cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Excipient exposure in very low birth weight preterm neonates

The excipients benzyl alcohol, propylene glycol and ethanol are present in medications used in the neonatal intensive care unit. Exposure to high levels can have adverse effects in a neonatal population. The objective was to quantify excipient exposure in very low birth weight (VLBW) neonates and identify risk factors associated with greater exposure. A retrospective record review of VLBW infants admitted over 1 year. Excipient exposures were calculated and multivariable regression analyses identified risk factors for increasing exposure. In total, 98% of subjects were exposed to at least one excipient. A total of 5 to 9% received doses higher than recommended for adults. Necrotizing enterocolitis, seizure, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and longer stay predicted higher excipient exposure. The excipients examined are in medications commonly prescribed for VLBW neonates, and cumulative doses may exceed recommended exposures for adults. Although safety profiles have not been established, judicious use of medication containing these excipients is warranted for this population.
Association of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion With Access to and Quality of Care for Surgical Conditions.

Importance Lack of insurance coverage has been associated with delays in seeking care, more complicated diseases at the time of diagnosis, and decreased likelihood of receiving optimal surgical care. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion has increased coverage among millions of low-income Americans, but its effect on care for common surgical conditions remains unknown. Objective To evaluate the association of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion with access to timely and recommended care for common and serious surgical conditions. Design, Setting, and Participants This quasi-experimental, difference-in-differences study used hospital administrative data to compare patient-level outcomes in expansion vs nonexpansion states before (2010-2013) vs after (2014-2015) expansion. A total of 293 529 patients aged 18 to 64 years with appendicitis, cholecystitis, diverticulitis, peripheral artery disease (PAD), or aortic aneurysm admitted to an academic medical center or affiliated hospital in 27 Medicaid expansion states and 15 nonexpansion states from January 1, 2010, through September 31, 2015, were included in the study. Data analysis was performed from November 1, 2016, to March 3, 2017. Exposures State adoption of Medicaid expansion. Main Outcomes and Measures Presentation with early uncomplicated disease (diverticulitis without abscess, fistula, or sepsis; nonruptured aortic aneurysm at time of repair; and PAD without ulcerations or gangrene) and receipt of optimal management (cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis, laparoscopic approach for cholecystectomy or appendectomy, and limb salvage for PAD). Results Of the 293 529 study patients (128 392 [43.7%] female and 165 137 [56.3%] male), 225 572 had admissions in Medicaid expansion states and 67 957 had admissions in nonexpansion states. Medicaid expansion was associated with a 7.5–percentage point decreased probability of patients being uninsured (95% CI, −12.2 to −2.9; P = .002) and an 8.6–percentage point increased probability of having Medicaid (95% CI, 6.1-11.1; P P = .001) and a 2.6–percentage point increase in the probability of receiving optimal management (95% CI, 0.8-4.4; P = .006). Conclusions and Relevance The ACA’s Medicaid expansion was associated with increased insurance coverage and improved receipt of timely care for 5 common surgical conditions. Health care systems and policymakers should be aware of the influence of insurance coverage expansion (or its repeal) on presentation with and management of surgical disease.
A 1μW voice activity detector using analog feature extraction and digital deep neural network

Voice user interfaces (UIs) are highly compelling for wearable and mobile devices. They have the advantage of using compact and ultra-low-power (ULP) input devices (e.g. passive microphones). Together with ULP signal acquisition and processing, voice UIs can give energy-harvesting acoustic sensor nodes and battery-operating devices the sought-after capability of natural interaction with humans. Voice activity detection (VAD), separating speech from background noise, is a key building block in such voice UIs, e.g. it can enable power gating of higher-level speech tasks such as speaker identification and speech recognition [1]. As an always-on block, the power consumption of VAD must be minimized and meanwhile maintain high classification accuracy. Motivated by high power efficiency of analog signal processing, a VAD system using analog feature extraction (AFE) and mixed-signal decision tree (DT) classifier was demonstrated in [2]. While it achieved a record of 6μW, the system requires machine-learning based calibration of the DT thresholds on a chip-to-chip basis due to ill-controlled AFE variation. Moreover, the 7-node DT may deliver inferior classification accuracy especially under low input SNR and difficult noise scenario, compared to more advanced classifiers like deep neural networks (DNNs) [1,3]. Although heavy computational load in conventional floating-point DNNs prevents their adoption in embedded systems, the binarized neural networks (BNNs) with binary weights and activations proposed in [4] may pave the way to ULP implementations. In this paper, we present a 1μW VAD system utilizing AFE and a digital BNN classifier with an event-encoding A/D interface. The whole AFE is 9.4x more power-efficient than the prior art [5] and 7.9x than the state-of-the-art digital filter bank [6], and the BNN consumes only 0.63μW. To avoid costly chip-wise training, a variation-aware python model of the AFE was created and the generated features were used for offline BNN training. Measurements show 84.4%/85.4% mean speech/non-speech hit rate with 1.88%/4.65% 1-σ standard deviation among 10 dies using the same weights for 10dB SNR speech with restaurant noise.
Concentration Dependent Effective Cluster Interactions in Substitutional Alloys

In attempting to understand the thermodynamic properties of substitutional alloys, and specifically to construct alloy phase diagrams, it is natural to seek recourse in the vast body of knowledge acquired with respect to magnetic (spin) systems, in particular the 3D Ising model.
Linkage, Recombination, and Mapping

Gene pairs do not always assort independently from each other. Since the chromosomes are the carriers of genes, and many more genes exist than chromosomes, it is obvious that numerous genes would have to reside on each chromosome. Further, the genes represented by one chromosome might tend to be inherited together, rather than assorting independently. Data were accumulated soon after the rediscovery of Mendel’s classic paper that markedly departed from the concept of independent assortment.
STRATEGIC HUMAN CAPITAL: APPROACHES & MODELS FOR ACHIEVING ORGANIZATIONAL LONG-TERM COMPETITIVENESS AND SUSTAINABILITY

This paper explores the theories and major focuses of Human Capital (HC), a new label for strategic HR as compared to conventional, none strategic, approaches in this field. The paper looks at HP ‘s conceptual framework by making reference to a few major studies; laying down the foundation of strategic HR/HC as how it relates to gaining and sustaining competitive advantage for the organization, and how HC can ultimately turn the organization into a high performance system. Two major features of strategic HR/HC, the human resource development and performance management, as distinctive features of strategic versus non-strategic approach in this field, will be addressed in details as well a few high performance models like Balance Score Card, and a high performance model. Conclusion arrived by cited studies on major dimensions of HC will also be presented as how each study came up with findings on those dimensions. Key Terms: Human Capital; Strategic Human resources; Strategic Plan; High Performance System; Organizations Support Systems; Balance Score Card; Leadership System.
Sequent period-(2 m − 1) motions to chaos in the van der Pol oscillator

In this paper, independent, symmetric, periodic motions in a van der Pol oscillator are predicted through a semi-analytical method. This semi-analytic method is based on the discretization of the corresponding continuous nonlinear system for an implicit mapping. Through the implicit mapping structures, stable and unstable periodic motions are obtained analytically. A sequence of periodic motions to chaos via 1(S) ◁ 3(S) ◁ ··· ◁ (2m − 1)(S) ◁ ··· is discovered. The stability and bifurcations of periodic motions are determined through eigenvalue analysis. The frequency–amplitude characteristics of periodic motions are discussed. Numerical simulations of the periodic motions are carried out for comparison of numerical and analytical results. Such a periodic motion sequence is for a better understanding of dynamics of the van der Pol oscillator.
Macrophage activation syndrome in a patient with axial spondyloarthritis on adalimumab

Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) is a rare and potentially fatal condition characterized by excessive activation and uncontrolled proliferation of T lymphocytes and macrophages, leading to overwhelming systemic inflammation and cytokine release. MAS has been reported with viral infections, autoimmune disorders, malignancies, and medications. We describe a case of a patient with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) treated with adalimumab, who presented with MAS.
Delay discounting and household food purchasing decisions: The SHoPPER study.

OBJECTIVE Delay discounting is a neurocognitive trait that has been linked to poor nutritional health and obesity, but its role in specific dietary choices is unclear. This study tested whether individual differences in delay discounting are related to the healthfulness of household food purchases and reliance on nonstore food sources such as restaurants. METHOD The food purchases of 202 primary household food shoppers were objectively documented for 14 days through a food receipt collection and analysis protocol. The nutrient content of household food purchases was derived for each participant, and the overall diet quality (Healthy Eating Index-2015) and energy density (kcal/g) of foods and beverages were calculated. The proportion of energy from nonstore food sources was also derived. Delay discounting was assessed with a choice task featuring hypothetical monetary rewards. RESULTS Data were available for 12,624 foods and beverages purchased across 2,340 shopping episodes. Approximately 13% of energy was purchased from restaurants and other nonstore food sources. Steeper discounting rates were associated with lower overall Healthy Eating Index-2015 scores and a higher energy density (kcal/g) of purchased foods. Associations were attenuated but remained statistically significant when accounting for body mass index and sociodemographic variables. Discounting rates were unrelated to reliance on nonstore food sources or the energy density of purchased beverages. CONCLUSIONS Delay discounting is related to the healthfulness of food purchases among primary household shoppers. As food purchasing is a key antecedent of dietary intake, delay discounting may be a viable target in dietary and weight management interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Feasibility and acceptability of using a web-based contraceptive support tool in a university health clinic

Objective: To evaluate feasibility of integrating Bedsider.org, a web-based contraceptive decision support tool, at a university health clinic (UHC). Participants: Female students (ages 18–29) seek...
Paradoxical Patterns of Sinusoidal Obstruction Syndrome-Like Liver Injury in Aged Female CD-1 Mice Triggered by Cannabidiol-Rich Cannabis Extract and Acetaminophen Co-Administration

The goal of this study was to investigate the potential for a cannabidiol-rich cannabis extract (CRCE) to interact with the most common over-the-counter drug and the major known cause of drug-induced liver injury–acetaminophen (APAP)–in aged female CD-1 mice. Gavaging mice with 116 mg/kg of cannabidiol (CBD) [mouse equivalent dose (MED) of 10 mg/kg of CBD] in CRCE delivered with sesame oil for three consecutive days followed by intraperitoneally (i.p.) acetaminophen (APAP) administration (400 mg/kg) on day 4 resulted in overt toxicity with 37.5% mortality. No mortality was observed in mice treated with 290 mg/kg of CBD+APAP (MED of 25 mg/kg of CBD) or APAP alone. Following CRCE/APAP co-administration, microscopic examination revealed a sinusoidal obstruction syndrome-like liver injury–the severity of which correlated with the degree of alterations in physiological and clinical biochemistry end points. Mechanistically, glutathione depletion and oxidative stress were observed between the APAP-only and co-administration groups, but co-administration resulted in much greater activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK). Strikingly, these effects were not observed in mice gavaged with 290 mg/kg CBD in CRCE followed by APAP administration. These findings highlight the potential for CBD/drug interactions, and reveal an interesting paradoxical effect of CBD/APAP-induced hepatotoxicity.
Thermal Atomic Layer Etching of Al2O3, HfO2, and ZrO2 Using Sequential Hydrogen Fluoride and Dimethylaluminum Chloride Exposures

Atomic layer etching (ALE) of Al2O3, HfO2, and ZrO2 was accomplished using sequential exposures with hydrogen fluoride (HF) as the fluorination reagent and dimethylaluminum chloride (DMAC, AlCl(CH3...
Experimental studies of high-accuracy RFID localization with channel impairments

Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems present an incredibly cost-effective and easy-to-implement solution to close-range localization. One of the important applications of a passive RFID system is to determine the reader position through multilateration based on the estimated distances between the reader and multiple distributed reference tags obtained from, e.g., the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) readings. In practice, the achievable accuracy of passive RFID reader localization suffers from many factors, such as the distorted RSSI reading due to channel impairments in terms of the susceptibility to reader antenna patterns and multipath propagation. Previous studies have shown that the accuracy of passive RFID localization can be significantly improved by properly modeling and compensating for such channel impairments. The objective of this paper is to report experimental study results that validate the effectiveness of such approaches for high-accuracy RFID localization. We also examine a number of practical issues arising in the underlying problem that limit the accuracy of reader-tag distance measurements and, therefore, the estimated reader localization. These issues include the variations in tag radiation characteristics for similar tags, effects of tag orientations, and reader RSS quantization and measurement errors. As such, this paper reveals valuable insights of the issues and solutions toward achieving high-accuracy passive RFID localization.
Mining news media for understanding public health concerns.

Introduction: News media play an important role in raising public awareness, framing public opinions, affecting policy formulation, and acknowledgment of public health issues. Traditional qualitative content analysis for news sentiments and focuses are time-consuming and may not efficiently convey sentiments nor the focuses of news media. Methods: We used descriptive statistics and state-of-art text mining to conduct sentiment analysis and topic modeling, to efficiently analyze over 3 million Reuters news articles during 2007–2017 for identifying their coverage, sentiments, and focuses for public health issues. Based on the top keywords from public health scientific journals, we identified 10 major public health issues (i.e., “air pollution,” “alcohol drinking,” “asthma,” “depression,” “diet,” “exercise,” “obesity,” “pregnancy,” “sexual behavior,” and “smoking”). Results: The news coverage for seven public health issues, “Smoking,” “Exercise,” “Alcohol drinking,” “Diet,” “Obesity,” “Depression,” and “Asthma” decreased over time. The news coverage for “Sexual behavior,” “Pregnancy,” and “Air pollution” fluctuated during 2007–2017. The sentiments of the news articles for three of the public health issues, “exercise,” “alcohol drinking,” and “diet” were predominately positive and associated such as “energy.” Sentiments for the remaining seven public health issues were mainly negative, linked to negative terms, e.g., diseases. The results of topic modeling reflected the media’s focus on public health issues. Conclusions: Text mining methods may address the limitations of traditional qualitative approaches. Using big data to understand public health needs is a novel approach that could help clinical and translational science awards programs focus on community-engaged research efforts to address community priorities.
Low Temperature Thermal Energy Storage for Passive Cooling using Lauryl Alcohol

Renewable energy technologies gained substantial importance in recent years which reduced the use of conventional hydrocarbon fuels significantly, since they are sustainable, green and environment friendly. Large amount of energy is utilized by buildings especially for cooling purpose. It is estimated that 40 percent of the world’s total energy is used by the buildings, resulting in 33 percent of the greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions every year. To overcome the excessive energy consumed by the cooling equipment, free cooling of the buildings using latent heat thermal energy storage (LTES) technologies via phase change materials (PCMs) is one of the feasible options to fulfill the energy demand of the building in an economical and efficient way. A “free cooling” technique that uses PCMs as cold accumulators during night time ventilation of buildings. In this concept cold air at night time is consumed to freeze PCM to a lower temperature and this cold energy stored is used during day time. “Lauryl alcohol” encapsulated into aluminium tube placed in a wooden box is used as PCM in experiments for free cooling technique. Air is passed above the tube in a properly designed channel to store and release the energy during charging and discharging. About 160g of lauryl alcohol is used to store 37 kJ and recovered 35 kJ of energy during phase change with heat transfer during charging and discharging is 9.6W and 9.37W respectively. The results indicate good performance of lauryl alcohol for passive/free cooling applications.
Therapist Guided Activity Practice for Depressive Symptoms in University Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Behavioral activation (BA) interventions are efficacious for depression, yet a substantial minority of patients do not respond to treatment. Strategies that facilitate activity outside of session may improve BA treatment outcomes. The objective of the current study was to examine whether briefly practicing a target activity (guided practice) during a modified single session of BA resulted in (1) higher homework completion and (2) improved self-efficacy compared to activity planning alone (control). Participants (n = 100) were college students with depressive symptoms randomized to the guided practice (n = 50) and control (n = 50) conditions (NCT03327259). All participants selected an activity to monitor for 7 days with a goal of completing the activity five times. Self-report questionnaires were completed at baseline and 7-days later. There was a positive effect of guided practice on activity completion. Participants assigned to the guided practice condition evidenced a higher rate of activity completion relative to those assigned to the control condition. However, participants assigned to the guided practice condition did not evidence a greater improvement in self-efficacy for completing the targeted activity relative to the control condition. These results support the potential utility of guided practice as a strategy for improving homework compliance in BA.
Application of Koopman operator for model-based control of fracture propagation and proppant transport in hydraulic fracturing operation

Abstract This work explores the application of the recently developed Koopman operator approach for model identification and feedback control of a hydraulic fracturing process. Controlling fracture propagation and proppant transport with precision is a challenge due in large part to the difficulty of constructing approximate models that accurately capture the characteristic moving boundary and highly-coupled dynamics exhibited by the process. Koopman operator theory is particularly attractive here as it offers a way to explicitly construct linear representations for even highly nonlinear dynamics. The method is data-driven and relies on lifting the states to an infinite-dimensional space of functions called observables where the dynamics are governed by a linear Koopman operator. This work considers two problems: (a) fracture geometry control, and (b) proppant concentration control. In both cases, an approximate linear model of the corresponding dynamics is constructed and used to design a model predictive controller (MPC). The manuscript shows that in the case of highly nonlinear dynamics, as observed in the proppant concentration, use of canonical functions in the observable basis fails. In such cases, a priori system knowledge can be leveraged to choose the required basis. The numerical experiments demonstrate that the Koopman linear model shows excellent agreement with the real system and successfully achieves the desired target values maximizing the oil and gas productivity. Additionally, due to its linear structure, the Koopman models allow convex MPC formulations that avoid any issues associated with nonlinear optimization.
Psychological resilience during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Some individuals are more psychologically resilient to adversity than others, an issue of great importance during the emerging mental health issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. To identify factors that may contribute to greater psychological resilience during the first weeks of the nation-wide lockdown efforts, we asked 1,004 U.S. adults to complete assessments of resilience, mental health, and daily behaviors and relationships. Average resilience was lower than published norms, but was greater among those who tended to get outside more often, exercise more, perceive more social support from family, friends, and significant others, sleep better, and pray more often. Psychological resilience in the face of the pandemic is related to modifiable factors.
Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infection and Perforated Viscus After Suction-Assisted Lipectomy.

Suction-assisted lipectomy (SAL) is a commonly performed cosmetic surgery in the United States and has been steadily increasing in popularity over the past few years. As more of these surgeries are performed, several rare but life-threatening complications are being recognized, including necrotizing soft tissue infections (NSTIs). NSTIs require rapid surgical intervention but can be challenging to diagnose, as skin manifestations may be difficult to differentiate from normal post-SAL changes. We present a case of a 44-year-old female who presented with signs of septic shock after SAL of her abdomen and back. She was ultimately found to have an NSTI of her abdominal wall, likely due to perforated viscus that occurred as a complication of her procedure. This case demonstrates the significance of recognizing NSTIs as a potential complication of SAL in ill-appearing patients with non-specific symptoms and septic shock.
Making Sense of Environmental Human Rights and Global Environmental Constitutionalism

Abstract: The field of human rights engages rights that are thought to inhere to humanness, commonly categorised as either civil and political or social, economic and cultural. Civil and political rights include the right to vote, assemble and participate, as well as to free speech, religion and legal processes. Socioeconomic and cultural rights include dignity, education, health, food, water, sick leave, family leave, and employment, to name a few. A healthy environment occupies the liminality between. But until fairly recently, the human rights oeuvre largely avoided the question as to whether humans are entitled to a healthy environment. ‘Global Enviromental Constitutionalism’ has changed that. It explores the constitutional engagement, incorporation, adjudication and implementation of environmental rights, duties, responsibilities, procedures, policies and other measures that promote the twin aims of environmental protection and a right to a healthy environment. The constitutions of at least 84 countries now expressly recognise something akin to a right to a healthy environment. Courts in several additional countries have inferred a right to a healthy environment from other established rights, largely to life, dignity or health. Global environmental constitutionalism involves much more than whether to recognise a right to a healthy environment. Scores of countries have also amended or adopted constitutions to grant rights to information, participation, justice, water, sustainable development and a safe climate; to recognise rights of current and future generations, pndigenous peoples, and of nature; to impose (sometimes reciprocal) duties to protect the environment and the climate and engage in environmental assessment; and to promote myriad environmental policies, including sustainability. Environmental constitutionalism shows growth in the areas of climate litigation, rights of nature, procedural rights, application of human dignity under law, water law and sustainability. The task at hand is to explain how a human right to a healthy environment emerged and, ultimately, encouraged and converged with global environmental constitutionalism, and, to explore the extent to which environmental rights are being implemented and are improving environmental and human health outcomes.
From the Dexterous Surgical Skill to the Battlefield-A Robotics Exploratory Study.

INTRODUCTION Short response time is critical for future military medical operations in austere settings or remote areas. Such effective patient care at the point of injury can greatly benefit from the integration of semi-autonomous robotic systems. To achieve autonomy, robots would require massive libraries of maneuvers collected with the goal of training machine learning algorithms. Although this is attainable in controlled settings, obtaining surgical data in austere settings can be difficult. Hence, in this article, we present the Dexterous Surgical Skill (DESK) database for knowledge transfer between robots. The peg transfer task was selected as it is one of the six main tasks of laparoscopic training. In addition, we provide a machine learning framework to evaluate novel transfer learning methodologies on this database. METHODS A set of surgical gestures was collected for a peg transfer task, composed of seven atomic maneuvers referred to as surgemes. The collected Dexterous Surgical Skill dataset comprises a set of surgical robotic skills using the four robotic platforms: Taurus II, simulated Taurus II, YuMi, and the da Vinci Research Kit. Then, we explored two different learning scenarios: no-transfer and domain-transfer. In the no-transfer scenario, the training and testing data were obtained from the same domain; whereas in the domain-transfer scenario, the training data are a blend of simulated and real robot data, which are tested on a real robot. RESULTS Using simulation data to train the learning algorithms enhances the performance on the real robot where limited or no real data are available. The transfer model showed an accuracy of 81% for the YuMi robot when the ratio of real-tosimulated data were 22% to 78%. For the Taurus II and the da Vinci, the model showed an accuracy of 97.5% and 93%, respectively, training only with simulation data. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that simulation can be used to augment training data to enhance the performance of learned models in real scenarios. This shows potential for the future use of surgical data from the operating room in deployable surgical robots in remote areas.
Decoding hand and wrist movement intention from chronic stroke survivors with hemiparesis using a user-friendly, wearable EMG-based neural interface

Prosthetics and orthotics have been recognized for decades as a potential means to restore hand function and independence to individuals living with impairment due to stroke. However, 75% of stroke survivors, caregivers, and health care professionals (HCP) believe current practices are insufficient, specifically calling out upper extremity as an area where innovation is needed to develop highly usable prosthetics/orthotics for the stroke population. A promising method for controlling upper limb prosthetics is to infer movement intent non-invasively from electromyography (EMG) activity. While this approach has garnered significant attention in the literature, existing technologies are often limited to research settings and struggle to meet stated user needs. To address these limitations, we have developed the NeuroLife® EMG System which consists of a wearable garment, similar to a compression sleeve, worn on the forearm with 150 embedded electrodes spread across the forearm, and associated hardware and software to record and decode high-resolution surface EMG. We demonstrate that the NeuroLife EMG System can accurately decode 12 functional hand, wrist, and forearm movements, including multiple types of grasps from participants with varying levels of impairment, with an overall accuracy of 77.1±5.6% in ideal scenarios and 74.7±5.0% in simulated real-time situations. Importantly, we demonstrate the ability to decode movements that participants are unable to overtly perform, showing potential as a control mechanism for assistive technologies. Feedback from stroke survivors who tested the system indicates that the design of the sleeve meets various user needs including being comfortable, portable, and lightweight. The sleeve is in a form factor such that it can be used at home without an expert technician, can be donned with the help of a caretaker, and can be worn for multiple hours without discomfort. Taken together, the NeuroLife EMG System represents a platform technology to record and decode high-definition electromyography for the real-time control of assistive devices in a form factor designed to meet user needs.
The effect of symptoms and nonspecific motility abnormalities on outcomes of surgical therapy for gastroesophageal reflux disease.

The outcome of Nissen fundoplication in patients with a nonspecific motility abnormality compared with the outcome in patients with normal motility is unknown. One hundred consecutive patients who underwent primary Nissen fundoplication were evaluated before and a median of 50 months after operation, with emphasis on the presence of a preoperative motility disorder and its relationship to preoperative and postoperative symptoms. Compared with patients who had normal motility, patients with a nonspecific motility abnormality had a greater prevalence and severity of heartburn and regurgitation before operation. These patients also had a greater esophageal exposure to gastric juice on pH monitoring as.a result of poorer esophageal clearance function. The prevalence and severity of preoperative dysphagia was not related to the presence of a motility disorder. A 90 % or a 95 actuarial success rate was achieved in the relief of heartburn and regurgitation over a 96-month period in patients with and without a motility abnormality. The overall actuarial success rate was 93%. bysphagia was rarely caused or made more severe by the procedure; if present before the operation, it was relieved in most patients. The prevalence of persistent postoperative dysphagia was similar in patients with and without a motility abnormality. The success of Nissen fundoplication in properly selected patients is not affected by the presence of a nonspecific motility disorder.
Chapter 11. The Role of Tachykinins in Pulmonary Disease

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the possible role of neuropeptide substance P (SP) and related peptides in airway inflammatory conditions commonly known as asthma, bronchitis, and rhinitis. The biological effects of SP on nonneuronal tissues, which result directly from SP release following C-fiber activation, include stimulation of smooth muscle contraction, exocrine and endocrine gland secretion, and endothelial cell stimulation, leading to vasodilation, plasma extravasation, and neutrophil infiltration. The mammalian tachykinin peptides include SP, neurokinin A and B (NKA, NKB), and the N-terminally extended forms of NKA that include neuropeptide K (NPK) and neuropeptide (NPγ). Agonist activity is defined by the shared carboxy terminal domain (Phe-X-Gly-Leu-Met-NH 2 ), whereas the amino terminal domains determine receptor binding selectivity. These mammalian tachykinin polypeptides are derived from two distinct genes, the SP/NKA gene, and the NKB gene. Several tachykinin genes, with their multiple RNA splicing and post-translational processing mechanisms, generate substantial diversity in the tachykinin peptides that can be produced. The three mammalian tachykinin receptors have been cloned and shown to be the members of the G-protein coupled receptor family. They are coupled to inositol phospholipid metabolism and a rise in the cytosolic free calcium concentration. Each of the three receptors, which are termed neurokinin-1 (NK 1 ), NK 2 , and NK 3 , displays a moderate degree of selectivity for SP, NKA (also NPK and NPγ), and NKB, respectively. The vagal nerves contain afferent SP-immunoreactive nerve fibers from the lung. The cell bodies of these afferent C-fibers in the dorsal root ganglia (nodose ganglion) produce SP, 90% of which is transported into the peripheral vagal branches. Capsaicin-sensitive C-fibers are also known as polymodal nociceptive afferents, which means they are activated by thermal, mechanical, and chemical stimuli at their nerve endings. This is a key observation regarding the possible role of tachykinin-induced neurogenic inflammation in asthma and bronchitis. In addition to SP, C-fibers also contain NKA, NPK, and possibly NPγ, all very potent agonists at NK 2 receptors that can be coreleased in the lung upon afferent stimulation.
Determination of Pyrrolnitrin and Derivatives by Gas-Liquid Chromatography

A gas-liquid chromatographic technique was applied to the separation of pyrrolnitrin and its derivatives. The simultaneous use of a flame detector and an electron capture detector made possible the distinction between the nitro derivatives of pyrrolnitrin and the other metabolites. The metabolites could be readily quantitated with the electron capture detector, offering a much more sensitive assay than the flame detector.
Modular Multivariable Control Applied to the Shell Heavy Oil Fractionator

Modular multivariable controllers use interconnections of single process variable-multiple control effort controllers (i.e. Coordinated Controllers) plus logic to control multiple, possibly constrained, process variables with multiple, constrained, control efforts. The number of controls may be greater or fewer than the number of process variables. In the event that not all control objectives can be met, then process variables with higher user assigned priorities are kept at their targets in preference to process variables with lower priorities. When there are more controls than process variables which are to be maintained at set points, then the excess controls can be assigned nominal values and priorities. After all process variable objectives are met, the excess controls will achieve their nominal values, again in order of user assigned priority. We propose a modular multivariable control structure (i.e. process variable and control effort priorities) which should lead to a complete solution to the Shell Heavy Oil Fractionator Problem. The structure is justified based on performance objectives and robustness considerations. In addition, we compare the control achieved by a simple MMC (modular multivariable control) implementation to those achieved by Shell's QDMC approach for setpoint changes for a two control effort, two process variable subset of the complete problem.
A compositional paradigm of automating refactorings

Recent studies suggest that programmers greatly underuse refactoring tools, especially for complex refactorings. Complex refactorings tend to be tedious and error-prone to perform by hand. To promote the use of refactoring tools for complex changes, we propose a new paradigm for automating refactorings called compositional refactoring. The key idea is to perform small, predictable changes using a tool and manually compose them into complex changes. This paradigm trades off some level of automation by higher predictability and control. We show that this paradigm is natural, because our analysis of programmers' use of the Eclipse refactoring tool in the wild shows that they frequently batch and compose automated refactorings. We then show that programmers are receptive to this new paradigm through a survey of 100 respondents. Finally, we show that the compositional paradigm is effective through a controlled study of 13 professional programmers, comparing this paradigm to the existing wizard-based one.
Electrophoresis of DNA in agarose gels: II. Effects of loading mass and electroendosmosis on electrophoretic mobilities

Abstract We have investigated several experimental factors which affect the accurate determination of electrophoretic mobilities of circular and linear DNAs in agarose gels. We demonstrate that: (1) The mobility of individual DNA species is affected by the total mass in the sample loaded. The increased mobility and band distortion observed become apparent when the DNA mass exceeds approximately 0.2 μg per 0.15 cm 2 of surface area in the loading well. (2) The migration velocity of a given DNA species depends on the coefficient of electroendosmosis (− m r ) of the agarose preparations used. In the range 0.081 ≤ − m r ≤ 0.441, the DNA migration velocity is proportional to (− m r ) −0.5 .
Introductory Note to Munaf v. Geren , 128 S. Ct. 2207 (2008)

This short introductory note to Munaf v. Geren, 128 S. Ct. 2207 (2008), was prepared for the American Society of International Law publication International Legal Materials, and includes a brief summary of the background of the case, the Supreme Court's holding, and its potential implications.
gpusvcalibration: A R Package for Fast Stochastic Volatility Model Calibration Using GPUs

In this paper we describe the gpusvcalibration R package for accelerating stochastic volatility model calibration on GPUs. The package is designed for use with existing CRAN packages for optimization such as DEOptim and nloptr. Stochastic volatility models are used extensively across the capital markets for pricing and risk management of exchange traded financial options. However, there are many challenges to calibration, including comparative assessment of the robustness of different models and optimization routines. For example, we observe that when fitted to sub-minute level mid-market quotes, models require frequent calibration every few minutes and the quality of the fit is routine sensitive. The R statistical software environment is popular with quantitative analysts in the financial industry partly because it facilitates application design space exploration. However, a typical R based implementation of a stochastic volatility model calibration on a CPU does not meet the performance requirements for sub-minute level trading, i.e. mid to high frequency trading. We identified the most computationally intensive part of the calibration process in R and off-loaded that to the GPU. We created a map-reduce interface to the computationally intensive kernel so that it can be easily integrated in a variety of R based calibration codes using our package. We demonstrate that the new R based implementation using our package is comparable in performance to a C/C++ GPU based calibration code.
Geobacter sulfurreducens sp. nov. , a hydrogen- and acetate-oxidizing dissimilatory metal-reducing microorganism

A dissimilatory metal- and sulfur-reducing microorganism was isolated from surface sediments of a hydrocarbon-contaminated ditch in Norman, Okla. The isolate, which was designated strain PCA, was an obligately anaerobic, nonfermentative nonmotile, gram-negative rod. PCA grew in a defined medium with acetate as an electron donor and ferric PPi, ferric oxyhydroxide, ferric citrate, elemental sulfur, Co(III)-EDTA, fumarate, or malate as the sole electron acceptor. PCA also coupled the oxidation of hydrogen to the reduction of Fe(III) but did not reduce Fe(III) with sulfur, glucose, lactate, fumarate, propionate, butyrate, isobutyrate, isovalerate, succinate, yeast extract, phenol, benzoate, ethanol, propanol, or butanol as an electron donor. PCA did not reduce oxygen, Mn(IV), U(VI), nitrate, sulfate, sulfite, or thiosulfate with acetate as the electron donor. Cell suspensions of PCA exhibited dithionite-reduced minus air-oxidized difference spectra which were characteristic of c-type cytochromes. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA sequence placed PCA in the delta subgroup of the proteobacteria. Its closest known relative is Geobacter metallireducens. The ability to utilize either hydrogen or acetate as the sole electron donor for Fe(III) reduction makes strain PCA a unique addition to the relatively small group of respiratory metal-reducing microorganisms available in pure culture. A new species name, Geobacter sulfurreducens, is proposed.
Comparing edge-detection algorithm performance under degrading signal-to-noise ratio conditions

A metric is developed for evaluating performance degradation of edge detection algorithms as a function of signal to noise ratio (SNR). The metric combines both missed detections and false alarms to form a composite score. This provides a basis for objectively comparing the performance of different techniques and quantifies relative noise tolerance. It is applied to various popular algorithms, Sobel, Roberts, Prewitt, and Laplacian of Gaussian, but is described in sufficient detail to facilitate easy application to other edge detection methods. Results shown allow selection of the most optimum method for application to images with known SNR levels.
Rethinking commercial strategy – A patient-centered commercial model

That the bio/pharmaceutical industry faces daunting challenges is common knowledge and the subject of debate for some time now. In reaction, leading bio/pharmaceutical firms have re-thought their business models. This article presents the framework, rationale and innards of a new model for commercializing outputs of the industry, given the realities of the difficult marketplace. Growing out of the axiomatic belief that patients are why the industry exists, the model defines a health-care ecosystem, re-specifying and clarifying the roles of seemingly disparate stakeholders in the service of patients. Four interlinked propositions on which the new commercial model thrives are outlined and supported with insights from real case studies and published evidence. Specific examples of tactical programs that exemplify the new model in practice are provided. The new, patient-centered commercial model is far from seeing widespread reality in practice; however, when in play, elements of the new model have consistently delivered the promise of bio/pharmaceuticals.
Ion permeation through the gramicidin channel: atomically detailed modeling by the Stochastic Difference Equation.

Atomically detailed descriptions of ionic solution, membrane, and the gramicidin channel are used to compute molecular dynamics trajectories of ion permeation. The microsecond trajectories are calculated with the Stochastic Difference Equation (SDE), which provides approximate solutions to the equations of motions (with filtered high-frequency modes) of extended timescales. The relative permeations of lithium, sodium, and potassium are estimated by using a novel, kinetic cycle protocol and are compared with experiment. The transport through native gramicidin and one fluoro-valine variant is considered as well. Qualitative agreement between theory and experiment is obtained. The faster permeation rate of sodium compared to lithium is reproduced in the calculations. The calculations also reproduce the slower diffusion through a gramicidin with fluorinated valine compared to native gramicidin. The calculations are inconclusive about the relative rates of potassium and sodium. The experiment suggests that potassium permeates more quickly. We directly probe the kinetics of a biophysical process at a relevant time window without reducing the atomically detailed description of the system. The calculations were able to capture subtle balances between binding and diffusion that determine permeation rates. The same model gave the correct ordering of diffusion rates for cases in which electrostatic binding has opposite effects and must be supplemented by dynamic factors. Diffusion rates are faster when favorable electrostatic interactions of ions in the channel (compared to the solvent) are observed. Studies of a gramicidin variant suggest an opposite effect, in which permeation is faster for the less polar channel, indicating dynamic effects. Although both trends can be explained qualitatively, it is not possible to predict (before doing the SDE calculations) which factor is more important.
Dimensionality, Map Matching, and Anxiety:

By supplementing the theory of human communication with the concept of the dimensions of the cognitive field, three stages of communication or three stages in the matching of the cognitive “maps” of the communicators can be distinguished. Different realms of prediction concerning response to a communication are possible (or impossible) at each of these stages. A general hypothesis is that similarity of cognitive structure (“collinearity”) at the second stage permits more pronounced influence effects at the third stage. A related hypothesis (among others discussed) is that the relation between anxiety and susceptibility to attitude-change depends on the cognitive dimensionality required by the communication. This hypothesis is defended by showing that it reconciles some apparently contradictory results in studies of anxiety and attitude change.
An energy-efficient, distributed wireless multicast protocol based on concurrent CTS and N2 connectivity

Media acquisition process in wireless multicast requires that the sender obtains confirmation replies from a set of receivers. If replies are uncoordinated, the process can be much more time consuming than that of wireless unicast due to packet collisions. We propose a wireless multicast scheme that utilizes a novel concurrent Clear-To-Send (CTS) transmission method and a distributed multicast tree construction method. The concurrent CTS based MAC (Media Access Control) layer design can significantly reduce packet collisions and signaling overhead at the local cell level. Built on top of this new MAC layer protocol, we further propose a distributed multicast tree construction algorithm which grows the tree by maximizing the local multicast gain. The uniqueness of our algorithm is that the tree is constructed implicitly during the media access stage and the algorithm requires little additional message overhead. Extensive simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme. Our results indicate that the proposed scheme offers considerable improvement in multicast turnaround time and efficiency. The proposed scheme is also robust against network topology changes caused by node movements.