service growth that saved IBM and dramatically grew the IT services industry. This paper shares some personal reflections on the history of IBM from a service perspective, and advocates for more service research to advance our understanding of service systems and service growth.
Optimal Synthesis of a Power Plant Cooling System

The design of a cooling system for a power plant is approached as a problem in systems synthesis. The cooling system is optimized with respect to both the independent variables associated with each cooling unit and the arrangement of the cooling units in the system. A sample cooling system is optimally synthesized with two methods of systems synthesis--a structural parameter problem formulation with a direct search and a dynamic programming formulation. Other approaches are also considered. Two types of cooling units--a mechanical draft cooling tower and a cooling pond--are used in the example. The methods proposed for the development of the optimal design are sufficiently general so that any number, type, or combinations of types of cooling units could be included in the optimal systems synthesis.
On the concepts of character and personality: Correctly interpreting the statistical evidence putatively relevant to the disposition–situation debate:

Complementing Banicki’s (2017) recent discussion of the conceptual and historical aspects of the distinction between theoretical notions of “character” and “personality,” the present commentary is ...
Guided Heterogeneous Nucleation of Sodium Chloride at Self-Assembled Monolayer-Modified Nanoporous Gold Films

Drug delivery devices are generally inefficient when releasing the active compound at the targeted position. In this work, we investigate nanoporous gold (np-Au) as the drug eluting device, and we use the precipitation of NaCl as a model of drug sedimentation to evaluate the patterns of solute distribution. Hydrophilic and hydrophobic modifications of np-Au result in different, but both inhomogeneous, release patterns, with most of the precipitate forming outside the device. In contrast, the fabrication of a hydrophobic–hydrophilic-layered architecture allows full penetration through the bicontinuous np-Au network, resulting in a homogeneous release pattern. Similar architectures could be used to enhance the efficacy of drug delivery.
Posttraumatic Stress and Suicidality Among Firefighters: The Moderating Role of Distress Tolerance

Firefighters report high rates of suicidality and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This investigation explored the moderating role of distress tolerance (DT) in the association between PTSD symptomatology and suicidality in firefighters. Covariates included trauma load, depressive symptom severity, gender, race, age, and education. The sample was comprised of 765 (94.0% male; Mage = 38.8, SD = 8.6) trauma-exposed firefighters who completed a questionnaire battery. Structural equation modeling was employed. PTSD symptom severity was significantly, positively associated with global suicide risk, suicidal ideation/attempt, frequency of suicidal ideation, lifetime threat of suicide, and perceived likelihood of future suicide attempts. Lower levels of DT were significantly associated with higher frequency of past-year suicidal ideation. Significant interactive effects were noted; firefighters with higher levels of PTSD symptom severity and low levels of DT had the highest levels of global suicide risk and perceived likelihood of future suicide attempt. Clinical and research implications are discussed.
Why do people disparage May–December romances? Condemnation of age-discrepant romantic relationships as strategic moralization

Abstract Romantic relationships with a large age difference between partners are judged to be less acceptable, more disgusting, and less likely to succeed than age-similar relationships. We investigated the role of strategic moralization in condemnation of man-older age-discrepant relationships. We hypothesized that (1) this condemnation promotes self-serving interests of those who stand to lose from violation of age-based assortative mating, and (2) endorsement of prostitution mediates the association between participant's age and condemnation of man-older age-discrepant relationships because these relationships make the exchange of sex for resources explicit and acceptable. Using self-reports from 430 participants, we documented that endorsement of prostitution mediates the association between age and condemnation of man-older age-discrepant relationships for women but not men.
An Ophthalmologist's Approach to Children with Visual Perception and Learning Differences

(1999). An Ophthalmologist's Approach to Children with Visual Perception and Learning Differences. American Orthoptic Journal: Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 175-179.
Tensors in Geometry Processing

Tensor fields have a wide range of applications outside scientific visualization. In this chapter, we review various types of tensors used in geometry processing, including their properties, application requirements, as well as theoretical and practical results. We will focus on the metric tensor and the curvature tensor, two of the most studied tensors in geometry processing.
Fast-Neutron Hodoscope at TREAT: Data Processing, Analysis, and Results

The fast-neutron hodoscope at the Transient Reactor Test Facility is designed for the determination of fuel motion during the course of brief (0.1- to 30-sec) power transients. During the course of a transient test, data must be recorded from each of 334 hodoscope channels at count rates up to 2 million/sec each, down to millisecond time intervals. This is accomplished in a relatively reliable and inexpensive manner by displaying counts from each detector sequentially in binary code on a lamp panel, which is photographed by a high-speed framing camera, producing a film record of the transient test. After chemical development, the film is examined by a computer-controlled flying-spot scanner, and the position and density of candidate lamp images are recorded on magnetic tape. Through further computer processing, these images are sorted and decoded, and the count rate is recovered for each detector at each instant of collection time. A cathode-ray tube and a plotter, both computer controlled, are used to recreate and analyze the fuel motion history of the experiment. Analysis is directed toward fuel distortion or expansion prior to clad failure, slumping, dispersion, amount and rates of movement, post-scram relocation, and ultimate disposition of fuel.
Self-Consistent Orthogonalized-PLane-Wave Calculations

A natural way to describe mathematically a valence wave function in a periodic crystal is in terms of a Fourier series. However, convergence of such a plane-wave series is very poor because thousands of plane-wave terms are required to simulate the rapid oscillations of the wave function close to the atomic nuclei. To improve convergence, Herring1 proposed the Orthogonalized-Plane-Wave (OPW) method in which the plane-wave terms making up the Fourier series are orthogonalized to all the tightly-bound, core-wave functions. This orthogonalization vastly improves the convergence because the core functions present in the valence wave function expansion correctly simulate the behavior of the valence wave function in the core regions; while the plane-wave terms adequately describe the overall crystalline behavior of the function.
Millipede: Die-Stacked Memory Optimizations for Big Data Machine Learning Analytics

The technology-push of die stacking and application pull of Big Data machine learning analytics (BMLA) have created a unique opportunity for processing-near-memory (PNM). This paper makes four contributions: (1) While previous PNM work explores general MapReduce workloads, we identify three application characteristics of most BMLAs: (a) irregular-and-compute-light (i.e., perform only a few operations per input word which include data-dependent branches and indirect memory accesses); (b) compact (i.e., the relevant portion of the input data and the intermediate live data for each thread are small); and (c) memory-row-dense (i.e., process the input data without skipping over many bytes). These characteristics, except for irregularity, are necessary for bandwidth-and energy-efficient PNM, irrespective of the architecture. (2) Based on these characteristics, we propose memory optimizations for a "sea of simple MIMD cores (SSMC)" PNM architecture, called Millipede, which (pre) fetches and operates on entire memory rows to exploit BMLAs' row-density. Instead of this row-oriented access and compute-schedule, traditional multicores opportunistically improve row locality while fetching and operating on cache blocks. (3) Millipede employs well-known MIMD execution to handle BMLAs' irregularity, and sequential prefetch of input data to hide memory latency. In Millipede, however, one corelet prefetches a row for all the corelets which may stray far from each other due to their MIMD execution. Consequently, a leading corelet may prematurely evict the prefetched data before a lagging corelet has consumed the data. Millipede employs cross-corelet flow-control to prevent such eviction. (4) Millipede further exploits its flow-controlled prefetch for frequency scaling based on coarse-grain compute-memory rate-matching which decreases (increases) the processor clock speed when the prefetch buffers are empty (full). Using simulations, we compare PNM architectures to show that Millipede improves performance and energy, by 135% and 27% over a GPGPU with prefetch, and by 35% and 36% over SSMC with prefetch, when all three PNM architectures use the same resources (i.e., number of cores and on-processor-die memory) and identical die-stacking.
Transition Readiness in Adolescents and Young Adults with Heart Disease: Can We Improve Quality of Life?

Objectives We previously reported common knowledge deficits and lack of transition readiness in 13- 25-year-olds with congenital or acquired heart disease. The aims of this study were to re-evaluate transition readiness in this cohort at follow-up and to examine the relationship between changes in transition readiness and quality of life (QOL). Study design In this prospective cohort study, patients completed the Transition Readiness Assessment and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory using an e-tablet, web-based format at a routine follow-up visit. Changes from initial to follow-up scores were evaluated. Results Sixty-five percent of patients (106 of 164) completed follow-up assessments at a median age of 18.7 years (IQR, 16.5-21.2 years) at a median follow-up of 1 year. The average perceived knowledge deficit score (percent of items with no knowledge) at follow-up was 18.0 ± 15.2%, which decreased from 24.7 ± 16.5% (P Conclusions Although deficits in knowledge and self-management skills persist, transition readiness assessment and recognition of deficits can improve transition readiness with improved psychosocial QOL.
A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF HAND-GRIP STRENGTH AND OUTCOMES IN A CARDIOVASCULAR INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

Handgrip strength (HGS) is a marker of frailty that is associated with major adverse cardiovascular outcomes. The relationship between HGS and outcomes in a cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU) setting has not been previously studied. Between December 2018 and May 2019 HGS was measured on
Creating Culturally Responsive Noyce Explorers, Scholars and Teachers

This research discusses the pedagogy, Culturally Responsive Teaching and its significant role in the Noyce project curriculum. Culturally Responsive Teaching has been incorporated into all three of the chief tiers of Noyce: Explorer; Scholar; and Teacher. This main progressive mechanism has successfully prepared and trained outstanding STEM teachers. Based on the summative and formative evaluations from the NSF Noyce Scholarship Phase I program, there were several significant results that demonstrated the success of the NEST project. The Noyce project faculty plans to continue to integrate Culturally Responsive Teaching into the second phase of the Noyce program.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in processed yard trash.

This work examines polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations in yard trash at various stages of the yard trash management cycle of collection, stockpiling, grinding and screening into mu...
Intensive and App-Delivered Occupational Therapy to Improve Upper Extremity Function in Early Diffuse Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis: A Pilot Two-Arm Trial.

OBJECTIVE SSc reduces upper extremity function and performance of everyday activities; however, there are few evidence-based rehabilitation interventions. This study examined short and longer-term effects of two occupational therapy interventions on hand disability. METHODS Participants with diffuse cutaneous SSc were randomized to one of two 18-week interventions: Intensive group, receiving eight weekly in-person occupational therapy sessions with App-delivered home exercises, or App Alone group. The primary outcome was QuickDASH hand disability; secondary outcomes were physical function (PROMIS scale), and total active hand motion. Linear mixed models were used to examine treatment effects. RESULTS Most participants were female (72%); the mean age was 52 years (13.4) (n = 32). There were no significant between-group effects on QuickDASH (P = 1.0; mean change -6.4 on 0-100 scale in both groups at 18 weeks). Left lateral pinch, an exploratory outcome, improved in App Alone compared with Intensive from baseline to 18 weeks. Within groups, the Intensive group had the largest improvements after 8 weeks (-8.5 on QuickDASH; P = 0.03), but then lost gains from 8 to 18 weeks while the App Alone group had modest improvements from baseline to 8 weeks, but then continued to improve. Of completers, 50% had clinically meaningful improvement on QuickDASH in the Intensive group and 64% had improvement in App Alone. CONCLUSION Both interventions showed beneficial effects on hand disability. Participants in the App Alone group improved equally to the Intensive group at 18 weeks. Our findings provide support for further study into telehealth rehabilitation approaches. TRIAL REGISTRATION NCT03482219.
Effect of Anti-Hp treatment on nutritional status of children with Helicobacter Pylori-Positive Gastritis and its clinical significance

Objectives: To evaluate the outcome of anti-HP treatment on the nutritional status of children with Helicobacter pylori-positive gastritis. Methods: Sixty children with Helicobacter pylori-positive gastritis admitted to our hospital from June 2018 to June 2020 were selected as the experimental group, and 60 healthy normal people (Hp negative) were selected as the control group. The experimental group were given anti-HP treatment, and the improvement of their clinical symptoms after treatment and the changes of nutritional indexes such as hemoglobin and serum ferritin were observed one year after treatment. Gastroscopy was performed before treatment and four weeks after treatment, and the improvement of gastric inflammation and the positive rate of Hp were compared and analyzed before and after treatment. Results: The nutritional indicators of the children in experimental group were inferior compared with those in the control group (p<0.05). The clinical symptoms and signs of the experimental group were significantly alleviated after anti-Hp treatment, and the biochemical indicators were significantly improved after one Year of follow-up compared with those before treatment (p<0.05). The incidence of moderate and severe gastric mucosal inflammation in the experimental group decreased from 70% before treatment to 17% (p<0.05). The HP infection decreased from 100% before treatment to 13% (p<0.05). Conclusion: Helicobacter pylori infection has a negative impact on the nutritional status of children. Anti-HP therapy can improve the gastrointestinal symptoms and nutritional status of children, which plays an important role in the growth and development of children. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.5.4234 How to cite this:Zuo N, Zhang Y, Dong Q, Bi J, Liu X. Effect of Anti-Hp Treatment on nutritional status of children with Helicobacter Pylori-Positive Gastritis and its clinical significance. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(5):1430-1434. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.5.4234 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Mathematical modeling, analysis, and simulation of the COVID-19 pandemic with explicit and implicit behavioral changes

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise globally, many researchers have developed mathematical models to help capture the dynamics of the spread of COVID-19. Specifically, the compartmental SEIR model and its variations have been widely employed. These models differ in the type of compartments included, nature of the transmission rates, seasonality, and several other factors. Yet, while the spread of COVID-19 is largely attributed to a wide range of social behaviors in the population, several of these SEIR models do not account for such behaviors. In this project, we consider novel SEIR-based models that incorporate various behaviors. We created a baseline model and explored incorporating both explicit and implicit behavioral changes. Furthermore, using the Next Generation Matrix method, we derive a basic reproduction number, which indicates the estimated number of secondary cases by a single infected individual. Numerical simulations for the various models we made were performed and user-friendly graphical user interfaces were created. In the future, we plan to expand our project to account for the use of face masks, age-based behaviors and transmission rates, and mixing patterns. © 2020 Comfort Ohajunwa et al., published by De Gruyter.