cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Influence of asthma status on serotype-specific pneumococcal antibody levels.

AbstractBackground: Asthma has been reported to be associated with an increased risk of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). Objective: We compared serotype-specific antibody responses with pneumococcal polysaccharide antigens of individuals with and without asthma. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted for 16 subjects with asthma and 14 subjects without asthma from the community of Rochester, MN. Asthma was determined by predetermined criteria based on comprehensive medical record reviews. Serotype-specific antibody to 23 pneumococcal polysaccharide antigens was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and seropositivity was considered ≥ 1.3 μg/mL. Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin-5 (IL-5) were measured from peripheral blood mononuclear cells cultured with house dust mites and staphylococcal enterotoxin B. Results: Of the 30 subjects, 16 (53%) were male, 21 (70%) were white, and the median age was 26 years. The median numbers of positive serotype-specific antibodies for asthmatics and ...
Sickle cell blood flow in the microcirculation

The clinical symptomology, as well as the subclinical sequela, of sickle-cell (S-C) disease, or anemia, is thought to be largely the consequence of abnormal events in the capillaries, resulting primarily from theological changes SC erythrocytes undergo when deoxygenated. A model of the flow of such RBCs in a single capillary was formulated taking into account the principal characteristics of the disease. This has been extended to a microcirculatory bed, generated in a pseudo-random manner. S-C disease is characterized by episodic painful and debilitating clinical events, called S-C "crisis". These studies, undertaken to evaluate possible causative mechanisms, suggest that the pressure available to drive the S-C RBCs through the microcirculation might be the control parameter.
Comparison of passive microwave ice concentration algorithm retrievals with AVHRR imagery in arctic peripheral seas

An accurate representation of sea ice concentration is valuable to operational ice analyses, process studies, model inputs, and detection of long-term climate change. Passive microwave imagery, such as from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), are particularly valuable for monitoring of sea ice conditions because of their daily, basin-scale coverage under all sky conditions. SSM/I-derived sea ice concentration estimates using four common algorithms [Bootstrap (BT), Cal/Val (CV), NASA Team (NT), and NASA Team 2 (N2)] are compared with concentrations computed from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) visible and infrared imagery. Comparisons are made over approximately an eight-month period in three regions of the Arctic and focus on areas near the ice edge where differences between the algorithms are likely to be most apparent. The results indicate that CV and N2 have the smallest mean error relative to AVHRR. CV tends to overestimate concentration, while the other three algorithms underestimate concentration. NT has the largest underestimation of nearly 10% on average and much higher in some instances. In most cases, mean errors of the SSM/I algorithm were significantly different from each other at the 95% significance level. The BT algorithm has the lowest error standard deviation, but none of the considered algorithms was found to have statistically significantly different error standard deviations in most cases. This indicates that spatial resolution is likely a limiting factor of SSM/I in regions near the ice edge in that none of the algorithms satisfactorily resolve mixed pixels. Statistical breakdowns by season, region, ice conditions, and AVHRR scene generally agree with the overall results. Representative case studies are presented to illustrate the statistical results.
Who makes the box

The field of technical communication has renamed and even reinvented itself to open the box of being stereotyped as merely "technical writing" or "editing". At the same time, however, the field may be creating a new stereotyped box, limiting itself to high technology as both tool and subject matter. To counter this new stereotype and realize more opportunities for practitioners, this paper offers a more inclusive definition of the field as communication that matters to the audience. In support of this definition, the paper identifies other areas that can be opened to technical communicators and the principles that will carry them from one to another successfully.
A Contingency Framework for Performance Evaluation

A “contingency approach” to organizational management requires translation of empirical generalizations into situational guidelines for performing practical administrative functions. Such a translation is offered for the task of evaluating individual performance. A contingency model is described in which the situational appropriateness of behavior-based, objective-based, and judgment-based evaluation is related to characteristics of tasks and workers.
Acoustic waves in supernova remnants

When the Mach number of a supernova shock wave, propagating through the hot interstellar gas, is less than the critical value 2.76, the interaction of the shock with an interstellar cloud produces a reflected pressure pulse that propagates away from the cloud as an acoustic wave. A preliminary analysis indicates that about 4% of the energy of an exploding supernova shell is converted into such waves. When the postshock gas temperature exceeds 2 x 10 to the 6th K, waves as short as 6 pc are damped in less than a wavelength, returning the energy to the hot gas. Longer waves, especially at late stages, are less strongly damped, and are superposed in the hot gas to create a fluctuating magnetoacoustic field, with typical periods of about 100,000 years. In the warm neutral clouds at temperatures of about 8000 K these waves are rapidly damped by plasma slip (ambipolar diffusion), providing a heat source that may account for the temperatures of these clouds.
Apocytochrome c Blocks Caspase-9 Activation and Bax-induced Apoptosis

Complex networks of signaling pathways control the apoptotic response and, therefore, cell survival. However, these networks converge on a common machinery, of which the caspase cysteine proteases are key components. Diverse apoptotic stimuli release holocytochrome c from mitochondria, allowing holocytochrome c to bind apoptotic protease activating factor-1 (Apaf-1), which in turn binds caspase-9 both activating this caspase and forming an Apaf-1/caspase-9 holoenzyme. Cytochrome c lacking heme (the apo form) cannot support caspase activation, although the reason for this has not been studied. Here we show that apocytochrome c still binds Apaf-1 and that it can block holo-dependent caspase activation in a cell-free system. In addition we show that overexpression of apocytochrome c blocks Bax-induced apoptosis in cells. Thus it is possible to modulate cell survival by interfering with the Apaf-1/cytochrome c interaction. Given the key role played by Apaf-1/cytochrome c in the apoptotic process, and the role of apoptosis in degenerative disease, this interaction may serve as a novel therapeutic target.
Reliability of Visual and Somatosensory Feedback in Skilled Movement: The Role of the Cerebellum

The integration of vision and somatosensation is required to allow for accurate motor behavior. While both sensory systems contribute to an understanding of the state of the body through continuous updating and estimation, how the brain processes unreliable sensory information remains to be fully understood in the context of complex action. Using functional brain imaging, we sought to understand the role of the cerebellum in weighting visual and somatosensory feedback by selectively reducing the reliability of each sense individually during a tool use task. We broadly hypothesized upregulated activation of the sensorimotor and cerebellar areas during movement with reduced visual reliability, and upregulated activation of occipital brain areas during movement with reduced somatosensory reliability. As specifically compared to reduced somatosensory reliability, we expected greater activations of ipsilateral sensorimotor cerebellum for intact visual and somatosensory reliability. Further, we expected that ipsilateral posterior cognitive cerebellum would be affected with reduced visual reliability. We observed that reduced visual reliability results in a trend towards the relative consolidation of sensorimotor activation and an expansion of cerebellar activation. In contrast, reduced somatosensory reliability was characterized by the absence of cerebellar activations and a trend towards the increase of right frontal, left parietofrontal activation, and temporo-occipital areas. Our findings highlight the role of the cerebellum for specific aspects of skillful motor performance. This has relevance to understanding basic aspects of brain functions underlying sensorimotor integration, and provides a greater understanding of cerebellar function in tool use motor control.
PSA Bounce Predicts for a Favorable Prognosis Following Brachytherapy, but an Unfavorable Prognosis After External Beam Radiation Therapy: A Meta-analysis

benefit was more pronounced in healthy men who had no or mild comorbidity. Our study suggests that severity of comorbidity may be a more significant predictor of improved failure-free survival than age when considering the addition of ADT to dose-escalated EBRT in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings. Author Disclosure: S. Bian: None. D.A. Kuban: None. L.B. Levy: None. J. Oh: None. S. Choi: None. S.E. McGuire: None. T.J. Pugh: None. P.L. Nguyen: None. A.K. Lee: None. K.E. Hoffman: None.
INTERNATIONAL REFERENCE IONOSPHERE 2000: EXAMPLES OF IMPROVEMENTS AND NEW FEATURES

This paper describes the changes that were implemented in the new version of the COSPAR/URSI International Reference Ionosphere (IRI-2000). These changes are: (1) two new options for the electron density in the D-region, (2) a better functional description of the electron density in the E-F merging region, (3) inclusion of the F1 layer occurrence probability as a new parameter, (4) a new model for the bottomside parameters B0 and B1 that greatly improves the representation at low and equatorial latitudes during high solar activities, (5) inclusion of a model for foF2 storm-time updating, (6) a new option for the electron temperature in the topside ionosphere, and (7) inclusion of a model for the equatorial F region ion drift. The main purpose of this paper is to provide the IRI users with examples of the effects of these changes.
Two-dimensional hybrid image coding and transmission over noisy channels

The image coding performance of a two-dimensional (2D) hybrid system when transmission occurs over a noisy channel is described. Image data compression is achieved through the use of 2D transform operations on the gray-level pixels within an image subsection, followed by 2D DPCM (differential pulse code modulation) encoding of common transform coefficients from disjoint image subsections. Results from this 2D hybrid scheme indicate an overall improvement in image source coding gain vis-a-vis conventional 2D transform coding. An adaptive hybrid scheme is investigated in which both the quantizer characteristics and the predictor structure are tailored to fit the statistics of the transform samples in each disjoint block. Hybrid system performance dependence on block size and choice of transform is demonstrated. Two-dimensional hybrid image coding and transmission over noisy channels is investigated analytically for Gaussian autoregressive image models and experimentally through computer simulation on real-world images. This hybrid system provides a means of improving existing transform coding systems with a minimal increase in hardware complexity. >
Adenosine Receptor Antagonism Affects Regional Resting Vascular Resistance during Rat Peritoneal Sepsis

Abstract Background. To identify vascular beds where endogenous adenosine plays a significant role as a mediator of resting perfusion alterations associated with sepsis, we tested the hypothesis that adenosine receptor blockade would cause differential regional increases in vascular resistance during intraperitoneal (ip) sepsis in the rat. Materials and methods. Rats (250–350 g) were catheterized and randomized to septic or nonseptic groups. Sepsis was induced with an ip injection of cecal slurry (150 mg/kg in D 5 W; 5 ml/kg), and baseline hemodynamics, cardiac output (CO), and blood flows (microspheres) were measured 24 h later. Animals then received the adenosine receptor antagonist 8-phenyltheophylline (8-PTH; 10 mM, 1.5 ml/kg), its vehicle (1.5 ml/kg), or normal saline (1.5 ml/kg), iv, and measurements were repeated. Results. Septic animals treated with 8-PTH had a significant increase in skeletal muscle, hepatic portal, and cerebral vascular resistance with concomitant decreases in CO when compared with vehicle at 1 min. No significant resistance changes were observed in the renal, adipose, or coronary vasculatures. Adenosine receptor blockade caused a significant increase in + dP / dt and − dP / dt during sepsis, indicating that the reduced CO was not secondary to myocardial depression. Conclusions. These data suggest that adenosine receptor-mediated actions during sepsis affect vascular beds selectively and indicate a significant role for adenosine in resting perfusion redistribution in sepsis.
Regulation of Plant Gene Expression in Response to Low Temperature

In 1985, Guy et al. (1985) showed that spinach alters gene expression in response to low nonfreezing temperatures. Results since then have established that cold-regulated gene expression is a common feature of higher plants (Thomashow, 1993). It occurs in chilling tolerant species that cold acclimate (i. e., increase in freezing tolerance in response to low nonfreezing temperatures); chilling tolerant species that do not cold acclimate; and in chilling sensitive species. A basic question raised is how do plants sense low temperature and alter gene expression? Are the sensing and regulatory mechanisms the same in both chilling tolerant and chilling sensitive plants? Also, towards the practical end of crop improvement, can we manipulate these sensing and regulatory systems to increase the chilling and freezing tolerance of agronomically important plants? These and related questions are now being addressed in a number of laboratories. Here, we summarize some of the findings that we have made on cold-regulated gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana, a chilling tolerant plant that cold acclimates.
Concerns About Finances, Faculty, and Clinics: A Dental School Dean’s Perspective on the Macy Study Report

Let me begin with some personal reflections. My choice of academic dentistry grew from an opportunity to participate as a scholar, from 1985 through 1987, in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Dental Health Services Program. Many thoughtful and generous dental academic leaders worked together in
Selected summary for the 2015 Asia–Pacific Primary Liver Cancer Expert Meeting (APPLE)

Liver cancer is now ranked second in terms of cancer-related mortality worldwide; with limited treatment options for patients at advanced stages it remains a growing health problem. All Phase III clinical trials testing molecular therapies after sorafenib have so far failed, and there is still not a validated oncogene addiction loop. Despite the present huge challenges, advancements in the recent years have been remarkable. The Asia–Pacific Primary Liver Cancer Expert Meeting (APPLE) was designed to promote scientific exchanges of international and regional experts in the study and management of liver cancer. Over the years it has consolidated as a major resource to provide a thorough update to clinicians and researchers located in the Asia–Pacific region in different aspects of liver cancer. Attendance at these meetings is exceptional, with an average of 1000 attendees at each conference. As predicted, the 2015 edition provided an outstanding overview of the latest developments in the clinical management...
Modeling the potential for managing invasive common carp in temperate lakes by targeting their winter aggregations

Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is one of world’s most invasive fish and managers have long searched for practical control strategies for this species. In temperate systems, common carp forms large winter aggregations that can be located with telemetry and removed with seine nets. This has been viewed as an excellent management possibility, but its success has been mixed. Using a modeling approach, we demonstrate that the usefulness of winter seining in controlling common carp in temperate North American lakes depends on whether carp populations are driven by one of two distinct recruitment dynamics. In lakes where carp can easily recruit within systems from which they are being removed, such as within productive lakes with poor communities of micropredators, winter seining is unlikely to be effective. Even very high removal rates (90 % adults annually) were not sufficient to reach management goal (biomass <100 kg/ha) in such systems. However, in regions with strong predatory communities where carp can recruit only in outlying, seasonally unstable marshes, removal rates as low as 30 % annually or 50 % every other year were able to reduce carp biomass below the management threshold. Such removal rates are achievable as they fall within the range of empirically measured values. Because many carp populations are driven by external recruitment dynamics, strategically conducted winter removal could be used to control this species in a large number of systems across temperate North America and elsewhere.
Basic Science: The Foundation of Evidence-Based Voice Therapy

Basic science research is part of the circle of translational research that provides the scientific underpinning for evidence-based practice. The translation from bench to bedside, however, is some...
Ion Beam Modification of Matrimid® Gas Separation Membrane—Evolution in Chemical Structure, Microstructure and Gas Permeation Properties

Matrimid® is a widely used polyimide that has both attractive thermal and gas transport properties. In addition, it has been used as a precursor polymer for production of carbon molecular sieving membranes with commercially interesting gas separations. Ion beam irradiation over a wide range of doses was used to modify a series of Matrimid® membranes. A combined analysis of impact of ion irradiation on the chemical structure, microstructure and gas transport properties of Matrimid® will be presented. Specifically, the evolution in gas permeation properties following irradiation over a wide range of doses will be discussed. Ion irradiation resulted in combined increased permeability and permselectivity for several gas pairs of interest.
A moment convergence theorem

(1991). A Moment Convergence Theorem. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 98, No. 8, pp. 742-746.
The Impact of Human Capital on Employee Compensation and Pay Performance Sensitivity

More emphasis is put on human capital nowadays and firms are no longer defined only through their physical assets. As the human capital becomes more important, the employees require to be compensated more and the firms need to adopt their compensation contracts to this change in order to survive. In this paper, the findings suggest that compensation contracts in human capital intensive firms differ significantly from those in asset intensive firms. Executives and managers at every level receive higher levels of compensation and they get more of their pay in the form of incentive based compensation in human capital intensive firms. Such difference remains significant at all levels of management, including CEOs, other chiefs, divisional managers, and other managers. However, the largest change belongs to CEO compensation contracts. Further evaluation reveals that the pay performance sensitivity weakens in human capital intensive firms.
Regeneration: an overlooked aspect of trait‐based plant community assembly models

Summary Despite the disproportionate influence that propagule production, dispersal, seed-to-seedling recruitment and vegetative reproduction can have on plant population and community dynamics, progress has been slow in the directed collection of regeneration traits to inform community assembly outcomes. While seed mass is globally available and linked to growth and reproductive output, there are limits to its explanatory ability. In this essay, we call for expanded efforts to integrate a more diverse set of regeneration traits into community assembly models. First, we extend an existing community assembly framework to conceptualize regeneration as a series of transitional processes whose outcomes are influenced by abiotic filters, biotic interactions and species traits. We then briefly review the literature, highlighting filters and traits of demonstrated or theorized importance for each transition. Finally, we place regeneration in the context of existing and emerging modelling approaches in trait-based community assembly, summarizing key areas of progress needed to integrate regeneration traits into these efforts. Synthesis. By incorporating influential regeneration traits into empirical studies and global data bases, we can begin to disentangle regenerative mechanisms underlying community assembly outcomes and enhance rapidly developing models of species’ abundances, distributions and responses to environmental change.
A Case of an Enigmatic Pulmonary Infiltrate.

The differential diagnosis of a pulmonary mass in an immunosuppressed host with a history of cancer is broad and includes malignant, infectious and inflammatory etiologies. Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) is a rare cause of opportunistic infection in susceptible individuals that can present as either localized or disseminated disease. On radiologic studies, the pulmonary disease can manifest as heterogeneous linear or nodular densities, a mass-like lesion, or thin-walled cavitary lesions. We present the case of pulmonary MAC in a patient with a history of lung cancer requiring lobectomy, and splenic lymphoma being treated with chemotherapy, presenting with extreme fatigue and a fludeoxyglucose (FDG)-avid mass on positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT). The patient had a CT-guided biopsy of the mass that demonstrated non-caseating granulomas followed by a right middle lobe transbronchial biopsy that upon histologic examination revealed mild acute and chronic inflammation, and necrotizing caseating granulomas. The acid-fast culture of bronchoalveolar lavage showed the growth of acid-fast bacilli that were identified by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) probe as Mycobacterium avium complex. We discuss the typical radiological manifestations of MAC as well as the role of immunosuppression and B cell-depleting therapy from the predisposition to infection.
Demographic and socioeconomic factors influencing disparities in prevalence of alcohol-related injury among underserved trauma patients in a safety-net hospital

Abstract Background Alcohol-related trauma remains high among underserved patients despite ongoing preventive measures. Geographic variability in prevalence of alcohol-related injury has prompted reexamination of this burden across different regions. We sought to elucidate demographic and socioeconomic factors influencing the prevalence of alcohol-related trauma among underserved patients and determine alcohol effects on selected outcomes. Methods A retrospective analysis examined whether patients admitted to a suburban trauma center differed according to their blood alcohol concentration (BAC) on admission. Patients were stratified based on their BAC into four categories (undetectable BAC, BAC 1–99 mg/dL, BAC 100–199 mg/dL, and BAC ≥ 200 mg/dL). T-tests and X2 tests were used to detect differences between BAC categories in terms of patient demographics and clinical outcomes. Multivariate linear and logistic regressions were used to investigate the association between patient variables and selected outcomes while controlling for confounders. Results One third of 738 patients analyzed were BAC-positive, mean (SD) BAC was 211.4 (118.9) mg/dL, 80% of BAC-positive patients had levels ≥ 100 mg/dL. After risk adjustments, the following patient characteristics were predictive of having highly elevated BAC (≥ 200 mg/dL) upon admission to the Trauma Center; Hispanic patients (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.91, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14–3.21), unemployment (OR = 1.74, 95% CI: 1.09–2.78), Medicaid beneficiaries (OR = 3.59, 95% CI: 1.96–6.59), and uninsured patients (OR = 2.86, 95% CI: 1.60–5.13). Patients with BAC of 100–199 mg/dL were likely to be more severely injured (P = 0.016) compared to undetectable-BAC patients. There was no association between being intoxicated, and being ICU–admitted or having differences in length of ICU or hospital stay. Conclusion Demographic and socioeconomic factors underlie disparities in the prevalence of alcohol-related trauma among underserved patients. These findings may guide targeted interventions toward specific populations to help reduce the burden of alcohol-related injury.
A degree is not enough: Promoting engineering identity development and professional planning through the teaching of engineering résumé writing

Undergraduate engineering students are often taught to create their engineering resumes early in their academic careers as part of first-year composition or technical writing classes. Often, these classes are not taught by engineering faculty, and few resources exist for engineering-specific resume development. A corpus of 31 engineering resumes was collected, representing engineers across experience levels and engineering fields and analyzed through genre analysis methods in order to understand the linguistic mechanisms by which engineers present the merit of their work in a condensed resume format in order to develop an intervention to help instructors of technical writing and first year engineering develop engineering resumes in a disciplinary context. The intervention facilitates student reflection on authentic engineering resumes leading them toward their own learning regarding effective presentation of engineering experiences on a resume, as well as to encourage engineering students to plan effectively for the experiences that will help them achieve their desired careers.
Turbulent flame augmentation using a fluidic jet for Deflagration-to-Detonation

Abstract Detonation is a high energetic mode of pressure gain combustion that exploits total pressure rise to augment high flow momentum and thermodynamic efficiencies. Detonation is initiated through flame acceleration driven by turbulence interaction and induction for Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition (DDT). There is a broad desire to unravel the physical mechanisms of turbulence induced DDT. The study examines the role of turbulence induced by a fluidic jet on turbulent accelerating flames. The investigation aims to classify the turbulent flame dynamics and temporal evolution of the flame stages throughout the turbulent regimes. The flame-flow interactions are experimentally studied in a detonation facility using high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) and Schlieren imaging. The analysis explores the local turbulence and flame acceleration mechanisms that result from the high level of turbulent transport induced by the jet. Higher flame acceleration is observed for the turbulent flame relative to the laminar flame. The turbulent flame experiences high propagation of turbulence intensities in the lower flame boundary. An increase in vorticity generation, velocity fluctuation, and turbulent strain-rate is experienced throughout the interaction. The turbulent flame regime is characterized showing an evolution between the thin-to-broken reactions.
A greatly unexplored area: Digital curation and innovation in digital humanities

New types of digital data, tools, and methods, for instance those that cross academic disciplines and domains, those that feature teams instead of single scholars, and those that involve individuals from outside the academy, enables new forms of scholarship and teaching in digital humanities. Such scholarship promotes reuse of digital data, provokes new research questions, and cultivates new audiences. Digital curation, the process of managing a trusted body of information for current and future use, helps maximize the value of research in digital humanities. Predicated on semistructured interviews, this naturalistic case study explores the creation, use, storage, and planned reuse of data by 45 interviewees involved with 19 Office of Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant SUG projects. Interviewees grappled with challenges surrounding data, collaboration and communication, planning and project management, awareness and outreach, resources, and technology. Overall this study explores the existing digital curation practices and needs of scholars engaged in innovative digital humanities work and to discern how closely these practices and needs align with the digital curation literature.
Assigining of Safe and Optimal Trajectory Avoiding Collision at Sea

Abstract The paper presents the method of assigning and results of simulation safe trajectory to avoid a collision at sea. There have considered meeting situations a few ships encounter. The process is described as a task non-linear progranuning with using maximum principle. The paper contains examples of simulations.
Shewhart and EWMA Variable Sampling Interval Control Charts with Sampling at Fixed Times

Control charts used for process monitoring traditionally take samples from the process using a fixed sampling interval (FSI) between samples. In recent years variable sampling interval (VSI) control charts have been developed. A shorter sampling interva..
Impact of late Medicaid expansion on prostate cancer screening.

141Background: A key provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was the expansion of Medicaid to childless adults living < 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Aside from a few early expansion states, the majority of states adopting the provision expanded coverage in January 2014, and are categorized as late expansion states (LES). Non-expansion states (NES) opposed expansion and did not adopt these broader provisions. Our objective was to determine the effects of this policy change on prostate cancer screening (PSAS) trends in LES and NES. Methods: The 2014 and 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys reflect 2013 and 2015 health behaviors, and were queried for men 40-64, without history of prostate cancer, with a household income < 138% FPL, and residing in NES or LES. Descriptive statistics, stratified by expansion status and year, were generated for covariates. The Chi-Square test was used to compare proportions between years within state categories. Difference-in-differences (DID) ...
Vision Boxes: An Inexpensive Way to Assess Learning in Elementary-age Children

This article introduces the use of vision boxes as an assessment tool in physical education. It also describes how to make the boxes, followed by additional uses for this learning tool.
Endocrine disorders and maxillofacial surgery

Endocrine disorders are frequently seen in patients undergoing maxillofacial surgical procedures. Approximately one-third of those patients are overweight, 10% have diabetes and 5% have a thyroid condition. It is imperative to optimize endocrine conditions as it decreases the perioperative and postoperative morbidity and mortality. This chapter reviews the most common endocrine disorders and helps the surgeon identify preoperatively which patients need simple medication adjustment and which ones require urgent referral to an endocrinologist.
Physiological status of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) affects their response to attractive odours

An improved understanding of the biology of the invasive pest, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), is critical for the development of effective management strategies. Trapping is one technique used for both detection and control; however, the efficacy of trapping can vary depending on the target insect's physiological state, its behavioural priorities and the type of attractant used in the trap. We conducted a series of caged trapping experiments and a greenhouse trapping experiment to investigate the effects of D. suzukii feeding status, age, mating status, ovipositional status and seasonal morph type on the capture rate of traps baited with fermentation odours. Starved flies were trapped at greater rates compared to fed flies; more virgin flies were trapped than mated flies; flies deprived of an oviposition substrate were trapped more frequently than flies given an oviposition substrate. It is still unclear whether age or seasonal morphology affect bait response. Lastly, a caged choice experiment investigated the relationship between female reproductive status and attraction to fermentation or fruit odours. Fermentation‐based traps captured female flies regardless of their reproductive status but, ripe fruit‐based traps were more attractive to flies with more than seven eggs. In summary, studies that use fermentation‐based traps should recognize that capture rates of D. suzukii will depend on the feeding, mating and oviposition experiences of the population; also, fruit‐based traps may better target gravid females.
Suspension of the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices: the importance of adhering to the evidence.

Recently the United States Assistant Secretary of Mental Health and Substance Use disclosed having suspended the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices, stating it was so deficient in both rigor and breadth that it must be replaced. However, a closer examination of her claims about the Registry indicates many of them to be inaccurate. Contrary to her assertions, the Registry is not devoid of medication-assisted treatments for opioid use; nor does it contain but a scant few interventions related to schizophrenia and psychosis. Moreover, many of her criticisms regarding rigor pertain to reviews completed since late 2015, when the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration altered key aspects of the Registry. In contrast to reviews generated under the 2007 rules, these newer reviews rely on fewer references, incorporate less expert input, are more likely to be based exclusively on gray literature, and are no longer required either to provide dissemination readiness information or meet certain minimum research quality standards. However, only 123 (25.7%) of the 479 Registry interventions have been reviewed solely using the problematic 2015 criteria, with the remaining 356 interventions having a review which use the 2007 guidelines. Yet, rather than address the agency’s recent missteps and expand the Registry’s content coverage, the agency appears to have decided to invest considerable resources into replacing it, relying heavily on expert consensus versus empirical data in its initial attempt to do so. This raises questions about the agency’s current commitment to evidence-based practice.
Gap Junctional Communication Between Cells during Development

In the quarter century since low resistance intercellular pathways were first discovered (1), considerable knowledge has been gained about gap junctions, the membrane specializations generally considered to provide the means for ionic and metabolic coupling between cells. Since most of this work has been extensively reviewed in recent years (2–12), we only intend to provide a general background to gap junction communication, with selected examples, concentrating more on the potential function of this specific cell-cell interaction event in developing systems.
Mechanism design for a risk averse seller

We develop efficient algorithms to construct approximately utility maximizing mechanisms for a risk averse seller in the presence of potentially risk-averse buyers in Bayesian single parameter and multi-parameter settings. We model risk aversion by concave utility function. Bayesian mechanism design has usually focused on revenue maximization in a risk-neutral environment, and while some work has regarded buyers' risk aversion, very little of past work addresses the seller's risk aversion. We first consider the problem of designing a DSIC mechanism for a risk-averse seller in the case of multi-unit auctions. We give a poly-time computable pricing mechanism that is a (1−1/e−e)-approximation to an optimal DSIC mechanism, for any e>0. Our result is based on a novel application of correlation gap bound, that involves splitting and merging of random variables to redistribute probability mass across buyers. This allows us to reduce our problem to that of checking feasibility of a small number of distinct configurations, each of which corresponds to a covering LP. DSIC mechanisms are robust against buyers' risk aversion, but may yield arbitrarily worse utility than the optimal BIC mechanisms, when buyers' utility functions are assumed to be known. For a risk averse seller, we design a truthful-in-expectation mechanism whose utility is a small constant factor approximation to the utilty of the optimal BIC mechanism under two mild assumptions: (a) ex post individual rationality and (b) no positive transfers. Our mechanism simulates several rounds of sequential offers, that are computed using stochastic techniques developed for our DSIC mechanism. We believe that our techniques will be useful for other stochastic optimization problems with concave objective functions.
Metabolic substrate utilization by rabbit proximal tubule. An NADH fluorescence study

The effects of various short-chain fatty acids, carboxylic acids, and amino acids on NADH fluorescence and oxygen consumption (QO2) of rabbit proximal tubule suspensions were determined. The short-chain fatty acids were the most effective substrates in increasing NADH fluorescence and QO2, followed by the carboxylic acids and amino acids. All of the substrates tested that increased NADH fluorescence proportionally increased QO2. This implies that the primary effect of these substrates was to increase QO2 by increasing the delivery of reducing equivalents to NAD and not by stimulating ATP hydrolysis directly. The relative affinity of several substrates to increase NADH fluorescence was also determined. The short-chain fatty acids had the highest affinity (10 microM range) followed by the carboxylic acids (100 microM range). These data demonstrate that the metabolic rate and NADH redox state of the renal cortical cell is very sensitive to the type of metabolic substrate available.
Protocell Action Potentials: A New Perspective of Bio-Excitation

The term bio-excitation generates many mental pictures ranging from the machinations of the brain, responsiveness to environmental stimuli, facilitated efferent motor responses, electrical discharges, ionic gradients, membrane structure, etc. At the cellular level, those familiar with excitation immediately retrieve one model or another upon which they have depended for mental imagery. Some begin with a precise phospholipid bilayer membrane peppered with protein gates or carriers with precision architecture. Others also consider the biochemical and energy transfer processes associated with active transport, and maintenance of membrane anisotropy. The eons of natural selection which have allowed the development of such sophisticated electrochemical processes concerns yet others. And there are many primarily concerned with the process by which external chemical, electromagnetic, or mechanical energies are converted into excitation. But what becomes of all of these images if it is suddenly found that simple heating and subsequent hydration of amino acid mixtures results in spherical structures manifesting all fundamental characteristics of excitation? There is no need for biological evolution. There is no need for phospholipid. There is no need for nucleotide control of protein precision.
The Issue of Memory in the Study of Prefrontal Function

Understanding the prefrontal cortex and its role in executive behavior can be considered one of the most significant challenges of modern neurobiology. The functions of prefrontal cortex have been the subject of intense scientific curiosity and considerable speculation for most of this century. The widest range of clinical observations together with the complex mosaic of neuropsychological findings have accumulated to present a variegated but confusing picture of prefrontal function. Significantly, advances in neuroscience, neuropsychology and cognitive psychology have matured to a stage of hypothesis testing and theory building. Yet attempts to identify different views and reconcile them have been few. The present discussion is an opportunity to highlight some of the theoretical differences in the field and present new findings from my own laboratory that are relevant to these issues.
Behavioral and physiologic responses to caloric restriction in mice.

Abstract The purpose of the review is to highlight the influences of ambient temperature ( T a ) and caloric restriction (CR) on metabolism, cardiovascular function and behavior in mice. Standard vivarium ambient temperatures ( T a ≅23 °C) are a mild cold stress for mice requiring elevated metabolic rate and food intake. Increasing T a into the zone of thermoneutrality (TMN≅29–33 °C) markedly reduces food intake, metabolic rate, heart rate (HR) and blood pressure in mice. Mice are members of a diverse, yet unique group of homeothermic animals that respond to thermal and energetic challenges by allowing body temperature ( T b ) to fall to less than 31 °C, a condition known as torpor. In mice housed at standard T a , torpor is induced by a single night of fasting or a few days of CR. The mechanisms responsible for initiating torpor are related to reduced caloric availability, but do not require leptin. Mice housed at TMN and subjected to CR exhibit physiologic reductions in metabolic rate and HR, but do not appear to enter torpor. Finally, mice exhibit differential locomotor activity responses during CR that depends on T a . At standard T a , mice display increased light-phase home-cage activity with CR. This response is virtually eliminated when CR is performed at TMN. We suggest that researchers using mice to investigate energy homeostasis and cardiovascular physiology carefully consider the influence of T a on physiology and behavior.
THE DIFFERENTIAL AND INTEGRAL CALCULUS IN BHASKARA'S FRAMEWORK: EXPLORATION OF ZERO AND INFINITY

The chief object of this paper is to give the true foundation of the calculus, differential and integral, in the doctrine of zero and infinity as given in the Lilavati of Bhaskara II.
Narcotic-Sparing Approaches and the Shift Toward Paracetamol in Neonatal Intensive Care.

Effective analgesia in neonates is relevant not only because of ethical aspects or empathy, but it is a crucial and integral part of medical and nursing care. However, there is also emerging evidence – although mainly in animal models – on the relation between the exposure to narcotics and impaired neurodevelopmental outcome, resulting in a CATCH-22 scenario. Consequently, a balanced approach is needed with the overarching intention to attain adequate pain management with minimal side effects. Despite the available evidence-based guidance on narcotics in ventilated neonates, observations on drug utilization still suggest an overall increase in exposure with extensive variability between units. This increased exposure over time and the extensive variability is concerning given the limited evidence of benefits and potential harm.
ISOZYMES IN EVOLUTIONARY SYSTEMATICS

ABSTRACT . Evolutionary biologists exploiting electrophoretic methods of isozyme separation have shown that most natural populations of sexually reproducing organisms maintain considerable genetic polymorphism which becomes extensively altered in the course of speciation. To a systematist, this means that isozymic characters should be particularly powerful at low taxonomic levels.
Infrared Propagating Electromagnetic Surface Waves Excited by Induction

Propagating inhomogeneous electromagnetic waves called surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) can be excited by free-space beams on corrugated conducting surfaces at resonance angles determined by corrugation period, permittivity, and optical frequency. SPPs are coupled to and co-propagate with surface charge displacements. Complete electrical isolation of individual conducting corrugations prevents the charge displacement necessary to sustain an SPP, such that excitation resonances of traveling SPPs are absent. However, SPPs can be excited via electric induction if a smooth conducting surface exists below and nearby the isolated conducting corrugations. The dependence of SPP excitation resonances on that separation is experimentally investigated here at long-wave infrared wavelengths. We find that excitation resonances for traveling SPPs broaden and disappear as the dielectric’s physical thickness is increased beyond ~1% of the free-space wavelength. The resonance line width increases with refractive index and optical thickness of the dielectric.
Exploring E-commerce

The Internet has spawned a host of online advertising tools such as email ad, banner ad, search ad, and shopping bot. Most website managers employ multiple online tools to attract prospective customers, yet there is little conceptual understanding of how those tools differ from one another. We present a theoretical model, rooted in prior research in online search and attention economics, to compare consumer search and purchase behavior initiated by four online advertising tools. Specifically, we examine whether the influence of the type of online search (goal-directed or stimulus-driven) engendered by the tool is moderated by the competition for the consumer’s attention. We test our hypotheses on clickstream data obtained from a major e-Commerce firm. The results from the empirical analysis provide strong support to most of the hypotheses. A very interesting finding is the interaction effect between search type and demand for attention. The findings of our study open up several interesting future research directions and have an important managerial implication for effective allocation of online advertising dollars.
VIII – LEBESGUE MEASURE

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the Lebesgue measure. It discusses the measure of a bounded open set and also the measure of a bounded set. To define the measure of a one-dimensional set of points in general, the outer measure and inner measure should also be defined. It should be observed that these always exist, although the measure, when it is defined, might fail to exist. The Axiom of Choice allows one to form an infinite set each of whose elements comes from exactly one set in a nondenumerably infinite collection of sets. The combination of measurable sets by a finite or a countable infinite number of unions, intersections, or complements have a measurable set.
Measuring Visual Acuity and Stereo Accuracy as Mediated by Immersive Displays

Immersive displays used in virtual and augmented reality systems attempt to provide a plausibly real stimulus to the human eye. However, the intended stimuli are mediated by display hardware such that the image received can be expected to change from what was intended; this is of particular importance to perceptual experiments observing responses to carefully crafted stimuli. This work presents a software tool for measuring two aspects of the received stimuli when using immersive displays: visual acuity and stereo accuracy. Within-participant comparisons are made between two different immersive displays, the HTC Vive and Valve Index, showing the mediating effect of the different displays and the potential utility of such a test for establishing expected bounds on receivable visual information within an immersive virtual environment.