cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Quantitative measurements of the volume and surface area of the radial head.

Purpose We investigated the hypothesis that a quantitative 3-dimensional computed tomography (Q3DCT) modeling technique based on anatomical and demographic data that can measure size, shape, and proximal articular surface area can be used to develop formulas that could predict the volume and proximal surface area of the intact radial head in patients with fractures of the radial head. Methods We used a consecutive series of 50 computed tomography scans with a slice thickness of 1.25 mm or less obtained in patients with fracture of the distal humerus, but no injury to the radial head, to create 3-dimensional models. The volume and proximal articular surface area of the radial head were measured, and predictive formulas based on anatomical measurements and gender were calculated using multiple linear regression. Results There were significant correlations between total radial head volume and proximal radial head articular surface area for height, weight, radial head diameter, radial neck diameter, coronoid diameter, and gender. Multiple linear regression modeling resulted in formulas that could account for 89% of the variation in radial head volume and 75% of the variation in proximal articular surface area. Conclusions The volume and proximal articular surface area of the radial head can be estimated based on anatomical measurements and gender. This may lead to better estimates of lost fragments when it is not possible to directly model the fractured radial head and computed tomography scan of the opposite limb is not available.
Unexpected interaction of methylphenidate (Ritalin) with anaesthetic agents

We report difficulty with conscious sedation of a child taking methylphenidate for attention deficit disorder and possible delayed adverse interaction of ketamine and methylphenidate resulting in severe nausea, vomiting and dehydration. The effects of methylphenidate and its potential interactions with anaesthetic agents is discussed. We suggest that anaesthesiologists who provide sedation or anaesthesia to patients receiving methylphenidate be aware of the potential need for high sedative doses and the possibility of undesirable interactions.
Modeling throughput gain of network coding in multi-channel multi-radio wireless ad hoc networks

In this paper, we model the network throughput gains of two types of wireless network coding (NC) schemes, including the conventional NC and the analog NC schemes, over the traditional non-NC transmission scheduling schemes in multihop, multi-channel, and multi-radio wireless ad hoc networks. In particular, we first show that the network throughput gains of the conventional NC and analog NC are (2n)/(2n-1) and n/(n-1), respectively, for the n-way relay networks where n ges 2. Second, we propose an analytical framework for deriving the network throughput gain of the wireless NC schemes over general wireless network topologies. By solving the problem of maximizing the network throughput subject to the fairness requirements under our proposed framework, we quantitatively analyze the network throughput gains of these two types of wireless NC schemes for a variety of wireless ad hoc network topologies with different routing strategies. Finally, we develop a heuristic joint link scheduling, channel assignment, and routing algorithm that aims at approaching the optimal solution to the optimization problem under our proposed framework.
Information Needs and Experiences of Scholars in Women’s Studies: Problems and Solutions

Women’s studies faculty often engage in complex information-seeking patterns as they examine social issues from a variety of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. Academic librarians constructing an understanding of those patterns in order to provide effective reference service can incorporate the results of this national, qualitative study on the information needs, information uses, successful strategies, productive tactics, and problem issues reported by a wide range of these interdisciplinary scholars. Finally, advice and guidance from forty-two women’s studies librarians in a wide variety of academic settings provide an array of practical tools for serving this complex population.
Should professional associations sanction conscientious refusals

As Robert Card (2007) shows, the refusal of some pharmacists to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception on conscientious grounds has resulted in significant public debate. Indeed, several st...
Attention and cue-producing behavior in the monkey.

Explicit cue-producing responses were employed to study attending behavior in the monkey. The subjects learned a discrimination based on compound stimuli, a vertical bar embedded on a red ground versus a horizontal bar on a green ground. On some trials only one of the two stimulus components was presented (red versus green or vertical versus horizontal bar), and the animals had the option of responding on the basis of the component presented or transforming it to the compound discriminanda by means of a cue-producing response. Analysis of the choice and cue-producing response behavior showed that (a) both monkeys acquired the discrimination between the compound cues solely on the basis of the color component, (b) mastery of this discrimination did not confer any “habit loading” (discriminative control) on the bar component, and (c) the monkey may prefer to respond on the basis of one component (color) even though it is capable of using both components equally effectively.
The Bunyamwera Virus mRNA Transcription Signal Resides within both the 3′ and the 5′ Terminal Regions and Allows Ambisense Transcription from a Model RNA Segment

Bunyamwera virus (BUNV) is the prototype of the Bunyaviridae family of RNA viruses. BUNV genomic strands are templates for both replication and transcription, whereas the antigenomic RNAs serve only as templates for replication. By mutagenesis of model templates, we showed that the BUNV transcription promoter comprises elements within both the 3' and the 5' nontranslated regions. Using this information, we designed a model ambisense BUNV segment that transcribed BUNV S mRNA from the genomic strand and green fluorescent protein (GFP) mRNA from the antigenome. Demonstration of GFP expression showed that this ambisense strategy represents a viable approach for generating BUNV segments able to express additional proteins.
Ultraviolet light inactivation of zinc-mediated metallothionein induction in normal and repair-deficient human cells ☆

Abstract Synthesis of the low molecular weight, thiol-rich, metal-binding metallothioneins (MTs) is undetectable in normal human (NF) or xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) fibroblasts grown in the absence of excess ZnCl2. Addition of 200 μM ZnCl2 to the growth medium produces an increased MT synthesis rising from the basal rate to a rate at least 50-fold greater than basal rate within 7 h. MT induction kinetics in confluent and in exponentially growing subconfluent monolayers were indistinguishable. Zn2+-mediated MT induction is sensitive to actinomycin D suggesting that the induction process is under transcriptional control. Ultraviolet light irradiation causes a dose-dependent inactivation of Zn2+-mediated MT induction in both NF and XP cells. Post-irradiation incubation of UV-irradiated cells using liquid holding techniques leads to reactivation of Zn2+-mediated MT induction in NF cells but not in XP cells. These findings suggest the utility of MT induction (a) in assessing genetic damage introduced by DNA-damaging agents which produce transcription-terminating lesions, and (b) in evaluating cellular repair capacity for this class of DNA lesions.
Modelling the epitaxial growth process of gallium arsenide

A molecular dynamic model of epitaxial growth on gallium arsenide is presented. The results from the molecular dynamics model are used to obtain parametric growth data including layer thickness and doping concentration. Initially, it was necessary to check the potential, which was developed for bulk gallium arsenide, for its applicability to surface growth. The resultant continuum model, when integrated with Stanford University's SUPREM 3.5 code, can simulate gallium arsenide processing based on epitaxial material. >
A 100-year record of Truckee River runoff estimated from changes in levels and volumes of pyramid and Winnemucca lakes

Pyramid Lake, in Washoe County, Nevada, is celebrated as a scenic attraction and for generations before the coming of the white man it supplied enormous quantities of fish to the original inhabitants. Indians, from as far distant as Lovelock, gathered on the banks of the Truckee River at the beginning of the first-high water in the spring, when countless numbers of Pyramid Lake trout and other fish ascended the River to their spawning grounds. Alter the coming of the white man, tons of fine fish were sent yearly to markets in California and Nevada. From all over America sportsmen journeyed to the Lake, and the Pyramid Lake trout, largest known of the species, became famous as a game-fish. Today, the Lake stands 50 feet below its former normal level. Trie Truckee River enters now through a wide sandy mouth over which few fish can ascend, and very few are now caught in the Lake by sportsmen. However, to the thousands of people who annually visit its shores, Pyramid Lake presents a scene of majestic beauty.
(Dis)Counting on Democracy to Work: Perceptions of Electoral Fairness in the 2008 Presidential Election:

Allegations of voting irregularities in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections seemingly compromised the integrity of the electoral outcomes. Because elections inform voters and provide them with...
The Kinesin Motor KIF3A Is a Component of the Presynaptic Ribbon in Vertebrate Photoreceptors

Kinesin motors are presumed to transport various membrane compartments within neurons, but their specific in vivo functions, cargoes, and expression patterns in the brain are unclear. We have investigated the distribution of KIF3A, a member of the heteromeric family of kinesins, in the vertebrate retina. We find KIF3A at two distinct sites within photoreceptors: at the basal body of the connecting cilium axoneme and at the synaptic ribbon. Immunoelectron microscopy of the photoreceptor ribbon synapse shows KIF3A to be concentrated both at the ribbon matrix and on vesicles docked at the ribbon, a result that is consistent with the presence of both detergent-extractable and resistant KIF3A fractions at these synapses. KIF3A is also present in the inner plexiform layer, again at presynaptic ribbons. These findings suggest that within a single cell, the photoreceptor, one kinesin polypeptide, KIF3A, can serve two distinct functions, one specific for ribbon synapses.
Broadcast/multicast MPEG-2 video over wireless channels using header redundancy FEC strategies

In this paper, we address the issue of error control in transmitting MPEG-2 encoded video streams over broadband fixed wireless access networks for broadcast or multicast services. Because of the error-prone nature of wireless channels, error control is mandatory when MPEG-2 video streams are transported over wireless access networks to end user. To prevent overloading the reliable wireline networks error control has to be applied locally. FEC is a must for broadcast or multicast services. Because of the important role of MPEG-2 control information in the decoding process, it must be given priority service in the form of excess error protection in order to achieve the desired QoS. In this paper, a header redundancy FEC (HRFEC) strategy is introduced and an implementation of it (type-I HRFEC scheme) is described. The overhead and delay jitter associated with the type-I HRFEC is also estimated. Simulation results on the performance of type-I HRFEC indicates that it improves the reception statistics of MPEG-2 control. As a direct, the quality, measured in terms of objective grade point and PSNR of the reconstructed video sequence, is improved.
NF-κB activity marks cells engaged in receptor editing

Because of the extreme diversity in immunoglobulin genes, tolerance mechanisms are necessary to ensure that B cells do not respond to self-antigens. One such tolerance mechanism is called receptor editing. If the B cell receptor (BCR) on an immature B cell recognizes self-antigen, it is down-regulated from the cell surface, and light chain gene rearrangement continues in an attempt to edit the autoreactive specificity. Analysis of a heterozygous mutant mouse in which the NF-κB–dependent IκBα gene was replaced with a lacZ (β-gal) reporter complementary DNA (cDNA; IκBα+/lacZ ) suggests a potential role for NF-κB in receptor editing. Sorted β-gal+ pre–B cells showed increased levels of various markers of receptor editing. In IκBα+/lacZ reporter mice expressing either innocuous or self-specific knocked in BCRs, β-gal was preferentially expressed in pre–B cells from the mice with self-specific BCRs. Retroviral-mediated expression of a cDNA encoding an IκBα superrepressor in primary bone marrow cultures resulted in diminished germline κ and rearranged λ transcripts but similar levels of RAG expression as compared with controls. We found that IRF4 transcripts were up-regulated in β-gal+ pre–B cells. Because IRF4 is a target of NF-κB and is required for receptor editing, we suggest that NF-κB could be acting through IRF4 to regulate receptor editing.
Elastic stability of thin-walled cylindrical and conical shells under combined internal pressure and axial compression

Nomenclature D = flexural stiff ness of shell wall Et*/[ 12(1 - */2)] E = Young's modulus of shell wall material L = axial length of cylinder or cone / = slant length of cone n = number of circumferential waves in cone buckled under external pressure n = number of circumferential waves in equivalent cylinder buckled under external pressure PO = critical axial compression load p = total axial load at buckling P = uniform internal or external hydrostatic pressure POT, PQ — critical external pressure pe = critical external pressure for equivalent cylinder R = cylinder radius RI = radius of small end of cone Rz = radius of large end of cone t = shell wall thickness a = semivertex angle of cone v = Poisson's ratio of wall material Pav = average radius of curvature of cone (Ri + Rz)/% coso;
Social media use and adaptation among Chinese students beginning to study in the United States

Abstract Chinese international students studying abroad in the United States undertake a life changing venture; one that produces numerous benefits for both the Chinese students and the American people, yet is also fraught with hardships and struggle. Prior literature shows that large and diverse social networks are ideal for increasing international students’ adaptation. Using an online questionnaire administered to 120 Chinese international college students studying in the U.S., we explored the potential impact that the utilization of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) could have on the construction of such social networks, when used during study abroad preparation. We found that students who used SNSs more often during their study abroad preparations had larger, more diverse social networks abroad, compared with students who used SNSs less often or not at all. Students with more diverse social networks reported significantly higher levels of social and academic adaptation in the host culture. We suggest universities and advisors provide training for the use of SNSs to Chinese students during their study abroad preparations, in order to increase social and academic adaptation when abroad.
Real-time phase boundary detection for colonoscopy videos using motion vector templates

Colonoscopy is the preferred screening method currently available for detection of colorectal cancer and its precursor lesions, colorectal polyps. However, recent data suggest that there is a significant miss rate for the detection of polyps in the colon during colonoscopy. Therefore, techniques for real-time quality measurement and feedback are necessary to aid the endoscopist towards optimal inspection to improve the overall quality of colonoscopy during the procedure. A typical colonoscopy procedure consists of two phases: an insertion phase and a withdrawal phase. One of the most essential tasks in real-time fully automated quality measurement is to find the location of the boundary between insertion and withdrawal phases. In this paper, we present a method based on motion vector templates to detect the phase boundary in real-time. The proposed method detects the phase boundary with a better accuracy and a faster speed compared to our previous method.
Heterogeneous Response of Disaggregate Inflation to Monetary Policy Regime Change: What Can Be Learned from Canada’s Adoption of Inflation Targeting?

This paper explores the impact of monetary policy regime change on sectoral and regional inflation by analyzing the case of Canada and its adoption of inflation targeting (IT). Using disaggregated CPI data for Canada from 1978, we find that responses to the change in the monetary policy framework are quite heterogeneous, particularly across sectors. While inflation series in the traditionally volatile commodity sectors exhibit weak responses to the regime change, those in the so-called core sectors are highly responsive. This pattern is evident in both national and provincial level data, indicating that it is the core sectors that are crucial for the transmission of a monetary policy regime change. Further analysis based on a common factor model reveals that common shocks, such as those associated with the monetary policy framework, account for only a small portion of the variation in sectoral inflation, and that their relative importance has decreased after IT adoption in many core sectors. Interestingly, considerable variation exists even across the core sectors in the strength of the regime change effect. We document that this heterogeneity is meaningfully correlated with some measurable sector-specific characteristics; sectors with a lower degree of prices stickiness and a lower degree of tradability appear more sensitive to the change in monetary policy regime.
Assessing development in critical thinking: One institution's experience.

Abstract Objective Enhancing critical and moral thinking are goals of higher education. We sought to examine thinking development within a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) program. Methods The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), Health Sciences Reasoning Test (HSRT), and the Defining Issues Test (DIT2) were administered to Pharm.D. students over four sessions throughout their didactic studies. Students took tests in their P1 Fall, P1 Spring, P2 Spring, and P3 Spring. While CCTST and HSRT are similar for assessing foundational critical thinking, the DIT2 assesses complex moral thinking. Each thinking test was correlated with academic success by undergraduate and graduate grade-point averages (GPAs). Results The CCTST was administered in P1 Fall (20.1 ± 5.0). For HSRT, mean ± S.D. was P1 Spring: 22.7 ± 3.5, P2 Spring: 22.6 ± 4.8, and P3 Spring: 23.8 ± 4.5. After converting P1-CCTST and P2-HSRT scores using user-manual interpretations, there was no difference on paired comparison ( P = 0.22, 0.1 Cohen's d ). There was a small difference between P1-HSRT and P3-HSRT ( P d ). Also administered each time, the DIT2 was P1 Fall: 40.4 ± 12.6, P1 Spring: 36.3 ± 13.7, P2 Spring: 44.9 ± 13.6, and P3 Spring: 43.4 ± 15.4. For DIT2, both P1 Fall to P2 Spring and P1 Spring to P3 Spring were significant with small and medium effect-sizes (both P d respectively). Importantly, multiple HSRT, and DIT2 assessments correlated with undergraduate and graduate GPAs. Conclusions During a Pharm.D. program of study, students developed substantially in moral reasoning though minimally in foundational critical thinking. Both foundational and moral reasoning correlated with academic success. Showing responsiveness to change, the DIT2 appears helpful as a measure of cognitive development for pharmacy education.
Solving zero-sum security games in discretized spatio-temporal domains

Among the many deployment areas of Stackelberg Security games, a major area involves games played out in space and time, which includes applications in multiple mobile defender resources protecting multiple mobile targets. Previous algorithms for such spatio-temporal security games fail to scale-up and little is known of the computational complexity properties of these problems. This paper provides a novel oracle-based algorithmic framework for a systematic study of different problem variants of computing optimal (minimax) strategies in spatio-temporal security games. Our framework enables efficient computation of a minimax strategy when the problem admits a polynomial-time oracle. Furthermore, for the cases in which efficient oracles are difficult to find, we propose approximations or prove hardness results.
Letter to Congress from 40 Economists & Law Professors Questioning the Quality of Some Empirical Studies in Patent Law

This letter to Congress, submitted on March 10, 2015, originally by 40 (and now 43) academics in law, business, and economics expresses concern about “the many flawed, unreliable, or incomplete studies about the American patent system that have been provided to members of Congress.” An appendix to the letter lists studies that provide alternative assessments of the patent system. The letter concludes “that reliance on flawed data will lead to legislation that goes well beyond what is needed to curb abusive litigation practices, causing unintended negative consequences for inventors, small businesses, and emerging entrepreneurs.”
The Influence of Polypharmacy on Nutrition

There is deservedly much attention being paid to malnutrition and nutrition assessment in clinical practices. Nutrition status may be altered by many things especially in persons with recognized risk factors. High on the list of contributing factors are medications. This chapter will provide a perspective for clinicians on the potential changes to nutrition status resulting from medication use. Many examples from drugs approved in the last 5 years will be provided.
Comment: You Should Standardize the Predictor Variables in Your Regression Models

a. "... a linear transformation of a model does not change the model and should not change the estimates of a model. " b. Since "high intercorrelations among variables [can] simply be transformed into low variances on linear combinations of variables," multicollinearity is itself not a fundamental measure of the "strength of the data." c. ". ... ridge regression's ... weakness ... is the use of a loose representation of a priori beliefs and the reliance at times on ad hoc pseudoinformation."
Developing the explanatory dimensions of part–whole realization

I use Carl Gillett’s much heralded dimensioned theory of realization as a platform to develop a plausible part–whole theory. I begin with some basic desiderata for a theory of realization that its key terms should be defined and that it should be explanatory. I then argue that Gillett’s original theory violates these conditions because its explanatory force rests upon an unspecified “in virtue of” relation. I then examine Gillett’s later version that appeals instead to theoretical terms tied to “mechanisms.” Yet I argue that it too violates the desiderata, since it defines realization for mechanisms in terms of two undefined ideas whose explanatory credentials have not been established—“implementation” and “grounds.” Thus I drop those ideas in favor of an explicit constraint that the parts and properties provide a mechanistic explanation. I also distinguish a special mechanistic theory from a preferred general theory that incorporates other kinds of part–whole explanations that target causal powers or capacities. The result is a theory that has the explanatory virtues of mechanistic theories as well as a broader scope desired by Gillett. I also compare the result to a similar idea from Robert Cummins that has been neglected in recent discussions of realization, namely, his general property analysis rather than his functional analysis. Finally, I defend the preferred general theory against possible objections that attempt to show a conflict between metaphysical demands on a theory of realization versus facts about good scientific explanation.
Microbiologic examination of bulk tank milk.

Microbiologic examination of bulk tank milk can be a useful technique in assessment of mastitis and milk quality. Sample collection and handling, laboratory techniques, and interpretation and use of bulk tank microbiology are discussed. Recommendations are made based upon a survey of mastitis laboratories and the author’s experience
Synoptic Weather Conditions Associated with Long-Range Movement of the Potato Leafhopper, Empoasca fabae, into Wisconsin

The potato leafhopper, Empoasca jabae (Harris), winters only in the extreme southern portions of the United States. Each year in April and May a northward movement occurs, associated with the warm south winds and air masses moving up the Mississippi Valley. The synoptic weather conditions associated with the initial arrival of the potato leafhopper in Wisconsin were studied for the 10-year period 1951–60. These weather systems were generally made up of a low-pressure area over the Great Plains, a high-pressure area over the Atlantic Coast, a north-south cold front moving east, an east-west front over Wisconsin, and rain in the fall-out area. The counterclockwise movement of air around a low and the clockwise movement of air around a high tended to force a mass of warm, moist air up the Mississippi Valley. Examples are given showing the presence of winds of a speed and temperature sufficient for the transport of leafhoppers at relatively high altitudes over these long distances. If occurring in conjunction with conditions suitable for their pickup, the warm-air movement could continue to carry leafhoppers until forced over a cooler air mass.
Experimental and Numerical Evaluation of Unbonded Posttensioning Tendons Subjected to Wire Breaks

AbstractThe development of corrosion as a result of tendon exposure to moisture or corrosive media often leads to wire fractures. Such fractures in unbonded tendons are expected to induce global strand and anchor response through the progression of prestress loss from the break to the end anchors. Radial pressure, interwire friction, and lateral confinement, however, affect the magnitude of prestress loss carried to the anchors and have important implications on breakage detectability by tendon monitoring methods that rely on anchor response. This paper presents an experimental investigation of tendon behavior after successive wire cuts in confined and unconfined conditions and demonstrates the effects of confinement on stress recovery. In addition to analysis of strand prestress loss and axial strain along individual wires, the strand’s dynamic postbreakage response was examined. Moreover, the effects of deviators on stress recovery were tested with a multistrand tendon specimen. A finite-element model o...
Defining perfect location privacy using anonymization

The popularity of mobile devices and location-based services (LBS) has created great concerns regarding the location privacy of users of such devices and services. Anonymization is a common technique that is often being used to protect the location privacy of LBS users. In this paper, we provide a general information theoretic definition for location privacy. In particular, we define perfect location privacy. We show that under certain conditions, perfect privacy is achieved if the pseudonyms of users are changed before O(N2/r−1) observations by the adversary, where N is the number of users and r is the number of sub-regions or locations.
The radiologic prediction of Alzheimer disease: the atrophic hippocampal formation.

PURPOSE To test the hypothesis that atrophy of the hippocampal formation in nondemented elderly individuals would predict subsequent Alzheimer disease. METHOD We studied 86 subjects at two time points, 4 years apart. At baseline all study subjects were nondemented and included 54 control subjects and 32 persons who had memory complaints and minimal cognitive impairments. All subjects received a CT scan using a protocol designed to image the perihippocampal cerebrospinal fluid (HCSF) accumulating in the fissures along the axis of the hippocampal formation. Blind to the clinical evaluations, we subjectively assessed the presence of HCSF at the baseline. Retrospectively, we examined the predicted association between baseline HCSF and clinical decline as determined across the two evaluations. RESULTS At follow-up 25 of the 86 subjects had deteriorated and received the diagnosis of Alzheimer disease. Of the declining subjects, 23 came from the minimally impaired group, and 2 came from the control group. In the minimally impaired group the baseline HCSF measure had a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 89% as a predictor of decline. Both control subjects who deteriorated were also correctly identified at baseline. One of these two subjects died, and an autopsy confirmed the presence of Alzheimer disease. M(r) validation studies demonstrated that HCSF is quantitatively related to dilatation of the transverse fissure of Bichat and the choroidal and hippocampal fissures. CONCLUSION Our findings strongly suggest that among persons with mild memory impairments, dilatation of the perihippocampal fissures is a useful radiologic marker for identifying the early features of Alzheimer disease.
Planning in Prose Versus Planning with Numbers: Decolonization and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 1946 Until 1954

This paper examines how finance officials in Khartoum came to see the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan as a single coherent economy. Recent scholarship has called into question the teleology that African independence inevitably lead to the emergence of nation-states. Especially prominent in these revisionist accounts have been counter-narratives regarding political rights. However an alternative means of de-centering the nation-state is to examine the creation of the economy and economic inclusion. My paper demonstrates this by focusing on development projects in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains and the Gezira Plains. Between 1946 and 1954 the national economy was only one of a host of competing, overlapping and contradictory ideas about how to manage and organize economic life within the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. While planning is always a political act, I argue that the biases inherent in the use of particular types of planning, budgeting and accounting tools inclined finance officials towards emphasizing the national over alternative conceptions of the economy. I then discuss the different possibilities and constraints that planning in prose presented versus planning with numbers. My research is based on original sources gathered in the National Records Office in Khartoum, The National Archives in London and the Sudan Archives in Durham, England.
Sequencing platform modeling and analysis.

As the cost rapidly declines, the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies are becoming the main work horse of modern molecular biology to measure the abundance of genomic markers. NGS offers a number of technical advantages such as a greater dynamic range for measuring abundance and a higher resolution for low abundance molecules; moreover, it allows studying innovative biological problems such as the detection of novel molecular features and performing a more seamless integrative analysis of multiple types of molecular data for the same set of samples. Their utilization in cancer genomic studies such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) presents unprecedented opportunities to advance our understanding of cancer. While certain aspects of NGS data analysis fall under the general framework of high-throughput data analysis and can be addressed by existing statistical methodologies, it also presents unique analytic challenges that require development of new statistical approaches. We take the opportunity of this special issue to highlight several recent methodological develop ments on NGS data analysis by leading researchers in the field. Some of the articles in this special issue are summarized below. • RNA Expression Level: Identification of molecular signatures is an important aspect of the analysis of RNA expression data. Ha et al developed a novel method in a causal structure learning framework to discover prognostic gene signatures. Their method represented the causal structure by directed acyclic graphs and constructed genespecific network modules to constitute a gene and its corresponding regulators; the method then correlated each module with a survival outcome to allow for a network oriented approach to select prognostic genes. They applied the new method to a clear cell renal cell carcinoma study from TCGA and found several novel prognostic genes. • RNA Splicing Variant: Alternative splicing is a posttranscriptional process that allows a single gene to produce multiple mRNA isoforms (namely, mRNA slicing variants). This process can be regulated by genetic elements such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are called splicing quantitative trait loci (sQTL). The main analytic challenge of identifying sQTL is the estimation of isoform-specific mRNA expression based on RNA sequencing data. Jia et al evaluated three statistical Supplement Aims and Scope
Was 1989 the End of Social Democracy

The neoliberal counterrevolution in economics that began in the 1970s dramatically redefined social democracy by depriving it of the Keynesian policy paradigm that made possible its success at mitigating the vagaries of the market and improving the economic conditions of wage earners and the unemployed. The analysis of the economic policy agenda of all major European social-democratic parties during the 1970s and 1980s shows that by the time real existing socialism collapsed in Eastern Europe, the rightward economic shift of social democracy had been quite advanced almost everywhere due to deep transformations that were endogenous to West European politics and economics, rather than to what was happening across the Iron Curtain.
A Theory of Truces

On August 14, 1945, Edith Shain, a 27-year-old nurse at Doctors Hospital in New York, left her shift and ran into the street to celebrate the surrender of the Japanese. A few moments after she reached Times Square, a sailor embraced her. “Someone grabbed me and kissed me, and I let him because he fought for his country,” she told the Washington Post many years later.1 A snapshot of the kiss, taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt and published by Life magazine, became one of the most famous images of the last century. Ms. Shain’s explanation for its popularity: The picture “says so many things: hope, love, peace and tomorrow. The end of the war was a wonderful experience, and that photo represents all those feelings.”2 This is how wars ends. Men stop killing each other and start kissing pretty nurses instead. We leave the fighting behind. Permanently. We demobilize. We go back to work. We go back to school. We start families and have babies. Violence is replaced by its opposite.
Direct 4D list mode parametric reconstruction for PET with a novel EM algorithm

We present a direct method for producing images of kinetic parameters from list mode PET data. The time-activity curve for each voxel is described by a one-tissue compartment, 2-parameter model. Extending previous EM algorithms, a new spatiotemporal complete data space was introduced to optimize the maximum likelihood function. This leads to a straightforward parametric image update equation with moderate additional computation requirements compared to the conventional algorithm. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations were performed using 2D (x,t) and 4D (x,y,z,t) simulated list mode data for a brain receptor study. Comparisons with the two-step approach (frame-based reconstruction followed by voxel-by-voxel parameter estimation) show that the proposed method can lead to accurate estimation of the parametric image values with reduced variance, especially for the volume of distribution (V T ).
Post stratification assessment of the NASS automated stratification method based on the Cropland Data Layer

Area Sampling Frames (ASFs) are the foundation of the agricultural statistics program of USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). A geospatial Cropland Data Layer (CDL) based automated stratification (AS) method was recently implemented to achieve higher accuracies than traditional stratification (TS), based on visual interpretation, in cultivated areas. This paper extends the AS assessment to the post stratification estimates. South Dakota (SD) US 2013 post stratification estimates, based on AS, are compared with the SD 2013 June Agricultural Survey estimates based on TS. Post stratification estimates obtained using AS are comparable, to the TS estimates, based on estimate percent differences. Considering the significant improvement in accuracy using AS in cultivated strata in five test states, improved accuracy in the highly cultivated stratum and improved stratum homogeneity in this study, it is concluded that the CDL based AS method generates ASFs that are more objective, efficient, accurate, and homogeneous and reduces labor costs.
The Politics of the U.S. Federal Judiciary's Requests for Institutional Reform*

Objectives We ask whether the requests the federal judiciary makes to Congress are conditioned either on political factors or on its actual institutional needs. Methods. We build a new measure of the yearly well-being of the federal courts from 1978 through 2013 using factor analysis. We specify two formal models to generate testable hypotheses that help to untangle equilibria behavior resulting from competing claims on judicial preferences for court reforms. We test these claims using data from the chief justice's Year-End Reports on the Federal Judiciary. Results. We find that requests are not conditioned upon the courts' actual institutional needs but instead upon their ideological proximity to the Senate. Conclusion. We conclude that the federal judiciary views its own administration in a similarly political fashion as its elected counterparts.
Learning in the health care enterprise.

Introduction The overall enterprise of health care delivery is considered. The 4 levels of the enterprise include clinical practices, processes that provide capabilities and information, structure that includes the business entities involved, and ecosystem that includes Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Congress, as well as societal values and norms. It is argued that the enterprise of health care delivery needs to be transformed to enable high-quality, affordable care for everyone. Discussion The constructs of enterprise transformation and organizational learning are reviewed. The distinction of single-loop versus double-loop learning is discussed and illustrated for all levels of the health care delivery enterprise. Three health care examples are used to elaborate this distinction—cancer, population health, and health IT. Four strategies are outlined that the health care delivery enterprise can use to more effectively learn at all levels of the enterprise. Conclusions This overall line of reasoning suggests several important research issues. The health care delivery enterprise involves much more than treating disease and paying for it. We need to improve our methods and tools for addressing the overall enterprise. Research is also needed on better means for portraying consequences of decisions to the full range of stakeholders in the enterprise. In general, the overall goal should be a healthy, educated, and productive population that is competitive in the global marketplace. We need to better understand the available levers for achieving this goal and how to best portray the intricacies of the overall enterprise to motivate those who can pull these levers to do so.
DAX - the next generation: towards one million processes on commodity hardware

Large scale image processing demands a standardized way of not only storage but also a method for job distribution and scheduling. The eXtensible Neuroimaging Archive Toolkit (XNAT) is one of several platforms that seeks to solve the storage issues. Distributed Automation for XNAT (DAX) is a job control and distribution manager. Recent massive data projects have revealed several bottlenecks for projects with >100,000 assessors (i.e., data processing pipelines in XNAT). In order to address these concerns, we have developed a new API, which exposes a direct connection to the database rather than REST API calls to accomplish the generation of assessors. This method, consistent with XNAT, keeps a full history for auditing purposes. Additionally, we have optimized DAX to keep track of processing status on disk (called DISKQ) rather than on XNAT, which greatly reduces load on XNAT by vastly dropping the number of API calls. Finally, we have integrated DAX into a Docker container with the idea of using it as a Docker controller to launch Docker containers of image processing pipelines. Using our new API, we reduced the time to create 1,000 assessors (a sub-cohort of our case project) from 65040 seconds to 229 seconds (a decrease of over 270 fold). DISKQ, using pyXnat, allows launching of 400 jobs in under 10 seconds which previously took 2,000 seconds. Together these updates position DAX to support projects with hundreds of thousands of scans and to run them in a time-efficient manner.
Impact of urologists' ownership of radiation equipment in the treatment of prostate cancer.

Physician practices that offer ancillary medical services may refer their patients for such services, a process known as self-referral. We wanted to evaluate how utilization and cost of care differ for men diagnosed with prostate cancer in a self-referral practice (SRP) compared to a traditional urologic practice. A total of 17 982 men aged 66 years and older diagnosed with localized prostate cancer from 2006 to 2009 were identified from the Texas Cancer Registry. A total of 13 SRPs in the state of Texas were evaluated. We used multilevel logistic regression models that evaluated the odds of receiving a specific type of treatment. Men diagnosed in SRPs were more likely to receive upfront treatment (vs watchful waiting/active surveillance) than men diagnosed by traditional practices (92.7% vs 89%; adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.30–2.00; P<0.001) and were more likely to be treated with external beam radiation (47.4% vs 34.1%; AOR 1.59, 95% CI 1.37–1.84; P<0.001). This persisted for both favorable and unfavorable risk cancer. Median annual prostate cancer care cost was $2460 (95% CI $1663–$3368) higher for men diagnosed by SRPs. Limitations include data limited to men aged 65 years or older and geographic concentration of SRPs in Texas may not depict nationwide patterns. Older men diagnosed with prostate cancer in SRPs are more likely to undergo upfront treatment and to receive radiation treatment. This may increase appropriate treatment of unfavorable disease but contribute to overtreatment of favorable disease.
Effects of task-oriented circuit training on balance and gait ability in subacute stroke patients: a randomized controlled trial

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the task-oriented circuit training on balance and gait ability in subacute patients with stroke. [Subjects and Methods] Participants were randomly allocated to two groups: group 1 (subjects who performed task-oriented circuit training) and group 2 (subjects who underwent conventional physical therapy). Berg balance scale, timed up and go test, functional ambulation category, 6-minute walk test were assessed before and after four weeks of training. [Results] There were significant differences between groups for the 6-minute walk test. [Conclusion] The result of this study showed that task-oriented circuit training could improve the gait ability in patients with subacute stroke.
Moderate alcohol use and apolipoprotein E-4 (ApoE-4): Independent effects on cognitive outcomes in later life

Objectives: Substantive past research suggests that moderate alcohol use confers beneficial health outcomes. The study of moderate alcohol use and cognition has produced variable findings. The prim...
Women's career priority is associated with attitudes towards family planning and ethical acceptance of reproductive technologies

Study question Do women who place high importance on career success have different perceptions of pregnancy planning, delayed reproduction, and the ethical acceptability of ART than women with less emphasis on their career? Summary answer Career-focused women place more importance on pregnancy planning, have greater confidence in delayed childbearing, and are more ethically accepting of donor gamete ART than women who do not place as much importance on career success. What is known already Women in high-professional careers are more likely to delay childbearing while simultaneously possessing a stronger desire for motherhood. The underlying values which enable these competing desires have not been elucidated. Study design, size, duration This cross-sectional study utilized data from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB), a nationally representative telephone survey of US women aged 25-45. Funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the NSFB surveyed 4712 women from 2004 to 2007. Participants/materials, setting, methods In addition to demographic data, the NSFB obtained information about the reproductive history and personal values of participants. Weighted multivariate regression analysis was used to assess reproductive values in career-focused women. Main results and the role of chance In total, 48.8% of women considered success in work very important, while 17.3% considered it somewhat or not important. Women who placed less value on career success were less likely to consider pregnancy planning important and were less optimistic about the success of delayed childbearing than their work-centric counterparts. Women less focused on their careers were also more likely to have serious ethical concerns about donor gametes, but less likely to have ethical concerns about IUI or IVF, when compared to career-focused women. Limitations, reasons for caution Intention to bear children could not be evaluated in the setting of career intentions due to a lack of data on when the participant intended on pursuing motherhood. Political preferences on reproductive health were also not evaluated. The validity of the career priority questions has not been assessed. Additionally, respondents' value statements were not matched to subsequent actions, so it remains possible that these values do not directly impact reproductive behaviors. Wider implications of the findings Our results suggest that reproductive counseling for career-focused women should focus on effective contraception when attempting to delay pregnancy, improved knowledge about age-related fertility decline, and the scope and limitations of current reproductive technologies. In addition, the unique reproductive views of career-focused women suggest that they may benefit from increased employer/insurer support for strategies to enable delayed childbearing, such as fertility preservation and third-party reproduction. Study funding/competing interest(s) None.
Low recruitment above treeline indicates treeline stability under changing climate in Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve, Western Nepal

A treeline can respond to climate change by shifting position, infilling, increasing recruitment, and increasing radial growth. More studies from understudied areas and their associated species are...