cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Phase I biomarker modulation study of atorvastatin in women at increased risk for breast cancer

Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), tamoxifen, and raloxifene that reduce the risk of breast cancer are limited to only estrogen receptor-positive (ER(+)) breast cancer. In addition, patient acceptance of SERMs is low due to toxicity and intolerability. New agents with improved toxicity profile that reduce risk of ER-negative breast cancer are urgently needed. Observational studies show that statins can reduce breast cancer incidence and recurrence. The objective of this prospective short-term prevention study was to evaluate the effect of a lipophilic statin, atorvastatin, on biomarkers in breast tissue and serum of women at increased risk. Eligible participants included women with previous history of carcinoma in situ, or atypical hyperplasia, or 5 year breast cancer projected Gail risk >1.67 %, or lifetime breast cancer risk >20 % calculated by models including Claus, Tyrer-Cuzick, Boadicea, or BRCAPRO. Patients underwent baseline fine needle aspiration (FNA) of the breast, blood collection for biomarker analysis, and were randomized to either no treatment or atorvastatin at 10, 20, or 40 mg/day dose for 3 months. At 3 months, blood collection and breast FNA were repeated. Biomarkers included C-reactive protein (CRP), lipid profile, atorvastatin, and its metabolites, Ki-67, bcl-2, EGFR, and pEGFR. Baseline genotype for 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoAR) was also measured. Among 60 patients evaluated, a significant reduction in serum CRP, cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and increase in atorvastatin metabolites in serum and breast FNAs was demonstrated. No changes were observed in other tissue biomarkers. This study shows that atorvastatin and its metabolites are detectable in breast samples and may lower serum CRP among women without hyperlipidemia.
The Crawdad Project: Crustaceans as Model Systems for Teaching Principles of Neuroscience

The characteristics that make crustaceans useful model systems in neurobiology research also make them ideal for teaching principles of neuronal excitability and synaptic communication in the student laboratory. We briefly describe the contents of our CD-ROM lab manual for undergraduate students, highlighting the crustacean preparations that form its core. The CD-ROM format allows detailed procedural videos to supplement traditional text descriptions in lab manuals. The entire series of Crawdad exercises could be used for a semester course in neurophysiology. In our experience, most of the exercises can also stand alone and supplement the teaching of nervous system physiology in a wide variety of educational environments.
Propagula and shoots of Syntrichia pagorum (Pottiaceae) exhibit different ecological strategies of desiccation tolerance

Abstract We posed two questions regarding the desiccation tolerance (DT) of the moss Syntrichia pagorum: (1) What is the ecological strategy of DT in three available life phases (propagula, juvenile and adult shoots)? and (2) which desiccating factor, rate of drying or equilibrating relative humidity, has the greater effect on plant survival and health in these three life phases? Plants of S. pagorum were regenerated from an herbarium specimen collected from the American southwest, subcultured to remove field effects, and grown in Petri dishes on native sand for up to 6 months, producing in sequence juvenile shoots, adult shoots and propagula. Whereas juvenile shoots exhibited an ecological strategy of inducible desiccation tolerance (IDT), the propagula and adult shoots largely exhibited the strategy of constitutive desiccation tolerance (CDT). This conclusion was reached by subjecting each life phase to two rates of drying (20 min and 48 hours at subturgor) in combination with two equilibrating relative...
Collective Security and Defensive Concepts: the 1990–91 Gulf War

Iraq’s 1990 invasion and annexation of Kuwait caught the European non-provocative defence community off guard. Defensive theorists had not given much thought to how their concepts would apply beyond Europe and to how to handle a flagrant and unambiguous act of aggression. In particular, no serious or sustained effort had been made to understand how defensive concepts might be reconciled with collective security requiring offensive military power. And while defensive theorists had closely examined ‘war prevention’ and ‘war fighting’, at least in Europe, they (like most others) had neglected the problem of how to settle a war defensively.1
Quantifying uncertainty in future ocean carbon uptake

Attributing uncertainty in ocean carbon uptake between societal trajectory (scenarios), Earth System Model construction (structure), and inherent natural variation in climate (internal) is critical to make progress in identifying, understanding, and reducing those uncertainties. In the present issue of Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Lovenduski et al. (2016) disentangle these drivers of uncertainty in ocean carbon uptake over time and space and assess the resulting implications for the emergence timescales of structural and scenario uncertainty over internal variability. Such efforts are critical for establishing realizable and efficient monitoring goals and prioritizing areas of continued model development. Under recently proposed climate stabilization targets, such efforts to partition uncertainty also become increasingly critical to societal decision-making in the context of carbon stabilization.
On an information-theoretical assessment of PET system design

We treat a PET imaging system as a communication channel and employ the information theory to develop an analytic expression for characterizing its ability to transmit information about the source to the receiver. Based on our result, we propose a particular rate function as a useful measure for evaluating the performance of PET system. We find that this rate function possesses the desirable properties: it predicts that higher sensitivity and higher resolution PET systems perform better, better timing-resolution TOF-PET systems perform better, and TOF PET imaging is better than non-TOF PET imaging.
Exploring US Millennial consumers’ consumption values in relation to traditional and social cause apparel product attributes and purchase intentions

AbstractMillennial consumers, born between 1980 and 2000, are one of the largest consumer groups, yet there is limited knowledge about their apparel product purchasing intentions. Millennials are said to make sustainability-based decisions and to have a strong social and environmental consciousness. This study explores US Millennial consumers’ consumption values in relation to social cause product attributes of environment, labor, and traceability along with 12 more traditional attributes such as fit or style. Consumption values include the perceived importance of functional, monetary, emotional, social, and epistemic benefits derived from the apparel products. Online survey data were collected from 307 students attending a major western US university. The research hypotheses are tested using regression analyses with jeans as the apparel product category. Results suggest that traditional attributes remain a stronger influence on consumption values than social cause attributes, and that social cause produc...
Family history in colonoscopy patients: feasibility and performance of electronic and paper-based surveys for colorectal cancer risk assessment in the outpatient setting

Background and Aims Family history is crucial in stratifying patients' risk for colorectal cancer (CRC). Previous risk assessment tools developed for use in clinic or endoscopy settings have demonstrated suboptimal specificity for identifying patients with hereditary cancer syndromes. Our aim was to test the feasibility and performance of 2 family history surveys (paper and electronic) in individuals presenting for outpatient colonoscopy. Methods Patients presenting for outpatient colonoscopy at a tertiary care center were asked to complete a 5-question paper risk assessment survey (short paper survey) either alone or in conjunction with a second, comprehensive electronic family risk assessment survey (comprehensive tablet survey). Each subject's survey results, along with the electronic medical record, were reviewed, and 10 high-risk criteria and PREMM1,2,6 model scores (a predictive model for carrying a Lynch syndrome-associated gene mutation) were used to identify patients warranting genetic evaluation for suspected hereditary cancer syndromes. Results Six hundred patients completed the short paper survey (cohort 1), with an additional 100 patients completing both the short paper and comprehensive tablet survey (cohort 2). Using 10 high-risk criteria and/or a PREMM1,2,6 score ≥5%, we identified 10% and 9% of patients as high risk for CRC in cohorts 1 and 2, respectively. Of the 69 high-risk subjects, 23 (33%) underwent genetic evaluations and 7 (10%) carried germline mutations associated with cancer predisposition. Both patients and endoscopists reported the tools were user-friendly and helpful for CRC risk stratification. Conclusions Systematic assessment of family history in colonoscopy patients is feasible and can help endoscopists identify high-risk patients who would benefit from genetic evaluation.
Human Simulation System for Injury Assessment Due to Repetitive Loading

The subject of this research is to investigate human simulation to predict injuries due to the fatigue of a repetitive loading. This work over the past few years has sought to integrate high-fidelity computational methods for stress/strain analysis, namely finite element analysis (FEA), with biomechanics predictions through digital human modeling and simulation (DHMS). Previous work by this group is a simulation environment called SANTOS®, which enables the prediction of human motion, including all aspects of its biomechanics. The SANTOS environment provides a joint- and physics-based predictive dynamics including a muscle model. Repetitiveness of work activity has been shown to be a strong risk factor for cumulative trauma disorders (repetitive strain injuries). Both cumulative load theory and deferential fatigue theory claim that repetitive activities precipitate musculoskeletal injury. The cumulative load theory suggests that repeated load application may result in cumulative fatigue, reducing stress-bearing capacity. Such changes may reduce the threshold stress at which the tissues fail. The deferential fatigue theory proposes that the muscles operating the joints may be differentially loaded and that this may not be proportional to the individual muscles’ capabilities. This can create a significant stress concentration in some tissues, causing an injury. This paper presents a local biomechanics model in a virtual environment, whereby the DHMS model calculates the muscle forces and motion profiles (i.e., the kinematics of the motion across time for each degree of freedom for the body). Predictive dynamics, a method developed and implemented by this group, is able to characterize the motion using an optimization algorithm that calculates the motion profiles. These motion profiles and muscle forces are calculated for each task over a repetitive cycle and are used as input for the multi-scale FEA model. The FEA model of the selected joint computes the stresses of the joint components. The system compares the current stresses of the components with the newly yielded strength that has been affected by cyclic loading and indicates the injury status of the components. This paper presents promising results to quantify and predict injury in a particular joint that is undergoing a specific repetitive motion. This integrated system allows one to study the effects of various motions and task parameters on knee joints so as to modify tasks, save analysis time, and reduce the likelihood of injury.
Environmental and Behavioral Circumstances and Consequences of Falls in a Senior Living Development

ABSTRACTThis article investigated the role of environmental and behavioral factors surrounding fall incidents in a senior living community. Using a mixed-methods approach, this research included both a retrospective analysis of fall reports and resident interviews. The quantitative analysis showed falls in the bedroom and bathroom were more likely to happen between 12 am and 8 am. Falls in the bathroom were more likely to result in severe injuries compared to falls in other rooms. The qualitative analysis identified three types of fall-related activity (transfer, ambulation, standing) and five behavioral factors surrounding fall incidents (transferring, slipping, misjudged behavior, tripping, health issue).
The prevalence of discrimination across racial groups in contemporary America: Results from a nationally representative sample of adults.

A large body of social science research is devoted to understanding the causes and correlates of discrimination. Comparatively less effort has been aimed at providing a general prevalence estimate of discrimination using a nationally representative sample. The current study is intended to offer such an estimate using a large sample of American respondents (N = 14,793) while also exploring perceptions regarding why respondents felt they were discriminated against. The results provide a broad estimate of self-reported discrimination experiences—an event that was only reported by about one-quarter of all sample members—across racial and ethnic categories.
PERENCANAAN, PENGANGGARAN DAN PENGADAAN ALAT & BAHAN LABORATORIUM AMERIND BIO-CLINIC (ABC)

Abstract – Amerind Bio-Clinic (ABC) Laboratory is a health lab in West Jakarta serving a full range of laboratory tests, including routine check up to high-tech checks such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The ABC Laboratory has been known as the Inspection Referral Center in Indonesia. Therefore, the ABC Laboratory of Jakarta should have the equipment and laboratory materials that can support its vast operational activities. To meet the needs of equipment and materials so much and to be on time, the ABC Laboratory should have excellent planning, budgeting and procurement mechanisms. To collect data, this research used observation, documentation and interview method. Meanwhile, the research method used is descriptive research that is problem-solving procedure by describing the object of research at the present time, based on facts that appear. The planning, budgeting and procurement process of ABC laboratory has been well implemented, with the following schedule: planning December 19-28, 2016, budgeting January 3-10, 2017 and procurement January 11-13 , 2017. The conclusion of this research is planning, budgeting and procurement mechanism of equipment & materials at the ABC Laboratory has been running well. This is evident from: Key Word: Planning,Budgetting,Procurement, Equipment, Material
Examining Customer Responses to Fake Online Reviews: The Role of Suspicion and Product Knowledge

Online reviews constitute a central element in modern word-of-mouth communication and can strongly influence customer purchase intention. However, customers may be also aware of that these tools can be manipulated or counterfeited, and suspicion upon the review authenticity may affect its influence. The objective of this paper is to examine the effects of suspicion about fake reviews on the effectiveness of reviews in influencing customers’ purchase intentions. The results of our empirical study show that customers who are suspicious of review authenticity find the reviews less convincing and reverse their likelihood to acquire the product. Furthermore, it holds true regardless of prior knowledge of the product.
Monotherapy and Polytherapy

Over the last 50–60 years, the concepts regarding AED monotherapy or polytherapy have fluctuated back and forth. On one hand, it was suggested that monotherapy served to minimize the chances of an increase in adverse effects possibly associated with multiple AEDs. On the other hand, polytherapy was considered positive if monotherapy did not control seizures because of synergistic effects of more than one AED for seizure control. Using two drugs with different mechanisms of action should increase the chance for seizure control. And there is an emotional factor. If monotherapy does not work, how could anyone just give up? Polytherapy became a foregone conclusion. Sequential monotherapy is an option, but more difficult to achieve.
Genomic Instability in Sporadic Colorectal Cancer

Two major forms of genomic alterations are seen abundantly in solid tumors (1). The predominant form is intrachromosomal genomic instability, which manifests itself as deletions, insertions, amplifications and translocations (2). The molecular basis of this form of instability has not been established, and recent evidence indicates p53 is unlikely to be involved here (3). A common feature of this major type of instability is an early role for DNA breakage, suggesting nuclease involvement. Aneuploidy produces gains or losses of entire chromosomes, in a process involving p53 and inappropriate meiotic-like segregation (5). Microsatellite instability represents a less common third type of genomic instability which produces oligonucleotide insertions or deletions within repetitive sequences; this is most often seen in hereditary cancer syndromes (e.g. HNPCC), where it somehow tends to preclude the appearance of the other types of instability (6).
Architectural Energetics, Ancient Monuments, and Operations Management

Architectural energetics, subsumed within replicative archaeology, provides a means through which buildings are translated into labor-time estimates. To date, the majority of architectural energetics analyses have generated comparative measures of architectural costs, equating these with a vertical structure of political power and authority within and among societies. The present analysis expands the application of architectural energetics by subjecting construction labor costs to an analysis based on concepts central to the Theory of Constraints, which is widely applied in modern operations management. This modeling generates a hypothetical set of behavioral patterns performed by general laborers within a construction project and explicates a method which allows further exploration into the question of labor organization (i.e., allocation and articulation of workers), as well as perhaps other economic organization, in an archaeological context. The case example is Structure 10L-22, a large Mayan palace at the site of Copan, Honduras.
Predicting total phosphorus levels as indicators for shallow lake management

Abstract Total phosphorus (TP) is commonly used to assess water quality in shallow lakes and other surface waters. Shallow lakes require special consideration because they can transition between two alternative stable states: (1) a clear-water state that typically supports abundant submerged vegetation and provides high quality wildlife habitat, and (2) a turbid-water state with frequent algal blooms and poor habitat quality. A shallow lake’s TP level in relation to critical TP tipping points determines whether the lake is in a highly resilient clear state, a highly resilient turbid state, or whether the lake is in a dynamic region where either state is possible. Further, management options differ for highly resilient clear lakes versus lakes that may be in the turbid state. For example, resilient clear lakes may be assigned special watershed and shoreline protection to preserve their healthy conditions. On the other hand, managers may plan to allocate resources for assessment and possible in-lake management for lakes that have TP levels where the turbid state is possible. Managers would benefit from models that can predict whether a lake is in a resilient clear state or may be in the turbid state without physically visiting a lake to collect water samples or other in-lake data. We used TP data from 118 shallow lakes in Minnesota and previously estimated TP tipping points to classify lakes as either highly resilient clear lakes (“stable-clear”) or possibly turbid (“bistable-turbid”). We used random forest methodology to build models for predicting these two TP classes using both remotely sensed watershed-scale predictors and in-lake variables, and we performed recursive feature elimination to find the most parsimonious model. We demonstrate that TP class can be predicted using only watershed-scale remotely sensed variables and that land cover and use, soil texture, and ecoregion are key predictor variables for TP class. We highlight how our model predictions can be used as indicators to help make management decisions for a set of shallow lakes.
Technically successful ultrasound-guided percutaneous sural nerve needle biopsy in a patient with indeterminate peripheral neuropathy.

To determine whether ultrasound-guided percutaneous sural nerve needle biopsy yields sufficient tissue for analysis in a patient with suspected vasculitis-related peripheral neuropathy. With real-time ultrasound guidance, a hydrodissection of the sural nerve from the adjacent small saphenous vein was first performed. A 14-gauge biopsy needle was then manipulated under real-time ultrasound guidance to obtain two transverse samples of the sural nerve at the lateral distal calf. The biopsy was technically successful and yielded adequate tissue for routine processing. The specimen showed mild epineurial perivascular chronic inflammation with marked loss of myelinated axons. These histologic findings are not diagnostically definitive for vasculitis-related peripheral neuropathy but were supportive of the diagnosis in combination with the patient’s physical examination, laboratory, and electromyography findings. The patient suffered no immediate complications after the procedure. This ultrasound-guided sural nerve needle biopsy, like many surgical biopsies, did not yield a definitive result in a patient with suspected vasculitis-related peripheral neuropathy; however, the procedure was technically successful. Given that percutaneous needle procedures offer many advantages over surgical procedures, we believe that this procedure warrants further investigation.
The effects of first programming language on college students’ computing attitude and achievement: a comparison of graphical and textual languages

Background and Context: The relationship between novices’ first programming language and their future achievement has drawn increasing interest owing to recent efforts to expand K–12 computing educ...
Can Game Elements Make Computer Science Courses More Attractive

Having to compete harder than ever for students' attention against cool social media sites, mobile apps, video games, messaging, etc., instructors are struggling to find new ways to motivate and engage learners. Gamification offers a promising framework for educational interventions that can increase students' motivation and engagement. This BOF will bring together instructors who have already explored the use of various game driven strategies and elements to increase the motivation of their students and also those who are looking for promising interventions to do that. The facilitators conducted a similar BOF at SIGCSE 2018, which was well attended, well received and sparked an interesting and lively discussion. This BOF will continue the conversation on what might be useful ways of incorporating game elements in Computer Science courses, what tools might be needed to support such efforts, how can the student experience of gamified learning be personalized, etc. Two NSF sponsored projects related to the use of gamification in STEM courses will seed the discussion. We hope to collectively contribute to the ongoing important discussion on successful strategies for applying of gamification in Computer Science education.
A Light-Weight and Quality-Aware Online Adaptive Sampling Approach for Streaming Social Sensing in Cloud Computing

Social Sensing has emerged as a new distributed application paradigm in networked sensing where streaming data is constantly collected from humans or devices on their behalf. A key challenge in social sensing is that the applications are often both data-intensive and delay-sensitive, which often require extensive resources in the cloud to support the data processing and analytics tasks. To address this problem, this paper focuses on a quality-aware online adaptive sampling problem where the goal is to judiciously sample a small set of representative sensing measurements (i.e., representative set) that effectively represent the key information of the social sensing data stream. However, two technical challenges exist in identifying such a representative set: (i) “quality-aware quantification”: data collected in the social sensing applications is often unstructured (e.g., text, image, video) where the key information is so deeply embedded in the raw data that can not be easily quantified to ensure the desirable quality of the selected representative set; (ii) “online adaptive sampling”: the sampling decision has to be made in real-time and be adaptive to the dynamics of the streaming data in social sensing. To address these challenges, this paper develops a Light-weight and Quality-aware Online Adaptive Sampling (LQOAS) scheme to dynamically identify the representative set of measurements from the streaming social sensing data using a submodular maximization approach. We evaluate the LQOAS scheme using a real world social sensing dataset from Twitter. The evaluation results show that the LQOAS scheme significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art sampling schemes.
SIRT1 Regulates Lysosome Function and Exosome Secretion

The NAD+−dependent deacetylase Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) regulates cell metabolism, proliferation, and DNA repair and acts as a tumor suppressor in breast cancer. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Latifkar et al. show that SIRT1 controls lysosomal acidification and its loss enhances the secretion of pro-tumorigenic exosomes for breast cancer invasion.
Chapter 33 – Nasopharyngeal Cancer

Publisher Summary Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is an epithelial tumor. There are several factors that can lead to nasopharyngeal cancer, such as the Epstein–Barr virus, genetics, environmental factors, anatomy, pathology, and the natural history of the disease. Chemotherapy plays a very important part in the treatment and improvement in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. In patients with recurrent or metastatic disease, effective and adequate chemotherapy alone and other calming treatments are highly recommended. In patients with locally advanced NPC, combination chemotherapy given neoadjuvantly, concomitant with, or after curative total radiotherapy, can improve local control, decrease the systemic metastasis, and improve disease-free survival. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy, significantly improves local control, systemic control, progression-free survival, and overall survival in a phase III prospective randomized trial. Different sequencing of induction chemotherapy followed by concomitant chemoradiotherapy, new agents, and combinations needs to be investigated in patients with locally advanced NPC.
11 – Access Delay

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the various aspects of access delay barriers. An effective physical protection systems (PPS) requires any malevolent act committed by an inside or outside adversary to be detected so that the response force, including onsite guards, local police, and others, can interrupt the adversary's attack before the goal is achieved. Access delay barriers may take the form of passive barriers, guards, or dispensable barriers. Passive barriers include structural elements such as doors, walls, floors, locks, vents, ducts, and fences. To aid alarm assessment and interception of the adversary at predictable locations, installation of detection systems should be considered, along with barriers adjacent to each other, so that the barrier is encountered immediately after a sensor. Perimeter barriers form the outermost protective layer of a PPS and their function is to exclude unauthorized personnel from an area. In order to provide full penetration resistance, barriers have to be selected to fit the particular situation and be installed properly.
Reconfigurable Photovoltaic Emulator for Differential Diffusion Charge Redistribution Solar Modules

Evaluating, validating, testing, and performing research on hardware components that are connected to actual solar photovoltaic systems can be challenging; photovoltaic emulators are a common practical approach. In particular, addressing emulation for the crucial research topics of partial shading and cell mismatch is important. Differential diffusion charge redistribution is a switched-capacitor architecture using differential power processing for performing maximum power point tracking with cell-level granularity using only a single module-level converter. Among the prohibitive challenges is preventing damage to the module-embedded integrated circuits for the corner cases during fault and failure testing of connected hardware components including power converters. Emulators not only benefit research, but also product development and manufacturing of hardware components and power converters. This paper investigates a reconfigurable linear emulator with an analog controller for photovoltaic modules configured for differential diffusion charge redistribution. Cell mismatch and partial shading are shown to be equivalent and that the averaged behavior of these switched-capacitor solar photovoltaic modules can be represented by two separate continuous-time circuits that are coupled by feedback and constraints leading to an emulator design that is demonstrated through a hardware prototype.
GEOAppS: Interactive numerical models of geomorphic processes and application in a post-secondary coastal processes course

The vast extent to which quantitative prerequisites vary among post-secondary geoscience programs often presents a challenge for educators and students alike in courses for which math and physics a...
Policy Learning and Criminal Justice Reform in the U.S. States

This article investigates criminal justice reform in the U.S. states through a policy learning framework. A comparative case study of reform in Texas and California reveals a policy learning proces...
MuSIC@Indiana: An effective tool for accurate measurement of fusion with low-intensity radioactive beams

Abstract The design, construction, and characterization of the Multi-Sampling Ionization Chamber , MuSIC@Indiana, are described. This detector provides efficient and accurate measurement of the fusion cross-section at near-barrier energies. The response of the detector to low-intensity beams of 17 , 18 O, 19F, 23Na, 24 , 26 Mg, 27Al, and 28Si at E l a b = 50 – 60 MeV was examined. MuSIC@Indiana was commissioned by measuring the 18O+12C fusion excitation function for 11 E c m 20 MeV using CH4 gas. A simple, effective analysis cleanly distinguishes proton capture and two-body scattering events from fusion on carbon. With MuSIC@Indiana, measurement of 15 points on the excitation function for a single incident beam energy is achieved. The resulting excitation function is shown to be in good agreement with literature data.
Adjuvant Treatments for CRPS

Conventional treatment of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) involves a pharmacologic regimen that supplements intensive physical and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Pharmacotherapies available for CRPS are at times insufficient for pain control or carry with them intolerable side effects. Frequently, patients and practitioners then turn to adjuvant therapies to facilitate treatment and symptom relief and reduce prescription pain medication use. This chapter offers an overview of adjuvant treatments, their proposed mechanisms of action, and a review of existing literature. Overall, there was a paucity of literature investigating the use of nonconventional therapies for CRPS, suggesting the need for further evidence-based research in this area.
Strengthening global governance of Large Marine Ecosystems by incorporating coastal management and Marine Protected Areas

Abstract After 20 years of programming GEF International Waters (IW) LME projects, it is time to assemble experiences and promote learning and capacity building among the projects in the LME portfolio. This review is focused on strengthening the multi-scale approach to LME governance by reviewing existing approaches and advocating the incorporation of Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) at local scales into all GEF-funded LME projects.
Revisiting the SO4 Limit for the Defense Waste Processing Facility

The SO 4 = limit for the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) was re-evaluated to establish a "single point" sulfate (SO 4 = ) limit specific to the Frit 418 - Sludge Batch 3 (SB3) system. Based on the results of this study, it was recommended that the glass SO 4 = limit in the Product Composition Control System (PCCS) be set at 0.60 wt% (g SO 4 = /100 g glass) or 0.88 wt% expressed as Na 2 SO 4 in the glass. The new limit was set based on sealed, crucible-scale data and does not take credit or account for potential volatilization that may occur in the DWPF melter. The new limit allowed the transfer (and ultimately immobilization) of a Np process solution from H-canyon facilities which supported accelerated clean-up objectives. Although the limit was established based on sealed crucible scale tests, supplementary testing using the Slurry-Fed Melt Rate Furnace (SMRF) provided a measure of confidence that applying the 0.6 wt% SO 4 = limit in PCCS would avoid the formation of a salt layer in the melter.
Globalization, Modernity, and Their Discontents

This article provides an annotated bibliography of debates regarding the effects of globalization and modernity in the post-Cold War world. It further examines the growing discontent with these developments.
Assessment of Pharmacy Manpower and Services in New England

Objectives:This study assessed longitudinal trends in pharmacy staffing and services in the 6 New England states by comparing survey results from 2008 and 2013.Methods:A validated 32-item survey was mailed in 2008 and 2013 to a random sample of 2000 pharmacists. Each sample represented approximately 15% (2008) and 13% (2013) of the active rosters.Results:Response rates were 24% in 2008 and 23% in 2013. In all, 45% of 2013 respondents reported a pharmacist position vacancy in the past 12 months versus 62% in 2008. In all, 12% of 2013 respondents agreed or strongly agreed with a statement regarding pharmacists’ shortage versus 77% in 2008. Disease management services were reported to be offered by 23% of 2013 respondents versus 28% in 2008. Reasons for not offering the services in 2013 included the lack of staffing (61%), expertise (28%), and reimbursement (29%). In 2008, these results were 74%, 33%, and 31%, respectively.Conclusions:The pharmacist shortage within New England was alleviated during 2008 to 2...
β3-Adrenoceptor, glutathionylation, and diabetic cardiomyopathy. Focus on “β3-Adrenoceptor activation relieves oxidative inhibition of the cardiac Na+-K+ pump in hyperglycemia induced by insulin receptor blockade”

it is well established that diabetes is an important risk factor for the development of ischemic heart disease. The prevailing paradigm is that diabetes acts by accelerating the development of atherosclerosis and hypertension and, by doing so, attenuates the contractile function of the myocardium ([
The isoperimetric problem on surfaces of revolution of decreasing Gauss curvature

We prove that the least-perimeter way to enclose prescribed area in the plane with smooth, rotationally symmetric, complete metric of nonincreasing Gauss curvature consists of one or two circles, bounding a disc, the complement of a disc, or an annulus. We also provide a new isoperimetric inequality in general surfaces with boundary.
Strawberry Fields as Extreme Environments: The Ecobiopolitics of Farmworker Health

Based on nearly two years of ethnographic research with farmworkers in California's Pajaro Valley, in this article I build on Olson's idea of "extreme environments." By merging theories of biopolitics and political ecology, or ecobiopolitics, I explore the naturalization of chemically intensive systems of agricultural production and the health consequences they produce for farmworkers. State and industry regimes of agricultural knowledge and practice are designed to control workers and the environment in strawberry fields. They also produce devastating syndemics and chronicities of disease in farmworker bodies and communities. The relationships between health disparities and farmworkers' lifetimes of exposure to toxic pesticides remain underexplored and poorly understood, perpetuating toxic ignorance about the relationships between pesticides and farmworker health. This enables equating worker well-being with industry well-being. Synergies between ethnographic and environmental health research are needed to challenge toxic ignorance, toxic layering, and the invisible harms they produce in agricultural communities.
Failure of ion exchange into zeolites A and X from four diverse nonaqueous solvents

Abstract Fully anhydrous ion exchange into zeolite single crystals was attempted using nonaqueous solutions. Under various conditions, Na-A was exposed to flowing solutions of CuCl, CuCl2, and CuSO4 in acetonitrile and of CuCl2 in methanol. Na-A was treated with dimethyl sulfoxide solutions of Pb(NO3)2 and, at 140°C, KNO3. Finally, Na-A and Na-X were treated with HgS in liquid sulfur at 400°C. X-ray crystallography showed that in no case had any ion exchange occurred. Perhaps cations neither enter the zeolite nor leave sites within because their solvation complexes cannot hydrogen bond to framework oxygens.
Formalin can alter the intracellular localization of some transcription factors in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Indirect immunofluorescence (IF) microscopy is a frequently used method to determine intracellular protein localization. It is especially useful for low abundance proteins, for example the GATA-factors (Gln3, Gat1) which activate nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR)-sensitive transcription. Limiting nitrogen or treating cells with Tor pathway inhibitor, rapamycin, elicits nuclear GATA-factor localization and increased NCR-sensitive transcription, whereas excess nitrogen restricts these proteins to the cytoplasm and decreases transcription. The initial step of the IF procedure is formalin-fixation that quenches cellular activity and fixes protein locations via cross-linking. We find that under some conditions, formalin itself can influence GATA-factor localization. With low formalin (0.8% or 1.6%), Gat1-Myc13 became more nuclear, and with higher concentrations (5.6%), it became more cytoplasmic. Gln3-Myc13 localization, on the other hand, did not respond to low formalin, but became more cytoplasmic at the higher concentration. Interestingly, the high concentration of formalin had no demonstrable effect when the GATA factors were completely nuclear, i.e. after rapamycin (Gat1-Myc13) or Msx (Gln3-Myc13) treatment. These effects are most likely elicited by polyoxymethylene glycols, which significantly increase the osmolarity of the medium (0.5–2). We suggest that varying degrees of osmotic stress and transcription factor movement in response to it can occur after the beginning of fixation but before proteins become immobilized.
False-positive reduction using hessian features in computer-aided detection of pulmonary nodules on thoracic CT images

We are developing a computer-aided detection (CAD) system for lung nodules in thoracic CT volumes. During false positive (FP) reduction, the image structures around the identified nodule candidates play an important role in differentiating nodules from vessels. In our previous work, we exploited shape and first-order derivative information of the images by extracting ellipsoid and gradient field features. The purpose of this study was to explore the object shape information using second-order derivatives and the Hessian matrix to further improve the performance of our detection system. Eight features related to the eigenvalues of the Hessian matrix were extracted from a volume of interest containing the object, and were combined with ellipsoid and gradient field features to discriminate nodules from FPs. A data set of 82 CT scans from 56 patients was used to evaluate the usefulness of the FP reduction technique. The classification accuracy was assessed using the area A z under the receiving operating characteristic curve and the number of FPs per section at 80% sensitivity. In the combined feature space, we obtained a test A z of 0.97 ± 0.01, and 0.27 FPs/section at 80% sensitivity. Our results indicate that combining the Hessian, ellipsoid and gradient field features can significantly improve the performance of our FP reduction stage.
Adult urinary bladder tumors with rabdomyosarcomatous differentiation: Clinical, pathological and immunohistochemical studies

Adult rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) in the urinary bladder is rare, and is the subject of case reports and small series. It consists of sheets of small round blue cells with high nuclear cytoplasmic ratio, brisk mitosis and apoptosis. In this study, we reported one case of pure rhabdomyosarcoma and two cases of urothelial carcinomas with extensive rhabdomyosarcomatous differentiation. In addition, their immunohistochemical profile was compared to that of small cell carcinoma of the bladder. Our study showed that sufficient sampling was critical for the diagnosis of urothelial carcinoma with extensive rhabdomyosarcomatous differentiation. As adult RMS in the bladder and urothelial carcinoma with rhabdomyosarcomatous differentiation shared morphological features with small cell carcinoma of the bladder, appropriate immunohistochemical stains were necessary in the differential diagnosis. We showed both rhabdomyosarcoma and rhabdomyosarcomatous areas of the urothelial carcinoma were positive for myogenin, negative for cytokeratin and chromogranin stains. In contrast, small cell carcinoma was positive for cytokeratin, and 7 out of 9 cases were also positive for chromogranin. Both rhabdomyosarcoma and small cell carcinoma could be positive for synaptophysin, a potential pitfall to avoid. In addition, all of the tumors with rhabdomyosarcomatous differentiation were negative for FKHR rearrangement.
Effect of shear rate on the activity of enzymes used in hydraulic fracture cleanup of tight unconventional reservoirs

Injection of polymeric solutions in order to propagate a fracture and carry proppants to keep the fracture open is a common practice in hydraulic fracturing of ultra-tight formations. Polymeric fluids open and extend the already existing network of fractures. Considering the low permeability of the formation, small width of the micro-fractures, and the importance of fracture cleanup during the production phase, using breakers is recommended to degrade the more concentrated polymeric fluid and increase the conductivity of the fractures. Enzymes are typically used successfully as breakers for fracturing fluids. In this study, the effect of high shear rates on the activity of enzymes was studied. Enzyme activity decreased at increasing shear rates. However, this activity reduction is reversible. This proves insignificant damage to the enzyme structure due to shear effects. This will assure the activity of the enzymes after reaching the fracture and the more efficient cleanup of the fracture(s). [Received: 31 July 2013; Accepted: 26 January 2014].
Evaluating the impact of unmeasured confounding with internal validation data: an example cost evaluation in type 2 diabetes.

Abstract The quantitative assessment of the potential influence of unmeasured confounders in the analysis of observational data is rare, despite reliance on the "no unmeasured confounders" assumption. In a recent comparison of costs of care between two treatments for type 2 diabetes using a health care claims database, propensity score matching was implemented to adjust for selection bias though it was noted that information on baseline glycemic control was not available for the propensity model. Using data from a linked laboratory file, data on this potential "unmeasured confounder" were obtained for a small subset of the original sample. By using this information, we demonstrate how Bayesian modeling, propensity score calibration, and multiple imputation can utilize this additional information to perform sensitivity analyses to quantitatively assess the potential impact of unmeasured confounding. Bayesian regression models were developed to utilize the internal validation data as informative prior distributions for all parameters, retaining information on the correlation between the confounder and other covariates. While assumptions supporting the use of propensity score calibration were not met in this sample, the use of Bayesian modeling and multiple imputation provided consistent results, suggesting that the lack of data on the unmeasured confounder did not have a strong impact on the original analysis, due to the lack of strong correlation between the confounder and the cost outcome variable. Bayesian modeling with informative priors and multiple imputation may be useful tools for unmeasured confounding sensitivity analysis in these situations. Further research to understand the operating characteristics of these methods in a variety of situations, however, remains.
Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription-3 Serine Phosphorylation by Insulin Is Mediated by a Ras/ Raf/MEK-Dependent Pathway*

We recently reported that insulin stimulation results in the serine phosphorylation of STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription-3). In the present study, we identified serine 727 as the site of insulin-stimulated STAT3 serine phosphorylation. This phosphorylation event occurs independent of tyrosine phosphorylation. Furthermore, interleukin-6-induced tyrosine phosphorylation can occur independent of serine phosphorylation, demonstrating that these two phosphorylation pathways are mechanistically unrelated. Selective activation of the JNK and p38 family of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases by anisomycin treatment did not result in the phosphorylation of STAT3. In contrast, activation of the ERK MAP kinase pathway with both insulin and osmotic shock resulted in the serine phosphorylation of STAT3. In addition, expression of a dominant-interfering Ras mutant (N17Ras) or treatment with the specific MEK inhibitor (PD98059) prevented the insulin stimulation of STAT3 serine phosphorylation. Blockade of ERK activation by expression of the MAP kinase phosphatase (MKP-1) had no effect on insulin-stimulated STAT3 serine phosphorylation. Together, these data demonstrate that the insulin-stimulated serine phosphorylation of STAT3 occurs by a MEK-dependent pathway that is independent of ERK activation.