cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Long-term Follow-up of Pseudoexfoliation and the Development of Elevated Intraocular Pressure

A retrospective study was performed to determine the long-term course of pseudoexfoliation (PEX) as it relates to both the development of elevated intraocular pressure and to the initial appearance of exfoliation material in normal fellow eyes of patients with PEX. Six hundred eighty patients seen from 1940 through 1980 were diagnosed as having PEX. Patients were excluded from long-term study if there was a diagnosis of glaucoma prior to examination at our institution (199 patients), if glaucoma was present at the time of diagnosis of PEX (40 patients), if there was a history of prior intraocular surgery or disease (19 patients), or if there was only one ocular examination performed (75 patients). The remaining 347 patients with initially normal intraocular pressures were followed over time and consisted of 225 patients with unilateral PEX and 122 patients with bilateral PEX (a total of 469 PEX eyes). Life table (actuarial) analysis was used for data evaluation. During the course of the study, 32 (14%) of the unilateral cases of PEX became bilateral. The cumulative probability of a normal fellow eye developing PEX increased over time, with a 6.8% cumulative probability in 5 years and a 16.8% cumulative probability in 10 years. Elevated intraocular pressure developed in 35 patients (44 eyes) during the study. The cumulative probability for eyes with PEX to develop elevated intraocular pressure was 5.3% in 5 years and increased to 15.4% in 10 years. These probabilities predict that patients with PEX have a higher incidence of developing elevated intraocular pressure than would be expected in patients without PEX of similar age.
Fokker-Planck analysis of separation dependent potentials and diffusion coefficients in simulated microscopy experiments

Total internal reflection microscopy (TIRM) and video microscopy (VM) are methods for nonintrusively measuring weak colloidal interactions important to many existing and emerging applications. Existing analyses of TIRM measured single particle trajectories can be used to extract particle-surface potentials and average particle diffusion coefficients. Here we develop a Fokker–Planck (FP) formalism to simultaneously extract both particle-surface interaction potentials and position dependent diffusion coefficients. The FP analysis offers several advantages including capabilities to measure separation dependent hydrodynamic interactions and nonequilibrium states that are not possible with existing analyses. The FP analysis is implemented to analyze Brownian dynamic simulations of single particle TIRM and VM experiments in several configurations. Relative effects of spatial and temporal sampling on the correct interpretation of both conservative and dissipative forces are explored and show a broad range of applicability for accessible experimental systems. Our results demonstrate the ability to extract both static and dynamic information from microscopy measurements of isolated particles near surfaces, which provides a foundation for further investigation of particle ensembles and nonequilibrium systems.
Privacy-aware communication protocol for hybrid IEEE 802.11s/LTE Smart Grid architectures

Smart Grid (SG) is expected to use a variety of communications technologies as the underlying communications infrastructures. The interworking between heterogeneous communications network is crucial to support reliability and end-to-end features. In this paper, we consider a hybrid SG communications architecture that consists of a IEEE 802.11s mesh-based smart meter network and an LTE-based wide area network for collecting smart meter data. While a gateway can be used to bridge these networks, it will still not possible to pin point a smart meter directly from the utility control center nor running a TCP-based application that requires a connection establishment phase. We propose a gateway address translation based approach to enable execution of end-to-end protocols without making any changes to LTE and 802.11s mesh networks. Specifically, we introduce a new layer at the gateway which will perform the network address translation by using unique pseudonyms for the smart meters. In this way, we also ensure privacy of the consumer since the IP addresses of the smart meters are not exposed to utility company. We implemented the proposed mechanism under ns-3 network simulator which have libraries to support both IEEE 802.11s and LTE communications. The results indicate that we can achieve our goals without introducing any additional overhead.
The choice of part-time employment in the United States and Canada, 1955–2000

AbstractPart-time employment growth in the United States and Canada followed similar trends between 1955 and 1975, which then diverged when part-time employment (as a percent of total employment) stopped growing in the United States but continued to expand in Canada. This divergence in trend in the latter part of the twentieth century is not adequately explained by labor supply demographics, labor demand factors, or union effects. To the contrary, differences in public policy played a pivotal role in allowing Canadian workers to continue to view the choice of shorter hours as attractive, while US workers faced higher costs when choosing part-time employment.
Proximal Interphalangeal Joint Arthroplasty: A Critical Analysis Review

Small joint arthroplasty in the hand is undertaken with the goal of pain amelioration and optimization of the available active arc of motion in patients with noninflammatory, inflammatory, or traumatic arthritides. With this goal in mind, numerous methods of joint reconstruction utilizing constrained, semi-constrained, and nonconstrained implants have been reported. In those instances in which the arthroplasty constraint is minimal, competent collateral ligaments are required to ensure a stable and functional joint. However, with any implant-based procedure, arthroplasty materials are prone to wear, fatigue, and eventual failure. Particulate matter, ranging in size from angstroms to millimeters, incites subsequent systemic and local responses. Additionally, chronic osteopenia from inflammatory arthritis or disuse can create very thin and fragile phalangeal cortical bone, resulting in potential implant malposition, cortical breach, or fracture. In comparison with large joint arthroplasties, the small joints of the fingers are subjected to repetitive varus and valgus stresses in addition to sagittal flexion and extension loads. Proximal interphalangeal joint arthroplasty is a demanding procedure. It poses challenges from the …
Disruption of SLX4-MUS81 Function Increases the Relative Biological Effectiveness of Proton Radiation

Purpose Clinical proton beam therapy has been based on the use of a generic relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of ∼1.1. However, emerging data have suggested that Fanconi anemia (FA) and homologous recombination pathway defects can lead to a variable RBE, at least in vitro. We investigated the role of SLX4 (FANCP), which acts as a docking platform for the assembly of multiple structure-specific endonucleases, in the response to proton irradiation. Methods and Materials Isogenic cell pairs for the study of SLX4, XPF/ERCC1, MUS81, and SLX1 were irradiated at the mid-spread-out Bragg peak of a clinical proton beam (linear energy transfer 2.5 keV/μm) or with 250 kVp x-rays, and the clonogenic survival fractions were determined. To estimate the RBE of the protons relative to cobalt-60 photons (Co60Eq), we assigned a RBE(Co60Eq) of 1.1 to x-rays to correct the physical dose measured. Standard DNA repair foci assays were used to monitor the damage responses, and the cell cycle distributions were assessed by flow cytometry. The poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor olaparib was used for comparison. Results Loss of SLX4 function resulted in an enhanced proton RBE(Co60Eq) of 1.42 compared with 1.11 for wild-type cells (at a survival fraction of 0.1; P 2 phase. Genetic analysis identified the SLX4-binding partner MUS81 as a mediator of resistance to proton radiation. Both proton irradiation and olaparib treatment resulted in a similar prolonged accumulation of RAD51 foci in SLX4/MUS81-deficient cells, suggesting a common defect in the repair of DNA replication fork-associated damage. Conclusions A defect in the FA pathway at the level of SLX4 results in hypersensitivity to proton radiation, which is, at least in part, due to impaired MUS81-mediated processing of replication forks that stall at clustered DNA damage. In vivo and clinical studies are needed to confirm these findings in human cancers.
Integrating computational auditory scene analysis and automatic speech recognition

We present a schema-based model for phonemic restoration. The model employs missing-data ASR to decode speech based on unmasked portions and activates word templates that contain the masked phoneme via dynamic time warping. An activated template is then used to restore the masked phoneme. A systematic evaluation shows that the model is able to restore both voiced and unvoiced phonemes with a spectral quality close to that of original phonemes. Missing-data ASR relies on a binary mask generated by bottom-up CASA to label the speech-dominant time-frequency (T-F) regions of a noisy mixture as reliable and the rest as unreliable. However, errors in mask estimation cause degradation in recognition accuracy. Hence, we propose a two-pass ASR system that performs segregation and recognition in tandem. In the first pass, an n-best lattice, consistent with bottom-up speech separation, is generated. The lattice is then re-scored using a model-based hypothesis test to improve mask estimation and recognition accuracy concurrently. This two-pass system leads to significant improvement in recognition performance. By combining a monaural CASA system with missing-data ASR, we present a model that simulates listeners' ability to attend to a target speaker when degraded by the effects of energetic and informational masking in multitalker environments. Energetic masking refers to the phenomenon that a stronger signal masks a weaker one within a critical band. Informational masking occurs when the listener is unable to segregate target from interference. Missing-data ASR is used to account for energetic masking. The effects of informational masking are modeled by the output degradation of the CASA system in binary mask estimation. The model successfully simulates several quantitative aspects of listener performance including the differential effects of energetic and informational masking on multitalker perception. While missing-data ASR performs well on small vocabulary tasks, previous studies have not examined the effect of vocabulary size. In this dissertation, we investigate the performance of the missing-data ASR on a larger vocabulary task and compare its results to those of conventional ASR. For conventional ASR, we extract the speech signal from a noisy mixture by estimating a Wiener filter based on estimated interaural time and intensity differences within a T-F unit. For missing-data ASR, the same estimation is used to produce a binary T-F mask. We find that while missing-data recognition outperforms conventional ASR on a small vocabulary task, the performance of conventional ASR is significantly better when the vocabulary size is increased. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Terrain-Blind Humanoid Walking Based on a 3-D Actuated Dual-SLIP Model

While a number of controllers exist for dynamic humanoid walking over known uneven terrain, the ability to negotiate moderate changes in ground height without environment perception is still lacking. Such capability would mitigate problems caused by inaccurate sensing and reduce online terrain-dependent computational requirements. This letter proposes a 1-step terrain adaptation strategy for humanoid walking based on the 3-D actuated Dual-SLIP model. A flexible gait to negotiate unknown terrain is synthesized from a series of consistent gait adaptations acquired from off -line optimization with this simple model. Being open-loop prior to touchdown, the strategy requires no perception of the terrain. Also, the resultant terrain-robust swing foot trajectory exhibits human-like characteristics such as leg retraction and extension near the end of the swing phase. Through a task-space control framework, the model-derived gait is embedded into the high-DoF ATLAS humanoid model. In the final result, a “blindfolded” ATLAS model reliably walks over randomly generated uneven terrain (with per-step height changes of up to 5% of the leg length) at a constant midstance speed.
Launching Your Product in Belgium

Belgium is often talked about in marketing circles as the "test-market of the Six," useful as a bridgehead into the Common Market. The purpose of this article is to counsel prudence. The lesson Belgium holds for European marketing lies in the likelihood of bringing to light sectors that require more care and more emphasis than in the United States, or that may not even exist in the United States. THE successful Belgian Economic Mission to the United States demonstrates the tremendous American interest in Belgium as a manufacturing bridgehead into the Common Market. Its advantages over the other five countries for manufacturing operations destine Belgium, in many cases, to be the first market attacked by these newly-installed plants. For them, Belgium will be the "test market." This may be the major reason why Belgium is now talked about in marketing circles as the "test-market of The Six." There are, of course, other reasons. Belgium is among the countries possessing advanced industrialization, and with it, a standard of living outpacing France, the Netherlands, West Germany, and Italyin fact the highest per capita income in Europe. Its population density is the second highest in the world, making distribution a seemingly easy matter. Belgium's educational system is one of the most advanced in Europe, providing a public accessible to mass-communications techniques. Thus, it is quite logical that international firms, whether manufacturing in Belgium or not, should look at Belgium as an attractive market. These companies tend, as a matter of fact, to get involved in a semantic error: because they choose Belgium as their first market, they may want to consider it as a test of future marketing efforts in other Common Market countries. The purpose of this article is to counsel prudence. Belgium, with all its features as an excellent market for consumer products, is not necessarily a test market for The Six. The accent in the foregoing sentence should be placed on the word "necessarily."
Use of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Immunoglobulin G Antibody Avidity as a Biomarker to Estimate the Population-Level Incidence of HCV Infection.

Background. Sensitive methods are needed to estimate the population-level incidence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Methods. We developed an HCV immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody avidity assay by modifying the Ortho 3.0 HCV enzyme-linked immunoassay and tested 997 serum or plasma samples from 568 people who inject drugs enrolled in prospective cohort studies. Avidity-based testing algorithms were evaluated by their (1) mean duration of recent infection (MDRI), defined as the average time an individual is identified as having been recently infected, according to a given algorithm; (2) false-recent rate, defined as the proportion of samples collected >2 years after HCV seroconversion that were misclassified as recent; (3) sample sizes needed to estimate incidence; and (4) power to detect a reduction in incidence between serial cross-sectional surveys. Results. A multiassay algorithm (defined as an avidity index of 80% power to detect a 50% reduction in incidence. Conclusions. Avidity-based algorithms have the capacity to accurately estimate HCV infection incidence and rapidly assess the impact of public health efforts among high-risk populations. Efforts to optimize this method should be prioritized.
ECG ABNORMALITIES COMPARED TO EXTENT OF MYOCARDIAL FIBROSIS IN BOYS WITH DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an x-linked neuromuscular disorder characterized by progressive cardiomyopathy including frequent and characteristic electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities. Late gadolinium enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance (LGE-CMR) can identify myocardial damage in a
Ontology-based methods for disease similarity estimation and drug repositioning

Human genome sequencing and new biological data generation techniques have provided an opportunity to uncover mechanisms in human disease. Using gene-disease data, recent research has increasingly shown that many seemingly dissimilar diseases have similar/common molecular mechanisms. Understanding similarity between diseases aids in early disease diagnosis and development of new drugs. The growing collection of gene-function and gene-disease data has instituted a need for formal knowledge representation in order to extract information. Ontologies have been successfully applied to represent such knowledge, and data mining techniques have been applied on them to extract information. Informatics methods can be used with ontologies to find similarity between diseases which can yield insight into how they are caused. This can lead to therapies which can actually cure diseases rather than merely treating symptoms. Estimating disease similarity solely on the basis of shared genes can be misleading as variable combinations of genes may be associated with similar diseases, especially for complex diseases. This deficiency can be potentially overcome by looking for common or similar biological processes rather than only explicit gene matches between diseases. The use of semantic similarity between biological processes to estimate disease similarity could enhance the identification and characterization of disease similarity besides identifying novel biological processes involved in the diseases. Also, if diseases have similar molecular mechanisms, then drugs that are currently being used could potentially be used against diseases beyond their original indication. This can greatly benefit patients with diseases that do not have adequate therapies especially people with rare diseases. This can also drastically reduce healthcare costs as development of new drugs is far more expensive than re-using existing ones. In this research we present functions to measure similarity between terms in an ontology, and between entities annotated with terms drawn from the ontology, based on both co-occurrence and information content. The new similarity measure is shown to outperform existing methods using biological pathways. The similarity measure is then used to estimate similarity among diseases using the biological processes involved in them and is evaluated using a manually curated and external datasets with known disease similarities. Further, we use ontologies to encode diseases, drugs and biological processes and demonstrate a method that uses a network-based algorithm to combine biological data about diseases with drug information to find new uses for existing drugs. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated by comparing the predicted new disease-drug pairs with existing drug-related clinical trials.
Resolving Multimegabase DNA Molecules Using Contour-Clamped Homogeneous Electric Fields (CHEF)

Contour-clamped homogeneous electric field (CHEF) gelelectrophoresis is a particular formulation of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), which uses an array of electrodes positioned around the gel (on a contour) and clamped to specific voltages to produce a nearly homogeneous electric field inside the contour (1). The direction of the electric field is changed periodically, as with all pulsed-field techniques. In the case of CHEF, field reorientation is achieved electronically by changing the voltages (potentials) of the various electrodes in the array (see Fig. 1). Commercial CHEF devices currently employ a hexagonal electrode array, but other types of contours, such as circles or squares, if properly clamped, can also produce alternating homogeneous electric fields.
Case Study 22. The Cutting Edge of Science: Kissing Cousins Revealed Through Ancient DNA

In Michael Crichton’s science fiction novel Jurassic Park, scientists recover the blood of dinosaurs and use their DNA to bring Tyrannosaurus rex back to life. Bringing dinosaurs to life is still science fiction, though a number of laboratories are working on mammoths and some other recently extinct mammals for which soft tissues are available. However, it is now possible to recover and sequence DNA from fossils that have been preserved under the proper conditions. As genome sequencing becomes faster and cheaper, we are able to ask questions of the fossils that previously were only encountered in fiction. There is every reason to believe that these studies are in their infancy, but they are already helping us to reimagine the prehistoric landscape.
Beating the Odds: Prematurity and Posthemorrhagic Hydrocephalus

Lucy was a miracle child. She overcame extreme odds and significant medical complications to become a spunky, chatty, child beauty pageant contestant. When she was referred for an evaluation at age 5 years by a neurosurgeon, she was doing well academically in a regular-education kindergarten classroom. However, both her parents and teachers acknowledged that she talked “too much” and had “selective hearing” problems. Directions at home and at school often needed to be repeated several times before Lucy would comply. Lucy appeared easily distracted, especially by her own thoughts or stories, which she enjoyed creating and telling to others. Lucy was also a social butterfly who was indiscriminant in her socialization and would approach anyone, even strangers, to begin a conversation. She was described as a very physically active but clumsy young girl who didn't enjoy down time. Overall, though, Lucy was simply a happy and delightful little girl who was immediately liked by all who met her.
A class of adaptive matched digital filters

An adaptive digital matched filter structure is developed for the case where the input signal is of known form and finite duration and the input noise has a power spectral density which is all-pole. The effect of noise spectrum identification errors on system performance is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that, when the noise is highly correlated, the adapting structure leads to significant improvement in the output signal-to-noise ratio (and hence in the detection characteristics) with relatively short measurement times. This suggests the use of switching logic to allow noise adaptation only when measurements indicate a highly correlated noise background.
Failure to Rescue after Infectious Complications in a Statewide Trauma System.

Abstract Background: The failure to rescue (FTR) rate, the rate of death after a complication, measures a center's ability to identify and manage complications by “rescuing” vulnerable patients. In...
Migration by Boat: Discourses of Trauma, Exclusion and Survival, edited by Lynda Mannik

Book Review: Migration by Boat: Discourses of Trauma, Exclusion and Survival Edited by Lynda Mannik New York: Berghahn Books, 2016, 290 pp.
Short communication: Glucose kinetics in dairy heifers limit-fed a low- or high-forage ration at 4 levels of nitrogen intake

The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of level of forage and N intake on glucose kinetics in growing dairy heifers. Eight Holstein heifers (beginning at 362 ± 7 kg of body weight and 12.3 ± 0.4 mo of age) were fed 8 rations according to a split-plot, 4 × 4 Latin square design with rations containing either high (75% forage dry matter) or low (25% forage dry matter) levels of forage and 4 levels of N intake (0.94, 1.62, 2.30, 2.96 g of N/kg of metabolic body weight per day). Diets were limit-fed to maintain equal predicted metabolizable energy intake over the four 28-d periods; dietary N was increased through the substitution of high-N ingredients for corn. Blood samples were collected from all heifers at times throughout d 18 to 19 to characterize glucose concentration over the course of a day, and glucose tolerance tests were conducted over the last 8 d of each period (1 heifer/d) at 4 h before feeding. Glucose concentration transiently declined after feeding for all dietary groups, but we found no evidence of a differential response over time that could be attributed to diet. When averaged over a day, glucose concentration was affected by an interaction between level of forage and N intake; however, this response appeared related more to the level of starch in the diet than to the effects of either forage or N intake per se. Early-phase kinetic response of glucose disposal after an intravenous glucose bolus was not affected by dietary treatment, which is consistent with no difference in area under the curve through 30 min. Area under the curve through 120 min tended to linearly decrease with decreasing dietary N intake. This response corresponded to the kinetic analysis, in which heifers consuming higher N intake had an attenuated return to baseline glucose levels. Additionally, heifers consuming lower N intake maintained a period of glucose concentration below baseline before returning to baseline. We concluded that the response to an intravenous glucose bolus differs in dairy heifers fed diets differing in N intake, whereas forage level did not affect this response. This should be considered when formulating rations for low N intake by replacing high-N for high-starch feedstuffs when limit-feeding dairy heifers.
Attainment of a stable, fully detached plasma state in innovative divertor configurations

A computational study of long-legged tokamak divertor configurations is performed with the edge transport code UEDGE. Several divertor configurations are considered, with radially or vertically extended, tightly baffled, outer divertor legs and with or without a secondary X-point in the divertor leg volume. For otherwise identical conditions, a scan of the input power from the core plasma is performed. As the power is reduced to a threshold value, the plasma in the outer leg transitions to a fully detached state, which defines the upper limit on the power for detached divertor operation. Reducing the power further results in the detachment front shifting upstream but remains stable. At low power, the detachment front eventually moves all the way to the primary X-point, which is usually associated with degradation of the core plasma, and this defines the lower limit on the power for the detached divertor operation. For the studied parameters, for long-legged divertors, the detached operation window is quit...
The State of the City and the Future of Human Rights: A Review of Global Urban Justice

As of 2014, fifty-four percent of the world’s population lived in cities; by 2050, this proportion is expected to rise to sixty-six percent. As a result, cities face tremendous and unique challenges in creating communities in which diverse populations can thrive. Corresponding with their renewed significance, cities have also begun to reimagine their individual and collective power on the national, regional, and international stage. As cities have become more visible, advocates have begun to focus on local governments as sites of rights protection, invoking universal international human rights norms as a source of authority for local policy and using human rights language as a tool for social mobilization. This localization of human rights is still a relatively new phenomenon. Now, however, as we approach the twentieth anniversary of the first human rights city, the time is ripe to take stock of the progress and potential. This volume of essays, edited by Barbara Oomen, Martha F. Davis, and Michele Grigolo, brings together an international and inter-disciplinary collection of authors to assess the state of human rights vis-a-vis the city. Through a mix of case studies and thematic essays on the localization of human rights on several continents, this volume provides a window into how human rights are playing out on the ground in local communities. This review draws on these case studies to consider whether cities are effective sites to enhance the relevance of human rights and, in particular, to examine whether efforts to name, claim, and implement rights at the city level can enhance accountability, make human rights relevant and real, and fill the gap left as the power of nation-states wanes.
Administration and Determination of Rewards: An Experimental Investigation

Fifty-seven subjects participated in an experiment designed to examine the independent treatment effects of self- versus externally determined and self- versus externally administered sources of reinforcement. Subjects performed an experimental task involving the memorization of word lists for which they received token rewards exchangeable for monetary reinforcement ranging from zero to five cents/trial. Results indicated self-administered reinforcement significantly increased levels of performance as compared to experimenter-administered reinforcement (p .10). These findings were discussed with regard to self-regulatory processes and their application within token economy programs.
Integrated petrophysics and rock physics modeling for well log interpretation of elastic, electrical, and petrophysical properties

Abstract Rock and fluid volumetric properties, such as porosity, saturation, and mineral volumes, are generally estimated from petrophysical measurements such as density, resistivity, neutron porosity and gamma ray, through petrophysical equations. The computed petrophysical properties and sonic log measurements are generally used to estimate the petro-elastic relationship between elastic and rock and fluid volumetric properties used in reservoir characterization. In this paper, we present a unified workflow that includes petrophysical relations and rock physics models for the estimation of rock and fluid properties from elastic, electrical, and petrophysical (porosity, density, and lithology) measurements. The multi-physics model we propose has the advantage of accounting for the coupled effect of rock and fluid properties in the joint petro-elastic and electrical domains, and potentially reduce the uncertainty in the well log interpretation. Furthermore, the presented workflow can be eventually extended to three-dimensional reservoir characterization problems, where seismic and electromagnetic data are available. To demonstrate the validity of the methodology, we show the application of this multi-physics model to both laboratory measurements and well log data.
Integration of a PC based expert system shell and production line tracking system for failure diagnosis and rework definition

The key to the success of data driven manufacturing systems lies in the collection, storage and manipulation of production process data. This paper outlines a project undertaken to integrate a commercial PC expert system shell with a production line tracking and data collection system, to perform failure diagnosis and rework definition. The volume of potentially useful data in this, as in many manufacturing operations, is too great for most production personnel to assimilate. Expert systems offer a tool to improve failure diagnosis, and thus rework efficiency by applying expert engineering knowledge and judgement to available data. However, such systems must facilitate change and maintenance if they are to be successfully deployed in the manufacturing environment. An assessment is given of the types of knowledge required to perform the task and the applicability of expert systems. Maintenance considerations are highlighted, namely knowledge base structure and domain vocabulary. Finally, these points are summarised with reference to DISPEX, an application developed using the TI Personal Consultant Plus shell.
A New Method for the Purification of Nuclei from Artemia

Yolk platelets outnumber nuclei about 1400 to 1. Since the densities of these two organelles are comparable, it has been difficult to obtain nuclear preparations free of contaminating yolk platelets using differential centrifugation. We report here on a simple and reliable method for obtaining Artemia nuclei free of yolk platelets using NaCl-Percoll gradients. Free swimming nauplii were collected after 24 hrs. of culture and homogenized in 0.01 M Tris-HCl, 0.15 M NaCl, 0.03 M CaCl2, 0.024 M EDTA, 0.5% Triton X-100, pH 8.0 (SCE). All centrifugations were performed in a Sorvall GSA-600 rotor. Shells and cellular debris were removed by a “quick spin”. The “quick spin” entails allowing the rotor to reach 1000 rpm followed by immediate deceleration. Nuclei were pelleted from the supernatant by centrifugation at 2500 rpm for 10 minutes. This centrifugation was repeated a second time. The nuclear pellet was next resuspended in SCE buffer and centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 10 minutes. Subsequently, the nuclei were resuspended in SCE not containing detergent, layered onto 0.15 M NaCl-Percoll, and centrifuged at 12,500 rpm for 15 minutes. Nuclei, which form a discrete layer just below the surface, were removed with a Pasteur pipette and washed with SCE to remove the Percoll. Microscopic examination revealed isolated, intact nuclei in a field free of yolk platelets. The preparation is free of lactic dehydrogenase and isocitric dehydrogenase enzyme activities and incorporates 3H-uridine triphosphate into trichloroacetic acid precipitable material linearly over a two hour incubation period.
Treatment of leiomyomata with intranasal or subcutaneous leuprolide, a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist*

Fourteen premenopausal women with uterine leiomyomata were randomized to receive a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH-a), leuprolide, either by daily subcutaneous (SC) injection (500 micrograms/day) or by intranasal (IN) spray (1600 micrograms/day) for 24 weeks. In the SC group, a significant reduction in uterine volume occurred from a pretreatment volume of 368 +/- 60 (mean +/- standard error of the mean [SEM]) cm3 to 202 +/- 61 cm3 at 12 weeks of therapy (P less than 0.01) and to 172 +/- 49 cm3 at 24 weeks of therapy (P less than 0.005). In the IN group, no significant reduction in uterine volume occurred. In addition, there was a significant negative correlation between the serum estradiol concentration during treatment and the percent decrease in uterine volume (r = -0.55, P less than 0.05). Four months after completing therapy, uterine volume increased to 296 +/- 104 cm3 in the SC group, which was not significantly different from pretreatment volume. These findings suggest that reduction in uterine volume depends on the degree of hypoestrogenism induced and that uterine volume increases soon after cessation of GnRH-a therapy.
Regadenoson as a pharmacologic stressor in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in congenital and acquired pediatric heart disease: initial experience

Background Adenosine has traditionally been utilized for coronary hyperemia during myocardial perfusion assessment in adults, however regadenoson has recently become more popular [1]. With improved survival of congenital heart disease (CHD), and increased diagnosis of acquired heart disease (AHD), there’s an increasing need for assessment of myocardial perfusion in pediatrics [2]. Only dipyridamole and adenosine have reportedly been utilized as hyperemia stressors in CHD patients. As a selective A2A agonist, regadenoson has a more favorable side-effect profile and less stimulation of receptors associated with bronchospasm, and decreased chronotropy [1]. It is administered as an intravenous (IV) bolus and thus only a single IV is required. Peak onset is at 60-90 seconds, with hyperemia lasting up to 6 minutes allowing additional wall motion assessment [3].
Pathways of the relationships among eating behavior, stress, and coping in adults with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional study.

Abstract Stress is related to eating behavior, and eating behavior is important in diabetes treatment. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships among perceived stress, diabetes-related stress, coping strategies, and eating behaviors in adults living with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Adults with type 2 diabetes (n = 183) were recruited from a large metropolitan area in the Midwest United States. Stress factors and coping strategies associated with eating behaviors were measured using validated questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the relationships among perceived stress, diabetes-related stress, coping strategies, and eating behaviors. The final model showed that emotion-oriented coping partially mediated the effect of stress on eating behaviors. Specifically, emotion-oriented coping partially mediated the effect of diabetes-related stress on restrained eating behavior (r = 0.318, p
ATM-dependent activation of SIM2s regulates homologous recombination and epithelial-mesenchymal transition

There is increasing evidence that genomic instability is a prerequisite for cancer progression. Here we show that SIM2s, a member of the bHLH/PAS family of transcription factors, regulates DNA damage repair through enhancement of homologous recombination (HR), and prevents epithelial-mesenchymal transitions (EMT) in an Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM)-dependent manner. Mechanistically, we found that SIM2s interacts with ATM and is stabilized through ATM-dependent phosphorylation in response to IR. Once stabilized, SIM2s interacts with BRCA1 and supports RAD51 recruitment to the site of DNA damage. Loss of SIM2s through the introduction of shSIM2 or the mutation of SIM2s at one of the predicted ATM phosphorylation sites (S115) reduces HR efficiency through disruption of RAD51 recruitment, resulting in genomic instability and induction of EMT. The EMT induced by the mutation of S115 is characterized by a decrease in E-cadherin and an induction of the basal marker, K14, resulting in increased invasion and metastasis. Together, these results identify a novel player in the DNA damage repair pathway and provides a link in ductal carcinoma in situ progression to invasive ductal carcinoma through loss of SIM2s, increased genomic instability, EMT, and metastasis.
Rapamycin treatment increases hippocampal cell viability in an mTOR-independent manner during exposure to hypoxia mimetic, cobalt chloride

Cobalt chloride (CoCl2) induces chemical hypoxia through activation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α). Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a multifaceted protein capable of regulating cell growth, angiogenesis, metabolism, proliferation, and survival. In this study, we tested the efficacy of a well-known mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin, in reducing oxidative damage and increasing cell viability in the mouse hippocampal cell line, HT22, during a CoCl2-simulated hypoxic insult. CoCl2 caused cell death in a dose-dependent manner and increased protein levels of cleaved caspase-9 and caspase-3. Rapamycin increased viability of HT22 cells exposed to CoCl2 and reduced activation of caspases-9 and -3. Cells exposed to CoCl2 displayed increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and hyperpolarization of the mitochondrial membrane, both of which rapamycin successfully blocked. mTOR protein itself, along with its downstream signaling target, phospho-S6 ribosomal protein (pS6), were significantly inhibited with CoCl2 and rapamycin addition did not significantly lower expression further. Rapamycin promoted protein expression of Beclin-1 and increased conversion of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3)-I into LC3-II, suggesting an increase in autophagy. Pro-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2 associated × (Bax), exhibited a slight, but significant decrease with rapamycin treatment, while its anti-apoptotic counterpart, B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), was to a similar degree upregulated. Finally, the protein expression ratio of phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase (pMAPK) to its unphosphorylated form (MAPK) was dramatically increased in rapamycin and CoCl2 co-treated cells. Our results indicate that rapamycin confers protection against CoCl2-simulated hypoxic insults to neuronal cells. This occurs, as suggested by our results, independent of mTOR modification, and rather through stabilization of the mitochondrial membrane with concomitant decreases in ROS production. Additionally, inhibition of caspase-9 and -3 activation and stimulation of protective autophagy reduces cell death, while a decrease in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and an increase in pMAPK promotes cell survival during CoCl2 exposure. Together these results demonstrate the therapeutic potential of rapamycin against hypoxic injury and highlight potential pathways mediating the protective effects of rapamycin treatment.
Shareholder activism and changes in audit committee composition

We examine whether governance related shareholder activism is associated with changes in audit committee composition. Audit committees are the “ultimate monitors” of firms’ financial reporting processes. The SEC is interested in whether audit committees have financial experts and prior research has documented benefits associated with accounting-specific financial expertise. Governance activism expresses investors’ dissatisfaction with corporate governance; audit committees are an important governance mechanism. Therefore, we predict that governance activism will affect audit committee composition. We document consistent associations between both general and accounting related governance activism and increases in audit committee accounting expertise. These associations are strongest when a firm concurrently announces a restatement, experiences an internal control failure, or has low pre-activism expertise. Further, in the post period, there is a considerable drop in activism for firms that have added accounting experts. Our study documents an important determinant of audit committee composition.
Attitudinal Trends in Alternative Postsecondary Learning

Traditional postsecondary learning in the United States is associated with increased earnings and employment, but these benefits come at substantial cost. Nontraditional education provides a partial workaround with a variety of caveats including nonconformity stigma. This paper explores a novel data set (n = 1190) to understand trends in public disposition on alternative credentials. Results indicate that favorability is high, declining in the short term, and may reverse trend over time. Leveraging alternative pathways to reduce cost and accelerate completion of accredited education is a recommended strategy. Some policy considerations are discussed.
Sol–Gel Synthesis of Ruthenium Oxide Nanowires To Enhance Methanol Oxidation in Supported Platinum Nanoparticle Catalysts

A template-directed, sol–gel synthesis is utilized to produce crystalline RuO2 nanowires. Crystalline nanowires with a diameter of 128 ± 15 nm were synthesized after treating the nanowires at 600 °...
Computational Investigation of Interface Stresses in Duplex Structure Stainless Steels

Duplex structural stainless steels (DP) are highly corrosion-resistant with austenite (γ)-ferrite (δ) compositions and processing routes. These DP steels are used in chemical, petrochemical, marine, power generation, and nuclear industries due to their unique properties. Experimental data of 2D slices obtained from optical micrography were used in a multilevel finite element analysis to investigate the interface stresses between the two phases of DP material. Level #1 (macro-level) finite element analysis involves homogenizing the 2D slices based on their representative constituent properties to identify high-stress regions. Level #2 (micro-level) finite element analysis was conducted with representative austenite/ferrite microstructure identified from level #1 analysis. The results from finite element simulations from both macro- and micro-levels revealed that interface stresses are affected by the phase’s microstructure distributions. Micro-level analysis revealed maximum interface stress is much higher than macro-level analysis. It was also found that stress localization occurred at the ferrite/austenite interfaces based on their distributions.
Normative Measurements of Head and Neck Lymph Nodes on Imaging

This chapter reviews the normal imaging size criteria of lymph nodes within the head and neck. The role and capabilities of different imaging modalities for evaluating the lymph nodes are also discussed. Furthermore, an overview of RECIST—response evaluation criteria in solid tumors—1.1 criteria for measuring lymph nodes in cancer patients and examples of normal and abnormal lymph nodes are depicted on imaging.
The Relationship between Referral Source to Behavioral Health Treatment and Suicidal Ideation Severity among Suicidal Soldiers

The research on referral source regarding suicidal service members (SM) and their associated outcomes is limited. As such, to further prevent military suicides, the current study focused on referra...
The burdens and the benefits: Socio-economic impacts of mobile phone ownership in Tanzania

Abstract Mobile phones figure prominently in discussions about international development and poverty alleviation, but existing research is ambiguous about its ultimate effects. We report on a qualitative investigation of mobile phone impact based on 133 semi-structured interviews with low- to middle-income individuals in Dar es Salaam and Arusha Region, Tanzania. We find that impacts on mobile users are indeed mixed, but that they can be categorized by their phone use habits: Simple Users use phones for socializing and entertainment; Deliberate Users additionally use their phones for work and business purposes; Advanced Users make striking technical use of their phones. Only the latter two – comprising a minority of our participants – appear to be benefiting financially from mobile phone use. We also find evidence that for some, mobile phone use competes with basic needs such as food. Our findings suggest one way to reconcile the divergent claims in that technology has disparate impact on different individuals. We discuss implications for policy and development interventions.
Radiology Patient Outcome Measures: Impact of a Departmental Pay-for-Performance Initiative on Key Quality and Safety Measures

Abstract Objective Assess impact of a multifaceted pay-for-performance (PFP) initiative on radiologists’ behavior regarding key quality and safety measures. Methods This institutional review board–approved prospective study was performed at a large, 12-division urban academic radiology department. Radiology patient outcome measures were implemented October 1, 2017, measuring report signature timeliness, critical results communication, and generation of peer-learning communications between radiologists. Subspecialty division-wide and individual radiologist targets were specified, performance was transparently communicated on an intranet dashboard updated daily, and performance was financially incentivized (5% of salary) quarterly. We compared outcomes 12 months pre- versus 12 months post-PFP implementation. Primary outcome was monthly 90th percentile time from scan completion to final report signature (CtoF). Secondary outcomes were percentage timely closed-loop communication of critical results and number of division-wide peer-learning communications. Statistical process control analysis and parallel coordinates charts were used to assess for temporal trends. Results In all, 144 radiologists generated 1,255,771 reports (613,273 pre-PFP) during the study period. Monthly 90th percentile CtoF exhibited an absolute decrease of 4.4 hours (from 21.1 to 16.7 hours) and a 20.9% relative decrease post-PFP. Statistical process control analysis demonstrated significant decreases in 90th percentile CtoF post-PFP, sustained throughout the study period (P 90% timely closure of critical alerts; all divisions exceeded the target of 90 peer-learning communications each quarter (range: 97-472) after January 1, 2018. Discussion Implementation of a multifaceted PFP initiative using well-defined radiology patient outcome measures correlated with measurable improvements in radiologist behavior regarding key quality and safety parameters.