cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Social Problem Solving as a Risk Factor for Depression

Publisher Summary Social problem solving represents the multidimensional meta-process of idiographically identifying and selecting various coping responses to implement in order to address the unique features of a given stressful situation, rather than describing a singular type of coping behavior or activity. Research has continued to identify social problem solving to be consistently linked to depressive symptomatology among both clinical and nonclinical populations. In addition, problem solving has been found to moderate the stress– depression relationship. The sets of findings implicate how impaired problem solving skills function as a depressogenic vulnerability factor for individuals who experience stressful events. Given this context, social problem solving has further served as an important clinical target for the treatment of depression. The relationship between social problem solving and depression is based on the broader problem-solving model of stress. Within this model, stress is viewed as a function of the reciprocal relations among three major variables: stressful life events, emotional stress responses, and problem-solving coping.
A Review of Automotive Engine Friction Reduction Opportunities Through Technologies Related to Tribology

Reducing fuel consumption in automotive engines is a key enabler for CO2 emission reduction. Tribology plays a significant role in reducing parasitic losses in an engine and thus reducing fuel consumption. The paper reviews frictional losses in critical engine components and the lubrication regime(s) they operate. This reveals the opportunities for friction reduction at cylinder bore/piston contact, valvetrain, and bearings through deposition of low friction coatings, improved surface finish, surface modifications, and low friction engine oil. The paper also attempted to capture implementation of some of these friction reduction concepts in recent engines.
Pay disparities within top management teams and earning management

Abstract I examine the impact of pay disparity between the chief executive officer (CEO) and the next layer of executives in the top management team (TMT) on earnings management through real activities manipulation (RAM). I find that firms with larger pay disparities in the TMT exhibit more RAM and that the positive relation is driven by short-term compensation. The main findings are robust to corrections for endogeneity of all managerial incentive measures. I find some evidence that the positive relation between pay disparity and RAM is less pronounced for firms in homogeneous industries, while it is more pronounced for firms with CEO turnover in subsequent years. I also find that large pay disparity is associated with low future performance. Collectively, my evidence suggests that TMT pay disparity increases RAM by fostering extreme competition for advancement to the CEO position. This study provides useful insight into the distribution of executive pay and its effects on corporate earnings management behavior.
Taking the health aid debate to the subnational level: the impact and allocation of foreign health aid in Malawi

Objective Cross-national studies provide inconclusive results as to the effectiveness of foreign health aid. We highlight a novel application of using subnational data to evaluate aid impacts, using Malawi as a case study. Design We employ two rounds of nationally representative household surveys (2004/2005 and 2010/2011) and geo-referenced foreign aid data. We examine the determinants of Malawi9s traditional authorities receiving aid according to health, environmental risk, socioeconomic and political factors. We use two approaches to estimate the impact of aid on reducing malaria prevalence and increasing healthcare quality: difference-in-difference models, which include traditional authority and month-of-interview fixed effects and control for individual and household level time-varying factors, and entropy balancing, where models balance on health-related and socioeconomic baseline characteristics. General health aid and four specific health aid sectors are examined. Results Traditional authorities with greater proportions of individuals living in urban areas, more health facilities and greater proportions of those in major ethnic groups were more likely to receive aid. Difference-in-difference models show health infrastructure and parasitic disease control aid reduced malaria prevalence by 1.20 (95% CI −0.36 to 2.76) and 2.20 (95% CI 0.43 to 3.96) percentage points, respectively, and increased the likelihood of individuals reporting healthcare as more than adequate by 12.1 (95% CI 1.51 to 22.68) and 14.0 (95% CI 0.11 to 28.11) percentage points. Entropy balancing shows similar results. Conclusions Aid was targeted to areas with greater existing health infrastructure rather than areas most in need, but still effectively reduced malaria prevalence and enhanced self-reported healthcare quality.
Management of the thyroid gland during laryngectomy.

Objectives: This study aimed to: describe the incidence of thyroid gland involvement in advanced laryngeal cancer, analyse patterns of spread to the thyroid and elucidate predictors of thyroid involvement. Methods: A retrospective review was performed on patients who underwent laryngectomy from 1991 to 2015 as a primary or salvage treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx, hypopharynx or base of tongue. The incidence of thyroidectomy during total laryngectomy, type of thyroidectomy, incidence of gland involvement, route of spread, and positive predictors of spread were analysed and reported. Results: A total of 188 patients fit the inclusion criteria. Of these, 125 (66 per cent) underwent thyroidectomy. The thyroid was involved in 10 of the 125 patients (8 per cent), 9 by direct extension and 1 by metastasis. Cartilage invasion was a predictor of thyroid gland involvement, with a positive predictive value of 26 per cent. Conclusion: There is a low incidence of thyroid gland involvement in laryngeal carcinoma. Most cases of gland involvement occurred by direct extension. Thyroidectomy during laryngectomy should be considered for advanced stage tumours with cartilage invasion.
Radios, payloads, & onboard processing made easy

The advent of reprogrammable software defined payloads has dramatically reduced the cost and complexity of developing space radios and remote sensing payloads. Over the last several years, Harris has been developing its AppSTARTM product line of reprogrammable software defined radios, including the NASA CoNNeCT SDR flying as part of NASA's SCaN testbed on the International Space Station. Since the CoNNeCT mission was launched in 2012, Harris has delivered over 100 software defined payloads (SDP), including those functioning as secondary hosted payloads for a variety of commercial and government applications. Looking to the future, investments were made in the second generation of Harris AppSTAR™ through radiation testing the latest commercial processors and packaging them together with radiation tolerant mitigation circuitry. Our new micro-SDR (μSDR) is packaged into a smaller volume, but yields significantly higher processing horsepower. The μSDR is capable of high rate communications capability over 1 Gbps, and its first launch is planned for mid-2017. The flexibility of the Harris AppSTAR™ architecture enables SDPs to be quickly developed to support communication and remote sensing mission needs. A variety of missions can be supported through application of SDP/radio technology which reduces the cost, risk, and schedule of achieving mission success.
Crystallizable Fragment Glycoengineering for Therapeutic Antibodies Development

Monoclonal antibody (mAb) based therapeutics are the fastest growing class of human pharmaceuticals. They are typically IgG1 molecules with N-glycans attached to the N297 residue on Fc. Different Fc glycoforms impact their effector function, pharmacokinetics (PK), stability, aggregation, safety and immunogenicity. Fc glycoforms affect mAbs effector functions including ADCC and CDC by modulating the Fc-FcγRs and Fc-C1q interactions. While the terminal galactose enhances CDC activity, the fucose significantly decrease ADCC. Defucosylated IgGs are thus highly pursued as next-generation therapeutic mAbs with potent ADCC at reduced doses. A plethora of cell glycoengineering and chemoenzymatic glycoengineering strategies are emerging to produce IgGs with homogenous glycoforms especially without core fucose. The chemoenzymatic glycosylation remodeling also offers useful avenues for site-specific conjugations of small molecule drugs onto mAbs. Herein, we review the current progress of IgG Fc glycoengineering. We begin with the discussion of the structures of IgG N-glycans and biosynthesis followed by reviewing the impact of IgG glycoforms on antibody effector functions and the current Fc glycoengineering strategies with emphasis on Fc defucosylation. Furthermore, we briefly discuss two novel therapeutic mAbs formats: aglycosylated mAbs and Fc glycan specific antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). The advances in the understanding of Fc glycobiology and development of novel glycoengineering technologies have facilitated the generation of therapeutic mAbs with homogenous glycoforms and improved therapeutic efficacy.
Mobility Strategies in Late Imperial China: A Regional Systems Analysis

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the export of specialized human talent as a maximization strategy pursued by territorially based social systems in late Imperial China and presents a regional systems analysis of mobility strategies. In a city, where the imbalance favored economic centrality, the ambitious bureaucrat had everything to gain in a city. Opportunities for extra official income were great, for he could tap the resources of an economic system more extensive than the unit he administered, and by the same token he could more readily chalk up a laudable record as a tax collector. Moreover, the challenge of a busier, larger yamen provided ample opportunity to prove himself to superiors. Other things being equal, the businessman, too, was favorably situated in such a city. By virtue of the city's high level in the economic hierarchy, he could reap the economic rewards of scale, agglomeration, and diversification. Interurban transactions were normally critical in traditional China.
Lymphopenia and outcomes of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma treated with radiotherapy.

278Background: The immune system plays a crucial role in cancer surveillance. Lymphopenia during cancer treatment portends poor prognosis. Here, we aim to quantify lymphocyte count changes during r...
Pro-poor strategies for urban water supply and sanitation services delivery in Africa.

Water utilities in Africa find it increasingly difficult to provide adequate services to the needy areas: their core business operations are often stagnant, compounded by a dramatic rise in peri-urban and poor settlements. To address these challenges, the Water and Sanitation Program Africa (WSP-AF) has designed a work program to disseminate the best practice in pro-poor service development and to help utilities and municipal authorities to develop roadmaps to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for their service areas. Activities will primarily be directed at: (i) helping utilities and municipal authorities to include pro-poor objectives in their reform; and, (ii) working jointly with local partners, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), and Small Scale Providers (SSPs) to develop strategies and actions specifically targeting informal settlements. WSP-AF will focus on utilities that are engaged in reform or planning to do so. Key entry points for pro-poor strategies include: (i) pro-poor tariffs and financing mechanisms for service improvement; (ii) institutional arrangements to improve services to the urban poor; (iii) pro-poor transaction design (including regulation and monitoring); (iv) advocacy and communications regarding the urban poor; and (v) consumer voice and civil society engagement.
Thermal-Neutron Capture Cross Section and Resonance Integral for 10.7-Year Krypton-85

The thermal-neutron capture cross section and capture resonance integral for 10.7-year 85Kr have been determined in carefully monitored experiments using 99.992% isotopically pure 85Kr. Values of 1...
Acquired von Willebrand's disease.

This article discusses the diagnosis, treatment, and purported pathophysiologic mechanisms involved with the acquisition of acquired von Willebrand's disease. The disease typically presents late in life and is heralded by a new-onset bleeding diathesis in a patient without prior coagulopathy. It is associated with many benign and malignant conditions, some of which are the myeloproliferative disorders, lymphomas, multiple myeloma, Wilm's tumors, and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. The diagnosis is based on the patient's history and by finding laboratory features consistent with classical von Willebrand's disease. The treatment involves l-deamino-8-arginine
Revamping computer science seminar course for comprehensive assessment of student learning

This paper discusses how a senior seminar course has been redeveloped and expanded to help with assessment of senior students in the computer science program. Rubrics that can be used for assessment practices in computer science are addressed and sample case studies are presented. A well developed senior seminar course can be successfully used as an assessment instrument.
Trilobites in Paleozoic Predator-Prey Systems, and Their Role in Reorganization of Early Paleozoic Ecosystems

Predation is a fundamental ecological process that has profound effects on the morphology, distribution, abundance, and evolution of metazoans. The earliest verified records of predation date to the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian transition interval (e.g., Conway Morris and Jenkins, 1985; Babcock, 1993a; Bengtson and Yue, 1992; Bengtson, 1994; Conway Morris and Bengtson, 1994; Nedin, 1999; Jago and Haines, in press), but the impact of predation almost certainly has a much deeper evolutionary history. Among the earliest and most widespread lines of evidence for the importance of predation in the early Paleozoic comes from the record of trilobites. As biomineralized animals, trilobites have left an excellent fossil record that extends from the latter part of the Early Cambrian (e.g., Zhang, 1987; Geyer, 1996, Geyer, 1998; Geyer and Palmer, 1995; Luo and Jiang, 1996; Hollingsworth, 1999; Geyer and Shergold, 2000; Peng and Babcock, 2000; Peng and Babcock, 2001), c. 520 Ma, to the end of the Permian (e.g., Brezinski, 1992), c. 248 Ma. Predation on and by trilobites evidently exerted influence on the morphological development of metazoans, as well as on ecosystem development, through the Paleozoic.
Obsessive-Compulsive Symptomatology in Community Youth: Typical Development or a Red Flag for Psychopathology?

Objective Obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) are common throughout development and often considered developmentally appropriate. We evaluated the prevalence and phenotypic heterogeneity of self-reported OCS in a large community youth sample not ascertained for seeking mental-health help. We aimed to identify patterns in OCS that are associated with serious psychopathology and may thus represent a “red flag” that merits psychiatric evaluation. Method Data were analyzed from youth from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (N = 7,054, aged 11−21 years, 54% female). Participants underwent structured psychiatric interviews, including screening for OCS (8 obsessions, 8 compulsions, and hoarding) and other major psychopathology domains. Factor analysis was conducted to identify clustering of OCS presentation. Regression models were used to investigate association of OCS with threshold lifetime diagnoses of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depressive episode, psychosis, and suicide ideation. Results OCS were common in non−mental health−seeking individuals (38.2%), although only 3% met threshold OCD criteria. OCS were more common in female participants and postpuberty. Factor analyses resulted in 4 factors: F1 – Bad Thoughts; F2 − Repeating/Checking; F3 – Symmetry; F4 – Cleaning/Contamination; and Hoarding as a separate item. All OCS were associated with higher rates of OCD, depression, psychosis, and suicide ideation. However, endorsement of F1 symptoms, prevalent in more than 20% of the sample, showed the most substantial associations with major psychiatric conditions. Conclusion OCS are common in community youth. Although for most youths OCS symptoms may be benign, some patterns of OCS are associated with major psychiatric conditions. These findings may help to identify youth at risk for serious psychopathology.
The Power and Politics of Art in Postrevolutionary Mexico. By Stephanie J. Smith. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Pp. xiii, 275. $29.95.)

The author of this study has combed through the archives to bring to light the intricate connections between artists, the Mexican State, and their respective ideologies, which were not always mutua...
Lateral Chest Radiograph

Begin by reviewing the systematic approach to the left lateral chest radiograph in Fig. 11.1.
Interaction of NKCC2 With SNARE Proteins in the Thick Ascending Limb

NaCl absorption by the apical Na/K/2 Cl cotransporter (NKCC2) in thick ascending limbs (TAL) is important for blood pressure regulation and urinary concentration. NKCC2 levels in the apical membran...
Positive Culture Change in Long-Term Care: A Procedure to Enhance Speech-Language Pathologist–Certified Nursing Assistant Collaboration

Background The majority of residents in long-term care (LTC) facilities have cognitive communication impairments impacting their ability to communicate basic wants and needs to caregivers, particul...
Econometric forecasting at mixed frequencies: Application to Mexico's economy. Part II: Combined use of high frequency and low frequency models

Lawrence R. Kleina,∗, Fyodor I. Kusnnirskyb and Alejandro Delgado Mercadoc aDepartment of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA Tel.: +1 215 898 7713; E-mail: lrk@ssc.upenn.edu bDepartment of Economics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA Tel: +1 251 204 5021; E-mail: fikush@temple.edu cDepartment of Economics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA Tel: +1 251 204 6113; E-mail: alejdelg@temple.edu
Early detection and imaging strategies to reveal and target developing pancreatic cancer.

Here, we summarize the current strategies for early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) including traditional and novel detection methods. PDA remains the deadliest of the common ca...
Electronic complementarity permits hindered butenolide heterodimerization and discovery of novel cGAS/STING pathway antagonists

sp3-hybridized attached-rings are common motifs in secondary metabolites and represent tetrahedral equivalents to the biaryl substructures that overpopulate synthetic libraries. Few methods are available that can link fully substituted carbon atoms of two rings with stereocontrol. Here we have developed a stereoselective, heteroselective butenolide coupling that exhibits an unusually fast rate of C-C bond formation driven by exquisite complementarity of the reacting π systems. Heterodimerization generates a compound collection with topological complexity and diverse principal moments of inertia. The special status of the sp3-sp3 attached-ring motif is demonstrated in a high-throughput screen for inhibitors of the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase/stimulator of interferon genes pathway, which recruited these butenolide heterodimers from a field of 250,000 compounds. The driving forces underlying this general attached-ring coupling identify a novel paradigm for the accession of wider natural product chemical space, accelerating the discovery of selective lead compounds.
Pharmacotherapy for the Treatment of Cannabis Use Disorder: A Systematic Review.

Background Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is a growing concern, and evidence-based data are needed to inform treatment options. Purpose To review the benefits and risks of pharmacotherapies for the treatment of CUD. Data sources MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and clinical trial registries from inception through September 2019. Study selection Pharmacotherapy trials of adults or adolescents with CUD that targeted cannabis abstinence or reduction, treatment retention, withdrawal symptoms, and other outcomes. Data extraction Data were abstracted by 1 investigator and confirmed by a second. Study quality was dually assessed, and strength of evidence (SOE) was determined by consensus according to standard criteria. Data synthesis Across 26 trials, the evidence was largely insufficient. Low-strength evidence was found that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) do not reduce cannabis use or improve treatment retention. Low- to moderate-strength evidence was found that buspirone does not improve outcomes and that cannabinoids do not increase abstinence rates (moderate SOE), reduce cannabis use (low SOE), or increase treatment retention (low SOE). Across all drug studies, no consistent evidence of increased harm was found. Limitations Few methodologically rigorous trials have been done. Existing trials are hampered by small sample sizes, high attrition rates, and heterogeneity of concurrent interventions and outcomes assessment. Conclusion Although data on pharmacologic interventions for CUD are scarce, evidence exists that several drug classes, including cannabinoids and SSRIs, are ineffective. Because of increasing access to and use of cannabis in the general population, along with a high prevalence of CUD among current cannabis users, an urgent need exists for more research to identify effective pharmacologic treatments. Primary funding source U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (PROSPERO: CRD42018108064).
Measuring retail performance in an omni-channel world

Driven by global advances in technology and changes in consumer buying behavior, brick-and-mortar retailers are being forced to become omni-channel retailers. This calls for new metrics for evaluat...
ESTABLISHMENT VIOLENCE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT WORLD

Violence is about coercing others in a way that social norms do not endorse. Socially unauthorized coercion employed with a view to maintaining, defending, or restoring the status quo is a form of behavior called establishment violence or vigilantism. Such persons prefer things as they are. Not only do the prefer the status quo, but they are quite prepared to vent their vehement antipathies on those espousing significant change, whether it be creative change or restorative change. The gospel story clearly reveal that Jesus’ death was the outcome of establishment violence. The purpose of this essay is to draw up a scenario of establishment violence that might be adequate for reading the New Testament, or even books about the New Testament.
Analysis of the external quality assessment of fluoride in water in Liaoning Province in 2016

Objective To evaluate the detection capability in determining water fluoride at center for disease control and prevention (CDC) of Liaoning Province, and to promote the improvement of detection quality. Methods The detection results of the external quality assessment of fluoride in water from 66 CDC labs in Liaoning Province in 2016 were analyzed by using standard Z score. The potential outliers were determined by Youden plot. The determine standard of the Z score: │Z│≤2 was satisfacted; 2 <│Z│ < 3 was qualified, but suggesting there was a problem, need to find the cause of the error; │Z│≥3 was not satisfied. Results According to the results of standard Z score, there were 66 labs satisfacted, the satisfacted rate was 100.0% (66/66). According to the Youden plot, there were 4 possible outliers (6.1%, 4/66) which need to be rechecked. Conclusions The capability in determining water fluoride at CDC of Liaoning Province meet the standards, but individual laboratories need to improve the quality of testing. The internal quality control of the laboratory is very important. All CDCs should improve the detection capability continuously. Key words: Fluoride; Water; Lab; Quality control
GLSNet: Global and Local Streams Network for 3D Point Cloud Classification

We propose a novel deep architecture for semantic labeling of 3D point clouds referred to as Global and Local Streams Network (GLSNet) which is designed to capture both global and local structures and contextual information for large scale 3D point cloud classification. Our GLSNet tackles a hard problem – large differences of object sizes in large-scale point cloud segmentation including extremely large objects like water, and small objects like buildings and trees, and we design a two-branch deep network architecture to decompose the complex problem to separate processing problems at global and local scales and then fuse their predictions. GLSNet combines the strength of Submanifold Sparse Convolutional Network [1] for learning global structure with the strength of PointNet++ [2] for incorporating local information.The first branch of GLSNet processes a full point cloud in the global stream, and it captures long range information about the geometric structure by using a U-Net structured Submanifold Sparse Convolutional Network (SSCN-U) architecture. The second branch of GLSNet processes a point cloud in the local stream, and it partitions 3D points into slices and processes one slice of the cloud at a time by using the PointNet ++ architecture. The two streams of information are fused by max pooling over their classification prediction vectors. Our results on the IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest Urban Semantic 3D, Track 4 (DFT4) [3] [4] [5] point cloud classification dataset have shown that GLSNet achieved performance gains of almost 4% in mIOU and 1% in overall accuracy over the individual streams on the held-back testing dataset.
Using state data sets and meta-analysis of low-powered studies to evaluate a school-based dropout prevention program for students with disabilities

Abstract This study explores the use of state data sets and meta-analysis of low-powered studies to evaluate a school-based dropout prevention program for students with disabilities. The program was implemented in several states. A randomized controlled trial was infeasible because schools were not chosen at random; furthermore, pretest data were minimal. The use of extant state data allowed these obstacles to be overcome by providing valid pre- and post-intervention outcomes as well as a large selection of schools and variables to create reasonable matches for the treatment schools. Results from four states were synthesized meta-analytically to evaluate whether the program had a significant impact on any of seven proximal and distal outcome variables. No such impacts were demonstrated. More importantly, this paper demonstrates and explains the methodological steps and choices involved in a quasi-experimental evaluation approach that may be applied to cases for which large amounts of extant data are available.
Second-line tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) versus immunotherapy (IO) for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC): Real-world efficacy and safety analysis in patients with varying liver dysfunction.

271Background: Within the last 4 years, the FDA approved five drugs as second-line therapies for advanced HCC. At our cancer center, the majority of our patients are Hispanic with varying liver dys...
Hear "No Evil", See "Kenansville"*: Efficient and Transferable Black-Box Attacks on Speech Recognition and Voice Identification Systems

Automatic speech recognition and voice identification systems are being deployed in a wide array of applications, from providing control mechanisms to devices lacking traditional interfaces, to the automatic transcription of conversations and authentication of users. Many of these applications have significant security and privacy considerations. We develop attacks that force mistranscription and misidentification in state of the art systems, with minimal impact on human comprehension. Processing pipelines for modern systems are comprised of signal preprocessing and feature extraction steps, whose output is fed to a machine-learned model. Prior work has focused on the models, using white-box knowledge to tailor model-specific attacks. We focus on the pipeline stages before the models, which (unlike the models) are quite similar across systems. As such, our attacks are black-box, transferable, can be tuned to require zero queries to the target, and demonstrably achieve mistranscription and misidentification rates as high as 100% by modifying only a few frames of audio. We perform a study via Amazon Mechanical Turk demonstrating that there is no statistically significant difference between human perception of regular and perturbed audio. Our findings suggest that models may learn aspects of speech that are generally not perceived by human subjects, but that are crucial for model accuracy.
Il Maestro of Happiness

Italian scholars refer to their most distinguished members with the title of “maestro”. Well, you are a maestro among all nations and among the many scholars that you have not had the opportunity to meet directly but who closely monitor your multifaceted work.
Preventing postpartum hemorrhage after cesarean delivery: a network meta-analysis of available pharmacologic agents.

Background Postpartum hemorrhage causes a quarter of global maternal deaths. The World Health Organization recommends oxytocin as the first line agent to prevent hemorrhage during cesarean delivery. However, some randomized controlled trials suggest that other uterotonics are superior. Objective We conducted a network meta-analysis comparing the ability of pharmacologic agents to reduce blood loss and minimize the need for additional uterotonics during cesarean delivery. Data Sources We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, and MEDLINE databases from inception to May 2020. Study Eligibility Criteria We included randomized controlled trials that compared oxytocin, carbetocin, misoprostol, ergometrine, carboprost, or combinations of these in the prevention of postpartum hemorrhage during cesarean delivery. Methods We performed a systematic review followed by an NMA in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Quality of the evidence was assessed with the Confidence in Network Meta-Analysis approach and Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations tool within the summary of findings table. Our primary outcomes were the estimated blood loss and need for additional uterotonics. Secondary outcomes included nausea and postpartum hemorrhage of >1000 mL. We performed sensitivity analyses to explore the influence of surgical context and oxytocin administration strategy. Results A total of 46 studies with 7368 participants were included. Of those, 21 trials (6 agents and 3665 participants) formed the “estimated blood loss” network and, considering the treatment effects, certainty in the evidence, and surface under the cumulative ranking curve scores, carbetocin was assessed to probably be superior to oxytocin, but only in reducing the estimated blood loss by a clinically insignificant volume (54.83 mL; 95% confidence interval, 26.48–143.78). Misoprostol, ergometrine, and the combination of oxytocin and ergometrine were assessed to probably be inferior, whereas the combination of oxytocin and misoprostol was assessed to definitely be inferior to oxytocin. A total of 37 trials (8 agents and 6193 participants) formed the “additional uterotonic” network and, again, carbetocin was assessed to probably be superior to oxytocin, requiring additional uterotonics 185 (95% confidence interval, 130–218) fewer times per 1000 cases. Oxytocin plus misoprostol, oxytocin plus ergometrine, and misoprostol were assessed to probably be inferior, whereas carboprost, ergometrine, and the placebo were definitely inferior to oxytocin. For both primary outcomes, oxytocin administration strategies had a higher probability of being the best uterotonic, if initiated as a bolus. Conclusion Carbetocin is probably the most effective agent in reducing blood loss and the need for additional uterotonics. Oxytocin appears to be more effective when initiated as a bolus.
Recent Advances in Understanding Nuclear Reactions

A brief overview of nuclear reactions is given. Recent advances in our understanding of sub-barrier fusion with stable and radioactive nuclei, the synthesis of new heavy nuclei, the synthesis of new n-rich nuclei, the giant dipole resonance and multifragmentation are discussed.
An ultra-low power 900 MHz RF transceiver for wireless sensor networks

A 900 MHz, ultra-low power RF transceiver is presented for wireless sensor networks. It radiates -6 dBm in transmit mode and has a receive sensitivity of -94 dBm while consuming less than 1.3 mW in either mode from a 3 volt battery. Two of these transceivers have been demonstrated communicating over 16 meters through walls at a bit rate of 20 kbps while using only 4 off-chip components.
Effects of Haloperidol on Responding Maintained with Food and Sucrose-Water

The “hedonic” value of reinforcers is mediated by dopamine. Accordingly, haloperidol diminishes the value of reinforcers, interfering with the emission of operant behaviors. Alternatively, interference with dopamine transmission leaves animals directed towards the consumption of food. Thus, reinforcers remain intact after the administration of haloperidol. We assessed these possibilities with two types of reinforcers, food-pellets and sucrose-water, delivered under multiple schedules of reinforcement. Lever presses maintained by food-pellets generally was higher than that maintained by sucrose-water. Haloperidol produced dose-related decreases in lever presses and obtained reinforcers. Differences in lever presses maintained by the two types of reinforcers were preserved across doses. Subcutaneous administrations of haloperidol were more potent in decreasing lever presses than intra-peritoneal administrations. Decreases in lever pressing were not necessarily accompanied by substantial reductions in obtained food-pellets and sucrose-water reinforcers; under the effects of haloperidol rats continued to produce a considerable number of both types of reinforcers.
A CMOS imager with real-time frame differencing and centroid computation

We present a novel imager that computes real-time frame difference as well as several image statistics. We desire to use a network of these imagers connected to microprocessors for computation on images. To reduce the bandwidth to the processors, each imager has on-chip computation to determine relevant information and sends only that to the microprocessors. We have developed an imager that uses simple analog elements to implement the desired functions. We present experimental results.
Impact of pocket ultrasound use by internal medicine housestaff in the diagnosis of dyspnea.

Background Recent reports demonstrate high diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasound for evaluation of dyspnea. We assessed the feasibility of training internal medicine residents in lung ultrasound with a pocket ultrasound device. Methods We performed a prospective, observational trial of residents performing lung ultrasound with a pocket ultrasound. Training consisted of two 90-minute sessions of didactics and supervised bedside performance. Two residents received an additional 2 weeks of training. Residents recorded a clinical diagnosis based on admission data. Following lung ultrasound performance, an ultrasound diagnosis was recorded integrating clinical and sonographic findings. Using receiver operating curve analysis, the area under the curve was calculated for both clinical diagnosis and ultrasound diagnosis using attending physician's final discharge diagnosis as the gold standard. Results Five residents performed 69 exams. The AUC for ultrasound diagnosis was significantly higher than that for clinical diagnosis (0.87 vs 0.81, P Conclusions Lung ultrasound performed by residents with a pocket ultrasound improved the diagnostic accuracy of dyspnea. Two residents undergoing extended training showed a total increase in diagnostic accuracy.
The HAMP signal-conversion domain: static two-state or dynamic three-state?

Summary The 50-residue HAMP domain converts input signal into output response in a variety of transmembrane signal transduction proteins, including methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins and histidine kinases. HAMP domains are present in many other contexts as well. Despite focused study over the past decade, the question remains: How does this small domain play such a large role for so many different proteins? Analysis of structural models for the Afl1503 and Aer2 HAMP domains has generated hypotheses in which the HAMP domain assumes either of two discrete forms that generate opposing signal output. In contrast, genetic analysis of the HAMP domain from the Tsr methyl-accepting chemotaxis protein resulted in a distinct hypothesis, the biphasic dynamic bundle. In this hypothesis, signalling involves differential packing stabilities of the HAMP domain four-helix bundle, marked by at least three distinct states. Here I summarize and compare these hypotheses in the context of a deletion analysis that further explores the biphasic dynamic bundle hypothesis.
Investigations into peach seedling stunting caused by a replant soil

Replant diseases often occur when pome and stone fruits are grown in soil that had previously been planted with the same or similar plant species. They typically lead to reductions in plant growth, crop yield and production duration. In this project, greenhouse assays were used to identify a peach orchard soil that caused replant disease symptoms. Biocidal treatments of this soil led to growth increases of Nemaguard peach seedlings. In addition, plants grown in as little as 1% of the replant soil exhibited reduced plant growth. These results suggest that the disease etiology has a biological component. Analysis of roots from plants exhibiting various levels of replant disease symptoms showed little difference in the amounts of PCR-amplified bacterial or fungal rRNA genes. However, analysis using a stramenopile-selective PCR assay showed that rRNA genes from this taxon were generally more abundant in plants with the smallest top weights. Nucleotide sequence analysis of these genes identified several phylotypes belonging to Bacillariophyta, Chrysophyceae, Eustigmatophyceae, Labyrinthulida, Oomycetes, Phaeophyceae and Synurophyceae. Sequence-selective quantitative PCR assays targeting four of the most abundant phylotypes showed that both diatoms (Sellaphora spp.) and an oomycete (Pythium ultimum) were negatively associated with plant top weights.
Investigating sentence processing and language segmentation in explaining children's performance on a sentence-span task.

Background: Children with poor language abilities tend to perform poorly on verbal working memory tasks. This result has been interpreted as evidence that limitations in working memory capacity may interfere with the development of a mature linguistic system. However, it is possible that language abilities, such as the efficiency of sentence processing and the ability to segment language, directly influence performance on common working memory tasks. Aims: This study investigated the possible roles of sentence-processing efficiency and the ability to segment language in children's performance on a verbal working memory task. Methods & Procedures: Participants were 37 children (aged 6;2–13;7) with varying oral language and reading abilities. Children completed a sentence-span task to assess working memory: the Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT). In the CLPT, children determine the truth value of sentences while maintaining sentence final words in memory. Sentence-processing efficiency was evaluated by measuring response latencies to CLPT sentence veracity judgments outside the context of the CLPT. The Elision and Blending Words subtests of the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing were used to measure the ability to segment and combine units of language. Outcomes & Results: Children's ability to segment words into smaller units (Elision) was a significant predictor of word recall on the CLPT, which is commonly assumed to reflect working memory capacity. Sentence processing latency did not reach significance as a unique predictor. Conclusions & Implications: Individual differences on the sentence-span task are partly explained by the ability to segment language into smaller units. Future studies should further consider the metalinguistic and metacognitive demands of tasks used to measure working memory. If metalinguistic abilities directly impact performance on working memory tasks, the utility of working memory theories in explaining individual differences in language abilities is reduced. Inferences that link ‘working memory capacity’ to language ability become circular. One clinical implication of such a result would be that appropriate intervention strategies may not involve focusing on working memory capacity, but rather on building language skills, including metalinguistic knowledge, which in turn should directly improve children's processing capacities.
Unified Invariants for Cyber-Physical Switched System Stability

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) consist of subsystems of distributed computation interconnected by computer networks that monitor and control switched physical entities interconnected by physical infrastructures. Finding a common semantic among these diverse subsystems that facilitates system synthesis, verification, and monitoring is a significant challenge of a CPS research program. Logical and temporal correctness of computational components, network timing, and frequency response are all system aspects that conspire to impede design, verification, and monitoring. Most current approaches ensure that each subsystem meets its individual specifications according to relevant metrics-stability of a physical system, safety and liveness of a cyber system, etc.-and then composes the overall system by functionality. The individual specifications are given in different semantics for each type of subsystem, and are in general equivalent to the cyber notion of correctness. This paper develops common semantics that span each aspect of a CPS through a new approach, unified invariants; unified invariants also ensure individual subsystem correctness but compose the overall system through logical truth instead of functionality. These individual invariants express and enforce system correctness common to the cyber, physical, and networking CPS subsystems and unified invariant approach ensures that the subsystems do not interfere with each others' correctness. In particular, the synthesis of switched dynamic CPSs will be unified by cyber, networking, and physical invariants rooted in the principal of Lyapunov-like functions. The goal is to make the resulting CPSs will be safe and stable at the system level, rather than just the subsystem level.
Differential space-frequency coding for a multipath fading channel

This paper will investigate differential space frequency coding and its applicability to multipath fading High Frequency (HF) radio channels. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) will be combined with differential Alamouti space frequency codes to measure performance on the Watterson HF channel model. Differential coding facilitates non-coherent reception and can thus also reduce receiver complexity. Numerical results will be shown for the CCIR poor (2ms, 1Hz) and extra poor (2ms, 2Hz) channel conditions for a system comprised of 2 transmit antennas and a single receive antenna. For comparison, performance will also be shown vs. a new single transmit and receive antenna HF OFDM Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) scheme.
Q-factor for an MSW delay-line based oscillator

A theoretical derivation of theQ-factor of an MSW delay-line based oscillator is presented which is based on a rigorous, classical definition of theQ-factor of a resonator. The theory takes into account (1) the propagation loss in the delay line, (2) the transduction losses at the input and output transducers of the delay line, (3) the delay times in the delay line and the circuit external to the delay line, and (4) the loading of the oscillator. While the present work was done with MSW in mind, the results are generally applicable to all delay-line based oscillators and would, for instance, apply to the SAW delay-line based oscillators.
Hydraulic Orbital Injection Injuries

Background: A high-pressure stream from mechanical equipment may inject gas or liquids deep into the orbit with few initial clinical signs. Aggressive surgical debridement as used in the extremities for the treatment of injection injuries is not possible in the orbit. Methods: Four patients with orbital injection injuries from farm or industrial equipment are presented. Previously reported cases of high-pressure injection injury are reviewed. Results: Two patients suffered localized anterior orbital inflammation partially responsive to steroidal and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents. Late debridement was required in one patient for a persistent lipogranuloma. Two patients suffered more dramatic and diffuse injections of hydrocarbon mixtures, requiring emergent early surgical debridement and decompression for compressive orbital signs. All patients attained an adequate functional outcome, with one patient's vision limited by a coexisting ocular injury. Conclusions: High-pressure orbital injection injuries manifest a spectrum of signs ranging from acute inflammation with tissue necrosis and compressive visual loss to late chronic inflammation with a pseudotumor-like course. The authors recommend the initial treatment of orbital injection injuries with systemic antibiotics followed by prompt neuroradiologic imaging. Systemic corticosteroids should be added for confirmed injection injuries with surgical debridement of discrete masses and orbital decompression when indicated. Continued therapy with anti-inflammatory medication may be required to suppress chronic inflammation with selective late surgical debridement of lipogranulomas.
Consistency of logistic regression coefficient estimates calculated from a training sample

The paper deals with logistic regression when the sample is split into training and holdout sub-samples. Under the assumption that, asymptotically, the ratio of the sizes of the two sub-samples is approximately fixed, we prove that the logistic regression coefficient MLEs calculated from the training sample are consistent.
Drying in capillary‐porous cylindrical media

Analytical solutions are presented for temperature and moisture distributions in a cylindrical capillary-porous body using Luikov's model and employing a solution technique based on the decoupling of the simultaneous heat and mass diffusion problems. The relative importance of the dimensionless parameters governing drying is presented and a comparison of temperature and moisture profiles for the cylinder and the slab is given. Des solutions analytiques sont presentees pour les distributions de temperature et d'humidite dans un corps capillaireporeux cylindrique en utilisant le modele de Luikov ainsi qu'une technique de resolution basee sur le decouplage des problemes de diffusion de chaleur et de matiere simultanes. L'importance relative des parametres adimensionnels gouvernant le sechage est presentee, et on presente une comparaison des profils de temperature et d'humidite pour le cylindre et le panneau.