cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Early expression of cytokine mRNA in mice infected with Listeria monocytogenes.

Protective immunity first becomes evident at 3 to 4 days after inoculation of mice with a sublethal dose of Listeria monocytogenes. Recent evidence suggests that production of gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) occurs earlier (within the first 24 h of infection). The purpose of this study was to define better the sequence of cytokine mRNA expression during the early stages of L. monocytogenes infection. Cytokine mRNA expression was detected by polymerase chain reaction-assisted amplification of RNA extracted from the spleen cells of individual mice euthanized at 0.5 to 120 h after L. monocytogenes challenge. By using this method, mRNAs for tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha), IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, and IFN-gamma were detected in RNA from the spleen cells of uninfected mice. The intensity of the bands for IFN-gamma, however, was increased greatly at 16 h after intravenous injection of 5 x 10(4) CFU (nearly 1 50% lethal dose) of L. monocytogenes. IL-6 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor mRNAs were not detected in spleen cell RNA from uninfected mice but were induced within 30 and 60 min, respectively, after inoculation with L. monocytogenes. Increased amounts of mRNAs for IFN-gamma, IL-6, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor were detected after injection of viable, but not killed, L. monocytogenes. IL-3 mRNA was not detected at any time in RNA extracted from the spleen cells of uninfected or L. monocytogenes infected mice. These results suggest that infection with L. monocytogenes elicits a detectable cytokine mRNA response within the first few hours of infection. Images
Viral and Cellular Genomes Activate Distinct DNA Damage Responses.

In response to cellular genome breaks, MRE11/RAD50/NBS1 (MRN) activates a global ATM DNA damage response (DDR) that prevents cellular replication. Here, we show that MRN-ATM also has critical functions in defending the cell against DNA viruses. We reveal temporally distinct responses to adenovirus genomes: a critical MRN-ATM DDR that must be inactivated by E1B-55K/E4-ORF3 viral oncoproteins and a global MRN-independent ATM DDR to viral nuclear domains that does not impact viral replication. We show that MRN binds to adenovirus genomes and activates a localized ATM response that specifically prevents viral DNA replication. In contrast to chromosomal breaks, ATM activation is not amplified by H2AX across megabases of chromatin to induce global signaling and replicative arrest. Thus, γH2AX foci discriminate "self" and "non-self" genomes and determine whether a localized anti-viral or global ATM response is appropriate. This provides an elegant mechanism to neutralize viral genomes without jeopardizing cellular viability.
Gratuitous mRNA localization in the Drosophila oocyte

Many of the genes that control pattern formation in Drosophila encode mRNAs that are localized to discrete regions of the oocyte during oogenesis. While such localization is generally assumed to be important for the pattern-forming activities of these genes, this has been rigorously demonstrated in only a few cases. Here we address the role of mRNA localization for the dorsoventral patterning gene K10. K10 mRNA is localized to the oocyte's anterior cortex following its transport into the cell during early stages of oogenesis. We show that mutations in cappuccino and spire, which permit K10 mRNA transport, but prevent subsequent anterior localization, do not disrupt the synthesis or localization of K10 protein. We also show that modified K10 transgenes that produce transcripts which are uniformly distributed throughout the oocyte, or which are mislocalized to the oocyte's posterior pole, produce localized and functional K10 protein. We conclude that the anterior localization of K10 mRNA is not important for K10 protein targeting or gene function. We propose that the anterior localization of K10, and probably other mRNAs, is a by-product of mRNA transport and does not necessarily reflect a requirement for localization per se.
Access to natural resources on private property: factors beyond right of entry

Discussions of access to natural resources on private lands in the United States often focus on property rights and ownership. In Maine, changing ownership of private forestland has been associated with increased posting against trespass. This raises concerns about the terms of physical entry to land for resource use. While the right of entry is an important component of access to natural resources, other factors also affect access. Building on a theory proposed by Ribot and Peluso (2003), this study of nontimber forest product gatherers and forest landowners/managers in northern Maine examines social and biophysical factors that affect access to natural resources. We consider who is affected by these factors, and suggest ways forward to promote more equitable access to nontimber forest products, especially for Native Americans in the region.
Parental and school influences upon the career development of poor youth of color

Critical career development tasks for adolescents include developing vocational expectations and a connection to the world of work. Given the sociopolitical barriers to the career development of poor Youth of Color, it is vital to identify contextual resources facilitative of their career development. The present study examines the impact of relational and instrumental parental support and instrumental school support upon vocational expectations and work salience among poor Youth of Color. Participants from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) were examined longitudinally from 12th grade to two years after they had finished high school. The obtained structural models suggested that relational and instrumental parental support had a direct effect upon work salience and instrumental parental support a significant indirect effect two years later. Instrumental school support and relational parental support had direct effects upon vocational expectations and nonsignificant indirect effects two years later. These findings illuminate contextual factors facilitative of vocational expectations and work salience, provide support for school-based career development programs, and suggest that incorporating relational and instrumental parental support could augment intervention programs for poor Youth of Color.
The Reality Game

In this study I propose to suggest the lines of investigation which ought to be taken by anyone wishing to determine whether some of the ideas discovered in the theory of games, supported by the philosophy of culture and the theory of finite automata, can be productively employed in epistemology.
Topological persistence on a Jordan curve

Topological persistence measures the resilience of extrema of a function to perturbations, and has received increasing attention in computer graphics, visualization and computer vision. While the notion of topological persistence for piece-wise linear functions defined on a simplicial complex has been well studied, the time complexity of all the known algorithms are super-linear (e.g. O(n log n)) in the size n of the complex. We give an O(n) algorithm to compute topological persistence for a function defined on a Jordan curve. To the best of our knowledge, our algorithm is the first to attain linear asymptotic complexity, and is asymptotically optimal. We demonstrate the usefulness of persistence in shape abstraction and compression.
High stiffness and low slew drag in an antagonistic control system

An antagonistic controller which is to be used in tendon-driven master/slave end-effectors is described. High stiffness was achieved by developing a control law which eliminates one local force loop in the flexion/extension control loops. One force loop maintains tendon cocontraction, while the other force loop is eliminated when the tendon tension is greater than cocontraction. In order to minimize the input impedance or slew drag caused by inertia and intrinsic damping of the system, force compensations were implemented according to the characteristics of the actuators. These techniques have been implemented experimentally on both electromechanical and electrohydraulic systems. A computer analysis of an electromechanical antagonistic control system is included. Servostiffness equations are derived from the transfer function of the electromechanical system. >
Inhibition of Sindbis Virus Production by Media of Low Ionic Strength: Intracellular Events and Requirements for Reversal

Incubation of Sindbis virus-infected cultures in medium with an ionic strength of 0.105 reduced the virus yield more than 99%. This inhibition was rapidly reversed by exposing the cultures to normal medium: within 20 min the previously inhibited cultures had released as much infectious virus as normal controls had produced during hours of incubation. The following intracellular processes were essentially normal in inhibited, infected monolayers: protein and phospholipid synthesis, the synthesis of infectious viral ribonucleic acid and its incorporation into nucleocapsids, and viral modification of the cell membrane. Accelerated virus production was detected within 20 sec after exposure of inhibited cultures to normal medium. It required an ionic strength greater than 0.145, a pH above 6.7, and a temperature above 21 C. It was not dependent on osmotic pressure, de novo protein synthesis, or a functional energy metabolism. Virus release also occurred in sonic-treated materials of inhibited cells under the same conditions as in living cells. Potential applications of the inhibition to concentration of virus stocks or to obtaining virus in nonphysiological solutions are noted. Preliminary studies with Semiliki Forest virus, Newcastle disease virus, and vesicular stomatitis virus suggest that this phenomenon may be limited to arboviruses.
Concomitant septic and gouty arthritis—an analysis of 30 cases

Objectives. To analyse the clinical features and outcomes of gouty patients with concomitant septic arthritis in a medical centre. Methods. From the hospital database, we collected 30 hospitalized cases with concomitant septic arthritis and gouty arthritis from 1987 to 2001. All patients had positive bacterial culture and monosodium urate crystals in the affected joints. Medical records of the patients were analysed in detail. Results. The mean age of patients was 52.8"12.5 yr. One-third of patients were afebrile at presentation, 30% had a normal blood leucocyte count and 10% had a synovial fluid leucocyte count less than 6000umm 3 . The knee joint was the most common site of involvement, followed by the ankle, shoulder and wrist joints. Most patients had long-standing disease and subcutaneous tophi. Subcutaneous tophi rupture with secondary wound infection is the most common route of infection. Causative micro-organisms were Staphylococcus aureus (16 cases, 7 of whom were oxacillin-resistant), Streptococcus sp. (5 cases), Pediococcus sp. (1 case), and Gram-negative bacilli (9 cases). Fourteen patients received surgical debridement, among them two patients had an arthrodesis owing to severe joint destruction and one received above-knee amputation. Two patients died. One died of septic complications and the other died of acute myocardial infarction. Conclusions. Septic arthritis coexistent with gout presented a diagnostic difficulty. An early diagnosis requires a high level of suspicion. Prompt aspiration and analysis of the synovial fluid is imperative, regardless of the absence of fever or leucocytosis. Culture of the aspirated synovial fluid is warranted in gouty attack, even when it has a low white cell count or the Gram stain reveals no organisms.
Weak alignment offers new NMR opportunities to study protein structure and dynamics

Protein solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) can be conducted in a slightly anisotropic environment, where the orientational distribution of the proteins is no longer random. In such an environment, the large one-bond internuclear dipolar interactions no longer average to zero and report on the average orientation of the corresponding vectors relative to the magnetic field. The desired very weak ordering, on the order of 10−3, can be induced conveniently by the use of aqueous nematic liquid crystalline suspensions or by anisotropically compressed hydrogels. The resulting residual dipolar interactions are scaled down by three orders of magnitude relative to their static values, but nevertheless can be measured at high accuracy. They are very precise reporters on the average orientation of bonds relative to the molecular alignment frame, and they can be used in a variety of ways to enrich our understanding of protein structure and function. Applications to date have focused primarily on validation of structures, determined by NMR, X-ray crystallography, or homology modeling, and on refinement of structures determined by conventional NMR approaches. Although de novo structure determination on the basis of dipolar couplings suffers from a severe multiple minimum problem, related to the degeneracy of dipolar coupling relative to inversion of the internuclear vector, a number of approaches can address this problem and potentially can accelerate the NMR structure determination process considerably. In favorable cases, where large numbers of dipolar couplings can be measured, inconsistency between measured values can report on internal motions.
Clinical utility of CMV early and late transcript detection with NASBA in bronchoalveolar lavages.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection can cause severe disease in immunocompromised individuals, with CMV pneumonia, most commonly seen in lung or bone marrow transplant recipients, carrying a particularly high fatality rate. Early and accurate diagnosis of CMV pneumonia is therefore critical. Objectives: Current diagnostic tests for CMV pneumonia in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens are either insensitive or poor prognostic indicators of disease. We therefore examined nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) assays for CMV transcripts in BAL for the prediction of CMV pneumonia and associated diseases. Study design: A total of 220 BAL specimens from lung transplant recipients and other patients with suspected viral pneumonia were studied. Ninety-nine samples had previously tested positive for CMV by shell vial (SV) culture, while the other 121 had tested negative. All specimens were assayed for CMV pp67 and immediate early (IE) transcripts by NASBA. Results were correlated with evidence of concurrent or subsequent CMV pneumonia, rejection, and infection with other microbes. Results: From a total of 220 BAL specimens, 27 tested positive for pp67 mRNA, 25 tested positive for IE mRNA, and 17 tested positive for both. Only 10 specimens tested positive for CMV by either or both NASBA assays while testing negative by SV assay. However, 74 specimens were SV positive but negative in both NASBA assays. Detection of CMV by any of the three methods was associated with an increased prevalence of pneumonia (i.e., pulmonary interstitial inflammation with radiographic or clinical evidence of lung injury), but not with pulmonary CMV pathology. Detection of CMV by SV was associated with moderate to severe graft rejection. There was no evidence of increased bacterial or fungal pulmonary infections associated with a positive CMV result by any of the three assays. Conclusions: Detection of either CMV pp67 or IE mRNA transcripts by NASBA in BAL specimens can occasionally identify CMV infections that are negative by conventional shell vial culture, but does not have sufficient sensitivity or positive predictive value to be employed routinely for pre emptive management of pulmonary CMV disease in transplant recipients.
Field Deployments: Knowing from Using in Context

Researchers deploy systems, typically robust prototypes, to users in situ for a number of purposes: to assess changes in behavior, to gather feedback on how to improve the system, to influence the attitude of the population to adopt the final system in the future. Researchers collect both quantitative data (e.g., frequency of use) and qualitative data (e.g., observations and interviews about situations of use and attitudes), and thus, this method is associated with a number of other methods in this book.
“In the Mood to Game”: Selective exposure and mood management processes in computer game play

Previous research shows that the influence of a computer game’s task demand on the mood-repair capacity of game play follows a quadratic trend: mood repair increases as task demand goes from low to moderate levels, after which further increases in demand reduce repair. Applying selective exposure logic to this finding, we reasoned that familiarity with games known to vary in task demand should influence game choice among users experiencing negative moods. To test this, a 2 × 3 experiment was conducted, varying induced participant mood (boredom, stress) and computer game task demand (low, moderate, or high). Findings revealed a curvilinear association between task demand and game choice replicating the association between task demand and mood repair in previous research. Participants preferred moderate task demand over high and low task demand, and this preference was stronger for stressed participants. In addition and in line with mood management theory, resultant mood repair was greatest for stressed individuals choosing moderate demand, and bored individuals choosing high demand.
Error Estimation Using Wavelet Analysis for Data Assimilation: EEWADAi*

Abstract A new method is presented for estimating numerical errors in simulations as a function of space and time. This knowledge of numerical errors can provide critical information for the effective assimilation of external data. The new method utilizes wavelet analysis for the detection of deviation from low-order polynomial structure in the computational data indicating regions of the domain where relatively large numerical errors will occur. This wavelet-based technique has a very low computational cost, and in practice the cost can be considered negligible compared to the computational cost of the simulation. It is proposed here that this be used in the field of data assimilation for fast and efficient assimilation of external data, and a numerical example illustrating that the new method performs better than the existing method of optimal interpolation is given.
The potential role of the left atrial septal pouch in cryptogenic stroke

The left atrial septal pouch (LASP) is an anatomic variant of the atrial septum that forms a blind-ending pouch, communicating exclusively with the left atrium (LA). Case reports have demonstrated thrombus within LASP and in the setting of cryptogenic stroke. Initial epidemiologic results are mixed, one study showing and others not showing an association between LASP and cryptogenic stroke. Additional investigation should take place to determine the clinical significance of LASP and what interventions are required to prevent ischemic stroke in at-risk individuals.
Pore-scale modeling of The Geysers

Abstract We initiate pore-scale modeling of The Geysers to characterize the formation’s pore space. For this purpose, we analyze the drainage data obtained from mercury intrusion for different samples where the variation of the capillary pressure with wetting phase saturation shows a non-plateau-like trend. The non-plateau-like trend is inconsistent with cyclic pore models such as the regular lattice model, in which the random assignment of the pore size to a lattice results in a plateau-like variation of the capillary pressure with wetting phase in drainage. Our study reveals that we can capture the pore space of The Geysers using acyclic void models. The connectivity of pores is limited in acyclic models and there is only a single path between two pores when they are connected. To capture the pore space, we determine the number of pore throats required to model the drainage results. We also use the characterized acyclic models to analyze the single-phase flow behavior of The Geysers at pore scale. Our analysis of the single-phase permeability suggests that the fluid flow is controlled primarily by a small fraction of the pores whose characteristic sizes are notably larger than others, although the data are not sufficient to eliminate the possible contribution of other pores with smaller characteristic sizes. This study could have major implications for understanding transport phenomena in The Geysers at pore scale.
Teaching Millennials to engage THE environment instead of THEIR environment: A pedagogical analysis

This article examines the difficulty in teaching contemporary students of journalism (those in the much-discussed Millennial Generation) to report on complex topics like science and the environment. After examining contemporary literature, the authors subjected 120 undergraduate students to a strategy that combined visual representations of abstract concepts, media texts, and experiential peer interactions. The results indicate positive outcomes on comprehension and demonstrations of critical analysis from this pedagogical approach.
The Rural–Urban Difference in Interpersonal Regret

The present research examined rural–urban differences in interpersonal regret. In Study 1, participants who grew up in rural areas reported stronger interpersonal regret than those who grew up in large cities. In Study 2, we conducted an experiment and found that participants who were assigned to imagine a rural life reported greater interpersonal regret than those who were assigned to imagine an urban life. Moreover, this rural–urban difference was mediated by the degree to which participants wrote about informal social control such as gossip and reputation concerns. Finally, in Study 3, we used the pictorial eye manipulation, which evokes a concern for informal social control, and found that participants from large cities who were exposed to the eyes reported more intense interpersonal regret than those who were not exposed to the eyes. Together, these studies demonstrate that informal social control is a key to understanding rural–urban differences in interpersonal regret.
Life Cycle and Production of the Mayfly Choroterpes (Neochoroterpes) mexicanus Allen (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae)

Studies were conducted from 1971–73. Emergence occurred from late afternoon to near sunset March through November. Life span after emergence was less than 24 h, and both subimagoes and imagoes exhibited a seasonal variation in total body length. Mating occurs in flight, with ♂ swarms occurring over land during the morning. Females fly upstream, alight on the water and extrude all eggs at once. A seasonal-generation periodicity in fecundity was noted. Eggs are barrel shaped, .18 mm long × .12 mm wide, have elaborate chorionic sculpturing, and peg-like attachment structures. Incubation at 25± 1°C required 13–15 days. First instar nymphs measured .45 mm total body length, had 5-segment cerci and antennae and displayed no gills. The life cycle was multivoltine, with 3 relatively distinct generations. Nymphs underwent 16 and 19 instars in the overwintering and combined summer generations, respectively, and could be sexed beginning in the 7th. Sex ratios of 1264 nymphs and 549 subimagoes were 1:1. Nymphs fed on detritus (90%) and algae, with seasonal variation in varieties and percentages. Mean standing crop on biweekly (or monthly) sampling dates was 880 individuals/m2. Mean cohort turnover ratio, mean annual turnover ratio and total annual production (dry wt) were 5.1, 15.4, and 247.9 mg/m2, respectively for the 3 generations.
Bio-Impedance Characterization Technique with Implantable Neural Stimulator Using Biphasic Current Stimulus

Knowledge of the bio-impedance and its equivalent circuit model at the electrode-electrolyte/tissue interface is important in the application of functional electrical stimulation. Impedance can be used as a merit to evaluate the proximity between electrodes and targeted tissues. Understanding the equivalent circuit parameters of the electrode can further be leveraged to set a safe boundary for stimulus parameters in order not to exceed the water window of electrodes. In this paper, we present an impedance characterization technique and implement a proof-of-concept system using an implantable neural stimulator and an off-the-shelf microcontroller. The proposed technique yields the parameters of the equivalent circuit of an electrode through large signal analysis by injecting a single low-intensity biphasic current stimulus with deliberately inserted inter-pulse delay and by acquiring the transient electrode voltage at three well-specified timings. Using low-intensity stimulus allows the derivation of electrode double layer capacitance since capacitive charge-injection dominates when electrode overpotential is small. Insertion of the inter-pulse delay creates a controlled discharge time to estimate the Faradic resistance. The proposed method has been validated by measuring the impedance of a) an emulated Randles cells made of discrete circuit components and b) a custom-made platinum electrode array in-vitro, and comparing estimated parameters with the results derived from an impedance analyzer. The proposed technique can be integrated into implantable or commercial neural stimulator system at low extra power consumption, low extra-hardware cost, and light computation.
COMPARISON OF TARGETING A DUR LETTER INTERVENTION AT PHARMACISTS SEPARATE FROM AND IN ADDITION TO PHYSICIANS

Abstract Objective To examine the impact on dipyridamole prescribing of a letter mailed to pharmacists and/or physicians. Design Interrupted time series with control series. Setting State of Wisconsin. Participants Physicians and pharmacists caring for patients who were prescribed dipyridamole. Interventions The state of Wisconsin was divided into four sections, three of which were designated as experimental regions (letter to physician only, letter to pharmacist only, and letter to both physician and pharmacist) and one of which served as a control region. Main Outcome Measures Cost of drug per patient per month in ambulatory and long-term care populations. Results For 763 long-term care and 586 ambulatory Medicaid patients, letters sent to both physicians and pharmacists resulted in significant reductions in dipyridamole expenditures relative to the control group. For long-term care patients, interventions directed at both physicians and pharmacists produced significant reductions in dipyridamole prescribing relative to interventions directed at physicians alone or pharmacists alone. Conclusion Future DUR letter interventions designed to change prescribing habits would be more effective if they targeted both physicians and pharmacists, particularly in the long-term care setting.
The Changing Approach to Cancer Surgery

Surgical approaches in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment are changing with technical advances and better understanding of tumor biology. The use of surgery within combined-modality treatment programs has improved survival of patients with a variety of cancer types. Surgical resection of metastatic lung or liver disease can be curative in some cases.
Exploring Small-Scale and Large-Scale CMP Architectures for Commercial Java Servers

As we enter the era of chip multiprocessor (CMP) architectures, it is important that we explore the scaling characteristics of mainstream server workloads on these platforms. In this paper, we analyze the performance of an Enterprise Java workload (SPECjbb2005) on two important classes of CMP architectures. One class of CMP platforms comprise of "small-scale" CMP (SCMP) processors with a few large out-of-order cores on the die. Another class of CMP platforms comprise of "large-scale" CMP (LCMP) processor(s) with several small in-order cores on the die. For these classes of CMP architectures to succeed, it is important that there are sufficient resources (cache, memory and interconnect) to allow for a balanced scalable platform. In this paper, we focus on evaluating the resource scaling characteristics (cores, caches and memory) of SPECjbb2005 on these two architectures and understanding architectural trade-offs that may be required in future CMP offerings. The overall evaluation is uniquely conducted using four different methodologies (measurements on latest platforms, trace-based cache simulation, trace-based platform simulation and execution-driven emulation). Based on our findings, we summarize the architectural recommendations for future CMP server platforms (e.g. the need for large DRAM caches)
Piecewise planar scene reconstruction and optimization for multi-view stereo

This paper presents a multi-view stereo algorithm for piecewise planar scene reconstruction and optimization. Our segmentation-based reconstruction algorithm is iterative to minimize our defined energy function, consisting of reconstruction, refinement and optimization steps. The first step is a plane initialization to allow each segment to have a set of initial plane candidates. Then a plane refinement based on non-linear optimization improves the accuracy of the segment planes. Finally a plane optimization with a segment-adjacency graph leads to optimal segment planes, each of which is chosen among possible plane candidates by evaluating its relationship with adjacent planes in 3D. This algorithm yields better accuracy and performance, compared to the previous algorithms described in this paper. The results show our method is suitable for outdoor or aerial urban scene reconstruction, especially in wide baselines and images with textureless regions.
Verifying dynamic race detection

Writing race-free concurrent code is notoriously difficult, and data races can result in bugs that are difficult to isolate and reproduce. Dynamic race detection can catch data races that cannot (easily) be detected statically. One approach to dynamic race detection is to instrument the potentially racy code with operations that store and compare metadata, where the metadata implements some known race detection algorithm (e.g. vector-clock race detection). In this paper, we describe the process of formally verifying several algorithms for dynamic race detection. We then turn to implementations, laying out an instrumentation pass for race detection in a simple language and presenting a mechanized formal proof of its correctness: all races in a program will be caught by the instrumentation, and all races detected by the instrumentation are possible in the original program.
Designing scalable b-Matching algorithms on distributed memory multiprocessors by approximation

A b-Matching is a subset of edges M such that at most b(v) edges in M are incident on each vertex v, where b(v) is specified. We present a distributed-memory parallel algorithm, b-Suitor, that computes a b-Matching with more than half the maximum weight in a graph with weights on the edges. The approximation algorithm is designed to have high concurrency and low time complexity. We organize the implementation of the algorithm in terms of asynchronous supersteps that combine computation and communication, and balance the computational work and frequency of communication to obtain high performance. Since the performance of the b-Suitor algorithm is strongly influenced by communication, we present several strategies to reduce the communication volume. We implement the algorithm using a hybrid strategy where inter-node communication uses MPI and intra-node computation is done with OpenMP threads. We demonstrate strong and weak scaling of b-Suitor up to 16K processors on two supercomputers at NERSC. We compute a b-Matching in a graph with 2 billion edges in under 4 seconds using 16K processors.
Wax on, wax off: Transfer of Learning through an Experiential Learning Project

Masters of accounting students engaged in an experiential learning project on behalf of a federal court judge. The project required students to review attorneys’ expense reimbursement requests for accuracy and existence and assess their compliance with the judge’s pre-established guidelines. When students’ pre- and post-project answers to questionnaire items are compared and evaluated in the context of transfer of learning theory, results suggest that the court project prepared students for future professional endeavors in financial statement auditing. Transfer of learning theory is a concept that has not received much attention in the accounting literature; this paper uniquely applies transfer of learning to an authentic, real-world project. Based on the efficacy of the project in improving students’ auditing knowledge, educators are encouraged to seek similar experiential learning interventions for upper-level undergraduate students or masters of accounting students.
Testing our FAITHH: HIV stigma and knowledge after a faith-based HIV stigma reduction intervention in the Rural South.

ABSTRACTEliminating racial/ethnic HIV disparities requires HIV-related stigma reduction. African-American churches have a history of addressing community concerns, including health issues, but may also contribute to stigma. We developed and pilot tested a faith-based, anti-stigma intervention with 12 African-American churches in rural Alabama. We measured HIV-related stigma held by 199 adults who participated in the intervention (individual-level) and their perception of stigma among other congregants (congregational-level). Analyses of pre- and post-assessments using a linear mixed model showed the anti-stigma intervention group reported a significant reduction in individual-level stigma compared with the control group (mean difference: −.70 intervention vs. −.16 control, adjusted p < .05). Findings suggest African-American churches may be poised to aid HIV stigma-reduction efforts.
Impact of Florida's prescription drug monitoring program and pill mill law on high-risk patients: A comparative interrupted time series analysis.

PURPOSE We quantified the effects of Florida's prescription drug monitoring program and pill mill law on high-risk patients. METHODS We used QuintilesIMS LRx Lifelink data to identify patients receiving prescription opioids in Florida (intervention state, N: 1.13 million) and Georgia (control state, N: 0.54 million). The preintervention, intervention, and postintervention periods were July 2010 to June 2011, July 2011 to September 2011, and October 2011 to September 2012. We identified 3 types of high-risk patients: (1) concomitant users: patients with concomitant use of benzodiazepines and opioids; (2) chronic users: long-term, high-dose, opioid users; and (3) opioid shoppers: patients receiving opioids from multiple sources. We compared changes in opioid prescriptions between Florida and Georgia before and after policy implementation among high-risk/low-risk patients. Our monthly measures included (1) average morphine milligram equivalent per transaction, (2) total opioid volume across all prescriptions, (3) average days supplied per transaction, and (4) total number of opioid prescriptions dispensed. RESULTS Among opioid-receiving individuals in Florida, 6.62% were concomitant users, 1.96% were chronic users, and 0.46% were opioid shoppers. Following policy implementation, Florida's high-risk patients experienced relative reductions in morphine milligram equivalent (opioid shoppers: -1.08 mg/month, 95% confidence interval [CI] -1.62 to -0.54), total opioid volume (chronic users: -4.58 kg/month, CI -5.41 to -3.76), and number of dispensed opioid prescriptions (concomitant users: -640 prescriptions/month, CI -950 to -340). Low-risk patients generally did not experience statistically significantly relative reductions. CONCLUSIONS Compared with Georgia, Florida's prescription drug monitoring program and pill mill law were associated with large relative reductions in prescription opioid utilization among high-risk patients.
Distributed analytics for audio sensing applications

A wide array of military and commercial applications rely on the collection and processing of audio data. One approach to perform analytics and machine learning on such data is to upload and process them at a central server (e.g., cloud) which offers abundant processing resources and the ability to run sophisticated machine learning models and analytics on the audio data. This approach can be inefficient due to the low bandwidth and energy limitations of mobile devices as well as intermittent connectivity to a central collection point such as the cloud. It is also problematic as audio data are often highly sensitive and subject to privacy constraints. An alternative approach is to perform audio analytics at edge of the network where data is generated. The challenge in this approach is the requirement to perform analytics subject to resource constraints which limit performance and accuracy of predictive analytics. In this paper, we present a system for performing predictive analytics on audio data, where the training is executed on the cloud and the classification can be executed at the edge. We present the design principles and architecture of the system, and quantify the performance tradeoff of executing analytics at contemporary edge devices versus the cloud.
The Merger of Law and Mediation: Lessons from Equity Jurisprudence and Roscoe Pound

This article examines Roscoe Pound's concerns with the decline of equity jurisprudence in the American legal system, suggesting that they resonate with those of modern ADR scholars who worry about the effects of blending settlement with adjudication and mediation with the law. It examines court-connected mediation with particular emphasis on the historic parallels between equity and mediation. Both equity and mediation offer a form of "individualized justice" unavailable in the official legal system, and each allow room for mercy in an otherwise rigid, rule-bound justice system. Yet, scholars question whether equity today is still equitable and whether institutionalized mediation offers anything that looks like justice. This article argues that if court-connected mediation is to offer alternatives to traditional rule-bound justice, it must return to its complementary role to litigation and adjudication.
Zur Wohlgestaltung des natürlichen Menschen

Denken Sie an Frank Sinatra? Horen Sie ihn singen? „I did it my way“. Ich liebte, lachte, weinte, hatte – ja! – meine Fehler, verlor auch oft – sah allem ins Gesicht und biss ofter mehr ab, als ich kauen konnte! Mit solchen Gedanken blickt ein naturlicher Mensch auf sein volles Leben zuruck. Er verlangt kein wirklich gluckliches Leben – das ist Unsinn. Ein naturliches Leben hat Hohen und Tiefen. Aber ein volles Leben – das wird er erwarten. Der naturliche Mensch wird sich ins Leben sturzen.
Piezoelectric Sensors and Sensor Materials

This paper reviews the current trends and historical development of piezoelectric sensors and sensor materials technology. It begins with a discussion of the bases of piezo- and ferroelectric activity, followed by an overview of the most commonly used piezoelectric ceramic: lead zirconate titanate (PZT). A discussion of the properties and applications of piezoelectric crystals and additional piezoelectric ceramics is followed by a description of several sensor configurations prepared from bulk ceramics. An extensive review and comparison of piezoelectric ceramic—polymer composite sensors based on the connectivity of the constituent phases is also presented. We conclude our discussion of sensor configurations with recent examples of piezoelectric ceramic—metal composite sensors, and expected future developments in the area of piezoelectric sensors.
Diuretics in pregnancy

Publisher Summary At one time, diuretics were used routinely for edema occurring in pregnancy. Their use became controversial when it was reported that diuretics caused a reduction in the clearance of certain steroids metabolized by the placenta and that pregnant women with edema were noted to have heavier babies than women taking diuretics. However, there is no evidence in any study that diuretics are harmful to the fetus, and given their importance in the treatment of hypertension, this chapter examines their use in pregnancy complicated by hypertension. Edema is a frequent and normal finding in uncomplicated pregnancy, occurring in approximately 35% of pregnant women. A major stimulus for salt retention is the fall in peripheral vascular resistance that occurs with pregnancy. This results in increased vascular capacity, a recognized stimulus to renal sodium reabsorption. Although edema is common in pregnancy, edema associated with rapid weight gain and a rise in blood pressure, are the first signs of preeclampsia. The edema with preeclampsia shares some similarities with angioneurotic edema, with prominence in the hands and face, and occasionally, laryngeal stridor. Hypertension in pregnancy represents a risk factor to the mother and fetus even in the absence of preeclampsia. Women with essential hypertension should continue taking their usual antihypertensive medications, including diuretics, during pregnancy.
Purified lac permease and cytochrome o oxidase are functional as monomers.

Purified lac permease, the 46.5-kDa product of the lac Y gene that catalyzes lactose/H+ symport, or purified cytochrome o, a terminal oxidase of the Escherichia coli respiratory chain composed of four subunits with a composite molecular mass of 140 kDa, was reconstituted into proteoliposomes individually or in combination. The preparations were then examined by freeze-fracture electron microscopy employing conventional platinum/carbon replicas or by means of a new technique using thin tantalum replicas. In nonenergized proteoliposomes, both proteins appear to reconstitute as monomers based on (i) the variation of intramembrane particle density with protein concentration; (ii) the ratio of particles corresponding to each protein in proteoliposomes reconstituted with a known ratio of permease to oxidase; and (iii) the dimensions of the particles observed in tantalum replicas. The intramembrane particle diameters in tantalum replicas are about 20-25% smaller than those observed in conventional platinum/carbon replicas, indicating that the dimensions of the particles revealed with tantalum more accurately reflect the sizes of lac permease and cytochrome o. The diameters and heights of the permease and cytochrome o in tantalum replicas are 5.1 nm × 2.8 nm and 7.4 nm × 4.2 nm, respectively. Furthermore, a higher percentage of lac permease molecules exhibits a notch or cleft in tantalum replicas relative to platinum/carbon replicas. Importantly, the initial rate of lactose/H+ symport in proteoliposomes varies linearly with the ratio of lac permease to phospholipid, and no change is observed in either the size or distribution of lac permease molecules when the proteoliposomes are energized. The results taken as a whole provide a strong indication that both lac permease and cytochrome o reconstitute into proteoliposomes as monomers, that the permease does not dimerize in the presence of the H+ electrochemical gradient, and that both molecules are completely functional as monomers.
The Dynamics of Day Care

The author describes the current types and availability of child care, its funding patterns, politics, and the major organizations associated with day care in the United States. Social workers and ...
Engaging hospital patients in the medication reconciliation process using tablet computers.

Objective Unintentional medication discrepancies contribute to preventable adverse drug events in patients. Patient engagement in medication safety beyond verbal participation in medication reconciliation is limited. We conducted a pilot study to determine whether patients' use of an electronic home medication review tool could improve medication safety during hospitalization. Materials and methods Patients were randomized to use a tool before or after hospital admission medication reconciliation to review and modify their home medication list. We assessed the quantity, potential severity, and potential harm of patients' and clinicians' medication changes. We also surveyed clinicians to assess the tool's usefulness. Results Of 76 patients approached, 65 (86%) participated. Forty-eight (74%) made changes to their home medication list [before: 29 (81%), after: 19 (66%), p = .170]. Before group participants identified 57 changes that clinicians subsequently missed on admission medication reconciliation. Thirty-nine (74%) had a significant or greater potential severity, and 19 (36%) had a greater than 50-50 chance of harm. After group patients identified 68 additional changes to their reconciled medication lists. Fifty-one (75%) had a significant or greater potential severity, and 33 (49%) had a greater than 50-50 chance of harm. Clinicians reported believing that the tool would save time, and patients would supply useful information. Discussion The results demonstrate a high willingness of patients to engage in medication reconciliation, and show that patients were able to identify important medication discrepancies and often changes that clinicians missed. Conclusion Engaging patients in admission medication reconciliation using an electronic home medication review tool may improve medication safety during hospitalization.
FI-extending generalized matrix rings

Recall that a module M is FI-extending if every fully invariant submodule is essential in a direct summand of M. Let K = RMN S be a generalized matrix ring, where R and S are rings and RMS and SNR ...
Water Relations and Growth of Vinca Following Chemical Growth Regulation

Abstract Growth of vinca (Vinca major (L.)) was limited by either a medium drench application of uniconazole of 2 or 4 mg a.i. per pot or a foliar spray application of 2, 4, or 6.25 mg a.i. per pla...
Efgartigimod: A novel antibody depletion therapy in myasthenia gravis.

Autoimmune myasthenia gravis (MG) is a prototypical, antibody-mediated disorder involving fluctuating ocular and generalized skeletal muscle weakness. In over 90% of patients with generalized MG, serum antibodies develop against one of 3 endplate proteins (acetylcholine receptor [AChR], muscle-specific tyrosine kinase [MuSK], and lipoprotein receptor-related 4). Antibodies are pathogenic in their disruption of normal neuromuscular transmission and their presence is usually diagnostic.1 However, while antibody levels are a biomarker in MuSK MG,2,3 they do not correlate well with disease severity or treatment response in AChR antibody-positive MG; AChR antibody titers generally fall with immunosuppressive therapy whether or not the patient improves clinically.4
Acute Left M1 Stroke With Critical Left Internal Carotid Artery Stenosis: Video Case

We present the case of a 68-yr-old woman who presented with an acute left middle cerebral artery syndrome. Noninvasive angiography obtained 13 h after last known well time demonstrated both left M1-segment middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion and near-complete occlusion of the left internal carotid artery (ICA) just distal to the carotid bifurcation. Intervention was offered given the sizeable mismatch demonstrated by computed tomography (CT) perfusion imaging. After administering loading doses of aspirin and clopidogrel, we initially performed carotid angioplasty and stenting to open the internal carotid artery, which was otherwise impassible. Subsequently, thrombectomy of the M1 occlusion was performed with direct aspiration. Postprocedural imaging demonstrated preservation of the at-risk brain parenchyma. The patient demonstrated significant improvement in strength and speech after the procedure, and she was discharged to an inpatient rehabilitation center for further treatment. The patient and her family gave consent for this report.