cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Smoking Status and Health Care Costs in the Perioperative Period: A Population-Based Study

Importance Cigarette smoking adds an estimated $100 billion in annual incremental direct health care costs nationwide. Cigarette smoking increases complication risk in surgical patients, but the potential effects of smoking status on perioperative health care costs are unclear. Objective To test the hypothesis that current and former smoking at the time of admission for inpatient surgery, compared with never smoking, are independently associated with higher incremental health care costs for the surgical episode and the first year after hospital discharge. Design, Setting, and Participants This population-based, propensity-matched cohort study, with cohort membership based on smoking status (current smokers, former smokers, and never smokers) was performed at Mayo Clinic in Rochester (a tertiary care center) and included patients at least 18 years old who lived in Olmsted County, Minnesota, for at least 1 year before and after the index surgery. Exposure Undergoing an inpatient surgical procedure at Mayo Clinic hospitals between April 1, 2008, and December 31, 2009. Main Outcomes and Measures Total costs during the index surgical episode and 1 year after hospital discharge, with the latter standardized as costs per month. Costs were measured using the Olmsted County Healthcare Expenditure and Utilization Database, a claims-based database including information on medical resource use, associated charges, and estimated economic costs for patients receiving care at the 2 medical groups (Mayo Clinic and Olmsted Medical Center) that provide most medical services within Olmsted County, Minnesota. Results Propensity matching resulted in 678 matched pairs in the current vs never smoker grouping and 945 pairs in the former vs never smoker grouping. Compared with never smokers, adjusted costs for the index hospitalization did not differ significantly for current or former smokers. However, the adjusted costs in the year after hospitalization were significantly higher for current and former smokers based on regression analysis (predicted monthly difference of $400 [95% CI, $131-$669] and $273 [95% CI, $56-$490] for current and former smokers, respectively). Conclusions and Relevance Compared with never smokers, health care costs during the first year after hospital discharge for an inpatient surgical procedure are higher in both former and current smokers, although the cost of the index hospitalization is not affected by smoking status.
SIGOPT: Using Schema to Optimize XML Query Processing

There has been a great deal of work in recent years on processing and optimizing queries against XML data. Typically in these previous works, schema information is not considered, so that evaluation techniques can continue to be used even in the absence of one. However, schema information is often available and, in this paper, we show that when available it can be exploited to great advantage in ways that complement "traditional" XML query optimization. To be usable in practice, we require that aspects of schema, essential for our purposes, be captured in a schema information graph (SIG). We exploit such meta-data knowledge with a preprocessing enumeration phase that detects potentially interchangeable evaluation units - we call such units alternate paths. We show, within an algebraic framework, methods that can break down a pattern tree into elementary paths and substitute them by one or more less costly alternate paths. This approach allows us to present various rewritten forms of the XML query to the query optimizer, and allows the DBMS to explore a larger space of query evaluation plans. We assessed the benefits of the proposed techniques experimentally with the XMark data set and show that the SIG-based optimizations can result in significant performance improvements.
On An Ontological View Of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is an architecture for providing computing service via the Internet. Use of the term “cloud” is a metaphor for the representation of the Internet used in most systems diagrams. In this case, the Internet is the transport mechanism between a client and a server located somewhere in cyberspace, as compared to having computer applications residing on an “on premises” computer. Adoption of cloud computing practically eliminates two ongoing problems in IT service provisioning: the upfront costs of acquiring computational resources and the time delay of building and deploying software applications. This paper gives an ontological view of the subject in order to serve as a point of reference in the discipline and to facilitate ongoing technical development.
The Phenomenon of Psychotherapeutic Change: Second-Order Change in One's Experience of Self

Most contemporary researchers in the area of psychotherapy are attempting to discover how psychotherapy facilitates change in the client. While advances in our understanding of psychotherapeutic change have been made, most researchers have not explored the process of change in terms of first-order versus second-order change. The research presented here is a study of the client's experience of second-order change. Seven participants volunteered to be interviewed about their therapy experience. The information they provided was analyzed following qualitative procedures outlined by the method of phenomenology. The results comprise an exhaustive description of second-order change characterized by the transcendence of one's usual experience of self.
Human–Environment Relationships

The relations between societies and their biophysical environments form a large but largely neglected area of study. Such relations include the services and disservices that societies derive from their environments and the impacts of human activity upon the biophysical world. Environmental determinism was the chief form in which environment appeared in the early social and behavioral sciences. It was supplanted first by possibilism and then by a general disregard for the biophysical dimensions of human activity, a disregard encouraged above all by the increasingly rigid separation between the study of the natural and the social worlds. Public concern over human-induced environmental change and its effects has returned nature–society issues to the research agenda. Yet progress in understanding has been hampered by the persisting attitudinal and institutional obstacles to bringing society and the environment together as jointly significant factors.
Monoclonal Antibodies Specific for Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Mediate Antiviral Effects in Vitro and in Vivo

Nine hybrid cell lines derived from four independent cell fusions produce monoclonal antibodies specific for herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). The reactivity of each monoclonal antibody was characterized by enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA), virus neutralization, complement-dependent cytolysis (CDC) and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Results of these tests showed that ascites fluid from two of the nine lines (D8 and G8) neutralized virus infectivity. Hybridoma line G8 was also effective in mediating CDC and ADCC. Both lines were further tested for their ability to protect mice from lethal ocular infection with HSV-1. Four week old Balb/c mice infected ocularly with HSV-1 develop viral encephalitis and die in 10–12 days. Passive transfer of hyperimmune rabbit anti-HSV-1 serum does protect the host against virus challenge when given within 48 hours postinfection. Preliminary experiments have shown that passive transfer of monoclonal antibody from both G8 and D8 hybridomas independently confers protection against fatal herpetic encephalitis.
Comparative evaluation of taurine and thiotaurine as protectants against diabetes-induced nephropathy in a rat model.

Taking into account the proven effectiveness of antioxidants in preventing experimentally induced diabetes in laboratory animals, this study was carried out with the specific purpose of comparing the effectiveness of two known antioxidants, the β-aminosulfonate taurine (TAU) and β-aminothiosulfonate thiotaurine (TTAU), in preventing biochemical, functional and histological alterations indicative of ­diabetic nephropathy. In the study, streptozotocin (60 mg/kg, orally) was used to induce type 2 diabetes mellitus in Sprague-Dawley rats. Starting on day 15 and continuing up to day 56, the rats received a daily single 2.4 mmol/kg oral dose of a sulfur-containing compound (TAU or TTAU) or 4 U/kg subcutaneous dose of isophane insulin (INS). Rats not receiving any treatment served as controls. After obtaining a 24 h urine sample, the animals were sacrificed by decapitation on day 57, and their blood and kidneys immediately collected. Diabetic rats exhibited marked hyperglycemia, hypoinsulinemia, hypoproteinemia, hyponatremia, hyperkalemia, azotemia, hypercreatinemia, increased plasma TGF β1, lipid peroxidation, plasma and kidney nitrite, and urine output; decreased glutathione redox status in plasma and kidney, decreased urine Na+ and K+, proteinuria and hypocreatinuria. Without exceptions, all the treatment compounds were found to markedly and variously attenuate these changes. Confirmation of protection by INS, TAU and TTAU was provided by the results of histological examination of kidney sections and which showed a more normal appearance than sections from diabetic animals. In most instances protection by TTAU was about equal to that by INS but greater than that by TAU.
Microdistribution and Secondary Production of Cyrnellus fratemus Trichoptera: Polycentropodidae) from Snag Habitats in the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, Texas

A population of Cyrnellus fraternus (Banks) from an 8-km segment of the Elm Fork in north Texas was sampled once to twice monthly from October 1994 through September 1995. Distributions of C, fraternus were restricted to submerged wood habitat, or snag, the most stable substratum for retreat building and for resisting periodic high waters. Larvae were not found in the soft sand and mud benthic habitats near submerged wood. The insects were multivoltine with a minimum of 3 generations per year. Pupae were collected from July to September and adults emerge from May to October, The population overwintered as larvae. Individual dry mass of autumn 1994 fifth instars was significantly larger than that of summer 1995 fifth instars. Estimated annual production on snags for this population was 1,015.4 mg/m 2 /yr, mean standing stock biomass was 61.24 mg/m 2 cohort production:biomass ratio was 4.59, and the annual production/biomass rate was 16.58/yr. Standing stock biomass ranged from 1.6-349.1 mg/m 2 during the year. Standing stock biomass values were significantly higher in autumn and summer than in winter. Larvae were more abundant in the lower portions of the study area, where flow was reduced for much of the year, than in the upper reaches, characterized by higher current velocities. C. fraternus larvae were found in their highest numbers on snags with dense deposits of silt and sand.
Cell Injury and Repair Resulting from Sleep Loss and Sleep Recovery in Laboratory Rats

Study objectives Increased cell injury would provide the type of change in constitution that would underlie sleep disruption as a risk factor for multiple diseases. The current study was undertaken to investigate cell injury and altered cell fate as consequences of sleep deprivation, which were predicted from systemic clues. Design Partial (35% sleep reduction) and total sleep deprivation were produced in rats for 10 days, which was tolerated and without overtly deteriorated health. Recovery rats were similarly sleep deprived for 10 days, then allowed undisturbed sleep for 2 days. The plasma, liver, lung, intestine, heart, and spleen were analyzed and compared to control values for damage to DNA, proteins, and lipids; apoptotic cell signaling and death; cell proliferation; and concentrations of glutathione peroxidase and catalase. Measurements and results Oxidative DNA damage in totally sleep deprived rats was 139% of control values, with organ-specific effects in the liver (247%), lung (166%), and small intestine (145%). Overall and organ-specific DNA damage was also increased in partially sleep deprived rats. In the intestinal epithelium, total sleep deprivation resulted in 5.3-fold increases in dying cells and 1.5-fold increases in proliferating cells, compared with control. Recovery sleep restored the balance between DNA damage and repair, and resulted in normal or below-normal metabolic burdens and oxidative damage. Conclusions These findings provide physical evidence that sleep loss causes cell damage, and in a manner expected to predispose to replication errors and metabolic abnormalities; thereby providing linkage between sleep loss and disease risk observed in epidemiological findings. Properties of recovery sleep include biochemical and molecular events that restore balance and decrease cell injury.
The lack of documentation of preferences in a cohort of adults who died after ischemic stroke

Objective: To measure the extent and timing of physicians9 documentation of communication with patients and families regarding limitations on life-sustaining interventions, in a population cohort of adults who died within 30 days after hospitalization for ischemic stroke. Methods: We used the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development Patient Discharge Database to identify a retrospective cohort of adults with ischemic strokes at all California acute care hospitals from December 2006 to November 2007. Of 326 eligible hospitals, a representative sample of 39 was selected, stratified by stroke volume and mortality. Medical records of 981 admissions were abstracted, oversampled on mortality and tissue plasminogen activator receipt. Among 198 patients who died by 30 days postadmission, overall proportions and timing of documented preferences were calculated; factors associated with documentation were explored. Results: Of the 198 decedents, mean age was 80 years, 78% were admitted from home, 19% had mild strokes, 11% received tissue plasminogen activator, and 42% died during the index hospitalization. Preferences about at least one life-sustaining intervention were recorded on 39% of patients: cardiopulmonary resuscitation 34%, mechanical ventilation 23%, nasogastric tube feeding 10%, and percutaneous enteral feeding 6%. Most discussions occurred within 5 days of death. Greater stroke severity was associated with increased in-hospital documentation of preferences ( p Conclusions: Documented discussions about limitations on life-sustaining interventions during hospitalization were low, even though this cohort died within 30 days poststroke. Improving the documentation of preferences may be difficult given the 2015 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid 30-day stroke mortality hospital performance measure that is unadjusted for patient preferences regarding life-sustaining interventions.
Spatial-Temporal Synchrophasor Data Characterization and Analytics in Smart Grid Fault Detection, Identification, and Impact Causal Analysis

An approach of big data characterization for smart grids (SGs) and its applications in fault detection, identification, and causal impact analysis is proposed in this paper, which aims to provide substantial data volume reduction while keeping comprehensive information from synchrophasor measurements in spatial and temporal domains. Especially, based on secondary voltage control (SVC) and local SG observation algorithm, a two-layer dynamic optimal synchrophasor measurement devices selection algorithm (OSMDSA) is proposed to determine SVC zones, their corresponding pilot buses, and the optimal synchrophasor measurement devices. Combining the two-layer dynamic OSMDSA and matching pursuit decomposition, the synchrophasor data is completely characterized in the spatial-temporal domain. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed characterization approach, SG situational awareness is investigated based on hidden Markov model based fault detection and identification using the spatial-temporal characteristics generated from the reduced data. To identify the major impact buses, the weighted Granger causality for SGs is proposed to investigate the causal relationship of buses during system disturbance. The IEEE 39-bus system and IEEE 118-bus system are employed to validate and evaluate the proposed approach.
Determination of Saccharin Sodium and Benzoic Acid in Foods by High-performance Liquid Chromatography

[Objective]To explore the high-performance liquid chromatography with advantages of simple pre-treatment method and rapid determination of saccharin sodium and benzoic acid in foods.[Methods]The pre-treatment methods of various samples were studies,YWG-C 18 stainless steel column(250 mm×4.6 mm,5 μm)was applied,the mobile phase was methanol:ammonium acetate,and the detection wavelength was 230 nm.[Results]In the range of 0～250 mg/L,the correlation coefficients of saccharin sodium and benzoic acid were higher than 0.999,minimum detection limit was 0.15 mg/L and 0.5 mg/L respectively.The relative standard deviations(RSD)of saccharin sodium and benzoic acid was 2.7% and 2.5%,recoveries was 95.3%～103.5% and 95.5%～104.8%.[Conclusion]The method is simple with good accuracy and precision,and it can measure two kinds of material quickly and simultaneously.The method can be used for detection of saccharin sodium and benzoic acid in a large number of food samples.
Rock moisture dynamics, preferential flow, and the stability of hillside slopes

This chapter investigates the relevant hydrologic and geotechnical processes triggering failure of steep hillside slopes under rainfall infiltration. Despite decades of extensive study, the fundamental controls responsible for this commonly observed slope failure mechanism are yet to be quantified. The work focuses on the triggering mechanisms of slope failure induced by rainfall events and highlights the multiphysical nature of the problem. In hillside slopes, fluid supply from the rain and fluid input from the fractures of an underlying bedrock create moisture dynamics that could undermine the stability of slopes. The impact of such dynamics is difficult to predict, let alone quantify. In this chapter, the influence of rainfall input into the slope surface and the accompanying rock moisture dynamics are investigated using a hydromechanical model that couples the interaction between fluid flow and solid deformation. Both single-porosity and double-porosity formulations are employed, the latter formulation pertaining to the case where the solid matrix exhibits two dominant porosity scales. Nonlinear finite element simulations of the failure of hypothetical hillside slopes similar in configuration to the two well-documented test slopes, the CB1 and Ruedlingen test slopes, reveal the impacts of slope/bedrock topography, rainfall history, rock moisture dynamics, and preferential flow pattern on the failure of hillside slopes.
Solvolysis, Electrochemistry, and Development of Synthetic Building Blocks from Sawdust

Either aldehyde or cinnamyl ether products can be selectively extracted from raw sawdust by controlling the temperature and pressure of a solvolysis reaction. These materials have been used as platform chemicals for the synthesis of 15 different synthetic substrates. The conversion of the initial sawdust-derived materials into electron-rich aryl substrates often requires the use of oxidation and reduction chemistry, and the role electrochemistry can play as a sustainable method for these transformations has been defined.
Fllckcr noise in CMOS: A unlfied model for VLSI processes

Much has appeared in the literature on the sources of flicker noise, or 1/f noise, in MOSFETs.1,2,3 This is often [he dominant noise when MOSFETs are used to design sensitive amplifiers. However, there is very little agreement on the physical mechanisms responsible for this noise, and there are no widely accepted quantitative models for it. Of the theories, most widely held is the carrier density fluctuation model, which accounts for the noise being produced by random trapping and de-trapping of the carriers in the inversion layer by traps in the gate oxide. There is another empirically based hypothesis, the mobility fluctuation model, whose foundation lies in the observation of flicker noise in bulk resistors, that has also been suggested to account for the noise mechanism.2
PATHOLOGY AND PATHOGENESIS OF TRAUMATIC NERVE LESIONS IN ANIMALS AND MAN, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CHRONIC ENTRAPMENT

ABSTRACT There exist well defined pathological situations related to local nerve trauma where the effects of mechanical injury dissociate from those of anoxia. Motor and sensory paralysis follow acute local compression of a limb above systolic pressure. Such disorder of nerve function is immediately reversible upon reestablishing blood flow. Lewis et al 1 showed this is caused by ischemia and not by direct mechanical injury to the nerve. No structural changes can be detected. More severe acute compression may cause paralysis and sensory loss, from local conduction block, lasting weeks or a few months. Myelinated and unmyelinated axons remain largely intact but demyelination is prominent (Denny-Brown and Brenner 2 ). The primary lesion which leads to demyelination is obviously mechanical in origin and involves invagination of the extremities (paranodes) of myelin segments - like an intussusception - in opposite directions under each edge of the compressed region (Ochoa et al 3 , 4 ; Gilliatt, this volume). Myelinated fibres underlying chronic entrapment also suffer displacement of structural components of myelin segments, again in opposite directions on either side of the entrapped region, but there is no obliteration of the nodes of Ranvier. Slippage of myelin lamellae explains progressive exposure of the axon at the paranodes which point towards the area of entrapment, and buckling of the opposite paranodes. Active demyelination, axonal degeneration and fibrosis follow (Ochoa and Marotte 5 ; Neary et al 6 ). Violent local nerve injury interrupts axons and may open breaches in perineurium. Attempts at repair by terminal axonal regeneration follow inevitably. Axonal outgrowths which escape beyond the perineurial continent overproliferate and fail to mature from lack of reconnection: dissident perineurial cells enclose them in miniature fascicles. In experimental neuromas these sprouts are abnormally excitable (Wall and Gutnick 7 ): perhaps they explain spontaneous pain in human neuromas (Ochoa 8 ).
Equitable Tolling of the Statute of Limitations in the Federal Tort Claims Act: Brief of Professor Gregory C. Sisk as Amicus Curiae in Support of Respondents, United States v. Wong, No. 13-1074, and United States v. June, No. 13-1075, United States Supreme Court

Although the Federal Tort Claims Act is a clear and unequivocal waiver of federal sovereign immunity, the United States nonetheless insists that the time limitations in the statute be strictly construed in favor of the government. The Government asks for the privileged benefit of an absolute jurisdictional rule that, contrary to ordinary expectations in civil litigation, need not be pleaded as an affirmative defense, cannot be waived, and is not subject to equitable tolling.Since the dawn of the century, however, the Supreme Court’s increasingly common encounters with statutory waivers of federal sovereign immunity have also become more conventional in interpretive attitude. An early jaundiced judicial attitude toward statutes allowing suits against the sovereign has resolved into a greater respect for the legislative pledge of relief to those harmed by their government. The Supreme Court has recognized a dichotomy between the threshold question of whether sovereign immunity has been waived (requiring a “clear statement” by Congress) and the inquiry into how the statutory waiver should be interpreted and applied (with the canon of strict construction fading away and ordinary tools of statutory interpretation prevailing).The plea of the United States for rigid application of time limitations to resist claims of tortious harm undermines the congressional purpose behind a remedial statute expressly making the Federal Government liable in the same way as a private person. The Government’s request contradicts the Court’s line of decisions denying special solicitude to the Government in applying procedural rules such as limitations periods. This amicus curiae brief seeks to place these controversies in the larger context of the Supreme Court’s coalescing jurisprudence of statutory waivers of federal sovereign immunity.
Brief mindfulness training in the social work practice classroom

AbstractSocial Work educators are increasingly concerned with discerning how to help students develop the affective, relational, and meta-cognitive skills needed for effective, resilient, and sustainable social work practice. A small but growing literature supports mindfulness training as a path to those ends. However, most mindfulness intervention studies, even those mentioning ‘brief intervention,’ have typically used fairly lengthy training programs, often 2–3 h per week for 6–8 weeks. It is unlikely that already over-committed social work practice classes would devote this amount of class time to these strategies. This concurrent mixed methods study examined whether very brief mindfulness training in undergraduate social work practice classes (100 min over the course of a 3.0 semester credit hour course) would influence outcomes on measures of mindfulness, emotional regulation, and empathy, as well as student perceptions of helpfulness in managing stress and meeting course goals. No significant differ...
Artificial hair cells inspired by active hair bundle motility

Hair cells are specialized sensory cells found in the auditory and vestibular systems of many vertebrates. Many of these cells display an active hair bundle motility that amplifies the hair cell’s ...
Comparison of earthquake travel-time residuals or how to compare apples to oranges

Abstract Comparing residuals from two earthquakes is difficult because earthquake locations interact with differences in three variables: (1) the spatial location of the source; (2) the set of stations that record each earthquake; and (3) the precision of individual arrival time measurements. Effective comparisons can be made by looking only at the components the residuals from two different earthquakes have in common. This is done with an operator that projects the residual vector for each event onto a subspace defined by the intersection of two linear manifolds related to the matrices of partial derivatives used to locate each earthquake. If one assumes the measurement error process is Gaussian, then under a null hypothesis of no differences in the travel-time anomalies between the two earthquakes, the sum of the squared differences in the projected residuals, has a chi-squared distribution with m ∩ degrees of freedom, where m ∩ is the dimension of the subspace of intersection. This is a the basis for a formal statistical test used to discriminate such anomalies. Examples using synthetic data demonstrate the projection operator does work as predicted, but is limited to some extent by complications due to nonlinearity. The method is also applied to data from three earthquake swarms recorded by the Coso seismic network, in east-central California. These calculations reveal detectable differences in travel-time anomalies associated with these clusters of earthquakes. Apparently, significant lateral velocity variations exist at Coso over scales ≈ 2 km.
Parallelization of Change Point Detection

The change point detection method (Watkins, L. P.; Yang, H. J. Phys. Chem. B 2005, 109, 617) allows the objective identification and isolation of abrupt changes along a data series. Because this method is grounded in statistical tests, it is particularly powerful for probing complex and noisy signals without artificially imposing a kinetics model. The original algorithm, however, has a time complexity of O(N2), where N is the size of the data and is, therefore, limited in its scalability. This paper puts forth a parallelization of change point detection to address these time and memory constraints. This parallelization method was evaluated by applying it to changes in the mean of Gaussian-distributed data and found that time decreases superlinearly with respect to the number of processes (i.e., parallelization with two processes takes less than half of the time of one process). Moreover, there was minimal reduction in detection power. These results suggest that our parallelization algorithm is a viable sc...
Spectral Characterization of Cucurbitacins in a Bitter Mutant of Hawkesbury Watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris Schrad) that Elicit a Feeding Response to Diabroticite Beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

Fractions obtained by open-column flash chromatography of a crude methanolic extract of the rind of a bitter mutant of Hawkesbury watermelon, Citrullus vulgaris Schrad, were further purified by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to isolate chemical component(s) that elicit a visitation/feeding stimulancy response to the southern corn rootworm, Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi Barber. Activity of chromatographic fractions were followed with a laboratory bioassay involving total insect-response counts. The chemical structure of the most active component in C. vulgaris was confirmed by chemical ionization mass spectrometry and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to be cucurbitacin-E glycoside. Two other cucurbitacin-like compounds were isolated and structures for them postulated. A procedure to prepare a crude, biologically active, extract of C. vulgaris is reported. Dose-response data for the crude extract in laboratory tests against two diabroticite beetles D. undecimpun...
Broadband Oscillator-Free THz Pulse Generation and Radiation Based on Direct Digital-to-Impulse Architecture

Broadband 0.03–1.1 THz signal generation and radiation are demonstrated based on an oscillator-free direct digital-to-impulse architecture with a 1.9-ps full width at half maximum and 130-GHz 3-dB bandwidth (BW) (200-GHz 10-dB BW) centered at 160 GHz. The radiated pulse achieves a peak pulse effective isotropic-radiated power of 19.2 dBm and peak pulse-radiated power of 2.6 mW. An ON/OFF impulse-shaping technique is introduced and implemented to suppress undesired ringing and to increase dc-to-radiated efficiency. The frequency-comb spectrum of the radiated pulse train with 5.2-GHz repetition rate is measured up to 1.1 THz. At a distance of 4 cm, the measured received SNR at 1 and 1.1 THz is 28 and 22 dB, respectively. A 1.1-THz tone is measured with a 10-dB spectral width of 2 Hz, demonstrating an extremely narrow spectral line width (two parts per trillion). Time-domain picosecond pulses are characterized using a custom femtosecond-laser-based terahertz time-domain spectroscopy system. Coherent spatial combining from two widely spaced chips is demonstrated. It is shown that the starting time of the radiated pulses is locked to the edge of the input digital trigger with a timing jitter of 270 fs. The chip is fabricated in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS process technology.
Multidecadal stability in tropical rain forest structure and dynamics across an old-growth landscape.

Have tropical rain forest landscapes changed directionally through recent decades? To answer this question requires tracking forest structure and dynamics through time and across within-forest environmental heterogeneity. While the impacts of major environmental gradients in soil nutrients, climate and topography on lowland tropical rain forest (TRF) structure and function have been extensively analyzed, the effects of the shorter environmental gradients typical of mesoscale TRF landscapes remain poorly understood. To evaluate multi-decadal performance of an old-growth TRF at the La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica, we established 18 0.5-ha annually-censused forest inventory plots in a stratified-random design across major landscape edaphic gradients. Over the 17-year study period, there were moderate differences in stand dynamics and structure across these gradients but no detectable difference in woody productivity. We found large effects on forest structure and dynamics from the mega-Nino event at the outset of the study, with subdecadal recovery and subsequent stabilization. To extend the timeline to >40 years, we combined our findings with those from earlier studies at this site. While there were annual to multiannual variations in the structure and dynamics, particularly in relation to local disturbances and the mega-Nino event, at the longer temporal scale and broader spatial scale this landscape was remarkably stable. This stability contrasts notably with a current hypothesis of increasing biomass and dynamics of TRF, which we term the Bigger and Faster Hypothesis (B&FHo). We consider possible reasons for the contradiction and conclude that it is currently not possible to independently assess the vast majority of previously published B&FHo evidence due to restricted data access.
Transoral robotic surgery for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma in the era of human papillomavirus.

Background The emergence of transoral robotic surgery (TORS) ignited the debate between surgical and nonsurgical strategies on oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) management; a question further complicated by human papillomavirus (HPV). We evaluated the survival by treatment strategy independently in HPV-related and HPV-nonrelated oropharyngeal SCC. Methods The National Cancer Database was queried for patients with oropharyngeal SCC with known HPV status who underwent primary TORS or primary radiotherapy. The overall survival (OS) was compared by treatment strategy, including propensity matching to control for confounders. Results Of 1873 patients, 73% were HPV-positive and 30% were treated with TORS. The propensity-matched patients with HPV-positive disease displayed no significant difference in 3-year survival; 95% versus 91% (P = .116) for the TORS versus primary radiotherapy. In the HPV-negative cohort, TORS was associated with superior survival; 84% versus 66% (P = .01). Conclusion The TORS-based approach was associated with superior survival in patients with HPV-negative oropharyngeal SCC; similar difference was not observed in patients with HPV-positive disease.
Prescriptive analytics for human resource planning in the professional services industry

Abstract In this paper, we examine human resource planning decisions made at firms that sell contract-based consulting projects. High levels of uncertainty in deals and revenue forecasts make it challenging for consulting firms to hire the right people to staff their projects. We present a human resource planning model using concepts from robust optimization to allow companies to dynamically make hiring decisions that maximize profit while remaining as flexible as possible, and demonstrate potential profit improvements through simulation on real data.
How To Color Claw-Free Perfect Graphs

An O(n4) minimum coloring algorithm on claw-free perfect graphs is presented. The algorithm proceeds recursively as follows. Let x be any vertex of G. Having colored the subgraph G\x using no more than ω(G) (the size of a maximum clique in G) colors, the algorithm shows how to color G using no more than ω(G) colors. The algorithm demonstrates that the size of a minimum coloring is equal to the size of a maximum clique for graphs containing no claws, odd holes or odd anti-holes, hence it provides an alternative proof that the strong perfect graph conjecture is true for claw-free graphs.
Hormone-Behavior Analysis

Current research on hormones and behavior deals with two distinct, but related aspects of hormone action, the effects of hormones on behavior controlled by a fixed substrate and the effects of hormones on the development and differentiation of the substrate for behavior. These have often been called the “activating” and “organizing” actions of hormones, respectively. Within the context of both of these modes of action of hormones, I would like to discuss certain methodological considerations and contemporary approaches to the endocrinological analysis of behavior.
Predicting Rare Classes: Comparing Two-Phase Rule Induction to Cost-Sensitive Boosting

Learning good classifier models of rare events is a challenging task. On such problems, the recently proposed two-phase rule induction algorithm, PNrule, outperforms other non-meta methods of rule induction. Boosting is a strong meta-classifier approach, and has been shown to be adaptable to skewed class distributions. PNrule's key feature is to identify the relevant false positives and to collectively remove them. In this paper, we qualitatively argue that this ability is not guaranteed by the boosting methodology. We simulate learning scenarios of varying difficulty to demonstrate that this fundamental qualitative difference in the two mechanisms results in existence of many scenarios in which PNrule achieves comparable or significantly better performance than AdaCost, a strong cost-sensitive boosting algorithm. Even a comparable performance by PNrule is desirable because it yields a more easily interpretable model over an ensemble of models generated by boosting. We also show similar supporting results on real-world and benchmark datasets.
Multilayer Social Networks

Abstract Many real-world complex systems can be described by multilayer networks where a set of elementary units (e.g., human, gene, sensor, or other types of “nodes”) are connected by intralayer and interlayer relationships (“edges”). Social network data are one of the best-known examples of multilayer networks, where social entities are linked due to a social tie and each layer represents a different type of relationship. Networks changing over time (dynamic networks) can also be placed in a multilayer framework. In this chapter, we begin by introducing various types and formulations of multilayer networks; centrality measures for multilayer networks are discussed, including how they differ from single-layer counterparts. We also review community detection methods for multilayer networks. We then discuss topology estimation of multilayer networks, particularly in the more specific case of dynamic networks, and discuss some recent techniques. Lastly, two empirical studies of multilayer networks are explored, based on social media and biological data, respectively. We demonstrate some of the ideas in the chapter to explore and exploit the multilayer nature of these examples.
Having Your Cake and Eating It, Too: Factors Impacting Perception of Life Satisfaction During Outside Partnerships

Considering both the prevalence of infidelity and the preoccupation in the U.S. with achieving personal happiness, the question of whether participating in affairs increases perception of life satisfaction is a relevant one. This study utilized a sample population of married individuals specifically seeking extramarital sexual encounters (n = 1070) and investigated those factors which influence the individual’s overall perception of life satisfaction before, during, and after their affairs. Findings indicate that while affairs do tend to make respondents happy, a number of factors influence perception of life satisfaction during an affair, including a belief that an outside partner is required to remain in a primary partnership, a desire to remain in the primary partnership, at least biweekly sexual events with the outside partner, a belief that the individual loves their outside partner, and seeking out the partnership due to sexual dissatisfaction within the primary partnership. There was also a gender effect. A surprising finding was that even after the outside partnership ends, respondents reported a higher life satisfaction rating than before the outside partnership.
Estriol-mediated neuroprotection in multiple sclerosis localized by voxel-based morphometry.

Author(s): MacKenzie-Graham, Allan; Brook, Jenny; Kurth, Florian; Itoh, Yuichiro; Meyer, Cassandra; Montag, Michael J; Wang, He-Jing; Elashoff, Robert; Voskuhl, Rhonda R | Abstract: IntroductionProgressive gray matter (GM) atrophy is a hallmark of multiple sclerosis (MS). Cognitive impairment has been observed in 40%-70% of MS patients and has been linked to GM atrophy. In a phase 2 trial of estriol treatment in women with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), higher estriol levels correlated with greater improvement on the paced auditory serial addition test (PASAT) and imaging revealed sparing of localized GM in estriol-treated compared to placebo-treated patients. To better understand the significance of this GM sparing, the current study explored the relationships between the GM sparing and traditional MRI measures and clinical outcomes.MethodsSixty-two estriol- and forty-nine placebo-treated RRMS patients underwent clinical evaluations and brain MRI. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to evaluate voxelwise GM sparing from high-resolution T1-weighted scans.ResultsA region of treatment-induced sparing (TIS) was defined as the areas where GM was spared in estriol- as compared to placebo-treated groups, localized primarily within the frontal and parietal cortices. We observed that TIS volume was directly correlated with improvement on the PASAT. Next, a longitudinal cognitive disability-specific atlas (DSA) was defined by correlating voxelwise GM volumes with PASAT scores, that is, areas where less GM correlated with less improvement in PASAT scores. Finally, overlap between the TIS and the longitudinal cognitive DSA revealed a specific region of cortical GM that was preserved in estriol-treated subjects that was associated with better performance on the PASAT.ConclusionsDiscovery of this region of overlap was biology driven, not based on an a priori structure of interest. It included the medial frontal cortex, an area previously implicated in problem solving and attention. These findings indicate that localized GM sparing during estriol treatment was associated with improvement in cognitive testing, suggesting a clinically relevant, disability-specific biomarker for clinical trials of candidate neuroprotective treatments in MS.
Effect of Baseline Impedance on Ablation Lesion Dimensions: A Multimodality Concept Validation From Physics to Clinical Experience.

Background: Radiofrequency ablation using irrigated catheters is performed using a power-controlled mode. However, lesion size is dependent on current delivery at a particular impedance, such that ...
Household food insecurity is associated with binge-eating disorder and obesity.

Background Food insecurity stems from limited financial resources. Yet, paradoxically, food insecurity is associated with overeating and excess weight. One subcategory of overeating is binge eating, which includes eating an unusually large amount of food while feeling a concurrent sense of loss of control. Associations between binge-eating disorder and food insecurity are not known, yet this is important to examine because binge eating is associated with more severe mental and physical health problems than overeating or obesity alone. Method Survey respondents (N = 1,250) were recruited online. Participants were categorized into study groups: healthy weight (HW), binge-eating disorder (BED), and obesity (OB). Using HW as a reference group, hierarchical logistic regressions evaluated the extent to which low and very low food security were associated with BED and OB. Results Low food security and very low food security were both associated with increased likelihood of BED and OB group membership. Conclusions Results highlight the need to devote resources towards policy revisions, preventative interventions, and psychiatric treatments aimed at decreasing the overall association of food insecurity with BED and obesity among low-income Americans.
Germline Engineering and Human Rights

With the ever-increasing range of medical technologies at our disposal to mediate the processes of life, from conception to death, comes an ever-increasing number of decision points about human control of fate. And as we debate altering our fate—whether dictated by a deity or by chance—the discussion frequently devolves into a question of whether we may alter not only our own fate, but also that of our children. The advent of genome editing, whether by older methods or the newer, often more easily used methods employing CRISPR, has only made debating the controversial possibility of heritable “germline” editing more urgent. The advent of genome editing, whether by older methods or the newer, often more easily used methods employing CRISPR, has only made debating the controversial possibility of heritable “germline” editing more urgent. On the eve of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, held at the end of November 2018 in Hong Kong, a startling and disturbing story began circulating - a Chinese researcher announced the first births of children whose genomes had been edited at the embryonic stage. The work (assuming the claim can be verified) suffered from myriad problems, beginning with the lack of a compelling medical need, and including inadequate preclinical research, lack of peer review, flawed subject recruitment and consent procedures, and an apparent disregard for both formal and informal rules governing genetic manipulation of embryos. The summit's organizing committee issued a statement, distinguishing this experiment from what would be a responsible translational pathway forward. But not surprisingly, others around the world immediately called for a global, enforceable prohibition on such genetic engineering. On the occasion of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR)’s seventieth anniversary, this essay argues that the current human rights law on germline editing misunderstands both the mechanisms of genetics and the moral basis for human rights, suggesting a more nuanced approach as we move forward and keep pace with new gene-editing technologies.
Photo-induced formation of organic nanoparticles possessing enhanced affinities for complexing nerve agent mimics

Molecular baskets 16−–36−, functionalized with α-amino acids at their rim, undergo photo-induced α-decarboxylations to give amphiphilic 43−–63− assembling into nanoparticles. Nanoparticulate 43−–63− possess greater affinities for complexing OPs (akin to sarin and cyclosarin) than monomeric 16−–36−. With the ability of nanoparticles to function in urine, our study sets the stage for creating novel nanocarriers capable of spatiotemporal sequestration of nerve agents or pesticides in competitive chemical environments.
HIV in Faith Communities: Utilizing Clergy as opinion leaders to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma

AbstractHIV/AIDS continues to impact communities of color at disproportionate rates. The Black church remains the most influential institution in the African-American community. This single institu...
Development of in situ composites via reactive friction stir processing of Ti–B4C system

Abstract In situ titanium matrix composites were fabricated by introducing an exothermic reaction between Ti and B4C during friction stir processing (FSP). Formation of TiB, TiB2, and TiC was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy along with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and diffraction pattern. TiB and TiB2 whiskers and TiC particles influenced the dynamic recrystallization process, which facilitated an equiaxed grained structure rather than the Widmanstatten microstructure. Mechanical properties of as-received Ti–6Al–4V including hardness, elastic modulus, compressive yield strength and work-hardening rate (stage B) were improved by ∼ 57%, 17%, 47% and 100%, respectively, after FSP with B4C.