cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Migraine headache: Epidemiology and health care utilization:

Population-based studies of headache can help inform the development of diagnostic criteria. In population-based studies, migraine has been consistently revealed as a common disabling condition that affects males and females of all ages. From data obtained in a national survey of the United States population, we show that the prevalence of migraine and the frequency of attacks increase as household income decreases. Disability from attacks is not related to income. In contrast, physician diagnosis is more likely as household income increases. Moreover, physician diagnosis is more likely among females, older cases, those more likely to experience disability, and migraine sufferers reporting nausea (males), vomiting, and visual and sensory aura. Analysis of our data leads us to conclude that the symptoms most strongly associated with diagnosis may provide the greatest concern and interest on the part of physicians to make a diagnosis, even though other migraine-related symptoms are more common in the population and in clinical settings. Finally, among migraine sufferers with severe disability, a very large proportion do not receive the benefits of medical diagnosis and treatment. Though most migraine sufferers use OTC medications, given the frequency and associated disability of their migraine attacks, current therapy appears unsatisfactory.
Differential Impact of Price Demands in B2B Relationships

Manufacturers in several industries frequently demand downward price adjustments from their suppliers. While such “unpopular” tactics can often deliver cost benefits to manufacturers, they are also viewed by many as being detrimental to quality supplier–customer working relationship. In this study, the researchers seek to find out whether such downward price pressure can co-exist with good supplier–customer relationship. A model of supplier–customer relationships with price pressure built into it was assessed using responses collected as a part of ongoing research on multiple industrial markets in North America, Europe, and Asia. For the specific purposes of this research, data collected from suppliers to OEMs in the automobile industry and other select B2B markets were analyzed. Separate data sets collected from suppliers to manufacturers of heavy vehicles and from suppliers to manufacturers of light vehicles were used to test the multi-group stability of the structural relationships within the model. The results of this research indicated that price pressure and good relationships can coexist. The manner in which relationships are managed can overcome the possible adverse impact of price pressure. The above two data sets as well as similar data sets from other select B2B markets exhibited a largely similar pattern of relationships, although specific structural linkages varied in relative strength.
Disorder effects in correlated topological insulators

Using exact diagonalization and quantum Monte Carlo calculations we investigate the effects of disorder on the phase diagram of both noninteracting and interacting models of two-dimensional topological insulators. In the fermion sign problem-free interacting models we study, electron-electron interactions are described by an on-site repulsive Hubbard interaction and disorder is included via the one-body hopping operators. In both the noninteracting and interacting models we make use of recent advances in highly accurate real-space numerical evaluation of topological invariants to compute phase boundaries and in the noninteracting models determine critical exponents of the transitions. We find different models exhibit distinct stability conditions of the topological phase with respect to interactions and disorder. We provide a general analytical theory that accurately predicts these trends.
Private Rights in Public Resources: Equity and Property Allocation in Market-Based Environmental Policy, Leigh Raymond (Ed.). Resources for the Future Press, Washington DC (2003), 253, US$55.00 hardbound, US$21.95 paperback. ISBN 1-891853-69-4 (hardcover), 1-891853-68-6 (paper)

Book Review: Private Rights in Public Resources: Equity and Property Allocation in Market-Based Environmental Policy, Leigh Raymond. Resources for the Future Press, Washington DC (2003).
Integration of 3D printed lens with InGaN light-emitting diodes with enhanced light extraction efficiency

III-nitride based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have great potential in various applications due to their higher efficiency and longer lifetime. However, conventional planar structure InGaN LED suffers from total internal reflection due to large refractive index contrast between GaN (nGaN = 2.5) and air (nair = 1), which results in low light extraction efficiency (ηextraction). Accordingly, various approaches have been proposed previously to enhance the ηextraction. Nevertheless, most of the proposed methods involve elaborated fabrication processes. Therefore, in this work, we proposed the integration of three-dimensional (3D) printing with LED fabrication as a straightforward and highlyreproducible method to improve the ηextraction. Specifically, 500-μm diameter dome-shaped lens of optically transparent acrylate-based photopolymer is 3D-printed on planar structure 500 × 500 μm2 blue-emitting LEDs. Light output power measurement shows that up to 9% enhancement at injection current 4 mA can be obtained from the LEDs with 3D printed lens on top as compared to LEDs without the lens. Angle-dependent electroluminescence measurement also exhibits significant light output enhancement between angles 0 and 30° due to the larger photon escape cone introduced by the higher refractive index of the 3D printed lens (nlens = 1.5) than the air medium as well as the enhanced light scattering effect attributed to the curvature surface of the 3D printed lens. Our simulation results based on 3D finitedifference time-domain method also show that up to 1.61-times enhancement in ηextraction can be achieved by the use of 3D-printed lens of various dimensions as compared to conventional structure without the lens.
An in Vitro Biomechanical Model of Differing Pedicle Screw Configurations for Long Construct Segmental Thoracic Fixation.

BACKGROUND The optimum pattern of pedicle screw (PS) fixation during long-segment thoracic fixation has not been determined. OBJECTIVE To evaluate rod stress and construct stability with minimal, alternating, skipped, and bilateral PS constructs in the iatrogenically destabilized thoracic spine. METHODS Eight cadaveric thoracic specimens (T3-T12) were initially tested intact to ±5 Nm using a custom 6 degree-of-freedom spine testing apparatus in flexion-extension (FE), lateral bending (LB), and axial rotation. Specimens were instrumented with T4-T10 bilateral PS, with Ponte osteotomies to introduce instability. Rods were bent to fit the PS and then spines were tested with the minimal, alternating, skipped, and bilateral fixation patterns. Range of motion (ROM) was calculated from T4-T10 and segmentally. In addition, strain gauges fixed to the spinal rods measured rod stress under FE and LB. Results were compared using ANOVA and post hoc Holm Sidak tests. RESULTS All fixation patterns provided significant reductions in ROM with respect to the intact spine. In all motion planes, minimal provided the least amount of rigidity, while bilateral provide the greatest; however, no statistically significant differences were detected in FE. In LB and axial rotation, skipped, alternating, and bilateral were all significantly more rigid than minimal (P < .01). Rod strains were greatest under LB and correlated with overall construct ROM, where bilateral had significantly lower strain than the other patterns (P < .05). CONCLUSION All constructs effectively decreased thoracic ROM. There was significant improvement in stabilization and decreased rod stress when more fixation points beyond the minimal construct were included.
Reduced infectivity of waterborne viable but nonculturable Helicobacter pylori strain SS1 in mice.

Background Helicobacter pylori infection has been consistently associated with lack of access to clean water and proper sanitation, but no studies have demonstrated that the transmission of viable but nonculturable (VBNC) H. pylori can occur from drinking contaminated water. In this study, we used a laboratory mouse model to test whether waterborne VBNCH. pylori could cause gastric infection. Materials and Methods We performed five mouse experiments to assess the infectivity of VBNCH. pylori in various exposure scenarios. VBNC viability was examined using Live/Dead staining and Biolog phenotype metabolism arrays. High doses of VBNCH. pylori in water were chosen to test the “worst-case” scenario for different periods of time. One experiment also investigated the infectious capabilities of VBNC SS1 using gavage. Further, immunocompromised mice were exposed to examine infectivity among potentially vulnerable groups. After exposure, mice were euthanized and their stomachs were examined for H. pylori infection using culture and PCR methodology. Results VBNC cells were membrane intact and retained metabolic activity. Mice exposed to VBNCH. pylori via drinking water and gavage were not infected, despite the various exposure scenarios (immunocompromised, high doses) that might have permitted infection with VBNCH. pylori. The positive controls exposed to viable, culturable H. pylori did become infected. Conclusions While other studies that have used viable, culturable SS1 via gavage or drinking water exposures to successfully infect mice, in our study, waterborne VBNC SS1 failed to colonize mice under all test conditions. Future studies could examine different H. pylori strains in similar exposure scenarios to compare the relative infectivity of the VBNC vs the viable, culturable state, which would help inform future risk assessments of H. pylori in water.
Validation of the Disease-Specific GPA for Patients With 1 to 3 Synchronous Brain Metastases in Newly Diagnosed NSCLC

Abstract Background The disease-specific graded prognostic assessment (DS-GPA) for brain metastases is a powerful prognostic tool but has not been validated for patients with synchronous brain metastases (SBM) in newly diagnosed non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients and Methods We identified patients with newly diagnosed NSCLC with 1 to 3 SBM treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) between 1997 and 2012. We included patients whose brain metastases were treated with SRS alone or combined SRS and whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT). Patients were stratified according to NSCLC DS-GPA to evaluate the accuracy of survival estimates. Results One hundred sixty-four patients were treated with either SRS alone (n = 85; 52%) or SRS and WBRT (n = 79; 48%). Median overall survival (OS) stratified according to DS-GPA of 0 to 1, 1.5 to 2, 2.5 to 3, and 3.5 to 4 were 2.8, 6.7, 9.8, and 13.2 months, respectively, consistent with OS reported for brain metastases in NSCLC DS-GPA (3.0, 6.5, 11.3, and 14.8 months, respectively). No difference in median progression-free survival or OS was noted with combined use of SRS and WBRT: 6.0 versus 6.1 months ( P = .81) and 8.5 versus 9.1 months ( P = .093), respectively. In multivariable analysis, Karnofsky performance status (hazard ratio [HR], 0.98; P = .008), extracranial metastases (HR, 0.498; P = .0003), squamous histology (HR, 1.81; P = .02), and number of brain metastases (2 vs. 1; HR, 1.504; P = .04, and 3 vs. 1; HR, 1.66; P = .05) were significant predictors of OS. Conclusion The DS-GPA accurately estimates the prognosis of patients with SBM in newly diagnosed NSCLC. Patients with synchronous brain metastasis in newly diagnosed NSCLC should be carefully stratified for consideration of aggressive therapy.
Inflation targeting and exchange rate pass-through to domestic prices: evidence from South Africa

Inflation targeting is increasingly seen as a crucial monetary policy by many economies in their quest for economic growth. The choice of an appropriate exchange rate regime, continue to be crucial in macroeconomic policy. Using data from 1970q1 to 2015q4, the paper examines the effects of inflation targeting on exchange rate pass-through. Applying a VAR model, the results show that inflation targeting has significant impacts on the movements of inflation, output and the exchange rate. The pass-through to consumer prices decreased and there was a reduction in the influence of foreign producer costs on imports prices after adopting inflation targeting.
Hereditary Colorectal Cancer: Immunotherapy Approaches

Advances in our understanding of the tumor-immune microenvironment have provided new therapeutic approaches to treat cancer. While first-line medical treatment for colorectal cancer typically involves chemotherapy and biological agents, the clinical efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in microsatellite instability-high colorectal cancer has prompted renewed interest in immunotherapy as a treatment strategy for this tumor type. For patients with hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes characterized by exceptionally high somatic mutational loads, immunotherapy has specifically shown exceptional promise. In this chapter, we explore the rationale for immunotherapy in the treatment of colorectal cancer and focus on various immunotherapeutic strategies attempted thus far, including autologous, peptide, dendritic and viral vector-based vaccines, adoptive cell transfer, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, and immune checkpoint inhibitors. In addition, we discuss novel combination approaches and innovative techniques under investigation to create a more immune-responsive tumor environment for microsatellite stable colorectal cancer.
Protein Kinase C (PKC) Activation Lowers the Calcium Requirement for Cerebral Artery Myogenic Tone

The occurrence of myogenic tone in the cerebral circulation is well documented, and a number of earlier studies have characterized both the extent and pattern of arterial responses to altered transmural pressure (1–4). With the possible exception of the cat (4,5), the response of cerebral arteries to pressure or stretch appears to be truly myogenic in nature in most species examined (see 6 for review), although there are still several large gaps in our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. For example, neither the identity nor the location of the mechanosensor sensor is known, and the intracellular transduction mechanisms are only now beginning to be understood. Currently, the consensus is that the expression of myogenic tone involves a complementary interaction between transmembrane ionic fluxes and enzymatic activation.
Diffraction from Pinwheel and Herringbone Structures of Nitrogen and Carbon Monoxide on Graphite

At low coverages and temperatures nitrogen monolayers and carbon monoxide monolayers form structures commensurate with the triangular array of carbon hexagons which makes up the basal plane of graphite [64.1–3]. For the 4.26 A molecule center-to-center spacing of the commensurate monolayer, the molecule-molecule and molecule-substrate interactions for nitrogen are reasonably well represented by the lowest-order crystal field term dependent only on the orientation of a given molecule and an anisotropic interaction term primarily due to the electrostatic quadrupole-quadrupole interaction [64.6]. Under these conditions the mean-field theory of Harris and Berlinsky (HB) predicts four possible molecular axis ordered structures [64.5]: a 4-sublattice “pinwheel” in which one out of every 4 molecules is perpendicular to the substrate, a 2-sublattice herringbone structure in wich the mean molecular-axis orientation is in-plane (“1/2-in”) , a 2-sublattice herringbone in which there is a systematic tilt of the molecules out-of-plane (“1/2-outl”), and a “ferrol” phase in which the molecular axes are parallel to each other, but not quite perpendicular to the substrate.
Next Generation Cosmeceuticals: The Latest in Peptides, Growth Factors, Cytokines, and Stem Cells

The aging process is unavoidable and often augmented by extrinsic forces, such as ultraviolet radiation. The increasing middle-aged population is leading to the production of many new cosmetic products promising improvement of the various signs of aging, termed cosmeceuticals. Within this booming industry, several different types exist. This article focuses on updates in those involving peptides, growth factors, cytokines, and stem cells.
Hemangioblastoma of the Optic Nerve:Report of a Case and Review of Literature

The authors present a case of an optic nerve hemangioblastoma in a young woman with von Hippel-Lindau disease. The initial diagnosis was made by incisional biopsy. Tumor growth led to progressive proptosis and loss of light perception. Excision was carried out by lateral orbitotomy. Clinically and radiographically, the tumor resembled an optic nerve meningioma or glioma. Review of the other known cases offers no information as to the potential spread of this benign tumor from the intraorbital optic nerve to the optic canal. Optic nerve hemangioblastoma must be considered in the differential diagnosis of optic nerve tumors in patients with or without von Hippel-Lindau disease.
The Plato and Platonici Texts and Their Sources

Respondeo dicendum, quod, sicut supra dictum est, fruitio ponit quamdam delectationem in fine. Delectatio autem non potest esse nisi in cognoscente: propter quod Plato dixit, quod delectatio est generatio sensibilis in naturam; id est, quae sentitur naturae conveniens; et ideo cum creaturae insensibiles non cognoscant, non delectantur nec fruuntur.
Retinal Basal Laminar Deposits in Complement fH/fP Mouse Model of Dense Deposit Disease.

Purpose Dense deposit disease (DDD) is caused by dysregulation of the alternative pathway of the complement cascade and characterized by electron-dense deposits in the kidney glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and drusen in Bruch's membrane (BrM). Complement factor H (fH) and factor properdin (fP) regulate complement activation; fH inhibits alternative pathway (AP) activation, whereas fP promotes it. We report pathologic changes in eyes of an fH and fP double-mutant mouse, which we previously showed have dense deposits in the GBM and early mortality from nephropathy. Methods fHm/m, fP-/-, and fHm/m/fP-/- mice were generated on a C57BL/6-129J background. Fundus imaging at 8 weeks of age was followed by analysis via light and electron microscopy. Retinal function was assessed by electroretinography (ERG). Complement levels and localization were tested by immunohistochemistry and ELISA. Retinas of fHm/m/fP-/- mice treated with intraperitoneal injections of an anti-C5 antibody were compared to those of age- and genotype-matched mice injected with an isotype control antibody. Results fHm/m/fP-/- mice suffered early-onset retinal hypopigmented spots detected using in vivo retinal photography, and histologic examination showed basal laminar deposits (BLamD), degeneration of the photoreceptors, and RPE vacuolization. ERG showed diminished retinal function. The anti-C5 antibody was retina-protective. Conclusions This unique mouse represents a new model of complement-mediated rapid-onset DDD, and could be useful in exploring the pathologic changes associated with BLamD in age-related macular degeneration.
Optimal vehicle use in the presence of episodic mobile-source air pollution

Abstract This paper develops a conceptual model of vehicle trips in a region plagued by weather-dependent, mobile-source air pollution, and numerically estimates optimal trips for one of the nation's perennially worst air quality regions in terms of short-term particulate matter. Based upon data-driven parameters and damage estimates, our numerical model generates optimal values for region-wide vehicle trips and associated PM2.5 concentrations along with their corresponding time paths. Our dataset includes a host of pertinent weather variables that determine PM2.5 concentrations both independently as well as interacted with vehicle trips. As a result, our empirical model enables us to isolate the conditions under which vehicle travel most affects air pollution levels. Our results suggest that maximizing net social welfare in the presence of mobile-source pollution requires substantial reductions in traditional, emissions-generating vehicle usage on days experiencing critical weather conditions – in the case of our study area, temperature inversions. Because they are socially optimal and targeted solely for days with temperature inversions, the estimated reductions in vehicle usage are substantially larger than those proposed by Moscardini and Caplan (2017) to attain the daily National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for particulate matter on an average basis. We find that the optimal reduction in vehicle trips result in corresponding particulate matter concentrations that are roughly 6–13% of the NAAQS.
A State Machine Encoding Methodology Against Power Analysis Attacks

Power side-channel attacks have been shown to be effective against recovering protected information from integrated circuits. Existing defense methods are expensive in area, power or both. Small-scale ICs used in embedded systems and IoT devices are expected to be safe and secure, and yet cannot afford the area and power overheads of the sophisticated defense methods. This paper presents a design methodology for finite state controllers (FSMs) to defend against power analysis attacks while ensuring low power overhead. Further, a desired level of security can be achieved while minimizing power consumption. We formulate a set of constraints on state encoding based on security and power metrics. We express these constraints as a Boolean satisfiability (SAT) problem and use a SAT solver to generate constraint satisfying encodings. Experimental results using over 100 FSMs from BenGen and MCNC benchmark suites show a graded increase in encoding length (up to 40% for original FSMs and 40–70% for restructured FSMs) depending on the security level chosen. Trade-off between security and power is demonstrated as the mutual information between power side-channel and the Hamming attack models can vary between 0 and 2, depending on the level of security desired. An average power reduction of up to 40% is observed in power-constrained FSMs with respect to restructured FSMs and 4–20% reduction with respect to minimal encoding strategy.
Clinical experience of stereotactic body radiation for refractory ventricular tachycardia in advanced heart failure patients

Background Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) has been shown to be effective in treating patients with refractory ventricular tachycardia. Objective The purpose of this study was to describe outcomes for SBRT in advanced heart failure patients admitted for repeated implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapies who were refractory to standard treatments. Methods SBRT simulation, planning, and treatments were performed using standard techniques with collaboration from a radiation oncologist, electrophysiologist, and cardiac imaging specialist. Patients were treated with single-fraction 25 Gy while awake. Efficacy was assessed by total durations in seconds of ventricular tachycardia, frequency of antitachycardia pacing (ATP), and quantity of shocks before and after treatment as recorded by an ICD. Results A total of 10 patients (mean age 61 years; 3 female) were included. Etiologies of heart failure were ischemic in 40% (4/10) and nonischemic in 60% (6/10). Among 8 patients with available ICD data, the total reduction in seconds of detected VT was 69% (pretreatment 1065 seconds/month vs posttreatment 332 seconds/month). The total reduction in ATP sequences was 48% (17.3 pretreatment and 8.9 posttreatment). Reduction in total ICD shocks after SBRT was 68% (2.9 shocks/month pretreatment and 0.9 shocks/month posttreatment). When excluding a single nonresponder, there was a significant reduction in VT seconds (94%; P = .04) and a trend toward ICD shock reduction (90%; P = .07) post-SBRT. Conclusion Noninvasive treatment with SBRT was feasible and modestly effective at reducing VT burden in the critically ill. This suggests that SBRT treatment may be a useful palliation for electrical storm.
Updated occurrence of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol esters (3-MCPD) and glycidyl esters in infant formulas purchased in the United States between 2017 and 2019

Fatty acid esters of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) and glycidol are potentially carcinogenic and/or genotoxic processing contaminants that are formed during the process of edible oil refining. Because of their toxicological properties, the presence of these compounds in refined oils and foods containing these oils, particularly infant formula, poses a potential food safety concern. For this reason, recent research efforts have focussed on the development of methods for the analysis of MCPD and glycidyl esters in infant formula in order to estimate levels of exposure. This work presents occurrence data for 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters in 222 infant formulas purchased in the United States between December 2017 and January 2019. The results of this study show a wide range of contaminant concentrations across four different manufacturers, with average bound 3-MCPD concentrations ranging from 0.035 µg g-1 to 0.63 µg g-1 and average bound glycidol concentrations ranging from 0.019 µg g-1 to 0.22 µg g-1. The data suggest that manufacturers B and C source palm oil produced with mitigation measures, leading to reduced amounts of 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters in their infant formulas. Additionally, comparison with a previously published study in our laboratory of the occurrence of 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters in infant formula purchased in the U.S. between 2013 and 2016 revealed that, since 2016, contaminant concentrations have decreased in products produced by manufacturers A, B, and C, while contaminant amounts in formulas from manufacturer D have slightly increased.
Patients infected with Mycobacterium africanum versus Mycobacterium tuberculosis possess distinct intestinal microbiota

Background Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is composed of eight subspecies. TB in West Africa, in contrast to other geographical regions, is caused by Mycobacterium africanum (MAF) in addition to M. tuberculosis (MTB), with both infections presenting similar symptoms. Nevertheless, MAF is considered to be hypovirulent in comparison with MTB and less likely to progress to active disease. In this study, we asked whether MAF and MTB infected patients possess distinct intestinal microbiomes and characterized how these microbiota communities are affected by anti-tuberculosis therapy (ATT). Additionally, we assessed if the changes in microbiota composition following infection correlate with pathogen induced alterations in host blood-gene expression. Methods A longitudinal, clinical study of MAF infected, MTB infected patients assessed at diagnosis and two months after start of ATT, and healthy, endemic controls was conducted to compare compositions of the fecal microbiome as determined by 16S rRNA sequencing. A blood transcriptome analysis was also performed on a subset of subjects in each group by microarray and the results cross-compared with the same individual’s microbiota composition. Findings MAF participants have distinct microbiomes compared with MTB patients, displaying decreased diversity and increases in Enterobacteriaceae with respect to healthy participants not observed in the latter patient group. Interestingly, this observed elevation in Enterobacteriaceae positively correlated with enhanced inflammatory gene expression in peripheral blood and was reversed after initiation of ATT. Interpretation Our findings indicate that MAF and MTB have distinct associations with the gut microbiome that may be reflective of the differential susceptibility of West Africans to these two co-endemic infections either as biomarkers or as a contributing determinant.
Methylation profiling of hypomethylating agent response and treatment failure in pediatric and young adult MDS/AML.

e22502Background: Hypomethylating agents (HMAs) have favorable toxicity profiles and anti-leukemia activity in adult AML/MDS. We previously reported similar activity in eight pediatric patients (Ph...
Electrocardiographic Findings in Coronavirus Disease-19: Insights on Mortality and Underlying Myocardial Processes.

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory syndrome with high rates of mortality, and there is a need for easily obtainable markers to provide prognostic information. We sought to determine whether the electrocardiogram (ECG) on hospital presentation provides prognostic information, specifically related to death. Methods and Results We performed a retrospective cohort study in patients with COVID-19 who had an ECG at or near hospital admission. Clinical characteristics and ECG variables were manually abstracted from the electronic health record and first ECG. Our primary outcome was death. There were 756 patients who presented to a large New York City teaching hospital with COVID-19 who underwent an ECG. The mean age was 63.3 ± 16 years, 37% were women, 61% of patients were nonwhite, and 57% had hypertension; 90 (11.9%) died. In a multivariable logistic regression that included age, ECG, and clinical characteristics, the presence of one or more atrial premature contractions (odds ratio [OR] 2.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.23–5.36, P = .01), a right bundle branch block or intraventricular block (OR 2.61, 95% CI 1.32–5.18, P = .002), ischemic T-wave inversion (OR 3.49, 95% CI 1.56–7.80, P = .002), and nonspecific repolarization (OR 2.31, 95% CI 1.27–4.21, P = .006) increased the odds of death. ST elevation was rare (n = 5 [0.7%]). Conclusions We found that patients with ECG findings of both left-sided heart disease (atrial premature contractions, intraventricular block, repolarization abnormalities) and right-sided disease (right bundle branch block) have higher odds of death. ST elevation at presentation was rare.
Parkinson’s Disease Genetic Risk Evaluation in Microglia Highlights Autophagy and Lysosomal Genes

Abstract Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) risk. The functions of most of these SNPs, including the cell type they influence, and how they affect PD etiology remain largely unknown. To identify functional SNPs, we aligned PD risk SNPs within active regulatory regions of DNA in microglia, a cell type implicated in PD development. Out of 6,749 ‘SNPs of interest’ from the most recent PD GWAS metanalysis, 73 were located in open regulatory chromatin as determined by both ATAC-seq and H3K27ac ChIP-seq. We highlight a subset of SNPs that are favorable candidates for further mechanistic studies. These SNPs are located in regulatory DNA at the SLC50A1, SNCA, BAG3, FBXL19, SETD1A, and NUCKS1 loci. A network analysis of the genes with risk SNPs in their promoters, implicated substance transport, involving autophagy and lysosomal genes. Our study provides a more focused set of risk SNPs and their associated risk genes as candidates for further follow-up studies, which will help identify mechanisms in microglia that increase the risk for PD.
Bacterial Strain Typing

Over the course of the past several decades, rapid advancements in molecular technologies have revolutionized the practice of public health microbiology, and have fundamentally changed the nature, accuracy, and timeliness of laboratory data for outbreak investigation and response. Whole-genome sequencing, in particular, is becoming an increasingly feasible and cost-effective approach for near real-time high-resolution strain typing, genomic characterization, and comparative analyses. This review discusses the current state of the art in bacterial strain typing for outbreak investigation and infectious disease surveillance, and the impact of emerging genomic technologies on the field of public health microbiology.
Quadrotor Actuator Fault Diagnosis with Real-Time Experimental Results

Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have attracted significant attention in recent years due to their potentials in various military and commercial applications. Four propellers mounted on the shafts of four brushless DC motors generate the required thrust and torques needed for altitude and attitude control of quadrotors. However, structural damage to the propellers and rotor degradation can lead to actuator faults in the form of a partial loss of effectiveness in a rotor, which may result in degraded tracking performance or even loss of stability of the control system. This paper presents the systematic design, analysis, and real-time experimental results of a fault detection and isolation algorithm for quadrotor actuator faults using nonlinear adaptive estimation techniques. The fault diagnosis architecture consists of a nonlinear fault detection estimator and a bank of nonlinear adaptive fault isolation estimators designed based on the functional structures of the faults under consideration. Adaptivethresholds for fault detection and isolation are systematically designed to enhance the robustness and fault sensitivity of the diagnostic algorithm. Using an indoor quadrotor test environment, real-time experimental flight test results are shown to illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithms.
Uniformity and Multiplicity in Contract Law: Some Reflections on the Morality of Promises

This article engages a recent debate in contract theory concerning whether we should embrace a uniform contract law, or whether we should instead adopt different legal rules for different contracting relationships. A common assumption in the literature is that grounding contract in promissory morality would lead to the former. After all, the thinking goes, consumer purchases, parenting agreements, and commercial contracts all equally involve promises, and promissory morality requires one to do what one promised. But I argue that most contract-as-promise theorists have been operating with an overly abstract and individualistic conception of promissory morality that is too focused on the primary promissory obligation. This has obscured many important normative dimensions of promissory morality: How stringent is the promise? Under what conditions is a person obligated to perform? How is an agent entitled to respond to a breach? How should a promisee respond to a request for release? When should a promisee agree to renegotiate? Through a series of examples, I show how these features of promissory morality vary radically across different kinds of human relationships—e.g., marriage, friendship, parenting, and commercial bargains. I argue that this variance is best explained by conceiving of promissory morality as the morality of joint decision-making. The normativity of joint decision-making is dependent on the other joint projects that the parties have, such as maintaining a friendship, forging a life together as a married couple, or raising children. This is an important result for contract theory: if promissory morality doesn’t justify the application of general contract principles across different contracting relationships, then likely nothing does. So, for the law to have a coherent grounding, it ought to resist the urge to apply uniform contract principles across diverse human relationships, even if promissory morality plays a central justificatory role in contracts.
Hospital admission medication reconciliation in high-risk prescription opioid users

Abstract Background No studies have assessed the clinical significance of medication reconciliation in surgical patients using high-risk extended-release/long-acting (ER/LA) opioid medications. Objectives We assessed differences in the perioperative use of opioid analgesics in patients who underwent medication reconciliation upon hospital admission compared to patients who did not and identified predictors of perioperative use of opioids. Methods Retrospective observational quasi-experimental study including adult non-cancer patients who underwent elective surgery at UCSF Medical Center in the period January 2017 through December 2019 and received at least one opioid analgesic during surgical hospitalization. The primary study outcome was perioperative use of opioids measured in daily oral morphine equivalents (OME). Secondary outcomes were predictors of perioperative use of opioids after adjusting for baseline differences between groups. Results We identified 402 patients. Of them, 59.5% were female. The mean patient age was 58.5 years. Most patients underwent neurological or orthopedic surgery (each 40.8%). Over 94% of our patients underwent medication reconciliation upon hospital admission, with 78% completed by a pharmacy staff. Medication reconciliation evidenced that 5.54% patients were not taking the ER/LA opioids on their medication history list. Inactive ER/LA opioids were discontinued during hospitalization. None of the patients with inactive ER/LA opioids had those opioids restarted at hospital discharge. In addition, patients (27%) were successfully converted from ER/LA to SA opioids. After adjusting for patients’ demographic and clinical characteristics, surgical procedure type and post-operative pain, opioid formulation conversion was the main predictor of perioperative use of opioids per hospitalization day. Switching patients from ER/LA to SA opioids reduced the mean daily use of OME by 66.03 units (p Conclusions Medication reconciliation upon hospital admission reduced unnecessary exposure to opioids in hospitalized surgical patients.
Abstract 898: Exercise inhibits the growth of breast cancer and reduces fat mass in postmenopausal obese mice associated with a circulating angiostatic phenotype and the inhibition of angiogenesis in those tissues

Obesity and physical inactivity are important risk factors for cancers, especially for postmenopausal breast cancer. However, potential mechanisms of exercise in reducing obesity and preventing postmenopausal breast cancer are poorly understood. The animal models in this area are very limited. In the present study, we used a postmenopausal obese mouse model inoculated with mouse breast cancer (E0771) cells to examine the potential effects of long-term exercise in reducing fat mass and breast cancer progression. Ovariectomy (OVX) was performed in 12 sixty week-old female mice (C57BL/6J), then followed by a high-fat (60%) diet for 12 weeks. In the eighth week of the dietary program, the body weight (BW) was significantly increased from 32.1±1.8 to 42.5±2.3 g; P Citation Format: Shelby A. Cole, Jian-Wei Gu. Exercise inhibits the growth of breast cancer and reduces fat mass in postmenopausal obese mice associated with a circulating angiostatic phenotype and the inhibition of angiogenesis in those tissues. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 898. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-898
High Resolution Image Construction from IRAS Survey — Parallelization and Artifact Suppression

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite carried out a nearly complete survey of the infrared sky, and the survey data are important for the study of many astrophysical phenomena. However, many data sets at other wavelengths have higher resolutions than that of the co-added IRAS maps, and high resolution IRAS images are strongly desired both for their own information content and their usefulness in correlation studies.
Exploring high-D spaces with multiform matrices and small multiples

We introduce an approach to visual analysis of multivariate data that integrates several methods from information visualization, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and geovisualization. The approach leverages the component-based architecture implemented in GeoVISTA Studio to construct a flexible, multiview, tightly (but generically) coordinated, EDA toolkit. This toolkit builds upon traditional ideas behind both small multiples and scatterplot matrices in three fundamental ways. First, we develop a general, multiform, bivariate matrix and a complementary multiform, bivariate small multiple plot in which different bivariate representation forms can be used in combination. We demonstrate the flexibility of this approach with matrices and small multiples that depict multivariate data through combinations of: scatterplots, bivariate maps, and space-filling displays. Second, we apply a measure of conditional entropy to (a) identify variables from a high-dimensional data set that are likely to display interesting relationships and (b) generate a default order of these variables in the matrix or small multiple display. Third, we add conditioning, a kind of dynamic query/filtering in which supplementary (undisplayed) variables are used to constrain the view onto variables that are displayed. Conditioning allows the effects of one or more well understood variables to be removed form the analysis, making relationships among remaining variables easier to explore. We illustrate the individual and combined functionality enabled by this approach through application to analysis of cancer diagnosis and mortality data and their associated covariates and risk factors.
Barrels in pieces

Imidazole glycerol phosphate synthase (HisF) has been proposed to be the product of duplication of a gene encoding a (β/α)4-half barrel followed by fusion to encode the complete (β/α)8-barrel. In support of this evolutionary scenario, the N- and C-terminal (β/α)4-half barrels of HisF* have been separately expressed and purified. Each assumes a stable, soluble homodimeric structure, but neither is catalytically active; when expressed together, a functional heterodimer is formed.
A Seeded Memetic Algorithm for Large Unit Commitment Problems

The paper shows that the use of a memetic algorithm (MA), a genetic algorithm (GA) combined with local search, synergistically combined with Lagrangian relaxation is effective and efficient for solving large unit commitment problems in electric power systems. It is shown that standard implementations of GA or MA are not competitive with the traditional methods of dynamic programming (DP) and Lagrangian relaxation (LR). However, an MA seeded with LR proves to be superior to all alternatives on large problems. Eight problems from the literature and a new large, randomly generated problem are used to compare the performance of the proposed seeded MA with GA, MA, DP and LR. Compared with previously published results, this hybrid approach solves the larger problems better and uses less computational time.
Spin fluctuations in Al3V: An NMR study

We report the results of a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study of ${\mathrm{Al}}_{3}\mathrm{V}$ at temperatures between 4 and 300 K. ${}^{51}\mathrm{V}$ and ${}^{27}\mathrm{Al}$ Knight shifts exhibit a Curie-Weiss behavior corresponding to an effective moment ${P}_{\mathrm{eff}}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.32{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{B}$ per V, indicating intrinsic weak magnetism localized in vanadium orbitals. The ${T}_{1}$ exhibits a $\sqrt{T}$ dependence at higher temperatures, indicative of nearly antiferromagnetic behavior of itinerant electrons. We have fit the observed behavior within the self-consistent renormalized model for itinerant magnetism, which provides good agreement with the measurements. At about 80 K, the Knight shifts and spin-lattice relaxation rates exhibit a crossover from Curie-Weiss magnetism to Korringa behavior. Comparing previously reported specific heat and transport results with our NMR results, we find that the Wilson ratio and Kadowaki-Woods relation are close to those observed for highly correlated electron compounds, despite the relatively small enhancement of $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ and $\ensuremath{\chi}.$
National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers: a new model for cooperative research

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has implemented an Engineering Research Center (ERC) program at universities across the country. Important contributions are being made by these 18 centers to better educate engineering students, to enhance interdisciplinary research leading toward practical applications, and to enhance beneficial interactions with industry. The vision of one of these centers, the Center for Emerging Cardiovascular Technologies, is the achievement of the next generation of cardiac interventional and imaging systems. >
SECRETION AND REABSORPTION OF BICARBONATE IN SINGLE RENAL TUBULES OF THE RABBIT

Bicarbonate is transported by a number of different renal tubule segments. Both the rates of transport and the mechanisms involved differ between the segments. Although bicarbonate is absorbed by both proximal tubules and collecting ducts, bicarbonate secretion has been observed only in the collecting ducts. Bicarbonate secretion in cortical collecting ducts, bicarbonate secretion has been observed only in the collecting ducts. Bicarbonate secretion in cortical collecting ducts results from conditioning of that tubule segment, following administration of alkali to the animals.
Modular system for image analysis using a game-theoretic framework

Abstract The design of image analysis systems aimed at recognition of multiple deformable objects require integration of a variety of modules. These systems (i) are first decomposed into a set of interdependent modules where each module is associated with a model-based objective, and (ii) are then formed by integrating these modules within a unifying framework. Previous approaches have been limited in providing a systematic and uniform treatment of the design problem and preserving the coexisting and separate nature of the modules' objectives. In Bozma 1 a framework which overcomes these limitations has been formulated using game-theoretic concepts. The contribution of this paper is to present an image analysis system which is developed systematically using the game-theoretic framework, and which is aimed at recognizing multiple deformable objects. A secondary contribution is that the models used in designing the individual modules constitute extensions of earlier efforts. Our experiments with several images, including ones from the medical domain, demonstrate the power of this system in applications such as medical image analysis.