cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Where babies are born and who attends their births: findings from the revised 1989 United States Standard Certificate of Live Birth.

OBJECTIVE To examine the results of changes in the birth certificate with regard to characteristics of the mothers and the birth weights of their infants. The United States Standard Certificate of Live Birth was revised in 1989 to include specific designations for the place of births out of hospital and the presence of a nurse-midwife or other midwife at the birth. METHODS All results are based on data from the Natality, Marriage and Divorce Statistics Branch of the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control. In all cases reported here, the data represent at least 91% of all United States births in 1989. RESULTS Different patterns of birth attendance emerged in different settings. In residential births, other midwives and "others" attended 66% of all births, whereas in freestanding birth centers, physicians and certified nurse-midwives attended 75.1% of all births. The characteristics of the mothers differed substantially according to who attended their births in these settings. Substantial interstate variations in place and attendant were also documented. CONCLUSION The positive outcomes achieved in certain settings indicate a need for further research into the factors that influence birth outcomes.
Clinical status of capecitabine in the treatment of breast cancer.

New treatment strategies for advanced breast cancer have focused on both the development of new molecular targets in breast cancer cells, as well as improving the therapeutic index of presently available therapy. The
Fostering adolescents' literacy engagements: “Kid's business” and critical inquiry

Abstract This study explores the impact of an inquiry project conducted with sixth‐grade language arts students. The project, Write for Your Life, invited students to conduct their own investigations of social issues that affected their lives. In this report, I look specifically at three aspects of the project—how the students defined their inquiry, how they pursued their inquiry, and how they compared this experience to previous experiences in language arts—in relation to the literature on engagement, critical literacy, and the design of language arts curriculum for adolescents.
Female clergy in the contemporary protestant church : A current assessment

In 1991, Tom Robbins and Roland Robertson coauthored a review of the social scientific study of religion in which they indicated that feminism has been one of the most significant dynamics to influence the field in the last decade (Swatos 1994). Supporting this observation, the 1995 annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion devoted its entire program to the topic of "Women and Religion" and consequently sponsored one of the largest and most successful programs in the history of the association. Clearly, interest in women and religion continues to climb. One of the most visible signs of the progress for women in the church is the changing status of ordained women. Roughly a generation has passed since the early 1970s when women began to enter seminaries in large numbers, seeking ordination. At that time numerous predictions were made. Some thought that the presence of women in the pulpit would cause large numbers of members to leave the church. Others felt that as pastors, women would bring a more democratic and inclusive style of leadership to congregations. Yet all agreed that the presence of women, ordained with the full rights and status of clergy, would not leave the churches unchanged. Now that a generation has passed, it appears to be a timely moment to review the published research examining this question. How has the ordination of women changed both the institutional life of the churches and the lives of those who have sought, or felt called to, this special status? While no single essay or volume can hope to do full justice to all of these concerns, this special issue presents examples of some of the most recent research on the status of women clergy, one of the most visible and symbolic groups affected by the dynamics of feminism in the church. Collectively, the articles in this issue focus on the individual, institutional and demographic factors affecting female clergy, and the institutions in which they work. What further unifies this set of essays is that each work advances our understanding of the topic by enhancing our perception of how temporal dynamics affect these relationships. Each
Privacy Preservation Using Game-Theoretic Approach

In this chapter, we propose a distributed approach for LBS privacy protection. In order to protect users from a recently highlighted threat model and achieve k-anonymity, we let distributed mobile LBS users generate dummies according to their own privacy needs when the total number of users in a service area is less than k. From a game theoretic perspective, we identify the strategy space of the autonomous and self-interested users in a typical LBS system, and formulate two Bayesian games for the cases with and without the effect of decision timing. The existence and properties of the Bayesian Nash Equilibria for both models are analyzed. Based on the analysis, we further propose a distributed algorithm to optimize user payoffs. Through simulations using real-world privacy data trace, we justify our theoretical results.
Factors Associated with Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Status at U.S. Colleges and Universities

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates remain low, but college student vaccination could offset this trend. This study identifies characteristics that could enhance HPV vaccination among U.S. college students. Data were from the National College Health Assessment II survey (fall 2012, N = 18,919). Univariate and logistic regression analyses were used to examine associations among demographic characteristics, college region and size, health status, receipt of health services, sexual health information, and HPV vaccination status. Among women, ethnic minorities, students attending schools in the South, those not receiving routine gynecological care in the past 12 months, and those unsure of when they last received gynecological care were less likely to report HPV vaccination. Among men, African Americans, students attending schools in the South and West, and those receiving sexually transmitted infection information were more likely to report vaccination. Data suggest that college health education can help to improve U.S. HPV vaccination rates. Campus health practitioners providing sexual health information and referrals are positioned to assist in this effort.
Brief communication: A nonlinear self-similar solution to barotropic flow over varying topography

Abstract. Beginning from the shallow water equations (SWEs), a nonlinear self-similar analytic solution is derived for barotropic flow over varying topography. We study conditions relevant to the ocean slope where the flow is dominated by Earth's rotation and topography. The solution is found to extend the topographic β-plume solution of Kuehl (2014) in two ways. (1) The solution is valid for intensifying jets. (2) The influence of nonlinear advection is included. The SWEs are scaled to the case of a topographically controlled jet, and then solved by introducing a similarity variable, η = cxnxyny. The nonlinear solution, valid for topographies h = h0 − αxy3, takes the form of the Lambert W-function for pseudo velocity. The linear solution, valid for topographies h = h0 − αxy−γ, takes the form of the error function for transport. Kuehl's results considered the case −1 ≤ γ
My Life as a “Like-Minded Misfit,” or, Experiences in Zine Librarianship

Zines are alternative, do-it-yourself (DIY) publications created outside the parameters of academic and commercial publishing. Their lack of reliable conventions with regard to frequency, authorshi...
Application of the Boltzmann Transport Equation to the Calculation of Range Profiles and Recoil Implantation in Multilayered Media

A straightforward approach to calculations of range profiles in multilayered media is developed based on numerical integration of the Linearized Boltzmann Transport Equation, $$\frac{{\partial f\left( {E,x} \right)}} {{\partial x}} = N\int {\left[ {\partial \sigma \left( {E{\text{'}} \to E} \right) f\left( {E{\text{',}}x} \right) - \partial \sigma \left( {E \to E{\text{'}}} \right) f\left( {E{\text{,}}x} \right)} \right]} $$ where x is the path length traveled by the implanted species. For heavy ions in light substrates, such as As in a Si3N4-SiO2-Si layered target, the path length is nearly equal to the depth below the surface. Therefore these calculations provide direct estimates of the range profiles for this situation.
uSFI: Ultra-lightweight software fault isolation for IoT-class devices

Embedded device security is a particularly difficult challenge, as the quantity of devices makes them attractive targets, while their cost-sensitive design leads to less-than-desirable security implementations. Most current low-end embedded devices do not include any form of security or only include simple memory protection support. One line of research in crafting low-cost security for low-end embedded devices has focused on sand-boxing trusted code from untrusted code using both hardware and software techniques. These previous attempts suffer from large trusted code bases (e.g., including the entire kernel), high runtime overheads (e.g., due to code instrumentation), partial protection (e.g., only provide write protection), or heavyweight hardware modifications. In this work, we leverage the rudimentary memory protection support found in modern IoT-class microcontrollers to build a low-profile, low-overhead, flexible sandboxing mechanism that can provide isolation between tightly-coupled software modules. With our approach, named uSFI, only the trust management code must be trusted. Through the use of a static verifier and monitored inter-module transitions, module code at all privilege levels (including the kernel) is able to run uninstrumented and untrusted code. We implemented uSFI on an ARMv7-M based processor, both bare metal and running the freeRTOS kernel, and analyzed the performance using the MiBench embedded benchmark suite and two additional highly detailed applications. We found that performance overheads were minimal, with at most 1.1% slowdown, and code size overheads were also low, at a maximum of 10%. In addition, our trusted code base is trivially small at only 150 lines of code.
The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of 11-Oxygenated Androgens in Human Physiology and Disease

The 11-oxyandrogens, particularly 11-ketotestosterone, have been recognized as a biologically important gonadal androgen in teleost (bony) fishes for decades, and their presence in human beings has been known but poorly understood. Today, we recognize that 11-oxyandrogens derive from the human adrenal glands and are major bioactive androgens, particularly in women and children. This article will review their biosynthesis and metabolism, abundance in normal and pathologic states, and potential as biomarkers of adrenal developmental changes and disease. Specifically, 11-oxyandrogens are the dominant active androgens in many patients with 21-hydroxylase deficiency.
Animal Models for Chikungunya Virus and Zika Virus

Abstract Chikungunya virus and Zika virus are mosquito-transmitted viruses of the genera Alphavirus and Flavivirus, respectively. In the last decade, both of these viruses have dramatically re-emerged, spreading to Asia, Europe, the Pacific Region, and the Americas. In each of these regions, these viruses have caused large outbreaks of acute and chronic disease in humans, including a devastating congenital syndrome in infants exposed to Zika virus infection in the womb. As part of the response to these ongoing public health crises, the development of robust animal models of human disease is major research priority. This chapter reviews the development and characterization of animal models being used to investigate the pathogenesis and immunity of these virus-induced diseases and for evaluating vaccines and therapeutics against chikungunya virus and Zika virus infection.
Hue-assisted automatic registration of color point clouds

Abstract This paper describes a variant of the extended Gaussian image based registration algorithm for point clouds with surface color information. The method correlates the distributions of surface normals for rotational alignment and grid occupancy for translational alignment with hue filters applied during the construction of surface normal histograms and occupancy grids. In this method, the size of the point cloud is reduced with a hue-based down sampling that is independent of the point sample density or local geometry. Experimental results show that use of the hue filters increases the registration speed and improves the registration accuracy. Coarse rigid transformations determined in this step enable fine alignment with dense, unfiltered point clouds or using Iterative Common Point (ICP) alignment techniques.
Experience With Carcinoma Of The Scrotum

AbstractThe natural history, management and prognosis of scrotal carcinoma are reviewed in 19 cases and a method to stage the tumor is presented. Ten patients were rendered free of evidence of cancer, 9 of whom have survived more than 5 years. Wide local excision of the primary lesion with radical ilioinguinal dissection for proved inguinal lymph node metastases is the present recommendation. For non-resectable regional metastatic disease no treatment of established effectiveness is available. Irradiation has produced benefit on rare occasions and hemipelvectomy may be considered in selected cases.
Binary Debloating for Security via Demand Driven Loading.

Modern software systems heavily use C/C++ based libraries. Because of the weak memory model of C/C++, libraries may suffer from vulnerabilities which can expose the applications to potential attacks. For example, a very large number of return oriented programming gadgets exist in glibc that allow stitching together semantically valid but malicious Turing-complete programs. In spite of significant advances in attack detection and mitigation, full defense is unrealistic against an ever-growing set of possibilities for generating such malicious programs. In this work, we create a defense mechanism by debloating libraries to reduce the dynamic functions linked so that the possibilities of constructing malicious programs diminishes significantly. The key idea is to locate each library call site within an application, and in each case to load only the set of library functions that will be used at that call site. This approach of demand-driven loading relies on an input-aware oracle that predicts a near-exact set of library functions needed at a given call site during the execution. The predicted functions are loaded just in time, and the complete call chain (of function bodies) inside the library is purged after returning from the library call back into the application. We present a decision-tree based predictor, which acts as an oracle, and an optimized runtime system, which works directly with library binaries like GNU libc and libstdc++. We show that on average, the proposed scheme cuts the exposed code surface of libraries by 97.2%, reduces ROP gadgets present in linked libraries by 97.9%, achieves a prediction accuracy in most cases of at least 97%, and adds a small runtime overhead of 18% on all libraries (16% for glibc, 2% for others) across all benchmarks of SPEC 2006, suggesting this scheme is practical.
6LoWPAN Overview and Implementations

This paper provides an overview of the 6LoWPAN standard.LoWPAN is an open standard developed by IETF. It is an IPv6 adaptation layer running on top of IEEE 802.15.4 standard. This paper reviews the history that led to the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) and how IoT evolved from simple, non-IP networks to 6LoWPAN based IP networks. In this paper, we argue why 6LoWPAN is an important building block for the future of IoT. We also describe the challenges and most important features of 6LoWPAN, including two application protocol standards CoAP and MQTT-SN that are used in 6LoWPAN. We also list some of the popular implementations of 6LoWPAN, including some Thread products based on 6LoWPAN.
Ontogenetic change in the amount and position of slow‐oxidative myotomal muscle in relationship to regional endothermy in juvenile yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares

Myotomal slow-oxidative muscle (SM) powers continuous swimming and generates heat needed to maintain elevated locomotor muscle temperatures (regional endothermy) in tunas. This study describes how the amount and distribution of myotomal SM increases with fish size and age in juvenile yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares in relationship to the development of regional endothermy. In T. albacares juveniles 40-74 mm fork length (LF ; n = 23) raised from fertilised eggs at the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission Achotines Laboratory in Panama and larger juveniles (118-344 mm LF ; n = 5) collected by hook and line off of Oahu, Hawaii, USA, SM was identified by histochemical staining for the mitochondrial enzyme succinic dehydrogenase or by colour (in the two largest individuals). The cross-sectional area of myotomal SM at 60% LF , a position with maximal percentage of SM in larger T. albacares, increased exponentially with LF . The percentage of total cross-sectional area composed of SM at 60% LF increased significantly with both LF and age, suggesting that SM growth occurs throughout the size range of T. albacares juveniles studied. In addition, the percentage of SM at 60% LF that is medial increased asymptotically with LF . The increases in amount of SM and medial SM, along with the development of the counter-current heat-exchanger blood vessels that retain heat, allow larger tuna juveniles to maintain elevated and relatively stable SM temperatures, facilitating range expansion into cooler waters.
Analysis of Ligand Binding and Cross-Linking of Receptors in Solution and on Cell Surfaces

Fluorescence measurements are among the most powerful methods for investigating structure and structural changes on cell surfaces. The basic strength of this method is that nanomolar concentrations of fluorophores can be detected in the presence of a high level of background noise provided by the cells. An ideal fluorescent probe absorbs and emits at wavelengths not in common with the cellular components, has a high quantum yield, and can be placed specifically into a location such that it is sensitive to the structural aspect of interest. Recently there has been a great expansion in the commercial availability of fluorescent probes with a broad range of fluorescent properties and reactive groups for conjugation (e.g., Haugland, 1989). The requirement for specific placement on a macromolecular/cellular complex remains the most challenging experimentally. In this regard, specific ligands and specific monoclonal antibodies that can be fluorescently modified are valuable reagents. In this chapter we describe our use of quantitative fluorescence measurements to investigate the binding properties of cell surface receptors.
Photoproduction of π + Mesons at 3.4 and 5.0 BeV

We report measurements of the photoproduction from hydrogen of single ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}$ mesons at gamma-ray energies of 3.4 and 5.0 BeV and at laboratory angles of 5.1\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}, 7.1\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}, 9.9\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}, and 15.1\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}. The $s$ dependence at fixed $t$ is derived for momentum transfers of -0.20, -0.37, and -0.70 Be${\mathrm{V}}^{2}$. The pion data are compared with a Reggeized one-pion-exchange model.
Review of diffusion and vaporization of Group 4 and 5 transition metal carbides

During vaporization or corrosion of the transition metal carbides (MC) the surface composition changes with time, due to incongruent loss of metal (M) and carbon (C) atoms, eventually approaching a congruently vaporizing composition (CVC). At the CVC, M and C atoms are removed in a ratio equal to that present on the solid surface. This paper describes methods for calculating or modeling the incongruent vaporization process with emphasis on determining time dependent surface composition, which is determined in large part by the solid state diffusion of C. The surface composition determines the equilibrium vapor pressures of M and C atoms and, therefore, influences the overall loss of material. An extensive literature survey is provided and it is demonstrated that various aspects of the proposed relationships are supported by experimental data.
Usefulness of Charlson Comorbidity Index to Predict Early Mortality and Overall Survival in Older Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Abstract Introduction Older adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) often have significant comorbidities. We hypothesized that greater comorbidity burden predicts worse 1-month mortality and overall survival (OS) in patients ≥60 years with AML. Materials and methods We included 50,668 patients ≥60 years diagnosed between 2004 and 2014 from the National Cancer Database; patients were divided into 3 groups with Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) 0, 1, and ≥2. Chi-square tests were used to examine the association between CCI and different variables. We used logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard models to determine predictors of 1-month mortality and OS, respectively. Results Among the entire cohort, 65% had CCI 0, 24% had CCI 1, and 11% had CCI ≥2. Thirty-four percent did not receive chemotherapy. Patients with CCI 0 were more likely to receive chemotherapy, especially multiagent chemotherapy and undergo upfront hematopoietic cell transplantation. In multivariate analyses, 1-month mortality and OS were significantly worse with CCI 1 or ≥2, compared with CCI 0 in the entire cohort, as the subgroup of only those patients who received chemotherapy. Younger age, male gender, higher annual income, academic facility, longer travel distance, and acute promyelocytic leukemia were associated with improved OS. Conclusion In one of the largest real-world studies of older adults with AML, we demonstrated that greater comorbidity, measured by higher CCI, independently predicted worse early mortality and OS in older patients with AML. Higher CCI was more common with increasing age and correlated with lower likelihood of receiving chemotherapy and hematopoietic cell transplantation. Whether optimal comorbidity management and supportive care may improve outcomes needs to be studied further.
High Power (> 300 mW) 1550 nm On-Chip Laser Realized using Passively Aligned Hybrid Integration

We present the flip-chip integration of a slab coupled optical waveguide amplifier (SCOWA) with a silicon-nitride waveguide DBR, creating an external cavity laser emitting 312 mW with RIN of <−160 dB/Hz.
An investigation of resurgence of reinforced behavioral variability in humans

The present study examined resurgence of reinforced variability in college students, who completed a 3-phase computer-based variability task. In the first phase, baseline, points were delivered for drawing rectangles that sufficiently differed from previous rectangles in terms of a target dimension (size or location, counterbalanced) but were sufficiently similar in terms of the alternative dimension. In the second phase, alternative, points were only delivered for rectangles that were sufficiently different in terms of the alternative dimension, but repetitive in terms of the target dimension. In the third phase, extinction, no points were delivered. In baseline, participants made rectangles that were highly varied in terms of the target dimension and less varied in terms of the alternative dimension, and vice versa in the alternative phase. During extinction, levels of variability increased for the target dimension, providing evidence for resurgence of reinforced variability of a specific dimension of behavior. However, levels of variability also remained high for the alternative dimension, indicating that extinction-induced response variability may also have impacted the results. Although future research is needed to explore other explanations, the results of this study replicate prior research with pigeons and provide some support for the notion of variability as an operant.
Birdwatching: False Negatives In Cuckoo Filters

Cuckoo filters are a probabilistic data structure for approximate set membership queries. Their lookup queries are designed to return either "probably in the set" (with probability of error e) or "definitely not in the set". We show that the latter does not necessarily hold in practice, meaning that these filters may suffer from both false positives and false negatives. Specifically, we analyze state-of-the-art cuckoo filter implementations, and identify a source of false negatives arising from an interplay between partial-key hashing and cuckoo evictions in filters that are close to full. We further show that for practical implementations of cuckoo filters, there is a trade-off between space efficiency and incurring a certain amount of false negatives. Finally, we compare state-of-the-art cuckoo filter implementations with their Bloom filter counterparts. We show that for a false positive rate below 3%, Bloom filters achieve better space efficiency than cuckoo filters for most of the filter sizes.
Quantitative Moisture Mapping to Determine Local Impacts on Module Durability

Humidity is widely accepted as a risk factor to the durability of photovoltaic modules. The ingress of moisture from humid environments into the module is linked to a host of module degradation modes, including contact corrosion, encapsulant yellowing, and delamination. While these degradation pathways are studied extensively, the exact moisture content within a module is typically a hidden variable, making it difficult to establish a quantitative relationship between module moisture content and degradation. We leverage our recently developed water reflectomery detection (WaRD) technique along with biased photoluminescence imaging to spatially quantify the moisture content and cell parameters of silicon modules subjected to various damp heat conditions for 2000 hours at a 1 millimeter resolution. This unique dataset reveals two modes of series resistance increase - finger interruptions and cell-wide “background” resistance - each showing varied sensitivity to moisture exposure depending on module architecture.
The Effect of Adjuvant Pelvic Radiotherapy on Distant Metastasis for Uterine Carcinosarcoma

Background Uterine carcinosarcomas (UCS) are rare tumors that carry a poor prognosis and high recurrence rate. Standard treatment consists of surgical resection and chemotherapy, though the benefit of adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) has yet to be determined. This study assessed survival rates between patients with UCS who underwent surgical resection alone and patients who underwent combinations of surgery, chemotherapy, and RT. Materials and methods We conducted a retrospective review of all patients who underwent surgical resection for UCS between 1993 and 2011 at a single institution. We assessed 3-year disease-free survival, locoregional recurrence-free survival, distant metastases-free survival (DMFS), and overall survival rates and utilized Kaplan-Meier modeling to analyze differences between UCS treatment modalities. Results Twenty-four patients underwent UCS surgical resection between 1993 and 2011. The mean age was 61 (range: 39 to 75 y). Of these patients, 100% (n=24) underwent surgical resection, 25% (n=6) underwent surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, 29% (n=7) underwent surgery and adjuvant RT, and 33% (n=8) underwent surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy and RT. At 3 years median follow, there was no significant difference in overall survival between treatment modalities. The addition of radiation therapy conferred increased DMFS in patients undergoing surgery irrespective of adjuvant chemotherapy (44% vs. 83%, P=0.0211).In patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy, the significant increase in DMFS persisted with the addition of RT (P=0.0310). Lymph node involvement (n=8) was associated with a lower locoregional recurrence-free survival (38% vs. 92%, P=0.0029). Conclusions RT may offer a potential benefit in reducing the rate of distant metastases, though there were no statistically significant improvements in survival metrics.
Thoughts on Legal Writing from the Greatest of Them All: Benjamin N. Cardozo

This column, from a continuing series on what lawyers can learn from the greatest writers, covers Benjamin N. Cardozo.
Vaccine design through transition state mimicry of heroin hydrolysis

Abstract A transition state mimic, heroin 3,6-diphosphonate ester (H2P), was synthesized and the KLH-hapten immunoconjugate was administered to rodents to assess its ability to generate a catalytic antibody response. The antibody titers elicited by the H2P vaccine were measured and compared to a vaccine comprised of a non-transition state hapten. Biodistribution and kinetic studies revealed the presence of high morphine levels in the blood due to antibody catalysis in the H2P vaccinated animals, while also exhibiting significance in behavioral assays. Our results indicate heroin drug metabolism was perturbed via antibody catalysis providing a starting point for developing monoclonal catalytic antibodies against heroin.
Classification of protein-protein association rates based on biophysical informatics.

Background Proteins form various complexes to carry out their versatile functions in cells. The dynamic properties of protein complex formation are mainly characterized by the association rates which measures how fast these complexes can be formed. It was experimentally observed that the association rates span an extremely wide range with over ten orders of magnitudes. Identification of association rates within this spectrum for specific protein complexes is therefore essential for us to understand their functional roles. Results To tackle this problem, we integrate physics-based coarse-grained simulations into a neural-network-based classification model to estimate the range of association rates for protein complexes in a large-scale benchmark set. The cross-validation results show that, when an optimal threshold was selected, we can reach the best performance with specificity, precision, sensitivity and overall accuracy all higher than 70%. The quality of our cross-validation data has also been testified by further statistical analysis. Additionally, given an independent testing set, we can successfully predict the group of association rates for eight protein complexes out of ten. Finally, the analysis of failed cases suggests the future implementation of conformational dynamics into simulation can further improve model. Conclusions In summary, this study demonstrated that a new modeling framework that combines biophysical simulations with bioinformatics approaches is able to identify protein-protein interactions with low association rates from those with higher association rates. This method thereby can serve as a useful addition to a collection of existing experimental approaches that measure biomolecular recognition.
Development and validation of multivariable prediction models for adverse COVID-19 outcomes in patients with IBD.

Objectives Develop an individualised prognostic risk prediction tool for predicting the probability of adverse COVID-19 outcomes in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Design and setting This study developed and validated prognostic penalised logistic regression models using reports to the international Surveillance Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease voluntary registry from March to October 2020. Model development was done using a training data set (85% of cases reported 13 March-15 September 2020), and model validation was conducted using a test data set (the remaining 15% of cases plus all cases reported 16 September-20 October 2020). Participants We included 2709 cases from 59 countries (mean age 41.2 years (SD 18), 50.2% male). All submitted cases after removing duplicates were included. Primary and secondary outcome measures COVID-19 related: (1) Hospitalisation+: composite outcome of hospitalisation, ICU admission, mechanical ventilation or death; (2) Intensive Care Unit+ (ICU+): composite outcome of ICU admission, mechanical ventilation or death; (3) Death. We assessed the resulting models' discrimination using the area under the curve of the receiver operator characteristic curves and reported the corresponding 95% CIs. Results Of the submitted cases, a total of 633 (24%) were hospitalised, 137 (5%) were admitted to the ICU or intubated and 69 (3%) died. 2009 patients comprised the training set and 700 the test set. The models demonstrated excellent discrimination, with a test set area under the curve (95% CI) of 0.79 (0.75 to 0.83) for Hospitalisation+, 0.88 (0.82 to 0.95) for ICU+ and 0.94 (0.89 to 0.99) for Death. Age, comorbidities, corticosteroid use and male gender were associated with a higher risk of death, while the use of biological therapies was associated with a lower risk. Conclusions Prognostic models can effectively predict who is at higher risk for COVID-19-related adverse outcomes in a population of patients with IBD. A free online risk calculator (https://covidibd.org/covid-19-risk-calculator/) is available for healthcare providers to facilitate discussion of risks due to COVID-19 with patients with IBD.
Continuous health condition monitoring by 24×7 sensing and transmission of physiological data over 5-G cellular channels

A novel architecture tested exclusively for instantaneous sensing and 24×7 transmitting important physiological signals over cellular networks has been introduced in this paper. Pulmonary Artery Pressure (PAP) and Electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG) are selected as two preliminary physiological signals for this exercise as these two can help diagnose Cardio-Vascular Diseases (CVDs), the major silent killer of modern days. We use a Wireless Body Area Sensor Network to get the physiological data from a user's body and transmit them to a WBAN coordinator. The coordinator compresses received data from the body sensors, modulates it using bi-phase modulation scheme and sends it to a GSM module for remote transmission over existing cellular network. The GSM module receives the data and sends it to a remotely located tiny server for subsequent demodulation and reconstruction of the original signals. We explain details of different techniques used for data compression of this methodology and provide efficient transmission of data considering allowable range of perturbation in the information content in maintaining original characteristics. For the transmission of physiological data, we visualize to have a dedicated channel in upcoming fifth generation mobile technology, as more bandwidth for everybody is anticipated for services like data on demand, and would make 24×7 health-monitoring a reality in the near future. The novelty of our approach lies in the fact that it would enable online, round-the-clock health watch for the cellular system subscribers at very low power consumption by collaborating with the underlying sensor networks.
“Un intermedio lírico”: La política y poética de la educación sexual en Dulce Dueño de Emilia Pardo Bazán

La ultima novela de Emilia Pardo Bazan, Dulce Dueno (1911), constituye una fabula de “gender trouble” en la que destacan cuestiones relacionadas con los cuerpos de las mujeres y la educacion sexual en el siglo XX. La busqueda de la protagonista de reivindicaciones amorosas la llevan a un sacrificio fisico y mental extremo que aqui se interpreta como la de una histerica. Como una histerica, la protagonista retira su cuerpo de la circulacion convencional que se suponia para las mujeres de su epoca para convertirse en la esposa de Cristo. Este articulo se centra especialmente en cuestiones del conocimiento y la abyeccion corporal. Describe la ruta de la protagonista hacia el escenario erotico con que la novela termina, que paradojicamente marca tanto el exito psiquico de la busqueda de la protagonista como la aniquilacion psiquica de su voluntad.
The concentration-dependent diversity of effects of DNA topoisomerase I and II inhibitors on the cell cycle of HL-60 cells.

Exposure of promyelocytic leukemic HL-60 cells to 3-60 nM of the DNA topoisomerase I inhibitor camptothecin (CAM) or to 30-450 nM and 0.12-1.5 microM of DNA topoisomerase II inhibitors teniposide (TN) and 4-(9-acridynylamino)-3-methanesulfon-m-anisidide (m-AMSA), respectively, resulted in two distinct kinetic effects: (1) the cells entered S phase but the rate of DNA replication was reduced in proportion to the inhibitor concentration; (2) the transition from G2 to M was impaired, approximately 1 h after addition of the inhibitor. As a consequence, the cells accumulated in the S (preferentially in early S) and in G2 phases of the cell cycle. Whereas CAM was more efficient in suppressing cell progression through S phase, TN and m-AMSA were more potent G2 blockers. At these low inhibitor concentrations no signs of immediate cytotoxicity or DNA degradation were apparent. However, above 145 nM of CAM, 900 nM of TN, or 2 microM of m-AMSA extensive DNA degradation in nuclei of S phase cells was evident within 6 h of addition of the inhibitor, resulting in the loss of S and G2 + M cells from these cultures. The data indicate that depending on concentration, mechanisms mediating the cytostatic/cytotoxic activity of both DNA topoisomerase I and II inhibitors may be quite different. Suppression of the DNA replication and the G2 to M transition, seen at low inhibitor concentrations, is compatible with the assumption that the inhibitor-induced stabilization of the topoisomerase-DNA cleavable complexes interferes with DNA replication and chromosome condensation/segregation, respectively. Above the threshold concentration for each inhibitor, an endonucleolytic activity is triggered, resulting in rapid DNA degradation in nuclei of S and G2 phase cells. The endonucleolytic effect is not only cell cycle phase-specific but is also modulated by tissue-specific factors because it cannot be observed, e.g., in the lymphocytic leukemic cell lines.
Nonsteady Vorticity Measurements: Survey and New Results

The paper consists of a brief description of our experience in making measurements of streamwise vorticity. The measurements were made using a probe consisting of an array of four hot wires with precise geometrical and electrical characteristics. This type of probe was developed by Kovasznay in 1954 but the influence of the flow velocity on the vorticity signal had not been investigated in detail. We describe the probe construction, calibration, spatial resolution and the influence of the flow velocity on the vorticity signal. The later work has been done at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Stromungsforschung by E. Kastrinakis and H. Eckelmann. It is concluded that in a turbulent flow field this probe cannot be used without simultaneous knowledge of the instantaneous transverse velocity components.
Making History in Banda: Local life in the context of the Niger trade c. 1300–1700

The archaeological site of Kuulo Kataa lies 1.5 km west of Dumpofie, a small village home to the majority of Kuulo people today (Fig. 5.1). Kuulo Kataa marks where Wurache, the Kuulo ancestress, descended to earth on a chain from the sky. Although there are minor variations in the Wurache story, it is one of the few local oral histories told in narrative form. In this sense it approximates what Vansina (1985) distinguishes as oral tradition. I was told the story in 1986 by the senior female elder of Kuulo Katoo (Stahl and Anane 1989; Stahl 1991). The woman spoke deliberately, pausing occasionally to be certain that my research assistant and I were up to speed. It was a story she had told many times before, presumably to instill a sense of identity in Kuulo children around the hearth, an identity no longer marked by the Kuulo language (Chapter 3). Grandmother Wurache descended to this place from the sky. She was accompanied by her husband, Sie Dafa, and her daughter Akosua Yeli. They had a horse with them when they came down from the sky. They established a village, but there was no water there. Wurache went in search of water on her horse. At one point in the bush, the horse began to scratch the ground with his foreleg. Water immediately came to the surface, and this place came to be know as Gbanga in the Kuulo language.
Inverse analysis of near infrared transmission spectra for triarylamine, tetraaryldiamine, nickel dithiolene and indolium-iodide dyes

An inverse analysis of transmission spectra for triarylamine, tetraaryldiamine, nickel dithiolene and indolium iodide dyes in solution is presented. This analysis employs a parametric model of transmission through a sample of finite thickness, where the permittivity function is represented parametrically by a linear combination of Lorentzian functions. The results of this analysis provide estimates of permittivity functions, which can be adopted as input data to other types of models, such as those for prediction of transmission and reflectivity spectra for composites containing mixtures of dyes and other materials.
The role of the GABAA receptor α1 subunit n-terminal extracellular domain in propofol potentiation of chloride current

Propofol (2,6-diisopropylphenol), an intravenous general anesthetic in active clinical use today, potentiates the action of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) at the type-A receptor and also directly induces current in the absence of GABA. We expressed different combinations of murine GABA(A) receptor alpha1, beta3 and gamma2 subunits in Xenopus oocytes to investigate the subunit dependence of propofol potentiation of pentobarbital-induced current. Pentobarbital induces current in all beta3-subunit-containing receptors, whereas current gating by GABA requires the presence of both alpha1 and beta3 subunits. Therefore, pentobarbital rather than GABA was used to induce current in order to separate the subunit dependence of current gating from the subunit dependence of potentiating action of propofol. alpha1beta3gamma2, alpha1beta3, beta3gamma2, or beta3 subunit combinations all responded to pentobarbital in a dose-dependent manner. True potentiation was defined as the current magnitude to simultaneous application of pentobarbital and propofol exceeding the additive responses to individual drug applications. A dose-dependent propofol potentiation of pentobarbital-induced current was observed in oocytes injected with alpha1beta3 or alpha1beta3gamma2 but not in beta3gamma2 or beta3 subunits, suggesting that the alpha1 subunit was necessary for this modulatory action of propofol. Further examination of the propofol potentiation in chimeras between the alpha1 and beta3 subunits showed that the extracellular amino-terminal half of the alpha1 subunit was sufficient to support propofol potentiation. The different requirements of the receptor structure for the agonistic (gating) and the potentiating actions suggest that these two actions of propofol are distinct processes mediated through its action at distinct sites.
Induction of Chromosomal Aberrations, Cytotoxicity, and Morphological Transformation in Mammalian Cells by the Antiparasitic Drug Flubendazole and the Antineoplastic Drug Harringtonine

The antiparasitic drug flubendazole and the antineoplastic compound harringtonine were studied for ability to induce chromosomal damage in Chinese hamster lung (CHL) cells and cytotoxicity and morphological transformation in C3H/10T1/2 Cl 8 (10T1/2) mouse embryo fibroblasts. Flubendazole caused a dose- and time-dependent induction of polyploidy in CHL cells. In cells treated with 0.78 micrograms/ml flubendazole, the yield of polyploid cells was 95%. Harringtonine caused a dose- and time-dependent induction of chromosome breaks, and 0.195 micrograms/ml harringtonine induced chromosome breaks in 47% of CHL cells. Both flubendazole and harringtonine caused dose-dependent cytotoxicity to 10T1/2 cells at concentration ranges of 0.04-1.60 and 0.05-0.8 micrograms/ml, respectively. Flubendazole and harringtonine at concentrations of 0.08-0.4 and 0.4-0.8 micrograms/ml, respectively, induced morphological transformation (predominantly type II foci) in 10T1/2 cells. Three of four harringtonine-transformed cell lines and two of four flubendazole-transformed cell lines formed foci in reconstruction experiments with non-transformed 10T1/2 cells. All four harringtonine-transformed and all four flubendazole-transformed cell lines formed colonies in soft agar. Similar concentrations of flubendazole and harringtonine induced chromosome damage in CHL cells and cytotoxicity and morphological transformation in 10T1/2 cells. The ability of flubendazole to induce polyploidy may be part of the mechanism by which this compound induces morphological transformation. Similarly, the ability of harringtonine to induce chromosomal aberrations may be part of the mechanism by which this compound induces morphological transformation. Therefore, flubendazole and harringtonine induce cytotoxicity and morphological and anchorage-independent transformation, harringtonine induces chromosome aberrations (breakage, translocation, and rings), and flubendazole induces polyploidy in cultured mammalian cells. The clastogenic and cell transformation-inducing properties of these compounds suggest that these drugs may have carcinogenic potential. This should be investigated rigorously in animal carcinogenesis bioassays. The genotoxicity of these drugs should be considered during their development as antiparasitic and antineoplastic agents.
Siva is an apoptosis-selective p53 target gene important for neuronal cell death

p53 plays a central role in neuronal cell death resulting from acute injury or disease. To define the pathway by which p53 triggers apoptosis, we used microarray analysis to identify p53 target genes specifically upregulated during apoptosis but not cell cycle arrest. This analysis identified a small subset of targets highly selective for the p53 apoptotic response, including Siva, a proapoptotic protein whose function is not well understood. Siva's expression pattern suggests that it plays an instructive role in apoptosis, and accordingly, we demonstrate that Siva is essential for p53-dependent apoptosis in cerebellar granule neurons. In addition, we determine that endogenous Siva is associated with the plasma membrane and that Caspase-8 and Bid are important for neuronal apoptosis. Our studies highlight the participation of membrane signaling events in p53's apoptotic program in primary neurons and have significant implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying pathogenesis after neuronal injury and in neurodegenerative diseases.
A gradientless contactor for experimental study of interphase mass transfer with/without reaction

Abstract The proposed experimental contactor features uniformity of composition of both gas and liquid phases with independent control of individual film resistances and interfacial area. Tracer experiments showed a reasonable approach to phase uniformity, and experiments with four systems gave reliable, consistent mass transfer coefficients. This device which we call the double mixed contactor is especially suited for kinetic studies. It overcomes the shortcomings of present contactors and it extends the concept of gradientless reactors, so popular today for heterogeneous catalysis, to two fluid systems.