cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
CA-020: Tolérance, pharmacocinétique (PK), et pharmacodynamique (PD) du dulaglutide hebdomadaire chez des patients âgés atteints de diabète de type 2 (DT2)

Objectif Evaluer la tolerance, la PK et la PD du dulaglutide chez le patient âge. Patients et Methodes Etude en double aveugle, parallele, chez 37 hommes et femmes (≥ 65 ans) atteints de DT2, randomises pour recevoir dulaglutide 0,5, 0,75, 1,5mg ou un placebo en sous-cutane hebdomadaire pendant 6 semaines. Prelevements sanguins realises pour analyses de PK et PD. Les analyses PD (glucose, peptide-C, insuline et HbA 1c ), ont ete realisees sur les valeurs absolues et les variations a partir de J-1. Resultats Les patients etaient âges de 65-76 ans (26 de 65-69 ans ; 10 de 70 – 75 ans ; 1>75 ans). Les doses de dulaglutide ont ete bien tolerees. La majorite des evenements indesirables (EIs) etaient digestifs, d'intensite legere et resolus sans intervention. L'incidence des EIs etait generalement similaire a toutes les doses et comparable au placebo. La PK du dulaglutide chez les patients âges atteints de DT2 correspondait a celle rapportee precedemment chez les patients 1c comparees au placebo. Conclusions Sur la base des donnees de tolerance de PK et de PD, le dulaglutide 1,5 mg hebdomadaire peut etre administre aux patients ≥ 65 ans sans ajustement de dose.
Blood volume and sympathectomy in hypertension.

SummaryBlood volume studies on 20 patients with hypertensive vascular disease before and after sympathectomy revealed no consistent long-term postoperative changes other than immediate decrease in the red cell mass with tendency toward delayed recovery. There was no consistent deviation from “normal” in the preoperative determination. Patients with low red cell masses preoperatively showed poor postoperative response and there was a general tendency for patients with long-term vascular disease to have low blood volume.
Euclid's (Gaussian) Algorithm: A Lattice Approach

(1994). Euclid's (Gaussian) Algorithm: A Lattice Approach. The College Mathematics Journal: Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 118-124.
Effect of adjuvant local injection of sodium hyaluronate on elbow fracture surgery in children:43 cases report

[Objective] To investigate the effect of local injection of sodium hyaluronate on elbow fracture.[Methods] 82 patients who were undergoing internal fixation of similar fracture of elbow were randomized prospectively into two groups,one group patients(43 cases) were treated by injecting sodium hyaluronate in elbow,the others(39 cases) were as contral group.All of patients were followed up for 8,12,24,52 weeks.The functional rating scale of improved HSS system was used to evaluated the involved elbows.[Results] In hyaluronate group,the elbow scales were 65,83,90,94 at 8,12,24,52 weeks,in contral group,the elbow scales were 51,72,75,81 at 6,1 2,26,52 weeks.Each difference was significant(P 0.05).[Conclusion] Injecting with sodium hyaluronate in elbow fracture with internal fixation can improve the clinical result,reduce the occurrence of traumatic osteoarthritis and prevent elbow adhesion.
Setting strategy and index for establishment of diarrhea outpatient clinic in medical institution

Objective To revise setting strategy and index for the establishment of diarrhea outpatient clinics in Tianjin—an area with low epidemic cholera.Methods The tw o rounds of Delphi expert consultation were used to set the strategy and index system for the establishunent of diarrhea outpatient clinic.The weights of first-class indicator and second-class indicator were determined by analytic hierarchy process(AHP) and prorportion method.Results The authoritative coefficient was 0.888 5.The epidemic strength of cholera was classified as normal,low,and high epidemic.The setting strategy for the establishment of diarrhea outpatient clinic was made for the time of prior operation and during the operation.Eight first-class indicators included government function,setting,staff and instrument,treatment,disinfection and protection,nosocomial infection control,public health function,surveillance,early warning and evaluation.Fourteen indicators for first-grade hospitals and twenty indicators for second-grade hospitals were also set up.Conclusion The setting strategy and index system for establishment of diarrhea outpatient clinic were set up with Delphi expert consultation.The index system could be adopted to guide the medical resource assignment and to revise setting strategy and index for diarrhea outpatient service.
Case Report: Varicocele or Cirsocele

A man with a left varicocele and the physical finding of deep and superficial scrotal varicosities is described. The recurrence of these veins after high retroperitoneal ligation was the first indication of recollateralization. A review of the early literature reveals that varicocele refers to the varices of the scrotum and cirsocele (earlier term to denote the physical finding of scrotal varicosities) applies to the varices of the testicle and cord. It appears that these may be the same.
Reversible Age-Related Phenotypes Induced during Larval Quiescence in C. elegans.

Cells can enter quiescent states in which cell cycling and growth are suspended. We find that during a long developmental arrest (quiescence) induced by starvation, newly hatched C. elegans acquire features associated with impaired proteostasis and aging: mitochondrial fission, ROS production, protein aggregation, decreased proteotoxic-stress resistance, and at the organismal level, decline of mobility and high mortality. All signs of aging but one, the presence of protein aggregates, were reversed upon return to development induced by feeding. The endoplasmic reticulum receptor IRE-1 is completely required for recovery, and the downstream transcription factor XBP-1, as well as a protein kinase, KGB-1, are partially required. Interestingly, kgb-1(-) mutants that do recover fail to reverse aging-like mitochondrial phenotypes and have a short adult lifespan. Our study describes the first pathway that reverses phenotypes of aging at the exit of prolonged quiescence.
Sub-femtosecond Timing Jitter Between two Independent, Actively Synchronized, Mode-locked Lasers

Previously we have demonstrated that combined time/frequency active stabilization allows one to tightly synchronize two separate, passively mode- locked femtosecond.1 This capability has allowed phase locking between the carrier waves of the two synchronized Ti:sapphire lasers.2 However, since the characteristic timing jitter of 5 fs (160 Hz bandwidth) was larger than the optical cycle period, phase locking could only occur for a few tens of microseconds at a time. Coherent optical pulse synthesis from these lasers was subsequently demonstrated.3 With substantial improvements to the passive stability of both lasers and implementation of a fast servo loop to stabilize the laser repetition frequency, it is now possible to obtain a sub-femtosecond level of timing jitter at any pre-determined timing offset between two laser pulse trains. This reliable setting of the timing offset can be electronically controlled at a high speed and with an excellent repeatability. Another possible approach for achieving very low timing jitter uses cross-phase modulation to passively synchronize two mode- locked lasers that share the same intra-cavity gain medium.4 However, the requirement of sharing an intra-cavity element limits the flexibility and general applicability of this technique.
Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy: Taking a Place in Mainstream Oncology Keystone Symposia Meeting Summary

The Keystone Symposia conference on Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy: Taking a Place in Mainstream Oncology was held at the Fairmont Chateau in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, on March 19–23, 2017. The conference brought together a sold-out audience of 654 scientists, clinicians, and others from both academia and industry to discuss the latest developments in cancer immunology and immunotherapy. This meeting report summarizes the main themes that emerged during the four-day conference. Cancer Immunol Res; 5(6); 434–8. ©2017 AACR .
Introduction to chromogenics

This book deals with chromogenic materials and their uses primarily in large-area optical technology. The word "chromogenic" is new and is used here to denote materials which are able to alter their optical properties in response to a change in ambient conditions such as illumination intensity, temperature, applied electric field, etc. The changeable optical properties embrace transmittance, reflectance, absorptance and emittance.
The History of a Professional Organization: NAPEHE/NAKPEHE/NAKHE--Perspectives from Long-Standing Members.

ABSTRACTIn 1978, the National College Physical Education Association for Men (NCPEAM) and the National Association for Physical Education College Women (NAPECW), two national professional physical education higher education associations, merged to form the National Association for Physical Education in Higher Education (NAPEHE). In an effort to better understand the perspectives of the two national associations and their philosophical underpinnings, a short history of each is provided as described in the first volume of Quest in 1963, a perspective 15 years prior to the merger.
Two-Fluid Model Considering Structural Materials in a Control Volume

The local instantaneous formulation of the differential balance equation has been well described by several authors (Ishii, 1975; Ishii and Hibiki, 2006; Drew and Passman, 1998). These equations suffer from various difficulties mainly due to the existence of the interface.
Magnetic plasma expulsion

Magnetic confinement of plasmas is widely studied for restricting a plasma's extent to a given region. Presented here is one scheme for what is referred to as magnetic plasma expulsion, which would prevent the plasma from entering a given region. Magnetic plasma expulsion techniques may allow instrumentation access to the interiors of plasmas. Magnetic plasma expulsion techniques may also make alternative approaches for magnetic plasma confinement possible. Particle-in-cell simulation with the Warp code is used to study magnetic plasma expulsion. Some conditions for achieving magnetic plasma expulsion are reported.Magnetic confinement of plasmas is widely studied for restricting a plasma's extent to a given region. Presented here is one scheme for what is referred to as magnetic plasma expulsion, which would prevent the plasma from entering a given region. Magnetic plasma expulsion techniques may allow instrumentation access to the interiors of plasmas. Magnetic plasma expulsion techniques may also make alternative approaches for magnetic plasma confinement possible. Particle-in-cell simulation with the Warp code is used to study magnetic plasma expulsion. Some conditions for achieving magnetic plasma expulsion are reported.
Distinct protein signatures of acute myeloid leukemia bone marrow-derived stromal cells are prognostic for patient survival

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) support acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell survival in the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment. Protein expression profiles of AML-derived MSC are unknown. Reverse phase protein array analysis was performed to compare expression of 151 proteins from AML-MSC (n=106) with MSC from healthy donors (n=71). Protein expression differed significantly between the two groups with 19 proteins over-expressed in leukemia stromal cells and 9 over-expressed in normal stromal cells. Unbiased hierarchical clustering analysis of the samples using these 28 proteins revealed three protein constellations whose variation in expression defined four MSC protein expression signatures: Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, and Class 4. These cell populations appear to have clinical relevance. Specifically, patients with Class 3 cells have longer survival and remission duration compared to other groups. Comparison of leukemia MSC at first diagnosis with those obtained at salvage (i.e. relapse/refractory) showed differential expression of 9 proteins reflecting a shift toward osteogenic differentiation. Leukemia MSC are more senescent compared to their normal counterparts, possibly due to the overexpressed p53/p21 axis as confirmed by high β-galactosidase staining. In addition, overexpression of BCL-XL in leukemia MSC might give survival advantage under conditions of senescence or stress and overexpressed galectin-3 exerts profound immunosuppression. Together, our findings suggest that the identification of specific populations of MSC in AML patients may be an important determinant of therapeutic response.
Reversible and irreversible heat engine and refrigerator cycles

Although no reversible thermodynamic cycles exist in nature, nearly all cycles covered in textbooks are reversible. This is a review, clarification, and extension of results and concepts for quasistatic, reversible and irreversible processes and cycles, intended primarily for teachers and students. Distinctions between the latter process types are explained, with emphasis on clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) cycles. Specific examples of each are examined, including Carnot, Kelvin and Stirling cycles. For the Stirling cycle, potentially useful task-specific efficiency measures are proposed and illustrated. Whether a cycle behaves as a traditional refrigerator or heat engine can depend on whether it is reversible or irreversible. Reversible and irreversible-quasistatic CW cycles both satisfy Carnot's inequality for thermal efficiency, η ≤ η C a r n o t . Irreversible CCW cycles with two reservoirs satisfy the coefficient of performance inequality K ≤ K C a r n o t . However, an arbitrary reversible ...
Lung Alveolar Modifications and Nutrition in Malnourished Patients on Mechanical Ventilation: a Preliminary Report

That metabolic status exerts a significant influence on respiratory tract structure and function is well known. An extreme condition such as starvation in animal models can be associated with parenchymal modifications leading to atelectasis, emphysematous changes and susceptibility to infections.1–3 In these situations a surfactant deficit has been demonstrated, related to a low uptake of precursors and/or to a decreased function of synthetic enzyme processes by type II pneumocytes.1,2
The effect of ultrasonic irradiation on electroluminescent panels

The authors found that electroluminescent panels in ultrasonic field showed a yellow discolouration, the degree of which was depending on the intensity of the ultrasonic field. This effect can be interpreted by the alteration of field strength within the electroluminescent panel in consequence of its local heating.
Student Groups’ Formulation of Gay Liberation Identity in the 1970s: Part II

The early Midwestern campus gay and lesbian student organizations stemmed from the impetus of Gay Liberation, along with the revolutionary ethos of radical social, student, and anti-war movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although the origins of the college groups were born from revolution, the students involved, and the groups themselves, struggled both to support non-heterosexuals on campus and to challenge the dominant heteronormative paradigm of postsecondary education. This second of two chapters recounts the origins of gay and lesbian student organizing at Michigan State University, the University of Illinois, the University of Kansas, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and the University of Missouri.
Normative Legal Positivism (Prologue)

Legal positivism these days is considered a descriptive position, but it has not always been so, and is not always so now. Even apart from Ronald Dworkin, Stephen Perry, and others who have sought to locate the normative commitments in allegedly descriptive legal positivism, two explicitly normative versions of legal positivism constitute part of the positivist picture. One dating from Jeremy Bentham but still discussed and promoted, seeks to prescribe what judges and other legal decision-makers ought to do, and, more specifically, maintains that judges ought to restrict their sources of decision-making guidance to rule-of-recognition recognized positive law. And the other, based on one (and probably the better) understanding of H.LA. Hart’s 1958 position in his debate with Lon Fuller, and repeated in the 1961 version of The Concept of Law (although arguably changed in the 1994 “Postscript”), argues that legal cultures ought, for moral and political reasons, adopt a positivist understanding of the nature of law. Both of these versions of legal positivism are explicitly normative, and both are part of the full picture of the past and present of legal positivism.
The Sensorimotor Basis of Whisker-Guided Anteroposterior Object Localization in Head-Fixed Mice.

Active tactile perception combines directed motion with sensory signals to generate mental representations of objects in space. Competing models exist for how mice use these signals to determine the precise location of objects along their face. We tested six of these models using behavioral manipulations and statistical learning in head-fixed mice. Trained mice used a whisker to locate a pole in a continuous range of locations along the anteroposterior axis. Mice discriminated locations to ≤0.5 mm (<2°) resolution. Their motor program was noisy, adaptive to touch, and directed to the rewarded range. This exploration produced several sets of sensorimotor features that could discriminate location. Integration of two features, touch count and whisking midpoint at touch, was the simplest model that explained behavior best. These results show how mice locate objects at hyperacute resolution using a learned motor strategy and minimal set of mentally accessible sensorimotor features.
Elimination of Routine Gastric Residual Volume Monitoring Improves Patient Outcomes in Adult Critically Ill Patients in a Community Hospital Setting

Background A community hospital updated its nutrition support practices in 2016 through the elimination of monitoring gastric residual volume (GRV) in accordance with the 2016 Guidelines for the Provision and Assessment of Nutrition Support Therapy in the Adult Critically Ill Patient: Society of Critical Care Medicine and American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. Methods This retrospective analysis (N = 61) compared incidence of feeding intolerance in 2 cohorts of adult critically ill patients pre-implementation (n = 36) and post-implementation (n = 25) of these guidelines into a nutrition support team's standard of practice policy. Differences in kilocalories and protein (gm) received and percent of daily prescribed kilocalories and protein received were also compared between the 2 cohorts. Results Mean episodes of gastrointestinal intolerance over the number of eligible days of receiving enteral nutrition in the critical care unit did not differ between the pre-implementation and post-implementation groups (P = 0.46). Compared with the pre-implementation group, the post-guideline implementation cohort was significantly more likely to meet higher percentages of both prescribed protein (71.8 ± 22.2% vs 55.9 ± 24.0%; P = 0.01) and energy requirements (93.4 ± 36.9% vs 69.6 ± 35.3%; P = 0.01), even after adjusting for potential confounders (age, body mass index, sex, and primary comorbid medical condition). Conclusion Elimination of routine monitoring of GRV may result in a greater percentage of prescribed daily nutrient requirements met by patients in the critical care setting, without adverse effects on feeding intolerance.
Association of Mobile Patient Portal Access With Diabetes Medication Adherence and Glycemic Levels Among Adults With Diabetes.

Importance Online patient portals support self-management, and mobile devices expand portal access, but whether this translates to improvements in diabetes outcomes is unclear. Objective To examine the association of adding mobile patient portal access with diabetes medication adherence and glycemic levels among adults with diabetes. Design, Setting, and Participants This retrospective cohort study included patients with diabetes treated at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, a large, integrated health care delivery system, from April 1, 2015, to December 31, 2017. Inclusion criteria were adults with diabetes with an oral diabetes prescription at baseline and no insulin use. Data were analyzed from March 2018 to March 2019. Exposures Patient portal access status for each calendar month from April 2015 to December 2017, categorized as never used, used from a computer only, used from a mobile device only, or used from both computer and mobile device. Main Outcomes and Measures Medication adherence, measured by monthly percentage of days covered (PDC), and glycemic levels, measured by changes in glycated hemoglobin A1c(HbA1c) levels. The association of portal access with study outcomes was assessed using linear regression with patient-level fixed effects and adjusting for time-changing variables, stratified by baseline HbA1clevel. Results Among 111 463 included patients (mean [SD] age, 63.79 [12.93] years; 59 918 [53.76%] men), the number of patients using the portal from both a computer and mobile device increased over time from 38 371 patients (34.42%) in April 2015 to 57 920 patients (61.71%) in December 2017. Among patients with no prior portal access, adding computer-only portal access was associated with an increase in PDC of 1.16 (95% CI, 0.63 to 1.70) percentage points and a change of −0.06 (95% CI, −0.08 to −0.03) percentage points in HbA1clevel, and adding both mobile and computer portal access was associated with an increase in PDC of 1.67 (95% CI, 1.10 to 2.23) percentage points and a change of −0.13 (95% CI, −0.16 to −0.10) percentage points in HbA1clevel. Among patients with higher baseline HbA1clevel (>8.0%), changing from no portal access to both computer and mobile access was associated with an increase in PDC of 5.09 (95% CI, 3.78 to 6.40) percentage points and a change of −0.19 (95% CI, −0.27 to −0.15) percentage points in HbA1clevel. Conclusions and Relevance These findings suggest that providing patients with computer patient portal access and combining it with mobile patient portal access are associated with significantly improved diabetes medication adherence and glycemic control, with greater benefits among patients with more clinical need. Convenient access to portal self-management tools through a mobile device could significantly improve diabetes management.
Federal Preemption of Local Government Telegraph Franchise Entry Barriers

The United States central government enactment of the 1866 Post Roads Act preempted state and municipal telegraph franchise entry barriers. Like present-day telecommunication companies, local franchise regulations were an entry barrier to United States telegraph companies. These pre-1866 state and municipal telegraph laws were barriers of both entry and trade between states. Trade barriers reduced the benefits of a common market and undermined market-preserving federalism (Weingast 1995). I document what laws were preempted by the 1866 Post Roads Act, explain how these laws increased entry barriers, provide evidence that preemption was enforced, and uses two counterfactuals to calculate rough estimates of the decrease in entry costs from enforcement of the act.
ANGPTL4 from adipose, but not liver, is responsible for regulating plasma triglyceride partitioning

Elevated plasma triglyceride levels are associated with metabolic disease. Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) regulates plasma triglyceride levels by inhibiting lipoprotein lipase (LPL). ANGPTL4-deficient mice have decreased plasma triglyceride levels and increased adipose triglyceride uptake. ANGPTL4 is largely expressed by adipose and liver; therefore, we generated adipose- and liver-specific ANGPTL4 knockout mice. Mice lacking adipose ANGPTL4 recapitulated the triglyceride phenotypes of whole-body ANGPTL4 deficiency, whereas mice lacking liver ANGPTL4 had no triglyceride phenotypes. When fed a high fat diet (HFD) mice deficient in adipose ANGPTL4 gained more weight, had enhanced adipose LPL activity, and initially had improved glucose and insulin sensitivity. However, this improvement was largely lost after 6 months on HFD. Conversely, liver-deficient ANGPTL4 mice initially displayed no differences in glucose homeostasis, but began to manifest improved glucose tolerance after 6 months on HFD. We conclude that adipose derived ANGPTL4 is responsible for triglyceride regulation, while both adipose- and liver-derived ANGPTL4 may play a role in glucose homeostasis.
Functional networks activated by controllable and uncontrollable stress in male and female rats

The ability of an individual to reduce the intensity, duration or frequency of a stressor is a critical determinant of the consequences of that stressor on physiology and behavior. To expand our understanding of the brain networks engaged during controllable and uncontrollable stress and to identify sex differences, we used functional connectivity analyses of the immediate early gene product Fos in male and female rats exposed to either controllable or uncontrollable tail shocks. Twenty-eight regions of interest (ROI) were selected from the structures previously evinced to be responsible for stress response, action-outcome learning, or sexual dimorphism. We found that connectivity across these structures was strongest in female rats without control while weaker connectivity was evident in male rats with control over stress. Interestingly, this pattern correlates with known behavioral sex differences where stressor controllability leads to resilience in male but not female rats. Graph theoretical analysis identified several structures important to networks under specific conditions. In sum, the findings suggest that control over stress reshapes functional connectivity.
Changes to a Shift Reporting Sheet on a Critical Care Unit-Nurse Perceptions and Lessons Learned.

Purpose Improved perception and compliance with timely completion of the shift summary tool by bedside critical care nurses, and standardization of reported patient condition and treatment variables can be accomplished through collaboration and evidence-based modifications. Materials and Methods The IOWA Model was used as a framework to implement change in the population of practicing bedside nurses. In accordance with the AACN Healthy Work Environment standards, the population was given opportunity to complete surveys on a Likert scale to construct a best-fit instrument specific to the nurses' home units. Results Employee satisfaction with the report process increased, compliance with completion of the form increased, and satisfaction with consistency and facilitation was noted by nursing managers. Conclusion Focusing on frequently used items, or identifiable bottlenecks in communications, are likely to have the fastest and most impactful results for change. Workflows can be streamlined by using stakeholder input and feedback to clearly define the desired parameters and outcomes from the process.
Parallelizing packet processing in container overlay networks

Container networking, which provides connectivity among containers on multiple hosts, is crucial to building and scaling container-based microservices. While overlay networks are widely adopted in production systems, they cause significant performance degradation in both throughput and latency compared to physical networks. This paper seeks to understand the bottlenecks of in-kernel networking when running container overlay networks. Through profiling and code analysis, we find that a prolonged data path, due to packet transformation in overlay networks, is the culprit of performance loss. Furthermore, existing scaling techniques in the Linux network stack are ineffective for parallelizing the prolonged data path of a single network flow. We propose Falcon, a fast and balanced container networking approach to scale the packet processing pipeline in overlay networks. Falcon pipelines software interrupts associated with different network devices of a single flow on multiple cores, thereby preventing execution serialization of excessive software interrupts from overloading a single core. Falcon further supports multiple network flows by effectively multiplexing and balancing software interrupts of different flows among available cores. We have developed a prototype of Falcon in Linux. Our evaluation with both micro-benchmarks and real-world applications demonstrates the effectiveness of Falcon, with significantly improved performance (by 300% for web serving) and reduced tail latency (by 53% for data caching).
Computational and Experimental Study of Nozzle Performance for Rotating Detonation Rocket Engines

A computational and experimental study was conducted on nozzle geometries for rocket application rotating detonation engines (RDEs). Three geometries, including a nozzleless blunt body typically em...
Social Work as a Writing-Intensive Profession: Exploring the Relationship Between Academic and Practice Writing

The recognition of social work as a writing-intensive profession is the first step needed to bridge the divide between academic and practice writing. The demonstration of persuasive writing skills ...
Erosion of the sella turcica and pituitary expansion secondary to polymicrobial brain abscesses: a case report.

Introduction Brain abscesses can lead to a diverse array of complications, especially when they are polymicrobial in nature. Multiple underlying pathogens may present with a unique set of clinical symptoms which require an early identification and treatment. Skull base osteomyelitis with sellar floor erosion and pituitary involvement with SIADH are such rare complications of brain abscesses which have never been reported previously in the literature. Case Presentation We report the case of an immunocompetent 38-year-old male with altered mental sensorium and left hemiparesis due to polymicrobial brain abscess which required surgical evacuation. The post-operative recovery was complicated by severe hyponatremia secondary to SIADH which was treated uneventfully. Radiological imaging demonstrated pituitary enlargement with herniation through an eroded sella turcica without active CSF leak. Patient responded well to the antibiotic therapy based on microbiological susceptibility testing with a complete resolution of the pituitary enlargement on radiological follow-up. Conclusion Conservative treatment with targeted antibiotics can lead to the resolution of pituitary enlargement secondary to a brain abscess. However, a close clinical follow-up is required to look for a CSF leak considering the sellar floor erosion due to osteomyelitis.
Barriers to Inclusion: Social Roots and Current Concerns

A working knowledge of the roots of, and barriers to, diversity, equity, and inclusion within organizations is essential to creating a more inclusive community, both in and beyond the academy. Structural inequalities arise and are reproduced at multiple levels simultaneously, each reinforcing the other: socially through interaction, culturally through ideas, values, and representations, and institutionally through formal rules and procedures as well as informally through taken-for-granted norms and practices. This chapter focuses primarily on the socio-cultural and cognitive factors identified by scholars as important barriers to achieving a diverse, inclusive academic community. Identity exclusion, stereotyping, and implicit bias, among other barriers, play a role, and, together with inequitable distribution of opportunities and resources, produce and reproduce racial and gendered inequalities. Identifying barriers to inclusion and understanding how they shape behavior is critical to eliminating them.
Decentralized Authoritarianism in China: The Impact of Village Elections on the Appointment of Party Branch Secretaries

Authoritarian regimes that allow political competition at the lowest level of local government do not to so in order to organize their own downfall but because they seek to enhance the legitimacy of the Party and, in turn, extend the duration of their regime. For ruling parties that are threatened by corruption and entrenched local elites, the parsimonious use of the ballot box allows the incorporation of social groups previously excluded from the political system, institutionalizes elite recruitment and rejuvenation, and more generally enhances the responsiveness of the ruling Party to pent-up social demands without risking its hold on national power. The KMT's strategy on Taiwan before 1987 is one of the most successful examples of adaptability to limited and carefully controlled political competition. Even though in the end the ruling party accepted a complete democratization process, the KMT was able to hold onto power for a considerable amount of time, while at the same time holding locally competitive elections. Since the late 1980's, the Chinese government attempted to rejuvenate grassroots politics and reinforce the legitimacy of the CCP through a series of reforms affecting the recruitment of local leaders. Communist Party functionaries now interact with elected village governments, a configuration of local power that would seem to be at odds with the principal–agent logic that guaranteed tight Party control over government units, as we examined in the previous chapters.
Agricultural Systems Intensification and Diversification through Food Legumes: Technological and Policy Options

Food legumes provide an important opportunity to contribute to world food supplies in a sustainable way, through intensification and diversification of agricultural systems in the developing world and by providing a major source of nutrition for the world’s poor. However, over the past two decades per capita production and consumption of food legumes has steadily fallen, in contrast to the rapid growth of cereals, soybeans, and livestock products. Yields of food legumes, especially those grown in the cool season, have stagnated as crop area has often been forced into marginal areas and no yield breakthroughs have occurred. Meanwhile, there are serious problems of sustainability of cereal-based systems in the favored areas. This is due, in part, to an increased dominance of monocropping with displacement of legumes. Legume production is also risky. A high variation in yield is compounded by seasonal and annual price fluctuations in both domestic and international markets, which are often thin and fragmented.
Assessing product bioequivalence for extended‐release formulations and drugs with long half‐lives

Gehring, R., Martinez, M. Assessing product bioequivalence for extended-release formulations and drugs with long half-lives. J. vet. Pharmacol. Therap.35 (Suppl. 1), 3–9. When a drug product remains in the body for a duration of hours or days, estimating the extent of drug exposure is relatively straightforward. For immediate release (IR) dosage forms, the peak drug concentration (Cmax) and time to peak concentrations (Tmax) are typically adequate for comparing product rates of drug absorption. However, unique complexities need to be addressed when a drug remains in the system for a duration of months or years. Specifically, if the long duration of exposure is attributable to formulation effects, Cmax and Tmax may not be adequate to compare the rate of drug absorption, especially when there are multiphasic absorption processes. In this case, it may be appropriate to use partial (segmented areas) for comparing product profiles. However, the decision of how the curves are segmented is not straightforward. Points to consider are discussed in this manuscript. Alternatively, if the long half-life is due to the pharmacokinetics (PK) of the active pharmaceutical ingredient and not to formulation effects, Cmax and Tmax may be appropriate metrics for the rate of absorption but decisions regarding the duration of blood sampling needed to capture the AUC should be based upon an assessment of the inherent variability in drug absorption and elimination. Furthermore, it is important to be confident that the absorption phase is complete. In this manuscript, we explore some of the difficulties associated with determining optimal metrics for comparing the rate and extent of product release for long half life drugs when the long duration of exposure is attributable to either the inherent drug PK or to formulation effects.
Of starships and klingons: Bayesian logic for the 23 rd century

Intelligent systems in an open world must reason about many interacting entities related to each other in diverse ways and having uncertain features and relationships. Traditional probabilistic languages lack the expressive power to handle relational domains. Classical first-order logic is sufficiently expressive, but lacks a coherent plausible reasoning capability. Recent years have seen the emergence of a variety of approaches to integrating first-order logic, probability, and machine learning. This paper presents Multi-entity Bayesian networks (MEBN), a formal system that integrates First Order Logic (FOL) with Bayesian probability theory. MEBN extends ordinary Bayesian networks to allow representation of graphical models with repeated sub-structures, and can express a probability distribution over models of any consistent, finitely axiomatizable first-order theory. We present the logic using an example inspired by the Paramount Series Star Trek.
Is Doing Good Good for You? Yes, Charitable Contributions Enhance Revenue Growth

A key question concerning socially responsible corporate activities is whether such actions achieve traditional goals, such as profit maximization and shareholder value creation, or whether such activities represent a drain on resources by opportunistic managers. Much of the debate about the legitimacy of and justification for socially responsible activities would be settled if it is convincingly shown that they further traditional business goals. In this study we provide such evidence. Using a large sample of charitable contributions made by public companies from 1989 through 2000, and a statistical methodology that distinguishes causation from association, we document that charitable contributions enhance the future revenue growth of the donors. In particular, we find evidence that, for firms in industries that are highly sensitive to consumer perception, corporate giving is associated with subsequent sales growth. On the other hand, our results do not provide strong evidence that revenue growth drives future charitable giving.
Complex Adaptable Systems based on Self-Assembling Dendrimers and Dendrons: Toward Dynamic Materials

Self-assembling dendrons are biologically inspired complex systems that can form self-organized periodic arrays in the bulk state. Here we adopt the point of view of Constitutional Dynamic Chemistry (CDC) to discuss the design and properties of self-assembling dendrimers and dendronized structures. Among other objectives, CDC seeks to generate chemical diversity through constitutional dynamics, and to improve the design of dynamic materials using adaptive systems. Can we address these issues with dendrimer chemistry? We will show that generational and co-assembly approaches in the synthesis of self-assembling dendritic systems lead to a remarkable collection of periodic lattices and quasi-periodic arrays. Moreover, in some cases the morphological properties of the resulting supramolecular structures can be tuned by external signals. These dendron-based adaptive systems find applications in various fields such as nano-machines and switches or porous protein mimics.
Expected utility without bounds—A simple proof ✩

Abstract We provide a simple proof for the existence of an expected utility representation of a preference relation with an unbounded and continuous utility function.
Treatment of chronic hypertension with intravenous enalaprilat and transdermal clonidine

We report an 11-year-old boy with hypertension and chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction, which renders him totally dependent on parenteral nutrition and prevents the use of oral medications. Here we report the feasibility of utilizing chronic IV enalaprilat and transdermal clonidine on a chronic basis to control hypertension. Over the last 10 months, the patient’s hypertension has been well controlled by 1.25 mg IV enalaprilat every 8 h and a 0.2-mg clonidine patch every 6 days, with no apparent side-effects. There are no reports of IV enalaprilat usage exceeding 3 weeks’ duration. Therefore we believe that it is possible to effect reasonable management of chronic hypertension with the use of chronic IV enalaprilat and transdermal clonidine therapy.
Recoding Discourses in Higher Education: Critical Views on Recruiting Materials for Latin@ College Students

R. Stanton-Salazar (1997) suggested that minority students who successfully navigate the contexts of higher education are able to do so by “decoding” the system. Rather than obligating students to decode the system, we contend that institutions should recode the information they provide to prospective students from minority backgrounds. We focus on the promotional materials of an aspiring Hispanic-Serving Institution for our analysis.
Measurements in the near-field of a turbulent wingtip vortex

The roll-up of a wingtip vortex, at Reynold's number based on chord of 4.6 million, was examined with emphasis on suction side and near wake measurements. Surface oil flow and laser smoke flow studies are performed, demonstrating the highly 3D nature of the flow around the wingtip, the formation of the feeding sheet, and the viscous core region of the vortex. Flow visualization and correlation measurements show that meandering of the vortex is small and does not appreciably contribute to the turbulence measurements.
Reliability Evaluation of ECL Integrated Circuits

An evaluation study has been completed on ECL circuits of various circuit complexities. The study consisted of electrical and physical characterization, step stress and accelerated long term testing, failure analysis and failure rate determination. 575 devices from four different manufacturers were studied. Four failure modes were identified and shown to be caused by electromigration phenomena. The results of this study indicate that the devices evaluated can reliably operate at the military specified ambient temperature of 125°C provided the termination is 100? as specified in MIL-M-38510/60. Reliable operation is possible into a 50? termination for an ambient temperature of 85°C.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: Selected practical issues in their evaluation and management

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common causes of elevated liver enzymes and chronic liver disease in the Western countries.1-3 Its incidence in adults and children is rising rapidly due to the ongoing epidemics of obesity and type2 diabetes.4, 5 It is a multifaceted metabolic disorder and is encountered in clinical practice by a variety of health care specialists ranging from primary care physicians and gastroenterologists to cardiologists, radiologists and gynecologists. It comprises of a spectrum of liver disease ranging from simple steatosis to full blown steatohepatitis that is characterized by steatosis, lobular inflammation, ballooning and fibrosis.6 Over the last several years, much progress has been made in terms of our understanding of its risk factors, pathogenesis, natural history, non-invasive markers and treatment. This review is tailored towards clinicians caring for patients with NAFLD and it discusses practical issues related to selected aspects of its evaluation and management.
Radiation damage effects in layered thin film MgO/HfO2 structures

Abstract In this report, we present a study of a thin film tri-layer structure, HfO2/MgO/HfO2, irradiated at room temperature with 10 MeV Au ions over a wide fluence range from 5 × 1013 to 3.7 × 1016 Au/cm2. The tri-layer structure is a model representation for the microstructure in a composite dispersion nuclear fuel or waste form. Microstructural and chemical composition changes were examined by transmission and scanning transmission electron microscopy (TEM & STEM) combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) techniques. The microstructural evolution in the HfO2/MgO/HfO2 trilayer was similar to the radiation damage behavior of the individual HfO2 and MgO constituents. For instance, we observed an absence of amorphization in both the MgO and HfO2 layers and a phase transformation of HfO2 from the monoclinic to the tetragonal HfO2 polymorph. In addition, we observed the formation of void-type defects at one of the MgO/HfO2 interfaces. Such voids are not characteristic to either bulk material (MgO or HfO2) exposed to ion irradiation.
Estimation of parameters of a two-dimensional spatial autoregressive model with regression

Abstract A two-dimensional autoregressive model with regression has been considered in its causal form using the representation of Basawa, Brockwell and Mandrekar (1990). Asymptotic normality of the estimators of the parameters is derived. Further, an Empirical Bayes estimator is suggested for the regression coefficient. It is shown that the asymptotic risk of this Empirical Bayes estimator is less than that of the maximum likelihood estimator. These findings are in accordance with Kim, Nickerson and Basawa (1989).
First-principles study of the structure of stoichiometric and Mn-deficient MnO2

Abstract We present an extensive Density Functional Theory study on the phases and magnetic states of MnO2, with over 300 calculations of various Mn–vacancy configurations and magnetic spin states. It is shown that the paramagnetic extrapolations of spin-polarized results are essential to correctly reproduce pyrolusite as the ground state of MnO2. Paramagnetic energies are obtained by fitting a Heisenberg Hamiltonian to the energy of 10–20 magnetic configurations for each of 16 possible MnO2 polymorphs. Near groundstate degeneracy is shown to occur due to the frustration of otherwise large interactions. While many other structures are found to be near degenerate in energy with pyrolusite, no thermal disorder exists in the system up to several thousand degrees. The thermal disorder is suppressed because the strong correlation of the Mn–vacancy order along the lines of face-sharing octahedra removes any low-energy excitations from the system. Mn vacancies compensated by protons (Ruetschi defects), ubiquitously present in commercial MnO2, are shown to have a dramatic effect on phase stability. The stabilizing effects of Ruetschi defects may explain the presence in MnO2 of ramsdellite and twinning, both of which are unstable in the pure material. We believe Ruetschi defects to be an important source of the structural complexity of synthetic MnO2 produced either electrochemically or chemically.
Review of impotence literature protein and gene expression of nitric oxide synthase isoforms I and III in the rat penile shaft

Protein and gene expression of nitric oxide synthase isoforms I and III in the rat penile shaft
On the weighted decay for solutions of the Navier-Stokes system

Abstract We consider the question of to what extent the temporal decay ‖ u ( ⋅ , t ) ‖ L 2 = O ( t − γ 0 ) for solutions u of the Navier–Stokes equation influences the decay of weighted norms. We prove that ‖ | x | a u ( ⋅ , t ) ‖ L 2 = O ( t − γ 0 + a / 2 ) holds under the condition 0 ≤ a n / 2 + 1 . This extends the range of weights obtained in [I. Kukavica, J.J. Torres, Weighted L p decay for solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations, Commun. Partial Differential Equations 32 (2007) 819–831]. A wider range of exponents is also obtained for the decay of L p norms.