cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Tamoxifen for the Primary Prevention of Breast Cancer: A Review and Critique of the Concept and Trial

This paper has reviewed the rationale for and design of the NSABP Breast Cancer Prevention Trial and has provided a brief critique of the philosophy of chemoprevention of breast cancer and of certain practical aspects of the trial design. If the assumptions and estimates from the trial protocol are correct, the net benefit of the trial will be moderately large and positive (50 to 77 events prevented). However, over 500 women per year will be treated with tamoxifen unnecessarily. Recalculation of the net-benefit table using another set of reasonable assumptions regarding risks and the trial assumptions regarding benefits shows a negative effect to a small positive effect overall (-17 to 8 events). If the probability of adverse ocular events is included in the net-benefit equations, it appears that more harm than good will result from the intervention. In the face of the uncertainty regarding the net benefit of the trial, ranges of these risks and benefits should be provided to both potential and enrolled participants. The lack of significant benefit to participants seen with the recalculations may raise the question of whether the trial should continue as designed. One option would be to limit trial participation to postmenopausal women only, since 1) breast cancer is more common in postmenopausal women, 2) tamoxifen is more effective in postmenopausal women, 3) cardiovascular disease is more common in postmenopausal women, and 4) reductions in cholesterol levels and preservation of bone mass have only been documented in postmenopausal women (11, 27). Even in this case, however, the fundamental philosophical question of whether large numbers of healthy women should be "treated" with a toxic drug for the primary prevention of a rare event remains.
Framing HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for the General Public: How Inclusive Messaging May Prevent Prejudice from Diminishing Public Support

Strategic framing of public messages about HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) may influence public support for policies and programs affecting access. This survey study examined how public attitudes toward PrEP differed based on the social group PrEP was described as benefiting ("beneficiary") and the moderating effect of prejudice. Members of the general public (n = 154) recruited online were randomly assigned to three beneficiary conditions: general population, gay men, or Black gay men. All participants received identical PrEP background information before completing measures of PrEP attitudes (specifying beneficiary), racism, and heterosexism. Despite anticipating greater PrEP adherence among gay men and Black gay men and perceiving PrEP as especially beneficial to the latter, participants expressed lower support for policies/programs making PrEP affordable for these groups vs. the general population. This disparity in support was stronger among participants reporting greater prejudice. Inclusive framing of PrEP in public discourse may prevent prejudice from undermining implementation efforts.
Sudden cardiac death in young athletes: what is the role of screening?

Purpose of reviewTo review the recent literature and recommendations for cardiovascular screening in young athletes.Recent findingsThe primary purpose of the preparticipation examination is to detect the cardiovascular disorders known to cause sudden cardiac arrest in the athlete. Studies demonstrat
The patient coordinator in a liver transplant program.

SUMMARY The specific role of patient coordinator varies among different transplantation centers. Their role is often dependent upon the total number of patients that are being followed at a given center. With continued success of a program and continued patient survival, the functions of the patient coordinator will increase. However, the coordinator’s primary mission will remain principally that of patient educator and liaison with the transplant center.
Menopausal status influences the expression of programmed death (PD)‐1 and its ligand PD‐L1 on immune cells from the human female reproductive tract

Problem The programmed death 1 (PD-1)/PD-L1 pathway regulates peripheral tolerance, immune responses, and is up-regulated in chronic viral infections, including HIV infection. However, expression of PD-1/PD-L1 on immune cells from the human female reproductive tract (FRT) and possible regulation by menopause and sex hormones are poorly understood. Method of study PD-1/PD-L1 expression was analyzed on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, CD163+ macrophages, and CD11c+ dendritic cells (DC) from endometrium (EM), endocervix (CX) and ectocervix (ECX). Expression after hormone treatment in culture was also evaluated. Results PD-1 and PD-L1 were constitutively expressed on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from the FRT. PD-L1+CD4+ T cells were increased in CX compared to EM and ECX, while no differences were found for PD-1 or between CD8+ T cells from different sites. Macrophages and DCs constitutively expressed PD-L1, but not PD-1, with no differences observed between FRT sites. Pre-menopausal FRT tissues showed increased PD-L1 expression on CD8+ T cells, but decreased expression on DCs when compared to post-menopausal women. In vitro estradiol treatment up-regulated PD-L1 expression specifically on CD8+T cells from CX, but had no effect on PD-1/PD-L1 expression on the other cell types. Conclusion Our results suggest that PD-L1 may be involved in the differential regulation of FRT immune responses between pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women.
The Scope and Scale of Justice

“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions,” declared John Rawls at the outset of his Theory of Justice, before adding, “as truth is of systems of thought.”1 Justice, in other words, is the most important evaluative feature of a society in much the same way that truth is the fundamental evaluative feature of a science or tradition.
Utility Late Payment Charges

One of the current issues in public utility regulation concerns late charges levied against utility customers who pay beyond the due date. The issue has been the subject of inquiry and/or decision by several state commissions,1 and has also arisen in connection with the Truth in Lending Act.2 In addition, an ad hoc committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) has recently issued a landmark report.3
MYPT1 isoforms expressed in HEK293T cells are differentially phosphorylated after GTPγS treatment

Agonist stimulation of smooth muscle is known to activate RhoA/Rho kinase signaling, and Rho kinase phosphorylates the myosin targeting subunit (MYPT1) of myosin light chain (MLC) phosphatase at Thr696 and Thr853, which inhibits the activity of MLC phosphatase to produce a Ca2+ independent increase in MLC phosphorylation and force (Ca2+ sensitization). Alternative mRNA splicing produces four MYPT1 isoforms, which differ by the presence or absence of a central insert (CI) and leucine zipper (LZ). This study was designed to determine if Rho kinase differentially phosphorylates MYPT1 isoforms. In HEK293T cells expressing each of the four MYPT1 isoforms, we could not detect a change in Thr853 MYPT1 phosphorylation following GTPγS treatment. However, there is differential phosphorylation of MYPT1 isoforms at Thr696; GTPγS treatment increases MYPT1 phosphorylation for the CI+LZ- and CI-LZ- MYPT1 isoforms, but not the CI+LZ+ or CI-LZ+ MYPT1 isoforms. These data could suggest that in smooth muscle Rho kinase differentially phosphorylates MYPT1 isoforms.
Coupled Electrical–Thermal–Mechanical Simulation for the Reliability Analysis of Large-Scale 3-D Interconnects

A multiphysics simulation technique based on the finite element method is developed for the reliability analysis of interconnects. The multiphysics simulation characterizes multidisciplinary, including electrical, thermal, and mechanical, aspects of interconnects. It is well known that the major bottleneck preventing 3-D simulations from gaining further popularity is the computational efficiency in dealing with practically large-scale problems. To address this problem, the proposed multiphysics simulation is devised for analyzing large-scale problems with a significantly improved computational efficiency through utilizing a domain decomposition scheme called the finite element tearing and interconnecting, parallel computing, and the localized nature of thermal stresses in the interconnect structures. Both the capability and efficiency of the multiphysics simulation are demonstrated through analyzing large-scale interconnect structures including arrays of solder bumps and bonding wires. Detailed temperature distributions and localized stresses of large amplitude are obtained through the proposed simulation in a highly efficient manner.
Volitional personality change

Abstract An emerging body of research has begun to examine volitional personality change —people’s desires and attempts to change their own personality traits. Studies have found that the vast majority of people want to change aspects of their personalities—usually in order to attain an external goal (e.g., wanting to increase in extraversion in order to achieve more satisfying social relationships). Moreover, several studies have found that people may actually be able to moderately and slowly change their personality traits in desired ways—at least over a short period of time. As the literature on volitional personality change is in its infancy, much future research is needed to understand which strategies for volitional change are most efficacious, and whether volitional trait changes can be maintained over extended periods of time.
Explaining Intentions to Seek Help for Depressive Symptoms in the Context of Responsibility Message Framing.

U.S. college students are disproportionally affected by depression but typically do not seek help. To advance understanding of the role of health messages in shaping college students' help-seeking intentions, we used a reasoned action approach to experimentally investigate help-seeking intentions for depressive symptoms. Due to negative interpretation biases among those who suffer from depression, scholars have previously warned against attempts to decrease feelings of responsibility for one's depression in health messages. We tested the determinants of help-seeking intentions as a function of exposure to depression help-seeking messages that differed in responsibility cues. Findings revealed that in our sample low responsibility health message framing did not affect determinants of help-seeking intentions. We identified instrumental attitude (β = .53) and descriptive norms (β = .24) as determinants of intentions to seek help (R2 = .42) across message conditions and across levels of depression. These findings indicate potentially important targets for messages that seek to increase help-seeking among depressed college students.
Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene.

One of the strongest risk factors for dementia is the e4 variant of the APOE gene. Yet, many who carry it never develop dementia. The current study examined for the first time whether positive age beliefs that are acquired from the culture may reduce the risk of developing dementia among older individuals, including those who are APOE e4 carriers. The cohort consisted of 4,765 Health and Retirement Study participants who were aged 60 or older and dementia-free at baseline. As predicted, in the total sample those with positive age beliefs at baseline were significantly less likely to develop dementia, after adjusting for relevant covariates. Among those with APOE e4, those with positive age beliefs were 49.8% less likely to develop dementia than those with negative age beliefs. The results of this study suggest that positive age beliefs, which are modifiable and have been found to reduce stress, can act as a protective factor, even for older individuals at high risk of dementia.
The partisan electoral effect of EU structural and investment funds in French European Parliament elections

In this article, we find a partisan electoral effect in French European Parliamentary (EP) elections that we consider to be a variant of an economic voting determinant. EU Structural and Investment Funds (SIFs) can be partially predictive of French EP electoral results. The direction of this electoral effect, however, is determined by partisanship. Left-leaning parties’ vote shares are positively correlated with SIF disbursement levels, while right-leaning parties’ vote shares are negatively correlated with SIF disbursement levels. This electoral phenomenon gives further credence to other findings that have demonstrated that variants of economic voting are occurring at subnational levels in second-order elections.
Broadband acoustic wave propagation and scattering in Delaware Bay Estuary

Physical oceanography of estuaries is complex due to many factors including fresh water river discharge, oceanic salt water intrusion, variable ebb and flood tides, and surface winds. In these confined environments, high frequency (1–25 kHz) broadband acoustic waves are shown to through large intensity fluctuations with substantial energy scattering due to their interaction with the sea surface, sea bottom, and refraction due to the stratified water column. In this paper, we present results from a series of experiments that were conducted in the Delaware Bay estuary where fixed source-receiver configurations allowed calibrated long-term acoustic and oceanographic measurements to be conducted while atmospheric conditions such as wind speed and direction were carefully measured concurrently. It is shown that intensity fading due to oceanographic features and tide induced sound speed profile refraction in stratified water column occurs regularly and periodically. Wind generated surface gravity water waves in...
Finite-Element Analysis of Adhesive Joints

Adhesive bonding is increasingly used to fasten metallic to metallic or metallic to composite structural components together. This is because in many present-day applications, conventional fasteners such as bolts, rivets, welds, etc., are unsuitable, especially if the components are made of polymeric or composite materials. The sonar transducer adhesively bonded acoustical window, the likely necessity of the repair of the composite structural components of carrier-based aircraft, and door inner assembly to outer panel, main body frame joints, trunk lid inner to outer and sealants in an automobile provide examples of such applications. Penetration methods (i.e., drilling holes, etc.) cause high stress concentrations and, in the case of composites, sever the fiber reinforcement which in turn reduces the strength of the joint. On the other hand, bonded joints tend to be damage-tolerant due to the high damping behavior of the adhesive layer and less expensive due to lower fabrication cost. The use of adhesives increases the joint strength, distributes the loads more evenly, and enables alternative jointing methods to be reduced or eliminated. Dissimilar materials (e.g., steel, aluminum, plastics, glass, etc.) can be joined together by bonding even where it is impossible to gain access to either side of the joint, thereby increasing the design flexibility.
How Legal Pluralism Is and Is Not Distinct from Liberalism: A Response to Dennis Patterson and Alexis Galán

Alexis Galan and Dennis Patterson largely accept the descriptive account of plural authority described in my book, Global Legal Pluralism: A Jurisprudence of Law Beyond Borders. However, they are concerned that my normative argument for procedural mechanisms, institutional designs, and discursive practices for managing pluralism is simply liberalism in another guise and not pluralist enough. Given that pluralists are usually criticized from the opposite side for an approach that results in too much fragmentation and destabilization, I am in some sense happy to welcome this new critique. After all, a position cannot easily be simultaneously too radical and not radical enough. Nevertheless, while there is clearly a liberal bias at its core, I don't think it's true that the pluralist vision I espouse is solely liberalism in disguise. Accordingly, in this brief response, I sketch out ways in which the proceduralist pluralism I advocate, while it is not necessarily incompatible with liberalism, at least shifts the emphasis to a set of values that are not always fully captured in the design of liberal procedures and institutions.
Continuous Behavioral Prediction in Lane-Change for Autonomous Driving Cars in Dynamic Environments

It is essential for autonomous driving cars to understand and predict other surrounding cars' behaviors, especially in urban environments, due to the high traffic volumes and complex interactions. Modeling the interaction among cars and their behaviors is challenging. The behavior estimation of a surrounding car serves as prior knowledge which helps the trajectory planner generate a path to perform properly with the other vehicles. It closes the gap between the high-level decision making and path planning. A new data-driven method is proposed to extend our previous behavior estimation. The new method predicts the continuous lane-change trajectory of a target car by modeling the interaction of all its surrounding vehicles' trajectories, without over-the-air communication between vehicles. The advantages of this approach are: 1. Learning the interactive model from real data; 2. Giving long-horizon estimation of the continuous trajectory of a target vehicle. The method is trained and evaluated on a public dataset. The experimental results show that the proposed method successfully predicts trajectories considering mutual interactions among cars, with low error based on the ground-truth.
Tilted Images: Media Coverage and the Use of Critical Race Theory to Examine Social Equity Disparities for Blacks and Other People of Color

In the second decade of the 21st century societal advancements continue to fall short in closing the gap in social policies for Blacks and other people of color. From health to housing and education, people of color and low-income groups continue to struggle at a greater rate to receive services and support. Media coverage often reflects these disparities, particularly in urban communities. This analysis uses Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a theoretical tool to analyze the 2016 report Racism's Toll: Report on Illinois Poverty to illustrate the challenges faced in addressing social issues and how they are covered in the media. CRT provides a prism through which to examine coverage of health, housing, and education disparities and provides a context for understanding and seeking ways to change disparities in social policies and programs.
Beyond Commoner and Elite in Swahili Society: Re-Examination of Archaeological Materials from Gede, Kenya

The Swahili communities of the East African coast created one of the best-known societies of precolonial Africa, combining cultural influences from throughout the Indian Ocean world with those of their continental African roots. Of the many Swahili towns and communities, Gede is among the most famous because of its extensive, well-preserved stone ruins and long tradition of archaeological work. Yet research at the site has primarily investigated its elite inhabitants or pursued broad culture-historical questions. One significant exception was a PhD dissertation project undertaken in the early 2000s by Lynn Koplin, but unfortunately never finished or published. By analyzing the data collected by Koplin, the daily lives of the town’s inhabitants and patterns of economic and social difference inside and outside the town walls begin to come into focus. This study provides us with important insights into the functioning of Swahili society during a less well-known period, the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Gede reached its apogee during this period. The data especially provide a significant case study for exploring the diversity among Swahili “commoners” in the cosmopolitan centers of the East African littoral.
High throughput DNA extraction of legume root nodules for rhizobial metagenomics

A novel combination of tissue homogenization, cell lysis, and DNA purification techniques was developed for isolating total DNA from whole legume root nodules on an automated robotic system. Silica dehydrated root nodules from soy bean, Glycine max cv. Tara, and mung bean, Vigna radiata cv. Crystal, were homogenized in 96-well plates and were enzymatically and chemically lysed before being loaded into the AutoGenprep 965 for automated phenol–chloroform based DNA isolation. The resulting DNAs were of relatively high concentration, low fragmentation, and free of phenolic and polysaccharide contaminants. In contrast to manual methods, this adaptation of the Autogen Prep automated DNA extraction instrument allows for 100’s to 1000’s of samples to be prepared in a fraction of the time and cost.
Production-related contaminants (pesticides, antibiotics and hormones) in organic and conventionally produced milk samples sold in the USA.

Objective:Consumption of cow’s milk, which is associated with diet and health benefits, has decreased in the USA. The simultaneous increase in demand for more costly organic milk suggests consumer concern about exposure to production-related contaminants may be contributing to this decline. We sought to determine if contaminant levels differ by the production method used.Design:Half-gallon containers of organic and conventional milk (four each) were collected by volunteers in each of nine US regions and shipped on ice for analysis. Pesticide, antibiotic and hormone (bovine growth hormone (bGH), bGH-associated insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)) residues were measured using liquid or gas chromatography coupled to mass or tandem mass spectrometry. Levels were compared against established federal limits and by production method.Setting:Laboratory analysis of retail milk samples.Results:Current-use pesticides (5/15 tested) and antibiotics (5/13 tested) were detected in several conventional (26–60 %; n 35) but not in organic (n 34) samples. Among the conventional samples, residue levels exceeded federal limits for amoxicillin in one sample (3 %) and in multiple samples for sulfamethazine (37 %) and sulfathiazole (26 %). Median bGH and IGF-1 concentrations in conventional milk were 9·8 and 3·5 ng/ml, respectively, twenty and three times that in organic samples (P < 0·0001).Conclusions:Current-use antibiotics and pesticides were undetectable in organic but prevalent in conventionally produced milk samples, with multiple samples exceeding federal limits. Higher bGH and IGF-1 levels in conventional milk suggest the presence of synthetic growth hormone. Further research is needed to understand the impact of these differences, if any, on consumers.
Picosecond CO2 laser-induced self-defocusing in InSb

Large laser-induced changes in the refractive index of semiconductors were essential for optical switching and optical bistability. Band gap resonant changes were observed in InSb with both nanosecond and picosecond pulses.1,2 Here we report observation of strong modulation of the refractive index in InSb due to free carriers generated by two-photon absorption.
GSIAR: gene-subcategory interaction-based improved deep representation learning for breast cancer subcategorical analysis using gene expression, applicable for precision medicine

Tumor subclass detection and diagnosis is inevitable requirement for personalized medical treatment and refinement of the effects that the somatic cells show towards other clinical conditions. The genome of these somatic cells exhibits mutations and genetic variations of the breast cancer cells and helps in understanding the characteristic behavior of the cancer cells. But their analysis is limited to clustering and there is requirement to analyze what else can be done with the data for identifying the tumor subcategory and the stages of subclasses. In this work, we have extended the work with similar data (consisting of 105 breast tumor cell lines) to solve other detection and characterization problems through computation and intelligent representation learning. Most of our work comprises of systematic data cleaning, analysis, and building prediction models with deep computational architectures and establish that the transformed data can help in better distinction of the respective categories. Our main contribution is the novel gene-subcategory interaction-based regularization (GSIAR) based data selection and analysis concept, alongside the prediction, proven to enhance the performance of the classification techniques. Graphical Abstract A graphical abstract of our model - Gene-subcategory interaction affinity-based regularization (GSIAR).
When are platelets just platelets

Comment on Kiefel et al, page [3761][1] Severe thrombocytopenia in a 1- to 2-day-old neonate is an emergency situation because of the especially high rate of intracranial hemorrhage. In this issue of Blood , Kiefel and colleagues demonstrate that random donor platelets are often effective (24 of 27
The role of systemic corticosteroid therapy in erythema multiforme major and stevens-johnson syndrome: a review of past and current opinions.

Systemic corticosteroid use in the treatment of erythema multiforme major (EMM) and Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) has been debated in the medical literature for many decades. Prior to the 1970s, systemic corticosteroids were used as standard therapy for patients with EMM and SJS. In 1976, Rasmussen et al presented data challenging the role of systemic corticosteroids in treating EMM and SJS, pointing to longer hospital stays and higher complication rates in pediatric patients treated with systemic corticosteroids.1 Since the time of this article, arguments both for and against systemic corticosteroid use have been widely published—leaving the practicing clinician with little hope of a definitive answer to this question. The problem lies within the type of study that can be reasonably accomplished. The current studies are mostly retrospective and based on anecdotal evidence. Additionally, each seems to have a debatable variable in the study. There is no literature to date based on a large, prospective, randomized, or double-blind study evaluating use of systemic corticosteroids in EMM/SJS. Given the necessity for a large amount of patients and control of several variables to evaluate the benefit of any given treatment, and ethical considerations which would obviate the use of a placebo study arm, such a trial is not likely to ever occur. The scope of this article will therefore present the currently available opinions on this issue.
Is translation the problem? Some reactions to critchfield (2011).

The crux of Critchfield’s (2011)article is that there have not beenenough translational contributions,and as a result societal support forbasic research in behavior analysis iswaning. Critchfield suggests, there-fore, that to remain viable as aresearch enterprise, more attentionneeds to be paid to the translational(read ‘‘immediate practical’’) impli-cations of basic research in behavioranalysis. I hope that is the case, butthere are reasons to doubt that it is.As noted by Critchfield, most basicresearch in science in general does notlead to any obvious societal benefit(cf. Wade, 2010). That becomesclearer when one considers sciencesother than psychology. Consider asthree examples, astronomy, paleon-tology, and mathematics. The firsttwo are sciences that produce knowl-edge that most assume will almostnever have practical benefit. Mathe-matics has produced benefits for thesciences, but now modern mathemat-ics is centuries ahead of the othersciences in the techniques beingdeveloped, so certainly there is littlesoon-to-be-felt benefit. Society, nev-ertheless, continues to support re-search in those fields. Any account ofwhy basic research in behavior anal-ysis is not being supported has torest, therefore, at least to a significantextent, on considerations other thanthe fact that it is perceived as tooesoteric and disconnected from prac-tical concerns. Perhaps, however,because behavior is at the root ofmany, many of the world’s problems,the public may be more demandingof practical outcomes of researchaimed at understanding it.A first point of possible disagree-ment with Critchfield is the degree towhich research in the tradition of theexperimental analysis of behavior(EAB) has yielded translational ben-efit. Critchfield argues not much; I, incontrast, would argue a heck of a lot,a view I base on a longer historicalperspective. In fact, I would wagerthat no other area of psychology hasproduced as much translational ben-efit as has EAB. For example, I lookat more than 40 years of publicationsin the Journal of Applied BehaviorAnalysis (JABA)(nottomentionavery large number of publications inmyriad other outlets) as being essen-tially all translation of EAB. It isuseful to remember that JABA wascreated by the Society for the Exper-imental Analysis of Behavior precise-ly to help illustrate the translationalpotential of research in EAB. Theresulting body of research publishedin JABA not only has illustratedtranslation that is of high societalvalue in clinical and other practicalrealms, but it also has revealed thebroad generality (e.g., the wide arrayof events that can serve effectively asreinforcement) of concepts based ona limited number of exemplars(mainly food or water presentation)in the basic research literature. Thus,I see no lack of translation ofresearch from basic research labora-tories to nonlaboratory environ-ments.If lack of translation is not aproblem, then what is the problem?
Metabolite releasing polymers control dendritic cell function by modulating their energy metabolism

Metabolites control immune cell functions, and delivery of these metabolites in a sustained manner may be able to modulate function of the immune cells. In this study, alpha-ketoglutarate (aKG) and diol based polymeric-microparticles (termed paKG MPs) were synthesized to provide sustained release of aKG and promote an immunosuppressive cellular phenotype. Notably, after association with dendritic cells (DCs), paKG MPs modulated the intracellular metabolic-profile/pathways, and decreased glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration in vitro. These metabolic changes resulted in modulation of MHC-II, CD86 expression in DCs, and altered the frequency of regulatory T cells (Tregs), and T-helper type-1/2/17 cells in vitro. This unique strategy of intracellular delivery of key-metabolites in a sustained manner provides a new direction in immunometabolism field-based immunotherapy with potential applications in different diseases associated with immune disorders.
Effects of combination shear stress, moderate electric field (MEF), and nisin on kinetics and mechanisms of inactivation of Escherichia coli K12 and Listeria innocua in fresh apple-kale blend juice

Abstract This work explored the possible synergistic effects of simultaneous application of shear stress-moderate electric field (SS+MEF) in combination with nisin (NS) at ambient temperature on microbial inactivation and quality changes of apple-kale blend juice. In microbiological studies, Escherichia coli K12 and Listeria innocua were exposed to a) SS+MEF; b) NS; and c) their combinations either simultaneously (SS+MEF+NS) or sequentially (SS+MEF→NS). Quality parameters, including pH, color, antioxidant capacity, and chlorophyll contents of uninoculated juice were also evaluated. Under individual SS+MEF treatment for 10 min, maximum inactivation levels of E. coli K12 and L. innocua were 5.4 and 5.2 log CFU/mL respectively. NS treatment alone inactivated E coli K12 and L. innocua by 1.0 and 2.6 log CFU/mL, respectively. Nevertheless, subpopulations of live cells observed by flow cytometry and by plate counts were significantly reduced after both simultaneous and sequential combination treatments, in comparison to individual treatments. SS+MEF+NS treatment produced inactivation levels up to 5-log reductions for both microorganism species within 5 min. The modified Gompertz model best-fitted the inactivation kinetics. SS+MEF+NS treatment for 5 min preserved pH, color, antioxidant capacity and chlorophyll contents of the product, suggesting its potential as a non-thermal preservation technique for fruit and vegetable juices.
Vulnerability Assessments for Power-Electronics-Based Smart Grids

In this paper, a novel method is proposed to evaluate the cyber security of the power-electronics-based smart grids (PESG). The proposed method considers the performance and stability of both the individual inverter and the grid. To our knowledge, this is a first attempt to evaluate the performance and stability of PESG due to cyber attacks. We first develop impedance-based modeling and cyber-attack modeling for PESG. Then we propose innovative two security criteria to evaluate the security of PESG, including stability-based and metrics-based. For metrics-based criteria, we propose to use both total harmonic distortion (THD) and space phasor model (SPM) to evaluate the inverter performance. The simulation results with a two-inverter-based power grid verify the validity and accuracy of the proposed security evaluation method. Results have shown that the performance and stability of PESG are significantly affected by cyber attacks, and thus there is indeed a need to further study cyber security issues of PESG.
Aboutness and Conceptual Analysis: A Review

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of aboutness and conceptual analysis, essential concepts for LIS practitioners to understand. Aboutness refers to the subject matter and genre/fo...
Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis Is Associated with Elevated Bile Acids in Parkinson’s Disease

The gut microbiome can impact brain health and is altered in Parkinson's disease (PD). The vermiform appendix is a lymphoid tissue in the cecum implicated in the storage and regulation of the gut microbiota. We sought to determine whether the appendix microbiome is altered in PD and to analyze the biological consequences of the microbial alterations. We investigated the changes in the functional microbiota in the appendix of PD patients relative to controls (n = 12 PD, 16 C) by metatranscriptomic analysis. We found microbial dysbiosis affecting lipid metabolism, including an upregulation of bacteria responsible for secondary bile acid synthesis. We then quantitatively measure changes in bile acid abundance in PD relative to the controls in the appendix (n = 15 PD, 12 C) and ileum (n = 20 PD, 20 C). Bile acid analysis in the PD appendix reveals an increase in hydrophobic and secondary bile acids, deoxycholic acid (DCA) and lithocholic acid (LCA). Further proteomic and transcriptomic analysis in the appendix and ileum corroborated these findings, highlighting changes in the PD gut that are consistent with a disruption in bile acid control, including alterations in mediators of cholesterol homeostasis and lipid metabolism. Microbially derived toxic bile acids are heightened in PD, which suggests biliary abnormalities may play a role in PD pathogenesis.
Multiple cutaneous cancers in an interventional cardiologist: Predominance in unprotected skin nearest the radiation source.

Abstract A 70 year-old interventional cardiologist, who worked in the cardiac catheterization laboratory for >35 years, developed multiple skin cancers in regions not conventionally covered by protective lead apparel. The majority of lesions were left-sided, representing cutaneous regions in closest proximity to the radiation source. Although skin not covered by lead apparel often receives frequent sun exposure, a known risk factor for skin cancer, malignancies resulting exclusively from sun exposure would not in most cases be expected to have a left-sided predominance. Additional research is warranted to study the potential link between occupational radiation exposure and skin cancer risk.
An efficient low-cost notification system using AWS IoT

Notification services are widely used nowadays in many scenarios. For instance, they are useful if a patient needs care or an IT incident needs support. There lacks of a simple, affordable and efficient notification system that can deliver important messages across various channels to a certain number of people. Therefore, we developed a serverless 1-click notification system using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT platform. The system allows a user to notify the designated personnel(s) with a simple click using configurable IoT buttons via Wi-Fi. An AWS cloud server receives the request sent by the buttons, processes the request and sends the notification such as emails, text messages or phone calls to the designated service members based on the preprogramed procedures and database. The system is user friendly and easy to implement since no hardware installation is required. The serverless system and the pay-as-you-go policy make the system very cost effective. The system is reliable as it is supported by the AWS. In this article we will describe a few key cloud functions and services that we adopted in the notification system and discuss two potential use cases in classroom technical support and home-based long-term care settings. We validated the system functionality at Texas Christian University's patient care simulation center.
The Rise, Demise, and Reprise of the Increasingly Protracted APA Journal Article?

Are APA journal articles getting longer or shorter over time? Earlier work that examined changes over time in article length in 24 APA journals (1986–2005) found that pages per article increased ov...
Crossing design shapes patterns of genetic variation in synthetic recombinant populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

“Synthetic recombinant” populations have emerged as a useful tool for dissecting the genetics of complex traits. They can be used to derive inbred lines for fine QTL mapping, or the populations themselves can be sampled for experimental evolution. In the latter application, investigators generally value maximizing genetic variation in constructed populations. This is because in evolution experiments initiated from such populations, adaptation is primarily fueled by standing genetic variation. Despite this reality, little has been done to systematically evaluate how different methods of constructing synthetic populations shape initial patterns of variation. Here we seek to address this issue by comparing outcomes in synthetic recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae populations created using one of two strategies: pairwise crossing of isogenic strains or simple mixing of strains in equal proportion. We also explore the impact of the varying the number of parental strains. We find that more genetic variation is initially present and maintained when population construction includes a round of pairwise crossing. As perhaps expected, we also observe that increasing the number of parental strains typically increases genetic diversity. In summary, we suggest that when constructing populations for use in evolution experiments, simply mixing founder strains in equal proportion may limit the adaptive potential.
Visual Political Knowledge: A Different Road to Competence?

Even though visual images and television are ubiquitous in politics, surveys rarely use visuals to assess what people know about politics. I measure visual political knowledge in a series of experiments that ask otherwise identical questions using either relevant visual elements or words only. These experiments were embedded in two representative surveys of U.S. residents conducted in 2003 and 2008. Adding a visual to an otherwise identical knowledge question causes, on average, a small but significant increase in correct answers. Treatment effects are larger for a subset of the population: women, older people, the less educated, and people with a visual cognitive style all perform disproportionately better on visual knowledge questions. Validation shows that visual knowledge is as indicative of civic competence as verbal knowledge. Hence, traditional verbal-only questions miss a significant amount of political knowledge. Several population segments previously deemed ill-informed in fact store some politi...
America's Uneven Democracy: The Broader Implications of Uneven Turnout

This book has shown that who wins and who loses in local democracy is shaped in no small part by who votes. If the participation of each of America's racial and ethnic groups were even, we would likely see outcomes that diverged sharply from what we see today. Change would perhaps be most dramatic in mayoral elections, in which up to a third of the elections I examined could have ended with a different winner had turnout been even. But the analysis presented here suggests that city council representation could also be transformed by expanded turnout. If we could greatly increase turnout, we might eliminate almost one-quarter of the underrepresentation of Latinos and Asian Americans on city councils across the country. Finally, there is evidence that turnout is closely linked to the policies that governments pursue. Municipalities with higher turnout spend more on welfare and other redistributive programs favored by minorities and less on areas favored by more advantaged white interests. One implication of this set of findings is obvious: in one context in American democracy, voter turnout matters. At the local level, turnout affects who wins the mayoralty, who occupies the city council, and where local governments spend their money. Turnout is, in short, central to any discussion of local democracy. Many will argue that we already know this and that the importance of turnout is readily visible in almost every political arena. But that is not what empirical studies of the American electorate tend to say.
Oxidation of hydroxylamine by ferricyanide in presence of zinc sulfate: A rapid method for estimating hydroxylamine and hydrazine in a mixture

Abstract The direct titration of alkaline ferricyanide in presence of zinc sulfate with hydroxylamine sulfate has been studied. A clear white precipitate of zinc potassium ferrocyanide indicates the end-point. Hydroxylamine is oxidized to nitric acid and water, and millingram-quaantities of hydroxylamine; can be determinred. In the absence of zinc sulfate and in weakly alkaline medium, hydrazine and hydroxylamine are converted to nitrogen, while in presence of zine sulfate hydrazine is oxidized to nitrogen By ferricyanide oxidation of a mixed sample uinler different conditions, hydrarine and hydroxylamine when present together can be determined rapidly.
Usability Testing of Academic Library Web Sites: A Selective Annotated Bibliography

ABSTRACT This is a selective annotated bibliography of books, journal articles, and electronic resources relating to the usability assessment or testing of the academic library Web site. It focuses on the library Web site specifics, thus answering a librarian's need for one source of information on the available publications. All journal articles have been written by or for academic librarians. This bibliography embraces the issues of usability testing as a process, its goals, objectives, tools, and methodology. The bibliography is grouped by the following topics: background information, tools and methodologies, case studies, dedicated Web sites, and samples of presentations.
Bridge on the Sava: Ethnicity in Eastern Croatia, 1981-1991

The war in the former Yugoslav territories is represented in popular sources as primarily an ethnic one. Originally it was referred to by some as a civil war and by others as a war of aggression of one nation or people (Serbs) against other newly independent countries (first Slovenia, then Croatia and now Bosnia and Hercegovina). The clash among Serbs, Croats and Muslims is portrayed as a nationalist revival, a consequence of deep-seated historically-constructed enmities brewing beneath the surface of forty-five years of relative political calm. This paper presents a different view. It argues that nationalism and hatred expressed by members of nationality groups towards members of other such groups are not revivals but transformations, new expressions of economic and political competition and discontent. Political leaders and other elites made use of available cultural symbols associated with nationality or ethnicity in order to gain backing for political agendas which were not primarily ethnically motivated.
Public Sentiment and Tobacco Control Policy

The well-documented correlation between cigarette excise taxes and cigarette demand may not be entirely causal if excise taxes reflect public sentiment towards smoking. I consider whether proxies for smoking sentiment--the prevalence of smoking by education and intention to quit statuses--are correlated with support for and implementation of tobacco control laws. I find that cigarette excise taxes are most sensitive to the prevalence of educated smokers who do not want to quit. Additionally, when proxies for public sentiment are included, the estimated elasticity of cigarette demand declines from -2.0 to -1.3.
High power deuterium Raman laser at 632 nm

We demonstrate a continuous-wave deuterium Raman laser that generates more than 100 mW of Stokes output power despite severe thermal effects. This output power represents a five-fold increase over any previously reported continuous-wave Raman laser.
An optimal plan of zero-defect single-sampling by attributes for incoming inspections in assembly lines

This paper proposes a nonlinear integer program for determining an optimal plan of zero-defect, single-sampling by attributes for incoming inspections in assembly lines. Individual parts coming to an assembly line differ in the non-conforming (NC) risk, NC severity, lot size, and inspection cost-effectiveness. The proposed optimization model is able to determine the inspection sample size for each of the parts in a resource constrained condition where a product’s NC risk is not a linear combination of NC risks of the individual parts. This paper develops a three-step solution procedure that effectively reduces the solution time for larger size problems commonly seen in assembly lines. The proposed optimization model provides insightful implications for quality management. For example, it reveals the principle of sample size decisions for heterogeneous, dependent parts waiting for incoming inspections; as well as provides a tool for quantifying the expected return from investing additional inspection resources. The optimization model builds a foundation for extensions to advanced inspection sampling plans.
Non-rigid image registration by neural computations

This paper describes a neural computation based nonrigid registration methodology using multiple rigid transforms, in a piece-wise fashion, to model the registration process between images in a sequence. The registration methodology is a hybrid approach that combines registration without exact point correspondence via multi-object principal axes, and registration with point correspondence via polynomial transform. Neural computation is used to combine the derived individual principal axes solutions for each object in a committee machine formulation and to obtain the polynomial transform based on extracted control points using a multi layer perceptrons (MLP). Three examples are presented to demonstrate the techniques involved in the process. The first example uses four Gaussian clusters and focuses on the combination of the multiple transforms into a composite transform using finite mixture modeling techniques. The next examples present the complete process for prostate cancer registration and breast sequence analysis respectively. To verify performance, the results are compared to non-neural based implementations and other existing registration methods.