cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Food and Drug Administration: Overseeing, Overarching, Overreaching.

In vitro diagnostic tests must typically be reviewed and cleared for clinical use based on safety and effectiveness criteria by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).2 Some new tests may be cleared by demonstrating equivalence to existing assays, a process known colloquially as the 510k. Assays without a “predicate” must go through the more rigorous premarket approval process to demonstrate their safety, analytic, and clinical effectiveness. The FDA approval and clearance process plays a key role in ensuring that laboratories have access to a consistent and reproducible stream of reagents and …
The Psychology of Leadership Evaluation

Social psychologists have a long history of interest in understanding the factors that group members consider when evaluating the leaders of organized groups (Cartwright & Zander, 1953; Gibb, 1954, 1969). This concern has been motivated by an intrinsic interest in the basis of people’s satisfaction in group settings and by an instrumental concern with the effective functioning of groups. The latter concern has motivated the study of leadership evaluation because of the belief that the endorsement of group leaders by group members enhances their ability to lead effectively by conferring legitimacy on them (French & Raven, 1959).1
Wafer level test arrays with simple BIST to expedite process development for circuit reliability

Conventional time consuming methodology and idealistic stress conditions are no longer satisfactory under fierce competition between advanced technology development approaches. In this paper, the effectiveness of test arrays with simple built-in self-test (BIST) design in FinFET high-k/metal gate (HK/MG) technology have been demonstrated through three experiments performed early in the process development cycle, before products were available to drive yield and process improvements. Early warnings of potential circuit level quality and reliability risk could save several major detours for technology advancement.
Clinical Factors Associated with the Non-Operative Airway Management of Patients with Robin Sequence.

BACKGROUND The indications for surgical airway management in patients with Robin sequence (RS) and severe airway obstruction have not been well defined. While certain patients with RS clearly require surgical airway intervention and other patients just as clearly can be managed with conservative measures alone, a significant proportion of patients with RS present with a more confusing and ambiguous clinical course. The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical features and objective findings of patients with RS whose airways were successfully managed without surgical intervention. METHODS The authors retrospectively reviewed the medical charts of infants with RS evaluated for potential surgical airway management between 1994 and 2014. Patients who were successfully managed without surgical intervention were included. Patient demographics, nutritional and respiratory status, laboratory values, and polysomnography (PSG) findings were recorded. RESULTS Thirty-two infants met the inclusion criteria. The average hospital stay was 16.8 days (range, 5-70 days). Oxygen desaturation (<70% by pulse oximetry) occurred in the majority of patients and was managed with temporary oxygen supplementation by nasal cannula (59%) or endotracheal intubation (31%). Seventy-five percent of patients required a temporary nasogastric tube for nutritional support, and a gastrostomy tube placed was placed in 9%. All patients continued to gain weight following the implementation of these conservative measures. PSG data (n=26) demonstrated mild to moderate obstruction, a mean apneahypopnea index (AHI) of 19.2±5.3 events/hour, and an oxygen saturation level <90% during only 4% of the total sleep time. CONCLUSIONS Nonsurgical airway management was successful in patients who demonstrated consistent weight gain and mild to moderate obstruction on PSG, with a mean AHI of <20 events/hour.
Knowledge-dissemination channels: Analytics of stature evaluation

Understanding relative statures of channels for disseminating knowledge is of practical interest to both generators and consumers of knowledge flows. For generators, stature can influence attractiveness of alternative dissemination routes and deliberations of those who assess generator performance. For knowledge consumers, channel stature may influence knowledge content to which they are exposed. This study introduces a novel approach to conceptualizing and measuring stature of knowledge-dissemination channels: the power-impact PI technique. It is a flexible technique having 3 complementary variants, giving holistic insights about channel stature by accounting for both attraction of knowledge generators to a distribution channel and degree to which knowledge consumers choose to use a channel's knowledge content. Each PI variant is expressed in terms of multiple parameters, permitting customization of stature evaluation to suit its user's preferences. In the spirit of analytics, each PI variant is driven by objective evidence of actual behaviors. The PI technique is based on 2 building blocks: a power that channels have for attracting results of generators' knowledge work, and b impact that channel contents' exhibit on prospective recipients. Feasibility and functionality of the PI-technique design are demonstrated by applying it to solve a problem of journal stature evaluation for the information-systems discipline.
Women Physicians and Continuing Education

Because of multiple roles as physician, wife, mother, and homemaker, some women physicians face different and more difficult problems than men in finding time for continuing education. Women have to set priorities, especially in assigning time for education, sometimes at the expense of recreational activities.
Secret Key Generation Using One-Bit Quantized Channel State Information

Physical layer approaches for generating secret encryption keys for wireless systems using channel information has attracted increased interest from researchers in recent years. This paper presents a new approach for secret key generation that is based on one-bit quantization of channel measurements along with log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) that are calculated based on the difference between channel estimates at legitimate reciprocal nodes. The proposed approach, which implements advantage distillation along with information reconciliation using Slepian-Wolf low-density parity check (LDPC) codes, is discussed and illustrated with numerical results obtained from simulations. These show the probability of bit disagreement for keys generated through the proposed approach and compare it with that of alternative methods for key generation based on channel state information.
The Contiguity Platform: A High Response Manipulandum

A platform replacement of the standard bar of the Skinner box is described. Features of this modification include high response-reinforcement contiguity, fast acquisition, high response rate, and minimal E involvement. Platform data reveal good illustrations of standard learning phenomena associated with the bar. Use of the contiguity platform is suggested as appropriate and advantageous for animal drug studies and classroom illustrations of conditioning phenomena.
Surgeon Experience and Outcomes: An Age Old Question.

In their retrospective study of 206 congenital heart surgeons across 91 centers, Anderson et al1 report that surgeons in their earliest years in practice have similar outcomes compared with more senior colleagues. In contrast, surgeons who have been practicing for >35 years were found to have considerably higher postoperative morbidity and mortality rates, even after accounting for the potential effects of procedural volume. These findings are reassuring in that surgeons in their early years of practice can achieve similar outcomes compared with their more experienced partners. Notably, these results are also aligned with prior literature that suggests that there are differences in clinical care and outcomes by clinician age in both surgical and medical specialties.2–4 However, findings from the current study also indicate that this effect is independent of procedural volume, and maintaining caseloads and repetition may not confer a protective effect against age-related changes in surgeon performance. Taken together, these results highlight the need for careful reflection about the mechanisms that underlie surgeon performance and clinical outcomes over time. See Article by Anderson et al Surgical performance reflects more than technical skills alone. The ability to execute a procedure efficiently, meticulously, and safely is borne from experience, cognitive skills, dexterity, visual-spatial ability, and environmental factors. Particularly …
Association of Health Literacy With Postoperative Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Major Abdominal Surgery

Importance Low health literacy is known to adversely affect health outcomes in patients with chronic medical conditions. To our knowledge, the association of health literacy with postoperative outcomes has not been studied in-depth in a surgical patient population. Objective To evaluate the association of health literacy with postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. Design, Setting, and Participants From November 2010 to December 2013, 1239 patients who were undergoing elective gastric, colorectal, hepatic, and pancreatic resections for both benign and malignant disease at a single academic institution were retrospectively reviewed. Patient demographics, education, insurance status, procedure type, American Society of Anesthesiologists status, Charlson comorbidity index, and postoperative outcomes, including length of stay, emergency department visits, and hospital readmissions, were reviewed from electronic medical records. Health literacy levels were assessed using the Brief Health Literacy Screen, a validated tool that was administered by nursing staff members on hospital admission. Multivariate analysis was used to determine the association of health literacy levels on postoperative outcomes, controlling for patient demographics and clinical characteristics. Main Outcomes and Measures The association of health literacy with postoperative 30-day emergency department visits, 90-day hospital readmissions, and index hospitalization length of stay. Results Of the 1239 patients who participated in this study, 624 (50.4%) were women, 1083 (87.4%) where white, 96 (7.7%) were black, and 60 (4.8%) were of other race/ethnicity. The mean (SD) Brief Health Literacy Screen score was 12.9 (SD, 2.75; range, 3-15) and the median educational attainment was 13.0 years. Patients with lower health literacy levels had a longer length of stay in unadjusted (95% CI, 0.95-0.99;P = .004) and adjusted (95% CI, 0.03-0.26;P = .02) analyses. However, lower health literacy was not significantly associated with increased rates of 30-day emergency department visits or 90-day hospital readmissions. Conclusions and Relevance Lower health literacy levels are independently associated with longer index hospitalization lengths of stay for patients who are undergoing major abdominal surgery. The role of health literacy needs to be further evaluated within surgical practices to improve health care outcomes and use.
Natural language indicators of differential gene regulation in the human immune system

Adverse social conditions have been linked to a conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA) in circulating leukocytes that may contribute to social gradients in disease. However, the CNS mechanisms involved remain obscure, in part because CTRA gene-expression profiles often track external social-environmental variables more closely than they do self-reported internal affective states such as stress, depression, or anxiety. This study examined the possibility that variations in patterns of natural language use might provide more sensitive indicators of the automatic threat-detection and -response systems that proximally regulate autonomic induction of the CTRA. In 22,627 audio samples of natural speech sampled from the daily interactions of 143 healthy adults, both total language output and patterns of function-word use covaried with CTRA gene expression. These language features predicted CTRA gene expression substantially better than did conventional self-report measures of stress, depression, and anxiety and did so independently of demographic and behavioral factors (age, sex, race, smoking, body mass index) and leukocyte subset distributions. This predictive relationship held when language and gene expression were sampled more than a week apart, suggesting that associations reflect stable individual differences or chronic life circumstances. Given the observed relationship between personal expression and gene expression, patterns of natural language use may provide a useful behavioral indicator of nonconsciously evaluated well-being (implicit safety vs. threat) that is distinct from conscious affective experience and more closely tracks the neurobiological processes involved in peripheral gene regulation.
Mapping the spatial distribution of shade provision of street trees in Boston using Google Street View panoramas

Abstract Street trees provide shade and increase human thermal comfort during hot summer. In this study, we investigated the spatial distribution of shade provision of street trees in Boston, Massachusetts. The sky view factor (SVF), which influences the solar radiation to the ground and affects human thermal comfort, was used to indicate the contribution of street trees on shade provision. Google Street View (GSV) panoramas were used to calculate the photographic method based SVF (SVFP), with the consideration of all kinds of obstructions within street canyons. A building height model was used to calculate the simulation based SVF (SVFs), with consideration of obstruction of building blocks only. Considering the fact that street trees and building blocks are the two major obstructions of radiation within street canyons, therefore, the difference between the two SVF estimation results can be considered as the shade provision of street trees. The results show that street trees help to decrease the SVF by 24.61% in Boston, Massachusetts. The shading level varies spatially in the study area. Generally, the southwestern area has much higher shading level than the north and the east. We further explored the shading variation among different socioeconomic groups in the study area. Result shows that Hispanics tend to live in neighborhoods with lower shading level. This study can help to provide a reference for future urban greening projects for global climate change adaption.
GDS — A Graph Drawing Server on the Internet

Motivated by the wide variety of applications in many different fields, new graph drawing algorithms are continually being developed and implemented. However, there are many barriers in the way of someone wishing to make use of this technology. First, a potential user must know that the technology exists, which often means she must be well-versed in the terminology and literature of the graph drawing community. Then she must locate and install an implementation, which requires that the software creators provided the correct executable for her environment, or that she has the knowledge and tools to build the application from source code. Running the newly-installed program requires sufficient computational resources (CPU power, memory, disk space). Finally, due to the wealth of different graph description formats, it is likely that she must convert her data to the format used by the program. Another translation step may be required at the end, if the program does not output the data in a format she can use. Overall, this process is time-consuming for even an expert user, and may be prohibitively difficult for the casual or novice user.
Seasonal Changes in the IGF Regulatory System and The Relationship to Bone Loss in Elderly Women

We and others have previously reported that among healthy elderly women living in Maine with low calcium intake, seasonal changes in serum 250H vitamin D led to secondary increases in parathyroid hormone (PTH), osteocalcin, and urinary N-telopeptide (N-Tx)(1). Indeed, such women were found to be at high risk for osteoporotic fractures based on significant bone loss (-2 to –3% per winter season) from the femoral neck over two consecutive winters(1). Moreover in one randomized trial, calcium supplementation prevented bone loss in these women, and blunted the seasonal changes in PTH, osteocalcin and NTx. Despite these data, and other studies confirming seasonal bone loss among women living in northern latitudes, the mechanism responsible for rapid bone loss remains unclear(2). We hypothesized that changes in the IGF regulatory system could lead to altered bone formation/ and or increased bone resorption, thereby resulting in rapid bone loss. Hence, we measured IGF-I and three IGF binding proteins in the serum of women who were randomized to placebo calcium during this two year trial(1).
The (Alt)right to rape: violated white masculinities in the Alt-right, and the film Nocturnal Animals

This article begins with the troubling idea that aspects of contemporary mainstream representations might echo or encourage facets of arguments that work to further the Alt-right’s agenda, and it f...
What Help Do Students Seek in TA Office Hours

In many universities, Teaching Assistants (TAs) are an important part of students' educational experience. This is especially true in early courses, where students may suffer from inexperience and anxiety, and find fellow students more accessible than professors.Despite its importance, this learning channel has not been studied very much. Part of the difficulty lies in how to meaningfully evaluate it. Any intervention needs to be both unintrusive and lightweight, and yet yield useful data. As a result, to many faculty and researchers, TA office hours remain fairly opaque.This paper presents one approach to studying the technical component (but not the social dynamics) of TA office hours. We use a program-design methodology as a device to help track what students are asking about in hours, using a simple survey-based method to gather data. Data from TAs effectively summarize students' questions. In addition, contrasting data from both TAs and students provides insight into students' progress on program design help-seeking over the course of the semester.
The Ethics of Whistleblowing

In 2015, Candice Delmas published a piece titled, “The Ethics of Government Whistleblowing” in Social Theory and Practice. She wrote, “If the twentieth century was the age of civil disobedience, th...
Routing Protocol Design for Directional and Buffer-limited Terahertz Communication Networks

Terahertz (THz) band (0.1-10 THz) communication is envisioned as a potential key wireless technology to satisfy the need for much higher wireless data rates. THz-band communication supports a huge bandwidth. However, this advantage comes at the cost of a very high propagation loss. Thus, highly directional antennas (DAs) are simultaneously utilized in both transmission and reception to establish communication links beyond several meters. The application of highly DAs introduces many challenges for multi-hop routing. Among others, the best routing path dynamically changes since the directional communication links are periodically on and off, as determined by the DAs' current directions. Another challenge for routing protocol design comes from the limited memory or buffer size of THz devices, which is filled quickly when concurrent Terabit-per-second (Tbps) transmissions are handled. The buffer will be easily blocked by a locally stored packet that keeps waiting for the availability of the “best” route. This issue becomes even worse in directional networks, where such route may not be available shortly, and severely affects the network performance. In this paper, an adaptive routing protocol for highly dynamic buffer-limited directional THz communication networks is developed. A simulation framework is developed to study the iterations and updates between network performance and the choice made by each node. Extensive simulation results are provided to demonstrate the improvements of our proposed routing protocol.
Description of Pharmacogenomic Testing Among Patients Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit After Cardiovascular Surgery.

Background:Pharmacogenomic (PGx) testing has the potential to provide information on specific drug-metabolizing enzymes that may lead to an absence, reduction, or increase in medication effect in p...
Associations of GlycA and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein with measures of lipolysis in adults with obesity

Background Obesity-associated inflammation promotes metabolic dysfunction. However, it is unclear how different inflammatory biomarkers predict dysregulation in specific tissues/organs, particularly adipose tissue. Objective The aim of our study was to examine whether GlycA, a nuclear magnetic resonance–measured biomarker of inflammation, is a better predictor of insulin-suppressible lipolysis and other measures of metabolic dysfunction compared with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) in human obesity. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of 58 nondiabetic adults with obesity (body mass index: 39.8 ± 7.0 kg/m2, age 46.5 ± 12.2 years, 67.2% female) who underwent a frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test in the fasted state. Noninsulin-suppressible (l0), insulin-suppressible (l2), and maximal (l0+l2) lipolysis rates, as well as insulin sensitivity and acute insulin response to glucose, were calculated by minimal model analysis. Nuclear magnetic resonance was used to measure GlycA. Body composition was determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Results GlycA was strongly correlated with hsCRP (r = +0.46; P Conclusions GlycA was associated with elevated lipolysis, independent of adiposity, in adults with obesity. Our findings suggest that GlycA and hsCRP have distinct inflammation-mediated metabolic effects, with GlycA having a greater association with adipose tissue dysfunction. Further studies are warranted to investigate the mechanisms underlying these associations.
Home-based balance pilot intervention for adults with visual impairments:

Older adults with visual impairments face many barriers to being physically active in their communities, which include their risk of suffering serious falls due to poor balance. Thus, the purpose o...
A New Design Framework on D2D Coded Caching with Optimal Rate and Less Subpacketizations

In this paper, we propose a new design framework on Device-to-Device (D2D) coded caching networks with optimal communication load (rate) but significantly less file subpacketizations compared to that of the well-known D2D coded caching scheme proposed by Ji, Caire and Molisch (JCM). The proposed design framework is referred to as the Packet Type-based (PTB) design, where each file is partitioned into packets according to their pre-defined types while the cache placement and user multicast grouping are based on the packet types. This leads to the so-called raw packet saving gain for the subpacketization levels. By a careful selection of transmitters within each multicasting group, a so-called further splitting ratio gain of the subpacketizatios can also be achieved. By the joint effect of the raw packet saving gain and the further splitting ratio gain, an order-wise subpacketization reduction can be achieved compared to the JCM scheme while preserving the optimal rate. In addition, as the first time presented in the literature according to our knowledge, we find that unequal subpacketizaton is a key to achieve subpacketization reductions when the number of users is odd. As a by-product, instead of directly translating shared link caching schemes to D2D caching schemes, at least for the sake of subpackeitzation, a new design framework is indeed needed.
Classification of planetary craters using outline-based morphometrics

Abstract The morphologies of craters on planetary surfaces reveal clues about the geologic mechanisms by which they originate and subsequently evolve, as well as the materials and physical variables inherent to the environment in which they formed. We carried out a quantitative multivariate analysis of shape descriptors derived from the outlines of craters formed by volcanic processes on Mars, Io, and Earth and by impact cratering on the Moon using elliptic Fourier analysis (EFA) and the Zahn-Roskies (Z-R) shape function. Canonical variate analysis (CVA) was used to construct a statistical model of differences between the crater groups to classify craters produced by various volcanic and impact processes. The classification model from canonical variate analysis of EFA shape descriptors yielded a 90% rate of success for the assignment of group membership among 406 examined craters. It correctly classified 138 of 154 (90%) ionian paterae,154 of 155 (99%) lunar impact craters, 31 of 35 (89%) terrestrial basaltic shield calderas, 32 of 38 (84%) terrestrial ash-flow calderas, and 12 of 24 (50%) martian basaltic shield calderas. The classification model from canonical variate analysis of Z-R shape function descriptors classified 84% of the total population of the examined craters correctly. The analysis correctly classified 96% of ionian paterae, 100% lunar impact craters, 51% terrestrial basaltic shield calderas, and 63% martian calderas, but only 16% of the terrestrial ash-flow calderas were correctly classified. Canonical variate analysis of EFA and Z-R results shows that the shapes of ash-flow calderas and paterae on Io differ the least of all groups included in this study, and basaltic shield calderas and martian calderas analyzed together also have few differences. The Z-R model successfully classifies more ionian patera and impact craters than the EFA classification model but performs poorly at classifying the other crater groups. This result shows that the descriptors convey different shape information. The Z-R model is robust in its ability to classify end-member differences in complexity while the EFA model is robust in its ability to reliably classify among more groups. These differences and similarities in shape confirm previously understood commonalities related to the origin and evolution of various types of craters. In general, basalt shield calderas on Earth and Mars are morphologically similar and are thought to have similar origins; this study confirms that the 2-D shapes of their craters are quantitatively correlated. Similarities have been noted between terrestrial ash-flow calderas and paterae on Io, principally in their large sizes, shallow magma chambers and complex evolution; this study confirms their shapes are also similar. Impact craters and ionian paterae are most dissimilar, as are their evolutions. This study demonstrates rigorous landform shape analysis can greatly increase our understanding of the diversity in craters and the processes involved in their formation.
Rate Equations and Theory of Optically-Pumped Submillimeter Lasers

Theoretical models for the operating characteristics of both pulsed and CW optically pumped submillimeter lasers are reviewed. The agreement between theoretical and experimental results for the absorption of pump radiation and the submillimeter laser gain is discussed. Rate equation models that have been used are found to be inadequate in several applications and, instead, the quantum mechanical treatment of a three level system must be employed.
Experiences of midlife and older African American men living with type 2 diabetes.

Objective: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a complicated disease that disproportionately affects African American men. Understanding the experiences of African American men living with T2DM is important for developing effective, culturally sensitive interventions. The purpose of this study was to describe how African American men view their T2DM and describe their perspectives on living with and self-managing T2DM.Design: In-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 22 African American men aged 40-85 years diagnosed with T2DM. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using NVivo 10 with thematic analysis.Results: Disbelief, shock, and denial were commonly experienced reactions at initial diagnosis. Many participants defined diabetes using words such as 'sugar' or 'glucose' and reported an awareness of health complications caused by diabetes, such as amputations and diabetic comas. Participants expressed various perspectives and attitudes towards having diabetes, including avoidance/apathy, fatalism, guilt and shame, fear and concern, and self-mastery. The majority of men described efforts to self-manage diabetes via glucose monitoring, changing dietary habits, and exercise. Many participants expressed concern over the financial burden associated with managing diabetes and reported that high costs can hinder a patient's ability to maintain active self-monitoring and deter patients from attending needed doctor's visits. Many participants expressed confidence in their healthcare providers, although a few expressed feelings of distrust and being uninformed. Participants tended to most appreciate physicians who spent time discussing their condition and who made an effort to engage in open patient-provider communication.Conclusion: Living with diabetes can be emotionally, physically, and mentally challenging. Efforts to improve adoption and maintenance of self-management behaviors may benefit from sensitivity to the patient's attitude and perspectives towards diabetes self-management, assistance overcoming the financial burden of managing diabetes, and open patient-provider communication.
Secrecy in International Relations and Foreign Policy

Scholarship on the politics of secrecy in international relations and foreign policy has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. This article begins by providing an overview of this literatu...
No Relaxation: Guaranteed Recovery of Finite-Valued Signals from Undersampled Measurements

This paper considers the problem of recovering a unipolar finite-valued signal from compressive measurements of its convolution with a known finite impulse response filter. We show that owing to the finite-value constraint the problem remains identifiable if the downsampling factor is smaller than the filter length. We develop a new computationally efficient decoding algorithm that can operate at the optimal downsampling factor under mild conditions on the filter. This allows us to explicitly impose the finite value constraint (no relaxation) without compromising on the computational tractability.1
Deep Learning based Distributionally Robust Joint Chance Constrained Economic Dispatch under Wind Power Uncertainty

This paper proposes a holistic framework of data-driven distributionally robust joint chance constrained economic dispatch (ED) optimization, which seamlessly incorporates deep learning-based optimization for effective utilization of renewable energy in power systems. By leveraging a deep generative adversarial network (GAN), an f-divergence-based ambiguity set of wind power distributions is constructed as a ball centered around the probability distribution induced by a generator neural network. In particular, the GAN is well suited for capturing complicated spatial and temporal correlations of wind power. Based upon this ambiguity set, a distributionally robust joint chance constrained ED model is developed to hedge against distributional uncertainty present in multiple constraints, without assuming a perfectly known probability distribution. The proposed deep learning based ED optimization framework greatly mitigates the conservatism inflicting on distributionally robust individual chance constrained optimization. Theoretical a priori bound on the required number of synthetic wind power data generated by GAN is explicitly derived for the multi-period ED problem to guarantee a predefined risk level. The effectiveness and scalability of the proposed approach are demonstrated in the six-bus and IEEE 118-bus systems by comparing with the state-of-the-art method.
Augmentation Cystoplasty

Although more conservative measures are used as first-line treatment of patients with overactive bladder and for those with small capacity, low-compliance bladders, augmentation cystoplasty remains an essential tool for patients who fail conservative therapy. The goal of augmentation cystoplasty is to provide a low-pressure reservoir with adequate capacity while preserving urinary continence and renal function.
Differential Effects of Neurectomy and Botox-induced Muscle Paralysis on Bone Phenotype and Titanium Implant Osseointegration.

Abstract Metabolic bone is highly innervated by both sensory and sympathetic nerves. In addition to skeletal development, neural regulation participates in local bone remodeling, which is important for successful osseointegration of titanium implants. Neurectomy is a model used to investigate the lack of neural function on bone homeostasis, but the relative impacts of direct denervation to bone or denervation-induced muscle paralysis are less well defined. To investigate this difference, we used two nerve intervention models, sciatic and femoral neurectomy (SFN) v. botox-induced muscle paralysis (BTX) and assessed the resulting femoral bone phenotype and Ti implant osseointegration. Male Sprague Dawley rats (19) were randomly divided into three groups: implant control (n = 5), SFN (n = 7), and BTX (n = 7). Ti implants (microrough/hydrophilic [modSLA], Institut Straumann AG) were placed in the distal metaphysis of each femur on day 24 post-SFN or BTX. Bone and muscle were examined on day 28 after implant insertion. Both nerve intervention models impaired osseointegration. MicroCT and histology indicated that both models had reduced trabecular bone formation. Only BTX reduced cortical bone formation and increased cortical bone porosity. BTX resulted in more bone loss characterized by the least trabecular and cortical bone, as well as osseointegration. Osteoblasts isolated from the tibia exhibited a model-specific phenotype when they were grown on Ti substrates in vitro. Neurectomy caused more severe muscle atrophy than botox injection. These results indicate that neural regulation directly modulates bone formation and osseointegration. Muscle paralysis modulated the effects of loss of neural inputs into bone, supporting the hypothesis that mechanical loading of bone is a factor in achieving successful osseointegration. The different effects of botox and neurectomy on bone phenotype indicated that the sensory and sympathetic nerves had a role in the osseointegration process.
Quantitative Magnetization Transfer Imaging in Multiple Sclerosis: A 3.0 Tesla Clinical Study (P3.381)

Objective: We apply a newly developed selective inversion recovery quantitative magnetization transfer (SIR-qMT) imaging technique to patients with multiple sclerosis (MS); and test the hypothesis that indices derived from SIR-qMT are sensitive to different degree of pathological changes, hence showing hallmarks of neurodegenerative tissue injury and evidence for the severity of neurological dysfunction. Background: Characterizing and quantifying acute and chronic myelin loss in vivo is challenged by the lack of quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods sensitive and specific to myelin quantity. Lack of this MRI biometric is an obstacle to a responsible conduct of clinical trials on neuroprotection. Unlike the more commonly employed MT-ratio, qMT-derived measures are insensitive to non-physiological parameters and, therefore, provide objective and quantitative indices on myelin integrity that are suited for multi-site longitudinal studies. Design/Methods: Nineteen MS patients and nine age-sex matched heathy volunteers underwent a 3.0 Tesla brain MRI, inclusive of T1-weighted (pre/post-contrast), T2-weighted, and SIR scans. Differences in the macromolecular to free water pool-size-ratio (PSR) and the spin-lattice relaxation rate of water (R1f) between lesional/non-lesional areas were derived and associations with measures of disability were assessed. Results: PSR/R1f measures differed (p Conclusions: We deliver the first clinical application of SIR-qMT in MS and demonstrate that SIR-qMT derived measures may be a quantitative biomarker of myelin integrity. Expected differences in tissues with different pathologies were demonstrated. The stronger associations between SIR-qMT indices and disability scores seen for T2-lesions vs cBHs suggest the importance of other cBH pathological components affecting patient disability. Study Supported by: NIH/NIBIB K25 EB13659 Disclosure: Dr. Bagnato has nothing to disclose. Dr. Franco has nothing to disclose. Dr. Thomas has nothing to disclose. Dr. Smith has nothing to disclose. Dr. Xu has nothing to disclose. Dr. Dortch has nothing to disclose.
Transmission Dynamics of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Background: Since December 29, 2019, pneumonia infection with 2019-nCoV has rapidly spread out from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China to most others provinces and other counties. However, the transmission dynamics of 2019-nCoV remain unclear. Methods: Data of confirmed 2019-nCoV cases before January 23, 2020 were collected from medical records, epidemiological investigations or official websites. Data of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases in Guangdong Province during 2002-2003 were obtained from Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (GDCDC). Exponential Growth (EG) and maximum likelihood estimation (ML) were applied to estimate the reproductive number (R) of 2019-nCoV and SARS. Findings: As of January 23, 2020, a total of 830 confirmed 2019-nCoV cases were identified across China, and 9 cases were reported overseas. The average incubation duration of 2019-nCoV infection was 4·8±2·6 days. The average period from onset of symptoms to isolation of 2019-nCoV and SARS cases were 2·9±3·0 and 4·2±3·7 days, respectively. The R values of 2019-nCoV were 2·90 (95%CI: 2·32-3·63) and 2·92 (95%CI: 2·28-3·67) estimated using EG and ML respectively, while the corresponding R values of SARS-CoV were 1·77 (95%CI: 1·37-2·27) and 1·85 (95%CI: 1·32-2·49). We observe a decreasing trend of the period from onset to isolation and R values of both 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV. Interpretation: The 2019-nCoV may have a higher pandemic risk than SARS broken out in 2003. The implemented public-health efforts have significantly decreased the pandemic risk of 2019-nCoV. However, more rigorous control and prevention strategies and measures to contain its further spread. Funding Statement: National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFA0606200, 2018YFA0606202), the Science and Technology Program of Guangdong Province (2018B020207006, 2019B020208005, 2019B111103001), Guangzhou Science and technology Plan Project (201804010383). Declaration of Interests: All authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: Data collection and analysis were determined by the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China to be part of a continuing public health outbreak investigation, and were thus considered exempt from institutional review board approval.
Sonography of Benign and Malignant Breast Lesions

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women and the second most common cause of death in women. Incidence has increased by 0.2% to 0.8% each year since the early 1970s. Therefore, breast imaging is a crucial component of health care, and imaging technologists must have a fundamental understanding of the role of each imaging modality to provide ideal patient care. Diagnostic medical sonography of the breast is important in caring for patients with suspected or known breast disease. This article provides an overview of breast sonography and the sonographic characteristics of benign and malignant breast lesions.
Patterns of medication use and imaging following initial diagnosis of sarcoidosis.

Abstract Introduction Sarcoidosis is a rare inflammatory disease with unclear natural history. Using a large, retrospective, longitudinal, population-based cohort, we sought to define its natural history in order to guide future clinical studies. Methods We identified 722 newly diagnosed cases of sarcoidosis within Kaiser Permanente Northwest health care records between 1995 and 2015. We investigated immunosuppressive medication use in the two years following diagnosis, analyzed demographic and clinical characteristics, and quantified chest imaging and pulmonary function testing (PFTs) across the clinical course. Results Over two years of follow-up, 41% of patients were treated with prednisone. Of those, 75% tapered off their first course within 100 days, although half of those patients required recurrent therapy. Five percent of the entire cohort remained on prednisone for longer than one year, with an average daily dose of 10–20 mg. Chest imaging was associated with early prednisone use, and chest CT was associated with changes in prednisone dose. PFTs or demographics were not associated with prednisone use. Cumulative prednisone doses were significantly higher in African Americans (1,845 mg additional) and those who had a chest CT (2,015 mg additional). Overall, PFTs were less frequently obtained than chest imaging and had no significant change over disease course. Discussion The natural history of sarcoidosis varies greatly. For those requiring therapy, corticosteroid burden is high. Chest imaging drives medication dose changes as compared to PFTs, but neither outcome fully captures the entire history of disease. Prospective cohorts are needed with purposefully collected, repeated measures that include objective clinical assessments and symptoms.
Quantitative models for automation rate and situation awareness response: A case study of levels of driving automation

Many taxonomies of levels of automation have been presented in the literature; however, the discrete and ordinal nature of these methods may limit reliable prediction of operator performance. This study defined an “automation rate” to quantity the level of automation in systems. To calculate the automation rate it is necessary to: classify all functions in the automation system according to stages of information processing, calculate the automation rate for each stage, set weights for these automation rates, and finally obtain the overall automation rate for the system. The practicality and feasibility of this model are verified through a case study analysis. In addition, this paper proposes a new relationship between the automation rate and operator situation awareness response, based on existing empirical research findings. Through case analysis and mathematical proof, the rationality of the form is demonstrated. This work lays the foundation for subsequent operator performance optimization analysis.
A Method for Constructing Invariant Subspaces for Some Operators on Kreĭn Spaces

A generalization of the notion of a Julia operator is used to produce models to give a straightforward construction of invariant, and in fact reducing, subspaces for a class of operators on Kreĭn spaces known as weakly definitizable operators. This includes, among others, the definitizable selfadjoint and definitizable unitary operators. A simple proof of the existence of an orthogonal pair of maximal definite invariant subspaces for positive operators on a Kreĭn space is found, and applied to show the existence of such invariant subspaces for definitizable selfadjoint operators. A new proof of the Spectral Theorem for continuous definitizable selfadjoint operators is also given, along with a functional calculus which includes functions that are Borel measurable and bounded after division by the definitizing polynomial on a suitably large subset of the real line.
Inferring Regulatory Networks from Experimental Morphological Phenotypes: A Computational Method Reverse-Engineers Planarian Regeneration

Transformative applications in biomedicine require the discovery of complex regulatory networks that explain the development and regeneration of anatomical structures, and reveal what external signals will trigger desired changes of large-scale pattern. Despite recent advances in bioinformatics, extracting mechanistic pathway models from experimental morphological data is a key open challenge that has resisted automation. The fundamental difficulty of manually predicting emergent behavior of even simple networks has limited the models invented by human scientists to pathway diagrams that show necessary subunit interactions but do not reveal the dynamics that are sufficient for complex, self-regulating pattern to emerge. To finally bridge the gap between high-resolution genetic data and the ability to understand and control patterning, it is critical to develop computational tools to efficiently extract regulatory pathways from the resultant experimental shape phenotypes. For example, planarian regeneration has been studied for over a century, but despite increasing insight into the pathways that control its stem cells, no constructive, mechanistic model has yet been found by human scientists that explains more than one or two key features of its remarkable ability to regenerate its correct anatomical pattern after drastic perturbations. We present a method to infer the molecular products, topology, and spatial and temporal non-linear dynamics of regulatory networks recapitulating in silico the rich dataset of morphological phenotypes resulting from genetic, surgical, and pharmacological experiments. We demonstrated our approach by inferring complete regulatory networks explaining the outcomes of the main functional regeneration experiments in the planarian literature; By analyzing all the datasets together, our system inferred the first systems-biology comprehensive dynamical model explaining patterning in planarian regeneration. This method provides an automated, highly generalizable framework for identifying the underlying control mechanisms responsible for the dynamic regulation of growth and form.
Congress: United States

The United States Congress is distinctive among national legislatures in the world in that it is extremely powerful in legislating and policymaking. It is characterized by a system of committees that structure much of the legislative process. Members of Congress enjoy substantial incumbency advantage, and enjoy significant independence from national party leaders. Both the House and the Senate are characterized by complex internal procedures that have an important impact on legislative outcomes. An important recent development in Congress is an increased polarization between the major political parties.
Boomtown Tourism and Resident Quality of Life

Abstract The purpose of this research was to compare the tourism development cycle and social disruption theories for assessing the impact of gaming tourism on resident quality of life (QOL) in host communities. Various tourism development cycle theories, all generally based on social carrying capacity, postulate an initial positive change in QOL during the early stages of gaming’s development followed by negative change after the community has reached its “carrying capacity” or “level of acceptable change.” Based primarily in the rural sociology “boomtown” literature, the social disruption theory postulates essentially an opposite effect—an initial negative change in quality of life as the community experiences the transitional stress of rapid casino development followed by positive change as the community and its residents adapt to its new situation. Using data from a nongaming community (Grand Lake, CO), three “early stage” gaming communities (Central City, Blackhawk, and Cripple Creek, CO), and a “later stage” gaming community (Deadwood, SD), the study results support the social disruption theory. Thus, rate of growth is a key variable to be incorporated into the tourism impact literature. However, in concert with social exchange theory, these results are mediated by individual resident attitudes concerning the desirability of and personal benefits from gaming. The study and its conclusions are framed within the context of public relations strategy for casino businesses.