cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparison of the efficacy of formoterol and salmeterol in patients with reversible obstructive airway disease: a multicenter, randomized, open-label trial

Abstract Background: Beta 2 -adrenergic agonists are frequently used for the prevention and relief of bronchospasm in patients with reversible obstructive airway disease. Formoterol and salmeterol are long-acting beta 2 -agonists. In addition to its long duration of action, formoterol has been reported to have an onset of action similar to that of albuterol. Objective: This study compared the effects on lung function of regular twice-daily inhalation of formoterol or salmeterol in adults with moderate to moderately severe persistent asthma who were receiving daily inhaled corticosteroids. Methods: In this 6-month, multicenter, open-label, parallel-group study, patients with moderate or moderately severe asthma were randomized to receive either formoterol 12 μg BID or salmeterol 50 μg BID. The primary end point was mean morning peak expiratory flow (PEF) measured 5 minutes after dosing and entered in a patient diary each day during the first 4 weeks of treatment. Secondary end points included mean morning and evening predose PEF and number of episode-free days recorded in the patient diaries during the first 4 weeks of treatment, use and time of rescue medication, symptom scores, and overall mean morning predose PEF (spirometric measurements made by the physician during scheduled visits) for the entire treatment period. Safety assessments included spontaneously reported adverse events and vital signs. Results: A total of 528 patients were randomized to study treatment, 262 to formoterol and 266 to salmeterol. There were no significant differences in demographic or baseline characteristics between treatment groups, except in the proportion of current smokers in the formoterol group (4.6%) compared with the salmeterol group (1.5%; P = 0.039). Based on the information recorded in patients' diaries, those receiving formoterol showed significant improvement in mean morning PEF measured 5 minutes after dosing ( P P P Conclusions: In this open-label trial, patients randomized to formoterol treatment had greater improvement in mean PEF 5 minutes after dosing, required significantly less rescue medication (fewer actuations of albuterol), and experienced more episode-free days compared with patients receiving salmeterol. Thus, although both formoterol and salmeterol are long-acting beta 2 -agonists, formoterol had a more rapid onset of action.
Simplifying video editing with SILVER

Digital video is becoming more ubiquitous. Unfortunately, editing videos remains difficult for several reasons. It has dual tracks of audio and video and may require working at the smallest level of detail. Silver is an authoring tool that uses video metadata to overcome these problems. It provides mulitiple views with different content types and at different levels of abstraction. This paper focuses on Silver's smart selection and editing operations, which work at a high semantic level and handle different boundaries in audio and video. Our research suggests several ways in which video editing tools can assist users in the composition and reuse of video.
Vestiges of Segregation in the Implementation of Inclusion Policies in Public High Schools

The present study sought to determine to what extent vestiges of the dual system of educating students with and without disabilities persist and how they undermine the implementation and sustainabi...
Evaluating Beliefs Associated with Late-Stage Lung Cancer Presentation in Minorities

Introduction: Minority patients in the United States present with later stages of lung cancer and have poorer outcomes. Cultural factors, such as beliefs regarding lung cancer and discrimination experiences, may underlie this disparity. Methods: Patients with a new diagnosis of lung cancer were recruited from four medical centers in New York City. A survey, using validated items, was conducted on the minority (black and Hispanic) and nonminority patients about their beliefs regarding lung cancer, fatalism, and medical mistrust. Univariate and logistic regression analyses were used to compare beliefs among minorities and nonminorities and to assess the association of these factors with late-stage (III and IV) presentation. Results: Of the 357 lung cancer patients, 40% were black or Hispanic. Minorities were more likely to be diagnosed with advanced-stage lung cancer (53% versus 38%, p = 0.01). Although beliefs about lung cancer etiology, symptoms, and treatment were similar between groups (p > 0.05), fatalistic views and medical mistrust were more common among minorities and among late-stage lung cancer patients (p < 0.05, for all comparisons). Adjusting for age, sex, education, and insurance, minorities had increased odds of advanced-stage lung cancer (odds ratio: 1.79; 95% confidence interval, 1.04–3.08). After con trolling for fatalism and medical mistrust, the association between minority status and advanced stage at diagnosis was attenuated and no longer statistically significant (odds ratio: 1.56; 95% confidence interval, 0.84–2.87). Conclusions: Fatalism and medical mistrust are more common among minorities and may partially explain the disparities in cancer stage at diagnosis. Addressing these factors may contribute to reducing disparities in lung cancer diagnosis and outcomes.
Strategic Planning for National Defense and the Impact of New Technology: Searching for Better Organizational Designs, Processes and Methods

How should the United States defense establishment structure itself to most effectively deter or fight war in the 21st century? Given the continuous and seemingly limitless advances in technology, which weapons systems should be acquired to fight wars, and how much technology is the American taxpayer willing to pay for and the economy able to afford? How should the war-fighting side of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) plan and organize to best perform the mission responsibilities that are necessary to accomplish the goals that political leaders task it to meet? How should the business side of the DoD plan and organize to best support the mission side of the DoD and its war-fighting needs? Which organizational forms best serve the two sides of the DoD in satisfying its mission requirements and political goals? Who should decide how the defense enterprise should plan and be organized? How should military leaders be educated to fight a long and global war using existing and new technology?
Does the Benefit of Therapeutic Hypothermia in Refractory Status Epilepticus Depend on Seizure Etiology? (P1.273)

Introduction : Refractory status epilepticus (RSE) is seizure activity that persists despite acute administration of standard anticonvulsant therapy. It often occurs after cardiac arrest, indicating a poor prognosis. Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) reduces neurological injury in this patient population, and post cardiac arrest protocols now incorporate TH into the treatment algorithm. However, TH is not routinely used in RSE from other etiologies and little is known about the appropriate role of TH as an adjunct therapy. Methods: Five consecutive patients with RSE admitted to our neurocritical care unit treated with TH were retrospectively reviewed. Three patients had anoxic brain injury post cardiac arrest and two had epilepsy secondary to remote traumatic brain injury. All five patients received similar medical treatment for RSE. Results: The two post-traumatic epilepsy patients became seizure free with TH and remained seizure free after rewarming. Both had good neurological recovery and were discharged from rehabilitation back to baseline. Seizures persisted despite TH in the three postcardiac arrest patients and all three expired. Conclusion: Currently, there are only five reported cases of TH use in adult patients with status epilepticus. Our additional five cases suggest that RSE from etiologies other than anoxic brain injury post-cardiac arrest may have better outcomes with TH. The benefit of TH in RSE may depend on seizure etiology and may have a more favorable outcome in post-traumatic epilepsy patients.
A NEW SIMULATION ESTIMATOR OF SYSTEM RELIABILITY

A basic identity is proven and applied to obtain new simulation estimators concerning (a) system reliability, (b) a multi-valued system. We show that the variance of this new estimator is often of the order a 2 when the usual raw estimator has variance of the order ct and a is small. We also indicate how this estimator can be combined with standard variance reduction techniques of antithetic variables, stratified sampling and importance sampling.
Fluctuations in the edge region of the tokamak stor-1m

We report measurements of fluctuations in the edge region of a small tokamak (I p ∼5kA, B T ∼1T, R=22cm, and a=3.5cm) recently reassembled and in operation at Utah State University. The tokamak originally operated at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Canada.
A probabilistic quality metric for camera placement in 3D reconstructions

This paper describes the use of a probabilistic quality metric for planning camera placement for 3D reconstructions. A probabilistic quality metric estimates the probability of a reconstruction achieving a desired goal. This probabilistic model leads to the natural integration of many different factors influencing the quality of a reconstruction without relying on arbitrary weights for those factors. The specific factors addressed here are occlusions, feature matching, and feature localization. It is demonstrated how these factors impact the quality of a reconstruction and how they can be accounted for in a probabilistic manner. The developed quality metric is then used to optimize a camera network for patient tracking during tomotherapy.
Speech concatenation and synthesis using an overlap-add sinusoidal model

In this paper, an algorithm for the concatenation of speech signal segments taken from disjoint utterances is presented. The algorithm is based on the analysis-by-synthesis/overlap-add (ABS/OLA) sinusoidal model, which is capable of performing high quality pitch- and time-scale modification of both speech and music signals. With the incorporation of concatenation and smoothing techniques, the model is capable of smoothing the transitions between separately-analyzed speech segments by matching the time- and frequency-domain characteristics of the signals at their boundaries. The application of these techniques in a text-to-speech system based on concatenation of diphone sinusoidal models is also presented.
Three centuries of category errors in studies of the neural basis of consciousness and intentionality

Recent interest in consciousness and the mind-brain problem has been fueled by technological advances in brain imaging and computer modeling in artificial intelligence: can machines be conscious? The machine metaphor originated in Cartesian "reflections" and culminated in 19th century reflexology modeled on Newtonian optics. It replaced the Aquinian view of mind, which was focused on the emergence of intentionality within the body, with control of output by input through brain dynamics. The state variables for neural activity were identified successively with animal spirits, elan vital, electricity, energy, information, and, most recently, Heisenbergian potentia. The source of dynamic structure in brains was conceived to lie outside brains in genetic and environmental determinism. An alternative view has grown in the 20th century from roots in American Pragmatists, particularly John Dewey, and European philosophers, particularly Heidegger and Piaget, by which brains are intrinsically unstable and continually create themselves. This view has new support from neurobiological studies in properties of self-organizing nonlinear dynamic systems. Intentional behavior can only be understood in relation to the chaotic patterns of neural activity that produce it. The machine metaphor remains, but the machine is seen as self-determining.
BEYOND THE VERSE: MIDRASH AGGADAH AS INTERPRETATION OF BIBLICAL NARRATIVE

The 1980s saw the introduction of postmodern literary theory into the field of rabbinic literature, in particular into the study of midrash, which began to be explored as anticipating or aligning with many of the claims of modern literary theorists. This new interest intersected oddly at times with the prevailing historicist mode of inquiry. For many scholars, the notion of textual indeterminacy supported the idea of the interpreter of the text as essentially an “eisegete,” who reads the text from his or her own historically embedded perspective, rather than as an exegete, who at least attempts to find out what the text “really means.” Thus, scholars who embraced this new perspective often rejected an inquiry into midrash as biblical interpretation in the classic sense of the word. “No one believes anymore,” someone pointed out to me after a session on midrash in a conference during the mid-1980’s, “that texts have meaning.”
Defense Expenditures, External Public Debt and Growth in Developing Countries

This study reexamines the relationship between growth and defense spending in developing countries. It differs from previous studies as it recognizes differences in the borrowing capacity of each country. We hypothesize that a negative relationship will exist between defense and economic growth in countries which are financially resource constrained, and a positive relationship will exist in countries which are relatively resource unconstrained. A factor and discriminate analysis are used to group countries. The variables chosen for the factor analysis depict a country's external debt, structural condition, growth, and balance of payments position. Regression equations were estimated for the total sample and each group, with the growth in Gross Domestic Product as the dependent variable. The results confirm the hypothesized positive relationship between defense and growth in the unconstrained group, but was not confirmed for the constrained group. The results suggest the importance of variables such as fo...
Anxiety in middle adulthood: effects of age and time on the 14-year course of panic disorder, social phobia and generalized anxiety disorder.

BackgroundMuch about the long-term course of anxiety disorders is unknown. The present study utilizes a naturalistic, longitudinal, short-interval follow-up design to elucidate the course of anxiety disorders over 14 years in a largely middle-aged adult sample recruited from out-patient psychiatry and primary care facilities.MethodThe sample consisted of 453 participants with a diagnosis of panic disorder (PD), social phobia (SP) and/or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Anxiety symptom ratings were tracked using weekly psychiatric status ratings (PSRs). Controlling for demographic and clinical variables, the course of PD, GAD and SP were examined using longitudinal growth models, with the most severe PSR at each follow-up point as the main outcome variable.ResultsPSRs significantly decreased in severity over time in each of the three disorders. In the interaction effects models, age×time had a significant effect on course for PD and GAD, but not for SP, in that older age was associated with lower PSRs over time.ConclusionsThe present findings suggest that the severity of anxiety disorders declines over time, although this decline is modest and depends on the specific disorder being assessed. Older individuals with PD and GAD have a better prognosis than their younger counterparts, as their course is characterized by a steeper decline in severity. The present findings provide important information about the course of anxiety disorders in mid-life.
High-efficiency flexible CdTe superstrate devices

Flexible, superstrate CdTe devices combine the advantages of a commercially demonstrated, low-cost manufacturing process with a lightweight, flexible form factor. Here, we present data on cell efficiencies greater than 16%, and the critical processing changes that have enabled recent efficiency increases. The devices in this study were made on Corning® Willow® Glass, which is a highly transparent, flexible, hermetic, and dimensionally stable substrate that can withstand high processing temperatures. To date, we have produced devices with several different combinations of front and back contacts on this glass and have found that it is compatible with most of our standard processing steps. One of our best devices to date has a certified efficiency of 16.2%, with a short-circuit current density (J sc ) of 25.6 mA/cm2, an open-circuit voltage of 820 mV, and a fill factor (FF) of 77.3%. The increased J sc in this cell is due to an improved sputtered CdS:O deposition process, and the high FF is due to a co-evaporated ZnTe:Cu back contact.
A Disease-causing Point Mutation in Human Mitochondrial tRNAMet Results in tRNA Misfolding Leading to Defects in Translational Initiation and Elongation

The mitochondrial tRNA genes are hot spots for mutations that lead to human disease. A single point mutation (T4409C) in the gene for human mitochondrial tRNAMet (hmtRNAMet) has been found to cause mitochondrial myopathy. This mutation results in the replacement of U8 in hmtRNAMet with a C8. The hmtRNAMet serves both in translational initiation and elongation in human mitochondria making this tRNA of particular interest in mitochondrial protein synthesis. Here we show that the single 8U→C mutation leads to a failure of the tRNA to respond conformationally to Mg2+. This mutation results in a drastic disruption of the structure of the hmtRNAMet, which significantly reduces its aminoacylation. The small fraction of hmtRNAMet that can be aminoacylated is not formylated by the mitochondrial Met-tRNA transformylase preventing its function in initiation, and it is unable to form a stable ternary complex with elongation factor EF-Tu preventing any participation in chain elongation. We have used structural probing and molecular reconstitution experiments to examine the structures formed by the normal and mutated tRNAs. In the presence of Mg2+, the normal tRNA displays the structural features expected of a tRNA. However, even in the presence of Mg2+, the mutated tRNA does not form the cloverleaf structure typical of tRNAs. Thus, we believe that this mutation has disrupted a critical Mg2+-binding site on the tRNA required for formation of the biologically active structure. This work establishes a foundation for understanding the physiological consequences of the numerous mitochondrial tRNA mutations that result in disease in humans.
Not Such an ‘Unpromising Beginning’: The First Dutch Trade Embassy to China, 1655–1657

As early as 1613, the leadership of the Dutch East India Company [VOC] recognized the importance of direct trade with China. Attempts to gain a foothold on the Chinese coast by use of force in the early decades of the century were unsuccessful. Beginning in 1624, the Dutch used a fortified settlement on the island of Taiwan as the next best thing to a mainland base. When their position on Taiwan was threatened in the middle of the century, the VOC directors decided to try to get their mainland trading privileges through diplomacy. Although later embassies have received more extensive scholarly attention, relatively little research has been done into the expectations and strategies of the various parties involved in the first VOC embassy of 1655–1657.
Assertions in Programming: From Scientific Theory to Engineering Practice

An assertion in a computer program is a logical formula (Boolean expression) which the programmer expects to evaluate to true on every occasion that program control reaches the point at which it is written. Assertions can be used to specify the purpose of a program, and to define the interfaces between its major components. An early proponent of assertions was Alan Turing (1948), who suggested their use in establishing the correctness of large routines. In 1967, Bob Floyd revived the idea as the basis of a verifying compiler that would automatically prove the correctness of the programs that it compiled. After reading his paper, I became a member of a small research school devoted to exploring the idea as a theoretical foundation for a top-down design methodology of program development. I did not expect the research to influence industrial practice until after my retirement from academic life, thirty years ahead. And so it has been.
Impairment of deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis by dietary zinc deficiency in the rat.

Dietary zinc deficiency has been shown to decrease the in vivo incorporation of thymidine into the nuclear DNA of liver parenchymal cells in the rat. A single injection of 100 μg of zinc was sufficient to rapidly reverse the effect of zinc deficiency on the synthesis of DNA.
Teaching elements of nature of science: A yearlong case study of a fourth‐grade teacher

This study examined and supported the efforts of Tina, an experienced elementary teacher, in helping her fourth graders internalize informed views of the inferential, tentative, and creative nature of science (NOS). Tina held informed views of, and was motivated to teach about, NOS. The study aimed to answer the following question: What specific supports were needed to enable Tina to make the target NOS elements explicit in her teaching? The lead researcher visited Tina's classroom every week and interacted with her on a continuous basis. Data sources included classroom observations and videotapes, teacher NOS questionnaires and associated interviews, teacher–researcher communications, and teacher and researcher logs. Although Tina's understandings and intentions were necessary to enable her to teach about NOS, they were not sufficient. Tina needed support to translate her NOS views and intentions into pedagogically appropriate instructional activities that would make the target NOS aspects accessible to her students. Socially mediated support was needed at the personal level in terms of helping Tina activate her tacit NOS understandings, and at the professional level in terms of modeling explicit NOS instruction in Tina's own classroom by the lead researcher. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 1025–1049, 2003
Behavioral disturbances of dementia in the nursing home.

In the early part of this century, Alzheimer described a 51-year-old woman who experienced a rapidly increasing loss of memory. She could no longer find her way around her home. She carried objects back and forth, and hid them. At times, she thought someone wanted to kill her and began shrieking loudly. This type of behavior certainly would have been a strain for the woman's husband. If he could no longer care for his wife, his principal option was to place her in a mental hospital. Today, patients with Alzheimer's disease who require institutionalization are more likely to be admitted to a nursing home. However, because most patients in nursing homes have some type of mental illness, nursing homes, by default, serve as mental hospitals. The increasing number of nursing home residents with dementia prompted the author and colleagues to examine behavioral disturbances in this patient population.
The Study of Lipid Phase Transition Kinetics by Time-Resolved X-Ray Diffraction

CONTENTS PERSPECTiVES AND OVERVIEW 159 INTRODUCTION ...... . . . . . . . . ....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... . . . . . . 160 LIPID MESOMORPHISM .... ......... . . . . . . . . . . ........ . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... . . .. . . .. ..... . . . 162 PRINCIPLE OF TIME-RESOLVED X-RAY DIFFRACTION 163 INFORMATiON CONTENT 163 EXPERIMENTAL ASPECTS 165 LIMITATIONS . . . . . . . . ........ 165 Facility 166 Sample 1 67 Instrumentation 167 Design 1 75
Operation chain link: the deployment of a firewall at Hanscom Air Force Base

In March 1995, the Electronic Systems Center (ESC) based at the Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB), Massachusetts, commissioned the development and installation of a firewall around its unclassified network. Heightened awareness of Internet threats, concern over results of recent network security assessments, and a hacker break-in at a sister Air Force installation prompted this action. The paper addresses: the approach taken by the firewall development team, challenges the team confronted, and modifications the team would consider in future firewall deployments.
Classroom culture models corporate culture: the technical communication instructor as manager

To create a classroom culture that inspires student success in technical communication assignments, the author advocates the use of Japanese management techniques: participative management, process-oriented quality control, and continual improvement. A model is introduced that can adapt these methods for the persuasive presentation assignment. It is concluded that, using this model, students begin to realize that they can develop the representation skills that are a major requirement in industry, business, and academia. Those who begin the semester with negative ideas about oral presentations find that with suggestions and encouragement from other team members, hints on coping with nervousness, and other useful techniques, they are better equipped to face the challenge of their first professional postgraduation talk. >
Preconditioned Electric Field Integral Equation Using Calderon Identities and Dual Loop/Star Basis Functions

An analytic preconditioner for the electric field integral equation, based on the Calderon identities, is considered. It is shown, based on physical reasoning, that RWG elements are not suitable for discretizing the electric field integral operator appearing in the preconditioner. Instead, the geometrically dual basis functions proposed by Buffa and Christiansen are used. However, it is found that this preconditioner is vulnerable to roundoff errors at low frequencies. A loop/star decomposition of the Buffa-Christiansen basis functions is presented, along with numerical results demonstrating its effectiveness.
UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN LANGUAGE USE

UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN LANGUAGE USE. Kristyan Spelman Miller and Paul Thompson (Eds.). New York: Continuum, 2002. Pp. 224. $60.00 paper.This collection of 13 papers from the annual meeting of the British Association of Applied Linguistics held in 2001 covers a broad range of topics, including doctor-patient communications, students' interpretations of teachers' gestures, and measuring the lexical complexity of texts. A theme that runs throughout the collection and foreshadows an area of much current interest is the notion of voice and identity.
Conference on Dietary Phenylalanine and Brain Function, May 8–10, 1987, Washington, DC

The Conference on Dietary Phenylalanine and Brain Function has considered three sets of issues—scientific, medical, and regulatory—relating to possible effects of aspartame and of pure phenylalanine on the brain. This chapter is a personal assessment of the status of those issues.
The Mapmakers of New Zion: A Cartographic History of Mormonism

Richard Francaviglia has written a thorough, readable and engaging account of the relationship between Mormonism and cartography in the United States. Many will be surprised that there is in fact s...
Density & Conflict in International Intellectual Property Law

One of the signal features of contemporary world politics is that intellectual property rights are increasingly an arena for global cooperation and conflict. The proper role, scope, and stringency of international intellectual property (IP) rules are highly contested questions, questions that more and more arouse both passions and interests. Once limited to a set of relatively anemic treaties that lacked an effective means of international enforcement, international IP law has, in the last decade, been transformed by the arrival of a dense array of new institutions and agreements. This dense array of institutions has in turn transformed both the substance and the process of international IP lawmaking. This paper comments on Laurence Helfer's contribution to the 2006 UC Davis Law Review symposium, entitled 'Toward a Human Rights Framework for Intellectual Property'. Helfer's specific focus is the intersection of human rights and IP law. His core claim is that human rights agreements and human rights treaty bodies increasingly engage with questions of IP, and IP institutions and agreements increasingly use human rights language and rhetoric. There is no question that the underlying phenomena Helfer identifies - an increasingly dense system of international institutions, and rising competition and conflict among differing rules and institutions - exist and are growing in importance. In this regard 'Toward a Human Rights Framework' raises important positive and normative points, which I will take up in turn in this short paper. Part I considers the positive claim that the processes by which IP law is made are shifting. I concur with this assessment, and indeed expand upon it by situating the claim within broader trends in international law and politics. Using the concept of a regime complex I argue that international IP law exhibits particular features, features which are explicable only once the impact of institutional density is recognized. Part II then turns to normative questions, and briefly queries whether the marriage of human rights and IP is bound to be a happy one. In particular, I question whether the infusion of human rights concepts and rhetoric will serve, on balance, to make international IP rights more socially just, or just more powerful. I look to recent examples of propertization in traditional knowledge and geographic indications and argue that these cases illustrate some benefits, but also some pitfalls, from the intersection of human rights and IP law.
Excited States of Be 7

Evidence for the existence of excited states of ${\mathrm{Be}}^{7}$ below 1 Mev has been found from a study of the neutrons produced in the reaction ${\mathrm{Li}}^{7}(p,n){\mathrm{Be}}^{7}$. Using a beam of homogeneous protons of 5 Mev energy from the Washington University cyclotron, the neutrons were detected by a standard photographic plate method. In addition to the ground state group of neutrons, three additional lower energy groups were observed indicating an excited level structure for ${\mathrm{Be}}^{7}$. Three separate runs on three separate targets of varying thickness gave the same results. Observations were made at 20\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} and 90\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} to the proton beam for each target. In every case the shift in energy of the peaks as one goes from 90\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} to 20\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} is consistent with the assignment of definite levels to ${\mathrm{Be}}^{7}$. Values obtained for the level excitation energies are: 0.205\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.070 Mev, 0.470\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.070 Mev, and 0.745\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.070 Mev above the ground state. The level at 470 kev is presumably analogous to the well-known level at 478 kev in the mirror nucleus ${\mathrm{Li}}^{7}$. Levels in ${\mathrm{Li}}^{7}$ corresponding to the other two levels found in ${\mathrm{Be}}^{7}$ have as yet not been observed, and may, of course, not exist. The $Q$ for the ground state reaction was found to be -1.65\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.04 Mev in good agreement with previously obtained values.
Quantifying closed-basin lake temperature and hydrology by inversion of oxygen isotope and trace element paleoclimate records

Lake systems are important paleoclimate archives that preserve ecosystem and hydrologic responses to critical periods in Earth history, such as carbon cycle perturbations and glacial-interglacial cycles. Geochemical measurements of biogenic carbonate (for example, δ18O, δ13C, 87Sr/86Sr, [Li], [U], [Sr], and [Mg]) are indicators of hydrologic variability in lake systems throughout the geologic record. In this study, we present a new closed-basin lake modeling approach, HyBIM (the Hydrologic Balance Inverse Model), that employs a system of total differential equations and uses the measured δ18O, Sr/Ca, and Mg/Ca of biogenic carbonate to determine changes in temperature, runoff, and lake evaporation. Using equally-spaced time steps, these equations are simultaneously solved to constrain the hydrologic parameters of the lake as recorded in biogenic carbonate. We use a Monte Carlo approach to account for uncertainty in the input parameters, such as δ18O temperature relationships, partition coefficient uncertainty, and watershed solute chemistry. For illustrative purposes, we apply the model to two ostracod valve datasets covering different timescales: (1) the Cretaceous Songliao Basin, northeast China, and (2) Holocene Lake Miragoane, Haiti. Modern water measurements of water isotopes and cation concentrations from each location are required as model inputs. We compare our modeling results with author interpretations and geologic observations. The modeling approach presented in this study can be applied to other closed-basin lake records, can be modified for other calcifying species (for example, gastropods or mollusks) or with calibration to inorganic lacustrine carbonate. In addition, this approach holds promise for extension with additional proxy measurements (that is, δD, U/Ca or Li/Ca) and changing source area on tectonic timescales using proxies that reflect changing source lithology (that is, Sr and Pb isotopes). Future incorporation of age model uncertainty in the Monte Carlo approach will also provide utility by quantifying temporal uncertainty on the hydrologic response recorded by lake sediments.
CHRONIC OPIOID USE IS ASSOCIATED WITH SIGNIFICANT HIGHER 12-MONTH ALL-CAUSE READMISSION AND ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY BUT NOT ASSOCIATED WITH 30-DAY ALL-CAUSE READMISSION OR ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY IN OLDER MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES HOSPITALIZED FOR HEART FAILURE

Heart failure (HF) is the leading cause for 30-day all-cause readmission. Opioids are commonly used by hospice to alleviate HF symptoms. However, its associations with all-cause readmission in HF remain unclear. Of the 7642 Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for HF and discharged alive from 106 U.
Surface-functionalizable amphiphilic nanoparticles for pickering emulsions with designer fluid–fluid interfaces

This work describes the synthesis of amphiphilic silica nanoparticles with functionalizable surfaces for the stabilization of aqueous drops in fluorinated solvents. State-of-the-art droplet microfluidics technology has relied on a single type of surfactant consisting of perfluorinated polyether and polyethylene glycol (PFPE–PEG). This type of surfactant, however, is known to have limitations including synthetic complexity and the cross-contaminations of droplet content caused by the inter-drop transport of small hydrophobic molecules. Previously we have overcome these limitations by replacing the surfactant with partially fluorinated silica nanoparticles (referred to as “F-SiO2 NPs”) as droplet stabilizers. Nonetheless, neither surfactants nor F-SiO2 NPs can provide additional functionalities at fluid–fluid interfaces due to the lack of reactive functional groups for further modifications. Here we introduce reactive groups on the surface of F-SiO2 NPs by the co-hydrolysis of different silane precursors, and demonstrate the successful conjugation of particle surfaces with fluorescent molecules, biomolecules and polymers. Our particles serve dual functions: they are amphiphilic for stabilizing water-in-oil drops, and they possess functional surface groups for presenting desired surface chemistries at the droplet interface. These particles offer the following advantages: (1) their synthesis is simple and scalable (up to grams); (2) they are effective in stabilizing droplets against coalescence under typical droplet manipulation conditions; (3) they prevent inter-drop molecular transport; and (4) their surfaces contain reactive groups such as amines that are capable of further conjugation with various “designer” molecules. We believe that the particles described in this work will open up opportunities in creating emulsions with tailored interfacial properties for new applications requiring customized fluid–fluid interfaces.
Risk Factors for Recent Intimate Partner Violence among Methamphetamine-Using Men and Women

The Substance Abuse, Violence, and HIV/AIDS (SAVA) syndemic model describes how the confluence of the three epidemics of substance abuse, violence, and HIV risk work synergistically to create excess burden among populations. We sought to identify risk factors associated with recent intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization among heterosexual methamphetamine (meth)-using men (n = 108) and women (n = 122) enrolled in FASTLANE-II, an HIV behavioral intervention in San Diego, CA. Women and men reported high rates of physical-only (women: 20%; men: 18%) and sexual (women: 25%; men: 23%) IPV. Multinomial regression analysis revealed that individuals who reported lower social support and individuals who reported a greater likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behaviors while high on meth were more likely to report IPV versus no IPV. Women who reported a greater likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behaviors while high on meth were 1.58 times more likely to report physical-only IPV versus no IPV, while men who reported similar behaviors were 1.15 times more likely to report physical-only IPV versus no IPV. Our findings highlight the influence of interpersonal factors on IPV. This research supports further study on gender-specific risk/protective factors and the development of gender-specific interventions targeting the SAVA syndemic among meth users.
Hypericum japonicum Thunb. in the Treatment of Gout:An Empirical Study

OBJECTIVE:To observe the therapeutic effects of Hypericum japonicum Thunb.on gout.METHODS:The anti-gout,anti-inflammatory,and analgesic effects of Hypericum japonicum Thunb.extract were studied by observing its effects on rat's foot swelling induced by MSU,rabbit' s acute gouty arthritis model stimulated by MSU,the level of blood uric acid in hyperuricacidemia model,swelling of auricle,and writhing response of rabbits.RESULTS:Hypericum japonicum Thunb.could satisfactory inhibit acute gouty arthritis,relieve rat's foot swelling,reduce the blood uric acid(BUA) in model rabbits and it has anti-inflammatory effect to some degree its analgesic effect was not so obvious.CONCLUSION:Hypericum japonicum Thunb.was proved to be of therapeutic effect on gout,further research and development of which remains to be done.
Dynamics of Price Sensitivity and Market Structure in an Evolutionary Matching Model

The relationship between equilibrium convergence to a uniform quality distribution and price is investigated in the Q-model, a self-organizing, evolutionary computational matching model of a fixed-price post-secondary higher education created by Ortmann and Slobodyan (2006). The Q-model is replicated with price equaling 100% its Ortmann and Slobodyan (2006) value, Varying the fixed price between 0% and 200% reveals thresholds at which the Q-model reaches different market clustering configurations. Results indicate structural market robustness to prices less than 100% and high sensitivity to prices greater than 100%.
Allies and Adversaries: The Roles of Appointees in Administrative Policymaking under Separation of Powers

In a system of divided power, public sector agencies are an important front in the day-to-day battle for political supremacy between the executive and the legislature. The executive's key agents in this conflict are his appointees, who are observed playing two broad roles: allies, where they work to help Congress implement policy and adversaries, where they fight with Congress to shift policy strongly in the executive's direction. This paper studies how these two roles arise and what implications they have for the interaction of Congress and the executive in administrative policymaking. Thereby, it highlights how intrinsically motivated bureaucrats combined with hierarchical control affect the ability of the political principals to control the execution of policy. Furthermore, I explore how this interaction shifts under alternative institutional forms, and how it leads appointees to "marry the natives." The model makes several predictions concerning Congressional oversight of bureaucratic agencies. These predictions are broadly supported by an empirical analysis of audit reports released by the Government Accountability Office.
Retrosplenial Cortical Neurons Encode Navigational Cues, Trajectories and Reward Locations During Goal Directed Navigation

The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) plays an important role in memory and spatial navigation. It shares functional similarities with the hippocampus, including the presence of place fields and lesion-induced impairments in spatial navigation, and the RSC is an important source of visual-spatial input to the hippocampus. Recently, the RSC has been the target of intense scrutiny among investigators of human memory and navigation. fMRI and lesion data suggest an RSC role in the ability to use landmarks to navigate to goal locations. However, no direct neurophysiological evidence of encoding navigational cues has been reported so the specific RSC contribution to spatial cognition has been uncertain. To examine this, we trained rats on a T-maze task in which the reward location was explicitly cued by a flashing light and we recorded RSC neurons as the rats learned. We found that RSC neurons rapidly encoded the light cue. Additionally, RSC neurons encoded the reward and its location, and they showed distinct firing patterns along the left and right trajectories to the goal. These responses may provide key information for goal-directed navigation, and the loss of these signals may underlie navigational impairments in subjects with RSC damage.
Risk of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia in women who discontinued or continued antidepressant medication use during pregnancy

This study aimed to examine the association between discontinued and continued use of antidepressants and risk for gestational hypertension (GH) and preeclampsia (PE). Data from the MotherToBaby pregnancy studies from 2004 to 2014 were analyzed to compare women who discontinued antidepressant use ˂20 weeks of gestation (discontinuers) and women who continued antidepressant use ≥20 weeks of gestation (continuers) to non-users for risk of GH (blood pressure ≥140/90 mmHg on two or more occasions at ≥20 weeks of gestation) and PE (GH with proteinuria). Maternal data, including exposures and study outcomes, were collected through multiple phone interviews. Medical records were used to validate outcomes. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals were estimated using logistic regression. Risk for GH and PE were also assessed within antidepressant drug classes. Data from 3471 women were analyzed. Continuers were significantly at risk for GH (adjusted odds ratios (aOR) 1.83; 95 % CI 1.05, 3.21) after adjustment. Analyses by drug class showed that continued use of serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI) increased risk for GH; however, of the 21 women who continued to use SNRI, only 3 developed GH. Continuers who used two or more antidepressant drug classes had increased risk for PE. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or other antidepressant use was not associated with increased risk for GH or PE. No significant associations with PE or GH were found for discontinuers. Results suggest that women who continued to use antidepressants in the second half of pregnancy are at risk for GH and PE. No significant association was found among discontinuers.
Urban–Rural Connections

There were close ties betw een town and country in Montpellier and its region. Networks and connections linked the urban market to rural producers. Woman and men were involved in agricultural production. The case study of the mercer Bernarda de Cabanis reveals interesting connections with women of the agricultural milieu of the Montpellier hinterland. Bernarda lent money to the wives of cultivators and accepted in-kind reimbursement in mercery. She trained agricultural women as mercers in apprenticeship. She also marketed mercery in Montpellier. The question is raised of whether her entrepreneurship had philanthropic overtones as a kind of microcredit. Bernarda’s actions in lending and teaching a trade permitted women of modest cultivator status to acquire marketable skills.
Vasculopathic and vasculitic dermatoses

The inflammatory and non-inflammatory disorders affecting the blood vessels are an important cause of death among patients. Additionally, some of the findings could be very subtle, while the consequences of misdiagnosis tragic. There is a limited number of factors by which the cutaneous blood vessels can be affected and the most common examples in the clinical practice will be discussed here: non-inflammatory purpuras; vascular-occlusive disorders; urticarias; vasculitides; and neutrophilic dermatoses.
Association of diabetes mellitus and biochemical knee cartilage composition assessed by T2 relaxation time measurements: Data from the osteoarthritis initiative.

Purpose To investigate the association of the presence and severity of diabetes mellitus (DM) with articular cartilage composition, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based T2 relaxation time measurements, and structural knee abnormalities. Materials and Methods In the Osteoarthritis Initiative 208, participants with DM (age 63.0 ± 8.9 years; 111 females) and risk factors for osteoarthritis (OA) or mild radiographic tibiofemoral OA (Kellgren–Lawrence [KL] grade ≤2) were identified and group-matched with 208 controls without DM (age 63.3 ± 9.1 years; 111 females). Subjects with diabetes-related renal or ophthalmological complications or insulin treatment at baseline (n = 50) were defined as severe DM. 3T MR images of the right knee were assessed for articular cartilage T2, including texture and laminar analyses derived from the patella, medial, and lateral femur and tibia and for structural abnormalities using the modified whole-organ magnetic resonance imaging score (WORMS). Clustered linear regression analyses were used to assess associations of DM with MRI findings. Results DM subjects had significantly higher cartilage T2 in the patella (mean difference 0.92 msec [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.79, 1.06]; P = 0.001) and medial femur (mean difference 0.36 msec [95% CI 0.27, 0.81]; P = 0.006) compared to controls. Averaged over all compartments, DM subjects showed significantly higher texture parameters (variance, P = 0.001; contrast, P = 0.002; entropy, P 0.05). Conclusion In comparison to nondiabetic controls, cartilage in DM subjects showed higher and more heterogeneous cartilage T2 values, indicating increased articular cartilage degeneration. This affected even more compartments in subjects with severe DM. Level of Evidence: 2 Technical Efficacy: 5 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2017.
Oncaea frosti, a new species (Copepoda: Poecilostomatoida) from the Liberian coast and the Gulf of Mexico

A new species, Oncaea frosti, is described and compared to O. venusta Philippi and O. venella Farran. The three species are closely related and difficult to distinguish, except for the differences in size of females and males and dorsal dilation of pediger 2 of females of O. frosti.
Cracking The Code: The Impact of Computer Coding on the Interactions of a Child with Autism

This paper reports on the communication patterns of two students in two settings: the elementary school classroom and the computer lab. One child was diagnosed with autism and the other was neurotypical. These students participated in a computer science curriculum designed for upper elementary school children (grades 4-5; ages 9-10), featuring block-based coding. The computer science instruction occurred in an inclusive general education setting. Analysis of video data revealed the child with autism communicated more (in terms of both total time speaking and interactions initiated) in the computer lab than was observed in the traditional classroom setting. Opposite trends were observed for the neurotypical child.