cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Electrochemistry of Low Molecular Weight Organic Compounds of Biological Interest

The electrochemical behavior of a large number of low molecular weight compounds of biological interest has been studied. Reviews such as those of Brezina and Zuman,(1)Underwood and Burnett,(2)McCreery,(3)and Dryhurst(4)have summarized much of the available information on the electrochemical behavior of biologically significant molecules. However, except in relatively few instances, such reviews have reported the electrochemical results without much attempt to correlate the information with known or suspected biological redox reactions. In this review only a rather small number of low molecular weight biomolecules will be considered. However, they will be discussed in some depth and an attempt will be made to demonstrate that electrochemical studies of biomolecules can provide some unique and valuable insights into their biochemical redox behavior.
Effectiveness of information technology infrastructure library process implementations by information technology departments within united states organizations

This research study examined whether the overall effectiveness of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) could be predicted by measuring multiple independent variables. The primary variables studied included the number of ITIL process modules adopted and the overall ITIL "maturity level." An online survey was used to collect data from participating volunteers within the United States, and then analyzed to reveal any significant findings. The research showed a statistically significant positive relationship between overall maturity level and effectiveness, however the ability to predict effectiveness based upon the number of process modules adopted was inconclusive. Additionally, differences in module adoption from either the Service Support or Service Delivery process blocks were considered. The results suggested that process module adoption from the Service Support block has a somewhat stronger relationship to overall effectiveness than adoption from the Service Delivery block, though this finding should be viewed cautiously. Sample size and survey instrument limitations restricted the interpretation of the results.
Composite materials for biomedical applications

The repair or reconstruction of damaged or diseased parts of the musculoskeletal system requires various implants [1,2]. In particular, implants are used for the internal fixation of fractured bones and joints (such as hips, knees, fingers and jaws). They can also serve as prosthetic heart valves, intervertebral disk spacers, teeth, tendons and ligaments.
Incidence of oxandrolone induced hepatic transaminitis in patients with burn injury

The benefits of oxandrolone in burn patients has led to its accepted use in the burn care community, however details regarding the most common adverse effect, transaminitis, remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of transaminitis in patients with burn injury and identify risk factors associated with the development of transaminitis. This single-center, retrospective risk factor analysis compared burn patients on oxandrolone with and without the development of transaminitis, defined as any aspartate aminotransferase or alanine aminotransferase value >100mg/dL. Patient demographics, past medical history, lab values, and burn characteristics were recorded. Overall 28 out of 66 (42%) patients developed transaminitis. The transaminitis group had a significantly higher proportion of other concomitant medications with a transaminitis risk (p=0.045). No significant difference in liver dysfunction or length of stay was observed between the two groups. Oxandrolone induced transaminitis is occurring in patients significantly more frequently than previously reported warranting further research to guide monitoring requirements, use of concomitant medications, and to determine if rechallenging after resolution should be considered.
Use of positional therapy when incorporated into a diagnosis-treatment algorithm for obstructive sleep apnea

Purpose Positional obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is prevalent. We hypothesized that by incorporating positional therapy into a diagnosis-treatment algorithm for OSA it would frequently be prescribed as an appropriate first-line therapy. Methods Fifty-nine members (45 males, 49±9 yrs, BMI 35.2±5.6 kg/m2) of the Law Enforcement Health Benefits (LEHB), Inc. of Philadelphia with clinically suspected OSA were evaluated. Patients completed an Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) questionnaire and a home sleep test (HST). Patients diagnosed with positional OSA (non-supine apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] < 5 events/hr) were offered positional therapy. A cost comparison to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy was performed. Results Fifty-four (92%) of the patients (43 males, 49±9 yrs, BMI 35.2±5.3 kg/m2) had OSA on their HST (AHI 24.2±20.1 events/hr). Sixteen (30%) patients had positional OSA. Compared to non-positional patients, patients with positional OSA were less heavy (32.4±5.1 vs. 36.4±5.1 kg/m2, respectively [p=0.009]), less sleepy (ESS 8±5 vs. 12±5, respectively [p=0.009]), and had less severe OSA (AHI 10.4±4.3 vs. 30.0±21.3 events/hr, respectively [p<0.001]). Thirteen of the 16 patients with positional OSA agreed to positional therapy and 31 non-positional OSA patients agreed to CPAP therapy. Based on initial costs, incorporating positional therapy ($189.95/device compared to CPAP therapy at $962.49/device) into the treatment algorithm resulted in a 24% cost savings compared to if all the patients were initiated on CPAP therapy. Conclusion With the high prevalence of positional OSA, using a diagnosis-treatment algorithm that incorporates positional therapy allows it to be more frequently considered as a cost effective first-line therapy for OSA.
Population Smoking Characteristics and Cessation Behaviors in a Nationally Representative Cohort of Hispanic Veterans and Hispanic Non-Veterans.

INTRODUCTION The proportion of Hispanics in the U.S. Veteran population is expected to increase rapidly in the next several decades. Although Veterans have a heightened smoking risk relative to the civilian population, few studies have examined whether this risk extends to Hispanic Veterans. The aims of the present study were to examine differences in the smoking and cessation characteristics of Hispanic Veterans and Hispanic non-Veterans, and to determine whether these differences persist after controlling for demographics and markers of acculturation. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a secondary analysis of the 2014-2015 Tobacco Use Supplement of the Current Population Survey administered by the U.S. Census Bureau. The main analysis included Hispanics aged 18 or older (N = 27,341). Additional analyses were restricted to participants who had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime (N = 4,951), and current smokers (N = 2,345). Regressions modeled the associations between Veteran status and demographics, markers of acculturation, smoking characteristics, and cessation behaviors. Additional regressions modeled the associations between Veteran status and the smoking and cessation outcomes while adjusting for demographics and the acculturation variables of U.S. nativity, U.S. citizenship, and English interview language. Probability weights produced nationally representative findings. RESULTS Hispanic Veterans were older, more likely to be male, and more acculturated than Hispanic non-Veterans. Unadjusted analyses revealed that Hispanic Veterans were more likely to be current daily smokers (8.6% vs. 5.7%, p = 0.015) and much less likely to be never smokers (59.3% vs. 81.0%, p < 0.001) compared to Hispanic non-Veterans. These differences were reduced after adjusting for the demographic and acculturation characteristics of the two groups. However, Hispanic Veterans were still less likely to be never smokers compared to non-Veterans after this adjustment (74.3% vs 80.7%, p < 0.001). In unadjusted analyses, Veterans were less likely to have stopped smoking for one day or longer as part of a quit attempt than non-Veterans (33.2% vs 45.4%, p = 0.056), although this was not a significant difference. Use of telephone quit line was very low for both Hispanic Veterans and Hispanic non-Veterans (4.3%). After adjustment, the difference in the likelihood of stopping smoking for one day or longer as part of a quit attempt was increased, becoming statistically significant (31.4% vs 45.8%, p = 0.030). CONCLUSION Demographic and acculturation differences account for much, but not all, of the differences in the smoking characteristics and cessation behaviors of Hispanic Veterans and Hispanic non-Veterans. These findings suggest that Hispanic Veterans, and Veterans more broadly, should be a focal point for cessation efforts. These efforts should include facilitating access to under-utilized cessation treatments, and providing coordinated cessation care for Veterans being treated for comorbid health conditions.
AB1348 PERSPECTIVES OF PATIENTS WITH INFLAMMATORY ARTHRITIS REGARDING CARDIOVASCULAR RISK: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most common cause of death among patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA) such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) or ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Objectives: To elicit perspectives of patients with IA to inform the design of a patient-centered intervention for a CVD risk reduction intervention. Methods: This was a qualitative study guided by Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, placing special emphasis on knowledge about the relationship between arthritis and CVD as well as barriers and facilitators to receiving healthcare related to CVD risk such as screening and management for hyperlipidemia. We recruited patients from a single academic center with either RA, PsA, or AS to participate in focus groups. Data were analyzed thematically. Results: We conducted three focus groups with a total of 17 participants (5 participants in two and 7 participants in one of the focus groups) of mean age 56 (SD+7.7) years; 15 were women; 3 were on a statin; and 1 previously had a stroke. Barrier Themes 1-2: 1) Need for more information about arthritis, prognosis, and IA medications; 2) Lack of knowledge about how IA increases cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Facilitator Themes 3-5: 3) Lifestyle changes to reduce overall CVD risk; 4) Potential roles for peer coaches; and 5) Improving doctor-patient communication about IA, medications, and CVD risk. Patients expressed that improving Themes 2 and 5 could facilitate CVD screening. Conclusion: Education about increased CVD risk could help activate patients with IA engage in CVD risk reduction strategies. Peer coaches appears to be a reasonable tool towards that goal. Disclosure of Interests: Iris Navarro-Millan: None declared, Sarah Young: None declared, Sally Shurbaji: None declared, Chastity McDavid: None declared, Anna Cornelius-Schecter: None declared, Bernadette Johnson: None declared, Andrea Cherrington: None declared, Liana Fraenkel: None declared, Jeffrey Curtis: None declared, Monika Safford Grant/research support from: Amgen
Selection of lung cancer-associated scFv antibodies from cultured cells

e22137 Background: Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. There is a critical need for new strategies of early lung cancer detection. The identification of tumo...
Systemic inflammatory response syndrome in patients with acute obstructive upper tract urinary stone: a risk factor for urgent renal drainage and revisit to the emergency department

In patients seen in the emergency department (ED) with acute stone obstruction many risk factors that indicate need for urgent renal drainage are known. However, in patients discharged from ED without renal drainage factors that can minimize revisit to the emergency department are not fully identified. We evaluated SIRS (systemic inflammatory response syndrome) as a risk factor for urgent renal drainage and revisit to the ED in patients with acute stone colic during their ED visit. Retrospective review was performed of patients presenting to a tertiary academic emergency department (ED) from an obstructing ureteral or UPJ stone with hydronephrosis confirmed on an abdominal and pelvic CT scan. Data evaluated over a 3-year period included stone size, presence of UTI, presence or absence of SIRS and other clinical variables as risk factors for urgent renal drainage and ED revisits. 1983 patients with urolithiasis were seen at the ED and 649 patients had obstructive urolithiasis on CT scan. SIRS was diagnosed in 15% (99/649) patients. 54/99 (55%) patients with SIRS underwent urgent renal drainage compared to 99/550 (17%) in non-SIRS patients. In a multivariate analysis SIRS was a predictor of urgent intervention compared to non-SIRS patients (odds ratio 4.6, p < 0.05). SIRS was also associated with increased risk for revisits to the ED (6.9% with SIRS vs. 2.4% with no SIRS, odds ratio 2.9, p = 0.05). Presence of SIRS in obstructive urolithiasis patients was an independent risk factor of acute urologic intervention and revisits to the ED. A timely consultation with a urologist following discharge from ED for obstructive stone patients with SIRS who had no acute renal drainage may prevent revisit to the ED. Evaluation for SIRS in addition to other clinical risk factors should be considered while making management decision in patients with acute stone obstruction.
Stress Fractures of the Ribs and Shoulder Girdle

Though over 90% of stress fractures occur in the lower extremities as a result of impact loading (Matheson et al. Am J Sports Med 15:46–58, 1987; Fredericson et al. Top Magn Reson Imaging 17:309–25, 2006; Brukner, Sports Med 26:415–24, 1998; Allen, Radiology 167:799–801, 1988), athletes who perform repetitive tasks with the shoulder and upper extremity may also develop stress fractures. Rib and shoulder girdle stress fractures account for less than 10% of all stress fractures and are most commonly reported in rowers and throwing athletes, along with those requiring repetitive rotation of the torso (Jones, Clin Sports Med 25:159–74, 2006; Athletic, Am J Orthop 848–60, 2001). The most common mechanisms for these injuries involve repetitive bony torsion, weight bearing, and muscle contraction overload. Any athlete complaining of the non-traumatic onset of pain in the chest wall, ribs, or upper extremity that occurs during or shortly after the repetitive activity should raise concern for a possible stress fracture (Jones, Clin Sports Med 25:159–74, 2006). The vast majority of these injuries are considered low risk and do not require surgical stabilization. Instead, a period of relative rest, complete rest, or activity modification with improved biomechanics and nutritional support will typically resolve symptoms and allow for fracture healing and ultimately full return to sport. An understanding of the most common locations of upper extremity stress fractures and their associated causative activities is essential for prompt diagnosis and optimal treatment.
Usefulness of Multislice Computed Tomography in Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Following Valve-in-Valve Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.

An 88-year-old man with anginal symptoms, referred for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), had undergone valve-in-valve transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with 23-mm Evolut R transcatheter heart valve (THV) (Medtronic, Dublin, Ireland) 4 years before due to severe aortic
33. BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO PEDIATRIC RESIDENT EDUCATION IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT: A QUALITATIVE STUDY UTILIZING FOCUS GROUPS

Background The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education mandates pediatric residency programs provide educational experiences. Local resident evaluations of the Pediatric Emergency Department (ED) declined over the last 5 years. This prompted a literature review showing that resident perspectives on educational experiences are sparse. This study discovers the barriers and facilitators to resident education in the Pediatric ED. Methods This qualitative study utilizing focus groups was completed at a large Pediatric training hospital. Trained facilitators performed semi-structured interviews prompting discussion of resident experiences in the Pediatric ED. One pilot and 6 focus groups (32 pediatric residents) achieved data saturation. Sessions were audio recorded, de-identified and then transcribed by a professional service. Three authors (CJ, JM, SS) analyzed the transcripts independently using line-by-line coding. Following code agreement, authors identified central categories and themes drawing on grounded theory. Results 6 categories emerged: (1) ED environment (2) Consistent goals, expectations, and resources (3) ED workflow (4) Preceptor Accessibility (5) Resident Growth and Development (6) Preconceived Notions of the ED. Residents value a respectful work environment despite the chaotic nature of the ED. They need clear rotation goals and expectations with a strong orientation. Autonomy with open communication and shared decision-making allows residents to feel like members of the team. Residents gravitate toward welcoming, available preceptors who love to teach. More ED environment exposure increases comfort and efficiency and helps develop medical decision-making skills. Lastly, residents admit preconceptions about the ED and personality traits affect performance. Conclusion Residents identified barriers and facilitators to ED education. Educators must provide a safe and open learning environment, clear rotation expectations and goals, consistent attitudes with a teamwork mentality, and allow autonomy to build residents practice styles.
Bias reduction methods for propensity scores estimated from error-prone EHR-derived covariates

As the use of electronic health records (EHR) to estimate treatment effects has become widespread, concern about bias introduced by error in EHR-derived covariates has also grown. While methods exist to address measurement error in individual covariates, little prior research has investigated the implications of using propensity scores for confounder control when the propensity scores are constructed from a combination of accurate and error-prone covariates. We reviewed approaches to account for error in propensity scores and used simulation studies to compare their performance. These comparisons were conducted across a range of scenarios featuring variation in outcome type, validation sample size, main sample size, strength of confounding, and structure of the error in the mismeasured covariate. We then applied these approaches to a real-world EHR-based comparative effectiveness study of alternative treatments for metastatic bladder cancer. This head-to-head comparison of measurement error correction methods in the context of a propensity score-adjusted analysis demonstrated that multiple imputation for propensity scores performs best when the outcome is continuous and regression calibration-based methods perform best when the outcome is binary.
Crafting Game-Based Learning: An Analysis of Lessons for Minecraft Education Edition

Digital games have long been of interest to Game Studies communities, but relatively few have examined how teachers design with and incorporate commercial digital games in their teaching in K-12 classrooms. In this paper, we examine a corpus of 627 online lesson plans designed for Minecraft Education Edition. First, we provide descriptive statistics about the authors, language, subject areas, skills, and intended student age of the lessons. We then share our work-in-progress to analyze lessons uploaded by 16 power users. With this analysis, we hope to work towards a taxonomy of teachers’ designs with sandbox games. Our work contributes a snapshot of the current landscape of uses of Minecraft Education Edition as an educational tool and begins exploring how teachers design with a sandbox game for learning.
Challenges and Strategies for Online Teaching in Information Technology and Other Computing Programs

The coronavirus pandemic significantly disrupted the educational landscape nationwide by forcing the widespread closure of institutions from elementary to tertiary levels. With the closure of institutions, programs which typically relied on face-to-face interactions to deliver content were abruptly demanded to switch to online-based education. This upheaval has spawned unique challenges in delivering content for various subjects and disciplines. Particularly in the delivery of technical programs such as information technology and other computing disciplines, the unexpected shift to online classes introduced significant challenges. The inability to interact directly with instructors and peers endangers students? ability to master much of the intricate and abstract concepts in computing courses. Further, students and faculty find themselves socially isolated and neither may be properly prepared for online teaching and learning.Strategies incorporating the use of learning management systems, web conferencing software, and open-source software can, nonetheless, be adopted to mitigate the challenges in the teaching and learning of information technology and other computing courses. This paper discusses some of the challenges that have arisen in the online teaching and learning of these courses. It also details some strategies that will possibly contribute to mitigating these challenges.
Beware of equating increased access to mental health services with health equity: The need for clinical and epistemic humility in psychology

As the coronavirus public health crisis continues to affect countries around the world, it has become increasingly evident that the burdens that are imposed by the pandemic are not shared equally Those with fewer resources, immigrants, and members of marginalized and racialized groups are at a disproportionate risk of physical harm and emotional distress from coronavirus 2019 However, when responses to discrimination, social disadvantage, and racism are captured as depression, this may result in overmedicalization and overtreatment Instead of focusing predominantly on increased access to mental health services, humanistic psychology has long recognized the need to address the structural and systemic obstacles that undermine well-being Indeed, responses to wide-scale human suffering that focus exclusively on intraindividual interventions often keep the status quo intact and do not animate our political imagination If mental health issues are embedded in inequality, which is a social and structural category, not a psychological category, then it is ignorance producing to suggest that one can solve mental health issues on an individual, psychological level Finally, an important lesson can be learned from humanistic psychology's emphasis on empathic dwelling when bearing witness to human suffering Empathic dwelling is not a cognitive or intellectual exercise that simply facilitates mental health treatment Rather, it is a purposeful stance or comportment from which we try "to feel one's way into the other's experience [ein-fu hlen] [what] Husserl described as 'trading places'" It is only in and through this type of comport ment, this deeply felt attunement, that we will be able to bring clinical and epistemic humility to fruition (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Summer Externship Program in Food Animal Medicine, Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health (FAME)

Though veterinarians play a vital role in producing an abundant, affordable and safe food supply, fewer veterinarians entering the profession are interested in this aspect of work. Our goal is to attract and train qualified professionals in these areas through experiential learning and real-world problem solving early in their training.
Self-imposed term limits

In “Reconciling voters' behavior with legislative term limits,” Dick and Lott argue that since more senior representatives are better at rent-seeking, there is an inefficient tendency to re-elect incumbents. In their model, term limits are preferred collectively by constituencies, even though no constituency would independently oust its incumbent representative. However, many term limits are unilaterally self-imposed (in particular the 22nd amendment limiting presidents' terms to two), and their model cannot explain these limits. In this comment, I suggest that term limits may be self-imposed by risk-averse voters, who prefer cycling between left and right wing candidates to a once-and-for-all election that imposes a candidate of a single ideology on the entre electorate. The market failure that makes term limits helpful is that out of power minorities cannot bribe the median voter.
Optical and X-Ray Properties of Elliptical Galaxies

We compare and correlate the x-ray properties of early-type galaxies with their optical properties, using the data from extensive, homogeneous optical photometry surveys. Bivariate scaling solutions are found for the x-ray luminosities in terms of the optical surface brightness and velocity dispersion. A new quantity, the anisotropy index (AI) is defined. X-ray luminosities are found to correlate well with the AI. This is tentatively interpreted as a suggestion that mergers and tidal interactions played an important role in generation of the x-ray coronae in elliptical galaxies.
Developing time-oriented database applications in SQL

Showing professional SQL programmers how to effectively develop applications that involve time-oriented data and queries, this book covers such areas as: how to best record temporal data in tables using the SQL types; how to define appropriate integrity restraints; how to correctly update temporal tables using interactive and embedded SQL; and how to write a wide range of interactive and embedded SQL queries involving temporal tables. Sample queries include time-slice queries, different kinds of temporal joins, temporal coalescing, temporal aggregates, temporal unions, differences, and intersections. In addition, the choice of appropriate storage structures and indices is covered. The accompanying CD-ROM includes all the SQL statements and embedded host code in the book, along with data from actual applications. The package provides real-life extended case studies which gradually introduce concepts and techniques.
Ultrasonic absorption in superconducting single crystals of Nb/1-x/Mo/x/

The measurement of ultrasonic absorption by the conduction band electrons has frequently been used to determine the superconducting energy gap Δ(T). In general, the experiments performed on many of the elemental superconductors in the clean state (i.e., ξ0/l < 1, where l is the electron mean free path and ξ0 is the BCS coherence length) tend to support the BCS1 prediction $${{{\alpha }_{s}}}/{{{\alpha }_{n}}}\;=2{{\left( {{e}^{{\Delta }/{kT}\;}}+1 \right)}^{-1}}$$ (1) Discrepancies from Eq. (1) have, however, been reported for a number of high-purity elements such as the type I superconductor Sn2 and the type II superconductor Nb.3–6 Only a few attenuation measurements have been made on superconducting alloys in the dirty regime(i.e.,ξ0/l > 1) due to the difficulty of measuring the electron attenuation, which is often overshadowed by the background absorption α B . Tittman7 has shown the validity of Eq. (1) for the type II superconductor V-5.6 at.% Ta in the dirty regime ξ0/l ≈ 5) assuming a BCS gap parameter A≡ 2Δ(0)/kT c ≈ 3.6. It is therefore expected that Eq. (1) should describe attenuation measurements for superconducting alloys, or at least it should apply in the dirty limit ξ0/l ≫ 1.
Object recognition using vision and touch

A system is described that integrates vision and tactile sensing in a robotics environment to perform object recognition tasks. It uses multiple sensor systems (active touch and passive stereo vision) to compute three dimensional primitives that can be matched against a model data base of complex curved surface objects containing holes and cavities. The low level sensing elements provide local surface and feature matches which are constrained by relational criteria embedded in the models. Once a model has been invoked, a verification procedure establishes confidence measures for a correct recognition. The three dimen* sional nature of the sensed data makes the matching process more robust as does the system's ability to sense visually occluded areas with touch. The model is hierarchic in nature and allows matching at different levels to provide support or inhibition for recognition.
Supercomputing and the Finite Element Approximation of the Navier-Stokes Equations for Incompressible Viscous Fluids

We discuss in this paper the numerical simulation of unsteady incompressible flows modeled by the Navier-Stokes equations, concentrating most particularly to flows at Reynold number of the order of 103 to 104. The numerical methodology described here is of modular type and well suited to super computers; it is based on time discretization by operator splitting, and space discretization by low order finite element approximations, leading to highly sparse matrices. The Stokes subproblems originating from the splitting are treated by an efficient Stokes solver, particularly efficient for flow at high Reynold numbers; the nonlinear subproblems associated to the advection are solved by a least squares/preconditioned conjugate gradient method. The methodology discussed here is then applied to the simulation of jets in a cavity, using a CRAY X-MP supercomputer. Various visualizations of the numerical results are presented, in order to show the vortex dynamics taking place in the cavity.
PARADE: parametric delay evaluation under process variation [IC modeling]

Under manufacturing process variation, the circuit delay varies with process parameters. For delay test and timing verification under process variation, it is necessary to model the variational delay as a function of process variables. However, conventional methods to generate such functions are either slow or inaccurate. In this paper, we present a number of new methods for fast parametric delay evaluation under process variation. Our methods are either based on explicit delay formulae or based on characterized lookup tables, and are significantly faster than conventional methods of comparable accuracy. Due to the efficiency of our method, we can accurately model any path delay as a function of multiple interconnect and device process variables in large circuits. Experimental results on ISCAS85 circuits show that the path delay error predicted by our methods is about 1% of that computed by the RSM using SPICE, where the path delay variation is within /spl plusmn/10%.
Heavy burdens: Gendered livelihood strategies of porters in Accra, Ghana

Urban poverty is invariably linked to sociospatial dimensions of livelihood strategies. Gendered social relations, for example, have been seen to impact the ability of females to access resources, to gain assets, and to engage in viable income-generating activities. Focussing on the livelihood strategies of the urban poor as they intersect with neoliberal economic reforms in contemporary Ghana, this paper draws on a field-based survey of porters in Accra, mostly migrants from rural agricultural northern Ghana, whose primary livelihoods derive from transporting goods for clients in congested market areas of the urban industrial south. The paper highlights the gendered aspects of porters' livelihood experiences such as differences in migration patterns, reliance on physical labour and living conditions, which relatively few analyses have examined, especially as these relate to wider socioeconomic processes. The study illustrates how this perspective is important to understand the intersection of livelihood strategies, gender and national economic reforms in promoting both rural and urban development.
The Conflict of Evidence and Coherence

For many epistemologists, and for many philosophers more broadly, it is axiomatic that rationality requires you to take the doxastic attitudes that your evidence supports. Yet there is also another current in our talk about rationality. On this usage, rationality is a matter of the right kind of coherence between one's mental attitudes. Surprisingly little work in epistemology is explicitly devoted to answering the question of how these two currents of talk are related. But many implicitly assume that evidence-responsiveness guarantees coherence, so that the rational impermissibility of incoherence will just fall out of the putative requirement to take the attitudes that one's evidence supports, and so that coherence requirements do not need to be theorized in their own right, apart from evidential reasons. In this paper, I argue that this is a mistake, since coherence and evidence-responsiveness can in fact come into conflict. More specifically, I argue that in cases of misleading higher-order evidence, there can be a conflict between believing what one's evidence supports and satisfying a requirement that I call “inter-level coherence”. This illustrates why coherence requirements and evidential reasons must be separated and theorized separately.
Lipase activity measured in serum by a continuous-monitoring pH-Stat technique--an update.

Using recent knowledge regarding the roles of colipase, bile acids, Ca2+, and emulsifiers, we optimized a previously published pH-Stat method for lipase (EC 3.1.1.3) activity measurements. The recommended assay conditions are: olive oil/triolein, 100 mL/L; sodium glycocholate, 35 mmol/L; Ca2+, 8.5 mmol/L; and colipase, 6.0 mg/L. The sample volume is 0.10 mL, the reaction pH 9.0, the temperature 30 degrees C, and the concentration of titrant 15 mmol/L. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, 20 g/L, replaces acacia as emulsifier to avoid inhibition by excess Ca2+. The standard curve is linear to greater than 4566 U/L. The reference interval with olive oil as substrate is 30-235 U/L. Lipase activities with triolein substrate are 9.9% greater than with olive oil. Interference by pancreatic carboxylesterase (EC 3.1.1.1) activity is inhibited by incubating the sample with diisopropylfluorophosphate. Results correlate well with those by the optimized SingleVial method of Boehringer Mannheim Diagnostics (r = 0.997) and the immunochemical assay of Beckman Instruments, Inc. (r = 0.995). Correlation with the aca method (E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company) is less satisfactory (r = 0.892), probably owing to lack of colipase in the latter method.
Psychoanalytic guidelines for child placement

Kathryn Mahoney, MS W, is a doctoral candidate in psychology, and Michael J. Mahoney, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. The authors thank Joy Williams Moore and Carol A. Cartwright for their valu able assistance in the preparation of this article. Child placement presents what may well be one of the most difficult contemporary chal lenges to both judicial reform and psycho logical knowledge. The dedication and commitment of child placement profession als are probably equaled only by the monu mental task they face—a task imbued with issues of legal equity, parental and govern mental responsibility, and psychological well-being. Unfortunately, that task has been exacerbated by the absence of long awaited judicial reforms and scientifically founded psychological guidelines. In Beyond the Best Interests of the Child, Goldstein, Freud, and Solnit offer strong suggestions for the reform of child place ment statutes and practices.1 Although such a critical evaluation of judicial guide lines and cultural precedents is long over due, it is important to test empirically the assumptions and recommendations pre sented in this book to see if there is scien
An experimental study of the competing processes of evaporation and polymerization of levoglucosan in cellulose pyrolysis.

Abstract While levoglucosan is a major pyrolysis product of cellulose, the yields reported in the literature vary significantly depending upon experimental conditions. In the present paper, we found that during pyrolysis in a micropyrolyzer, levoglucosan yield from cellulose can decrease significantly as sample size increases. According to our previous research, levoglucosan not only evaporates, but also forms polymers at elevated temperatures and these polymers can further dehydrate to char and low molecular weight volatiles such as water, furfural, furan, and acids. These results strongly suggest that experimental variables may influence the competing processes of evaporation and polymerization of levoglucosan during cellulose decomposition, and thereby affect the final yield of levoglucosan. In this paper, the influence of various experimental variables on the evaporation and polymerization of levoglucosan is evaluated in experiments conducted with a thermogravimetric analyzer. The pyrolytic residues are then quantified using a high performance liquid chromatography method. Experimental variables include sample size, ventilation condition, sweep gas, heating rate, and moisture content. The results show that all of the tested variables affect the competing processes of evaporation and polymerization of levoglucosan, and consequently affect the final recovery of levoglucosan.
The Role of Rape Myth Acceptance and Psychopathy in Sexual Assault Perpetration

Perpetrators of sexual aggression consistently report higher scores on measures of psychopathy and acceptance of rape myths relative to nonperpetrators. However, less is known about psychopathy among nonincarcerated individuals and the relation between the two constructs has not been empirically examined among college perpetrators. To address this gap, both constructs were measured in a sample (N = 308) of college men. Rape myth acceptance was positively correlated with psychopathy, and perpetrators scored higher on both constructs. Myths transferring responsibility to victims were related to Factor 1 psychopathy (i.e., callous and manipulative traits). The myth that “rape is trivial” was associated with Factor 1 and Factor 2 (i.e., impulsive and antisocial behavior), possibly suggesting that this myth is related to a larger tendency to excuse aggressive behavior. Although both constructs distinguished perpetrators when considered individually, rape myth acceptance did not explain unique variance in the p...
Quasisymmetric parametrizations of two-dimensional metric planes

The classical uniformization theorem states that any simply connected Riemann surface is conformally equivalent to the disk, the plane, or the sphere, each equipped with a standard conformal structure. We give a similar uniformization for Ahlfors 2-regular, linearly locally connected metric planes; instead of conformal equivalence, we are concerned with quasisymmetric equivalence.
Sea level response to ENSO along the central California coast: how the 1997 1998 event compares with the historic record

Abstract Long-term monthly sea level and sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies from central California show that during winter months, positive anomalies are associated with El Nino events and the negative ones with La Nina events. There is no significant impact on monthly mean anomalies associated with Pacific decadal oscillations, although there is a tendency for more extreme events and greater variance during positive decadal oscillations. The very strong 1997–1998 El Nino was analyzed with respect to the long-term historic record to assess the forcing mechanisms for sea level and SST. Beginning in the spring of 1997, we observed several long-period (>30 days) fluctuations in daily sea level with amplitudes of over 10 cm at San Francisco, California. Fluctuations of poleward long-period alongshore wind stress anomalies (AWSA) are coherent with the sea level anomalies. However, the wind stress cannot entirely account for the observed sea level signals. The sea level fluctuations are also correlated with sea level fluctuations observed further south at Los Angeles and Tumaco, Columbia, which showed a poleward phase propagation of the sea level signal. We suggest that the sea level fluctuations were, to a greater degree, forced by the passage of remotely generated and coastally trapped waves that were generated along the equator and propagated to the north along the west coast of North America. However, both local and remote AWSA can significantly modulate the sea level signals. The arrival of coastally trapped waves began in the spring of 1997, which is earlier than previous strong El Nino events such as the 1982–1983 event.
Sestonic Chlorophyll- a Shows Hierarchical Structure and Thresholds with Nutrients across the Red River Basin, USA

The Red River is a transboundary, multijurisdictional basin where water-quality standards are often different across state lines. The state agencies with USEPA Region VI focused resources to organize water-quality data from within this basin and have it statistically analyzed to evaluate the relationships between nutrients and sestonic chlorophyll- (chl-a). There were 152 sites within the Red River basin that had nutrient and sestonic chl-a measurements; these sites were narrowed down to 132 when a minimum number of observations was required. Sestonic chl-a levels increased with increasing nutrient concentrations; these regressions were used to predict nutrient concentrations at 10 μg chl-a L. Total nitrogen (TN) and phosphorus (TP) concentrations (at 10 μg chl-a L) varied across the Red River basin and its ecoregions from 0.10 to 0.22 mg TP L and 0.75 to 2.11 mg TN L. Nutrient thresholds were also observed with sestonic chl-a at 0.14 mg TP L and 0.74 mg TN L using categorical and regression tree analysis (CART). The CART analysis also revealed that hierarchical structure was important when attempting to predict sestonic chl-a from TN, TP, and conductivity. The ranges of TN and TP concentrations that resulted in chl-a concentrations that exceeded 10 μg chl-a L were similar in magnitude to the threshold in TN and TP that resulted in increased sestonic chl-a. This corroborating evidence provides useful guidance to the states with jurisdiction within the Red River basin for establishing nutrient criteria, which may be similar when the Red River and its tributaries cross political boundaries.
Detection of surface defects on raw steel blocks using Bayesian network classifiers

This paper proposes an approach that detects surface defects with three-dimensional characteristics on scale-covered steel blocks. The surface reflection properties of the flawless surface changes strongly. Light sectioning is used to acquire the surface range data of the steel block. These sections are arbitrarily located within a range of a few millimeters due to vibrations of the steel block on the conveyor. After the recovery of the depth map, segments of the surface are classified according to a set of extracted features by means of Bayesian network classifiers. For establishing the structure of the Bayesian network, a floating search algorithm is applied, which achieves a good tradeoff between classification performance and computational efficiency for structure learning. This search algorithm enables conditional exclusions of previously added attributes and/or arcs from the network. The experiments show that the selective unrestricted Bayesian network classifier outperforms the naive Bayes and the tree-augmented naive Bayes decision rules concerning the classification rate. More than 98% of the surface segments have been classified correctly.
Positive matrix factorization of a 32-month series of daily PM2.5 speciation data with incorporation of temperature stratification.

Abstract This study presents source apportionment results for PM 2.5 from applying positive matrix factorization (PMF) to a 32-month series of daily PM 2.5 compositional data from Denver, CO, including concentrations of sulfate, nitrate, bulk elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC), and 51 organic molecular markers (OMMs). An optimum 8-factor solution was determined primarily based on the interpretability of the PMF results and rate of matching factors from bootstrapped PMF solutions with those from the base case solution. These eight factors were identified as inorganic ion, n -alkane, EC/sterane, light n -alkane/polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), medium alkane/alkanoic acid, PAH, winter/methoxyphenol and summer/odd n -alkane. The inorganic ion factor dominated the reconstructed PM 2.5 mass (sulfate + nitrate + EC + OC) in cold periods (daily average temperature 2.5 mass) whereas the summer/odd n -alkane factor dominated in hot periods (>20 °C; 53.1%). The two factors had comparable relative contributions of 26.5% and 27.1% in warm periods with temperatures between 10 °C and 20 °C. Each of the seven factors resolved in a previous study ( Dutton et al., 2010b ) using a 1-year data set from the same location matches one factor from the current work based on comparing factor profiles. Six out of the seven matched pairs of factors are linked to similar source classes as suggested by the strong correlations between factor contributions ( r = 0.89–0.98). Temperature-stratified source apportionment was conducted for three subsets of the data in the current study, corresponding to the cold, warm and hot periods mentioned above. The cold period (7-factor) solution exhibited a similar distribution of reconstructed PM 2.5 mass as the full data set solution. The factor contributions of the warm period (7-factor) solution were well correlated with those from the full data set solution ( r = 0.76–0.99). However, the reconstructed PM 2.5 mass was distributed more to inorganic ion, n -alkane and medium alkane/alkanoic acid factors in the warm period solution than in the full data set solution. For the hot period (6-factor) solution, PM 2.5 mass distribution was quite different from that of the full data set solution, as illustrated by regression slopes as low as 0.2 and as high as 4.8 of each matched pair of factors across the two solutions.
Metastatic Pulmonary Calcification in Primary Hyperparathyroidism

Metastatic pulmonary calcification (MPC) developed in a patient with primary hyperparathyroidism. Renal function was only minimally impaired (creatinine clearance of 65 ml/min) the day prior to appearance of the lung infiltrate, but deteriorated (creatinine clearance of 14 ml/ min) concomitantly with the appearance of MPC. Lung imaging with 99m Tc bone-scanning agents helps differentiate MPC from other problems with similar clinical and roentgenographic findings, thus allowing prompt therapy. ( Arch Intern Med 137:520-522, 1977)
Embracing Pedagogical Multiplicity: Examining Two Teachers' Instructional Responses to the Changing Expectations for Kindergarten in U.S. Public Schools

Abstract The purposes of kindergarten have been changing rapidly in the United States. Kindergarten teachers are facing many new demands; in addition to meeting children's needs across all developmental domains, they must also move their young students toward mastery of a variety of mandated academic skills. This article presents findings from a recent qualitative study of two kindergarten teachers' efforts to respond to these new demands and to establish practices that are responsive to the needs of their students, to the requirements of their state, and to the myriad obligations and expectations shaping their professional context. These teachers' practices, portrayed in vivid narrative vignettes, reveal the value of pedagogical multiplicity in the creation of kindergartens in which mandated content is taught in developmentally appropriate ways. Because kindergarten has become so complex, having access to a variety of instructional approaches and choosing among them flexibly and freely increases teachers...
EPA-0125 – Integrating sexology education into psychiatry residency training: Perspectives from the USA

The presentation will focus on how sexology and psychosexual medicine education can be integrated into psychiatry residency training. The Psychosexual Medicine Program currently being implemented at Beth Israel Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in New York City, USA will be described. An argument will be made why it is important to teach sexology in psychiatry residency training and how psychiatrists are uniquely positioned to be good sexologists. It will be recommended that sexology education become an integrated part of psychiatry residency training everywhere in the USA and the world.