cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Ethnicity on Warfarin Dosage Requirement

BACKGROUND:The optimal dose of warfarin varies among individuals, and the prediction of a maintenance dose is difficult. Ethnicity has been reported to influence warfarin dosing.OBJECTIVE:To quantitate the influence of ethnicity on warfarin dose requirement.METHODS:We conducted a retrospective cohort study at a university anticoagulation clinic to evaluate the influence of ethnicity on warfarin dose. Inclusion criteria included age ⩾18 years, target international normalized ratio (INR) 2–3, and warfarin management within the clinic for ⩾3 months with a minimum of 5 clinic visits. We collected clinical and demographic data including age, gender, weight, ethnicity, disease states, concomitant medications, indication, weekly warfarin dosage, and INR. To assess potential confounders, multivariate, repeated-measures regression analysis was used to identify and adjust for variables that may influence the maintenance dose of warfarin.RESULTS:Of the 345 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 27% were Asian Amer...
Orientational and Microstructural Evolution During Epitaxial Growth of Cu on Si(001) by Sputter Deposition

Epitaxial Cu thin films have been grown on H-terminated Si(00l) substrates at room temperature by D.C. ion-beam sputter deposition in ultrahigh vacuum. The development of orientation and microstructure during epitaxial growth from the initial stages of Cu growth up to Cu thicknesses of few hundred nm has been investigated. Analysis by in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction, thin film x-ray diffraction, and plan-view and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy indicates that the films are well textured with Cu(001) || Si(001) and Cu[100] || Si[110]. Interestingly, it is found that a distribution of orientations occurs at the early stages of Cu epitaxy on Si(001) surface, and that a (001) texture emerges gradually with increasing Cu thickness. The effect of silicide formation and deposition conditions on the crystalline quality of Cu epitaxy is also discussed.
Sequential Percutaneous LAA Ligation and Pulmonary Vein Isolation in Patients with Persistent AF: Initial Results of a Feasibility Study

LAA Ligation and Pulmonary Vein Isolation Introduction Left atrial appendage (LAA) ligation results in LAA electrical isolation and a decrease in atrial fibrillation (AF) burden. This study assessed the feasibility of combined percutaneous LAA ligation and pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) in patients with persistent AF. Methods and Results A total of 22 patients with persistent AF underwent LAA ligation with the LARIAT device followed by PVI. PVI was confirmed with the demonstration of both entrance and exit block. Patients (n = 10) in sinus rhythm pre- and post-LAA ligation underwent P-wave analysis. Monitoring for AF was performed at 1, 3, and 6 months postablation. LAA ligation was successful in 21 of 22 (95%) patients. The procedure was aborted in one patient due to pericardial adhesions. PVI was performed in 20 of 21 patients. One patient converted to atrial flutter with a controlled ventricular response after LAA ligation and refused subsequent PVI. Demonstration of entrance and exit block was achieved in 19 of 20 patients. At 3 months, 13 of 19 (68.4%) patients were in sinus rhythm. Four patients underwent a second PVI. At 6 months, 15 of 20 (75%) patients were in sinus rhythm. There was a significant decrease in P-wave duration and P-wave dispersion after LAA ligation. Complications with LAA ligation included pericarditis, a delayed pleural effusion, and a late pericardial effusion. Conclusions Staged LAA ligation and PVI is feasible and decreases P-wave dispersion. Randomized studies are needed to assess the efficacy of LAA ligation as adjunctive therapy to PVI for maintaining sinus rhythm in patients with persistent AF.
Lack of strong refuges allows top-down control of soybean aphid by generalist natural enemies

Refuges have been shown to be important mediators of predator–prey interactions, and in particular, have been proposed as a potential mechanism allowing herbivore populations to reach outbreak levels. However, very little research on the role of refuges has been conducted in systems dominated by generalist predators. We investigated the existence of refuges from predation for the soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae) at multiple scales. This species invaded North America and in spite of previous studies demonstrating strong suppression by generalist natural enemies, its populations periodically cause significant economic losses. Using naturally occurring populations of soybean aphid and its natural enemies, we tested for the presence of A. glycines spatial and dynamic refuges at the within-field, single plant, and within-plant scale. At the within-field level, we found only weak and transient spatial patterns in aphid populations suggesting the lack of spatial refuges at this scale. Similarly, at the plant level we found no individual colonies that escaped predation and aphid suppression was 9- to 28-fold greater in comparison with caged controls regardless of initial aphid density. When high aphid populations were exposed to predation they were rapidly reduced to levels close to the average field density and showed reduced per capita growth rates, indicating an absence of dilution of predation risk at increased aphid density. Finally, we found a significant shift in the distribution of aphids to the lower portions of the plant in the presence of generalist predators, suggesting a partial refuge from predation at the within-plant scale. Overall, we found the naturally occurring community of generalist predators to exert strong top-down suppression of soybean aphid populations at multiple scales, and no evidence that the presence of refuges at the scales studied can lead to outbreak populations. The partial refuge from predation at the within-plant scale revealed in our study may have important consequences for the within-season population dynamics of A. glycines, since it may be associated with low plant quality tradeoffs, and therefore warrants further research.
Adaptive neural/fuzzy control for interpolated nonlinear systems

Adaptive control for nonlinear time-varying systems is of both theoretical and practical importance. We propose an adaptive control methodology for a class of nonlinear systems with a time-varying structure. This class of systems is composed of interpolations of nonlinear subsystems which are input-output feedback linearizable. Both indirect and direct adaptive control methods are developed, where the spatially localized models (in the form of Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems or radial basis function neural networks) are used as online approximators to learn the unknown dynamics of the system. Without assumptions on rate of change of system dynamics, the proposed adaptive control methods guarantee that all internal signals of the system are bounded and the tracking error is asymptotically stable. The performance of the adaptive controller is demonstrated using a jet engine control problem.
Does early repolarization in the athlete have analogies with the Brugada syndrome

Aim To re-examine the prevalence and presentation of early repolarization in athletes and to compare it with electrocardiographic abnormalities observed in patients with the Brugada syndrome. Methods Electrocardiograms of 155 male athletes and 50 sedentary controls were studied. Early repolarization was considered present if at least two adjacent precordial leads showed elevation of the ST segment ≥1mm. Amplitude and morphology of ST elevation, the leads where it was present and the lead in which it showed its maximum value were analysed together with QRS duration, the presence of right ventricular activation delay, QT and QTc duration. Data were compared with those obtained by electrocardiograms of 23 patients with the Brugada syndrome. Results Early repolarization was found in 139 athletes (89%) and 18 controls (36%, P ≤0·025), being limited to right precordial leads in 42 (30%) athletes and 13 (72%) controls ( P ≤0·001). Only 12 (8·6%) athletes and one control (5·5%) with early repolarization had an ST elevation ‘convex toward the top’ in right precordial leads, similar to that seen in the Brugada syndrome. In athletes the maximum ST elevation was greater (2·3±0·6mm) than in the controls (1·2±0·8mm; P ≤0·004) but significantly lower than in patients with the Brugada syndrome (4·4±0·7mm; P ≤0·0001). Patients with the Brugada syndrome also had a greater QRS duration (0·11±0·02s) than athletes (0·090±0·011s; P ≤0·0001) with early repolarization. Conclusions Early repolarization is almost always the rule in athletes but it is also frequent in sedentary males. Tracings somewhat simulating the Brugada syndrome were observed in only 8% of athletes without a history of syncope or familial sudden death. Significant differences exist between athletes with early repolarization and patients with the Brugada syndrome as regards the amplitude of ST elevation and QRS duration.
Odorant-induced oscillations in the mushroom bodies of the locust.

Kenyon cells are the intrinsic interneurons of the mushroom bodies in the insect brain, a center for olfactory and multimodal processing and associative learning. These neurons are small (3–8 microns soma diameter) and numerous (340,000 and 400,000 in the bee and cockroach brains, respectively). In Drosophila, Kenyon cells are the dominant site of expression of the dunce, DC0, and rutabaga gene products, enzymes in the cAMP cascade whose absence leads to specific defects in olfactory learning. In honeybees, the volume of the mushroom body neurophils may depend on the age or social status of the individual. Although the anatomy of these neurons has been known for nearly a century, their physiological properties and the principles of information processing in the circuits that they form are totally unknown. This article provides a first such characterization. The activity of Kenyon cells was recorded in vivo from locust brains with intracellular and local field potential electrodes during olfactory processing. Kenyon cells had a high input impedance (approximately 1 G omega at the soma). They produced action potentials upon depolarization, and consistently showed spike adaptation during long depolarizing current pulses. They generally displayed a low resting level of spike activity in the absence of sensory stimulation, despite a large background of spontaneous synaptic activity, and showed no intrinsic bursting behavior. Presentation of an airborne odor, but not air alone, to an antenna evoked spatially coherent field potential oscillations in the ipsilateral mushroom body, with a frequency of approximately 20 Hz. The frequency of these oscillations was independent of the nature of the odorant. Short bouts of oscillations sometimes occurred spontaneously, that is, in the absence of odorant stimulation. Autocorrelograms of the local field potentials in the absence of olfactory stimulation revealed small peaks at +/- 50 msec, suggesting an intrinsic tendency of the mushroom body networks to oscillate at 20 Hz. Such oscillatory behavior could not be seen from local field potential recordings in the antennal lobes, and may thus be generated in the mushroom body, or via feedback interactions with downstream neurons in the protocerebrum. During the odor-induced oscillations, the membrane potential of Kenyon cells oscillated around the resting level, under the influence of excitatory inputs phase- locked to the field activity. Each phasic wave of depolarization in a Kenyon cell could be amplified by intrinsic excitable properties of the dendritic membrane, and sometimes led to one action potential, whose timing was phase-locked to the population oscillations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Rupture of Inlet Graft of the HeartMate System: A Case Report

As the implantation of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) as destination therapy for patients with heart failure increases in frequency, device durability and malfunction present an increasing concern. Complications such as inflow valve regurgitation, outflow valve distortion, and problems with power cable or pump motors place the LVAD recipient at increased risk for morbidity and mortality. To offset the risk of complications related to the inflow cannula, modifications to the valve conduit were made to the SNAP VE device in November 2002. These modifications were intended to improve durability with cycle performance of up to 6 times longer than the old inflow valve during in vitro testing. We describe here a patient who sustained disruption of the Dacron inlet graft after implantation of the Heart-Mate XVE System as a destination therapy.
Comparison of subsurface sound-speed structures of three active regions

We analyze three solar active regions observed with the MDI instrument onboard SoHO (Scherrer et al . 1995). We apply the time-distance helioseismology formalism to derive the travel times of acoustic waves propagating through these active regions. The inversion of these acoustic travel times gives us access to the 3D sound-speed structure below the sunspots. We compare the main characteristics of these inversion results as a function of the active region size and magnetic field strength.
Help‐seeking among Korean American women with urinary incontinence

Background: Despite the availability of effective treatments, many women manage their urinary incontinence (UI) silently rather than seeking professional help. Delays in seeking help in effectively managing UI can lead to a worsening of the incontinence and in overall quality of life. Aims: The aim of this study was to explore the help-seeking behaviour (HSB) among Korean American women with UI. The following research question guied this study: is there any difference in HSB for UI according to severity of UI among Korean American woment with UI?. Methods: 149 community-dwelling Korean American women who are age 30 years and older and self-identified as being incontinent were invited to particpate in the study. Data collection was conducted in 12 Korean religious organizations. This study uses a correlation descriptive design by means of interviews. The HSB scale was used to measure the propensity ot help-seeking. Results: This study showed that the propensity of seeking help among Korean American women was lower than that of general population. It indicated that Korean women cope urinary symptoms nonmedical measures rather seeking professional help. The severity of UI is associated with help-seeking among Korean American women with UI. Conclusions: Health care providers need to be aware of low rates of seeking care among Korean women for this problem, and the need for further education in this area.
A modified QR adaptive filtering algorithm-elementary approach

This paper presents a modified form of the conventional QR algorithm for adaptive filtering. By exploiting the displacement structure of the correlation matrix of the data, the paper suggests a fast method of constructing a unitary rotation that can be used to propagate an estimate in the QR algorithm. As a result, the paper provides a numerically better version of the so-called "hybrid QR/LLS" adaptive filtering algorithm discovered by Regalia and Bellanger (see IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol.39, p.879-891, April 1991); in their original version, a so-called likelihood variable computed by using variance-normalized backwards a posteriori prediction errors may not be positive semi-definite because of round-off errors. In our approach, this variable is guaranteed to be positive semi-definite. >
Data Envelopment Analysis

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a data-oriented approach for performance evaluation and benchmarking when trade-offs on multiple performance measures and benchmarks are not completely available. There are relative efficiencies and inefficiencies in using DEA in classifying funds of hedge funds (FOF). FOFs provide absolute returns and have non-linear returns because of long-short positions, derivatives, and option-like fee contracts, resulting in significant skewness and kurtosis. Thus the inclusion of FOFs in investor portfolios calls for performance appraisal methodologies that are appropriate for handling the asymmetric returns they produce, such as DEA, and not comparison to traditional passive and active benchmarks. While selecting FOFs can be arduous, DEA can shed light on and further validate the process.
A new calibration method for impedance meters

A new calibration method using two LOADs for impedance meters has been developed previously (1993). This enables an instrument to measure impedance phases with smaller uncertainties than those achieved by the traditional OPEN-SHORT-LOAD (OSL) calibration. A phase uncertainty of /spl plusmn/500/spl times/10/sup -6/ rad. is easily realizable at 1 GHz. >
Predation by Orius insidiosus (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae) on Life Stages and Species of Frankliniella Flower Thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in Pepper Flowers

Abstract We compared predation of Orius insidiosus (Say) on adult and second instars of Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) and on adults of F. occidentalis and F. tritici (Fitch) in arenas with pepper flowers. Also, we compared the dispersal of these thrips in the presence and absence of the predator. For each experiment, two densities of thrips (10 and 20 total thrips) and two time exposures (10 and 34 h) were tested. Second instars were more likely to move from the flower where they were released than were F. occidentalis adults. F. tritici dispersed more than F. occidentalis. The presence of the predator enhanced movement by thrips from flowers in which they were released. Despite differences in prey movement, O. insidiosus successfully preyed on all types of prey that were offered. However, O. insidiosus appeared to deal differently with each type of prey. Predation of both larvae and adults was most likely to occur inside flowers. In trials with adults and second instars of F. occidentalis, larvae...
Dissipation Dependence of the Jet Latitude

Zonally averaged flows in general circulation models exhibit strong sensitivity to the strength of the surface friction, subgrid-scale diffusion, and gravity wave drag. A commonly observed effect is that the midlatitude jets shift poleward as the drag on the zonal wind is decreased. In the present two-level primitive equation model the jet moves poleward with decreasing surface friction and with increasing subgrid-scale diffusion. The barotropic component of the jet shows much greater sensitivity than does the baroclinic component. Experiments using different values of friction for the eddies and for the zonal means reveal that the jet latitude is primarily controlled by the drag on the zonal means. The shift in the latitude of the jet is derived from the altered equilibrium response of the zonal wind to forcing by eddies when the friction is changed and the change in meridional structure of the eddy momentum fluxes in response to the modified zonal wind. The latter effect is also displayed by linear baroclinic modes.
Molecular Defects in Hemophilia A

Hemophilia A, classic hemophilia, is an X chromosomc-linked inherited coagulation disorder characterized by deficient factor VIII activity. Clinically, and when characterized by procoagulant or immunologic assays, it is a heterogeneous disorder. However, disease severity usually corresponds to the extent of factor VIII deficiency.1 Severe hemophilia with recurrent hemarthroses usually means that there is no detectable plasma factor VIII (< 1% of normal factor VIII activity). Individuals with 1–5% of normal factor VIII levels tend to have moderately severe disease, with most bleeding episodes due to trauma. Mild hemophilia (6–25% of normal factor VIII activity) may only be detected when excessive bleeding occurs during surgery or after severe injuries. Nonfunctional, immunoreactive factor VIII-like protein, at levels comparable to those in normal plasma, is detected in 10% of plasmas from patients with mild or moderate hemophilia A.2, 3 In addition, low levels of factor VIII antigen (1–10% of those in normal plasma) can be detected by sensitive immunoassays in the plasma of 20% of patients with severe hemophilia A.4 The basis for this heterogeneity has been clarified by recent studies that have examined the molecular basis for the factor VIII deficiency in families with hemophilia.
Influence of composition and processing parameters on the properties of solution-processed aluminum phosphate oxide (AlPO) thin films

Abstract The effects of precursor solution concentration, composition, and spin-processing parameters on the thickness and electrical properties of ultra-smooth aluminum oxide phosphate (Al2O3−3x(PO4)2x or “AlPO”) thin films prepared using aqueous solutions are reported. Compositions were verified by electron probe micro-analysis and range from Al2O1.5(PO4) to AlPO4 (x = P:Al from 0.5 to 1.0). Film thicknesses were determined using X-ray reflectivity measurements and were found to depend systematically on solution concentration, P:Al ratio, and spin-speed. Metal-insulator-semiconductor devices were fabricated to determine electrical properties as a function of composition. As the P:Al ratio increased from 0.5 to 1.0, the dielectric constant decreased from 6.0 to 4.6, leakage currents increased from 0.45 to 65 nA cm−2 at 1 MV cm−1 and dielectric breakdown (defined as leakage currents >10 μA cm−2) decreased from 9.74 to 2.84 MV cm−1. These results establish composition, concentration, and spin-speed for the production of AlPO films with targeted thicknesses and electrical properties.
Racism: A Virulent but Curable Social Disease

In this paper, we argue that race is a destructive biological illusion that is better understood as a form of Durkheimian deviance. There are significant differences among human social groups, however, those differences are sociological rather than biological in nature. We will analyze the tennis careers of Venus and Serena Williams to illustrate that excellence is determined by sociological success factors rather than biological attributes. Further, we will emphasize that the deleterious consequences of socio-racial differentiation are aggravated by the Thomas Theorem (“If men define situations as real, then they are real in their consequences”). We will conclude by drawing upon Jane Elliot’s work to illustrate that racism is rooted in malevolent social constructions, and, as such, racism is a curable ― or “deconstructable” ― social disease.
Crayon: saving power through shape and color approximation on next-generation displays

We present Crayon, a library and runtime system that reduces display power dissipation by acceptably approximating displayed images via shape and color transforms. Crayon can be inserted between an application and the display to optimize dynamically generated images before they appear on the screen. It can also be applied offline to optimize stored images before they are retrieved and displayed. Crayon exploits three fundamental properties: the acceptability of small changes in shape and color, the fact that the power dissipation of OLED displays and DLP pico-projectors is different for different colors, and the relatively small energy cost of computation in comparison to display energy usage. We implement and evaluate Crayon in three contexts: a hardware platform with detailed power measurement facilities and an OLED display, an Android tablet, and a set of cross-platform tools. Our results show that Crayon's color transforms can reduce display power dissipation by over 66% while producing images that remain visually acceptable to users. The measured whole-system power reduction is approximately 50%. We quantify the acceptability of Crayon's shape and color transforms with a user study involving over 400 participants and over 21,000 image evaluations.
Analysis on Risk Factors and Early Identification in Progression of Severe Illness with Hand-foot-mouth Disease

Objective To investigate the early clinical features and the risk factors of severe hand-foot-mouth disease(HFMD) that progressed to critically illness. Methods We compared the clinical features and laboratory examination in 66 severe HFMD cases(observation group) and 132 critically HFMD cases(control group) in the corresponding period in hospital.Single factor analysis and multivariaten non-conditional Logistic regression analysis were used to survey the potential risk factors of severe HFMD progressing. Results Single factor analysis suggested that patients aged ≤3-year-old,fatigue,sleepiness,easily frightened or limb tremble frequently,vomiting(3/d),malcirculation,leucocytosis(15×109/L),hyperglycemia,and exudative changes in lung were the main risk factors and the OR was 5.617,1.842,1.072,7.916,6.743,10.385,4.952,3.127,and 2.864,respectively.Multivariaten non-conditional Logistic regression analysis suggested that patients aged ≤3-year-old,easily frightened or limb tremble frequently,vomiting(3/d),malcirculation,leucocytosis(15×109/L) were the independent risk factors for severe HFMD cases progressing to critically illness. Conclusions The patients aged ≤3-year-old,easily frightened or limb tremble frequently,vomiting(3/d),malcirculation,and leucocytosis(15×109/ L) are closely related to severe HFMD cases progressing to fatal condition.
Control of Vine Mealybug in Wine Grapes, 2015

This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of reduced-risk insecticides for VMB control. Two trials were conducted in a commercial ‘Pinot Grigio’ vineyard located near Escalon, San Joaquin County, CA and one trial was conducted in a commercial ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ vineyard located near Lodi, San Joaquin County, CA. In Escalon, the vineyard was planted in 1990 on a 1.83 m by 3.05 m. spacing. The replicates were three vines long and the two outside vines were considered treated buffer and not sampled. Nine treatments were replicated four times in trial 1 and six treatments were replicated six times in trial 2, both in an RCB design. All experimental treatments except Admire Pro were applied with a hand-held sprayer with a finished …
Biological Control of Potato Insect Pests

A variety of pest insects attack the potato crop and reduce yields. This chapter reviews the known insect natural enemies of major potato pests around the world: Coleoptera, including the Colorado potato beetle, hadda beetle and related lady beetles, the Andean potato weevil complex, Gelechiid tuber worms, the potato psyllid, and aphids. Biological control, including insect predators and parasitoids, helps to suppress many of these pests. However, by itself, biological control often fails to control economic damage to the crop. Knowledge of natural enemy habits, requirements, and efficacy is surprisingly incomplete. More effective biological control would reduce pesticide use, with its associated risks to human health and the environment. For several of the major pests, biological control could play a much more important role if it were used in concert with appropriate cultural controls, microbial controls, resistant crop varieties, and selective chemical controls which suppress the pest more than they injure the natural enemies.
Abstract 5015: Pretreatment carcinoembryonic antigen levels predict survival in patients with rectal adenocarcinoma

Background: Population-based studies have reported elevated Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) level as an independent prognostic factor in patients with colon cancer, thus supporting inclusion of CEA-based C stage in classical TNM staging for colon cancer. However, the effect of C-stage incorporation on outcomes for patients with rectal adenocarcinoma is unknown. Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Result (SEER) database was used to collect data from 2004 to 2007 for patients with rectal adenocarcinoma by topography code C20.9 and histology codes 8140-8144, 8210-8211, 8220-8221, 8260-8263, 8440, 8480-8481, and 8490. CEA stage C0 = normal CEA or C1 = elevated CEA was assigned to patients with known pretreatment CEA levels. Observed survival (OS) by American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stages I-IV and CEA stage C0 or 1 was determined using Kaplan Meier method. Relative survival (RS) as a net measure of cancer survival adjusted for sex, race, age and date was calculated in addition to observed survival (OS). Log-rank was used to compare observed survival. Z-test with corresponding p values was used to compare 5-year relative survival. Results: We identified 25,241 patients with a record of histologically confirmed invasive rectal adenocarcinoma. Approximately half (N = 13,151) of these patients had records of pretreatment CEA levels: N = 6,360 stage C1, N = 6,690 stage C0 and a small number (101) with borderline CEA levels. Mean age at diagnosis was similar in both groups, 64.2 for C0 and 64.7 for C1. Among patients with C1 disease the leading AJCC stage was distant metastatic, stage IV (33.8%) followed by 25.8% stage III, 20.7% stage II, 13.8% stage I, and 5.9% unknown stage. In contrast to CI disease, the most common stage for C0 was stage I (35.2%), and only 6.3% of patients with C0 were diagnosed with stage IV disease. Observed survival by each of I-IV AJCC TNM stages was decreased for C1 stage relative to C0, p Conclusion: Our study suggests that pretreatment CEA levels predict survival in patients with rectal adenocarcinoma, in accordance with previous data in colon cancer. Therefore, our study supports C-stage inclusion in AJCC TNM staging for this neoplasm. Further prospective confirmatory studies are warranted. Citation Format: Oxana V. Makarova-Rusher, Julius Strauss, Susanna Ulahannan, Chul Kim, Jaydira Del Rivero, Austin Duffy, Tim F. Greten. Pretreatment carcinoembryonic antigen levels predict survival in patients with rectal adenocarcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 5015.
Technical Developments in Fish Exclusion, Guidance, and Collection Materials

Construction of mills, dams and other structures in rivers and streams and the withdrawal of water for irrigation or cooling industrial facilities vital to social and economic progress have impacted the survival of marine life. Barriers and guidance or collection nets can protect fish and aquatic species while allowing water to flow unimpeded for commercial and industrial use. However, nets can attract aquatic growth, fill with debris, degrade with environmental stress, and be expensive to operate and maintain. A closer look at the technical developments of materials and net designs in diverse settings can offer guidance that will be of use to engineers and community stakeholders in varied environments who are striving to meet similar challenges. With careful consideration of bathymetry, topography, pool fluctuation, water flow, debris, weather, and deployment, the principles and materials outlined can be adapted to environments around the world. Successful implementation will allow humans to continue to harness our most valuable resource with respect for the wider social and economic health of the planet.
How do the definitions of urban and rural matter for transportation safety? Re-interpreting transportation fatalities as an outcome of regional development processes

Urban and rural places are integrated through economic ties and population flows. Despite their integration, most studies of road safety dichotomize urban and rural places, and studies have consistently demonstrated that rural places are more dangerous for motorists than urban places. Our study investigates whether these findings are sensitive to the definition of urban and rural. We use three different definitions of urban-rural continua to quantify and compare motor vehicle occupant fatality rates per person-trip and person-mile for the state of Wisconsin. The three urban-rural continua are defined by: (1) popular impressions of urban, suburban, and rural places using a system from regional economics; (2) population density; and (3) the intensity of commute flows to core urbanized areas. In this analysis, the three definitions captured different people and places within each continuum level, highlighting rural heterogeneity. Despite this heterogeneity, the three definitions resulted in similar fatality rate gradients, suggesting a potentially latent "rural" characteristic. We then used field observations of urban-rural transects to refine the definitions. When accounting for the presence of higher-density towns and villages in rural places, we found that low-density urban places such as suburbs and exurbs have fatality rates more similar to those in rural places. These findings support the need to understand road safety within the context of regional development processes instead of urban-rural categories.
Evaluation of Three Different Cleaners Recommended for Ultrafiltration Systems by Direct Observations of Commercial-Scale Spiral-Wound Ultrafiltration Membranes 1.

Efficacy of cleaners designed for use with ultrafiltration systems was determined by microbiological evaluation and through visual inspection using scanning electron microscopy. The ultrafiltration system containing two commercial-scale, polysulfone membranes was soiled with sweet whey (40°C) then rinsed with water and membranes were removed. One half of each membrane was soaked for 2 h at 38°C in one of the following solutions: control (no soaking), acid cleaner (pH 2.5), enzyme-based cleaner (pH 11.5) and chlorinated alkaline cleaner (pH 11.5). The membranes were repositioned in the ultrafiltration unit, rinsed with water, then removed and unwound for analysis. Sections of membrane, retentate spacer and permeate mesh were aseptically removed for enumeration of microorganisms remaining and for examination by scanning electron microscopy. Membranes cleaned with chlorinated alkaline cleaner averaged 2 × 103 CFU/50 cm2, enzyme-based cleaner 6 × 106/CFU, acid anionic cleaner 1 × 107 CFU and the control 5 × 107CFU. Scanning electron microscopy found soil and microorganisms present on all membrane materials exposed to all three cleaners.
Integrative Treatments for Masked Anxiety and PTSD in Highly Sensitive Patients

Although anxiety is not always the most obvious symptom in complex cases, it must be recognized and addressed. The following four cases represent unrecognized atypical presentations of anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients who did not respond well to conventional psychotropic medications. In these cases, affective, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms significantly improved with integrative treatments combining medicinal herbs, nootropics, other complementary approaches, and in some cases prescription psychotropic medications. When stress-related physical symptoms, such as dystonias, become the focus of treatment, the anxiety underlying the physical condition may escape notice. Patients who do not respond well to conventional medications or who have drug sensitivities are often mislabeled as “treatment-resistant.” The urgent need for behavioral control of patients with developmental disorders, learning disabilities, and communication impairments often leads to the overuse of sedating major tranquilizers that miss the real target symptoms and exacerbate underlying cognitive and coordination dysfunctions. The treatment of anxiety, depression, and mild cognitive impairment in elderly patients with mild herbal formulas can significantly improve quality of life. Patients who do not respond adequately to prescription psychotropics and those who are sensitive to medication side effects are a large subgroup of people who benefit most from integrative and complementary approaches.
E47 Binds to PU.1 Inhibiting Its Ability To Bind DNA and Activate Gene Expression.

Abstract The transciption factor PU.1 is required for the development of macrophages, granulocytes, and B lymphocytes. Additionally its protein concentration in multipotential hematopoietic progenitor cells regulates cell fate decisions with high levels of PU.1 directing myeloid cell fate acquisition and low levels directing B cell fate acquisition. Potentially high levels of PU.1 are required for myeloid development in order to overcome repressive effects of B cell lineage specific factors. The essential B cell factor BSAP (Pax-5) was shown to associate with PU.1 and repress its transactivation activity. Here we investigate whether two other essential B cell factors, E2A and EBF could affect PU.1 activity. We observed that the E2A component, E47, but not EBF could associate with PU.1. Additionally E47 could repress PU.1 dependent transactivation of the M-CSFR promoter and that this repression is mediated by inhibiting PU.1 DNA binding. Exogenous E47 expression in an IL-3 dependent multipotential cell line could block PU.1 induced differentiation and expression of endogenous M-CSF receptor protein. Our data suggests that high PU.1 concentration is required for myeloid development in order to overcome repressive actions of other lineage specific transcriptional regulators such as E47.
Probing Construct Validity in Data-Driven Disaster Analysis

In this position paper, we discuss the promise and peril in data-driven disaster analysis. We argue for the importance of being sensitive to the construct validity issue prevailed in many big data studies and propose a research strategy as a remedy for such issue. Our strategy comprises three steps: theory-driven set-up first, statistic assessment follows, and qualitative inquiry for further calibration. The goal is to translate activity signals captured from data to proper social or behavioral interpretation. We exemplify the use of the proposed research strategy through a study of risk perception following a disaster event, and discuss the strategy's potential and limitation.
Water Types And Water Masses

The global ocean water mass distribution is summarized using maps that include water mass formation regions. Where appropriate water masses are linked to their temperature-salinity properties and overall summary temperature-salinity diagrams are used to depict the global water mass properties. The water mass distribution is linked to the thermohaline circulation via a description of the global ocean conveyor belt.
Measurement of Thermoelectric Parameters

Measurements of the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity of solids have been established for a great many years but there have been a number of new developments since the advent of thermoelectric devices based on semiconductor thermoelements.
Why mentoring does not always reduce turnover: The intervening roles of value congruence, organizational knowledge and supervisory satisfaction

Abstract The accounting literature has long analyzed whether and how mentoring relationships affect public accountants' turnover intentions. To continue the study of that question, we examine the mediating effect of value congruence and organizational knowledge. Analyzing data from mentored accountants, we find that two aspects of mentoring (career development and role modeling) are positively associated with higher levels of perceived person-organization value congruence. Social interaction, a third aspect of mentoring, was negatively associated with the measure of value congruence. Mentoring's career development aspect is associated with building protege implicit knowledge of the organization, but proves unrelated to turnover intentions. Value congruence is found to associate with higher levels of supervisory satisfaction, which, in turn, strongly associates with decreased turnover intentions. Therefore, the dimensions of mentoring have a selective effect on valuable organizational outcomes which are dependent upon other psychological and behavioral contingencies.
Advanced calibration to improve robustness of drone-acquired hyperspectral remote sensing data

Airborne hyperspectral remote sensing is becoming increasingly integrated into monitoring and management applications on large spatial scales. The main advantage of hyperspectral remote sensing is the high spectral resolution, which enables classification/separation of objects, which may appear very similar to the human eye. An example of similar objects is growing agricultural crops with/without emerging pest infestations. In agricultural fields, accurate detection of hotspots with emerging pest infestations can be used to optimize precision-agriculture such as spot treatments with pesticides and/or spatio-temporal releases of natural enemies to control pest species. Despite the significant potential associated with the integration of airborne remote sensing into monitoring and management of crops in agriculture, and many other industry sectors, the widespread use of airborne hyperspectral remote sensing data is constrained by a critically important challenge the non-linear dynamics of weather, source-sensor geometry, solar light intensity, and scattering. That is, the sensitivity of hyper-spectral remote sensing data is, on one hand, the clear advantage of this technology, but it is also its limitation unless it is possible to correct the radiometric signals and minimize the effects of varying weather, goniometry, solar illumination, and scattering. Under the assumption of correcting airborne hyperspectral remote sensing data, it is possible to acquire “pure” reflectance profiles from target objects. Such advanced reflectance calibration of airborne remote sensing data to obtain “pure” hyperspectral reflectance will greatly improve both the robustness of input data and the sensitivity of classification algorithms.
Promotion of tobacco products on Facebook: policy versus practice

Background Facebook has a comprehensive set of policies intended to inhibit promotion and sales of tobacco products. Their effectiveness has yet to be studied. Methods Leading tobacco brands (388) were identified via Nielsen and Ranker databases and 108 were found to maintain brand-sponsored Facebook pages. Key indicators of alignment with Facebook policy were evaluated. Results Purchase links (eg, ‘shop now’ button) on brand-sponsored pages were found for hookah tobaccos (41%), e-cigarettes (74%), smokeless (50%) and cigars (31%). Sales promotions (eg, discount coupons) were present in hookah tobacco (48%), e-cigarette (76%) and cigar (69%) brand-sponsored pages. While conventional cigarettes did not maintain brand-sponsored pages, they were featured in 80% of online tobacco vendors’ Facebook pages. The requirement for age gating, to exclude those Conclusions It is laudable that Facebook has policies intended to interdict tobacco promotion throughout its platform. Nevertheless, widespread tobacco promotion and sales were found at variance with the company’s policies governing advertising, commerce, page content and under age access. Vetting could be improved by automated screening in partnership with human reviewers.
A family of best value regions for modified continued fractions

Etude des regions de valeurs des fractions continues modifiees. Determination des meilleures regions de valeurs dans certains cas
Voltage-Dependent Gating of Colicin E1 Channels in Planar Bilayers

The colicins are a group of plasmid-encoded bacteriocins expressed by various strains of E. coli. A subgroup of these toxins, which includes colicins E1, Ia, Ib, B, N, and A, form ion-permeable channels both in the inner membrane of the target bacterium and in lipid bilayer membranes (for reviews, see Slatin, 1988; Pattus et al., 1990; Cramer et al., 1990). Each of these channel-forming toxins consists of a single polypeptide chain of between 500 and 600 amino acids, with a single hydrophobic segment near the C-terminus (residues 474–508 in El). For colicins El and A, it has been shown explicitly that only the carboxyl terminal third of the protein is required for channel formation. The addition of colicin El in nanomolar concentrations to the bathing solution on one side of a planar lipid bilayer (the eis side) induces a large, voltage-dependent conductance attributable to the gating of colicin channels. Cis positive voltages (all voltages refer to thecis compartment with respect to the trans, which is always at zero potential) tend to open channels, whereas cis negative potentials close them. The rate at which channels open and close is highly voltage dependent. Gating is faster at large absolute voltages than at voltages near zero. The rates are also pH dependent -- increasing the pH of the cis solution from 3.5 dramatically decreases the turn-on rate, whereas raising the trans pH dramatically decreases the turn-off rate.
Effects of four-mode hydrothermal aging on three-way catalysts for passive selective catalytic reduction to control emissions from lean-burn gasoline engine

Abstract Passive selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is a promising approach for the control of NOX emissions in lean burn gasoline exhausts. It requires ammonia (NH3) to be produced over a three-way catalyst (TWC) during periods of fuel-rich operation for the reduction of NOX during periods of fuel-lean operation. Previous research has shown the viability of this system but has not examined the effects of hydrothermal degradation. This work is focused on evaluating the effects of hydrothermal aging on the TWC in a passive SCR system. Two catalysts were studied: a Pd-TWC, and a NOX storage and reduction (NSR) TWC. Samples were aged at 920 °C for 100 h using a four-mode hydrothermal aging procedure. This causes the catalyst to be oxidized and reduced, as it would in a real system. The effects of aging were evaluated using simulated exhaust under both steady state and lean-rich cycling conditions. Hydrothermal aging caused significant changes in catalyst activity, leading to a decrease in low temperature conversion of carbon monoxide (CO) and propane (C3H8) on both catalysts, and degradation of oxygen storage and NOX storage components. However, the catalysts maintained their activity for NOX conversion and NH3 production, showing sufficient activity for the operation of a passive SCR with an optimum projected fuel consumption of 92–98% compared to stoichiometric operation.
Exploring the teaching of culture in the foreign language classroom within the context of collaborative professional development: a critical participatory action research study

This article describes the experience of French language teachers as they explored interculturality within a collaborative professional development environment. Participants studied how to design c...
A mild 10-I-41 lodinane oxide oxidant for primary and secondary alcohols

Iodinane oxide 4 mildly and rapidly oxidizes primary and secondary alcohols to their corresponding carbonyl products in excellent yield. Oxidations arc carried out in CH2Cl2 at room temperature using 1.1 equivalent of oxidant. Other non-hydroxylic organic solvents may also be used.
An EPQ model for an imperfect production system with rework, scrap and backorder

This paper deals with an imperfect two-stage manufacturing process that orders raw materials from a supplier and produces finished goods with defective items that can be reworked. The generation of scrap during the initial production stage, during inspection, and during the rework stage is also considered. To fulfil customer demand a permissible backorder is also considered. First, an inventory model is developed for this two-stage production process with instantaneous raw material order, in-cycle rework, and scrap. Then, a total cost function is developed to simultaneously find the optimal economic production quantity, optimal backorder quantity, and optimal order quantity. The cost function of the proposed inventory model is verified and validated using numerical examples and sensitivity analysis.