cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Involved in Social Work after the Earthquake Thinking Child-friendly Home

In the disaster vulnerable children and women,the Sichuan earthquake,child-friendly spaces established to provide for the affected children and their families to community-based games,entertainment,education,health and psychosocial support,and other integrated services to help children affected areas as soon as possible to eliminate the adverse effects caused by the earthquake,return to normal life.Activities in their homes by the "strengths perspective","child protection","child participation","Social Work localization" and have some understanding.In the course of activities carried out have encountered various problems,problem-solving process;think about the social work profession a number of issues.
Study of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective To investigate the relationship between blood lead levels and ADHD.Method Blood lead in 32 patients with ADHD and in 36 normal children were tested and compared.Result Blood lead levels in ADHD group were higher than those in normal control group with a significant difference(P0.001).Conclusion Low-level lead exposure may be one of the reasons for ADHD in children.
Research on air ionization and conducting characters induced by 193 nm UV laser pulse

193 nm UV laser pulses induced air ionization and the plasma channel conductivity caused by the pulses were investigated experimentally.The ionization threshold of 193 nm laser pulses is found to be about 9.58×109 W/cm2.A plasma conducting channel about 2 meters long with a resistance of 109 Ω in magnitude was established with nanosecond 193 nm UV laser pulses.The lifetime of the plasma channel is about 30 μs.
Translocase Activity and Asymmetric Model Membranes Probed by Neutron Scattering

Biological membranes are almost universally asymmetric with individual leaflets containing different lipid species at varying concentrations. This asymmetry may play a key role in biological functions such as protein-membrane interactions, membrane trafficking, and cellular signaling. Traditional model membrane systems are comprised of symmetric membrane leaflets and though progress has been made in developing asymmetric model membranes, these systems are unstable and easily contaminated. We have developed an actively asymmetric biomembrane model system by purifying and reconstituting the well-characterized E. coli phospholipid ABC transporter MsbA into proteoliposomes that mimic the phospholipid composition of a physiological bacterial membrane. Subsequent MsbA-mediated phospholipid translocation and resultant membrane asymmetry was studied using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). SANS is exceptionally well suited for studying the phospholipid distribution perpendicular to the bilayer plane due to its nondestructive nature and sub-nanometer resolution. Additionally, the hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) neutron scattering contrast variation from isotopic phospholipid labeling enables us to track the translocation of lipid membrane components without introducing bulky fluorescence or spin labels. In this study, the MsbA-mediated translocation of the phospholipid phosphatidylethamolamine (PE) between proteoliposome leaflets and the formation of asymmetric bilayers was studied using SANS for the first time. The sustained asymmetry in these model protocells will be central for future studies on biomimetic membrane systems and their role in diverse membrane-directed biological processes.
Bioconcerns, OCD Fears, and Other Worrisome Things: Healing through Narrative

This chapter deals with what a reading of linguistic expressions and literary and historical sources tells us about the relationship between OCD, mental illness, narrative ethics and bioethics, power, the politics of disability, and disability studies as a disciplinary orientation and, even more importantly, a way of seeing the world. I argue that research into medical phenomena, if medicine is to have a healing power, needs to take into consideration the social forces of the environments where these disorders, diseases, and disease entities are situated and the narrative accounts of the different parties involved. At the same time, disability studies has to further solidify an understanding that despite their differences, the needs of those living with physical and mental disabilities are equally pressing and that the disabling forces in the world are equally affecting. Finally, humanities and social sciences scholarship should strive to acknowledge those areas of knowledge (and their contributors) that do not fit neatly within its epistemic beliefs about the nature of self and of constructed realities.
Preoperative assessment for gynecologic surgery

A detailed history and physical exam can pinpoint problems like coronary artery and lung disease, which are most likely to lead to serious perioperative complications. These experts offer pre-op testing guidelines for higher-risk patients to limit complications and avoid delays in elective surgery.
Syndromes of 3-Methylglutaconic Aciduria

The most common clinical syndromes associated with 3-methyl-glutaconic (MGC) aciduria are reviewed by researchers from various centers; Courtwright and Summers Metabolic Disease Center and Baylor Research Institute, Dallas, TX; Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem; Free University of Amsterdam; Loewenstein Hospital, Tel-Aviv Univ, Raanana, Israel; and Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD.
A manifold based methodology for color constancy

In this paper, we propose a manifold-based methodology for color constancy. It is observed that the center surround information of an image creates a manifold in color space. The relationship between the points in the manifold is modeled as a line. The human visual system is capable of learning these relationships. This is the basis of color constancy. In illumination correction, the image in the reference illumination is operated on with a wide Gaussian function to extract the global illumination information. The global illumination information creates a manifold in color space which is learnt by the system as a line. An image in a different color perception creates a different manifold in color space. To transform the color perception of a scene in a given illumination to the reference color perception, the color relationships in the reference color perception are applied on the new image. This is achieved by projecting the pixels in the new image to the line representing the manifold of reference color perception. This model can be used for color correction of images with different color perceptions to a learnt color perception. This method, unlike other approaches, has a single step convergence and hence is faster.
Psychosocial correlates of internet gaming disorder: Psychopathology, life satisfaction, and impulsivity

“Internet Gaming Disorder” (IGD) was included as a “Condition for Further Study” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Frequent gamers have previously been shown to exhibit core symptoms of addiction, along with significant impairments in psychosocial functioning. However, there remains a lack of consensus regarding the conceptualization and assessment of video game addiction. We examined the utility of nine questions (Cronbach's α = 0.64), based directly on proposed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for IGD, in capturing problems related to excess use of online video games. Regular video game users (n = 257) completed an online questionnaire assessing demographics, symptoms of IGD, general psychopathology, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and impulsivity. Participants meeting criteria for IGD (8.7%, n = 21) played video games significantly more often (p = 0.04) and for more hours at a time (p = 0.002), and experienced significantly greater subjective urges to use video games (p < 0.001). Furthermore, those with IGD endorsed significantly more symptoms of depression (p < 0.001), anxiety (p < 0.001), and stress (p = 0.01), lower life satisfaction (p < 0.001), and elevated motor (p = 0.02) and attentional impulsivity (p = 0.01). Proposed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for IGD appear to capture a clinically meaningful cluster of symptoms that is associated with marked impairments in multiple aspects of psychosocial functioning.
Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors: Molecular Markers and Genetic Subtypes

Abstract Mutation-activated signaling from the KIT and PDGFRA kinases has been successfully targeted in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), with subtle differences between the mutations serving to refine prognosis and more precisely tailor therapy. There is a growing understanding of the molecular drivers of GISTs lacking mutations in KIT or PDGFRA, so called wild-type GISTs, further aiding in management decisions. This article provides an overview of all the known molecular subtypes of GIST and provides information about clinical correlates, treatment, and prognosis depending on the subtype.
The Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system predicts wound healing but not major amputation in patients with diabetic foot ulcers treated in a multidisciplinary setting.

Abstract Objective The Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) threatened limb classification has been shown to correlate well with risk of major amputation and time to wound healing in heterogeneous diabetic and nondiabetic populations. Major amputation continues to plague the most severe stage 4 WIfI patients, with 1-year amputation rates of 20% to 64%. Our aim was to determine the association between WIfI stage and wound healing and major amputation among patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) treated in a multidisciplinary setting. Methods All patients presenting to our multidisciplinary DFU clinic from July 2012 to December 2015 were enrolled in a prospective database. Wound healing and major amputation were compared for patients stratified by WIfI classification. Results There were 217 DFU patients with 439 wounds (mean age, 58.3 ± 0.8 years; 58% male, 63% black) enrolled, including 28% WIfI stage 1, 11% stage 2, 33% stage 3, and 28% stage 4. Peripheral arterial disease and dialysis were more common in patients with advanced (stage 3 or 4) wounds ( P ≤ .05). Demographics of the patients, socioeconomic status, and comorbidities were otherwise similar between groups. There was a significant increase in the number of active wounds per limb at presentation with increasing WIfI stage (stage 1, 1.1 ± 0.1; stage 4, 1.4 ± 0.1; P = .03). Mean wound area (stage 1, 2.6 ± 0.6 cm 2 ; stage 4, 15.3 ± 2.8 cm 2 ) and depth (stage 1, 0.2 ± 0.0 cm; stage 4, 0.8 ± 0.1 cm) also increased progressively with increasing wound stage ( P P P P = .99). For stage 4 wounds, the mean wound healing time was 190 ± 17 days, and risk of major amputation at 1 year was 5.7% ± 3.2%. Conclusions Among patients with DFU, the WIfI classification system correlated well with wound healing but was not associated with risk of major amputation at 1 year. Although further prospective research is warranted, our results suggest that use of a multidisciplinary approach for DFUs may augment healing time and reduce amputation risk compared with previously published historical controls of standard wound care among patients with advanced stage 4 disease.
Life-cycle greenhouse gas assessment of Community Supported Agriculture in California's Central Valley

Many consumers are trying to reduce their food's environmental impact by purchasing more locally sourced food. One choice for local food is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), in which farmers provide a share of produce on a regular basis to pre-paying farm members. The number of CSAs in the USA has grown from two in the mid-1980s to perhaps as many as 12,617 according to the latest US census of agriculture (2014). We use a case study approach to investigate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with five CSA operations in the Sacramento Valley of California. By understanding the GHG emissions of CSAs and the practices that might be improved, we hope to support innovative strategies to reduce GHG emissions in these agricultural production systems. Input, production and distribution data were collected from each farm and reported in CO2e emissions for 1 kg CSA produce at the pickup location. Results show large variation in total emissions, ranging from 1.72 to 6.69 kg CO2e kg−1 of produce with an average of 3.94 kg CO2e kg−1 produce. The largest source of emissions was electricity, contributing over 70% of total CO2e emissions on average. Based on our findings, despite the seemingly similarities between these operations in terms of production site, acreage, customers and production practices, there is still a large amount of variability with regard to total GHG. Thus we argue coming up with a standardized production function for diversified production and deriving GHGs or calculating average total emissions overlooks the heterogeneity of the system. Food systems can never be reduced to a simple binary of local is better and conventional is worse, or its inverse local is worse and conventional is better, because of the complexities of the production and distribution systems and their relationship to GHG emissions. Yet, we can say that localized production systems that are low in electricity use (or use renewable energy sources) and use efficiently-produced compost use have lower GHG emissions than those that do not.
Toward client-centric approaches for latency minimization in mobile applications

Network latency in mobile apps is the first and foremost concern since the majority of apps frequently fetch data from the Internet and mobile devices rely on wireless networks. To minimize network latency, we propose a novel prefetching technique which has the potential of reducing latency to "zero". Our approach aims to prefetch latency-hogging HTTP requests in mobile applications, which enables immediate responses of the on-demand user requests. We identify the request candidates for prefetching by static analysis, rewrite the app to interact with a proxy instead of the original server, and prefetch HTTP requests based on runtime QoS constraints. A prototype is implemented for an Android app and the optimized app showed a significant latency reduction.
Patient Specific Modeling of Pectus Excavatum for the Nuss Procedure Simulation

Patient specific models are crucial for both simulation and surgical planning. It is not different for the Nuss procedure, which is a minimally invasive surgery for correcting pectus excavatum (PE)—a congenital chest wall deformity. Typically, patients differ not only in size but also severity of the chest depression and type of the deformity, making the simulation process challenging. In this paper, we approach the problem of a patient specific model creation resulting in the development of a parameterized model of the human torso including the ribcage. All the parameters are obtainable from pre-surgical CT. In order to validate our model, we compared the simulated shape of the chest with surface scans obtained from PE patients for both pre- and post-surgery. Results showed that both shapes are in agreement in the area of the deformity, making this method valid for the need of simulating the Nuss procedure.
Why neither demographics nor feature pools can explain the missing Spanish plantation creoles

Theories that plantation creoles were all born as pidgins at West African coast slave castles, including that proposed in McWhorter (2000), have not fared well among creolists, amidst a preference for supposing that creoles are born, or not, according to factors local to a given context. In this paper I spell out why, especially in light of research since, the “Afrogenesis” paradigm is still worth serious consideration. A key fact is the following. Many creolists argue that a creole did not appear when there was extensive black-white contact and many slaves were locally-born, a scenario most often associated with the Spanish Caribbean and Reunion and now proposed for South American colonies by Sessarego (2014) and Diaz-Campos and Clements (2008). However, conditions were of just this kind in early St. Kitts and Barbados, where most scholars now locate the birth of English-based and French-based plantation creoles. The disparity in outcomes between these locations means that after fifty years, there is no coherent theory of how or why creoles come to be. I argue that only Afrogenesis shows the way out of this conundrum. I further discuss why the idea that creoles result from individual blendings of “features” in each location (Mufwene, 2011, 2008) is incommensurate with creole linguistic data
Nanotechnology Safety Certification

To ensure industry competence in protecting the safety of workers creating engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), there must be a certification process that describes the necessary skill sets to ensure worker safety. Several federal government agencies on the national and international stage are working toward developing safety standards for workers who create EMNs. A process must be implemented to obtain validity of the certification exam and address how the exam will be given. A governing body must verify that the exam will meet certification requirements as well as which information is acquired by federal agencies. In the United States over the next few years, the majority of the workers will be of the Generation Y population. How well Generation Y workers absorb and retain information will dictate the instructional format of the certification exam. Outside-the-box instructional approaches, such as Second Life, can assist in developing the instruction format that is needed. As new ENMs are developed, it is critical to further promote the establishment of standards and certifications, which will protect human safety, prevent lawsuits, and avoid a negative public perception of nanotechnology.
Embodied energy of buildings: A review of data, methods, challenges, and research trends

Abstract With the world's uncertain energy outlook, buildings should be designed and constructed to use lesser fossil fuel-based energy and have lower environmental impacts. In the past decades, the research and practice have successfully focused on reducing the operational energy use. As a result, the share of embodied energy, the other energy component, has increased in the life cycle energy use of buildings. The present article provides an overview of literature on embodied energy use in buildings in several directions. It reports on key estimation methodologies and tools for embodied energy and presents the embodied energy values for different types of buildings, as studied by the extant literature. It also examines embodied energy in relation to operational energy and highlights the recent shifts in share and significance of embodied energy in the building life cycle energy use. The article also presents a review of the embodied energy of tall buildings and explores the relation between embodied energy and building height. Finally, major strategies to reduce embodied energy, and research gaps and trends in the field are covered.
An unusual presentation of primary pulmonary extranodal marginal zone lymphoma of mucosal associated lymphoid tissue: An autopsy case report.

Abstract A 40 year old female with no documented medical history presented to the Emergency Department with several days of lethargy and altered mental status. She was found to be anemic, thrombocytopenic, and hypotensive. The patient was found to be in severe metabolic acidosis, became bradycardic, and quickly deteriorated. Clinicians suspected thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, and the diagnosis was supported by ADAMTS13 testing. The clinicians attempted to place a Quinton catheter for emergent plasmapheresis, but the patient expired before definitive treatment could be initiated. Autopsy was obtained and revealed a right middle lobe consolidation grossly consistent with lymphoid tissue or tumor.
Open Heart Surgery 1955-mid 1970s

Today, in the 1990s, the greatest volume of both cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology is performed in adults with acquired heart disease, especially that due to coronary atherosclerosis. It is sometimes forgotten that the pioneering efforts of both open heart surgery and interventional catheterisation began with children. Just as closed heart surgery for children ushered in the dawn of therapy, so did cardiopulmonary bypass begin with the young. For both children and adults with heart disease, cardiopulmonary bypass and Rashkind’s balloon atrial septostomy were the crowning achievements of the two decades from 1955 to the mid 1970s.
The Pediatric Airway in Neurosurgery

The pediatric airway is characterized by smaller size and developmental anatomical differences. Smaller size implies increased likelihood of soft tissue obstruction and resistance to airflow, especially if edema is present, as well as less technology available for airway management. Smaller size also necessitates a more subtle technique and predicates more immediate and disastrous consequences for failure to manage the airway: Rapid desaturation with bradycardia Laryngospasm Distention of the stomach with mask ventilation, making it difficult to expand the lungs.
Law's Wars: The Fate of the Rule of Law in the US 'War on Terror'

The US 'war on terror', which Bush declared and Obama continued, repeatedly violated fundamental rule of law values. Law's Wars: The Fate of the Rule of Law in the US 'War on Terror' is the first comprehensive account of efforts to resist and correct those violations. It focuses on responses to abuses in Abu Ghraib, efforts by Guantanamo Bay detainees to improve conditions of confinement in and win release, exposes of and efforts to end torture and electronic surveillance, and civilian casualties on the battlefield, including targeted killings. Abel deploys a law and society perspective to construct and analyze detailed narratives of the roles of victims, whistle-blowers, the media, NGOs, lawyers, doctors, politicians, military personnel, foreign governments and international organizations in defending the rule of law. Only by understanding past errors can we hope to prevent their repetition in what promises to be an endless 'war on terror'.
Extended Abstract: Making the Invisible Visible—Helping Students Develop Their Textual Awareness through Technology-Enhanced Learning Tools

This panel presents three technology-enhanced learning environments—DocuScope Classroom, OnTopic, and DiaGrammar—which are designed to help students notice and reflect on composition decisions in their writing and become more self-aware and reflective writers. Preliminary classroom experiences with the learning environments are discussed.
An Adapted Coherent Flow Power Doppler Beamforming Scheme for Improved Sensitivity Towards Blood Signal Energy

Ultrasonic flow imaging remains susceptible to cluttered imaging environments, which often results in degraded image quality. Coherent Flow Power Doppler (CFPD) is a beamforming technique that has demonstrated efficacy in mitigating the presence of diffuse clutter in flow images. CFPD depicts the normalized aperture domain coherence of the backscattered echo, which is described by the van Cittert-Zernike theorem. However, the use of a normalized coherence metric uncouples the image intensity from the underlying blood signal energy. As a result, CFPD is not a robust approach to study gradation in blood signal energy, which depicts the fractional moving blood volume. We have developed a modified beamforming scheme, termed power-preserving Coherent Flow Power Doppler (ppCFPD), which depicts a measure of mutual intensity, rather than normalized coherence. This approach retains the clutter suppression capability of CFPD, while preserving sensitivity toward the underlying signal energy, similar to conventional power Doppler. Efficacy of this approach was shown via Field II simulations, and in vivo feasibility was demonstrated in a human liver. Overall, this adapted approach shows promise as an alternative technique to depict flow gradation in cluttered imaging environments.
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation Archive

The author interviewed Rachel Lyons, Archivist, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation Archive [https://www.jazzandheritage.org/archive] about the history of the institution’s archive and New Orlea...
Uterine Rupture on MRI Presenting as Nonspecific Abdominal Pain in a Primigravid Patient with 28-Week Twins Resulting in Normal Neurodevelopmental Outcomes at Age Two.

Background. Uterine rupture is a rare occurrence that requires a high index of suspicion, particularly in a primigravid patient who presents prior to the onset of labor. Mortality rates are particularly high in primigravid patients. Case. A 36-year-old gravida 1, para 0 patient with dichorionic diamniotic twins presented at 28-weeks of gestation with abdominal pain. The pain was initially intermittent and felt to be musculoskeletal in origin. Ultrasound imaging after 3 days of worsening abdominal pain revealed extrauterine fluid, prompting an urgent MRI. MRI diagnosed the uterine rupture with hemoperitoneum and herniation of both amniotic sacs outside of the uterus, including one twin’s torso and extremities, prompting emergency cesarean section. The premature twins required 2-month hospitalizations and had no neurodevelopmental impairments at 2-year follow-up. Conclusion. We present a unique case of rupture of an unscarred uterus in a primigravid patient prior to the onset of labor. Multiple gestation is a risk factor. This report adds to a handful of cases in which a history of endometriosis or extrauterine pelvic surgery was also present. The use of ultrasound and MRI to evaluate nonspecific abdominal pain led to the diagnosis and survival of both the mother and her premature twins.
Producer Co-Operatives of the Knights of Labor

Post-Civil War America experienced the start of the industrial revolution with the rapid development of technologies (e.g., steam engine, railway, telegraph). The impact of these technologies were ...
“Mining is like a search and destroy mission”: The case of Silver City

While mines are often thought of as a driving force for development, this may not be the case due to power discrepancies between companies and local communities, as well as lack of protection provi...
MOTA: Multi-omic integrative analysis for biomarker discovery

Recent advancement of omic technologies provides researchers with opportunities to search for disease biomarkers at the systems level. However, selection of biomarker candidates from a large number of molecules involved at various layers of the biological system is challenging. In this paper, we propose multi-omic integrative analysis (MOTA), a network-based method that uses information from multi-omic data to identify candidate disease biomarkers. We evaluated the performance of MOTA in selecting disease-associated molecules from four sets of multi-omic data representing three cohorts of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases and patients with liver cirrhosis. The results demonstrate that MOTA leads to selection of more biomarker candidates that shared by two different cohorts compared to traditional statistical methods. Also, the networks constructed by MOTA allow users to investigate biological significance of the selected biomarker candidates.
Effects of Cohorts on Learners.

Cohorts are increasingly popular management tools for recruiting students into professional education programs, for organizing their learning experiences, for promoting performance-based outcomes, ...
Optimal power flow in distribution networks under stochastic N−1 disruptions

Abstract It is important to include contingencies in operations and have a post-contingency recovery plan for distribution systems, akin to transmission systems. We consider a multi-period optimal power flow (OPF) problem in distribution systems subject to stochastic N − 1 contingency (disruption) in a distribution line or a distributed energy resource. The disruption is stochastic in nature, a type of infrequent event with random magnitude and timing, and that every disruption typically has an associated recovery time. We formulate a multi-stage stochastic convex program, considering modeling features like linearized AC power flow physics, engineering limits and battery devices with efficiencies curves, and develop an efficient decomposition algorithm. We demonstrate the computational effectiveness of our algorithm over the extensive formulation and show that the stochastic-disruption-aware operating costs can be 60% cheaper than the deterministic counterparts.
Ranking sociodemographic, health behavior, prevention, and environmental factors in predicting neighborhood cardiovascular health: A Bayesian machine learning approach.

Abstract Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. While abundant research has been conducted to identify risk factors for cardiovascular disease at the individual level, less is known about factors that may influence population cardiovascular health outcomes at the neighborhood level. The purpose of this study is to use Bayesian Additive Regression Trees, a state-of-the-art machine learning approach, to rank sociodemographic, health behavior, prevention, and environmental factors in predicting neighborhood cardiovascular health. We created a new neighborhood health dataset by combining three datasets at the census tract level, including the 500 Cities Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 2011–2015 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates from the Census Bureau, and the 2015–2016 Environmental Justice Screening database from the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States. Results showed that neighborhood behavioral factors such as the proportions of people who are obese, do not have leisure-time physical activity, and have binge drinking emerged as top five predictors for most of the neighborhood cardiovascular health outcomes. Findings from this study would allow public health researchers and policymakers to prioritize community-based interventions and efficiently use limited resources to improve neighborhood cardiovascular health.
Improving the Measurement of Retirement Income of the Aged Population

Research has shown that survey-reported pension and retirement income measures may suffer from reporting errors, which lead to biased estimates of income and poverty of the aged population. In this paper, the authors evaluate income estimates from the Census Bureau’s 2016 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC). The authors compare 2016 CPS ASEC public-use data with public-use survey data from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study and with CPS ASEC data that have been merged with administrative data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Social Security Administration. They find that for the population aged 65 or older, supplementing the CPS ASEC with IRS and Social Security administrative data results in a higher estimate of pension income’s share of aggregate income, less estimated reliance on Social Security, and a lower estimated rate of poverty. They also find that the HRS provides better estimates of the income of the aged population than the public-use CPS data.
Current status of developing tissue engineering vascular technologies

Introduction Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in western countries. Although surgical outcomes for CVD are dramatically improving with the development of surgical techniques, medications, and perioperative management strategies, adverse postoperative events related to the use of artificial prosthetic materials are still problematic. Moreover, in pediatric patients, using these artificial materials make future re-intervention inevitable due to their lack of growth potential. Areas covered This review focuses on the most current tissue-engineering (TE) technologies to treat cardiovascular diseases and discusses their limitations through reports ranging from animal studies to clinical trials. Expert opinion Tissue-engineered structures, derived from a patient's own autologous cells/tissues and biodegradable polymer scaffolds, can provide mechanical function similar to non-diseased tissue. However, unlike prosthetic materials, tissue-engineered structures are hypothetically more biocompatible and provide growth potential, saving patients from additional or repetitive interventions. While there are many methods being investigated to develop TE technologies in the hopes of finding better options to tackle CVD, most of these approaches are not ready for clinical use or trials. However, tissue engineering has great promise to potentially provide better treatment options to vastly improve cardiovascular surgical outcomes.
Spirituality in Clinical Practice: Theory and Practice of Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy (2nd ed.), by Len Sperry

I'm probably no different than a lot of folks who have chosen a field in academia. I can be obsessively perfectionistic and compulsively driven to publish the next paper or write the next grant, wh...
Social Norms, Self Control, and Privacy in the Online World

This chapter explores ways in which human limitations of rationality and susceptibility to temptation might affect the flow of personal information in the online environment. It relies on the concept of “willpower norms” to understand how the online environment might undermine the effectiveness of social norms that may have developed to regulate the flow of personal information in the offline world. Finally, the chapter discusses whether legal regulation of information privacy is an appropriate response to this issue and how such regulation should be formulated in light of tensions between concerns about self-control and paternalism.
Aspects of the Management of Ecological-Economic Systems with a Safe Minimum Standard

Unless there is managerial intervention, the ability of an ecological-economic system to provide humans with key services will decline probabilistically. We model such an ecological-economic system with a Brownian motion process with negative drift. The manager’s goal is to prevent this system’s ability to provide key services from declining to a level below the so called safe minimum standard (SMS). We model this goal rigorously and then, on the assumption that the goal is met, we characterize the steady state probability distribution function of the ecological-economic system under study.
Disability Protests: Contentious Politics, 1970-1999

Disability Protests: Contentious Politics, 1970-1999 by Sharon Barnartt and Richard Scotch (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2002, 272 pp., casebound, $69.95) IN THE 1970s, deaf people protested outside of telephone companies around the country because they were angry at having to pay for special equipment and spend three times more than hearing people to make long-distance telephone calls containing the same information. To me, these protests seemed to be a demonstration of the shattered hope that the years of massive volunteer effort to achieve telecommunications access would be successful. Emotion can perhaps be a useful form of information to awaken minds and start the gears of litigation and legislation rolling. In 1988, I was living in northern England for six months when the Deaf President Now protest occurred. I followed it as well as I could from that distance, wishing I could have been there at that historic event. Unknown to many people, stacks of the "Blue Book" telephone directories, which lists TTY numbers around the country, were provided to the protestors by Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc. (TDl) to facilitate rapid communication about the unfolding "Week the World Heard Gallaudet." In effect, one political movement seemed to build upon the results of another. Deaf people learned to see farther with demands for social change because we stood on the shoulders of former protesters. I have also often wondered what our world would be like today in terms of both education and employment had the Deaf community a century ago protested the lack of access to the telephone. Visual forms of telephone technologies, including the Telautograph, were known by the Deaf communities in England and the United States in the late-nineteenth century. Indeed, initial excitement about them was evident in these countries' respective Deaf periodicals. Later, deaf people missed a golden opportunity to bring the Electrowriter out of train stations and hotels into their homes and offices until something better came along-the TTY modem. Instead, we waited about ninety years for basic access to long-distance communication, something taken for granted by the hearing society. How our world has changed-or not changed-because of protests in their many forms is a question worthy of research. With these general thoughts in mind, I looked to Disability Protests: Contentious Politics, 1970-1999 by Sharon Barnartt and Richard Scotch as a resource for my home library. The writers used "event history analysis" to focus on "contentious political actions" that occurred within the Deaf and disabled communities between 1970 and 1999. The expression "contentious protest" implies a collective behavior that has been organized in an attempt to change society. Disability Protests provides a good historical introduction. The terminology and concepts associated with disability are well defined, and the authors briefly examine the span from the Colonial period through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, giving the reader a context for the emergence of contentious action among people with disabilities. …
The Spirit bears witness: pneumatology, truth, and the religions

The question concerning conflicting truth claims so often at the center of theological discussions of religious pluralism has not shown signs of resolution insofar as the debates have proceeded from within the framework of propositional discourses. Among other reasons, this is in part due to the inadequacies of language to capture and communicate transcendental realities, in part due to the variety of interpretative systems associated with the religions, and in part due to religious truths claims as inviting inhabitation and practical embodiment rather than just describing objective realities. The thesis proposed here is that a pneumatological approach to the diversity of religions provides hitherto untapped resources for the theological understanding of religious truth. Building on the narrative of Pentecost in Acts 2, it is suggested that the Spirit's being poured out upon all flesh enables us not only to register the values of particular and distinct claims to truth, but also to engage such truths in some ways ‘from the inside’. This preserves the otherness of the religious other even while enabling interreligious dialogue.
Professional School Counselors Using Choice Theory to Meet the Needs of Children of Prisoners.

The prison population in the United States has increased significantly. Children of prisoners experience academic and social challenges. Professional school counselors are in an ideal position to provide theory-based interventions to support children of prisoners. This article (a) describes challenges experienced by children of prisoners, (b) advances choice theory as a theoretical framework to meet their needs, and (c) describes a case study that details the effective use of choice theory with children of prisoners.
Sulfate Separation from Aqueous Alkaline Solutions by Selective Crystallization of Alkali Metal Coordination Capsules

Self-assembly of a tris(urea) anion receptor with Na2SO4 or K2SO4 yields crystalline capsules held together by coordinating Na+ or K+ cations and hydrogen-bonding water bridges, with the sulfate anions encapsulated inside urea-lined cavities. The sodium-based capsules can be selectively crystallized in excellent yield from highly competitive aqueous alkaline solutions (∼6 M Na+, pH 14), thereby providing for the first time a viable approach to sulfate separation from nuclear wastes.
Dynamical behavior of thermal protons in the mid-latitude ionosphere and magnetosphere

Abstract Satellite and other observations have shown that H+ densities in the mid-latitude topside ionosphere are greatly reduced during magnetic storms when the plasmapause and magnetic field convection move to relatively low L-values. In the recovery phase of the magnetic storm the convection region moves to higher L-values and replenishment of H+ in the empty magnetospheric field tubes begins. The upwards flow of H+, which arises from O+—H charge exchange, is initially supersonic. However, as the field tubes fill with plasma, a shock front moves downwards towards the ionosphere, eventually converting the upwards flow to subsonic speeds. The duration of this supersonic recovery depends strongly on the volume of the field tube; for example calculations indicate that for L = 5 the time is approximately 22 hours. The subsonic flow continues until diffusive equilibrium is reached or a new magnetic storm begins. Calculations of the density and flux profiles expected during the subsonic phase of the recovery show that diffusive equilibrium is still not reached after an elapsed time of 10 days and correspondingly there is still a net loss of plasma from the ionosphere to the magnetosphere at that time. This slow recovery of the H+ density and flux patterns, following magnetic storms, indicates that the mid-latitude topside ionosphere may be in a continual dynamic state if the storms occur sufficiently often.
Human Rights in Kosovo

The emotions surrounding the question of Kosovo’s future owe their intensity to the long history of human rights abuses in the province. The years 1945–1966 and 1987–1999, in particular, saw harsh repression of local Albanians and a systematic favoring of local Serbs. Since June 1999, the province has been under international supervision, and, in this period, Serbs complain that they have been the victims of repeated acts of violence at the hands of Albanians. This article provides an overview of human rights abuses since 1945 and closes with a brief assessment of the international plan presented by UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari in February 2007.
Paradigms, power, and identity: Rediscovering Orthodoxy and regionalizing Europe

In an effort to explain, to predict and to manage the ways in which organized religion affects patterns of public contestation at the state and regional levels in post-Cold War Europe, social scientists and policymakers have formulated a cultural map that divides Europe into two spaces incompatible by virtue of their historical experiences: one space is ‘modem’, ‘civilized’, Western Christian; the other space is ‘anti-modem’, ‘uncivilized’, Eastern Christian. This paper proposes that a specific ‘orthodox’ version of Eastern Orthodox Christianity has gained ascendance in Euro-American academic and policy discussions, in order to provide a cultural argumentation that supports political-economic and military power objectives in post-Cold War Europe. The paper claims that the ‘orthodox’ version of Orthodoxy is theoretically inaccurate and methodologically unsound, but is rooted in intellectual efforts to salvage a neo-modernization paradigm as well as in Orientalist tendencies in Modem Greek and Central European identity debates. An alternative to the ‘orthodox’ conception of Orthodoxy is presented, along with suggestions for how to analyze and to manage the potential synergy between efforts at consolidating liberal democracies in European societies with an Eastern Christian tradition emphasizing personal freedom and human relationality.
Delayed Oxidative Photodamage induced by Photodynamic Therapy

Apoptotic DNA fragmentation was observed 60 min after photodynamic therapy of murine leukemia cells in culture, using either of two photosensitizers with predominantly lysosomal targets. When the radical scavengers trolox or alpha-tocopherol succinate were present during irradiation, the subsequent appearance of apoptotic cells was prevented, as was phototoxicity. Addition of either scavenger during the 60 min after irradiation provided only partial protection from apoptosis and phototoxicity; this protection was abolished if the addition was delayed for 10 min. These results are consistent with a model whereby long-persisting photoproducts continue the initiation of apoptosis for approximately 10 min after irradiation has ceased.
Effect of Liner Oxide Densification on Stress-Induced Leakage Current Characteristics in Shallow Trench Isolation Processing

Controlling mechanical stress in the shallow trench isolation (STI) process is an increasing concern because it can affect circuit performance and yield. This paper presents the effect of liner oxide densification on the stress-induced junction leakage current in the STI process, compared to high density plasma (HDP) oxide densification before STI planarization. The simulation was performed for the trench isolation structure. It indicated that high temperature densification of the trench-tilled HDP oxide has a high probability of generating STI dislocations due to its inherently large mechanical stress and volume. The crystal defects and the mechanical stresses were significantly reduced by the introduction of liner oxide densification during STI processing; as a result, in the stress-induced junction, leakage characteristics were improved. The characteristics of standby current and column bit failure with regard to device yields have also been discussed.
The Allocation of Lottery Revenue to Education in Florida, California, Michigan, and Illinois:

There exists a persistent misperception on the part of the public concerning the intended purposes and actual use of lottery funds. It is suggested that a politics of misperception exists that results from the current conservative political beliefs and actions which hold that the public sector, represented by inefficiencies, bloated bureaucratic structure, and misuse of tax monies, needs to be reduced. To avoid attacks on its legitimacy, government has found that policy tools, such as lotteries, are ideal Generating public funds through lotteries gives the appearance of meeting needs of education while masking the relative drop in more direct tax-based public finance.
Quantifier elimination for modules with scalar variables

Abstract Van den Dries, L. and J. Holly, Quantifier elimination for modules with scalar variables, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 57 (1992) 161–179. We consider modules as two-sorted structures with scalar variables ranging over the ring. We show that each formula in which all scalar variables are free is equivalent to a formula of a very simple form, uniformly and effectively for all torsion-free modules over gcd domains (=Bezout domains expanded by gcd operations). For the case of Presburger arithmetic with scalar variables the result takes a still simpler form, and we derive in this way the polynomial-time decidability of the sets defined by such formulas.
Physical, Chemical and Sensory Characteristics of Four Types of Beef Steaks

Four types of beef forequarter steaks, rib eye roll steaks (RER), ser-ratus ventralis solid-muscle structured steaks (SRV), salt/phosphate comminuted structured steaks (NaCl/PO4) and algin/calcium comminuted structured steaks (Alg/Ca) were evaluated. Meat purchasers preferred the color, lack of surface discoloration and overall appearance of intact muscle steaks (RER and SRV) over the comminuted structured steaks (NaCl/PO4 and Alg/Ca). Purchasers perceived the fat content in SRV steaks to be less than in RER steaks. Sensory evaluations of juiciness and overall desirability were similar for all four types. Intact muscle steaks were lower in sensory tenderness ratings and higher in flavor desirability than comminuted structured steaks. Consumer acceptability was evident for all four types offering merchandising options to beef fabricators.