cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
On Aristotle’s Function Argument

In this paper, I will reflect upon Aristotle’s argument claiming that the function of a human being is to engage in activity of soul in accord with reason (AWR). I will explicate and further defend this argument, which is based on the fact that the function of X must characterize it as an X and set a standard for X’s impairment and excellence, and the only candidates for a human’s function are: to take in nutrients and grow, to perceive and move, and to engage in activities of soul in accord with reason. I will raise the objection that having a continuous sense of self (CSOS) in addition AWR is a relevant candidate for a human’s function that Aristotle did not consider. I will define CSOS as involving being aware of and being able to understand one’s own emotions, beliefs, identities, relationships, and experiences at a given time that are relevant to the answering of some question at hand. I will then show that by discounting CSOS as a candidate for characterizing a human being, past what is needed for AWR and considered as separate from AWR, we would be missing a crucial element of what defines a human.
Management of the adult onset diabetic with sulfonylurea drug failure.

Failure of sulfonylurea drug therapy in NIDDM (fasting plasma glucose >140-180 mg/dL) can be reversed when due to temporary loss of dietary compliance or occult intercurrent disease or can be permanent when due to progressive loss of beta cell responsiveness. Whenever possible, dietary control and lessened adiposity should be re-established. Switching to another sulfonylurea drug is not likely to yield an adequate response. Insulin therapy should then be started using intermediate or long-acting preparations, either given solely in the morning or solely in the evening, and when necessary, twice a day, supplemented with regular insulin as in IDDM. If an optimized insulin program is unsuccessful or if very large doses of insulin are required, combination therapy with insulin plus a sulfonylurea drug can sometimes be beneficial.
Evidence for a contribution of ICa to serotonergic modulation of IK,Ca in Hermissenda photoreceptors.

1. The Ca(2+)-dependent K+ current (IK,Ca) contributes to both the plateau phase of light-elicited generator potentials and enhanced excitability of identified type B photoreceptors of Hermissenda detected after classical conditioning. Serotonergic modulation of membrane conductances mimics some of the effects of conditioning. Serotonin (5-HT) reduces the magnitude of IK,Ca and decreases the sustained voltage-activated Ca2+ current (ICa) in type B photoreceptors. We have examined the modulatory role of 5-HT in regulation of IK,Ca by ICa using a Ca2+ ionophore in conjunction with the whole cell patch-clamp technique in isolated photoreceptors. 2. The 40-50% reduction of IK,Ca by 5-HT was voltage independent. Cd2+ blocked ICa and reduced IK,Ca by 70-80%. The remaining 20-30% of IK,Ca may result from Ca2+ release from intracellular stores, because IK,Ca was further reduced to 5-10% as the pipette ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA) was raised from 0.5 to 5 mM. The app...
The risk of deep vein thrombosis in total joint patients compared to orthopaedic trauma patients: Need for new prevention guidelines

Abstract Background The development of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) is a major concern following orthopaedic surgery. No study has yet to compare the rate and risk factors for DVT between total joint and orthopaedic trauma patients. To evaluate if DVT prophylaxis for trauma should differ from total joints, we explored the rate and risk factors for DVT between both cohorts. Methods Using a CPT code search from 2005 to 2013 in the ACS-NSQIP database, 150,657 orthopaedic total joint patients and 44,594 orthopaedic trauma patients were identified. DVT complications, patient demographics, preoperative comorbidities, and surgical characteristics were collected for each patient. A chi-squared test was used to compare the risk factors for DVT between orthopaedic trauma and total joint patients. A multivariable logistic regression model was built to adjust for comorbidities for each cohort. Results The rate of DVT diagnosis in the total joint population was 0.8% (N = 1186) and 0.98% (N = 432) in the orthopaedic trauma population (p = 0.57). After controlling for individual comorbidities, dyspnea, peripheral vascular disease, and renal failure were significant risk factors for DVT in total joint patients (p Conclusions Historically, the risks for DVT in total joints have been emphasized, yet based on our results, the incidence of DVT is the same for orthopaedic trauma. However, the risk factors varied. It is therefore important to consider specialty-specific DVT prophylaxis for orthopaedic trauma patients in order to improve care and reduce postoperative complications.
Maternal Stress and Anxiety in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit

Background Mothers whose infants are born with complex congenital heart disease (CCHD) experience stress during their infant's hospitalization in a pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (PCICU). Objectives This study addressed 2 research questions: (1) What are the parental stressors for mothers whose infants with CCHD are in the PCICU? And (2) What are the relationships of trait anxiety and 3 parental stressors to the parental stress response of state anxiety in mothers whose infants with CCHD are in the PCICU? Methods This descriptive correlational study included 62 biological mothers of infants admitted to a PCICU within 1 month of birth who had undergone cardiac surgery for CCHD. Maternal and infant demographics and responses to the Parental Stressor Scale: Infant Hospitalization and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were collected at 3 major PCICUs across the United States. Results Mothers' scores revealed that infant appearance and behavior was the greatest stressor, followed by parental role alteration, then sights and sounds. The combination of trait anxiety and parental role alteration explained 26% of the variance in maternal state anxiety. Mothers with other children at home had significantly higher state anxiety than did mothers with only the hospitalized infant. Conclusions Results from this study revealed factors that contribute to the stress of mothers whose infants are born with CCHD and are hospitalized in a PCICU. Nurses are in a critical position to provide education and influence care to reduce maternal stressors in the PCICU, enhance mothers' parental role, and mitigate maternal state anxiety.
Adaptive query processing in data stream management systems

Many modern applications need to process data streams that consist of data elements generated in a continuous unbounded fashion. Examples include network monitoring, financial monitoring over stock tickers, sensor processing for environmental monitoring or inventory tracking, telecommunications fraud detection, and others. These applications have spurred interest in a new class of systems, called Data Stream Management Systems (DSMSs), that enable applications to pose long-running continuous queries over data streams. A fundamental challenge faced by DSMSs is that stream conditions (e.g., data distribution, arrival rate) and system conditions (e.g., query load, memory availability) may vary significantly over the lifetime of a continuous query. When stream or system conditions change, a query execution strategy that was efficient before the change may become very inefficient. Consequently, it is important for a DSMS to support adaptive query processing: The DSMS must be prepared to change the execution plan for a continuous query while the query is running, based on how stream and system conditions change. Without adaptivity, plan performance may drop drastically over time. This thesis presents a generic framework, called StreaMon, for adaptive query processing in a DSMS. StreaMon has three core components: (i) An Executor, which runs the current plan for each query, (ii) a Profiler, which collects and maintains statistics about current stream and system conditions, and (iii) a Re-optimizer, which ensures that the current plans are the most efficient for current conditions. We instantiate the generic StreaMon framework for three distinct combinations of continuous query type and adaptivity need: (1) Adaptive processing of commutative filters over a stream to maximize throughput at all points in time. (2) Adaptive placement of subresult caches in pipelined plans for windowed stream joins to maximize throughput at all points in time. (3) Detecting relaxed constraints automatically in input streams and exploiting these constraints to reduce memory requirements in plans for windowed stream joins. For each problem, we provide the definition and motivating examples, develop and analyze adaptive algorithms, and present implementation techniques and experimental results from the STREAM general-purpose DSMS prototype developed at Stanford.
siRNAs, ribozymes and RNA decoys in modeling stem cell-based gene therapy for HIV/AIDS.

Gene therapy strategies for HIV infection require gene transduction of hematopoietic stem cells with effective therapeutic constructs. Here we summarize our studies on anti-HIV ribozymes, RNA decoys and the newly described siRNAs. The therapeutic constructs consisted of an anti-CCR5 ribozyme to down-regulate the HIV-1 cell surface co-receptor and ribozymes targeted to viral mRNAs coding for the tat, rev and env proteins. The RNA decoy targeted rev and the siRNA was directed against a sequence common to rev and tat mRNAs. CD34 hematopoietic progenitor cells were transduced with retroviral or lentiviral vectors containing these constructs. They were differentiated into macrophage. in vitro and T cells in vivo in a SCID-hu mouse thymopoiesis model. The transgene-containing macrophages and T cells were found to be phenotypically normal. When challenged in vitro with HIV-1, they showed significant anti-viral resistance. These proof-of-concept studies demonstrated the utility of RNA-based anti-HIV constructs for gene therapy.
Bioavailability of Glucoraphanin and Sulforaphane from High-Glucoraphanin Broccoli.

Scope: Broccoli accumulates 4-methylsulphinylbutyl glucosinolate (glucoraphanin) which is hydrolyzed to the isothiocyanate sulforaphane. Through the introgression of novel alleles of the Myb28 transcription factor from Brassica villosa, broccoli genotypes have been developed that have enhanced levels of glucoraphanin. This study sought to quantify the exposure of human tissues to glucoraphanin and sulforaphane following consumption of broccoli with contrasting Myb28 genotypes. Methods and results: Ten participants were recruited into a three-phase, double-blinded, randomized crossover trial (NCT02300324), with each phase comprising consumption of 300 ml of a soup made from broccoli of one of three Myb28 genotypes (Myb28B/B, Myb28B/V, Myb28V/V). Plant myrosinases were intentionally denatured during soup manufacture. Three-fold and five-fold higher levels of sulforaphane occurred in the circulation following consumption of Myb28V/B and Myb28V/V broccoli soups, respectively. The percentage of sulforaphane excreted in 24 h relative to the amount of glucoraphanin consumed varied amongst volunteers from 2% to 15%, but did not depend on the broccoli genotype. Conclusion: This is the first study to report the bioavailability of glucoraphanin and sulforaphane from soups made with novel broccoli varieties. The presence of one or two Myb28V alleles results in enhanced delivery of sulforaphane to the systemic circulation.
Extreme anisotropy over an acoustic hyperbolic metasurface

The emergence of optical hyperbolic metamaterials has attracted significant attention in the last decade due to its extreme anisotropy, linked to largely enhanced local density of states. This concept has been also extended to acoustics, and acoustic hyperbolic metamaterials have been realized. However, the fabrication complexity of these metamaterials, their inherent sensitivity to loss and disorder, and the fact that the hyperbolic modes are not easily accessible, as they are trapped in the bulk of the material prevent the wide use of hyperbolic metamaterials for sound. Our research group has recently proposed the idea of hyperbolic metasurfaces, for which extreme anisotropy over a surface enables plasmons that propagate with similar unbounded local density of states, but restricted to surface propagation. In this work, we extend these findings to acoustics, simplifying the realization of hyperbolic propagation and observation, and at the same time preserving the exciting properties of hyperbolic metama...
Using 1H2O MR to measure and map sodium pump activity in vivo.

Abstract The cell plasma membrane Na + ,K + -ATPase [NKA] is one of biology’s most [if not the most] significant enzymes. By actively transporting Na + out [and K + in], it maintains the vital trans-membrane ion concentration gradients and the membrane potential. The forward NKA reaction is shown in the Graphical Abstract [which is elaborated in the text]. Crucially, NKA does not operate in isolation. There are other transporters that conduct K + back out of [II, Graphical Abstract] and Na + back into [III, Graphical Abstract] the cell. Thus, NKA must function continually. Principal routes for ATP replenishment include mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, glycolysis, and creatine kinase [CrK] activity. However, it has never been possible to measure, let alone map, this integrated, cellular homeostatic NKA activity in vivo . Active trans-membrane water cycling [AWC] promises a way to do this with 1 H 2 O MR. In the Graphical Abstract, the AWC system is characterized by active contributions to the unidirectional rate constants for steady-state water efflux and influx, respectively, k io (a) and k oi (a). The discovery, validation, and initial exploration of active water cycling are reviewed here. Promising applications in cancer, cardiological, and neurological MRI are covered. This initial work employed paramagnetic Gd(III) chelate contrast agents [CAs]. However, the significant problems associated with in vivo CA use are also reviewed. A new analysis of water diffusion-weighted MRI [DWI] is presented. Preliminary results suggest a non-invasive way to measure the cell number density [ρ (cells/μL)], the mean cell volume [V (pL)], and the cellular NKA metabolic rate [ c MR NKA (fmol(ATP)/s/cell)] with high spatial resolution. These crucial cell biology properties have not before been accessible in vivo . Furthermore, initial findings indicate their absolute values can be determined.
Adjuvant therapy for resected pN2 non-small cell lung cancer: sequence is not all that matters.

We appreciate the comments from Zhao and Ng (1) regarding our recent National Cancer Database (NCDB) study comparing survival outcomes after postoperative adjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) versus sequential chemotherapy followed by postoperative radiotherapy (C→PORT) for locally advanced or incompletely resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Nitric oxide fumigation for postharvest pest control on lettuce.

Background The lettuce aphid, Nasonovia ribisnigri, and western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, are quarantine pests of lettuce in Asian markets and, therefore, require treatments on lettuce exported from USA to Japan and Taiwan, respectively. Nitric oxide (NO) is a newly discovered fumigant for postharvest pest control and has been demonstrated as safe to fresh fruit and vegetables. In this study, small-scale NO fumigations were conducted to determine effective treatments and large-scale confirmatory tests were conducted to determine the efficacy against N. ribisnigri and F. occidentalis on commercially packed lettuce. The safety of NO fumigation to postharvest quality of lettuce was also evaluated. Results In small-scale experiments, complete control of N. ribisnigri was achieved in 3, 8, and 16 h fumigations with 2.0%, 1.0%, and 0.5% NO, respectively, at 2 °C on both iceberg and romaine lettuce. In a large-scale experiment, complete control of both N. ribisnigri and F. occidentalis was achieved in a 16 h fumigation with 0.5% NO at 2 °C. The fumigation treatment had no effect on either external or internal postharvest quality of lettuce at 14 days after treatment. Conclusion Nitric oxide fumigation was demonstrated to be effective against both N. ribisnigri and F. occidentalis and safe to lettuce quality in large-scale fumigations of commercially packed lettuce. The study suggests that NO fumigation has the potential to be an alternative treatment to methyl bromide for postharvest pest control on harvested lettuce. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.
Stability Conditions for Polynomials VIA Quadratic Inequalities in their Coefficients

Stability conditions for monic polynomials of degree n and zeros in the unit circle involve the computation of determinants of rank of up to 2n. These determinants could be represented either explicitly, or iteratively.1 In either case, each determinant requires the addition of up to 2n terms, each of which is the product of up to 2n coefficients or their complex conjugate.
Integration of Jet Impingement Cooling With Direct Bonded Copper Substrates for Power Electronics Thermal Management

The ability of packaging solutions to meet the high heat flux dissipation of power electronics relies heavily on effective thermal management strategies. During operation, power electronic devices generate high temperatures that can cause device degradation. To remove this heat from the devices, heat spreaders and cold plates are often used. However, the multiple layers that compose the module often lead to high thermal resistances that hinder heat dissipation and can give rise to interfacial failures. To address these challenges, this paper has investigated the direct integration of single-phase jet impingement cooling at the power electronic substrate level for improved thermal management. This method was evaluated using computational models, experiments, and analytical models. An optimization analysis was performed to determine the influence of various design parameters on the cooling system. Through the directly integrated cooling concept, a reduction of up to 25% in the total package thermal resistance compared to a conventional device package was achieved. In addition, the overall device temperature was reduced, and the thermal resistance was found to be between 0.21 °C/W and 0.47 °C/W for a heat dissipation of 100 W/cm2.
Exchange equilibria of carboxylate-terminated ligands at PbS nanocrystal surfaces

Ligand exchange reactions are commonly used to alter the surface chemistry of metal chalcogenide quantum dots; however, a lack of quantifiable data for these processes limits the rational functionalization of nanomaterials. Here, we quantify the X-type ligand exchange reaction between carboxylate-terminated ligands on PbS quantum dots via1H NMR spectroscopy. Using spectroscopic handles of both the native and exchange ligand, bound and free forms of each have been quantified as a function of exchange ligand concentration. We find that the equilibrium constants for the reaction between oleate-capped PbS quantum dots and undec-10-enoic acid are 2.23 ± 0.50 and 2.14 ± 0.42 for sets of nanocrystals prepared by two different synthetic methods. X-ray photoelectron, absorbance, and emission spectroscopies indicate that the carboxylate exchange reaction does not alter the lead ion coverage of the nanocrystal surface. The quantitative equilibrium constant determined herein can be used to improve control over partial ligand exchange reactions on PbS nanocrystals.
Weight management telehealth intervention for overweight and obese rural cardiac rehabilitation participants: A randomised trial.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To determine whether a weight management intervention (WMI) plus cardiac rehabilitation (CR) compared to CR alone improves outcomes for overweight and obese cardiac revascularisation patients. BACKGROUND Despite participating in cardiac rehabilitation (CR), few cardiac patients lose enough weight to achieve clinically significant cardiovascular disease risk reduction. DESIGN A randomised controlled design was used with measurements at baseline, 4 and 6 months, guided by the CONSORT checklist, see Supporting Information File S1. Adults who had undergone either coronary artery bypass surgery (CABS) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and participated in a rural CR programmes were recruited. Subjects were randomised to a 12-week telehealth WMI or control group. The primary outcome was weight loss. Secondary outcomes included physical activity, patient activation, perceived self-efficacy and use of weight management behaviours. RESULTS A total of 43 subjects participated, with a mean age of 63 (±9.3) years. The WMI group had significantly more weight loss averaged across the 4 and 6 months of 13.8 (±2.8) pounds compared to the control group [mean = 7.8 (±2.2) pounds]. There were no significant differences in physical activity (activity counts or daily minutes in moderate or more intense activity). The WMI group had significantly higher levels of patient activation. They also had significantly higher total scores on the Diet and Exercise Self-Management survey, and subscales that included self-efficacy for specific eating habits and managing diet behaviour. CONCLUSIONS Findings demonstrated the usefulness and feasibility of using telehealth delivery of the WMI for cardiac rehabilitation participants in rural communities to improve weight management outcomes. RELEVANCE TO PRACTICE Study findings underscore the opportunity to further improve weight loss of overweight and obese cardiac participants using a weight management intervention to augment CR participation.
Floating fetus: a rare complication of balloon tamponade treatment of caesarean scar ectopic pregnancy.

A 31-year-old pregnant patient presented with complaints of persistent sharp and colicky, suprapubic and pelvic pain lasting 5 days. She was also experiencing intermittent vaginal bleeding. She was haemodynamically stable and afebrile on presentation. Her beta human chorionic gonadotropin was 17
Stereochemical Effects on Platinum Acetylide Two-Photon Chromophores.

A series of cis-platinum(II) acetylide complexes containing two-photon-absorbing chromophores have been synthesized and characterized to explore the effects of stereochemistry on the nonlinear absorption properties. The molecules feature 4-(phenylethynyl)phenylethynylene (PE2), diphenylaminofluorene (DPAF), and benzothiazolylfluorene (BTF) ligands. The photophysical properties were investigated under one- and two-photon conditions and compared to the known trans analogues via UV-visible absorption, photoluminescence, femtosecond and nanosecond transient absorption (TA), nanosecond z-scan, and femtosecond two-photon absorption (2PA). The bent cis complexes exhibit blue shifts in the absorption, emission, femtosecond, and nanosecond TA spectra along with lower molar extinction coefficients and lower phosphorescence yields relative to the trans complexes suggesting less efficient Pt-induced spin-orbit coupling and intersystem crossing in the cis configuration. The cis chromophores are noncentrosymmetric and therefore show dipolar behavior with a pronounced 2PA in the 0-0 transition of the S0 → S1 band, while the trans complexes show quadrupolar behavior with a forbidden 0-0 transition. In the S0 → Sn region, both cis and trans complexes show intense two-photon-absorption bands (up to 3700 GM by the peak cross section for cis-BTF) which contain a significant contribution from the excited state absorption (S1 → Sn). All six complexes exhibit comparable nonlinear absorption response with a significant contribution from triplet-triplet absorption that slightly favors trans complexes but is more strongly dependent upon the structure of the π-conjugated chromophore.
Military Research and Development

Advertising material received in November and December from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), who are currently trying to increase their membership and raise funds, quotes the 6 May report of the prominent FAS Ad Hoc Committee on Military Research and Development (1). This report was also the subject of a news story in Science. The passage quoted in the advertisement reads, “This entire episode [the presentations of John S. Foster, the Defense Department’s director of research and engineering, to various congressional committees] has been a classical numbers game featuring selective disclosure, questionable assumptions, exaggeratedly precise estimates, misleading language, and alarmist, non sequitur conclusions.”
Mobility of dislocations in aluminum: The role of non-Schmid stress state

Abstract The extent that non-Schmid stresses influence the mobility of dislocations in Al is studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Specifically, mobility laws for straight screw, 30°, 60° and edge dislocations are atomistically derived for different combinations of Escaig stress, τe, and stress normal to the (111) slip plane, σn. MD simulations show that the mobility of each dislocation is distinctly influenced by non-Schmid stresses. Furthermore, MD simulations of dislocation shear loop expansion show that mobility laws derived from straight dislocations are applicable to describe the more complex behavior of stress-state dependent expansion of a dislocation loop. Data describing the dislocation mobility laws are incorporated into discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) simulations using a hierarchical multiscale approach. DDD simulations of isolated dislocation loop expansion show strong agreement with MD simulation results, validating the nonlinear multiscale implementation. DDD simulations of dislocation network evolution show that the use of stress state dependent dislocation mobility laws provides quantifiable changes to the plastic deformation path, which leads to different final microstructures. The results presented here demonstrate the key role that local stresses, experienced by the dislocation core, play on the evolution of a dislocation network during plastic deformation.
Using Tablets to Collect Breast Cancer Risk Information in an Underserved Population

The authors tested the use of tablets to collect breast cancer risk data and compared the approach against paper-based scantrons. The goal was to examine the usability of digital technology for data collection in underserved populations. A total of 340 individuals were randomized to answer a breast health survey via either tablets (170) or paper forms (170). Post questionnaire surveys were conducted to evaluate the usability of tablets. Outcomes included completion time, satisfaction, and the numbers and types of questions raised by patients during the survey. There was no significant difference in questionnaire completion time between two groups (12.5 vs. 12.1 minutes, p = 0.07). The tablet group was more satisfied with the experience (p
Impact of transcatheter aortic valve replacement on left ventricular hypertrophy, diastolic dysfunction and quality of life in patients with preserved left ventricular function.

Severe aortic stenosis (AS) is associated with left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction (LVDD). Due to positive impact on transvalvular hemodynamics, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is expected to improve LV remodeling, LVDD and heart failure (HF)-related quality-of-life (QoL). We identified patients with severe AS and LV ejection fraction (LVEF) ≥ 50% who underwent TAVR. We reviewed pre-procedure, 1-month and 1-year post-TAVR transthoracic echocardiograms to assess LV volumetric changes and diastolic function. QoL was assessed by the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ). In 171 patients studied, we found significant improvement in LV mass index (LVMI), LV end-systolic diameter and LV end-diastolic diameter from baseline to 1-month to 1-year post-TAVR. Predictors of LVMI regression included greater change from baseline in mean aortic valve (AV) gradient, peak AV velocity, and improvements in septal and lateral e’ velocities and E/e’ post-TAVR. The percentage of patients with ≥ grade 2 LVDD decreased from 65% to 53% at 1-month and 49% at 1-year. A significant improvement in symptomatology, as reported by KCCQ score was also noted. There is conceivable reverse LV remodeling post-TAVR, impacted by improvements in mean AV gradient, peak AV velocity, E/e’, medial and lateral e’ velocities, which occurs immediately post-TAVR and persists up to 1-year post-operatively. This is associated with concomitant improvement in LVDD and HF-related QoL as demonstrated by KCCQ scores.
Association and Management of Adenomyosis Amongst Patients with Asherman's Syndrome

Study Objective To provide the first characterization of concomitant Asherman's syndrome and adenomyosis, and subsequent obstetrical outcomes. Design A retrospective cohort study from 01 January 2015 to 01 March 2019. Setting A community teaching hospital affiliated with a large academic medical center. Patients or Participants 227 Asherman's syndrome patients with available hysteroscopy and pelvic ultrasound reports. Interventions Determinants of adenomyosis and the impact of adenomyosis on fertility and obstetrical outcomes in Asherman's syndrome patients. Measurements and Main Results A telephone survey and confirmatory chart review were conducted to obtain information on patients’ demographics, gynecologic and obstetric history, past medical and surgical history, and Asherman's syndrome management. Adenomyosis was the most common co-occurring uterine finding, detected in 39 Asherman's patients. The overall primary symptom was infertility. Adenomyosis patients reported a different menstrual pattern than patients with Asherman's syndrome only. Adenomyosis prevalence trended higher with increasing Asherman's severity, but there were no significant independent predictors of adenomyosis. In this cohort, 77 patients attempted conception and produced 87 pregnancies, 13 of which were ongoing at study conclusion. Age (OR 0.7, 95% CI 0.5-0.9) and use of assisted reproductive technology (OR 0.1, 95% CI 0.02-0.995) were negatively associated with pregnancy. Postpartum dilation & curettage/dilation & evacuation was a risk factor for miscarriage (OR 13.6, 95% CI 1.4-129.5). Age (OR 0.9, 95% CI 0.8-0.988) and severe Asherman's disease (OR 0.1, 95% CI 0.001-0.1) were negatively associated with live birth. Adenomyosis was not an independent predictor of pregnancy rate, miscarriage rate, or live birth rate among Asherman's patients. Conclusion Adenomyosis is relatively common in Asherman's syndrome patients. Any distinct detriment to fertility from adenomyosis may be overshadowed by the lasting effects of Asherman's adhesions when these diseases occur together. Larger studies to establish management guidelines for concomitant disease are needed.
HPC Software Tracking Strategies for a Diverse Workload

This paper discusses and reviews various tools that Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) uses for tracking High-Performance Computing (HPC) software usage. Tracking software usage is a key element to support a diverse user community. OSC maintains three data pools: batch job database, data from user executions, and license server logs. We utilize various tools and databases to collect, store and analyze software usage data. These includes pbsacct, Spark, XALT, Lmod, Splunk, License log, Ganglia, and Prometheus/Grafana. We discuss the coverage and gaps for each pool and present some use cases.
Combined Oral Contraceptive Pill-Induced Hypertension and Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy: Shared Mechanisms and Clinical Similarities

Oral contraceptive pill-induced hypertension (OCPIH) and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDP) share common risk factors and pathophysiological mechanisms, yet the bidirectional relationship between these two conditions is not well-established. We review and describe OCPIH and HDP to better understand how hormonal and metabolic imbalances affect hypertension. Oral contraceptive pills continue to be a popular method of contraception, with an incidence of OCPIH ranging from 1–8.5% among OCP users. HDP have an incidence of 5–10% of all pregnancies in the USA and have been shown to be a powerful predictor of lifetime adverse cardiovascular outcomes, including future hypertension. OCPIH and HDP share common risk factors such as age, BMI, past personal and family history of hypertension, as well as pathogenic mechanisms, including alterations in hormonal metabolism and the renin angiotensin aldosterone system; imbalance of vasodilator–vasoconstrictor compounds; and changes in the cardiovascular system. Future research should address additional potential mechanisms that underlie hypertension in these two conditions where endocrine changes, either physiological (pregnancy) or iatrogenic (use of OCP), play a role. This may lead to novel, targeted treatment options to improve hypertension management and overall cardiovascular risk profile management in this subset of young female patients.
Computational Fluid Dynamic Analysis and Design of an Air Duct Cooling System for 18 kW, 500 kHz Planar Transformers

Shrinking transformer size increases thermal challenges due to reduced cooling surface area and higher loss per unit volume. Furthermore, increased thermal stress results in larger cooling system size volume, voiding power density gains from moving to a higher operating frequency. This paper proposes a novel cooling duct structure that was designed using computational fluid dynamics to cool parallel 500 kHz planar transformers. The two transformer windings are potted in thermal epoxy to improve lateral heat conduction and cooling surface area. The potted transformer is tested at 18 kW and peak winding temperature is 126 °C. To reduce cooling system size while maintaining a high heat transfer coefficient a converging duct with turbulators is proposed. The designed converging duct with turbulators achieves a peak winding temperature of 106 °C at 15 kW load. The cooling system and transformers combined have a total power density of 562 W/in3, 44 mm height, 99.5% efficiency at full load, and the cooling system only consumes 5W. The transformers and cooling duct are implemented in an 18 kW CLLC resonant converter and total power density is 120 W/in3.
Contextualized Behavior Recommendation from Complex Agent-Based Simulations of Disasters

We present an approach for generating contextualized behavior recommendations from a large, data-driven, complex agent-based simulation. We extend a previous method for generating a summary description by decomposing the output of a simulation into a tree of causally-relevant states, and show how behavior recommendations can be generated by ranking these causally relevant states in terms of their impact on an outcome of interest. An end-user can provide a query specifying a partial state description, which is used to retrieve the appropriate set of states from the summary description. The structure of the tree is used to generate the contexts that differentiate the behavior recommendations. We apply our method to a very complex simulation of a disaster in a major urban area and present results for multiple queries.
Airport Infrastructure Investment: Strategic Interaction or Strategic Allocation?

As the FAA forecasts air traffic growth for U.S. carriers to increase (by 90% in revenue passenger miles and by 50% in the number of handled aircraft) over the next 20 years, airports consequently will be subjected to problems associated with substantially increased levels of demand. One component of the solution is expected to come from further investments in improvements to airport infrastructure. Given current fiscal constraints, the inherent network structure of the National Airspace System, and the fact that delays and congestions propagate throughout the system, would it be more efficient for capital investments to be made in an integrated and intelligent fashion—one that serves to maximize the productivity of the entire system—rather than on an airport-by-airport basis? Therefore, the goals of this research were to understand current airport interactions and to provide a framework for quantifying how interactions spread throughout the network. These insights were uncovered by exploiting the network...
Vitellogenin uptake and in vitro culture of oocytes.

Publisher Summary The oocytes of nonmammalian vertebrates are specialized for the endocytic incorporation of proteins. Oocytes grow primarily via the specific internalization of a serum protein, vitellogenin (VTG), which is the precursor to the yolk. VTG is synthesized in the liver under the influence of estrogen, and then secreted into the bloodstream. The circulating levels of VTG in healthy, mature females are approximately 5 mg/ml of serum, and it is internalized exclusively by the ovary. Early oocyte internalization experiments used in vivo labeled Xenopus serum derived from hormonally stimulated (estrogen-treated) animals as a source of VTG. These sera were added to different media at relatively high concentrations (up to 50%), and protein incorporation was measured over an extended period of time (1–25 hours) because of the low specific activity of the in vivo labeled VTG. VTG purification methods were developed in the early 1970s. The first of these used chromatography of vitellogenic serum on TEAE cellulose to obtain a preparation of high purity. The chapter describes various methods: (1) handling of ovarian tissue and oocytes, (2)oocyte culture media, (3) vitellogenin isolation, (4) labeling of vitellogenin and other proteins, and (5) performing protein uptake experiments. .
Performance evaluation of MM5 on clusters with modern interconnects: scalability and impact

Clusters have become a crucial technology for providing low-cost high performance computing to scientific applications like weather prediction. In addition, networks like Myrinet, InfiniBand and Quadrics have become popular as an interconnection technology for high performance clusters. The high-bandwidth, low-latency characteristics of these networks make them ideally suited to the demanding characteristics of large scale weather simulations. Additionally, these networks have features like efficient and scalable hardware broadcast, reduce and atomic operations. Some of the features have been integrated into the MPI stack for these networks, allowing the user to exploit them for improved performance. In this paper, we evaluate the communication characteristics of a popular weather simulation code MM5 using InfiniBand. We also investigate how special features of InfiniBand like scalable broadcast can benefit MM5 performance. For some workloads, we see that InfiniBand performs up to 34% better than other interconnects. It also performs better in general than other networks for all workloads.
A Subspace Semidefinite Programming for Spectral Graph Partitioning

A semidefinite program (SDP) is an optimization problem over n × n symmetric matrices where a linear function of the entries is to be minimized subject to linear equality constraints, and the condition that the unknown matrix is positive semidefinite. Standard techniques for solving SDP's require O(n3) operations per iteration. We introduce subspace algorithms that greatly reduce the cost os solving large-scale SDP's. We apply these algorithms to SDP approximations of graph partitioning problems. We numerically compare our new algorithm with a standard semidefinite programming algorithm and show that our subspace algorithm performs better.
Chapter 6 An Integrated System for DNA Sequencing by Synthesis

Abstract The completion of the Human Genome Project has increased the need for high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies aimed at uncovering the genomic contributions to diseases. The DNA sequencing by synthesis (SBS) approach has shown great promise as a new platform for deciphering the genome. Recently, much progress has been made on the fundamental sciences required to make SBS a viable sequencing technology. One of the unique features of this approach is that many of the steps required are compatible in a modular fashion allowing for the best solution at each stage to be effectively integrated. Recent advances include emulsion-PCR based DNA template preparation, the design and synthesis of novel reporter nucleotides and new surface attachment chemistries for DNA template. The integration of these advances will lead to the development of a high-throughput DNA sequencing system in the near future.
Calcification of Selected Strains of Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sanguis

Nine strains of cariogenic Streptococcus mutans and two strains of Streptococcus sanguis were tested for their ability to form hydroxyapatite. The cells were examined by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy for apatite crystals after growth in a synthetic calcification medium. Each of the test isolates, except for one strain of S. sanguis, produced intracellular mineral. Two strains of S. mutans formed both intra- and extracellular crystals. There was no apparent relationship between calcifiability and serotype.
The Study of Nature, Philosophy, and the Royal Library of San Lorenzo of the Escorial*

Interpretations of the iconography of the Royal Library of the Escorial have fostered many assessments of the intellectual panorama of late sixteenth-century Spain. This study advances the thesis that once the Royal Library was established in its permanent premises attempts were made to define its intellectual agenda, and in particular to redirect the study of nature undertaken there in a rather distinct and novel direction. To identify this agenda, this study shuns iconographic interpretation to focus instead on Friar Jose de Siguenza's description of the library's frescoes. Once this discourse by the librarian of the Escorial is read independently of meanings that might have been inscribed in the library's iconography and is complemented with insights gleaned from other works by its author and his mentor, Benito Arias Montano, the librarian's description reveals itself to be a manifesto of how the friar thought the study of nature should be undertaken at the Escorial. It entailed a reorientation away fr...
Classical functionals for spectral synthesis with discontinuous trial functions

Abstract Pomraning2 introduced the variational principle of Roussopoulos3 into transport theory. Nelson4 presented a Generalized Roussopoulos Principle (GRP) suitable for discontinuous trial functions, and initiated a program of systematically using this principle to derive various types of functionals. In Ref. 4 the GRP was used to obtain functionals admitting trial functions con- taining an interface value which is independent of the limiting values from either side. Our purpose in this work is to continue the program initiated in Ref. 4 by applying the GFP to functionals of classical type, by which we mean functionals in which there are no approximations at an interface other than the limiting values from either side.
Psychometric properties for the Children's Power of Food Scale in a diverse sample of pre-adolescent youth.

Abstract Purpose The Children's Power of Food Scale measures appetitive responsiveness across three domains, food available, food present, and food tasted but not eaten, and a total aggregate score. Although validated in adult populations it has not been tested in youth. The purpose was to establish psychometric properties for the Children's Power of Food Scale (C-PFS) for use in youth. Methods Six content experts were recruited to establish content validity (CVI). Reliability was established using 2-week test–retest procedures following lunch period in 47 ethnically diverse 10–14 year olds. Results CVI for the aggregate score was 0.87. Factor and aggregate score Cronbach's alphas were 0.61–0.89. Intra-class correlation factors scores were 0.28–0.68. Kappa (κ) ranged from 0.19 to 0.69 for individual questions. Conclusions The C-PFS may serve as a useful instrument to identify youth more vulnerable to food preoccupation and overconsumption given the obesogenic food environment. Factor 2, food present not tasted, should be interpreted with caution in English language learners.
Cluttering in the Communicative Disorders Curriculum

Abstract Cluttering is discussed openly in the fluency literature, but few educational opportunities for learning more about cluttering exist in higher education. The purpose of this manuscript is ...
Distributive impacts of the food price crisis in the Andean region.

This study analyses the distributive consequences associated with the recent international food price crisis in the Andean region. The study explores the distributive repercussions of the crisis by means of a simple simulation exercise which isolates the direct and short-term effects of actual increases in food prices across the Andean region. The paper finds substantive and heterogeneous poverty impacts, ranging from two to six per cent points in the incidence of poverty. Results are found very sensitive to the net consumer (or producer) position of the household, and less so across other characteristics of the household. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A synthesis of 3-O-(α-d-mannopyranosyl)-d-mannose and its protein conjugate

Methods for the synthesis of 3-O-(α-d-mannopyranosyl)-d-mannose and 2-(4-aminophenyl)ethyl 3-O-(α-d-mannopyranosyl)-α-d-mannopyranoside have been investigated by a number of sequences. Glycosidations with 2,3-di-O-acetyl-4,6-di-O-benzyl-d-mannopyranosyl and 2-O-benzoyl-3,4,6-tri-O-benzyl-d-mannopyranosyl p-toluenesulfonates were found to give better yields than the Helferich modification, the use of a peracylated d-mannopyranosyl halide, or the use of triflyl leaving group. Only the α anomer was obtained. Factors influencing glycosidation reactions are discussed. A mercury(II) complex was used for selective 2-O-acylation of 4,6-di-O-benzyl-α-d-mannopyranosides. A disaccharide—protein conjugate was prepared by the isothiocyanate method.
Long Distance Parental Caregivers' Experiences with Siblings A Qualitative Study

Increasing numbers of middle-aged adults provide longdistance care for their parents, yet relatively few studies have addressed their experiences. Particularly neglected themes include siblings’ communication and division of labor when one or more live at a distance from the parent. The researchers interviewed 22 adult children (10 women and 12 men) aged 37 to 65. Participants were members of sibling groups numbering two to seven. Using open-ended questions, the researchers addressed aspects of caregiving including: coordination of care, division of labor, distant siblings’ views of caregiving activities, and caregiving and sibling relationships. The researchers used QSR Nu*dist software to assist with coding and analysis of the qualitative data. The study showed different experiences and expectations of hometown siblings compared with long distance siblings. Participants’ perceptions of their siblings’ caregiving competencies, willingness to care, financial ability to help, and personal relationships with the parent affected caregiving decision making and division of labor.