cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The fractal nature of Bezier curves

Fractals are attractors - fixed points of iterated function systems. Bezier curves are polynomials - linear combinations of Bernstein basis functions. The de Casteljau subdivision algorithm is used here to show that Bezier curves are also attractors. Thus, somewhat surprisingly, Bezier curves are fractals. This fractal nature of Bezier curves is exploited to derive a new rendering algorithm for Bezier curves.
An introduction to statistical flowgraph models for engineering systems

Statistical flowgraph models have proven useful for analysis and modeling of complex systems viewed as multistate processes that lead to outcomes such as degraded operation or failure. This article provides an engineering-oriented introduction to statistical flowgraph models: system representation, setting up a flowgraph model, parameter estimation, solution of the model (using either a frequentist or Bayesian approach), and interpretation of model outputs. The method is illustrated with a model for piping reliability in a nuclear power plant, and compared with alternative solution methods.
Scheduling and module assignment for reducing BIST resources

Built-in self-test (BIST) techniques modify functional hardware to give a data path the capability to test itself. The modification of data path registers into registers (BIST resources) that can generate pseudo-random test patterns and/or compress test responses, incurs an area overhead penalty. We show how scheduling and module assignment in high-level synthesis affect BIST resource requirements of a data path. A scheduling and module assignment procedure is presented that produces schedules which, when used to synthesize data paths, result in a significant reduction in BIST area overhead and hence total area.
Hermaphroditic liquid-crystal microlens

We demonstrate a flat microlens that exhibits hermaphroditic focusing properties. When the input polarization is parallel (perpendicular) to the liquid-crystal directors, the lens exhibits a positive (negative) focal length. To select the proper polarization, we could rotate the polarizer (or the lens) mechanically or by use of an electrically controlled twisted nematic liquid-crystal cell. Details of the lens structure and of the device's fabrication and performance are described.
Alopecia universalis in an HIV-positive patient: possible insight into pathogenesis

Alopecia universalis, a variant of alopecia areata, is a disease of unknown etiology, though evidence for an autoimmune etiology continues to mount. We report an HIV-positive patient with altered T-lymphocyte subsets in whom alopecia universalis developed. A skin biopsy of the patient's scalp demonstrated a classic perifollicular lymphocytic infiltrate, and immunophenotyping of the same specimen revealed that the majority of the cells were CD4+ lymphocytes. During the active loss of hair, the patient's CD4/CD8 ratio was decreased. This ratio normalized during the period of regrowth. Our data suggest that systemic immune dysfunction, as seen in HIV infection, may be more important in mediating alopecia areata than localized immune responses. Given the proposed mechanism of alopecia areata developing in this patient, i.e. influx of CD4+ lymphocytes to the perifollicular regions of skin when the CD4/CD8 ratio is low, it is surprising that alopecia areata is not seen more commonly in patients with HIV infection.
Intermediate-term Outcomes of Surgical Atrial Fibrillation Correction with the CryoMaze Procedure

Background Few studies have reported long-term outcomes of surgical atrial fibrillation (AF) correction. We perform the Cox-Maze III lesion set with argon-powered cryoenergy (CryoMaze procedure) on all patients with AF presenting for cardiac operations. This study reports long-term clinical results and heart rhythm status. Methods Between July 2002 and November 2005, 119 consecutive patients underwent surgical AF correction with the CryoMaze procedure. Mitral valve disease was the primary indication for operation in 66%. AF was continuous in 65%. Rhythm assessment was with 2-week continuous electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring in 75% of patients and by noncontinuous ECG in the remainder. Median follow-up was 3.2 years and was 98% complete. Results There was one hospital (0.8%) death. Survival at 3 years was 84%. One perioperative stroke resolved completely. No late strokes occurred. In 4 of 119 patients (4 (3.4%), pacemakers were inserted during the index hospitalization. Median length of stay was 7 days. Overall freedom from AF more than 3 years after operation was 60%. Among patients with preoperative intermittent AF, 85% (28 of 33) were in normal sinus rhythm, and 47% (27 of 58) with continuous AF were in normal sinus rhythm ( p Conclusions CryoMaze AF correction is safe and is associated with a very low risk of stroke. Rates of normal sinus rhythm at more than 3 years postoperatively were high for patients with intermittent AF and acceptable for those with continuous AF. This experience supports wider application of the CryoMaze to all patients with AF who need cardiac operations.
Distinguishing familiarity-based from source-based memory performance in patients with schizophrenia

Background There is substantial current interest in the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia, particularly those in the realm of memory. Yet the exact nature of these deficits remains a matter of some debate. This study sought to examine performance on two distinct aspects of memory performance: familiarity-based and source-based memory processes.
Lead By Example

A growing national interest in physical fitness has presented a variety of challenges for the recreational sports professional. Questions such as, which activities provide the greatest fitness benefits, how can I promote interest in physical fitness, and which activities need to be added and/or eliminated are common today. The trend in physical fitness for better health is real and here to stay, and only by finding the best answers to the above questions can professionals hope to serve all of their clientele (Lamke, 1980, p.4).
“La Orquesta”: Symbolic Performance in a Multilingual Community of Practice

Researchers in second language socialization (SLS) often examine those interactions relating to a learner's integration within a target community. Kramsch and Whiteside (2008) noted the importance of symbolic competence in this integration. Symbolic competence, defined as the ability to access contextually relevant social and political histories in order to "play with various linguistic codes and the various spatial and temporal resonances of these codes" (p. 664), is viewed at least partially in interaction. The current article contains an analysis of how one individual performed his own orientations of symbolic competence--what I term symbolic performance--in the context of his community of practice. Through a close discourse analysis of a conversation between Mejandro, a native speaker of Spanish, and members of his Quichua-speaking community, I highlight how certain symbols and histories were performed in what was, on the surface, a lighthearted interaction. This analysis reveals how members of the target community resisted some aspects of Alejandro's performance and examines the implications of this resistance for Mejandro's socialization into the community. The findings of this study add to a new body of literature that operationalizes and problemafizes the notion of symbolic competence in multilingual communities of practice and other SLS contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
A Three-Protein Signaling Pathway Governing Immunity to a Bacterial Cannibalism Toxin

We describe a three-protein signal-transduction pathway that governs immunity to a protein toxin involved in cannibalism by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Cells of B. subtilis enter the pathway to sporulate under conditions of nutrient limitation but delay becoming committed to spore formation by killing nonsporulating siblings and feeding on the dead cells. Killing is mediated by the exported toxic protein SdpC. We report that extracellular SdpC induces the synthesis of an immunity protein, SdpI, that protects toxin-producing cells from being killed. SdpI, a polytopic membrane protein, is encoded by a two-gene operon under sporulation control that contains the gene for an autorepressor, SdpR. The autorepressor binds to and blocks the promoter for the operon. Evidence indicates that SdpI is also a signal-transduction protein that responds to the SdpC toxin by sequestering the SdpR autorepressor at the membrane. Sequestration relieves repression and stimulates synthesis of immunity protein.
Psychosocial work environment and depressive symptoms among US workers: comparing working poor and working non-poor.

The psychosocial work environment has been associated with mental health outcomes; however, little research has examined this relationship for low-wage workers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between psychosocial job characteristics and depressive symptoms for US workers using an expanded model of job quality. Data were from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, a nationally representative study of wage and salaried workers in the US. Working poor was defined as households earning <250% of the federal poverty threshold. Multivariate logistic regression models show for working poor employees, job insecurity was the single significant correlate of depressive symptoms after controlling for other demographic and work environment variables. For working non-poor employees, high psychological demands and low supervisor and coworker support were associated with depressive symptoms. Findings suggest all jobs do not equally affect employees’ depressive symptoms. Implications for research that may improve the mental health of the working poor in the US are presented.
Aligning the Stars: How to Succeed When Professionals Drive Results

The article presents a review of the book “Aligning the Stars: How to Succeed When Professionals Drive Results,” by Jay W. Lorsch and Thomas J. Tierney.
Reproductive isolation and phylogenetic divergence in Neurospora: comparing methods of species recognition in a model eukaryote.

We critically examined methods for recognizing species in the model filamentous fungal genusNeurospora by comparing traditional biological species recognition (BSR) with more comprehensive applications of both BSR and phylogenetic species recognition (PSR). Comprehensive BSR was applied to a set of 73 individuals by performing extensive crossing experiments and delineating biological species based on patterns of reproductive success. Within what were originally considered two species, N. crassa and N. intermedia, we recognized four reproductively isolated biological species. In a concurrent study (Dettman et al. 2003), we used genealogical concordance of four independent nuclear loci to recognize phylogenetic species in Neurospora. Overall, the groups of individuals identified as species were similar whether recognized by reproductive success or by phylogenetic criteria, and increased genetic distance between parents was associated with decreased reproductive success of crosses, suggesting that PSR using genealogical concordance can be used to reliably recognize species in organisms that are not candidates for BSR. In one case, two phylogenetic species were recognized as a single biological species, indicating that significant phylogenetic divergence preceded the development of reproductive isolation. However, multiple biological species were never recognized as a single phylogenetic species. Each of the putative N. crassa 3 N. intermedia hybrids included in this study was confidently assigned to a single species, using both PSR and BSR. As such, no evidence for a history of hybridization in nature among Neurospora species was observed. By performing reciprocal mating tests, we found that mating type, parental role, and species identity of parental individuals could all influence the reproductive success of matings. We also observed sympatry-associated sexual dysfunction in interspecific crosses, which was consistent with the existence of reinforcement mechanisms.
How Law Defines Art

Defining art is both hard and subjective. But in lots of contexts the law must arrive at a just solution to hard and subjective questions. The art world (which includes artists, buyers, art lovers, art historians, and art writers generally) has largely neglected the task of defining artworks. This neglect has crept into legal disputes as contemporary art has become more conceptual. It has loosened the limits of aesthetics, form, function, and composition. This makes crafting a definition even more challenging. Yet the Law has an important part to play in resolving art disputes. In doing so courts end up defining art. They do not set out to do so, and in fact they do all they can to avoid acting as art critics. But paradoxically this creates inconsistent judicial reasoning and leads to under-reasoned opinions. The solution offered here, is to acknowledge this critical function, and encourage courts to engage with the visual arts community, and for the arts community to engage back.
A detailed anatomy of factor misallocation in India

This paper complements the results of earlier work on factor misallocation. The paper first expands the methodology and provides two important decompositions for the main indices. The main result is that factor and output misallocation across districts is at least as important as misallocation within districts. Second, the paper provides an exploration of the service sector that complements earlier work on manufacturing. The analysis shows that labor plays a fundamental role for misallocation in services, whereas land is the determining factor in manufacturing. Third, the paper expands our earlier work on the effects of policies on misallocation by looking at a much broader range of policies, and find strong evidence of their effects on misallocation. Finally, the paper take steps towards the identification of the causal effect of misallocation on output per worker by developing a novel instrumental variable approach and a simulation approach that allows for checking the consistency of the empirical results.
Delayed Collapse of a Pipeline Embolization Device.

BACKGROUND The Pipeline Embolization Device (PED) is a treatment modality for wide-neck complex intracranial aneurysms. There have been recent reports for the use of PEDs in dissecting pseudoaneurysms of the cervical carotid arteries. The use of this flow diversion technology has emerged as a promising alternative; however, there are various risks and complications that one should be aware of. OBJECTIVE To report a rare postoperative complication, identified during follow-up, in a patient initially treated for an internal carotid artery dissection with multiple overlapping PEDs. METHODS A 53-year-old male with unremarkable history presented with acute Horner's syndrome, and imaging findings revealing internal carotid artery dissection and pseudoaneurysm with significant flow-limiting stenosis. He underwent treatment with a PED. RESULTS At 3 months post-operation, a cerebral angiogram demonstrated that one of his pipeline stents in the posterior cavernous segment had collapsed at its central portion. Flow was preserved around the outside of the collapsed device. We performed 4 rounds of balloon angioplasty with modest, but not complete, re-expansion of the stent. The patient has been doing well in the postoperative period with no complications. CONCLUSION The PED's role in the management of aneurysms and other intra- and extra-cranial vascular pathologies continues to expand, and new complications are bound to be discovered, similar to our case. As the use of these devices becomes routine and widespread, the frequency of these complications will increase. The management of unforeseen complications of PEDs, such as a collapsed stent, will need to be determined on an individual basis.
Use of Fast HPLC Multiple Reaction Monitoring Cubed for Endogenous Retinoic Acid Quantification in Complex Matrices

Retinoic acid (RA), an essential active metabolite of vitamin A, controls numerous physiological processes. In addition to the analytical challenges owing to its geometric isomers, low endogenous abundance, and often localized occurrence, nonspecific interferences observed during liquid chromatography (LC) multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) quantification methods have necessitated lengthy chromatography to obtain accurate quantification free of interferences. We report the development and validation of a fast high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) multiplexing multiple reaction monitoring cubed (MRM3) assay for selective and sensitive quantification of endogenous RA from complex matrices. The fast HPLC separation was achieved using an embedded amide C18 column packed with 2.7 μm fused-core particles which provided baseline resolution of endogenous RA isomers (all-trans-RA, 9-cis-RA, 13-cis-RA, and 9,13-di-cis-RA) and demonstrated significant improvements in chromatographic efficiency compared to po...
Film-Cooling Jets Analyzed with Proper Orthogonal Decomposition and Dynamic Mode Decomposition

Film cooling jets were simulated using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) at blowing ratios of 0.150, 0.50 and 1.0. The results were analyzed using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) as a statistical analysis tool and the first step toward reduced order modeling. The results of both decompositions are presented and put in perspective with dominant vortical structures and heat transfer mechanisms observed in the instantaneous velocity and temperature fields. Assessment of the performance of the decompositions is provided in terms of energy content and rendered dominant frequencies. Evolution of the dominant modes and decomposition metrics are discussed as the blowing ratio is increased.
Abstract 475: Delineation of a cellular hierarchy in lung cancer reveals an oncofetal antigen expressed on tumor-initiating cells

Poorly differentiated tumors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are refractory to chemotherapy and associated with short survival time. Here we integrate multiple experimental models with clinicopathological analysis of patient tumors to delineate a cellular hierarchy in NSCLC. We demonstrate that the oncofetal protein 5T4 is expressed on tumor-initiating cells and associated with worse clinical outcome in NSCLC. Coexpression of 5T4 and factors involved in the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition was observed in undifferentiated but not in differentiated tumor cells. Despite heterogeneous expression of 5T4 in NSCLC patient-derived xenografts, treatment with an anti-5T4 antibody-drug conjugate resulted in complete and sustained tumor regression. Thus, the aggressive growth of heterogeneous solid tumors can be blocked by therapeutic agents that target a subpopulation of cells near the top of the cellular hierarchy. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 475. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-475
Leadership issues in governance of complex systems

Complex systems are characterised by many autonomous and diverse interrelated components, tightly coupled through many interconnections; irreducible; exhibiting emergence; as well as being inseparable from their environment and context. These characteristics also describe modern enterprises whose landscapes are fraught with difficulties stemming from excess complexity, emergence, and uncertainty. System control and guidance are provided by metasystems, which are the sets of interrelated functions that govern the systems or enterprises. Governance provides control, communications, integration and coordination functions for a complex system, and includes the establishment and execution of policies and procedures that help ensure viability of the system. In this article, the role of leadership in establishing and ensuring execution of complex systems governance functions will be explored from a systems theory perspective.
The Limitation of X~2 Test to Contigency Table Where One of the Categories is Ordinal

Blindly using chi-square to test association of two factors in row and column of a contingency table without consideration of one factor as ordinal variable is a popular mistake found in academic periodicals. In this article we demonstrate the differences between chi-square and rank-sum test on this type of contingency table analysis through two examples. This article is supposed to make an effort to call the attention of clinical practitioners and researchers to get corresponding results correctly from original data.
Nutrient intake and food patterns of Indians on Standing Rock Reservation1

Reservation Indians today are among the disadvantaged in the U.S. Their poverty is reflected in the poor nutrient intakes and food habits of the women reported in this study.
Human monocytes lose 5-lipoxygenase and FLAP as they mature into monocyte-derived macrophages in vitro

Previous studies in mononuclear phagocytes have shown that macrophages have substantially greater 5-lipoxygenase activity than monocytes and that this is associated with greater amounts of 5-lipoxygenase and its activating protein (FLAP). The aim of this study was to examine the effect of mononuclear phagocyte maturation in vitro on 5-lipoxygenase expression. At baseline, monocytes had significant 5-lipoxygenase activity, but then lost all detectable 5-lipoxygenase activity over 7 days. Immunoblot and Northern blot analysis revealed that immunoreactive protein and mRNA for both 5-lipoxygenase and FLAP were significantly decreased over time. These studies demonstrate that in vitro differentiation of monocytes into a macrophage phenotype is not accompanied by the enhanced expression of 5-lipoxygenase and FLAP seen in macrophages derived from in vivo sources. In fact, baseline expression of 5-lipoxygenase and FLAP by monocytes is lost in vitro. These studies have clear implications for the use of cultured monocytes as a model of macrophages, and they also further our understanding of the regulation of the 5-lipoxygenase pathway.
Prospective representation of navigational goals in the human hippocampus

Mental representation of the future is a fundamental component of goal-directed behavior. Computational and animal models highlight prospective spatial coding in the hippocampus, mediated by interactions with the prefrontal cortex, as a putative mechanism for simulating future events. Using whole-brain high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging and multi-voxel pattern classification, we tested whether the human hippocampus and interrelated cortical structures support prospective representation of navigational goals. Results demonstrated that hippocampal activity patterns code for future goals to which participants subsequently navigate, as well as for intervening locations along the route, consistent with trajectory-specific simulation. The strength of hippocampal goal representations covaried with goal-related coding in the prefrontal, medial temporal, and medial parietal cortex. Collectively, these data indicate that a hippocampal-cortical network supports prospective simulation of navigational events during goal-directed planning.
Selection Criteria for Complete Cytoreduction after Cytoreductive Surgery for Peritoneal Surface Malignancy: Lessons Learned from Our First Series of Patients

The appropriate selection criteria for complete cytoreduction in patients with peritoneal surface malignancies have not been determined. We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients receiving cytoreductive surgery (CRS) during the study period of 2004 to 2008 to determine appropriate selection criteria for successful complete cytoreduction. During the study period, 38 patients underwent attempted CRS. Cytoreduction was scored complete, incomplete, or not reported in 53 per cent (n = 20), 37 per cent (n = 14), and 11 per cent (n = 4), respectively. Median overall survival for compete and incomplete cytoreduction was 56 months versus 5 months (P = 0.011), respectively. Compared with incomplete cytoreduction, patients receiving complete cytoreduction were more likely to have a lower Peritoneal Cancer Index (PCI) and not have received preoperative systemic chemotherapy (CT). Univariate analysis verified PCI greater than 20 (hazard ratio [HR], 0.048; CI, 0.004 to 0.515; P = 0.01) and CT (HR, 0.17; 0.004 to 0.77; P = 0.021) as predictors of incomplete cytoreduction. Small bowel (100%), periportal region (33%), and mesentery (27%) were the most common sites of residual disease. In conclusion, PCI less than 20 and the need for preoperative chemotherapy should be strongly considered when selecting patients with peritoneal surface malignancy for attempted cytoreduction. Early evaluation of the small bowel, mesentery, and periportal region for resectability prevents unnecessary surgery.
Interlingua, Thesaurus, Deduction

Wilks’s system, which has produced, in his opinion, ‘good French for small English paragraphs’, is still under development, and I do not wish to discuss its operation at much greater length; but some further consideration is required for a more thorough evaluation of his theoretical position.
Towards efficient server architecture for virtualized network function deployment: implications and implementations

Recent years have seen a revolution in network infrastructure brought on by the ever-increasing demands for data volume. One promising proposal to emerge from this revolution is Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), which has been widely adopted by service and cloud providers. The essence of NFV is to run network functions as virtualized workloads on commodity Standard High Volume Servers (SHVS), which is the industry standard. However, our experience using NFV when deployed on modern NUMA-based SHVS paints a frustrating picture. Due to the complexity in the NFV data plane and its service function chain feature, modern NFV deployment on SHVS exhibits a unique processing pattern — heterogeneous software pipeline (HSP), in which the NFV traffic flows must be processed by heterogeneous software components sequentially from the NIC to the end re-ceiver. Since the end-to-end performance of flows is cooperatively determined by the performance of each processing stage, the resource allocation/mapping scheme in NUMA-based SHVS must consider a thread-dependence scheduling to tradeoff the impact of co-located contention and remote packet transmission. In this paper, we develop a thread scheduling mechanism that collaboratively places threads of HSP to minimize the end-to-end performance slowdown for NFV traffic flow. It employs a dynamic programming-based method to search for the optimal thread mapping with negligible overhead. To serve this mechanism, we also develop a performance slowdown estimation model to accurately estimate the performance slowdown at each stage of HSP. We implement our collaborative thread scheduling mechanism on a real system and evaluate it using real workloads. On average, our algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art NUMA-aware and contention-aware scheduling policies by at least 7% on CPU utilization and 23% on traffic throughput with negligible computational overhead (less than 1 second).
JetStream: cluster-scale parallelization of information flow queries

Dynamic information flow tracking (DIFT) is an important tool in many domains, such as security, debugging, forensics, provenance, configuration troubleshooting, and privacy tracking. However, the usability of DIFT is currently limited by its high overhead; complex information flow queries can take up to two orders of magnitude longer to execute than the original execution of the program. This precludes interactive uses in which users iteratively refine queries to narrow down bugs, leaks of private data, or performance anomalies.JetStream applies cluster computing to parallelize and accelerate information flow queries over past executions. It uses deterministic record and replay to time slice executions into distinct contiguous chunks of execution called epochs, and it tracks information flow for each epoch on a separate core in the cluster. It structures the aggregation of information flow data from each epoch as a streaming computation. Epochs are arranged in a sequential chain from the beginning to the end of program execution; relationships to program inputs (sources) are streamed forward along the chain, and relationships to program outputs (sinks) are streamed backward. Jet-Stream is the first system to parallelize DIFT across a cluster. Our results show that JetStream queries scale to at least 128 cores over a wide range of applications. JetStream accelerates DIFT queries to run 12-48 times faster than sequential queries; in most cases, queries run faster than the original execution of the program.
Building Field Agencies' Capacity to Prepare Staff and Social Work Students for Evidence-Based Trauma Treatments:

Preparing MSW students to use an evidence-based approach to practice and implement empirically supported treatment protocols is imperative for social work education. Both classroom education and fi...
Interprofessional Education in the Internal Medicine Clerkship Post-LCME Standard Issuance: Results of a National Survey

Several decades of work have detailed the value and goals of interprofessional education (IPE) within the health professions, defining IPE competencies and best practices. In 2013, the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) elevated IPE to a U.S. medical school accreditation standard. To examine the status of IPE within internal medicine (IM) clerkships including perspectives, curricular content, barriers, and assessment a year after the LCME standard issuance. Anonymous online survey. IM clerkship directors from each of the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine’s 121 U.S. and Canadian member medical schools in 2014. In 2014, a section on IPE (18 items) was included in the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine annual survey of its 121 U.S. and Canadian member medical schools. Items (18) assessed clerkship director (CD) perspectives, status of IPE curricula in IM clerkships, and barriers to IPE implementation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis of free-text responses to one of the survey questions. The overall survey response rate was 78% (94/121). The majority (88%) agreed that IPE is important to the practice of IM, and 71% believed IPE should be part of the IM clerkship. Most (76%) CDs agreed there is need for faculty development programs in IPE; 27% had such a program at their institution. Lack of curricular time, scheduling conflicts, and lack of faculty trained in IPE were the most frequently cited barriers. Twenty-nine percent had formal IPE activities within their IM clerkships, and 38% were planning to make changes. Of those with formal IPE activities, over a third (37%) did not involve student assessment. Since LCME standard issuance, only a minority of IM clerkships have included formal IPE activities, with lectures as the predominant method. Opportunities exist for enhancing educational methods as well as IPE faculty development.
Cervical Spine Imaging: Normal Anatomy and Degenerative Disease

A review of the normal anatomy of the cervical spine and degenerative disease of the cervical spine is presented with imaging correlation.
Normal Peak Expiratory Flow Rate of School Children in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh

To measure the Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) of healthy school children and to find out the correlation between PEFR values and anthropometric parameters, to create a nomogram of PEFR for children and formulate a regression formula for PEFR. A cross-sectional study was conducted on healthy school children between the age group of 10 and 16 y, at three higher secondary schools selected in urban area of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. After collecting baseline data, PEFR was measured using mini Wright peak flow meter. The highest of three measurements were recorded for analysis. Of the 2607 students screened, 2156 were included in the study. Out of which 757 were boys and 1399 were girls. Significant linear correlation was seen in PEFR with height, weight and BMI (r = 0.847, r = 0.750 & r = 0.466 respectively, p < 0.001). Nomograms were plotted based on the observed values of PEFR in the study population. Prediction equations were derived for PEFR with height and weight in boys and girls. Prediction equations for PEFR are -464 + 1.408 × Weight (kg) + 439.192 × Height (m) in boys and −486.544 + 1.064 × Weight (kg) + 462.282 × Height (m) in girls. Significant correlation was noted between PEFR and anthropometric parameters like height, weight and BMI. Hence, nomogram and formula created can be used in the study area.
Another look at distance-weighted discrimination

Summary Distance-weighted discrimination (DWD) is a modern margin-based classifier with an interesting geometric motivation. It was proposed as a competitor to the support vector machine (SVM). Despite many recent references on DWD, DWD is far less popular than the SVM, mainly because of computational and theoretical reasons. We greatly advance the current DWD methodology and its learning theory. We propose a novel thrifty algorithm for solving standard DWD and generalized DWD, and our algorithm can be several hundred times faster than the existing state of the art algorithm based on second-order cone programming. In addition, we exploit the new algorithm to design an efficient scheme to tune generalized DWD. Furthermore, we formulate a natural kernel DWD approach in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space and then establish the Bayes risk consistency of the kernel DWD by using a universal kernel such as the Gaussian kernel. This result solves an open theoretical problem in the DWD literature. A comparison study on 16 benchmark data sets shows that data-driven generalized DWD consistently delivers higher classification accuracy with less computation time than the SVM.
Media Ethics and Journalism in Tanzania

Media ethics scholars have been debating the value of using normative versus culture-specific approaches for formulating and understanding media ethics. However, few studies have examined how the colonial history of a developing country influences its ability to enforce normative principles of media ethics. This chapter provides a review of various stages of media evolution in Tanzania and their role in shaping ethical guidelines for its journalists, and offers suggestions to refine ethical guidelines for media operating with limited resources and restricted press freedom. I argue that postcolonial countries such as Tanzania require a hybrid form of ethical framework, where universal values of providing unbiased reporting have to be balanced with the need for monetary help from news sources to complete the given reporting assignment.
Defect Calculations for FCC and BCC Metals

Interatomic potentials employing non-central forces have been developed for fcc metals and used to determine the minimum energy configurations of interstitial defects in these materials. In the bcc metals, central potentials were developed and used to calculate vacancy migration energies and divacancy binding energies. Phonon dispersion curves were also calculated using these models.
Psychopathy, Violence,and Brain Imaging

Advances in brain imaging techniques in the past 15 years have provided the opportunity to gain dramatic, new insights into the brain mechanisms that may be dysfunctional in violent, psychopathic offenders. In the past, the idea of peering into the mind of a murderer to gain insights into their acts was the province of pulp fiction or space-age movies. Yet now we can literally look at, and into, the brains of murderers using functional and structural imaging techniques which are currently revolutionizing our understanding of the causes of clinical disorders.
Creating Socio-Technical Patches for Information Foraging: A Requirements Traceability Case Study

Work in information foraging theory presumes that software developers have a predefined patch of information (e.g., a Java class) within which they conduct a search task. However, not all tasks have easily delineated patches. Requirements traceability, where a developer must traverse a combination of technical artifacts and social structures, is one such task. We examine requirements socio-technical graphs to describe the key relationships that a patch should encode to assist in a requirements traceability task. We then present an algorithm, based on spreading activation, which extracts a relevant set of these relationships as a patch. We test this algorithm in requirements repositories of four open-source software projects. Our results show that applying this algorithm creates useful patches with reduced superfluous information.
Mass Cytometry Identifies Immunomic Shifts in the Bone Marrow Microenvironment of Multiple Myeloma and Light Chain Amyloidosis after Standard of Care First Line Therapies

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Traditional cytometry methods have been unable to capture the immense heterogeneity of the tumor immune microenvironment in various malignancies including multiple myeloma (MM). Cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF) can, to some extent, overcome this limitation. However, the computational challenges that come with analyzing these complex datasets in a reproducible manner remain. In this study, using a large cohort of patients, we compare the bone marrow immunomes from patients with MGUS, multiple myeloma (MM), smoldering MM (SMM) and light chain amyloidosis (AL) at diagnosis, after induction therapy with lenalidomide and dexamethasone and after autologous transplant (ASCT). METHODS: We studied a total of 118 cryopreserved samples as follows: 14 healthy donors, 43 AL (27 newly diagnosed-ND, of which 13 with Download : Download high-res image (364KB) Download : Download full-size image Disclosures Dispenzieri: Celgene, Takeda, Prothena, Jannsen, Pfizer, Alnylam, GSK: Research Funding. Kumar: Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; AbbVie: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; KITE: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding.
Outcomes and Cost Comparison of Percutaneous Endovascular Aortic Repair versus Endovascular Aortic Repair With Open Femoral Exposure.

Abstract Background The objective of this study was to assess cost differences between patients who underwent percutaneous endovascular aortic repair (PEVAR) and open surgical femoral exposure in elective endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) of abdominal aortic aneurysms. Materials and methods An IRB-approved single center retrospective analysis of patients who underwent elective EVAR for abdominal aortic aneurysms from 2009 to 2016 was performed. One hundred patients were selected with 50 patients who underwent PEVAR and 50 patients who underwent open surgical femoral exposure. Patient demographics, procedural variables, and hospital outcomes were collected and compared. Primary outcomes assessed used in cost calculations included operating time (OR time), hospital length of stay (LOS), and intensive care unit stay (ICU LOS). Extrapolated cost differences were based on known, published cost multipliers for the primary outcomes observed. Results Patients undergoing PEVAR had significant reduction in mean OR time (113.9 min versus 144.9 min, P Conclusions Prior reports comparing PEVAR versus EVAR with open femoral exposures have shown improvement in overall patient time to ambulation and other hospital metrics such as LOS with PEVAR. There is, however, a paucity of overall cost comparison data regarding PEVAR. In this study, adoption of PEVAR was seen to significantly reduce OR times (19%) and overall hospital LOS (50%). The outcomes observed ultimately translated into significant reduction in hospital costs.
Type 1 diabetes is associated with an increase in cholesterol absorption markers but a decrease in cholesterol synthesis markers in a young adult population.

Background To optimize treatment and prevent cardiovascular disease in subjects with type 1 diabetes, it is important to determine how cholesterol metabolism changes with type 1 diabetes. Objective The objective of the study was to compare plasma levels of campesterol and β-sitosterol, markers of cholesterol absorption, as well as lathosterol, a marker of cholesterol synthesis, in youth with and without type 1 diabetes. Methods Serum samples were obtained from adolescent subjects with type 1 diabetes (n = 175, mean age 15.2 years, mean duration of diabetes 8.2 years) and without diabetes (n = 74, mean age 15.4 years). Campesterol, β-sitosterol, and lathosterol, were measured using targeted liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, compared between groups, and correlated with the available cardiometabolic variables. Results Campesterol and β-sitosterol levels were 30% higher in subjects with type 1 diabetes and positively correlated with hemoglobin A1c levels. In contrast, lathosterol levels were 20% lower in subjects with type 1 diabetes and positively correlated with triglycerides, body mass index, and systolic blood pressure. Conclusion Plasma markers suggest that cholesterol absorption is increased, whereas cholesterol synthesis is decreased in adolescent subjects with type 1 diabetes. Further studies to address the impact of these changes on the relative efficacy of cholesterol absorption and synthesis inhibitors in subjects with type 1 diabetes are urgently needed.
STGM: Spatio-Temporal GPU Management for Real-Time Tasks

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have been considered as a promising technology to address the high computational demands of real-time data-intensive applications. Today's embedded processors already offer on-chip GPUs, the use of which can greatly help satisfy the timing requirements of realtime tasks by accelerating their execution. However, existing GPU management schemes either underutilize the GPU due to strictly serialized execution or introduce non-deterministic delay caused by uncontrolled concurrent execution. In this paper, we present a spatial-temporal GPU management framework that controls the allocation and sharing of GPU's internal execution engines, e.g., streaming multiprocessors in Nvidia architectures, with analytical bounds. This approach allows multiple GPU-using tasks to simultaneously execute on the GPU, thereby improving GPU utilization and reducing the worst-case response time. Also, it can improve temporal isolation by allocating a portion of GPU execution engines to tasks for their exclusive use. We have examined the feasibility of our framework on two Nvidia GPUs: GTX970 and AGX Xavier. Experimental results with randomly-generated tasksets indicate that our framework yields a significant benefit in schedulability compared to the existing real-time GPU management approaches.
Reflections on failure: teaching research methodology

Across our combined 15 years of experience as methodologists and research methodology instructors, we have found that the concept of ‘failure’ is only a small portion of methodological literature a...
10 – MONEY, KEYNESIANISM, AND MONETARISM

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the impact of money on the level of output, prices, and employment. It presents the Keynesian view of how monetary policy works. While there is broad agreement among modern economists that money matters, the consensus view is an outgrowth of professional debate. During the 1960s, the monetarists, a group of economists who believe that monetary policy has been an important source of both economic instability and inflation, arose to challenge the dominant Keynesian view. The chapter presents a comparison of the monetarist position with the Keynesian perspective. For classical economists, the link between prices and the money supply was straightforward and quite mechanical. An increase in the money stock meant a proportional increase in prices. The real income of the economy was determined by other factors such as capital accumulation, technology, and the skill of the labor force. They did not believe that money had any independent effect on real production, income, or employment. The Great Depression undermined the simple classical theory and laid the foundation for the Keynesian revolution. Keynes discussed that under unusual conditions, as in the case where the demand schedule of individuals for money balances was perfectly horizontal, the interest rate would be unresponsive to a change in the supply of money. In the shadow of the Great Depression, many of his early followers took the unusual to be the typical.
The role of romiplostim for pediatric patients with immune thrombocytopenia.

The thrombopoietin receptor agonists (TPO-RAs) are a class of platelet growth factors used to treat immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) in children and adults. Romiplostim is a peptide TPO-RA approved fo...
Mortality Among Persons with Both Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Aged ≥25 Years, by Industry and Occupation - United States, 1999-2016.

Patients with asthma typically have chronic airway inflammation, variable airflow limitation, and intermittent respiratory symptoms; patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often have fixed airflow limitation and persistent respiratory symptoms. Some patients exhibit features suggesting that they have both conditions, which is termed asthma-COPD overlap. These patients have been reported to have worse health outcomes than do those with asthma or COPD alone (1). To describe mortality among persons aged ≥25 years with asthma-COPD overlap, CDC analyzed 1999-2016 National Vital Statistics multiple-cause-of-death mortality data* extracted from the National Occupational Mortality System (NOMS), which included industry and occupation† information collected from 26 states§ for the years 1999, 2003, 2004, and 2007-2014. Age-adjusted death rates per one million persons¶ and proportionate mortality ratios (PMRs)** were calculated. During 1999-2016, 6,738 male decedents (age-adjusted rate per million = 4.30) and 12,028 female decedents (5.59) had both asthma and COPD assigned on their death certificate as the underlying or contributing cause of death. The annual age-adjusted death rate per million among decedents with asthma-COPD overlap declined from 6.70 in 1999 to 3.01 in 2016 (p<0.05) for men and from 7.71 in 1999 to 4.01 in 2016 (p<0.05) for women. Among adults aged 25-64 years, asthma-COPD overlap PMRs, by industry, were significantly elevated among nonpaid workers, nonworkers, and persons working at home for both men (1.72) and women (1.40) and among male food, beverage, and tobacco products workers (2.64). By occupation, asthma-COPD overlap PMRs were significantly elevated among both men (1.98) and women (1.79) who were unemployed, had never worked, or were disabled workers and among women bartenders (3.28) and homemakers (1.34). The association between asthma-COPD overlap mortality and nonworking status among adults aged 25-64 years suggests that asthma-COPD overlap might be associated with substantial morbidity. Increased risk for asthma-COPD overlap mortality among adults in certain industries and occupations suggests targets for public health interventions (e.g., elimination of or removal from exposures, engineering controls, and workplace smoke-free policies) to prevent asthma and COPD in and out of the workplace.