cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Drain, pain and no gain: Pitfalls when inserting intercostal chest drain (ICD)

ICD are the most invasive procedure undertaken by medics;often out of hours and in emergent situations,with limited or no supervision.The NPSA reported 12 deaths and 768 cases of harm resulting directly from ICD insertion.These 5 cases impart valuable learning and raise awareness: Case 1: 81y/M with inoperable glioblastoma multiforme had a fall with subsequent Rt pneumothorax.ICD inserted on left side Learning: This was wrong side surgery and safety check list introduced Case 2: 43y/M with chest pain and dyspnoea,provisional diagnosis ACS so given Aspirin/Clopidogrel/Fondaprinux.CXR showed pneumothorax and 1L air aspirated.Later patient deteriorated and repeat CXR showed Lt haemothorax.1.8L blood drained on ICD insertion Learning: Medications can adversely impact management Case 3: 55yr/F with previous pneumothorax aged 25, presented with right pneumothorax but post ICD insertion there was no swinging.CXR revealed incorrect placement of ICD in the chest wall Learning: ICD should only be inserted by trained clinicians and it9s key to confirm correct placement Case 4: 88y/M with fluctuating conscious level and reduced air entry bilaterally.CXR interpreted as apical pneumothorax and 1.5L aspirated. Patient later deteriorated and repeat CXR confirmed a pneumothorax, but review of original CXR showed that there had not been a pneumothorax on first CXR Learning: Iatrogenic pneumothorax as CXR misinterpreted Case 5: 56y/F known COPD & diaphragmatic hernia presented in respiratory distress and CXR revealed hyperlucent Lt side.As suspected tension pneumothorax,ICD inserted but abnormal fluid drained and CT confirmed the drain to be in the bowels Learning: Reviewing old imaging is crucial and further imaging essential at times.
A Transnational Analysis of Skin Tone Ideals in Cosmetic Advertisements in Women's Lifestyle Magazines

A content analysis of cosmetic advertisements in British and Kenyan women's lifestyle magazines from 1955 to 1975 (colonial time period) and 2000 to 2010 (postcolonial period) was conducted. The fi...
Is There a “Ferguson Effect?” Google Searches, Concern about Police Violence, and Crime in U.S. Cities, 2014–2016:

Between 2014 and 2016, the rate of homicide and other violent crime in the United States rose. One hypothesis discussed in the press and by some social scientists is that this increase was tied to ...
Opportunities for lignin valorization: an exploratory process

For decades, the pulp industry has struggled to create sustainable value-added opportunities for lignin, and the issue is now at the forefront of second-generation biorefinery research and development efforts. Our work presents a sequential process for examining potential lignin valorization. The chemical and physical properties of lignin cause issues in isolation, characterization, and standardization and, therefore, product manufacturing. First, a short list of high-opportunity lignin products was developed from the literature. Several low-hanging product opportunities were identified, from which, lignin-based powdered activated carbon (PAC) for the sequestration of mercury from power plant flue gas was selected for further examination due, in part, to lignin’s similarity to lignite coal. Next, an analysis of the web-based written content of PAC suppliers’ promotional materials was performed to assess the attributes on which PAC products are sold and purchased. Finally, potential electric generating power plant buyers/users of lignin-based PAC for mercury sequestration were surveyed to examine the importance of 16 PAC product and service attributes, identify potential entry barriers for a new PAC product, and assess the market opportunity for lignin-based PAC. This research deployed a multi-phase market analysis based process including: a PAC vendor content analysis; and survey techniques. Phase I analyzed web-based content of PAC vendors’ promotional marketing literature tailored to power plant buyers/users for their PAC products. Phase II incorporated the Phase I results into an exploratory e-survey of select PAC buyers/users in the U.S. power generation industry. Combining these methods provides an exploratory market perspective on lignin valorization. The top three product and service attributes for buyers/users of PAC for mercury mitigation were Product Reliability, Product Effectiveness, and Proven Product Performance; the top three barriers to entry for a new lignin-based PAC include Title V Permitting, Operational Impacts, and Compliance with Regulations. Buyers/users are undecided about trial testing a lignin-based PAC product. This paper provides a logical and systematic process for exploring new product opportunities in business-to-business markets and provides insights into the market potential for lignin-based PAC for mitigating mercury emissions from US electric generating power plants.
In vivo 3-photon Imaging of the Mouse Brain

Over the last two decades, multiphoton microscopy has created a renaissance in the brain imaging community. It has changed how we visualize neurons by providing high-resolution, non-invasive imaging capability deep within intact brain tissue. Multiphoton imaging will likely play an essential role in understanding how the brain works at the level of neural circuits, which will provide a bridge between microscopic interactions at the neuronal level and the complex computations performed at larger scales. In this talk, the fundamental challenges of deep tissue, high-resolution optical imaging are discussed. New technologies for in vivo structural and functional imaging of mouse brain using long wavelength excitation and three-photon microscopy will be presented. We will discuss the requirements for imaging the dynamic neuronal activity at the cellular level over a large area and depth in awake and behaving animals, and identify the applications where 3-photon microscopy outperforms conventional 2-photon microscopy in both signal strength and image contrast. We will speculate on the possible future directions to further improve the imaging depth and speed in biological tissues.
The use of vascular homografts in pediatric small bowel transplantation: Single-center experience over a decade.

Intestinal transplantation in children has evolved with more isolated small intestine transplants being performed compared to combined liver-intestine transplants. Consequently, surgical techniques have changed, frequently requiring the use of vascular homografts of small caliber to revascularize the isolated small intestine, the impact of which on outcomes is unknown. Among 106 pediatric intestine and multivisceral transplants performed at our center since 2003, 33 recipients of an isolated small intestine graft were included in this study. Outcome parameters were thrombotic complications, graft, and patient survival. A total of 29 of 33 (87.9%) patients required arterial and/or venous homografts from the same donor, mainly iliac or carotid artery and iliac or innominate vein, respectively (donor’s median age 1.1 years [2 months to 23 years], median weight 10 kg [14.7–48.5]). Post-transplant, there were three acute arterial homograft thromboses and one venous thrombosis resulting in two peri-operative graft salvages and two graft losses. Three of four thromboses occurred in patients with primary hypercoagulable state, including the two graft losses. Overall, at a median of 4.1 years (1–10.2) from transplant, 29 of 33 (88%) patients are alive with 26 of 33 (79%) functioning grafts. The procurement of intact, size-matched donor vessels and the management of effective post-transplant anticoagulation are critical.
IMPACT OF BIOMARKERS ON SHORT-TERM RISK PREDICTION OF GLOBAL CARDIOVASCULAR EVENTS IN OLDER ADULTS: ATHEROSCLEROSIS RISK IN COMMUNITIES STUDY

The pooled cohort equation (PCE) for CVD risk does not include heart failure (HF) hospitalization. Moreover, a “10-year” risk may be a less relevant time frame for older adults. We hypothesized that addition of biomarkers to the PCE clinical variables would improve short-term risk prediction of
Research in Pediatric Surgery

Pediatric surgeons have the privilege to care for patients at every stage of human development, from the fetus to the fully developed young adult. As such, we must cultivate and advance an all-encompassing knowledge base ranging from obstetrics to pediatrics to adult medicine and surgery. This unique, sweeping perspective on human disease requires an equally broad approach to research, which in our field is as vast and varied as it is stimulating.
MPA vs. MPP: A Distinction Without a Difference?

Despite several scholarly inquiries, the question of whether there are critical differences between Masters of Public Administration (MPA) and Masters of Public Policy (MPP) programs continues in t...
Improvements and comments on "New admissibility conditions for singular linear continuous-time fractional-order systems"

In the above paper, it is claimed that the necessary and sufficient conditions for the static output feedback controller of fractional order singular systems are given in terms of linear matrix inequalities(LMIs). In this note, numerical examples are presented to show that both the necessary and the sufficient conditions of Theorem 3 given in [1] are incorrect. Besides, the the example in Section 4.2 of [1] constructed to support Theorem 3 is also wrong since it does not satisfy the assumption condition KC =3D — $$ G asserted and misused by the authors of [1]. A novel and solid improvement of static output feedback controller design is presented for the closed-loop fractional order singular systems to be admissible. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the proposed approaches.
Depression in Adults Who Sustained Spinal Cord Injuries as Children or Adolescents

Study design: Interview survey. Objective: To assess depression in adults with pediatric-onset spinal cord injuries (SCI) and to determine demographic and injury-related factors, and outcomes associated with depression, and to determine which other outcomes are associated with depression.
Modification of Relative Gene Expression Ratio Obtained from Real Time qPCR with Whole Carotid Body by Using Mathematical Equations

Quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) is a common tool used to compare the relative gene expression between treated/untreated cells, different types of tissues, or immature/mature organs. When homogeneous cells are used for qPCR, the Ct number of a tested gene solely represents the quantity of gene expression in cells. However, when a heterogeneous tissue is used for qPCR, the Ct number of a tested gene should be modified depending on several factors: the percentage of each cell type in the sample tissue, the cell type where the target gene is expressed, and the cell type in which the target gene is regulated. The carotid body (CB) is mainly composed of three types of cells: type I (chemoreceptor) cells, type II cells, and other types of cells. Therefore, the relative gene expression ratio obtained from qPCR data using whole CB could be modified by applying one of the following 19 different cases: (1) the target gene is expressed in only one type of cell (3 cases), (2) the gene is expressed in two types of cells and increased in only one or both cell types (9 cases), and (3) the gene is expressed in all three types of cells and increased in only one, two, or all three cell types (7 cases). For example, in the case that the target gene is expressed in all three types of cells and the gene is increased in only a cell comprising 10% of whole CB, the gene expression ratio in that cell will be 9 times as that derived from whole CB. Thus, once the percentage of each cell type in whole CB is observed, the cell type of interest gene (E-gene) expression is identified, and the cell type that regulates E-gene expression by treatment is identified. Thus, the corresponding mathematical equation out of 19 cases could be applied to modify the gene expression ratios measured by qPCR.
The Concept of Sacred Cities in Asia with Special Reference to India

Sacred places range all the way from small towns with a single religious focus to cities that symbolize in their microcosm the entire sacred cosmos of a particular religion. Small settlements with goddess temples, that attract thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at specific occasions, but are virtually deserted after the yatra (pilgrimage), share some common elements with cities which have large “sacred complexes” (to use Vidyarthi’ s term) or those that are known for their massive Kumbha fairs attended by millions of people.
Optical biopsy for cancer detection

Abstract: ‘Optical biopsy’ is a novel method that uses spectroscopy at selected wavelengths to diagnose disease such as cancer and atherosclerosis without removing tissue from the body, offering a new armamentarium. This chapter provides an overview and focuses on how the spectroscopy from key native molecules in tissues reveals the differences between cancerous and normal tissues of various organs due to morphological and molecular changes in the tissue. The key optical methods are: fluorescence, Stokes shift, elastic backscattering reflectance, Raman, and time-resolved spectroscopies. These will be reviewed as useful tools in optical biopsy. Various human tissue types (prostate, breast, lung, colon, and gastrointestinal) have been studied using optical biopsy. The underlying physical and biological basis for these optical approaches will be discussed with examples.
Modes of Reproduction

By far, sexual reproduction is the more common pattern among living vertebrate forms and its widespread occurrence suggests that it is the plesiomorphic, or primitive, reproductive mode among the vertebrates. In all sexually reproducing forms, parental genomes that lie within an individual recombine to produce specialized sex cells containing one half the chromosomal complement of other cells in the body. As part of successful reproduction, these haploid cells fuse to form a single diploid zygote. Thus, sexual reproduction involves combination of genetic information between two genetically recombined and distinct individuals.
An Automated Procedure for Selection of Optimal Refueling Policies for Light Water Reactors

An automated procedure determining a minimum cost refueling policy has been developed for light water reactors. The procedure is an extension of the equilibrium core approach previously devised for pressurized water reactors (PWRs). Use of 1 1/2-group theory has improved the accuracy of the nuclear model and eliminated tedious fitting of albedos. A simple heuristic algorithm for locating a good starting policy has materially reduced PWR computing time. Inclusion of void effects and use of the Haling principle for axial flux calculations extended the nuclear model to boiling water reactors (BWRs). A good initial estimate of the refueling policy is obtained by recognizing that a nearly uniform distribution of reactivity provides low-power peaking. The initial estimate is improved upon by interchanging groups of four assemblies and is subsequently refined by interchanging individual assemblies. The method yields very favorable results, is simpler than previously proposed BWR fuel optimization schemes, and retains power cost as the objective function.
CELLULAR, MOLECULAR, GENOMICS, AND BIOMEDICAL APPROACHES | Fish as Model Organisms for Medical Research

In the past few decades, fish including the zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) and medaka ( Oryzias latipes ) have emerged as valuable model organisms for research on human diseases. Fish mutants representing a range of human disorders have been isolated by forward and reverse genetics. Techniques including the use of morpholinos to knock down gene expression, transgenesis, transplantation, and chemical biology have led to discoveries about the genetic factors responsible for hematopoietic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, muscular dystrophy, and cancer. Finally, fish are well suited to use fluorescent imaging of specific cells in vivo to better understand the development of organs and the initiation and progression of cancer.
The Relationship between Experienced and Imagined Bicycling Comfort and Safety

A common method used to evaluate road designs for bicycling is a survey of stated opinions based on imagined bicycling experiences that are used to represent real experiences. However, we know litt...
On the Secret Key Capacity of Sibling Hidden Markov Models

Traditional approaches to secret key establishment based on common randomness have been based on certain restrictive assumptions, such as considering the available common randomness to consist of independent and identically distributed (i.i.d) repetitions of correlated random variables. Unfortunately, the i.i.d assumption does not generally reflect the conditions of real-life scenarios. For this reason, the current paper investigates the key-establishment potential of a more pragmatic model, in which all parties have access to imperfect information about a common source modeled as a Markov chain. Each party’s information thus comes in the form of a hidden Markov model and, since the different parties share the same underlying Markov chain, we call the overall model a sibling hidden Markov model (SHMM). This paper studies upper and lower bounds on the secret key capacity for various types of SHMM. The difficulty of the problem emerges from its prohibitive computational cost. To address this obstacle, we represent the joint probability of the observations as the $L_{1}$ norm of a Markov random matrix, and use its convergence to a Lyapunov exponent.
An approach for controlling the timing and order of engineered mutations in mice

Significant advances in our understanding of normal development and disease have been facilitated by engineered mice in which genes can be altered in a spatially, temporally, or cell type restricted manner using site specific recombinase systems like Cre-loxP or Flp-frt. In many circumstances it is important to understand how interactions between multiple genes influence a given phenotype. Robust approaches for precisely controlling multiple genetic alterations independently are limited, however, thus the impact of mutation order and timing on phenotype is generally unknown. Here we describe and validate a novel Gt(ROSA)26Sor targeted transgene allowing precise control over the order and timing of multiple genetic mutations in the mouse. The transgene expresses an optimized, Flp-estrogen receptor fusion protein (Flpo-ERT2) under the control of a loxP-stop-loxP cassette. In this system, genes modified by loxP sites are altered first upon expression of Cre. Cre also eliminates the loxP-stop-loxP cassette, permitting widespread expression of Flpo-ERT2. Because of the estrogen receptor fusion, Flp activity remains inert until administration of tamoxifen, allowing genes modified by frt sites to be modified subsequently with controllable timing. This mouse transgene will be useful in a wide variety of applications where independent control of different mutations in the mouse is desirable.
Cardiovascular Outcomes of Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery

Pulmonary hypertension (PH), defined by a mean pulmonary artery pressure of >25mm Hg at rest, is strongly associated with morbidity and mortality in the perioperative period. The prevalence and outcomes of PH among patients referred for major noncardiac surgery in the United States are unknown. Patients ≥18 years of age hospitalized for noncardiac surgery were identified from Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's National Inpatient Sample data from 2004 to 2014. Pulmonary hypertension was defined by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision diagnosis codes. The primary outcome was perioperative major adverse cardiovascular events (MACCE), defined as in-hospital death, myocardial infarction, or ischemic stroke. Among 17,853,194 hospitalizations for major noncardiac surgery, 143,846 (0.81%) had PH. MACCE occurred in 8.3% of hospitalizations with any diagnosis of PH in comparison to 2.0% of those without PH (p <0.001), driven by an increased frequency of death (4.4% vs 1.1%, p <0.001) and nonfatal myocardial infarction (3.2% vs 0.6%, p <0.001). After adjusting for demographics, clinical covariates, and surgery type, PH remained independently associated with MACCE (aOR 1.43, 95% CI 1.40 to 1.46). In conclusion, PH is associated with perioperative major adverse cardiovascular events. Careful patient selection, recognition of perioperative risks, and appropriate intraoperative hemodynamic monitoring may improve perioperative cardiovascular outcomes.
British Romanticism, Climate Change, and the Anthropocene: Writing Tambora / Marking Time: Romanticism and Evolution

The Huntington Library holds Henry Fuseli’s The Three Witches or The Weird Sisters (c. 1782), purchased in 2014, which depicts a trio of grim, hooded figures who stand shoulder-to-shoulder staring ...
L’impact de l’ultrasonographie endoscopique œsophagienne sur le traitement chirurgical du cancer de l’œsophage

Dans notre pratique, la stadification des patients porteurs d’un carcinome œsophagien fondee sur l’emploi de l’USE fournit les informations qui determine le choix therapeutique. L’USE peut separer les patients porteurs d’adenopathies metastatiques regionales (N1) de deux exempts de ganglions metastatiques regionaux (N0) et les patients N0 sont ensuite soumis a la stadification selon le stade T. Les patients, stadifies stade T2N0M0 ou moins, sont apres evaluation de leur etat clinique, consideres comme candidats a une resection immediate. Le traitement adjuvant postoperatoire est reserve aux patients dont la resection a demontre un stade histopathologique plus avance.
Marketing, Competitive Strategy, and Competitive Intelligence

This chapter presents an overview of the marketing, competitive strategy, and competitive intelligence concepts that apply to food fraud prevention. The fraudster should be considered a competitor alongside the traditional marketplace adversaries. The fraudster is a business which makes business decisions, so they can be influenced or “dissuaded” from attacking a company, brand, or product. This chapter will provide a review of marketing and corporate strategy concepts before laying the foundation for selecting food fraud prevention countermeasures and control systems.
Engaging Many Minds: Nurturing Collaboration in a STEAM Context

This field note describes a recent interdisciplinary project facilitated by Jeremy Gercke, an art teacher at the Bishop's School in La Jolla, California. The project creates ceramic tile markers for flora around the Bishop's School campus. The markers feature QR codes linking to websites populated with student content, including: drawings, information, and oral histories. In this project, Mr. Gercke synthesizes his interests as an artist; maximizes his social connections to mentors, peers and students; and bridges disciplines to create opportunities for interdisciplinary (STEAM) inquiry. Author/Artist Bio Mark Dzula is an artist, educator, and scholar; his work examines the educational implications of media and technology. Currently, Mark works at the Webb Schools as Director of Teaching and Learning Resources. He is an instructor at Teachers College, Columbia University and the University of San Diego.
Human ownership of artificial creativity

Advances in generative algorithms have enhanced the quality and accessibility of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool in building synthetic datasets. By generating photorealistic images and videos, these networks can pose a major technological disruption to a broad range of industries from medical imaging to virtual reality. However, as artwork developed by generative algorithms and cognitive robotics enters the arena, the notion of human-driven creativity has been thoroughly tested. When creativity is automated by the programmer, in a style determined by the trainer, using features from information available in public and private datasets, who is the proprietary owner of the rights in AI-generated artworks and designs? This Perspective seeks to provide an answer by systematically exploring the key issues in copyright law that arise at each phase of artificial creativity, from programming to deployment. Ultimately, four guiding actions are established for artists, programmers and end users that utilize AI as a tool such that they may be appropriately awarded the necessary proprietary rights. As artists are beginning to employ deep learning techniques to create new and interesting art, questions arise about how copyright and ownership apply to those works. This Perspective discusses how artists, programmers and users can ensure clarity about the ownership of their creations.
Delta-like ligand 4 (Dll4) is critical for tumor growth and angiogenesis.

5705 The Delta-like/Notch signaling pathway is necessary to establish an organized and hierarchical vasculature during development. Targeted deletions of various Delta-like/Notch genes result in mice that die during development due to severe vascular defects. Using microarray analysis, we previously identified Delta-like ligand 4 (Dll4) as a VEGF-regulated gene in mouse xenograft tumor models. In addition, we found that in these tumor models, Dll4 expression was significantly higher in tumor vessels compared to those in adjacent normal skin. To explore the effects of blocking Dll4/Notch signaling in tumors, we performed xenograft studies in mice, where a soluble Dll4-Fc molecule was delivered locally by retrovirally mediated overexpression in tumor cells or was delivered systemically using an adenoviral approach. We found that both methods of delivering Dll4-Fc resulted in reduced tumor growth compared to controls. Additionally, Dll4-Fc treated tumor vessels were more highly branched than controls, forming fine networks with dense vascular sprouting. As revealed by expression analysis, these effects were apparently associated with a decrease in Notch signaling. These findings show that Dll4 plays a key role in tumor angiogenesis, and suggest that Dll4 may be an attractive potential target for the development of anti-angiogenic therapies.
Photothermal conversion of gold nanoparticles for uniform pulsed laser warming of vitrified biomaterials

Pulsed laser (ms, 1064 nm) gold nanoparticle (GNP) heating has been used recently to achieve fast (>10 000 000 °C min−1) warming of vitrified droplets using gold nanorods (GNRs) as photon-absorbers. To maximize the viability of biomaterials in vitrified droplets, the droplets must be warmed as uniformly as possible. A potential approach to such warming is to use an appropriate combination of photon-absorption and -scattering to distribute heat more uniformly throughout a droplet. To investigate this, 2 plasmonic gold nanorods (GNRs), 1 hollow gold nanoshell, and 2 silica-core gold nanoshells (GNSs) were synthesized and characterized under 1064 nm laser irradiation in water, propylene glycol, and protein-rich (egg white) solutions. Using a modified cuvette laser calorimetry experiment with complementary Monte Carlo modeling, the GNSs were found to have higher per-particle absorption and scattering cross sections, while the GNRs had higher photothermal conversion efficiency, absorption efficiency, and Au mass normalized absorption cross sections. In the characterization, the GNSs with larger scattering-to-absorption ratios could have ∼30% over-estimation of photothermal conversion efficiency if scattering and reabsorption inside the solution were not considered, while GNRs with lower ratios were less impacted. Combined Monte Carlo and COMSOL simulations were used to predict the specific absorption rate (W m−3) and heating behavior of GNP-loaded hemispherical droplets, thereby demonstrating that the GNS case with higher scattering-to-absorption ratio achieved more uniform heating than the GNR case. Interestingly, further tuning of the scattering and absorption coefficients of the hemispherical GNP-loaded droplet within the model suggests the ability to obtain an optimal scattering-to-absorption ratio for uniform heating. These results show the importance of considering the reabsorption of scattered light to accurately characterize the photothermal conversion efficiency of GNP solutions during laser irradiation. We also show that the relative scattering and absorption properties of the nanoparticles can be designed to promote both rapid and uniform laser rewarming of vitrified droplets for application in cryopreservation.
The cleaning effect of hemoperfusion in fluoroacetamide poisoning and TNF-α, IL-10 Levels

Objective To study the cleaning effect of hemopeffusion in fluoroacetamide poisoning and TNF-α,IL-10 levels. Methods The models of acute fluoroacetamidc poisoning were established in dogs and treated with Hemoperfusion for 2 hours. Thedogs were randomly divided into two groups:HP group (hemoperfu-sion) and contrast group (without hemoperfusion). The plasma concentration of fluoroacetamide,TNF-α, IL-10 activity were determined before and after hemoperfusion at different time points. Results In contrast group and HP group,the plasma concentration of TNF-α,IL-10 rised markedly by fluoroacetamide poisoning. In HP groupafer 2 hours hemoperfusion,the plasma concentration of fluoroacctamide decline from (159.06±18.31) μg/ml to (41.94±4. 83) μg/ml,and was markedly lower than that in the contrast group(P 0.05). Conclusion Fluoroacetamide poisoning could rise the plasma concentration of TNF-α, IL-10. HP could obvious reduce the plasma concentration of fluoroacetamide The plasma concentration of TNF-α, IL-10 activity were not obvious to change before and after hemoperfusion. Key words: Hemoperfusion; Fluoroacetamide poisoning; TNF-α; IL-10
Exploring the association between anticipated and actual responses to disclosures of intimate partner violence and sexual assault.

Victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual assault (SA) commonly disclose their experiences to friends or family members, or within other personal relationships. Disclosure recipients’ r...
Quality assurance-based optimization (QAO): Towards improving patient-specific quality assurance in volumetric modulated arc therapy plans using machine learning

Abstract Introduction Previous literature has shown general trade-offs between plan complexity and resulting quality assurance (QA) outcomes. However, existing solutions for controlling this trade-off do not guarantee corresponding improvements in deliverability. Therefore, this work explored the feasibility of an optimization framework for directly maximizing predicted QA outcomes of plans without compromising the dosimetric quality of plans designed with an established knowledge-based planning (KBP) technique. Materials and Methods A support vector machine (SVM) was developed – using a database of 500 previous VMAT plans – to predict gamma passing rates (GPRs; 3%/3mm percent dose-difference/distance-to-agreement with local normalization) based on selected complexity features. A heuristic, QA-based optimization (QAO) framework was devised by utilizing the SVM model to iteratively modify mechanical treatment features most commonly associated with suboptimal GPRs. Specifically, leaf gaps (LGs) Results Predicted GPRs increased by an average of 1.14 ± 1.25% (p = 0.006) with QAO using a 3 mm maximum random LG displacement. There were small differences in dose, resulting in similarly small changes in tumor control probability (maximum increase = 0.05%) and normal tissue complication probabilities in the bladder, rectum, and femoral heads (maximum decrease = 0.2% in the rectum). Conclusion This study explored the feasibility of QAO and warrants future investigations of further incorporating QA endpoints into plan optimization.
Nuclear PKM2 Promotes Pre-mRNA Processing by Binding G-Quadruplexes

Nuclear localization of the pyruvate kinase M2 isoform (PKM2) is widely observed in cancer and correlates with its aggressiveness, but its contribution to gene regulation and pathogenesis remains unclear. We find that PKM2 is a non-canonical RNA binding protein that specifically recognizes folded RNA G-quadruplex (rG4) structures and binds thousands of precursor mRNAs (pre-mRNA) in the nucleus of human cells. Translocation of PKM2 to the nucleus increases expression of pre-mRNAs with rG4s elements within 200 nt of splice sites, likely by promoting mRNA processing through competition with repressive rG4 binding proteins, such as HNRNPF. The same rG4 mRNAs were upregulated in a cancer model undergoing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), highlighting the PKM2-G4 interaction as a potential drug target for EMT-associated tumorigenicity. Our results show a gene-regulatory role for rG4 formation on pre-mRNA and propose that rG4s allow for collective co-transcriptional regulation of related mRNAs by competing RBPs.
The Assembly and Transfer of Oligosaccharide Chains to Proteins

Starting about two decades ago a series of developments provided us with a basic understanding of the mechanism of synthesis of membrane and secretory glycoproteins. These were the distinction between membrane-bound and free polysomes (Redman, 1969), the discovery of the signal peptide (Blobel & Sabatini, 1971; Milstein et al., 1972), the demonstration of the cotranslational glycosylation of ovalbumin (Kiely et al., 1976), the findings that, in accord with the signal hypothesis, newly translated and glycosylated proteins were sequestered within the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (Lingappa et al., 1978) and that viral coat proteins were inserted with their carbohydrate chains facing the lumen (Katz et al., 1977). All of these findings set the scene for in-depth biochemical studies on the mechanisms of assembly of the oligosaccharide chains of the glycoproteins. These studies (summarized in Parodi & Leloir, 1979; Struck & Lennarz, 1980; Hubbard & Ivatt, 1981; and Kornfeld & Kornfeld, 1985) have led to the following general conclusions: 1. All eukaryotic cells are capable of the synthesis of glycoproteins that are destined to become components of the plasma membrane. In addition, many cell types commit a significant portion of their protein biosynthetic activity to the synthesis of secreted and/or lysosome-packaged glycoproteins. 2. The synthesis of membrane, secretory, or lysosomal glycoproteins is a highly segregated process that occurs within an intracellular membrane system composed of the endoplasmic reticulum, transfer vesicles, Golgi apparatus, and secretory vesicles. During their translation, glycosylation and processing the glycoproteins are completely isolated from the cytoplasm and travel to the cell surface (in the case of membrane glycoproteins), to the extracellular environment (in the case of secretory glycoproteins), or to the lysosomes (in the case of lysosomal enzymes) as part of, or within, these membrane compartments. 3. The assembly of N-linked oligosaccharide chains occurs in the endoplasmic reticulum and involves the stepwise preassembly of the oligosaccharide chain on dolichyl phosphate followed by en bloc transfer of the oligosaccharyl unit to the growing polypeptide chain. 4. Subsequent modifications to the oligosaccharide chains of N-linked glycoproteins are initiated in the rough endoplasmic reticulum and completed in the Golgi apparatus.
Benign Pediatric Tumors

Many benign tumors and tumor-like conditions are encountered in the orbit; some commonly seen, others very rare. This chapter primarily covers congenital orbital tumors and tumor-like conditions including hamartomatous and teratomatous lesions such as epidermoid, dermoid, dermolipoma, teratoma, cephalocele, congenital and other cysts. Although extensively covered elsewhere (Chapter 14) vascular hamartomas such as capillary hemangioma is also included for the sake of inclusiveness of this chapter. Clinical, imaging, and therapeutic aspects of these pathologies are detailed.
Tumors of the Central Nervous System

Malignant cerebral tumors represent a small percentage (approximately 2%) of all malignancies, but have severe prognosis due to high morbidity and mortality. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2007 there were 23,300 new benign cerebral tumors and 20,500 new malignant cerebral tumors diagnosed in the United States, with an estimated number of resulting deaths of 12,760. Malignancies of the central nervous system (CNS) are the second most common malignancy in patients under the age of 20 (after hematologic malignancies) and are the leading cause of death from solid tumors in children and the third leading cause of death from cancer in the 15- to 34-year-old age group.
The saphenous nerve and its relationship to the nerve to the vastus medialis in and around the adductor canal: an anatomical study.

Background Recently, ultrasound-guided saphenous nerve blocks within and distal to the adductor canal have shown success. However, a potential side effect is an unintentional block of branches of the nerve to the vastus medialis resulting in undesired motor weakness. Methods We dissected 40 embalmed cadaver thighs to determine the course and relation of the saphenous nerve to the nerve to the vastus medialis. Measurements were taken between various landmarks, and descriptive statistics were used to present the collected data. Results In 72.5% of specimens, the most distal visible branch of the nerve to the vastus medialis pierced the muscle proximal to the site where the saphenous nerve crosses the anterior surface of the superficial femoral artery to become medial to the vessel. Conclusion Knowledge of this anatomy may help establish a safe region in preventing motor blockade when performing saphenous nerve blocks.
Field evaluation of anthracnose disease response for the sorghum germplasm collection from the Kayes region of Mali

Resumen en: Sorghum germplasm from the Kayes region of Mali maintained by the United States of America Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Nati...
Strategies for the removal of ionic and non-ionic detergents from protein and peptide mixtures for on- and off-line liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS)

Publisher Summary Ionic and non-ionic detergents are reagents widely used during the purification of proteins and peptides; the presence of ionic detergents, such as SDS is well known to destroy any chromatographic resolution on reversed phase HPLC even in very low concentrations, while the presence of many non-ionic detergents interferes with mass spectral analysis. This chapter describes some strategies to remove ionic and non-ionic detergents during sample preparation at the low picomole level for micro HPLC chromatography and mass spectrometry. SDS can be removed by precipitation with guanidine hydrochloride; protein can be precipitated with trichloroacetic acid (TCA), leaving for example SDS in the supernatant; however, these techniques bear die risk of losing the sample, especially if only picomoles of protein or peptide are available. LC-MS analysis of the separated peptides indicates that the chromatography of the sample with SDS is almost identical to the peptide separation without SDS. Applying this technique to samples contaminated with SDS will improve chromatography as well as mass spectral analysis. However, it is not to exclude that some peptides or proteins might interact with the pre-column and will be retained in the same manner as SDS.
A New Approach to Computing Optimal Schedules for the Job-Shop Scheduling Problem

From a computational point of view, the job-shop scheduling problem is one of the most notoriously intractable NP-hard optimization problems. In spite of a great deal of substantive research, there are instances of even quite modest size for which it is beyond our current understanding to solve to optimality. We propose several new lower bounding procedures for this problem, and show how to incorporate them into a branch-and-bound procedure. Unlike almost all of the work done on this problem in the past thirty years, our enumerative procedure is not based on the disjunctive graph formulation, but is rather a time-oriented branching scheme. We show that our approach can solve most of the standard benchmark instances, and obtains the best known lower bounds on each.
Evaluation des options pour la restructuration de la dette

Le present document expose les grandes lignes du calcul de la valeur au comptant des "options" inherentes aux propositions relatives a la restructuration de la dette, y compris les echanges au pair ou au-dessous du pair, prevoyant des "ameliorations" de la qualite de la dette sous forme de garantie des interets ou du principal. On y fait valoir que, dans certaines hypotheses plausibles, la garantie des interets ou du principal equivaut a un rachat au comptant. Les formules utilisees pour le calcul des ratios d`echange de creances, des ressources necessaires, des taux d`interet et de la reduction nette de la dette pour chacune des options sont etablies sur la base de ces hypotheses. L`expose permet de demontrer qu`il n`existe pas de relation directe entre la decote avec laquelle se font ces echanges et le prix du marche.
Effects of vasopressin on arterial blood pressure and cardiac output in male and female rats

This study was performed to investigate further the mechanisms underlying the sexual dimorphism of the pressor responses to vasopressin. We have confirmed our earlier findings that the pressor response to graded infusions of vasopressin in conscious unrestrained male rats is similar to that in estrous females and greater than in diestrus, proestrus, and metestrus. This difference was due primarily to greater increases in total peripheral resistance (TPR) in males and estrous females, since there were no sex- or cycle-related differences in the vasopressin-induced reductions in cardiac output. Gonadectomy was without effect in males but, in females, increased blood pressure responses to vasopressin to levels found in males. Chronic treatment of ovariectomized rats with estradiol reduced pressor responsiveness to vasopressin; treatment with progesterone was without effect. These differences were also due to differences in TPR. It is concluded that the sex- and cycle-dependent differences in vasopressin-induced increases in blood pressure are due largely to attenuation of increases in TPR by estrogen.
The Beginnings of a Weighted Model and New Frontiers

We present some preliminary ideas on the inclusion of a weighted maximal set public choice model. We then compare the results of the tests of the models developed and tested in this book. We conclude with a consideration of fuzzy social choice functions as a means for predicting outcomes in public choice models.
Adapting measuring methods of discrepancy of samples patterns to human perception

The following article presents pattern discrepancy, which is a method for measuring the quality of sampling used in computer graphics. An attempt has been taken to adapt this method to the way the patterns are perceived by human. In the article we present several methods of sampling, which are then used for testing pattern discrepancy.
"Sinus headache": rhinogenic headache or migraine? An evidence-based guide to diagnosis and treatment.

Background Patients present to physicians across multiple disciplines with the complaint of sinus headache. This lay term is widely accepted in the media, yet has been repeatedly questioned in the medical literature, and experts in the fields of otolaryngology, neurology, and allergy have agreed that it is an overused and often incorrect diagnosis in the majority of patients. There have been review articles and consensus panels established regarding this issue, but thus far no guidelines based purely on a review of the level of evidence provided by the literature. Methods A systematic review of the literature was performed and the Clinical Practice Guideline Manual, Conference on Guideline Standardization (COGS), and the Appraisal of Guidelines and Research Evaluation (AGREE) instrument recommendations were followed. Study inclusion criteria were: adult population >18 years old, self-diagnosed or physician-diagnosed “sinus headache,” clearly defined diagnostic criteria in diagnostic studies, and clearly defined primary clinical end-point in therapeutic studies. Results We identified and evaluated the literature on diagnosing and treating patients with a primary complaint of sinus headache. The literature was reviewed for both quality of research design as well as benefit and harm of the proposed interventions. Conclusion If a thorough neurologic and otolaryngologic evaluation is performed, the majority of patients presenting with sinus headache in the absence of significant acute inflammatory findings will be diagnosed with migraine. In this situation, the appropriate treatment for the majority of patients presenting with sinus headache is migraine directed therapy. In a highly select group of patients, directed nasal surgery addressing endonasal contact points may be an option.
Evaluation of pulse oximetry in anaesthetised foals using multiple combinations of transducer type and transducer attachment site.

Summary A commercially available pulse oximeter was evaluated in anaesthetised foals to determine its accuracy for estimating arterial haemoglobin saturation (SaO2). Five different transducer/transducer attachment site (TIAS) combinations were evaluated; 1–3) a fingertip transmission transducer attached to the foal's ear, lip and tongue, 4) an adhesive transmission transducer positioned on the foal's ear and 5) a forehead reflectance transducer placed on the ventral aspect of the foal's tail-base. Eight normal, Quarter Horse foals (age 5–10 days) were studied while under general anaesthesia. Alterations in arterial carbon dioxide tension (PaCO2) were produced by changing the level of ventilation. At each level of ventilation, alterations of arterial haemoglobin saturation (SaO2) were produced by varying the inspired fraction of oxygen (FIO2). At each level of ventilation and each level of FIO2, arterial blood samples were obtained for blood gas analysis while pulse oximeter readings were recorded simultaneously for each TTAS combination. Arterial blood oxygen saturation (SaO2) was calculated from arterial blood gas values and the equine blood oxygen dissociation curve. Pulse oximeter readings from each TTAS combination were compared with SaO2 values with linear regression analyses. Bias and precision values were determined and the sensitivity and specificity of each TTAS combination for detecting desaturation (SaO2 <90%) were determined. Linear regression analyses indicated significant (P<0.05) linear correlation between oxygen saturation determined by pulse oximeter (SpO2) and SaO2 for each of the 5 TTAS combinations. The combinations TTAS-1, TTAS-3 and TTAS-4 tended slightly to underestimate SaO2 at high SaO2 ranges, but overestimated SaO2 at low ranges of SaO2. Combination TTAS-2 overestimated SaO2 over all ranges of SaO2. Combination TTAS-5 consistently underestimated SaO2 at all ranges of SaO2. In general, accuracy and precision of each TTAS combination decreased at lower SaO2 ranges. All TTAS combinations, except TTAS-2 and TTAS-4, had good sensitivity for detecting SaO2 less than 90%. All TTAS combinations except TTAS-5 demonstrated good specificity. We concluded that pulse oximetry appears to be a valuable method for assessing SaO2 and detecting desaturation in anaesthetised foals. Clinicians should be aware that the type of transducer used and the anatomical site to which it is attached can have marked effects on the accuracy of pulse oximetry; and that different TTAS combinations may behave differently over various ranges of SaO2.