cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
31 RESPIRATORY FAILURE AFTER BLOOD PRODUCT TRANSFUSIONS

Purpose Transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI) and transfusion associated circulatory overload (TACO) are important causes of morbidity and mortality following blood transfusions. To describe the 5 year incidence, predictors and outcomes of respiratory failure within 6 hours of blood product transfusion in patients hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic Hospitals, Rochester. Methods We electronically reviewed the institutional transfusion database and respiratory information system which accurately chart the time and type of blood product transfusion and onset of invasive and noninvasive mechanical ventilation from January 1999 to July 2004. Respiratory failure was defined as the onset of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP) ventilation or invasive mechanical ventilation within 6 hours of transfusion. We collected data on type of blood products, and in the subgroup of critically ill patients, data relating to demographics, APACHE III scores, predicted hospital mortality. Results A total of 2,83,313 units were transfused in the 5 year period. 1 in every 400 units transfused was associated with respiratory failure within 6 hours. The implicated products were as follows: 11 in 1000 fresh frozen plasma units, 17 in 1000 cryoprecipitate units, 6 in 1000 of red blood cell units and 5 in 1000 platelet units. 39,446 patients were transfused in 5 years of whom 710 had onset of respiratory failure within 6 hours. Amongst the subgroup of critically ill patients, there was no difference in gender and APACHE III scores of patients with and without the outcome of interest. Patients with transfusion associated respiratory failure were younger (mean age 62 vs. 66 years). When adjusted for predicted hospital mortality in multivariate analysis, transfusion associated respiratory failure was associated with increased risk of hospital mortality (OR 2.2, CI 1.75 to 2.77). Conclusion The incidence of respiratory failure was highest after transfusion of fresh frozen plasma and cryoprecipitate. Transfusion associated respiratory failure is independently associated with increased mortality in critically ill patients.
Survey on Current Situation of Health Education System in Sichuan

Objective To learn about foundamental information of health education system in Sichuan Province. Method Current situation of health education system including personnel,financil,medical and healrh in- stitutions,public media etc,in county level or above were investigated by questionnaire.Result There are only 97 health education institutes in which 21.6% belong to PHCCO,20.6% belong to HB and 57.8% be- long to CDC.50% institutes haven't reported investment from local governments,and 76.4% investment haven't reported financial income of county level.92.2% media departments have cooperated with health de- partments.38.0% hospitals have set up health education departments.47.6% personnel have just worked less than 5 years in health education field.They need to be trained with health education (78.5%),psychol- ogy (54.3%),communication (48.1%) and health statistics (37.5%).Conclusion We should strengthen the work-net of health education of Sichuan Province,train more and more personnel,and cooperate with media and medical departments.At the same time,governments of every level should do more improvement in financial supporting,agency building,and department coordination,and so on.
Trucks off the Road: A Method for Assessing Economical Reductions of Logistical Requirements at Contingency Base Camps

AbstractThe U.S. Department of Defense has recently shown an interest in incorporating the concepts of energy efficiency and energy security into decision-making processes, including decisions that pertain to military base camp equipment. Logistics—transportation of resources to forward locations in a military context—make up the vast majority of costs associated with base camp resource use, but costs vary widely according to operational factors. Changing costs of resources affects cost-benefit analyses of resource-saving devices, confounding decision-making processes. A method for volumetric accounting is proposed, described, and demonstrated in this article through an example design problem, yielding metrics that engineering managers can use to effectively compare the benefits of resource-saving equipment without requiring quantification of money-saving potential. The metrics and method proposed in this analysis complement existing measures and have the potential to streamline certain decision-making pr...
Activity of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase does not respond to ubiquinone uptake in cultured cells.

Abstract The cellular content of ubiquinone was increased approx. 10-fold by incubation of neuroblastoma cells in medium containing exogenous ubiquinone. Under these conditions the activity of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase, assayed after preincubation of cell homogenates with or without fluoride, was not suppressed. Similar results were obtained with human skin fibroblast cultures to which free ubiquinone or low-density lipoprotein-ubiquinone complex had been added. Consistent with the lack of suppression of HMG-CoA reductase, the rate of incorporation of [1-14C] acetate into ubiquinone was not diminished in cells exposed to exogenous ubiquinone. Measurements of [3H]mevalonolactone incorporation into cellular ubiquinones indicated that exogenous ubiquinone did not affect ubiquinone synthesis at a point in the pathway distal to the formation of mevalonate. The results suggest that cultured mammalian cells lack an end-product 'feedback' mechanism for regulation of HMG-CoA reductase in response to ubiquinone uptake.
Successful implementation of an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery program shortens length of stay and improves postoperative pain, and bowel and bladder function after colorectal surgery

Despite international data indicating that Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) programs, which combine evidence-based perioperative strategies, expedite recovery after surgery, few centers have successfully adopted this approach within the U.S. We describe the implementation and efficacy of an ERAS program for colorectal abdominal surgery in a tertiary teaching center in the U.S. We used a multi-modal and continuously evolving approach to implement an ERAS program among all patients undergoing colorectal abdominal surgery at a single hospital at the University of California, San Francisco. 279 patients who participated in the Enhanced Recovery after Surgery program were compared to 245 previous patients who underwent surgery prior to implementation of the program. Primary end points were length of stay and readmission rates. Secondary end points included postoperative pain scores, opioid consumption, postoperative nausea and vomiting, length of urinary catheterization, and time to first solid meal. ERAS decreased both median total hospital length of stay (6.4 to 4.4 days) and post-procedure length of stay (6.0 to 4.1 days). 30-day all-cause readmission rates decreased from 21 to 9.4 %. Pain scores improved on postoperative day 0 (3.2 to 2.1) and day 1 (3.2 to 2.6) despite decreased opioid. Median time to first solid meal decreased from 4.7 to 2.7 days and duration of urinary catheterization decreased from 74 to 46 h. Similar improvements were observed in all other secondary end points. These results confirm that a multidisciplinary, iterative, team-based approach is associated with a reduction in hospital stay and an acceleration in recovery without increasing readmission rates.
Neurologists and the economics of MS treatment: Lighting candles, not cursing the darkness.

It is understandable that neurologists might “curse the darkness” that engulfs the economics of multiple sclerosis (MS) care. The price of MS disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) is shocking. In 2013, the average wholesale price of all MS DMTs in the United States clustered around $65,000 a year and prices continue to increase by more than 10% per year.1 In response to skyrocketing DMT prices, insurance companies and specialty pharmacies create rules regulating coverage of MS treatments with little input from neurologists.2 Neurologists must navigate Kafkaesque health insurance bureaucracies to obtain coverage for treatments we deem appropriate for our patients. By contrast, reimbursements for neurologists illustrate that we may be undervalued. In 2013, Medicare spent $820 million for a single MS DMT, glatiramer acetate, which nearly equaled the $939 million paid to all neurologists for their evaluation and management services.3 Neurologists, the experts in the care of MS, have no influence over the rising cost of DMTs or the decisions made by the health insurance industry regarding coverage of therapies. Frustrated neurologists complain at meetings and via e-mail groups about medication cost and lack of influence, generating much heat but little light.
Accurate time propagation method for the coupled Maxwell and Kohn-Sham equations.

An accurate method for time propagation of the coupled Maxwell and time-dependent Kohn-Sham (TDKS) equation is presented. The new approach uses a simultaneous fourth-order Runge-Kutta\char21{}based propagation of the vector potential and the Kohn-Sham orbitals. The approach is compared to the conventional fourth-order Taylor propagation and predictor-corrector methods. The calculations show several computational and numerical advantages, including higher computational performance, greater stability, better accuracy, and faster convergence.
Crowdsensing route reconstruction using portable bluetooth beacon-based two-way network

There have been plenty of R&D efforts to achieve precise indoor positioning of users. With weak or no GPS signals, Wifi / Bluetooth and other approaches such as ultrasonic and accelerometers has been used for indoor positioning. In this demo we focus on reconstructing visitors route using the combination of Bluetooth proximity tags and custom made Bluetooth Beacons. Bluetooth Beacons are usually used to emitting simple identification information for retrieval by a mobile app, which will in turn use this information to get own position from a mobile network. Our custom Bluetooth beacons has the capability to form a two-way network between Bluetooth Beacons, making it highly portable and very easy for deployment. We'll show how to setup the system and how to identify and reconstruct route information of visitors. The information can be used to improve user experience.
Business model research using an evolutionary theory perspective

The authors propose evolutionary theory as an overarching tool to better understand the business model concept. Academics have approached the business model concept as a means to explain value creation. However, progress on the concept has been slow due to disparate views and definitions. The authors explain how evolutionary theory provides a comprehensive theoretical basis to examine business models, especially for innovation. This includes theoretically guided origins of innovation. Configuration analysis is suggested for empirical examination of this complex concept. Evolutionary theory has the potential to bridge the different views of the business model.
28.4 A 12b 330MS/s pipelined-SAR ADC with PVT-stabilized dynamic amplifier achieving <1dB SNDR variation

In high-speed pipeline or pipelined-SAR ADCs, conventional opamp-based residue amplifiers consume significant amounts of power due to stringent settling speed and accuracy requirements. A recent alternative approach employs a dynamic amplifier [1] to achieve a more efficient form of settling, stemming from the fact that slewing is more power efficient than exponential settling (Fig. 28.4.1). For example, at 6b accuracy, the setting time of a dynamic amplifier is about a quarter of that of a conventional opamp (non-slewing) with the same bias current. However, the efficiency of the dynamic amplifier is accompanied by a few undesirable features such as ill-defined gain, and PVT and clock jitter sensitivity. In particular, as the voltage gain of a dynamic amplifier relates to the non-constant transconductance, load capacitance and slewing time (g mA , C LA and t A , respectively, in Fig. 28.4.1), it can drift dramatically with PVT variations. One way to compensate for gain instability is to employ continuous background calibration. However, most of these calibrations require some constraints on the statistical property of the input signal and suffer from long convergence time and design complexity. This paper presents a simple analog approach to effectively stabilize the voltage gain over PVT variations.
Re-Tubularization of Highly-Ischemic Anti-Mesenteric Border (Rehab): A Novel Bowel Preservation Technique in Complex Gastroschisis

Complex gastroschisis with bowel necrosis poses an operative challenge. Surgeons must weigh the decision between resection versus preservation of ischemic bowel. As one of the leading causes of short bowel syndrome, aggressive resection in complicated gastroschisis subjects children to prolonged dependence on parenteral nutrition and its attendant complications. Herein, we describe a novel technique aimed towards bowel preservation in complex gastroschisis patients with severe bowel ischemia with the ultimate goal for enteral autonomy.
Effects of Tungsten or Molybdenum Upon the Alpha-Beta Transformation and Gamma Precipitation In Cobalt-Chromium Alloys

This paper describes a metallographic investigation of the influence of tungsten or molybdenum additions upon the transformation and precipitation reactions occurring in Co-rich Co-Cr alloys. It is shown that tungsten has little effect upon the α-β transformation temperature range, while molybdenum tends to raise it. Both elements tend to promote the formation of γ phase, molybdenum being more potent in this respect than tungsten.
Identification of pleckstrin homology domain-mediated phosphoinositide binding by human DIP13α/APPL and DIP13β

5153 Interactions between proteins and phosphoinositides can affect subcellular localization, protein-protein interactions, enzymatic activity, and downstream signaling events in a spatially and temporally controlled manner. Intracellular phosphoinositide levels are tightly controlled by specific phosphoinositide kinases and phosphatases and the importance of this regulation is reflected by their association with many human diseases. Several forms of cancer, including breast, colon, ovarian, pancreatic, lymphoid, prostate, multiple myeloma, and head and neck cancers are associated with dysregulation of phosphoinositide-mediated signaling pathways via mutations in phosphoinositide kinases and phosphatases such as phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and the phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN). Pleckstrin homology (PH) domains play a key role in mediating phosphoinositide binding of proteins with diverse cellular functions, including cell proliferation, apoptosis, cytoskeletal remodeling, cell motility, vesicular transport, and metabolism. Human DIP13α/APPL and DIP13β are members of a novel family of proteins that contain a central PH domain and a C-terminal phosphotyrosine binding (PTB) domain. DIP13α was identified by our lab as a protein that interacts with the intracellular domain of the deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC) protein via its PTB domain and is required for DCC-mediated apoptosis. DIP13α has also been identified by other labs as a protein that interacts with AKT protein kinases and with PI3K regulatory and catalytic subunits. Our in vitro phosphoinositide binding studies demonstrate that isolated PH domains from DIP13α and DIP13β bind immobilized PtdIns(4)P, PtdIns(5)P, PtdIns(3,4)P2, and PtdIns(3,5)P2. To our knowledge, this is a novel PH domain-mediated phosphoinositide binding profile. We have expressed enhanced cyan fluorescence protein (ECFP) fusions of isolated PH domains and full-length DIP13α and DIP13β proteins in human cell lines and observe patterns of subcellular localization in living cells consistent with membrane and phosphoinositide association in vivo . Therefore, DIP13α and DIP13β may act as adapter proteins by linking proteins with phosphoinositides and play a role in phosphoinositide-mediated signaling pathways.
Ocean Circulation in Warm and Cold Climates

The response of a coupled atmosphere-ocean model is determined over a wide range of atmospheric CO2 levels. The solutions indicate the type of ocean circulations expected over a very wide range of climatic conditions. In climates warmer than the present one, the north-south gradient of temperature is significantly reduced, but, owing to the elevation of the thermal expansion coefficient with increased temperature, the meridional buoyancy gradient remains at about the same level in a wide range of warm climates. A weakening of the thermohaline circulation takes place only in the climates corresponding to reduced atmospheric CO2 levels.
The Performance of the Distribution System for Gasoline

The search for a more secure and regular supply of energy invariably focuses on gasoline as the predominant fuel in the transportation sector. This single product accounts for a major share of energy demand and is therefore a critical factor in our concerns over the supply of energy.
Infrastructure Applications of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites

Abstract Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have the potential to replace conventional materials, such as steel or concrete in infrastructure systems, owing to their higher specific strength and stiffness, greater fatigue strength and energy absorption capacity, better resistance to corrosion, fire, attacks from microorganisms, insects, and other pests, and lower installation, operation, and maintenance costs. For military infrastructure applications (e.g., aircraft, turret bases), appropriate designs with FRP composites offer additional benefits, such as blast, shock, and fatigue resistance with reduced acoustic and magnetic interference. Researchers have been focusing on developing advanced FRP composites for applications, such as windmill blades, utility poles, highway posts, highway pavement, pipes for natural gas lines, and many other civil infrastructure systems.
Defining Exposure in Observational Studies Comparing Outcomes of Treatment Discontinuation.

Background: Continuation of antiplatelet therapy beyond 12 months after a drug-eluting stent procedure reduced the risk of a major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular event (MACCE) in the DA...
Survey and Insights into Unmanned Aerial-Vehicle-Based Detection and Documentation of Clandestine Graves and Human Remains

Numerous biological and archaeological studies have demonstrated the legitimacy of remote sensing in anthropology. This article focuses on detecting and documenting terrestrial clandestine graves and surface remains (CGSR) of humans using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), sensors, and automatic processing algorithms. CGSR is a problem of complex decision making under uncertainty that requires the identification and intelligent reasoning about direct evidence of human remains and their environmental fingerprints. As such, it is as much an engineering and geospatial problem as it is an anthropology problem. This article is an effort to survey existing work across disciplines and to provide insights and recommendations to assist future research. To support our claims, preliminary experiments were performed at the Forensic Anthropological Research Facility at Texas State University using UAVs, hyperspectral imaging, thermal imaging, and structure from motion. Prior work, our experience, and preliminary results indicate that both great potential and extreme challenges face remote sensing of CGSR.
Integrated Learning Systems: Is There a Learning Benefit?

The present study hypothesized that requiring use of an integrated learning system (ILS) would yield a learning benefit in a classroom situation. Two sections of an introductory psychology course t...
Teaching Data Literacy for Civic Engagement: Resources for Data Capture and Organization

Endangered Data Week emerged in the early months of 2017 as an effort to encourage conversations about government-produced, open data and the many factors that can limit its access. The event offers an internationally-coordinated series of events that includes publicizing the availability of datasets, increasing critical engagement with them, encouraging open data policies at all levels of government, and the fostering of data skills through workshops on curation, documentation and discovery, improved access, and preservation. The reflection provides an outline of the curriculum development happening through Endangered Data Week and encourages others to contribute.
Cash is Queen: Female CEOs’ propensity to hoard cash

Abstract Recent research makes contradictory claims regarding why female CEOs eschew riskier policies. Benchmarking risk aversion by how much cash is accumulated and managed, we find strong evidence of greater female risk aversion above the glass ceiling. Using propensity-score matching and difference-in-differences around CEO transitions to account for possible endogeneity, we find that female CEOs hold more cash, reverse cash deficits faster, and are more likely to use excess cash to increase dividends, but not investment. We also find that, in the presence of high cash holdings, female CEOs are able to generate significantly higher Return on Assets (ROA) suggesting that risk aversion on the part of female CEOs does not hurt financial performance but rather enhances it.
Comparative Assessment of BGM and PLC/PRF/5 Cell Lines for Enteric Virus Detection in Biosolids

The buffalo green monkey (BGM) cell line is required for the detection of enteric viruses in biosolids through a total culturable viral assay (TCVA) by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In the present study, BGM and PLC/PRF/5 cell lines were evaluated for TCVA and for their use in determining the incidence of adenoviruses and enteroviruses in raw sludge and Class B biosolids. Six raw sludge and 17 Class B biosolid samples were collected from 13 wastewater treatment plants from seven U.S. states. Samples were processed via organic flocculation and concentrate volumes equivalent to 4 g total solids were assayed on BGM and PLC/PRF/5 cells. Cell monolayers were observed for cytopathic effect (CPE) after two 14-days passages. Cell lysates were tested for the presence of adenoviruses and enteroviruses by PCR or RT-PCR. The PLC/PRF/5 cells detected more culturable viruses than the BGM cells by CPE (73.9% vs. 56.5%, respectively). 52% of the samples were positive for CPE using both cell lines. No viruses were detected in either cell line by PCR in flasks in which CPE was not observed. No adenoviruses were detected in 13 CPE-positive samples from BGM lysates. In contrast, of the 17 samples exhibiting CPE on PLC/PRF/5 cells, 14 were positive for adenoviruses (82.4%). In conclusion, PLC/PRF/5 cells were superior for the detection of adenoviruses in both raw sludge and Class B biosolids. Thus, the use of BGM cells alone for TCVA may underestimate the viral concentration in sludge/biosolid samples.
Predicting Community Engagement on Twitter on Environmental Health Hazards

In this empirical study, a framework was developed for binary and multi-class classification of Twitter data. We first introduce a manually built gold standard dataset of 4000 tweets related to the environmental health hazards in Barbados for the period 2014 – 2018. Then, the binary classification was used to categorize each tweet as relevant or irrelevant. Next, the multiclass classification was then used to further classify relevant tweets into four types of community engagement: reporting information, expressing negative engagement, expressing positive engagement, and asking for information. Results indicate that (combination of TF-IDF, psychometric, linguistic, sentiment and Twitter-specific features) using a Random Forest algorithm is the best feature for detecting and predicting binary classification with (87% F1 score). For multi-class classification, TF-IDF using Decision Tree algorithm was the best with (74% F1 score).
Expression of the high-affinity K+ transporter 1 (PpHKT1) gene from almond rootstock ‘Nemaguard’ improved salt tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis

Soil salinity affects plant growth and development, which directly impact yield. Plants deploy many mechanisms to cope with, or mitigate, salt stress. One of such mechanism is to control movement of ions from root to shoot by regulating the loading of Na+ in the transpiration stream. The high-affinity K+ transporter 1 (HKT1) is known to play a role in the removal of Na+ from the xylem and bring it back to the root. As almond is a salt-sensitive crop, the rootstock plays an important role in successful almond cultivation in salt-affected regions. We currently lack knowledge on the molecular mechanisms involved in salt tolerance of almond rootstocks. In this study, we complemented the Arabidopsis athkt1 knockout mutant with HKT1 ortholog (PpHKT1) from the almond rootstock 'Nemaguard'. Arabidopsis transgenic lines that were generated in athkt1 background with the constitutive promoter (PpHKT1OE2.2) and the native promoter (PpHKT1NP6) were subjected to different salt treatments. Both transgenic lines survived salt concentrations up to 120 mM NaCl, however, the mutant athkt1 died after 18 days under 120 mM NaCl. At 90 mM NaCl, the dry weight of athkt1 decreased significantly compared to the transgenic lines. Both transgenic lines showed significantly longer lateral roots compared to the athkt1 mutant at 80 mM NaCl treatment. The transgenic lines, PpHKT1OE2.2 and PpHKTNP6 had lower electrolyte leakage and higher relative water content compared to athkt1, suggesting that transgenic plants coped well with increased salt concentration by maintaining the integrity of the membranes. The expression analyses showed that PpHKT1 was induced in PpHKT1OE2.2 and PpHKTNP6 lines under salt treatment, which confirmed that both over-expression and native expression of PpHKT1 in the Arabidopsis mutant can complement salt tolerance function.
Return to School After Sports-related Concussion

The purpose of this study was to describe return to school after sports-related concussion, including absences, academic performance, receipt of accommodations, and satisfaction of the parent/child with classroom accommodations and the return-to-school experience. We conducted telephone surveys of 83 families (78 parent-child dyads, 5 parents) a median of 276 days following concussion. Students missed a median of 2 days of school following concussion. There was a positive relationship between number of reported school-related problems and absences in the child-reported data only. There was a positive relationship between number of …
Breastfeeding and respiratory infections in the first 6 months of life: A case control study

Background: Viral respiratory tract infections (VRI) are a major reason for hospitalization in children younger than 5 years. A case control study was conducted to investigate the potential role of breastfeeding in protecting children <1 year of age from VRI. Methods: Patients admitted for a respiratory tract infections routinely underwent a nasopharyngeal aspirate, which was tested with an RT-PCR for 14 respiratory viruses. Hospitalized infants positive for viruses were enrolled as cases; healthy controls were enrolled among patients admitted for ultrasound hip screening. The effect of breastfeeding on pertussis was investigated through multivariable analysis. Results: We enrolled a total of 496 patients: 238 cases and 258 healthy controls. Among cases, eighty-six patients (36.1%) had a rinovirus, 78 (32.8%) an RSV, 22 (9.2%) an adenovirus, and 37 (15.5%) a coinfections with multiple viruses. The number of households was significantly higher in cases (mean in cases 4.5; mean 3.7 in controls, p < 0.001) and the proportion of infants having siblings (79% in cases vs. 43% in controls, p < 0.001). Proportion of smoking mothers was higher in cases than in controls (21.4 vs. 10.1%, p = 0.001). Among cases 44.5% were exclusively breastfed at symptoms onset vs. 48.8% of healthy controls. According to the multivariable analysis, being exclusively breastfed at symptom onset was associated with a higher risk of viral respiratory infection (3.7; 95% CI 1.64-8.41), however a longer breastfeeding duration was protective (OR 0.98; 95% CI 0.97-0.99). Also having at least one sibling was associated to a higher risk (OR 3.6; 95% CI 2.14-5.92) as well as having a smoking mother (OR 2.6; 95% CI 1.33-4.89). Conclusions: Breastfeeding remains a mainstay of prevention for numerous diseases and its protective role increases with duration. However, being breastfed when mothers carry a respiratory infection may increase the risk of transmission, acting as a proxy for closer contacts. In future studies, potential confounding variables as pattern of contacts with other individuals, should be taken into account.
Government Seat Pitch Regulation of Commercial Airlines: A Multi-Study of Consumer Perceptions

Since deregulation of the airline industry in the 1970’s, the distance between seats on commercial aircraft referred to as seat pitch has been decreasing. What used to be around 35 inches has now reduced to 28-31 inches depending on the type of airline and fare class purchased. As a result, some consumer advocacy groups have filed litigation and pressed the U.S. Congress to regulate a minimum seat pitch. These advocacy groups primarily cite safety concerns in the event of an emergency evacuation of the aircraft or health concerns such as deep vein thrombosis, which can occur from extended sitting periods and cramped quarters. Counter-arguments relate to consumers price sensitivity as it relates to airfare purchases, and their ability to purchase upgrades, such as seats with greater seat pitch, for additional fees. Therefore, the purpose of these studies was to identify consumer perceptions on government involvement in airline seat pitch and to create and validate a statistical model to predict a passenger’s support of government regulation of seat pitch. The findings indicate that approximately 60% of passengers felt the government should regulate seat pitch. Perceptions of regulation value, disgust, happiness, Republican political affiliation, Hispanic ethnicity, Asian ethnicity, and high school level of education were significant predictors of support for government regulation of commercial airline seat pitch. The model explains 53.7% of the variance, and three separate, secondary assessments suggested good model fit and a valid model was produced. The practical applications of these findings are discussed.
Mechanisms underlying TNFα-induced enhancement of force generation in airway smooth muscle.

Airway diseases such as asthma are triggered by inflammation and mediated by proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα). Our goal was to systematically examine the potential mechanisms underlying the effect of TNFα on airway smooth muscle (ASM) contractility. Porcine ASM strips were incubated for 24 h with and without TNFα. Exposure to TNFα increased maximum ASM force in response to acetylcholine (Ach), with an increase in ACh sensitivity (hyperreactivity), as reflected by a leftward shift in the dose-response curve (EC50 ). At the EC50 , the [Ca2+ ]cyt response to ACh was similar between TNFα and control ASM, while force increased; thus, Ca2+ sensitivity appeared to increase. Exposure to TNFα increased the basal level of regulatory myosin light chain (rMLC) phosphorylation in ASM; however, the ACh-dependent increase in rMLC phosphorylation was blunted by TNFα with no difference in the extent of rMLC phosphorylation at the EC50 ACh concentration. In TNFα-treated ASM, total actin and myosin heavy chain concentrations increased. TNFα exposure also enhanced the ACh-dependent polymerization of G- to F-actin. The results of this study confirm TNFα-induced hyperreactivity to ACh in porcine ASM. We conclude that the TNFα-induced increase in ASM force, cannot be attributed to an enhanced [Ca2+ ]cyt response or to an increase in rMLC phosphorylation. Instead, TNFα increases Ca2+ sensitivity of ASM force generation due to increased contractile protein content (greater number of contractile units) and enhanced cytoskeletal remodeling (actin polymerization) resulting in increased tethering of contractile elements to the cortical cytoskeleton and force translation to the extracellular matrix.
IMPACT OF GERIATRIC INTERPROFESSIONAL TRAINING ON ADVANCE CARE PLANNING IN GERIATRIC PRIMARY CARE

Currently, an important measure of Advance Care Planning (ACP), Advance Health Care Directives (AHCD) documentation rate, is at 33% for older adults in the United States. To address this disparity, geriatric faculty in an academic geriatric primary care practice aimed to train geriatrics fellows and other interprofessional (IP) learners to engage patients in ACP. As part of a Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, geriatrics faculty and the Medical Legal Partnership for Seniors based at University of California Hastings College of Law provided ACP training to fellows and IP learners, including social work interns. In practice, the fellows and social work interns collaborated to incorporate ACP into patient visits and follow-up telephone calls. To monitor ACP progress, research staff reviewed patients’ electronic health records and performed descriptive analysis of the data. In 21 months, 4 geriatrics fellows built a panel of 59 patients who on average had 3 office visits and 7 telephone calls per person. Prior to clinic enrollment, 12 (20.3%) patients had preexisting AHCD, and 47 lacked AHCD documentation. After ACP intervention, 42 of 47 patients without AHCD documentation engaged in ACP discussion. Of those who engaged in ACP discussion, 24 completed AHCD, raising AHCD completion rate to 61%, or 36 patients in the panel of 59. ACP is a complex process that benefits from skilled communication among interprofessional providers and patients. Findings underscore the potential advantages of IP training and engaging patients in ACP discussion in an academic primary care setting.
Estimating bedload from suspended load and water discharge in sand bed rivers

Estimates of fluvial sediment discharge from in situ instruments are an important component of large-scale sediment budgets that track long-term geomorphic change. Suspended sediment load can be re...
Becoming Interesting: Narrative Capital Development at Elite Colleges

Research on cultural capital in higher education has primarily focused on institutional knowledge and taste as stratified cultural resources. Through analysis of an interview study of 70 undergraduates and a year-long ethnographic study of 20 undergraduate extracurricular activities at an elite college, I explore a further form of cultural capital that I call narrative capital. Narrative capital consists of the library of a person’s experiences capable of being turned into interesting stories, and their skill at constructing and deploying these stories to signal social status. Narrative capital developed in college can be used to signal status in a variety of contexts both in and beyond college, such as within extracurricular status hierarchies and in evaluative settings such as job interviews. Access to the kinds of experiences that make for valuable stories, such as stories of leadership, international travel, and campus adventures, is not equally available to all students. Those from more privileged backgrounds have greater access to cultural experiences that can be narrativized usefully, compared to their less privileged peers. Such narrative inequalities suggest a further role elite colleges play in the reproduction of social class.
Original contributionA prospective, blinded study of diagnostic esophagoscopy with a superthin, stand-alone, battery-powered esophagoscope

Objectives A more widely available, well-tolerated, and cost-effective technique is needed to screen a broad population at risk for esophageal cancer. An ideal solution might be to perform unsedated esophagoscopy with an entirely self-contained, small-caliber endoscope. In a prospective, blinded study in three phases, we compared the feasibility, patient tolerance, and diagnostic accuracy of esophagoscopy performed with a prototype, superthin, battery-powered esophagoscope (BPE) with standard video esophagogastroduodenoscopy (SVE).
Anisotropic properties of articular cartilage in an accelerated in vitro wear test

Abstract Many material properties of articular cartilage are anisotropic, particularly in the superficial zone where collagen fibers have a preferential direction. However, the anisotropy of cartilage wear had not been previously investigated. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anisotropy of cartilage material behavior in an in vitro wear test. The wear and coefficient of friction of bovine condylar cartilage were measured with loading in directions parallel (longitudinal) and orthogonal (transverse) to the collagen fiber orientation at the articular surface. An accelerated cartilage wear test was performed against a T316 stainless-steel plate in a solution of phosphate buffered saline with protease inhibitors. A constant load of 160 N was maintained for 14000 cycles of reciprocal sliding motion at 4 mm/s velocity and a travel distance of 18 mm in each direction. The contact pressure during the wear test was approximately 2 MPa, which is in the range of that reported in the human knee and hip joint. Wear was measured by biochemically quantifying the glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and collagen that was released from the tissue during the wear test. Collagen damage was evaluated with collagen hybridizing peptide (CHP), while visualization of the tissue composition after the wear test was provided with histologic analysis. Results demonstrated that wear in the transverse direction released about twice as many GAGs than in the longitudinal direction, but that no significant differences were seen in the amount of collagen released from the specimens. Specimens worn in the transverse direction had a higher intensity of CHP stain than those worn in the longitudinal direction, suggesting more collagen damage from wear in the transverse direction. No anisotropy in friction was detected at any point in the wear test. Histologic and CHP images demonstrate that the GAG loss and collagen damage extended through much of the depth of the cartilage tissue, particularly for wear in the transverse direction. These results highlight distinct differences between cartilage wear and the wear of traditional engineering materials, and suggest that further study on cartilage wear is warranted. A potential clinical implication of these results is that orienting osteochondral grafts such that the direction of wear is aligned with the primary fiber direction at the articular surface may optimize the life of the graft.
Assessing the impact of CKD on outcomes in septic shock patients receiving standard Vs reduced initial fluid volume.

Abstract Objective To determine if following fluid resuscitation recommendations in the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines affects hospital length of stay (LOS) in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients who present to the emergency department with sepsis-induced hypotension or septic shock. Design Retrospective, single center, cohort study. Setting 433-bed community hospital with a 35-bed emergency department in central Kentucky. Patients Adults (≥18 years of age) who presented to the emergency department with severe sepsis or septic shock, as defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), with documented CKD and at least one episode of hypotension within 6 h of presentation. A total of 106 patients were included in the study. Measurements and main results Patients were stratified into two groups based on the total volume of weight-based crystalloid fluid bolus initiated within the first three hours of hypotension onset ( Conclusion The results of this single-center, retrospective study indicate that CKD patients who receive guideline-directed fluid resuscitation (≥27 mL/kg) for sepsis-induced hypotension or septic shock experience a longer hospital LOS compared to those who receive a reduced initial fluid volume.
Potential lives saved by in-vehicle alcohol detection systems.

The objective of this study was to estimate the number of crash deaths specifically attributable to alcohol-impaired driving, with a focus on various strategies for introducing vehicle-based soluti...
Large-scale messengers from massive higher spin fields

We show that nonperturbative production of massive higher spin fields from vacuum will accompany the generation of non-vanishing macroscopic energy-momentum tensor correlators. This argument is based on the general causal field formalism, which gives a manifestly covariant description of higher spin particles without any reference to gauge redundancy. Our findings are direct consequence of the Poincare covariance and anlayticity of the Green’s functions and independent of any detailed particle physics model. Further, we discuss the idea that any mechanism causing imbalance between the on-shell production of left- and right-handed fields leads to a helical structure in the energy momentum correlators and violation of the macroscopic parity symmetry. We check our method for fields with spin $$ \frac{1}{2} $$ and show that it correctly reproduces previous results. The formalism, however, suffers from pathologies related to non-localities that appear for massless particles with spin ≥ 1 in flat space. We discuss the origin of these pathologies and the relevance of our findings to cosmology.
Flanking in a Price War

This study tested the notion that stock-up grocery goods would have a different pattern of price sensitivity than nonstock-up goods. We used covariance design within a Bayesian decision framework to select the optimum price treatment strategy as well as the dollar risk associated with this strategy. The Bayesian decision framework also provided an optimal stopping rule for the experiment. The test results were successfully employed in a real-life retail grocery setting when an anticipated price war occurred. A small grocery chain, rather than responding in kind to competitive price cuts, implemented a precise, profit-preserving counterattack. As a result, the chain increased market share substantially, at the cost of only 1.2 percent of its gross margin, during the price war.
Long-Gap Esophageal Atresia

Esophageal atresia is a rare congenital anomaly that occurs in 1 in 4,500 live births. The expected outcome is close to 100% survival, though this varies depending on birth weight, degree of prematurity, and associated anomalies (especially cardiac). Ideal surgical management consists of a primary end-to-end anastomosis between the upper and the lower esophageal remnants and division of a tracheo-esophageal fistula, if one is present. The vast majority can be corrected without difficulty soon after birth. However, this goal is not always easily achievable with all anatomical variants and the management of long-gap esophageal atresia remains a major challenge to the pediatric surgeon. In addition, there is controversy regarding the definition of a “long gap” and a general lack of consensus regarding which is the best technique. This is perhaps due to the fact that attempts to bridge the gap to allow a delayed anastomosis have led to the introduction of several interesting techniques, none of which are perfect.
A Long Noncoding RNA, GAS5 Can Be a Biomarker for Docetaxel Response in Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer

While functional studies of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have mostly focused on how they influence disease diagnosis and prognosis, the pharmacogenomic relevance of lncRNAs remains largely unknown. Here, we test the hypothesis that the expression of a lncRNA, grow arrest-specific 5 (GAS5) can be a biomarker for docetaxel response in castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) using both prostate cancer (PCa) cell lines and CRPC patient datasets. Our results suggest that lower GAS5 expression is associated with docetaxel resistance in both PCa cell lines and CRPC patients. Further experiments also suggest that GAS5 is downregulated in docetaxel resistant CRPC cell lines, which reinforces its potential as a biomarker for docetaxel response. To examine the underlying biological mechanisms, we transiently knockdown GAS5 expression in PCa cell lines and then subject the cells to docetaxel treatment overtime. We did not observe a decrease in docetaxel induced growth inhibition or apoptosis in the siRNA treated cells. The findings suggest that there is no direct causal relationship between change in GAS5 expression and docetaxel response. Subsequently, we explored the indirect regulation among GAS5, ATP binding cassette subfamily B member 1 (ABCB1), and docetaxel sensitivity. We showed that transient knockdown GAS5 did not lead to significant changes in ABCB1 expression. Therefore, we rule out the hypothesis that GAS5 directly down regulate ABCB1 that lead to docetaxel sensitivity. In conclusion, our work suggests that GAS5 can serve as a predictive biomarker for docetaxel response in CRPC; however, the exact mechanism behind the observed correlation remain to be elucidated.
ABCC subfamily in GtoPdb v.2021.3

Subfamily ABCC contains thirteen members and nine of these transporters are referred to as the Multidrug Resistance Proteins (MRPs). The MRP proteins are found throughout nature and they mediate many important functions. They are known to be involved in ion transport, toxin secretion, and signal transduction [7, 2].
Territorial Asylum in the Americas: Practical Considerations for Relocation

In December , when the Caribbean world turned to glass, he would take the closed carriage on a climb along the cornices of crags until he came to the house perched on top of the reefs and he would spend the afternoon playing dominoes with the former dictators of other nations of the continent, the dethroned fathers of other countries to whom he had granted asylum over the course of many years and who were now growing old in the shadow of his mercy dreaming in chairs on the terrace about the chimerical vessel of their second chance, talking to themselves, dying dead in the rest home he had built for them on the balcony of the sea after having received all of them as if each were the only one, for they all appeared at dawn in the dress uniform they had put on inside out over their pajamas, with a chest of money they had pilfered from the public treasury and a suitcase with a box of decorations, newspaper clippings pasted into old ledgers, and a photograph album they would show him at the first audience as if they were credentials, saying look general, that's me when I was lieutenant, this was the day I was inaugurated, this was the sixteenth anniversary of my taking power . . .
Two remarks on the power of counting

The relationship between the polynomial hierarchy and Valiant's class #P is at present unknown. We show that some low portions of the polynomial hierarchy, namely deterministic polynomial algorithms using an NP oracle at most a logarithmic number of times, can be simulated by one #P computation. We also show that the class of problems solvable by polynomial-time nondeterministic Turing machines which accept whenever there is an odd number of accepting computations is idempotent, that is, closed under usage of oracles from the same class.