cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Phosphorus depletion in sheep and the ratio of calcium to phosphorus in the diet with reference to calcium and phosphorus absorption.

1. A total of sixty-three wether lambs, 4–6 months old, were fed on diets low in phosphorus and adequate in calcium (0.072–0.073% P, 0.38–0.40% Ca) or adequate in both (0.38–0.40% P, 0.40% Ca) for 134 or 142 days. 2. Concentrations of serum inorganic P and Ca and alkaline phosphatase activity were studied during the depletion period. Bones were taken for histological analysis at the end of the 142 days. 3. After the preliminary depletion period, a metabolism study was conducted in which the effects of previous P depletion and dietary Ca:P ratio upon Ca and P absorption, as measured by isotope techniques, were studied. 4. Histological analysis of bones showed the presence of lesions characteristic of late rickets in some sheep and of severe osteoporosis in others. 5. A wide dietary Ca:P ratio had no apparent effect on P absorption when P intake was adequate. The availability of P was lowered by a diet deficient in P with a wide Ca:P ratio. 6. Previous P depletion resulted in enhanced P absorption during the first 11.5 days after an increased intake of P, but this effect was not shown during days 14–21 after the increase. 7. Ca absorption was reduced by giving a diet low in P and was increased when the intake of P was raised. 8. The response to wide dietary Ca:P ratios by ruminants and non-ruminants is reviewed, and a hypothesis, based upon a knowledge of the intestinal reaction of these species, is offered for the finding that ruminants tolerate wider dietary Ca:P ratios than non-ruminant species.
Rational Means and Irrational Ends: Thoughts on the Technology of Racism in the Third Reich

Among the most haunting features of the culture of murder created by the Nazis are the ruthless efficiency and sheer scale of their success in killing millions of human beings. There are those who link both to the earlier efficiency and scale of death in the titanic and grinding battles of the Great War. And there are others who would associate both with the alternatives of quick or lingering death promised by nuclear war. Efficiency and scale seem common to the mass death produced or proposed in the twentieth century, and many observers view both as attributes of the process of modernity.
We Need to Grow Less Food

When you hear an economist, you probably expect him to talk about conditions of demand and supply. When anything is bought or sold, this sale takes place only when the prospective buyer and the prospective seller have agreed on the price. Of course, we all know, from personal experience, that the buyer thinks he paid too much and the seller thinks he gave the goods away.
Level 3: Patient Power on the Web: The Multifaceted Role of Personal Health Wisdom

In this chapter we discuss “Level 3” – the wisdom of patients. We examine the increasingly prominent role of patients’ unique, highly personal, and experience-based knowledge in individual health management, in understanding the health of populations in aggregate, and in pushing the boundaries of biomedicine through its grounding of participatory citizen science.Main points The wisdom of patients is a unique and valuable resource that differs from the clinical expertise provided by medical professionals. The evolving landscape of social media offers patients a range of options for sharing their wisdom online. Knowledge discovered through crowdsourcing enables personal health wisdom to take a prominent role in shaping the health and well-being of individuals, society, and the future of biomedicine.
Information Aggregation and Optimal Market Design

The theory of optimal mechanism design often relies on the assumption that agents fully know their preferences. More realistically, preferences may be based on characteristics of goods which are observed via noisy, informative signals. Can markets aggregate this information while still delivering a full-information “optimal” outcome? I show that it is possible to achieve these goals by first aggregating the information of all agents and then running an optimal full-information mechanism. To ensure proper incentives, agents are punished when their reports do not match up with the “wisdom of the crowd.” The punishment scheme is independent of the desired allocation, and can be enacted with or without monetary transfers. Even when the number of objects being assessed is much larger than the number of assessors, the proposed mechanism asymptotically correctly identifies every object's quality, while imposing a worst-case total punishment that converges exponentially to zero. Therefore, I am able to generate nearly optimal allocations in two-sided matching markets with interdependent preferences, a setting for which impossibility results exist. I give necessary and sufficient conditions for recovering desirable properties when information acquisition is endogenous and costly.
El Niño and Vanishing Salmon: Culture, Nature, History, and the Politics of Blame

Many environmental historians reveal how culture shapes seemingly natural events, but few show how nature may supersede cultural explanations. Two episodes of declining salmon runs in 1877 and 1926 demonstrate how standard explanations of human causation can stumble when climatic events such as El Nino are integrated as historical factors.
Study on Translation Strategies From the Perspective of Context Theory

Context is always a hot topic in functional linguistics, which has been studied by many different linguistics. From B. Ma-linowski to J. R. Firth and to Halliday, the context theory has been improved gradually through their hard work. In the process of E-C or C-E translation, there are some words which the meanings vary in different situations, and sometimes they add difficulties infinding a suitable translation in target language. Aiming at this point, this paper applies context theory into E-C or C-E translationneatly, which can help us to search a better approach to translate these words in practice.
Reference value and predicted equations of lung function of healthy children in Suzhou

Objective To establish reference value and predicted equations of normal lung function for children of 5 to 14 years old in Suzhou.Methods A survey in 610 healthy children(302 boys,308 girls)was carried out in Suzhou,19 testing parameters including forced vital capacity(FVC)and forced expiratory volume at one second(FEV1)were observed.Data was analyzed by software SPSS16.0.Stepwise multiple regression and non-liner regression were applied to build the predicted equations of lung function.Results FVC and FEV1 were significantly different among age groups in both genders(P 0.01).Between different genders,FVC was higher in boys than that in girls for all age groups;the significant differences were showed in 7,12 and 14-year-old groups(P 0.05).FEV1 was higher in boys than that in girls for all age groups except 11-year-old group;the significant differences were observed in 7,8 and 14-year-old groups(P 0.05).Most of lung function parameters(FVC、FEV1、FEV0.5、PEF)were correlated positively to children's height,weight and age.And FEV1 presented exponential relationship with height.The average expiratory time of children was 2.68 seconds,volume of back extrapolation was less than 0.12 L,and the ratio of back extrapolative volume to forced vital capacity was less than 4.97%.Conclusions Most of lung function parameters are correlated with height rather than with weight or age.The standard of children's lung function should be set up separately from that of adults.
The New Trend of Technology Development in Measuring Self-regulated Learning in Western Countries

The author reviewed the traditional measurement technology in self-regulated learning with its strengths and weaknesses.And then the author reviewed the current new measurement technologies of SRL in western countries.The purpose was to track the most recent development in the field and foster the technology innovation in China.
The relationships between energy balance, milk production and ovulation in postpartum Holstein cows

Energy balance and serum progesterone concentrations were monitored during early lactation in a group of high producing Holstein cows. The postpartum interval to normal ovulation averaged 36 +/- 6 days (range 6 to 83 days). Average energy balance during the first 20 days of lactation (cumulative daily calculated energy balance divided by days in milk) was inversely related to days to normal ovulation (r = -.60) and to milk production (r = -.80). Milk yield during this period was not closely related to days to ovulation (r = .30). Milk yield was also not significantly related to serum prolactin concentrations over the first 12 weeks of lactation (r = .27). During early lactation, energy balance was maximally negative until peak milk yield and then began returning toward zero, with the magnitude and duration of negative energy balance being quite variable. On the average, ovulation and the initiation of the first normal luteal phase occurred approximately 10 days after energy balance began returning toward zero. During this 10-day interval, a transient elevation in serum progesterone concentrations occurred in eight of 13 cows. These results suggest that energy balance during the first 20 days of lactation is important in determining the onset of ovarian activity following parturition.
Examining the Use of Social Media among Four-H Alumni in Louisiana

The purpose of this study was to examine the use and determine the preferred method of social media among 4-H alumni in Louisiana. Based on a review of literature, communicating with youth through social media has become a major trend and necessity, especially among 4-H Youth Development and Cooperative Extension Service professionals. A 24-item instrument was developed and administered online to Louisiana 4-H alumni who received the 2011 Louisiana 4-H Senior Honor Cord and provided usable e-mails. The overall preferred method of social media among Louisiana 4-H alumni was Facebook and text messaging. A majority of 4-H alumni use their smart phones or personal computers to utilize social media. Some of the primary reasons that 4-H alumni use social media are to communicate with friends, view photographs, and become updated with current events. Overall, 100% of surveyed 4-H alumni use some form of social media.
Co-Parenting Quality, Parenting Stress, and Feeding Challenges in Families with a Child Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

113 parents of children aged 5-13 with ASD completed online surveys assessing co-parenting quality, parenting stress, and child feeding challenges. Results indicated that food selectivity was both the most frequently reported type of challenging feeding behavior and the most often reported as problematic but was also the only type of challenging feeding behavior that was not associated with parenting stress. Greater parenting stress was reported when co-parenting agreement and support were lower. Child disruptive behavior at mealtime was the only feeding challenge associated with quality of co-parenting. This paper points to the importance of addressing feeding challenges in addition to selectivity, such as disruptive mealtime behaviors, and doing so within the context of the family and home environment.
On Strike and On Stage: Migration, Mobilization, and the Cultural Work of El Teatro Campesino

This essay looks at the role of labor activism through the cultural work of El Teatro Campesino, the theater company that emerged from the farmworkers’ strike led by Cesear Chavez in Delano, California, during the mid-1960s. Through makeshift performances along the picket line, the farmworkers and their creative visionary, Luis Valdez, innovated Chicano/a performance and created an activist aesthetic that has continued to influence Chicano/a performance and art. Their productions, which started as small improvisational actos, drew from a wealth of transnational influences as well as from a larger proletariat and activist theater tradition. However, El Teatro Campesino adapted these techniques to their local resources. The result created a unique forum that enabled promotional education about unions and workers’ rights to exist side-by-side with themes of self-reflection and criticism concerning the risks of identity politics. The essay explores the methods by which El Teatro Campesino questioned and critiqued ethnic identity and argues for a more complex approach to their earlier picket-line entertainment. It proceeds to consider the importance of cultural production for labor mobilization, and argues for a more integrated analysis of the relationship between activism and art.
nTMS in Pediatrics: Special Issues and Solutions

Neurosurgical treatment of pediatric patients harbors specific considerations. Neocortical resective surgery is unique in the challenges of operating in the proximity of eloquent cortex, and in some diseases, such as focal intractable epilepsy, an appreciable fraction of neocortical resections are destined to be in the pediatric population. Using nTMS for motor and language mapping is becoming increasingly valued in pediatric presurgical planning. The nTMS technique has demonstrable utility for obtaining the information needed for localization of motor and language function in children, with minimal associated health risks and very little difficulty on behalf of the operator.
Support vector machines classification of fluorescence hyperspectral image for detection of aflatoxin in corn kernels

Aflatoxin contamination is a real concern for all classes of livestock. They are produced by certain mold fungi, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aflatoxin in food is hazardous for humans and animals. In this work, we propose a non-invasive system for detecting aflatoxin and classifying corn kernels based on the aflatoxin contamination levels. Fluorescence hyperspectral images of single corn kernels were used for experiments. Single and multi-classifier configurations of support vector machines are used to classify single corn kernels on a per-pixel basis. The performance of SVM classification with and without feature selection is assessed. Confusion matrices of different configurations are used for comparison, demonstrating that the multi-classifier system with nonuniform feature selection performs well, achieving an overall accuracy of 84%.
Equilibrium Pressure Measurements Above ZnS from 680° to 825°C

The pressure of the gas in equilibrium with sphalerite has been determined in the temperature range of 680° to 825°C, using the Knudsen orifice method. A comparison of these experimental pressures with those calculated from thermal data and from other equilibrium measurements shows that the vapor above sphalerite is predominantly dissociated ZnS. Equations have been given for correctly calculating dissociation pressures using the Knudsen orifice method. It has been shown that the experimentally determined pressure is the same, whether the zinc sulphide is sphalerite or not, or a mixture of wurtzite and sphalerite.
The Effect of Various Police Enforcement Actions on Violent Crime: Evidence From a Saturation Foot-Patrol Intervention:

The current study tests the crime prevention effect of different police actions conducted during a foot-patrol saturation initiative in Newark, New Jersey. Police actions were categorized into two ...
A-to-I RNA Editing Contributes to Proteomic Diversity in Cancer

Summary Adenosine (A) to inosine (I) RNA editing introduces many nucleotide changes in cancer transcriptomes. However, due to the complexity of post-transcriptional regulation, the contribution of RNA editing to proteomic diversity in human cancers remains unclear. Here, we performed an integrated analysis of TCGA genomic data and CPTAC proteomic data. Despite limited site diversity, we demonstrate that A-to-I RNA editing contributes to proteomic diversity in breast cancer through changes in amino acid sequences. We validate the presence of editing events at both RNA and protein levels. The edited COPA protein increases proliferation, migration, and invasion of cancer cells in vitro . Our study suggests an important contribution of A-to-I RNA editing to protein diversity in cancer and highlights its translational potential.
Model of Causality in Social Learning Theory

Many theories have been proposed over the years to explain human behavior. The basic conceptions of human nature they adopt and the causal processes they postulate require careful examination for several reasons. What theorists believe people to be determines which aspects of human functioning they explore most thoroughly and which they leave unexamined. Conceptions of human nature thus focus inquiry on selected processes and are in turn strengthened by findings of paradigms embodying the particular view. For example, theorists who exclude the capacity for self-direction from their view of human potentialities confine their research to external sources of influence and indeed find that behavior is often influenced by extrinsic outcomes. Theorists who view humans as possessing self-directing capabilities employ paradigms that shed light on how people make causal contribution to their own motivation and action through the exercise of self-influence.
On the number of nondismantlable posets with the fixed point property

We give a lower bound for the number of orders on a finite set that are not dismantlable and have the fixed point property. To do so we also derive an upper bound for the number of orders on a finite set that are dismantlable.
Peptides and Psychiatry

Knowledge of the number and complexity of peptides found in the brain (neuropeptides) and understanding of their regulation of neural activity has grown exponentially in recent years. It has become increasingly clear that the neuropeptide class of neurotransmitters is remarkably ubiquitous throughout the brain and serves many critical regulatory functions. This article reviews neuropeptide biology and regulation, using specific examples that have clearly elucidated behavioral roles and likely contribute to psychopathology. Corticotropin-releasing factor, the prime mediator of the integrated stress response, is discussed with its seminal role in the pathophysiology of depression and anxiety disorders. The roles of oxytocin and vasopressin are examined in social behaviors ranging from pair-bond formation to parental behavior, with abnormalities in these systems implicated in disorders of socialization such as autism. Finally, the neuropeptides cholecystokinin and neurotensin are compared in their roles in feeding, autonomic regulation, and in the dopaminergic reward circuitry. These peptides both show promise as potential targets in treating schizophrenia. Through their organization of neural circuitry and peripheral responses, the neuropeptides mediate numerous complex behaviors, and their elucidation may ultimately lead to a clearer understanding of, and provide novel treatments for, many psychiatric disorders.
An Energy-Efficient High-Swing PAM-4 Voltage-Mode Transmitter

As the data rate of high-speed I/Os continues to increase, four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) is adopted to improve the bandwidth density and link margin at 50 Gb/s and beyond. Compared to non-return-to-zero (NRZ) signaling, however, the PAM-4 eye height is reduced, which calls for larger transmitter swing to maintain signal-to-noise-ratio. A new energy-efficient transmitter is proposed to generate large swing PAM-4 signals with a cascode voltage-mode driver and supporting pre-drivers and logic circuits. By reconfiguring the pull-up and pull-down branches based on the transmit data and steering the bypass currents, the proposed voltage-mode driver significantly reduces power consumption compared to conventional implementation while maintaining impedance matching. Voltage stacking technique is adopted for pre-drivers to further improve energy efficiency. To demonstrate the new transmitter design, a prototype 56 Gb/s PAM-4 transmitter is designed using a generic 28-nm CMOS technology with a 2-V power supply voltage. It achieves a overall output swing of 2 V and a minimum eye height of 490 mV with good linearity (98.7% level separation mismatch ratio). Compared to a conventional voltage-mode transmitter design with the same swing, the static power consumption of the new transmitter is reduced almost by half (from 30 mW to 16 mW), and its overall energy efficiency improves from 0.7 pJ/b to 0.5 pJ/b.
An efficient implementation of two-component relativistic density functional theory with torque-free auxiliary variables

An integration and assembly strategy for efficient evaluation of the exchange correlation term in relativistic density functional theory within two-component Kohn–Sham framework is presented. Working equations that both take into account all the components of the spin magnetization and can exploit parallelism, optimized cache utilization, and micro-architecture specific-floating point operations are discussed in detail in this work. The presented assembly of the exchange correlation potential, suitable for both open and closed shell systems, uses spinor density and a set of auxiliary variables, ensuring easy retrofitting of existing density functionals designed for collinear density. The used auxiliary variables in this paper, based on the scalar and non-collinear density, can preserve non-zero exchange correlation magnetic field local torque, without violating the required overall zero torque, even for GGA functionals. This is mandatory to obtain accurate spin dynamics and proper time evolution of the magnetization. Spin frustrated hydrogen rings are used to validate the current implementation and phenoxy radicals of different sizes are used to monitor the performance. This approach is a step towards extending the applicability of relativistic two-component DFT to systems of large size (>100 atoms).
A microfluidic platform to study the effects of GDNF on neuronal axon entrapment.

Abstract Background One potential treatment strategy to enhance axon regeneration is transplanting Schwann Cells (SCs) that overexpress glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). Unfortunately, constitutive GDNF overexpression in vivo can result in failure of regenerating axons to extend beyond the GDNF source, a phenomenon termed the “candy-store” effect. Little is known about the mechanism of this axon entrapment in vivo. New Method We present a reproducible in vitro culture platform using a microfluidic device to model axon entrapment and investigate mechanisms by which GDNF causes axon entrapment. The device is comprised of three culture chambers connected by two sets of microchannels, which prevent cell soma from moving between chambers but allow neurites to grow between chambers. Neurons from dorsal root ganglia were seeded in one end chamber while the effect of different conditions in the other two chambers was used to study neurite entrapment. Results The results showed that GDNF-overexpressing SCs (G-SCs) can induce axon entrapment in vitro. We also found that while physiological levels of GDNF (100 ng/mL) promoted neurite extension, supra-physiological levels of GDNF (700 ng/mL) induced axon entrapment. Comparison with Existing Method All previous work related to the “candy-store” effect were done in vivo. Here, we report the first in vitro platform that can recapitulate the axonal entrapment and investigate the mechanism of the phenomenon. Conclusions This platform facilitates investigation of the “candy-store” effect and shows the effects of high GDNF concentrations on neurite outgrowth.
Multimodal molecular analysis of an atypical small cell carcinoma of the ovary, hypercalcemic type.

A 12-yr-old normocalcemic female treated for a ruptured ovarian juvenile granulosa cell tumor at an outside hospital presented for exploratory laparotomy and gross surgical debulking of pelvic recurrence. Morphologically, the tumor was composed of sheets and nests of small blue cells forming cysts of various sizes and focal mucinous differentiation. Epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), patchy inhibin, and strong and diffuse p53 immunoreactivity were also observed. A revised diagnosis of mixed sex cord stromal tumor with heterologous elements was favored because of the inhibin immunoreactivity. Targeted next-generation sequencing of the tumor revealed a SMARCA4 c.1141C>T, p.Arg381Ter ({"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"NM_001128849.1","term_id":"192807322","term_text":"NM_001128849.1"}}NM_001128849.1) nonsense mutation and an in-frame 18-bp TP53 deletion (c.594_611del18, p.Gly199_Glu204del, {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"NM_001126112.2","term_id":"371502115","term_text":"NM_001126112.2"}}NM_001126112.2). Cytogenetic analysis revealed a normal 46,XX karyotype, and OncoScan single-nucleotide polymorphism array analysis demonstrated copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity (CN-LOH) of 19p13.3-19p13.2 and mosaic CN-LOH of 17p13.3-p11.2 encompassing the SMARCA4 and TP53 loci, respectively. Subsequent germline SMARCA4 sequencing confirmed a heterozygous SMARCA4 p.Arg381Ter mutation. In lieu of the molecular findings, the diagnosis was amended to small cell carcinoma of the ovary, hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT). The patient was treated aggressively with paclitaxel, carboplatin, and bevacizumab. She received an autologous stem cell transplant but died 5 mo after SCCOHT diagnosis secondary to complications of the transplant. This case expands the morphologic, immunophenotypic, and genomic spectrum of SCCOHT and highlights how multimodal molecular analysis can assist with the diagnosis and clinical management of SCCOHT patients.
Perceived Barriers to Mobility in a Medical ICU: The Patient Mobilization Attitudes & Beliefs Survey for the ICU.

Purpose:Early mobilization in the intensive care unit (ICU) can improve patient outcomes but has perceived barriers to implementation. As part of an ongoing structured quality improvement project t...
Breastfeeding Practices in Georgia: Rural-Urban Comparison and Trend Analyses Based on 2004-2013 PRAMS Data

PURPOSE The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified rural mothers as a priority population for targeted breastfeeding promotion programs. In Georgia, breastfeeding rates lag behind the national ones. This study examines rural-urban differences and trends over time in breastfeeding initiation and continuation (breastfeeding for at least 8 weeks) among women with a live birth from 2004 to 2013 in Georgia. METHODS This observational study is based on the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System data. The National Center for Health Statistics urban-rural continuum codes were used to operationalize mother's county of residence. Prevalence of breastfeeding was estimated from the logistic regression models, unadjusted and adjusted for sociodemographic and health-related characteristics. FINDINGS In both unadjusted and adjusted analyses, significantly fewer rural (60.2%, 95% CI: 57.5-62.9 and 64.5%, 95% CI: 61.3-67.6, respectively) than urban (74.9%, 95% CI: 73.4-76.4 and 72.9%, 95% CI: 71.1-74.6, respectively) mothers initiated breastfeeding (P < .001). Similar rural-urban differences persisted throughout the 10-year study period-approximately 15 percentage points (pps) in unadjusted and over 8 pps in adjusted analyses (Ps < .001). Fewer rural (35.9%, CI: 32.4-39.3) than urban (44.7%, CI: 42.7-46.7) mothers continued breastfeeding, but this difference was significant overall and over time in unadjusted analyses only (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS Interventions increasing breastfeeding initiation in rural mothers can be expected to lead to cumulative increase in breastfeeding practices among Georgia women. Equally important, however, is to increase the rates of breastfeeding initiation in all women and support for all women to continue breastfeeding for longer duration.
Clinical Implications of Carcinoma In Situ in Sinonasal Inverted Papilloma.

ObjectiveSinonasal inverted papilloma (IP) is a typically benign sinonasal tumor with a tendency to recur and the potential for malignant transformation. Varying degrees of dysplasia may be present...
The effects of -80 °C short-term storage on the mechanical response of tricuspid valve leaflets.

Abstract Mechanical testing of soft tissues would ideally rely on using fresh specimens. In the event that fresh tissues are not readily available, alternative measures, such as storing fresh specimens at −80 °C, could be considered. Previous studies have shown that changes in the mechanical properties of the tissues due to freezing could be tissue-dependent. Prior to our study, however, such information was not available for the tricuspid valve leaflets. As such, for the first time, we examined whether fresh porcine specimens tested in a biaxial tensile machine would offer comparable results after being frozen at −80 °C. The stress-strain response of the tricuspid valve leaflets displayed no major deviation of the post-frozen leaflets as compared to fresh leaflets. We further compared the radial and circumferential strains as an indicator of deformation at similar stress states in fresh and thawed tissues, and we did not find any significant differences. Ice formation within the extra cellular matrix may modify the collagen fiber configuration, resulting in a slight change in the mechanical response. Nevertheless, our results indicated such a small deviation was negligible, thus enabling the possibility of using frozen porcine tricuspid valve specimens for future research.
Patient-reported and clinician-rated performance status and general health among women with gynecologic cancers on palliative chemotherapy.

e24128Background: Oncologists’ perceptions of patients’ performance status (PS) and general health are key determinants of eligibility for chemotherapy and clinical trials. We sought to examine cor...
Implementation of a Pragmatic Child Weight Management Research Study in the Primary Care Setting: Key Facilitators and Challenges

Program Goals: One in five children and one-third of adults have obesity. The TEAM UP project will compare weight changes in children and their parents participating in enhanced Standard of Care (eSOC), a treatment delivered by primary care providers (PCPs) that aligns with the American Medical Association guidelines for staged care of obesity, and eSOC + Family-based Behavioral Treatment (FBT), an evidence-based intervention delivered by trained health care providers (“health coaches”) that targets family-wide changes in diet and physical activity habits using behavior change techniques to …
Robotic Inguinal Hernia Repair Outcomes: Operative Time and Cost Analysis.

Background Robotic inguinal hernia repair is the latest iteration of minimally invasive herniorrhaphy. Previous studies have shown expedited learning curves compared to traditional laparoscopy, which may be offset by higher cost and longer operative time. We sought to compare operative time and direct cost across the evolving surgical practice of 10 surgeons in our healthcare system. Methods This is a retrospective review of all transabdominal preperitoneal robotic inguinal hernia repairs performed by 10 general surgeons from July 2015 to September 2018. Patients requiring conversion to an open procedure or undergoing simultaneous procedures were excluded. The data was divided to compare each surgeon's initial 20 cases to their subsequent cases. Direct operative cost was calculated based on the sum of supplies used intra-operatively. Multivariate analysis, using a generalized estimating equation, was adjusted for laterality and resident involvement to evaluate outcomes. Results Robotic inguinal hernia repairs were divided into two groups: early experience (n = 167) and late experience (n = 262). The late experience had a shorter mean operative time by 17.6 min (confidence interval: 4.06 - 31.13, p = 0.011), a lower mean direct operative cost by $538.17 (confidence interval: 307.14 - 769.20, p < 0.0001), and fewer postoperative complications (p = 0.030) on multivariate analysis. Thirty-day readmission rates were similar between both groups. Conclusion Increasing surgeon experience with robotic inguinal hernia repair is associated with a predictable reduction in operative time, complication rates, and direct operative cost per case. Thirty-day readmission rates are not affected by the learning curve.
Leading in a Pandemic: Why School Leaders Should Learn From Similarities Between Campus Uprisings and Covid-19

Covid-19 is exposing the inequities and inefficiencies in leadership, in healthcare, and in access to resources—educational, economic, and otherwise—that often necessitate and precipitate unrest and uprisings These realities are inextricably linked to racism, disproportionalities, and the history of discrimination in this country and across the globe— disproportionalities that intersect with university campus uprisings and the urgent need for anti-oppressive school leaders who center the voices and needs of their students © 2020 All Rights Reserved
Introducing a New Apparatus for Designating Two-Lane Highway Passing and No-Passing Zones:

Two-lane highways constitute a large proportion of the U.S. highways. An essential component needed in the design of safe two-lane highways is the passing sight distance (PSD). Otherwise, insuffici...
The Ordinary Concept of a Meaningful Life: The Role of Subjective and Objective Factors in Third-Person Attributions of Meaning

The desire for a meaningful life is ubiquitous, yet the ordinary concept of a meaningful life is poorly understood. Across six experiments (total N = 2,539), we investigated whether third-person at...
Salmon Versus Power: Dam Removal and Power Supply Adequacy

Dam removal is gaining both support and resistance in different communities and political circles in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, given its sensitive environmental and economic consequences. The Columbia River Basin (CRB) offers a unique opportunity to examine to what extent the replacement of hydroelectric dams affects reliability and adequacy of the power system given long-standing proposals to remove the four Lower Snake River dams to improve the survival of the endangered salmon species. Key results show that replacing the four dams leads to an inadequate energy supply, necessitating the need for more capacity to satisfy requirements. Although the four dams have higher nameplate capacity, they provide a much lower effective capacity. Thus, the debate about removing dams should be an opportunity for CRB managers to consider investment options in new ecosystem services and energy solutions that maintain adequate performance.
Using a Guided Fuzzer and Preconditions to Achieve Branch Coverage with Valid Inputs

Software is widely used in critical systems. Thus, it is important that developers can quickly find semantic bugs with testing; however, semantic bugs can only be revealed by tests that use valid inputs. Guided fuzzers can create input tests that cover all branches; however, they may not necessarily cover all branches with valid inputs. Therefore, the problem is how to guide a fuzzer to cover all branches in a program with only valid inputs. We perform a study of an idea that guarantees that all inputs generated by a guided fuzzer that reach the program under test are valid using formal specifications and runtime assertion checking. Our results show that this idea improves the feedback given to a guided fuzzer.
Learning Mathematics with Understanding: A Critical Consideration of the Learning Principle in the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics

Learning with understanding has increasingly received attention from educators and psychologists, and has progressively been elevated to one of the most important goals for all students in all subjects. However, the realization of this goal has been problematic, especially in the domain of mathematics. To this might have contributed the fact that, although the vision of students learning mathematics with understanding has often appeared in curriculum frameworks, this vision has tended to be poorly described, thereby offering limited support to curriculum development and policy. The Learning Principle in the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, an influential mathematics curriculum framework in the United States, seems to make an effort to break this tradition by offering a research-based description of what is involved for students to learn mathematics with understanding. In this article, we examine the extent to which the Learning Principle meets this goal in light of seminal scholarly work on learning mathematics with understanding. By solidifying some key ideas set forth in the Learning Principle and by identifying ideas for further consideration, the article contributes to the development of better descriptions in curriculum frameworks of issues related to promoting meaningful learning in school.
SH-SAW-based sensor for heavy metal ion detection

In this study, a shear horizontal mode surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) sensor, was designed and fabricated for the detection of heavy metals. The SH-SAW sensor was photolithographically fabricated by patterning gold (Au) interdigitated electrodes (IDE) and reflectors on the surface of a 64° YX-LiNbO 3 based piezoelectric substrate. A flow cell, with a reservoir volume of 3 µl, which employs inlet and outlet ports for the microfluidic chamber and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based microfluidic channels, was also designed and fabricated using acrylic material. Phenol and naphtho[2,3-a]dipyrido[3,2-h:2′3′-f] phenazine-5,18-dione (QDPPZ) were employed as the sensing layers for mercury and nickel ions, respectively. The frequency based response of the SH-SAW sensor demonstrated picomolar level detection for mercury nitrate (Hg(NO 3 ) 2 ) and nickel nitrate (Ni(NO 3 ) 2 ).
Abstract IA9: Vitamin D: Shining light on pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) occurs in the context of an exuberant desmoplastic response that produces a ‘living chimera’ of tumor and activated stromal components. A prominent feature of the stromal response is the transformation of the Vitamin A storing pancreatic stellate cell (PSC) to activated myofibroblasts. We hypothesized that restoration of the quiescent PSC phenotype could disrupt tumor-stroma crosstalk and thus improve response to chemotherapy. Recently, we have shown that the vitamin D receptor (VDR) is expressed at high levels in activated human pancreatic tumor stroma and, in response to ligand, acts as a master transcriptional regulator of PSCs to reprise the quiescent state. In vivo, a synthetic VDR agonist (Cal) induced signal-dependent transcriptional remodeling of tumor stroma, enhancing the anti-tumor effects of gemcitabine by increasing intratumoral concentration to reduce tumor growth. Secreted factors are key drivers of the communication between tumor and stroma. To explore the impact of PSC secreted factors on gene expression in pancreatic cancer, PDAC cell lines were grown in the presence of stromal conditioned media (StCM). Addition of StCM was sufficient to induce expression of thousands of PDAC genes linked to epigenetic reprograming including genome wide histone hyperacetylation. The gene expression profile induced by stromal factors overlap with those previously identified following oncogenic Kras, suggesting functional complementarity between cell-autonomous and micro-environmental cues. As epigenome modification results in changes in gene expression through histone modifications, we tested a small molecule inhibitors epigenetic regulators for the capacity to inhibit gene expression changes downstream of stromal factors. Paracrine induction of pro-growth and inflammatory genes was inhibited by this small molecule, suggesting that acetyl-lysine readers serve as key transducers of stromal inputs to drive alterations in gene expression in pancreatic cancer cells. This work describes a molecular strategy through which transcriptional reprogramming of tumors and tumor stroma by Vitamin D or epigenetic regulators may serve as a therapeutic portal in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Citation Format: Mara H. Sherman, Ning Ding, Eric A. Collisson, Michael Downes, Ronald M. Evans. Vitamin D: Shining light on pancreatic cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer: Innovations in Research and Treatment; May 18-21, 2014; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(13 Suppl):Abstract nr IA9.
Intraoperative roentgenograms of kidney

Abstract A technique is described for use in intraoperative procedures on the kidney that require roentgenographic monitoring.
GABA-mediated spatial and temporal asymmetries that contribute to the directionally selective light responses of starburst amacrine cells in retina

Key points • Starburst amacrine cells (SACs), interneurons that are essential to the generation of direction selectivity in the retina, depolarize to light stimuli that move centrifugally away from them, but hyperpolarize to stimuli that move centripetally towards them. • These directionally selective light responses are dependent on the differential distribution of the Cl− cotransporters NKCC (which mediates GABA-evoked depolarizations by increasing intracellular Cl−) and KCC2 (which mediates GABA-evoked hyperpolarizations by decreasing intracellular Cl−) on SAC proximal and distal dendrites, respectively. • We show computationally that directionally selective light responses can be produced in both starburst cell bodies and distal dendrites if (1) there is an intracellular Cl− concentration gradient along SAC dendrites and (2) the response of the dendrites to GABA is relatively long lasting. • The location of NKCC and KCC2 in different compartments of individual neuronal processes may be an important means by which the brain encodes information.
The diagonal equivalent photon density matrix: An exact extension of the equivalent photon approximation☆

A technique is presented to simplify calculations involving processes in which one or more leptons emit virtual photons, with the lepton spins summed over. It consists of the choice of a specific set of polarization vectors to represent the virtual photon which diagonalizes the photon density matrix, thereby requiring only the square of the photon amplitude, summed over spins of other particles if desired. Although similar in spirit to the equivalent photon approximation, it is exact. An important application is the two-photon mechanism in colliding e+e− beams, and ee → eell is discussed.
A Browser-Server-Based Tele-audiology System That Supports Multiple Hearing Test Modalities.

Abstract Introduction: Millions of global citizens suffering from hearing disorders have limited or no access to much needed hearing healthcare. Although tele-audiology presents a solution to alleviate this problem, existing remote hearing diagnosis systems support only pure-tone tests, leaving speech and other test procedures unsolved, due to the lack of software and hardware to enable communication required between audiologists and their remote patients. This article presents a comprehensive remote hearing test system that integrates the two most needed hearing test procedures: a pure-tone audiogram and a speech test. Materials and Methods: This enhanced system is composed of a Web application server, an embedded smart Internet-Bluetooth® (Bluetooth SIG, Kirkland, WA) gateway (or console device), and a Bluetooth-enabled audiometer. Several graphical user interfaces and a relational database are hosted on the application server. The console device has been designed to support the tests and auxiliary comm...
Analysis of Junction Sequences Resulting From Integration at Nonhomologous Loci in Neurospora crassa

We have analyzed the junctions involved in two examples of ectopic integration of plasmids containing the am+ (glutamate dehydrogenase) gene into a strain of Neurospora crassa bearing a complete deletion of the am locus. In one transformed strain a single copy of plasmid DNA had been integrated into linkage group (LG) III DNA without the loss of chromosomal DNA. In contrast, 450 bp had been lost from plasmid sequences at the site of integration. The transforming DNA used was circular, so we postulate that the plasmid was linearized and truncated prior to its integration by end joining into a break in LG III DNA. There was no significant homology between the incoming DNA and DNA at the site of integration. The second transformed strain resulted from transformation with a linearized plasmid. It contained multiple integrated copies of plasmid DNA, one of which was recloned, together with adjacent chromosomal DNA, by plasmid rescue in Escherichia coli. Prior to integration into chromosomal DNA, the linear plasmid had been truncated by 64 bp on one end and 3.2 kbp on the other end. One end of the integrated DNA was adjacent to DNA from the right arm of LG I, while the other end was integrated into a copy of a repetitive sequence. Restriction fragment length polymerism mapping showed that integration was in a copy of the repetitive sequence that is linked to the previously unassigned telomere M11 and is distantly linked to the LG VI marker con-11. Genetic analysis revealed that a long segment of LG I containing all markers from un-1 to the right tip has been translocated to the right end of LG VI. Tetrad analysis showed that the integrated DNA was closely linked to the translocation. We conclude that the transforming DNA was truncated and joined to DNA from two different chromosomes by end joining during the formation of a quasiterminal translocation, T(IR----VIR) UK-T12. We also conclude that the previously unassigned telomere, M11, is the right end of LG VI.