cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Security Dilemma Revisited

Robert Jervis's article “Cooperation under the Security Dilemma” is among the most important works in international relations of the past few decades. In it, Jervis develops two essential arguments. First, he explains that the security dilemma is the key to understanding how in an anarchic international system states with fundamentally compatible goals still end up in competition and at war. The security dilemma exists when “many of the means by which a state tries1 to increase its security decrease the security of others.” It provides the rational foundation for what Jervis termed the “spiral model,” which describes how the interaction between states that are seeking only security can fuel competition and strain political relations.2 Second, Jervis explains that the magnitude and nature of the security dilemma depend on two variables: the offense-defense balance and offense-defense differentiation.3 As a result, the security dilemma can vary across space and time. Although states exist in a condition of international anarchy that does not vary, there can be significant variation in the attractiveness of cooperative or competitive means, the prospects for achieving a high level of security, and the probability of war.
Estimation of semi-parametric additive coefficient model

Abstract In the multivariate regression setting, we propose a flexible varying coefficient model in which the regression coefficients of some predictors are additive functions of other predictors. Marginal integration estimators of the coefficients are developed and their asymptotic properties investigated. Under β -mixing, it is found that the estimators of the parameters in the regression coefficients have rate of convergence 1 / n , and the nonparametric additive components are estimated at the same rate of convergence as in univariate smoothing. A data-driven bandwidth selection method is developed based on asymptotic considerations. Its effectiveness is confirmed in a Monte-Carlo study. The procedure is applied to the real German GNP and Wolf's Sunspot data, where the semi-parametric additive coefficient model demonstrates superior performance in terms of out-of-sample forecasts.
Diabetes-related mortality among Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans in the United States

OBJECTIVES: Hispanics are the most rapidly growing minority group in the United States, and Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans are the three largest Hispanic subgroups. Among Hispanics, type 2 diabetes is the fifth leading cause of death. This paper examines diabetes-related mortality in Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans over 35 years of age in the United States during 1996 and 1997. METHODS: Using data from the National Vital Statistics System and the 1990 and 2000 censuses, we calculated age-adjusted and age-specific diabetes-related death rates for Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans over 35 years of age. Diabetes-related deaths were determined to be any death for which diabetes was coded as either the underlying or contributing cause of death. RESULTS: The diabetes-related mortality rate for Mexican Americans (251 per 100 000) and Puerto Ricans (204 deaths per 100 000) was twice as high as the diabetes-related mortality rate for Cuban Americans (101 deaths per 100 000). Cuban American decedents had the highest proportion of deaths with diabetes coded as the underlying cause of death (44%). After diabetes, heart disease (31%) followed by cancer (8%) and stroke (6%) were the most frequent primary underlying causes of diabetes-related deaths in all three ethnic groups. CONCLUSION: Our analyses of these data demonstrate that diabetes-related mortality differed among Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans more than 35 years of age in the United States in 1996 and 1997. Socioeconomic factors such as low educational attainment and low income may be factors that contributed to the disparities in these mortality rates for different subgroups. Further research is needed to update these findings and to investigate explanatory risk factors. Diversity among Hispanic subgroups has persisted in recent years and should be considered when health policies and services targeted at these populations are developed.
Olfactory identification and preference in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

Olfactory identification deficit appears to be an enduring feature of schizophrenia, but it is unclear whether it is specific to schizophrenia or present in psychotic disorders in general. The aim of the present study was to compare olfactory identification and olfactory preference in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and demographically matched healthy participants were given the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) to assess olfactory identification ability. To examine olfactory hedonic judgment, participants were also asked to indicate their preference for each UPSIT item on a 5-point rating scale, immediately after odor identification. Clinical symptoms and social competence were also assessed. Both schizophrenic and bipolar groups showed olfactory identification deficits compared with the healthy controls, but schizophrenic patients were more impaired than bipolar patients on the UPSIT accuracy. Interestingly, both bipolar and schizophrenic patients rated odors to be more pleasant than did healthy controls, but all groups preferred odors that they could correctly identify to unidentified smells. Restricted range of preference ratings was associated with the severity of negative symptoms in schizophrenia, and with mania in bipolar disorder. Social competence was associated with better olfactory identification performance. These findings suggest that olfactory identification and preference are compromised in bipolar disorder as well as in schizophrenia, but the precise nature of these abnormalities needs to be further elucidated.
OLIGONUCLEOTIDE DNA AND RNA AS DIRECT CAPPING LIGAND FOR NANOCRYSTALS: AN EMERGING METHOD FOR BIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSTICS AND THERAPEUTICS

Various types of nanocrystals have extensively demonstrated significant advantages in magnetic, chemical, catalytic, and particularly optical properties. Still, some limitations prevent these properties from being utilized for improved biological imaging, therapeutics or micro/nano-optoelectronics. A recently emerging, facile approach employing oligonucleotide DNA or RNA for direct surface passivation of nanocrystals is showing promise to bridge the gap between functional potential and realization. Oligonucleotide capping can provide hydrophilic nature, target recognition capabilities, and enhanced cellular uptake for nanocrystals, with a simplified synthesis capable of both templating and functionalizing. We overview synthesis, properties, and applications of nucleic acid templated nanocrystals and contrast these with nanocrystals synthesized by more classical capping methods. Finally, we highlight areas of research in oligonucleotide templated nanocrystals that have been largely unexplored to date, where further investigations can provide many new insights.
Incorporating SAT solvers into hierarchical clustering algorithms: an efficient and flexible approach

The area of constrained clustering has been actively pursued for the last decade. A more recent extension that will be the focus of this paper is constrained hierarchical clustering which allows building user-constrained dendrograms/trees. Like all forms of constrained clustering, previous work on hierarchical constrained clustering uses simple constraints that are typically implemented in a procedural language. However, there exists mature results and packages in the fields of constraint satisfaction languages and solvers that the constrained clustering field has yet to explore. This work marks the first steps towards introducing constraints satisfaction languages/solvers into hierarchical constrained clustering. We make several significant contributions. We show how many existing and new constraints for hierarchical clustering, can be modeled as a Horn-SAT problem that is easily solvable in polynomial time and which allows their implementation in any number of declarative languages or efficient solvers. We implement our own solver for efficiency reasons. We then show how to formulate constrained hierarchical clustering in a flexible manner so that any number of algorithms, whose output is a dendrogram, can make use of the constraints.
A Lossy Source Coding Interpretation of Wyner’s Common Information

Wyner’s common information was originally defined for a pair of dependent discrete random variables. Its significance is largely reflected in, and also confined to, several existing interpretations in various source coding problems. This paper attempts to expand its practical significance by providing a new operational interpretation. In the context of the Gray–Wyner network, it is established that Wyner’s common information has a new lossy source coding interpretation. Specifically, it is established that, under suitable conditions, Wyner’s common information equals to the smallest common message rate when the total rate is arbitrarily close to the rate distortion function with joint decoding for the Gray–Wyner network. A surprising observation is that such equality holds independent of the values of distortion constraints as long as the distortions are within some distortion region. The new lossy source coding interpretation provides the first meaningful justification for defining Wyner’s common information for continuous random variables and the result can also be extended to that of multiple variables. Examples are given for characterizing the rate distortion region for the Gray–Wyner lossy source coding problem and for identifying conditions under which Wyner’s common information equals that of the smallest common rate. As a by-product, the explicit expression for the common information between a pair of Gaussian random variables is obtained.
Surface modification of Au/TiO2 catalysts by SiO2 via atomic layer deposition

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) was utilized for the surface engineering of metallic nanoparticles to tame their sintering problems and catalytic activities. We chose the surface modification of gold nanocatalysts as an example to demonstrate the concept of this ALD-based approach. Herein, an active Au/TiO2 catalyst was modified by amorphous SiO2 via ALD, and the samples were characterized by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), scanning (SEM-EDX) and transmission electron microscope−energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (TEM-EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetry/differential thermogravimetry (TG/DTG), and the catalytic activities in CO oxidation and H2 oxidation were tested with respect to the pretreatment temperature and SiO2 content. A significant sintering resistance and changes in catalytic activities were observed. The difference between the SiO2/Au/TiO2 samples prepared by gas-phase ALD and solution-phase chemical grafting was discussed.
The 2nd Convergence: A Technology Viewpoint

We are at the down of the 2nd convergence. The first convergence, the technology convergence, was in fact many convergences: the wired/wireless and fixed/mobile convergence that gave us the Internet of today and ubiquitous connectivity, the device convergence of smart phones and tablets, and the media convergence that changed the way we consume content at home, work and on the road. The 2nd Convergence is melding technology, business models, social networks and culture and catalyses media and story telling innovation. It is breaking through traditional design silos and is displacing traditional linear value chains and some the predominant business models and creates a new generation of innovators, users and creators across skill and age barriers. This book chapter will review the technology convergence, the first convergence, by revisiting its heritage, establishing its basis, reviewing current and past research and providing early implementation examples as well as challenges and controversies. It will show that the 2nd convergence emerges from it and promises even more innovation in the future.
Digital detection for tobacco control: Online reactions to the 2009 U.S. cigarette excise tax increase

INTRODUCTION The Internet is revolutionizing tobacco control, but few have harnessed the Web for surveillance. We demonstrate for the first time an approach for analyzing aggregate Internet search queries that captures precise changes in population considerations about tobacco. METHODS We compared tobacco-related Google queries originating in the United States during the week of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) 2009 cigarette excise tax increase with a historic baseline. Specific queries were then ranked according to their relative increases while also considering approximations of changes in absolute search volume. RESULTS Individual queries with the largest relative increases the week of the SCHIP tax were "cigarettes Indian reservations" 640% (95% CI, 472-918), "free cigarettes online" 557% (95% CI, 432-756), and "Indian reservations cigarettes" 542% (95% CI, 414-733), amounting to about 7,500 excess searches. By themes, the largest relative increases were tribal cigarettes 246% (95% CI, 228-265), "free" cigarettes 215% (95% CI, 191-242), and cigarette stores 176% (95% CI, 160-193), accounting for 21,000, 27,000, and 90,000 excess queries. All avoidance queries, including those aforementioned themes, relatively increased 150% (95% CI, 144-155) or 550,000 from their baseline. All cessation queries increased 46% (95% CI, 44-48), or 175,000, around SCHIP; including themes for "cold turkey" 19% (95% CI, 11-27) or 2,600, cessation products 47% (95% CI, 44-50) or 78,000, and dubious cessation approaches (e.g., hypnosis) 40% (95% CI, 33-47) or 2,300. CONCLUSIONS The SCHIP tax motivated specific changes in population considerations. Our strategy can support evaluations that temporally link tobacco control measures with instantaneous population reactions, as well as serve as a springboard for traditional studies, for example, including survey questionnaire design.
Dialysis-related mortality in the United States.

BACKGROUND In the United States, the gross mortality rate for patients undergoing dialysis in 1992 was 23.6% per year, higher than in any other industrialized country. This mortality rate has been rising slightly for the last 10 years. Wide variations in mortality rates exist among states and among dialysis centers, and smaller dialysis centers have higher mortality rates than larger ones. PURPOSE To review the possible reasons for the high mortality rate associated with dialysis in the United States. SUMMARY Differences in patient populations do not explain the variations in mortality rates. The incidence of new patients and the prevalence of older patients and patients with diabetes are higher in the United States than in other countries and are continuing to rise. However, these numbers are rising in other countries as well without a concomitant increase in their mortal9 ity rates. Black patients make up a disproportionate number of US dialysis patients, but they are less likely to die than white patients. US patients spend less time per week in dialysis than their European counterparts and use smaller dialyzers, resulting in lower clearance of solutes. CONCLUSION Approximately two thirds of US patients receive inadequate dialysis. Nephrologists must examine their practices and their outcomes to improve the quality of care they give.
Excretion of Some Purgative Salts of Magnesium

There are few experimental studies recorded of the effect of ingestion of purgative salts of magnesium on the level of urinary and fecal magnesium. Hayy1 found that one normal man excreted through the kidneys in 23½ hours, 3.5% of the magnesium taken in a 20 gm. dose of magnesium sulphate. Yvon2 found an increase of less than 5.0% in 24 hours in the urinary magnesium output after the ingestion of a similar dose of the same salt. Hirschfelder and Series3 reported that 7 normal men excreted from 40 to 44% (average 42.6%) of the magnesium taken in a single ordinary purgative dose of Epsom salt within 24 hours after ingestion. Haldane4 recovered only 8% of the magnesium ingested in a 25 gm. dose of magnesium chloride.Wry5 recovered in one hour from the feces of a normal man 9.52 gm. or about 78% of the magnesium taken in a 12.25 gm. dose of magnesium sulphate; from the feces of another he recovered in one hour 12.5 gm. or 50% of the magnesium taken in a 25 gm. dose of the same salt. He observed that after 24 ...
Progress in Marketing Research

Members of the Associations are requested to supply the Chairman with summaries of all marketing research projects that are under way, or that have been completed recently, so that these can be inc...
Implementation of a Token Economy by Peer Tutors to Increase On-Task Physical Activity Time of Autistic Children:

The data generated in this study were graphed for visual inspection of the raw data and means. Of the 5 subjects, 4 improved their time on task on the balance beam in at least one of the intervention phases. The other subject did not improve during the intervention phases but, there was a positive slope in the final intervention phase which might have continued had the intervention been longer. Further study is required.
New neural measures signal autism

People often lament the meager social skills of their spouses, colleagues, children, and friends, and books and advice columns offer aids for facilitating interaction and communication with others. For people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), neurodevelopmental missteps drive deficits in socio-communication and a combination of stereotyped behaviors, restricted interests, cognitive inflexibility, or sensory abnormalities that no run-of-the-mill self-help books can salve. Now, Bjornsdotter and colleagues use functional imaging to quantify the neural activity of social perception circuits and pinpoint a potential marker for ASD behavior in males. In the past three decades, researchers have used neuroimaging to investigate the neural substrates of characteristic behaviors in individuals with ASD in the hopes of discovering biomarkers that can aid in the tracking of disorder progression and determining responses to interventions. However, practical and technical reasons—for example, differences in image acquisition methods and variations in characteristics of participants—have prevented replication of the results of such studies. This problem of replicating neuroimaging findings has been a key challenge in the field of autism. In a recent investigation involving a discovery cohort of 39 children and adolescents (22 with ASD and 17 neurotypical controls), the authors quantified the neural activity of social perception circuits with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in response to point-light displays of coherent versus scrambled human motion—a task relevant for social perception. Compared with neurotypical controls, boys, but not girls, with ASD displayed a relative reduction in social perception circuit responses. This finding was reproduced in a group-level analysis of a larger replication cohort made up of 75 children and adolescents (37 with ASD and 38 neurotypical controls). Remarkably, reductions in responses in the social perception circuits in boys with ASD were also detected in individual-level analyses (that is, measurements of an individual participant instead of a group of participants) with moderate levels of sensitivity and specificity. The authors concluded that the activity of specific brain circuits in response to a social perception task is a promising individual-level candidate neural marker of the male ASD behavioral phenotype. Is this neuroimaging biomarker ready for use in tracking responses to interventions and disease progression? Clearly, such a biomarker is of great clinical value, if it can distinguish ASD from other neurodevelopmental disorders and differentiate affected from unaffected family members. Whereas the results of this study are encouraging, further replications by researchers in other institutions are needed to validate the specificity and clinical utility of this biomarker. M. Bjornsdotter et al ., Evaluation of quantified social perception circuit activity as a neurobiological marker of autism spectrum disorder. JAMA Psych. 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.0219 (2016). [[Abstract]][1] [1]: http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2516216
Analysis on Pathogenic Detection Results of Infectious Diarrhea in a Scholl of Guiyang County

Objective To investigate an outbreak of infectious diarrhea in a school of Guiyang County and to determine the pathogens.Methods Pathogenic detection and drug susceptibility test were done in 30 stool samples and 1 self-contained water source sample collected from the school.Results Eleven strains of Shigella flexneri 2a type were isolated from 31 samples,of which 10 strains from stool samples and 1 strain from water sample.Conclusions The detection results confirmed that this outbreak resulted from Shigella flexneri 2a type.
A Distributed Feedback Motion Planning Protocol for Multiple Unicycle Agents of Different Classes

This paper presents a novel feedback method for the motion planning and coordination of multiple agents that belong to two classes, namely class-A and class-B. All agents are modeled via unicycle kinematics. Agents of class-B do not share information with agents of class-A and do not participate in ensuring safety, modeling thus agents with failed sensing/communication systems, agents of higher priority, or moving obstacles with known upper bounded velocity. The method is built upon a family of 2-D analytic vector fields, which under mild assumptions are proved to be safe feedback motion plans with a unique stable singular point. The conditions which ensure collision free and almost global convergence for a single agent and the analytical form of the vector fields are then utilized in the design the proposed distributed, semi-cooperative multi-agent coordination protocol. Semi-cooperative coordination has been defined in prior work as the ad hoc prioritization and conflict resolution among agents of the same class ; more specifically, participation in conflict resolution and collision avoidance for each agent is determined on-the-fly based on whether the agent's motion results in decreasing its distance with respect to its neighbor agents; based on this condition, the agent decides to either ignore its neighbors, or adjust its velocity and avoid the neighbor agent with respect to which the rate of decrease of the pairwise inter agent distance is maximal. The proposed coordination protocol builds upon this logic and addresses the case of multiple agents of distinct classes (class-A and class-B) in conflict. Guarantees on the safety of the multi-agent system and the almost global convergence of the agents to their destinations are proved. The efficacy of the proposed methodology is demonstrated via simulation results in static and dynamic environments.
Child Sexual Abuse: A Rich Context for thinking about God, Community, and Ministry

Raises theological issues from the context of pastoral responses to child sexual abuse. Asks, What view of the human self can account for the evil of child sexual abuse? What is wrong in society an...
Does Financial Market Liberalization Promote Financial Development?: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Since 1990s, many Sub-Saharan African economies have liberalized their financial sectors in the expectation that liberalized financial markets will promote financial development and spur economic growth. In this respect the African economies followed the footstep of their Latin American counterparts who began to liberalize their financial markets in the 1980s, following a period characterized by hyperinflation, stagnant growth, and debt crisis. While the influential papers of Mckinnon (1973) and Shaw (1973) provided theoretical justification for financial liberalization, it was the thrust for broader market-based reforms that promoted wholesale liberalization and privatization and triggered rapid financial market liberalization in the continent. Ignoring both the more nuanced theoretical work2 and the growing body of empirical evidence on why and when financial liberalization may not promote financial development, Levine (1997) and King and Levine (1997) claimed a positive, first-order relationship between financial development and economic growth. This strand of literature made emphatic claims, albeit not necessarily supported by robust empirical evidence, that the development of financial markets and institutions is a critical and inextricable part of the growth process. They went further to that “the level of financial development is a good predictor of future rates of economic growth, capital accumulation, and technological change” (Levine, 1997), without addressing the more critical issue as to whether financial market liberalization was necessary to promote financial development, with the latter touted as a sine qua non for economic growth.
Opportunities and obstacles in child and adolescent mental health services in low- and middle-income countries: a review of the literature.

Lower-income, less developed countries have few child and adolescent mental health professionals and a low availability of paediatric community mental health care. Child mental health professionals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) must therefore balance comprehensive tertiary care for the minority and provision of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) within primary health care to serve the majority. This review aimed to identify the obstacles to, and opportunities for, providing CAMHS in LMICs. Articles from PsychInfo and PubMed, published up to November 2011, were retrieved using the search terms “child and adolescent”, “mental health services”, “child psychiatry”, “low- and middle-income countries”, “low-income countries” and “developing countries”. Articles were then retrieved from PubMed alone, using these search terms plus the individual country names of 154 LMICs. Fifty-four articles were retrieved from PsychInfo and 632 from PubMed. Searching PubMed with 154 LMIC names retrieved seven related articles. Inclusion criteria were (i) articles relating to CAMHS or child psychiatric services; (ii) subjects included in the articles were inhabitants of LMICs or developing countries; (iii) articles reported in English. After removal of duplicates, 22 articles remained. The contents of these articles were categorized and analysed by use of the six domains of the World Health Organization assessment instrument for mental health systems (WHO-AIMS), a tool developed to collect information on available resources within mental health systems. The provision of CAMHS in LMICs clearly needs a specific strategy to maximize the potential of limited resources. Mental health-policy and awareness campaigns are powerful measures to drive CAMHS. Training in CAMH for primary health-care professionals, and integration of CAMHS into existing primary health-care services, is essential in resource-constrained settings. A wide gap in research into CAMHS still needs to be filled. To overcome these challenges, the child mental health professional’s role in LMICs must encompass both clinical and public-health-related activities.
Structure, Formation, and Stability of Oxynitride Glasses

Most silicon nitride ceramics are sintered or hot-pressed with the addition of 5 to 20 wt% of oxides that are molten at the processing temperature. Densification is promoted through solution of α-Si3N4 in the liquid and its precipitation as grains of β-Si3N4. When the ceramic is cooled the molten oxide additives solidify to a grain boundary phase that is at least partly glassy. Because some of the dissolved Si3N4 remains in the liquid, the amorphous grain boundary phase formed from it is a silicon oxynitride glass. The properties of the grain boundary phases have a significant influence on the properties of the silicon nitride. For example, the high temperature creep behavior of the ceramic may be controlled by the softening point or glass transition temperature (Tg) of the amorphous phase.
The US Role in European Security

At the heart of Europe’s security dilemma is the US itself. Successive US administrations have insisted that the security of the US is intimately linked to that of Europe, and therefore the US, almost by right, should continue its leadership role in the Alliance. The paranoia that the development of a strong European pillar will weaken the Atlantic pillar, and therefore the US’s position, is an ironical twist on the Cold War demands from Washington for the Allies to assume a fairer share of the defence burden. Although all of the European NATO allies have rejected the idea of a complete US military withdrawal from Europe, a reduced US military role will lead to pressure for a different kind of relationship between the US and its allies. This pressure calls for a new understanding between the US and its European allies; an understanding which should explicitly accept a stronger European identity in security affairs. As has been suggested already, adjustments will have to be made on the part of the Europeans, especially by the French, who will have to be open-minded to realignments in US defence policy.
An Evaluation of the Utility of an Orthopaedic Surgery Rotation for Emergency Medicine Residents.

OBJECTIVES In collaboration with the Department of Emergency Medicine, we designed a hands-on orthopaedic rotation for emergency residents in their first postgraduate year (PGY1) to introduce them to the appropriate evaluation and management of common orthopaedic injuries and conditions. Our hypothesis was that after the rotation, emergency medicine residents would be more comfortable with the evaluation and management of these injuries and conditions. METHODS We designed a survey for the emergency medicine residents to query the pre- and post-rotation level of comfort in the management of some of the most commonly encountered orthopaedic injuries and conditions that present to the emergency department. RESULTS Seventeen PGY1 emergency medicine residents completed the orthopaedic surgery rotation at the time the survey was distributed. Sixteen (94%) completed the questionnaire. Wilcoxon matched pairs testing based on the overall Likert score prior to and after completion of the orthopaedic rotation revealed that the overall Likert score after the rotation was significantly higher (19.4±5 vs. 27±3.6; P=0.00098). Comparison of each of the 9 knowledge and skill areas assessed by the questionnaire revealed that the respondents were significantly more comfortable in all of these core content areas (P<0.01). CONCLUSION The orthopaedic rotation designed in collaboration with the emergency medicine residency program may be a useful model for musculoskeletal education for non-orthopaedic surgery residents. [Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2016-09.asp, free with no login].
Same Care, Different Populations.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey of Massachusetts school nurses examining return-to-learn practices for children recovering from concussion in prekindergarten through high school. Regardless of school setting, all students received academic accommodations to support learning during recovery. School nurses perceived less benefit to prolonged cognitive rest (>4 days) for high school students relative to students in elementary school, but provided academic accommodations to them for comparatively longer periods of time (10-14 days vs 6-10 days). In all settings, respondents indicated a need for improved communication among treating physicians, parents, and school personnel, as well as improved education and standardized management tools for younger children and those who sustain non-sport-related injuries. Despite serving children at different developmental stages, school return-to-learn practices are essentially the same in primary and secondary schools, highlighting the need for standardized,...
Barriers to Gender Transition-Related Healthcare: Identifying Underserved Transgender Adults in Massachusetts

Purpose: The present study sought to examine whether individual (e.g., age, gender), interpersonal (e.g., healthcare provider discrimination), and structural (e.g., lack of insurance coverage) factors are associated with access to transition-related care in a statewide sample of transgender adults. Method: In 2013, 364 transgender residents of Massachusetts completed an electronic web-based survey online (87.1%) or in person (12.9%). A multivariable logistic regression model tested whether individual, interpersonal, and structural factors were associated with access to transition-related care. Results: Overall, 23.6% reported being unable to access transition-related care in the past 12 months. In a multivariable model, younger age, low income, low educational attainment, private insurance coverage, and healthcare discrimination were significantly associated with being unable to access transition-related care (all p<0.05). Discussion: Despite state nondiscrimination policies and universal access to healthcare, many of the Massachusetts transgender residents sampled were unable to access transition-related care. Multilevel interventions are needed, including supportive policies and policy enforcement, to ensure that underserved transgender adults can access medically necessary transition-related care.
Diagnosis and treatment of factors complicating subarachnoid hemorrhage

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) measurements in the steady state and after activation techniques were combined with serial cerebral arteriography in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) due to ruptured aneurysm. Such information was useful in selecting and evaluating the effectiveness of treatment for complicating factors such as cerebral vasospasm, cerebral edema, acute and chronic hydrocephalus and intracerebral hematoma. Regional cerebral blood flow values were found to be reduced in patients after SAH and correlated well with the neurological status and the complicating factors listed above. When vasospasm was relieved by phenoxybenzamine (PBZ), rCBF did not increase although regional cerebral blood volume did, suggesting that other factors may be more important for the reduction of rCBF such as cerebral edema and communicating hydrocephalus. When cerebral edema and acute hydrocephalus were treated by either intravenous glycerol or lumbar cerebrospinal fluid drainage, RCBF increased.
High-Intensity Drinking Versus Heavy Episodic Drinking: Prevalence Rates and Relative Odds of Alcohol Use Disorder Across Adulthood.

Background Heavy episodic drinking (HED) or consuming 4+/5+ drinks in 1 occasion for women/men is linked consistently with alcohol-related harms. Recent research suggests that many individuals drink at levels more than twice this cutoff (8+/10+ drinks), commonly referred to as “high-intensity drinking.” Prevalence rates of high-intensity drinking and its dynamic association with alcohol use disorder (AUD) across all ages, however, remain unknown. The current study used data from a nationally representative sample to document age-varying prevalence rates of HED-only drinking and high-intensity drinking, prevalence rates of AUD for HED-only drinkers and high-intensity drinkers, and relative odds of experiencing an AUD for high-intensity drinkers as compared to HED-only drinkers. Methods Data were from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III. The final analytic sample consisted of past-year drinkers aged 18 to 64 years (n = 22,776). Results Time-varying effect modeling revealed that high-intensity drinking and HED-only drinking were equally prevalent during young adulthood and prevalence rates of both types of drinking generally became less common with increasing age. At all ages, high-intensity drinkers were at 3 or more times greater odds of meeting criteria for an AUD than HED-only drinkers. The association between high-intensity relative to HED-only drinking was strongest earlier in adulthood with approximately 83% of 18-year-old high-intensity drinkers having AUD relative to 42% of HED-only drinkers. Conclusions Future research aiming to identify drinkers most at risk of harms and in need of treatment may benefit from assessing the extent to which an individual exceeds the 8+/10+ threshold of drinking.
Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, and Breast Cancer: From Prevention to Intervention.

Obesity contributes to an estimated forty-percent, or 630,000 cases, of malignant neoplasms diagnosed in the United States, and higher body mass index (BMI) has been associated with at least seventeen types of solid tumors, including 9% of all breast cancer cases. In this review, we discuss the impact of obesity and consequences of obesity, including the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus, on breast cancer risk and recurrence. Recent work has identified multiple molecular mechanisms that may underlie the association between obesity and breast cancer. In particular, insulin resistance, increased inflammatory cytokines, leptin signaling, and adipokine signaling have been shown to affect breast cancer risk and outcomes. While obesity is associated with higher breast cancer incidences and worse breast cancer outcomes, several risk reduction methods have been shown to attenuate these risks. Both metformin and statins have been shown to improve disease-free survival and overall survival compared to non-users. Metformin also has been associated with lower risk of breast cancer incidence. Furthermore, increased physical activity and weight loss have been shown to decrease the risk of breast cancer, especially in post-menopausal women. These studies have emphasized the potential impact that lifestyle changes can have on breast cancer risk and outcomes, and demonstrate the need for randomized control trials to evaluate the roles of metformin and statins for the treatment and chemoprevention of breast cancer.
Spanish Passivized Datives: The Relevance of Misanalysis

According to XVIIth century puritan thought (cf. Taylor 1989), God doesn’t care much for Direct Objects, meaning: what you do is not as important as how you do it. Thus, Joseph Hall’s famous line: “God loveth adverbs”. Humoring the puritan’s grammatical metaphor we can speculate that God’s second love falls on Indirect Objects, the dative beneficiaries of one’s actions. And it is of God’s second love that I’ll write here; in particular about certain seemingly ill-behaved Spanish Indirect Objects that undergo Passivization. Towards the end, I will be recommending a treatment that has the unfortunate consequence of removing them altogether from God’s affection.
Paschen's curve in microgaps with an electrode surface protrusion

Paschen's curve in microgaps with a hemi-ellipsoidal protrusion on the electrode surface is studied using a two-dimensional fluid model. The breakdown voltage is identified when the discharge enters the subnormal region, according to voltage-current characteristics. It is found that the breakdown in a microgap with a surface protrusion on the electrode can result in a combined Paschen's curve, which transits from long-gap (distance between the cathode and anode without the presence of protrusion) behavior at low pressure to short-gap (distance between the protrusion apex to the opposite electrode) behavior at high pressure. As gas pressure decreases, the length of the optimal discharge path increases, automatically moving from the top of the protrusion to its side surface and then to the wider non-protrusion electrode gap. The effects of the protrusion height and radius as well as the discharge polarity on the Paschen's curve are examined in detail. The effects of the protrusion aspect ratio on field enhancement are also considered. This work provides insights into the design of microgaps with controlled breakdown voltage across many orders in pressure via engineered electrode morphology.Paschen's curve in microgaps with a hemi-ellipsoidal protrusion on the electrode surface is studied using a two-dimensional fluid model. The breakdown voltage is identified when the discharge enters the subnormal region, according to voltage-current characteristics. It is found that the breakdown in a microgap with a surface protrusion on the electrode can result in a combined Paschen's curve, which transits from long-gap (distance between the cathode and anode without the presence of protrusion) behavior at low pressure to short-gap (distance between the protrusion apex to the opposite electrode) behavior at high pressure. As gas pressure decreases, the length of the optimal discharge path increases, automatically moving from the top of the protrusion to its side surface and then to the wider non-protrusion electrode gap. The effects of the protrusion height and radius as well as the discharge polarity on the Paschen's curve are examined in detail. The effects of the protrusion aspect ratio on field enha...
The Temporal Relationship Between Coping Self-Efficacy and Dissociation in Undergraduate Students.

Dissociation is a lack of information integration resulting from a process that ranges on a continuum from normative experiences (e.g., daydreaming) to a pervasive traumatic response involving alte...
Systemic Air Embolism following CT-Guided Percutaneous Core Needle Biopsy of the Lung: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Systemic air embolism (SAE) is a rare but serious complication of percutaneous core needle biopsy (PCNB) of the lung. Incidence of clinically apparent SAE is estimated at 0.061%, while clinically silent SAE may be as high as 3.8%. We present the complication of a small SAE during PCNB of the lung in a 78-year-old patient, which resulted in a transient myocardial ischemic event. This case highlights the importance of understanding the mechanism, frequency, and management of rare complications of PCNB of the lung; these complications should be considered in preoperative risk stratification. Regarding evaluation of postbiopsy computed tomography, operators should utilize a systematic search pattern to assess for complications. Level of Evidence: Level 4, Case Report.
False Positive Poisson

When analyzing count data (such as number of questions answered correctly), psychologists often use Poisson regressions. We show through simulations that violating the assumptions of a Poisson distribution even slightly can lead to false positive rates more than doubling, and illustrate this issue with a study that finds a clearly spurious but highly significant connection between seeing blue and eating fish candies. In additional simulations we test alternate methods for analyzing count-data and show that these generally do not suffer from the same inflated false positive rate, nor do they result in much higher false negatives in situations where Poisson would be appropriate.
Neonatal Head Ultrasound: A Review and Update-Part 2: The Term Neonate and Analysis of Brain Anomalies

Neonatal head ultrasound has a key role in triaging neonates with antenatal imaging or postnatal clinical concerns. This article will discuss key features of various intracranial pathologies of concern in term infants. It will also illustrate various congenital malformations.
The Social, Economic, and Political Context of Education

This chapter present an overview of the current problems and issues in the social, economic, and political sectors , conditions that, in large part, determine both the functional and dysfunctional aspects of national education. The starting point in any educational frame of reference is nation's people, their number, relations, and sociocultural organization. The challenge for Peruvian leaders is to meet the growing economic and social demands of a rapidly increasing population within a framework of greater equalization of consumption and a more universal participation in national life. The distribution of wealth and income in Peru is extreme. It is more unequal than in any other underdeveloped country for which comparative data is available. Formal education plays two important roles in the context of Peruvian society. First, is its integrative function as a socializing agent, and second, is its disintegrative function. Mestizo control of the public education system sphere could be best illustrated as a part of the total dominance model where each social stratum has historically come to be linked with a distinct educational subsystem. These subsystems are closely tied to each of the four distinct social groups: the blancos , the mestizos , the cholosy , and the Indians.
Statin Use and In-Hospital Mortality in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus and COVID-19.

Background Severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is characterized by a proinflammatory state with high mortality. Statins have anti-inflammatory effects and may attenuate the severity of COVID-19. Methods and Results An observational study of all consecutive adult patients with COVID-19 admitted to a single center located in Bronx, New York, was conducted from March 1, 2020, to May 2, 2020. Patients were grouped as those who did and those who did not receive a statin, and in-hospital mortality was compared by competing events regression. In addition, propensity score matching and inverse probability treatment weighting were used in survival models to examine the association between statin use and death during hospitalization. A total of 4252 patients were admitted with COVID-19. Diabetes mellitus modified the association between statin use and in-hospital mortality. Patients with diabetes mellitus on a statin (n=983) were older (69±11 versus 67±14 years; P<0.01), had lower inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein, 10.2; interquartile range, 4.5-18.4 versus 12.9; interquartile range, 5.9-21.4 mg/dL; P<0.01) and reduced cumulative in-hospital mortality (24% versus 39%; P<0.01) than those not on a statin (n=1283). No difference in hospital mortality was noted in patients without diabetes mellitus on or off statin (20% versus 21%; P=0.82). Propensity score matching (hazard ratio, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.83-0.94; P<0.01) and inverse probability treatment weighting (HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.84-0.92; P<0.01) showed a 12% lower risk of death during hospitalization for statin users than for nonusers. Conclusions Statin use was associated with reduced in-hospital mortality from COVID-19 in patients with diabetes mellitus. These findings, if validated, may further reemphasize administration of statins to patients with diabetes mellitus during the COVID-19 era.