cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Indirect and direct costs of acute coronary syndromes with comorbid atrial fibrillation, heart failure, or both.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to determine the direct and indirect costs of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) alone and with common cardiovascular comorbidities. METHODS A retrospective analysis was conducted using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 1998 to 2009. Four mutually exclusive cohorts were evaluated: ACS only, ACS with atrial fibrillation (AF), ACS with heart failure (HF), and ACS with both conditions. Direct costs were calculated for all-cause and cardiovascular-related health care resource utilization. Indirect costs were determined from productivity losses from missed days of work. Regression analysis was developed for each outcome controlling for age, US census region, insurance coverage, sex, race, ethnicity, education attainment, family income, and comorbidity burden. A negative binomial regression model was used for health care utilization variables. A Tobit model was utilized for health care costs and productivity loss variables. RESULTS Total health care costs were greatest for those with ACS and both AF and HF ($38,484±5,191) followed by ACS with HF ($32,871±2,853), ACS with AF ($25,192±2,253), and ACS only ($17,954±563). Compared with the ACS only cohort, the mean all-cause adjusted health care costs associated with ACS with AF, ACS with HF, and ACS with AF and HF were $5,073 (95% confidence interval [CI] 719-9,427), $11,297 (95% CI 5,610-16,985), and $15,761 (95% CI 4,784-26,738) higher, respectively. Average wage losses associated with ACS with and without AF and/or HF amounted to $5,266 (95% CI -7,765, -2,767), when compared with patients without these conditions. CONCLUSION ACS imposes a significant economic burden at both the individual and society level, particularly when with comorbid AF and HF.
INSULIN PEN INJECTION DEVICES FOR MANAGEMENT OF PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES: CONSIDERATIONS BASED ON AN ENDOCRINOLOGIST'S PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES

Objective: To review the features of several insulin pens currently available in the United States, discuss the validity of concerns about certain pen devices, and provide specific training information for clinicians to increase the accuracy of insulin administration and patient satisfaction with the use of insulin pens.Methods: The published literature on insulin pens and Internet-available, product-specific information are reviewed. In addition, special practical considerations regarding insulin pen selection based on personal experience in a high-volume endocrinology practice are high-lighted by presentation of case vignettes.Results: For some patients with diabetes, the need for performance of self-injection can be a barrier to acceptance of insulin therapy. Insulin pen devices provide a delivery option that may be more acceptable and more convenient to use in comparison with traditional vials and syringes and thus may promote patient compliance, which can enhance the ability to achieve and maintain g...
Aspects of the chemistry of vinylarsenic compounds. The preparation of divinylarsinic acid, tetravinyldiarsine oxide, and tetravinyldiarsine, and the X-ray crystal structure of the helical divinylarsinic acid

Abstract Tetravinyldiarsine (1) was prepared by coupling divinylarsenic(III) bromide (6) with lithium dispersion in diethyl ether. Tetravinyldiarsine oxide (2) and divinylarsinic acid (3) were obtained as primary and secondary by-products, respectively. Compound 3 crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21/n, with a = 7.714(6) A, b = 7.293(8) A, c = 10.799(8) A, β = 92.27(3)°, ϱc = 1.77 g cm−3 for Z = 4. Least squares refinement, based on 429 observed reflections, led to a final R of 0.057. The molecules are linked by hydrogen bonds to form an extended, linear, helical chain along the twofold screw axis. The O⋯HO distance is 2.53(1) A, indicative of strong hydrogen bonding. The AsO bond distances are significantly different with AsO(1) = 1.721(6) A and AsO(2) = 1.617(6) A. The AsO(1)⋯O′(2) and AsO(2)⋯O′(1) intermolecular bond angles are 111.5(4)° and 128.7(4)°, respectively. Dihedral angles between planes containing the vinyl carbons and the AsO bond are −5.2° and 12.2°, which strongly suggests the presence of conjugative interaction. Spectroscopic data are reported for compounds 1 and 2. Compound 3 was characterized by melting point and 1H and 13C NMR, IR and UV spectroscopic techniques.
Bilinear, dynamic single-ports and bond graphs of economic systems

Abstract It is shown that reinvestment and inventory effects can be described in 0431 0368 bond-graph terms. The associated differential equations in price and order-flow 0431 0368 V variables are bilinear forms. These effects are the fundamental inertia and compliance 0431 0368 V 3 of economic bond graph theory. Properties of the components and example market 0431 0368 V 3 graphs are discussed.
Sensitization of Cancer Cells to DNA Damaging Agents by Imidazolines

Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a cellular mechanism used to regulate cell number and eliminate damaged or mutated cells. Concomitant with the initiation of the apoptotic cell signal, chemotherapeutic agents also induce anti-apoptotic factors, such as NF-κB, which compromise the overall efficacy of chemotherapeutic anticancer treatment. Here we describe an adjuvant therapy in which a small molecule is used to sensitize cancer cells toward apoptosis induced by chemotherapeutics. Our results indicate that the imidazoline 1d modulates the pro-survival NF-κB pathway and selectively sensitizes cancer cells toward DNA damaging agents, thus enhancing the overall efficacy of the treatment. Pretreatment of cancer cells with the noncytotoxic imidazoline 1d (10 nM) resulted in a significant increase in apoptosis and anticancer efficacy of the clinically significant DNA damaging agents camptothecin and cisplatin. Noncancerous cells remained unaffected during this regimen.
Recognizing objects in adversarial clutter: breaking a visual CAPTCHA

In this paper we explore object recognition in clutter. We test our object recognition techniques on Gimpy and EZ-Gimpy, examples of visual CAPTCHAs. A CAPTCHA ("Completely Automated Public Turing test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart") is a program that can generate and grade tests that most humans can pass, yet current computer programs can't pass. EZ-Gimpy, currently used by Yahoo, and Gimpy are CAPTCHAs based on word recognition in the presence of clutter. These CAPTCHAs provide excellent test sets since the clutter they contain is adversarial; it is designed to confuse computer programs. We have developed efficient methods based on shape context matching that can identify the word in an EZ-Gimpy image with a success rate of 92%, and the requisite 3 words in a Gimpy image 33% of the time. The problem of identifying words in such severe clutter provides valuable insight into the more general problem of object recognition in scenes. The methods that we present are instances of a framework designed to tackle this general problem.
CARABID BEETLES (COLEOPTERA: CARABIDAE) ASSOCIATED WITH THE SPRUCE BUDWORM, CHORISTONEURA FUMIFERANA (LEPIDOPTERA: TORTRICIDAE)

Barrier-pitfall traps and tree bands were used to sample adult carabid beetles in five forest stands of different tree species composition and spruce budworm infestation levels. Twenty genera and 37 species were collected over the 2-year period. Adult carabid populations were highest in the red spruce stand while carabid species diversity was greater in hardwood and fir stands having the most tree species diversity. Potential adult carabid predators of spruce budworm were identified using 5 criteria: number of individuals, habitat preferences, seasonal abundance, size, and food. We conclude that adults of Pterostichus pensylvanicus (Lec.) had the highest potential as predators of spruce budworm followed by Platynus decentis Say, Calosoma frigidum Kby., Pterostichus tristis (Dej.), Cymindis cribricollis Dej., Pterostichus rostratus (Newm.), Calathus ingratus Dej., and Pterostichus adoxus (Say).
Approximation in the mean by convex functions

We give elementary proofs for the existence and uniqueness of the best L1-approximation to a continuous function from the class of convex functions on a closed interval, and describe thebest approximation in terms of certain piecewise linear functions.
Evaluating the Utah Energy Balance (UEB) snow model in the Noah land-surface model

Abstract. Noah (version 2.7.1), the community land-surface model (LSM) of National Centers for Environmental Predictions-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR), which is widely used to describe the land-surface processes either in stand-alone or in coupled land-atmospheric model systems, is recognized to underestimate snow–water equivalent (SWE). Noah's SWE bias can be attributed to its simple snow sub-model, which does not effectively describe the physical processes during snow accumulation and melt period. To improve SWE simulation in the Noah LSM, the Utah Energy Balance (UEB) snow model is implemented in Noah to test alternate snow surface temperature and snowmelt outflow schemes. Snow surface temperature was estimated using the force-restore method and snowmelt event is regulated by accounting for the internal energy of the snowpack. The modified Noah's SWE simulations are compared with the SWE observed at California's NRCS SNOTEL stations for 7 water years: 2002–2008, while the model's snow surface temperature is verified with observed surface-temperature data at an observation site in Utah. The experiments show that modification in Noah's snow process substantially reduced SWE estimation bias while keeping the simplicity of the Noah LSM. The results suggest that the model did not benefit from the alternate temperature representation but primary improvement can be attributed to the substituted snowmelt process.
Fingerprint enhancement using STFT analysis

Contrary to popular belief, despite decades of research in fingerprints, reliable fingerprint recognition is still an open problem. Extracting features out of poor quality prints is the most challenging problem faced in this area. This paper introduces a new approach for fingerprint enhancement based on short time Fourier transform (STFT) Analysis. STFT is a well-known technique in signal processing to analyze non-stationary signals. Here we extend its application to 2D fingerprint images. The algorithm simultaneously estimates all the intrinsic properties of the fingerprints such as the foreground region mask, local ridge orientation and local ridge frequency. Furthermore we propose a probabilistic approach of robustly estimating these parameters. We experimentally compare the proposed approach to other filtering approaches in literature and show that our technique performs favorably.
The effects of habitat resolution on models of avian diversity and distributions: a comparison of two land-cover classifications

Quantifying patterns is a key element of landscape analysis. One aspect of this quantification of particular importance to landscape ecologists is the classification of continuous variables to produce categorical variables such as land-cover type or elevation stratum. Although landscape ecologists are fully aware of the importance of spatial resolution in ecological investigations, the potential importance of the resolution of classifications has received little attention. Here we demonstrate the effects of using two different land-cover classifications to predict avian species richness and the occurrences of six individual species across the conterminous United States. We compared models built with a data set based on 14 coarsely resolved land-cover variables to models built with a data set based on 160 finely resolved land-cover variables. In general, comparable models built with the two data sets fit the data to similar degrees, but often produced strikingly different predictions in various parts of the country. By comparing the predictions made by pairs of models, we determined in which regions of the US predictions were most sensitive to differences in land-cover classification. In general, these sensitive areas were different for four of the individual species and for predictions of species richness, indicating that alternate classifications will have different effects in the analyses of different ecological phenomena and that these effects will likely vary geographically. Our results lead us to emphasize the importance of the resolution to which continuous variables are classified in the design of ecological studies.
Mode Theory versus Theoretical Seismograms for a Layered Solid

Spectral transfer functions are computed for a model consisting of one elastic layer over a homogeneous elastic half-space. Represented in the time domain, the transfer functions are compared with theoretical seismograms for various horizontal distances. The diagnostic diagrams show that the P +--mode, the contribution of which is important in the generation of the PL-waves, is not the continuation of the first locked shear mode below the cut-off frequency.
Juggler: Virtual Networks for Fun and Profit

There are many situations in which an additional network interface-or two-can provide benefits to a mobile user. Additional interfaces can support parallelism in network flows, improve handoff times, and provide sideband communication with nearby peers. Unfortunately, such benefits are outweighed by the added costs of an additional physical interface. Instead, virtual interfaces have been proposed as the solution, multiplexing a single physical interface across more than one communication endpoint. However, the switching time of existing implementations is too high for some potential applications, and the benefits of this approach to real applications are not yet clear. This paper directly addresses these two shortcomings. It describes a link-layer implementation of a virtual 802.11 networking layer, called Juggler, that achieves switching times of approximately 3 ms, and less than 400 mus in certain conditions. We demonstrate the performance of this implementation on three application scenarios. By devoting 10 percent of the duty cycle to background tasks, Juggler can provide nearly instantaneous handoff between base stations or support a modest sideband channel with peer nodes, without adversely affecting foreground throughput. Furthermore, when the client issues concurrent network flows, Juggler is able to assign these flows across more than one AP, providing significant speedup when wired-side bandwidth from the AP constrains end-to-end performance.
Teaching Elementary Children with Autism: Addressing Teacher Challenges and Preparation Needs

Teachers’ perception of self-efficacy may have a significant impact on their ability to accept the challenges inherent in including children with autism in their classrooms. The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) was used to identify perceived challenges and needs of 31 graduate students in a university course of which 14 of the 23 students were actively teaching in rural schools located in southeast Alabama. Five faculty members used the resulting NGT data to draft six recommendations for improving the teacher preparation program at Troy University.
Memory-based learning for visual odometry

We present and examine a technique for estimating the ego-motion of a mobile robot using memory-based learning and a monocular camera. Unlike other approaches that rely heavily on camera calibration and geometry to compute trajectory, our method learns a mapping from sparse optical flow to platform velocity and turn rate. We also demonstrate an efficient method of computing high-quality sparse optical flow, and techniques for using this sparse optical flow as input to a supervised learning method. We employ a voting scheme of many learners that use subsets of the sparse optical flow to cope with variable dimensionality and reduce the dimensionality of each learner. Finally, we perform experiments in which we examine the learned mapping for visual odometry, investigate the effects of varying the reduced dimensionality of the sparse optical flow state, and quantify the accuracy of two variations of our learner scheme. Our results indicate that our learning scheme estimates monocular visual odometry mainly from points on the ground plane, and reflect to a degree the minimum dimensionality imposed by the problem. In addition, we show that while this memory-based learning method cannot yet estimate ego-motion as accurately as recent geometric methods, it is possible to learn, with no explicit model of camera calibration or scene structure, complicated mappings that take advantage of properties of the camera and the environment.
Consumers preferences for plant size, type of plant material and design sophistication in residential landscaping.

Abstract How much value do consumers place on a good landscape? Self-selected attendees to a Detroit, MI, flower show indicated that plant size was the most important factor in the perceived value of a landscape. Holding other factors equal, increasing from the smallest size plant generally available for installation to the largest size defined in our study increased perceived home value by 5.0%. Design sophistication was almost as important as size. Holding other factors equal, upgrading from a traditional foundation planting to a sophisticated design that incorporated multiple bed and curved bedlines increased perceived home value by 4.5%. The type of plant material used was the least important. The relative importance of plant material selection as a factor contributing value added to the home by the landscape was almost half that of plant size and over 40% less than design sophistication. The conjoint model produced from 158 survey responses predicted that from the least valued landscape to the most v...
Phenolics in the Environment

Over the past ten years a subtle change has taken place in the attitude of natural products chemists, ecologists and even taxonomists as to the importance of the so-called secondary plant compounds. Previously, these substances were regarded as providing a challenge only to organic chemists interested in structural elucidation or biosynthetic speculation, but otherwise were thought of as waste products of plant metabolism which might be of limited taxonomic use. Now the majority of workers in these and cognate fields believe that at least a few of these compounds are of direct importance in determining certain interactions between plants and other organisms in a given ecosystem. The gradual acceptance of this new paradigm can be ascribed to the dedicated and far-sighted efforts of a handful of scientists, Dethier, Feeny, Fraenkel, Janzen, Schoonhoven and Whittaker. Many others have made important contributions20, 23, 47, 57which have reinforced and extended the ideas of these pioneers, so that it is now possible to enunciate general theories of plant-animal16, 17, 44and plant-pathogen19interactions based, on chemical grounds.
Teacher Judgment of Early Reading Difficulty

AbstractAccurate teacher judgment of students' reading ability is critical for identification of students in need of intervention. Little research is available that examines the accuracy of teachers' judgments in identifying students at risk for early reading difficulty as students begin school. Findings of this study indicate that teachers are fairly accurate in their judgments, but the fact that reading ability provides the foundation for academic success suggests the need for a high degree of accuracy in their judgments of students' reading ability.
Reductive Damage in Directly Ionized DNA: Saturation of the C5 = C6 Bond of Cytosine in d(CGCG)2 Crystals

Abstract Debije, M. G., Close, D. M. and Bernhard, W. A. Reductive Damage in Directly Ionized DNA: Saturation of the C5 = C6 Bond of Cytosine in d(CGCG)2 Crystals. Radiat. Res. 157, 235 – 242 (2002). Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) was used to study an oligodeoxynucleotide duplex of d(CGCG)2 that is known to crystallize in Z-form. After X irradiation at 4 K, EPR data were collected on single crystals and polycrystalline samples as a function of annealing temperature and dose. A radical produced by the net gain of a hydrogen atom at C6 and a proton at N3, Cyt(C6+H, N3+H+)+ ·, is identified. This radical had not been positively identified in polymeric DNA previously. The Cyt(C6+H, N3+H+)+ · makes up about 4 % of the total radical population at 4 K, increasing to about 10 – 15 % after the DNA is annealed to 240 K. There appears to be neither an increase nor a decrease in the absolute concentration of Cyt(C6+H, N3+H+)+ · upon annealing from 4 K to 240 K. Additionally, the presence of another radical, on...
Alleged Stanford Group Fraud: Regulatory and Oversight Concerns and the Need for Reform -- Testimony Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, August 17, 2009

Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs at an August 17, 2009 field hearing entitled "Alleged Stanford Financial Group Fraud: Regulatory and Oversight Concerns and the Need for Reform.” The testimony focuses specifically on the response of U.S. financial regulators and enforcement agencies to the alleged fraudulent activities of the Stanford Financial Group. The testimony addresses, among other matters, the oversight authority of the SEC and FINRA over the Stanford Financial Group and its effectiveness, gaps in the regulatory scheme that Stanford was able to utilize in connection with its alleged Ponzi scheme, and recommendations for legislation to enhance investor protection at the SEC and FINRA. His testimony also addressed the role that the Securities Investor Protection Corporation plays in the aftermath of such frauds.
Pharmacist Advancement of Transitions of Care to Home (PATCH) Service.

BackgroundThere is a paucity of literature on a well-defined role of a pharmacist in different aspects of transition of care service (TCS). Although health care institutions have specific details on the discharge process, there is a need for a sustainable TCS with a well-defined role of pharmacists.ObjectiveTo describe the impact of a pharmacist-led TCS on acute health care utilization, clinic quality indicators, and identification and resolution of medication-related problems (MRPs).MethodsA pharmacist-managed TCS service, referred to as the Pharmacist Advancement of Transitions of Care to Home (PATCH) service, was established at an academic medical center, where high-risk patients received a postdischarge phone call from a pharmacist followed by a face-to-face meeting with the pharmacist and the patient's primary care provider (PCP). In a prospective transitions of care group (n = 74), outcomes of patients such as acute health care utilization (an emergency department visit or an inpatient readmission, ...
Nanosized helical magnetic domains in strongly frustrated Fe 3 PO 4 O 3

The authors have investigated the magnetic and structural properties of Fe3PO4O3 using various methods including thermodynamic probes, synchrotron X-ray diffraction, and neutron powder diffraction. In this context, the authors demonstrate the formation of an incommensurate helical antiferromagnetic structure with highly anisotropic domains, which may be produced through magnetoelastic strain that blocks long-range magnetic order. The overall helical nature of the magnetic domains may be of interest to those studying antiferromagnetic Skyrmions and other topological spin textures.
Investigation on Harmonic Voltage Standard in Power System

For cooperating the revising of national harmonic standard GB/T 14549-1993,this paper introduces the corresponding present standards of IEC,USA,UK,Russia,and some other European countries.By analysis and comparison combined investigating for harmonics of internal power networks,some suggestions for revising national harmonic voltage standard are presented.
Reoperative coronary artery bypass surgery. Improved preservation of myocardial function with retrograde cardioplegia.

Background. Cardiac-related mortality remains high for reoperative coronary artery bypass graft surgery (rCABG) compared with first-time surgery (fCABG). Retrograde cardioplegia (RC) has been suggested but not proven to improve the results for rCABG. Methods and Results. We therefore reviewed the records of 240 consecutive patients who had undergone rCABG at our institution since 1988. The interval to reoperation was 9.1±4.2 years (mean±SD), with a range from 0.2 to 18 years. Only 46% of grafts were patent at the time of rCABG. The incision to cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), incision to cross-clamp (XCL), and XCL per graft time intervals were significantly prolonged compared with 100 consecutive fCABG patients operated on during the same time period
Informed Consent and the Protection of Human Subjects in Genomic Research with Children and Families

Consideration of the ethics of genetic testing of children under research auspices is complex under any circumstances. Because of contemporary issues that affect such analysis, any attempt to parse the topic must be very exacting. Such issues include the following:
Chirped-pulse amplification in a CO_2 laser

Chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) is an integral part of present-day ultra-intense laser systems that normally employ near-infrared (∼1 μm) solid-state lasers. The recently revived interest in expanding the reach of strong-field laser physics into the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral domain directs our attention to 9–11 μm carbon-dioxide (CO2) lasers for which progress to reaching high peak intensities has been limited so far. We propose that employing the CPA technique will allow us to realize a new breakthrough toward multiterawatt, ultrafast mid-IR lasers; here we report, to our knowledge, the first implementation of this method for a CO2 laser. Our stretching of a 1 ps, 9 μm pulse to 80 ps improved energy extraction from a regenerative CO2 laser amplifier by 1 order of magnitude. We explain this accomplishment by the reduction in nonlinear absorption and refraction on the amplifier’s optical elements. We consider these findings as being a pivotal step toward establishing next-generation ultra-intense CO2 CPA laser systems for strong-field mid-IR research and its applications.
Does the knowledge of a “non-return to work” predictive score influence vocational rehabilitation?

Objective To measure if a decision-supportive tool based on the WORRK model, developed to predict non-return to work (nRTW) after orthopaedic trauma, improves the allocation to various vocational pathways according to patients’ “nRTW” risk, for use in clinical practice. Material/patients and methods Randomized-controlled trial using vocational inpatients after orthopaedic trauma (n = 280). In the intervention group, the nRTW risk estimated using the WORRK tool was given to the clinician team before allocation of the vocational pathway, while in the control group it was not. Three pathways are available: simple (SP) and coaching (CP) (patients with low to intermediate nRTW risk, average of 5 week hospitalization and 17 hrs of therapy/week) and evaluation (EP) (high risk of nRTW, average of 3 week hospitalization and 14 hrs of therapy/week, less individual therapies, evaluation without training in the vocational workshop). The following indications were given: the higher the percentage of the WORRK score, the lower the predicted chance of RTW; a score 70% indicates that probably the EP is most adapted to the patient. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients allocated to the EP. Results Four hundred and fifty patients were assessed for eligibility, 280 included, 139 randomized to the control group (mean age 42.3 years) and 141 to the intervention group (mean age 43.2 years). The two groups were similar regarding risk profile, age, education, native language, pain and quality of life. The patients in the intervention group were more often referred to the EP compared to the control group, having a 31% higher chance, but this difference was not statistically significant (risk ratio 1.31 [95% CI 0.70–2.46]). The NNT was 30. Discussion - conclusion The effect of the WORRK tool was smaller than expected, possibly because: clinicians did not have confidence in the score provided, being given inadequate guidelines for when to refer patients to which pathway, clinicians avoid using the EP by fear of disadvantaging patients or because the EP is not adapted to our patients.
A Invasão da Arcádia: As cientistas no Campo na América Latina, 1900-1950

ResumoO artigo discute relacoes de genero a partir da atuacao de cientistas no campo, na America Latina, na primeira metade do seculo 20. Aborda questoes como a conquista do espaco institucional, a especializacao das ciencias naturais, o poder dos financiadores e o fazer ciencia no campo como rito de passagem. Tomando como exemplo a botânica Agnes Chase, que ascendeu de desenhista amadora a grande especialista em gramineas, o artigo fornece um rico panorama da ciencia com relacao a dominacao colonial, o interesse pelos tropicos e os preconceitos dos cientistas. Mostra ainda como Agnes Chase, cientista e sufragista, gracas a suas viagens pela America Latina, tece uma rede informal e solidaria, especialmente com as jovens pesquisadoras. AbstractThis paper discusses gender issues confronted by women scientists in the field, in Latin America, in the first half of the 20th century. It deals with issues such as the conquest of institutional spaces, the institutionalization of natural sciences, the power of philanthropists and the pursuit of field science as a rite of passage. Using the example of botanist Agnes Chase, who ascended from an amateur botanical painter to a top specialist in grasses, the paper looks at issues ranging from science in relation to colonial domination, the great interest in tropical research, and scientists’ attitudes towards women in the field. It shows also, how Agnes Chase, scientist and libertarian, created an informal network, thanks to her travels in Latin American. This network would provide help and career guidance especially for young women researchers.
Is Satire Saving Our Nation? Mockery and American Politics: By Sophia A. McClennen and Remy M. Maisel New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, 240 pp.

In their book Is Satire Saving Our Nation? Mockery and American Politics, Sophia McClennen and Remy Maisel argue that American democracy is being threatened by mainstream journalism not doing its j...
Can Co-Activation of Nrf2 and Neurotrophic Signaling Pathway Slow Alzheimer's Disease?

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifaceted disease that is hard to treat by single-modal treatment. AD starts with amyloid peptides, mitochondrial dysfunction, and oxidative stress and later is accompanied with chronic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and autophagy dysfunction, resulting in more complicated pathogenesis. Currently, few treatments can modify the complicated pathogenic progress of AD. Compared to the treatment with exogenous antioxidants, the activation of global antioxidant defense system via Nrf2 looks more promising in attenuating oxidative stress in AD brains. Accompanying the activation of the Nrf2-mediated antioxidant defense system that reduce the AD-causative factor, oxidative stress, it is also necessary to activate the neurotrophic signaling pathway that replaces damaged organelles and molecules with new ones. Thus, the dual actions to activate both the Nrf2 antioxidant system and neurotrophic signaling pathway are expected to provide a better strategy to modify AD pathogenesis. Here, we review the current understanding of AD pathogenesis and neuronal defense systems and discuss a possible way to co-activate the Nrf2 antioxidant system and neurotrophic signaling pathway with the hope of helping to find a better strategy to slow AD.
Therapeutic Justice in Action: Court Process, Reviews and Sanctions

In this chapter I explore MHCs in action and how the court process influence client experiences. The chapter focuses on court reviews and the sanctioning process. How the court responds to compliance and non-compliance is consequential for clients, having both therapeutic and antitherapeutic effects. I highlight the role of procedural justice and harm reduction frameworks in the working of the court. Throughout the chapter, I detail how MHCs treatment orientation is on display formally before the judge and informally with team members in ways that enhance and impede therapeutic justice.
Augmented Health and Safety: Exploring Future Scenarios through Design Fiction

Workers' health and safety is a major concern for the energy industry. Emerging and future technologies have the potential to deeply improve this field, and to make the workplace safer and healthier, especially if applied in concert. However, this transformation is difficult to envision by energy companies, which are tied to well-established rules, processes and solutions. This paper presents Augmented health and safety: Future Vision, a project we performed in collaboration with a worldwide energy company, to envision how emerging technologies may transform health and safety practices in the energy industry in the near future. The project aims at enabling dialogue and foster change by encouraging the development and adoption of solutions based on new technologies. By a design fiction approach, we designed and prototyped an ecosystem of physical and digital solutions for health and safety problems aimed at presenting future scenarios and triggering discussion about how to improve workplaces. Design fiction turned out to be an effective tool for enabling dialogue and inspiring change within companies.
Random Walk and the Biometrics of Morphological Characters

There is great power in Sewall Wright’s metaphor of the adaptive landscape, the representation of fitness as a function of position in an abstract genotypic or phenotypic parameter space. When this conception is combined with a uniform prior model for the provenance of biological variation, then the density of samples near a point of phenotypic space becomes indicative of the fitness of the organism typical of that point. In this way, an empirical distribution of organisms or species over a morphometric parameter space becomes a description of relative fitness. [See, for instance, Raup (1967) or Bookstein et al. (1985, Section 5.4).] Peaks of relative frequency are taken to connote evolutionary successes, and gaps stand for phenotypes that either have been blocked from occurring or else, once extant, were eliminated by selection.
BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM | Physiology of the Mauthner Cell: Discovery and Properties

The Mauthner cells are two colossal reticulospinal neurons that, based on their sensory inputs and motor output connections, mediate tail-flip escape responses. Singular cellular and synaptic properties endow the Mauthner cell system with speed and functional flexibility. Because of their experimental accessibility, the Mauthner cells have provided important insights into basic mechanisms of cellular excitability and synaptic transmission, including mechanisms of synaptic inhibition, transmitter release, and the effect of electrical fields and plasticity of gap junction-mediated electrical synapses. The rich physiological properties of the Mauthner cells will continue to provide a unique window for discovery of basic mechanisms of brain function.
Locally Advanced Breast Cancer: A Review Including the M.D. Anderson Experience

Locally advanced breast cancer is a term loosely applied to a heterogeneous group of tumors of varying clinical presentations and biological behavior, whose only common bonds are the presence of a large primary tumor, or matted regional lymph nodes, and the absence of any evidence of distant metastases. Some of these patients have physical signs reminiscent of inflammatory changes and a rapid evolution, whereas others present without such inflammatory changes and with a long history of tumor growth.
The Geometry of Hyperbolic Manifolds of Dimension at Least 4

In this paper, we will discuss some new developments in the theory of hyperbolic manifolds of dimension at least 4. The main concern of the paper is the problem of understanding the distribution of volumes of hyperbolic manifolds in dimensions 4 and 5.
Continuous-wave operation of a semipolar InGaN distributed-feedback blue laser diode with a first-order indium tin oxide surface grating.

A novel approach to realize DFB gratings on GaN based laser diodes is presented and continuous-wave single longitudinal mode operation is achieved. The first order gratings were fabricated on the surface of indium tin oxide (ITO) on top of the laser ridge, which combines the benefits of simplified fabrication, easy scalability to wider ridges, and no regrowth or overgrowth. Under continuous-wave operation, the laser emits with a full FWHM of 5 pm, a SMSR of 29 dB and output power from a single facet as high as 80 mW. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is also the first demonstration of a DFB-LD on semipolar InGaN/GaN system.
Active transitive inference: When learner control facilitates integrative encoding.

Abstract A growing body of research indicates that active control of learning improves episodic memory for material experienced during study. It is less clear how active learning impacts the integration of those experiences into flexible, generalizable knowledge. This study uses a novel active transitive inference task to investigate how people learn a relational hierarchy through active selection of premise pairs. Active control improved memory for studied premises as well as transitive inferences involving items that were never experienced together during study. Active learners also exhibited a systematic search preference, generating sequences of overlapping premises that may facilitate relational integration. Critically, however, advantages from active control were not universal: Only participants with higher working memory capacity benefited from the opportunity to select premise pairs during learning. These findings suggest that active control enhances integrative encoding of studied material, but only among individuals with sufficient cognitive resources.
Automatic generation of agent-based models of migratory waterfowl for epidemiological analyses

Seasonal migration of waterfowl, in which avian influenza viruses are enzootic, plays a strong role in the ecology of this disease. Consequently, detailed analysis of migratory patterns and its influence on disease ecology is needed to aid design and assessment of prophylaxis and containment strategies. Accordingly, this paper proposes a novel methodology for generating a global agent-based model involving detailed migratory patterns of waterfowl. The methodology transforms geographic information systems (GIS) data to generate metapopulation for agents that model collocated flocks of birds. Generic migratory corridors are suitably adapted to model migratory flyways for each waterfowl metapopulation. The resulting data is generated in XML format compatible with our simulation-based epidemiological analysis environment called SEARUMS. Case studies conducted using SEARUMS and the generated models for high-risk waterfowl species indicate good correlation between simulated and observed viral dispersion patterns, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.
Busting Out of the Iron Cage: Network Mobilization and Responses to Professional Prescriptions

Institutions are undergirded by ongoing sets of social relations. The relationships that give rise to and reinforce institutions can be examined through a network perspective, one approach to which...
Evaluation of a mesoscale thermal actuator in open and closed operating cycles

Thermal-based actuators are known for generating large force and displacement strokes at mesoscale (millimeter) regime. In particular, two-phase thermal actuators are found to benefit from the scaling laws of physics at mesoscale to offer large force and displacement strokes; but they have low thermal efficiencies. As an alternative, a combustion-based thermal actuator is proposed and its performance is studied in both open and closed cycle operations. Through a physics-based lumped-parameter model, we investigate the behavior and performance of the actuator using a spring-mass-damper analogy and taking an air standard cycle approach. Three observations are reported: (1) the mesoscale actuator can generate peak forces of up to 400 N and displacement strokes of about 16 cm suitable for practical applications; (2) an increase in heat input to the actuator results in increasing the thermal efficiency of the actuator for both open and closed cycles; and (3) for a specific heat input, both the open and closed cycle operations respond differently - different stroke lengths, peak pressures, and thermal efficiencies.
Advancing regulatory science and assessment of FDA REMS programs: A mixed-methods evaluation examining physician survey response.

Purpose Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Draft Guidance for Industry on pharmaceutical REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies) assessment and survey methodology highlights physician knowledge-attitudes-behaviors (KAB) surveys as regulatory science tools. This mixed-methods evaluation advances regulatory science and the assessment of FDA REMS programs when using physician surveys. We: (1) reviewed published physician survey response rates; and (2) assessed response bias in a simulation study of secondary survey data using different accrual cut-off strategies. Methods A systematic literature review was conducted of US physician surveys (2000-2014) on pharmaceutical use (n = 75). Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to examine the relationships between response rates and survey design characteristics. The simulation was conducted using secondary data from a population-based physician KAB survey on diabetes risk management with antipsychotic use in Missouri Medicaid (n = 973 accrued over 30 weeks). Survey item responses were compared using Pearson's chi-square tests for two faster completion simulations: Fixed Sample (n = 300) and Fixed Time (8 weeks). Results Survey response rates ranged from 7% to 100% (median = 48%, IQR = 34%-68%). Surveys of targeted populations and surveys using member lists were associated with higher response rates (p = 0.02). In the simulation, 9 of 20 (45%) KAB items, including diabetes screening advocacy, differed significantly using the smaller Fixed Sample strategy (achieved in 12 days) versus full accrual. Fewer response differences were found using the Fixed Time strategy (2 of 20 [10%] items). Conclusions Published data on physician surveys report low response rates with most associated with the sample source selected. FDA REMS assessments should include formal evaluation of survey accrual and response bias.
Modeling Polymer Crystallization Kinetics in the Meltblowing Process

A novel model of the crystallization process in meltblowing process is proposed and implemented in numerical simulations. The spinline crystallization is studied using numerical solutions of the sy...
Enhancing Carrier Aggregation: Design of BAW Quadplexer With Ultrahigh Cross-Band Isolation

Carrier aggregation (CA) is a technology first introduced in LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) to increase the peak data rate of 4G networks (for example, the maximum available speed) [1]. The mobile network operator can increase the total available bandwidth for a single user by aggregating multiple channels together, thereby increasing the user data rate as well as the spectrum utilization efficiency and resource allocation flexibility of the entire network. Before LTE-A, mobile network operators could allocate the spectral resource only to a particular user within a single designated frequency band, limiting the maximum channel capacity. The realization of CA allows network operators to create larger channels from nonadjacent spectrum blocks. For example, operators can use a 10-MHz carrier from the 2,100-MHz band and combine it with another 5-MHz carrier from the 700-MHz band to create a 15-MHz LTE channel. The LTE-A standard specifies that each of the component carriers (CCs) of the communication signal is limited to 20 MHz of bandwidth. Aggregation of up to five CCs allows a maximum of 100 MHz of total signal bandwidth, as depicted in Figure 1. This leads to a fivefold increase in channel capacity and data speed [2]. It is projected that CA technology will continue to be widely and intensively used in future-generation communications, such as 5G.
Correlating Hysteresis and Stability with Organic Cation Composition in the Two-Step Solution-Processed Perovskite Solar Cells.

The two-step solution-based process has demonstrated substantial success in fabricating high-efficiency perovskite solar cells in recent years. Despite the high performance, the underlying mechanis...
Multimodal imaging reveals a unique autofluorescence signature of Randall’s plaque

Kidney stones frequently develop as an overgrowth on Randall's plaque (RP) which is formed in the papillary interstitium. The organic composition of RP is distinct from stone matrix in that RP contains fibrillar collagen; RP in tissue has also been shown to have two proteins that are also found in stones, but otherwise the molecular constituents of RP are unstudied. We hypothesized that RP contains unique organic molecules that can be differentiated from the stone overgrowth by fluorescence. To test this, we used micro-CT-guided polishing to expose the interior of kidney stones for multimodal imaging with multiphoton, confocal and infrared microscopy. We detected a blue autofluorescence signature unique to RP, the specificity of which was also confirmed in papillary tissue from patients with stone disease. High-resolution mineral mapping of the stone also showed a transition from the apatite within RP to the calcium oxalate in the overgrowth, demonstrating the molecular and spatial transition from the tissue to the urine. This work provides a systematic and practical approach to uncover specific fluorescence signatures which correlate with mineral type, verifies previous observations regarding mineral overgrowth onto RP and identifies a novel autofluorescence signature of RP demonstrating RP's unique molecular composition.
The role of relational worry due to COVID-19 in the links between video chat apprehension, loneliness, and adhering to CDC guidelines

In light of common recommendations to connect with others through video chatting during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examined how video chat apprehension relates to two health concerns: loneli...
Depression during pregnancy amidst COVID-19.

Affective disorders occur frequently during and/or following pregnancy, at prevalence of 7% and 9%, respectively, [1,2]. Presence of such illness heightens the morbidity and mortality of mothers an...
Why is There Something Rather than Nothing? The Substantivity of the Question for Quantifier Pluralists

Many have argued that the question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” (henceforth: the Question) is defective in some way. While much of the literature on the Question rightly attends to questions about the nature and limits of explanation, little attention has been paid to how new work in metaontology might shed light on the matter. In this paper I discuss how best to understand the Question in light of the now common metaontological commitment to quantifiers that vary in metaphysical naturalness. I show that proponents of this view have arguments at their disposal that appear to challenge the metaphysical substantivity of the Question. Then I argue that, not only are there ways to resist these arguments, the arguments do not pose a challenge to the Question if it is construed in a way that makes reference to many quantifiers. Rendering the Question with multiple quantifiers not only allows one to grant the prima facie substantivity of the Question, but allows us to express it in a way that is mode-of-being-neutral and ontology-neutral—an independently desirable aim.