cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Use of Breast MRI for Patients With Preoperative Breast Cancer in an Underserved Population.

Abstract Background Use of MRI for preoperative evaluation of newly diagnosed breast cancer has become more common, despite questionable impact on outcomes. We sought to determine how often and in what manner preoperative breast MRI changed surgical management in an underserved patient population. Materials and methods We examined the use of preoperative MRI at Bellevue Hospital Center (BHC), a public, tertiary hospital in lower Manhattan with a large underserved population. The BHC breast clinic database was used to identify patients who received preoperative MRI for breast cancer between January 2015 and December 2016. MRI was defined as changing surgical management in a positive manner if an MRI-detected abnormality had verification of malignancy in the final surgical specimen, confirming the MRI indication for wider excision or mastectomy, while MRI was defined to change surgical management in a negative manner if final pathology was discordant with MRI. Chi-square test was used to analyze characteristics of those who received MRI versus those who did not. Results A total of 208 patients underwent breast surgery at BHC, and 62 patients underwent MRI for preoperative planning purposes. There were significant differences between the MRI and no MRI group in terms of ethnicity (P = 0.05), age (P Conclusions MRI requires significant hospital and patient resource utilization. Especially in an underserved population, decision for MRI must be individualized, taking into account the risks and benefits of ordering this test.
Strategies for promoting advocacy engagement in the Bay Area Physical Sciences Oncology Center (PS-OC) setting.

e11096 Background: Bay Area physical sciences researchers, supported by funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), encourage broad thinking to tackle the variability of breast cancer and to ...
Retaining change in attitudes and emotions toward coyotes using experiential education

Context Education programs concerning wildlife conservation and safety typically include the biology of the wildlife species and public safety information. Information retention using traditional means such as signs, pamphlets and static presentations have been shown to be minimally effective at changing attitudes and behaviour when it comes to human–wildlife interactions. Aims An experiential education program with interactive modules was designed to support information retention in participants. On the basis of previous research, a targeted experiential education program focusing on perceptions of risk and preventative behaviours was produced to increase people’s comfort level when in coyote habitat. Methods Pre-, post- and retention-test questionnaires were used to study differences in attitudes and risk perception instantly following (post-test) as well as 1 year after participating in the program (retention test). Key results Overall, the program had significant positive effects on participants’ attitudes, and significant decreases in their overall perception of risk in terms of potential interaction with coyotes. These positive effects were observed instantly and 1 year after participants were surveyed. Conclusions Targeted and interactive educative experiences can have impacts on participants’ perceptions over the long term. This technique might be useful when dealing with human–wildlife interactions. Implications Designing targeted educative experiences for people may also support lasting positive change in human–wildlife interactions.
Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Sickle Cell Disease: From Basics to Therapeutics

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is one of the most common hereditary hemoglobinopathies worldwide, affecting almost 400,000 newborns globally each year. It is characterized by chronic hemolytic anemia and endothelial dysfunction, resulting in a constant state of disruption of the vascular system and leading to recurrent episodes of ischemia-reperfusion injury (I/RI) to multiple organ systems. I/RI is a fundamental vascular pathobiological paradigm and contributes to morbidity and mortality in a wide range of conditions, including myocardial infarction, stroke, acute kidney injury, and transplantation. I/RI is characterized by an initial restriction of blood supply to an organ, which can lead to ischemia, followed by the subsequent restoration of perfusion and concomitant reoxygenation. Recent advances in the pathophysiology of SCD have led to an understanding that many of the consequences of this disease can be explained by mechanisms associated with I/RI. The following review focuses on the evolving pathobiology of SCD, how various complications of SCD can be attributed to I/RI, and the role of timely therapeutic intervention(s) based on targeting mediators or pathways that influence I/R insult.
Tracking from a moving platform with the Dynamic Vision Sensor

The Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) is an imaging sensor that processes the incident irradiance image and outputs temporal log irradiance changes in the image, such as those generated by moving target(s) and/or the moving sensor platform. From a static platform, this enables the DVS to cancel out background clutter and greatly decrease the sensor bandwidth required to track temporal changes in a scene. However, the sensor bandwidth advantage is lost when imaging a scene from a moving platform due to platform motion causing optical flow in the background. Imaging from a moving platform has been utilized in many recently reported applications of this sensor. However, this approach inherently outputs background clutter generated from optical flow, and as such this approach has limited spatio-temporal resolution and is of limited utility for target tracking applications. In this work we present a new approach to moving target tracking applications with the DVS. Essentially, we propose modifying the incident image to cancel out optical flow due to platform motion, thereby removing background clutter and recovering the bandwidth performance advantage of the DVS. We propose that such improved performance can be accomplished by integrating a hardware tracking and stabilization subsystem with the DVS. Representative simulation scenarios are used to quantify the performance of the proposed approach to clutter cancellation and improved sensor bandwidth.
Interpretation of Endothelial Structure Related to Tumor and Atherosclerotic Blood Vessels

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of vascular corrosion casts provides an opportunity to gain specific information about the luminal cellular lining of blood conduits. In addition to observation of the pattern, distribution, and density of this cellular layer, more subtle changes may be detectable. However, the determination of any of this information requires appropriate preparative procedures for highlighting the features being evaluated. For the purposes of this chapter, the discussion is primarily limited to the cellular lining of blood vessels, the vascular endothelium, and the alterations that are associated with experimental tumors and atherosclerosis. It is then possible to use the proper interpretation of endothelial surface structure to comment on the disease process itself.
Double Jeopardy and the Gamble decision

This short book chapter analyses the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Gamble v. United States (2019), which decided not to overrule "170 years of precedent" allowing the "same sovereigns" to both prosecute an individual for the same crime. Here, the feds prosecuted Gamble as a "felon-in-possession" after Gamble had pled guilty to that same offense under State law. He received an additional three years in prison for the federal conviction, consecutive to a year in Alabama. Justice Alito wrote for 7 Justices that the "separate sovereigns" exception to the Double Jeopardy Clause is backed by reasonable policy as well as precedents dating back to at least 1852. Interestingly, Justices Ginsburg and Gorsuch, ideological opposites to some extent, both dissented, and wrote that "individual liberty" should prevail over "stare decisis." Doctrinal thoughts on three issues are offered at the end.
Polymer Waveguides for Improved Sensitivity in Fiber Fabry-Perot Ultrasound Detectors

This paper presents a fabrication method and results from optical and acoustic characterization of a miniature fiber Fabry-Perot ultrasound detector. A high Q-factor was achieved by creating a self-aligned polymer waveguide within the resonator cavity to restrict diffraction losses. As a result of the improved optical Q-factor upon introduction of the waveguide, a high acoustic sensitivity was achieved. The device presented in this paper demonstrates an optical resonator Q-factor of >2000, and a Noise Equivalent Pressure of 350 Pa over a 25MHz bandwidth on a $125~\mu \text{m}$ fiber with a $9~\mu \text{m}$ waveguide. Sensitivity can be further improved significantly with the use of dielectric mirrors. The high sensitivity of these waveguided fiber Fabry-Perot ultrasound detectors makes them suitable for detection of both ultrasound and photoacoustic signals, while their small size makes this technology suitable for adoption in applications requiring small form factor, such as in interventional cardiology.
Structural Insights into the Activation of mTORC1 on the Lysosomal Surface

Using cryo-electron microscopy and molecular characterization, David Sabatini and colleagues provide crucial new insights that validate and expand their model of how amino acids are sensed and signal at the lysosome to activate mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and cell growth-regulating processes. This work also reveals new therapeutic opportunities for mTORC1-driven diseases.
Microbiology and radiographic features of osteomyelitis in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease.

Background Children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at increased risk for bacterial infections including osteomyelitis (OM). Fever and bone pain, key presenting symptoms of OM, are common in SCD, thus complicating diagnosis. We reviewed presentation, imaging features, and microbiologic etiologies of children with SCD treated for OM. Methods The comprehensive SCD clinical database of children and adolescents with SCD followed at a single, large tertiary pediatric center were searched to identify all diagnostic coding for potential cases of osteomyelitis in children ages 6 months to 21 years from 2010 to 2019. Medical charts were reviewed to determine OM diagnostic probability based on radiographic and microbiologic findings and the duration of prescribed antibiotic treatment for OM. Results Review of 3553 patients (18 039 person-years) identified 20 episodes of probable OM in 19 children. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings to support OM were definitive in 4/19 (21%), probable in 10/19 (53%), suspected in 5/19 (26%), based on blinded radiologist review. Blood and/or operative cultures from bone and tissue debridement isolated Salmonella species in seven (35%) cases and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) in two (10%). Six patients received antibiotic treatment prior to obtainment of cultures. Of culture-positive cases, MRI findings for OM were definitive or probable in six of nine (67%), suspected in three of nine (33%). Conclusions Distinction between OM and sickle-related bone infarct or vasoocclusion is difficult based on imaging findings alone. Early attainment of blood and operative cultures increases the likelihood of identifying and adequately treating OM.
Fast Nonconvex T 2 ^* Mapping Using ADMM.

Magnetic resonance (MR)-$T_2^*$ mapping is widely used to study hemorrhage, calcification and iron deposition in various clinical applications, it provides a direct and precise mapping of desired contrast in the tissue. However, the long acquisition time required by conventional 3D high-resolution $T_2^*$ mapping method causes discomfort to patients and introduces motion artifacts to reconstructed images, which limits its wider applicability. In this paper we address this issue by performing $T_2^*$ mapping from undersampled data using compressive sensing (CS). We formulate the reconstruction as a nonconvex problem that can be decomposed into two subproblems. They can be solved either separately via the standard approach or jointly via the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). Compared to previous CS-based approaches that only apply sparse regularization on the spin density $\boldsymbol X_0$ and the relaxation rate $\boldsymbol R_2^*$, our formulation enforces additional sparse priors on the $T_2^*$-weighted images at multiple echoes to improve the reconstruction performance. We performed convergence analysis of the proposed algorithm, evaluated its performance on in vivo data, and studied the effects of different sampling schemes. Experimental results showed that the proposed joint-recovery approach generally outperforms the state-of-the-art method, especially in the low-sampling rate regime, making it a preferred choice to perform fast 3D $T_2^*$ mapping in practice. The framework adopted in this work can be easily extended to other problems arising from MR or other imaging modalities with non-linearly coupled variables.
Differential Gait Decline in Parkinson's Disease Enhances Discrimination of Gait Freezers from Non-Freezers.

BACKGROUND Freezing of gait (FOG) is a debilitating feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) for which treatments are limited. To develop neuroprotective strategies, determining whether disease progression is different in phenotypic variants of PD is essential. OBJECTIVE To determine if freezers have a faster decline in spatiotemporal gait parameters. METHODS Subjects were enrolled in a longitudinal study and assessed every 3- 6 months. Continuous gait in the levodopa ON-state was collected using a gait mat (Protokinetics). The slope of change/year in spatiotemporal gait parameters was calculated. RESULTS 26 freezers, 31 non-freezers, and 25 controls completed an average of 6 visits over 28 months. Freezers had a faster decline in mean stride-length, stride-velocity, swing-%, single-support-%, and variability in single-support-% compared to non-freezers (p 0.25). Gait progression parameters were required to obtain 95% accuracy in categorizing freezers and non-freezers groups in a forward step-wise binary regression model. Change in mean stride-length, mean stride-width, and swing-% variability along with initial foot-length variability, mean swing-% and apathy scores were significant variables in the model. CONCLUSION Freezers had a faster temporal decline in objectively quantified gait, and inclusion of longitudinal gait changes in a binary regression model greatly increased categorization accuracy. Levodopa dosing, cognitive decline and disease severity were not significant in our model. Early detection of this differential decline may help define freezing prone groups for testing putative treatments.
Studies of Beam Intensity Effects in Fermilab Booster Synchrotron. Part II: Beam Emittance Evolution

Detrimental beam dynamics effects limit performance of high intensity rapid cycling synchrotrons (RCS) such as the 8 GeV Fermilab Booster. Here we report the results of comprehensive studies of various beam intensity dependent effects in the Booster. In the previous publication [1] we presented the dependencies of the Booster beam intensity losses on the total number of protons per pulse and on key operational parameters such as the machine tunes and chromaticities. Here we discuss two methods of the Booster beam emittance measurements (the multi-wires proportional chambers and the ionization profile monitors), analyze the intensity dependent emittance growth effects and discuss the ultimate performance of the machine now and after foreseen and proposed upgrades.
Barriers to emergency department usage during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective The objective of this study was to determine the public's likelihood of being willing to use an emergency department (ED) for urgent/emergent illness during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods An institutional review board-approved, cross-sectional survey of a non-probability sample from Amazon Mechanical Turk was administered May 24-25, 2020. Change in self-reported willingness to use an ED before and during the pandemic (primary outcome) was assessed via McNemar's test; COVID-19 knowledge and perceptions were secondary outcomes. Results There were 855 survey participants (466 [54.5%] male; 699 [81.8%] White; median age 39). Proportion reporting likelihood to use the ED pre-pandemic (71% [604/855]) decreased significantly during the pandemic (49% [417/855]; P < 0.001); those unlikely to visit the ED increased significantly during the pandemic (41% [347/855] vs 22% [417/855], P < 0.001). Participants were unlikely to use the ED during the pandemic if they were unlikely to use it pre-pandemic (adjusted odds ratio, 4.55; 95% confidence interval, 3.09-6.7) or correctly answered more COVID-19 knowledge questions (adjusted odds ratio, 1.37; 95% confidence interval, 1.17-1.60). Furthermore, 23.4% (n = 200) of respondents believed the pandemic was not a serious threat to society. Respondents with higher COVID-19 knowledge scores were more likely to view the pandemic as serious (odds ratio, 1.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.36-1.82). Conclusions This survey study investigated the public's willingness to use the ED during the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 49% of survey respondents were willing to visit the ED during a pandemic if they felt ill compared with 71% before the pandemic.
Quantitative Tissue Property Measurements with Structured Illumination and Deep Learning

We present a content-aware deep learning technique to estimate tissue optical properties and oxygenation from single structured illumination images. It is wide-field, data-efficient, and robust to various tissue types. This technique has the potential to enable rapid and accurate tissue property measurements in clinical settings.
Multiple-effect desiccant-based zero liquid discharge desalination systems

Abstract State-of-the-art zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technologies are currently bound with either intensive use of high-grade electrical energy such as mechanical vapor compressors or high capital cost with environmental concerns such as evaporation ponds. The present study aims to address these issues by an innovative desiccant-based ZLD desalination system in which a multiple-effect distillation (MED) unit is uniquely embedded at the heart of an absorption-desorption system. Here, the MED and absorption systems are inherently coupled enabling both heat and mass transfer processes between a hypersaline brine slurry and a desiccant solution. The proposed technology employs an absorption-based thermally-driven vapor compressor concept to pressurize the vaporized brine of the ZLD crystallizer unit from a low-pressure absorber to a high-pressure desorber module. The low water vapor pressure environment required for the ZLD treatment is established by the strong hygroscopic properties of an aqueous lithium bromide (LiBr) salt capturing a large volume of water vapor from the brine slurry. This eliminates the need for energy-intensive electrically-driven mechanical vapor compressors currently employed in advanced brine crystallizers. Comprehensive thermodynamic modeling is performed to evaluate the energy efficiency and size of the system at different thermohydraulic conditions. The detailed analysis indicates that the thermal energy consumption of the proposed desiccant-based ZLD desalination system is 67 kWh of thermal energy per cubic meter of the distillate produced with a gained output ratio (GOR) of 10. This is 63% and 44% reductions in the ZLD energy consumption compared with advanced mechanical vapor compression and thermal evaporation based ZLD systems, respectively. Insights gained from the present study have a high potential to truly transform thermal desalination and, in particular, ZLD treatment industries.
Partial Equilibrium Thinking in General Equilibrium

We develop a theory of "Partial Equilibrium Thinking" (PET), whereby agents fail to understand the general equilibrium consequences of their actions when inferring information from endogenous outcomes. PET generates a two-way feedback effect between outcomes and beliefs, which can lead to arbitrarily large deviations from fundamentals. In financial markets, PET equilibrium outcomes exhibit over-reaction, excess volatility, high trading volume, and return predictability. We extend our model to allow for rationality of higher-order beliefs, general forms of model misspecification, and heterogenous agents. We show that more sophisticated agents may contribute to greater departures from rationality. We also draw a distinction between models of misinference and models with biases in Bayesian updating, and study how these two departures from rationality interact. Misinference from mistakenly assuming the world is rational amplifies biases in Bayesian updating.
CS vs non-CS: Analyzing Online Social Behaviors of Data Science Students with Diverse Academic Backgrounds

Understanding the characteristics of diverse students in a data science program is a key to the success of the program. Towards this goal, we have conducted a study to understand social behaviors of data science students on online platforms, in particular, Piazza and Zoom. Our key findings are: (1) Math/statistics students were least active on Zoom chats, but frequent questioners on Piazza, which suggests that we need to engage these students more during Zoom meetings. (2) Most of endorsed answers on Piazza were contributed by CS students, which suggests a collaborative culture formed between CS and non-CS students. (3) The number of Zoom chats and activities on Piazza correlated positively with student performance, but much more strongly for non-CS students than CS-students.
Microstructure in matrix elements

We investigate the simple model of Pennington, Shenker, Stanford and Yang for modeling the density matrix of Hawking radiation, but further include dynamics for EOW branes behind the horizon. This allows interactions that scatter one interior state to another, and also allows EOW loops. At strong coupling, we find that EOW states are no longer random; the ensemble has collapsed, and coupling constants encode the microscopic matrix elements of Hawking radiation. This suggests strong interior dynamics are important for understanding evaporating black holes, without any ensemble average. In this concrete model the density matrix of the radiation deviates from the thermal state, small off-diagonal fluctuations encode equivalences between naively orthogonal states, and bound the entropy from above. For almost evaporated black holes the off-diagonal terms become as large as the diagonal ones, eventually giving a pure state. We also find the unique analytic formula for all Renyi entropies.
Progress and remaining issues: A response to the commentaries on Luck et al. (2021)

Luck et al. (2021) reviewed evidence that observers can learn to suppress attentional capture by salient distractors. Several commentaries were written in response to this review paper, many of whi...
Investigating sweep effects on the stability of leading-edge vortices over finite-aspect ratio pitch-up wings

The flow field around a finite-span flat wing in pitch motion is modeled by means of large-eddy simulation. The effect of moderate sweep angles on the stability of the leading-edge vortex (LEV) is investigated. The relative stability of LEVs on flapping profiles can be improved by moderating LEV growth through spanwise vorticity convection and vortex stretching. The LEV growth over an unswept wing and two sweep angles, namely, Λ=15°; 30°, is studied by investigating the spanwise flow. The calculated results are in good agreement with experimental data, establishing confidence in the approach. Results show that sweeping the wing profile increases not only the scale of the secondary vortices but also expedites the initiation of the vortices at lower angles of attack. For the sweep angle of Λ=30°, increasing the angle of attack is associated with annihilation of vorticity and thereby limits the vortex growth as a necessary condition for LEV stability. Analysis shows that increasing the sweep angle results in a higher circulation intensity, especially in the inner region of the wing, and significant spanwise flow is observed through the vortex core. The pattern of vorticity remains stable and attached to the surface as the angle of attack continues to grow for the swept wing, while the patterns of vorticity depart the wing surface for the unswept wing. It is suspected that sweeping the wing can control the scale of the vortex by introducing a substantial vortex stretching.
Texture Based Look-Ahead for Decision-Tree Induction

Decision tree induction corresponds to partitioning the input space through the use of internal nodes. A node attempts to classify the instances misclassified by upper level nodes using a greedy search strategy, i.e. to maximize the number of instances correctly classified at the node. However, in so doing it is possible that the distribution of the remaining (misclassified) instances is complex thereby requiring a large number of additional nodes for classification. The so-called look-ahead method was proposed to examine the classifiability of the remaining instances. Typically, this is done using a classifier parameterized identically (e.g. hyperplane) to the one used for partitioning. The number of correct classification achieved in the look-ahead stage is factored in choosing the partition established at a node. This has led to mixed results. In this paper we argue that 1-step (or a few step) look-ahead amounts to an approximate estimate of the classifiability of the remaining instances. In many cases, it is gross approximation and hence the results are mixed. We present an alternative approach to look-ahead which uses the joint probability of occurrence of the classes as a way of characterizing the classifiability of the remaining instances. We present the algorithm and some experimental results.
Achieving manufacturing quality and reliability using thru-process simulation

Manufacturing of heavy industrial components such as the front linkage, case frame and car body of construction and mining equipments involves multiple processes including thermal cutting, bending/forming and welding. Distortion, welding joint integrity and manufacturing variability pose significant challenges on today's manufacturing. In this paper, the authors presented VFT - Virtual Fabrication Technology [1], a thru-process simulation package, developed at the technical center of Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, IL, USA and Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Ohio, USA. VFT is a trademark of Battelle Memorial Institute. This work was performed under the support of the US Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards, Advanced Technology Program. Steel rolling simulation, thermal cutting simulation, bending and welding simulation capabilities in the VFT software have significantly reduced the time and cost of manufacturing process developments as well as to achieve competitive advantages through quality improvement and differentiated products. Besides the Caterpillar applications, VFT software has also found applications in shipbuilding, nuclear piping, and automotive industry.
Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

Electric vehicles have received new attention recently because the California Air Resources Board (CARB) developed a plan that would require 10% of all vehicles sold in California by the year 2003 to be zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) and other states are considering similar mandates. The only type of vehicle currently available that can meet the ZEV regulation is an electric vehicle (EV) powered by a bank of batteries. These batteries are limited, at present, to lead-acid or nickel-metal hydride batteries. The basic EV consists of a bank of batteries that supply power, via a controller, to an electric motor that drives the wheels. This chapter discusses the case of the EV to highlight some of the difficulties that are faced in introducing sustainable technologies. The clearest view of the status of the EV and its technological trajectory arises when a combined software-hardware view is adopted. In the case of the EV, repeated comparison with the ICE has certainly slowed the pace of technology development. Hybrids are always ready to go because the gas engine assists with the recharging duties. This is called a parallel drive system since the wheels can be powered by both the electric motor and the IC engine when both are needed.
Heat sensitivity, thermotolerance, and profile of heat shock protein synthesis of human myelogenous leukemias.

In anticipation of using single or fractionated hyperthermia treatment in ex vivo purging of leukemic bone marrow in the clinic, we have compared the hyperthermic sensitivity, kinetics of thermotolerance, and heat-shock protein synthesis in three human myelogenous leukemic cell lines. In terms of heat sensitivity, the chronic myelogenous leukemic cell line K562 was found to be the most resistant. The D os of the 43, 44, and 45°C heat survival curves were 22, 13, and 6 min, respectively. HL-60 and KG-1, both acute myelogenous leukemic lines, however, were found to be several fold more sensitive to the cytotoxic effects of heat. The D os of the 43, 44, and 45°C heat survival curves for HL-60 were 7.6, 5.6, and 2 min and for KG-1 were 5.7, 4.5, and 1.7 min, respectively. All cell lines developed thermotolerance. However, K562 developed more tolerance which lasted for longer times. For K562 cells at priming heat doses of 45°C/10 min, 42°C/2 h, or 41°C/2 h thermotolerance was maximum at 4 to 6 h and began to decay at 24 h. HL-60 and KG-1 cells showed some thermotolerance at the priming doses of 45°C/5 min or 42°C/30 min and had fully decayed by 24 h. K562 cells synthesized Mr 70,000 heat shock protein for over 24 h following the 45°C/10 min heat shock, while HL-60 and KG-1 synthesized Mr 70,000 heat shock protein for 2–4 h for the same amount of cell kill. These studies suggest that most human leukemias may be extremely sensitive to the cytotoxic effects of heat, and in vitro purging of leukemias from bone marrow specimens by heat needs to be further studied both by in vitro and in vivo model systems.
Inhaled Formoterol Diminishes Insulin-Induced Hypoglycemia in Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE Hypoglycemia is one of the major factors limiting implementation of tight glycemic control in patients with type 1 diabetes and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality during intensive insulin treatment. β-2 Adrenergic receptor (AR) agonists have been reported to diminish nocturnal hypoglycemia; however, whether long-acting inhaled β-2 AR agonists could potentially be used to treat or prevent hypoglycemia has not been established. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Seven patients with type 1 diabetes and seven healthy control subjects received inhaled formoterol (48 μg), a highly-specific β-2 AR agonist, or a placebo during a hyperinsulinemic-hypoglycemic clamp study to evaluate its capacity to antagonize the effect of insulin. In a second set of studies, five subjects with type 1 diabetes received inhaled formoterol to assess its effect as a preventive therapy for insulin-induced hypoglycemia. RESULTS During a hyperinsulinemic-hypoglycemic clamp, compared with placebo, inhaled formoterol decreased the glucose infusion rate required to maintain plasma glucose at a target levels by 45–50% ( P P = NS). Furthermore, in volunteers with type 1 diabetes 1 h after increasing basal insulin delivery twofold, glucose levels dropped to 58 ± 5 mg/dL, whereas hypoglycemia was prevented by inhaled formoterol ( P CONCLUSIONS Inhalation of the β-2 AR–specific agonist formoterol may be useful in the prevention or treatment of acute hypoglycemia and thus may help patients with type 1 diabetes achieve optimal glucose control more safely.
Medical diagnoses and problems in individuals with recurrent idiopathic headaches.

SYNOPSIS Two hundred cases with recurrent idiopathic headache and 200 age- and sex-matched controls without headaches were compared for the occurrence of medical problems and diagnoses according to their primary physicians. Hypertension, vertigo and dizziness, peptic ulcer, gastroesophageal reflux and depression and/or anxiety were among diagnoses seen more frequently in the headache cases, while nephrolithiasis, excessive ethanol use and abdominal pain in women were more common in the controls. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the diagnosis of cardiac disease, including mitral valve prolapse and ischemic heart disease, and occlusive cerebrovascular disease. Possible underlying mechanisms are discussed. These findings need confirmation and further investigation.
Consumer acceptance of roasted peanuts affected by storage temperature and humidity conditions

Abstract Consumer acceptance and intensity ratings of roasted peanuts stored at temperatures of 23, 30, 35, and 40 °C, and water activities (aw) of 0.33, 0.44, 0.54, 0.67 and 0.75 were determined over time. Consumer acceptance ratings, including overall, appearance, color, and texture were affected by storage water activity and time, but not by storage temperature. Consumer intensity ratings of crunchiness were affected by storage water activity and time, but not storage temperature. Aroma acceptance, flavor acceptance, and roasted peanutty and stale/oxidized/rancid intensity ratings of roasted peanuts were dependent on storage temperature, water activity and time. Shelf-life of roasted peanuts was predicted by all consumer attributes ( R 2 > 0.60 ) and was best predicted by aroma acceptance ( R 2 = 0.75 ). Using contour plots with ratings >5.0 for all acceptance attributes, the shelf-life of roasted peanuts stored at 23 °C and between 0.33 and 0.75 aw was limited by overall acceptance and decreased by approximately 50% with each 0.1 aw increase. At accelerated temperatures of 30, 35 and 40 °C, shelf-life of roasted peanuts was predominantly limited by flavor acceptance (>5.0), and to a lesser extent by overall acceptance (>5.0). Shelf-life of roasted peanuts stored at accelerated temperatures decreased by 50% or more with each 0.1 aw increase.
Wide-range (25 ns) and high-resolution (48.8 ps) clock phase shifter

A wide-range (25 ns), high-resolution (48.8 ps) clock phase shifter developed and fabricated using a 0.13 µm CMOS technology is presented. To achieve both wide range and high resolution with good linearity while minimising area and power consumption, a coarse–fine two-step phase-shifting structure is proposed. A delay-locked loop with an unconventional clock input setup is used in the fine-shifting stage to ahieve the high resolution. Test results show that the standard deviations of the differential nonlinearity and integral nonlinearity are 4.7 ps and 4.3 ps, respectively.
Beta-blockers and their effects on protein metabolism and resting energy expenditure

In summary, beta-adrenergic receptor blocking medications have numerous metabolic side effects. Recent evidence indicates that this class of drug acutely decreases whole-body metabolic rate and increases protein oxidation in the resting human. The result of this metabolic perturbation may be a deleterious change in body composition and perhaps a creeping increase in body weight, if no subsequent alterations are made in food consumption or activity patterns. Research indicates that long-term treatment with beta-blockade may increase body fat and decrease the fat-free tissue content of the organism. Exercise is known to favorably affect body composition by decreasing percent body fat, while increasing the fat-free body tissue. Beginning a regular, moderate exercise program may help ameliorate these deleterious nutritional side effects of long-term beta-blocker therapy. Additionally, the recommendation to engage in a moderate exercise program is further indicated because of the underlying cardiovascular pathophysiology that originally required long-term beta-adrenergic treatment.
"Wet" or "dry" county status and its correlates with suicide, homicide, and illegitimacy.

Between 1978 and 1988 Alabama's “wet” counties had higher mean homicide and illegitimacy rates but lower suicide rates than did that state's “dry” counties.
Understanding Evaluation in Nonprofit Organizations

This study uses organizational theory to explore why nonprofit organizations conduct evaluations and how they use evaluation information. According to rational choice theory, managers of nonprofit organizations will conduct evaluations to make sure they are making good decisions about how to improve their services and achieve their goals. Yet, according to data gathered about the experiences of 31 nonprofit organizations, this assumption about the evaluation practices of nonprofits rarely holds true. Rather, other organizational theories, such as agency theory, institutional theory, resource dependence theory, and stewardship theory, which make different assumptions about how organizations operate and how managers behave, provide a more accurate description of why nonprofits engage in evaluation and how they use evaluation information. The findings from this study are important because they help to identify strategies that would encourage nonprofit organizations to use evaluation in more productive and me...
Psychopathology in the schools: Multicultural factors that impact assessment and intervention

All cultures promote specific norms of behavior that can influence the assessment and intervention process with members of racially/ethnically diverse groups who are diagnosed with various forms of psychopathology. The purpose of this article is to highlight literature on the prevalence of psychological disorders with respect to children and adolescents from different racial/ethnic groups and present variables that may impact assessment and intervention within these diverse populations (e.g., contextual factors, racial and ethnic identity, religious/spiritual beliefs, parenting factors, student attitudes). In addition, cultural issues related to the assessment process and culturally sensitive recommendations for intervention are addressed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 429–438, 2006.
Anti-HIV-1 Activity of Poly(mandelic acid) Derivatives

Homo- and heterochiral poly(mandelic acid)s (PMDAs) were synthesized under strongly acidic, mildly acidic, and nonacidic conditions. The water-soluble fractions of these polymers were evaluated with respect to their inhibitory activity against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1). Polymers were prepared via a step-growth mechanism, yielding linear polyesters. The polymers were characterized by CHS elemental microanalysis, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and FT-IR spectroscopy. Polymers prepared by the three methods have different structures. Both elemental microanalysis and XRF indicated the presence of S in those polymers prepared by treatment with concentrated H2SO4, which were the only ones exhibiting inhibitory and virucidal activity against HIV-1, mediated by their binding to cellular co-receptor binding sites on the virus envelope glycoprotein gp120. Additionally, FT-IR spectroscopy indicated the complete absence of C=O functionality in the H2SO4-prepared PMDA.
Chapman Conference on GPS Measurements for Geodynamics

Within the past 5 years, relative-position measurements performed using space geodetic techniques, particularly satellite laser ranging (SLR) and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), have provided a new tool for the study of geodynamics. With accuracies of 1 part in 108 and better, these measurements have been used to determine, among other things, present-day plate motions and deformation in western North America. However, the size and cost of SLR and VLBI systems have prohibited the establishment of extensive networks required to study many of the important problems in crustal dynamics. A technique much more suited for this purpose is radio-interferometric tracking of the satellites of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Though slowed initially by the high cost of instruments and limited satellite visibility in some parts of the world, the use of GPS measurements for geodynamics has rapidly expanded. In the 1990s we will likely see repeated measurements in most active regions of the world and the establishment of permanent, continuously monitored networks in several areas. There will also be increasing interest in the use of GPS as a component of satellite altimeter missions and as a monitor of global change in sea level.
Uses and limitations of stress testing in the evaluation of ischemic heart disease

The results of stress testing in patients being assessed for coronary artery disease have led to conflicting claims and conclusions. It seems reasonably clear that stress testing is of considerable predictive value in epidemiologic studies; i.e., patients manifesting or developing a positive exercise test have a much higher probability of subsequently experiencing coronary events (angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, or coronary death) than those individuals with normal stress tests. Moreover, the risk seems to be related to the degree of S-T segment depression. In contrast, despite earlier claims regarding the diagnostic accuracy with which single-load stress tests could predict the presence or absence of ischemic heart disease in individual patients, studies correlating the results of testing with the degree and extent of angiographically demonstrated coronary artery disease have not consistently shown either acceptable sensitivity or specificity. Although on theoretic grounds it would be anticipated...
Requirement of Rac1 distinguishes follicular from interfollicular epithelial stem cells

Epithelial stem cells in the bulge region within the hair follicle maintain the cyclic hair growth, but whether these stem cells also contribute to the epidermal renewal remains unclear. Here, we observed that the conditional deletion of the Rac1 gene in the mouse skin, including the potential follicular and epidermal stem cell compartments, results in alopecia owing to defective hair development. Surprisingly, mice lacking the expression of this Rho GTPase do not display major alterations in the interfollicular skin. Furthermore, Rac1 excision from primary epithelial keratinocytes results in the inability to reconstitute hair follicles and sebaceous glands when grafted onto mice, but epithelial cells lacking Rac1 can nonetheless form a healthy epidermis. Together, these findings support the emerging view that the epidermis and the hair follicles are maintained by different epithelial stem cells, and provide evidence that the requirement for Rac1 function can distinguish these distinct stem cells populations.
Cardiovascular implications of estrogen replacement therapy

Estrogen appears to protect against the development of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in women, by a number of mechanisms. The protective effect is believed to be mediated principally by beneficial changes in cholesterol levels. Estrogen decreases low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels by mechanisms that include the possible induction of LDL receptors and the destruction of hepatic lipase, which degrades HDL cholesterol. However, estrogen also appears to have a direct beneficial effect on vessel-wall physiology. One of these effects may be an increase in local prostacyclin production. The type of estrogen used in hormone replacement therapy and the route of administration determine the positive and negative effects of estrogen on the cardiovascular system. In general, synthetic estrogens, because they are manyfold more potent than natural estrogens, should not be used. Most studies show a 50% or greater reduction in cardiovascular disease and related mortality with postmenopausal estrogen administration. There is no evidence that postmenopausal estrogen replacement adversely affects carbohydrate metabolism, blood pressure, or coagulation. By use of a mathematical model to study the overall effects of estrogen therapy, it can be shown that more lives can be saved from the reduction in cardiovascular disease with estrogen use than from the reduction in death from osteoporosis or any other disease state affected by estrogen. Serious consideration has to be given to the cardiovascular effects of added progestogen, which may attenuate or eliminate the beneficial effects of estrogen on HDL2 cholesterol.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Transfer Rates and Use of Post–Acute Care After Surgery At Critical Access vs Non–Critical Access Hospitals

Importance There is growing interest in the use of health care resources by critical access hospitals (CAHs), key providers of medical care for many rural populations. Objective To evaluate discharge practice patterns and use of post–acute care after surgical admissions at CAHs. Design, Setting, and Participants We used data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2005-2009) and American Hospital Association to perform a retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing common inpatient surgical procedures at CAHs or non-CAHs. Exposures The CAH status of the admitting hospital. Main Outcomes and Measures Hospital transfer, discharge with post–acute care, or routine discharge. Results Among the 1283 CAHs and 3612 non-CAHs included in the American Hospital Association annual survey, 34.8% and 36.4%, respectively, reported data to the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. For each of 6 common inpatient surgical procedures, a greater proportion of patients from CAHs were transferred to another hospital ( P P P = .76). After adjustment for patient and hospital factors, the higher likelihood of transfer by CAHs vs non-CAHs persisted for 3 procedures: hip replacement (odds ratio, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.01-3.57), colorectal cancer resection (3.37; 2.23-5.09), and cholecystectomy (1.67; 1.27-2.19) ( P Conclusions and Relevance Hospital transfers occur more often after surgical admissions at CAHs. However, the proportion of patients at CAHs using post–acute care is equal to or lower than that of patients treated in non-CAHs. These results will affect the ongoing debate concerning CAH payment policy and its implications for health care delivery in rural communities.
Role of transurethral resection in dissemination of cancer of prostate

Abstract Recent studies have suggested an adverse impact on disease progression and survival in patients with prostatic cancer who undergo transurethral resection (TURP). Four hundred fifteen patients with prostatic carcinoma were reported to a Tumor Registry from 1965 to 1971. Of these, 184 charts had sufficient follow-up data to assess the impact of TURP in each stage of prostatic cancer. In Stage A the five-year survival difference between the TURP group (87.5 %) and the open prostatectomy group (88 %) was not significant (P = 0.54). In Stage B the five-year survival difference between the TURP group (38.7 %) and the needle biopsy group (68 %) was significant (P = 0.02). In Stages C and D there was no significant difference in survival between the TURP group and the needle biopsy group (P = 0.44 and P = 0.2, respectively). Our data reinforce the importance of diagnosing Stage B prostatic cancer preoperatively when curative treatment modalities may be utilized and TURP avoided. Finally, in advanced stages TURP may be efficacious in relieving prostatic obstruction while not adversely influencing survival.