cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Invariance of workload in queueing systems

In multi-server systems, invariance of workload is a key step in establishing conservation and strong conservation laws. Although several articles have dealt with the issue, invariance of workload has been either assumed, asserted without proof, or the proof given is unsatisfactory, except when service times are exponential. In this article we consider a multi-server queueing system with a work-conserving, non-preemptive, and non-anticipative scheduling rule and give a proof for the invariance of the workload in queue and in system for all such rules. We also show that invariance of workload holds for a subclass of strict priority rules.
The Role of Laser Speckle Imaging in Port-Wine Stain Research: Recent Advances and Opportunities

Here, we review our current knowledge on the etiology and treatment of port-wine stain (PWS) birthmarks. Current treatment options have significant limitations in terms of efficacy. With the combination of 1) a suitable preclinical microvascular model, 2) laser speckle imaging (LSI) to evaluate blood-flow dynamics, and 3) a longitudinal experimental design, rapid preclinical assessment of new phototherapies can be translated from the lab to the clinic. The combination of photodynamic therapy (PDT) and pulsed-dye laser (PDL) irradiation achieves a synergistic effect that reduces the required radiant exposures of the individual phototherapies to achieve persistent vascular shutdown. PDL combined with antiangiogenic agents is a promising strategy to achieve persistent vascular shutdown by preventing reformation and reperfusion of photocoagulated blood vessels. Integration of LSI into the clinical workflow may lead to surgical image guidance that maximizes acute photocoagulation, which is expected to improve PWS therapeutic outcome. Continued integration of noninvasive optical imaging technologies and biochemical analysis collectively are expected to lead to more robust treatment strategies.
Evidence-based medicine has been hijacked: a report to David Sackett.

This is a confession building on a conversation with David Sackett in 2004 when I shared with him some personal adventures in evidence-based medicine (EBM), the movement that he had spearheaded. The narrative is expanded with what ensued in the subsequent 12 years. EBM has become far more recognized and adopted in many places, but not everywhere, for example, it never acquired much influence in the USA. As EBM became more influential, it was also hijacked to serve agendas different from what it originally aimed for. Influential randomized trials are largely done by and for the benefit of the industry. Meta-analyses and guidelines have become a factory, mostly also serving vested interests. National and federal research funds are funneled almost exclusively to research with little relevance to health outcomes. We have supported the growth of principal investigators who excel primarily as managers absorbing more money. Diagnosis and prognosis research and efforts to individualize treatment have fueled recurrent spurious promises. Risk factor epidemiology has excelled in salami-sliced data-dredged articles with gift authorship and has become adept to dictating policy from spurious evidence. Under market pressure, clinical medicine has been transformed to finance-based medicine. In many places, medicine and health care are wasting societal resources and becoming a threat to human well-being. Science denialism and quacks are also flourishing and leading more people astray in their life choices, including health. EBM still remains an unmet goal, worthy to be attained.
The Tie That Binds—Has Become Very, Very Frayed!

The relationship between employer and employee has gone through a metamorphosis during the past two decades. It has changed from one of mutual dependence and relative permanence to one of self-reliance and temporariness. It has changed from one of high commitment and strong loyalty to one of “what have you done for me lately?” Today the emotional bond (corporate knot) has become severely strained. Executives in the 1990s must recognize this transformation and manage employees accordingly. In this article, we present reasons for this evolution and address how it has affected organizational life. Specific implications for executive policies and management practices during the 1990s are described.
A Quantitative Analysis of Nominative/Genitive Alternation in Japanese

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt: Based on his grammaticality judgment test, Harada (1971) claimed that there is an ongoing change, whereby the speakers of Tokyo Japanese increasingly prefer ga to no in relevant environments. In this paper, I present a quantitative analysis using the Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese. The goal of this study is not only to validate the findings in Nambu (2007) and Nambu and Matsuda (2007), but also to give another perspective on the variation.
Development of a GnRH radioimmunoassay utilizing a superactive synthetic GnRH analog: D-[Lys6]-GnRH.

SummarySpecific, high titer anti-GnRH antisera were obtained following immunization of rabbits with a conjugate of thyroglobulin and D-[Lys6]-GnRH. D-[Lys6]-GnRH was chosen to take advantage of an ∊-amino group in the center of the peptide chain and three carbons away from the chain as a unique point of conjugation. The RIA developed with this antisera was validated for the measurement of GnRH in plasma and hypothalamic supernatants. Studies of GnRH metabolic clearance indicated that multicompartmental clearance by different organs was a probable explanation for the rapid disappearance of GnRH from the peripheral circulation.
Research opportunities concerning youth and the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

Enactment of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act creates a number of research opportunities, some of which are mandated by the statute. The Act establishes Food and Drug Administration jurisdiction over tobacco and reestablishes the FDA regulations initially issued in 1996 concerning the sale of tobacco to minors. The public health value of enforcing restrictions on the sale of tobacco to minors is now well established, but many questions remain regarding the most efficient approach to enforcement. Evaluations are needed concerning the effectiveness of restrictions on the distribution of free samples, restrictions on advertising of cigarettes to youth, and enforcement of sales restrictions on Indian lands. The potential impact of raising the minimum age for tobacco sales to 21 years needs investigation. Legal and regulatory strategies to encourage tobacco manufacturers to take responsibility for keeping their products out of the hands of children need to be explored.
Using Layered Manufacturing to Create Textured Microstructures in Si3N4 Ceramics

In recent years, seeding has been shown to be an effective method to create textured microstructures in Si 3N4, Al2O3 and PZT ceramics. The objective of this research is to create anisotropic and textured Si3N4 parts using the Fused Deposition of Ceramics (FDC) process. This technique is currently being developed to fabricate high performance structural Si 3N4 based components. In order to create the textured microstructures, rod-like β-Si3N4 seed particles are introduced into the FDC feedstock filaments. In this study, anisometric β-Si3N4 seeds were introduced into the starting α-Si3N4 powder (Honeywell’s AS800 grade) at a 10 vol.% loading. The effects of the seeds (aspect ratio ~4) on the viscosity and resultant microstructure were evaluated using capillary rheology, scanning electron microscopy, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) measurements, and x-ray diffraction. It is observed that the seeds do align during filament extrusion and a significant texture has been detected by x-ray diffraction and CTE measurements in FDC feedstock filaments and sintered FDC parts.
Abstract 3072: miR-551b amplification regulates STAT3 expression and resistance to anoikis of ovarian cancer cells

Background and Hypothesis: The 3q26.2 locus is highly amplified in high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). Recently we identified two microRNAs, miR569 and miR551b are located in the 3q26 amplicon are highly expressed in the HGSOC due to the 3q26.2 amplification. However, the potential role of microRNAs amplified at 3q26 amplicon and their functions in tumorigenesis have not been well studied. In this study we have identified the mechanism how miR551b promote the tumor growth and metastasis of ovarian cancer cells. Methods and Results: High-resolution SNP-based copy number analysis of 533 high-grade serous ovarian cancer samples demonstrated that miR551b is highly amplified in ∼35% of HGSOC patients’ samples. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis of ovarian cancer samples demonstrated a marked increase in the level of mature miR551b in tumors with the 3q26.2 amplicon, relative to the non-amplified tumor samples as a consequence of the 3q26.2 amplicon. Of note, miR551b is expressed highly in the metastatic tumors than the primary tumors of ovary. Our reverse phase protein array (RPPA) demonstrated that enforced expression of miR551b increased the expression c-KIT, STAT3 and PCNA proteins. Importantly miR551b expression activated the ERK signaling pathway and inhibited the expression of BIM protein. Strikingly, the expression of miR551b induced the survival and proliferation of ovarian surface epithelial cells detached from extracellular matrix. Knock down of STAT3 using target specific siRNA abrogate the miR551b mediated c-KIT and PCNA expression and abolished the resistance to anoikis. Summary: Our results posit that copy number alterations (CNAs) of miR551b primarily regulate the increased levels of mature miR551b. Mechanistic studies revealed that miR-551b regulate the expression of important oncogenes such as STAT3 and c-KIT, in turn causes resistance to anoikis. Resistance to anoikis is the key mechanism enhances the survival and metastasis of ovarian cancer cells in the peritoneal cavity. Of note our results demonstrates that miR-551b regulate c-Kit expression in STAT3 dependent manner. In conclusion, our results propose that the STAT3 expression induced by miR551b is the key mechanism regulates survival and metastasis of HGSOC cells. Citation Format: Pradeep Chaluvally Raghavan, Sunila Pradeep, Yiling Lu, Anil Sood, Gordon Mills. miR-551b amplification regulates STAT3 expression and resistance to anoikis of ovarian cancer cells. [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 3072. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3072
5-Azacytidine increases gamma-globin synthesis and reduces the proportion of dense cells in patients with sickle cell anemia

We previously demonstrated that 5-azacytidine can selectively increase gamma-globin synthesis in a patient with beta +-thalassemia, prompting us to treat two patients with sickle cell anemia and two additional patients with beta + thalassemia. 5-Azacytidine (2 mg/kg/day) was continuously infused for 7 days with no apparent clinical toxicity. The gamma/beta-globin biosynthetic ratio increased fourfold to sixfold in the bone marrow cells of each patient after treatment and remained elevated for 7-14 additional days. Hypomethylation of DNA near the gamma-globin genes in bone marrow cells was demonstrated 2 days after beginning the 5-azacytidine infusion. The peripheral blood fetal hemoglobin (HbF) level increased from 6.0% to 13.7% in one patient with sickle cell anemia and from 1.6% to 8.9% in the second. Stractan gradient analyses of peripheral blood from patients with sickle cell anemia revealed a marked decrease in the percentage of dense cells (cells that contain increased amounts of HbS polymer when deoxygenated) following treatment. These observations provide an impetus to investigate the effects of repeated courses of 5-azacytidine in a small group of severely ill patients to determine whether this drug may have a role in the treatment of patients with sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia.
Convergence Properties of Posttranslationally Modified Protein–Protein Switching Networks with Fast Decay Rates

A significant conceptual difficulty in the use of switching systems to model regulatory networks is the presence of so-called "black walls," co-dimension 1 regions of phase space with a vector field pointing inward on both sides of the hyperplane. Black walls result from the existence of direct negative self-regulation in the system. One biologically inspired way of removing black walls is the introduction of intermediate variables that mediate the negative self-regulation. In this paper, we study such a perturbation. We replace a switching system with a higher-dimensional switching system with rapidly decaying intermediate proteins, and compare the dynamics between the two systems. We find that the while the individual solutions of the original system can be approximated for a finite time by solutions of a sufficiently close perturbed system, there are always solutions that are not well approximated for any fixed perturbation. We also study a particular example, where global basins of attraction of the perturbed system have a strikingly different form than those of the original system. We perform this analysis using techniques that are adapted to dealing with non-smooth systems.
Graph Geometry via Metrics

Graphs have long been recognized to provide a fundamental means of representing classical molecular structures, and hence also the underlying actual molecule, though the representation is incomplete, suppressing to some extent certain geometric and quantum-theoretic details. Clearly graphs incorporate some degree of structural information for identifying (bonded) neighbor pairs, and there may be even more implicit geometrical information (at least for molecular structures which are stable). Because distance is so fundamental to geometry, it is natural to study graphical distances to develop a “graph geometry”. As long ago pioneered by Harry Wiener, distance functions of purely graphical origin are considered, and a line of thought suggestive of “graph geometry” is pursued. Connection to Fiedler's “geometric approach” to graphs is made, some geometrically interpretable graph invariants are described, and possible chemical relevance are indicated. A formal theory is described for the comparison of different metrics either intrinsic or extrinsic (such as the Euclidean metric for suitable embeddings in Euclidean 3-space). A formal theory of comparisons of the basic metrics is indicated, thereby leading to a number of novel geometry-related graph invariants as well as characteristics comparing graph-theoretic quantities to various embeddings of graphs in ordinary Euclidean space. A mathematical formulation and theorems gives the presentation elegant precision and presumably also indicates “substance”. But also general discussion of the mathematical ideas and results are made with special reference to chemistry. Overall, it is suggested that there is a fundamentally relevant intrinsic graph geometry.
AN IMPLEMENTATION OF A SYSTEM USING HEURISTICS TO SUPPORT DECISIONS ABOUT SHOP FLOOR SETUP CHANGES

Shop floor scheduling remains as one of the hardest and most researched problems in management science. Heuristic approaches to solving such problems are widely acknowledged as a feasible way to proceed. This paper describes a shop floor problem at a real manufacturing facility, where a knowledge-based system was installed and used for supporting decisions related to scheduling. The specific problem dealt with scheduling the setup changes on machines that are at the final stage of a multi-stage processing sequence.
The power of meta-analysis to address an important clinical question in obstetrics.

After 17 years of collaborative research, a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on cerclage for singleton gestations with a prior spontaneous preterm birth and with a short transvaginal ultrasound cervical length
Comparing Before- and After-School Neurocognitive Performance in High School Athletes: Implications for Concussion Management.

OBJECTIVE To compare before- and after-school neurocognitive performance and total symptoms in a sample of nonconcussed high school athletes. DESIGN Repeated-measures, counterbalanced design. SETTING Midwest high schools. PARTICIPANTS Thirty-nine nonconcussed high school athletes. INTERVENTIONS The Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing battery was administered before and after school in a counterbalanced testing order. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Neurocognitive and total symptom scores. RESULTS Paired-sample t tests revealed no significant differences in verbal memory (P = 0.43), visual memory (P = 0.44), processing speed (P = 0.94), reaction time (P = 0.16), or total symptoms (P = 0.52) between before- and after-school testing sessions. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study expand on best practice guidelines for baseline and postinjury concussion computerized neurocognitive testing and symptom report administration. This study suggests that sports medicine professionals can administer computerized neurocognitive testing before or after school without concern of confounding factors affecting performance or total symptoms.
Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography Improves Pre-operative Risk Stratification Before the Total Cavopulmonary Connection.

Introduction Single-ventricle patients with elevated pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) or end-diastolic pressure (EDP) are excluded from undergoing total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC). However, a subset of patients deemed to be at acceptable risk experience prolonged length of stay (LOS) after TCPC. Routine assessment of ventricular function has been inadequate in identifying these high-risk patients. Speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) is a novel method for assessment of myocardial deformation that may be useful in single-ventricle patients. The aim of this study was to perform a contemporary preoperative risk assessment for prolonged LOS to determine whether STE improves risk stratification before TCPC. Methods Our single institution's perioperative data were retrospectively collected. The primary outcome was postoperative LOS >14 days. Longitudinal and circumferential STE deformation measures were analyzed on echocardiograms obtained during preoperative catheterization. Patient-specific, echocardiographic, and catheterization data were included in multivariable logistic regression. Receiver operating characteristic area under the curves (AUC) were analyzed. Results From 2007 to 2014, 135 patients who underwent TCPC were included in the analysis. The median LOS was 11 (IQR 9-14) days. The PVR ( P P 14 days. For every 0.1 s −1 CSR increased, there was a 20% increased odds of prolonged LOS. The AUC for CSR was 0.70. The AUC for PVR and EDP combined was 0.68. The AUC for PVR, EDP, and CSR combined was 0.73. Conclusion Preoperative CSR is independently associated with LOS >14 days and improves preoperative risk stratification in patients undergoing TCPC.
Multiparameter martingale and Markov process

In this paper we focus on the concepts of martingales and Markov processes as generalized to processes with a multidimensional parameter, and briefly review some of the known results on these two topics. We then introduce the recently developed notion of stochastic differential form and indicate how it can be related to martingales and Markov processes with a multidimensional parameter.
Covert communication over broadcast channels

We analyze a two-receiver binary-input discrete memoryless broadcast channel, in which the transmitter communicates a common message simultaneously to both users and a covert message to only one of them while treating the other as an adversary. This model captures the problem of embedding covert messages in an innocuous codebook and generalizes previous models in which the innocent behavior corresponds to the absence of communication between legitimate users. We identify the exact asymptotic behavior of the number of reliable and covert bits when the rate of the innocuous codebook is close to the channel capacity of the adversary. In particular, our results characterize the dependence of the number of covert bits on the channel parameters and the characteristics of the innocent codebook.
Realtime query completion via deep language models

Search engine users nowadays heavily depend on query completion and correction to shape their queries. Typically, the completion is done by database lookup which does not understand the context and cannot generalize to prefixes not in the database. In the paper, we propose to use unsupervised deep language models to complete and correct the queries given an arbitrary prefix. We show how to address two main challenges that renders this method practical for large-scale deployment: 1) we propose a method for integrating error correction into the language model completion via a edit-distance potential and a variant of beam search that can exploit these potential functions; and 2) we show how to efficiently perform CPU-based computation to complete the queries, with error correction, in real time (generating top 10 completions within 16 ms). Experiments show that the method substantially increases hit rate over standard approaches, and is capable of handling tail queries.
Surgical management of aldosterone-producing adrenal adenomas

Summary Tabulation of the diagnostic evaluation and operative treatment of 16 patients with aldosteroneproducing adrenal adenomas is presented. The diagnosis of primary aldosteronism was confirmed in all patients by biochemical and radiologic studies. Selective venous sampling of adrenal vein aldosterone localized the adenoma in 14 patients and proved to be the single most helpful diagnostic procedure. Computed tomography was used recently to confirm the localization of these interesting lesions and may become the initial noninvasive diagnostic study. Confidence in the accuracy of preoperative localization has led to the choice of the posterior approach to the involved adrenal gland. Postoperative morbidity has been low regardless of the operative approach; however, subjective patient acceptance of posterior adrenalectomy suggests a more comfortable convalescence and a more rapid return to normal activity.
Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals molecular response to salinity stress of salt-tolerant and sensitive genotypes of indica rice at seedling stage

Abiotic stresses, such as salinity, greatly threaten the growth and productivity of plants. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important food crops, as well as a monocot model for genomic research. To obtain a global view of the molecular response to salinity stress, we conducted a leaf transcriptome analysis on rice seedlings. Two cultivars of rice subspecies indica, including the salt-tolerant genotype Xian156 and the salt-sensitive genotype IR28, were used in the present study. Eighteen RNA libraries were obtained from these two genotypes at three timepoints (0 h, 48 h and 72 h) after applying salinity stress. We obtained the reference-guided assembly of the rice transcriptome, which resulted in 1,375 novel genes, including 1,371 annotated genes. A comparative analysis between genotypes and time points showed 5,273 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), of which 286 DEGs were only found in the tolerant genotype. The Disease resistance response protein 206 and TIFY 10 A were differentially expressed, which were validated by quantitative real-time PCR. The differentially expressed genes identified through the mRNA transcriptome, along with the structure, provide a revealing insight into rice molecular response to salinity stress and underlie the salinity tolerance mechanism between genotypes.
Microsatellite instability and adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II colon cancer.

767Background: Randomized control trials and population-based studies have not demonstrated a definitive benefit for adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II colon cancers. Tumor side and microsatellite i...
The Fourth Amendment: Internal Revenue Code or a Body of Principles?

The Supreme Court has made the body of Fourth Amendment law too complicated, inconsistent, and confusing. Prior to Mapp v. Ohio, in 1961, the Court focused its attention on federal law enforcement and devoted less of its docket to criminal procedure cases. After Mapp, the Court was called upon to review state cases and forced to deal with the myriad of state law enforcement issues that inevitably arise. Since Mapp, the Court has made the meaning of the relatively few words that constitute the Fourth Amendment extremely complicated, so that the total body of Fourth Amendment law has begun to take on the shape of an Internal Revenue Code (a hodgepodge of rules enacted by ever-shifting coalitions of decision makers) rather than a body of coherent principles (of the type often associated with judicial decisions and reasoning). This article offers examples of the unsatisfactory present state of the law, suggests alternatives to the Court's holdings, seeks to demonstrate why principled rules provide clearer guidance to law enforcement and citizens than arbitrary bright line rules, and explains how principled rules can enable law enforcement to do its work effectively while being true to basic Fourth Amendment values. After demonstrating the problems associated with the Court's arbitrary and inconsistent decisions, the article identifies some basic principles that should guide the Court. I explain the importance of determining whether law enforcement officials are engaging in consensual or nonconsensual conduct. I discuss seizures and Terry stops and offer suggestions on adopting principles that would make it easier for both law enforcement officers and citizens to know when a seizure occurs. I address a controversial suggestion for reform of Fourth Amendment law. Finally, I conclude with three straight-forward suggestions for making the law of searches clearer and more principled.
Solute Clusters Formation in Supersaturated Solutions

ABSTRACT Isothermal column experiments were carried out to measure concentration gradients in supersaturated solutions placed in a 40-cm vertical column. Three aqueous solution systems saturated at 30.0° C were used in the study: K 2 SO 4 , Na 2 SO 4 and NaNO 3 . The densities of the solutions at the top and bottom of the column were measured with a density meter that can measure to within 2 × 10 –5 g/ml. The results show that the concentration gradients obtained did not vary significantly with supersaturation. This observation is discussed in terms of solute clustering phenomena.
Taxonomic Distance and Human Populations of South Asia

With the emergence of what has been called genetic anthropology or anthropological genetics since the early 1950s, the traditional interest of physical anthropologists in human population affinities has persisted. The older paradigm of racial classification has, however, been largely replaced by other models. These include the use of branching tree models called dendrograms that graphically represent the general degree of genetic or anthropometric similarity or dissimilarity between populations. Such measures of taxonomic distance mathematically reduce multivariate data on population differences to single measures of the relative degree of difference between pairs of populations.
Failure to Reduce Incidence of Ischemic Heart Disease by Lowering Blood Lipids

Cardiovascular diseases continue to represent the major cause of morbidity and mortality in the developed countries, especially in young men, despite the considerable efforts and funds expended in the effort to explain and reverse the atherosclerotic process by studying and modifying fat intakes. Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is responsible for over 54% of all deaths in the United States (U.S. Dept. HEW, 1970); it is the major cause of death in most affluent communities (Editorial, Brit Med J, 1972). That the problem has increased during this century, particularly in young and middle-aged men, is indicated by two types of studies: (1) retrospective analyses of large numbers of necropsies (over 6000 each) in a large city hospital (Saphir et al., 1956) and from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (Pettyjohn and McMeekin, 1975); and (2) examination of the hearts of military men coming to autopsy in World War II (Yater et al, 1948, 1951; Moritz and Zamcheck, 1947), the Korean War (Enos et al., 1955), and the Vietnamese War (Macomber, 1971; McNamara et al., 1971; Wroblewski, 1971), and of victims of aircraft fatalities (Glantz and Stembridge, 1959). The study at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago (Saphir et al., 1956) showed that there was an increase in frequency of coronary artery disease in subjects under 50 from 5.9% in 1920–1939, to 14.1% in 1940–1949, to 25.5% in 1950–1953. This did not take into account the almost twofold greater frequency of IHD in men than women.
Middle Fossa Approach for Resection of an Intracanalicular Vestibular Schwannoma.

Objective This video was aimed to demonstrate the middle fossa approach for the resection of an intracanalicular vestibular schwannoma. Design Present study is a video case report. Setting The operative video is showing a microsurgical resection. Participant The patient was a 59-year-old man who presented with worsening headache and right-side hearing loss. He was found to have a right intracanalicular vestibular schwannoma. After weighing risks and benefits, he chose surgery to remove his tumor. Since his hearing remained “serviceable,” a middle fossa approach was chosen. Main Outcome Measures Pre- and postoperative patient photographs evaluated the muscles of facial expression as a marker for facial nerve preservation. Results A right middle fossa craniotomy was performed which allowed access to the floor of the middle cranial fossa. The greater superficial petrosal nerve (GSPN) and arcuate eminence were identified. Using these two landmarks, the internal acoustic canal (IAC) was localized. After drilling the petrous bone, the IAC was unroofed. The facial nerve was identified by stimulation and visual inspection and the tumor was separated from it with microsurgical dissection. In the end, the tumor was fully resected. Both the facial and cochlear nerves were preserved. Postoperatively, the patient experienced no facial palsy and his hearing is at baseline. Conclusion With radiosurgery gaining increasing popularity, patients with intracanalicular vestibular schwannomas are frequently treated with it, or are managed with observation. The middle fossa approach is therefore becoming a “lost art,” but as demonstrated in this video, remains an effective technique for tumor removal and nerve preservation. The link to the video can be found at: https://youtu.be/MD6o3DF6jYg .
Potential false-positive urine Legionella enzyme immunoassay test results

The objective of this study was to identify potential false-positive urine Legionella pneumophila (Legionella) enzyme immunoassay test results. A total of 107 consecutive patients with positive EIA tests were retrospectively analyzed over a 34-month period. Concurrent blood, urine, and sputum cultures, as well as chest radiographic findings, were reviewed in these patients. Twenty patients (19%) had no radiographic evidence of pulmonary disease despite a positive EIA test. In those 20 patients, 14 also had growth of non-Legionella bacteria. Of patients with an infiltrate or opacity on chest imaging, only 27 had Legionella sputum cultures obtained, with Legionella culture growth occurring in 7 (26%). Nine other patients had negative Legionella sputum cultures but the growth of another pathogenic organism in blood, sputum, and/or urine cultures. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the most common organism isolated, found in 20% of patients in the entire cohort. Twenty-five patients (23%) were characterized as having probable false-positive Legionella urinary antigen EIA testing, and an additional 17 patients (16%) were characterized as having possible false-positive Legionella EIA tests. Our findings suggest that urine Legionella EIA tests may lead to a substantial number of cases being misdiagnosed as Legionaries' disease in patients with non-Legionella bacterial colonization or infection.
Association Between Metformin Initiation and Incident Dementia Among African American and White Veterans Health Administration Patients.

PURPOSE African American patients are more likely to experience cognitive decline after type 2 diabetes mellitus onset than white patients. Metformin use has been associated with a lower risk of dementia compared with sulfonylureas. Evidence for whether this association differs by race is sparse. METHODS Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical record data were obtained for 73,761 African American and white patients aged ≥50 years who used the VHA from fiscal years 2000 to 2015. Patients were free of dementia and diabetes medications during fiscal years 2000 and 2001 and subsequently initiated metformin or sulfonylurea monotherapy. For race and age subgroups, Cox proportional hazards models using propensity scores and inverse probability of treatment weighting to control for confounding were computed to measure the association between metformin vs sulfonylurea initiation and incident dementia. RESULTS After controlling for confounding, among patients aged ≥50 years, metformin vs sulfonylurea use was associated with a significantly lower risk of dementia in African American patients (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.73; 95% CI, 0.6-0.89) but not white patients (HR = 0.96; 95% CI, 0.9-1.03). The strongest magnitude of association between metformin and dementia was observed among African American patients aged 50 to 64 years (HR = 0.6; 95% CI, 0.45-0.81). Among those aged 65 to 74 years, metformin was significantly associated with lower risk of dementia in both races. Metformin was not associated with dementia in patients aged ≥75 years. CONCLUSIONS Metformin vs sulfonylurea initiation was associated with a substantially lower risk of dementia among younger African American patients. These results may point to a novel approach for reducing the risk of dementia in African Americans with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Skeletal development in the sea urchin relies upon protein families that contain intrinsic disorder, aggregation-prone, and conserved globular interactive domains

The formation of the sea urchin spicule skeleton requires the participation of hydrogel-forming protein families that regulate mineral nucleation and nanoparticle assembly processes that give rise to the spicule. However, the structure and molecular behavior of these proteins is not well established, and thus our ability to understand this process is hampered. We embarked on a study of sea urchin spicule proteins using a combination of biophysical and bioinformatics techniques. Our biophysical findings indicate that recombinant variants of the two most studied spicule matrix proteins, SpSM50 and SpSM30B/C (S. purpuratus) have a conformational landscape that include a C-terminal random coil/intrinsically disordered MAPQG sequence coupled to a conserved, folded N-terminal C-type lectin-like (CTLL) domain, with SpSM50 > SpSM30B/C with regard to intrinsic disorder. Both proteins possess solvent-accessible unfolded MAQPG sequence regions where Asn, Gln, and Arg residues may be accessible for protein hydrogel interactions with water molecules. Our bioinformatics study included seven other spicule matrix proteins where we note similarities between these proteins and rare, unusual proteins that possess folded and unfolded traits. Moreover, spicule matrix proteins possess three types of sequences: intrinsically disordered, amyloid-like, and folded protein-protein interactive. Collectively these reactive domains would be capable of driving protein assembly and hydrogel formation. Interestingly, three types of global conformations are predicted for the nine member protein set, wherein we note variations in the arrangement of intrinsically disordered and interactive globular domains. These variations may reflect species-specific requirements for spiculogenesis. We conclude that the molecular landscape of spicule matrix protein families enables them to function as hydrogelators, nucleators, and assemblers of mineral nanoparticles.
Field experimental evidence shows that self-interest attracts more sunlight

This study examines how messaging approaches in a prosocial intervention can influence not only the effectiveness of the intervention but also, contagion afterward. Our investigation focuses on leveraging two motivations for solar adoption: self-interest and prosocial. Using data from a natural field experiment in 29 municipalities containing 684,000 people, we find that self-interest messaging is twice as effective in inducing solar adoption both during and after the intervention. Adoptions under self-interest messaging have 10% higher net present value, but prosocial messaging increases the likelihood that adopters recommend solar to their friends and neighbors. Income moderates the effectiveness of self-interest messaging, performing much better in high-income communities than low- and moderate-income communities. There was no significant difference across income groups for prosocial messaging. These results provide guidance to policy makers aiming to encourage prosocial behavior across all income groups.
Edge Computing for Legacy Applications

Edge computing was motivated by the vision of new edge-native applications that are compute-intensive, bandwidth-hungry, and latency-sensitive. We show how infrastructure deployed for such futuristic applications can also benefit virtual machine (VM)-encapsulated Windows or Linux closed-source legacy applications. We present a new capability for legacy applications called edge-based virtual desktop infrastructure (EdgeVDI), and discuss example use cases that it enables.
Stable Glasses of Organic Semiconductor Resist Crystallization

The instability of glassy solids poses a key limitation to their use in several technological applications. Well-packed organic glasses, prepared by physical vapor deposition (PVD), have drawn attention recently because they can exhibit significantly higher thermal and chemical stability than glasses prepared from more traditional routes. We show here that PVD glasses can also show enhanced resistance to crystallization. By controlling the deposition temperature, resistance toward crystallization can be enhanced by at least a factor of ten in PVD glasses of the model organic semiconductor Alq3 (tris(8-hydroxyquinolinato) aluminum). PVD glasses of Alq3 first transform into a supercooled liquid before crystallizing. By controlling the deposition temperature, we increase the glass → liquid transformation time thereby also increasing the overall time for crystallization. We thus demonstrate a new strategy to stabilize glasses of organic semiconductors against crystallization, which is a common failure mechanism in organic light emitting diode devices.
Project Westward Ho: The First New York Times West Coast Edition

In 1954, the New York Times began receiving letters from residents of California, requesting that the newspaper begin publishing a Western edition. After the Times began using tele-typesetting to p...
Social Security Administration Disability Programs and Individuals Facing Homelessness

This article examines the geographic, demographic, socioeconomic, and program-participation characteristics of initial Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) applicants who faced homelessness during 2007–2017. Using Social Security Administration data, the authors chart the distribution of homeless SSI/DI applicants and beneficiaries across county-equivalent areas in the contiguous United States. They also use a text-mining method to identify 162,536 potentially homeless disability-program applicants, in addition to the 647,790 applicants identified using the standard homeless-status indicators in the administrative data. They find that homelessness among disability-program applicants was largely an urban phenomenon, with almost half (42.1 percent) of applicants living in one of 25 urban areas. Relative to their domiciled counterparts, homeless disability-program applicants were far more likely to be male, aged 18–64, and without a high school or general equivalency diploma.
Twin Root Replacement in Congenital Heart Disease: Expert Technique.

In adult congenital heart disease, there are situations that require both the aortic and pulmonary roots to be replaced at the time of a reoperation. This commonly involves the replacement of a pre...
Do Prolonged Febrile Seizures Injure the Hippocampus? Human MRI Studies

Publisher Summary A febrile seizure is a seizure occurring in childhood after one month that is associated with a febrile illness in the absence of an infection of the central nervous system or other acute causes and with no history of previous afebrile seizures. For many years, neurologists have hypothesized that complex febrile seizures injure the hippocampus, thereby resulting in permanent hippocampal sclerosis and predisposing the individual to temporal lobe epilepsy in adulthood. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has also provided convincing evidence that prolonged seizures can produce acute brain injury that often appears to be limited to the hippocampal region. The key retrospective link established between complex febrile seizures and temporal lobe epilepsy is that adults with temporal lobe epilepsy associated with hippocampal sclerosis commonly have histories of prolonged febrile seizures in infancy. Hippocampal sclerosis occurs much less frequently in children than in adults. A pediatric case study in the chapter clearly demonstrates that status epilepticus in the absence of fever in an infant could damage the hippocampus and cause hippocampal sclerosis. MRI has provided convincing evidence that hippocampal injury can occasionally occur during very prolonged febrile seizures.
Taxi Cab Geometry: History and Applications!

We will explore three real life situations proposed in Eugene F. Krause's book Taxicab Geometry. First a dispatcher for Ideal City Police Department receives a report of an accident at X = (-1,4). There are two police cars located in the area. Car C is at (2,1) and car D is at (-1,-1). Which car should be sent? Second there are three high schools in Ideal city. Roosevelt at (2,1), Franklin at ( -3,-3) and Jefferson at (-6,-1). Draw in school district boundaries so that each student in Ideal City attends the school closet to them. For the third problem a telephone company wants to set up payphone booths so that everyone living with in twelve blocks of the center of town is with in four blocks of a payphone. Money is tight, the phone company wants to put in the least amount of payphones possible such that this is true.
Morphology and systematics in mesopsammic nemerteans of the genus Ototyphlonemertes (Nemertea, Hoplonemertea, Ototyphlonemertidae)

Interstitial nemerteans of the genus Ototyphlonemertes are difficult to organize into traditional morphospecies. They occur in a multitude of slightly different local varieties that form a seemingly continuous morphological cline. In this paper, we summarize most published morphological data on the group, plus 73 new records of geographic varieties from the Mediterranean Sea in the East to the Sea of Japan in the West. We summarize morphological variation, partition traits into character and character states, propose a standardized protocol for examination of live specimens and discuss the phylogenetic structure of the group. The phylogenetic discussion leads to a hypothesis that partitions all varieties (including the established species) into six groups. These are the smallest morphologically homogenous sets of varieties (corresponding to traditional morphospecies) we can diagnose on phylogenetically reliable traits. Variation within the groups appears to be unreliable phylogenetic markers that may distinguish ecological forms rather than relatedness. However, we distinguish four of the groups by combinations of two traits, one apomorphy for a more inclusive group and one plesiomorphy, and the remaining two by one trait each that may be either a unique plesiomorphy or an apomorphy depending on the rooting, and most of them may thus join paraphyletic groups of cryptic monophyletic units. We call this kind of group phylomorph and name them the Duplex-, Pallida-, Cirrula-, Fila-, Lactea- and Macintoshi-morph (referring to the first established species within each group, i.e. Ototyphlonemertes duplex, O. pallida, O. cirrula, O. fila, O. lactea and O. macintoshi respectively). The phylogenetic scheme provides a simple tool to allocate geographical varieties to a group of possible `species' and a phylogenetic null-hypothesis for further tests with genetic data.
Metal Complexes of Phosphoglucomutase in Vivo ALTERATIONS INDUCED BY INSULIN

Abstract A procedure is presented for measuring the relative amounts of the Mg2+ and Zn2+ forms of phosphoglucomutase in rabbit muscle extracts. The results indicate that the ratio of these forms in vivo is the same as that observed in extracts in vitro, viz., about 0.5 for mature Purdue Dutch rabbits; other phosphoglucomutase·metal species do not appear to be present in appreciable amounts. The concentration of free Mg2+ in such extracts is saturating with respect to phosphoglucomutase. These observations, together with metal binding data, provide estimates of the relative concentrations of free Mg2+ and free Zn2+ in vivo, about 106 to 1, and of the actual concentration of free Zn2+, about 10-10 m. The fraction of the total endogenous phosphoglucomutase in the Mg2+ form was essentially constant in animals treated alike; however, this fraction varied markedly in animals subjected to different treatments; viz., the fraction depended on the physiological state of the animal. Thus the fraction of the total enzyme in the Mg2+ form could be increased from about 0.35 ± 0.10 to about 0.83 ± 0.08 (S.D.) by treatment with insulin in fasting animals. By contrast, the total enzyme per ml of standard extract varied among animals by less than 8% (S.D.), regardless of treatment. Since the Zn2+ form of phosphoglucomutase is essentially inactive, these results indicate that the average catalytic efficiency of phosphoglucomutase can vary with the physiological state of the animals, while the total catalytic potential remains unchanged.
Estrogen-induced changes at the cervical squamocolumnar junction of the squirrel monkey

Abstract Ovariectomized squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciurea) were treated with varying doses of estradiol benzoate and serial sections of the uterine cervix were compared with sections from unstimulated controls. The histologic character of the squamocolumnar junction was assessed and classified. It was found that estrogenic stimulation is capable of altering the histologic structure of this area somewhat similarly to the mouse and man.