cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Systematic Functional Testing of Rare Variants: Contributions of CFI to Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Purpose Genome-wide association (GWAS) and sequencing studies for AMD have highlighted the importance of coding variants at loci that encode components of the complement pathway. However, assessing the contribution of such alleles to AMD, especially when they are rare, remains coarse, in part because of the persistent challenge in establishing their functional relevance. Others and we have shown previously that rare alleles in complement factor I (CFI) can be tested functionally using a surrogate in vivo assay of retinal vascularization in zebrafish embryos. Here, we have implemented and scaled these tools to assess the overall contribution of rare alleles in CFI to AMD. Methods We performed targeted sequencing of CFI in 731 AMD patients, followed by replication in a second patient cohort of 511 older healthy individuals. Systematic functional testing of all alleles and post-hoc statistical analysis of functional variants was also performed. Results We discovered 20 rare coding nonsynonymous variants, including the previously reported G119R allele. In vivo testing led to the identification of nine variants that alter CFI; six of which are associated with hypoactive complement factor I (FI). Post-hoc analysis in ethnically matched, population controls showed six of these to be present exclusively in cases. Conclusions Taken together, our data argue that multiple rare and ultra-rare alleles in CFI contribute to AMD pathogenesis; they improve the precision of the assessment of the contribution of CFI to AMD; and they offer a rational route to establishing both causality and direction of allele effect for genes associated with this disorder.
Lenalidomide in High-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndrome and Acute Myelogenous Leukemia Associated with Chromosome 5 Abnormalities.

Abstract Background: Treatment with lenalidomide produces remarkable responses in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome and deletion 5q 31 (5q-) cytogenetic abnormality; transfusion independence in 67% of patients, major cytogenetic responses in 44% and a median duration of response of 115.9 weeks (List et al. Abstract #251; Blood: 108). Responses have been reported in few patients with MDS and complex karyotype as well. Since chromosome 5 abnormality is considered to be an early genetic event, we designed a phase 2 study of lenalidomide in patients with high-risk MDS and relapsed/refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) with any chromosome 5 abnormality. Method: The dose of lenalidomide was 25 mg/day, orally for 21 days with 7 days rest (28 day cycle). For patient with platelet count 1000/μl) and for grade 3 thrombocytopenia (for patients starting with platelet count ≥ 50,000/μl). Results: Eleven patients out of this 30 patient study have been treated so far; 6 with AML and 5 with MDS. All patients with AML and 2 patients with MDS had previous therapy. Median age is 63 years (range, 44 to 80 years). Nine patients had complex karyotypic abnormality and 2 patients had single additional chromosomal abnormality (+8 in one and 11q abnormality in another) along with 5q deletion. One patient with AML (previously treated with decitabine) and with karyotypic abnormality of trisomy 8 in addition to 5q deletion, achieved complete remission after 3 cycles of therapy. Another patient had reduction in bone marrow blasts from 21 to 5%, but could not continue lenalidomide due to profound thrombocytopenia complicated by gastrointestinal bleeding and eventually had disease progression. Four (4/6) patients with a platelet count of ≥ 30,000/μl and 5 (5/6) patients with ANC of ≥500/μl at study entry experienced worsening cytopenias. No grade 3/4 non-hematological toxicities were seen. One patient in CR currently remains on study. Reasons off study include disease progression (8 patients), stem cell transplant (1 patient) and one patient died while on study from sustained pancytopenia, infection and multiorgan failure. Conclusion: The role of lenalidomide in the treatment of high-risk MDS and AML with chromosome 5 and additional karyotypic abnormalities needs to be defined in the context of clinical trials. Future studies are needed to examine lower doses with or without growth factor support.
THROMBOLYTIC THERAPY IN ANTICOAGULATED PATIENTS: CASE SERIES FROM RIVAROXABAN VERSUS WARFARIN IN NONVALVULAR ATRIAL FIBRILLATION (ROCKET AF)

Background: Rivaroxaban is widely used for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation, yet the safety of thrombolysis in anticoagulated patients is uncertain. Methods: We analyzed the characteristics, indications, and 30-day rates of stroke, mortality, and bleeding in patients who
Affect and the Limits of Form in Sir Amadace

AbstractThe Middle English romance Sir Amadace has typically been understood as an illustration of the clash between aristocratic and mercantile economies. This article considers parts of the poem that escape those economies. Drawing on affect theorists, the essay argues that accounts that reduce the narrative to its explicit structures elide crucial poetic elements of affective excess. Amadace maintains a sophisticated tension between structures (whether formal or social) and the affective intensities enabled by romance that exceed such structuration. Although the clash between aristocratic and mercantile economies (and finally, religious economies) is indubitably present in the narrative, the poem finally emphasizes the ways that scenes of bodily intensity escape formal reduction.
Performing the Parryscope technique gently for office tubal patency assessment

Objective To demonstrate a novel approach to office tubal patency assessment through infusing air into saline during flexible office hysteroscopy. We also provide data addressing pain and patient experience relative to hysterosalpingography (HSG). Design Video presentation of clinical technique with supportive crossover data (Canadian Task Force classification II-1). Its University of Mississippi Medical Center Institutional Review Board protocol number is 2013-0230. Setting Academic hospital. Patient(s) Women undergoing office hysteroscopy and ultrasound, with a subset also having HSG. Intervention(s) Air infusion into saline during office hysteroscopy. Main Outcome Measure(s) The focus is on demonstrating how the technique appears and is performed, with supplemental Likert data addressing subjective pain and preference relative to HSG. Result(s) When performed as described, this office technique has 98.3%–100% sensitivity to tubal occlusion and 83.7% specificity. The gentle technique is central to accurate outcomes, which is facilitated through use of a small-caliber ( Conclusion(s) Air-infused saline at flexible office hysteroscopy can accurately, gently, and rapidly assess tubal patency. Coupled with strong patient preference for this technique over HSG, it is a promising option for evaluating fertility. Clinical Trail Registration Number NCT02005263.
Global Existence for the Semigeostrophic Equations via Sobolev Estimates for Monge-Ampère

These notes record and extend the lectures for the CIME Summer Course held by the author in Cetraro during the week of June 2–7, 2014. Our goal is to show how some recent developments in the theory of the Monge-Ampere equation play a crucial role in proving existence of global weak solutions to the semigeostrophic equations.
Dissociative electron attachment induced ring opening in five-membered heterocyclic compounds

Five-membered heterocyclic structures, which exist widely in biological systems and play an active role in various biochemical processes, have been studied extensively from a fundamental perspective. Here, the fragmentation patterns of isoxazole, a representative five-membered heterocycle, upon dissociative electron attachment (DEA) were examined carefully by comparing isoxazole's products with those of its methylated derivatives. It was found that the most dominant DEA pathway occurs through the loss of hydrogen at C(3), which leads to ring opening by O-N bond cleavage at an energy of ∼1.5 eV. The ring opening was investigated further for DEA to other related five-membered ring compounds, i.e., oxazole and thiazole. The DEA-induced hydrogen loss was much less pronounced or quenched completely in these two compounds and simultaneous ring-opening behavior was not detected. This observation is of special interest to applied fields, for example, the pharmaceutical industry, because several drugs that contain isoxazole substructures exhibit extensive ring opening during biotransformation.
The Practitioners’ Council: Connecting Legal Research Instruction and Current Legal Research Practice

The ivory tower is the home of academic law librarians who teach legal research. But, because of the practical nature of legal research, legal research professors must make sure they reach outside of the ivory tower to connect with contemporary legal research practice. This connection to the “real world” allows legal research professors to better prepare law students to research in the “real world.” This desire to stay connected to current legal research practice outside of the academy led the authors to form the Practitioners’ Council. This Council, made up of seven practicing attorneys, acts as an advisory board regarding current legal research practice and provides “real world” insight and experiences that enhance legal research instruction. This connection has helped the authors improve their legal research curriculum, better motivate students, and align legal research instruction with current legal research practice.This article explores the need for academic law librarians teaching legal research to connect with contemporary legal research practice and examines how the Practitioners’ Council meets that need. It also details the creation and use of the Council, including the benefits derived from the Council. Finally, the authors offer tips for running a successful Council and other ways in which they plan to use the Practitioners’ Council in the future.
Inventory and Assessment of the Gorilla gorilla (Savage, 1847) Skeletal Collection Housed at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Museum collections are critical resources for examination of comparative anatomy, developmental biology, and life history hypotheses. Skeletal collections provide insight into spatiotemporal, species, population, and individual variation associated with environmental, social, and epidemiological history. For endangered species such as great apes, these collections provide data that are nearly impossible to replicate today. In this second in a series of articles reviewing the great ape holdings of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, we describe the Gorilla gorilla skeletal collection, comprising 16 individuals: 13 males, 2 females, and 1 of indeterminate sex. Evidence of socioecology, interindividual violence, hunting, captive management, predation, senescence, and infectious disease are present within the skeletal material. The collection exhibits possible taxonomic diversity as well. Our evaluation of the Yale Peabody Museum collection provides a baseline for future research and testable hypotheses for alternate techniques, such as isotopic analyses of dental calculus and noninvasive genetic testing. Museum collections continue to provide new insights into taxonomic and individual variation and environmental context, and ultimately allow for comparisons between modern and historical environmental and behavioral variables.
Aggregating Claims Data Across Payers: Approaches, Challenges, and Lessons Learned From the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative.

The Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative fueled the emergence of new organizational alliances and financial commitments among payers and primary care practices to use data for performance im...
Maternal early-life trauma and affective parenting style: the mediating role of HPA-axis function

A history of childhood trauma is associated with increased risk for psychopathology and interpersonal difficulties in adulthood and, for those who have children, impairments in parenting and increased risk of negative outcomes in offspring. Physiological and behavioral mechanisms are poorly understood. In the current study, maternal history of childhood trauma was hypothesized to predict differences in maternal affect and HPA axis functioning. Mother-infant dyads (N = 255) were assessed at 6 months postpartum. Mothers were videotaped during a 3-min naturalistic interaction, and their behavior was coded for positive, neutral, and negative affect. Maternal salivary cortisol was measured six times across the study visit, which also included an infant stressor paradigm. Results showed that childhood trauma history predicted increased neutral affect and decreased mean cortisol in the mothers and that cortisol mediated the association between trauma history and maternal affect. Maternal depression was not associated with affective measures or cortisol. Results suggest that early childhood trauma may disrupt the development of the HPA axis, which in turn impairs affective expression during mother-infant interactions in postpartum women. Interventions aimed at treating psychiatric illness in postpartum women may benefit from specific components to assess and treat trauma-related symptoms and prevent secondary effects on parenting.
Designing for Complementarity: Teacher and Student Needs for Orchestration Support in AI-Enhanced Classrooms.

As artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly enters K-12 classrooms, what do teachers and students see as the roles of human versus AI instruction, and how might educational AI (AIED) systems best be designed to support these complementary roles? We explore these questions through participatory design and needs validation studies with K-12 teachers and students. Using human-centered design methods rarely employed in AIED research, this work builds on prior findings to contribute: (1) an analysis of teacher and student feedback on 24 design concepts for systems that integrate human and AI instruction; and (2) participatory speed dating (PSD): a new variant of the speed dating design method, involving iterative concept generation and evaluation with multiple stakeholders. Using PSD, we found that teachers desire greater real-time support from AI tutors in identifying when students need human help, in evaluating the impacts of their own help-giving, and in managing student motivation. Meanwhile, students desire better mechanisms to signal help-need during class without losing face to peers, to receive emotional support from human rather than AI tutors, and to have greater agency over how their personal analytics are used. This work provides tools and insights to guide the design of more effective human–AI partnerships for K-12 education.
Risk versus Benefit of Chemoprevention among Raloxifene and Tamoxifen Users with a Family History of Breast Cancer

Tamoxifen and raloxifene have been approved for the primary prevention of breast cancer in high-risk women, but are associated with an increased risk of serious side effects. Few studies have characterized risk–benefit profiles for chemoprevention among women who initiate tamoxifen or raloxifene outside of a clinical trial setting. Use of raloxifene and tamoxifen for chemoprevention was self-reported in 2014 to 2016 by participants in The Sister Study, a prospective cohort of women with a sister who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. After exclusions, 432 current raloxifene users and 96 current tamoxifen users were matched to 4,307 and 953 nonusers, respectively, on age and year of cohort enrollment. Conditional logistic regression was used to evaluate characteristics associated with chemoprevention use. Risk–benefit profiles were examined using published indices that assess the level of evidence (none, moderate, strong) that the benefits of chemoprevention outweigh the risk of serious side effects. Among current chemoprevention users, 44% of tamoxifen users and 5% of raloxifene users had no evidence of a net benefit. In analyses of factors associated with chemoprevention use, having strong evidence of benefit was a significant predictor of raloxifene use, but not of tamoxifen use. In our sample of women with a first-degree family history of breast cancer, raloxifene was more commonly used for breast cancer prevention than tamoxifen. Most raloxifene users, but
Making Ethical Progress without Ethical Theories.

The default principle--that someone is free to do what he or she desires in the absence of a compelling reason why he or she should not--may make it possible to resolve ethical disputes without recourse to a particular moral framework.
Spiders by Night: An Outdoor Investigation Integrating Next Generation Science Standards

Field investigations represent an excellent opportunity to integrate the Next Generation Science Standards to complement and enhance both classroom and laboratory instruction. This inquiry-based exercise is designed to introduce students to the basic anatomy, ecology, and natural history of a common backyard denizen, the wolf spider (Lycosidae). Students are charged with developing one or more testable hypotheses regarding wolf spiders in their own backyards. Wolf spiders are an ideal subject for field investigation because their secondary eyes possess a highly reflective layer called the tapetum lucidum. At night, this layer produces an unmistakable “eyeshine” when viewed with the beam of a flashlight. Playing the role of students, we tested the hypothesis that wolf spiders should occur at higher density in an undeveloped field than in a typical backyard. To test this, we utilized random quadrat sampling in both habitats using flashlights to detect nocturnal eyeshine. Students obtaining similar results would likely have concluded that wolf spiders were more abundant in natural habitats.
The Principles and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration: Third Edition

Arbitration has become the dispute resolution method of choice in international transactions. This book provides the reader with immediate access to understanding the world of international arbitration, explaining how and why arbitration works. It provides the legal and regulatory framework for international arbitration, as well as practical strategies to follow and pitfalls to avoid. It is short and readable, but comprehensive in its coverage of the basic requirements, including the most recent changes in arbitration laws, rules, and guidelines. The third edition includes new sections on state to state arbitration, the role and power of the arbitrator, reform efforts in international investment treaties, transparency in international arbitration and third party funding. In the book, the author includes insights from numerous international arbitrators and counsel, who tell firsthand about their own experiences of arbitration and their views of best practices. Throughout the book, the principles of arbitration are supported and explained by the practice, providing a concrete approach to an important means of resolving disputes.
Favorable Survival with Non-curative Treatments for Patients with Early-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma After Liver Transplant Denial.

Many patients are not candidates for liver transplant for non-tumor-related reasons including medical comorbidities and non-adherence. The prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who are not liver transplant candidates in the era of locoregional therapy (LRT) including y90 is not well defined. This study seeks to evaluate outcomes and the natural history of early-stage HCC in patients who were denied liver transplant listing due to non-tumor reasons and instead were treated with LRT. A retrospective evaluation was performed for all patients who completed liver transplant evaluation with their tumor within Milan criteria but were denied due to non-tumor reasons and were treated with LRT at a single tertiary referral center. The 61 patients included had a favorable overall survival, with a median survival 60.3 months (86.9% at 1 year and 52.7% at 5 years). Patients with Child–Pugh A cirrhosis (n = 34) had significantly longer overall survival compared to those with Child–Pugh B/C cirrhosis (median survival of 70.3 months versus 26.1 months, p = 0.005). Survival in patients with Child–Pugh A at 1, 3, and 5 years was 97%, 80%, and 73%, respectively, compared to 74%, 41%, and 31% in patients with Child–Pugh B/C. In a small single-center cohort, patients with HCC who were denied liver transplant due to non-tumor reasons and underwent LRT and had Child–Pugh A cirrhosis had survival approaching the national average for patients who undergo liver transplantation. Patients with Child–Pugh B/C cirrhosis had significantly worse outcomes than those with Child–Pugh A.
Plasmon-mediated coherent superposition of discrete excitons under strong exciton–plasmon coupling in few-layer MoS2 at room temperature

We demonstrate room temperature coherent hybridization of the A- and B-excitons in few-layer MoS2, mediated by simultaneous strong coupling to surface plasmon polaritons. Few-layer MoS2 was placed ...
Macroeconomic volatility, monetary union, and external exposure: evidence from five Eurozone members

Membership in a common currency area is thought to promote economic stability by facilitating macroeconomic convergence, but a country might give up important monetary policy tools that could help ...
U.S. hospital performance methodologies: a scoping review to identify opportunities for crossing the quality chasm

Hospital performance quality assessments inform patients, providers, payers, and purchasers in making healthcare decisions. These assessments have been developed by government, private and non-profit organizations, and academic institutions. Given the number and variability in available assessments, a knowledge gap exists regarding what assessments are available and how each assessment measures quality to identify top performing hospitals. This study aims to: (a) comprehensively identify current hospital performance assessments, (b) compare quality measures from each methodology in the context of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) six domains of STEEEP (safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, equitable, and patient-centeredness), and (c) formulate policy recommendations that improve value-based, patient-centered care to address identified gaps. A scoping review was conducted using a systematic search of MEDLINE and the grey literature along with handsearching to identify studies that provide assessments of US-based hospital performance whereby the study cohort examined a minimum of 250 hospitals in the last two years (2017–2019). From 3058 unique records screened, 19 hospital performance assessments met inclusion criteria. Methodologies were analyzed across each assessment and measures were mapped to STEEEP. While safety and effectiveness were commonly identified measures across assessments, efficiency, and patient-centeredness were less frequently represented. Equity measures were also limited to risk- and severity-adjustment methods to balance patient characteristics across populations, rather than stand-alone indicators to evaluate health disparities that may contribute to community-level inequities. To further improve health and healthcare value-based decision-making, there remains a need for methodological transparency across assessments and the standardization of consensus-based measures that reflect the IOM’s quality framework. Additionally, a large opportunity exists to improve the assessment of health equity in the communities that hospitals serve.
Incremental Expectation Maximization for Estimating Dynamic Primary User Activity in Cognitive Radio

In this paper we consider a cognitive radio (CR) scenario with a dynamic primary user (PU) that switches between active and idle transmission modes at random time instances, and a secondary user (SU) that is unaware of the PU activity and employs an energy detector to seek transmission opportunities. A two-state Markov chain is used to model the dynamic activity of the PU and establish a chi-squared mixture model for the energy detector output that allows accurate calculation of the probabilities of detection (${\mathcal{P}_d}$) and false alarm (${\mathcal{P}_f}$) for the SU in the context of the dynamic PU activity. The chi-squared mixture parameters are estimated from a set of observations using an incremental expectation maximization (EM) algorithm. The proposed approach is illustrated with numerical results obtained from simulations showing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves corresponding to the SU energy detector with dynamic PU in various scenarios.
SERCA2a gene therapy ameliorates pulmonary hypertension in a pig model: comparison of different delivery methods and therapeutic effect

Background: Sarcoplasmatic reticulum Ca++ ATPase (SERCA2a) is downregulated in the pulmonary vasculature of pulmonary hypertension (PH) patients. SERCA2a gene therapy seems a promising alternative for treating PH. The best gene delivery method has to be defined. Objective: a) compare two different airway delivery methods: bronchoscopic vs intratracheal sprayer, b) efficacy/safety of bronchoscopic delivered AAV1-SERCA2a Gene Therapy for treating PH. Methods and Results: Initially adeno-associated virus serotype1 (AAV1) encoding for reporter genes (luciferase, GFP) was injected in healthy pigs using a spray catheter inserted in a flexible bronchoscope or an intratracheal sprayer. Bronchoscopic delivery showed a denser distribution in the distal airways. We hypothesized that high concentrations of AAV1-SERCA2a would ameliorate PH. PH was induced in Yorkshire pigs (n=12) by pulmonary vein banding. 2 months after surgery the animals were randomized in 2 groups: treatment (injected with AAV1-SERCA2a) and saline. The animals were observed for 2 more months. 6 pigs reached the end timepoint. Mean PA pressure was ameliorated in the treatment vs saline injected animals (25.7 ± 5.8 vs 36.3 ± 3.0 mmHg, p Conclusion: Gene delivery using a bronchoscope is an efficient method for PH gene therapy. AAV1SERCA2 gene therapy using this delivery method ameliorates PH in a large animal model.
Searching for high temperature superconductivity: From Mendeleev to Seiberg-Witten via Madelung and beyond

Recently, a noticeable progress was achieved in the area of high temperature superconductors. The maximum temperature of 250 K for LaH(10) was reported at megabar pressures. Experimentally, the existing trend -- the highest critical temperature -- is based on uses of hydrides of atoms most of which are Madelung exceptional. In this work we provide a theoretical background describing such atoms. The, thus far empirical, Madelung rule is controlling the Mendeleev periodicity. Although the majority of elements do obey the Madelung rule, there are exceptions. Thus, it is of interest to derive this rule and its exceptions theoretically and to relate the results to superconductors. This task is achieved by employing the extended Bertrand theorem. The standard Bertrand theorem permits closed orbits in 3d Euclidean space only for 2 types of central potentials: Kepler, Coulomb and harmonic oscillator. Volker Perlick extended this theorem by designing new static spherically symmetric (Bertrand) spacetimes. In this work we use these spacetimes to solve the quantum many-body problem for any atom of periodic system exactly. The obtained solution is not universal though since the Madelung rule has exceptions. Nevertheless, it is demonstrated that the newly obtained results are capable of describing analytically the exceptions as well as the rule. This is achieved by some uses of the Seiberg-Witten and Hodge-de Rham theories. With their help we describe the topological transition: from the standard Madelung atoms to the Madelung anomalous atoms. As a byproduct, the second quantized many-body theory is reformulated in the gauge-theoretic form.
First-Mover Advantages Versus First-Mover Benefits: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter?

We present a theoretical framework to address the inherent endogeneity problem in entry-timing research by distinguishing the concept of first-mover benefits (FMB) from first-mover advantages (FMA)...
Outbreaks of clinical toxoplasmosis in humans: five decades of personal experience, perspectives and lessons learned

Background The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii has a worldwide distribution and a very wide host range, infecting most warm-blooded hosts. Approximately 30% of humanity is infected with T. gondii, but clinical toxoplasmosis is relatively infrequent. Toxoplasmosis has a wide range of clinical symptoms involving almost all organ systems. In most persons that acquire infection postnatally, symptoms (when present) are mild and mimic other diseases such as flu, Lyme disease, Q fever, hematological alterations, or mumps. It is likely that clinical disease is more common than reported. The ingestion of infected meat or food and water contaminated with oocysts are the two main modes of postnatal transmission of Toxoplasma gondii. The infective dose and the incubation period of T. gondii infection are unknown because there are no human volunteer experiments. Methods Here, I have critically reviewed outbreaks of clinical toxoplasmosis in humans for the past 55 years, 1966-2020. Information from oocyst-acquired versus meat-acquired infections was assessed separately. Results Most outbreaks were from Brazil. There were no apparent differences in types or severity of symptoms in meat- versus oocyst-acquired infections. Fever, cervical lymphadenopathy, myalgia, and fatigue were the most important symptoms, and these symptoms were not age-dependent. The incubation period was 7-30 days. A genetic predisposition to cause eye disease is suspected in the parasites responsible for three outbreaks (in Brazil, Canada, and India). Only a few T. gondii tissue cysts might suffice to cause infection, as indicated by outbreaks affecting some (but not all) individuals sharing a meal of infected meat. Conclusions Whether the high frequency of outbreaks of toxoplasmosis in humans in Brazil is related to environmental contamination, poor hygiene, socioeconomic conditions, or to genotypes of T. gondii needs investigation.
Brain injuries can set up an epileptogenic neuronal network.

Abstract Development of epilepsy or epileptogenesis promotes recurrent seizures. As of today, there are no effective prophylactic therapies to prevent the onset of epilepsy. Contributing to this deficiency of preventive therapy is the lack of clarity in fundamental neurobiological mechanisms underlying epileptogenesis and lack of reliable biomarkers to identify patients at risk for developing epilepsy. This limits the development of prophylactic therapies in epilepsy. Here, neural network dysfunctions reflected by oscillopathies and microepileptiform activities, including neuronal hyperexcitability and hypersynchrony, drawn from both clinical and experimental epilepsy models, have been reviewed. This review suggests that epileptogenesis reflects a progressive and dynamic dysfunction of specific neuronal networks which recruit further interconnected groups of neurons, with this resultant pathological network mediating seizure occurrence, recurrence, and progression. In the future, combining spatial and temporal resolution of neuronal non-invasive recordings from patients at risk of developing epilepsy, together with analytics and computational tools, may contribute to determining whether the brain is undergoing epileptogenesis in asymptomatic patients following brain injury.
A Trust-Based Tool for Detecting Potentially Damaging Users in Social Networks

We offer a trust-based framework to detect potentially damaging users in social networks. This method captures human and community trust within the network to identify users who are likely to cause harm. Human and community-based frameworks offer an advantage over other approaches because trust and credibility are hard to fake as they are built over time. Furthermore, given that the metric represents human trust with evidence, it serves as an excellent label to inform users of potential damage associated with another account. We illustrate the proposed metric with Twitter data, distinguishing potentially damaging users from both trustworthy users and those who lack trustworthiness but have a low chance of causing harm.
Diet-induced changes in titer support a discrete response of Wolbachia-associated plastic recombination in Drosophila melanogaster.

Plastic recombination in Drosophila melanogaster has been associated with a variety of extrinsic and intrinsic factors such as temperature, starvation, and parasite infection. The bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis has also been associated with plastic recombination in D. melanogaster. Wolbachia infection is pervasive in arthropods and this infection induces a variety of phenotypes in its hosts, the strength of which can depend on bacterial titer. Here we test the hypothesis that the magnitude of Wolbachia-associated plastic recombination in D. melanogaster depends on titer. To manipulate titer, we raised Wolbachia-infected and uninfected flies on diets that have previously been shown to increase or decrease Wolbachia titer relative to controls. We measured recombination in treated and control individuals using a standard backcrossing scheme with two X-linked visible markers. Our results recapitulate previous findings that Wolbachia infection is associated with increased recombination rate across the yellow-vermillion interval of the X chromosome. Our data show no significant effect of diet or diet by Wolbachia interactions on recombination, suggesting that diet-induced changes in Wolbachia titer have no effect on the magnitude of plastic recombination. These findings represent one of the first steps toward investigating Wolbachia-associated plastic recombination and demonstrate that the phenotype is a discrete response rather than a continuous one.
Strengthening regional financial cooperation

The severe international financial crises which rocked the Latin American economies in the 1980s and 1990s suggest that the international financial system suffers from serious defects. This article looks at one of the reforms which has been mooted in recent years: strengthening regional financial cooperation. It concludes that a Latin American fund made up of a modest portion of the reserves of the countries of the region, possibly backed up with contingency credits from the international banking system, could be an effective line of defense against financial crises caused by capital flight and could help to prevent the spread of crises within the region. A fund of this nature could also have other functions, such as providing finance to cope with balance of payments problems associated with temporary slumps in the terms of trade. It would also promote harmonization of the macroeconomic policies of its members, which is an essential condition for achieving more stable bilateral exchange rates and effective regional integration. Such a regional fund would not be a substitute for the International Monetary Fund, but would be complementary to it.
SEBORRHEIC KERATOSES, SOLAR LENTIGINES, AND LICHENOID KERATOSES: Dermatoscopic Features and Correlation to Histology and Clinical Signs

Dermoscopy is playing an increasing role in the practice of dermatology. This technique offers a huge potential to enhance the clinical interpretation of neoplasms and various inflammatory lesions of the skin, especially in the differential diagnosis of pigmented tumors. Pigmented melanocytic lesions represent an important portion of dermatologic practice, and this segment is responsible for a large percentage of office skin surgery. The dermoscopic appearance of seborrheic keratoses, lentigines, and lichenoid keratoses are reviewed. The correlation between the histologic and dermoscopic features of these lesions are stressed. 13
Race, ethnicity, and the relevance of obesity for social integration.

OBJECTIVE: To examine race and ethnic differences in the importance of obesity for social integration using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). DESIGN: A cross-sectional study utilizing survey-adjusted statistics and multivariate logistic and linear regression models. Models were stratified by sex and included interaction terms capturing race, ethnicity and obesity. SETTING: United States of America. PARTICIPANTS: A nationally representative sample of 15,355 respondents grades 7 through 12 who participated in both the In-School and In-Home Wave I surveys of Add Health. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Four self-reported and schoolmate-reported indicators of social integration. RESULTS: The consequences of obesity for social integration are greatest for White adolescents, who were selected by almost 2 fewer schoolmates as friends and had half the odds of having their friendships reciprocated compared with non-obese White adolescents. The social disadvantage of obesity was lower for non-White adolescents; though they are selected by significantly fewer schoolmates as friends and were less likely to have their friendships reciprocated, they did not face additional discrimination from being both obese and minority. CONCLUSIONS: There are significant differences between obese and non-obese adolescents by race and ethnicity in friendships. As friendships are among the most valued assets in adolescence, understanding the impact of obesity on access to friendships for diverse adolescents is a necessary component to understanding the complex motivations that guide health-related behavior at these formative ages. Ethn Dis. 2012;22[3]:317–323
Info Capacity| Introduction—How to Measure “How Much Information”?

Since the 1990s, building the “information city” has emerged as an important issue in urban development. This phenomenon began in the United States and Europe, and since then such development has been pursued in countries in the Asia-Pacific region. To examine the idea of the emerging information city in Taiwan, this study examines the decentralization of territory and information technology in this nation from 1994 to 2008. The spatiality of techno-infrastructure in Taiwan has long been controlled by the central government, yet this spatial structure encountered a transformation in the mid-1990s. The most significant changes have included the rising influence of urbanization and Internet-related infrastructures. Also important are the political strategies of the Taiwan government in terms of neoliberalization in the telecommunications industry and the reconfiguration of Taiwan’s political economy in the past two decades.
Symmetric Unions Without Cosmetic Crossing Changes

A symmetric union of two knots is a classical construction in knot theory which generalizes connected sum, introduced by Kinoshita and Terasaka in the 1950s. We study this construction for the purpose of finding an infinite family of hyperbolic non-fibered three-bridge knots of constant determinant which satisfy the well-known cosmetic crossing conjecture. This conjecture asserts that the only crossing changes which preserve the isotopy type of a knot are nugatory.
Structural cohesion and embeddedness: A hierarchical concept of social groups

Although questions about social cohesion lie at the core of our discipline, definitions are often vague and difficult to operationalize. Here, research on social cohesion and social embeddedness is linked by developing a concept of structural cohesion based on network node connectivity. Structural cohesion is defined as the minimum number of actors who, if removed from a group, would disconnect the group. A structural dimension of embeddedness can then be defined through the hierarchical nesting of these cohesive structures. The empirical applicability of nestedness is demonstrated in two dramatically different substantive settings, and additional theoretical implications with reference to a wide array of substantive fields are discussed.
Continuous vs. Piecewise Hysterisis Model of a Current Transformer

a quicker method to implement the standard CT model in circuit simulation is introduced. Using the introduced non-linear magnetizing equation with adjustable parameters, the CT's saturation curve can be instantaneously reproduced avoiding the process of defining linear segments and determining how many are necessary. An actual CT is modeled using the suggested method and results from excitation transients are compared with the traditional piecewise linear model as well as with experimental results for verification.
A novel risk score that incorporates recipient and donor variables to predict 1-year mortality in the current era of lung transplantation.

Background In this study we sought to construct a novel scoring system to pre-operatively stratify a patient's risk of 1-year mortality after lung transplantation (LTx) based on recipient- and donor-specific characteristics. Methods The UNOS database was queried for adult (≥18 years) patients undergoing LTx between May 1, 2005 and December 31, 2012. The population was randomly divided in a 4:1 fashion into derivation and validation cohorts. A multivariable logistic regression model for 1-year mortality was constructed within the derivation cohort. Points were then assigned to independent predictors ( p Results During the study period, 9,185 patients underwent LTx and the 1-year mortality was 18.0% ( n = 1,654). There was a similar distribution of variables between the derivation ( n = 7,336) and validation ( n = 1,849) cohorts. Of the 14 covariates included in the final model, 9 were ultimately allotted point values (maximum score=70). The model exhibited good predictive strength ( c = 0.65) in the derivation cohort and demonstrated a strong correlation between the observed and expected rates of 1-year mortality in the validation cohort ( r = 0.87). The low-risk (score 0 to 11), intermediate-risk (score 12 to 21) and high-risk (score ≥22) groups had a 10.8%, 17.1% and 32.0% risk of mortality ( p Conclusions This is the first scoring system that incorporates both recipient- and donor-related factors to predict 1-year mortality after LTx. Its use could assist providers in the identification of patients at highest risk for poor post-transplant outcomes.
The Mammals of Big Black Mountain, Harlan County, Kentucky

Big Black Mountain lies in southeastern Kentucky and adjacent Virginia, occupying parts of Harlan County, Kentucky, and Wise County, Virginia. Highway 160, between Lynch, Kentucky, and Appalachia, Virginia, crosses the mountain; the highest point in Kentucky (elevation 4150 feet) is some half mile west of the highway. About a mile northwest of this peak is a second height, indicated on the United States Geological Survey Estillville Sheet to have an elevation of 4150 feet or more. On this second peak the Civil Aeronautics Authority maintains the Glenbrook Visual-Aural Range Station. According to an engineer who surveyed this area for the station, the elevation of this peak is 4140 feet. With this station as a center, a circle with a four mile radius would include practically every point at which collections discussed in this paper were made. The only collections made outside this area and included were from the Poor Fork of the Cumberland River between the towns of Cumberland and Harlan, Kentucky, and two areas on Pine Mountain, one near Cumberland, and the other near Rosspoint, some four miles from the town of Harlan. This study was initiated on July 19, 1939, and is the result of four collecting trips to the area. The period July 19-August 18, 1939, was spent in the area, the time equally divided between the community of Rosspoint and the summit of Big Black Mountain, near Lynch. On May 3-4, 1940, I accompanied a party from Morehead State College, Morehead, Kentucky, to the area. On July 3, 1946, I accompanied a party of three to the summit of the mountain, to remain until July 7. On June 4, 1948, my family and I made camp near the Glenbrook Visual-Aural Range Station and remained there until September 1, 1948. During these four trips, over 350 mammal skins were prepared, most of them collected in Kentucky. The majority of the skins are in my personal collection; some are in the Cornell University collections, while a few are deposited in the United States National Museum. Big Black Mountain is the highest point of the Cumberland Mountain Section, the physiography of which has been treated by Fenneman (1938). The exposed rocks of the area under consideration belong to the Pennsylvanian series. Bedrock is exposed in but few places other than stream beds; the region is generally covered by a deep soil mantle. The geology of the area has been treated by the United States Geological Survey (1894). The mammalian fauna of the mountainous areas of eastern Kentucky and adjacent states is of considerable interest. It is here that certain northern species reach the southern limits of their range; here some southern species reach the northern limits of their range; here is a region of intergradation of various northern and southern geographic races; and here a few geographic races are confined. This paper presents information on thirty-two species and subspecies of mammals known to occur on Big Black Mountain in southeastern Kentucky and adjacent Virginia. They may be divided into five distributional categories: 100 Vol. 32, No. I
From Birth Control to Reproductive Health: Future Direction of the Planned Parenthood Association of Taiwan

Historical review of the evolvement over some 40 years of the initial Maternal and Child Health Association of China and the euphemistically-termed Pre-Pregnancy Health Program of Taiwan through to the present Planned Parenthood Association of Taiwan (PPAT) and Taiwan's national Family Health Program. Program recommendations for consideration for future implementation by the PPAT are offered on the joyous occasion of its 40th anniversary celebration in Taipei, March 10, 2004.
Voluntary acceptance of restraint by sheep

Abstract Four Suffolk ewes which had no previous experience with aversive restraining methods were mixed with twelve ewes which had experienced varying amounts of electro-immobilization and restraint in a squeeze tilt table. With successive voluntary passes, previously restrained ewes become more and more willing to be voluntarily restrained in a tilt squeeze table for a grain reward. Initially four ewes which had never experienced electro-immobilization entered the tilt table first. Six of the previously restrained ewes voluntarily entered the tilt table and were squeezed and tilted 6 times in a row without missing a pass. Less time was required to move each ewe during the last 5 passes compared to the first 5 passes.