cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Carboplatin and its ototoxicity

Carboplatin is a platinum-based drug that widely used for treatment of solid tumors. However, its clinic application is restricted by various side effects of nephrotoxicity, ototoxicity, neurotoxicity, and bone marrow depression, etc. In experimental animals, carboplatin preferentially damages inner hair cells and type I spiral ganglion neurons in the cochlea, and vestibular type I hair cells and their afferent neurons in chinchillas. In carboplatin induced inner hair cell lesions, chinchillas have normal distortion product otoacoustic emissions, normal cochlear microphonics, and near normal threshold of compound action potentials. However, the amplitude of summating potential and compound action potential were reduced. When carboplatin induce a 60 - 90% inner hair cell missing in chinchilla cochlea, animals still have normal hearing response to tone in quiet with shock-avoidance conditioning procedure, however the threshold of hearing response were greatly elevated when a broad band noise or a narrowband noise were given. In addition, the discrimination to auditory temporal resolution was also significantly depressed. Carboplatin induced degeneration in hair cells and afferent neurons are associated with activities in calcium-activated proteinase, initiator caspase-8, and over administration of p53, which lead to cell apoptosis. In the early stage of inner hair cell degeneration, activity depression were also found in succinate dehydrogenase, sodium and potassium activated ATPase, alkaline phosphatase, and glucose-6-phosphatase, but in contrast, calcium activated ATPase was greatly increased. Carboplatin also selectively destroys cochlear inner hair cells and vestibular type I hair cells in oganotypic cultures in chinchillas, whereas damages the outer hair cells in vitro in rats. Besides the selective destruction of inner hair cells and type I spiral ganglion neurons in chinchillas, carboplatin also damages the auditory neurons in cochlear nucleus, but never destroy the auditory neurons in inferior colliculus and auditory cortex. After a permanent damage to the inner hair cells, the type I spiral ganglion neurons, and the neurons of cochlear nucleus, although the central auditory pathway is deprived of much of its sensory inputs, the amplitude of the local field potentials in the inferior colliculus and auditory cortex were near normal or enhanced. A number of different mechanisms could conceivably increase the gain of central auditory system: (1) The system gain could increase due to a reduction of inhibition. (2) The system could become more responsive to the remaining inputs because of greater release of excitatory neurotransmitter, reduced uptake and inactivation of excitatory neurotransmitter or an increase in the number of receptors. (3) The neurons could sprout new axons and form additional synapses. Therefore, chinchillas can be deprived of a significant portion of the neural inputs to the central auditory system by administering carboplatin, which can be considered with the clinical disorder known as auditory neuropathy.
Acquisition of lyme disease spirochetes by cofeeding Ixodes scapularis ticks

Ixodes scapularis ticks acquired spirochetes while cofeeding with Borrelia burgdorferi-infected nymphs (donors) on uninfected naive gerbils. Overall, 19% (67 of 345) of the recipient nymphs randomly exposed to gerbils with donor nymphs acquired spirochetes by fluorescent antibody (FA) tests, 18% (62 of 345) by the polymerase chain reaction. In a second experiment, donor nymphs were placed on the left ears, recipient nymphs were placed on the left and right ears, and xenodiagnostic larvae were placed on the gerbils' backs. Only recipient nymphs and larvae removed from the left ears were infected with B. burgdorferi. Infection rates were 47% (9 of 19), 87% (13 of 15) and 88% (14 of 16) in recipient nymphs placed on gerbils 0, 3, or 5 days after the donor nymphs, respectively, and 48% (12 of 25) in the larvae by FA analysis. Spirochetes appear to be acquired by cofeeding ticks from a localized infection near the feeding site rather than from a disseminated infection in the skin or blood.
Relationship between mammographic features and hormone receptor content in patients with breast cancer.

Recurrences of breast cancer are more responsive to hormone therapy if the tumors are positive for estrogen receptors or progesterone receptors. To assess the relationship between hormone receptor content, mammographic tumor morphology, and breast parenchymal patterns, we reviewed charts and mammograms of 210 patients with primary unilateral breast cancer. Mammograms of tumors in 97 patients were divided morphologically into five groups: (1) spiculated mass, (2) architectural distortion, (3) calcifications only, (4) circumscribed mass, and (5) tumor not visible. Estrogen receptor positivity was 81% (39/48) in group 1, 37% (7/19) in group 2, 17% (2/12) in group 3, 31% (4/13) in group 4, and 60% (3/5) in group 5 (P less than .001). Mean estrogen receptor content was also significantly different among groups (P less than .001). There was no statistically significant association between tumor morphology and progesterone receptors, or between calcifications and receptor status. In all 210 patients, hormone-receptor-positive tumors showed no association with mammographic parenchymal pattern. When direct assay of estrogen receptors is unavailable, mammographic appearance of the tumor may suggest the estrogen receptor status.
SU-F-T-665: Confocal Microscopy Imaging of Cell Cycle Distribution in Cells Treated with Pegylated Gold Nanoshells

Purpose: To use confocal microscopy to distinguish cells in different phases of the cell cycle before and after treatment with pegylated gold nanoshells (PEG-AuNSs). Methods: Transfected fibrosarcoma cells (HT1080-EYFP-53BP1-FUCCI) were cultured in T-25 flasks and seeded in glass bottom dishes. These cells express the fluorescent probe AmCyan during the G2/S phases of the cell cycle, mCherry during the G1 phase, and EYFP tagged to the DNA repair protein 53BP1. After allowing cells 4 h to adhere to dishes, PEG-AuNS (Nanospectra Biosciences, Houston, TX) at a concentration of 0.15 OD were administered. At time points of 8, 16 and 24 h following treatment, the PEG-AuNS-treated and control samples were washed with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and fixed using 4% paraformaldehyde in PBS. Samples were imaged with an Olympus FV1200 confocal microscope using 473, 543, and 641 nm excitation lasers. We used band-pass filters to select AmCyan and mCherry fluorescence. Reflection from the 641 nm laser was used to detect PEG-AuNSs. Z-stack images were analyzed to assess cell cycle distribution through fluorescent probe expression. Live cells were imaged after PEG-AuNS treatment using a confocal microscope with a stage top CO2 incubator. Results: We were able to obtain high-resolution images of cells with internalized AuNSs. We were also able to distinguish cells in different phases of the cell cycle. Conclusion: This work demonstrates a new assay to investigate the effect of AuNSs on the cell cycle phase in live cells. Future work will employ confocal microscopy and flow cytometry to focus on effects of AuNS treatment on cell cycle distribution. This research was supported by the Sister Institution Network Fund and the Center for Radiation Oncology Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Gabriel Sawakuchi has research support from Elekta Inc.
Impact of landscape disturbance on the quality of terrestrial sediment carbon in temperate streams

Abstract Recent studies have shown the super saturation of fluvial networks with respect to carbon dioxide, and the concept that the high carbon dioxide is at least partially the result of turnover of sediment organic carbon that ranges in age from years to millennia. Currently, there is a need for more highly resolved studies at stream and river scales that enable estimates of terrestrial carbon turnover within fluvial networks. Our objective was to develop a new isotope-based metric to estimate the quality of sediment organic carbon delivered to temperate streams and to use the new metric to estimate carbon quality across landscape disturbance gradients. Carbon quality is defined to be consistent with in-stream turnover and our metric is used to measure the labile or recalcitrant nature of the terrestrial-derived carbon within streams. Our hypothesis was that intensively-disturbed landscapes would tend to produce low quality carbon because deep, recalcitrant soil carbon would be eroded and transported to the fluvial system while moderately disturbed or undisturbed landscapes would tend to produce higher quality carbon from well-developed surface soils and litter. The hypothesis was tested by applying the new carbon quality metric to 15 temperate streams with a wide range of landscape disturbance levels. We find that our hypothesis premised on an indirect relationship between the extent of landscape disturbance and the quality of sediment carbon in streams holds true for moderate and high disturbances but not for un-disturbed forests. We explain the results based on the connectivity, or dis-connectivity, between terrestrial carbon sources and pathways for sediment transport. While pathways are typically un-limited for disturbed landscapes, the un-disturbed forests have dis-connectivity between labile carbon of the forest floor and the stream corridor. Only in the case when trees fell into the stream corridor due to severe ice storms did the quality of sediment carbon increase in the streams. We argue that as scientists continue to estimate the in-stream turnover of terrestrially-derived carbon in fluvial carbon budgets, the assumption of pathway connectivity between carbon sources to the stream should be justified.
Developing Online Instruction: Partnership between Instructors and Technical Developers:

Asynchronous instruction via the Internet is fast becoming the educational delivery mode of choice by employed professionals who are unable to conveniently access higher education on traditional campuses. K-12 schools are also finding online instruction applicable to the elementary and secondary students and to the provision of staff development. A key to this movement is the capability of schools and institutions of higher education to design and develop online instruction. Educators possess the curriculum content and instructional design skills, but few have the technical capabilities to place instruction online. While there is a growing number of technicians with the technical skills, they often lack experience in instructional design. The authors share their experience in designing, developing and teaching two graduate level courses fully online using audio streaming technology. The focus of their discussion is on the team approach to development where the instructor possesses the content and the inst...
Periodic Filtering as a subgrid-scale model for LES of laminar separation bubble flows

ABSTRACTLaminar separation bubbles develop over many blades and airfoils at moderate angles of attack and Reynolds numbers ranging from 104 to 105. More accurate simulation tools are necessary to enable higher fidelity design optimisation for these airfoils and blades as well as to test flow control schemes. Following previous investigators, an equivalent problem is formulated by imposing suitable boundary conditions for flow over a flat plate which allows to use a high accuracy spectral solver. Large eddy simulation (LES) of such a flow were performed at drastically reduced resolution to assess the accuracy of several LES modelling approaches: the explicit dynamic Smagorinsky model, implicit LES, and the truncated Navier–Stokes approach (TNS). To mimic dissipation that occurs in implicit LES, the solution on a coarse mesh is filtered at every time step and two different filter strengths are used. In the TNS approach, the solution is filtered periodically, every few hundred time steps. The performance of ...
Circuits of wealth, circuits of sorrow: financing the illegal transatlantic slave trade in the age of suppression, 1850–66*

Slave traders forced more than 1.65 million captive Africans aboard illegal transatlantic slave ships during the nineteenth century. This article focuses on the final phase of this brutal traffic, between 1850 and 1866. It argues that slave traders sustained their illicit industry, in large part, by strategically coordinating their financial arrangements against a rising tide of international suppression. One key tactic was for slave trade investors in the United States, Cuba, Africa, and Iberia to lower the risks of interdiction by joining forces and co-financing voyages. Another was to combine with an international cast of merchants and bankers, who helped them launder slave trade capital and transmit it to their distant allies. This capital was concealed within broader currents of global commerce, which was, in turn, spurred by the growth of free trade in the nineteenth century. These myriad alliances and capital flows undergirded the trade until its final extinction in the 1860s.
Can Quantized Vibrational Effects Be Obtained from Ehrenfest Mixed Quantum-Classical Dynamics?

We explore the question of whether mean-field or “Ehrenfest” mixed quantum-classical dynamics is capable of capturing the quantized vibrational features in photoabsorption spectra that result from infrared and Raman-active vibrational transitions. We show that vibrational and electronic absorption spectra can indeed be obtained together within a single Ehrenfest simulation. Furthermore, the electronic transitions show new sidebands that are absent in electronic dynamics simulations with fixed nuclei. Inspection of the electronic sidebands reveals that the spacing corresponds to vibrational frequencies of totally symmetric vibrational modes of the ground electronic state. A simple derivation of the time-evolving dipole in the presence of external fields and vibrational motion shows the origin of these features, demonstrating that mixed quantum-classical Ehrenfest dynamics is capable of producing infrared, Raman, and electronic absorption spectra from a single simulation.
The dynamic relationship among the money market mutual funds, the commercial paper market, and the repo market

In this paper, we investigate the short-run and the long-run relationship among the ﬁnancial assets of the money market funds, the commercial paper, and the repurchase agreement markets by undertaking a cointegration analysis of quarterly data over the 1985-2017 period. The evidence suggests that there exists a common long-term cointegrating trend among these three components of the shadow banking system. Any disequilibrium in this long-run relationship among these variables is corrected by movement in the ﬁnancial assets of the money market funds. The Beveridge-Nelson decomposition from the estimated cointegrating relationship shows that the cyclical component in the money market funds is large and captures the huge swings in these markets during the ﬁnancial crisis. Our results conﬁrm the narrative evidence presented in Krishnamurthy et al. (2014), who argue that the short-term debt market investment opportunities in the form of the commercial paper and the repo market played a crucial role in the expansion of the balance sheet of the money market funds.
Towards an Unsupervised Entrainment Distance in Conversational Speech Using Deep Neural Networks.

Entrainment is a known adaptation mechanism that causes interaction participants to adapt or synchronize their acoustic characteristics. Understanding how interlocutors tend to adapt to each other's speaking style through entrainment involves measuring a range of acoustic features and comparing those via multiple signal comparison methods. In this work, we present a turn-level distance measure obtained in an unsupervised manner using a Deep Neural Network (DNN) model, which we call Neural Entrainment Distance (NED). This metric establishes a framework that learns an embedding from the population-wide entrainment in an unlabeled training corpus. We use the framework for a set of acoustic features and validate the measure experimentally by showing its efficacy in distinguishing real conversations from fake ones created by randomly shuffling speaker turns. Moreover, we show real world evidence of the validity of the proposed measure. We find that high value of NED is associated with high ratings of emotional bond in suicide assessment interviews, which is consistent with prior studies.
The Liabilities of Iron Deficiency

The overt physical manifestations of iron deficiency include the generic symptoms of anemia, which are tiredness, lassitude, and general feelings of lack of energy [1, 2]. Clinical manifestations of iron deficiency are glossitis, angular stomatitis, koilonychia (spoon nails), blue sclera, esophageal webbing (Plummer-Vinson Syndrome), and microcytic hypochromic anemia. Behavioral disturbances such as pica, which is characterized by abnormal consumption of nonfood items such as dirt (geophagia) and ice (pagophagia), are often present in iron deficiency, but clear biological explanations for these abnormalities are lacking. More recently, restless legs syndrome (RLS) has been described as being causally related to iron deficiency anemia [3]. This aphasic involuntary muscle contraction appears related to altered movement of iron to and within motor-control centers in the brain and is treatable in most cases with either iron or levodopa [4]. Neuro-maturational delays have been described by many research groups and will be discussed in detail in a later section. Physiological manifestations of iron deficiency have also been noted in immune function, thermoregulatory performance, energy metabolism, and exercise or work performance [2]. The current understanding of the iron biology underlying deficits in the neurobiology, muscle and energy metabolism, and consequences specific to pregnancy outcomes will be discussed in the remaining sections of this chapter.
The weak, the large, and the empty:: bringing order to concepts of spatial coherence in the Holstein polaron

Abstract We investigate polaron shape and size using electron–phonon correlation functions measured in 1D polaron ground states of the Holstein Hamiltonian. We use the Global–Local variational method as our primary quantitative tool, calling upon weak- and strong-coupling perturbation theories to assist in the interpretation of our results. The spatial extent of correlations is used to quantify polaron size, and is analyzed over a wide range of parameters. Distinct scaling behaviors are found below the self-trapping transition and above it, leading naturally to the notion of the polaron size as an order parameter for a self-trapping transition that becomes critical in the adiabatic limit. The archetypical structure characterizing polaron shape and size below the self-trapping transition is found to differ significantly from what might be expected from certain widely held views.
Optical Measurements on Squid Axons

A combination of two factors makes the squid giant axon a favorable preparation for optical measurements: there is a relatively large membrane area and one can obtain good control of membrane potential. The large membrane area makes for relatively large signal-to-noise ratios in the optical measurements and the ability to control the membrane potential allows one to investigate the physiological origins of the signals in some detail. Using giant axons it is relatively straight-forward to determine if a given optical signal depends on changes in membrane potential, or the membrane currents, or the increases in membrane permeability (Cohen et al.,1968, 1972b).
Rapid and sensitive detection of formaldehyde using portable 2-dimensional gas chromatography equipped with photoionization detectors

Abstract We developed an automated and highly portable device for rapid and sensitive formaldehyde detection based on heart-cutting 2-dimensional gas chromatography. In this design, the air sample was first absorbed by a preconcentrator before it is injected into the 1st-dimensional column (Rtx®-VMS). The partial elution from the 1st-dimensional column containing formaldehyde was re-injected into the 2nd-dimensional column (Rt® Q-BOND column) for further separation. The detection of formaldehyde was achieved by using a micro-helium dielectric barrier discharge photoionization detector that is able to ionize formaldehyde (ionization potential = 10.88 eV). Due to the use of many miniaturized components, the entire system has a weight of only 1.3 kg (excluding the helium cartridge) and dimensions of only 27 cm x 24 cm x 12 cm. It is capable of detecting formaldehyde down to 0.5 ppb (V/V) with a signal-to-noise ratio of 6 in only 11 min (including 6 min of sampling). Meanwhile, simultaneous separation and detection of other air pollution related toxic compounds, such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, was also demonstrated by the 1-dimensional column and a flow-through micro-photoionization detector. The device developed here should have a broad range of applications in environmental protection, industries, space exploration, and battlefield.
What is the role of nutrition counseling in the management of isolated mandible fractures

Objective Providing perioperative nutrition counseling may improve operative outcomes. It is unclear, however, whether this benefit translates to oral and maxillofacial surgery patients. The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of nutrition counseling on operative outcomes and patient satisfaction in those undergoing surgery for mandible fractures. Study Design The investigators implemented a retrospective cohort study. The predictor variable was perioperative nutrition counseling by a registered dietitian (RD). The main outcome variables were weight change, postoperative complications, and results of a survey that evaluated the perioperative experience. Results Statistical analyses were conducted on a sample of 200 patients (mean age: 34 ± 14 years; 87% males). Overall, there was no difference in percent weight change between those who received nutrition counseling and those who did not (P = .46). Those who received nutrition counseling had fewer postoperative complications (3% vs 11%; adjusted P = .038). Patients who received nutrition counseling from an RD were more satisfied with the nutrition advice they received (P = .0375). Conclusions The results suggest that perioperative nutrition counseling by an RD in the management of isolated mandible fractures has no effect on weight change but is associated with decreased postoperative complications and increased patient satisfaction with the nutrition advice they receive.
Performance and Security Challenges in Science Workflows

Scientific workflows are complex, often generating large amounts of data that need to be processed in multiple stages. The data often generated at remote locations must be transferred from the source and between the distributed HPC nodes interconnected by high-speed networks that carry other background traffic. Increasingly, many of these scientific workflows require processing to be completed within a deadline, which, in turn, imposes deadline on the network data transfer. A recent example of a deadline-driven workflow occurred when LIGO and Virgo detectors observed a gravitational wave signal associated with the merger of two neutron stars. The merger, known as a kilonova, occurred in a galaxy 130 million light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Hydra. The data from this initial observation had to be processed in a timely manner and sent to astronomers around the world so that they could aim their instruments to the right section of the sky to image the source of the signal.
The Utility of Strap Muscle in Complex Type I Thyroplasties.

Abstract Introduction Type I thyroplasty is a common procedure used to improve dysphonia secondary to glottic insufficiency caused by vocal fold paralysis, paresis, or bowing. Revision often involves more complex procedures that can be complicated by mucosal violation, hemorrhage, infection, and shifted or extruded implants. Intraoperative challenges can be managed successfully using autologous strap muscle rotation flaps. Objectives Review vocal fold medialization with strap muscle as a viable option for thyroplasty, particularly operations with inadvertent mucosal disruption. Methods All operative records of the senior author's 30-year experience were queried for modified, complex, or revision type I thyroplasties. Each of these was reviewed, and only those utilizing autologous strap muscle rotation flaps for vocal fold medialization were included. Changes in voice quality were assessed using strobovideolaryngoscopic assessment of glottic closure and Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) scores when available. Results Seven patients were found to have undergone eight type I thyroplasty using autologous strap muscle flaps. Improved glottic closure was seen in all patients except one. This patient, complicated by a laryngeal fracture of unknown origin discovered at the time of surgery, had worse voice with strap muscle implantation intraoperatively; therefore, the patient's fracture was reduced, and medialization was postponed. All other patients reported improved voice quality both intra- and postoperatively. Pre- and postoperative VHI-10 scores were available for two of the seven cases with successfully implanted strap muscles. A decrease in VHI-10 was observed in both cases (mean = 11). No postoperative complications occurred in any patient. Conclusion Although revision thyroplasties are relatively rare, they can be challenging. The seven cases presented herein illustrate the successful and safe use of autologous strap muscle rotation flaps for complex, revision type I thyroplasty procedures. They are particularly helpful in cases requiring additional soft tissue between the thyroid cartilage and mucosa in preparation for possible future medialization after Gore-Tex or Silastic implants, and for inadvertent mucosal disruption in which using a foreign implant might pose a risk of infection. Future studies should be performed with larger populations and longer follow-up to confirm the efficacy and safety of this procedure.
Satisfaction-aware Data Offloading in Surveillance Systems

In this paper, we exploit the capabilities of Fully Autonomous Aerial Systems' (FAAS) and the Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) to introduce a novel data offloading framework and support the energy and time efficient video processing in surveillance systems based on game theory in satisfaction form. A surveillance system is introduced consisting of Areas of Interest (AoIs), where a MEC server is associated with each AoI, and a FAAS is flying above the AoIs to collectively support the IP cameras' computing demands. Each IP camera adopts a utility function capturing its Quality of Service (QoS) considering the experienced time and energy overhead to offload and process its data either remotely or locally. A non-cooperative game among the cameras is formulated to determine the amount of offloading data to the MEC server and/or the FAAS. The novel concept of Satisfaction Equilibrium (SE) is introduced where the IP cameras satisfy their minimum QoS prerequisites instead of maximizing their performance by wasting additional system resources. A distributed learning algorithm determines the IP cameras' stable data offloading, while a reinforcement learning algorithm determines the FAAS's movement among the AoIs exploiting the accuracy, timeliness, and certainty of the collected data by the IP cameras per AoI. The performance evaluation of the proposed framework is achieved via modeling and simulation.
Protein phosphatase 2A activation as a therapeutic strategy for managing MYC-driven cancers

The tumor suppressor protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is a serine/threonine phosphatase whose activity is inhibited in most human cancers. One of the best-characterized PP2A substrates is MYC proto-oncogene basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor (MYC), whose overexpression is commonly associated with aggressive forms of this disease. PP2A directly dephosphorylates MYC, resulting in its degradation. To explore the therapeutic potential of direct PP2A activation in a diverse set of MYC-driven cancers, here we used biochemical assays, recombinant cell lines, gene expression analyses, and immunohistochemistry to evaluate a series of first-in-class small-molecule activators of PP2A (SMAPs) in Burkitt lymphoma, KRAS-driven non-small cell lung cancer, and triple-negative breast cancer. In all tested models of MYC-driven cancer, the SMAP treatment rapidly and persistently inhibited MYC expression through proteasome-mediated degradation, inhibition of MYC transcriptional activity, decreased cancer cell proliferation, and tumor growth inhibition. Importantly, we generated a series of cell lines expressing PP2A-dependent phosphodegron variants of MYC and demonstrated that the antitumorigenic activity of SMAPs depends on MYC degradation. Collectively, the findings presented here indicate a pharmacologically tractable approach to drive MYC degradation by using SMAPs for the management of a broad range of MYC-driven cancers.
Racial Disparities in Automated Speech Recognition

Automated speech recognition (ASR) systems, which use sophisticated machine-learning algorithms to convert spoken language to text, have become increasingly widespread, powering popular virtual assistants, facilitating automated closed captioning, and enabling digital dictation platforms for health care. Over the last several years, the quality of these systems has dramatically improved, due both to advances in deep learning and to the collection of large-scale datasets used to train the systems. There is concern, however, that these tools do not work equally well for all subgroups of the population. Here, we examine the ability of five state-of-the-art ASR systems—developed by Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft—to transcribe structured interviews conducted with 42 white speakers and 73 black speakers. In total, this corpus spans five US cities and consists of 19.8 h of audio matched on the age and gender of the speaker. We found that all five ASR systems exhibited substantial racial disparities, with an average word error rate (WER) of 0.35 for black speakers compared with 0.19 for white speakers. We trace these disparities to the underlying acoustic models used by the ASR systems as the race gap was equally large on a subset of identical phrases spoken by black and white individuals in our corpus. We conclude by proposing strategies—such as using more diverse training datasets that include African American Vernacular English—to reduce these performance differences and ensure speech recognition technology is inclusive.
Implementation of a pharmacist-led transitional care clinic.

Purpose To describe a pharmacist-led transitional care clinic (TCC) for high-risk patients who were recently hospitalized or seen in the emergency department (ED). Summary The Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) established a pharmacist-led face-to-face and telephone follow-up TCC to improve posthospitalization follow-up care through medication optimization and disease state management, particularly for veterans with high-risk disease states such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure (HF). The clinic's clinical pharmacy specialists (CPSs) ordered diagnostic and laboratory tests, performed physical assessments, and consulted other providers and specialty services in addition to performing medication reconciliation, compliance assessment, and evaluation of adverse drug events. TCC patients were typically seen within 2 weeks of discharge and subsequently referred back to their primary care provider or a specialty care provider for continued management. A retrospective review of 2016 TCC data found that 7.8% of patients seen in the TCC were readmitted within 30 days of discharge; readmission rates for COPD and HF were reduced to 13% and 10%, respectively, compared to hospital-wide readmission rates of 17% and 24%. A separate observational analysis found that 30-day readmissions for COPD and HF were reduced in TCC patients, with pharmacists documenting an average of 6.2 interventions and 3.3 medication-related problems per patient. To reduce clinic appointment no-shows, the CPSs worked with inpatient providers and schedulers to emphasize to patients the importance of clinic attendance; also, TCC services were expanded to include telehealth appointments to increase access for rural and/or homebound patients. Conclusion A pharmacist-led TCC effectively reduced readmissions and prevented medication-related problems for high-risk patients who were hospitalized or seen in the ED.
Is the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch Effect More Robust in Women?

For gray or achromatic objects, brightness is a relatively simple transformation where very low luminance levels are perceived as black and higher levels are perceived as white. For chromatic objec...
Target Discovery in Calcification Through Omics and Systems Approaches

Aberrant mineralization of soft tissues is a widespread, complex, and often fatal condition that is strongly predictive of morbidity and mortality. Despite the success of the current pharmacological era in revolutionizing treatment options for a host of diseases, therapeutic approaches for calcification have lagged far behind. In this chapter, we move sequentially through efforts to assess how calcification affects the (epi)genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome, with a particular focus on cardiovascular calcification – though we expand to other tissues, organs, or diseases when possible or necessary. We then describe how cutting-edge systems biology approaches are being applied to this treasure trove of data, in order to infer meaning, causality, and mechanistic insight. In particular, we highlight recent efforts to integrate data from multiple omics techniques and the application of network medicine as a means to visualize the complex interplay of perturbations detected by omics, identify novel molecular interactions, and prioritize drug targets for subsequent validation studies.
P78 Low-Income Adults Enrolled in a Cost-Offset, Community-Supported Agriculture Intervention are not Nationally Representative

Background Cost-offset, Community-supported Agriculture (CO-CSA) is a model in which low-income households receive subsidized shares of a local farm's harvest. The goal is to address diet and health disparities among a population with historically poor access to and consumption of healthy foods. The appeal of such an intervention, and thus its reach, is limited to a self-selected sub-sample of the low-income population that may be non-representative. Objective To compare characteristics of CO-CSA enrolled adults from low-income households with those of a nationally-representative sample of low-income adults. We hypothesized that CO-CSA enrollees would be less demographically diverse, have greater nutrition-related knowledge, and report better health than the national sample. Study Design, Setting, Participants CO-CSA enrollee data were drawn from the baseline survey of a multi-state randomized controlled trial testing the CO-CSA model in conjunction with nutrition education among low-income households with children in Vermont, New York, North Carolina, and Washington (n=305). Those data were compared to a nationally-representative sample of low-income adults from households with children evaluated via the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2010). Measurable Outcome/Analysis Descriptive statistics for demographic, food security, nutrition knowledge, and self-reported health status data were generated using SPSS for both samples. Results Compared to the national sample, a greater proportion of CO-CSA enrollees were female (97% vs 57%), white (76% vs 45%), highly educated (49% vs 7% college graduates), and food insecure (57% vs 49%); a smaller proportion were Hispanic (6% vs 34%). A greater proportion of CO-CSA enrollees knew the daily recommendation for fruits and vegetables (3-5 cups; 61% vs 16%) and reported being in good or excellent health (34% vs 25%). Conclusions Differences between the CO-CSA and NHANES samples may be related to the CO-CSA study sampling frame (English-speaking households in certain regions of the U.S.). Results support continued exploration into whether CO-CSA and other local food system interventions have the potential to reach beyond female, white, educated, and nutritionally-knowledgeable segments of the target population.
Temporary spontaneous regression of male breast cancer: a case report.

Spontaneous regression (SR) of a malignant tumor is the partial or complete disappearance of primary or metastatic tumor tissue in the absence of treatment, which can be temporary or permanent. Here, we report an extremely rare case of male breast cancer that exhibited temporary SR followed by reappearance 8 months after tumor disappearance. A 70-year-old man presented at our hospital with a primary complaint of pain and a lump in his left breast. Ultrasonography revealed a hypoechoic lesion measuring 12 mm × 10 mm × 8 mm. Fine-needle aspiration cytology revealed numerous necrotic and degenerated cells and few sheet-like clusters of atypical ductal epithelial cells. The atypical cells had mildly enlarged nuclei with nucleoli, were focally overlapped and formed tubular patterns. The cytological diagnosis indicated a suspicion of malignancy. Core needle biopsy (CNB) revealed necrotic and degenerated cells with microcalcification. The pathological diagnosis was indeterminate because there was no area of viable atypical cells. An excisional biopsy of the left breast lesion was scheduled one month later. However, it was difficult to detect the tumor during physical examination and ultrasonography performed 1 month after the patient’s first visit. The operation was canceled, and the patient received follow-up observation. After 8 months of follow-up, ultrasonography and computed tomography (CT) revealed reappearance of a 0.6-cm-diameter breast tumor in the same place. CNB was performed again and revealed invasive ductal carcinoma. A total mastectomy with sentinel lymph node biopsy was performed 13 months after the first tumor disappeared. Histopathological examination revealed invasive cribriform carcinoma without sentinel lymph node metastasis. The patient did not have any complications, and adjuvant therapy with tamoxifen was started. The patient was alive without recurrence 7 months after surgery. Temporary SR followed by tumor reappearance can occur in breast cancer cases, and it is important to follow patients even if their breast tumor has seemingly disappeared. When breast tumors disappear without treatment, clinicians must be aware of the possibility of SR of cancer and should follow the patient for early detection of tumor reappearance.
Iterative Feature Matching: Toward Provable Domain Generalization with Logarithmic Environments

Domain generalization aims at performing well on unseen test environments with data from a limited number of training environments. Despite a proliferation of proposal algorithms for this task, assessing their performance, both theoretically and empirically is still very challenging. Moreover, recent approaches such as Invariant Risk Minimization (IRM) require a prohibitively large number of training environments - linear in the dimension of the spurious feature space $d_s$ - even on simple data models like the one proposed by [Rosenfeld et al., 2021]. Under a variant of this model, we show that both ERM and IRM cannot generalize with $o(d_s)$ environments. We then present a new algorithm based on performing iterative feature matching that is guaranteed with high probability to yield a predictor that generalizes after seeing only $O(\log{d_s})$ environments.
Impact of Variability in Echocardiographic Interpretation on Assessment of Adequacy of Repair Following Congenital Heart Surgery: A Pilot Study

Technical Performance Score (TPS) is based largely on the presence and magnitude of residual lesions on postoperative echocardiograms; this score correlates with outcomes following repair of congenital heart defects. We evaluated reader variability for echocardiographic components of TPS for complete repair of tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) and arterial switch operation (ASO) in two centers and measured its effect on TPS. Postoperative echocardiograms were evaluated in 67 children (39 TOF and 28 ASO). Two readers (one per center) interpreted each echocardiogram. Reader variability in image quality assessments and measurements was compared using weighted kappa (κ), percent agreement, and intra-class correlation. TPS class (1 optimal-no residua, 2 adequate-minor residua, 3 inadequate-major residua) was assigned for each echocardiographic review by an independent investigator. The effect of reader interpretation variability on TPS classification was measured. There was strong agreement for TPS between the two readers (κ = 0.88). The readers were concordant for TPS classes for 57 children (85%) and discordant for classes 2 (minor residua) versus 3 (major residua) in six (9%). Coronary arteries and branch pulmonary arteries were frequently suboptimally visualized. Although inter-reader agreement for TPS was strong, inter-reader variation in echocardiographic interpretations had a small, but important effect on TPS for TOF and ASO, particularly for the distinction between minor and major residua. Further studies of generalizability and reproducibility of TPS and refinement of scoring modules may be needed before it can be used as a tool to assess pediatric cardiac surgical performance and outcomes.
Coping with Type 2 Diabetes: Do Race and Gender Matter?

Abstract OBJECTIVE-The aim of this study was to identify the coping methods of adults with type 2 diabetes, explore whether patient race (African-American vs. white, non-Latino) and gender (female vs. male) influenced coping style, and then analyze the relationship between coping and self-assessed diabetic control (self-management success). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS-From an exploratory research design using a mixed-methodological approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with 34 interviewees-9 black females, 5 black males, 15 white females, and 5 white males-living in a large mid-South city. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed, then unitized and codified for analysis. RESULTS-Interviewees reported 136 strategies, collapsed into 40 distinct coping methods. Race and gender differences first were observed in the frequency distributions of methods. Whites reported significantly more problem-focused methods than African-Americans. Males reported, overall, fewer methods, less emotion-focused, yet more...
Smart occupancy sensors

Two Doppler radar occupancy sensor systems built with low-cost, low-power CC2530 are shown. One uses quadrature receiver, the other employs passive sensor node as receiver. The 12-minute experiment in which the quadrature sensor was exposed to a range of different presence/interference scenarios demonstrates such smart occupancy sensors can accurately detect the true presence occupancy by extracting the human respiratory and heartbeat signals. The study on sensitivity and power consumption for the passive node sensor under CW, modulated CW, and packet operation modes indicates the most cost efficiency and power efficiency can be achieved by operating the sensor under packet mode with an optimum output power level.
Bootstrap-based hypothesis test for detecting sustained oscillations

Sustained oscillations are one of major stability concerns of a power system operator. In order to take effective remedial reactions, it is preferred to detect sustained oscillations at their early stage. Previously, self-coherence spectra were used to detect sustained oscillations using phasor measurement unit (PMU) data. This paper proposes a hypothesis test using a bootstrap method to set up a threshold on the self-coherence spectra for detecting oscillations. Simulation data are used to evaluate the performance of this method. Case studies show that the proposed method can select a threshold with a predetermined false positive rate.
The Domain of Radiatively Driven Mass Loss in the H-R Diagram

Previous work by Castor, Abbott, and Klein (1975) presented a selfconsistent model of a steady-state stellar wind. They also showed qualitatively that for 0 stars at least a static atmosphere could not exist. This paper extends that result by calculating in detail the minimum luminosity as a function of effective temperature required for the line radiation force to exceed gravity. Within the observational and theoretical uncertainty there is a one-to-one correspondence between a star’s calculated ability to self-initiate a stellar wind by radiation pressure alone and the observed presence of outflowing material in the UV resonance lines.
New Trends and Developments in Computer and Internet Technology for Visually Impaired People: A Survey and Usefulness in the Arab Sub-region

The wide spread application and rapid revolution of computers and Internet technology has made the use of them a must for many people including people with disabilities. This paper presents the new trends and developments in both computers and Internet technology aimed as aid to visually impaired people in general and the Arabic-speaking in particular. The developments include the various input and output devices used in conjunction with computers, the various software packages designed for the visually impaired, and the various ways through which they can communicate via the Internet.
Tidal and atmospheric forcing of the upper ocean in the Gulf of California: 1. Sea surface temperature variability

SST variability in the northern Gulf of California is examined on the basis of findings of two years of satellite infrared imagery (1984-1986). Empirical orthogonal functions of the temporal and spatial SST variance for 20 monthly mean images show that the dominant SST patterns are generated by spatially varying tidal mixing in the presence of seasonal heating and cooling. Atmospheric forcing of the northern gulf appears to occur over large spatial scales. Area-averaged SSTs for the Guaymas Basin, island region, and northern basin exhibit significant fluctuations which are highly correlated. These fluctuations in SST correspond to similar fluctuations in the air temperature which are related to synoptic weather events over the gulf. A regression analysis of the SST relative to the fortnightly tidal range shows that tidal mixing occurs over the sills in the island region as well as on the shallow northern shelf. Mixing over the sills occurs as a result of large breaking internal waves of internal hydraulic jumps which mix over water in the upper 300-500 m.
Successful adenovirus-mediated gene transfer in an in vivo model of human malignant mesothelioma

Abstract Malignant mesothelioma remains a frustrating clinical problem with uniformly poor responses to current therapeutic regimens. However, the localized nature of the disease, the potential accessibility of the tumor, and the relative lack of distant metastases make it a particularly attractive candidate for somatic gene therapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of an adenoviral vector system to transfer genetic material to human mesothelioma cells in vitro and in vivo. Using a replication-deficient recombinant adenovirus carrying the Escherichia coli lacZ market gene, we found that human mesothelioma cell lines were susceptible to adenovirus infection. Furthermore, surprisingly effective gene transfer was accomplished within tumor implants of human mesothelioma growing within the peritoneal cavity c. immunodeficient mice after intraperitoneal administration of virus. These studies demonstrate that adenoviral vectors hold promise as vehicles to deliver gene therapy in human malignant mesothelioma.