cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Role of Peroxidase in the Bactericidal Activity of Human Blood Eosinophils

Utilizing cell preparations that contained greater than 90% eosinophils and sodium azide to inhibit the lysosomal enzyme peroxidase, studies of eosinophil bactericidal activity were undertaken. Eosinophils did not kill bacteria as well as neutrophils, principally because of a reduced phagocytic capacity. In contrast to neutrophils, eosinophils had high resting iodination activity but failed to increase this activity following phagocytosis. One millimolar sodium azide, which inhibits both eosinophil and neutrophil peroxidase as measured by the iodination of trichloroacetic acid precipitable protein, impaired neutrophil staphylocidal activity, but enhanced eosinophil killing of Staphylococcus aureus primarily by increasing phagocytic uptake. Bactericidal studies utilizing lysostaphin suggest that neutrophil peroxidase exerts its contribution to bactericidal activity only during the early postphagocytic period. Eosinophil peroxidase is genetically and biochemically distinct from neutrophil peroxidase, and appears to play no role in the bactericidal activity of intact eosinophils.
Tissue-specific HSP70 response in animals undergoing heat stress

Heatstroke is a multisystem disorder that can result in death. Activities that increase the rate of heat storage predispose an organism to thermal injury. Using a 72-kDa heat shock protein (HSP72) as a marker of thermal injury, we determined 1) which organs synthesize HSP in animals after hyperthermia and 2) whether a high heating rate (HHR) resulted in more HSP72 than a low heating rate (LHR). Rats were assigned to either control, HHR (0.166 degrees C/min), or LHR (0.045 degrees C/min) groups. Heat exposure ended when colonic temperature (Tc) reached 42 degrees C. Total time in the heat and thermal load (measured as the time an animal maintained a Tc > 40.4 degrees C) were significantly lower in HHR compared with LHR animals. Hyperthermia resulted in a tissue-specific increase in HSP72 in the liver, small intestine, and kidney, but not in the brain or quadriceps muscles. In addition, HHR animals showed significantly greater accumulation of HSP72 in the liver compared with animals in the LHR group. Thus HSP72 synthesis is tissue specific at high physiological temperatures and may identify a critical target tissue susceptible to early thermal damage.
Fundamentals of Coöperative Marketing

It is with some hesitancy that I attempt to treat with a so-muchdiscussed topic as is the " Fundamentals of Co6peration." Although one can hardly take the position that the last word has been said on the subject, certainly enough has been said to establish some generally accepted principles as a guide to co6perative action. I assume, however, that the generally accepted of the fundamental principles of cooperative marketing are matters of common knowledge to the members of this audience. For that reason I propose not to discuss the usual of this topic, but rather I shall confine my remarks to two considerations of co6perative marketing which I believe to be of primary importance and, at the same time, little appreciated, especially by members of co6perative marketing associations. The first principle that I wish to discuss is the economic position of co6perative endeavor in our present marketing system. I am firmly convinced that a better understanding of the marketing functions which co6peration is best suited to perform, together with a better appreciation of the relationship of these functions to the marketing system as a whole would place our co6perative movement on a firmer basis for a sturdy and more permanent growth. Without doubt one of the causes for so many failures among cooperative undertakings is the lack of appreciation on the part of those engaged in the undertaking, as to the functions which the organization may reasonably be expected to perform. Too often the prospective member is encouraged in his belief that the mere act of cooperating will do away with all the imperfections of our present marketing system. In too many instances he has been promised results that the most successful of cooperative enterprises could not hope to bring to pass. Many a promising co6perative enterprise has failed because its members expected the impossible. In order to discuss the marketing functions best suited to co6pera-
Target-rate driven resource sharing in queueing systems

We consider the problem of multiple packet streams being fed into queues with finite buffers and competing for processing bandwidth. Due to finite buffer size, the packets may be dropped (when buffers become full); therefore the effective throughput of each stream that flows through a server is impacted by the rates at which other streams come into the server. In this paper, we study the case where each source needs to maintain a target throughput in order to provide satisfactory user experience at the destination. We give a simple and efficient distributed update scheme for source rate control: the source adjusts its rate of sending packets based on the observed throughput rate at the destination in each round. We provide the conditions under which the scheme converges to the target throughput in both the single-queue case and the network case.
Multi-metric strain estimation at unmeasured locations of plate structures using augmented Kalman filter

A gusset plate is a structural element that is commonly used to provide moment connections between steel members. Despite their importance, the performance of gusset plates in field structures can be poorly understood making them susceptible to failure. A well-known example is the catastrophic collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis, MN on August 1, 2007 caused by a gusset plate failure. To prevent this type of failure, it is necessary to better predict and understand the stress and strain distribution in a plate element during field conditions. This work approaches the problem by using a numerical model combined with a linear recursive state estimation algorithm, known as the Kalman Filter, to update the model-based prediction with real time measurements taken on the structure. The finite element model was developed using the Mindlin plate theory which incorporates bending and shear deformations of the plate in the out-of-plane direction. The strain responses at arbitrary locations are estimated throughout the plate, including unmeasured locations, using limited sensor information and in the presence of noise and model errors. The results show how the different combinations of sensor data impact strain estimation accuracy under various loading conditions. The different combinations considered are: strain only, acceleration only, and acceleration and strain. The numerical studies demonstrate that the most accurate estimations are provided with the multi-metric combination of acceleration and strain. This opens future paths of development for force estimation, finding stress concentrations and buckling prediction in plate elements and potential expansion to shell elements.
Epidemiological investigation of tuberculosis among floating population in Daxing District of Beijing City from 2004-2011

[Objective]To provide evidence for developing tuberculosis(TB) prevention and control strategies through a survey of floating population in Daxing District of Beijing City. [Methods]Epidemiological analysis was performed on relevant data of reported TB patients among floating population in Daxing District from 2004-2011. [Results]From 2004-2011,a total of 978 TB cases were reported with the incidence of 25.23/100 000,and the maximum and minimum were 40.29/100 000 and 14.70/100 000,respectively.Most of patients was young adults aged 31.5-32.5 years(mean age).Career distribution showed that 46.5%(455/978) of the TB cases were identified in labor workers or tailoring.Moreover,the annual income of 91.9%(899/978)of the subjects was less than 20 000 yuan. [Conclusion]Young adult,high labor intensity,lower income are important risk factors for TB epidemics in floating population
Survival Difference between Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White Women with Localized Breast Cancer: The Impact of Guideline-Concordant Therapy

This manuscript is written on behalf of the Patterns of Care Study Group. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of CDC. Objectives This study examined the impact of guideline-concordant therapy on the survival difference between non-Hispanic black (NHB) and non-Hispanic white (NHW) women with localized breast cancer. Methods Data analyzed were from the CDC’s NPCR Patterns of Care study in which seven population-based state cancer registries participated. We randomly selected 2,362 women who were diagnosed with a first primary localized breast cancer in 1997. Data were abstracted from hospital records, supplemented by information from physician offices and by linkages with state vital records and the National Death Index database. Results NHB women were more likely than NHW women to receive breast conserving surgery without radiation therapy. In addition, the percentage of NHB women with hormone receptor-positive tumors who received hormonal therapy was lower than that of NHW women. Among those with a tumor size >3 cm, NHB women were more likely than NHW women to receive multiagent chemotherapy. After controlling for age, the risk of dying from all causes of death was 2.35 times as high for NHB women compared to NHW women. Controlling for treatment further reduced black–white difference in survival with adjustment for sociodemographic and clinical variables. Conclusion NHB women were less likely than NHW women to receive guideline-concordant radiation therapy after breast conserving therapy and hormonal therapy but were more likely to receive chemotherapy. Racial differences in treatment contribute significantly to the worse survival of NHB women compared with NHW women.
Marrow adherent cell colony-stimulating activity production in acute myeloid leukemia

Provision of colony-stimulating activity (CSA) by human marrow cells was determined utilizing culture techniques in vitro to assess intramedullary cellular interactions on human granulopoiesis. CSA production from marrow cells of 21 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was evaluated and compared to normal marrow by testing the capacity of conditioned media from adherent marrow cells to promote granulocytic colony formation in agar of relatively-light-density nonadherent human marrow target cells. Morphologic, cytochemical, density, and phagocytic characteristics of normal marrow cells suggested that marrow CSA production was provided by middensity adherent cells including those of the monocyte-macrophage series. Decreased marrow cell CSA provision was found in 13 of 21 studies of patients with AML at diagnosis or relapse (p
Chondroid Syringoma of the Scalp: Case Report and Discussion of Clinical Features, Histopathology, and Treatment:

Chondroid syringoma is a generally benign, adnexal tumor most commonly found in the head and neck. It is typically diagnosed retrospectively from histopathology, and careful evaluation must differentiate it from tumors of salivary gland origin. It presents as a slowly growing, subcutaneous or intradermal nodule. Treatment consists of wide local excision with a margin of normal tissue. We report a case involving a 51-year-old man with a chondroid syringoma arising from the scalp. Clinical features, histopathology, and treatment are discussed.
An Incomparable Queen: Mary II, the Protestant International, and the Church of England

On the day that Prince William launched his expedition to England, Mary, Princess of Orange, rose early and spent several hours in prayer and meditation. She then attended services at an English church, a French church, and those at several Dutch congregations. At one of the services, a Presbyterian minister addressed the Princess directly from the pulpit, speaking to the opportunities she should have in England to “serve Lord Jesus Christ and his people” throughout the world. At the hearing of this address, Mary “stood up and let fall a flood of tears.”2 The Princess rose and accepted her task: to ensure the survival of the reformed religion in Europe and beyond. In short, it was the future Queen’s mission to save the Protestant International.
The use of crisis teams in response to violent or critical incidents in scools

Abstract Violent or other critical incidents are no longer unheard of in America's schools. While all schools should engage in activities to prevent violence, they should also have a response plan should violence occur. This paper guides the reader through the development of a crisis plan and the identification of crisis team members. It also outlines the use of crisis teams in assessing the critical event, planning appropriate interventions, and carrying out agreed upon action plans.
Rilpivirine, emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide: single-tablet combination for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in selected patients.

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Co-formulated rilpivirine, emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide (RPV/F/TAF) is the 6th single-tablet combination antiretroviral medication approved within the past decade for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. It was approved based on positive bioequivalence studies with already approved drugs with its component compounds, RPV and the single tablet regimen- elvitegravir, cobicistat, F/TAF.Areas covered: This article reviews the chemical, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties, key drug interactions, and the efficacy, safety, tolerability and optimal clinical uses of the medication and/or its components in different patient populations. The article incorporates pre-clinical and clinical trial data available from Google, Google scholar, PubMed database, conference abstracts as well as US FDA approved drug prescribing information up till September 30, 2016.Expert commentary: RPV/F/TAF is a once-daily administered, well tolerated, and effective antiretroviral regimen that shoul...
Vibration analysis of 3-phase squirrel cage induction motor due to broken rotor using artificial intelligence

Recently, research concerning condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of electrical machines have experienced extraordinarily dynamic activity. The increasing importance of these energy conversion devices and their widespread use in uncountable applications have motivated significant research efforts. Various faults are occurring in the stator as well as in the rotor of 3-phase squirrel cage induction motor such as bearing fault, broken rotor bar fault, air gap eccentricity etc. This paper presents an analysis of fault occurring in the rotor bar of 3-phase squirrel cage induction motor by artificial intelligence method.
Activities of Five Acid Phosphatases in Purple, Green, and White Eggplants.

Tissues of purple, green, and white varieties of eggplant, Solanum melongena , were analyzed for relative activity of phenyl phosphatase, fructose-1, 6-diphosphatase, glucose-1-phosphatase, glucose-6-phosphatase, and ATPase. Activities of all phosphatases were highest in the purple variety and lowest in the white. Relative rates of activity decreased in the order: ATPase, phenyl phosphatase, fructose-1, 6-diphosphatase, glucose-6-phosphatase, and glucose-1-phosphatase (only found in the purple variety).
Perverse Expertise and the Social Unconscious in the Making of Crisis

At the confluence of knowledge and action lies expertise, by which is meant high-quality, specialized, theoretical, and practical knowledge. The process producing this sophisticated knowledge I call “perverse expertise.” It is expertise in that some of the world’s finest minds do the intellectual and practical construction and are well paid and respected for doing so. It is perverse in that knowledge is accumulated in order to continue augmenting the incomes of already wealthy people, the capitalist class. And when the mass mind loses its capacity to think rationally, the outcome is social unconsciousness. Critical mass reaction to the pending world environmental catastrophe is prevented by hegemonic control over imaginaries by a combination of perverse expertise and mass social unconsciousness. This situation gives rise to the movement of capitalist society into an era of perpetual crisis.
Social Quizzes with Scuiz

Scuiz is a platform for social quizzes. Students, not only the teacher, create quiz questions which are then randomly assigned to other students. Questions are organized in feeds similar to feeds found in common social networks. The system allows students to “challenge”, or dispute a question’s premise or answer, and discuss them. A mechanism of incentives ensures that students engage with the system early and substantively. The system keeps statistical information about students’ questions, and automatically flags some of them as “too easy” or “too difficult”. The teacher can review these challenges and accept/reject the submitted questions, as well as participate in the discussion and change the status of questions. This paper describes Scuiz, which was implemented by the first author, some issues arising from the use of it in classes, and future research directions concerning its effectiveness.
Telemedicine simulation in online family nurse practitioner education: Clinical competency and technology integration

ABSTRACTBackground and purpose:Assessment of clinical competency in distance education programs presents new challenges and yet is imperative to patient safety and continued success of the profession. Furthermore, employers increasingly expect a skill set in current informational technologies. Clini
Bioprosthetic pulmonary valve endocarditis: Incidence, risk factors, and clinical outcomes

Background Pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) is a common operation in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). As survival with CHD improves, infective endocarditis (IE) is a growing complication after PVR. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence, risk factors, and clinical outcomes of IE after surgical PVR in patients with CHD at our institution. Methods Retrospective analysis of all cases of surgical PVR performed at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin between 1975 and 2016 was performed. All cases of IE after PVR were identified and clinical and imaging data were obtained by review of medical records. Results Out of 924 surgical PVRs, there were 19 (2%) cases of IE. The incidence of IE after surgical PVR was 333 cases per 100,000 person-years. The median age at diagnosis of IE was 21 years (range = 1.2-34 years) and the median time from PVR to diagnosis of IE was 9.4 years. The overall freedom from IE after PVR was 99.1%, 96.9%, and 93.4%, at 5, 10, and 15 years, respectively. There was no significant difference in freedom from IE based on valve type, including bovine jugular vein grafts. Patients with IE were more likely to have had a history of multiple PVRs, while length of follow-up after PVR, age at time of PVR, and gender were not significant risk factors. Eleven (58%) cases of IE required surgical intervention, while 8 (42%) were successfully treated with intravenous antibiotics alone. There were no deaths and no recurrences of IE after treatment. Conclusion The overall risk for IE after PVR is low. There was no association between age or type of pulmonary valve and risk of IE. The majority of cases require surgical intervention, but in general the outcomes of IE after PVR are good with low mortality and risk of recurrence.
Agriculture as spectacle

In the influential "performance" model of agriculture, the appearance of the farm is the unintentional result of improvisational decision-making rather than the intentional result of design. However in many ways agriculture is explicitly intended to produce an appearance, often aimed at a specific audience. This phenomenon, termed agricultural spectacle, comes in many forms and serves varied aims. This article offers a theoretical framework beginning with a consideration of how agricultural spectacle differs from other classes of spectacle and from generalized societal spectacle as theorized by Debord. Most important in this regard is that agricultural spectacle generally functions as a form of synecdoche as it presents a temporal or spatial part as a representation of the whole agricultural operation. It also often relies on "captioning" to render ambiguous sights striking to viewers. But agricultural spectacle is highly diverse, as shown by exploring three axes of variation. The first axis concerns the extent to which agricultural activities are adjusted for their impact on viewers, as opposed to being conducted purely for utility and rendered spectacular after the fact. The second compares the intent of the agricultural spectacle. The last axis distinguishes scale, from plant part to field to farm to landscape.
p62/SQSTM1 and Selective Autophagy in Cardiometabolic Diseases

Significance: p62/SQSTM1 is a multifunctional scaffolding protein involved in the regulation of various signaling pathways as well as autophagy. In particular, p62/SQSTM1 serves as an essential adaptor to identify and deliver specific organelles and protein aggregates to autophagosomes for degradation, a process known as selective autophagy. Critical Issues: With the emergence of autophagy as a critical process in cellular metabolism and the development of cardiometabolic diseases, it is increasingly important to understand p62's role in the integration of signaling and autophagic pathways. Recent Advances: This review first discusses the features that make p62/SQSTM1 an ideal chaperone in integrating signaling pathways with autophagy and details the current understanding of its diverse roles in selective autophagy processes. Distinct and overlapping roles of other chaperones with similar functions are then discussed in the context of p62/SQSTM1. Finally, the recent literature focusing on p62 and selective autophagy in metabolism and the spectrum of cardiometabolic diseases including atherosclerosis, fatty liver disease, and obesity is evaluated. Future Directions: A comprehensive understanding of the nuanced roles p62/SQSTM1 plays in mediating distinct autophagy pathways would provide new insights into the mechanisms of this critical degradative pathway. This will, in turn, facilitate our understanding of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic disease pathology and the development of novel autophagy-modulating therapeutic strategies.
Structured robotics

Most research in robotics is directed toward the understanding of cognitive processes. But robotics is also an important technological discipline with pragmatic issues to be answered. This paper is addressed to these issues, and particularly to the basic conflict at the core of studies in integrated systems: while the research task is anticipated to be a long and difficult one, it is also expected to yield some practical results in the near future. The paper considers a design and implementation scheme that provides an answer to this conflict. It introduces a structured approach for the implementation of a virtual robot. This approach provides an invariant structure for a system under continuous development, and a method by which the robot can perform useful tasks during its development. The design is currently being applied to the JPL/ Caltech robot for planetary exploration, and in parallel to long-term studies, it will provide generations of useful serni-autonomous robots.
Fiscal Discipline and the Cost of Public Debt Service : Some Estimates for OECD Countries

Is there any systematic explanation of variations in the cost of debt servicing over time and across countries? This paper examines the influence of fiscal variables on borrowing costs in a panel of OECD countries, showing that these variables have a significant role. In particular, an improvement of the primary fiscal balance is associated with a significant reduction in debt-servicing costs, amplifying the effects of primary adjustment on the fiscal position. A significant country-specific component remains, however; several explanations for this component are discussed, including debt management and market infrastructure.
Special Session: Countering IP Security threats in Supply chain

The continuing decrease in feature size of integrated circuits, and the increase of the complexity and cost of design and fabrication has led to outsourcing the design and fabrication of integrated circuits to third parties across the globe, and in turn has introduced several security vulnerabilities. The adversaries in the supply chain can pirate integrated circuits, overproduce these circuits, perform reverse engineering, and/or insert hardware Trojans in these circuits. Developing countermeasures against such security threats is highly crucial. Accordingly, this paper first develops a learning-based trust verification framework to detect hardware Trojans. To tackle Trojan insertion, IP piracy and overproduction, logic locking schemes and in particular stripped functionality logic locking is discussed and its resiliency against the state-of-the-art attacks is investigated.
Glycosylation sterically inhibits platelet adhesion to von Willebrand factor without altering intrinsic conformational dynamics.

Background A molecular basis for von Willebrand factor (VWF) self-inhibition has been proposed by which the N-terminal and C-terminal flanking sequences of the globular A1 domain disulfide loop bind to and suppress the conformational dynamics of A1. These flanking sequences are rich in O-linked glycosylation (OLG), which is known to suppress platelet adhesion to VWF, presumably by steric hindrance. The inhibitory mechanism remains unresolved as to whether inhibition is due to steric exclusion by OLGs or a direct self-association interaction that stabilizes the domain. Objectives The platelet adhesive function, thermodynamic stability, and conformational dynamics of the wild-type and type 2M G1324S A1 domain lacking glycosylation (Escherichia coli) are compared with the wild-type glycosylated A1 domain (HEK293 cell culture) to decipher the self-inhibitory mechanism. Methods Surface plasmon resonance and analytical rheology are utilized to assess Glycoprotein Ibα (GPIbα) binding at equilibrium and platelet adhesion under shear flow. The conformational stability is assessed through a combination of protein unfolding thermodynamics and hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HXMS). Results A1 glycosylation inhibits both GPIbα binding and platelet adhesion. Glycosylation increases the hydrodynamic size of A1 and stabilizes the thermal unfolding of A1 without changing its equilibrium stability. Glycosylation does not alter the intrinsic conformational dynamics of the A1 domain. Conclusions These studies invalidate the proposed inhibition through conformational suppression since glycosylation within these flanking sequences does not alter the native state stability or the conformational dynamics of A1. Rather, they confirm a mechanism by which glycosylation sterically hinders platelet adhesion to the A1 domain at equilibrium and under rheological shear stress.
Time-distributed optimization for real-time model predictive control: Stability, robustness, and constraint satisfaction

Abstract Time-distributed optimization is an implementation strategy that can significantly reduce the computational burden of model predictive control. When using this strategy, optimization iterations are distributed over time by maintaining a running solution estimate for the optimal control problem and updating it at each sampling instant. The resulting controller can be viewed as a dynamic compensator which is placed in closed-loop with the plant. This paper presents a general systems theoretic analysis framework for time-distributed optimization. The coupled plant-optimizer system is analyzed using input-to-state stability concepts and sufficient conditions for stability and constraint satisfaction are derived. In particular, we demonstrate that it is possible to recover the qualitative stability, robustness, and constraint satisfaction properties of the optimal model predictive control feedback law using a finite number of optimization algorithm iterations per sampling instant. When applied to time-distributed sequential quadratic programming, the framework significantly extends the existing theoretical analysis for the real-time iteration scheme. Numerical simulations are presented that demonstrate the effectiveness of the scheme.
Shoulder Dislocations in the Emergency Department: A Comprehensive Review of Reduction Techniques.

Abstract Background Shoulder dislocations are a common presentation to the emergency department and one of the most frequent types of joint dislocations. Studies have found that delays from presentation to first reduction attempt and failed attempt at initial reduction are associated with lower rates of overall reduction success. Discussion This article reviews 26 total reduction techniques, as well as a variety of modifications to these techniques. Each technique has distinct advantages and limitations associated with its use. While there are limited data comparing specific techniques, the individual success rates of most maneuvers range from 60–100%. Conclusion It is essential for emergency physicians to be familiar with multiple different reduction techniques in case the initial reduction attempt is unsuccessful or patient-specific characteristics limit the ability to perform certain techniques. This article reviews several reduction maneuvers for shoulder dislocations, variations on these techniques, and advantages and disadvantages for each approach. It is intended to serve as a resource for those interested in expanding their knowledge of shoulder reduction techniques.
Scalable Transmission Expansion Under Uncertainty Using Three-stage Stochastic Optimization

The intermittent nature of renewable energy poses new challenges for power grids due to its variable and uncertain power output. These features of renewable generation are becoming more relevant to transmission planning as grids reach higher penetration levels of renewable energy. In this paper we present an approach for transmission planning based on scalable computational approaches which enable the explicit consideration of operational uncertainties in the planning process. Using three-stage stochastic programming and the progressive hedging algorithm, we compute transmission expansion decisions on a modified RTS-GMLC test system. We augment the grid with large amounts of wind generation and consider many operational scenarios subject to wind uncertainty.
Angélica: A Spanish/English Dual Language Graduate

Through Angelica’s testimonio, readers will take a journey with her through her elementary dual language bilingual program into her English-dominant high school. Her experiences with literacy and language show how the terms literacies and languaging provide a more accurate and multidimensional view of this former English learner’s full skill-set. Specifically, as a teenager in the U.S. and proud self-described Mexican, her resistance to a deficit, reified view of her languages and cultures illustrate how literacy research can become instigators of social justice in our society. In this chapter, we highlight how Angelica engages in resistance literacies through advocacy languageing, how critical, multilingual family literacies may develop race languaging, as well as how language brokering may become part of her cosmopolitan literacies.
Increased incidence of congenital heart disease among patients with myelomeningocele and associated increased mortality and length of stay; a database study

Purpose: Myelomeningocele and congenital heart disease (CHD) are independent risk factors for increased morbidity and mortality in the newborn period and each can require significant operations shortly after birth. Few studies have examined the impact of these combined lesions. We sought to examine the incidence of CHD in patients with myelomeningocele, and to evaluate length of stay (LOS), hospital charges, and mortality. Methods Using the Texas Inpatient Public Use Data File, entries of ∼6.9 million newborns born between January 1999 and …
Low Health Literacy: An Under-Recognized Obstacle in Parkinson’s Disease (P3.075)

OBJECTIVE: To define the prevalence and predictors of low health literacy (HL) in community-dwelling patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) at an academic referral center, and to explore potential associations with adverse health outcomes. BACKGROUND: Low HL indicates a limited ability to understand and use basic information to make appropriate healthcare decisions. Low HL is associated with poorer health outcomes in multiple conditions, but has yet to be examined in the PD population. DESIGN/METHODS: Cross-sectional study of adults with PD participating in the National Parkinson Foundation registry at the University of Pennsylvania. Subjects were administered two brief assessments of health literacy_the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Short Form (REALM-SF), a simple word-recognition test, and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS), a test of basic literacy, numeracy and understanding of health information_in demographic, clinical, and resource utilization questionnaires. RESULTS: 121 subjects completed both HL screens (median age 67 years, 67.8% male, 95.9% Caucasian, median 16 years of education). Median PD duration was 16 years and the majority were stage Hoehn & Yahr II (61.9%). Median Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score was 26 (IQR 23-29). Using the REALM-SF, 91.7% of subjects had adequate literacy. With the NVS, however, 45.5% of our sample had low HL, which was significantly associated with older age, lower education, advanced PD stages, and poorer cognition. Finally, the odds of hospitalization was 3.2 times higher in individuals with low HL after adjusting for age, PD stage, and cognition (p = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Low HL is common in our highly-educated, community-dwelling sample of PD patients and is a risk factor for hospitalization after adjusting for other potential confounders. Thus, recognizing and addressing low HL in patient care settings is essential. Prospective studies should explore the relationship between low HL and adverse outcomes to optimize interventions. Disclosure: Dr. Minger has nothing to disclose. Dr. Fitts has nothing to disclose. Dr. Dahodwala has received research support from Teva Neuroscience.
Optimal loop parameter design of charge pump PLLs for jitter transfer characteristic optimization

An optimal loop parameter design method of charge pump PLLs for jitter transfer characteristic optimization is proposed. Based on the linear model of charge pump PLLs, the relationship between a PLL's loop parameters and jitter transfer characteristic is illustrated. Using the proposed optimal design method, a design example is given and the expected simulation result is obtained.
Random Dynamical Systems in Economics

Random dynamical systems are useful in modeling the evolution of economic processes subject to exogenous shocks. One obtains strong results on the existence, uniqueness, stability of the invariant distribution of such systems when an appropriate splitting condition is satisfied. Also of importance has been the study of random iterates of maps from the quadratic family. Applications to economic growth models are reviewed.
Optimal Worksharing Discounts

Forty percent of first-class mail is workshared, meaning that mailers perform part of the postal service work, such as sorting, in exchange for a price discount. Here the optimal discount is shown to depend on whether mailers workshare all their mail. If they do, their marginal decisions will affect usage of the mail, and the normal Ramsey inverse-elasticity rule will apply. If they do not, and their marginal decision involves the amount of their worksharing, then worksharing supply elasticities play a role in the optimal discount. In the latter case, margins will be greater for workshared letters. Problems in balancing these solutions, and in estimating cost savings from worksharing, are also discussed.
Alkyl halide photochemistry on Ag(111): II. Methyl bromide

Abstract The surface photochemistry of methyl bromide (CH 3 Br) on Ag(111) at 100 K has been studied. While absorbed CH 3 Br does not thermally dissociate, UV photodissociation occurs readily. Upon the CBr bond cleavage, all Br and a small portion of CH 3 are retained at the surface. There is no photodesorption of molecular CH 3 Br. In post-irradiation TPD, all the retained CH 3 fragments recombine to form C 2 H 6 below 300 K and surface Br desorbs as AgBr above 700 K. The photodissociation threshold for the first layer (chemisorbed) is ∼ 3.0 eV and the second layer (physisorbed) is > 3.5 eV, both lower than in the gas phase (∼ 4.5 eV). The cross section for the photodissociation of 1 ML CH 3 Br as a function of wavelength is estimated. Compared to the gas phase, the photodissociation cross section for chemisorbed CH 3 Br is much larger while that for physisorbed CH 3 Br is slightly larger. The average effective photolysis rate decreases with increasing initial CH 3 Br coverage. Comparison with the photochemistry CH 3 Br on Pt(111) is made.
The Shareholder Value Myth

Shareholder primacy theory is suffering a crisis of confidence. In The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public, Lynn Stout discusses how the traditional managerial focus on the shareholder’s interest can be harmful for the corporation and even for shareholders themselves and how it is more valuable to spread the focus over several objectives.
Completeness of prescription information in US commercial claims databases.

Purpose Pharmacy commercial claims databases are widely used for pharmacoepidemiologic research. However, concerns have been raised that these databases may not fully capture claims for generic medications as a result of patients filling outside the context of their insurance. This has implications for many research activities and quality improvement programs. We sought to estimate the percentage of missing prescriptions in US commercial claims data using a novel design. Methods Using a large US commercial insurance database, we examined the completeness of warfarin prescription claims among patients with atrial fibrillation receiving regular medical follow-up and testing to manage warfarin dosing. We examined 14 different 6-month cross sections. Each cross section was treated independently to identify patients with at least two outpatient diagnoses of atrial fibrillation, two international normalized ratio tests, and one pharmacy claim. Trends in the percentage of patients with prescription claims for generic and branded warfarin were compared by year and 6-month periods using chi-square tests and generalized linear models adjusting for patient characteristics. Results Out of 111 170 patients, the percentage of patients with any warfarin drug decreased slightly from 91.7% (95% CI: 91.0, 92.4) in early 2003 to 87.1% (95% CI: 86.7–87.6) in late 2009 (χ2 = 93.8, p < 0.0001). Over the same interval, the proportion of patients with generic warfarin exposure appearing increased significantly, whereas the proportion of patients with branded warfarin exposure decreased significantly. Conclusions Our study supports the possibility that some prescriptions may not be captured in US commercial insurance databases. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Adaptive control of Markov chains

Consider a controlled Markov chain whose transition probabilities depend upon an unknown Refsmeter α taking values in a finite set A. To each α is associated a prespecified stationary control law ϕ(α). The adaptive control law selects at each time t the control action indicated by ϕ(αt) where a. is the maximum likelihood estimate of α. It is shown that a. converges to a Refsmeter ;(α* such that the transition probabilities corresponding to α* and ϕ(α*) are the same as those corresponding to α0 and ϕ(α*) where α0 is the true Refsmeter.
Understanding cost-effectiveness

Healthcare delivery in the USA and abroad has changed dramatically over the last several decades. Along with the growth in diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, the costs of healthcare have escalated out of proportion relative to other aspects of the economy. This growth has fostered careful scrutiny of both the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare delivery. Because of this emphasis on the economics of healthcare, physicians require an understanding not only of the efficacy and clinical utility of their interventions, but also of the relative value in an economic sense of their efforts. In other words, physicians in the modern era must now appreciate the concept of cost-effectiveness. Cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses are critical evaluative tools. Explicit data on comparative cost-effectiveness are useful for allocating the increasingly stretched healthcare resources. This article provides a primer for understanding the methods and applications of cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses.
Partitioned encryption and achieving simultaneity by partitioning

Abstract We present a method called Partitioned Encryption whose main property is its simplicity. It is an extension of Probabilistic Public-Key Encryption, which can be used in designing cryptographic protocols and can be applied to distributed problem solving. We also give a modification of Secret Sharing called Partitioned Secret Sharing. We demonstrate the power of Partitioned Encryption: combining it with the partitioning of the user set gives a solution scheme for ‘Verifiable Secret Sharing’ and ‘Simultaneous Broadcast in the Presence of Faults’, which are important primitives of fault-tolerant distributed computing introduced by Chor, Goldwasser, Micali and Awerbuch (1985). The scheme is fully polynomial, simple, and efficient in terms of communication rounds. The basic partitioning methods are suggested as general tools for distributed computing, which are easy to implement and analyze.
Vibration and sound radiation of non-uniform beams

This paper presents an analytical method for studying vibration and acoustic radiation problems of non-uniform beams and a symbolic-digital hybrid programming approach based upon the analytical method. As a result, efficient and accurate computer programs have been developed. Solutions of vibration, wavenumber analysis and acoustic radiation problems of two stepped beams are also presented. Some interesting and unusual wave phenomena and their effects on acoustic radiation of non-uniform beams are found and discussed in detail.
nDSE based overlay alignment : Enabling technology for nano metrology and fabrication

Displacement sensing and estimation (DSE) is important preprocessing task for many image-based processing systems that extract information from multiple images. In last two years, we gained significant insight of the nature of DSE and developed theory and algorithm framework named nanoscale displacement sensing and estimation (nDSE). We also build procedures to apply nDSE to overlay alignment down to the nanoscale. We will introduce two basic theories: Phase Delay Detection (PDD) and Derivatives-based Maximum Likelihood Estimation (DML) and associated DSE algorithms, noticeably Near-Neighbor-Navigation (N-Cubed) algorithm. We presented our best nDSE experimental result of 1 nm (1σ) while tracking 5 nm stepping. To develop nDSE-based nanoscale alignment, we introduced our definition of displacement, alignment and pseudo-displacement. We presented both theoretical and practical procedures to use nDSE to achieve nano-alignment down to the 10s of nano-meters and beyond. Then we compared nDSE-based nano-alignment to other industry standard alignment method and attempt to show the substantial advantages of nDSE based alignment in terms of cost and simplicity of the system design.
HYDROMAGNETIC INSTABILITIES CAUSED BY A GYRATING PROTON STREAM

EXTENSIVE literature published in recent years concerns the generation of very-low-frequency hydromagnetic waves in the Sun–Earth environment. These waves often appear at the Earth's surface as regular pulsations in the continuous record of the terrestrial magnetic field variations. The period of these pulsations may extend from a fraction of a second to several minutes1.
No role in EPC function

The nitric oxide pathway plays an important role in modulating endothelial progenitor cell function, playing a critical role in blood vessel repair in response to injury.
The forward-backward asymmetry in p p→e + e − X and e + e − →c c in an SU(2) q ×SU(2) l ×U(1) Y model

Abstract We investigate the forward-backward asymmetry in the SU(2) q×SU(2) l×U(1) Y model recently suggested by Georgi, Jenkins, and Simmons. We show that there can be large deviations from the standard model predictions.
Comparison Study of Active Noise Cancelation Algorithms for Impulsive Noise

Control of impulsive noise is one important challenge for the practical implementation of active noise control (ANC) systems. The advantages and disadvantages of popular filtered-X least mean square (FXLMS) ANC algorithm and nonlinear filtered-X least mean M-estimate (FXLMM) algorithm are discussed in this paper. A new modified FXLMM algorithm is also proposed to achieve better performance in controlling impulsive noise. Computer simulations are carried out for all the three algorithms and the results are presented and analyzed. The results show that the FXLMM and modified FXLMM algorithms are more robust in suppressing the adverse effect of sudden large amplitude impulses than FXLMS algorithm. In particular, the proposed modified FXLMM algorithm can achieve better stability without sacrificing the performance of residual noise when encountering impulses.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
The atomic absorption spectroscopy of lead

Abstract Lead can be determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy at 3 wavelengths. The relative sensitivities are 1:1.5:300. No interferences were found from the cations studied. Anionic interferences were numerous and extensive, but were removed by adding EDTA. The use of a “T” -piece increased the sensitivity of atomic absorption when flame atomizers were used. However, extreme care was necessary in controlling flame conditions both with respect to oxygen-fuel ratio and the type of solvent used. The absorption by combustion products in the flame was high, and in many cases, much greater than that of the lead itself. The most sensitive conditions for the determination of lead appeared to be as follows: wavelength, 2170 A; solvent, aqueous or organic; flame, oxy-hydrogen, with the hydrogen atomizing the sample (reversed from normal). Aflame adapter enabled detection limits of 0.013 p.p.m. to be reached.
PREPARATION OF IMIDAZOLE AND IMIDAZOLIUM 2-CARBALDEHYDES

(1983). PREPARATION OF IMIDAZOLE AND IMIDAZOLIUM 2-CARBALDEHYDES. Organic Preparations and Procedures International: Vol. 15, No. 1-2, pp. 17-28.
DNA sequence feature selection for intrinsic nucleosome positioning signals using AdaBoost

Recent genome wide experiments indicate that DNA sequences themselves strongly influence nucleosome positioning as an intrinsic cell regulatory mechanism. While some sequence features are known to be nucleosome forming or nucleosome inhibiting, there is no systematic study on identifying optimal sequence features for quantitatively modeling of DNA binding affinity. In this paper, we propose a computationally efficient method of identifying a (small) number of sequence features for intrinsic nucleosome positioning. By using a modified version of AdaBoost, the proposed method is able to identify features to be used with a strong classifier to categorize nucleosome forming and nucleosome inhibiting local DNA sequences. Experimental results on extensive datasets show that the resulting classifiers give typically better prediction performance than the existing discrimination models on all the tested datasets with a much smaller number of features.